This was a favourite project of mine. It came from another issue of Cross
Stitch and Country Crafts dated probably over fifteen years ago. I saw the
finished project that Linda had done and wanted one for myself. But this
one I did stitch for myself and enjoyed doing very much. I love the colours
and I love all the patterns within the heart.

I have four big binders full of clear plastic sleeves holding patterns
from cross stitch magazines circa 1988 to 1998. It's mind boggling to look
through those binders at all the potential projects that they contain.
Especially since I've begun collecting current patterns that have caught my
eye and charmed me since being reintroduced to cross stitching via blogging
in the past year or so. Back then most of the projects were stitched mostly
on plain old beige linen, with DMC thread. Hand dyed materials and threads
were just beginning to appear and beads, charms and buttons were fairly rare.

On Monday I took the Go bus down to Toronto and met my friend Elaine for
a visit. She lives in the Beaches area of Toronto and is not fond of driving so
getting together requires some planning and allowance for transit time.

We had a lovely visit. We sat in her kitchen, next to the gas fire, and yakked
away for hours. She made us a delicious lunch when we realized that we'd
talked so long we'd forgotten to go out for lunch as we'd originally planned
and time was running away from us.

After eating we went for a long walk in the Beaches. A lovely, old part of Toronto which boarders on Lake Ontario (hence the nick name for the area) with charming homes, lots of building styles, and big old trees lining the streets. The streets can be quite steep to walk along as some seem to plunge suddenly down towards the lakeshore.

It was a grey, overcast Autumn day but the colourful leaves scattered across the sidewalks and the fading glory of the last of summer's flowers and bushes changed to Fall inspired hues made for a wonderful excursion.

It was past 6:30 when I got home, and I had to stop on the way at the public shool to vote in the municipal election. When I got home DH was just headed out to a church admin. meeting. I wasn't hungry after our late lunch so I just headed upstairs with Phoebe and we settled down for the rest of the evening to read blogs, stitch and cuddle. It was a great day.