Off to the Victorian Stitchery Retreat

I am thrilled to be leaving for Wichita tomorrow to teach "Curved Crazy 'Piecing'" and also "Home Portraits" at the Victorian Stitchery Retreat.  The conference will be held at the restored Hotel at Old Town which looks so cool and inviting.
It will be great to see old friends and meet new ones, enjoy the company of my fellow teachers, and generally stitch like mad for the next four days.

I prepared a new Home Portrait myself to demo and work on alongside my students.

There is a special reason for using a border of antique quilt blocks....I'll tell you about it later.  But they fit the Red Guest House at my cousins' ranch in New Mexico pretty well, don't you think?

I did manage to add a few more (crucial) details to "Hummer's Joy" after we got home from Mexico.  It just felt like something was missing to me.

It needed more dimensional work.  I don't know why, but it did, especially that daisy in the upper right.  I added some oya to the center of the flower bouquet, too.

It sure looked different here at home when we got back from Mexico!

Fall really fell.
I wonder if it will be winter when I get back!

Happy Stitching til then.....

Hummer's Joy

That's my name for the pounded flower experiment I've been stitching on here in Mexico.  And it has been a joy.

Now it's time to pack up.  Here is my "work station"....I've worked on so many things at this table over the years.  A couple of my book projects, a block from "Crazy for Flowers", and quilt for the Alliance for American Quilts contest to name a few....all right here.
Often while my husband is out on the water...

...kayaking and sporting with the dolphins if they come by.  That tiny black dot on the water is him!

I have had a soundtrack for this too.  It is such a pretty, pretty song.  It is called "Blackberry Vine", by Devin Townsend.  (In his day job he has a Death Metal band, but it supports gorgeous music projects like this, from the album Ghost.)

I got pretty far on this piece:

It needs an outer border or at least a binding....the big challenge was integrating the 3 D embellishments with the printed photo in the center.  I'd like to try it again....

So it is adios to Mexico....it's been grand.