New Start

In more ways than one today is a new start for me but I won't bore you with those details. Instead I thought it might be fun to mark the day with a new project start and a picture or two.

Here's my Ottawa Sampler by Jeannette Douglas. Almost finished. Yes, it probably looks different from others you've seen. As usual I have to make little changes, I am odd that way. This particular piece was supposed to say 'Canada's Capital' underneath the word Ottawa but it wasn't centered the way I like things. Also, just to the left of those words is supposed to be a horse, representing the RCMP musical ride horses, but again I found this to be wrong for me. All the musical ride horses are pure black and the little pony in the original was brown and would have looked off it I had changed it to black. Lastly, to the right of the now absent words was an RCMP officer, which I didn't really want to take out since my step-grandfather was in the RCMP but again, it would have thrown the piece off balance. Spaz suggested the modifications and I agreed they would work well so... I am quite happy with them. (edited to add: there are seed beads missing still and beside the word 'Ottawa' is a small maple leaf button. Hopefully I've centered the word properly, we'll see)

I recently attended my LNS's retreat, and I had enough fun I could have blogged about it in 3 or 4 posts but I just haven't made the time. I'll take a second to mention my new friend Dani, whose blog link is in the right hand column of the page. Black Belt Stitching Wizard indeed! Check out her blog, she's quite an artist! My work pales in comparison but maybe she'll teach me a few things? Anyways, I brought up retreat because while we are there we are lavished in many ways (FOOD!) but this time we received a special gift, a kit and pattern designed by the LNS manager herself and I just adore it. I have decided to go ahead and make it, but instead of framing it when I am done I am going to make it into a panel on a stitching bag. I need a bag big enough to hold the Flower Power project, those scroll bars are just too big for any of my other bags and I carry that project around in a pillowcase when I travel. Seeing as how I have so many more BAP to do when Flower Power is done, I know I'll get years of use out of that bag!
Here's a picture of the finished one followed by my small start. I bet I get it done this week, so stay tuned and I'll post lots of pics!

Have a super day, you wish you had the view I've got right now! I am on dial-up so this afternoon I am taking a walk in the woods and will post pictures if I can...