one can never have too many of these sweet things in the garden. ;-)
i've been nose deep in the garden for several weeks now just like the ladybug above. she may have been getting a drink from the dew drippy dill but i've been planting, weeding, creating path, etc .  . .   

 not much stitching getting done but who can blame me with all of these gorgeous sights just a few steps away?!?

soon enough it will be cold and the snow will be falling and then i'll have more time to stitch as well as show off  just how few stitches are currently making it into any projects.

in the meantime  there seems to be little time or patience for cropping out pesty flys or creating the perfect image ratio's. all of these shots are straight out of the camera so forgive the imperfections of the photography and my lack of stitch surprises and just enjoy the beauty of my garden please.

 this little green grasshopper seems much too pretty to be very damaging and so tiny . . .

i do think it may be getting bigger by nibbling on the leaves of my johnny jump-ups though . . .

my life and heart are FULL of garden gratitudes and i hope that yours are too.

Digital Wordless Wednesday - July 17, 2014

Wordless Wednesday ~ July 9, 2014

Wordless Wednesday ~ June 25, 2014

wordless wednesday ~ may 21, 2014

 



 

 

 

slow stitching on some christmas stockings

the new autumn season is definitely upon us. we've had some close calls with frost and next week's forecast indicates we'll not be missed again. the tomatoes have their cold frame back up around them and although they weren't very productive we'll protect the last of what has grown.

i've been stitching on many different things over the last couple of weeks but am making progress with several christmas stockings. my wonderful daughter's stocking is getting the last of it's decorative stitching and i won't show it again until it's sewn up into something that looks like it will hold a few christmas surprises.
i am also working on some christmas stockings that will be for local fundraisers.

these two stockings have been cut from some over sized vintage pieced star blocks. the blocks were apparently done by an inexperienced hand and did not lay flat (not even a little). i can cut carefully and make a few tucks here and there to make them work out well for stockings.

 

once they were cut out and fixed up i layered them with some thin batting and did some quick utility stitch hand quilting on them. 

 

this one is being 'interviewed' with a bit of vintage linen as a cuff. the lacy bit was quite shredded in one place but i decided to try my hand at some (slow stitch sunday) lace repair which i've never done before. it's certainly not professional looking but does look nicer than it did and will hold up much better.
i'll also add some embroidery to them.
consider joining the slow stitch sunday link up and/or just checking out what it is that others are putting their hand stitches into over at Kathy's Quilts.


recent gifts include:

• the mountain just beginning to show it's dramatic fall colors
• oven roasted cherry tomato 'jam'
• the satisfying feeling of late summer/early fall garden clean-up
• an old black cat happily purring and joining me for my afternoon naps 

getting back to slow sunday stitching

 


i realized when the calendar slipped from the month of august into the month of september that this year has swiftly flown by and is nearing it's finish. and christmas~! and my guild's christmas bazaar~!! with all of those realizations came panic. i have a number of things that i need to get done within the next few months.
after several days of what seemed to be a mental list that just went on and on and on some more i started to write it all down and chart it out on a calendar. by the time i was finished i wasn't in a panic anymore but i don't have any time to spare.
i had to put away the hexie quilt project for now but i'll get it out again as soon as i feel like i have everything else under control.

so my project this week for slow sunday stitching
is to evaluate my daughter's Christmas stocking and begin the finish work on it. i have only shown the details of this stocking in previous posts but today i decided to show you just how far along the whole thing is.

 

i'm a bit surprised in seeing it again as it actually seems very close to being done . . .

this is only the front of the stocking. i will sew it into an actual stocking once all of the embroidery and embellishments are in place. when i started embellishing it last year i was playing along with Take a Stitch Tuesday (TAST) at Sharon's Pintangle. i had planned on continuing with that when i picked it back up again but what i have decided to do instead is to work out the last of the embroidery/details on my own. i guess i feel like i need a little more freedom of decision at this stage. 

 

so today i will be picking up my needle and working forward on this project. will you be stitching today? will it be "slow" stitching? if so you may want to link up with Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for some Slow Sunday Stitching.

 

 

after all of that i suppose that it seems a little odd to continue sharing with you my garden's gifts . . . even though some of my leaves are shifting into the colors of fall and beginning to look a bit lacy i do still have some late summer blooms for you to enjoy.

 

 

recent gifts include:

• waking up to the years obligations just in the nick of time
• actually having enough year left to get it all done
• the smell of rain almost every day for the past week or so
• thunder and lightening~!!~ (i LOVE it)
• the brisk early morning air 

 

wordless wednesday ~ august 14, 2013

 

 

 

 

 

wordless wednesday ~ august 7, 2013

 

 

 

 

wordless wednesday ~ july 31, 2013