Whistling while I work

I like to mark certain points in life by choosing and starting a new design. Fall, winter, spring and summer. Vacations, my birthday, Fourth of July, Halloween, Christmas and the New Year. All call out for a new stitching start. Not that I don't start new projects at other times, because honestly it doesn't take much to encourage me to start something new. But the special occasions are different. I enjoy thinking about which design to choose and fabric to use. I make sure I have the threads together to start it at the right time. These starts are more deliberate and not so spontaneous as just the regular, ordinary starts.

Of course, they don't always come to life on fabric the way I imagined or planned. This was the case with my Fourth of July start, Sweet Liberty by The Marking Sampler. I liked the simplicity of this little design and thought it would be a good addition to the patriotic collection I have planned for the white plate rack in my kitchen. I chose a 32 count fabric rather than the recommended 40 count to avoid stitching the words over one on 40 count, but should have gone with the 40 count so it wouldn't seem so bulky. I'm not posting what I did stitch, but I have put the chart aside to restart on 40 count at some point. Here is the chart model:

Sweet Liberty
The Marking Sampler

For a recent trip to the beach, I chose to start a Swedish sampler from The Essamplaire, Ericka Katrina Amanson (1870):

Ericka Katrina Amanson (1870)
The Essamplaire

It is a simple, sweet design which had been on my "to stitch list" for awhile. Katrina included an anchor, a happy looking dog, a pretty pink house with a fence, and various short borders. I don't know how old Katrina was when she stitched it, but the colors have a certain innocence to them which appealed to me. It was charted for DMC, I worked up a conversion for GAST and Weeks threads. The fabric looks more pink today than it really is.

Ericka Katrina Amanson (1870), The Essamplaire
Lakeside Linen, 32 count Vintage Examplar
GAST, Weeks

I also started A Whistling Girl, Hands To Work, before I left for the beach. I like to whistle and I like the humor of the verse. I hope to prove the verse wrong, though! The girl in the sampler has her hands on her hip and has a spunky attitude. She reminds me of the woman in my Sarah Verrier (you can see her in my avatar) who also stands with hand on hip. I didn't notice at first, but there is a difference between the model picture and the actual chart. Can you find the difference?

Here's the model:

A Whistling Girl by Hands To Work

And here's my work following the design as charted:

A Whistling Girl
Hands To Work
Lakeside Linen, 36 count Examplar
1 over 2, GAST & Weeks

I've also made additions to my stash, but I will save those for another day.

Have a wonderful day!

Voila! C'est fini!

A small finish to share (I know - shocking, isn't it?!). Blackbird's charming (and free) Souvenir de France design offered on their blog. I worked on it while I watched the French Open. It was a fun stitch.

Blackbird Designs
Souvenir de France
32 count PTP Melo
Waterlilies silk in Periwinkle

This weekend is BabyGirl's nineteenth birthday. These nineteen years have gone by so quickly and are so packed with memories and images. I don't want a single one of them to slip from my memory. We are very lucky to have her in our lives.

I look forward to gardenias every year and this year our gardenia bushes were so full with blooms. It's such a great plant and gives so much for so little care - shiny deep green leaves all year and gorgeous creamy white blooms during May and some of June. They were one of my gifts on my first Mother's Day and are very special so I am propagating them in case anything happens to the originals. The are planted next to my study windows and I leave the windows open so I can enjoy their fragrance while I work.

Hope everyone has a glorious weekend - à bientôt!

With gratitude

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

So! May is unbelievably almost gone! BabyGirl is home for the summer and it's so much fun having her home. Except for the laundry part ... She and her SweetBoyFriend always keep it very interesting here.

We've had some very warm sunny days already, and a lot of overcast and sometimes rainy days. I love a good storm!



May and June are typically very busy months for our family, so I'm not surprised that I haven't stitched as much as I would like. I have worked a little on One Seed for Another. I still need to order the one green silk needed for the grass, vine and one of the trees in the part I've stitched, but I'm just working around it for now. (The picture is small, but Blogger was cutting off the image on the right side for some reason.)

One Seed for Another
Carriage House Samplings
40 count Lakeside Linen Vintage Pearled Barley
NPI silks

Mom and I also recently took a little road trip to a neighboring town and visited an antique store and a quilting supply store. On the way home we stopped at a wonderful locally owned pizza restaurant, Jonah on Johnston's, and had lunch. Not only is their pizza fantastic, they also bake wonderful breads and pastries.

More food related activities (I promise I have done more than eat since my last post!)

Dinner on the lake after a day of rain. It was a cool evening so we ate great catfish on the restaurant's screened porch. I only had my phone camera, so the pictures aren't the greatest, but it was pretty evening, clouds and all.

And one more food related activity! Friends from the office got together on day off to make cannelloni in the office kitchen. Our very talented Betsy orchestrated the event and the cannelloni was perfection! (phone camera again...)

Betsy and Gwen working that pasta!



Miona filling and rolling the pasta



Delizioso!

So, that's it for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

It's time to post progress on Shores of Hawk Run Hollow. Progress? Did I say progress? Well....not really progress..... I've been reading more than stitching and interest in this project was low this month. I hope that's a temporary thing. But I am enjoying seeing everyone else's progress.

I've never had DMC thread shred the way it has on this piece of fabric (40 count Antique Cotton from R&R Reproduction) , so I've had to take out quite a few stitches whenever that would happen.

Here is what I stitched on One Seed for Another. I like working on this piece. I missed one of the colors when ordering my thread, so I've skipped over those parts for now. I didn't realize how long it had been since I'd used Lakeside Linen and had forgotten how smooth it is to stitch on. It will be fabric of choice again for awhile.

I saw Nicole's CHS etsy purchase and of course had to click right over to see what I couldn't live without. These charts now have a new home and came, like Nicole's, in a beautiful folder:

Field Aray was printed under Chartmakers logo. I adore the charts themselves for the pretty graphics that are printed on them:

On the Goode Huswife site's out of print page I found The Little Red R Sampler:

And, finally, I added Hands to Work's A Whistling Girl, Chessie & Me's Tree & Crown Sampler, and A Friendship Sampler by Plum Street Samplers:

I think I just went a little chart crazy there. And still only have a fraction of everything I'd like to own! I need several decades to stitch everything on my wish list!

That is everything for now! I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

It's the weekend! And it looks like it will be a great one! Before I start on my list of errands, I thought I would update here.

First, pictures of little things from my life lately:

wild azaleas outside

and inside

wild violets

the ever hopeful Miss Kitty keeps an eye on the bird nest

I saw Joy's wonderful finish of Goode Huswife's One Seed For Another and it inspired me to pull out my chart and order supplies for it. I liked the fabric she chose, 40 count Vintage Pearled Barley and her conversion to NPI silks, which she shared. Here are the supplies:

40 count Vintage Pearled Barley
NPI silks

and here is my start:

One Seed for Another
40 count Vintage Pearled Barley
NPI silks

I worked a little on Shores and finished outlining the first square and worked on the rocks. I'm still enjoying this design.

Shores of Hawk Run Hollow
40 count Antique Cotton & DMC

Remember cute little Mr. Carrot Nose on his spotted pony? Here he is now:

He apparently couldn't control his spotted pony whose head ended up being one square away from the tree trunk. Now they are both being removed and redone. Taking out this much of something I stitched would usually make me not want to finish the project, but I really like this design so I will keep working on it and will try to pay more attention to the count!

Today is a beautiful day and perfect for picking out annuals for the front porch and rummaging around in flea markets and antique stores. All of which I hope I to do.

That's it for now! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Well, so much for a rotation schedule! Really, today my viewpoint is that it's much more enjoyable to stitch whatever I feel like stitching rather than having to stitch what's on the schedule. Then again, tomorrow I could feel differently about it.

I worked some on Shores this week. It's fun to stitch, but I am a slow stitcher and haven't gotten very far. I'm glad that I chose 40 count Antique Cotton for the fabric. It's my favorite gold toned fabric. I decided to change the thread for the outlining of the square as black seemed a little heavy for the fabric color, and decided on GAST Freedom, a deep navy, and I'm happy with it. I do need a camera that takes clearer pictures and captures truer colors. The fabric is very gold, but it's not showing up in the picture.


It rained for a few days here and poured yesterday. BabyGirl was home for the weekend. We stayed in Saturday afternoon because of the rain and watched Pride and Prejudice together while I stitched.

Miss Kitty tried to bring a little yellow finch into the house to show off her hunting skills, but we rescued the bird which fortunately was able to fly away. I asked Miss Kitty to please stick with lizards instead.