3 day weekend and lots of pictures!

I have been a busy bee lately. I finally finished my bee-themed exchange gift and mailed it off to the recipient. I can't show you yet until I know she's received it but I was happy with it, after a few bumps in the road along the way! I changed my mind twice about what I was making so it took me longer than I thought. I do enjoy making exchange gifts and always want them to be something I would be happy to receive myself.

I received this wonderful package from Cathy B last weekend. Isn't it great? Cathy had my name for the "What's the Buzz" exchange on the SBEBB board. She stitched this fob from Shepherd's Bush and included all sorts of fun items as well. I love the bee fabric she sent and also she included a cute hanging bee ornament I already have displayed in my sewing room. Since I have been accumulating more scissors lately I am excited to get a new fob! Thank you so much Cathy, I love all the things you sent. There's just something so exciting about receiving a package in the mail and especially when it's something stitched. :)

I finished up some more of my Shepherd's Bush monthly series pictured at the bottom of this post. I started these a few years ago but only got 2 months completed and a start on the third before falling to the UFO-syndrome. I'm determined to finish these this year! I am now done with 7 of the 12. I am using an old frame I have at home to size them and do all the mounting of the pieces on foam core. I do want to get a new frame made so that I can rotate the piece out each month. There's no way I'm going to pay for 12 framing jobs and I've no place to put them all up anyway. It's likely I'll end up with a white frame since each month uses a different color linen. It's been fun as I can use up some of the 28-ct linen odds & ends I have and get to stitch on some fun colors instead of just neutrals for a change. It's amazing how happy I get when I get to stitch on pink linen! I love pink but have none really in my house. My plan is to someday redecorate my sewing room in pink but that's a task for the future.

Oh happy day, a 3-day weekend is here! I'm so thankful. I hope all of you enjoy the Labor Day weekend and plan some fun activities. I am planning on spending some time with a quilting friend on Sunday to show her how to do some finishing techniques for cross-stitch. Making cording and things like that. Vonna if you are reading this, I gave her the link to your easel tutorial and she was so pleased with it. We're going to be making one on Sunday. Then I need to catch up with the Prairie Schooler Wreath SAL and a multitude of other things. DH and I will spend time with the dogs and generally relaxing, we're not doing any traveling this weekend. Both of our dogs swim well and enjoy playing in the pool.

I so enjoy blogging and hearing from all of you stitchers out there. Thank you for stopping by and have a safe and fun holiday!