Leafy Sea Dragons and such

My DH and I drove to Boston today to the New England Aquarium. I especially wanted to see the leafy sea dragon and the weedy sea dragon. The leafy looks like a floating piece of lettuce. Both the weedy and the leafy have extremely delicate fins on their necks and backs that help propel them through the water. They are utterly fascinating. Next to them are several sea anemone displays in all their pink and green glory. If you aren't inspired to sew, embroider, or bead after seeing these, then I don't know what will!

After that long trip and the hustle and bustle of Boston, I came home to work on my TAST stitch for this week which is the Chevron Stitch. Last week I noticed one of the TAST participants had used gingham to good effect, so I tried a checkered green cloth for the basis of my chevrons.

The basic stitch is on the bottom row, then a double row which looks like smocking, then some detached chain embelishment. The top row is a rather larger pink chevron with blanket stitch additions.



My quilt group did a strip swap for the Edyta Sitar spools blocks. The strips are one inch wide and the finished thread section of the spool measures 3 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches. They are just darling.

Edyta favors mixing batiks and reproduction fabrics. I never thought that I would like that combination, but I do really like these. We will be swapping spools at our next meeting. I can't wait to add a little bit of something from all my friends to my quilt. I don't think I will make a whole quilt, maybe a wall hanging with some embroidery.

Brr, it is cold today! In southern Maine we have hardly any snow and it has been mild lately, but not today. The days are getting longer which is very heartening. My mother always said in January: When the days begin to lengthen the cold begins to strengthen. An apt saying for today; day length today is 10 hours 18 minutes and the temperature right now at 6:30 PM is 9F. Hope you are keeping warm!