Tuesday, October 30, 2007

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/ )
ornies from Micele Pals Fall Fling 2007

From AmySC (aka -- http://amystitches.blogspot.com/ )
ornies from Amy Pals Fall Fling 2007

From KarenAZ --
ornie from KarenAZ Pals Fall Fling 2007

From CharOH:
Ornies from Char Pals Fall Fling 2007

from Malinda:
ornie from Malinda Pals Fall Fling 2007

From DebbieWY:
ornie from DebbieWY Pals Fall Fling 2007

From ChrisNC (aka Miss New to Bloggin... check her out! She's really quite friendly --- http://chrisstitch.blogspot.com/ )
ornie with sentimental tail from ChrisNC Pals Fall Fling 2007
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.
Jody's Sassies RR 2006-7

My first square:
My square 1 for Jody's Sassies RR done 2006... err maybe 2005?

My second square:
Square 2 of mine for Jody's Sassies RR done 10/2007
You wouldn't believe how many lame things had to be changed in this chart to make it acceptable. Sheesh, what a pain.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

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:
Pals wait semi-patiently in the hall for gift box night

Then there's the boxes of goodies:
picture 175

I won JayneFL's bag --
Gift Box win from JayneFL
not only is it lovely on its own, but it was filled with chocolate!!!

And some lovely table decorating:
table decorations
Which the Flippers took to the logical extreme (yup, those are flip flop keychains on their glasses and ears):
The Flippers

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

Aunt Jody:
Aunt Jody and Baby Josh

Aunt Dawn:
Aunt Dawn and Baby Josh

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

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

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

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:
me and JulieGA raise our hands

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!!!)
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picture 180
picture 192
picture 202
picture 191
picture 178
picture 182

If only I'd finish mine, maybe it would look this good!
picture 185

Bev brought her Nova-- I can appreciate, but I'd never have the patience--
picture 187
picture 189
Yup, Nova always floors me with its intricacy.


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

Friday, October 26, 2007

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 --
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Sharon, Jim, Joshua, and Joshua's quilt

Speaking of Dessert Night.....
Joshua's cake
Pals Dessert Buffet
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)
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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
Crabby Mike's Gang

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

Julie, Steph, and Chris in the Stitcher's Purse class
JulieGA, StephFL, adn Chris NC at Stitcher's purse class

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

Avona's Sistine Chapel
AvonaFL's Sistine Chapel unrolled
AvonaFL's Sistine Chapel close in

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)
grab bag table

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)
ornie exchange table

Sharon gives Amy a thank you plaque for 10 wonderful years of fun from Pals
SharonPA presents AmySC with our Thank You for 10 wonderful years plaque

And Amy and Ray get a chance to read it
AmySC and Ray with their plaque

Thursday, October 25, 2007

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.
The Lazy Daisy
Here’s a shot of Chris and Sarah, Lazy Daisy’s proud owner.
ChRis and Sarah at The Lazy Daisy
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 –
M Designs Stitcher's purse class pieces
My stitcher's 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--
M Designs bourse interior from class
M Designs bourse exterior from class
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:
Mary's bourse finishing goodies

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