Mys 2014

Stitcher’s Hideaway

Kindred Spirits Retreat 2014
Fun Report

What a very special retreat this was! It was just the warmest and coziest gathering of fellow addicts. Two of the regular attendees came to me after the retreat and told me it was the best one ever!

Ann Pettit of Brightneedle was our instructor and our retreat project was “My Sewing Book”, inspired by the story of Anne of Green Gables. In the book Anne refers to “kindred spirits” - people that have a special connection. As fellow stitchers we certainly are kindred spirits! We come from all walks of life, but our shared love of needlework draws us together. We always have loads to talk about when it comes to our passion, and along the way we end up learning that we often have so much more in common! I’ve seen some wonderful relationships develop among the attendees at these retreats.

The night before the retreat began, most of us gathered to watch the movie “Anne of Green Gables” in our classroom. Quite a few of us had never seen the movie before and we all enjoyed it over popcorn. What great casting in this movie!

The next morning we eagerly arrived to begin our retreat! Each attendee had a Fun Pack with goodies from designers and companies -- Bush Mountain Stitchery & Framing, Chris’s Collection, Elizabeth’s Designs, Giulia Punti Antichi, Morning Glory Needleworks, Nordic Needle, Rosewood Manor, Samplers and Such, Tempting Tangles, Udder Cream, Victoria Sampler, and Weeks Dye W0rks.
Before our class began we had time for our first wave of stash enhancement! Chris, who retired from running her wonderful needlework shop, Chris’s Collection, set up a great shopping experience for us by selling her remaining stash at 50% off! We had some amazing deals! I purchased a crazy amount of linen -- but hey, a girl can never have enough linen! LOL! Chris’s buddy Pam Morse ran the shop while Chris attended the retreat as a stitcher for the very first time!! What a change for her, and how fun for us to have her in class!

We spent most of our time together happily stitching away on our project, taking stash enhancement breaks, and eating delicious food from Mystic Market East. We had a very relaxed pace and did a lot of chatting.

Here are some pictures of the individual pages in My Sewing Book. One page has a wee pin cushion and another has a pocket to hold a sweet thread winder made exclusively for this project.

Ann taught us her easy method of stitching over one. I’ve used her method ever since she first taught at a Stitcher’s Hideway retreat back in 2004!

Throughout the two days door prizes were given out from Bush Mountain Stitchery & Framing, Jeannette Douglas Designs, Rosewood Manor, Samplers and Such, Victoria Sampler, and, of course, Stitcher’s Hideaway! We were quite spoiled!

Anne with door prize from Samplers and Such

Barb with door prize from Victoria Sampler

Cynthia with door prize from Rosewood Manor

Jaime Lyn with door prize
from Victoria Sampler

Virginia with doorprize from Jeannette Douglas Designs which featured a home for
Anne of Green Gables at the top of the sampler!

Cathi with door prize from
Bush Mountain Stitchery

Lisa with door prize from Rosewood Manor

Chris with door prize from
Victoria Sampler

Linda with door prize from
Bush Mountain Stitchery

Regina with door prize from Victoria Sampler

Linda with door prize from Rosewood Manor

Sarah with door prize from Victoria Sampler

Robbin with door prize from Rosewood Manor

Some of us participated in an optional stitching exchange.
It was hard to choose which gift-wrapped present to select!

Stitched gifts revealed!

That night everyone received a kit for this little keepsake I designed.

We stitched and we stitched and we stitched some more. It was wonderful!!

Late that night some of us kept right on stitching until we almost dropped. At one point Robbin, Anne and I were the only ones left. I was amazed to hear their conversation because they had not met until this retreat but wow -- they sure are kindred spirits!

The next day we learned how to turn our stitching into a book. The directions were great -- and even a sewing challenged person like myself could understand!

That evening we had a great Show and Tell session! We. Are. Totally. Awesome!!

We heard some great stories to go along with some of the Show and Tell, and afterwards we had a close up of everyone’s works of art.

We had a WONDERFUL surprise from our talented instructor! We were each given a stitched model of a Brightneedle design! Some of us were on the edge of tears over this generous gift! THANK YOU ANN!! Here’s a picture of some of our gifts.

What a fun time! It was a two-day stitch fest!

Sarah in one of her spooky outfits!

Barb with a door prize from Victoria Sampler.

Jaime Lyn with a doorprize
from Victoria Sampler

Virginia with a doorprize from
Rosewood Manor

Cathi making great progress!

Anne completed an entire page! YAY!

“As usual, this retreat was so much fun, and having Ann back to teach this fun project was so special! Ann was so generous by giving all of us one of their stitched models to cherish forever as well as a cute felt pincushion. Hmmmm....the pincushion fits in one of the pages of the book so maybe I’ll just use it instead of making one since the size and colors are perfect!

Thanks again to Chris for bringing all the stitching stuff for us to buy at a huge discount and for Pam to lure us into buying more stash. A special thanks to Sue for all she does in organizing her retreat and to make sure we are all happy and well fed!”
~ Linda M.

Linda with a door prize from Samplers and Such.

“Stitcher’s Hideaway in Mystic was another great retreat. Ann Pettit is so nice and it was an honor to be included in her last class (for this design). “My Sewing Book” is a wonderful project with all the attention to detail. Everyone I showed it to was impressed, even non-stitchers! Of course, the amount of stitching I accomplished is less than impressive! I can’t wait to finish it though.

Thank you for all your hard work to make Stitcher’s Hideaway the fun and friendly retreats they are. I love getting away from everyday commitments of home and work to concentrate on the hobby we love.”
~ Linda E.

Linda with a door prize from Bush Mountain Stitchery.

“I wanted to send you a note to tell you that the Kindred Spirits retreat was truly great. I believe that all stitchers are our Kindred Spirits and this was definitely the case this weekend. I enjoyed the movie; I had never seen it before. Ann was especially kind in all of the gifts she gave to us. It was nice to have stitching time and I felt like I could finish my project rather quickly. And, of course, her directions for finishing are always perfect. Another job well done. Thanks.”
Your Kindred Spirit,
Deb

Deb with a door prize from Bush Mountain Stitchery.

“Thank you for hosting the retreat in Mystic. As always, you outdid yourself! Everything was top-notch -- food, goodie bags, and the memento project you designed. I would also like to say thank you to Ann for the beautiful project and all the little extras that she provided to the group. She, too, was quite generous. I’ve been working on my little book and am happy to say that it’s working up nice. I also found some wonderful bargains from Chris’s Collection. I’m looking forward to future retreats. Thanks again.”
~ Cynthia

Cynthia with a door prize from Samplers and Such.

“There are a lot of reasons I enjoy teaching at a Stitcher’s Hideaway Retreat but the best one is this: There’s always laughter. Sue’s retreat motto ought to be “Forget your troubles, come on get happy” because that’s what happens when you enter the hallowed hotel halls. The atmosphere of the retreat reflects Sue’s personality so one can’t help but have an enjoyable weekend. And so I did! I enjoyed everyone, everything, every moment. Thank you Sue!!”

~ Ann Pettit

Our wonderful instructor!

Happy Stitching!

Sue