Stitching Stash and an Updated WIP Photo

I went to class today and turned in that huge project I've been working on for the past six months. I had it bound and printed on Thursday (107 pages!), and the final product passed inspection by my professor. Hurrah! Now I just have to take some more classes, and then I'll be done with this program. I wish I'd have done this a few years ago, but that's just the way it is.

After class I was in the general vicinity of a stitching store, so I decided to stop in and check things out. It's located about 20 miles from my home, so I don't get the chance to go there as often as I'd like to go.

Since I was so happy for having finished my big project, I decided to reward myself. I bought a few patterns for my House and Garden Sampler! Up until now I'd only used patterns I had at home in my very large assortment of old magazines and stitching books. I found several I thought could be useful for my sampler. I'll have to draw these onto the graph paper when I get to the next house in my sampler. First of all, I bought this first one as I liked how the trees and hills looked. I also like the borders on these patterns:

There's No Place Like Home! by Sandra Cozzalino



I liked this pattern for the house in the top right corner, although the smaller house looks good as well:

The Prairie Schooler Farm Fresh



Finally, I bought this pattern for the small-sized houses and use of birds. I will try to incorporate those into the design, too. Here it is:

The Prairie Schooler Birdsong II



Here's the previous progress photo I took of my House and Garden Sampler. I took it back in March, so I've done a little bit since then.

In March:


Taken today:


A closer look at the new house:


And one more of the top two houses:


Just for laughs, here's another look at that rough graph paper layout I did back in October. I think I'm going to change the house in the upper right corner (A version of our house) to a different one. I'm also going to add more houses on the bottom of the piece. There will be ten houses all together, I think. Here's that graph:


I'll have to stitch on it later on tonight!

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Tomorrow we are removing some huge, overgrown shrubs from our backyard's far corner. We've lived here for 18 years, but this corner has been awful for ages. I guess I should take some "before" pictures, shouldn't I? Truly I'm ashamed of how bad this corner looks, really.

On a better note, here's a smoke bush (cotinus) that we planted several years ago. Our daughter picked it out as she'd so admired this particular plant at a beautiful gardening center in a different county. It was hard to find one, but we managed to hunt one down and get it planted. I took the photo the other day as I love the purple color of the leaves. It's a decidious shrub, so it's amazing to watch its daily progress in growth and color.



Here's how it looks when it blooms later on in the early summer through fall. The blooms are supposed to look like smoke, hence the name:


It's time to relax some now and celebrate the finish of that huge school project. It's hard to express how elated I am that it's done. Having something like that in your 'to do' list is really a bit much at times.

Thanks for reading my blog,and thanks for your kind comments. I really appreciate your kindness and warmth.