Bumps

I was so excited to get the finishing instructions for the Rhapsody in Blue class.  I am being very careful and reading and rereading the instructions so I can do this just right.  But I've hit a few bumps in the road.  First off, the mat board in my kit is just a tiny bit too small.

See,the hoop is hanging off the edge just a bit.  No problem, I have some matboard on hand that I can use.

Then I was trying to whip together the sides of this little tag that has a magnet in it for the edge of the top of the bag.  But it was just impossible to catch the over one (on 32 count) backstitches.  Did I stitch them too tight?  After a bit of frustration, I decided to restitch it.  I added one more thread on each side of the motif and I changed the edging stitch from a backstitch to a long arm cross.  I thought about just making the backstitch over two but then I remember how I like the long arm cross and knew it would be easy to whip together.  So that is what I did.

The first time I followed the directions and made the twisted cording, it wasn't long enough.  So maybe I didn't read the directions correctly.  I tried again and made the twisted cording using a total of 4 lengths of the thread and now I have plenty of cording.
 My goal today is to finish the bag entirely.  It is going to be so cute when it is done.

My BFF is tempting me into going to another retreat.  I have wanted to go to The Silver Needle in Tulsa as it looks like an awesome shop.  They have a retreat that sounds like fun in July.  Then to have a friend to go with me, I just can't resist!
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