Look at these gorgeous shirts Sooz made for Diana! They are spectacular!!
"Outlander"
They are beautiful! She does all the embroidering on a Janome 350e Memory Craft Embroidery Machine
and produces the designs with software called Embroidery 5D with added alpha characters from embroidery.com (Jacobean letters). I cannot tell you how amazing the colors are up close!
Telling DG about Sooz's shirts...
Sooz sent the shirts to my house and I carried them on to Fairfax for her. I let Diana know that Sooz made them for her and did the embroidering herself...and when I said "Sooz is the one who made you the..." she said "dachshunds!" and remembered right away, which I thought was verra cool, sassenachs.
Tired, post Fairfax...yet
PROUD in my
custom-made shirt from Sooz!
Sorry for the wrinkles but they were packaged up with a pretty little bow for most of the trip.
My most sincere THANKS go out to Sooz for not only making them for Diana, but for making one for Tracey and myself as well. :)
You can see the close ups of the embroidery below:
What is UP??? I am finally getting to sit down and post about Tracey and my faBU weekend in Fairfax, Virginia with some verra awesome MOP chicks. I finally was able to meet the wonderful Karen Henry of Outlandish Observations (just sitting with her at a Diana Gabaldon event was a treat!)...and was able to spend some seriously quality time with Lara, Tonya, Cari, Julie and Donna. I was also thrilled to see Carla again...and to finally meet Miss Marcia!
My apologies that I was not able to do all the blogging I had hoped to do. We were go, go, going, nonstop from the minute we arrived...and blogging ended up on the back burner.
OK so we arrived on Friday afternoon and headed over to the Northern Virginia Community College to find the girls first in line, as they had been waiting all afternoon (bless their hearts!) We were thankfully able to sit up front and were thrilled when DG showed up and began to speak. I cannot tell you how awesome it is to listen to her tell her story of how she got started writing, as I've been sitting on a story or two, myself...and am in dire need of direction.
Not much new to report, however; the speaking portion of the event was pretty short and didn't include any info about the upcoming Starz show (probably because it was a library event, and that means books.)
We then proceeded to hang out for hours and wait for the signing line to shrink - which is most certainly did not, for hours and hours. At 2AM (yes, you read that right), we finally got our books signed and were able to take a photo with Diana. We were the last in the line and felt horrible for her; she must have been exhausted. I was also THRILLED with a capital T to be able to give her the BEAUTIFUL shirts that Sooz made for her (another verra cool MOP bud); that post will follow.
The rest of the weekend was a blast because I got to hang out with women I've been talking to for a few years now - some on a daily basis. We didn't do anything scheduled (again - sorry to those who may have been hoping for a better gathering; we'll do that again, I promise!) but we had a blast and I'm sorry it had to end. :)
Outlander Chat tonight. 9PM Eastern. (Tracey is on vacation in Mexico...but I will be there. Not sure how long I'll be there (yawnnnn - still catching up from the weekend in Fairfax!) but I'll be there. ;)
Check out this 1746 bronze Battle of Culloden medal, featuring William, Duke of Cumbria. Wish it were featuring Bonnie KING Charlie...but, alas...it was not to be.
On April 9th, 1747, Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat and chief of Clan Fraser (and fictitious father of Jamie Fraser's bastard father, Brian Fraser), was executed at the Tower of London for his "crime" of being a Jacobite and aiding in the Jacobite rebellion to get Bonnie Prince Charlie back on the throne and reestablish Scottish rule.
Lord Lovat has the distinction of being the last person to be beheaded at the Tower of London.
Just prior to the execution, about 20 people were also killed when the scaffolding they were sitting on to watch Simon Fraser's demise, collapsed. Apparently, Simon found this so amusing, he laughed uncontrollably until the axe fell, thus creating the term, "laughing your head off".
Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat, as etched by William Hogarth at St. Albans. Lovat is seen working on his memoirs as he awaits trial.
and produces the designs with software called Embroidery 5D with added alpha characters from embroidery.com (Jacobean letters). I cannot tell you how amazing the colors are up close!
