Colorado Trip Stitching :-)

I just spent 4 days on a trip to Durango Colorado with some work friends. What a great time we had. We rented a minivan and drove up together and rented a condo. We took the Durango-Silverton Train which is an all-day trip along the Animas River on a coal-burning vintage train. It was just gorgeous as you can see from my pictures at the end of this post. It was glorious to experience cool mornings and evenings although mid-day was hot in the sun. We also drove up in the mountains to visit Ouray, played poker, and generally enjoyed a few microbreweries. :) Didn't visit any LNS's or quilt shops this trip as my companions weren't hobbyists like me. I got the usual comments you get from non-stitchers like "How do you know where to put the stitches?" and "How can you sew while you're riding in a car?" It's hard to explain our passion to other people. Since I wasn't one of the drivers though I got a lot of stitching time in while riding on the way up and back from Phoenix. (about a 7-8 hour drive) I started Little House Needleworks' "Sampler Lady" as I thought it would be a good "travel project". I'm stitching it on 32-ct R&R Creme Brulee and substituting colors here and there. Here's my progress so far:


I've decided I don't like using overdyed threads on big areas of stitching - I don't like the striated effect you get. I had to go back and frog some of the blue blouse as it appeared there was a light streak all across her chest. I like overdyes for leaves, lettering, and things like that, just not large areas. I'm going to do the skirt in a solid DMC to avoid any issues. This is a fun stitch and it's moving along pretty quickly, at least for me.

I'm just about done with my Merry Cox project. I only have the cloth bag left to make. I debated about even making it, because I'll probably never use it but I have all the kit pieces so might as well. I hope to have pics of my finish after this weekend.