What I Did Last Weekend
I guess it's time I showed you a bit more about what I did last weekend -- Thursday through Sunday, actually. I flew to beautiful Victoria, B.C. for a weekend of stitching, accented by chocolate (!), as one of 24 participants in the twice-yearly Victoria Sampler Retreat. This fall's project was a wee Gingerbread House that is actually a stitcher's box. The roof becomes a needlebook, and the chimney, a pin cushion! Inside, there will be a biscornu (aka 'tuffet') and a fob for one's scissors. The candy is represented by beads of various bright colours and sizes; the snow/icing is all white silk mori and/or perle cotton. The whole thing is tiny and exquisite -- and not usually something I'd tackle, but I wanted the experience, all of it -- the get-away, the Company of Women, a visit to Victoria where I hadn't been in years...
After I checked in Thursday afternoon at the Harbour Towers, I grabbed my purse and went out to explore. I walked up past the Empress -- still a Grande Dame of a hotel! -- and up Government Street, where I marvelled at both changes and spots I remembered. I dropped in to Murchie's for a mug of dark roast, and a yummy frosted biscotti; I browsed thoroughly through Munro's Books, I drooled over the wares in the Irish Linen shoppe. I arrived back at the hotel in time for our "Meet and Greet", held up in 1207, one of the penthouse-like rooms that was also our classroom for the next day.
There were women gathered from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Washington State, Oregon, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and a multitude of other amazingly-far-away places. Some of them come every year, at least once. Some come twice -- it is their treat to themselves. I met my room-mate, B, from just outside Vancouver, B.C. -- a terrific gal with 2 grown kids who is an excellent stitcher -- and typically, we talked (far) too late into the night...
Nonetheless, I was up early enough Friday to have a good breakfast and a 45-minute walk around the same route as Thursday. This time, however, I scouted out the location of the Button and Needlework Boutique, one of the weekend's sponsors, reputed to be an absolutely delicious place to shop.
I guess it's time I showed you a bit more about what I did last weekend -- Thursday through Sunday, actually. I flew to beautiful Victoria, B.C. for a weekend of stitching, accented by chocolate (!), as one of 24 participants in the twice-yearly Victoria Sampler Retreat. This fall's project was a wee Gingerbread House that is actually a stitcher's box. The roof becomes a needlebook, and the chimney, a pin cushion! Inside, there will be a biscornu (aka 'tuffet') and a fob for one's scissors. The candy is represented by beads of various bright colours and sizes; the snow/icing is all white silk mori and/or perle cotton. The whole thing is tiny and exquisite -- and not usually something I'd tackle, but I wanted the experience, all of it -- the get-away, the Company of Women, a visit to Victoria where I hadn't been in years...
After I checked in Thursday afternoon at the Harbour Towers, I grabbed my purse and went out to explore. I walked up past the Empress -- still a Grande Dame of a hotel! -- and up Government Street, where I marvelled at both changes and spots I remembered. I dropped in to Murchie's for a mug of dark roast, and a yummy frosted biscotti; I browsed thoroughly through Munro's Books, I drooled over the wares in the Irish Linen shoppe. I arrived back at the hotel in time for our "Meet and Greet", held up in 1207, one of the penthouse-like rooms that was also our classroom for the next day.
There were women gathered from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Washington State, Oregon, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and a multitude of other amazingly-far-away places. Some of them come every year, at least once. Some come twice -- it is their treat to themselves. I met my room-mate, B, from just outside Vancouver, B.C. -- a terrific gal with 2 grown kids who is an excellent stitcher -- and typically, we talked (far) too late into the night...
Nonetheless, I was up early enough Friday to have a good breakfast and a 45-minute walk around the same route as Thursday. This time, however, I scouted out the location of the Button and Needlework Boutique, one of the weekend's sponsors, reputed to be an absolutely delicious place to shop.
TO BE CONTINUED...
No comments:
Post a Comment