Some things I’ve seen lately….
Happy Summer!
Some things I’ve seen lately….
Happy Summer!
Wow, I skipped a whole month again! How did I ever have time to update weekly back in the old days? That must mean I am much busier now than I was then, though it’s hard to imagine, considering I had two soccer players on the road every weekend 11 months a year back when I had an update every week. Of course, I am a lot more tired, so maybe I am that much busier 🙂 At any rate, it’s time to get caught up, since Spring is more than half over already!
I forgot to post my 2nd Chatelaine mini bellpull finish, Mini Mystery J, which I finished back in January. It’s on the same linen banding the MMI was on:
Okay, that’s taken care of… Now, when I left last time, I had just gotten the blackwork jellyfish out. I think I worked on it a bit over a week, and got a lot of the bell fill pattern in, as well as some bubbles:
When I put that away, I got out GP Plum Pudding; I worked on it for a couple of days, but it really wasn’t grabbing me. Fortunately, I was saved by an impulse start – Joan Elliott posted an Easter bunny freebie on her FB page, and I was compelled to start it instead of pretending to work on PP. Here’s a pic of the finished top – 28ct Silkweaver Dreamin’:
I did not get a picture of the bottom side, since it only took me a couple of hours to stitch it, then I started assembling it. And just as a reminder to myself, I really don’t enjoy putting biscornus together – I always have a pucker of extra fabric left at the last corner (strategically hidden in this photo):
And since Plum Pudding really wasn’t calling to me still, and because I got my Market Order:
I had yet another impulse start on that Saturday afternoon after returning from the March PINS with the Ink Circles charts above. I had just gotten a couple of cool greens from Thread Gatherer, so went stash diving, found 2 greens and a Gloriana orange that went together really well, and an opal Silkweaver called Spring Garden (which does not show up in the photo at all – it’s very Rainbow Sherbet colored, green & orange), and made this:
I actually ran out of Tapestry Green before I finished the last corner dragonfly & corner motif; fortunately, I had just gotten it a month or so before I started this, so when I ordered another, the dye lot was a match. IF this fabric had been 32ct, I probably would have had enough.
At the March & April PINS, I worked on Stoney Creek Life is a Journey, and finished Block 4, and started the border on the fifth:
And then finally, Plum Pudding actually wanted to be worked on. I will continue on through tomorrow, probably, but am happy that I will be about 1/3 done when I put it up again:
I will probably get a Chat out next – Hummingbird has been screaming, though I may need a break from purple for a week or two, so IC Anatolia might actually come out first. We’ll see. I could finish Celtic Banner with another rotation, and my travel piece Field of Sunflowers would be a quick finish, too, I think, so maybe one of those will come out instead….
In other news, the Younger Sailor has graduated his school and is now at his first permanent station in Virginia, not too far from DC. The Older Sailor still has a few months of school, but hopefully we’ll know his first assignment before too long. We miss our boys! But we don’t miss all the vehicles all over the place, since DH talked me into getting a Jeep for our weekend car; we have to get the Miata and the VW out of here! Too many cars, too much shuffling out in the driveway!
Until next time, Happy Stitching!
* EDITED to note that my blue grosbeak – at least what I have seen this year – is definitely an Indigo Bunting instead. I am sure I have also had a blue grosbeak (it has brown spots in the blue & black on its sides), as well, but the blue bird pictured here ain’t it.
Yeah, well, in my defense, I have been working my ass off since I got back from medical leave – which probably is not what the doctor ordered, but it’s my life, so…. And my Baby Sailor turned 20 in February – his first birthday away from home 🙁 It was weird trying to figure out how to get birthday food to him – I ended up sending Cheryl’s Cookies, which I was told he ate 🙂 The Big Sailor turns 24 next week. Time flies….
We’ve been having spring here since the first of the year, for the most part; a lot of the blooms have already fallen off the trees to be replaced by leaves, and daffodils have been out for weeks. So of course, winter shows up this week; there’s snow north of us, and we are supposed to get down to the 20s the next couple of nights. I have to figure out how to cover my Dutch iris – the bed is huge and next to the road, so if I do manage to cover it, all the cars blowing the speed limit will blow my cover off. so – do I bother? We’ll see. In the meantime, we have all kinds of avian activity going on in the backyard, including this pair of red-tailed hawks:
Last time I posted, I had worked on From Nancy’s Needle’s Field of Sunflowers a bit, and I worked on it once more, at the January PINS get together – finally broke into the blue:
I haven’t been going to the IHOP on Thursdays for the last several weeks – trying to eat a cancer- and heart-friendly diet, which IHOP is NOT – so haven’t had much progress in the travel bag aside from PINS monthly meetings. But I did also make a bit of progress on my Stoney Creek Life’s a Journey series, starting the 4th block and completing the moon potion; I should finish this block at the March PINS:
I worked on Deep Blue Sea for 3 weeks, and managed to complete 3 parts in that time! This is probably the smallest “Big” Chatelaine I have, actually – each of the next 8 parts look pretty simple to complete in a single rotation (unlike Tuscany, which one I get to 11 & 12, will take FOREVER). And Part 4 of DBS included the oysters, which will contain actual pearls when done:
And when I put DBS away, JE Autumn Fairy really yelled at me, even though there were things that didn’t get touched last year, and I was going to keep working from the Project Randomizer. She yelled at me so much, I finished her! What a great project, though I was surprised to see she is MUCH taller than Iris Fairy; I was hoping to order some basic metal frames in a few colors for the Seasons and Flowers series, but I guess I need to wait to get more done; the Elemental Goddesses will probably need to have one started next, so I’ve got one of each series done 🙂 Here she is – on 28ct jobelan in Melody from Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephanie, using DMC, miles of Kreinik, and icky Mill Hill beads:
I haven’t decided what to work on next, so while I decide, I’ve pulled out the Jellyfish again, since he’s not “officially” part of the rotation. Yet. Since I have 3 new Ink Circles charts coming my way, thanks to the new market releases – Green Damsel, Dragons of Sumatra and Dark Shards – Anatolia & Growth Rings are both hollering at me 🙂 If you need stash, too, check out my local online shop, Cross Stitch Felicity – good sales, frequently, and if you don’t see it and it can be had, it can be added to the website 🙂 Sign up for the newsletter to be informed of all the sales – the newsletter comes out every Monday like clockwork.
That’s the news. I am hoping spring comes back later this week and sticks around until summer (and equally hoping, since we didn’t have winter, that that doesn’t mean we have 6 months of summer!). Until next time, Happy Stitching!