Summer Evenings

Summer evenings on the back patio are something we really enjoy around here.

My husband has been enjoying his camera lately, so here's some photos from a recent evening. The first one is of a bee on our bottle brush 'great wall' hedge. We've thought of removing this massive hedge, but I love the privacy it gives us!


Here's a yellow rose that's part of a rose tree in a pot. Below the rose is a begonia that's been growing in a pot for many years.




Finally, here are some photos of two of our cats as they wandered and lounged around the yard. The orange cat is now 12 years old, and she doesn't like to pose for pictures. When we took her into our home, she was pregnant. She gave birth to four kittens, and we kept one of the cats. That's the tortie one you see below her.

Never Say Never

Here's a photo of a wonderful hummingbird eating at my new feeder in our backyard. I love to watch them fly around!

I returned from our trip a few days ago. Going on a trip is always fun, but it also always reminds me how much I love to come home. The trip was great overall, and I even hit upon some good luck while on the trip. I'm very grateful for that, and feel very, very lucky.

Yesterday I drove with my mom about 150 miles to visit with some cousins. We had a complete blast, and I somehow bet the waiter was glad to see us leave after we sat in that restaurant for four hours. We all live far apart, so we choose to meet up at a central location. There's nothing like talking with people you've known your whole life. What a history you share.

Tomorrow I am hosting a small gathering at my home. I'm having a group of students come here, and a few of them will be giving me some cooking lessons of their native cuisine. Knowing them they'll bring some more food, but just in case they don't bring any food that means that today will be spent preparing a casserole and salad for them to enjoy together. Busy times for me, but that's fine as I've had such a relaxing summer so far.

On the stitching front, last evening on the way home from my "cousin gathering" I stopped at a craft store and bought some little sticker numbers with the DMC colors on them. You place them on the thread bobbins. I love them in a 'nerdalicious' way. I started putting them on one box of my many boxes of floss last night, but stopped at one point due to exhaustion. (It was after ten at that point.) Have you seen these little numbers? Do you use them? When I first saw these stickers I never thought I'd use them, but as they say, "Never say never."

My New WIP ~ Summer Queen is resting...

I won't be blogging for several days as I'm going on a little trip with my mother and brother. We're visiting our other brother who lives in another state and I know we'll all have a great time together! My husband and son will hold down the fort and keep the animals happy while I'm gone.

Before I leave here I wanted to post an updated picture on my WIP "Wedding Ring Bouquet". It's stitched on 22 count hardanger fabric using one thread of DMC over one thread. I'm enjoying a switch from Summer Queen and I'm finding this one to be fun!

Here's a few more:

More VOS (Very Old Stitching)

I'm so glad I hung onto this shirt. I embroidered it way back when I was in high school. I have finally mastered more camera skills, so now I can share some photos.Back in March I showed some other VOS here, if you care to take a peek at that.

Above you can see the front view of the shirt. I should have used a brighter yellow for the herringbone stitch down the front, but I'm sure that was the only yellow I had available to use.

Here's that herringbone stitch:




Here is a picture of the sleeve's cuff:

I really like how the sleeve's cuff turned out on this shirt.

Finally, here's the cottage at the end of the rainbow:

Someday I'll have to embroider another one of these shirts. Will I have the nerve to ever actually wear it? That's another subject completely.

Wonderful Chain Stitches

I've been meaning to share these photos for a long time, but now that I can post them so much more easily it's finally getting done!

These are pictures of a beautiful chain-stitched apron that my mom is wearing. She received it from my brother and his wife after their vacation in Russia. I wish the photo were shot closer up so you could truly see the intricacy of the chain stitching.

Isn't it beautiful?

Summer Queen Beading

Here's a photo of Summer Queen's sleeve. The beading seems decent in this one, and I think I'll keep it as is.



On the other hand, in the close-up of her head I don't like how the beads look and I'll have to redo them. I think I've experimented too much with different ways to sew them on, and I should have stuck with what I started doing with beads 20 years ago! Do you ever switch stitching methods,and find out the old way was better? It seems to happen to me far too often.

For now I've switched onto a new WIP. I'm working on Paula Vaughan's Wedding Ring Bouquet. I'll post an update soon!

Here's one last photo of Summer Queen, shown full length.



I've been working on her since Christmas, and it's rather nice to move onto another piece, even though I'm sad I was not yet able to finish her.

The Queen whose dress was too short makes an appearance!

Here's a photo of the bottom of Summer Queen. I actually thought the nice, straight horizontal edge was the bottom of her dress, as I talked about in my last post. You can see where I've added on more stitches to the length, but I still have more to go in length before it's the actual 'real' length.

There's a bit of beading detail showing here too, and I'll post another photo soon with more of the beading. Next time I'm going to do beading the way I used to do it, but more on that later!

It's wretchedly hot here, but it's Friday and that's always a good thing.

I can't believe I did this.

I am in disbelief, really. I started Summer Queen four years ago, and thought I only had a few beads left at this point. I thought I would finish her yesterday, in fact.

"I thought" is the key point here! On Monday night I was winding down after a full evening stitching and I noticed that my pattern had some odd marks at the bottom. (I work off a copy, not off the original.) I pulled out the original pattern and to my great shock I found that when I copied it years ago I completely missed copying a section at the bottom of her dress! The copy I had was completely straight along the bottom, so it rather looked like the correct bottom of it, but of course it's not. Upon further examination I noticed that it only had nine squares running vertically in the bottom section, and not ten. Duh on my part!

I have about 2000 stitches left at the bottom of the pattern. (30 some stitches going down, but many more across!) I took this whole discovery very calmly, and was more in a state of disbelief. Yesterday my daughter and I went to the copy store and made a copy of the "correct" bottom part, and last night I began adding to the bottom of the dress so that it's the proper length.

I'll have to post a picture of this soon.

Maybe I need to bring back my rotation. I've been working on her solidly since Christmas, although I did go weeks and weeks here and there without any stitching in at all.

In an odd way I'm rather glad she's not done. I truly have enjoyed stitching her, and it's always a bit sad when these large pieces are finally finished. Perhaps that feeling is the most unbelievable part of all, really.