*Ladies' Prim Society Design* Acorn House Pin Drum

You may or may not know that I've been designing for the Dyeing to Stitch Ladies' Prim Society Club for a few years now. I still have a hard time believing that I get to do this and that their faithful subscribers are excited to get my designs two times a year. I have so much admiration for all of you stitchers that are able to place blind faith in a designer's inspiration. They keep asking me back each year, so I keep on designing for them!

I haven't been very good about posting my club designs here, and I'm not sure why. The titles that I create for the club are exclusive for one year, at which point I'm able to release them to the public if I so choose. You are probably aware of some of them. Past club designs that have since been released to the public are Handprint on my Heart, Once Upon a Summer Huswife, and All the Pretty Flowers:

Coming up in a few months, I'll be able to release Winter Snow Stocking:

My designs for 2017 were another stocking, Stars and Stripes Forever:

And finally, my most recent club design is called, Acorn House Pin Drum, which started shipping to club members at the beginning of August:

If you've never considered joining a stitching club put on by your local needlework shop or any of the other fabulous shops scattered across the country, you should!

I'm blessed to share this particular club with Blackbird Designs, which still knocks my socks off. Four times a year, the club members receive in the mail an exclusive chart with all of the kit materials needed to make it.

It's too late to join this year, but please think about contacting Ann or Pat at Dyeing to Stitch to get yourself signed up for next year's club.

They also run another club called Colonial Gatherings, which features designs by Plum Street Samplers and The Scarlett House.

Summer Break: Week Seven: Sunriver

Week seven of Summer Break was spent mostly doing finish work on a few designs, filling orders and getting ready for our annual Twist Family gathering in Sunriver, Oregon.

A destination resort town full of rentals and second homes, Sunriver is located on the East side of the Cascade Mountain Range, where our state takes on a completely different look from what you're used to seeing in my pictures. The state of Oregon is primarily dry and desert-y. The rain clouds roll in off of the Pacific Ocean, dumping a large portion of their rain load on the coastal areas and on the Coast Range. What's left (still a sizeable amount of rain) is mostly scattered over the areas leading East toward the Cascades. Our home is nestled up against the foothills of Mt. Hood, where we get almost enough yearly rainfall to be classified as a rainforest. By the time the clouds get across the Cascades (if they do), there is very little moisture left to irrigate the rest of the state, so it looks like this:

My eyes and skin get so very dry and itchy when we stay on this side of the state for very long, so it is not my favorite. But the memories we are making with the kids and their cousins and even for us grown-ups makes it worth the trek.

Pool time, eating yummy meals together (the Farmboy makes his famous Crepes for breakfast and Ribs for dinner; I have to do blessed little food prep while there which is a nice break), live music at the Sunriver Lodge, laughing, telling stories, catching up on all the times we've spent apart, floating down the Deschutes River together, and wrapping the weekend up with ice cream cones from Goody's. These are the memories our kids look forward to all year long.

Saturday Stitches

Oh, Teach Me What is Good (a Faithfully Reproduced Antique Sampler)

Summer Break: Week Six

I know that the pictures I post here often look downright slow and relaxed. But trust me when I say that up in my head, it has been way, way, way too busy this Summer. I wanted a lot more down time, but I've been jumping from one big project to the next, and sometimes working on multiple projects simultaneously. I have succeeded in getting more play dates in for the kids during this school break (which isn't actually saying much, considering last year there was a grand total of ONE, due to my painful back problems). But there have been zero read-alouds on the picnic blanket in the front yard, zero trips to the city for smoothies, and so many other things I try to do with the kids during the "slow" months. Oh well... I do my best, and keep reminding them that the grand result of all of my busy working hours, we will be able to take a trip to Disneyland in the Fall. Worth it? Yes, I hope so.

My poor camera has had very little action; most of these came from my phone camera, which is always in my back pocket when the presence of mind to snap a picture comes around.

Kids Were Here