First Day of Summer

Sunday Project

I should be finishing Peg, but I've spent the afternoon working on a decoration for our front door. I love wreaths, but in the spring and summer the birds take them over and ruin them, so I had to come up with something they couldn't nest in. 

I used an off-white burlap wired ribbon with gold flecks to make the bow and wrap the initial. It doesn't show up in the picture, but the gold flecks will give it a nice sparkle in the morning sun. All the materials are from Michael's.

Back to Peg...

Slow, Stitchy Saturday

I got to stitch all day on Saturday. I've been furiously stitching on Brooke Nolan's Peg the Plum Pudding Angel, but I was waiting on the mailman to bring some stash, which included the Kreinik I needed for her eyes. I have this weird quirk: when I'm stitching something with a face, the blank spaces where the eyes should be bug me, and I'm not happy until I get them stitched. So all week I've been waiting on this stash, and Peg has been eyeless, and I've not been happy. I was really hoping my order would come Saturday... and it did!

First, here's some delicious Caron Wildflowers. I believe I've already confessed that I love this stuff and I'm slowly building my stash. From top to bottom: Painted Desert, Orchid, Easter Egg. 

Of course, this had to come live at my house. Country Cottage Needleworks Snowy Foxes. Too cute.

And here's Peg in progress, with her pretty green eyes.

Finally, and as always, all this stitching was conducted under the watchful eye of the Stitchy Supervisor. 

Happy Stitching!

Katie Kitty

Anyone doing the Brooke Nolan Advent Animal freebie series? It began in March and runs until October 2015 and the first three animals are available at the link. Here's the first one, Katie Kitty. I am determined--determined I tell you!--not to fall hopelessly behind in stitching this series. I'm stitching them on 28 ct. Blue Whisper with DMC. I did make a few changes to the eyes, nose, and mouth, but the rest is stitched according to the design. I plan to finish these as flat ornaments and hang them on a garland. 

And while we're on the subject of kitties, it's been a while since we've had a Tiger Lily beauty shot. When I took this, she was listening to the birds outside.

Sleepy Little Monkey

Triumph! Well... sort of. I'm still on schedule with my Cole's Quilts finishes. Here's the May quilt square, completed... in May!

The fabric is actually a soft baby yellow, but the camera isn't seeing it. Two more squares to go!

Happy Stitching!

Color

Oh, hi. I was supposed to be posting wildly, wasn't I? Well, I have been--as we say at our house--OBE... overtaken by events. Mr. Wonderful has been incredibly busy in the last couple of weeks, and I was swept up in his busy-ness, so we're blaming him for the lack of stitching and posting, okay? Right.

One thing I have been doing is playing in the dirt. Every spring I look forward to getting outside and fixing up the flowerbeds. We live in quarters, so I'm limited to the beds (in other words, I can't do any landscaping or any other alterations), but I try to make the most of the flowerbeds. We had a long, hard winter and I wanted lots of color this spring. 

Scotch Broom

Dahlia

Lantana: This is my favorite variety and a little hard to find up here. It grows quickly, spreads and trails beautifully, is deer and drought resistant, tolerates full sun, and blooms constantly from May until the frost gets it in the fall. Pretty much perfect.

Coleus: The back yard is shady all day but I wanted some color back there, too. I'm a big fan of coleus in all its varieties, and I think it looks so great when lots of them are planted together. I'm trying to resist the urge to buy tons of them and do a huge container, but I couldn't resist this one. So pretty.

And now for the hosta. We call this "Scary Hosta" because it is gigantic and a little intimidating and looks like it's trying to engulf the yard, small animals, possibly the neighborhood. Mr. Wonderful also refers to it as "Franken Hosta." It's almost 5' across. I know I should have divided it this spring, but I was really busy getting ready for my trip to Texas and just didn't get it done. It looked normal when I left. When I got back, it was way too big to divide. Now we're afraid if we fall into it we might not get out.

Another variety of hosta... not quite so scary.

So that's what we've got at the end of May. I'm waiting on the day lilies to bloom, and I've got some Speedwell that's between blooms. I also rescued a sad little Mexican Heather plant that was needing a home (love, LOVE Mexican Heather). I'll post some updates throughout the summer when everything really gets going. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Under The Sea

Here's April's quilt square for Cole's Quilts. I just love that little jelly fish.

Three more to go!

SAL Update: Keel Hauled

Not much progress to show as I haven't touched this in about two months, but I figured if I'm trying to get back on track, I may as well post an update... with a whole two hours of stitching. I'm getting clooooose!

Here's a close-up of the old guy getting keel hauled. Wonder what he did to deserve that?

It's only the fourth of May and I've already posted as many times as I did in the entire month of April. I'm on fire. (I'm still winding floss, too.)

I'm back.

Had to go to Texas for a bit, but I'm back now. I can't remember the last time I stitched. My April Cole's Quilt Square isn't finished, and I haven't touched Skeleton Crew in about two months. And I haven't even started the Brooke Nolan Advent Animals. {sigh} 

When I got back from my trip I was too tired to stitch, but I needed something to do to keep my hands busy without taxing my brain. Solution: wind floss. I've had dozens and dozens and dozens of skeins of floss that needed to be wound onto bobbins for, oh, I don't know... years. So I plopped down in the floor and started winding. With help, of course.

I'm pretty sure winding floss is Tiger Lily's favorite stitchy activity. So much potential for mischief. Happily, she was well-behaved. Or, perhaps more accurately, closely watched. So I was cross-eyed tired, but still productive. Look how pretty!

Isn't that delectable? 

Anyway, I've been having this delusion that I will have a super productive month of May and catch up on all those projects I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Maybe I'll succeed. After all, I'm off to a pretty good start. I wound a bazillion skeins of floss that have been waiting to be wound for years, so... yay me!

Happy Stitching!

Rawr.

Here's my March quilt square for Cole's Quilts, a green dinosaur for Logan.

The fabric is a very pale sea green, but unfortunately the camera isn't seeing it. I'm off to pull colors for my April quilt square while my needle is still smokin' and my q-snaps are still warm! I've got a trip to The Promised Land (that would be Texas) scheduled in a couple of weeks, and I'd like to have the April square finished before I go so I don't fall behind. Two squares down, four to go.

Happy Stitching!

Oh, by the way, Happy 100th Post to me! I can't think of a better way to mark my 100th post than with a quilt square for a memorial quilt for a precious little one. 

Happy Birthday, Tiger Lily!

Favorite Stitchy Supervisor, Chair Thief, Treat Hog turns 8 today!

Signs of Spring

The early spring sunshine has found Tiger Lily.

The hosta is finally peeking through the earth.

The tree outside my sewing room window is putting out its little red buds.

The day lilies are awake.

Aaaaaaaand... it's snowing.

{sigh}

Bliss

The best days are the days when the mailman brings stash, especially when two orders come on the same day, and when you've been waiting for one of them for two months! Here are the new charts that came today.  Notice there are some more of Cathy Jean's little baby critters in there!

And here's the fabric I'll be using for Brooke Nolan's Advent Animals. It's 28 ct. Cashel Blue Whisper. Much prettier than the picture. It's a very soft, mottled blue.

So today I've been pulling colors for the first animal in that freebie series, Katie Kitty, and also for my next quilt square for Cole's Quilts. A couple of months ago, Linda Z (who makes all the beautiful quilts) said she was foregoing the deadlines for a while because she was somewhat behind getting the quilts made, but she still needed stitchers for about 20 children. In a moment of madness, I signed up to stitch for six kids. Six. What was I thinking? Well, I was thinking, "Hey, no deadlines!" I figured surely I could finish one per month. I got February's square for Ava finished, but I haven't even started March's square for Logan. Today I pulled colors for his green dinosaur. The chart is for a blue dinosaur, but he liked green, so a green dinosaur it will be. I hope to finish it before the end of the month so I can triumphantly claim I'm still on schedule... at least for my Cole's Quilts commitment.

Here's the Stitchy Supervisor helping choose greens that coordinate with the light sea green Aida I'm using.

It's a gorgeous spring day out there...

First Day of {ahem} "Spring"

SnowPatrick's Day

We have 7-8" of new snow on the ground. Spring starts on Thursday.  Allegedly.

So I haven't picked up a needle in almost two weeks, which is why my little blog has been so quiet. I'm really far behind with this month's stitching goals but I do have one little finish to show off. Here's the Button Up Birdies Cardinal. I have two birds left in this series and I'll be caught up. Two. T-w-o. Two. 

And now that I have the end of this series in sight, what am I about to begin? Guess.

Yup. Another series. Have you seen Brooke Nolan's Advent Animals series? So, so cute... and even better... free! And fits in perfectly with my Christmas year. It began this month and runs until October 2015. One--sometimes two--critters a month, for a total of 25 little Christmas animals. Twenty-five. I think it's safe to say that if I fall behind with these I might never catch up! Stay tuned to follow my progress, and chime in if you'll be stitching them, too.

SAL Update: The High Seas

I'm all the way down to the waterline! Putting the whitecaps on the waves, then on to the keel.

In Which I Defy Winter...

...and dress up my blog for spring, even though we have another winter storm staring us in the face. *sigh*

We're ready to come out of hibernation.

Correction: Some of us are ready to come out of hibernation.

Miss Pinky

Here's Brooke Nolan's Pinky the Peppermint Angel, minus the wings and her little goodies, which are stitched but not cut out yet. 

I'm on track for my Christmas year! If you can call two whole months being "on track." Pinky is my Christmas finish for the month of February, and so far I'm still looking forward to working on all my little Christmas projects, but what I'm not looking forward to is more winter. It snowed today--just a little--and is supposed to snow a little more tonight, and maybe a lot more next week. I don't know about y'all but I'm looking forward to spring! With that in mind, a little spring-y stash in anticipation of some of next month's projects:

That's a skein of Caron Wildflowers-Cantaloupe (I can never spell that word without looking it up!) and that pretty bluish lavender Kreinik is #9294. Aren't they pretty?

And finally, is GAST Buckeye Scarlet the best red ever?

Yes.



Happy Stitching!

Poodle-y

A Cole's Quilts finish for a little girl who loves dogs and puppies.