Spring Meet Up

It was just about spring for our meet up - 30th May is the latest we've ever held the Needlecraft Haven Get Together. It was another great day, it is always so nice to meet in person and have a day dedicated to stitching.

The venue this time was our Scout Headquarters - ironic really as this is where I held the first meet ups I organised with Angie - I think the first one was 2004 !! It's a good sized room, great light for stitching. It was lovely to be able to sit around one big table and have free use of the kitchen for making tea/coffee.

Julie, Lindsay and Lynn drove over (Lynn and her hubby made it a weekend and stayed overnight locally). The HQ is not far from the town centre so it was easy to pick up Jane, Angi and Gill who came by train (although Angi and Gill had a delayed arrival).

clockwise from empty chair
Gill, Angi, Jane, Julie, Lynn & Lindsay

It was also good to have more room to show our work - I took quite a few finishes that I have not actually made into anything, and looking at them (and more in the cupboard) I really should. Everyone's work is so lovely, we are certainly a talented bunch. It was interesting to see all the different finishes for the monthly ornaments too.

My stitching that still needs making up

My french Marquoir still needs framing too

Gill's gorgeous work

Julie's amazing variety of craft work 

Lindsay's stitching and beautiful bead work

Angi's gorgeous work including her 'Bee' from
her Autumn Meet Up Goody Bag 

As always we had a Goody Bag exchange - this time the theme was the Rainbow. We had to chose one colour from the rainbow and all the items in the bag had to be that colour. The contents of the bag can be stitchy and non-stitchy with a minimum value of £5. It seemed an easy theme but surprisingly tricky for some colours. We had three yellow bags, two red and one green.

I chose yellow and many of the items came from my stash or I found as sale/offer bargains in town. I did initally think pink but haha that's not a rainbow colour although it is in the song;

red and yellow and pink and green, 

orange and purple and blue

I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow

Sing a rainbow too

I'm sure you know it but if you don't click here to enjoy !!That song will stay in your head now - but it's a nice one :) Jane picked my yellow bag and I picked Lindsay's green bag - both picked at random using my cupcake raffle. I tried to bake multi-coloured cakes this year but only baking a small number of cakes did not give me much mixture to divide and colour - the taste was good which is all that matters really !

Goody bags (with their raffle tickets)

Cupcake raffle - tickets are under each cake,
you chose a cake and get the corresponding
ticketed goody bag 

My yellow goody bag picked by Jane

Lindsay's green goody bag that I picked

The book exchange is always fun too - the trouble is I always want to read the one I've bought. I have plenty on my shelves that I have yet to read but don't want to give them until I've read them. I think I need to add reading time into my rotation or daily routine. I try to read in bed, morning or night but I either fall asleep or feel stiff; this needs serious thought !

Book Exchange - all wrapped

My book from Lindsay

Needlecraft Haven is a lovely forum to chat on - everyone is friendly and so much craft work to share. As it's a Yuku forum it does have ads which can be annoying. Members do donate to make the forum ad free ($6 minimum which covers 1 month). At each meet up we have a raffle to help. Everyone brings small raffle prizes and the money taken pays for ad free months - this time we raised enough for 5 months ad free - quite good for just 7 of us, and of course we all had raffle prizes to take home!

I did some stitching at the meet up - I started my second ornament for the church tree. It's an online freebie from Kissy Cross on Pinterest. I'm just doing the bauble, she has some gorgeous designs.

Joy ornament number 2 

On  personal note the meds have improved my walking, I'm certainly not so slow and even danced twice at a party on Saturday night. I am still slow at stitching and feel a bit woozy from taking the meds but it's getting better each day. Yesterday we went to Leicester to the King Richard III's visitor centre as it was my Mum's birthday and I didn't need to hold onto Hubby to walk around. This feels really good, especially as we're off to France on Friday for 10 days holiday.

And a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated to my Cake Bake - either in person or online. The online raffle is now closed and the name picked to win the LHN Baked Goods chart was .... Mary !! I'll post the chart to you soon :) The total raised has now reached nearly £300 which is incredible - thank you x x