It has been a while since I posted. I have not been riding as much as I did when I was training for the Tour de Tucson but I am still riding. Last weekend I took part in the Tour de Cure, a fund raiser for diabetes research. The weather was lousy. We had rain and hail. The route was very hilly. I opted for the 45 mile route which I completed. There was lots of support on the ride. The people at the rest stops were very friendly and helpful, the route was well marked and there were volunteers stationed along the route in case of breakdowns. At the end we enjoyed barbecue pork, chicken, beans and potato salad.

One of the other things I have been doing is working on my embroidery. We had a Japanese embroidery class last month and I got quite a bit done on my piece. I have also been working on a Hardanger piece.

On Fridays this past year I have been teaching embroidery to my grandson's kindergarten class. I had the children draw their own design which they then traced onto muslin. They used floss to sew the design using a running stitch. Most of the time I spent threading needles and teaching them that the stitches went in and out not round and round. I also did a lot of unstitching when they made their stitches too long or went around the hoop instead of in and out of the fabric. When they finished I had them sew a backing on and we then turned it right side out, they stuffed it and sewed it shut making a pillow. It has been lots of fun!