Monday - an Update

Well, where to begin this week? Of course, I'm sure everyone has heard by now of the death of Marc Davis. What a shock that was; I thought for sure we'd be hearing something about George one of these days, instead, but it just goes to show you just never know.... Marc will be missed - it's amazing to actually look at the number of designs he created in a short time, really, and that's not even going into all the things he inspired other to do - my Samplar 4 Saisons is a direct result of his influence, having seen his done in the multi color years ago when I first found his Sampler Life group. And then the design that really grabbed the imagination of so many of us, Fire Flower:

I have Jardin du Jour in the stash, and now really need to get Phoenix Rising to do as a companion to FF - but only once, I think :) What a talent! He will be missed.

On the day that we learned about Marc, I received a wonderful RAK, from that master of the RAK and friend & patron to USPS employees everywhere, Chris! She sent me two sets of the QSnap huggies she makes (which I was going to make for myself, some day) and the cutest card, complete with doggie confetti! She sent one for my 6" & 8" sets - one went immediately onto Medi Mini :) They are so nice (and so nice that I didn't have to frustrate myself trying to sew straight lines - Chris does beautiful work!!!) They will be much used! Thank you, my friend - a much-needed pick-me-up on Thursday....

I also received another beautiful RAK, this one from Lisa, a beautiful scissor fob, that needs a new pair of red-handled scissors to adorn :) I just so happen to have a 40% off coupon for Hobby Lobby this week...

Click for the original pic in my RAK album, so you can zoom in and see all the details on this!! The beads are gorgeous - Lisa really puts beautiful beads together!

I have a finish to report!! TW's Medieval Miniature is DONE!!!! I had all of the cross stitching done last week, leaving the 1/2-stitched castle and most of the backstitching to do, over the weekend, between running around, house duties, and dog walks, and got the beads on it yesterday (I ad-libbed the purple ones - there weren't enough, so I added a few more :) ). Glad to have this done - man, I hate backstitching over-1! I had to dig out some sharps to get to some of it - I snapped 2 of my tapestry petites! :( The pic doesn't show it off very well - the armor has an opal Kreinik in it, as does the water at the base of the castle (on the left side, over the horse's head), and there's a lot more BS in it than shows. But hey, I finished a TW, working primarily only on my lunch break, in under a year!!!

I have a small Halloween piece that I will do in place of this now, then will get D is for Dog done - then rekit the travel projects for the new soccer season starting in August :)

My main piece for the week was Lady & Unicorn, and though I did not get the top row of pages done, I did get a big chunk done, including 20-30 rows completed!!! I am well over 26K stitches, and if I have a good week next month, should get the top row done then; once I got out of the flag, it was nothing but confetti! I think I probably did somewhere between 800-1000 stitches this week, all told - they are so scattered, it was hard to get it figured up. Felt like that many, at any rate :) Again, I took an overall and a detail pic:

This week, I get MTM out again, and hopefully crank through the last of Part 5!! Who knows what else? We have Big Kid's signing day tomorrow, and since I managed to open my stupid mouth and volunteer for one of the asst. manager's spots, I don't know if I have to go to signing, or not. Last year was mismanaged beyond belief, but as I can't get the coach or the other manager involved, I'm not doing squat until told - it's no wonder it was such a cluster last year. At any rate, hopefully soccer stuff won't interrupt progress this week :)

Speaking of volunteering, 23 years ago this coming October 29th, I left Ohio for the great state of Texas, and USAF Basic Military Training. Hard to believe it's been that long! Anyway, some months ago, one of the other girls that was in my flight at Lackland AFB found me, though the Women's Memorial sight, and come to find out, she and one other live here in the Atlanta metro!! And they are in contact with a couple of others! So anyway, we arranged to get a few of us together this weekend - one was down from Maryland for the weekend, though one of the two that lives her wasn't able to make it. But after we finally all got together (big wreck, horrible traffic, I was 2 hours late), it was a good time!

Me, Sonia, & Devona, and then Devona's friend/relative (because I was so damn late, I was too frazzled to remember the introduction - forgive me my CRS). Not pictured: Sheila. Of course, we weren't Karen, Sonia, Devona & Sheila then, we were Williams, Nobles, Barber, and Strobert, from all walks of life. Hey, can you pick out the country bumpkin in this picture???? There are a couple of other old-timey pics here - I assume these aren't classified anymore, since this heap's been in the bone yard for a number of years...

Until next week, Happy Stitching, everyone!