Stitched in

My embroidered wedding gift is making good progress towards a revised deadline of the first time I'll see the bride since the wedding. This is the second of the pillowcases and I still have a couple of weeks to go. I might even have time for washing and presenting these properly - unlike my outfit for the day - the dress and shawl - which I must take proper pictures of to share here. The shawl needs a reblock after it had a hasty few hours with minimal damping and the dress was literally still being hemmed half an hour before we had to leave, thank goodness I wasn't kidding myself I was going to get these done as well.

I made great progress yesterday when an entire afternoon was spent relaxing in the shade in a Watford garden. This past week has been full of clear blue skies, sunshine and fresh, crisp breezes; just my favourite sort of days. We took full advantage of the warmth to just sit and be, doing very little. Memories of a lovely afternoon spent laughing and chatting with family got stitched right in to this. That's one of the most lovely qualities of handmade items for me, those traces of the maker's time that become wrapped into the very fabric of the piece. I'm glad I decided to be late with these and have happiness stitched in rather than sweaty, swearing panic!