Pictured is the gorgeous bag which Paola made for me and gave me for my )..  It's not just the gorgeous stitching that makes this so wonderful and beautiful, but the finishing as well.  The entire bag was done completely by hand, inside and out.  (now you know I'd have used that darn sewing machine at some point)  The lining is so perfectly done you'd swear it was done by machine...not a stitch can be seen, just immaculately finished.  Thank you so much Paola, but really the greatest gift was having you here for my birthday.  We don't get to see a lot of you, but it sure is wonderful to see you at least once a year.  I know  you came over for the Betsy Morgan class but in my mind you came to see me. (let me live in my own little dream world....I like it here and people know me).   And to add a little something extra, Paola always puts a Greeneleaf envelope inside my gifts which has the scent of roses which I love.  It smells so wonderful.  Everytime I walk into my stitch room I get a whiff of it and I always think of Paola.  After seeing what Stasi and Paola stitched for me it's embarrassing for me to even talk about my own stitching.  The shop has been getting patterns in right and left and I've grabbed a few that I like and when I get home I've very enthusiastic, but then I start pulling out all the pieces out of the bags surrounding the sofa and depression sinks in as I've started too many and haven't finished anything but a Pine Mountain pillow for the shop.  One of my main problems seems to be I like everything and want to start everything I've got.  I finally gave myself a good lecture and decided to finish the Blackbird piece from the Prim Society Club.  I am almost done, just border left but....I've already received the next kit from them so I'm behind (this started out so well...I think getting a sampler that wasn't a small has thrown me off).  Anyway, another night or two and I should have this done and on the way to the framers.  I've also been working on the Drawn Thread Summer Jumble.  As usual I've made several changes in colors and now I'm  waffling on my choices, so that went into a bag to make a decision later.  Then the Shepherd's Bush Fold...well I ran out of a color (not their fault mine....I stitch using a continental stitch... I come from a needlepoint background- and it uses twice the amount of thread...it covers the back of the piece completely.  I usually make sure I have plenty of extra fibers before starting a project, but in this case I just failed to follow my own rules.  Now I have to rip out a lot of the background as the fibers I have don't match the original color completely.  UGH!  So that's just sitting there.