Being with a friend.

"Friends are most important ingredient

in the recipe of life."

Author Unknown

 

Friends are so wonderful to have and what a blessing it was to get off the plane after a long flight and be greeted by a wonderful friend. Not to mention a stitching friend, they are just the best. After Pam picked me up the first place she took me was to my favorite "Cracker Barrel".  Yum, was that ever good. When we arrived at her house she made me one of my favorite pies, pecan.

 

 

Sorry I didn't get a picture of it before I got a hold of it. Pam is a wonderful cook and it was delicious.

 

When I went up to my room you can not believe the greeting basket she had for me.

 

 

It was filled with so many goodies from a southern cookbook, some wonderful teas, stitching needles and lots more. She also made me this cute pillow.

 

 

One of the items I brought Pam was this beaded and stitched piece. It was a piece she saw last year and said this could be the two of us sitting at the lake house.

 

 

Pam took me to the lake house and here is the beautiful view from the deck.

 

 

After a couple of days playing around in her cute town we headed off on Tuesday morning for the retreat. What really should have been about a 6 hour trip took us 2 days. We really took our time and visited about 4 stitch shops, a couple of quilt stores, a tea house and not to mention a antique/flea market.

 

Here are  just a few of our stops.

 

 

Erma Bombeck said "the odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one". Well the only thing on my list was a couple of thread colors and believe me I didn't come out of those shops with only my thread. I will have to get pictures of my stash another day.

 

We finally arrived at our retreat destination and have been having a wonderful time meeting new stitchers. And yes we have been getting some stitching done.

 

Just in case we didn't have enough stash one of the girls took us to her local shop. Yes we added even more to our stash. I can't believe how each store has something new I have never seen before.

 



 

 

Well it time to get ready and head over to the stitch room. I will try and get some pictures of my new stash and what we are stitching. The most important part is we are having a very much needed relaxing time away from our everyday lives.

 

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa



 





 

 









Off on a adventure!

"Travel brings power and love back into your life."

Runi

 

 

Being in the company of those who accept you as you are, and who believes in you even in times when you can’t believe in yourself anymore. Laughing, dancing, chatting away the night in your pajamas while eating potato chips and homemade cookies. Now that’s heaven! (author unknown)

 

Well I am about to be in the company of a friend just like that and I can't wait. My bags are packed not only with clothes and stitching but with great anticipation of a wonderful, fun and relaxing time with my friend Pam, Confessions of a Southern Stitcher. I first met Pam at my first stitching retreat back in October of 2010. About 6 months later a list of everyone who attended email address was sent out and the first thing I did was email Pam to see how she was doing. I knew at the retreat we could have a great friendship but unfortunately she had to leave the retreat a day early due to an illness in the family so we didn't exchange too much information. Well that email was the true beginning of a wonderful friendship. I don't even want to admit just how many emails go back and forth on a daily basis. We are now about to journey on our fourth stitching retreat. I am so excited, I fly out tomorrow morning for Birmingham, AL. I will stay at Pam's for a couple of days and she will show me around town and on Tuesday morning we head out on a 500 mile journey. Who knows just what we will find along the way.

 

When we were at a retreat in New Hampshire, 2011 we did a project that I wanted some old wooden spools to use with it. On our way home we visited a couple of thrift stores. I found some spools but you had to buy the whole basket. It was five bucks so I said why not. It was a nice basket that I always thought I would love to redo. When I started to get my stuff ready for this trip I thought I could put my stuff in a little basket to take to and from class. Well that's when the old thrift store basket came back out.

 

This is what the basket looked like. A bit faded old 80's fabric but the a great basket. Now the inside was another story. Old off white satin with stretched out elastic.

Well first thing I did was see if I could even get the old stuff out.

Well that was easier than I thought. So I found a cute pattern and started stitching away. Took my stitched piece to the local Hobby Lobby and found some matching material. After it was all done I was quite pleased with myself.

My daughter loved the basket so much and said she wanted one. I have an old sewing basket that was her great grandma's that I recently found. I am going to attempt to see if I can redo that basket also. Maybe on this trip I will find a pattern that will be perfect to stitch for the top of it.

My little basket is all packed full with all my stitching needs and ready to take the journey to visit a good friend. I look forward to posting about our journey. Stayed tuned because who knows where the journey will take us.

"Nothing but Heaven itself is better than a friend

who is really a friend."

Titus Maccius Plautus

 

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa