Friendly visitors

Here's the view through the window just beyond my sewing machine. If I remember to keep the feeder well-stocked, I always have plenty of company here in the treehouse. In the beginning I feared they might crash into the window, but so far no head-on collisions.Here is the embroidered angel ornament, just finished. The first of something is always a learning experience for me and this was no exception. I realized when stitching Clarence, the tiger kitty ornament, that it might be helpful to put a couple of rows of outline stitch around the whole thing so no white fabric would show through after I had stitched the back to the front and turned it right side out. I also learned it would be worthwhile to work in good light and without unrelated skeins of floss anywhere near my work area. Yes, I mistakenly stitched part of her wings with a different color. Of course I'll just call it creative license.

I mentioned that I might give some of my ornaments special meanings by using charms or embellishments. I picked up a package of gold dragonfly charms at Michael's and have added one to this ornament.

Back in September, at my dad's memorial celebration, I read a story I had come across in my search for inspirational pieces. It was about Cecil B. DeMille, the famous movie director and screenwriter. Having been asked to come up with a story about immortality, he took a boat out on a lake in the Maine woods to think. Soon he noticed hundreds of water beetles coming up out of the water on reeds. And as he watched, they began to emerge from their hard shells and become dragonflies. From this experience, he concluded that there really isn't any death, but rather a graduation of sorts to a different life form.

You may remember the fabric dragonflies I made for the memorial table decorations. I had already finished them when I found that story. I love when life dishes up a little serendipity. Here's another serving that happened just last night.

Big City Girl decided to take the train to her brother's place for the evening (about a 30 minute ride). They hardly ever get together outside of family events, so this in itself was unusual. BCG brought along some graham crackers and frosting......apparently knowing that her brother had a supply of candy on hand.... and they spent the evening making small gingerbread houses. Earlier in the day, I had sent them this.

Go figure.....