Stitcher’s Hideaway
Mystic 2012
Spooky Retreat
Fun Report

There are some crazy stitchers out there -- and a bunch of them swooped in to the Mystic Comfort Inn in Mystic, CT for some spooky fun! Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

 

 

This group came from CT, MA, NJ, NY, OR, and RI.  Rhonda, from Oregon, received special gifts for traveling the farthest.  It was Rhonda’s first time to New England and she had a fantastic time!  It worked out for her to spend a day before the retreat with designer Dawn Fisher and I poking around Connecticut.  The two of them took a bazillion pictures of the countryside and thoroughly enjoyed our scenic route wanderings.  There is nothing quite like New England in the fall!

Dawn Fisher of Morning Glory Needleworks designed her Haunted Huswif project for this retreat, which could actually be finished as a huswif or a Spooky Sampler.  She taught it as a mini-class along with two of her other teaching pieces, Lady Washington Sampler and Alphabet of Stitches.  It was a great opportunity to take these classes, which were made affordable when taken as mini-classes at this retreat.  Some stitchers took one or more classes, while others stitched on their own projects during the retreat.  Many of the stitchers, as you can imagine, were working on spooky-themed projects.

Rhonda with Door Prize from
Jeannette Douglas Designs

 

Dawn told us some great stories during the Haunted Huswif class!  The Huswif itself represents the story of the Storm Hag who haunts Lake Erie. The Storm Hag is shown on the front of the Huswife with her entourage of eerie sea creatures. The chant she uses to lure sailors to their doom is featured on the back of the Huswif:

    Come into the water Love.
    Dance beneath the waves.
    Where dwell the bones of sailor lads,
    Inside my saffon cave. 

From haunted light houses to haunted ships to haunted lakes, each piece of the Haunted Huswif represented the spooky stories she told.  There was even a spooky tale with frogs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 In Dawn’s Alphabet of Stitches class.

 

We received wonderful doorprizes from Blue Ribbon DesignsElizabeth’s Designs, Jeannette Douglas Designs, KreinikPraiseworthy Stitches, Rosewood Manor, Victoria Sampler, With My Needle, 1-2-3 Stitch, along with goodies in our Fun Packs from A Sweet StitchChris’s CollectionsElizabeth's Designs, Giulia Punti Antichi, Glory Bee, JBW Designs, Jeannette Douglas Designs, Kreinik, Lavender Wings, Nordic Needle, Praiseworthy Stitches, Rosewood Manor, ThreadworXVictoria Sampler, and 1-2-3 Stitch.  Many of these wonderful donors sent spooky items!  Some door prizes were newly released designs by the donors and we all got to drool over them!

 

 

Christine with Praiseworthy Stitches door prize

Ellen with door prize from Kreinik

 

 

Janice with door prize from Jeannette Douglas Designs

Dee with door prize from Praiseworthy Stitches

 

 

Peggy with door prize from With My Needle

Linda with door prize from 1-2-3- Stitch

 

 

Bev with door prize from Victoria Sampler

Christine with door prize from Praiseworthy Stitches

 

 

Barbara with goodies from Jeannette Douglas Designs

Amy with Victoria Sampler door prize

 

Several recipients of door prizes from 1-2-3- Stitch

 

Terre with a door prize from Stitcher’s Hideaway.

 

We had so much fun just hanging out together, eating delicious meals and admiring each other’s stitching projects!

 

Chow Line

Deb & Virginia

 

 

Dawn with her “Ding Dong the witch is dead” t-shirt, showing off her pink skull bracelet.

Pregnant Melissa with her special t-shirt --heehehehee!

 

 

Donna and I displayed our lovely hats!

 

 

 

One night we had an optional Spooky Stitching Exchange!  Here are the many gift wrapped items from the participants.  Each then drew a number and picked a present.  It was a lot of fun!  What a fantastic group of stitchers!!

 

 

 

Bev

Christine

 

 

Dawn

Cyndi

 

 

Gayle

Linda

 

 

Mary

Marie

 

 

Sylvia

Terre

 

 

Christine

Donna

 

 

Ellen

Elsie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


...And the door prizes kept coming!

 

 

 

 

Elsie with door prize from Kreinik

 

Bev with door prize from 1-2-3- Stitch

 

 

 

Donna with door prize from Blue Ribbon Designs

 

 

 

 

Mary with door prize from Blue Ribbon Designs

 

Jody with door prize from Jeannette Douglas Designs

 

 

 

 

Jane with door prize from Elizabeth’s Designs

 

Regina with door prize from Victoria Sampler

 

 

 

 

Sylvia with door prize from Rosewood Manor

 

Roberta with door prize from With My Needle

 

 

 

 

Virginia was excited with the door prize she received from Kreinik that she dropped everything and stitched it at the retreat!  It was a design that fit into a pen!

 

Sarah with door prize from Jeannette Douglas Designs

There were so many of us that we decided to have Show and Tell on two different occasions.  How wonderful to see each other’s masterpieces!!

 

 

 

 

Ellen

 

Mary

 

 

 

 

Deb with her “Ancestree” - a tree with family names stitched in.

 

Deb with quilting.

 

 

 

 

 

Deb with a Rosewood Manor piece.

 

 

 

 

Linda

 

Jane

 

 

 

 

Regina

 

Dawn

 

 

 

 

Sarah the Toy Maker

 

Sarah the Dress Maker

 

 

 

 

Sarah the Knitter

 

Sarah the Spooky

 

 

 

 

Sylvia

 

Amy

 

 

Elsie crochets hats for children in hospitals.

 

Elsie with a quilt.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a great Show ‘n Tell!!  And these are just a sampling of what we saw! 

All throughout our time together, we heard some rather spooky reports of an impending storm of historic proportions headed our way -- STORM SANDY THE EVIL!  My brother, who is an emergency response director in Connecticut, occasionally called to give me updates.  We determined that if we all beat it back home Sunday morning we should be fine.  Some planned to go home Saturday night.  But even though trouble was heading our way, we didn’t let it stop us from having a fantastic time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had DELICIOUS meals and yummy treats
throughout the retreat!

Here’s a little design I created for the attendees.
The project kits were packaged in coffins--Mwah-ha-ha!

 

 

 

What a great retreat!!  I wish we never had to go home!!   But there was Storm Sandy to contend with....and wow, the East Coast really got slammed in October 2012. 

Some of the attendees were from very hard-hit areas in NJ and NY.  I emailed everyone after the retreat and asked them to check in to let us all know they were okay.  Because so many lost power it took awhile for everyone to respond.  One stitcher was without power for about 10 days.  The lack of heat was the worst experience for some.  Ellen wrote that she was fine and stitching by lantern light!  Rhonda was able to sneak an early flight back to OR, but Dawn was stuck for a couple days in Connecticut before she was able to return to FL.  Poor, poor Dawn.  She was forced to just sit and stitch for 2 days at my house!!  LOL!  Everyone was accounted for without serious damage to their homes.  It could have been much worse, as we know. 

And now, stitchers -- I leave you with two lovely photos to contemplate.  Happy Stitching!

~ Sue

 

 

Sue stitching Gangnam Style

Peggy & Abby

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