Being lucky

Yup, I certainly was lucky at Pals. Since I had 12 ornies for the exchange I came home with quite a haul. Here are my stunning winnings (although one is missing.... hmmmmm):

From MicheleWA (aka -- http://michele11wa.blogspot.com/ )


From AmySC (aka -- http://amystitches.blogspot.com/ )


From KarenAZ --


From CharOH:


from Malinda:


From DebbieWY:


From ChrisNC (aka Miss New to Bloggin... check her out! She's really quite friendly --- http://chrisstitch.blogspot.com/ )

Chris would like you to know that she was so rushed getting the ornament done that she forgot all about the thread tail. When she spotted it, I had won it and wouldn't let her trim it on account of its being sentimental. lol

I owe pics of the contents of my grab bag from Granny Pat -- It had soem of the coolest buttons ever! These little wooden ones I keep seeing at Joann's but I keep stopping myself from buying. Apparently there was a reason I exercised some circumspection.... Lord knows I don't often!


And one little "extra" of Myrtle Beach was getting to deliver to Jody her long-awaited Sassies RR (that's Sassies -- Slow Stitchers And Sandy). It seems it was mostly done save for my second square in 2005 and early 2006. Ok, so it took me a while! lol Stitchers in the group were: Jody, ChrisNC, sandy (aka Momyar), and SharonPA-- all from Pals.


My first square:


My second square:

You wouldn't believe how many lame things had to be changed in this chart to make it acceptable. Sheesh, what a pain.

continuing fun from Myrtle Beach Pals.....

Thank you all for all your kind comments. You should know you'd be welcome at Pals next year. It's usually mid-October and I can promise you'll have such fun. It's off-season in Myrtle Beach so the rooms are very affordable and there's plenty to keep hubbies and children busy while you stash, giggle, gossip, and stitch. I think details are coming soon to www.crossstitchpals.com

Let's see, I got you up through Grab Bag/Ornament Night. Now on to Saturday night (aka Gift Box Exchange and Stitcher's Showcase)

So, for gift boxes you can bring anything NOT stash related ($15 minimum). You trade your box for a raffle ticket and when your number is called you go up, pick a box, and unwrap it for all to see.... the next person steals or opens a new box, etc, etc. You know, general hysteria reigns supreme as usual.
First, of course, there's lining up in the hall.... a fine Pals tradition:


Then there's the boxes of goodies:


I won JayneFL's bag --

not only is it lovely on its own, but it was filled with chocolate!!!

And some lovely table decorating:

Which the Flippers took to the logical extreme (yup, those are flip flop keychains on their glasses and ears):


Joshua hung with us most of the evening and was cuddled constantly by many of his Honorary Aunts. For instnace, yours truly:


Aunt Jody:


Aunt Dawn:


Crazy Women, Inc. (aka me, Amy, Michele, and Chris):


The European contingent (Luke and Fiona--- that Luke's a fine stitcher. Someday he'll be as talented as his mom):


To prove that both Pals pitch in and everything has to come to an end, here's Steph un-decorating the conference hall:


This pic falls under the heading of Things Learned/Decided at the Convention. You see, after Julie nearly exploded a sinus trying not to squirt cola out her nose when something said something terribly funny over dinner, we made a rule -- When you take a drink, raise your hand and all talking will cease until you swallow. (Please note: I WAS raising my hand when they made me squirt water across the table!). Julie and I demonstrate the proper technique:


Now for the Stitcher's Showcase-- bring your prized stitching and we'll all ooo and ahhh over it and maybe you'll win a prize! {None of these are mine, but I was willing to take them all home!!!)








If only I'd finish mine, maybe it would look this good!


Bev brought her Nova-- I can appreciate, but I'd never have the patience--


Yup, Nova always floors me with its intricacy.


More later/tomorrow.... after all, I haven't given the Stash Report yet!

Pals and such

I thought ya’ll deserved some shots of how much fun we had! Not that pictures could ever do it justice. Trust me, at one point my “friends” had me laughing so loud I spewed water clear across the table … served them right! lol


Here are Jim, Sharon, and Baby Joshua receiving their Pals baby quilt on Dessert Buffet night --




Speaking of Dessert Night.....


That's only about half of the desserts on offer. Talk about a sugar rush!!!!!

General enjoyment shots:

SusanTN sorts stash in the Stash Room (we all bring our no longer essential patterns, kits, and fabric, they are sold at great discount, and the next-to-the-last night of the convention we all get a gift certificate to whatever shop has come for a share of the take)


The Crabby Mike's Crew (aka "Where's the crab legs and pass the drawn butter") -- Julie, me, Emily, Dawn, Susan, Miss Ida, and Chris


The Other Crabby Mike's Crew -- Shelleen, Char, and Laurie


Julie, Steph, and Chris in the Stitcher's Purse class


Mary of M Designs (witht he yellow papers) and the SHORT line in her shop-on-the-road


Avona's Sistine Chapel



Part of the grab bags from Grab Bag nite (any receptacle of your choice filled with at least $15.00 in new stash-- mine was a glas basket with finishing forms, fabric for backing pillows, pinkeeps, etc., linen and jobelan, and a bunch of overdyed threads)


Ornies on the ornie exchange table (for every ornie you bring, you get a raffle ticket; when your number is called you hop over to the table and pick any ornament you want in exchange)


Sharon gives Amy a thank you plaque for 10 wonderful years of fun from Pals


And Amy and Ray get a chance to read it

Pals Fall Fling Part 1 – Arrival and M Designs Classes

Oh, woe is me!!!! The 2007 Pals Fall Fling is over!!! Oh whaily whaily whaily!!!!! I had so much fun. And I do mean big-time, grandiose fun, not some menial, average, every-day fun.

Chris NC carried me off to her local shop, The Lazy Daisy, and I jumped in with both feet.

Here’s a shot of Chris and Sarah, Lazy Daisy’s proud owner.

As you can see, she has much to be proud of. $470+ after entering the doors I’d dropped off 6 items from my friend Judy for framing and gathered a little bag of stash for myself and others (Janaina and Judy to be precise). Sarah had some of the new Belle Soie silks from Crescent Colors and some of them ***had*** to come home with me. I also picked up a couple Kreinik Silk Moris which came in very handy when signing all those Pals Signature RRs over the weekend.

As I recollect we fiddled and played with stash for the day and rounded out the evening at the rehearsal of Chris’ bluegrass group, The Blue Notes. If you’re in the Raleigh area and need an upbeat band for an event, give the Blue Notes a call, they really are wonderful. I can hardly wait for the first CD which should be out this year.

Wednesday dawned to a fine morning of car packing as we headed off to meet with the other far-flung Pals at Myrtle Beach. We had a car packed with stash, gifts, cake (for Baby Joshua who you will meet shortly), and good will….. after all, we were ON VACATION!!!!!!!!!!!! The scenery was grand—with the trees just starting to turn colors. I can’t help that the trees of the Mid-Atlantic fascinate me; CA freeways are lined with ice plant and 10-foot walls not pines and oaks.

Classes with Mary of M Designs were wonderful as usual. This is Mary’s second year trying to teach Pals a thing or two and she handles us quite well. This year we had three class offerings: a purse, a bourse/stitcher’s pouch, and ornament finishing. I, of course, had to do all 3.

Here’s a look at the purse –


We have options for a Halloween or a Fall insert. Mary showed us how to make a really cool and very-dimensional spider for the Halloween piece. I opted to work on the Fall insert because the Halloween one featured a ghost (and a really, really, really cool pumpkin) and I’m only interested in witch’s hats and pumpkins for Halloween. I’ll adjust the pattern to fit and then I’ll have 2 purse inserts. Now if only I could manage to carry so few things around that they’d fit in the bag. lol I owe you a picture of how far I got.

And here’s the bourse that Mary did the finishing on while we were starting ours as well as out pile of goodies for the project--


We got to choose the linen/aida and the backing fabric before we started so everyone’s is a little different. In the pic below you can see with little pit of progress I'd made along with all the course goodies:


Finally, here’s the bundle we got in Mary’s ornament finishing class.

For me the class was really useful. The focus was on looking beyond stitching for inspiration and cool stuff. Mary’s apparently recently discovered the scrapbook aisle so we had lots of ideas for using stuff for scrapping – gift tags as ornies, boxes for ornie bases or shadow boxes, cards as the basis for an ornie, etc. Ohhhhh how useful this is for me!!!!!!! A thousand blessings on Mary for her inspiration.


More on the adventure tomorrow.....