Weekends like this make it all allright...

Tax season is over (can I hear a Hallelujah!). Thankfully it ended with a whimper, mostly from me. But immediately afterwards, I got to enjoy a fantastic weekend with some of my most favorite people in the world around me.
I was most blessed to be able to host Rae Iverson (seated with her arms around Debbie on the left and Andy on the right), who owns and designs for Moss Creek Designs for the weekend while she taught classes at the Sampler Guild of Georgia. (If you haven't seen Rae's designs, click on the link *now* and then come back and read the rest of this silly blog later. If you don't, and you do counted thread work on a regular basis, you'll kick yourself because you'll be missing some of the most original and challenging work out on the market today. And yes, I'm a groupie.)

At any rate, it was a great excuse to also host all my buddies for two nights of great food and great fun. We were flying in a bit of a missing man formation, because we were desperately missing DFs Ann and Teresa, who weren't able to join us. Having them here would have made a great weekend just perfect. But outside of that bit of a downer, we managed to have a pretty good time. :)

On the second row in the pic you see Jill, Judy, Linda, moi with HRL Oscar (who of course had to be in the middle of everything), and Cathy. In the back are my dear hubby Richard (who, using his Mensa-boy smarts set up a tripod and figured out the timer on the camera to get himself in the picture), Angela, Linda's hubby Big Jim, Heather's hubby Michael, and The Magic That Is Heather herself.

Unfortunately, missing from the shot were DFs Vicky and Ramona, both of whom had to work on Friday night when this picture was taken. They joined us on Saturday night (when, unfortunately, several other people weren't here), so we couldn't get a true "group" shot on either night.

We had food:Richard quite obviously loves the apricot chicken Andy made, as he decided to capture it for posterity. On Saturday night, Vicky treated us to homemade spaghetti and meatballs, with made from scratch (!!!) cheesecake (I still have some in my fridge - don't tell Jenny Craig).

The classes were great. On Friday we took Rae's Blueberries and Cream set:My photo is woefully inadequate, so check Rae's website for a better look. At any rate, we worked on the scissors fob in class. Note that it requires pointe de reprise work and some stumpwork berries. DF Judy has already decided that she wants to use fancy crystals instead of the stumpwork, but considering how stubborn I am, it's a point of honor to make the doggone berries. My work so far:
The little lump in the front is my attempt so far at a berry. Looks a little like a jelly fish. We'll just say it needs some work and leave it at that.

Saturday's class was actually a companion piece to another project we'd had at a previous Stitcher's Gathering called "She Maketh Fine Linen". Note that it contains wonderful little SHEEP made with rhodes stitches. :)Quit stitching on it on Saturday during class. See the brown "worms"? Over one stitching. One thread too far to the left. And if you stitch, you know that the only thing worse that stitching over one is frogging over one...... urgh. Time to let it rest for a couple of days.

On Saturday night we decided to work on some "ort" bags that we'd seen some folks with and that the Sampler Guild had made at their annual retreat. Rae had talked to the lady who had made them, and Ramona, Vicky, and Angela had been at the retreat. We figured we could probably figure out the pattern (since all of us are generally smarter than the average bear), and we think we've actually made some improvements. :) (BTW, if you're not familar with the term, an "ort" is that little bit of thread you have left after you've finished with what's in your needle. It's not big enough to use, and you generally end up with them all over the table. The ort bag gives you a nice tidy place to put them till you're through stitching and you can throw them away.)

Here we are plotting, planning, and stitching...
Yeah, it's blurry. Richard once again set up the timer so he could get this nifty pic of him pondering what Ramona was sewing, so I figured I should put it on the blog. :)

What the ort bag looks like (sorta -- mine's not completely finished as I was documenting the pattern):
But the really kewl thing is how they look "closed":Totally worth the trouble. :)

On Sunday we went to the Sampler Guild meeting, where Rae delivered a fascinating lecture on Mary, Queen of Scots. The current politicos have nothing on that chick! :)

So today I'm exhausted, but it's a good kind of tired. I'm glad to have had such a wonderful weekend and I'm so happy to have so many great friends in my life who have become my extended family. If you've got that, what more can you ask for??