75 people + One Room + Embroidery = heaven

We had a fun night tonight - the kind of night where I come home and still have to pinch myself and say, "Really? This is part of my job? Seriously? I'm that lucky? Dang!"

I'm wound up, but also tired, so the post will be short and sweet with plenty 'o pictures to show how much fantastic fun it was to teach 75 people embroidery ... in one room ... in three hours.

We were lucky enough to be invited to hold a Stitch Lab event at Design Within Reach in downtown Austin. It's an amazing furniture store - the kind where you walk in and want pretty much everything in there (ohh .... the aqua leather couch ... it has my name written all over it ....) Leslie thought a hand embroidery night would be fun, and of course, I'm not going to complain about that. Long story short: we ended up with more than 75 people in this amazing furniture store and taught them all some basic embroidery.

It was amazing. Imagine a beautiful, artful space, filled with small groups of 10 or so people hunched over embroidery hoops. There was lots of talking, lots of laughing and lots of fun creative connections. Pretty much heaven to me.


















The people were so fantastic, and were very receptive to the crafty goodness of embroidery. There were all ranges of ages, women and men, and they all seemed to really enjoy picking up the needle and floss and get to stitching. Several people talked about having not embroidered in decades, or how they used to watch their grandmothers embroider, and it was great to hear their stories. Mostly, it was just great to see people laughing, connecting and enjoying the craft. Honestly, my little embroidery-loving heart was down right overflowing. It was almost too much to handle.

So I'm still wound up, but still exhausted, and really needing to get in bed. So enjoy the pictures of the stitchy fabulousness!

These gals were adorable and had a blast stitching up their napkins.
Jenny Hart and the Sublime Stitching gang donated the transfers we used on the napkins. They were perfect for fun stitching! Thanks, Jenny!

Lots of laughter and fun.
Victory! A sassy, fun napkin and a new skill all in one night!

Mmmmmm .... floss .... Participants picked a few colors and got ready to stitch!

Must. Go. To. Bed. I'll be dreaming of embroidery.