Flying By

Wow, this week has just flown by. I don't know where it went. I know I spent a lot of time in front of my sewing machine and a few short hours on the sofa stitching.
This is what I've been up to this week.

The first picture comes with a bit of a story.
My parents will be married 60 years Sept 12th and so I wanted to do something special for them. I designed them a quilt. This is the top finished and now it has gone to the quilters.
The top row - a little hard  to see - has their dates Sept 12, 1951-2011 embroidered by a good friend of mine.
The rest are the family handprints. My young niece in Texas got my parents handprints "for a school project". Clever girl. My parents are at the top, myself, my sisters and their families fill the rest of the quilt. I can easily recognize my father's hands. They are short but very thick. My mother's hands are starting to cripple with arthritis and you can see the twist in her fingers. My youngest sister cut the tendon in one finger when she was young and you can see the finger has healed crooked. Myself and two of my nieces are lefties and so you can see our left hands. My little grandson's hands are easy to recognize. Already this quilt has a story. The quilt should be back from the quilters by mid April. Then I will sew on the binding and make some shams when I get back to Canada. I hope they like their surprise gift.

I received two wonderful gifts this week. I won a giveaway on Karin's blog - she creates her own glass beads. The lovely scissor fob has her incredible beads too. Isn't this a stunning collection! I'm trying to think what I will make with this.

Last night I went to a welcome home party for some friends of ours who had spent 3 months touring and visiting family in Australia. Look what she brought me. Now, she nows nothing about cross stitch. I think she made some wonderful choices don't you. I will have to stitch her a little something from one of these.

This week has been focused on my lighthouse. This is Point Loma in California.

For those of you who have not seen this before this is my lighthouse RR. It was started many years ago and I am finally hoping to finish it up and have it framed. Isn't it beautiful!

My friend Dani arrives tonight from Ottawa. I am very excited to see her. She and I are off to Phoenix for a couple of days. We should have stories and photos when we return. I hope to settle my CC thread issues while there.

Till then - keep those stitches crossed.