Just a few stitches more . . .

I came home from work and thought I'd stitch for a little bit.

And then I thought I'd stitch for a few minutes more.

And five hours later, I have all the little bits and bobs in The Shepherdess finished.

There are some stitches here and there that I can't do until the sky and the rest of the lawn are stitched--that poor little sheep needs his fleece, for example--but everything else is done.

The plan is that I will work on those areas when I need to stitch but I'm too tired to do any serious thinking about stitching.  That is the plan. It is quite possible that I will hurl that plan to the four winds and keep on working until I have this finished.

Stay tuned and we'll both figure it out.

Pollen-Free Grass!

In what little time I had tonight to stitch, I planted trees and grass:

And this greenery doesn't make me sneeze or cough or itch!  My kind of gardening . . .

I really should be working on the prework for the  June class I'm taking from Betsy Morgan at Salty Yarns. I really should.  But I'm having too much fun on The Shepherdess to put her down.

I always do my best work under pressure.

Let's go with that.

Gobsmacked

I am totally gobsmacked, amazed, falling-over-in-a-heap.

We had a speaker at tonight's EGA meeting. Susan Edmonson is a designer, quilter, and mixed media artist, and her works simply took my breath away.

I wish I had her kind of brain.

Anyway, you can see her designs at susanedmonsondesigns.com. And then you can be gobsmacked, too.

All the Way Home

I'm home again, soon to be back in the rut . . .

I had planned to sleep in this morning and wend a leisurely way home, but of course I woke up at the crack of dawn and could not go back to sleep. Believe me, I tried, I really did. I think Baby Girl was somewhat displeased that I was up and on my way out so early, but she was gracious about it.

Obviously since I wasn't home all week-end, there were household things that needed to be done.

I didn't do them.

I made the executive decision that I was still on vacation, so I plopped into the wing chair and stitched all afternoon.

The Shepherdess was the easiest thing to pull out of the bag, so that was the project I worked on. There is now a house floating in the air and the shepherdess has a bottom half. She also has either a naked sheep or a ghost sheep--the household is currently debating which it is.

I have some other bits and pieces to stitch before I start the grass, so the sheep will stay in its current state until the grass gets worked around him. I can't add his fleece until then.

Luckily the weather is getting warmer so he won't suffer from the cold. Dearly Beloved just said that ghosts don't feel the cold so it doesn't make any difference.

And he wonders why I didn't mind going off without him . . .

Two Thirds of the Way

I'm almost home--we're back at Baby Girl's from our week-end at Salty Yarns.

It was a fantastic setting for a class--oceanfront, comfortable seats, incredible lighting--can't say enough good things about the set-up. The Lankford Hotel is an old, rambling property with the idiosyncrasies that older hotels have--it reminds me a lot of the beach hotels from my childhood and the mountain inns where Dearly Beloved and I have stayed over the years--but the place was scrupulously clean, the towels thick and fluffy, the beds comfortable. In addition, our room was equipped with frig, stove, and microwave.

And the hospitality cannot be surpassed. Sara and Sally and the family made a newbie feel very welcomed, which is one strong reason I will return two more times this year.

The next time I go, however, I will get there early enough, by hook or by crook, to really spend time in the shop. I know they're stocking up for the season, but I do not think I've ever been in one shop with as many goodies per square foot as Salty Yarns.  Baby Girl said she had made two circuits of the shop and hadn't seen everything. I said, did you see the room with all the threads and fabrics. Her jaw dropped--there's another room? Why, yes, there is.  Amazing, simply amazing.

And there was stitching.

This is what I stitched in class:

The class was the Button Lovers Brag Book, taught by Sherri Jones of Patrick's Woods. If you ever get a chance to take a class from Sherri, run, don't walk, to sign up. She is an extremely thorough teacher who writes some of the best directions of anyone. Every step is clear and well-thought-out. And I love the color palette she uses in this particular piece--very soft colors that will allow the buttons to glow (and the fabric is not green--don't know why it looks that way in this picture).

She had also brought the models for some of her other teaching pieces--she will be teaching two of them next year, again at Salty Yarns. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for her newest design, which is an amazing wooden basket filled with smalls. It makes me swoon.

There was also some stash enhancement at Sherri's boutique table:

One is a companion for the class piece, the other two I just fell in love with.

I did actually do some stitching the evening before class. The people attending workshops generally tend to meet in the lobby after class and late into the evening, and Baby Girl and I joined in Friday night.  I got this much done on The Shepherdess:

She almost has something to sit on . . .almost. I'm going to have to stop stitching her skirt and get her lamb worked in.

But I'm not sure whether to continue with her or get started on the prework for the Betsy Morgan class I'll go back to Salty Yarns to take. I have the pre stitch kit:

So, what to do, what to do . . .the best part is that I'm back in the mood to stitch again!

All My Bags are Packed

I'm ready to go.

Actually, I've already taken the first step of the journey to Salty Yarns. Baby Girl is accompanying me, and as her home is on the way, I came up earlier this evening to spend the night here before the next stage of the trip.

This has been a very discombobulated week. There has been a minute amount of stitching, but I forgot to pack the little piece I've been working on--so no stitching picture of it. I had an ANG meeting Wednesday night--but I sat down after dinner to just close my eyes for a few minutes--and Dearly Beloved woke me up at nine to ask if I wouldn't be more comfortable if I went to bed. My work computer had some issues Thursday and Friday, so I had to work on a loaner that wasn't programmed with everything I needed to do my job.  And the traffic tonight was horrendous--the drive that I can usually do in about two and a half hours took almost four.

However, I've had sushi for dinner, and tomorrow is another day. I'm not sure about the internet access for the next few days, but I did remember camera and camera cord and computer cord. I have technology, so as soon as I'm able to write again, I most definitely will.

Singin' the Blahs

Not a stitch has been taken, not a needle threaded in over 48 hours.

I have spring fever and don't feel like doing anything productive. At all. Blech.

I expect to come out of this in the very near future. I am heading to Salty Yarns and the Maryland shore this week-end to take a class from Sherri Jones of Patricks Woods. And hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pre-work for the class I'm going to take from Betsy Morgan at Salty Yarns in June.  And, yes, if you've been keeping score, I'm taking a class from Betsy with my guild in May and this other class in June.

But meanwhile, I'm going to do nothing.