a couple of Blackbird finis :-)

Peacock Pinkeep - design by Blackbird Designs

Recommended 28 count Gingham Linen Weeks Dye Works

Gentle Arts Overdyed floss

This baby is big. :-) Somehow six inches round didn't seem so big when I read the instructions but in real life it's the largest pinkeep I own. :-) I finished it up yesterday afternoon. Very easy to finish but lots of hand work so it took longer than I first thought it would. Love it though!

I also had time to finish up the needlecase. I like this technique a lot and I'll be using it again.

Peacock Needlecase - design by Blackbird Designs

Recommended 28 count Gingham Linen Weeks Dye Works

Recommended overdyed floss

This was a much quicker finish - maybe an hour or so. I'm also very happy with how it looks. I'm wondering if all the sewing smalls this year will match. I guess I'll find out next month or so when the new Loose Feather chart comes out. Of course I can't wait.

I had a piece of dark green hand dyed wool for the inside.

The weather was so freaky all weekend. On Friday it was 75 and sunny. Beautiful! I left work early so I could enjoy some of it. Saturday morning started out the same and I had time to get the grass cut for the first time this year but by noon it had started to storm and the temps dropped until it was in the low 40's by the end of the day. Hence hardly any outside time and a ton of stitching time. :-)

Weather was the same on Sunday until much later in the day when the temps rebounded a bit but by that time I was fully into stitching mode. I've almost finished up the the Blackbird Designs first ever contest! Barb and Alma are in France and they say they have picked up some goodies for the winner. The rules are very simple, stitch the piece, include a bird, add your name and email a photo to Alma by April 27th (those were the rules as I understood them last week but I don't see that bit on the blog anymore). That's today. It's not a design contest - they are going to draw a name from the finished photos they receive.

You can see I added an entire bird family! I have just my name to finish and I have to figure out what I want to put in those two empty spaces. I'm thinking a heart in the upper one and maybe USA in the bigger of the two. I'll just make the deadline as I'll be finishing this on the way home from work and emailing the photo around 7:00pm tonight after I iron it. :-)

Have a great week!