In praise of potatoes

I seem to be going on and on about the garden...but really for a town kid who never had a garden before I must say I am in awe every time I go out there and actually pick food!
The other day I dug up these wonderful red potatoes. The whole experience has been great and while I enjoy the beans we've had and the loads of tomatoes that are slowly ripening, the vegetable that is impressing me the most is the potato! I can dig under the ground and find these nuggets and then we can actually eat them! It's magic. Lest you think my so called stitching blog will never go back to talking about stitching I will now set your mind at rest. I actually have not been stitching very much of late with the holidays and all but finally with a little encouragement from Dani who is visiting this week I have finally got back at some. Below is the beginnings of Stained Glass Landscape (Kappie Originals). It looks better when I get the back stitching done. This time around I will actually backstitch as I go, unlike my usual method of leaving it all till the end and then complaining loudly to anyone who'll listen about all the backstitching! While on vacation I did some work on Cirque des Cercles but at some point I stitched a row over 3 instead of over 2...and well you can imagine...when I found what I had done I was unimpressed that everything below it was now wrong. So a bit of counter stitching (love that term Kathy)
and of course then I put it back in the bag and it has not been out since except for this picture.
Yes I did stitch CDC before but when Barb and I were choosing fabric and colours we could not decide which we liked better so we both ended up starting two versions of CDC. Barb, I believe has finished both of hers..I haven't.

Recently I had two finishes framed...here is Molly from Carriage House Samplings' "The girls series" The other framed piece is Glendon House's "Pretty Pumpkins"...a photo of it will follow at a later date...perhaps when I take a picture of it.
Last item...but not least...yesterday was Beatrice's birthday and the Thursday stitchers enjoyed cake (courtesy of Adriana and Lisa) and rousing rendition of Happy Birthday to you. There is a picture on Dani's blog. I did not take one because we had 11 or 12 stitchers here and it was a little hectic!...not to mention a stressed out panting dog...there was thunder!

Way behind in blogging

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Here is where I'm at with Cirque. Tomorrow is my traditional day for working on it but I am getting so close to finishing Kaleidoscope that I may push CdC back a day or two so I can have a finish! I will be taking this to Florida with me though, but I don't know how much stitching I am going to get done. In past years I have stitched a lot while sitting out in the sunshine but this year we are not in the RV and we will be with friends so we may travel around a bit more.

And since we will be snowbirds, if only for a couple of weeks...here is my completed "snowbird" from one of the JCS Ornament issues.

Updates

December `9, 2007

Good news all around this week... My sisiter-in-law just called to tell me that her son and daughter-in-law had a baby girl yesterday, weighing in at 9 pounds, 3 ounces! No wonder poor Lisa was so uncomfortable when I saw her a couple of weeks ago..no name yet but everyone is well and happy.

Here is my CdC as of last week. Today is the day to work on it so I'll be at it very soon. This is what I got done last Friday on Pretty Pumpkings...It is coming along nicely!
I also dragged out Kaleidoscope this week and I am loving how it is shaping up!
This little ornie only took two days. It was fun to do and I am looking forward to stitching the other three in the series. (The Gift of Stitching magazine December 2007)
And of course we had a storm over the weekend. I did manage to make a snow angel when Dan and I were out snow blowing and shoveling at some point. Alas it quickly got covered up again during Sunday's blizzard.
It was quite a full weekend as we not only had David and Erin and the 2 grandchildren from Saturday afternoon till Monday morning but also Erin's Mom and step-father! It was full house with 6 extra people but we had fun. Mostly we ate and watched Christmas movies...Ernest Saves Christmas, The Santa Clause and at least part of Miracle on 34th Street! In spite of all that I even got a bit of stitching done. Nicholas, my 9 year old grandson, also worked on his "sewing". Up until this weekend he confined himself to plastic canvas and wool but this weekend he wanted fabric and a hoop so I fitted him out and we "sewed" together. I may have created a monster though because he likes the sparkly thread...so some gold and red sparkly stuff was added to his stitching stash! So far he is creating his own designs and not following a pattern...won't be long though!!

What a week

Wednesday December 12, 2007

I have been at best a sporadic blogger of late. That goes the same for my stitching. However I did get some done on Friday on Pretty Pumpkins, after missing a week or two and here is my progress on it. Similarly CdC has been languishing and when I do get to it, my time seems to be limited. Today is actually CdC day for me but this week I am going to postpone it until tomorrow. For some reason I got started on an ornament from Gift of Stitching yesteray and I am going to stick with it for today and until I finish it. As you can see from the next picture it is working up quite fast, so it should not delay CdC too much.
There is a series of 4 ornaments in the issue and I expect I will will to do all of them. ... but not for this Christmas!
On Saturday Dan and I went to the Ottawa area to my youngest brother's place for our annual McDonald Christmas with all the brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, and grand nieces (3) and grand nephews (4) and the two as yet unborn (one due any day and one in May)
Above is a shot of my three sisters -in-law and below my three brothers (and me of course) and one of my brother's grand daughters. She s a real little sweetie. We had a great time.

CdC

November 8, 2007

Yesterday was CdC day and for the second week in a row I had a ball stitching on it. For some unknown reason I woke up today full of ambition and get up and go. As a result I even dragged the vacuum cleaner around the downstairs already this morning. Those of you who know me, know how unusual that is given my loathing of vacuuming.

The dogs have been walked and I am ready to do some work in the shop. Yesterday I got in an order of the most beautiful fabric...a fabulous colour called Ray of Light (soft yellow) and some Olive , both in 32 count linen. They are gorgeous. I am already casting my eye around to see what I could stitch on either one!

I don't remember why I ordered the olive, I hope I have it written down somewhere but I think it would be excellent to do Pretty Pumpkins on but oh I am already stitching that one ... and I do know I ordered in the Ray of Light at Colleen's request for something she has planned, but it would also have been perfect to do CdC on, if I wasn't already doing it on 25 count! I do have too many projects on the go to be thinking of starting another one. I should be thinking of finishing something!
Have a great day everyone. I hope my ambition lasts all day and I get lots done both stitching wise and housework wise... I am off to dust! I think there is something wrong here!

CdC has started

Novemebr 2, 2007

My pictures loaded in the reverse order that I wanted them to, but oh well...Here is my teapot. I finally put some time into it and as Kathy tells me...If you actually work on something, it will take shape. The teapot finally is taking shape and showing some progress. I was only working on it for the couple of hours that the Thursday stitchers were here on our stitching afternoon. But yesterday I kept on with with into the evening and that really has made a difference.



I started my CdC on Wednesday, a day early because I want to work on it on Wednesdays but did not want to wait another week to begin. Here is my progress with DMC dark blue variated thread, over one on 25 ct daffodil lugana. I love it! it is so tiny and perfect!Today I go back to Pretty Pumpkins!