A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That

 I had a stitch-filled day yesterday.

During my EGA chapter's weekly stitch-in, I added foliage to the big pin cushion that will line the top of the box for Jackie's Dear Heart.

I've decided this is the perfect stitch-in project.  It's basically free-form--we don't have specific directions for each spray other than a placement diagram. Consequently, it's easy to do while talking and laughing.

After I came home, I photocopied the Tasmanian Needle Tidy and made the templates for the interlinings.

Then I started the alphabet row on Tricia Nguyen's Tudor Band Sampler.

This band alternates three different stitches for the letters: four-sided stitch, Smyrna crosses, and eyelets. I was a bit concerned about the eyelets, since I have not had luck in the past with doing them over two threads.  However, after all these years, I realized if I worked all the stitches worked on the diagonal first, then worked the vertical and horizontal stitches, I didn't lose those vertical and horizontal stitches behind the threads of the linen. Well, duh, why that hadn't occurred to me before is a mystery.

And then I went to our Carolina Sampler Guild meeting to round out the day. 

Pretty much a perfect stitching day!