This Little Piggy....

...not much progress made tonight...

Weekend Stitching

I'll let the picture do the talking....

A Butterfly, a Bird, and a Cow

Stitching a little bit every night on this. I've made good progress, but I have a lot more to go. Fun, fun!

Inch by Inch...

...this sampler is a cinch!




And...I'm loving every inch!

Loving Every Stitch

I wish I had more time to spend stitching. The colors really pop on this linen!

Border Success

Tonight, while watching the closing ceremonies for the Olympics, I put the border in. My mission was two-fold - I had about eight extra inches of linen on the right side that I wanted to cut off. I stitch in hand and wanted to eliminate the extra bulk/weight. I wasn't brave enough to cut until I had that border stitched! Second, it just always feels good to know that your border matches. Mission accomplished!




Looking forward to continuing to stitch this sampler!

Here's a snap of a plant in my flower garden that is flourishing. It is called Hen and Chicks.




Enjoy the week ahead!

Progress Made

I love everything about this sampler! Worked on the border and stitched a few more motifs!

Oops I Did It Again

Yes, I started another new project. I was yearning to work on a sampler. All Creatures Great and Small by Barbara Ana won!

Show and Tell

A week ago at retreat was Show and Tell day. This is my favorite day at retreat because we have so many amazing Stitchers in our guild. Here are some of my favorite finishes!













































What fun we had admiring all of the lovely stitches that were on display!

Sharing our Wisdom

It's been a whirlwind week. When I last posted, I had just returned from a weekend in Indianapolis. I did my laundry and repacked my bags and headed out to Buffalo, MN for the annual Needlework Guild of Minnesota retreat.

This year's theme was "Sharing our Wisdom" and what better image to depict our theme than an owl! I collected many different owls leading up to the retreat and received several from friends during the week.



Remember the super secret stitching I was doing a few weeks ago?




I was creating little owl pincushions!




I took one class at this year's retreat with Carolyn Standing Webb. The project was called "Feather Your Nest." It's a box filled with a variety of Minnesota-themed smalls. The top of the box is the face of an owl peering out of a hole in a tree.




Now you understand why I stitched those beady eyes. My owl face needs more work, but I'm off to a good start.

One of the fun things we do at retreat is a secret stitcher exchange. I stitched my secret stitcher this pincushion using a design from Blackbird Designs.



My secret stitcher made this fabulous bag for me! It has pockets on the inside. Great colors!



One of the highlights of retreat is Show and Tell. We have some very talented needleworkers in our guild so it's quite a feast for the eyes. I took a lot of photos but will save those for another post.

Getting ready to go back to work tomorrow. Bah Humbug.

Carmel, IN

We did a little sightseeing on this trip. Carmel, IN is a beautiful city. Located near where our class was held was a Japanese garden. It was a beautiful day and we had a few extra minutes, so we took time to walk through. What a very peaceful place this was!












The Carmel City Hall is a very stately looking building. A fountain sits in front.






Now, you are probably wondering why I was in Carmel, IN. We were here to take "A Book of Beries" with Lauren Sauer!



During class on Saturday, Lauren shared some of her current teaching pieces with us.



The bonus of the weekend was spending time with our good friends from Indiana and from other places far and near!

On the Road Again

New quilt shop in Osseo, WI...




Our favorite place for lunch...



Pie, of course! Peach, cherry, blueberry...



We deviated from our original travel plan and landed in LaPorte, IN...



Samplers from C Street Samplerworks...



Big day tomorrow!