Woodlawn Needlework Show

As some of you may know, the Woodlawn Plantation in Alexandria, Virginia is the site of an annual needlework show. A local group, Nellie's Needlers, organizes the show each March. Although I have submitted pieces in each of the last three years, I have only been able to attend once in that time. Now that my daughter conveniently goes to college in DC, I decided that taking her back to school after spring break would be a perfect time to see the show and enjoy a weekend break. So we set off much earlier on a Saturday morning than my daughter would have liked. We had only one small glitch on the trip when someone misread the directions, which was fixed by using the GPS on her iPhone and we arrived safely. (Note to self: Must stop being so cheap and get a smartphone.) My daughter is not a needleworker, so she wasn't impressed by the show. She did enjoy looking at the furniture in the house. I, on the other hand, was enthralled by all the lovely stitching and so happy to see that some members of my sampler guild had won ribbons. There were some lovely over-one pieces done by a male stitcher and I cast my "viewer's choice" ballot for one of those. Two large charts had been finished into books--one of Carriage House Samplings alphabet charts and one of Mary Beale's Days of Advent chart. Not sure that is how I would want to display my work, but it was an interesting finishing idea. There is a whole room for Christmas, one for children's things (including some smocked dresses) and another for needlepoint. All of it made me want to sit down and start stitching right away! We took advantage of the lunch served by Nellie's Needlers and both of us recommend the quiche. I understand that their lemon tart is wonderful, but we decided to save room for dessert later that evening in Old Town Alexandria.

After the Woodlawn show, we went over to the local needlework shop, In Stitches. My daughter waited in the car while I looked at the needlepoint canvases, and then we headed to the hotel. Immediately upon reaching our room, she laid down and took a nap. What is with these kids? I couldn't get any of my three to continue their afternoon naps beyond the age of 2 1/2 and now they are snoozing any chance they get! I finally roused her and we took the hotel's shuttle to Old Town. The shuttle let us off about 10 blocks from the restaurant where we had dinner reservations so we got to stroll down most of the shopping district. Luckily, the weather was gorgeous and it was a very pleasant evening. Good thing we didn't eat dessert at lunch as the white chocolate raspberry bread pudding we shared at dinner was fabulous! I love bread pudding although I never make it at home. My daughter "discovered" the dessert at her cafeteria and now she loves it, too.

On the way back to my daughter's college the next morning, we agreed that Woodlawn should be an annual event for us and that we'll explore a new DC neighborhood each year. We've already decided that Georgetown will be next. I can't wait!