Shepherds Bush Santas

I couldn't get enough of Shepherds Bush designs in the 1990's.  I loved everything about them - the thread colors on creamy ivory linen, the whimsical characters, the lovely vines.  Loved them.  Then time passed.  I had another baby.  My stitching time was pretty much non-existent and when I got back to stitching again, my tastes had changed.

So I missed lots of really great SB designs, including their sweet Christmas stockings. One of the stocking designs has an adorable Santa figure.  Here it is, stitched by Miokka and posted on her blog, Gone Stitchin' Instead of Just A Wishin'

You can see more photos and the entire stocking when you go visit Miokka's blog

I love so many things about this Santa.  The charms, the vine on his jacket, the plaid pants, the bell on his hat.  But I know that if I started stitching these, it would be a slippery slope.  I have friends who've stitched several  SB stockings as gifts, and it didn't take too long before they became known as the Damn Stockings. 

So I think I'll just admire them from afar.  Unless someone wanted to stitch one for me.  Then I'd admire it real up close!

I'm determined!

Ya know....there was a time when I was a pretty decent blogger. And I seem to have complained about not blogging all through 2012, but then I did precious little about it.   What the heck happened?

I was going to blame it all on Dave, aka the Computer Hog.  Ever since he more or less retired from the pharmacy business back in March, he's been home a whole lot more and that means sometimes I have to arm wrestle him for computer time. 

You see, earlier this summer, Dave opened a hobby shop.  You know, model and toy trains, rockets, remote control cars and other assorted stuff.  You can go HERE if you want to see his web page.  So he works at the store for part of the day, then comes home and sits down at the computer for the rest of the day.  He says he's working, but I think he's really just Googling all kinds of hobby stuff for his own personal enjoyment and calls it "work".  Riiiiight.

I'm actually very happy for him.  I'm happy that he's taken the big plunge into this and finds it so enjoyable and exciting that he works on it from home.  Dave is a great retailer and I'm sure that between his excitement and his experience, this will be a good thing.  Even if he is hogging our home computer.

But then today he told me....listen to this....he's started a hobby shop blog.  And he's posted to it twice already.  This is serious.  And now I'm determined to post more because I can't let him outdo me in the blog world!  Call it my competitive nature and my need to win.  Even if it's all in my head. (My daughter would call it that).  Call it whatever you will.  I just hope that in a couple of months I don't have to call it Yet Another False Start.

Maybe it would help me to write if I have a theme, at least for a little while.  How about a month of Santas?  Some stitched, some not.  I'm going to try this theme on for size and see if I can spark this blog a little.

Let's start with one of my favorites, stitched by my dear friend Barb in 2009.  This Santa says it all, doesn't he?  Time!  We just need more time! 

My Yahoo account was hacked

You may have received an email from me with your name in the subject.  Please DON'T follow the link in it.

Lee

Still stitching Fall!

But soon I'll be switching to Christmas and Winter.

In the meantime, what is it about Fall stitching that's so much fun?  Is it the richness of fall colors?  The whimsical designs?  Whatever it is, I've had a wonderful time starting a few new things and finishing a few older projects this year.

This first pic is part of a Blue Ribbon Designs sampler, called Autumn Leaves and Sunflower Seeds.  Belinda's samplers can be stitched all as one big design, or broken into smaller designs.  Something about this flower basket called to me.  I think it was the red flowers! I used most of the recommended threads and stitched it on 32ct. Lambswool linen.  It'll make up into something cute, but I don't know what yet.

And this little LK design had been floating around in my To Do basket for years.  I like everything about it, so why on earth did it take me years and years to stitch it?    That's a piece of 28ct. Newport linen and WDW thread.  Super fun!

Dave and I have been traveling every single weekend this month.  We spent a wonderful weekend in Cleveland for a hobby show.  Well, he went to the hobby show.  While he wheeled and dealed over hobby shop purchases, I grabbed the car keys and took myself on a shop-hop of sorts, visiting Crafty Ewe in Broadview Heights one day and Clare's Stitching Post in Vermillion the next. It was heavenly.  Both shops were wonderful and I was able to find lots of the fabrics and threads I had been looking for.

This past weekend we took a quick trip to New Jersey to look at another type of camper.  Airstream makes a conversion van style camper and we had been kicking around the idea of using something like that instead of our trailer.  It didn't take long for us to see that the van-style camper wasn't for us.  But it was worth the trip to see them in real life. 

I have two more weekend excursions coming up and then I think I'll be home for a while.  Meanwhile, the dust-bunnies are thriving!

Some more fall stitching

Last year I decided that La D Da's Pumpkins Three would make a good car project during our fall road trips to College of Wooster cross country meets.  So I stitched it for a while, then XC season ended and this sweet little design never found its way out of the bag again.

To be honest, it was a project I grabbed last year and threw into a bag without much preparation.  I wanted some larger count fabric and I had some 28ct. white linen, and I had a couple skeins of DMC variegated floss and I figured I was good to go.  Even though later on I wasn't really crazy about my fabric and thread choices, the design was still nice enough that I picked it up again this year and kept at it.  And I finished it yesterday - a perfectly dreary afternoon with lots of football to keep me company.

Except I still wasn't in love with the color.

 

So I decided to experiment, and I gave the whole thing a bath in water that I had boiled with onion skins. (thanks Pinterest!)  I like these colors much better.  It's hard to see in my photos, but that stark whiteness is gone and it toned down the DMC a little, too.

Earlier in the week I had finished stitching another Halloween kit, too.  Here it is, ready to be made into something - either a flat fold or a pinkeep style ornament. 

So I guess it's time to find another car project.  Because we're still driving around Ohio, watching this girl run on several Saturdays.  I marvel that she's coming to the end of her college cross country career...  Dave and I couldn't be more proud. 

Atta girl, Colleen!

Stitching Bloggers Question(s)

 Because I've spent minimal time on my blog for the past few months, I haven't put up any of the monthly Stitching Bloggers Questions.  As usual, even though she's a super busy mom, CinDC has been kind enough to pass questions along to me.  So here are three months worth that I've been holding for you:

Dog Days of August: Does the weather affect your ability or desire to stitch? Do you work on different projects in heat or cold?

September transitions/occasions: Birth and wedding samplers abound. Have you ever stitched a piece for a different commemorative occasion, like starting school or graduating? A death sampler? What's the oddest one you've seen or stitched?

October bounty: What's your favorite fruit or vegetable related stitching?

Are you pecking about on your blog, trying to come up with something to post?  Then let the SBQ help.  Think on any or all of these and then right about it on your blog!

Halloween smalls

One of the (many) nice things about my stitching friends is that they make me think out of my box.  I'm a terrible stick-in-the-mud about most things.  Trying something new is not in my DNA.

For instance, Dave and I are terrible travelers.  Oh...we love the idea of travel, but whenever we get to our destination, we'll usually complain about it for the first 24-48 hours.  After that we settle in and we get happy again and the rest of our vacation is wonderful.  But that initial jolt of newness?  It's not pretty. Fellow travelers would probably refer to us as Mr. and Mrs. Crankypants.   And this definitely has a lot to do with our decision to buy a camper.  That initial uncomfortable jolt is softened because we haul our own familiar stuff behind us.  Yes.  We're crazy.

But back to the real topic of the day.  Halloween smalls!  I've been doing a year-long kit exchange with the Kansas girls, and September's theme was Halloween.  For years now, as Halloween has built up in popularity, my constant refrain has been, "I don't really like Halloween.  I don't like Halloween stitching.  It's just not for me."  But Halloween was our September theme and as September rolled around, I knew I needed to find something to create for a kit.  Luckily, I was able to borrow the JCS Halloween issue from my bud Linda, so here's the ornie I chose to stitch up, kit and send to my KS ladies.

"Boo" from 2012 JCS Halloween issue, on PTP Crystal Dawn 32ct. linen

Cute, huh? And so much fun to stitch!  Maybe I DO like Halloween.  At least in small doses.  So I decided to keep moving forward and stitch one of the kits I received.  My friend Sue had even included that funky trim.  And what to do you know?  It was delightful!

 

2010 Lizzie Kate design, stitched on brown linen with recommended threads.
Finished with a 4X4 Styrofoam cube.
(It's straighter in real life.  It's my deck railing that's crooked...)

I have another two kits to stitch and then maybe I'll have a real Halloween collection.  Go figure!

If there is ever a good time to jump-start a blog,

I guess this is it.  My poor blog was sitting in the blog storage garage and dying bit by bit as each day went by, but today I'm dusting off my blog jumper cables (and hoping that I have them attached correctly).  Let's see if I can get this thing started!

So.  I'm just back from an ultra fun girls' weekend at Deep Creek Lake in Maryland.  Seventeen of us shared a fantastic 8 bedroom house with a lovely water view, a giant deck,ample space to walk and plenty of parking. But you're not really interested in that stuff, are you?  I'll bet you just want to hear about the food and the stitching.

This group likes to do its own cooking, so we each took a meal assignment and of course we all brought snacks.  It's the honest-to-God-truth to tell you that the food was to die for.  These girls can cook!  And do I need to say it was plentiful?  And the fall weather was perfect for outdoor eating.  Isn't there something delicious about being outside and eating food that has been prepared by someone else?

As for the stitching, I think that everyone felt pretty comfortable as they settled into their stitching nests on Friday night.  The house had a big sectional sofa, a couple comfy chairs, a big dining room table and a smaller side table.  And although all seventeen of us kind of had a "home base", we moved around a bit, too.

We had a variety of stitching themes going on, including samplers and Christmas and Fall and baby gifts.  We had one finish (that I know of) - it was Deb, who also had a finish at our last retreat.

(I lifted this pic from Facebook, but I don't think Colleen will mind!)

I worked steadily on my Moira Blackburn sampler.  I managed to finish a tree and I started building a house. 

And I'll tell ya, this group got along marvelously well through the weekend.  There was minimal drama, except maybe the Thermostat Wars.  But that's normal in a group of women in our age range.  One gets too cold and turns the thermostat up, then one gets too hot and turns the thermostat down.  So the thermostat got a good workout.  There weren't any TV issues, because I believe they settled all of that before the retreat.  And that was a good idea, because I've seen a TV-watching meltdown once before and let me tell you....it ain't pretty.

We even got to watch a wedding happening across the lake on Saturday.  I hope the bride and groom didn't think we were nuts, but as soon as one of the ladies yelled "Hey look!  There's the bride!", we all ran out on our deck to watch.  There's something about a wedding that you just HAVE to go watch.  So we were quietly oooohing and aaaaaahing as they posed for the photographer, but then when they finished we burst into clapping and waving and cheering.  I think we gave them a laugh, because they all waved back.  What bride doesn't need a cheering group of strangers intruding on her wedding photos? We were happy to fulfill that need.

Her gown was lovely and her bridesmaid dresses were perfect for a fall wedding.  Black and white and simple and I'll bet that worked perfectly in the colorful autumn setting.  Otherwise I would have had to go over there and give them some formal dress advice.  

In family news, we took our camper out on its first real trip earlier in September and it was absolutely wonderful.  But I'll save that story for another day.

Simple Joys

Simple Joys has been riding around in my stitching bag for quite a while now.  Earlier this year it made the journey from my box of ready-to-go stitching into the bag where there's some hope that it may actually BE stitched.  And once I started it, it was fun, fun, fun.  My favorite part to stitch was the flower pot, mostly because I loved the purple flowers with that overdyed thread (CC Plum Paisley).  And the lettering.  I love me a nice purple!

I'm not sure about its final finish.  It needs to be stretched - either in a frame or box top, because, although you can't see it in this photo, the fabric has some pretty heavy duty creases in it.  A sweet pillow would be nice, but not with those stubborn creases.

What an odd end of summer I'm having this year.  My son, the researcher, was busy in Georgia and not able to come home at all.  My daughter, the traveler, left for another extended trip a couple weeks ago, and from there she'll be going straight back to college.  I'll tell you...it's weird being completely out of the "back to school" loop.  There was something solid about preparing kids to go back to school, whether it was kindergarten or college.  Schedule-producing, goal-setting solid.  Now I feel like August is melting into September.  There's not a single solid thing about it.

Or maybe it's just that I love school supplies and now I don't have a reason to go buy them.  Crazy, but true!  I think I'll go buy some nice pens and see if I don't feel better...

Sunflowers always brighten a day!

Earlier this spring, I dipped my toe into the pool of English Paper Piecing. Ho my! How addicting! So then I thought I'd love to make a Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt.

Yeah. I was completely delusional.

I scaled down my expectations and thought I'd hand piece a table runner.

Still delusional.

Finally I decided that little pincushions were more my speed.  So I sewed these up and sent them on their way to my favorite Kansas Stitching Girls.  Oh, except I added orange rick-rack at the last minute. 

Those sunflowers make me smile!  The one in the middle shows the fabric I used for backing them.

So....I went to Stitch N Pitch last Sunday at PNC Park.  We had so much fun watching our Pirates - even if the knitters outnumbered us by like....ten to one!  And that's even counting our husbands.  I took a neat little design I found on Etsy and stitched away on a Willie Stargell jersey.  It was perfect because it was so simple and small.

Next year we have big plans for a tailgate party and matching t shirts.  We have to keep up with the knitters and if we can't match their numbers, we'll just have to have more fun per person!   (Nikki, if you come, we'll set up the cornhole game...)

POP! and thoughts on my grey hair

KInda self-explanatory... but super cute, huh?

Right now I'm working on a baseball jersey to take to tomorrow's Stitch and Pitch!  I'm really looking forward to a nice day at the ballpark with some stitching ladies and a few of our husbands.  (We're also bringing a big bag of cash with us so that we can each buy a beer.)

Now, as for the hair:

Some of you may remember that two years ago, I decided to stop coloring my hair.  Since then, I've gone through quite a hair color transition, one of which was an identical match to WDW London Fog floss.  Believe me, it wasn't pretty.  But my hairdresser convinced me to soldier on and not give in to the panicky feeling that starts with looking in the mirror and thinking, "Oh my God, I'm SO grey!"  By now all the dyed parts have been cut from my hair, and the final result is that I'm all grey on top and brown beneath.  But it's mine and I love it.  Usually.

Because sometimes it's not easy.  Like when I'm with my family and I'm the greyest one in the room.  My mother and sisters are blonde.  Not natural blondes, though.  Although it was my mother's fondest wish to have blonde children, she soon discovered that we were all mouse-y brown, so she needed to start using Sun-In on our hair at a crazy-young age.  (yes, they still make it).  And she dyed her lovely, thick, chestnut-colored hair blonde and then never went back. I never understood that, but I suppose I've made hair and fashion choices that puzzle the heck out of my daughter, too.  Anyway, my sisters have kept up the tradition and keep their hair quite blonde.  My brothers are probably grey, too, but they sport buzz cuts, so who the heck knows?  It also doesn't help that actually AM the oldest sibling and my hair absolutely yells that fact.

And then the other day, a woman came into the office at the auto body shop, and none of the fellows recognized her.  She had gone from brown to blonde, but told them she had decided that it was time to stop coloring her hair and look her age, because, after all.....she was 60.  Really?  And suddenly I felt old, because I'm not even on the sidewalk to 60, let alone knocking on that door, and I'm probably much more grey than she is under that blondness.

None the less, just remembering the hassle of hair coloring and looking back at the photo of me with that variety of shades on my head - well, it gives me the shivers.  So I'm going to continue to embrace my grey.  Oldness be damned!

Don't worry, Ryan

I know, I'm late, late, late. The fireworks are over. But this little freebie kit I received from my dear, darlin' Sue was too cute to leave languishing in a WIP box till next year. I've actually finish-finished it as a scissor fob, but who knows what happened to that photo...

LK Freebie on 36 ct red linen with DMC

Summer plods on here at the house near the ex-lake.  We're just back from a trip south to take my son some furniture for his new digs.  It was a nice trip, even if it was to Georgia... in July.  But like most mothers, I'd happily tolerate visiting the surface of the sun a hot climate in the summer to see one of my kids.  Otherwise....Don't even ask me what I'm doing lately.  It's either:  a) too boring for words, or b) totally whiny.  But I'm certainly not getting much good, quality stitching time, that's for sure. 

Ryan would be so upset with me. 

All right Ryan, all right.  I'll stitch a little.  And then maybe while I'm stitching I'll come up with some interesting things to write about. 

Happy 4th!

Happily, I finished this on the 3rd.... Now to finish-finish it!

LK freebie.  Stitched with red and white DMC on 32ct. PTP Twilight linen

July SBQ

It's the first Monday of the month, so it's time for the monthly Stitching Bloggers Question!

Thanks to CinDC over at Pencil Crossings for asking this question and she calls it "July Fireworks"!

This statement is irritating: "Oh, I don't have the patience for stitching/crafting." How do you respond when you get that kind of statement? What's the best response you've ever heard/seen?

Now go to your blog and post an answer!

Hey You Guys!

OK, to clarify my pet "you guys" peeve, I honestly don't mind if a friend is talking and calls a group of us "you guys".  It's casual conversation so it's ok, but It's entirely different than a business or formal interaction.  For me, anyway. 

And because I'm feeling persnickety, I wish that people in the service industry would stop saying, "Not a problem" when you ask them for something.   SO annoying.  It makes me want to keep asking them things until they finally say, "Well...oh my.  That is a problem."  What's wrong with simply saying "yes"?   Or "certainly".  Heck, one time a waiter in Miami said, "Si senora" to me and I almost melted with joy!  I wouldn't go so far as to insist on the Chick-fil-A mantra "It's my pleasure", but even that's infinitely better than "Not a problem".

While I still don't have anything to show you from the weekend's class, I can share a link with you.  Donna over at Needleworker Not in Paradise took the same class in 2010.  Here's her finish.  And now that I'm looking more closely at Donna's version, I see how she added some personalization using two initials, simply by twisting them together.  Way to go Donna!  Only room for one initial?  Feh!  Donna solved that problem!  So you can see the beautiful stitching in my future!

Some progress, a class report and a pet peeve

I spent a wonderful two days taking two EGA sponsored classes from Pamela Darney. I honestly don't know where to begin! Pam teaches sampler making. The designs she brought and used for teaching were mostly all Quaker samplers with a few others tossed in, like a house sampler, a Pennsylvania German sampler and other ones whose names have escaped me. All were lovely to look at (and impossible to resist!), but the joy of the class was learning how to make samplers your very own. And not just Pam's samplers, but any sampler we may stitch by another designer, too. Some stitchers walked away ready to do their very own, start-from-scratch sampler. It was an awesome two days. We stitched, we ate some terrific meals and had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.

BUT!  That brings me to my recent pet peeve.  I'm really tired of the whole "you guys" trend.  Arghhhhhh!  I mean, I understand it when people are speaking casually with each other.  As in, among friends.  And I understand it when entertainers use it.  Jimmy Fallon calls his audience "you guys" all the time and that doesn't bug me.  He's there to entertain me, not to interact with me.  But using the phrase "you guys", especially when talking to a group of women and when it's in a business situation....well, it sets my teeth on edge.  It's lazy.  It's sloppy.  It annoys the hell out of me. 

We stitchers - groups of women, with ages ranging from 50 - 70, were out to eat three times over the weekend, and two of those three times we were continually referred to as "you guys".  We were not guys.  Call us ladies.  Call us folks.  Or don't call us anything at all!  You don't need to say, "Are you guys ready to order?"  You can simply say, "Are you ready to order?".  Or "Is everyone ready to order?". 

Sometimes I want to get downright b*tchy and say something to the person who has just called me a guy.  I never do, but I sure do think it in my head. 

Besides that....they'd probably spit in my salad.

Moving on.  I don't have anything to show you from the class - that'll come later.  But Saturday evening after supper I put a few more stitches into LHN's Simple Joys.  It's a nice, simple carry-along project at this point, because I have very little counting left to do.

Maybe not a wannabe any more

I may have turned the corner from being a Wannabe Quaker Sampler stitcher to being a stitcher who actually picks up her needle and stitches them. I'll bet many of us are like that. We luuuuuurve certain designs or themes and we collect them but the actual stitching is only in our imagination.

For instance, I collected botanical designs for a while. Never stitched one. And then I collected bird charts, specifically Crossed Wing Collection charts. If I'm being generous with myself, I could say that I stitched one.  But actually, it was a chart of just a feather.  So, ummm.  Not really a bird.  Just a bird part, really.

Then there were the Cross Eyed Cricket charts that I collected.  The ones with the chubby little angel characters?  To be stitched as an afghan.  Yeah.  No.

But anyway!  Focusing on the positive, here's my fourth Quaker finish! 

Good Huswife's Quaker Four Corners, on PTP's Doubloon, using HDF BeRedded silk.

This was such a relaxing thing to pick up and boy-oh-boy, I've needed something relaxing and orderly to keep me sane lately. And this design is nothing if not orderly.  Except that one smallish corner - the top left one.  But I'm not going to let it bug me.  I'm calling it authentic.

I'll tell you why I crave order. 

We've been emptying my MIL's house and moving furniture and it's more disruptive than I'd like to admit.  Some of the furniture is coming here and I feel like there are so many things in my home that are in a "just waiting" stage.  Clothes that need to be put away are "just waiting" for the dressers to arrive.  Beds are set up and are "just waiting" for mattresses.  Boxes of dishes and kitchenware are stacked in the living room "just waiting" to be delivered to my son and my daughter.  And seriously....that's just the tip of the clutter iceberg.  I long for that feeling when you dust off your hands and say, "Well, that's done!"

Thank goodness for my stitching. 

Working at home

It's a beautiful day and there's a cool breeze blowing and sitting at my desk is killing me.   See - I know I have reports to complete and deposits to make and all kinds of other work nonsense staring me in the face, so what do I do?  Procrastinate.  Upload photos.  Write a blog post.   That'll show 'em.

So!  Last week I picked up some framing.  There's a little guy named Matt at my local* Michael's, and he has a very good eye for color.  I think this frame suited the style and color of this Quaker perfectly.

*(local = within 40 miles)

Mary Garry's "Peace", stitched with GAST Weathered Barn

Frame detail

I'm obviously on a red kick these days!  Dear darling Linda lent me this chart from a pack of charts recently published by Good Huswife.  I'm stitching it on PTP Doubloon Jobelan with HDF silk (BeRedded). What a relaxing design!  And I even stitched the alphabet correctly this time!

And finally, here's my newest start, Moira Blackburn's "Scottish Love" sampler (go here and scroll down), which she calls a "Small Sampler", but really?  It's quite big.  I've changed the fabric from ivory to a PTP color, but I stuck with the good ol' sturdy DMC for stitching. 

Scrumptious colors!

You know, two things have struck me when I've been among stitching friends recently.  I've been thinking about these things a lot lately.  It's been running around in my head, so I'll share them with you.  And because I like lists, here we go:

1.  Stitching is not a race.  Although there are so many beautiful things in my stash that I can't wait to stitch, rushing through one to get to the next does not make me a happy stitcher.  And comparing my productivity to another stitcher's productivity can only make me unhappy.  I've been watching stitchers whose work I admire, and I noticed that they took their time with each and every stitch.  They didn't seem to do it only for the sake of perfectly executed stitches, but also because they were not in a hurry.  They attended every single stitch.  It's the way I want to be. 

2.  Sit back, admire your work and even clap your hands if you want to.  Recently I went to a quilting group, and there was a woman working on a wall hanging.  She was seriously concentrating up to that point and had finally finished cutting her applique pieces and put the pieces where they belonged on her fabric.  Then she stepped back, joyfully clapped her hands and said, "Oh, I love this so much!  I just want to stay up all night and work on it!"  Then recently at a stitching group, the gal sitting next to me had just finished a bit of stitching - a stylized letter stitched in silk.  She held it away from her and I heard her take in her breath and then say, "Oh, I just love this!"  And it was stunning!  I tend to become automated.  I stitch, stitch, stitch and then I wonder why I burn out on a project. I need to sit back and admire the work every now and then!

OK, that's enough procrastinating for one day.  I need to work now.  So I can get paid.  So I can frame some more stuff!

Have a great day, everyone!

My day at the races

Well, I'll start by telling you that I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Although maybe not as much as this guy:

After going to Philly for a birthday party last Saturday, we drove to Dover, Delaware on Sunday for the Fedex 400 Autism Speaks race.  As you can see, it was a beautiful and sunny day.  A bit breezy, and that made it perfect.  I wilt in the heat....and whine like a three year old.  So that breeze helped me a lot.

Anyway, I never thought I'd enjoy a Nascar race but thanks to everyone's good advice, I really had fun.  I was diligent with the sunscreen.  I wore my super-awesome beach hat.  I had ear protection (otherwise I would have had to leave....ear protection was absolutely essential).  And I observed the crowds.  People sure are funny.

I think we had very good seats, too and that made it more enjoyable.  They were at the end of a turn and directly across from the pits.  Being at the end of a turn meant that as the race wore on, I'd get sprinkled with tire rubber from time to time.  But being across from the pits was cool, because watching the pit stops was pretty amazing.  Talk about specialized skills!  Wouldn't it be awesome to have that kind of efficient group around when you clean your house?

All in all, a good day!

At the end of the day, we drove to Alexandria, Virginia, where we had an amazing dinner.  Then spent the night in Old Town and went to Woodlawn Plantation for the Needlework Exhibition.

What can I say?  Fabulous!  Interesting!  Inspiring!  But sadly....no photography was allowed.  There were several original works displayed, and although I understand why we couldn't photograph them, I sure wish I could share some of my favorites with you.

You'll just have to suffer through with my inadequate words.

So - You know how I adore samplers and there were plenty of those to drool over.  And some stunning canvas work (which may be in my future - they looked like they were so much fun!)  And smocking and goldwork and Japanese silk embroidery.  Seriously amazing stuff.  And there were guides in each room who pointed out special aspects of the exhibits and answered questions.  They even walked over to the needlework with me and shined flashlights on them to discuss details and techniques.  It made for a delightful experience. 

Oh, and here's something exciting and kind of unusual.  The Best in Show Award?  It was awarded to Karen Phillips-Schwallon, from right here in Fayette County, Pennsylvania.  Years ago, I took several classes from Karen.  She was a quilter and she loved to go nuts and embellish her quilts with all kinds of embroidery.  Her classes were always enjoyable and completely pressure-free. So, congrats to my fellow Fayette County embroideress!  One of these days I'll have to dig out some of the work I did in her class.  In particular, Karen helped me design a "white on white" baby quilt for Colleen.  It's one of the best things I've ever done.

Now, where's that camera?

June SBQ

Ryan needs to know, and wants you to answer this:

Do you stitch patriotic/national pieces (or maybe just pieces that represent a specific place)? What's your favorite?

(Thanks again CinDC!)