I traveled 1100 miles.......

to meet some of my friends. Was is worth it???? Yep, sure was! This past weekend was the Stitching Jubilee in Lancaster PA. I left snowy MI on Thursday, that's right SNOW mid October!!! Well snow turned into rain and it didn't stop raining until Sunday morning!! I can't remember the last time I had seen non-stop rain for 3 days. Anyway, back to the trip. I traveled 260 miles to meet Natalie and start our travels together the rest of the 300 miles. It really was like we had met before. She was just like she seemed online. We got to Lancaster and the Bed and Breakfast around 7 pm and we met up with Lyne and Paula. Those 3 had gotten together last year, so I was the "newbie". We went out to eat and talked the night away! We came back to the Bed and Breakfast since I was supplying the wine for the evening!!! Thanks to Carl and his hobby. We had a wonderful time with "show and tell". The things that everyone brought looked just awesome. So much better in real life. The surprise reaction I had showing my Fruit and Cheese finish is that everyone thought it was so small!!!! I guess when I get it framed I'll have to hold it to get some perspective. Natalie had her MTM framed by Jill Rensel (who did my TTM) and UPS had delivered it 5 minutes before I arrived.This just shows how HUGE my piece is...but it really looks good on my wall! There was lots of ohhing and ahhhing going on. I was then able to give them my gifts I had been working on (and yes Lori you will get one too!) These were the surprise scissor keeps that I had hinted to on earlier posts. You can see the other 2 and the other sides in my 2009 finishes albumThey are all different fabric and floss colors appropriate for the person.

Friday was Jubilee day. We got there in the morning and headed to the PTP booth first. That material just flies off the table and if you are looking for something particular and a certain count and size, you better get your hot little hands on it. I got to meet Marilyn and Patty from the PTP yahoo group and store. It's so nice to put faces with names! Then we went to The Loose Thread Stitcher's booth and filmed part of a commercial for them. We each were interviewed individually and then as a group. Keep posted on where this will turn up! I'm anxious to see all the other interviews! We could then relax (the hard part over) and enjoy leisurely strolling from booth to booth. I fortunately have several LNS within a couple hours of me, so this was sort of like the shop hop, but under one roof. I did get to see LOTS of models stitched up and also had the pleasure of shopping friends to help point out things I may have missed. It was fun seeing the buying frenzy going on. It was happening so fast, I had to have a recap of what everyone bought when we got back. At the Jubilee Carolyn B and I finally met and made plans to meet for dinner.
Friday night was dinner at an Amish restaurant for a buffet for $10. Who can beat that????? It was great to meet Carolyn and she fit right in with all of us. The talk at the dinner table was non-stop...besides several trips to the buffet for dinner and desserts!!! She went back to the B& B with us for more show and tell. She had to drive back downtown, so no wine for her. But she did get my parting gifts, toothpaste accessories!
On Saturday we took a drive, Lyne knows the area well, so we got a little tour of the Amish area and we went shopping (in the rain) to lots of yummy places, bakeries, canning, cheese and meats.....etc etc. In the afternoon we had the pleasure of meeting one more friend who drove down for the day and had more show and tell. Lori had just finished a box the night before and it was awesome!!! Her finishing was indescribable. Meeting all these people for the first time really didn't feel like it. We all really clicked and seemed like we had known each other forever!
We did get a little stitching in....too much chatting and wine...but I finished off the 3rd word in Paula's RR and was able to hand it to Natalie instead of mailing. How cool is that? There were some frogs in the room. But they didn't attack me. The B & B had a very pretty garden, pond, gazebo area. But with all the rain we didn't get to take advantage of it, or take any photos!!!
We packed up the car on Sunday (finally the rain had stopped) said our goodbyes and hit the road! On the way back I was able to get some photos of the beautiful fall colors in the mountains and the SNOW that had fallen sometime over the weekend. Everyone returned home safely and we are all looking forward to getting together again.