Catching Up

It's been a very full week, and there's a lot to catch up on.

First of all, a major TA-DA!!

One week after taking the class, I have a completed project!!

Garden Variety Long Pocket

designed by Sherri Jones of Patricks Woods

class at Salty Yarns

and here's the back, with the smalls that live inside

When I got home on Tuesday, this lovely, lovely thing was awaiting me--I almost hated to open the package, it was so nicely done. Of course I was humming "brown paper packages tied up in string" even though the paper was actually more beige than brown, but it's the same principle.

And inside was this:

Rachael Kinnison of the The Ladies' Repository is offering a limited edition ornament, available only in 2016 (or until she runs out, so don't wait too long if you may be interested).  The threads are beautiful, the design exquisite, and the directions detailed. There are a number of techniques in this project that I have not attempted before, so I need to study and doodle and think before I start this one. I also need to do some major work on cuticles before I take the first stitch.

So anyway, I drove home on Tuesday from Baby Girl's home, then turned right around, repacked, and headed 400 miles south on Wednesday for a meeting at one of our other facilities. Vacation was over, it was time to go back to work, and I have to say, it's not as much fun to go on a road trip alone as it is with an entertaining companion.

I did take something to work on, but it didn't see much love.

This will eventually become one of Barbara Jackson's strawberries. It's one of the kits I brought home from Haus Tirol last December.

On Thursday, there were meetings, on Friday I drove back home, and on Saturday I went to another workshop. This was held by the Carolinas Sampler Guild and taught by Cissy Smith of Gentle Pursuits Designs.

First we learned about Eliza Palmer, whose sampler Cissy has reproduced. That teeny little green blob on the linen is a leaf that will eventually become part of the border.

Cissy also gave us a needlebook, the shape based on one of her Shaker antiques and the designs drawn from motifs on the sampler.

And finally we went over the other small Cissy designed using motifs from Eliza's sampler:

And I did a few stitches for the border for the front of Eliza's Pocketbook.

So, yes, three projects from a single workshop.

So, you ask, what am I stitching on today?

After a couple of thousand miles on the road this past week with little or no time to decompress,  I am going to sit in my corner and rock and drool.