A Little Vacation Stitching

Thought I'd share what I worked on while I was visiting with my stitching and knitting friends up in Atlanta. I had hoped to get more done, but as usual we spent some time just hanging out and doing some things other than stitching, like eating and beading and chatting.

But you don't really want to hear all that, you're here to see some eye candy. I really didn't work on anything that was a WIP, it was all about new starts. Like this one...

 Which I realize is hard to see. The colors are very, VERY light, but hopefully you'll get a better idea as I go along. I decided last year that I wanted to do Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart and do it all on one large piece of linen to be framed together. I found the perfect fabric when our Sampler Guild went down to Mt. Dora for an ornament finishing class late last year so I bought it and the first leaflet. If you can tell I've got a good start going on the first block, which is January. I'd love to say I'll work one block a month, but I know that's not going to happen. I'll work on it as I can and maybe in a couple of years I'll have a wonderful sampler that celebrates my family and friends.

The next start I made was one I've been looking forward to quite a bit. I was captivated by this sampler when The Attic had it as one of their samplers of the month and ordered it thinking I'd get around to starting it at some point. Here's what I've managed so far...

By Miladys Needle, Margaret Brown using the silk conversion that Jean at The Attic came up with. Not much of a start, but at least it's something. This isn't a very large piece, so there is hope I'll finish this one during 2011.

Finally I started another large project with a couple of friends. My DF Jean, who's birthday I went to help celebrate, "talked" me into this lovely piece, Alphabets by The Drawn Thread. Jean thought it would be fun to start something on her birthday, so we did. We got all our materials together and had a lovely time getting started, after a bit of a false start when I miscalculated where we should start. But all is well and I am very happy with how this is looking.

I managed to finish the first row of the top alphabet before leaving Atlanta. It's done in NPI silks and a couple of silk twist fibers on Lambswool linen. While the three of us are working on this, our DFs Andy, Jill & Heather will be working on a Drawn Thread piece that they had in their stash. I'm not sure who's doing what other than I'm fairly certain Heather is going to be working on Random Thoughts. (I'll let her tell when she gets set up as a contributor on this blog since I know it's going to be one of the 11 in her rotation.) I did sit down today and figure out what I'd have to finish each month to finish in a year. We'll see what happens.

I also did a bit on the sampler I'm working on for my parent's 50th wedding anniversary but I couldn't get a picture today since they are around. I'll try to sneak some pictures in soon. I loved my visit in Atlanta and am upset that instead of being able to spend Sunday there with everyone I had to fly home early to escape "Snowopolypse 2011", but it all worked out well. I was able to take my mom for her birthday dinner yesterday when I got home which she enjoyed a lot.