Home from the retreat

As much as I love the retreat (the Loose Bead Society retreat, for those of you new to my blog), I'm glad to be home.  My lingering cough, two nights of going to bed too late, and two mornings of getting up too early have taken their toll.  I took a nap when I got home, and when I got up I felt like I had been beaten all over with a bat.  My skin is sore to the light touch, and my muscles hurt.  I am in a full-on Fibromyalgia flare.  I took more ibruprofen than usual, and I'm planning to go to bed much earlier than usual.

I do have some projects to show you, but most of them are quick projects we were given during the Retreat.

I'll do a much more in-depth recap of the retreat tomorrow (Fibromyalgia willing, that is), but I want to show you the blue computer keyboard innards cuff that I finished yesterday afternoon.  Yes, when I posted on Friday I said I would be done that night or the next morning, but I was slow-moving in the morning, then after lunch I set up for my class.

It turned out really well:

I'm very glad this project is done.  I'm still not comfortable stitching on a brass cuff, and I'm always nervous (in general, but also) that the silicone "keyboard innards" sheet is going to tear, and I'll have to pitch the whole thing.  Cindy gave me a few tips, and instead of adhering the pieces to the cuff, I stitched around one end in a U and slipped the cuff in.  It was still tricky to stitch around once the cuff was in place because the pieces were flopping around.  I didn't adhere it because I needed to trim, and I wasn't sure how it was going to fit.  It was easier to make adjustments without things being stuck down.  Once I rounded the other bend, the final stretch was a piece of cake.

I'm going to finish this up now and squirm around the couch saying, "Ow!"