A wink and a jig

My I have been a negligent blogger!  It's been too long between posts!  I have no excuse, except...well...it is Summer in the Northeastern United States. Since we don't get a lot of warm sunny weather,  Yankees such as myself need to take advantage of it when we get it!  I've still been stitching on and off this season, so I do have some progress on My Lady of the Snow--but that will wait for a bit!

First...I want to show you what I received from my first "official" exchange package from the group "Stitched with love exchanges". The theme was "favorite things" so we received a form filled out with all favorite things for our stitching recipient. Tina C. got my name and she did such a wonderful job stitching and putting my package together!  I love everything...especially the pillow she stitched for me! I love houses, flowers and the colors pink, rose and garnet!

 Isn't it lovely?  I fell in love with it the moment I saw it! Below is the exchange in all of it's glory:

I received lots of goodies from England (I was thrilled) including a Cadbury chocolate bar made in Tina's hometown of Birmingham and some British style Starbursts. Ummm..sadly, they did not make it to the photo shoot. I wish I could blame my husband because he is the one who... coerced..er...suggested that I..er...we sample them as soon as I unwrapped them. Unfortunately the blame won't stick because I ate most of it-- but I did share some with him. So I'm not entirely selfish!

I was thrilled to receive a Queen's Jubilee commemorative thimble set as well!  I never thought I would have a souvenir from her gala! At any rate, if you are reading this Tina..thank you so very much! I appreciate and love everything!

I had such a fabulous tie putting together the last exchange that I am joining another one sponsored by Stitched with love. This time the theme is something near and dear to my heart---tea!!! I am going to have so much fun with this. Not only am I going to put my designing skills to work: by designing an original pattern, but I will also put some of my rusty and neglected crafting skills to work as well. I can't wait to see what I come up with!!

This is a picture of the pillow I stitched for my partner June-- in England. She indicated that she liked seasonal designs so I picked this free Summer design from Jardin Prive:

Well..here it is, the update on Miss Snow:

Only 678, 985 more stitches to go!  No problem...it'll be done in a wink and a jig. Bwahahaha....sigh...

That's it for now but I'll be back soon with pictures from my vacation in New England and a new project. Thank you for reading and leaving your lovely comments!

Brightest Blessings!

Beth B.