Mr. M and I made the trip down to Alexandria, VA on Friday.  We loaded up the intrepid Mazda 3 with 17 (count ’em) pieces from our Chapter! Huge thanks to Diane, Sue C., Ellen, Andrea, Joan, Sue R., Marge, Rosie, Cathryn, and Barbara for contributing to this wonderful exhibit. And, if those weren’t enough, we stopped in Mt. Laurel to meet up with Melita whose pieces hitched a ride with us. In all, NJNA is represented by 19 pieces at the Woodlawn Needlework Exhibit this year! Woo Hoo!

For those of you who will make the trip to the exhibit in March – and I encourage you all to do so – we are #400 to 418 in the program.

We stopped in Stevenson, MD at Hillside Needlepoint. They have greatly expanded both the canvases and the threads that they carry. I picked up quite a bit of thread (I’m kitting another new project) as well as a small canvas. As I was checking out I was asked if I had been there before as I would already be in the system (and of course I had been). Mr. M started rolling his eyes when he heard Leslie mention that she knew my name through Facebook posts! Needlework is such a wonderful welcoming community.

Lunch was at Ellicott Mills Brewing in nearby (you guessed it) Ellicott City. This is one of Mr. M’s favorites for the beer and the food is really great.

The drop-off this morning went fairly smoothly although the ladies checking in the pieces did not know I had pre-arranged the time. But, as usual, they quickly got it sorted out and we were checked in with their usual efficiency. Once again NJNA was thanked profusely for our support of the exhibition and our pieces garnered lots of “oohs” and “aahs”.

Fortunately, we had the car unloaded before the torrential rains started. The local news reported that the rains were needed but there are areas that could see 2 to 4 inches over the weekend! Given the rain we did not make our usual trip into DC as we were not about to walk around during a monsoon. Instead I had a leisurely shop at In Stitches, near to Woodlawn. I added to the threads needed for my project and resisted with great difficulty purchasing any more projects. We then traveled up to Bethesda to have lunch at Rock Bottom and a quick visit to The Point of It All.

By then I was itching to get back to the room and work on some stitching so we spent the rest of the afternoon watching Olympic curling, which I am enjoying tremendously. I’m thinking of taking up the sport in retirement!

Tonight we’ll watch more Olympics and I’ll hopefully finish up Shell Game. Tomorrow will be the ride back to New Jersey.

And, for those who might be curious, my latest project to be started (along with the multitude already in the works) is Alice Peterson’s Winter Wonderland with a stitch guide by Laura Taylor. My wonderful friends Randi and Renee at Gone Stitching picked up the canvas for me at the TNNA in Las Vegas and I was able to get Laura’s stitch guide from Aristeia Needlepoint in Santa Monica.

Happy Stitching!

Linda