Memorial Day Stitch-In 2008!
History and Preparation
Several years ago, I thought a stitching get-together for friends and fans would be great fun…and it was!! I invited everyone I could think of that could hold a needle…and ended up with a sleep-over at my house for just about 45 stitchers…which is a LOT of sleeping bags, pillows, stitching bags and lamps! The event was such a success that I now alternate the Memorial Day Stitch-In with a Stitching Cruise, holding one event each year. Of course, I really don't do it all myself…I have lots of talented friends to help me pull these occasions off and they do a great job of making it all look easy!
Since the first Stitch-In in 2007, we have grown out of my house and this year we used the Hyatt Place in Richmond VA, which had a wonderful, well-lit meeting room for stitching as well as great sleeping rooms for stitchers. We needed that space because we had 65 stitchers this year! Eva Rill (my #1 fan and admin assistant) and I negotiated a reasonable rate for guest rooms with continental breakfast.
I imported some of my favorite Canadians along with other special friends to help me assemble goodie bags at my house on Friday morning which stretched out into the afternoon…and I am such a great hostess I realized later that I forgot to serve the lunch I had prepared!! Getting old is not for sissies!
Our first guests arrived on Friday evening, their needles ready! We sat and stitched and visited (and laughed!) until the wee hours.
Classes
Saturday morning there was a Hardanger Class taught by Eva-which was especially nice because she was there all weekend for the faint of heart who needed the emotional support to cutting away the first threads in the fabric! A Biscornu Class was taught by Jonni Burnham . Jonni's techniques are easy to follow and promise absolutely exquisite finishes. I was the designer of the Biscornu piece and didn't get it to Jonni as early as I should have, so she had two nights of practically NO sleep at all before she taught the class! And she was so nice…not once did she say anything mean to me!
Afternoon Tea and Shenanigans
Saturday afternoon was a Tea Party on the lawn at my house. I had been worrying about the weather for weeks-we had 9 weekends in a row of storms and heavy rain! On the day of the Tea Party we got lucky, it was a beautiful day of 80 degrees! The trees provided a bit of shade and the required fancy hats helped to keep the sun under control. Tables were covered with vintage tablecloths, and centerpieces were flower pots painted to compliment the tablecloths and planted with lobelia, impatiens, and bacopa. The menu was several varieties of tea sandwiches, lavender cookies, fruit and cupcakes, along with sweet tea and strawberry lemonade. Prizes were given for the best hats, but all the hats were works of art! Goodie bags hung on the back of each chair were filled with treasures provided by my fellow designers, distributors, manufactures, and thread dyers…OH! And Cherry Ripes-a favorite Australian candy provided by a Lesley, a stitcher who traveled 19, 484 miles (round trip) to stitch with us (okay, so she visited in Pennsylvania with a new grandbaby too!)
Saturday night, stitchers were on their own for dinner, and then more stitching in the meeting room. Since we had 62 stitchers you can only imagine the zaniness that happened-I will say there was a LOT of laughing and a lot of cake to be eaten! I am not going to tell you which lady wore clown glasses and a red clown nose, I will try to preserve her dignity. There was a "show and tell" of wonderful stitching that these talented ladies had completed and brought to share with us.
Sunday's Road Trip
Sunday afternoon was spent on a road trip to The Stitching Well at Haus Tirol in Williamsburg, a lovely, well stocked shop with a wonderful selection of stitching treasures…not to mention homemade Austrian Crème Puff's just for us. The Canadians took a wrong turn and ended up riding the tram road at Busch Gardens, but that would not be a surprise if you knew them, and now they can say they went to Busch Gardens!
Dinner at Feathernester's and Cruise Announcement
Dinner on Sunday evening was a buffet at Feathernester's (www.feathernesters.com), a home and garden shop with a delightful tea room on Lakeside Avenue in Richmond. Tony and Marc pulled out all the stops and provided us with their usual wonderful hospitality and incredible food. The cruise to Alaska in 2009 was announced, and the final raffle of the tote bag was drawn-Cylvia's name was drawn and she jumped up, screamed with excitement, sat back down very hard, broke her chair and didn't even notice! The grand announcement of the 2009 Stitching Cruise to Alaska was made and there are cruisers looking for their mukluks as I write this.
Prizes Galore!
Door prizes supplied by stitchers, favorite shops, and wonderful people in the needlework industry, were announced regularly throughout the weekend and we also had a few raffles for charitable causes. We had two raffles for complete sets of DMC floss-one benefited Cole's Quilts http://www.our-sma-angels.com/colesquilts/index.htm and the other benefited the Michael Misch Recovery Fund. Both special young men whose Mom's are close to our hearts. The third raffle was for a 2007 Cruise Tote bag with the stitching project…Cylvia Whiteside won this one and Cylvia bought so many tickets, that it might have been cheaper to have gone on the cruise!
Farewell!
A final farewell and coffee at my house on Monday morning…more laughs, goodbyes for now, and all were on their way home to Ohio, Maryland, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, Georgia, Virginia, and Canada and Australia! Hope to see you in Alaska in August, 2009! And if not, then the next Memorial Day Stitch-In in 2010!
