Last winter, Catherine and Deb from Kansas came out to Plymouth to embroider bearing gifts of coffee and chocolate. This September they came again, bringing more chocolate (bless them) and a friend! Catherine and Deb had been trying to persuade Sandye to come out to Plymouth and exercise her considerable embroidery skill on the jacket, but, well, we all know the gravitational pull of our usual orbit can be pretty strong. This time,they contacted Sandye’s husband and explained the situation. He responded by making Sandye a plane reservation and then telling her to sort out the rest of the arrangements. How great is that?

Sandye brought treasures to share with us. First is a favor she made for her husband to carry. They are members of the Society for Creative Anachronism, as are many of our embroidery volunteers. The first picture is Sandye holding up her work, the second is a close up. She said that she has often been asked why she made him such a lovely favor to carry, wouldn’t it get ruined? She says, I know how to make another. And after hearing about his supportive attitude towards her avocation, I bet we all agree he totally deserves pretties.

Sandye really likes snails. Do you see how the coiling vine is the snail’s shell? It’s subtle, and so pleasing because you have to discover it. She said she used up leftovers from other projects on this.

Here is a coif she embroidered. There are many motifs on it, including a snail which isn’t visible from this angle.

The last piece was a gift to Sandye from Catherine. In the SCA it is an honor and an achievement to receive a laurel (or is always plural?), and it sounds like it can also be a grand party! Catherine made this for Sandye for Sandye’s laurel award.  See the snail?

(SCA members, did I mess that up completely? Straighten me out.)

At our last session, Chris was our only new stitcher. She was also our only stitcher from out of town – from Michigan. I think (I hope) some folks are waiting for our spring sessions to avoid the New England winter weather. But for some, like Chris, and like Catherine and Deb a few weeks ago who are from Kansas, a trip to Plymouth is a beach holiday compared to the weather at home.

It was great to meet Chris, a talented stitcher and fun to be around. She showed us a pair of her granddaughter’s jeans that she is embroidering. These have an underwater theme – fish and kelp. Chris turned the ruffles on the side into a coral reef by blanket-stitching the edges. These are the second pair her granddaughter asked for; the first have flowers on the bottom of the legs and a bouquet on the pocket. What a special gift for a precious child. And I bet she’s so proud of her one-of-a-kind jeans and her talented grandmother.

Chris was having a real vacation after leaving us; she was headed to visit friends in Florida. She’s on her way home to frozen Michigan now, and I hope she’s had safe, happy travels.

We started another session this morning. Here are a few pictures of the embroiderers.

Wendy’s embroidering today, doing the very first of the strawberry blossoms. They’re blue, for some reason, and the petals are tiny and fussy.

Here ’s a picture of Catherine K from Kansas. She’s the Catherine from the lace committee, and has been hugely helpful in developing the instructions for the lace sample kits.

Here’s a picture of Deb, also from Kansas. She and Catherine traveled together. Deb brought an awesome lace shawl for show & tell. I took some pictures, but I’m still working on uploading them. Some go and some don’t.

Overall, though, I’m liking this program. The answer to the categories question is that we won’t have categories anymore, but we’ll have something better. I can “tag” each entry with as many subjects as necessary. If you search the blog for, say, lace, or spangles, or stitches, then every blog entry with that tag will come up. It’s better, because I often talk about more than one thing per entry, and the old system allowed only one category per entry. But I have to go back and tag the old entries. I’m working on it. Thanks for your patience. Oh, and Go Pats.