Have you ever met someone whom you just “clicked” with, someone whom it felt like you’d known all your life? One of my very best friends, Brenda Whipple, is one of those people,and I was beyond thrilled when she and Coach Whipple came back to UMass last year. Immediately I wanted to make something for her new home and it took a while to find the perfect project, but this one made me think of an interview she gave a local newspaper, and I knew I had to stitch it. It took over three and a half months, but a couple of weeks ago I finished it and had it framed at Hope and Feathers Framers in Amherst (yes it’s right across from the Dickinson homestead on the corner of Main and Dickinson – Emily’s Corner). It’s a Mill Hill Curly Girl kit and was the first time in a while that I had stitched with beads.  I wasn’t entirely pleased with this until I ironed it and got it framed – the ladies at Hope and Feathers always do such an amazing job with my work that I end up squealing like a girl when I see the finished product. I gave it to Brenda tonight at our Signing Day celebration and she really loved it. She knew that I stitch because of the minuteman I made for Coach Whipple last September, but I don’t think she was expecting me to make her anything. She wanted to know if I wanted her to open it at the party, and I did – seeing someone’s reaction to a gift I’ve made them is the real payoff, so I definitely wanted her to open it.  It was a wonderful moment that made me insanely happy and I’m so glad that my first finish of 2015 turned out the way it did. Our operations intern, Nicolene, saw it and told me it made her tear up because it was so beautiful and sweet. Now I want to make her something. So many projects. So little time!