Never Goodbye...

Friday Crew. Front: Isobel, Ashley, Molly, Kim, Tina
Back: Max, Chloe, me, Brandon.(missing: MJ) 

Yesterday was my boss, Kim's last day at our station. She received a great offer from a large chain of stations and decided to take it.

I've known Kim since she was six, and I love her dearly. I originally started working at the station to help her out when she was short staffed. I said I'd stay on until she could get reliable help. That was two and a half years ago.

Now she's on to a new adventure and I'm still there. I'm going to stay to help Mona who was there before Kim or I. Mona worked for the previous owners, but she doesn't want to be a manager. Even so, she knows all the workings of the job and she's really indispensable. I'm changing my work schedule at her request to help with some of her duties and her fall schedule.

I'll be having my second knee replacement in October, and will be off until I've finished another round of physical therapy. Until then, I'll do my best to help Mona until a new manager is hired. 

I know Kim and I will keep in touch. Her folks are friends of Handsome and me, and we've all been friends outside this job. While everyone else was tearful and saying their goodbyes, I was the one hugging Kim and cheering her on.

This is an exciting new chapter for her. I can't wait to hear all about it!

 

Almost Ready To Fly...

Notice Bella in the background. She's always close when I'm stitching. 🖤

I spent hours at my needlework stand yesterday, and got quite a bit accomplished. I started by cutting and covering the antennae and legs. 

They were a lot less fun than I remembered. This task requires wrapping a single strand of silk thread (78" long) around a thin 6-1/4" length of wire. My fingers aren't as nimble as they were in 2019, which means it just took a bit longer than last time.

Once I completed the stitching on the butterfly's body, I attached the antennae to the head portion of the body. I realized at this point that the spare body from my red spotted purple is probably a bit small for the slightly larger monarch. I'll need to make a new one that fits.

Then I released the wing parts from the ground fabric and trimmed everything as close as I could without cutting into my needlework. That part of my task alone took a couple hours. 

When our class made our red spotted purple butterflies, Owen told us that we could take a dark marker to the trimmed edges if the light fabric showed. I used a fine tip Micron pen, and carefully moved around each wing part. Now the backs of the wings match the fronts. (I'll share photos of that in another post.)

So here's the list showing my progress, with one addition. I'll be attaching the wings today, and make the new body insert so I can prepare to close the fabric to form the body.

I'll be sliding into a new weekend by getting close to the finish line. I'll have new update photos soon.

 

This Is The Day...

Today's the day! I'm pulling out all the stops. Tomorrow you'll see real progress on my Monarch butterfly. 

No excuses today. I'll be cutting out wings; covering wires; and finishing the work on the body, so it can be cut out, too.

See you tomorrow!