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!

Holland Landscapes update!

Took a bit longer to finish part 8 than I thought, but here is Chatelaine's Holland Landscapes! All four windows are filled and topped by the tulip gardens...finally! ( I left most of the clouds off the lighthouse window to balance with the one opposite, which had NO clouds.)

Here is a close up of the lighthouse window.

Christmas in July!

Wish we had the weather to go along with Christmas!  It's HOT in North Carolina right now!

My rotation interlude turned out to be a Christmas ornament, the 1990 Schooler Santa by Prairie Schooler.
It is stitched with DMC on 18ct putty khaki davos over one. I started stitching them around 2000, and decided to go back to the year my DH and I met in 1989 and make one a year onward as well. I am almost to the end of the oldies!  I will finish them all as ornies and will have a Schooler Santa tabletop tree at Christmas (along with our artificial tree...we have cats). This one I have dubbed the Wildlife Santa.

Now I get to go back to a large piece, Chatelaine's Holland Landscapes, to finally stitch the last of four tulip rows! At that point I will be 75% done on it. Think cool thoughts in this hot summer!

Chinese Garden Mandala update again

A quick post to update my Chinese Garden....pt.3, the top gate opening is done! Have to rotate now, but will get back to it in August after vacation. As usual I have found a mistake or two, but not so you would know! I did decide to fill in the "sky" area because it looked odd with black in the background. The next gate window has this filled already, so this will fit right in.

Tiny biscornu break...

Took a break on July 4th to stitch a tiny biscornu fob for my necklace. Being a patriotic day here in the USA, I used some red, white and blue floss, Week's Independence, and 28ct Ray of Light lugana in pale yellow. This little guy is just over an inch across, stitched over one. The pattern came from the Stitch Creations blog here. I used two tiny white seed beads to dimple the center and sewed on a bail for the chain.

By the end of the year I'll have a biscornu necklace for every occasion!  Now to find a suitable August-themed pattern in a small size!   Back to the Chinese Garden Mandala for the rest of the week. Hope everyone is having a nice July!

Chinese Garden Mandala update...finally!

Whew!  The second part of Chatelaine's Chinese Garden Mandala took a bit longer than I thought it would...nearly two weeks!  I am really happy with the way it is looking on the black linen, as you can see...

Due to the black fabric, I made a couple of small changes...I left off the back stitched leaves among the yellow flowers because they just didn't show up well. Also changed the color of the darker green on the corner motifs for the same reason. Here is a close up of the piece from an angle....

Today is Independence Day here in the US of A, so I am stitching a new mini biscornu in red, white and blue! Hope to finish it tonight. Nature's fireworks outside...thunder and lightning...so I'm betting local displays will be delayed to another day. My pets will appreciate that...they don't like booms!  Hope everyone is having a nice summer (or winter if you are down under!) and getting lots of stitching done!

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!