Well, let's have a little catch up, shall we?

So.

I've been busy.  Lots of boring, real life stuff going on.  But nothing troublesome, thank goodness.  Just...stuff.  I'm sure you can commiserate.

So I'll just jump in here and catch you up a bit here and there and bring you up to speed on my stitchy happenings.

Most interesting is that March of 2016 is a red letter retreat month for me.  I was at retreat in Nashville for Nashville Market weekend last week and next week I will be tucked away at the Pumpkin Lodge (cutest name ever, am I right?) in Kentucky having another wonderful stitchy weekend.

Last weekend was *ever* so much fun.  (*I find that I must make one disclaimer about this retreat so that I don't cause any angst to it's hostess.  She is a shop owner and as such, was allowed to attend the Nashville Market.  But the rest of us at the retreat were simply stitchers - so *we* did not go to the Market.  Only the shop owner went. There was a tad bit of kerfluffle when certain folks thought she was going to allow us/sneak us (lol, seriously folks?) into the Market.  Didn't happen.  All was above board and we stayed cloistered away in our extremely lovely hotel and conference room during the days while she was at Market doing the shopping.)

We stayed at a hotel that was about a block away from the hotel where Market is hosted.  So our hostess was able to easily come and go between the two.  The really special thing was - since she was purchasing as a shop owner, at night when she was done with her wholesale shopping ~ she was able to bring things back to us and we could shop Market goodies from her right then and there, technically while the Market was still happening.  Which we all know, isn't something that's been an option for lay people, at all -ever.  So that was very exciting.  

I did really good and I stayed on budget.  (Major happy dance!) But I love (read: love, love, love) the items I purchased.  So without further ado ~ here are the Market goodies I bought!

The first thing I got was this patriotic thread keep from Priscilla's Pocket.  Super cute and I wasted no time in turning it into a needle minder.  :0)

Next in line are the very first Glendon Place and Ink Circles patterns I've every purchased.  I've admired their charts, but always thought they just didn't quite fit the style of things I like to stitch.  But then I saw these two and very quickly fell in love.  The Glendon Place is called Simply Love and I can't tell you how gorgeous this chart is in person.  It has some beading, but not over the top.  I love the colors, which are Dinky Dyes.  I already have some pink fabric in my stash, so I'm going to buy the threads next weekend and do a floss toss on my fabric to see if it will work.

Equally impressive is Tapestry by Ink Circles.  This also uses specialty threads but has a, "DMCish" conversion chart on the back as well.  I will probably just use DMC on this one.  I'm sure it will still turn out beautifully.

Next is Rosewood Manor's Friendship Quilt.  Love this.  It's part cross stitch and part blackwork.  So lovely.  You should click on the picture to get a better view of the details.  I have a few other Rosewood Manor patterns in my stash, but I'm sure that this one will be the first of those that I'll pick up to stitch.

Lastly is Jardin Prive's Ciseaux & Bobines. ~ Scissors and Bobbins.  :0)

This was a Market exclusive.  Which means that only store owners who attended the Market and bought it there, can sell it.  There were a few other Market exclusives, and some of them were this same brand and a similar theme.  I just fell in love with the pretty way the scissors are charted and the little village houses atop the bobbins.

While I was at this retreat, I managed to get a finish.  I signed up for a Love Quilts USA square at the beginning of the year.  The quilt I signed up for is for a little girl with a heart condition - if memory serves, she had a heart transplant - so it's only natural that she wanted a heart themed quilt!  :0)  I decided to use Durene Jones' pattern Heart of Mine for my square.  I did have to make a lot of changes though, because this quilt had a strict color scheme of pink and red with only two other accent colors - period.  So I had to leave out the flowers across the bottom and ended up changing the skin color a bit.  But it all worked out in the end and I'll be mailing this off soon.

I'll be back with more updates soon.  ~And~ I'll be at another retreat next weekend and I'll share with you all about that after I get back.  Happy stitching everyone!!

:0)