Crazed stitch ladies in NY!

Well, not crazy in a BAD sort of way! Crazy in a "can't find enough hours in the day to cross stitch" sort of way. But these creative ladies were really giving it a try when we gathered last weekend for their annual retreat.

I arrived in sunny Syracuse in upstate NY by lunchtime on Friday, after a very early departure from Ta-town. I met Jan, the shopowner of A Stitcher's Garden at the hotel, and the adventure began. Jan and her staff set up a small boutique store in a hotel room, right down the hall from our sunny gathering room. By dinner time, we had 20+ happy ladies in the room, setting up their own little stitch niches for the busy weekend ahead.

One added bonus for this weekend was our other designer, Lori Markovic from La-D-Da! She flew in from Wisconsin and we had a great time together. Photo above shows Lori (left) and shopowner Jan (right) standing in front of her beautiful shop, which is located in a cool restored barn.

We had a busy weekend with lots of projects, my little L*K powerpoint show all about the needlework biz, good food and lots of laughter and fun. After dinner on Saturday, we took a field trip to Jan's shop. Isn't the garden entrance (above) charming?

I admired her unique display of in-stock frames, all lined up to look like a bookcase. That's a lot of small frames!

Now I'm back in the office in Wichita, catching up on blogging and everything else. While I was gone, everything outdoors magically got a little "spring-ier" than before, like this patch of tulips in my front yard - love them!!!