My first Friendstitch

Friendstitch is an online retreat hosted by the designers of Heart in Hand Needleart and Bent Creek, which I hadn't heard of until recently. This year is the fourth time they've had it, and I think this is the first time that they've split it into two "pop up" events; this past Saturday was the Halloween PopUp Gathering and then there will be a Needlework PopUp Gathering in October. I received the box with the charts, supplies and miscellaneous goodies on my birthday, which made it even harder not to open, but they were pretty clear that we weren't supposed to open it until the Zoom event (and I am nothing if not a rule follower!):

So, I was good and held onto it until the retreat and it was a lot of fun to open and explore with everyone else. There was some candy in there (but not in the photo that I took today because it's already gone!), a little notepad and a couple of little Halloween decorations, a great tote bag and then there were the stitchy goodies:

This was also the first time that they had a special guest, and she was perfect because she has such adorable Halloween designs--it was Amy Bruecken, and she designed this sweet little chart for the retreat:

I'm hoping to get that pumpkin finished tonight (or, more likely, tomorrow), then I'll probably stitch the crow and leave the larger chart for last. I really like all of the designs and am happy that I signed up for this without knowing exactly what was involved. Now I'm looking forward to the Needlework PopUp in a couple of months.

While I sat waiting to find out what was in the box, I worked on part 2 of Erica Michaels' Quilting A-Bee-Cs, which still isn't finished:

I've been stitching one color at a time for this part, and it's been fun to see it come together in this way. I'd say I'm about halfway done with this section, so not horrible, but I don't know if it will be completed before part 3 arrives. Must stitch faster!

My son has been subletting an apartment in Madison this summer, so my husband and I drove down there for a day to visit and tour the area; we had a really nice day, though it was about 90F and it felt good to get home that evening. It's about a 2-hour drive, so I took a Mill Hill kit (Kitty Treats) with me to work on in the car, and then I finished it a couple of days later:

And today I finally took pictures of the last two pieces that I got back from the framer recently; they are Dog and Cat Lessons for People by Lizzie*Kate, which I stitched back in 2011/2012:

Hope everyone has a great stitchy week!