Strawberry Hill

Yesterday at step class it was the instructor's birthday.  She had many balloons all over the floor and cupcakes for all of us.  I couldn't believe that she is 65!  She is my hardest teacher and everyone works hard to keep up with her.  We had fun celebrating her birthday.

I have been working on several projects.  I get distracted so easily.  Something cute comes along and I drop everything to work on it.  I took the Strawberry Hill project to work on at the retreat.  I didn't get much done as I spent most of my time trying to finish up Briar Rose and Beautiful.  I started it on a too small piece of linen.  Then I doodled with it just to see how it would look one over one.  I have wanted to do a mattress pin cushion with the edge having a strawberry vine design.

I started it again on a larger piece of linen.  I meant to just do the pin cushion part but I love the strawberry vine at the top so I added that.  Then I thought of making a hufwife and I've kept going.  I saw that there are six letters of the alphabet on a line and thought of doing my name instead.  So I made a couple of copies of the chart and cut them up to see how it would look.

I didn't really want to stitch the alphabet so I am going with my name.

There is another strawberry vine at the bottom.  This project is on 35 count but it doesn't look that tiny or delicate.  I am feeling more comfortable with smaller counts.
I got some mail today.  The mailman usually comes in the middle of the afternoon but today he came in the morning.  He brought me a package that I had ordered two months ago.

It is a kit for 30 Mary Engelbreit ornaments.  I want to start the tradition of making Claire a little Christmas ornament every year.  Now I have to decide on which one.  Too many cute ones to choose from!
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