Presents, Projects and Purchases

 

I hope you don't mind one more post about the Bittersweet Sisters trip to Osage, Iowa...

Look at this wonderful display. Everyone was so kind and generous!

Kim treated us to a Chicago style dinner one night with delicious food brought from Chicago - Lou Malnati's deep dish pizza and Portillo's Chocolate Cake. (If you have ever had it, you know how divine both of these are ;)

 

And look at this:

Nicki gifted each of us with a wonderful graniteware pie plate with some sweet sunflowers, wool from a jacket of hers and one of her husbands, some acorns and I guess I should admit some chocolates which seem to have disappeared...

 

Linda made 5 of the beautiful pillows! One for each of us!

Her stitches are so tiny and perfect, a quilter at heart.

 

 

Carla made us these perfect project bags - I absolutely love both fabrics inside and out. This has become my new project bag for the train. And do you see the fantastic vintage style Halloween treat cup that she made in the back? Mine is sitting on my kitchen windowsill so I can admire it while doing the dishes.

 

 

Wendy was a maniac too! Making each of us these wonderful pouches - cross-stitched and mongrammed from a lovely design by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm. I think that she said that she had never finished anything like this before, but she did a fabulous job. She also made a wonderful memory book for me too.

 

I didn't make gifts for everyone, I ran out of time.

But I did design a little project for us to do:

 

 

Here they all are in various stages of completion. We each brought a favorite piece of autumn colored wool and free hand cut hearts and shared them. I had already made a pillow as a model at home, but wanted to create something with the shared hearts. So...

 

 

  I made a little runner. I think it looks so sweet with the pillow and the pincushion that we made at Ewe & Eye.

 

Carla surprised us with a project of her own:

 

 

She brought a huge box of scrapbooking supplies.

 

And here is Carla with the wonderful banner she designed. She brought lots of supplies so we could personalize it , but I loved her style, so

 



 

Here is mine at home on my mantle.

 

Linda brought show and tell:

 

A fabulous hooked rug that I just had to share!

 

While in Osage, we stayed at the second floor above The Stitchery Nook:

The accomodations were fabulous!

It has been recently renovated and each of us had our own big work table, close enough together that we never stopped chatting as we worked :)



 

One of my favorite features:

 

This great exposed brick wall down the hallway to the bedrooms.

 

Here we are once again:

 

The Bittersweet Stitching Sisters is a fitting name - meeting in the autumn and it is so bittersweet that we live so far apart that we are lucky to meet but once a year...

 

 

One can never have too much wool, right? Here are the lucious wools that I bought on the trip.

 

 

and here is Jill Peterson's latest book that I picked up along with some wonderul hand dyed threads. (Half off at Ewe & Eye!)

 

 

And a few more patterns that I just couldn't resist!

 

You have been so patient with me as I go on and on about this trip.

So next post I will reward you with a giveaway :)

 

For now I am off to the first high school football playoff game! Go Hawks!

Can't wait to see my youngest son, the tuba player, in the halftime show.

As soon as the game is over, we will run up to my mother-in-law's house - we are celebrating her 80th birthday!

Until next time...

Blessings, Patti