A Slow Sunday where maybe I should pay closer attention when I talk to myself...

Its Sunday again... don't know where the time goes... the last week was pretty nice. Had 3 full days where I didn't need to turn on the AC... take that Duke Energy... lovely temperatures, low humidity, nice breeze... my idea of PERFECT weather...and then it changed. Heat and humidity will be back this week. The only good thing about this weather is that it seems to rain a bit each day and I haven't had to water as much. 

I spent  a lot of time out on the porch/sunroom with the windows open cross stitching and I have a finish... Mrs. Maguire's  Garden by Pineberry Lane...

I can't get the color of this linen accurate ... it is a lovely olive-y green... the mottling came out wonderful and I'm happy with my floss changes... I made it a lot more yellow-y golden. I have plans for framing and priscillifying this ...might get to it tomorrow.

And since I finished one project I jumped into another...and this is where maybe   I should pay closer attention to when I talk to myself. I couldn't wait to get to  this one, Summer Welcome by The Drawn Thread...

I dithered over what size linen to stitch this on... the sample is on 30 count and the stitch count for the height is only 30 stitches...so over 2 threads that makes it 2" tall ...and that didn't seem very big... so I thought I'd do it on 28 count and it would be a teeny bit bigger... so I figured out the size piece I needed and cut it out and painted it...

 I love how it came out a nice sunny yellow...more intense than this pics shows... I got all my threads together which took a while as it is charted for silks ...which I converted to Gentle Arts...which I may convert some flosses to DMC... got my charts copied so I can make notes on them and sat down to stitch. And then it hit me... this doesn't look like 28 count..hmmm....where's my ruler.... OH carp... this isn't 28 ...this is 32...so now my piece will be even smaller than the original... how did I miss this??? The linen I cut this off of even has a note pinned to it clearly stating it is 32 count. 

I debated painting another piece of linen but I just didn't want to wait so I started stitching...and very quickly came to the conclusion that while I thought I wanted 28 count, I really really like 32... I like the coverage I get with 2 ply on 32 ...and this isn't as small as I thought...

I started in the middle because I wanted to see how that flag looked and while it isn't complete yet it  is looking good. I'm also debating how many of the fancy stitches this chart calls for...that I didn't notice till I sat down to stitch...can I eliminate...today I'm not feeling them... maybe tomorrow...so in the meantime I'll just work on the letters. 

On the gardening front, my yard is looking nice... I do think I may have over stuffed the window boxes... I have 5 of them this year and started out with a plan of 6 wave petunias to each section of window box and in total there are 12 sections for the 5 boxes... but it looked skimpy so I went and got more ...

Some of the petunias are down right leggy already...need to pinch them back...this is the corner by the porch ... got the wagon last year at Hobby Lobby... I'm pretty sure that plant behind the wagon is a week...and ENORMOUS weed but it so green I haven't got the heart to pull it out yet... I'll probably need a machete to chop it down... the stems are really thick. Why is it that weeds can look so good and the climbing rose bush next to it (that I'm not showing) looks really BAD...something has eaten the leaves... I sprayed some Neem oil and will see what happens. The lady down the street said the same thing happened to her climbing rose bush...she chopped hers back to the ground and I will probably have to do that too...maybe when I whack down that big weed. 

This is one of my views from the porch...

with the windows open the petunias smell lovely...one of my favorite flowers.

Now the Dude is sacked out on the couch today...I've thrown a quilt over the couch as the new slipcovers attract cat hair like a magnet and I'm tired of constantly cleaning it up.

I might take a little nap too... dinner is pretty much organized... doing shrimp over pasta with roasted asparagus, salad, watermelon and rolls. I'm hoping for lots of crafty time this week. Did a bit of sewing last week and want to get some quilt tops off to be quilted...and there is sock yarn to be played with and of course stitching to be done. I am never bored...and that is a wonderful thing.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts ... do check out the quilt on her header... so pretty...hope you are having a lovely Sunday and will have an equally lovely week...

happy stitching-

carol fun 

PS... I ran this post through spell check and for some reason it doesn't like the word "wagon"... I'm clueless as to why...that's the only way I know to spell it. 

Driving by on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello there... I'm just driving by ...in my little polka dot egg car with my goggles firmly in place to say "what have you been up to?"... as usual, I've been doing a bit of this and a bit of that  and after being gone for two weeks I have some stuff to show you. First lets talk about this hilarious chick in the egg car... a friend  called me the other week and left an intriguing message that she had found something while she was shopping and it HAD to come and live at my house... and this is what she dropped off... OMG is this not HILARIOUS??? What kind of a brain conceives of such a creation??? I'd like to meet them and take them out for lunch...LOL Thanks Meredith... I just LOVE him!!!

And have you guys been as hot as we've been here in SW Ohio?  I heard that this was the hottest May on records and my utility bill certainly reflects that. Usually you get a couple of weeks in the Spring and the Fall where you don't need AC or heat and you can open the windows and enjoy the breeze...not this Spring...heck we didn't really have a Spring... I think it lasted all of 3 days...maybe. 

So I put away my "spring-y" stuff and  banished the bunnies to their plastic bins and got out my more "summer-y" decorations...heavy on the bird stuff. And I've added several new cross stitch pieces...

To begin, this is Shakespeare's Peddler's Magic Garden Sampler. I started this one back around 2016..even stitched that date  on it... adjusted it for now and "priscillified" with burlap ribbon and a cool galvanized "frame".  You can click here and see all the changes I made... color of linen, color of flosses. I'm very happy with my version of this sampler.

Next we have my current favorite stitchy lady...Mrs. Maguire from Pineberry Lane and this is Mrs. Maguire - Bee Charmer.  Another galvanized piece with some burlap, buttons and pins...you can enlarge it to see it a bit better. I'm thinking I should go back and backstitch around the bee wings... I did the bee skep in satin stitches, I like the dimension it gives the piece and of course I changed the linen color (painted it with Rit dyes) and the floss colors were changed too. I think my style for this can be categorized as "bright Primitive"...kinda an oxymoron since most Primitives are browner than I like. This makes me happy and that's all that counts.

And here is an itty bitty little gal from Pineberry Lane... I just stitched her and her giant tulip from the chart "Except this Posey from a Friend" which you can see here. I may stitch her again in one of the larger pieces.  You can't get simpler than the embellishment here ... a bow and a button. I picked up that little galvanized clip frame at Hobby Lobby...in fact all the galvanized "frames" I've used have come from Hobby Lobby.  

And speaking of Hobby Lobby, I was there last week... they already have a lovely display of FALL stuff and I saw candy canes in another section... sheesh... can't we even get through 4th of July before we start thinking of the holidays? I know people who create stuff for craft fairs need to get an early start but I'd really like to live in the moment for a while.

Here's a pic of the display shelves...

Right now I'm stitching on another Mrs. Maguire piece...this is Mrs Maguire's Garden...

I dyed this linen in a small mason jar and I LOVE how it turned out...all splotchy and blotchy... it is a lovely mottled olive green... I started with Rit Apple Green and added a touch of Golden Yellow. Again I've brightened this up and I added an apron to her dress... I saw that on IG but I don't remember who did it. Along with this one Mrs. Maguire also has a hen house ...you can see it here... which I can't wait to get to.

And another piece I can't wait to stitch is this one from Drawn Thread...

you can see this pattern and her other seasonal "welcome" pieces here... and I want to do ALL of them!!! Now they aren't real big...216 x 30... so on 32 count that will be 13.5" by 2.8"...I cut a piece of linen this morning and I'm thinking of doing a mottled yellow background... the stuff it in a mason jar technique. I pulled my threads...did a conversion from the called for silks (lovely to work with but pricey) to Gentle Arts. Have everything except the blue for the letters...grrr... now I have a little of the Presidential Blue but not sure I have enough for the whole piece. I ordered some this morning but may take a chance and get started on it. I think it will fit perfectly on the top shelf of my display rack and I can change them out as the year progresses. I LOVE the Halloween one ...and the Autumn one...and the Spring one...and well you get the idea. 

I'm having a family dinner tonight...prime rib sandwiches (left over prime rib from Easter), corn on the cob, pasta salad, chinese coleslaw, sliced avocados, blueberries, watermelon and strawberries with angel food cake for dessert. Everything is prepped and ready to go so I have a little bit of time to sit on my sunroom porch and stitch. I got a ceiling fan installed last week and I have an electrical outlet too so after dark I can sit out there as I plugged in a nice floor lamp. Now if Mother Nature would cooperate and let things cool down a bit I could open the windows. The humidity is suppose to lessen this week...and that would be excellent... it feels like July, not May... curse you Mother Nature!! I shouldn't be so hard on the old gal... my flowers are liking the  rain and the humidity...

pyramid of petunias on May 6...

Same pyramid of petunias today...

looks pretty perky!!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today ...hope you all have a great week... I have plans to plant some dahlias and stitch and maybe even sew some quilt blocks...

happy stitching-

carol fun