fun, fun, fun!

First off, here is Susan.  She's coming along slowly but surely.

This pic was taken with a flash and the rest were taken with just my ott lite.  (It's rainy today.)

She's pretty, isn't she?

I love that duck in the middle!

So is that the fun, you ask?  Well, Susan is fun to stitch, but no.  That's not what I was referring to in the title.  And you will want to throttle me, cause I'm going to tell you about the fun, but I don't have pictures of the fun -- except for a few.

This weekend was a two day class at my LNS with Jeannette Douglas.  It was a fun two days too!  Jeannette taught us a new piece called the Island of Hope Sampler based on her research of Ellis Island.  She requested that we not show too much of the piece since she's hoping to teach it at another location next year.

But I figured I would show you a small part of my sampler to give you a tease.

I think the lovely star quilt motif is one of my favorite parts of this design.

Jeannette is such a lovely person, very fun, and a wonderful teacher too.  We got to work our way down the sampler, doing a motif here and a motif there and learning new stitches and techniques along the way.  It was great to be able to stitch on the sampler as we went along.  Jeannette also showed us a slide show about herself and her family, her designs, and of various places where she has taught.  At the end was a lovely slideshow of sampler collections and stitching tool collections she has visited.

Of course we also got to shop.  lol!  I picked up a few things, of course.  I so want to stitch this piece of Jeannette's.

As is so often the case, the picture doesn't do it justice at all.  For one thing, it's not stitched on white linen.  There are also smalls to go with the piece.

Jeannette showed me how easy it is to do the finishing on the box top and the smalls.  She says she is another one of those who would rather be stitching than finishing, so she likes easy finishing.  Which is good!

And there was a model of this piece that one of our class mates had stitched and which was framed.

Once again, the picture doesn't do it any justice at all.  IRL, it's spectacular!  Beautiful colors (red, ladies!), wonderful stitch design.  It's so neat!  So of course I had to get it as well.

I'm so glad I took this class.  Jeannette is a wonderful teacher and so much fun to learn from!

Finally, I won a prize from Catherine of Bramblewood Stitches.  She and her family had gone to Williamsburg, and while there, she picked up a cute bag to give away.  But she gave me much more than just the bag!

It had goodies in the bag as well!

She gave me some charts -- and she really picked well, she knows my tastes!  Also some chocolate (yum!), some stationery, a lovely piece of linen, and some fibers that look very very Williamsburg in color!  Thank you so much, Catherine!  I feel so spoiled!

I forgot to mention last week that the boy child's NYSSMA score wasn't that great.  He got a 95, an A.  Not good enough for All State.  But that's ok.  The boy child doesn't seem to mind.  He's just happy to be done with NYSSMA auditions for good.  :D

I will close with a picture of the two friends in a position that the boy child seems to enjoy.  I think Mia enjoys it much less.  lol!

Poor Mia!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi!  I enjoy our visits.  Have a great week!