Tangled Branch and Cherry Blossoms

Alright! I got the bulk of the right branch finished today! The outlining still needs to be done, but I think I'll do that after all the branches are complete.  I've been still messing around with various different butterfly designs to cover up the stain.  I made two but feel they are too geometric for this piece.  I searched for a few designs on the internet but found nothing to my liking.  I may keep one of the designs I made, we'll see how it turns out!

On to other news, I made a purchase of Q snap frames, linens and my first SILKS!!!!! I am pretty pumped to try out silks for my Queen E design by Plum Street Samplers.  I am also thinking of making a few more smalls while I have my big projects underway, that way I won't get bored! My husband wasn't too happy with the purchase though.  He says I have enough linens (um only 3-4 plus some scraps!) and threads to make more projects and that I should use up those first before I get anything more!  Hmm, we'll see about that! He likes that I do stitching, but doesn't understand the need to have supplies at hand for inspiration.  I'll have to work on that with him, hehehe!

And lastly, spring is in full bloom, albeit cold, but blooming nonetheless! On one of our few sunny days, I stayed around downtown while on the way home from work and took some pretty photos of daffodils and cherry blossoms, my favourite tree (along with the magnolia).  So many people were taking photos of the trees with great cameras and all I had was my, sigh, cell phone camera.  One day soon, after we purchase the rest of our supplies for our bike trip, I will get a new camera.

Take care!

Anne

Cat Post Dedicated to Lucy

I thought I would share a little bit about my dearest cat Lucy aka Luchia, Chia bear.  She is around 17-19 years old and is still living the good cat life.  My stitching seems to be of a lot of interest to her.  I often find her sniffing around my sewing desk area and trying to get into the bag of miscellaneous stitching.  She is the culprit that caused the stain on my Tanglewood but I love her still.  She is still kooky and going a wee bit senile with her constant howling at night, keeping us up.  She is stubborn, like my husband, and refuses to sleep in logical spots. Instead she picks the most illogical spots to sleep in such as: behind the door, on the narrow window ledge (she just fell off again), on top of my laptop, on top of my husband's keyboard (opening up 200 firefoxes), on top of my stitching (but no longer since I put everything up high!) and pretty much anywhere that makes no sense to us!!   But she is beloved and sweet and we cherish everyday with her because the day will come soon when we have to make that hard decision.  So here are some photos of my darling Luchia.

Stain Faded But Not Gone

Well, after multiple soaks and prayers that the stain would go away, I managed to minimize it to a small, light purplish blob.  I would have soaked it more but the water was running into the other stitching and I had some of my stitches bleed a bit.  Sigh.  After I came to accept the fate of bleeding threads, I had an idea about what to do with the stain.  I am going to stitch either a little butterfly or dragonfly over top the stain, in the direction of the thistles.  Not too bad of an idea hey?! I figured why not embrace the stain and work with it, instead of fighting it. I am still mulling over which kind of bug will fly into my Tanglewood, but I think I'm leaning more towards a dragonfly. 

Oh and to top off the stain catastrophe, I had to frog out that right branch about three times!! I did read the warnings posted by the ladies stitching Tanglewood on the ICblog about how pesky and troublesome that branch was to stitch.  Here I am, stitching along, thinking that I wouldn't screw it up because I was being so careful, yet I did! It was like an optical illusion! I swear!!

Help!! Tanglewood ruined!

Hello fellow stitchers, I am in need of desperate help.  Last night my cat puked up her dinner (while we were out) all over my binder that held my Tanglewood stitching and threads.  I took out the stitching and cleaned off the binder and thought, phew, my stitching ok! I didn't really take a good look at it until today when I noticed that some of the threads dyed into my fabric! In a spot that can't be stitched over or hidden!!!! I tried soaking it in water with a gentle soap but it is not coming out!!

What do I do?!

Here is the photo.

The Finishing Weekend!!

Wow! Two projects finished!! I'm amazed I got it all done! Both projects are for friends and I am glad they turned out so well.  The first one is a needle book, my first attempt at one and I am happy with the results.  The second project was a pin cushion and I really like its simplicity.  Here are the photos.

28 Ct Evenweave Threads Desert Dusk Dinky Dyes

The pattern I used for the pincushion is from Aurelle's Blog which has a ton of wonderful patterns for biscornu but I decided that due to limited time, just to make a pin cushion.  Next week I will attempt to make a biscornu for myself!!

Take care and happy stitching!!

Anne