Hearts of America series

Hi all!  Went to visit my Dad on Father's Day and took this little heart with me to stitch on in the car. It's from the Victoria Sampler series Hearts of America, and is #19 for Indiana. 31 more states to go!  Eventually I want to make a quilt with the hearts. These little kits include everything you need and each one features a different specialty stitch, which is expanding my knowledge as I stitch!

Now on to the Chinese Garden Mandala, pt.2!!

June's tiny biscornu complete!

First off, I want to thank everyone for the kind wishes in regards to my knee problem. I got a cortisone shot and it feels much better! Unfortunately it's just my arthritis acting up and not much else can be done. The price of getting older, alas!

The month of June brings a new tiny biscornu for my necklace collection!  This is from a freebie by Janie Hubble called High Tea and Petit Fours. She finished it as a teacup pincushion, but  I stitched it on a scrap of 28ct Silkweaver Solo lugana over 1 and it ended up being just about an inch across!  I did not add a bead dimple because it was really too tiny and I had nothing that would work without hiding most of the stitching. Here it is before assembly.....

And here is the final product...

Still thinking about what pattern to use next month.....something red, white and blue no doubt! Before stitching this little cutie up, I was working on Chatelaine's Holland Landscapes. I finished the last window scene of the lighthouse, but still need to add the tulip garden over it and I'm stalling because I have already stitched the tulips three times! The drawback of a mandala....;-) I will probably pull out another small to take with me to my Dad's tomorrow...we are visiting for Father's Day...and I need something to do in the car for an hour each way.  More pictures coming soon and hopefully back to the Chinese Garden before the end of the month!

Third in the Micro series from Chatelaine done!

Here it is! Last week I mentioned I changed most of the colors on this Micro 03 by Chatelaine...8 of 11 to be exact. Frankly, the lime green silk and olive shades were not to my taste. I loved the Dinky Dyes Blue Bush however, so I changed many threads to a more blue green, keeping the same values of light to dark, in order to compliment the Blue Bush silk. I did use a couple of more yellow green, less jarring threads, and I think it gives a nice variety of piney shades, from longleaf to blue spruce. I love playing with colors! The PTB and Delicas stayed the same, and again I used the center over one motif (about 1.5 inches across) from the first colorway, and everything else from the second colorway. In all it's about 4 inches square!

I think I'd better return to Holland Landscapes and try to get the last window filled with it's landscape scene before returning to the Chinese Garden.....really in a Chatelaine state of mind lately!

At least I have an excuse for spending most of my time stitching these days....I tore a tendon in my right knee, and just today got an MRI on it. Have to wait until next Tuesday to see the orthopaedist again and find out if I need corrective surgery. We are in a late spring heat wave, so I don't have any trouble staying inside with my leg up and stitching away the hours!

Little House's Plums

Well, life is unpredictable around here it seems! We decided at the last minute to go to Atlanta over the Memorial Day weekend to see family gathering for my oldest niece's high school graduation. They did not have enough tickets for everyone so it was mainly a visiting session (probably just as well in the heat!) at my brother's house. I was hoping to get more done on Holland Landscapes, but will return to it later this month. I took the last of my Little House fruit series to work on and finished it up yesterday. This one is Plums, stitched on a Silkweaver solo with Crescent Colors. I have 9 done and am thinking I may just use the 8 fruits, and save the acorn and squirrel for something else. I need to dig into the quilting stash for fabric to make a door banner out of them, 2 x 4 blocks. My finishing basket is getting kind of full....may have to set aside a few days to work on some banners! I have a Christmas one and a Halloween one to finish as well.

I'm moving on to the first project of June, Chatelaine's Micro 03. Spent better part of the morning almost completely changing all the colors! I'm not a fan of lime green and olive brown!

Happy Stitching!