Yesterday Drew was out of town visiting family, so Abby and I decided to do some things together. Abby voted we go to the doggie park, and I voted that we go to the stitching store. Although I get to drive, and thus have final decisions about where we go, Abby whimpers more, so we went to the dog park first. It was a beautiful day with the colors changing, and we had a fun couple laps around the pond (complete with squaking geese taunting Abby from the middle of the pond).


Then we got to go to the stitching store, which I'd never been to before. It's Welcome Stitchery in Crystal Lake, IL, about 40 minutes' drive from home. They are a very well stocked store and the people there were really nice. They helped me pick out some pretty fabric and fibers for Cirque des Cercles. I chose a 32ct R&R linen called "Weathered Barn" and some Caron Waterlilies threads in Monsoon. The soft blue/grey fabric picks up the blues in the silks really nicely.
On the way home, Abby seemed thirsty, so I poured water into the cup holder for her; it's solid & removable, so that seemed like a brilliant idea until, from force of habit, I dropped my cell phone in there a few minutes later. Apparently, cell phones don't like water. Any time I put the battery in and turned it on, it went into permanent vibrating death throes until I took the battery out again. It's made a miraculous recovery after drying out overnight!

So the really cool thing is that I finished Drawn Thread's Marriage of the Minds. I love it - I'm so happy with how it turned out; the fabric, the threads, I just love how it all looks together. The Latin phrase below our names means "love conquers all". Now we just need the date! The picture below looks a little wonky, taken at an angle:
So today I started on the new Cirque des Cercles project, now that I have threads & fabric. Not much so far; I'm hoping that there's enough variation in the threads for it to be visually interesting. That's always the challenge when changing materials!