Back to the real world!

"Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I

remember and remember more then I have seen."

Benjamin Disraeli

What a fun time I had on my last day of the trip. I got to not only meet a fellow blogger but got to join in on her stitching group. Deborah from Cranberry Sampler commented on my blog that I was near where she lived when I was by Plymouth Rock. I emailed her back and said I didn't really have any real plans for the last day of my trip. I heard it was her stitching group day so I was invited to join them.

This building use to be the towns library. When they built a new one this one was turned into a coffee/sandwich shop. How fun it would be to stitch here every week. For lunch I had the most delicious chicken salad wrap, it had cranberries and walnuts.

This church and building were across the street. I just love these small New England cities.

This is Deborah and her stitching friends. Two had to leave early.

Thank you so much for letting join your little group even if it was for just a day.

You all made me feel so welcome.

After the group it was time for me to leave all the beautiful fall colors.



It was a rainy ride back to the airport to turn in the rental car. I tried to get everything out of car and not get too wet. I loaded into the shuttle and headed for the airport. When I checked in I discovered my luggage was almost 5 pounds over. I was quickly pulling out fat quarters and stuffing them in my carry on and pulling out my big sweatshirt. After I got it down to 50 pounds I checked in and went to security. Just as I was going through I remembered my ghost scissors were still in my carry on. Made it OK, they didn't take them away. I spent my last couple of hours stitching away at the airport.

When I arrived back in Los Angeles (at 11:00 pm  which was 2:00 am my body time) I was not only greeted by my husband but my son came home on leave from Grand Forks, North Dakota. He arrived about a hour before I did. His plane was early and mine was late.

Now the fun part of unpacking and trying to find a place for all the new stash. I had a wonderful time seeing new places, getting together with old and new friends with a bonus of stitching, stitching and more stitching.

I just finished one of the projects from the retreat and will post pictures soon.

Thank you to everyone who followed me on this journey and left such wonderful comments. I enjoyed reading them all. Now I need to get caught on my blog reading.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

Stitching Friends

"We may run, walk, stumble, drive or fly,

but let us never lose sight of the reason

for the journey, or miss a chance to see

a rainbow on the way."

Arthur Unknown



My journey is almost to it's end. I cannot tell you what a wonderful time this as been. Not just in stitching two new projects, or visiting so many exciting places but in the stitching friends I go home with.

Here is a picture of our room at the Shaker House. It is a very simple room with no TV or fancies. It was very peaceful and inviting.

Last year when I attended the retreat I was so excited to meet Nataly because I had been following her blog Nataly's Needle Creation. She was back again this year being our wonderful hostess. She did a fantastic job spoiling us to no end. A "BIG" thank you Nataly for all your hard work.

Last year I met Pam - Confessions of a Southern Stitcher. We became friends and email each other just about every day. It was so wonderful to see her again in person and spend some great quality time together.

Pam, Nataly and myself

What a treat it was to meet Carol - Stitching 'n Stashing. She is a follower of mine.

 She is brand new to blogging

This is sisters Sue and Dawn from New York.

They are stalkers of my blog but don't have a blog themselves.

This is Lesley and Patricia from Maine. We met them last year at the retreat.

They are both new stalkers to my blog.



These four girls really made the retreat fun. They flew in from Australia to attend the retreat.

Janette, Sonia, Maralyn & Kathy.  Pam and I spent our free day with them and learned so many new

Aussie sayings.

We left the retreat with so many new stitching friends. Yesterday Pam and I spent the day driving around New Hampshire and filling up all those last few inches we had left in our suitcases. Tomorrow I am meeting a fellow blogger Deborah - Cranberry Sampling. I have been invited to join their stitching group. That should keep me out of trouble and not buying anything else until I fly home tomorrow night.

Thank you so much for the wonderful comments and following me on this journey.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

Almost Over

"Why I'd like nothing better than to achieve some

bold adventure worthy of our trip."

Aristophanes

Today was our last day stitching. We have been working on a piece taught by Thea of Victoria Sampler.

It is a shaker style wooden spindle with a pin cushion on top and hanging from it a needlebook, strawberry cushion and a bee's wax heart.

In the afternoon we had another trip to the ABC Stitch shop. I only got a piece of linen and some threads this time around. We again enjoyed a wonderful selection of treats with tea.

The next two pictures are what was in our goodie bags on Saturday and Sunday night.

They really have spoiled us with the special little extras the entire time. The food has been just wonderful. Last night was steak and shrimp and tonight was turkey and ham. We have not been hungry the entire time.

Tonight was spent doing a little packing. Tomorrow we tell everyone good bye. Pam and I will spend the day seeing New Hampshire and then on Tuesday  I take her back to Boston to fly home that evening and I leave on Wednesday evening. We have had so much fun it is hard to believe it is starting to come to an end.

Thank you again for all the wonderful comments. I will get back into blog reading when I return home. It just seems like we stay up late talking and stitching and I haven't read as many as I would like. Will let you know where our travels take us tomorrow.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

Shopping anyone!

"The quickest way to know a woman

is to go shopping with her."

Marceiene Cox

What do you get when you load up a mini van with 4 Aussie's, 1 Alabama, and 1 California girl and head of shopping? You really get a fun field day. With our free day between retreats we decided to take a drive and go shopping. Our first stop was the King Arthur Flour shop in Vermont. Great place with all kinds of cooking stuff. Next we headed off for a nice country drive. The leaves are just about peak and they were gorgeous. Our only problem it was raining all day yesterday, but that didn't stop us. Some of the girls is really into quilting and we found a small really nice one on our way to Center Harbor to the Keepsake Quilting. The Keepsake one was actually so big that I liked the small family run one better. After that stop was lunch and back on the rainy road. We were about 60 miles back to the shop but made another stop on the way back to a Hobby Lobby. We got back around 6:30 just in time for the welcome reception for the next class.

Our first class had 14 and 12 stayed for the next one. This class has 27 in it. Later that night we headed for our room to find another goodie bag.

This morning we came down to the stitching room to find it all ready for another class.

I will get some pictures tomorrow of our class and the teacher.

Some have been asking what stash I have purchased on the trip. Before I show you the next picture you must first promise not to call my husband. Do you promise? OK great, here is a picture taken in the corner of our room.

Yes, everything on the table I got here. Now you see why I said don't tell my husband. Need a better look?

With the gift card I won from Carol - The Polka Dot Chicken I got the gold scissors and the mother of pearl small ruler. Thank you so much Carol. No I do not know when I will find the time to stitch all these patterns.

They have a gift shop here at the Shaker House. I purchased this basket. The small little basket will look nice next to my shaker chair.

Thank you so much for all your kind words about my journey. Coming back to the room at night your comments have been very comforting. I wish I could have taken you all with me. It was very exciting last night when the new guests arrived, one lady came up to me and said I follow your blog. What a pleasant surprise to meet a follower in person. She is brand new to blogging and I will get her blog and tell you next time. I can barely keep my eyes open and we have another busy day stitching tomorrow.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

Fun, Fun Outing !

"Whoever said money can't buy happiness

simply didn't know where to go shopping."

Bo Derek



Well I can tell you we all new the perfect place to go shopping. After a morning of stitching we all took a field trip to ABC Stitch.

This store is so big and the variety is amazing. Just take a look at some of the areas of the shop. There is a sitting area in the middle to relax to build up energy for more shopping. The variety of threads they have can make you dizzy. One whole wall has nothing but threads and it is so colorful. Besides that there are many more displays of threads. They have so many models stitched around the room for you to see many of them Finished. Nataly took me around and showed me the ones she stitched.

They also had a table in the back set up with tea and snacks for us to enjoy while we shopped.





I will show you everything I purchased later. I need to get a picture. After shopping we came back and did some more stitching. I was able to get my chair seat stitched and attached. I was so excited to have that part done. The rest will be no trouble at all.

The shakers hang the chairs upside down on pegs when they are not used. We thought it would be fun to put mine with some full size ones.

After a fun day we went up to our rooms and found another goodie bag hanging on our doors.

Today is a free day and Pam and I are going out with the 4 Aussie girls. I am sure there will be some fun stuff to tell you later.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

What a day we had !

"I never travel without my diary.

One should always have something

sensational to read on the train."

Martin Buber

My diary is my blog and it is helping me to remember this wonder adventure. I am so happy you are taking the adventure with me.

 This is where we are staying in the Great Stone Dwelling building at the Shaker Museum, Enfield. New Hampshire.

Pam and I woke super early because we were so excited. Pam quietly went downstairs and got us a couple of these delicious oatmeal cranberry cookies Nataly made.

This is an area sat up downstairs that you can go to anytime day or night. There is cold drinks, coffee, hot tea, and lots of snacks.

This is the dining area where we have been having a the most delicious meals. Last night we had prime rib and halibut.

This is what we found at each place setting in the  work area. The blue box had our project in it and the blue bag and lots of charts and goodies.

This is me and our teacher Belinda from Blue Ribbon Designs.







This is our class project. I started the chair seat and hope to have it done today.

Here is Belinda teaching us. There is 14 fun ladies taking the class. Pam and I are having fun with 4 ladies that came from Australia to take the class.

After dinner we played Left, Right, Center. Instead of tokens we played with Floss. The winner at each table won 21 bundles of floss. Pam was the winner at our table. We then moved upstairs to the work room and had sharing time. Some brought some beautiful stuff to share. Later we played Yankee Swap and each of us won  a bag with some kind of stitch project. After much talking and laughing we headed off to bed. On our door knobs was another little treat bag with these silk thread and candies. They are sitting on some of the fall leaves I pickedd up.

Today we are stitching in the morning and then going on a trip to the shop, ABC Stitch. Can't wait to show you what I pick up.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa



I'm Here!!!

"Why I'd like nothing better than to achieve

some bold adventure worthy of our trip."

Aristophanes

I got up early and excited to be going to the airport to pick up Pam. Today we were heading for New Hampshire. I arrived at the airport just as I thought her plane should be in. I waited and waited and began to wonder, did I have the wrong airlines, did I forget what Pam looked like and missed her. After about an hour here she came wheeling her suitcase. Didn't the airlines know not to delay her plane that she was excited to get her. We loaded up the car and headed out. Our first stop was to get something to eat at the Cracker Barrel. We used this time to get caught up.

Here was our first stop in New Hampshire. I got a couple of things one was the

 By the Bay Needlework fall stitch an inch.

We drove another 50 miles or so and arrived at the Shaker Museum. When we reached our off ramp we both just screamed "Were here". Nataly was ready to greet us upon arrival. I didn't get a picture of our room yet .

On our beds was a folder with our itinary and a card.

A few weeks back I won a give away from Carol at The Polka Dot Chicken. I won a gift certificate to any shop I wanted. I picked ABC Stitch. I received my certificate when I arrived. I can't wait to see what I will use it for when we have our side trip to visit the shop.

We all gathered for a  reception and to get to know each other. We met Belinda our teacher. Two girls who were at the retreat last fall with us were back also. It was fun catching up. Afterwards when we went up to our rooms there was a little goodie bag hanging on our door.



Pam gave me a gift when we arrived. It was so nice of her to stitch this scissor necklace for me. It sounds like a good excuse to buy another pair of scissors.



Well that's it for today. Tomorrow we will get our projects and get started stitching.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa