Hello -well I can't decide if Spring has sprung or not around here... a week ago I thought it had but currently I'm skeptical as we have had 3 nights with temps in the mid to upper 30's... not a frost but definitely concerning for the petunias I bought... so I hauled them into the garage and I'm waiting out Mother Nature.
A couple of days ago I thought about getting more plants, but the garden center wasn't open ...and I'm taking that as a sign that God is looking out for me... sigh... around here I've always been told that it is safe to plant after Mother's Day... which is next Sunday... not that far away right? I shall try to be patient... not my forte...
And thinking about the upcoming Mother's Day had me pondering, "what did I want to start to stitch that day?" For years I've given myself the gift of starting a new project, guilt free on Mother's Day... throwing caution to the wind and totally ignoring all the gazillion other projects I have started... and not finished... sigh... and let's not think about how I do that same thing other times during the year... I'm trying to make Mother's Day special ... LOL... I went back through the blog to see which pieces I selected over the years, and was pleasantly surprised that the starts I had on Mother's Day were pieces that I finished ... and I finished them in a reasonable amount of time... EXCEPT for my start in 2024... don't know what happened but I stitched on it Mother's Day and didn't put another stitch in it after that... and it has been languishing in a plastic zippered pouch ever since... oh my... so on Thursday opened up the zippered pouch, planted myself out on the sunroom porch (it was a lovely sunny day) and put some more stitches in it... here's where it was when I opened the pouch with Red Bird Sampler from Three Sheep Studio... I purchased this as a PDF... I do love immediate gratification!
and here it is now...
not bad for 3 days of stitching... I made the C and the N red for my sons initials... appropo to acknowledge my boys on a Mother's Day piece, dontcha think?
Now you know I LOVE birds... I even have a small sampler wall that features birds...
on the left there is The Red Bird Sampler by With Thy Needle & Thread... I added an alphabet to the bottom of this one...
on the right is Vintage Birds by Jeanette Douglas... I love how the alphabet wraps around this one!
and at the bottom is Faith of the Heart from With Thy Needle & Thread...
as the Mother of a special needs child this one speaks to me ... "God Finds a Low Branch for the Bird that Cannot Fly" ...
and I'm going to add this bird sampler to the wall... just got it back from the framer... The Sweet Bird Sings from Blackbird Designs...
This is another piece where I added the alphabet at the bottom and I'm in love with this frame...lots of close ups...
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So all this bird-brained brooding helped me in deciding what my Mother's Day project is going to be... bet you have a good idea what it is going to feature...LOL ... drumroll please... a BIG BIRD!!! Say hello to Bobby by Kathy Barrick!!
Okay I love that great big bird in the middle and the alphabet scattered around... I need to go to Hobby Lobby and pick up the flosses and get a piece of linen painted or dyed by next Sunday... a very doable task... that certainly will be helped by the deadline of next Sunday...
As for decor, well I'm still enjoying my birds and tulips... here's the small shelf unit...
up top I have this little bird from Homespun Elegance called Delivering Posies... such a sweet little piece...
and on the other side by mini quilt of yellow tulips and a little pillow which is Hello Spring from Sub Rosa Designs..
below Good Deeds by With Thy Needle and Thread...
in the middle from the OOP BBD book Thank you Sarah Tobias the Pins & Tulips Pincushion where I stitched the front and the back on one piece of fabric... and the tiny gal with the flower is from Pineberry Lane she was a freebie called Wee Crowned Maiden in a field of tulip knickknacks!
On the bottom, the bird in the heart shaped frame is the very FIRST cross stitch piece I ever did... it was a kit and I remember tossing the fabric as it was a boring beige and getting this piece of sage green... don't remember the name of the kit as that was 40 years ago... and the bird with the spool of thread is Bobbin' Along by Notforgotten Farms...
and over on the left side on the bottom is Prairie Schooler's Spring...
Oh the reason I got out the forgotten Mother's Day project was I finished Primrose Cottage American Sampler... yippee!!!
I dropped it off at the framer when I picked up the BBD piece... and while I still have some patriotic pieces I want to do, I needed a little break... along with pondering bird projects I've been overall pondering just what I want to work on at the moment... soooooo many many many things I want to do but there are only so many hours in a day... and even though I'm "retired" I seem to do a lot of running around... some of my choosing, some not of my choosing... such is life...
Next week has its fair share of running around... gonna work out with Anna, a lunch one day and a dinner another day with a friend, a doctor appointment about my knee and of course helping out a family member with stuff... oh and add in I do want to work in the yard... there is definitely some cleanup that needs to be done and of course I want to plant some stuff... I picked up some beautiful Coleus ... I'm still deciding about the window boxes... I'll probably pick a color scheme when I see what is available at the garden centers... they haven't got a lot of the wave-type petunias in yet... guess they are paying closer attention to that Mother's Day date for frost than I am...
I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... gotta do a grocery run for a family member and then Nick is making dinner for the 2 of us... hopefully I can get in some stitching or sewing... or I'm might opt for a nap on the porch... always a good choice!
hope you have a good week ahead...
happy stitching!
carol fun