Weekend getaways and stitchy stash!!

I've had a lot going on lately.  It's been busy.  

A couple of weeks ago I had a fun weekend getaway with my friend Laura.  We try to have a few weekends a year where we meet and stitch and do fun things.  

We started out our weekend at the famed Whistle Stop Cafe.  We had such fun looking around in all the little shops and boutiques in the area.

This year we had tickets to hear Jenny Doan speak.  She's the owner of the Missouri Star Quilt Company.  

On our way to hear Jenny Doan speak.

We also had tickets to go on a dinner train.  Neither of us had done this before, so it was exciting. 

Here's the train before we boarded.  They keep the shades pulled until the passengers start to load.  The inside was beautiful and restored to it's original 1940s style.

Laura did a really detailed post of our train ride that you can see here.  It was a really lovely evening.

We also usually do a gift exchange and this time was no different.  :0)  

We both read a lot, so we usually exchange some books or book related items as well as stitchy stuff.  There is another book mark, but it's currently in use.  :0)

Patterns and fabrics!!  :0)

This past weekend my husband and I had a getaway to the Smoky Mountains.  This was the first trip away we've had since our kids have been, "grown," and we could simply leave them at home to hold down the fort and not worry.  They did great and we had fun.

We took the tram up to Ober Gatlinburg, just so we could see all the Fall foliage.

We stayed in a quiet little hotel in Severville and had a lovely view out the back door.

I did some stitchy shopping as well.

On the stitchy side of things, I have been working on a model stitch for a designer.  I'm almost done and hope to be finished by the end of this week.

I also started the Gettysburg Address pattern that is being done as a SAL in my and Laura's FB group ~ Patriotic Stitches.

I didn't get much done because the lighting in the hotel was really bad.  Then on the way home, the roads weren't great.  Lots of bumps and this fabric has the teeniest holes ever.  I had to give up until I could tackle it at home.

I found fabric to do the finishing on my pumpkin needle accessory set.

I really love this and can't wait to go back and do the beading on the two pieces of the set I have done.  The third and largest piece is the needlebook and it's on hold because 123 was out of stock on this orange fabric.  But I hope to go ahead and do the finishing on the scissor fob and biscornu soon.

I bought a couple of needleminders for the first time in forever.  I make so many of my own, I rarely purchase them anymore.  But these came from an Etsy store in Australia.  Shipping was really inexpensive and I got the smaller of the two for free because the seller said it had some tiny imperfections.  Truly, it looks great to me.

So that's what I've been busy with!  No more weekend getaways planned until next year.  I'll be *so* ready by the time the next one comes along!