Retreat

Many thanks to Barbara F. for organizing our retreat again this year. She found us a wonderful new location, Graves Mountain Lodge in Syria. 

This is the view from the balcony outside our rooms down to the main lodge where we dined. Many people walked up and down this nice long hill, several times a day. A few people drove down so that they could drive up. My Fitbit says walking up that hill was the equivalent of 8 flights of stairs. My calves agreed.
 

At dinner the first night we were treated to a show - a beautiful rainbow appeared down in the valley and we got to watch it for a long time. 
 

Sunrise Friday morning. I was up at 5:30.
 

We had some interesting wildlife experiences. This little cutie is a Rosy Maple Moth. It's yellow head is fuzzy. Lots of deer and bunnies. And yes, we did see a bear!

The son of the owner was in our stitching room fixing our AC when he stood up and asked if we wanted to see a bear. We went pouring out the door. The bear was at the bottom of the hill doing a slow saunter over to check out the garbage. He was not a small bear. He was a large bear. We saw evidence of other nocturnal visits strewn across the hillside in the mornings. 

If you spent time sitting in the rocking chairs on the balcony, this was what you saw. 
 

A few pics of our stitching room.
 

Let's move on to the food! We all ate way too much. Roast beef and mashed potatoes. Fresh fried trout. Fried chicken. Apple butter, apple sauce, fried apples, apple pie, apple cobbler. I think you get the idea. 
 

General consensus is this a good location to retreat at. We were sad to leave. 
 

Here's a bear from inside the lodge. Because every retreat should have a bear???

May Meeting

Our May meeting will have our own Dr. Margaret Krassy instructing us on hand massage. I can't tell you how badly I need this right now. 

Also if you signed up for the retreat in June be sure to check your e-mail for details from Barbara. It's over a month a way and I'm excited now!

Video from Woodlawn

A bit of video from Voice of America hit Youtube this week and it happens to be featuring the Woodlawn Needlework Show from 2013. 

Go watch. You might see your stitched piece. Or even in some cases, yourself!

It's in Arabic so you will most likely only be enjoying this for the video and not the audio. 

Woodlawn 2013

Stitch in Public Day 2013

It's that time of year - time to stitch in public on the first Saturday of the month of February.

We'll be at the Walker Nature House in Reston February 2nd from 10 a.m. to
1 p.m.

Stop by and join us.

January Meeting

We had a lovely day on Saturday. I'm sorry if the weather deterred any of you from attending. I'm even sorrier if you are one of the people suffering from the flu virus and that kept you away.

 Anne's last day as President. She all smiles!

The hall had these wonderful tissue paper creations hanging from the ceiling lending an air of festivity.

We had the installation of officers:  your new President, Donna L., Vice-President of Programs, Jane, Treasurer, Marge, Vice-President of Membership, Melissa, and Secretary, Amanda. Donna P. adminsterred the oath of office. Now it's time to get to work...

Our class was the finishing portion of Betsy's Casket Etui. We left fully confident in our abilities to bring this beautiful creation to life. 

And on our IFF table, we saw some members catching up from the Halloween stitching:

A huge thank you to everyone who made this day happen. All the members who participated in set-up and breakdown. To Donna P. for leading the installation ceremony. To Dane and Nannette for seeing to the food and drink. Our guild would be nothing without the time and effort put forth by our volunteers.

See you at the February class - Amanda's wonderful beaded brooches.

Saturday Meeting

Looks like the snow is ending here in Reston. Unless things change drastically and/or Fairfax Schools cancel Saturday activities, we should be meeting tomorrow.

Sea Needles

Stitching @ Ocean City. Made a little trip to Bethany to visit Sea Needles. They were super nice and helpful. Lots of canvas, many kits, lots of cross stitch charts, yarn and knitting.