Oh My!!!

Thank you so much for all your wonderful compliments about “Garden Grew”! I’m overwhelmed by every single word!

Now, I have to go back to fanning my blushing cheeks!

 

Thank you ladies!

Peanut-Butter-Jelly Dance!!!!

or Snoopy dance, if you’re so inclined:

Vee-O-LA:

“And a Garden Grew” by Rosewood Manor

stitched on 32 ct. Zwiegart linen “Autumn Blush” with the requested DMC flosses and add’l Kreinik braid and/or filaments.

Here’s the spider web:

Ta-da!

!!!Newsflash!!!!

Stay tuned for a post later- I finished Garden Grew!!!

I can’t decide if I want to post a photo here first or let my Thursday stitching  group see it in real life first!!!!

I started it February 5, 2009, and finished March 3, 2012.

37 months overall, but I really only stitched on it while I was barn sitting several days a month each, between March or April and October those years.

I spent about half an hour putting all my DMC bobbins back in their correct spots in their storage boxes yesterday afternoon.

Here’s a link to my start way back when. And here’s where I left off last October.

Back to the Garden…

Here’s the rest of my progress on Garden grew:

 

Day 2 above

Day 3 above. This leaves me at page 20, the last page. There is a flower that spans from page 19, but I think when I pick this up again, I’ll start at Page 20 and work to the left. OH! and I have to stitch a spider web & spider in the left inner corner of the arbor. I’m still trying to find a blending filament to use.

First Day….

of NaBloPoMo. I must be completely insane!
I survived my barn sitting- 10 days of dark mornings and not-early evenings. I ended up going to work everyday, as I’m not sure anymore if I have paid vacation days, and was up by 5:15 on the weekdays and 6:15 on the weekends. There were several mornings I had to get up at 3:30 to let the dogs out because one had been having “tummy trouble” prior to my stint, and I was afraid of having to clean poop out of carpets. So as soon as I heard whining, I was up in a flash. Luckily, no accidents!
I made great progress on Garden Grew- I have just one page left.
Here’s where I left off:

Here’s after my first day:

Since I have 30 days to fill, you’ll have to wait for subsequent pictures!

I’m Back….

and almost done with this:

I have one page left to do. More when I can keep my eyes awake…

Garden Growing by Leaps & Bounds..

I finished a ten-day stint barn-sitting, and I’m trying to get back to my normal routine. Chicken was at my BF’s for the 10 days, and was spoiled rotten; so much so that I think she’s unhappy at being home!

Here is my Garden Grew progress. I am now 3/4 done!

    

I have created a fix for my Quaker Halloween and installed an A/C in my downstairs office (formerly the kids’ room) in preparation for the Hotter-Than-Hades Heatwave Tour coming to a town near you soon. Chicken demanded that at the very least. She also wanted dropped eggs on toast for breakfast and a medium rare rib eye for supper, too.

Yeah, right….

Welcome to Crazy Town…

So Em trashed her ankle while falling off her horse going on 3 weeks ago. She found out today after 3 doctors, 2 sets of X-rays, an MRI and a CT scan that her heel bone is broken and she tore a (the?) ligament on the front of her foot/ankle.  So no riding for her for 6-8 weeks (ouch for me) nor driving either for at least the foreseeable future. Which means lots of running around for me.

Anyway, here is more Garden Grew progress:

Friday I got numb-butt:

 

All day to do this one basket (to the right of the trellis):

Saturday involved helping the patient, so with little actual stitching time available, I finished the basket on a previously finished flower, plus had to add the badger. I didn’t take another overall shot after completing the little guy, but he’ll be adjacent to the basket of flowers above &  to the right of the  “all-day basket” in the photo up top.

Here’s the latest on Quaker Halloween:

I’m going to miss working on this one; it’s a ton o’ fun!

As Promised…

here is progress on Garden Grew:

Friday:

 

Close-up. I added blending filament.

Saturday:

Sunday:

And Monday:

I have now reached the last page for almost 3/4 done!

Sunday Stitch Wrap-up….

Quaker Halloween (previously):

Thursday:

 

Sunday:

Sunday close-up

Garden Grew (previously):

Friday:

Friday close-up:

Saturday & Sunday efforts:

The white lattice is a bitch. Count, re-count, unstitch, re-stitch. But that’s what we like to do for fun.

Fun Things….

Here’s my tiny bit of proof that I stitched:

I just had to add the moon, so I can keep it right side up, don’tcha know.

I’m having a slight reprieve from what-shall-not-be-mentioned, so today, I made this:

An envelope for my Garden Grew frame, which is 36” wide. I’m so happy to not have to use plastic bags anymore- I had to use 2, over the top and over the bottom. Here’s a couple more shots:

The inside pocket is above, and proof that it fits below:

I still have the supplies to make 2 more envelopes for my 24” wide scroll frame, and maybe a spare 24” wide one. I have a lot of wide projects in my stash.

See you next spring!

Garden Grew:

Thursday’s progress:

 

Saturday’s progress:

And a close-up of where I’ve left off:

Quaker Halloween, which is NOT retired until the spring:

And i finished this Thursday:

From the JCS 2010 Ornament issue,

JBW Designs “French Country Star” on white jobelan, 28 or 32 ct, with DMC Color variations 4210.

Now on to house cleaning. I should be finding out in the next couple of weeks if I’m a bone marrow match. I hope I am!

Lest you think I’m dead & Rotten…

I have not forgotten how to stitch:

My JBW Designs French Country Star:

I forgot my Quaker Halloween chart last Thursday, so I spent some time with this instead.

Then this has reappeared:

Day 1^

Day 2 below:

Jackson misses his mommy:

Axe wants dinner:

It was so warm yesterday, I let everyone go naked!

Finally Feeling Better…

The pink stuff is doing its magic; my appetite is slowing returning, although a lot of things are triggering more heartburn. I barn sat this weekend so I did some stitching-YAY! I went to bed early every night- like before 9:30. Friday night Em & Adam and a friend in a second car decided to pick up his chaps from the tack room at 11:30 at night- which really startled me. At least i had the sense to call her to see if it was them before I finished getting dressed to head outside. Then last night the local pack of coyotes (not the 40-something variety either, but the smelly hairy ones) decide to howl at the dead of 2:30-ish in the morning. Now THAT’s an eerie sound!

Garden Grew Page 11:

and an overall:

The next section starts the trellis!

And Quaker Halloween:

Poor Chickie fell down the stairs. I don’t know why she was upstairs- I was downstairs. I’m watching her like a hawk to see how badly hurt she is. We’ve went out to the yard & she did her business, but she seems “not right” just yet. Keep your fingers crossed!

What I did on my 4-Day Weekend…

besides shovel horse poop and sweat my brains out:

Here’s the start of my July ornament:

“Swirly Snow” by Whispering Winds Designs. And yes, I have to get this done by the end of the week. I’ve already admitted to being a charter member of Procrastinators Anonymous.

Quaker Halloween:

I didn’t work on it all week, just at S & B. Speaking of which: here’s what Joanne cooked up for snacks last week:

Paula Deen’s “Not Your Momma’s Banana Pudding”. It was very tasty!

Last but not least, Garden Grew:

Halfway done! Here’s another shot:

Close up of where I left off on at the start of the second half:

Here’s my floss storage system for this project. A large Darice box to hold all the colors (80-ish I think?), and a small box to hold all the bobbins for each individual page. I swap out the colors I need for each page from the bigger box to the smaller. Some colors stay in the box from page to page. It takes a bit of time, but this system has been working just swimmingly because it cuts down on the rummaging for each particular bobbin.