Thank you so very much to all the lovely ladies at the Portland, OR event with Acorns and Threads. What a treat. I thank Wynter for a beautiful bracelet, another stitcher for her lovely handmade ort boxes for all of us, and to Nancy for handmade lovely keychains for all of us, and Liz for some lovely threads by her company Dragonflylotus Designs http://www.handspunthread.com/ and all of you for coming to this great little event on the west coast. Thank you Jeannine and Roz for your hospitality and fun company. With everyone having done their prestitching it was great to see some finishes of the little pincushions and even the needleholder for their Bird Box project. Portland is a lovely city and I enjoyed a couple of days seeing the quilt show and a beautiful walk in the Rose Garden - rather some healing time for me as I did not realize how affected I would be with the loss of our family pet. The house is rather empty and no greeter when I came home but the neighbours saw us return and kindly sent out Walter for a great doggie greeting. I flew from Portland to Kalispell and Dale met me at the Glacier airport at a very late time of 1245am - the flight was late leaving Seattle.... and we spent the week in the Whitefish area of Montana enjoying some lovely autumn days with our family. Upon driving the way home we saw the buffalo on the range and I had to share that rather western picture.
Now we are on to the next event at Shepherd's Bush in Ogden Utah and then Park City for the retreat. How exciting this little adventure is. I think sometimes my excitement is because I get to stay in mountain time and have a direct flight -whereas most trips are not that! I am really looking forward to seeing you all and hope that you have a wonderful time. I have checked and all my boxes have arrived at SB - Hallelujah! - no worries there - and I have my little pile ready to pack on Monday for going. Do you do that too.... make a little pile of things that you want to take as you think of it.... and just keep adding to it? When we are done on Sunday I fly out to Spokane, WA and enjoy a few days with the ladies there teaching the Bird Box. Then I am home for 10 days and get out to Saskatoon and the Bridge City Guild and teach The Common Thread 2 - a mate to the first one! A very fun stitch with lots of new stitches - or rather different stitches than the first one!
I did purchase a "Stella" light for stitching and it is amazing! Wow, what a treat that is. I hadn't bought a new light in 10+ years so this is a delight.
Next years events are shaping up and look for the events to start being released. I can tell you that I am teaching at the annual Embroiderers’ Association of Canada Seminar, May 12 to 17, 2015 - in Calgary!!! http://www.eac.ca/seminar/main.html What a thrill to teach in my own city. Thank you to the Stampeding Stitches team.
I am sure I will think of something else I wanted to say the minute I hit post! but nevertheless this where I am at and look forward to seeing you all soon!
In stitches, jeannette
