More VS Retreat, Part 5

This retreat report is growing in length, but I thought by breaking it up and keeping it a fairly quick read, your mind wouldn't freeze up at the sight of so much text.

A special part of a VS retreat is lunch at the Victoria Sampler studio, which is in the lower level of Thea's home. The view from the house is really amazing and I cannot understand how she can be such a prolific designer with so much beauty at her windows. I'd just sit and gaze for hours!! Obviously, the beauty of the water, the islands, and the mountains beyond inspire Thea to create beauty of her own that we stitchers can then share in.


Inside the studio, Cathy Jean had set out so many wonderful finished and almost finished VS designs for all of us to get an up-close look. I've seen many of these pieces several times, but could still gaze at them for hours and never grow weary. :)



There was stitching everywhere! Not only in the studio and the rooms adjacent, but upstairs in Thea's living area, lining the hallway, in the stairway, on shelves - so many things to see and wonder over.

Of course, we had opportunity to buy VS designs while we were at the studio and I snapped up Mystic Needle Smalls (a former retreat design, not yet released), Where Stitchers Gather, another retreat design recently released, and Heirloom Nativity Sampler.

Too soon it was time to leave. But we did persuade the bus driver to drop off most of us downtown near - The Button & Needlework Boutique, of course!

After shopping, we regrouped back at the hotel, had dinner at the Day's Inn, then headed back to our stitching room for an evening of working on our Mermaid design, or something else we may have brought along. Blissful