No Retreat for Me

 

I should be on my way to Maine right now to attend a cross stitching retreat in Augusta. My bag had been packed, my cross stitch pieces packed, and Emma’s bag had been packed for a stay at her home away  from home. (I’m blessed to have friends whom Emma loves and who welcome her when I go away.) My plan was to leave this morning and take my time heading up the coast. I was going to stop at Portland Head Light to do some photography. Unfortunately, a foot issue will keep me from attending. As you know if you follow my blog, because of a foot issue, I recently had to cancel attending a guild quilting retreat on the Cape. Things had been healing well, and I was really looking forward to this retreat, but it was not to be. Yesterday there was a problem which means no retreat for me. Yes, I will be off my foot again for at least a week until an infection clears and things heal once again. :-(

I’m super grateful that it happened while I was home and not while I was away. So, it means time again to just sit and stitch and read. I had preordered and received yesterday Doris Kearns Goodwin’s new book An Unfinished Love Story - A Personal History of the 1960s, which I know will be a fascinating read. 

I’m also grateful that I had a visit with my cousin Kristin and her girls (the Ladies Lunch group) on Tuesday. It was a perfect day for outdoor dining and our destination was Tony’s along Wollaston Beach. Tony’s is the place if you love lobster rolls which I do, but the other day I was in the mood for a whole belly fried clam plate . . . Yum! Yum! Yum! 

The cross stitch piece above by designer Priscilla Blain of Stitching with the Housewives was completed last year, but I wasn’t crazy about how I had finished it. When I saw this display piece on the Paisleys and Polka Dots website, I knew it would be perfect for this piece. Paisleys and Polka Dots sells kits that you paint and then assemble. I glued a magnet to the wood  piece and a washer on the back of the cross stitch, so that I will be able to use it to display other pieces.

Lastly, here’s a look at the table mat that I had made for the retreat. The small green wool square is where I could park my needle and next to it is a place for my scissors. The little Campbell Kids lunch box was a thrifting find, and it contains my other stitching accessories. 

Well, that’s it. I have a jigsaw puzzle on the sunporch, and if it isn’t too cool, I may work on it for a while. Sit, stitch, read, puzzle . . . decisions . .  decisions . . . decisions. :-)