What have I been doing?

Not much, in the CQing department. In mid March, I accepted a part-time position at my favorite used book store, Twice Upon a Time. I've been a customer there for years and years, and daughter Trystan worked there for about 6 months between graduating from college and leaving for grad school. It's been great fun, as well as a pretty big challenge for my brain. Before I started working there, many of my day to day conversations were about dinosaurs and/or super heroes (and truthfully, I miss those conversations). But now I get to ask and answer questions about books. I love books and I love people who love books. Getting to know my employers, fellow workers, and the customers is a joy. The store owners have also opened a new store (still selling mostly used books) on Main Street in our lovely downtown shopping area, which is very pedestrian friendly. That store is called Grand Valley Books, and I invite you to visit both stores if you're ever in Grand Junction. I hope to take my camera to work on Saturday and get some photos of the new store to post here.

But I have done a little CQing. This is the last block in the Bees, Butterflies, and Beetles RR I'm in. It belongs to Meg. My work is the large shiny beetle in the center and the ribbon embroidery motif in the upper right. There were lots of butterflies on here already, so I did the beetle and 3 small bees.

This is the block I embellished for Susan in the Flower Fairies RR. I love seam treatments, so every seam got some attention. I also made a small silver embroidered fan, and a flowering vine with flowers done in cast-on stitch in some of DMC's variations perle cotton in size 5. The blue and lavender colors are a wonderful match for the colors in the flower fairy's flower. I also attached the last little bit of lavender lace that I bought at the first CQ Colorado retreat.

And then, for a baby boy that is due very soon, I decorated a striped onesie with a bullion stitch frog and dragonfly. The tiny socks also have frogs added to each side.