Home Again Home Again Jiggedty Jig

Boo Hiss....had to come home from Ocean City Maryland.  Sally, Sarah and Mary (as well as Vern, Brian, Michael and all th rest) at the Lankford and Salty Yarns never disappoint by taking that extra special care of us.  It is like visiting old friends or family.   Love love love sleeping with my window open and listening to the waves......ahhhhh.....

You know how it goes....come home, unpack, do laundry......somewhere between unpacking and finishing the laundry looks like Buddy is glad I am home OR he is exercising his opinion that I stay home!







This was not my normal guild fall retreat at Salty Yarns.  Instead this year I attended the fall Jamboree at Salty Yarns.  It was three half-day classes and making new friends.  It is always the best to spend time with fellow Stitchers.  There were 55 of us.  Sarah out did herself with the delicious food and desserts.  Any long weekend with my girl friends is a great one.

I got to meet a fellow blogger.  I have followed Stasi B.  at BeeMused ....BeeStitching for several years.  A big shout out to Stasi for her help in the classroom with the Baby Lock and in the shop  with fabric selection and cutting.   Stasi  had seen my Pining to Stitch Biscournu and decided to stitch it.   She brought her finished biscournu to share.  Isn't that always a boost when someone likes what you are stitching enough to stitch it too.

On to the classes.  We were divided into three different classrooms which the teachers rotated through so we were able to leave out "stations" set up with our stitching tools, etc.  As each class started we were greeted not only with our project supplies but with goodies.  Without further ado.....look at what we made!!

Me and my roomies first two class finishes.

We did the pre-stitching before the classes and were able to walk away from classes with completed projects.  First up, my group had class with Cathy Haberman of Hands on Designs.  Fabulous!  Can I say that again?  Cathy was a great teacher, friendly, efficient, warm, sharing and talented.  Look how adorable!  Such fun to walk out of class with a finished finished!  And we walked out with not only with a thank gift from the teacher but the skills to be able to finished the second one.

Our second class was with Just Another Button Company.  

Rachel, daughter of the founder, was our teacher.  OMGoodness, how sweet she was.   There are not enough superlatives what a pleasure it was to have her as a teacher.  She gave us a history of how JABCo got started.   They will be celebrating their 20th anniversary this year with a nostalgic re-do of how they starting - with a Christmas present of polymer clay - but this time not just mom with children but now mom, children and grandchildren.  Look at this adorable pear!    Mine may be a little bit lopsided but I will have to work at shaping it a bit more.







Sunday morning's class was with Cecile of JABCo, Rachel's mom!  Again, another fabulous class.  Cecile gave us all polymer clay and taught us to make buttons.  It was really fun but that said Rachel and Cecile don't have to worry about me taking up button making and giving them any competition.  It is not nearly as easy as it looks.  I have a new appreciation of any JABCo button.

The attention to detail by each teacher, the quality of the supplies, the project coordination and the Jamboree made this a fantastic weekend.  It was easy to see a lot of planning went into the weekend.

Here is the outside of the two finishes and a close up of the pear button.  Not the one I made but a JABCo original.

Next the inside of each book.

The buttons I made.   One of my pears is tied to the strawberry basket in the back.

I was so over zealous about remembering to put in the holes in each button before baking that I forgot I needed to leave one untouched to glue to the tag.  Sooooooo I added a smile to my button before I baked it.

Here is the complimentary scissors fob we made.   I need to pink the edges and then do a quick stitch up.

We were also given this pear painted on perforated paper to stitch and attach our buttons to.  Not sure if I will stitch it or just put it in a simple black frame.



All that and can you believe I had time to stitch something?   This is a little wool kit that only took an evening.   EZ-PZ, the overall size is only about 3 by 8.  Now to finish and hang for the fall season.

 Pardon the wrinkles but I did also finish the top of my biscournu.

And got a good amount done on the bottom.    I would secretly like to finish this by my Thursday night stitching night....better get those clothes folded so I can get stitching.