Blackbird Design Freebie

Look at me. Another freebie finish in a week! I finished it last night. It's stitched on 28 ct. Blush linen from Silkweaver. That's one of their really old colors. I doubt they still make it. The thread is Grape Juice Belle Soie from Crescent Colors. As a warning...it will dye your fingernails blue. WAIT...hold the phone LOL I didn't finish...look at that little motif that's not finished. What's wrong with me? LOL

Hmmmm

At times I kinda like it. It makes me think of something old and coppery green...like I'm making an instant antique. It makes me think of New Orleans for some odd reason. I don't know why exactly. Maybe because the fabic is the color of mold maybe LOL I don't know what other color fabric I'd use with that thread though. I think white would be too light. I think it needs a dark color fabric.

Freebie Finish

Freebie link is in the post below. Again stitched on Parkland linen and stitched with CC Steamed Broccoli thread. I finished it last night stitching at my LNS. I had a nice time.

I found this thread and it does match with this fabric despite the pictures. I was having a hard time getting an accurate representation on the colors. The purple in the thread is not as nearly as pronounced as it look in the picture. I'm just wondering if there's enough contrast between the thread and the fabric. I'm thinking about using it for that Ink Circles pattern in Gift of Stitching...that Rose and Brambles or whatever it's called.

<

Been Awhile

Sorry bout that. I've actually been working for a change. Sorta LOL I finished up Kaye's Mirabilia RR. I've been working on this little freebie. I'm stitching it on 28 ct. Parkland linen from Silkweaver with Crescent Colors Steamed Broccoli. I'll post a picture when I'm done.

Monday Thursday Whatever

I said I'd post a WIP pic of Circle of Friends on Monday, but here I am doing it on Thursday. How rude is that? LOL Here's what I have so far. This is a piece of Shadowbrook from Silkweaver. I asked them to make it a little darker than normal. I thought COF needed a foresty sort of look. I keep going back and forth on the blue dress. The peach dress colors and the yellow dress colors look really good with the fabric. I'm kind of iffy about the blue dress colors. I guess it'll work out in the end. The picture makes it look like the fabric kinda has an aqua undertone to it, but its definitely not, it's forest green and brown.

Weekend Stitching

I have a thyroid problem and for a long time its been under control, but for the last 6 months or so it hasn't been and I've been really tired and my stitching has been kind of suffering a bit. Finally started new medication this week and I'm slowly starting to feel better. I got some quiet time Saturday and managed to not sleep it away LOL I got a good start on Kaye's RR. It will eventually be Mermaid of Atlantis.

And I worked a little more on Maria's M. I finally finished those evil wings. Now I just need to do all the backstitchy stuff and the beading. However, I just wasn't in the mood for that.

What I really wanted to do after all that was to start one of my (way too) many peacock patterns but I couldn't find fabric that was working with the patterns. So, I started Mirabilia's Circle of Friends. I'll post a picture of that tomorrow or so. I want to get several of the colors on the fabric before I get opinions on how the fabric is looking.

A Request

I need some Espresso Waterlilies fairly quickly. Either about a 18" length would be great or I could trade a skein of silk or something. Any help would be appreciated!

Woux Houx

Omigosh...I couldn't handle anymore. I think I can finally sleep tonight LOL

Proof

I've been stitching a little bit here and there. It's a really sucky picture, but it's good enough for ransom purposes I suppose lol

The fabric is actually Silkweaver's Mountain Rose. Maria picked it out herself. She wanted it on pink fabric...so pink fabric she got. This is the 3rd Letter Fairy I've stitched and I have to say I really hate the wings on these things. I don't know what it is about them, but I just really don't like them.

Hungover

I haven't been intentionally neglecting my blog. Summer + 3 kids = BUSY. Softball is FINALLY finally finally over. I couldn't handle anymore tournaments. Last week they had Cheerleading camp. Friday we had a birthday party then a cheerleading show. Then Saturday hubby took the girls swimming so I could clean the house...then just as I finished there was a huge plumbing crisis in the kitchen...water was everywhere. Ladies, I handled it all by myself without the aid of a plumber or a man LOL Go me! Sunday, church, lunch, another birthday party. That one ended up lasting 6 hours. Sitting in the sun...in South Louisiana...it was what 95 degrees yesterday? I rarely drink but when the daiquiris came out I indulged. I'm a little hungover today. But I got to know my neighbors better, got caught up on the gossip and got invited to the friday night parties that my husband always spies on LOL So, I guess it was worth it.

I have been stitching a little bit. I've been working on Mirabilia's M. I just have the wings and the beads to do and I'll be finished. And I have Kaye's Mirabilia RR now.

I'm Here

I'm sooo busy. Last week we went on vacation to Orange Beach, Alabama. This week is playing catch up. I'll try to post for real when I have some time.

Vindication!

That's extreme, but I got a flower! I decided a couple of months ago that I was going to grow some stuff from seeds. Everyone told me that it was difficult to do around here for every reason under the sun and just buy plants....blah blah blah. Well, they were right but I am too stubborn to listen or admit defeat. So, my first attempt was a mess. I used those little seed starter thingies and those are just stupid. The seeds washed out and sprouted everywhere but where they were supposed and died quickly. I managed to save a few. A couple of morning glories and about 4 tomato plants which are still growing...I'm curious to see if they'll produce eventually. This morning I woke up to this.

I did buy a few plants for the girls. I let them pick out their own pots and their own flowers. Poor Eva's isn't doing all that great, it needs to be repotted. Lauren and Maria's are doing well though.

And I got myself some calla lilies, but I couldn't decide where I wanted to put them in the yard and one wasn't doing well in the pot it came in so I repotted them until I decide what to do with them. These Velvet Clover were just too interesting to pass up too. They're doing well in the flower bed. I took the picture in the morning so they weren't blooming but they have cute little white flowers in the afternoons.

And proof that "Try, try again" is always the best policy and that I AM stubborn (and do always get my way eventually lol) These are various flowers and herbs...and you will notice that they ARE sprouting....IN the pots, regular pots in regular dirt LOL

And for a bonus...if someone can tell me the name of this flower...it grows in abundance down here, but I don't know what it's called. We have a huge clump of it in our yard and it's blooming like crazy right now. I'm really proud of it...not that I did anything to make it look good, but I'll take credit anyway.

Mirabilia RR Start

I finally got finished with my Mirabilia Round Robin. Not finished....got it ready to be started. I finished the frames and my section last night. I chose Fairy Treasures. She has a lot of shininess to her and she's rarely stitched, so I felt bad she's left out so often. She's charted with her eyes closed and that wasn't going to work. Since she has sort of that Egyptian feel and I recently watched Cleopatra I went with that sort of eye look, I'm not entirely happy with it, but I think it'll probably grow on me. And I switched out the gold beads for purple because gold and silver just doesn't work for me. My camera batteries died, so here's a pic taken with my cellphone which isn't great, but you get the idea.

Jill Rensel Framing

I sent some stuff to Jill Rensel for framing and she emailed me pics of the finished pieces.

What Happens When You Take a Day Off

I took yesterday off because it was kindergarten registration day and I seemed to recall it took a long time to register Eva so I figured it would take twice as long to register 2 kids. That wasn't really true, but it was still a good reason to take a day off work.



I had pulled out my Mirabilia charts to decide what pattern I wanted to do for my round robin and decided since she was so treasure intensive I should do Blossom Harvest, but as I started pondering the chart I decided that perhaps I needed to rethink restarting it. I had started it in the past but didn't like how it was coming out. It was on 28 ct natural linen (this was in the dark days before hand dyed linen) and with all that white thread it wasn't looking good.



So I woke up yesterday with a bad case of startitis and a whole day off, minus the registration time. I pulled out Blossom Harvest and damn it all to hell I didn't have any fabric that was working! It was 8 am. I decided Marjean should be up at that time of the morning but she didn't answer her phone. Then I called Kaye told her to get her ass out of bed because I needed fabric! Isn't it great to have stitchy friends so close by? And Kaye came through. She had a lovely piece of Sugar Maple Fabric Abracadabra. We had a lovely afternoon of stitching and I got a good start on Blossom Harvest.

Rant

The exclamation is "Voila!". It's French. It's not Walla or Wal-la or Wall-a or whatever other bastardization I've seen over the years. It's a V people!

HAED Attempt

As for what I'm stitching now, I started Butterfly Keeper from HAED. I've never done one before and thought it was time to take up the challenge. I was doing pretty well. Until I found a section that was off. DAMN! And it was black thread on white fabric. DOUBLE DAMN! I was not a happy camper. I had to put it away for a couple of days. I finally snipped it out last night.

In the meantime I was working on the frames for the next Mirabilia RR. Yes, another one. I'm a sucker for punishment. LOL This one will go well. Missy has commanded it. Plus, I think we're all pretty sensitive to what happened last time. I have a beeeeautiful Silkweaver solo. I've been stitching them out and figuring out how to make it "shimmer induced" without making it too terribly tacky.

Venetian Opulence Finished!!

After about 3 1/2 months VO is finished. I'm having issues with the pictures. I used my dad's camera and I'm not too skilled with it, it's one of those uber professional things and I'm used to like a throw away kind. I did actually iron it, but I took the pictures outside on a towel and the towel wouldn't lay flat. It's stitched on 32 ct. Rock Quarry opalescent linen from Silkweaver which is unfortunately kind of washed out in these pictures.

I found that I needed approximately 4 skeins of 3771...like 3 1/2 at least. 2 skeins 869 and 680. I also used exactly a full skein of 814 so if you're a floss waster or stitching on 28 ct. fabric you might need two of those. I got away with one pack of the 3037 beads but there were exactly 2 beads leftover. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Now I need to get it framed!

Birthday

Well the girls have wrapped up birthday week. They had a blast and were spoiled rotten by everyone. I loved this pic and thought it pretty much summed up everything

I know it's been awhile...

I've been stitching and stitching and stitching LOL Actually, most of my time was taken up by the fact that everyone in the family took turns being sick this month so that someone was pretty much sick for the entire month of March. Eva started softball this month as well. Stitching at the park didn't go so well, it'll be better when it's not so windy.

To make everyone who has known me since the twins were born feel old....their birthday is tomorrow....and they'll be 5 years old! I really didn't think I'd last that long with 3 kids. Early on I was pretty sure I was going to be committed.

My goal was to finish VO by today, but I didn't make that goal. If I'm persistent, hopefully only a few more days.

And if you're still reading...there's some discussion on getting another Mirabilia RR started over on the Round Robin board.