Woodlawn Needlework Exhibition 2010

This morning, my friend Carolyn and I trudged out into the fourth day of rain to travel the one hour it takes to get to the historic Woodlawn Estate near Mt. Vernon in Virginia. The Woodlawn estate was originally part of George Washington's Mount Vernon before he gifted 2,000 acres to his niece for her wedding.

Every year, Woodlawn holds a needlework exhibition. And this year, for us, was a particularly special year.


This year our Japanese embroidery teacher, Tonie Evans, had coordinated the submission of 37 Japanese Embroidery pieces to be on display all at one time. Carolyn had entered four pieces and I had entered two. The whole purpose of "blitzing" the show this year with Japanese embroidery was for exposure.

And I can't tell you how wonderful a feeling it was to walk into the room and see all of that Japanese embroidery on display all at the same time. It was great! And, what made it even better, was to listen to all of the appreciative comments of those who had come to see...and to hear the tour guides refer to the room with all the Japanese embroidery as the "WOW" Room!

I wasn't allowed to take any pictures but you can see the entire gallery of Japanese embroidery submissions here on Flickr.

And you can see all the first, second and third place winners for the entire exhibit in this gallery here. The exhibit runs through the end of March.

Afterwards, Carolyn and I went to Old Town Alexandria for lunch only to find that the Potomac River had crested its banks and flooded the lower streets...


The River looked mighty and swollen after so many days of rain.


Thanks for a great day Carolyn!


And thanks to Woodlawn, Nelly's Needlers (who sponsor the event every year) and my teacher, Tonie Evans for all the inspiration!