3 year Blogoversary

Well, I missed my 3 year blogoversary the other day, and wanted to have a giveaway for it. So, if you just post a comment to this post I will draw a name on Nov. 15th and the winner will win something from me. It will be a little "goodie bag" with a little something stitched and whatever else i feel like adding. So if you are up for a surprise, comment here!

PALS retreat in Myrtle Beach!

I am home (for a few days now) from the PALS retreat in Myrtle Beach SC. What a blast it was! We had such a great time stitching, laughing, exchanging, laughing, a little more stitching and ALOT more laughing! :) Meeting up with old and new friends is just a wonderful time!
Michele and I were roomies again and can say we make great roomies! We had an adjoining room with Chris from NC and Michelle from KS and what a blast it was. A wonderful view from our rooms and the conference center we were all in for stitching and fun.
Michele and I decided to do a "little something" for some old & new friends. I made some pincushions and pins and Michele made the scissor fobs and we bagged them up all "beachy". Everyone really enjoyed them and it was fun to see them using them throughout the week. :)
On Thursday night it was the Halloween and Fall exchange and I participated in both. For the Autumn exchange I stitched the freebie Autumn from The Stitcherhood and made it into a pillow. For the Halloween exchange I stitched up a Homespun Elegance design into an ornament and also stitched Hallow's Eve (but can't remember the designer off teh top of my head right now). I rec'd in the exchanges, for autumn a beautiful flatfold finish by Tracy FL in a Brittercup kittie fall finish. I love it! and the Halloween exchange I rec'd the "pumpkin face" by casey bourgainu(sp) stitched by Michele and an un-published design by Cherished Stitches (louise henderson) in an ornament. Louise said this design should be ready by next fall in case you go looking for it. :) Diane got my Autumn pillow, here we are:

Here is the brittercup flatfold i got from Tracey for the Autumn exchange

The ornament i picked for the Halloween exchange, from Michele

and the ornament from Louise of Cherished Stitches

And here are the two i brought for the Halloween exchange
And here is my Homespun Elegance ornament

By the end of the week, we had laughed so hard and made so many great friends, Diane A. (aka Juan Cornholio Frijoles) for one. we laughed, snorted, laughed until we cried and our sides hurt, etc. This was Diane's first retreat with PALS and she fit right in from the moment she got there.
In this picture: back row: me, Michelle from KS, Toni, front row, Michele from WA, Chris and Diane laying across them. :)

One night Michele, Sharon, Chris, Jim, little Josh and I went to dinner on the pier and walked along the pier afterwards. Jim and Josh were both bent down watching the waves and it was just too cute of a pic to pass up.

Stitching portfolios

Hi! another quick post from me. Recently i purchased a couple different sized "stitching portfolios" from Joan (mama joan in my sidebar) and wanted to share pics of them with you. I believe Joan still has some left for sale along with some of her gorgeous mesh bags too. They are beautifully finished and i just love mine. go take a look at her blog.

Still summer here in AZ

Well, this heat is just not going away here in Arizona. They are saying this week (again) that it is going to start cooling down to the 90's, hopefully they are right this time. :)
I haven't been good about posting lately either. hanging head in shame....................... so there will be a few pics here from awhile ago this past month.
I rec'd my autumn exchange from Faye from the Friends Stitching through The Seasons exchange. Faye stitched a beautiful stocking from BBD and one of her famous pincushions along with her pins as well. She also included some wonderful yummy fabric. Thanks again Faye!!!

My exchange partner that i send to is Jill. I stitched SB Scatter Pumpkins and made it into a flatfold. i changed up the way i make the flat folds normally and attached the stitched piece to another piece with the backing fabric, etc. I really like how it turned out, and I believe Jill does as well. This is the first flat fold that Jill has. :)

I was asked by Patti if i could make a needlebook that she had seen on another blog. So i took a look at the picture and went ahead and made one with one of my finished pieces (that needed "finishing") for an example and really like how it turned out.
****Edited to give the blog post that Patti found this gorgeous needlebook done on that i used as a tutorial for mine, needlebook.


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Halloween Giveaway all month

If you haven't found Annette and Missy's 31 Days of Halloween Giveaway, go check it out. click on the picture in my sidebar for the link.

Happy Haunting!