Stitching Update

Here's the latest progress on my House and Garden Sampler.

Another look:

I need to add more backstitching and landscape around the newest house. I'd like to add a jacaranda tree, but I'm not sure where I'll add it on the sampler.


We have really enjoyed this weekend so far. Yesterday we went to a fun gathering at my brother and sister in law's home,and today we're going to another one at our son-in-law's relatives' house. It should be lots of fun.

I stitched for about 1/2 hour yesterday, and hope to get a bit more in before it's back to a busy work week on Tuesday.

Thanks for visiting here!

Made at Home

 

Last Saturday my brother came over and spent the day making bird feeders with my husband. The photo above shows the hopper feeder my husband made. My brother made a raised platform feeder for the ground, but I didn't take a photo of that one.

We hung it up on Sunday, and here's how it looked:

 

Within 15 minutes the first birds arrived!

 

The birds aren't using it too much as the lip on the side of it seems too tall. They practically have to crawl down inside of the feeder to get any seeds! I think my husband will shorten the tall lip with his jigsaw, but all in good time.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Beautiful Blooms Against the Sky

I can't believe I haven't posted here in almost two weeks!

Life has been very busy,and on top of that we were without the internet at home for about five days. I haven't had much time to stitch at all. Don't you hate it when work gets in the way of your 'fun' time?

Work has been very busy with lots to do at home for work when I get home. Sigh...
Soon things will ease up, I'm sure of that.

I wanted to share a photo or two of my favorite tree--the jacaranda. These beautiful trees are blooming now, and they're wonderful! There's a street near my parents' home that has them planted all the length of the curving road, and on both sides of the street! Here's a few photos of the trees on that street:


And another cropped view:



Hope you're doing well, and I promise to post a stitching update soon. Thanks for visiting here.

**More WIP Progress**

Thanks for visiting here and thanks for all your comments. Your words mean a lot to me, it's great reading them.

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all of you celebrating it today. I hope your day is wonderful. We celebrated last night with our children, and we will again tonight with my parents. I received some really great gifts, including a book I've really
wanted that's called "Sublime Stitching". I really should whip out some surface embroidery projects again. They're fun as they go fast compared to this counted stuff! I also got a great book all about backyard birds and how to create a great environment for them. I am truly, as we say in our family, a "bird nerd". My children also bought me some other nice gifts, but the best gift of all was spending time with them and being together.

I have been working on my sampler and have now finished the sixth house, in the top right corner. It's my stitched version of our little house.
Here's how it looked after that house's finish:



Here's a close-up of my stitched version of our actual house (It's not very accurate, just sort of the 'jist' of our house...):




Here's a photo of our 'real' house next to the stitched one:



A better photo of our house: (As you can see, I left off the detached garage in the stitched version.)



After adding our 'real' house, I decided to sit and plot out the next house on graph paper. I wanted to add a home directly below my version of 'our house'.
I first added a really large saltbox house on graph paper, but I decided it was too large for that area. I erased it all and added a smaller two-storied home that I found in a very old issue of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine. I changed the colors just a bit, and worked on it quite a bit yesterday. I first placed it too close to the next-door house, but it was easy to move it to the right as I'd only done a tiny portion before seeing my mistake.
I will add a tree between this house and the house on the left, but I haven't decided yet what sort of tree to add.

Somewhere in the sampler I must include a jacaranda tree. Every year I look forward to seeing them bloom in the spring, and right now they're blooming in our area. There's a large one blooming down our street right now. I guess I should take a picture of it, shouldn't I?

Enjoy your day, and thanks so much for visiting here.

Inpirational Stitching

 

I love to look around the internet for pictures of beautiful needlework. Through my searching I found the lovely House and Garden Sampler shown above. It was done as a Round Robin through the Legacy Bulletin Board, and this Round Robin belongs to Linda. Thanks, Linda, for letting me share the picture here! I love the brilliant colors of the piece, and the way it all flows together. I plan on using this photo as inpiration for my own planning when I add elements to my sampler.

I also wanted to share a few more examples of gorgeous House and Garden Samplers that I have found on the internet. I don't know who stitched all of these, so if I've shared your stitching here please let me know and I can give you full credit!


I stumbled upon a blog written by a lady by the name of Michelle (http://nativetexanstitchingabroad.blogspot.com/2007/12/neighborhood-round-robins.html), and I found these great photos on her blog:

 

The size of this one is truly amazing:

 

Another lovely one:

 

Finally, I can't remember at all where I found this photo. I think it may have also been on the Legacy Bulletin Board, but I can't seem to locate it there anymore. I love the fall colors in this gorgeous Round Robin:

 

Did you notice the tree in the upper right corner? Isn't it gorgeous?

I hope you've enjoyed seeing these beautiful House and Garden Samplers. To all the stitchers who worked on these, thanks for your continued inspiration. In fact, thanks to all of you for inspiring me with your creativity, crafts, and stitching, even if you didn't work on these particular projects.

When I look at each of these samplers I am reminded of those words written by John Keats,

“A thing of beauty is a joy forever; its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness.”

I think I'll add that quote to my sidebar, in fact. I first heard those words in a high school poetry class, and I think I like them!

Thanks for stopping by here today on this beautiful spring day.