This Squirrel Wears Mink

I just finished my round robin block for Helina in Finland.  I love trees and leaves and most autumn motifs and colors, so this was a really fun block. Rita had gone before me on another block and done a tree, so I thought it would be nice to add another tree and leaves on my block as well.

After stitching the tree and adding the silkie of little kids burning leaves (AS IF!), I just kept thinking about doing a squirrel.  I’ve done that motif before, only with a silkie and a mink tail added.  See this post.  So, here is how my block for Helina finished up.

Yes, that is real mink.  I’ve had a few scraps laying around for awhile, and by golly, I am going to use them.  Sure as h*** am not going to wear them.   There are some vintage leaves tucked into the tree here and there, as well as some lovely metal leaves that Allie Aller gave me a couple years ago.  

So, the stitching on the squirrel is not my best; I ended up doing this over three days in hour-long blocks of time.  My eyes just go wonky on me when I do a lot of close work. I have had several eye surgeries, but that’s a story for another time. I did, however, make an appointment to see the eye doctor and get new glasses before the CQ Adventure next month.

Also, I just reserved my classes for Val Bothell’s Victorian Stitchery Retreat in Wichita in November.  You have know idea how thrilled I am to be able to take a 2-day class from Carole Samples!!  It has been one of my goals to learn from this great lady and amazing stitcher.  I will also (finally!) get to take a Candace Kling course on fabric flowers and Allie Aller’s Curved Piecing Class.  My dear friend Gerry is teaching a button-painting workshop there one evening as well.  My only regret is that I can`t be in two places at once because I really want to take JBM’s Fabric Painting class (manipulation to make land- or seascapes). But she lives in Colorado, and that is close, so I hope to someday attend a retreat at her studio.    

Finally, if you haven’t yet bought Allie Aller’s book, “Allie Aller’s Crazy Quilting”, what are you waiting for??  My copy arrived while I was at Gerry’s last week, but I got to read Gerry’s copy.  When I talked to my husband on the phone that evening (he had met Allie in 2006 when we were all at the John Campbell School), he said, “Your book from Allie arrived today.  I went ahead and opened it. I hope you don’t mind, but I wanted to see it.  It is a really professional, well-done book and looks like it has a lot of good information.”   Of course, I didn’t expect him to be gushing about how LOVELY it was, but in his manly way, he said just about the same thing!  :-)

Hugs,