Thank you note

Yesterday I got a get-well email from a friend, and she included a thank you note and this picture of a sampler I made 12 years ago. I know I got a thank you note from her when they received this sampler as a wedding present, but it was wonderful to hear that they still enjoy and appreciate this.



I used to make a lot of wedding and birth samplers for friends and family, but I've been getting out of the habit. My sister dismantled a wedding sampler after her marriage ended, and I think some of the fabric got damaged. I had offered to remake it for her, but I think it was therapeutic for her to take a scissors to it; I have not had the heart to make too many wedding samplers since then. My grandson P got an afghan which was lost, so my granddaughter doesn't even have a sampler. She has had a smocked dress and doll clothes for her baby, so she isn't completely neglected, but I haven't worked on the dresses from her latest "order." Most of my recent stitching has been long-term, intricate, and for me!

Back to work

I started back to work on Monday; but I can tell I'm out of shape. Going up the stairs I have to slow down, so that I'm not puffing by the time I get upstairs. I made most of the day, but was able to go home a little early. Today I'm back, and I fell better, so I already see an improvement.

So I promised to show you what I accomplished while I was home. I'm actually a little amazed by how far I got. One more week of concentrated stitching (or a couple of months of after work stitching) and I will be close to being done. (I am going on vacation in July, celebrating my dad's 80th birthday, so I'm hoping to get some stitching done then too.)

Here it is!





You can see the comparison here. 3 of the 4 gazebos are done. 11 of the 16 arches are done. 3/4 of the outline scroll work is done, and more than half of the vines are done. Then of course... we have the beads. I guess I will have to talk about those in a different post.