My quilting squirrels invited their cross stitch squirrel friends for a visit and the raving has continued on this Slow Stitching Sunday...

Where did the week go???  I think of myself as a retired fuddy duddy who should be sitting at home knitting and stitching and sewing but somehow I end up running here and there and don't get nearly as much crafty time as I would like...but then I would like a 36 hour crafty day so it probably isn't ever gonna happen...sigh...

Anyway this week saw several new cross stitch squirrels enter my home via the mail box and I have to say I'm really liking all of them! First was this little project and I do mean little...as in itty bitty...teeny tiny...what was I thinking???

This is Little House Needleworks "Birdhouse Alphabet" done over ONE thread of 28 count Crystal Chime Lugana... the fabric has a sparkly thread in it ...very pretty. This piece right now measures 2" wide and 3" tall... when complete it will be almost 4" tall... I wanted it to be  small and it is going to be small.  I'm using one strand of  Belle Soie silk in the Beanstalk color.  I'm using my small q-snap frame which I found helps a lot for stitching over one thread. Also excellent lighting and Mr. Magoo magnifying eyeglasses in a +4.50 power are essential for me...then I can see the threads and holes... here is a really up close picture of this latest adventure.

Now this is a warm up for the Brenda Gervais Summer Schoolhouse Lessons in Abecdarian ... you can see the story behind this project here. I do love Brenda's style and the little sneak peeks of this project just sucked me in so I ordered the chart and the fibers and the linen and they arrived yesterday.

The flosses are very pretty and the 28 count Lugana linen looks like it will be easy to stitch on over one as the weave is nice and even and the holes are easy to see. I'm not normally a hoop/q-snap user but I think it is a must for these over 1 projects...and knowing that I can stitch nicely over one and it doesn't take as long as I thought it would I might attempt another project that has been simmering for years... doing the entire Prairie Schooler ABC's on one piece of linen...like this one...

I have all of these charts and I started it once on a humongous piece of linen but didn't get past the first chart... I think that done over 1 thread it would be a more manageable project... or I could just be deluding myself... LOL...it definitely needs to simmer longer.

But before I could jump into the Summer Schoolhouse another squirrel squeezed it's way through the mail slot and well I just had to stitch a couple  of letters...

this is Vintage Birds by Jeanette Douglas Designs...

Now I'm doing it over 2 threads on 32 count and my linen is  Water Lily by Wichelt... as lovely pale green which looks great with all those peacock flosses.  I started with the ABC's and after stitching 4 letters I know I will run out of the floss for the letters. I stitched LMNO and used one one yard strand of the called for GA Portabella floss... so that means most probably I can only stitch 20 letter with one skein and last I checked there are 26 letters in the alphabet. Now this is my mistake as she stitched the sample over 36 ct using only one ply so she used less floss... I went rooting around in my stash and came up with another unopened skein of Portabella...but there is a problem...

these two skeins of floss have little in common except for the attached tags... I started with the one on the right...there is a faintest bits of the color in the right skein at the tips of some of the strands in the left skein. Now I know the left skein is older but really... that much difference??  I would call the one on the right a brown but the one on the left is a taupe... arghhh... I'll order another skein of floss from the same place and hope it matches better than what I have. In the meantime I think I'll move onto some of the other motifs... or perhaps finish the Birdhouse Alphabet or those last two border rows on my Lizzie Kate Jingles which has languished all week. 

I'm hoping the upcoming week has less running around in it... plan to stay home on the 4th which is fine with me. I've got my Sunday dinner prepped... made some cold salads yesterday... tri-color rotini pasta salad and tabbouleh and marinated tomatoes... picked up some rotisserie chicken from Costco...best $5 chicken you can buy...and I made some prosciutto wrapped asparagus bundles that I'll pop into the oven just before my son and his wife arrive... should be tasty.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape on Monday....hope you have a wonderful 4th of July !!!

happy stitching-

carol fun