More Things to Leave Me Speechless

Today was a really great and fun day.  Terri and Julie (no blog), took me out to lunch at Panera (yummmm) for a late birthday celebration.  They both outdid themselves and I'm so thrilled with the wonderful things they gave me - just about speechless again!!  

Terri gave me the greatest Vera Bradley bag.  She must have been embarrassed for me because of the pitiful excuse of a bag that I hauled back and forth to our Sampler Guild - Kindred Spirits.  But now I'm definitely styling:

I don't know which side I like better.  They're definitely my colors and what's so great is that the bag is reversible, so whatever mood I'm in, I'm all set.  Then in the bottom of the bag all wrapped up were three small presents:

Yahoo - I'm the recipient of her famous strawberries.  Have you seen these turning up all over blog land?  Well, I was coveting some because I'm too lazy to make my own!  LOL  These are just the cutest things.  She made them out of felted sweaters!  Cute, cute, cute!!  Then a wonderful pincushion made out of the same fabric (and there are some buttons hidden underneath - I haven't taken the pretty bow off yet), and a wonderful pair of Girly Scissors with one of Terri's famous beaded fobs.  Love, love them.  Actually love, love all of it!  Thank you so much Terri!!

From Julie I received this:

 A Tilda doll!  I can't believe that she made one for me!  I've wanted to make one for myself for the longest time, but you know how that goes - what you want to do and what you actually do are two different things.  But isn't she absolutely adorable?

Does she not have the sweetest face!  And I don't know if Julie reads my blog, but thank you, thank you so much!!  I know that these are not easy to make so I am just thrilled that she will be keeping me company in my craft room.

After lunch we had our Guild meeting and today's speaker was Kathy Barrick from Carriage House Samplings.  She came to look at our year-long class project - one of the Hawk Run Hollow pieces.

Here's a few of them:

I'm sorry that the pictures aren't better, but I was afraid that the flash would glare off those that were framed.  The two unfinished ones in the front are mine - such a slacker.

This one was so pretty - the stitcher added a wavey border all around the piece.  I think if you click on the picture it will enlarge.

One stitcher (and heaven help me I don't remember her name) took blocks of Shores and made into a Wedding album.  Here's the inside:

Here's the outside:

This was truly a stunning piece in person.

And a couple more:

It was so much fun to see these finished.  A lot of people added their own things into the pieces - renaming buildings around their lives or ancestors lives.  It was so nice to see all of them.  Kind of got me sparked to put needle to one of mine again.

Now you would think that I would have a picture of Kathy, right?  Well, I took a couple, but neither one of them came out worth beans.  Teaches me to use my son's camera instead of my own.  But Kathy brought some of her charts to sell, and in addition, just for our Guild, brought a new chart for us.  I love, love it!!!!

Do you not love it?  I do!!  And I think that as soon as I'm done with Sarah Seifer it's going on the scroll rods!

Well, that's it for me.  DH has steaks on the grill and corn on the cob boiling away.  I love those days when I don't have to cook dinner.

I've been up to no good in the sewing room and I'll post those pics in a few days.  Thanks for stopping by and leaving all your wonderful comments.  I truly love receiving them.  And Terri and Julie - thank you so much for your wonderful presents.  I just love them!!!!  Well, more than love them - I'll treasure them!