Retreat!

and not the kind where you back up!   What a fabulous weekend I have had and restful to the body and soul.   My Guild - those great group of talented stitchers - goes on retreat once in the spring and again in the fall to Ocean City Maryland for a weekend retreat.   Only rule is you have to be a Guild member to attend ......

What's this spilling out of my bag? Stash Enhancement??   Before I get gushing over all my purchases I never even took my camera out while I was there so I can't even share a photo of the beautiful weather we had.    But I will share the Cat's Meow of the Lankford Hotel where we stay.   I always buy a Cat's Meow of favorite places I visit.  It is a perfect replica except it is missing the porch rockers!

So here's the deal, one of our members, Staci, has a condo in OCMD and over the course of years of going to OCMD she has become good friends with the hysterical Sally of Salty Yarns.   If you ever met Sally, you know just what I mean.   She can hold the attention of the room with her recanting of events and we laugh til we have tears in our eyes.   What a way with words......for a dose, check out her shop and newsletter page.   What a hoot!  Not only does Sally own a fabulous cross stitch store, she owns the hotel that is connected to the store.  And to make this even more perfect there are big porch rockers on the porch that opens to the boardwalk.   Like I said......could it be more perfect?  I think not.   If you are anywhere near, you need to make a detour and head to her shop.   It is so very worth it. 

I was prepared ahead of time with copies of the back pages of patterns that I needed fabric for and I stocked up.   Don't you just hate being in the mood to start something and not having the fabric?   If try to substitute with what may be in my stash and then get aggravated by the wasted time.    I also got just a couple patterns.   A great book with patterns and finishing instructions for the Whitman Sampler but alas, the tin is not available.....at least not right now and hopefully it will be in the future.   I will be scouring eBay.  The diagrams and directions from Sue Hillis are worth the purchase.    The  Spool Tree  pattern I am starting next is the first of her designs I will be stitching and I think I will like her instructions after a quick perusal of the Whitman Sampler book.  

I also picked up the Lizze Kate ABC's on Aging.   I don't know if this is the exact one I had wanted.  I didn't know there were so many different versions.  I have enjoyed seeing others progress on this and just kind of took a liking to it.  And look at this little cute birdie on the left below!  It is Just Nan's Needle Tweets.   All finished, it is about the size of a half dollar!  It is too too cute.  

And then of course, a pattern with a squirrel, The Sheltering Tree.   I don't know if I could have found a more perfect floss!     So which one will I start on?    None yet!  Still working on that pledge ~ finish two/start one!  It's one way to clean up those WIP's overflowing out of project basket. 

But that's not everything......I went to the Bikini Shop - the store name not necessarily the items I bought!  The Bikini Shop is run by Sally's daughter Sarah and is located 'under the boardwalk'.  If you want some awesome french terry clothes in beautiful colors and coordinates, it is a definite must stop as well.   Well I have done what I can for the economy this weekend!