July - in like a lion!

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Hello Friends!  Here is it July 1st and we have found ourselves in a verifiable heat wave here in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.  The heat reached an all time high of 108 last week!  And, we suffered through the worst storm I've ever seen in my life Friday night.  It was my husband's birthday and we were having dinner out, about 40 minutes from home.  The power went out several times during dinner and the rain and wind were indescribable.  The drive home was like driving through a war zone.  I know many of you, all over the East coast have experienced the same.  Luckily for us, we didn't have any serious property damage and we have electricity but many of our neighbors were not so lucky.  Our new (like they are in the process of moving in) neighbors had a tree fall across their car.  We have tons of limbs and sticks to deal with, but escaped virtually unscathed.  However, we are praying for all of our friends and neighbors who are dealing with much worse..

Now for the Share-A-Stitch report... What a wonderful five day get-away!!  The facility (Meadowbrook Conference Center) in Kingsport TN is just fabulous.   The staff was excellent, the service was spotless and the food was tremendous.  In short, I can't say enough good things about the place.  My roomie and I traveled down mid-week and since only one of us can drive at a time, I stitched until it was my turn to take the wheel.  It was a pleasure to get a few hours of power stitching in on a few small projects.  A couple of hours go so far when you're talking about small projects!

The first is an amulet bag/name tag by GPA (Giulia Punti Antichi).  I've had this kitted up for at least a year and a half.  The beads Giulia has had made to accompany her designs are addictive.  You can click on the photo below to get a better look at the one I've used for the scissors fob.   

The only thing I have left to do on this project is to add the focal bead and tassel to the bottom of the bag.  I can't wait to wear this to our next meeting.

My other car project is a small canvas piece that looks like a piece of stained glass.  I'm in love with everything about it..

It's been a blast just filling in the blocks with whatever new stitch I decide I want to try.  I'm envisioning this on the front of an Ott light carry bag when finished.

As for class, I took studio time in order to get my Monet piece started.  Well, I got it started and that's about all I can say for it.  When I have enough to warrant a photo, I'll share..  It could be awhile..

Per usual, I enjoyed the boutique and bookstore a great deal.  I picked up 5-10 new threads, a couple of pattern books, a couple of needlepoint stitch guides, some slender stretcher bars (which I love!), and a bunch of blank needlepoint canvas.  I have big plans for the canvas (stay tuned...)

All in all, it was a huge success.  The only thing that could have made it better was to have had dinner with my husband on Thursday night, which was our anniversary.  Being the kind soul that he is, he encouraged me to take the trip anyway and sent this gorgeous arrangement in place of actually being together on our special day...

They just got more beautiful by the day...

What a guy... I'm a lucky girl!