Holland Landscapes progress report

Well!  This took a bit longer than I thought, but part 9 of Chatelaine's Holland Landscapes is finally done! The parts added are the two delft tiles at the top, and the triangular motifs under each.

Here is a close up of the top....

Now I can take a break with a few smalls before moving on to the next WiP in the rotation! Hope everyone has a great Labor Day holiday in the USA, and a nice stitchy weekend everywhere else!

Between Chatelaines....

Think of this as the middle of the sandwich! In between Chatelaines I have done another small in the form of one of the Victoria Sampler Hearts of America series, #20 for Mississippi. Someday when all 50 are done, they will become a quilt. For now they give me a nice easy break from the *large* projects that seem to be dominating my stitching this year.

.Finished this yesterday and promptly got out Holland Landscapes to work on the top delft tile motifs. I have to work on it upside down because I have it on a very large q-snap arrangement on my K's Creations floor stand. Hope to have a report on this over the weekend! Happy Stitching y'all!

Chinese Garden progress....

Hey all!  I have the progress pics of Chatelaine's Chinese Garden Mandala thru part 4, the east gate. This went a bit faster than the north gate since the stonework is the same.

The whole piece so far....the south gate is next up once I rotate back to this.

Today I'm doing another Victoria Sampler state heart, #20, which is Mississippi.  Thirty more states to go!

August Biscornu Necklace Fob

Stitched this up yesterday, easy peasy, and quick!  It is from the blog of Francois Sablaise, saved a while ago from her April 2009 post. She called it Pendouille Avril 2009, I call it a biscornu necklace fob!
First the two sides before assembly...stitched with DMC 564 and 778 on 28ct pearl linen.

Here it is, assembled and on a silver chain...front side.

 And the back side, on dramatic black! It is one and a half inches across.

StitchinKat seen Stitchin' at the Spa!

Hey y'all!  Back from my lovely vacation in the Adirondacks of New York State, rested and refreshed for the heat wave still burning up North Carolina (96F as I write this!)  We enjoyed the cooler air, the vistas at Loon Lake, and the ice cream at the local diner!  All the pics are clickable if you need a closeup view. ;-)

Not far away from the lake front cabin owned by dear friends is the little town of Saratoga Springs, also known as "The Spa" (for it's history as a resort town) and more importantly, the home of the oldest horse racing venue in America, Saratoga Race Track !! We had a very good day, as all 5 of us visitors won at least one race, DD Kira picked three winners! We each pick a different horse in each race, spending only $2 each per race...just for the fun of pulling for your horse! Between races, you can see I took some time to do some "Stitchin' at the Spa"!

Here are my niece (left) and daughter (right) hamming it up....

And a beautiful view of the track out in the sun (we were comfy in the shade of the Grandstand!)

Watched this one from the rail, with aid from the big screen to tell who won!

The last race of the day finished....after every race, while the winner is paraded and photographed, the rest of the horses get a cool bath and water right on the track before they are led off to their long walks around the barn rows to cool down. Then the winner is led off as well, with many well deserved pats! Only one mishap the entire day, as a filly dumped her rider behind the gate and heading for the barns, but she was easily caught by an outrider and returned, even finishing fourth! Good thing 'cause her jockey would have never heard the end of it otherwise! 

As for that piece I'm stitching on....finished adding the embellishments last night and here it is.....one of The Silver Needle's kits for Secret Needle Night  called Camp Wannasew! It's by Brooke Nolan.

Earlier in the week of vacation I finished another of Val's Stuff Kitty Kalendar cats, for September.....

Still recovering from the trip, and stitching a little biscornu before going back to my many Chatelaines!