Trip to Utah and the Shepherd's Bush retreat

Yes, I'm finally posting pictures from my trip to the Shepherd's Bush stitching retreat in Utah. The trip to Utah was the end of September. Since then, last week, I also have attended the PALS stitching retreat in Myrtle Beach. I have lots of photos to share, but this post will be dedicated to the trip to Utah and the Shepherd's Bush retreat.

I traveled to the retreat with 2 of my stitching buddies from my LNS. After arriving in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, we drove to Ogden, home of Shepherd's Bush. One street over from Shepherd's Bush was a knitting store we visited. On that street, it was Main Street if I'm remembering correctly, they had several painted horse statues. Here are pictures of 4 of them:









Aren't they COOL.

Here is the photo taken from my hotel window in Odgen:



On Thursday, we drove from Odgen to Park City. Park City is where the stitching retreat was held. The directions we were given to travel from Odgen to Park City took us on a longer route, but it was a wonderful scenic route. Here is a view from the car as we traveled west from Odgen:



Park City is where some of the 2002 Winter Olympic events were held, one of which was the ski jump. As you enter Park City area from the interstate, you pass right by the ski jumps:



We drove up into the Olympic Park area where the ski jump is. The bobsled and luge runs were also there. Apparently you can ride down the bobsled and luge runs (on wheels I assume when there is no snow) on certain days of the week (we weren't there on those days). :-)

The stitching retreat is held at The Canyons resort. The entire area of Park City is big-time ski resort area. Historic downtown Park City is very cute, all kinds of shops and restaurants. We ate lunch at a restaurant in historic downtown Park City called Zoom. Zoom is owned by Robert Redford and we were told he is there during Sundance. Alas, he was not there while we were there. Here is a photo from the balcony of my room at The Canyons resort:



Now, on to pictures of what I bought at Shepherd's Bush and of the projects from the stitching retreat.

The first 2 photos are what I bought at Shepherd's Bush:





Note: The little red "Dash" project in lower right corner has been stitched, I stitched it while at the retreat. I just need to mount it into the included tin.

On Thursday night of the retreat, they have what they call "Shared Stitches". Everyone gathers together and receives a project. All of the designers/teachers at the retreat pitch in parts of this project. The project on the left in the next photo was the "Shared Stitches" project. The 2 pictures show the design for the front and the back of the project:



The scissor fob kit to the right of the above photo was the Shepherd's Bush scissor fob for the 2008 Stitching Retreat. I picked it up at the "store" at the retreat, forgot to include it in the earlier photos of things I bought.

My class on Friday was with Charland Designs. Here is photo of the class project. We received all supplies needed to stitch and finish the project:



Friday night we gathered for a presentation from Jacqueline Holdsworth from England. She shared stories and photos from the Ackworth Quaker Sampler Collection. We also received a small project from her, pictured here:



On Saturday, there were 2 classes. First was the Shepherd's Bush class. Here is photo of Shepherd Bush class project:



Notice the small felt scissor fob on the left. That was Teri's special project for us. From what I've heard, Teri of Shepherd's Bush loves to give people a quick and easy project, one that you can finish very fast, so you can at least walk away with one completed project. The flowers and hearts were already cut, we just had to cut out the leaves, thread a needed with thread and add the layers, run the needle through a few times and .... done, a finished project. It's really cute.

Saturday afternoon was Blackbird Designs class. Here is photo of the Blackbird Designs class project:



The class time was spent in painting, waxing, and fabric lining the box. I wasn't too keen on having the painted box in my luggage the next day, so I watched and helped others and will paint, wax and fabric line my box at home.

Last, but not least, a very cool part of the retreat was an ever growing charm bracelet. When we met for the "Shared Stitches" project on Thursday night, we were given a charm bracelet and a charm. Then every time we attended something, our classes, the presentation by Jacqueline Holdsworth, etc, we received another charm or two. We also received a necklace with a pendant on the banquet night. Here is a photo of my bracelet, all the charms I received, and my necklace:



That's it for the Shepherd's Bush Retreat. I took many photos of the mountains around Ogden and Park City. And I have a few photos from the classes, but I figured I've flooded you with enough photos for one post.

I'll give everyone a few days to enjoy my pictures from my adventure to Utah, while I'm working on photos from the PALS retreat last week in Myrtle Beach.