All You Need is a Friend

Yesterday we had breakfast with some friends who are unable to make our annual New Year's Eve celebration. This has become a tradition for a group with whom I've been friends since high school, plus a few others added along the way. The evening always starts with a buffet dinner, followed by presents and games into the early hours of the morning. The event is held at a friend's house and most of us stay over night, then watch the Wisconsin Badgers together in whichever bowl game they have been invited to that year. Between continuous grazing NYE and during the game, there are very few leftovers.

This year our friends from Illinois are unable to join us NYE, so we got together Saturday morning for breakfast at Perkins. This is the project stitched as part of Kathy's Christmas present--which was actually a kit designed by Mary Engelbreit that she gave me last Christmas. I figured it only fair that it go to her for adding to my already long list of craft projects. *VBG*

The hardest part of this project were the panels on either side of the "All you need" section. It is mostly all quarter stitches and, as if that wasn't painful enough, also consists of about a million lazy daisy stitches and French knots. Okay, maybe a slight exageration, but it sure felt like there were that many! The end effect is quite lovely, but fellow crafters are sure to understand what a headache those sections were to complete.

Click on the picture for a more detailed view.

The Mary Engelbreit notecards below were stitched as a birthday present for the same friend and, as with the above, a kit received from her last year.

Finally, the dragonfly by Dimensions that was also a part of Kat's birthday present. And yes, the wings were as intricate a process as they look.

I'll share more of the year's craft projects after New Year's Eve, when everyone has opened their presents. Wouldn't want anyone to wander by and see what they're getting beforehand, now would we? *WEG*