Some Summertime Stitching...

Last week included some of the nicest days we've had all summer... temps in the low 80's and low humidity... it was glorious while it lasted...and I helped me with some summertime stitching.

I finished up this little piece on a scrap of some linen I dyed myself. This is from a recent release by Lizzie Kate called Seasons...you can see them all here. I like all of them and plan to stitch them in due time. This one finishes out to about 3" X 4.5". I have an idea about how to finish it but haven't gotten to it yet.

And finishing up that little piece got me to thinking about another summertime project I had started a long long time ago...I think the last time this saw the light of day was 5 years ago! Glad I remembered it!

This it Magic Garden by Shakespeare's Peddler and you can see it here. Now if you take a moment and look at the sampler in the link you are thinking, huh? First off I stitched this on a linen I dyed myself in shades of yellow and orange. I did that because I changed at least half of the colors in this piece. I love the design and the layout but can't for the life of my figure out why certain motifs were stitched in the colors the designer picked. Those flowers on the left hand side look like daylilies to me, and when I think of daylilies I think shades of yellow and orange... they are charted in GA Onyx...okay I've seen dark purple daylilies but I've never seen any black ones. And the carrot on the right... it is charted in GA Raspberry Frost... which is a tiny bit raspberry and a whole lot beige... which makes it look like a dried out parsnip to me. The slice of what I think is watermelon in the middle was charted in GA Hyacinth...purple...again I didn't get it, so I changed it to pink.

So in thinking about this, the title is Magic Garden, and perhaps the designer had a mythical garden in mind, or a garden at midnight...I don't have a clue. I'm happy with my changes as it is certainly a bright summery garden! I think I've got all my floss changes figured out except for random speckles stitched all over the background. The chart call for GA Hyacinth which look good on the linen in the picture but not for my linen. I need to look in my stash for a nice mottled yellow/orange... something a little lighter than the GA Orange Marmalade I used for the daylilies... or perhaps I selectively cut bits and pieces from the Orange Marmalade and use those. Sheesh... sometimes the decisions take longer than the stitching!

Now I'm off to listen to the baseball game until it is time to work on dinner. The talk today is all about whether our star pitcher Johnny Cueto has been traded or not. Last night the story was he was told 10 minutes before the game he was traded, but the deal fell apart. He went out and pitched a stellar game. At lunch time the story was yes he was traded to the Kansas City Royals...but just a little bit ago the story was NOPE... no deal. I have to say the management of the Cincinnati Reds is looking like a bunch of amateurs. I hate to see Johnny go... before I moved to my little house I lived in the same cul de sac as he lives during the baseball season. He is a nice kid... the same age as my older son and he treats his mother very nicely. He bought the house so his mom could come and cook for him during the baseball season. I'd certainly be willing to do that for my son if he as making $10 million a year, wouldn't you? LOL

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom-No Cape tomorrow.

happy stitching-
carol fun


happy stitching-
carol fun