Happy Dance: Bead Blanket Sampler

Sorry, all! It's been a heck of a week, with all the Christmas preparations. Up until yesterday night at the LNS, I think I stitched about two hours all week. I've been off work since Wednesday, but I've still been baking, writing Christmas cards, finishing up my shopping, fixing my sister's electrical outlets so she could plug in her tree for her party tonight, etc., etc.

On Wednesday, I received a surprise in the mail. I knew Kaz was sending me the Moss Waterlilies I needed to finish the border on my Bead Blanket Sampler, and it arrived Wednesday. That wasn't the surprise, though. The surprise was learning that not only did this generous stitcher send me the thread, but that she sent it from the U.K.! The sharing in this wonderful global community of stitchers never ceases to amaze me. Thanks again, Kaz!

So, for stitch night at the LNS yesterday, I packed up my Bead Blanket Sampler with all the threads I needed to finish. Between time at the LNS and an hour afterward at home, I finished the back cover. Today I made time to finish the project, before sitting down with a pile of presents and wrapping paper.

Here is the Bead Blanket Sampler, designed by Catherine Strickler of Indigo Rose. The three pictures are the front (with the alphabet), the back (with the types of beads listed), and the side (so you can see the piece of velour blanketing that's meant to keep beads from bouncing all over the place while I'm attaching them onto a WIP).

Another UFO down! I'm officially down to 39 WIPs/UFOs. That still seems like a really big number, but I've got another small piece that really only needs a couple of hours to finish, and that will knock the number down again!


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WIP-loss challenge status: 6 down, 4 to go