Treasures From Friends

After "taking back" my ugly comments about Blogger and walking away for a 2 hour cooling off period (aka going out to dinner), I see that the picture feature is working again. Hurrah! Lelia, thanks for your tip about the "Terms and Conditions" checkbox. I hit that little snag when I was trying to upload the the TdF pictures the other night. For those who may not have heard, another thing to check after migrating to the new no-longer-beta Blogger is your email address. If you want it to be public, then go check the box again in your profile. Otherwise you're good to go. Apparently the migration sets all profiles to not show email addresses. Probably a wise move on Blogger's part!

Enough about my Blogger woes, it's time to talk about kewl friends and incredible stitching. Recently I've been finding treasures in my mailbox. My friend Pam sent pillowcases that were stitched by her Mom. They are absolutely fantastic! The first pair have this pretty design:




Here is a close-up of the center.



The edge looks tatted. Gorgeous!



The second pair is even more incredible:



A close-up of one of the bees:



Plenty of French knots!



Thanks Pam! I love them and will take good care of them. You rock! By the way, it's time to turn that imaginary blog into something with a real name and URL. (Ducking!)

I participated in the St. Louis Stitchers ornament exchange this year. I was thrilled when I received this fantastic Homespun Elegance ornament in the mail from Monique!



Isn't it sweet? I love the wool felt finish! On the back Monique used a sparkle paper to personalize it. How clever is that?



Thanks, Monique! I absolutely love it!

Last but most certainly not least, I received this incredible ornament from Lelia.



The picture doesn't do it justice at all. The sheep is a zillion little French knots, all in careful (perfect) rows, and the cording is braided. There is a reason why Lelia wins ribbons for her stitching, let me tell you! Thank you so much for this unexpected surprise! You are too kind!

Thanks to everyone for your comments. Several of you mentioned Terre de France; thanks for your kind words!

Maddie Can Fly asked about what size fabric to use for the new free design. Do you mean Annick's new design or the Quaker à 6 Mains? If you'd like to email me about it, I'll be happy to help. The address is in my profile. Thanks for visiting my blog!

That's it for now. I have presents to wrap.

Camp Gotta Stitch Projects

Camp Gotta Stitch was absolutely delightful! Here are the projects from the retreat:

On Friday evening we had a Meet & Greet. We made a really cute name tag. Technically, I made two of them. I pretty much destroyed the first one by absent-mindedly unraveling too many threads around the edges. DOH!




















This was rather embarrassing because I know better! A running stitch is not going to keep a piece from unraveling. Ack! I wore the ugly gnarled one all weekend (no time to fix it) and stitched a new top for it when I got home. I got all fancy with the first one and used eyelet stitches but kept it simple for the second one. Just to be clear, the first piece (at the bottom of the picture) was originally on the wool (and attached with the buttons) you see in the piece at the top of the picture. I have no idea why I am saving the ratted up, unraveling original. I keep thinking it must be good for something, but for the life of me I can't imagine what that something might be.

Our project on Saturday was a CUTE wool purse with acorns. Did I mention acorns? Hmmph, I thought I did. I'll shut up and get on with the picture.














Isn't it sweet? Our kit included the lined wool piece, we just blanket stitched it together. I'm happy with my blanket stitching. If I have ever blanket stitched before, it was sometime before my age reached double digits. (Translation = that was a long time ago.) I was worried that I couldn't keep the stitches even, but I think it turned out pretty well. I did have more than a few oopsie-frogging moments while stitching the cross stitch and specialty stitch piece for the front, but in the end it all came together.

During the afternoon we received our surprise companion piece...a sweet little cell phone holder! When Bobby held up the sample, everyone in the room said "Awwwwwww!" It is just so cute.


Don't you just love that little cell phone charm? And how ironic that I'm in the market for a new cell phone. I'll be buying one that fits my cute new holder. Wouldn't you?

Here is a picture of everything, including the acorn carry-out container.


Actually that wasn't quite everything. On Sunday we received an exclusive Lizzie Kate design. It is a cute little ornament, all kitted up with opalescent fabric. I haven't started stitching it yet, maybe sometime later this fall. How kewl to get an exclusive Lizzie Kate! I'm sure she'll release the design to the public someday, but for now it is just for us.

That's it for the retreat. I finished 3 of the 4 projects and stitched one of them twice. Not bad for a weekend, huh? Speaking of weekends, I'm heading to the show in just a few hours. I can't wait!