Twice a year, our guild hosts a three day sleep-at-home retreat. We have an event venue where we can take our machines and things to work on, set up once on day one and leave it overnight while we go home for dinner and to sleep. Then we come back for two more days to sew and enjoy the company of friends. I didn’t have any piecing project that I wanted to do this time, but a friend suggested that I bring my little embroidery machine and do some holiday things. Sounded good, so I did that. I set up on the first day to do a bit of embroidery and some handwork.
I began with this embroidery on white tone on tone for a table mat or wall hanging. I used tear away stabilizer on this one.
While the machine stitched, I worked on adding the line of oblong pearl beads to Fleur Lumineuse. I showed the prep for this on my post Preparing for Retreat. Four done, 509 to go.
Next, I let the machine stitch out the next motif. It will also be a small wall hanging or table topper.
I kept working on the pearl line through several embroideries.
I have an idea for a long and vertical wall hanging like a bell pull, with four embroideries of elegant motifs. This motif is part of a set, and is done in two colors. It seemed perfect.
I stitched out next one before I began to clip threads. Well, crap on a cracker, I did it on the wrong side of the fabric.
When I picked up the first one, I realized that I had done both on the wrong side! Well, OK, not a mistake, now it is a design opportunity! All I need to do is stitch out the remaining ones on the wrong side as well.
Day One re-home table was pretty good. I’m collecting fabric bits in deep reds and greys for a quilt for my sister-in-law. I never pass up nice white and ecru tone on tones.
On day two, I finished the four embroidery motifs.
I took a break from hand sewing the seed pearls and folded some more fabric stars.
Then I went back to the seed pearls, and turned the first corner.
Another good haul at the re-home table. I took some things in to leave there too.
Day Three, I embroidered a kitchen towel for my own holiday kitchen. I have two layers of water soluble stabilizer on the back side, and one layer on the top.
I won a door prize, too! This had a set of quilt block fairy lights, a charm pack of batiks, and two patches. There were also gifts left at our tables of a little bag of candy and a sticky note pad.
More seed pearls were sewn on. By the end of day three, I had 150 pearls sewn on. Just 363 to go! Not to worry, I have until May of 2028 to finish.
At home, I peeled off the water soluble stabilizer from the dish towel, then soaked the piece under warm running water to remove the rest. Dried and pressed, it is ready to use.
Overall, it was a fairly productive retreat. I did not get to the reindeer stitchery, but I did make progress on a wool applique project that I will show you soon. This is in spite of me taking a bit of time to help friends with questions and just general chatting while walking around to see what everyone else was doing. I met several new members who were attending their first retreat. I traded my friend Barb a sewing machine foot control pad for some of her old Quilting Arts magazines. A couple of ladies brought placemats for our Meals on Wheels drive. There was wonderful conversation at our four-table station. That is the real fun of retreat, spending quality time with friends, laughing and chatting, sharing meals and ideas.
This coming week has two quilt related meetings, one for our guild area and one for a new art quilting group. Then, next weekend will be another fall color drive, and it should be wonderful. It will run around the South Carolina border area which should reach peak color by then. I’ll try to get some good photos for you. What are your plans for the week?
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