It. Is. Done!

Whew. Finallly finished her and can move on to other things! It turned out beautifully and I'm so happy I perservered and made myself finish all the fiddly backstitching! Cedar Hill Summer Bouquet on 28 ct PTP linen in Ale.

 

Just seemed to have been a lot going on this year. Keeping up with doc appointments, work, doing some crocheting and taking care of my pupper--some time just got away from me. But it's done now and that's all that matters!

Now look at this amazingly gorgeous embroidery!! My beautiful daughter in law made me this and I was so surprised! She has been embroidering for the past year or so and I can't believe her progress. She is really talented and excels at pretty much everything she sets out to do! I can't wait to find the perfect spot for it in my bedroom where it will stay out all year long! 

I'm going to set about doing some designing and working on All Good Witches this weekend I think. Unless I come up with something else I'd like to do, like sew up a primitive winter doll or something. I want to do more craft sewing this coming year. And I'd like to learn embroidery too! 

Take care everyone and have a wonderful upcoming Thanksgiving! I truly hope everyone reading this blog has a great time and is surrounded by those you love and cherish. I'll check back in after that with new stitchy progress!

Goings on and Summer Bouquet!

Happy July! Hope everyone is well. Been working on a few things and trying to put some stitches in Summer Bouquet too, when I can! Here she is so far. 

Those bleeding hearts are awesome. I did something I've never done before and tried Anchor spooled floss! The hearts called for DMC 221, so I took it to JoAnn's and eyeballed the closest thing I could find and it was Anchor 0045. Here's a comparison pic for you.

At least for this experiment, I thought the Anchor was more vibrant with a very nice sheen to it. It was also "stiffer" or not as soft as the DMC, which I kind of preferred. It was also not nearly as fuzzy as DMC tends to be anymore. I usually wet and straighten the floss and use Thread Magic conditioner on it to try and cut down the fuzzy halo. 

So there you go. Just my own opinion on this first try of the Anchor. I would definitely use it again and wish I had decided to that with the brown used for the alphabet in this piece. Oh well! Next time!

My sweet kid turned 27 last month. Becoming his mom changed my life so much. I cannot imagine it without him or his wife and all they've brought to my existence. I sure miss them not living here, but I'm so happy they are enjoying life on their own and we see them all the time! 

My little Jenny turned 17 last month too! WOW. She's not as strong or as able as she was as a young 15 year old Jack Russell, but she's aging gracefully and still capable of trying to take down a rabbit (if she sees it of course) and showing up on time every day for breakfast and dinner! It's been 17 years of entertainment with this one!

I've been working on creating this simple little fun pattern of a chick. SO fun and SO cute. You can get the pattern HERE. She has other super cute ones too!

It has been SO hot here. Humidity too for good measure. I have tired of VA summers. And winters. I always love the sky in summer however. I caught a pretty cloud display the other evening.

Can I just please get paid to go around and take pretty pictures? Is that too much to ask? I think not. Oh well.

I hope everyone is getting lots of stitching time in and life is treating you well. I'll be back again soon with more updates and hopefully a near or full finish of Summer Bouquet. 

Take care!

Getting there on Summer Bouquet!

Been a while again! I have some progress on Cedar Hill's Summer Bouquet. She's so pretty. 

Hopefully I can get it done by the actual start of Summer in a few weeks! 

There hasn't been too too much else happening lately. My son will turn 27 next weekend, and I absolutely cannot believe it. He's really accomplished a great deal and I'm so proud of him. Love that kid.

Speaking of birthdays, my sweet little Jenny will be 17 at the end of the month! She likes to snooze a lot, but has a great appetite. Her joints give her some problems and I bought a light therapy tool I've started using today. It has great reviews and people have said it really helps their pups with arthritis, so I hope it can help her too. Her eyes and ears have given out on her the past year, but we accommodate that. And sometimes she will really run around the yard and actually fence fight with the dog next door, LOL. It's so hard seeing her getting older and all that comes with it, but I'm so so thankful we've had all this time together! Looking forward to as much more as we can get!

Take care of yourselves and enjoy this warmer weather. I heard we've already entered hurricane season. Seems like we just got out of hurricane season! Wow.

Get lots of stitching time in and I'll be back soon with another update!

 

Happy Mother's Day! It's been a couple weeks!

Wow, it's been a couple weeks since I checked in! Mostly due to slow stitching progress, but I did complete an amigurumi I'd had in WIP stage for a while. So I did do something! 

First up, progress on Cedar Hill's Summer Bouquet. 

More sweet little french knots. So much fun to do. The DMC violet color is just gorgeous!  I really enjoyed stitching those violets.

The peony bulbs we got my mother in law two years ago finally bloomed this year. I am so sorry she missed the first blooms. They were her favorite flower. We miss her very much, and these will always remind me of her.

I'd been working on this little elephant amigurumi for a while now. I finally finished her up. I was going to give her away, but I think I need to downsize my hook for this yarn first. When I stuffed her, it made the holes a bit bigger than I would have liked. She's super cute though!

Of course, I have another one on my hook right now and it'll be even smaller than this one! Just too sweet, right?  LOL.

I made a REALLY good strawberry pie last week with some gorgeous fresh picked strawberries the kids brought to me after their berry picking date. You can find the recipe for this super easy to make, no-bake, pie HERE.

Everyone gave it rave reviews, so it must have been good! And it's a really pretty pie too, especially if you dress it up with some whipped cream and a fresh berry on top.

Today is Mother's Day and my son and daughter in law treated us to lunch out at a nice restaurant. We had such a nice time chatting with them and they gifted my mother and I with some really sweet and thoughtful gifts. I love those kids so much. And my husband got me a couple more charms for my Pandora bracelet-perfect gift for me anytime! Very thoughtful and I love them.

My own mother is just the best. I cannot say enough about all the things she has done for all of us without batting an eyelash. I really can't. She means the world to me and I don't know what we'd do without her! Love you Momma! 

Well, that's it from here. It's been nice weather in VA and I am loving it! I hope wherever you are that you are experiencing great weather and lots of stitching time and family time. 

Happy Mother's day and I will see you soon with another stitching update!

Summer Bouquet - Purple makes an appearance!

What another beautiful week it has been! And the appearance of purple in this sampler just made me so happy. The color is gorgeous. It's DMC 791 and it's an ultraviolet purple. So so gorgeous and nice to work with too! 

It's been a wonderful weekend too. We had some downpours yesterday but nothing like the apocalypse they had been predicting. The perennial garden is taking some shape with a few plants put in and the moonflowers are beginning to come out of the ground from seeds we planted a couple weeks ago. Ah, Spring!

My kids and I saw John Wick 4 this weekend. I absolutely love Keanu Reeves and these movies. I know, super violent, but I can't help it. Just love them. LOL. 

The sweetie Grand Dog, Franklin, had his ONE YEAR birthday last week!!!! He's a ball of energy and just super happy and sweet. He got lots of toys and love on his birthday--all in all, not too different from any other day, but he had a banner and some things that made it special. We had fun watching him open his presents.

And my little girl, Jenny, has been good. Her birthday is in a couple months and we will have a nice one for her! She loves to sleep in, as evidenced here on Saturday morning.

This baby has such a routine. She knows in her bones what time breakfast and dinner is and she sticks to it, regardless of what the daylight savings time says. She also knows what time bed time is (8pm at the VERY latest), and she will do laps around the house and then look up at the staircase leading to the bedroom to let me know that "hey mom, have you lost your mind? It's time for BED!"

Well, that's it for me now, but I hope you all have a lovely upcoming week! Temps back down in the 60's with some rainy days this week, but the plants need it, so it's all good. Take care of one another and get some stitchy or crafty time in if you can!

See you soon with more Summer Bouquet!

Summer Bouquet Update and Unofficial Summer!

This was a beautiful week in VA! Temps have been awesome, no rain to mess up the days, lots of eating outside and listening to music. I should have worked this weekend, but couldn't bring myself to do it.

On to the stitching update! I had initially cross stitched the areas on the red flower that were supposed to be filled with french knots. I looked at it and mulled it over for about 20 minutes and decided I really wanted to do those french knots. So I brushed up on them in a little corner of the fabric and then went to town! There are 4 smyrna stitches right in the middle. The black-eyed susans also are filled with french knots. So pretty!

Been enjoying this one so much! I have a bunch of Cedar Hill charts and am always on the lookout for a few of the seasonal "bouquets" that I don't have. Just so pretty.

I know it's still early Spring, but my mind is in Summer.

We've had some hummingbirds already, bought petunias and ferns, and started the digging for a perennial garden! I can't wait to fill it with coneflowers, black eyed susans, daisies, and other beautiful things. We also put in the moonflowers and got some trellises for out front. We had tons of bees in them when we had them out back, so we'll change it up this year.

I really hope everyone has a fantastic upcoming week! I plan to stitch some more and see how far I can get this week. Be back then for more updates!

Chocolate Mousse Pie and Cedar Hill Summer Bouquet!

Well how was everyone's Easter? We had family over, and had a great time. I made a couple new recipes and they seemed to go over very well! One of them was a chocolate mousse pie from HERE. It earned rave reviews and I wish I had taken a pic like she had on her blog, but here is the full pie before I put it in the fridge for a day.

It was so so easy and fun to make! Hard to tell here, but if you use an 8 inch pie crust or pan (if you make your own crust), this thing is really an impressive height and gorgeous on a place with whipped cream.

Got a bit more progress on my Summer Bouquet last week. It was kind of a slow work week, so I was able to sneak in some stitches after work. 

She's shaping up nicely! This one has also inspired me to do more of those "old" or vintage designs that I've held on to for years in favor of newer, shinier, ones. Don't get me wrong-I LOVE seeing and buying new designs! But I stitch so slow, I think I need to go back and pick out some of my favorites from over the many years I've been stitching and get to work!

How do you feel about older and vintage designs? I have so many that I really love and tons of old magazines too that have great designs in them that I have forgotten about over the years. 

I hope your Easter was fabulous and everyone is enjoying lots of stitching and crafting time! See you soon with hopefully a lot more progress on my Summer Bouquet!

Cedar Hill Summer Bouquet Progress Update

Happy April! It's been a busy couple weeks but I did manage to work on my Summer Bouquet.

Spring is good here so far. We've had some really nice and enjoyable weather. Last night, we had the most beautiful and interesting lightning clouds I've seen in a long time. 

We celebrated my lovely daughter in law's upcoming birthday at a nice restaurant downtown this weekend. We had a nice time, and I'm so thankful she is a part of our family. Such a wonderful young woman and I'm happy to call her my friend as well! She and my son are the icing on the cake of my life. 

They take such good care of each other, and I'm so glad they have one another.

I hope everyone is getting some nice stitching time in! The longer days are such a joy now. I love it! We are all on a wellness journey around here, so it makes it nice for doing things outside, like walking. My little girl doesn't like to walk around the neighborhood anymore, but my grand dog sure does! So he's giving his pawrents a nice workout in the evenings when they get home from work.

I'll be back soon with another update on Summer Bouquet. I'm a row off here, a stich off there, but I'm going with it, lol. We'll see how it works up!

Until next time!

Cedar Hill and Tiny Mouse

Been a rough, busy week here! In spite of it all, I managed to work on my Cedar Hill Summer Bouquet. 

I think she's turning out lovely. I am trying to let go of my perfectionist nature a bit. Perfection is the enemy of good. And perfection is the enemy of DONE. I still waver between my idea of perfection and good enough for me. In between is OK!

For instance, the directions on the piece said that doing one stitch at a time is the ONLY way to achieve the desired effect on the black eyed susans. Well I really loathe doing "xxxx", and much prefer "////", then making the full cross stitch on the way back to the left. And as you can see, they turned out lovely with really nice variegation! Good enough for me!

I started crocheting a little tiny mouse and have the head done. And seriously, her face just melts me! I won't be able to work on the rest of her for a bit, but she's going to be precious!

Let's see...my little granddog, Franklin, got neutered last week and boy oh boy, was he pitiful. Then at about 4am Friday morning, my father in law had to go to the hospital by ambulance with some breathing and heart issues. He soldiered on through, but needs some medication changed up and he should be good to go with maintenance of course! He will be 88 in June, and I think he's done quite well, especially after losing his wife last year. 

I hope everyone reading this is doing well! I'll be back soon with more updates!

Take care and get lots of stitching in!

Cedar Hill Update, Woodlawn, VMFA

Making good progress on my Summer Bouquet. It's been enjoyable so far, but I can tell you this: I have stitched with DMC 610 enough times to say it's my least favorite color to work with. It doesn't like to lay right. It's like it's twisted too much or shreds too much or something. I hate it! LOL

I'm working from right to left on this one because it's so long horizontally, and I don't want to risk dragging my hands and needle over the front and back while working on the far side. Going good so far!

My mom and I made it to Woodlawn last week and the exhibit was really nice! The weather was really pretty and we had a great time. We hit up In Stitches, where I did not buy even one new pattern. Unbelievable, right? Especially right after market when all the new stuff was in! I did however, get two pieces of new fabric. I got some PTP aida in Ancient and Ale. I got the ale because I wasn't sure I was going to keep stitching Summer Bouquet on linen but I am going to after all.

I've always wanted to do something on Ancient! Also picked up the Whisky I needed and mom was able to get a floss she needed too for something she has in mind.

Just a few things that struck my fancy while we were there. So much talent to view. I loved all the needlework quotes on the walls they had some years back, but they took all of it away. It really added to the space I thought!

Then my son and I went to the VA Museum of Fine Arts and wandered around before having a really nice lunch. A couple of things I could hardly stop looking at...

Just so beautiful! We had such a nice time. Then I got to spend a nice afternoon with my daughter in law having lunch and chatting. I took a couple days off from work to do these things and it was wonderful. I needed it and I loved connecting with all the people I love so much.

I will leave you here so I can go and stitch some more! I hope you are doing the same or at least enjoying yourselves in some way. 

See you soon with more updates!