BUSY DAYS

First and foremost, I want to say Happy Birthday to my brother.  He is such a delight, and I am very lucky to have him in my life, even though we seldom see each other.  You know how it is with good friends, though -- even if you don't get together often, when you do, you just pick up the thread of conversation and keep going.  My baby brother is like that.  He's the real deal.  What you see is what you get, and I like him that way.  Many more, bro'!

In my quilting world, I am working on a small project, a wool needle keeper, that I started in Sue Spargo's class at Quilt Odyssey.  Above is a sampler that she did for us with wool leaf shapes that were all the same but had different embroidery stitches and embellishments on them.

Here's a closeup of some of the stitching.  Isn't it luscious?  The shapes I have on my needle keeper are just circles, but it's surprising how unique they can be made with just a few cleverly placed stitches.  When I get it finished, I'll post it for you.

Meanwhile, here's a little preview of the larger wall hanging project that Mary started in another of Sue's classes.  This is just one section of the quilt, but Mary is a very fast quilter/stitcher, and she had this part almost finished by the time the show was over.  The background is a gorgeous turquoise raw silk, not shiney at all, and fairly loosely woven, but it has great texture. 

Yesterday a lady called me wanting me to put her granddaughter's name on a laundry bag that she was making for her to take to college this fall.  I don't do embroidery as a business, but the lady's friend, who usually did her embroidery, had injured her arm, so I did it for her.  What a great idea!  I immediately called my DIL to ask if my grandson, who is going to VA Tech this fall, needed a laundry bag.  Turns out he already has one, and it isn't made of any type of fabric that can be embroidered.  Oh well.  I'll save that idea for some other time.

Multitasking

My table runner is waiting to be quilted.  I have a customer quilt on the frame, so, although this runner was ready for the festivities and got used as is, it won't get its "big girl" finish until the other quilt gets done.

I am doing my lessons on my Designer Diamond.  This was one of them.  It's on the Husqvarna Viking web site under Education.  Lots of free projects and lessons there.  This one will end up as a little wall hanging somewhere after I embroider the Welcome To Our Home phrase on it.

Yesterday was such a peaceful day for us.  No visitors, even though I would have loved to see the family.  Just hubby and I, each doing our respective projects.  We call it Multitasking, our way.  Educators call this parallel play.  Apparently children of a certain age engage in alot of this before they become fully socialized.  They will each do their own thing, but in proximity to each other in a loose social group .  Great training for adulthood!  Team effort is one thing, but when the chips are down, it's what you can do by yourself that gets you where you want to go.  Not to say that being socially tuned in, empathetic, helpful, etc. is not an important part of our humanity.  Sharing our knowledge, imparting the "lore", supporting each other -- those make us members of the tribe.  But somewhere someone decided to strike that flint against a rock all by him/herself to bring new potential to the tribe.  If we had all sat around doing the same old thing as a group, we'd still be eating raw meat. 

And I'd never get to sew on my wonderful machines!