More VS Cyberstitcher Fun

The saga continues:
Next morning, Saturday, Thea and Connie had an early breakfast at the Marriott across the street. They've been great friends for quite a few years now, so it was lovely for them to have some private catch up time. And they were kind to bring me a pastry back to go with the coffee I had brewed for myself. About 10 a.m. we hopped into my Expedition to meet the other three VSCers at the Cross Stitch Corner. There I met for the first time Nancy from Redmond, Jo-Celle from Aberdeen, and Kathryn from Surrey, B.C. After initial hugs and greetings all round, we kinda split up and began shopping, and visiting, visiting and shopping, etc. I found a cute design in the markdown basket. On the fiber rack, I found some beautiful Gloriana silk,
non-stranded, that I have a hankering to use for a beautiful smocked dress one day. They also had some Lakeside Linen which I'd never seen in person before! We all kept going round and round, seeing something new each time. Pat, the shop owner, gave us a generous group discount, so of course, we had to go round again, lol! CSC is such a nice little shop with excellent, friendly staff and will sadly be ending business in a couple of months.

Threadneedle Street and Issaquah were calling us to come visit and shop. Oh boy! I knew what I wanted to spend time looking at - the embroidery books. Well, Thea was attracted to that shelf too and there were times when we were fighting over who would get to buy particular books - very good-naturedly, of course, lol! The owner assured us that she had other copies, so we didn't need to worry about giving up a choice book. I settled on two beauties (stash report coming) and Thea went home with several.

After all that shopping, we were all feeling very hungry! I'd eaten at the Coho Cafe on previous trips so that's where we went. Nice place, and so conducive to conversation! We could have stayed there all day talking, but eventually the wood chairs got a little hard on the backsides, so we took a stroll across the parking lot to visit Pacific Fabrics and fawn over all the lovelies there.

What do all good needleworkers need after lunch and stash enhancement? Chocolate, of course!
Right around the corner from the needlework shop is Boehm's Chocolates, a favorite attraction in the area. This little chocolate factory began production many years ago by a little Austrian fellow who had his shop down below and lived up above. They have tours (during the summer) of the production kitchen, but this time of year you can gaze through the windows and read the guide posted. There is also a lovely garden next to the shop and if you follow the path, you will find a charming little chapel as Mr. Boehm was a very religious man. In fact, just before we arrived, a wedding had taken place there! So it was a very interesting stop, as well as satisfying to our chocolate cravings.

We were all about done in with all this activity, so headed back to our motel rooms, gathering in Connie and my room for more discussion and visiting. Connie had asked me to bring my smocking pleater over as she wanted some inserts pleated for a few projects she has in mind, so while all the others were visiting, Connie and I were cutting lengths of fabric, rolling it onto the dowel and running it through the pleater. The other ladies had never seen such a contraption before and were very interested in what we were doing. This picture is from my project last fall, but shows my pleater and some fabric being run through the needles and gathered up onto threads.

Hunger pangs soon hit us again, so once again we all piled into my Expedition and drove to Bellevue Square mall and attempted to eat at the Cheesecake Factory - but the place was packed. Red Robin was nearby and with only a short wait, we were seated and choosing our meal.
Here we are, from left to right: Nancy, me, Connie, Thea, Jo-Celle, and Kathryn.
Much too soon, it was time to go back to the motel as Thea had to catch the Clipper early the next morning. So we said our good-byes to Thea, with lots of hugs and assurances that we were definitely doing this again! Of course, Connie and I couldn't go to sleep right away and chatted far later than we should have.

Sunday morning came far too early for Connie, who was driving Thea down to the pier! But she gladly arose and got ready for the day, while I snuggled back down under the blankets for a little more sleep. When she got back I was ready and the five of us went over to the Marriott for breakfast. Jo-Celle was the next to leave as she was meeting her son for church up in Bothell, then Kathryn left to face her ordeal at the Canadian border (which ended up being no ordeal at all), and Nancy had a short drive back to her family. Connie and I checked out of the motel, then headed back to downtown Bellevue for more shopping. She had a few hours to kill before she needed to pick up her parents at the airport, and I had the whole day free. I'd been wanting to visit The Container Store, so off we went!

This place is overwhelming! But I'm a sucker for organization and containers so I thoroughly enjoyed the offerings of each and every aisle in the store. And I came out with only a few treasures: some drawer dividers and a cool write-on/wipe off clear calendar. Next we enjoyed the offerings of The Paper Source where Connie was delighted to find some wonderful silk ribbon. In need of another break, we found Tully's Coffee where we sunk into comfy lounge chairs next to the fireplace, sipped our coffee and had a little snack. It's hard to imagine life being much better than that, don't you think?

Well, all good things come to an end and so did that wonderful weekend. I returned home to find my children all well, and house at least as clean as I left it. DD Melanie did a great job managing while I was gone. So now we can start to consider our calendars to plan for the next great VS Cyberstitcher Gathering!