Retreat + Gift Exchange = Stash Influx! (Retreat pics included)

I recently met with my stitchy friend and the two of us had lunch and a day of shopping before we both headed over to the Nashville Stitching 2016 Retreat.  

So. Much. Fun.  On both accounts ~ our day out and the retreat.  My stitchy friend and I love to shop for each other and decided to do a stitching and book related gift exchange. When we met for lunch on our day out, this is what she gave me in our exchange.

She stitched this awesome Harry Potter themed pillow for me.  I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, so this was so perfect.

This beautiful A Stitch In Time themed coffee mug.  Love it!  I've got a few of these patterns as HAED QS's.  :0)

Patterns.  Love!

Beautiful necklace.  :0)

Matching set with scissor fob, needleminder, and frogger.

This Harry Potter themed bag from SewMuch2Luv.  Eeepp!!

Gorgeous zippered bag and qsnap cover set with Victorian ladies.

And since we're both avid readers, this copy of The Great Journey by David McCullough as well as The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan.

There was also a travel thermos and candies.  All of this was also contained in another lovely green chevron printed tote bag.  

Exchanges with friends.  It's such a fun thing to do.  But ~ she had one really big surprise left for me!  This was completely, 100% unexpected.  :0)  She had asked her husband if he could make a stitching stand for her, made from pvc pipes.  He did and she had him make me one too!  What an *amazing* surprise!

After lunch we went to Parnassus Books where I picked up this lovely stitching themed edition of Little Women.  I've wanted this one for a while and was so glad to see that they had it.

We eventually made it to the retreat.  It was so much fun.  All of our old stitching buddies were there and there were several new people as well.  So much fun to make new stitching friends.  

There were lots of door prizes and give aways at the retreat.  Leslie from Under the Sea fabrics gave all of us one of these pretty mermaid scissor fobs.

I purchased two froggers from Nicole (The Cole Collection.)  I just love them.

Barbara who owns TrulyN2Stitching was the hostess and had lots of qsnap covers, zippered bags, project rolls and other items for sale.  I purchased three qsnap covers from her.

We were given several free patterns and this is one of them.

Here are some more retreat pics ~ merchandise tables, finishes, etc.

Sunday morning upon leaving the retreat my friend and I went to Shoney's for a good breakfast before saying our goodbyes.