Back at home!

And it feels good.

We took an 8-day trip. First stop to my sister’s to leave the bird and have dinner with her. 

Everyone wants on the Hubs' lap. The bird is in another room.

Next stop was Nashville and we met our new great-grandson! He is home from the hospital but has more surgery coming. He’s a handsome lad. Great snuggles were had. He got his baby quilt and the two receiving blankets, and our great-granddaughter got her new quilt and some new shoes and boots! Granddaughter is thrilled with the new-to-her scrapbooking supplies and I can’t wait to see what she does with them. Our stepdaughter’s family brought dinner over to granddaughter’s house to celebrate my birthday last week. Shopping with the girls the next day, a solo trip to a local quilt shop, then off to Pensacola Beach for classes. 

The Embrilliance classes were fabulous! And I got a surprise—a former co-worker of Cindy’s that I have known for several years was sitting in the classroom when I walked in. We both dropped our jaws, hugged each other, and said, “I had no idea you did this!” DeeDee knew I quilted but she didn’t know I embroidered. I didn’t know DeeDee embroidered, and she told me, “Covid.” Yep, so did a lot of people, and I think that’s a very good thing.

Both of us were in the Essentials and Enthusiast classes, and I was in the intermediate StitchArtist workshop one evening and she was in the beginner StitchArtist class the next day. We’ve promised to keep learning and bounce off ideas and issues. I believe this will be very helpful to both of us, although we’re in it for different reasons. She has some little grands for whom she’s been making lots of appliquéd and stitched shirts and accessories, and she’s ready to dabble in digitizing. I am excited for both of us!

Lisa critiqued my homework submission that was a reworking of the edge-to-edge design I created for the “Plum Crazy” table topper I finished earlier this year. She was very complimentary of the way the design traveled, and she also gave me some insight on how she would redo the plum parts. I’m always grateful for tips and insight into best practices; I’d much rather have a better stitch-out than being patted on the head and not being told what’s wrong with the design. Lisa is an excellent teacher and I hope to attend another StitchArtist workshop next year. 

We spent a little time on the beach Saturday but, let me tell you, traffic was crazy. If we ever go back, it will be during the week and we'll leave on a Saturday. The weather was perfect and we rented a golf cart to explore for a couple of hours. We had some great food, too:

Jedi has a thing about being above table level so he can see everything going on...

With all the driving we did, I was able to un-quilt the Girl Gang DIY Sampler quilt—all that was left when we pulled into our driveway Monday were the basting stitches on the perimeter of the quilt sandwich, and I took those out Monday afternoon while doing laundry. 

Coming soon—Antelope Canyon will be a flimsy soon, and work has begun on digitizing the edge-to-edge quilting design for the Girl Gang DIY Sampler quilt. Some other "just because" sews are also popping in because the upcoming heat will find me doing some smaller projects. I’ll be in touch. In the meantime, go make!