Retreat!!!

I have lots to share, so grab a coffee or tea, settle in and I hope you enjoy this picture filled post, full of lots of stitching amoungst some other neat things. :)

First off, the retreat was amazing. I loved sitting around with everyone and just stitching for three days! There was a lovely group of ladies that took me under their wing and really made me feel at home. The pieces people are working on are just stunning. It's so great to see so many different techniques, fabrics and all the rest.

Of course, I did a lot of stitching while I was out there. I had a finish! This is Little House Needlworks Ornament #1 (in their series of 12 this year) called Fa La La. Stitched on Cafe 28 ct linen. (I substituted a some colours b/c I wanted more than just red and green in mine.)

Wanna see where I stitched this all up? This is a pic of my 'work' station at the retreat: (I do not have any other photos of the building or people as I want to ensure privacy is kept for everyone)

They also gave us the awesomest name tags! I will cherish mine forever. :)

And then there were classes! I took two classes. One on making bracelets with wire. The technique is eyelets and not that hard at all actually, perhaps hard to get perfect, but to just do up it wasn't too bad. I also took one on making a cute little ring. This was my first foray into wire work with jewelry, and I now have a plier set on order to make more! Here they are:

And more and more stitching. I worked on my HAED Rose SK as part of the SAL on the BB. Here she is so far:

There were also giveaways!! Our welcome package was this cute bag with some bonus little extras in it:
(there were also lots of free patterns and other little things through the weekend as well)

And then I won this awesome scissor fob that I will have to put together. More beading. Looks like I will need to learn how to do it all! :)

Who could let a weekend go by without buying stuff?! I got this pattern from Glendon Place called Sleepy Hollow. The fabric is just divine. The B/F also liked this pattern so it may get moved up on the list to be stitched soon.

Last, but certainly not least. Dragons. I have spent a lot of time with Dragons lately. I know I haven't shared them too much this month, but here they are. I am very close to a page finish and should be on par to get this page done by end of Sept, which is my goal, and then have the next row complete by end of the year. (at this rate it will only take three more years to finish, lol). Page to date:

Full piece to date:

Thank you so much for visiting and reading this far!
I am going to be catching up on BB's, groups and blogs over the weekend.