Nordic Retreat Part Two

The Nordic Needle retreat was filled with fun times and classes.  The two classes I took were wonderful.  The first is a Wessex Needle Book taught by Gail Graham from Bermuda.  Gail is very organized and is full of information.  I never go away from her classes wondering what to do next.

Wessex is worked by layering stitches and colors on top of each other.  In this needlebook the dark teal fly stitch was worked first, the medium teal fly stitch over that, then the yellow eyelets, and finally the green straight stitches and fly stitches.  It is framed by the dark teal wave stitch.

My other class was in Punto Antico and was taught by Kathryn Drummond of Gingerbread Girl Designs.  She has a series of ornaments named for different flavors of gelati. (Yum!)   This one is Gelati al Cioccolato.  Punto Antico is quite different from Wessex.  There are a lot of bullion knots, which is something I haven't done a lot.  I'm learning them very quickly with this design.  There is also cutting and needleweaving.  Now that I can do!  I haven't had a chance to finish the ornament, but here is what I have done so far:

We are given lots of goodies at the retreat.  Roz puts a lot of work into soliciting donations from companies and designers.  There are table gifts at every meal and each and every attendee gets a door prize as well as a goodie bag upon arrival.  We spend a lot of time stitching and socializing.  I love being around other stitches who understand what I'm doing and why I am doing it!

It is a very good thing I had two beds in my hotel room!

Part of the goodies were purchased, and part are gifts.  They are all fantastic!  Like so many others I have way more than I can stitch in one lifetime, and yet I get more.  I think I need to live to be 300!