Stitch Therapy Christmas Party

I stitch with a group of gals at the LNS -The Sunflower Seed every Monday night. We all call it our therapy session. The size of the group varies from as few as 6 to as many as 12. When we have 12, we almost have to sit on top of each other.

It is our tradition to have some kind of Christmas party and it was held last night at the the shop. We had to postpone it from last week when we in the beginnings of a big ice and snow event. Therefore we were all anxious to get together and have our party. This year we ordered in pizza and Reina baked a dark chocolate cake. Mmmmm!!! Also several a variety of cookies and chocolates. Stitchers love their chocolate. There is a story behind the cake. She had baked and decorated cupcakes for us for last week when we had to cancel. They were decorated to look like reindeer. Her husband is a police officer so they got the cupcakes instead of us. Sorry we had to miss the reindeer, Reina.

Several years ago, the owner/designer at The Sunflower Seed, Anita, started a Friendship Series of Samplers. Most years she unveils the design at our Christmas party and gives a copy of the design to the person that is being honored that year. This year the honor went to our dear Joann. Anita names the sampler for the person using their maiden name. Here is Joann with the stitched design model for the "Joann Fleischer Sampler'. She was very surprised and pleased to be honored in this way. The sampler incorporates a lot of purple, Joann's favorite color.

We struggled trying to find out Joann's maiden name. Anita had the design done, but we did not have the name to put on it. So one night, she and I were both early to stitching and I just started talking to her about her family and steered the conversation to her mother and her name. Her mother had a rather unusual first name so I had her spell everything for me. Viola!!!, we had the name we needed. Anita was amazed at how I accomplished it. Joann even mentioned last night about how we even got the last name spelled correctly since it was always being spelled wrong. I reminded her of the time I got it from her I had her spell it for me. We did not want to spell it wrong on the pattern. Before we left for the evening, Joann had all the supplies to stitch her sampler.

Here is Anita with Joann. On the dedication on the pattern mentioned that Joann always had a smile on her face and a purple thread in her needle. We always know if we find a stray purple thread on the floor it belongs to Joann.
I have included a close up view of the sampler. This was one of my secret stitching designs I mentioned in previous posts. We made several changes as I stitched it, including totally redesigning the flowers. Purple is a favorite of mine too, so it was a fun stitch. Also, helped knowing who I was stitching it for. I knew that she would love it.

Joann Fleischer Sampler

28-ct Pink Whisper Linen

Thread Gatherer Silk 'n Colors

Crescent Colours Belle Soie

DMC

The design will become available at the Nashville Market in February.

We all had a fun evening together, but I am not sure how much stitching we got done. I heard a couple of people say, "I put in 6 stitches and promptly took those 6 stitches out". I know I had to do some ripping myself. The down side of things was that we will miss 2 weeks of stitching for the holidays coming up and The Sunflower Seed being closed between Christmas and New Years. We left saying we would see each other next year.

Update on Muffin. --- We made it through the night and all day with her crated up. She did fairly well until this evening. Then we decided she was hungry. Fed her and she seemed a little more satisfied. She is not used having to eat at specific times. Even though she does not eat all day, it is always available. So now when she has limited freedom, she will have to learn to eat when she is out of the crate. Only 5 weeks and 5 days to go. Ugh!!! Will we survive?

Off to put in a couple of stitches and then to bed.