OMG...what could go wrong?

Keep your fingers crossed in hopes Sara does not go postal this morning while dealing with the post office.  They introduced a new system for mail orders in which you put no postage on your packages, and the post office will deduct the postage from your account.  So she has her mail orders ready to go this morning and this will be the first time she's trying the new system.  But she's also ready to do battle with the postman in Salty Yarns.  I mean really, what could go wrong with this system.   I'll try to keep you posted or open an account for you to help me bail her out of jail.  In stitching news I finished all embellishment of Patriotic Poppies and will have it up on the blog as soon as the pillow is completed.  Yea!!! New start ahead.  I went through all my WIP and will pick out one to work on along with a brand new piece, as soon as I get home.  It's so exciting, isn't it, when you go through stash and see all the charts you loved, and so hard to pick just one (which is part of my sickness), but I shall give it the old college try.  I'm thinking Halloween....if I start now I'll be sure to have it done.  I'm also working on a piece along with Stasi and Debbie.  I don't know how far along they are, but I started it a couple of weeks ago, worked on it for about 2 hrs and put it in a bag and forgot about it.  I unearthed it yesterday, recalled that we were suppose to have the lid done by July 31st, so I'm back on it again.  I'm almost half way done the lid (do you hear me Debbie and Stasi) and feel certain I can keep up with this time line.  Then yesterday I ordered the special kit from Down Sunshine Lane.  If you haven't seen it, they have it under new on the website and since it's beachy and from Hands on Design, I just had to have it.  So it's on it's way to my house....whoppee!  Beth Jernigan was in the shop this week and we were talking about Theresa Baird's "Cottage by the Sea Sewing Set" and since we both love it and have it in our stash we were thinking about a stitch along for our Stitch 'n Bitch group.  Well, I don't have to worry about that since we don't meet in the summer, but I'm wondering how many challenges I can handle along with shop models.  God, I'm not getting any younger and I'm going to bed earlier, and of course there is the IPad situation I'm dealing with....I'm not sure I can handle this.  Well, since I'm suppose to be working on payroll this morning in the office, I best get to it.  Have a great weekend, hopefully with some stitching thrown in and I'll talk to you later.

Summer has officially started in Salty Yarns....

Events are a thing of the past until September, the heat is turned on and we are, Thank God!, through senior month...  Our last round of classes went well.  As always Betsy Morgan is a treat and the stitchers were a good group with no drama and Paola was here from Luxenburg and brought her friend Molly from Indiana to join her so we had a good time.  Paola, as always, delighted our stitch group on Tuesday night with her show and tell.  Exquisite, both front and back.  Honestly you had to get up close and personal to see which side was which, she takes such care to finish her stitching on the back so no color runs into another color when ending her threads.  And her pieces this time were big pieces, as opposed to her smalls....unbelievable.  It is such inspiration for all of us...something to strive for...perfect stitching...and of course she worked on counts which defy the eyes...45, 48 and I believe a 52 might have snuck in.  While she didn't have smalls to show the group, I still had my beautiful box, a gift from Paola, to show and of course, it was gorgeous.  The Ohio Girls were down Monday and reminded me I hadn't blogged in a while so I thought I'd dash a message off just to let you know I'm still alive and breathing and stitching as much as I can.  Damn that IPad though...as much as I hate the time suck machine, there are times I just can't force myself off.  I now keep it in the bathroom to limit my time on it, only now that has taken the place of my reading...that's not a good thing.  But for now it is a necessity, until I learn to control my IPad urges.  On the stitching front I've stitched 3 of the Hands on Design "To the Beach Series" which I had a specific plan for and cut the material based on that plan, but when we got a new framer that plan went out the window.  Instead we decided to frame them in what we call "Boardwalk Frames" which come in green, grey, and blue.  The colors are muted just like the colors in the series, as if this series was made for this frame...so I had no choice, but it did create problems for framing.  While my finished version is framed right up to the design, I'm now doing the rest of the series on larger cuts so there will be a border between the design and the frame.  I still love the series and these three even if a border would perhaps look nicer.  "  As Sara loves to say, "it is what it is."

 

"Scatter Freedom" was actually stitched many years ago and sat on the cutting table at home in the Hinzeit frame since then, never really finished.  (Don't Ask!) But with the framer here I decided to redo the framing and here it is.  I've always loved the scatter series and have done a few of them.  But I can't take credit for getting this stitched in 2017...I can take credit for once again starting the clean up of my stitching room, a job which will never be completed I fear.

"There's No Place Like Home" was stitched by our Judy Brunclik for her grandson, Jason, who is currently laid up with a broken bone and now can't play.  So...cute, and perfect fabric for finishing.  It is a Sue Hillis design and Judy stitched it on 16 ct. linen.  There are other designs so far in this series, "Shoot the goal,"  "Play Football," and "Play Soccer!"

And finally I added this to the finished list last night after struggling with the finishing a little.  The long side goes together beautifully, but for some reason, after doing several drums with no problem, I'm experiencing difficulty in getting it done to my satisfaction.  But after redoing it a couple of times, I couldn't be happier.  This is "Lady Liberty" by Blackbird Designs.  I can't say enough about the design.  I love a design which is chuck full of stitching and this certainly fits the bill.  Stitched on 36 ct. Ligonier Latte linen and finished with Weeks wool on the bottom.  I filled it half way with lizard litter, which makes it really heavy and then topped it off with polyfill.  Blackbird filled theirs with sawdust which is also a good idea if you happen to have a boatload sitting around.  Love the colors, love the design, and now love the finish.

And the final picture is actually the key fob to the Lizzie Kate summer tote I showed before.  I had stitched the bee but screwed up the tassel, had to redo and then forgot to bring it back...well I carried it around in my tote before I realized it was still there last night.  So now the Summer Tote is officially finished....although I was going to do a scissor spool so perhaps it's not finished yet.  

 Normally I don't work on items for a specific season or day after the day or season has passed, but this year I'm still stitching Patriotic....love it!  I did a Brenda Gervais from last year or the year before that I was dying to stitch, but I'm having difficulties with the lack of additions on my part.  I love   dimensional add-ons...and while this design has wool flowers added I wasn't  happy with just that so I'm still figuring this out, although I had a great idea but am afraid when I try to execute it I'll run into trouble..but what the heck I'm going for it anyway.  After my "Lady Liberty" finishing struggle I wanted a fast stitch so I stitched "Land of Liberty" by Shepherds Bush and handed it over to West End Frames this morning.  He's quick so I should have it in this week.  In my bag right now are 3 projects....Stacy Nash's "Clementine" cat (which I have stitched the head at this point), Shepherd's Bush, "Liberty Notes", and "Little Blue House, " and of course I've got 10 of the Hands on Design's "To The Beach Series."  I'm ready to stitch 24/7, the only problem is I can't stay up like that anymore.  I find myself, after a day of stitching, getting tired around 11 p.m. and going to bed, but of course that means I'm up at 3:30 to visit my IPad and then I figure what the hell and pick up my stitching, turn on Acorn T.V., PBS, or Netflix and ready to go for another several hours.  I have given some thought to cleaning up the apartment, but after hanging a couple of items in the closet I take an endless break.  So I'm not getting far with that chore.  I did drive Solomon to skateboard camp in Pennsylvania so that was 12 hours of  driving up and back and 6 days later did the drive again to pick him up.  But we do for grandchildren that I'm not sure I'd do for my own...oh, wait a minute Sara went to computer camp when she was around 10 in Connecticut.  I take back my previous statement.  I finally learned how to use the GPS in the car so that was a wonderful surprise and on the way up my Sirius went out (and yes I paid the bill) which was a pain and when I got home and went online I had to be in the car to reboot it which meant I forgot it until the return trip.  Of course I was on the road before I remembered, but once I stopped I took care of it and may I say how easy that was.  I'm actually becoming proficient with this on line stuff....not that you could tell by my banking experience.  For the last couple of years I've done mobile banking with no problem.  This year they updated and you had to change your password,etc, and I have to call them once a week because I keep getting locked out so I've said the hell with that and I'm back to taking the deposit to the bank, which isn't really that much of a chore since I give it to Mary to take when she does the hotel banking, but it's the principle here that is driving me crazy.  (I'm not sure what principle I'm speaking of but I'll find one somewhere.)  Anyway, I've actually got to get to work since I have to work on the card rack (UGH!!! I'm in Sea Trader and no one else will do it.  Since I only work in here once or twice a month it means the rack is a red hot mess when I return.  An all day job and I hate it-along with all the other things I hate about working.)  But I need to get to it and get it done so have a great weekend.  I'll post again next week hopefully. 

Theodore has made his way to the shop....

Well, it's been a productive week, starting with the finishing of Theodore.  Yes, stitchers, I finally got off the sofa and just took the time to do the finish and I have to say, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  Knowing I can barely stitch a straight line with my machine, I decided to stitch the head front and back together by hand and continued until I got to the arm and then switched to the machine and sewed the sides using it.  I encountered no problems with this at this point.  According to the directions, you whip stitch the bottom together, however, I wanted Theodore to be a stand up so I cut a piece of mat board in an oval which would fit in the bottom and then proceded to cover it with the same fabric I used for the pocket on the back and bam, stand up done.  And the best part is he does stand up.  I filled him with the favorite, lizard litter and sewed the bottom on and sat him on the table and patted myself on the back.  However 2 hours later I noticed his neck wobbling.  In fact he was looking down at the table, as the litter had settled and now he couldn't hold his head up.  Crap!  I knew this was going too smoothly.  So after cursing for 1/2 hour and saying I wasn't going to do anything about it, I finally couldn't stand it any longer, took the bottom back off and filled his head

with the litter (I wanted his ears filled) and then I started with the fiberfil and filled his neck and part of his body, then put in more litter so he would not be top heavy and fall over and then filled the rest with poly fil.  Perfect or as near perfect as I'll ever get.  I absolutely adore him.  

\

The back shows the scissor pocket.  Stacy does give good directions for the finishing of this piece unless you decide to make changes (like turning it into a stand up)  and in that case you are on your own for the changes.  Can't wait to start Clementine.  Then I started the thimble bag which hangs on his shoulder.  This was machine sewn completely.  She whip stitched the sash together I assume so she didn't have to turn it, but I don't mind turning as long as I can get a safety pin in it.  Then I did the pouch....and here was the hardest part for me.  It's really very simple, you just put right sides together on 2 pieces of the blue fabric, and 2 pieces of the striped fabric and then put the four pieces together and sew it.  However, apparently the light or my eyes were a little tired and when I turned everything out, the bag was lined only I had put one of the lining pieces in backwards so it was a back and a front together and therefore one side of the lining is inside out.  I started to take it apart when I remembered I was so sure of this I had already cut the groves in the bottom so it would be impossible for me to redo this and so it would mean starting it over.  After redoing the cat, I was in no mood so I have the correct side facing out and the side with the lining trim backwards on the back.  When I went to show Sara the next day, it was hard to tell that the striped fabric rim on the back was on backwards so I think I got away with this so now it is residing in the showcase in the shop.  Can't wait for Clementine to join him.  I know he's lonely.   I think I mentioned before that while working on Theodore I was also working on other small projects, which now are also done.  I've done many of the Noteworthy Needle's pails so the "Teacher's Pail" became a must for our June display.  These are always fast and easy stitches as well as easy finishes.  It doesn't take a lot of floss so I use these type of projects to use left over floss I have so while I try to use what is suggested, if I have something close sitting beside me, well I use it so I don't have to go look.  Lazy I know but I do get to use up left overs sitting around me.

  I used Lady Dot chenille to finish off the band.  Fun piece.  Then Hinzeit's "I love America" which takes one night to stitch and then I popped it in a frame which we will have in the shop for sale in a week or two so that was fast and easy.  And of course, I lost the first liberty bell charm and had to take a second chart to get another one...and I felt it was too important to leave off.  Fun stitch and now I'm ready for July 4th, or at least I'm working towards it.

 And finally the last finish is Little House Needleworks, "Needlework ABC".  This chart comes with

the floss so I used what was given.  I did pop on beads for the centers of the flowers just because I like dimension on my pieces.  I cross stitched the thread on the spool, but then went over it with satin stitch.  Judy pointed out that I didn't replace the stitched  bee with my favorite bitty bee, but in this instance, while I pondered doing that, I felt it would be too out of character with the rest of the sampler.  (Yes, I do try to think about the embellishments before using them...I don't just willy nilly stick them on, although sometimes I do get carried away).   It will be finished in the Classic Colorworks white frame shown on the chart and since it hasn't arrived yet you are seeing just the finished piece unframed (obviously).  This is the piece I told you about earlier,  I was stitching just 3 letters a day and on the last two days of the stitch I stitched 4 letters per day.  Easy to attain goals...always a good thing.  Now, with all of that off the todo list I have to pick new projects. The most fun of all.  When I got to the shop guess what was waiting for me.  A sign from the stitching God that this should be my new project....the red tray for  the American Homestead project.

 So I'm off to get my fabric and fibers.  Talk to you again soon...although stitchers start arriving for our Betsy Morgan weekend tomorrow so not sure I'll be talking again before Monday....I just never know.  Can't wait, Paola and Stasi will both be here....Debbie was suppose to be here but she's become accident prone and did something to her ankle so she's on crutches and in pain.  Fingers crossed the pain subsides and she can get here anyway.  But we are sure to have fun this weekend.  So many stitchers in the house is a good thing.  Have a great weekend.

Theodore is here!

Finished the stitching on Theodore on Sunday, thought I'd do the finishing on Monday and instead I stitched all day...darn it, what is wrong with me.   Excuse the wrinkled linen, I didn't even have the strength to go iron it.

 The only day off this week and I wouldn't get off the sofa.  Binge watched "Bloodline" on Netflix and stitched.  So it wasn't a total loss....I did start another project from Hands on Designs, "To the Beach" series..."Surf Life".  It's a fun stitch, nothing too strenuous, cute design, and I'm somewhat behind on getting the series done.  I have the display all ready and just sitting there waiting.  In my defense, I've had a few things I felt had to get stitched.  I started "My Teacher's Pail" which is part of Noteworthy Needle's Rusty Pail series.  It's a fast stitch, and easy finish and I think these pails look cute in a display.  I've actually finished all but a couple of the pails at this point.  Anyway, I need that for display in the shop for June so I'm on a deadline.  Still working on Little House Needleworks "Needleworks ABC" and I'm right on track with that one.  I set a goal originally of 3 letters a  night and then I switch off to something else.  So I'm up to "S" so I'll have this one finished this week and Sara has already ordered the frame that it's shown in so while that will take a while I'm sure, I'll have it in the shop unframed first.  I should also finish the "Teacher's Pail" this week and the Beach Series piece.  3 projects, one week..that's not bad.  I have Clementine, Theodore's mate already to go into rotation, but that means I get to rummage through more stash...whoppee...best time ever!  Today at the shop it's a  bit slow since the weekend is over and most people are back at work.  The weather is a little gloomy, sprinkling periodically and no sun at all...ugh!  But I can always collect more stash, it's so dangerous to be left to my own devices here because Salty Yarns is too tempting to someone addicted to needlework.  I did bring my current projects with me in case I found I had nothing to do...so maybe I should get to it.  Will keep you posted..

Third times the charm...........

Yes, the third time was the charm, thank God because I don't think the corners would have taken another go at finishing.  So everything is done but the tassel on the fob, and I already screwed up the first one this morning so I'm waiting until I'm home again to do a second one.  But at least progress has been made.  To refresh what I told you about this yesterday, the design is a Lizzie Kate called, "Summer Smalls" and I adapted 3 of the 4 designs to create a tool tote.  All 4 designs charted originally designed as pin cushions.  I've adapted them for a needlebook, scissor fob, and needle vial as well as the decorative front on the tote (which we sell in the shop).  An easy stitch with few embellishments, which is strange for me.  I did put on a few beads in spots, but basically that was it.  I changed the needlebook lining from a cotton fabric to a felt simply because it was easier and then attached a scissor sheath with the blanket stitch and  needle pages with buttons.  Now anytime I look at this project I think of all things summer.

The last picture is a close of up the needle vial which is the only piece that is stitched over one.  This is just a small part of one of the designs in the chart pack.  I'm thinking of adding a spool which will use one of the 2 designs I haven't used fully yet.  If I actually do that I will show it to you when it's finished.  Because I was fiddling with this project, and I confess I started another new project just because I wanted to...."Needlework ABC 's" by Little House Needleworks, I got very little done on Theodore....but I'm hoping to get back to it while I'm working today.  Not sure how successful I'll be since I brought 5 projects to work with me (what was I thinking?)  I've got the "American Homestead" Sewing Set, which I haven't started yet but I know the trays are due in next month so I need to get it done.  I've got "Mermaid's Drum" by Plum Street, which came in a couple of weeks ago and is simply fabulous too, so how could I not do it.  Then there's Blackbird's "Lady Liberty" a drum which is another favorite of mine and finally there is Hands on Designs, "Good Ship Sampler".  I plan to be very busy today just stitching, while I'm at work....thank God it's my job.  Life just doesn't get any better than this!  Sara just came in and handed me a round plaque which is the size of the plaque I needed for the Uncle Sam hat which is part of the Blackbird Design pin cushion I finished.  Now all I need is a 4" round box and I can cross that project off my "to do" list.  God knows what all the guys have down in the workshop.  As they are cleaning it out we might find all kinds of useful items.  On the family side, we had a little scare with my Michael which started 2 days ago when Sara called to see if I could come in and work her shift as she had to take Michael to the hospital.  While Mary adjusted hotel schedules so Kelly could take Sara's place since she was working in Sea Trader I was able to continue my stitching at home.  But Sara ended up not only taking him over to the hospital but they admitted him in the end so she ended up staying overnight.  (She actually had the foresight to take her stitching with her.  They talked about doing surgery but in the end decided to drain the knee and if that didn't work they could do surgery next week.  So my Michael came home yesterday with a full leg mobilizer and a crutch where he has received a great deal of sympathy from us all.  We are all hoping this is the end of the drama once the knee heals/  The hope is that the abscess, now that it's been drained, will heal and no further action will have to be taken.  Fingers crossed!!!  Michael is scared to death of needles and a whole lot of that was happening at the hospital so this big 16 year old was a puddle of tears, bless his heart.  But he's out of school for a couple of days and we are on sympathy overload so that should make up for it.  While Sara was in the emergency room she ran into Renee (who worked for Salty Yarns for 40 years) who was there with her husband who they thought was having a stroke or a heart attack.  Turns out it was indigestion and while she was more than grateful by the time Renee turned up here yesterday she was ready to kill the man.  I, of course, am thanking God that two went in and two came out.  Know we are Blessed!  Apparently we are being blessed with nicer weather as well.  I see the sun is poking it's head out from the clouds that have haunted us for days.  The weather has warmed up a tad as well, which I knew it would as I broke down 2 nights ago and turned my heat back on.  And I do see 70's in the forecast for this weekend so cheers to that.  I didn't even realize it was Memorial Weekend until Elaine mentioned it this morning.  When she said she was hoping to have something by that date I asked when that was.  She just looked at me and smiled (I'm pretty sure she was feeling sorry for Sara having to deal with me every day), but you know when you don't work full time you do lose track of days, time, everything (at least that's my excuse and by God I'm sticking with it.)  Well I've got to get back to Theodore...he's longing to get his other leg stitched.  I'm n it and I'll show it when he's really finished.  In case I don't back to you...Have a safe and healthy Memorial Weekend.                                                                                                        

Too many projects and too little sleep isn't a good thing!

Back at work again, so of course that means I'm blogging.  The weather is lousy and I do mean lousy.  It's been cold, in the high 50's or low 60's, overcast and rainy...ugh!!!  If I'm inside I really don't care, except I feel for the people vacationing here who would probably appreciate a little sunshine.  But alas, that's not happening today, or yesterday, or the day before...well you get my drift.  So that means we're stitching.  Of course for me weather doesn't matter-sunshine or rain I'm stitching.  My problem is...I can't stitch fast enough.  I've been working on Theodore, one of the Animal Cracker series pieces and I get a little bored at times since it's really basically 3 colors.  I love him, don't get me wrong...I'm still going to do the entire series, but I needed a change so along with three other starts this week I made sure I had one of my over 2 on 18 ct. pieces going and that one I was able to finish.  Of course after I got started this was basically only 2 colors....but it was faster since it was larger and I was able to do the Turkey Work flower centers so that was a change, but anyway, I present "Bloom" which is a Brenda Gervais (of course) design.  I swear I'm going to do one of hers on the called for linen, but they really do call out for large count.  I used the #5 perle cottons from Weeks Dye Works (Lancaster Red, Moss Green primarily).  Anyway, it finishes  16" x 5" so it makes a good size pillow for a chair or the sofa.  Fun, fast stitch.  

As for my Theodore, well I'm finishing up on pants today, legs tomorrow and then it's time to do finishing which we all know will bring me a whole new set of problems...whoppee!!!!    I did finish stitching Blackbird Design's "Hat's Off to Uncle Sam" last week, but...there's always a but...I rushed over to Salisbury to Hobby Lobby only to find they had neither the plaque nor the 4" round box so I'm internet bound for those items in order to make the hat so having stitched the piece does me no good.  I've got to do the hat especially since I saw it done...oh, so fabulous.  Hopefully I'll get the supplies and have it done by the 4th.  Because the 4th is on my mind...love patriotic designs, I picked Blackbird's "Lady Liberty" drum to start.  I'm actually stitching it on the correct fabric, 32 ct....and the design is jam packed so there's a lot to stitch which is actually what I like alot.  I love the detail oriented designs and this certainly is....very little empty space, so naturally this is going to take some time...therefore I pulled out a piece I had started, Blackberry Lane's "All Dressed Up for Winter" snowman and now see why I put it down....but I'm determined to keep plugging along in hopes of getting it done sooner rather than later because I adore Blackberry Lane projects.  Usually they are over one, but this one is over two with a sweet little over one cardinal sitting on the snowman's shoulder....too cute. I did partially finish Lizzie Kate's "Summer Smalls" or at least a  version of her Summer Smalls.  These are shown as  pin cushions, however, I decided I wanted one of the wooden totes for summer so I stitched the long pincushion and attached it to the tote, stitched the Bee's pin cushion as a needlebook and added "Needles" in place of Bees and did a band over one on a glass vial using the strawberry vine of the Berry pin cushion.  Then I used the big bee off the Bees pin cushion to make a scissor fob.  Well, I've torn apart the needlebook twice already, but this third time is it...I'm going to make this time work no matter what.  I've done many needlebooks and never run into trouble...why this time...I don't know but it's aggravating.  Anyway, I'll get it done today...do or die!  Then I'll show you the set.  I can't believe I'm back to doing these totes but I love them so.  Oops, no one's in the store so I'm going to end here and go look at what's new in Salty Yarns.  My motto is "you can never have too much needlework."  Have a great day

Thanks for a great retreat!

I started this blog last Friday so excuse the tardiness in posting. Beautiful day at the beach...thank God.  The town's full with Springfest in full go mode and of course the hotel is full since we have our Spring Retreat stitchers here and a few rooms were rented to Springfest attendees, so it's been go time here all week.  Stitchers started arriving on Wednesday, just to have a few days before the crowd arrived, and a few more trickled in on Thursday and then Friday everyone was on board.  It was a rainy blowy day for the most part, but spirits here weren't dampened because everyone was here to relax and stitch so they didn't care what it was doing.  Using the secret door to the shop they didn't even have to go outside.  Trudy Edwards even came over in her P.J bottoms and cut fabric for a while for me and no one cared, hell I'm not sure anyone noticed.  I didn't...Shirley threw her under the bus and told on her,  but I don't care if you come in nude as long as you are coming in to cut fabric for me.  Anyway, met several newbies and one brought in some of her treasures....OMG, she brought along a couple of Sherri Jones projects, the Button Book for one...I love that piece and especially love to see it finished and get a glance at the buttons each person finds to put in it.  It is a gorgeous project and I'm thrilled that one day Sara will complete hers and I will be able to sit and stare at hers.  Last post I had talked about finishing the Mani di Donna little basket or tote or however you want to refer to it.  It went swimmingly to begin with...I've got the sides down easily using the quilters template material, unfortunately the middle divider proved to be my nemesis..damn it...I swear I'm going to get this right sooner or later.  I'm almost there.  I originally had it the correct size but the last hole on the handle had no divider to connect to so I cut the divider a little longer and then it pushed the sides out...crap!!!  I might just say mine is an oval tote and then it would be correct, except I had to hide a mistake I made on the inside and to do that I had to put the top piece in the back.  So you really can't see it that well, although you get the drift, but anyway, I'm thrilled and next one I've got ideas for easier finishing and I know I can do it with no problem (I think I've said those words before, but perfection will come if I just don't give up.)  Anyway, I still love this and still think it's a beautiful Christmas gift for someone...although I wouldn't give this one since it's not perfected so it will stay in the shop, with it's 2 sisters...I'm building a family of Mani di Donna small totes.  So cute!!  So this week I worked on the beach series  from Hands on Design, which I had hoped to have several finished, but I got distracted so I only have 3....oh well, there's always next week.

I've got a plan in my head regarding how I'm finishing them, but I'm starting to lose confidence in it so I'm not willing to tell you what I'm thinking of doing with it.  I'll leave you wondering.   Well, a week has passed, since I started this blog, and the weather had taken a definite wrong turn.  It's overcast and a bit rainy today, but Sara and I are plugging along, getting stocked priced, etc.  Of course, if I'm blogging I don't have to work so you can see I'm blogging.  The retreat was wonderful, fun, busy, a lot of laughing, and a lot of people, but no drama.  The Fun Girls were here (well Diane missed it but the rest were here) and had their annual contest.  They pick an item which they use as the center in a stitching contest.  Last year they found a wire bench and each person designed something around it.  Everyone did cushions but the variety was amazing and what they stitched was fabulous.  It's really interesting to see the different pieces but I hate judging these things.  In the fall they did cupcakes using the silicone holders.  Again, really cute cupcakes were stitched.  This years spring contest used small plastic flower pots.  Our Judy, who is one of the Fun Girls, I'm excusing from this years contest because of so many distractions that she's had this spring, but the other three ladies who brought in their pieces did such a fabulous job.  First to show up was the multi-petal Black Eyed Susan.  When they put that down (Diane sent it in with one of the other ladies) I said, oh, my this is surely going to be the winner.  She stitched each petal and attached them separately...really impressive.  Then Tracy's was put on the table (this are judged without knowing who did which one)..and Tracy won the last 2 contests, and while I liked her and the amount of work was incredible...stump work...loved it, but the black eyed Susan was still my pick at that point and then Evelyn's flower pot was put down and she did something the other two stitchers didn't do...she added Spanish moss to the pot, multiple green leaves and this little pot of violets looked almost real.  The little yellow centers you see are actually the yellow balls on the top of a pin, which is  used to hold the flower in the pot.  After watching this Sherri Kohlerman has asked if she can compete in the next one.  I see this as a growing competition among many stitchers, and while it's fascinating to see what they come up with, judging these competitions is stressful for me.

This week I detoured yet again from stitching on  "The Beach Series" and worked on the Lizzie Kate "Summer Smalls."  I decided I wanted to do a wooden tote again for a summer display, and thought these designs would be perfect.  But at the same time my "Animal Cracker Series- Theodore" was asking, what about me, so I had to pull him out and start working on him again.  His head is almost done and he keeps looking at me with those big eyes, so I'm pretty sure I'll be putting in a lot of work on him this weekend and hopefully get him done.  Anyway, Thanks to all who were here for our events so far this spring.  It's been fun, exciting and exhausting all at the same time.  We're now resting up for Betsy Morgan weekend and the summer.  Have a great weekend.