O Birdy and Blackbird Designs SAL

How was everyone's weekend? Mine was rainy but productive in a stitchy sense.  I would've rather cycled around and worked out my hips/thighs that have bloomed over the winter, however, sitting on those same hips/thighs catching up on Hart of Dixie with needle in hand was equally exciting!

So I finished La-D-Da's O Birdy. Thinking of a pillow finish with a twisted cord for trim. 

Details: Stitched on 40 ct Flax Newcastle linen, fast becoming my favourite linen to stitch on. Threads are a mix of DMC, AVAS and GAST.

I also threw in a few more stitches into Sarah Chapple and Magic Garden, my SAL with Maggee.  I still can't believe how long MG's fence is taking to stitch up!! Hopefully next Friday I will finish it.

Then after browsing through online stitching stores, and making mental lists of a plethora of designs to stitch, I came across the Blackbird Designs SAL that Alma and Barb are sharing with us.  I have yet to make a simple alphabet sampler and so have decided to participate in this SAL.  I'll need to put down my other projects to make time for this one.  I pulled some threads and had some difficulty with the pinks/purples.  I want to use my favourite Dinky Dye's Madi's Rose but I couldn't find it in my stash??!! Not sure where it took off to! Then I pulled two linens and am unsure of which one to use.  Let me know what you think.

Lakeside Linen's 36ct Buttercream.

This one is much more yellowish in reality, less cream! The yellow is very pretty and brings out the gold.

Or PTP's 36 ct Legacy Linen...nice marbled antique look.

Hard to decide.  Hubby thinks the Legacy but I'm leaning towards the buttercream. Decisions...I'm the worst with them!

Granny stripe progress! I've been crocheting on the train which is great.  I'm about to add another colour in for my ride tomorrow morning.  Can't decide between a teal or a dark plum colour.  I'll bring both.

I also had a surprise in the mail.  I recently won one of those darling little LHN sheep charts from Tricia at The Stamper's Stitches.  She included the most adorable little handmade card with the chart.  Once I stitch the design, I'll pass it on to the next stitcher. Thank you Tricia!!

From last week's bike trip, some black leafed clovers and pretty succulents.  We have a terrible time keeping succulents, no matter how much we DO NOT water them, they ALWAYS die on us.  I so wish to be able to keep succulents at some point in my life!!

Have a wonderful week! It's going to be sunny again when I work....isn't that the way?!

Anne

Mailart and Flowers

Hello everyone!

Thank you all for your lovely comments on the last post.  The past few days here have been like summer.  The weather is so hot and glorious I can't believe it! I'm eager to get on my bike and cycle around soaking in the sun.  There are a few things I need to do first before I head out.  

Meari's mailart finally arrived the other day and she loves what I made for her.  Her niece was visiting and thought that the mailart is the bomb!! So cute! For the front of the letter I chose parts of a freebie pattern from the Snowflower Diaries called Tulips with Chick.  I chose my own colours and used an assortment of overdyed threads for the pattern. 

For the back, I used BBD's A Breath of Spring with DMC threads.  I didn't stitch the whole pattern, just parts of it.  

It was fun to make for her and I'm glad we did this exchange.  Thanks Meari!!

Here's a few flower photos from our little bike ride down to the flower store in the farmlands.  It's such a happy place to be!

Beautiful Calla lily

My favourite...lavender

Little pockets of golden sunshine..Marigolds

That's all for now.  I'll have more stitching to share after the weekend.  I hope to get some finishing done to show!! Have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs

Anne

Pascha and Beginnings

Christ is Risen!!

This is what we say for a few weeks after Pascha.  We had a good Pascha last week although both my husband and I got sick. I even had to take a day off of work which I never do!  For Pascha, we had our late night service and the hymns were beautiful.  So uplifting for the soul.  We broke the fast afterwards and ate some kulich and syrny pascha (sweet cheese dish).  The next day, my mom came briefly from Edmonton, flying back to Prince George.  I suppose they don't have direct flights from PG to Edmonton, so they have to come through Vancouver.  It was so good to see her for an hour! We ate roast beef rather quickly and chatted very fast too.  Then she was gone. 

Yummy kulich

Pascha breakfast

My beautiful mother and me

My sweet hubby and mom

 As for crocheting and stitching, I managed to make a few new starts.  Why I start on more projects, I don't know.  I'm becoming a serial starter! I know I should just focus on what I have but I couldn't help it! This weekend, I started Sarah Chapple.  I got the recommended fabric, 35 ct Rook and found it so dark and stiff.  So I washed and ironed it to get rid of the sort of rusty stripes I found on the fabric.  The rusty stripes are still there but much more muted.  Then I started the sampler with 2 strands of silk over 2.  I made a lot of progress but then thought, 1 strand provides just as much coverage, might as well save the silk, so I ripped out my progress and began again.  Here she is so far.

I would have bought new linen for Sarah, but my hubby found out the cost of the linen and said "Heck no! You are stitching on that and are going to be happy with it!"  So I guess I'll have to make do!

I also started a sweet little design, La-D-Da's O Birdy which was loaned to me by the lovely Carol.  I'm using 40 count flax linen with GAST and AVAS threads.  I'm loving it so far!

I added a few more motifs to JCS 1707. It's coming along nicely. I know I have to tackle the lion/griffon creature at some point but right now, I'm loving the motifs.

My granny stripe has grown a bit.  I added a stripe on the skytrain on the way to work one day.  It's the perfect traveling project, IF I get a seat!

Blue stripe on Pascha

Nothing else much to report. I'm still waiting for Meari's mailart to arrive.  It's taking a surprisingly long time to get there. I also am stitching a little something for a friend so I can't show that yet.  

Thank you all for your lovely comments on the last post.  I'm glad it uplifted people! It's nice to hear that I can create a nice post every once in awhile!! 

Of course I shouldn't leave Titus out of this post.  Here he is "helping" me iron my stitching.  I "love" how he flops onto it and gets all his fluff embedded in my linen.  So much fun....

Hugs

Anne

Simple Pleasures

Hello my lovelies!

Thank you all for your comments on my last post.  I appreciate every one! These days have been busy full of work and finding pleasure in the simple things of life.  Regardless of how life may sometimes be difficult for us all, it's important to stop and enjoy what's around us: our family, friends, pets, crafts or little day trips around the city. 

Some things I enjoyed this past week and a half:

Crocheting and reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton on a hot sunny Sunday.

Day trip to Queen Elizabeth Park with my husband, where we smelled flowers, sat by a fountain, and walked under cherry trees.

 Cycling with my hubby and discovering a new trail.

 Picking flowers along the railroad tracks.

Cycling again. This time to Fort Langley and taking our time looking at everything in the Antique Mall.

Restarting my granny strip blanket without a curl!

Stitching JCS and finally get to the motifs.

My Nana's magnolia tree.

Last but definitely not least, I had two lovely surprises from the mailman/lady this week.  One was unsuspecting, the other an exchange.

From Jo, a little pouch stitched 1 over 1 of Kokopelli, a fertility deity, filled with jelly babies.  A wonderful surprise that I so treasure!!! Thank you Jo!! You are amazing! Hugs!!

The other surprise is from Meari that I just received today.  We did another Easter/Spring mailart exchange since we loved doing the Christmas one so much.  She sent me the most darling mailart.  She hand dyed the linen and added the neatest little details.  Thank you so much Meari! I love it and it's now displayed by my biscornus!!!

I hope you enjoyed the simple pleasures post.  Pascha is this weekend so I will be back on Bright Monday with pictures to show you all.  I also hope to catch up on my blog reading.  I've been trying to read a few in the morning but my comments may be a bit wonky since I'm just waking up so forgive me!!

Hugs to you all!!

Anne

Cherry Blossoms

Hello everyone!

It's been almost two weeks since I've posted and to tell you the truth, I don't have much to show today in the way of stitching.  I've been busy working on Meari's mailart and am almost finished it.  I made some decisions regarding the granny stripe and quilt.  Thank you all for your input and advice.  It's so nice to have others put in their opinions, based from experience, which helped me make an informed decision.  I decided to rip out the granny stripe and redo. Probably will restart this weekend now that there's been some time in between the ripping.  As for the quilt, I will stitch in the ditch for the main parts of the quilt, then hand quilt some sort of leafy, floral design on the red panels with red thread.  That way I will not be taking 8 years, ahem Barb!, to hand quilt my first quilt!! 

Titus trying to help me with quilting...not!

Unraveled yarn, ready for a new start

Pinned and ready to sew the red panels!

 
I made some minute progress on Magic Garden.  Dear Maggee hasn't been very well so I've been trying to put off the finish, which is fine since I have a gazillion other things to do!! I've also worked on JCS a bit and have contemplated starting Sarah Chapple.  I wanted to start her on Spring break but forgot! Oops! 

The peacock is finally DONE!

Magic Gate

My granny square has grown by 5 rounds.  It's taking longer and longer to do each round.  I'm hoping that I'll only have to do another 10 or so.  

Spring is special to all of us.  It brings the prettiest flowers and feelings of hope surging through us. In the Lower Mainland, we are quite blessed with a large number of cherry blossom and magnolia trees.  I tried my best to take photos of my favourite trees however, they didn't capture their true beauty.  Enjoy a few flower photos.

The cherry blossoms were taken at Burrard Station and the Magnolia tree at 22nd skytrain station at night.

The star Magnolia, so fragrant

I couldn't resist buying some pretty daffodils to cheer up the place.  They make me smile.  (I still have St. Patrick's day pillows up since I don't have any spring/Easter pillows!)

I'll leave you with some sleepy Titus photos. I resisted taking another Vampire Titus photo.  It's so funny how when he sleeps like that how much he looks like a vamp!

As for blogger issues, if there are anymore, I might just switch over to Wordpress...but we will see!!

Take care everyone

Anne