Coq Au Pins Finis

Here is my completed Coq au Pins stitching. The plan is to finish the stitching on all the other pieces while I'm on vacation next week and to do the final finishing work. I still need to work on a better photo.

I'm lucky to be home today - the weather was bad both in NY and in Chicago - I got on one of the last flights out. Of course I sat on the runway for five hours but at least I made it. I got in lots of nice stitching time while waiting. I had the forethought to bring my CDs of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with me. Like many others, I'm re-reading the series in preparation of the movie release and the last book.

Coq au Pins

Above is my progress on Coq au Pins - this is the chicken pin cushion part of the design. I love the colors I picked out - very country french. The blue pops a bit more than it shows in this photo. I'll try to take a better one tomorrow if I get any more stitched.

And here is my ornament for June for my SAL. It's Topiary Ornament I from Hillside Samplers. This completes the series of four.

happy blogaversary! :-)

Friday was my first year blogaversary. I can't believe it's been a year already. Over the past year, I've had such a good time getting to know a wonderful circle of people. And I can't believe how much I've learned and just how much I've acquired during this short time. :-)

It became very evident to me Friday on just how much I've acquired. I worked from home and during emails and various downloads, I went through my stash to find the perfect combination of linen and fiber for Coq au Pins smalls. My original thought was to use the dark blue/green piece of linen I purchased from Silkweavers for my Cirque des Cercles. If you remember, the piece I received was really ugly and blotchy and not at all what I was looking for. On Thursday evening I decided to experiment a bit. I figured after all I had nothing to loose. I got a big bowl of water and put several drops of beach in it. And then the entire piece of linen! After a couple of hours the water was a nice dark purple color. I pulled it out and dried it and the linen was much improved in color. :-) I could see the two colors (dark violet/blue and dark green) that made up the piece of linen and the blotches of light color didn't even stick out so much. I thought it was a great success. In fact for a while I thought that maybe it would now work for Cirque des Cercles. (Here are the two fabrics that I've been debating over - but I'm still thinking of using the piece on the right from Picture This Plus.)

So anyway on Friday I was going through my stash of fabrics and fibers working first with the dark blue piece and matching it up with Vikki Clayton silks. I found a combo that I thought I liked well enough but to be sure I had just the right mix of linen and thread, I pulled out my Silkweavers stash. I have over 16 pieces of Silkweavers! Well that just opened up a ton more options especially when I pulled out my fiber stash and went through was felt like hundreds of options. :-) It was such fun! I'll end this story by saying that I was so grateful at that point that I had a blog and had acquired all this cool stash. Stash that for the most part I learned of it's existence from you the people who's blogs I read. Tomorrow I'll show my selection of linen and color and my progress on the piece. And it isn't dark blue and cream silk thread. :-) I think it's much prettier.

Monday morning I'm flying out to NY on business unexpectedly. I expect to be there until Wednesday evening for sure but I need to stay flexible in my plans and I might not be able to come home until Thursday some time. I'm working on a project with a co-worker in our NY office and it's falling apart in the worst way. We decided on Friday afternoon that the only thing to do was to work together for several days and get it back on track. I'll bring my Coq au Pins piece with me but except for during the flight, I probably won't have any time at all to stitch.

Oh, and the picture at the top is of course my St. Reatham taken after Thursday stitching. I'm almost half way done with the first page. Only seven and a half pages to go. :-)

Village block finis

I finished up block two of the Village of Hawk Run Hollow last night. To be honest, I'm giddy with happiness that I'm almost finished with this piece. I can't believe that I've been working on it for almost a year now. And I'm almost done!!! Yeah!!!

Here is my completed block two. As you can see, I made several changes. I think they work well.

Today is St. Reatham Thursday (I remembered!). Tomorrow I think I'm going to put Awake the Dawning Day aside for a few days. This weekend I have to make my ornament for the SAL and I think I'm going to start something small. I recently purchased Coq au Pins from Twisted Oaks Designs. It's so cute! There are several smalls that go with it and I think that will be a nice break. I think I'm going to do this with a dark blue linen with cream fibers and cream beads.

almost :-)

I was almost able to finish up block two of the Village last night. I'm so close I can taste it. :-) Tonight for sure. I'm going to get busy with block three right away. It's the Village Hall block and it's very cross stitch heavy and I'll need the extra time. I've made several changes to block two and I'm happy with how it's turning out. I find the more I change, the more comfortable I get with just winging it.

Here is my progress on WTDD. I'm finding this piece is leaving me cold. I'm bored and I want to put it down to work on something else. I love the colors and the design but I am distracted by what is in my stash. Everything else is looking like it's more fun to do these days. Does that ever happen to anybody else?

some birds - almost

Not much to show today - last night I did complete the two tree trunks on my Village but didn't take a progress photo. I hope to finish at least one of the trees totally before I leave for agility tonight. But who knows? :-)

I also finished the house on Awake the Dawning Day. Now onto some fun stuff! As soon as I finish the two birds at the top, I think I'll move onto the vine and the flowers. I'm glad to be at the point where I'll be adding more color. The house was starting to drag.

tomatoes AND a church :-)

Well I managed to complete my church and get my tomatoes in the garden over the weekend! And my cucumbers and green beans also. :-) And this was despite the temps in the low 90's. It was a hot one for sure. I can't wait for the harvest. I went a bit overboard as usual on the tomatoes - I put in 18 plants! But I like a big variety and and nice mix of canning and eating types so I really do need different kinds. And who can resist a fresh salad with both cherry and pear tomatoes mixed in? This year I had to put a fence around the entire garden with their individual vegetable beds. Molly spent so much time eating the tomatoes last year, I was surprised that there were any left for the people! And green beans too, she loves fresh green beans. :-) But this year she has been foiled. She looked so sad as I put the fence up. LOL! But don't feel sorry for her, I'll toss her some over the fence as they start to come in. :-)


I should be finished with block two of the Village by the end of the week - all I have left are the two trees on either side of the church and the birds. I'm not stitching in the name of the reverend - I'll add a couple more birds instead to fill the space. I'll get started right away with block three - it's the second to biggest block and my last one! It seems kinda fitting that I started with block 12 which is the biggest block and I'm ending with block three which is the second biggest.

Here is my progress on Awake the Dawning Day. I'm almost done with the house and I'll start to make good progress once that is complete, hopefully on my way home from work tonight. In a perfect world I'd like to be finished with this piece by Friday but I don't think I have a chance of that - it is a pretty large Loose Feathers. The biggest since Quaker Garden I think.

a bunch of green

I'm closing in on the half way point for block two of the Village. My goal is to complete the church by the end of the weekend. It's doable if I don't spend much of my weekend outside working in the yard. It's supposed to be in the 90's that doesn't sound like much fun at all. :-)

I'm still working away on my house for Awake the Dawning Day. I'm relieved that the pebble color recommended for the piece works ok with the linen I picked out. Not that I would start over or any like that if it didn't! :-)

No major plans for the weekend but my goal is to get my tomato plants in the ground. I've never been this late with planting but I've had so much more to do lately and quite frankly I don't really care if they get in or not. Usually I spend days and days working on the yard but I just can't get enthused this year for some reason. I'd rather be doing agility with the pugs or stitching or quilting.

Have a great weekend!

I forgot it was Thursday

This morning when I got ready for work, I totally forgot it was St. Reatham Thursday so I had to continue stitching on Awake the Dawning Day on my way to work. :-) How could I forgot something so important as St. Reatham day? LOL!

Last night I finished up season 5 of 24. What a season! I think it turned out to be one of my favorites. Now if season 6 could just hurry up it's way into DVD form, all would be well.

a couple of birds

Here is my progress on Block two of the Village. This is a big block and it's slow going.

And here is Awake the Dawning Day. I'm sure I won't finish this one up until the end of next week or even later. That house is a biggy!

Last night was agility class with the pugs and they were both great. Where was the Molly that showed up to class last night over the weekend? I must have brought her evil twin instead. :-)

Sampler of Stitches Finis

As predicted yesterday, I finished up with Sampler of Stitches Part four - JKL on the way home from work yesterday. I really enjoy these sort of projects - I just wish I didn't have to wait so long for the next installment, September I think? Katrina, look for a package later in the week - I'll try to get these two charts in the mail to you by tomorrow.

Last night I worked on the Village block two - I didn't take a progress photo - I will tonight for sure. I was feeling lazy.

Today I started work on the new Loose Feather - Awake the Dawning Day. I'm doing mine on Silkweavers Purely Primitive. I hope this linen works - it's kinda close in color to the WDW Pebble used on the house. Not much to see yet but here it is. The WDW fiber used in this piece are gorgeous.

And a good time was had by all

Eleven ribbons from four pugs! What an agility weekend! My Clancy had two first places with one being our first "Q" in jumpers. That means we have our first leg toward a NADAC jumpers agility title. He also got a third place (my fault he didn't do better and get a second or even a first place) so that made him 3 out of 3 for the weekend. Molly didn't fair as well as she preferred to run around on the course during her runs. So out of four runs, we only got one second place in tunnelers on Sunday. We almost finished her standard run on Sunday but when she neared the place on the course where I had dropped a treat 30 minutes before, she took off the course to go and look for it. :-( What a memory.


My friend Peggy had a very good weekend with seven ribbons from her two pugs. On our next trial, I'm going to enter Molly in only one event a day until she comes around and I'll enter Clancy in three events per day. He's ready for it.


I have a couple of progress pictures. First my St. Reathum Thursday photo - just a front leg to go and I'm finished with the first of four big creatures. I'll go back up to the top this week after I finish his leg and do a couple more dogs.


Next is my progress on Sampler of Stitches from The Drawn Thread - I've almost finished part four, JKL. I should be finished with L by the time I get home tonight from work. Tomorrow I'll start on a new project for my train ride. Mabye the new Loose Feathers. But I'll see for sure tonight. :-)

Drawn Thread Finis

I finished up Sampler of Stitches GHI yesterday on the way home from work. I love how this piece is coming together. I'll start on JKL tomorrow morning. I also worked again on Block two of the Village - I changed the working on the bottom of this block. I live in a village and it works better with all the other personalization that I've done so now it's just Village Church.

I took a little time last night to go through my charts and such. I'm going to start a second blog which lists things I have for sale, trade or just freebies to those who ask (the really old stuff - I just can't bare to toss it away but I would love for them to find homes). I had a lot more than I thought I would. I'll put my wish list there as well so maybe I can work out some trades. I'm hoping this weekend I will have the time to totally populate the lists. I'll take photos of the really old stuff so people can see that they look like.

G H & I

I'm making pretty fast work of Sampler of Stitches GHI - just three motifs to go and I'm done with Part 3. I'll start Part 4 (JKL) Friday on my way into work because I need to get back to St. Reatham tomorrow. I haven't worked on it in two Thursdays in a row in my effort to get caught up.

I'll need to start thinking about what I want to start on my train rides for next week. I'm all set to go with the new Loose Feathers but I'm thinking maybe I'll do something from my waiting in the wings stack. Maybe Summer Arbor to stay with a Drawn Thread theme? Or maybe I'll do one of the M Designs pieces I have - I've been looking at those charts more and more lately. I have so many nice Silkweavers linens and fibers to pick from these days. I also have two autumn Blackbird Design pieces that are all ready to go but I just can't see me working on a fall piece in June. That just seems silly. As much as I love the autumn tones, I need to be working with nice summery colors right now.

I have been making progress with Block two of the Village but since all I've done so far is the outline and a white fence which is hard to see I haven't taken a progress photo of it yet. I'll take one tonight for sure.

Both pugs were great last night at agility. Which is good news because we have a trial this weekend. It's our first outdoor trial of the season and the weather should be great. I can't wait.

Blackstone Fantasy Garden Finis

Blackstone Fantasy Garden
By Ink Circles
Recommended Carrie's Threads
32 count Belfast Linen

When I started this seven months ago I had no idea then it would take me so long. I just kept pushing it aside for other newer projects. I'm really glad it's done. Now I can start on another Ink Circles. :-)


Despite no stitching on Saturday I still managed to finish part 8 of Marquior ABC over the weekend! I'm caught up this piece for now. And it's half way complete! Only eight more parts to go.

I also started work this morning on the two new Drawn Thread pieces, GHI and JKL. Based on the last two that I did, these will be done this week - they are really quick to stitch. Not much to show yet but here is the first progress photo.

Home stretch

I'm almost there! Just 10 blocks to be filled in - just a couple of hours worth of work. I'll be finished tonight. :-) So that big noise you will hear tonight will be me shouting to the world I'm done with Blackstone Fantasy Garden!

Have you seen this? It's a design by Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks - an Italian designer that Tracy at Ink Cirlces is now offering. There are several designs I like but I think this one is my favorite. It's called Arabesco - I might just have to buy it!

And speaking of new things, have you seen the new issue of The Gift of Stitching? There is a Sampler Cove Design called Double Dutch - it's a must do for me. I love blues and browns together.

Have a great weekend!