Hobby House Tour

Brenda and the Serial Starter (Brenda and Laura) posted a special flosstube with a tour of Hobby House Needleworks.   

I'm was fangirling...

I got to meet a few Flosstubers at the retreat.

Jessica a.k.a. The Sweetwater Stitcher.  If you haven't checked out her Flosstube yet, you should.  I always appreciate her tutorials.

Flosstube: https://www.youtube.com/@sweetwaterstitcher

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sweetwaterstitcher/

Laura and Brenda (Brenda & the Serial Starter)

Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/@brendaandtheserialstarter2410

Hobby House Retreat - April 2025

 We were fortunate to have both Paulette from Plum Street Samplers and Beth from Heartstring Samplery at the Hobby House Retreat. My table mates were great and we had a great time.  Almost everyone was from a different state.  

The retreat exclusive was a collaboration between Paulette and Beth, and boy, did they hit it out of the park!  It even came with options.  You can stitch it as individual pillows, or as a long bell pull band sampler.  You can mix and match the parts in whatever order you would like.  The colors were fabulous and the fabric supplied was wonderful.

Sweetwater Stitching Mat Tutorial

 I decided to try and make a stitching mat to take to the Hobby House retreat on April 25th, 2025.  

I found a tutorial from the Sweetwater Stitcher (Jessica) that I thought I could handle.  Find it here... https://youtu.be/iUlGec_gTeM?si=GeJd_ZcFHcmbpUt3

I dug into my mother's stash of fabric and tried to find something springy.  The sun has been shining the last few days and it really put me in the mood.

The tutorial was great!  It even inspired me to try and make a matching thread bed and thread catcher that I saw on some other Flosstubes.

Threadcatcher tutorial (Primrose Cottage - Nettie) Find it here... https://youtu.be/hne6koyJnko?si=J9UyoOp6zVDkRCEi

Thread Bed tutorial.  (Laura B). Find it here... https://youtu.be/1FxKmAoa6ys?si=2eYo3hv3MHuubccu

I did it!

Scissor Fobs

 I wanted to try making some scissor fobs that I might use for table mate gifts at a retreat.  I scored a bunch of materials at the JoAnns going out of business sale.  They were so much fun to make, I'll probably make some more as well as some zipper pulls for some project bags.

The Flag Thief - Plum Street

I'm so looking forward to the Hobby House Retreat with Heartstring Samplery and Plum Street Samplers, so I started a few projects.  I'm having so much fun stitching them!

The Flag Thief and by Plum Street 

Tired Trio by Plum Street

Coffee Quaker by Heartstring Samplery 

Hometown SAL - page 15

 Still on track with Teresa Kogut’s Hometown SAL!

Vacation!!!

I was offline from March 20th through April 8th as I took a road trip with a friend.

If you are interested, or just bored, here's a timeline of the places we went.  We hit 13 states in 14 days.  What a whirlwind!

 We left Syracuase and traveled down the east coast stopping in Winchester, VA then hitting Emerald Isle, NC to visit some relatives.  

We left there and made our way down to Jeckyll  Island, GA.  We loved it there so we stayed a few days and enjoyed the slow pace of the island.  We enjoyed some great food, a trolley tour, the pool at our hotel, and the beautiful beach of course!

After that we headed to Pensacola Beach, FL where we rented a condo for a week's stay.  It was wonderful.  We were right next to the beach.  The weather was beautiful the whole time we were there. 

 

The second day at the beach I just sat and stitched, covered head to toe, trying not to get any more sunburnt than I was.  And that was with 70 SPF sun block.  Lol!  I'd show you the picture of my friend sitting right next to me in her bathing suit enjoying the sun, but she would kill me.

And, where was Dolly?  Roughing it at my daughter's house where her two Australian Cattle Dogs watched over her and catered to her every whim.  She's the boss even though they outweigh her.

I did get a little stitching done... I still had to finish the April Monthly Weigh-in from Stitching with the Housewives.  It's one of the only ones I didn't do last year.

In Pensacola we ate at a great place.  If you get the chance to go there, I highly recommend it.  It is called The Five Sisters Blues Cafe. Best food of the entire trip!

We hit the road again, hitting Alabama, Georgia, on our way to Nashville, TN.  We spent the night there and toured the next day.  It was a little scary because of all the tornadoes right around us that night, but we were lucky and left before the worst weather hit.

We passed through Kentucky stopping at the very edge of Ohio to take a quick walk through the "Ark Experience".  It's a life size reproduction of Noah's Ark.  Pretty cool.

We were off again!  We left Kentucky and headed for Ohio.  Our first stop was in Cincinnati at Keepsakes!  I was so excited.  I'll tell you about that in another post. 

LNS Visit: Keepsakes - Cincinnati, OH

ROAD TRIP!

When we gained a little extra time on our trip, I whipped out the Google Map and Spreadsheet from Stitching Road Trip on Facebook and started checking for stores along our route. 

 Lo and behold, I found one smack dab in the middle of our route.

I was so excited to be able to stop at Keepsakes in Cincinnati, OH on April 1st, 2025.  

Keepsakes is only the second LNS I've ever visited and wow, did it set the bar high for others I may visit.  

Upon arrival I was greeted by each member of the wonderful staff and by Barbara (the owner).  They gave me an overview of what was where in the shop and turned me loose!  

The place is absolutely jam packed with everything you could possibly need to be a happy stitcher.  I wish I had more time to be able to really look around, but I was on a mission to find a project to commemorate my trip.

I also got to stalk one of my favorite Flosstubers, live and in-person, out in the wild.  Steph from "Just Keep Stitchin" was there that day and even helped me find a chart.

After making some chart selections and drooling over all the beautiful floss options in their floss room,  I made it back downstairs to select some linen. 

The ladies were extremely helpful.  I was able to find just the perfect shade of linen I wanted.  They cut it and serged it on the spot.  They even asked to see some of my finished work, and I showed them pictures from this blog.

I wish I was closer to this LNS, but since they are somewhat closer to me than other shops (the next state over from mine), I will definitely be ordering some items online soon.

I highly recommend a stop at this LNS if you get the chance, or a purchase from their online shop!