Windmills are tamer than Brick Houses

This windmill was easier to stitch than the brick house in my last post, but each has its own charm.
Here is the Windmill Sampler finished! Ta Da!

Windmill Sampler
by Examplar from the Heart
linen is 32 ct Nightingale by Birds of a Feather
floss - used mostly recommended and added a few of my own

I added GA Old Hickory (for the windmill), Chamomile (the lower branches), and Pumpkin Patch (to replace Old Brick) but I also swapped out colours as I felt like it and what worked against the linen I had used. I also modified/added some motifs from this great book Alphabets, Motifs & Borders by Brenda Keyes. I bought the book a few months ago and though it is barely 30 pages, it's been very helpful.

So, after doing the happy dance yesterday, I got down to the serious business of preparing linens for the next few projects. You know how much fun, and agony, that can be! Usually there's an explosion of linens in my room then everything has to be put back after all the cutting and prepping have been done.

Here's my next project, which incidentally I saw on Glenna's blog as well this past week. It's Sarah Salter, and I did pinch the photo from Glenna (hope you don't mind!). I am so looking forward to doing this one. I'm still waiting for one floss colour to arrive.

The above shows my linen (35 ct grab bag line from HDF) and the AVAS silks (missing one). Now when I was laying out the linen and floss for the photo I realized there's a heart shape right in the center of the linen that I had cut and trimmed. It was un-intentional but what a lovely surprise. (Can you see it?)

So off I went happily pleased at this little 'gift', attached the linen to my scroll rods and started stitching the border. Only then did I look down at the heart again and noticed 'the wart'. If you click on the photo you can see it. What do you call it if not 'the wart'? It's a flaw in the weave and it's bigger than one cross stitch worth. I pondered what to do. Should I leave it and hope it will work when I get there, or should I flip the linen now because the other side seems ok?

I frogged the little bit of border I had stitched and ripped out the stitching attaching it to the scroll rods and started over again. It was a bit of disappointment in that I'd felt I had wasted some time but I'm glad I did it because later on it might have caused me heartache ...or heartburn!

It's funny, isn't it? I was so enamoured seeing the heart that I didn't see that little wart on the side. Doesn't that say a lot about us? We see what we want to see, or not to see?

I've been on a bit of Sheepish Love trip lately and slowly finding old charts like Sarah. I especially love the Sheepish Antique charts. They are do-able for someone like myself who haven't committed to big honking samplers like some of the stitchers I've admired (you know who you are because I've told you!) :-)

A couple of weeks ago I received emails that I had won two giveaways! Wow, I've never won anything before! Anyway, the first of the two arrived from lovely Margaret down under.
It's a little kit to stitch a Santa and for putting in a locket. You can see a better photo of the finished item from Margaret here. She did a beautiful job stitching and finishing it. I hope I can too! Thank you Margaret!

I will show you my other giveaway won when it arrives in the mail, hopefully this week.

It is a DARK and STORMY day here. They forecast loads more of rain and possible flooding in low lying areas. Last year it was Winter Wonderland all through, this year it may be a replay of Noah's Ark? Hope not. Besides, our fair city is hosting the Winter Olympics in February so we could use with snow this year!

Thank you for your visits and your comments, especially your support during my crazy work period. They've been very nurturing to the soul. I wish you a wonderful week wherever you are, and hope you don't find any 'warts' in your stitching! ;-)

Fear of Brick Houses

Where else but in stitching could one develop a fear of Brick Houses?
Sometimes you hit that Mt Everest in your piece of stitching, the one that seems to take forever to do! But what it taught me was patience and preseverance and led me to this...

A Weary World Rejoices
by Shakepeares Peddler

I changed the design slightly just to remove a lot of the motifs as I usually like things a bit more sparse. I added my blue birds of happiness, and a few snowflakes. I used all the recommended for fibers. I am very happy with this finish (and relieved that it's done!). This was yesterday and I decided to hop back onto the Windmill Sampler.

Last time I left you with this:

And as of now, it looks like this:

The Windmill Sampler
by Examplar from the Heart

I must say I am glad I put this aside before when I got so frustrated with it. The break was good because when I picked this up yesterday I was really enjoying it. Of course I had some time to ponder what colours I would use and put aside the GA Old Brick.

So that's my bit of stitching update!

Work-wise, we have 3 weeks left to when we implement the project. Think of it like it's 3 weeks to the Wedding date and you and your team have to have everything organized for a great wedding to take place. There are lots of organizing to do, last minute things, and of course things outside your control. I think it's like when you are in a marathon and you can finally see the finish line like a tiny beacon way up ahead! Can't relax yet! We are all pretty tired though and we try to prop each other up.

Meanwhile I'm keeping to my strategy of staying quiet and low key. One of the good things is that I've starting cooking and baking a bit on Sundays which helps with the work week. As I speak I have the slow cooker going and a pot of soup on the stove. Yum.

I probably have other things to say but I just can't remember right now! Still too many things swimming around with those little grey cells!

Thank you for stopping by and I always enjoy your comments and hearing what you've been up to! Have a great week!

A Weary Stitcher shows up

I am popping my head out of my hobbit hole for a few minutes for show and tell. Yes I am still around and, thankfully, still stitching. I was at one point stuck on my current stitch because of the tedious alphabets, but I was saved by this pretty little basket and bird, which got me over the blahs!

The basket and bird are a tiny part of:

A Weary World Rejoices
by Shakespeares Peddler

I've been busy, mind a bit scattered with too much information (work related), and fighting the seasonal viruses. I'm fine, just keeping very low keyed. Hence a very quiet post.

Thank you for your comments and concerns in the last post. No one was hurt by the fallen tree as far as we know. We told my parents yesterday when we had lunch today and they both blanched at our lucky escape!

Sorry for this rather bland post. I had contemplated not posting but then a post with stitchy photos is better than no post, right? :-) I have enjoyed visiting your blogs though and seeing what everyone is stitching. That is always inspiring.

Till next time, thanks for coming by! Have a wonderful week, and a fun & safe Halloween!

ps Just finished reading Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan - if you like Chocolat by Joanne Harris, I think you will enjoy this one, although it has one of the most vile characters I've ever met on the page! Email me if you want to chat about the book.

Things to be Thankful for:

One - See the dance of the wild happy turkeys - My Quaker House is finished!

My Quaker House by Blackbird Designs
from book With My Needle

Small changes - I changed the red bird to a blue one, being I like the idea of "the bluebird of happiness". I used WDW Dolphin, a lovely grayish-blue. I also changed the red door to a gray one and added a little red design on the front of the house. I've seen houses where they have a design tiled above the front door so this was just my nod to that little design feature for MY Quaker House! I really enjoyed stitching this one, but that's usually the case with Blackbird Designs!

From my last post asking for tips on better photos - both Irma and Jane recommended (1) take photos in daylight if possible (2) use macro setting and (3) use a photo-editing software. I had a very quick try with Picasa. What do you think? I only spent 5 minutes with it. It will take sometime for me to play with it and learn how to use it but I like the idea of being able to "brighten" the photo. Thanks for the tips, Irma and Jane!

While stitching this, I listened to The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss. What an absorbing story and it sure made me want to keep listening and stitching! Thanks for the recommendation, Siobhan!

Two - miracles:

There are many everyday things I'm grateful for so I won't bore you with that. I will tell you of a spine tingling experience we had two weeks ago Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny day but unusually windy. We were out and about doing our usual Saturday errands. For local folks, we were driving east on SE Marine Drive, heading close to Boundary Road. This is a 6 line semi-highway (3 lanes each way) lined with stands of tall skinny trees, maybe cottonwood?

As we were driving along, I was admiring the lovely weather then noticed a sprinkle of leaves coming down in front of us, followed by what I saw was a branch falling over the driver's side window. As I pointed this to DH, he looked and instantly looked in the rear view mirror. Thank God he didn't stop driving. He said 'Look behind us!' As I turned around in my seat I can see that a tree had fallen across the road and three lanes of cars were stranded behind us! (This all happened in seconds.)

Yes, we passed under a falling tree! It was a miracle it did not hit us or anyone else. Thank you God!

So, what did DH do (is this typical male)? He said 'hey, we should turn around and see how big that tree really was! I said 'Are you nuts? Are you trying to thumb your nose at fate and try for it the second time?' After all, there are tall trees on the OTHER side of the road too!

We did not turn back. We just thanked our lucky stars!

Now, look this photo.

Yesterday afternoon when my husband looked out from our bedroom window, he could see the sunlight reflecting off our room and onto the garage. Can you see the heart in the photo? I could see it instantly. Awww, isn't that lovely? Of course it was one of those fleeting moments and I was so glad he caught it with our camera.

Three - the long weekend was wonderful.

It's almost over now but it sure was a lovely break. Thank you too for your well wishes. I just love'em! You are such nice people!

All good things must come to a close, so now it's back to the busy-ness of the office tomorrow. But first, I still have tonight to enjoy and I will have to figure out what my next project will be. Oh, I had such a lovely visit with my local stitchy friend this morning too so I'm all filled with starry stitching goodness!

Have I shocked anyone besides myself with 2 days of consecutive posts? And you can notice the difference in tone between yesterday's and today's. One more day of rest on the weekend sure helps! Now it's back to burrowing in my hobbit hole!

I hope you are enjoying Fall (or Spring) in your part of the world. Look for those miracles...

Thanksgiving House

It's the Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada and I think my current stitching project certainly represents to me the spirits of thankfulness and contentment.

My Quaker House
by Blackbird Designs
from the book With Needle and Thread

Imagine the colours more vibrant than what you see. One of these days I hope to find out how other people get such nice bright photos! The camera probably has a lot to do with it but I'm sure there are other tips. I am using a Canon PowerShot A2000IS. While it's a lot better than my previous camera, it's still a pretty basic model. If you have any photo taking tips and tricks, I would love it if you could share!

I'm really enjoying stitching this design and that's generally true of any of the BBD that I've stitched.

I don't really have much else to say. I'm just keeping heads down these days, running that race to the finish (work to complete in about 2 months). I'll just keep on needling!

Thank you for stopping by and taking time to leave a comment. It's always nice to know who's checking in! And for those with blogs, thanks for keeping up with your blog posts as I always enjoying reading them too. Have a great week.

Happy News...

...for Theresa who won the Blogoversary Giveaway! I told Theresa I was amazed when her name came up because she seemed to have won a few of these (or at least one other) giveaways lately! Theresa, go get a Lotto ticket, you never know!

First year giveaway - Quaker Calendars by Plum Street Sampler

Thank you to everyone for entering the giveaway because it gave me a chance to read about your favourite stitch. It seems to be that most people's favourites are the ones they have made for a loved one.

Since my last post, I have put away my Windmill Sampler and have been searching for next projects to do. I will have to order some floss this week! Thank you to Barbara for pointing out something about the colour "Old Brick":

"I've seen that GAST "Old Brick" turn up in some REALLY different shades/colors. I had one skein I loved, that really did look like old faded out brick, but everything I've had since is either too pink or too brown."

Well, at least it was good to know it wasn't my imagination! But it's frustrating when you see such variations in the dye lots!

On Friday afternoon I received Sarah Woodham from Shakespeares Peddler. Here's a photo of it. I just love this design.

Isn't she pretty? I just love her. I probably won't stitch her for awhile yet. Looking at that all over one stitching, I know I will need a time when I am not so busy with work. But I can still just look and admire her!

As usual, thank you for stopping by. I hope I will have some stitching to show you next time. Thank you for your kind regard, as always.
Have a wonderful week. I am sending you "Rosy" thoughts!

Princess: where art thou?

On Princess' whereabouts

Yes, kiddies, lately I've shed my mild mannered stitching princess disguise and donned my suck-it-up-princess armor and I have been slaying dragons, always careful not to get blood splattered on my outfit of the day because it's hell on dry cleaning bills. Work has been consuming lots - ok - most of my time and energy so stitching has been slower than usual. On top of that, I'd picked the wrong design to wrestle with at this time...So, what's so difficult, you ask?

Regardez le probleme!

Here's the innocuous looking design and here is my progress on it.

The Windmill Sampler
by Examplar from the Heart

So, what's the problem? It's two fold actually. First, the symbols charted do not always match the colours in the photo of the stitching, and second, I'd felt some colours just did not go. There is a pink called GA Old Brick, which, while not pepto-bismal pink is a candy pink and you can see a bit of it in the flower by the bird. In the photo it looks innocent enough. But imagine when that big flower in the middle was stitched with that pink with brown. I did not like it.

I left it alone for awhile and tried to think "it might grow on you". Yeah, like a wart! It thumbed its nose at me and gave me the raspberry every time I looked at it, so Sunday night, taking a few deep breaths, I took out my wart-slaying scissors etc and ripped the whole thing out. I replaced it with GA Mulberry and will fill in with Flax. Much better.

Now, don't get me wrong, I still like this design but it takes more concentration to figure out each colour I should use for each motif. That's a lot more work than I can stand at this point in my stressful work period. I usually park my little grey cells for recharging (just like my cell phone) every night and I want to stitch something where I don't have to question if each symbol charted is correct or if I like the colour! So, after much wrestling about being a quitter, I think I should put this one aside for now, and do something 'easier' before I do something bad to it!

Barbara asked

... if there was a reason I'd left out the words in The Simple Things by BBD. The only reason I left them out is the over 1 stitching! I have a really tough time with over 1 and although I have done it (BBD's Where My Heart Blooms) if I can get away without doing it I will. So there, now you know my shameful secret! ;-)

TGIF!!!

You may notice that I am posting this on Friday morning. You may wonder "is she playing hookey from work?" Actually I went home feeling the chills and upset stomach yesterday and decided I would take today off as well just to recuperate. I do feel better this morning than yesterday, thank goodness! I am so looking forward to some sunshine though this weekend! The weather was fabulous in September but turned very fall-ish this week - rain and chilly weather, hence many people falling sick at work.

I am looking forward to going back to my quiet stitching princess garb and having some soothing stitching over the weekend, and some gardening if the weather permits!

Reminder that today is the last day of my giveaway. Please post a comment here, and I will announce a winner on Sunday. Here's a photo of the late September roses.
Thank you for stopping by, especially leaving me such well wishes for my blogoversary! Hope you have a lovely weekend where you are!