Helen Has Been Here!! Angels Are Sighing!

Darling Helen surprised me with a get well gift which came today. Oh, you could have heard the angels sigh!!

It was the gift you dream of. The package was wrapped with care and pink silk ribbon. Inside the outer celephane wrap and french blue tissue paper sat a french blue silk bag like a jewelers pouch, hand-stitched and tied with another ecru silk ribbon. Inside this precious little bag was the final treasure. A delicate little fob! It is so tiny, and so sweet, and so finely stitched and finished you could just look at it every day for the rest of your life and never tire of it.

Just look at that tiny bird and peace branch, and the rosy stars around it.
It's finished on the back with the blue silk fabric and dressed with a tiny silver heart, and beads and a crystal, as you see.

Helen, you have given me the equivalent of a miniature hazelnut truffle cake with whipped cream frosting and an array of strawberries across the top!

I adore it!!

Stitching friends, I'm very sorry, you will just have to gulp very hard and eat the ol' green monster tonight! I love you all....

Deb

Carissa....this is for you!!!

For those of you who wish I would get it over with already, I apologize. But, I want to keep Carissa abreast of the progress on her Neighborhood because I've traumatized her so much! Poor thing!

This is my Saturday progress, and I'm stitching this week to complete it, and mail it along to Bine in Germany.


It's been a rocky road this couple of months, as you know, but I have loved that this little house will represent cheerful recovery, perserverance, and the love and kindness of friends and family. I'm naming it Hopewell House.

A basketful of berries and flowers and little creatures are coming next!

Hugs and thanks to all who keep track of me! I cherish every single comment and personal email. You are each one very special friends!
Deb

Here's another progress picture of my house in Carissa's Neighborhood RR. I'm happy to have gotten the raspberry colors in for the roof and chimney's and the blue doorways. More stitching on it tonight! Thanks for your encouragement, Carissa, and all my lovely stitching friends!

I was in touch with an old Bookclub member from my Wellesley Bookgroup days...many of you have heard me talking about them. The time of the September Reunion is coming, and Louise was so thoughtful and kind to offer to keep me at her house if I go to MA for the party! So sweet of her.

She's going to be coming by to see my blog...and probably dropping by some of yours, too. So, bookish friends, comment here so she'll know who you are!!! LOL I told her many of us are now in the thoroughs of reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," but we are an eclectic group of stitching and reading women...so do mention what's on your current list when you comment this time, please.

Sending much love and hugs,

Deb

I wanted to share with you the two pieces my first Fair & Square partner, Karen V sent me! As usual my camera leaves alot to be desired, but Karen's squares are very pretty. She used a medium pink silk to create this quaker symbol, which is her favorite thing. I sent her a small scan of my quilt fabric which I'm using as the background for my Fair & Square quilt!

Here's a picture of that fabric, below. I'm so delighted with Karen's contribution to my quilt! And, aren't the threads she sent me pretty, too!?Thanks so much, Karen!! Hugs, Deb

Hello Neighborhood RR July 2007

I do love making progress on my Neighborhood RR, but hope that Carissa isn't too sad that I've been held back by illness. Here's the best pic I can take of what I've stitched so far on my little house part of her Neighborhood. The fancy parts are to come, but I loved the smokey "soot" and cream colored bricks and the red roof of this house. There will be climbing flowers and berries, too! :))

This is my progress, and I have lots of stitching to do so I can mail it along the first week of August!! Pray for the stitching angels to come my way!

Of course, the beautiful pink house is Carissa's!! Isn't it pretty!

Hugs,
Deb

Harry Potter

DH has given me a "get well" gift...went downtown Naples in the dead of night and cashed in my hot little pre-order Voucher for my 1st edition "Harry and the Deadly Hallows."

I'm properly propped up in bed reading bit by bit of it, and drifting off to sleep getting more and more well, I hope. Harry is good for the heart. I keep seeing him raise his hand and reminding himself and us that we can only tell the truth...and I feel the world is a safe place...at least in some of our hearts.

Sending hugs to all in the Order...
Love, Deb

I'm Home Again

Thank you to all who took the time to wish me well while I was in the hospital and feeling so horrible. I do believe they devise those IVs and the gruesome nightcrew who have to "re" introduce them into you (because your other one looks infected now...) as incentives to make you go home sooner...well healed or not!! LOL

Now that I'm home, I'm staring at my stitching and looking forward to being able to stitch long hours at it again. My DH tells me I was stitching in thin air when I was under medication....way under medication...with my eyes closed and out of it! He said he never realized how delicately and precisely stitching was worked until he saw just my hands working alone. He thought it was beautiful. I was so touched, and also delighted to know that stitching is the essence of me...even when I'm feeling deathly ill!! LOL

So, I just want to thank all of you for caring and sticking in there with me. You are the best of friends! It was your friendship that kept my heart warm and gave me something to hold on to...and the days of future stitching that kept my eyes looking forward with joy, as well. Thank you.

Thank you for your special notes, cards, and comments, dear friends. You know who you are. You are so dear. Thank you for phone calls and letters.

Thanks everyone! Hugs, Deb

Mailart Exchange!

Here is my darling mailart piece which my partner, Jane Click, sent from Washington, DC. I'm so grateful for all her work and thoughtfulness! She chose the lily of the valley pattern from a French cross stitching magazine. They are so sweet and delicately worked on natural linen. The inside is lined with pink and white checked fabric. I think it's overall appearance has a fresh and springtime feel. I don't know if you can see the spots of pink in the lilies!

Some Happy Gifts

My dear friend, Carol Sutcliffe, sent me this precious fobbie for a belated birthday gift, and I just love it. So many of my things are antiques and old English and French, so this fits right in with my little treasures! I just love it. And, I'm so grateful to have such wonderful, caring friends, too! Isn't it pretty?! Here's a photo of the back with a friendship tree and our initials: This background fabric is going to be a needlework arm chair "pocket" for my stitching smalls. I have a piece that collects my throw-away threads and extra needles and tape measures, etc. But, I want to make one to house my pretty scissors and fobs with a place for needles threaded for the current piece I'm working most often. I'll post a pic. when I get it made.

I've missed you all. Have not been well since my trip to Vegas...my back's been out with my disc disease, and I didn't have a great trip for various reasons. I'm happy to be home, and have just started back stitching again.

What a source of comfort and strength you are as stitching friends. I'm so grateful for each of you. Thanks for being there in so many ways...posting comments here, little RAKS in the mail, emails, notes and all the sweet things you do. It really keeps me going!!

Love,

Deb