Embroidery, Strings and Halloween

Our long time building secretary is retiring next week after 38 years. The month of September has been declared a special month just for her. Different folks are doing things for her each day and it has been a lot of fun. Quite a number of us have been embroidering tea towels for her. The ones I was given to do were ladies with hats that just begged to be made into Red Hat Ladies! It has been a while since I have done a lot of embroidery (I used to do a lot of embroidery, crewel and needlepoint in the 70's) but things came back quickly. Most of it is just a chain stitch with a few feather type stitches and french knots (I've never been good at french knots!). Anyway, I got quite a compliment today when someone asked if the one on the left was machine done! "Such tiny, even stitches" they said! That made me feel good!

In my Stashbuilder's group we are doing a string block swap using Christmas fabrics. This is a great way to use up scraps of fabric. I've made 24 of these and will get 24 back. I will probably make some more later to be able to make a larger piece. I'm thinking of making it large enough for a table cloth.

And now on to Halloween! These are for my ArtsNTheMail group...the fabric I used is leftover from a quilt top I made last year. The top is still in the drawer of UFOs...so hopefully I can get it done...someday!

Things are busy at school and I am missing my time in my studio that I got spoiled with during the summer, but hopefully things will settle down so I can spend an hour or two several evenings a week. I feel so much better when I can! I just have to make sure I still get enough sleep!