A serious case of startitis on Slow Stitching Sunday...

First, my heart just aches for all of those who are in the path of Hurricane Irma. People haven't even begun to come back from Hurricane Harvey and we are onto another epic disaster, and I've heard a third hurricane, Jose, it waiting in the wings. I've made some donations to charity and said prayers, lots and lots and lots of prayers. I have a very dear friend who lives in a mobile home in Bradenton, FL. She sold her home here in the Midwest and just moved down there about 2 months ago to be a permanent resident of Florida. She's done a bunch of home improvement projects that are still shiny and new, and as of last night she was staying in a local shelter with her cat. She is constantly in my thoughts and prayers. I believe she'll be safe and I hope her home doesn't take too much damage.

And while I've been glued to the weather channel I've been stitching away... not finishing anything of consequence but bouncing around like the proverbial "BB in a box car" that my dear Father described me as.

Last Monday I went outside on my patio and painted some more linen... first was this piece...

This started as a piece of 36 count white Wichelt Endinburgh  linen... I'm going to do all nine of the Blackbird Designs, Loose Feathers series, For the Birds. I'm going to do them as a 3 by 3 grid with a small border in between each one. I figure I can replicate border designs from other BBD pieces.

I painted this using Rit dyes in Apple Green, Royal Blue and Tan... I diluted them a lot. When I painted this piece I thought I was going to stitch on the side I painted, but after it dried I found that the dye had gone all the way through the linen (unlike the linen I painted previously) and I liked the "back" even better than the front.

Here is a bigger pic of the whole piece of linen...

I know it looks a bit blotchy now but I think that once I get the designs stitched on it, it will be more subtle and just provide an interesting background. As far as I can tell each chart uses the same palette of Weeks threads...blues in Deep Sea, Jay Bird and Blue Jeans... greens in Caper and Loden... tans in Cocoa, Flat Fish and Pamlico.  This piece of linen is about 21" square.  I couldn't wait to put a couple of stitches in... that was about one night's work.


And while I had made mess on the patio I painted some more Halloween-y type linen. This linen started as 32 ct. white Charles Craft linen. It is much stiffer than the Wichelt brand. I assume it has a coating of some kind of sizing. It takes the dye fine on the one side but doesn't penetrate to the back side completely.

I painted this piece with the chart in front of me trying to get  the proper proportions to match up with the design. I didn't measure anything...which I could have if I had thought of it beforehand... I just winged it... but I think it is going to work out pretty well. I'm hoping that the haunted house ends up where the green begins.

Again I had to put some stitches in to see what it would look like...that is about 2 nights of work...and I'm quite happy with the results. However I don't think I'll be able to get this finished before this Halloween,  as I then bounced over to work on this...

Prairie Schooler Autumn from Prairie Seasons No. 80.. this is almost done. I'm making the barn redder than the chart called for and I substituted the orange cause I didn't have the one called for. Don't know why this pic is blurry ... it looked fine on my phone. Oh well, I may be able to knock this one out tonight.  I have plans to display it with some of my many many many pumpkins.

And bouncing back to the Halloween stitching... since I don't think I can finish the entire PS Trick or Treat piece I thought perhaps I could do some of the motifs as little pin pillows...and this is the first one I stitched.

He is less than 2" square and come on...he is too stinking CUTE!!!  I'm going to do the pumpkin head kid and the witch... scroll back up and look at the chart...they are at the bottom. And if I have time I'd like to stitch the Trick or Treat words from the bottom of the chart and stuff it as a long pillow. I have lots of plans...lots of plans...just need the time.

Well I have dinner prepped and ready to put into the oven... a chicken alfredo casserole made with low carb pasta.. roasted asparagus, a salad,  dinner rolls, watermelon and angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream for dessert.  They should go home full...

The weather here has been gorgeous the last week, we are suppose to get the remnants of Irma Tuesday through Friday... rainy days should give me more stitching time as I won't have to water my garden. Oh, I'll post some garden pictures later this week. I re-did my window boxes with mums and ornamental cabbages and kale... I really like the look...and I have several gorgeous dahlias as big as a salad plate. I'm on the hunt for more dahlia tubers for next year.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape on Monday. Keep all of those in the path of hurricanes in your prayers.

happy stitching-
carol fun