Pals Stitching at the Beach - Last Day

I'll admit it - by the time we were all done with exchanges and good-byes on Saturday, I wasn't ready to sit down and post pictures.  Not that I wasn't just absolutely inspired by all of the wonderful stitching (I've already picked out six projects to complete for exchanges for next year!), but I had a lot of packing to do and ... well, you get the idea.

Saturday was an absolute lovely day at Myrtle Beach.  I enjoyed several walks in the beach during the course of the day...  Can you believe how blue the ocean is?

In the evening, we had several exchanges.  The first was the "stitched" exchange - no theme, other than the exchange piece had needlework in it.  Projects included wall hangings, pinkeeps, boxes, pillows and more.  Here's a small sampling of some of the items (taken as they went whipping by me around the table!):

The next-to-last item above is a scissor sleeve (with a fine pair of scissors included).  The needlebook (final image) was created by my friend Beth from Kentucky.

Then we were into the Christmas ornament exchange - absolutely amazing in the number and variety of ornaments and finishes!  Here are a few images of the tables before the "picking" began:

I put together four ornaments for the exchange:

(upper left) Winter Tiny Trio - The Trilogy

(upper right) Old World Santas II - The Prairie Schooler

(lower left) Merry Christmas - Country Cottage Needleworks

(lower right) Ding Dong - Little House Needleworks

I received four absolutely wonderful ornaments in exchange:

Upper left - Chris, NC

Upper right - Maggie, VA

Lower left - Donna, SC

Lower right - Amy, SC

As we often heard around the table, the ornaments were all so beautiful, and it was really hard to choose!

So I'll close this post with a final image of Myrtle Beach, taken Sunday morning as I was finalizing my pack-out and beginning my trip home:

Many, many thanks to Amy W of Down Sunshine Lane for all of her efforts to provide this wonderful opportunity for us all.  The stitching and fellowship - and new friends - can't be beat!

Getting busy for next year!
Becky

Basketball, Stitching and Spring!

I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to tie all of those topics together, but if you'll bear with me, we'll see how it goes!  This is absolutely one of my favorite times of the year with March Madness - I love, love, love the excitment of Selection Sunday, the first week of games (so many opportunities for upsets), and the passion of the players, on-site fans, and all of us spectators!  And I'll admit that my brackets are busted wide open with the losses of Duke, UNLV, and Georgetown, to name a few.  Love it anyway!

In amongst listening to and watching games, I was able to make some pretty good progress on the ole' "to-do" list this weekend.  I finished up several projects that I'd like to share with you.  In a previous post, I showed you a baby quilt that I'd finished for a colleague.  This weekend, I also made a quick, cute minky ribbon blanket (about 12" square) - I'm not a fan of sewing on minky, but I love the way it feels (very soft), and I thought that the fabric choice was really right for a bunch of us in the wildlife profession.  The project was actually made easier by the fact that it was kitted up by my LQS, Quilting Adventures, in Richmond, VA.

I also finished two ornaments that I've been working on.  I think that the photograph of the Country Cottage Needleworks one doesn't do it justice - the colors are richer than the photo shows.  I was intrigued by several projects in the 2011 JCS ornament issue that used these brighter greens, pinks, and other colors.

Country Cottage Needleworks - "Merry Christmas"

2011 JCS Ornament Issue

Recommended DMC and fabric

 I'm a big fan of Prairie Schooler and am busy trying to collect all of the Santas that they've published.  This Russian-like Santa comes from Old World Santas II.

Prairie Schooler - "Old World Santas II"

Recommended fabric and DMC

Substituted Rainbow Gallery Wisper for white

The big losers on my "to-do" list this weekend were the outside projects.  I spent about an hour weeding, but there are *many* hours of that to go.  The grass still needs mowed; seems like a good Wednesday-after-work project!  I can't believe how far along our spring-flowering trees, shrubs and flowers are.  The Bradford pears and forsythias will be fully leafed out before the first day of spring this week.

Hoping you all had a basketball-filled, great weekend!  Here's promising more frequent updates on accomplishments - but 'til then, take up your needle and sew!

Becky