Another Christmas stocking

Last Friday, my brother Christopher, who likes to start Christmas stockings for his family, but doesn't have time to finish them dropped in.
I had told him I would finish his son-in-law's stocking for him, so he brought it along and this is how it looked last week. He actually had done quite a bit of work on it!

I have decided that I would like to have it finished for the family gathering we are hosting in July so I set to work and so far, in a week, this is what I have accomplished.

Startitus

I seem to have come down with a rather severe case of startitus...

This one is called Sampler au Bouquet and comes from France. A number of enablers are already working on it...Fran, Clare, Kathy, Wendy, Marg, the London gang and I don't know who else..Beatrice too I think...anyway now I am too! You order it on-line ( www.jardineprive.com )and have it within minutes!

And this lovely delicate thing is from Rosewood Manor...a huge piece called Inspiration.

Since it is so big (230 X 290) I am scaling it down a bit by doing it on 40 count linen...

Gold Magazine

Remember these cute little 3-D houses that were featured in Cross stitch Gold Magazine before Christmas? Well I really liked them and I expect showed them off here in my blog when I finished stitching them. I also, uncharacteristically, sent a letter to the magazine indicating how much I enjoyed them. And...lo and behold, my letter was published in the most recent issue!!!
I'm famous!

On a completely different note... those 5" hoops from Germany which hold your fabric extremely taut are now in. They are pricey little devils (at $20) but people who use them say they are fabulous. I mention this here because while I was sure I ordered only one package of 10, they sent me 2 packages of 10. I guess this way no one will be disappointed that she cannot get one.

Morning courting...

This male turkey put on quite a display for Dan and me this morning. I suspect that the performance was really for the female turkey seen in the next picture and not the two turkeys watching and taking pictures from the living room!

Before this turns into a wldlife blog, I had better get back to the stitching part of it. Yesterday at Friday stitching Cheryl brought along her work from the weeks I was in Florida and unable to see her progress. Have a look at her beautiful work...Letters from Nora E and N ... Christmas presents for her grand daughter and sister.

And this Sue Coleman wolf for her son!

Beautiful work Cheryl!

Bird Keeper??

So will the real bird keeper please stand up?

Critter de jour

Last night's visitor was actually an opossum but I did not get a picture of it. This afternoon this turtle came wandering across the backyard.

I spent the afternoon on the lanai finishing this lovely lady was a gift from Judie. She is called "The Birdkeeper" from The Goode Huswife.

A visitor

These pictures are not too clear...(the world's worst photographer strikes again) but they do show our evening visitor. We were astonished to have this young bobcat come to partake of the food we put out for the armadillo and the raccoon! Another reason for the slighly out of focus pics is that I stayed well behind the screen of the lanai! Our neighbours were unimpressed by the visit because apparently this young cat is seen frequently around the area but he/she is the first bobcat I have ever seen outside of a zoo and to have one so close was an event for us.

We are continuing to enjoy the sunshine and hot weather. I am stitching on "The Birdkeeper" and expect to have her finished in the next few days. I have also finish finished two socks, complete with toe grafting. Of course when grafting one of them I ended up with no stitches on the bottom needle and three left on the top one. I don't believe that is supposed to happen!