Sunflower finish!



BBD Sunflower House
32 Ct Ocean's Siren Lugana

This morning I put the final stitches in on what has been a delightful stitch. Blackbird Designs Sunflower House is now complete and ready to be stretched and framed. I've enjoyed this one so much that I haven't touched anything else in the past week.  I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out. If I had to do it over again I would swap out the colour of the stems and leaves on the sunflowers. I used the recommended GAST Grecian Gold but I'm not sure it worked all that well. I realized from the start that it might not work for me but I didn't have anything else in my stash that would. Ordering anything else would have prolonged my start by a couple of weeks and I'm trying to be a bit more frugal these days. I find it so hard to pick a floss anyways when I don't have a LNS and can't see the colour in person. So Grecian Gold it is!
Although it's not meant to be an autumn design, this one felt so much like fall to me with the colour scheme it uses as well as those gorgeous sunflowers.
Here are a few more upclose pics of the design. .

Don't you just love this house?

I noticed that when you click on this one and look at the left edge of the vase, you'll see Clarisse's contribution to the design.

Now I have to decide on a new start although I really think I should be finishing off some of the other WIP, but really, how much fun is that?

I've also got a few pictures of my newest stitching spot, our gazebo. I know that I posted a pic of the outside but I've neglected to show you how comfy it is inside. I spend most mornings out there with my coffee, stitching in hand, and again for a short bit after supper. Clarisse has  been joining me out there too but as you can see from the pic below, she was far too busy this morning!

My youngest sister Lana gave me this sign to post in the gazebo. It's the perfect sentiment! It was a retirement gift along with a really pretty bird feeder which hangs just outside the gazebo. Bob and I love to sit and watch the birds as we sip on our coffee.

The days are growing shorter and the evenings getting cooler in our little corner. On our way into the city yesterday we noticed how much colour is starting to appear on the trees. It won't be long before I'm digging out the sweaters once more.

Now I'm off to get ready for my stitching time with the Tuesday group. I'm heading in a little earlier to run some errands. A stop by the market for apples just might be in the works!

Hope you are having a good start to your week and that it includes lots of stitching time.

A bit of this and that

The summer is just flying by isn't it? We've been home for 5 days now from our cottage vacation at Lake Muskoka and I have hardly had time to put my needle to fabric. This is one of the reasons why:

My son and granddaughters arrived at our place just 2 days after we got home so I was kept rather busy. We took in the Winnie the Pooh movie while they were here. Very cute!

This is one of the other reasons I've not had much stitching time.

This solarium/gazebo was a retirement gift to myself. Now I can stitch outside in the evenings until daylight fades and even then some since we made sure an electrical power line was installed underground, coming up inside it. As you can see, those cedar hedges to the right are one of the main reasons we can't sit out at night. We get eaten alive by all the mosquitoes they harbour. The hedge isn't ours to remove and anyways it does provide some privacy. Now all we have to do is fix up the lawn around things. They had put down some sod which they didn't tell us they were going to do and while we were gone it pretty well burnt up with all the heat. The neighbours found it and tried watering but I think by then it was too late.

On my way home from Muskoka we took a side trip to see my friend Ann at Knowledge and Needles in Brighton. It was there that I found my WDW Havana and was then able to complete BBD Their Song. Here is the final picture.

And here is my meagre progress on LHN Acorn Hill.

One of the things I did do this year on our trip was to visit a few of the antique shops in Muskoka. I'd always wanted to do this but we never seemed to have enough time. Here are  the treasures I picked up.



This piece is a very close match to my childhood tea set which is also pink depression glass.





This was my favourite find of the day. A beautiful glass rose bowl with flower/scissor frog.

I had one other find which I'll save until my ort post. Can you guess what it is?

That's about it for now. I've just finished my packing for our next trip to Windsor to visit our family and attend our high school band reunion. It promises to be a lot of fun!