Who's Been A BUSY Girl!!

That would be ME! PHEW! The last couple of weeks just seem to have been all go, go, go around the Meares' Madhouse. There's been quite a bit of designing, stitching and planning happening ... in between work, choir rehearsals, a wedding, catching up with friends and a fun stitching retreat! :0) As a result, I've fallen WAY behind in answering my emails ... SORRY!! In fact, I'm so far behind, that I'm going to have to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. If you were waiting for a special reply or an answer to a question ... please drop me a new email and I PROMISE to get back to you pronto. :0) OPAMers who sent finishes through ... thank you and well done! For the gals who sent snail mail addresses ... I got 'em! So there'll be some treats in the mail real soon for you. I hope you'll all forgive me for getting a little swamped with 'real life' and not catching up sooner. :0)

So ... in amongst that list of busy-ness, did you notice I slipped in a "Stitching Retreat"?? March is a pretty special month around here ... not only is it my birthday month (EEP! Coming up soon!!) it's also the time of the year where Marion and Steph at The Quilters Angel spoil stitchers with two days of  ...

YAY!! Picture a marquee decorated with draped gauzy curtains, chandeliers, pink balloons and all things pretty, girly and crafty and you know what it was like. But in case you can't imagine it ... I took a couple of pictures! :0)

Here are some of the ladies already stitching away.

Hmmm ... more stitching ladies. Funny ... when I go to these stitching retreats, I don't actually seem to do nearly as much STITCHING as I do CHATTING! Tee! Hee! Hee! And can I say this was no different!! :0) I joined the lovely ladies on Sunday for a day of stitching (well ... the other ladies stitched and I chatted! Tee! Hee! Hee!) being spoiled and enjoying face time with two clever designers ...

... the delightfully chatty Debbie McGee from 'Always Stitching'. (those pretty pink fabric baskets on the table were Debbie's brand new design the ladies received the pattern for) And ...

... the human dynamo Nikki Tervo of 'Nikki Tervo Designs' and 'Brandy Gully'. I was a bit remiss and forgot to take a photo of Nikki's gorgeous and handy new design gifted to the ladies as part of Girls Stitch In ... it was a handy stitching folder with removable pin cushion, needle book etc - keep an eye out for it! :0)

As always, Marion and Steph and their band of elves outdid themselves and everyone felt very spoilt with goodies bags, brand new patterns, time chatting to the designers, delicious food, lots of giveaways and even a few competitions thrown in for fun! :0) One of these involved each table decorating a shoe. Yes ... you read that right a SHOE! You should have seen the head-scratching, plotting, planning and mad scavenger hunt that went on to find bits and bobs to decorate these special shoes. The results ...

Have you ever seen such spectacularly decorated shoes??! And that one on the left still has an occupant! Tee! Hee! Hee! The ladies scrounged flowers, beads, buttons and ribbons ... they made flowers from napkins, rosettes from lolly wrappers ... talk about innovative! It just goes to show that crafters are crafters no matter what materials they're working with. :0) The eventual winners were ...

These ladies were a hoot! And I think they put as much time and effort into decorating their shoe as most of us do for a quilt! I think they were just a TEENSIE bit competitive! Tee! Hee! Hee! A huge THANK YOU to Marion, Steph and their team for organising such a wonderful weekend of stitching and spoiling!! Wanna come and play with us next year??? Stay tuned!! Details will be on their web site as soon as they're finalised!! There are some EXCITING changes happening for next year ... I can't WAIT!! :0)

Since I'm still recovering from my overloaded weekend, I think I shall make myself a cuppa, cruise a few blogs, then toodle off to keep a long-overdue date with my pillow!! I'll be back soon with another sneaky peeky of my new French-inspired quilt ... it just needs borders and the top is finished ... I'm VERY excited about that! :0) Whatever you're up to this week, I hope you manage to find some time to put your feet up and stitch ... I'll be trying hard to do better at keeping up with my email! :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS