Fruit of the Spirit finished

Well, what with it being summer with the kids home, with Wimbledon to watch up through Sunday (yay Federer, but boy did I feel badly for Roddick!), and with a flat tire at the groceries yesterday which totally messed up that day, this finish didn't come as quickly as I would have liked. But here is Fruit of the Spirit finally!


Fruit of the Spirit by Plum Street Samplers
45 ct Vintage Sand Dune
NPI and Threadgatherer silks



I like how it came out! But the 45ct -- well it's fun and doable, but 40ct is still my comfort zone! Especially when it comes to the over one!



In other news, you may have already heard about this contest, but Violarium is having a drawing for this great book.



It's actually rather a coincidence, since I saw this book on someone's blog and thought what a great book it would be to have. And now this contest! So wander on over and enter! Click on Violarium, or here.

There's also a thing going on about what your first quilt was and your latest quilt, but I don't know if I have the strength to figure out what either my first quilt was or my last one! lol! It'll be fun to watch though.

Well, summer days are here, although you wouldn't be able to tell from the weather. The boy child has discovered the beauty of the lake in the early mornings, but tends to stay up all night in order to enjoy it. Not good -- then he sleeps all day! The girl child is happily ensconced with the boy friend and that's about it for her! Has anyone else with high school or college kids noticed that it's really hard to find summer jobs this summer? Ah well. The girl child being in Spain didn't help of course -- a whole month gone with that. But all her friends are in the same predicament.

Enjoy the rest of your week! Thanks for stopping by and commenting on my blog!

A finish, a WIP, and my baby girl is home!

So this is the project I picked up for a quick finish -- The Tulip Garden by Goode Huswife. I used Belle Soie and DMC on 40ct light examplar.




I was going to take more pictures of it, but I couldn't get any clear ones so I gave up.

Then I had problems. I picked up Sailor's Wife by the Sampler Company, but I wasn't happy with the conversion I was using so I put it aside for now. Next I picked up Fruit of the Spirit by Plum Street Samplers (told you, Paulette!). And I love it. :D


The colors aren't coming out correctly at all. It's on 45ct vintage Sand Dune. Sure looks like it, doesn't it! lol! I'm using the called for NPI and Threadgatherer silks.



I'd picked up the 45ct vintage Sand Dune so I could copy Tanya from The Scarlett House on Sarah Hartley, but I gave up on that idea when Tanya mentioned all the over one on that piece. Of course, this has a bit of over one as well, but not half as much as Sarah Hartley! Thank goodness! See those little birds by the bird house? They're over one. And there's more to come. I'm using tent over one for the over one part. The 45ct is fun to use, but I think I like 40ct better. Sarah Hartley will definitely be on 40ct!




In other news, my girl child is finally home from Spain!!! Yay!!!! We went to pick her up Saturday evening from JFK, and I was cursing all the way there -- there was tons of traffic. I decided that it was because of a baseball game at the new Citifield stadium, and I was right! Thank goodness we left for the airport when we did or we would have been late! As it was, we got there after the plane landed, but way before the plane "docked." We had to wait a good long while till the girl child finally walked out of customs, but then finally, there she was, looking so grownup and lovely. And of course with that huge smile!



It was so good to see her, to hug her, to have her around us again! And it still is!



(Yes, I cut myself out of the picture. That's my arm. Hee hee! Thanks for the pictures, father type!)

So we're all home now -- except that the boy child is next door sleeping over and the father type is at work. You know what I mean though. No more Spain! It's great!

Now for the looooooooong summer. lol! Already life is more interesting with two teenagers plus a boyfriend to worry about. And stitching time? I never have as much during the summer. Ah well, it's worth it! :D

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week -- and a new month! And for those of you watching Wimbledon -- go Federer! Go Murray! I'm for a Federer- Murray final myself. :D

Couldn't resist

I saw this idea on Siobhan's blog, who saw it on someone else's and I couldn't resist the idea. I'm planning on taking some of these in for framing today so it was my last chance.




Don't they look cool this way?


Let's see if I can remember what they all are. From left to right they are: The Historic Countries Mystery Sampler from TGOSM, Time and Season by Moira Blackburn, The Plantation Sampler by Canterbury Designs, This is the Day by Hands to Work, Dutch Beauty by Permin, Lois Minshall by Threads of Gold, Rachel Hyde by Threads through Time, Ann Rogers by the Essamplaire, Hannah Lancaster by the Porcupine Collection, and Charlotte Clayton by the NW Sampler Guild.



I have a plan for framing. Some I will take to my LNS, some I will send to Jill Rensel for that Jill touch, and some I will send to Valley House Primitives -- I love their hand grained frames!

I forgot to mention in my last post for those of you who are interested in stitching the Plantation Sampler. Tracy J has started a blog dedicated to the piece and to stitching and admiring it. If you're interested, click here. I joined a bit late. I got to show off my finish. :D

In other news, the father type had a nice relaxing Father's Day yesterday; Wimbledon has started; the boy child just finished his last final ("It was easy."); and the girl child can't wait to come home. She'll be home Saturday evening. Unbelievable!

Oh, and I did start stitching something, but I'm not showing it yet. I'll just say I needed something small to get a quick finish. Hopefully I'll show it soon.

Have a great week, everyone!

Happy dance time!

I'm done with the Plantation Sampler! Yay!



No more green fill in! Yay!



I stitched this on 40ct Reindeer linen from Lakeside Linens (limited edition fabric) with a mix of NPI and DMC fibers.


Oh, and I recently heard that this chart just went OOP.

I've managed to post this blog post before I have to wake the boy child up for his math final. lol! The luxury of 11:30am exams!

Have a great weekend, everyone! Thanks for stopping by!

The end of stitching time.....

I've made more progress on the Plantation Sampler.




I have to admit I'm looking forward to the end, which is always bad when you're not close to the end.



But when I stand back and look at the whole piece, I'm very pleased with it. So I guess I'm doing ok and not getting bored.



The pictures look a bit washed out compared to the real piece -- what can I say? I'm not a good photographer. Sorry!

It's exam time at the high school here. Sort of like summer, but not summer at all. The kids just go in when they have exams scheduled and otherwise are at home. So no more getting up early unless you have an early exam. Stitching time will go down from here on out -- summertime is starting!

Hope you all have a good week!

Progress, tennis, and etc

So I feel like I haven't made much progress on the Plantation Sampler. But here it is.



I switched to the medium blue-green for the verse cause I liked the color better.


I'm feeling restless on this project so I'd better get to the pretty picture part now to get myself back into this one!

Kim, of Threadheads, Unite!, is having another giveaway! She's going to be giving away some yummy April Cornell plaids. Sigh. I love woven plaids. I love April Cornell. So of course I entered. You should too!

And finally, I have to say congratulations to Roger Federer. I know, lots of you don't give a fig about tennis. But Federer made tennis history on Sunday by winning the French Open for the first time and thus completing a career Grand Slam. He's one of only 6 men to have achieved that, and one of only two (Andre Agassi being the other) to achieve this feat on three different surfaces. He also tied Pete Sampras' record for the most Grand Slams won, 14. He's been in 20 straight grand slam semifinals, and 15 of the last 16 grand slam finals. He's definitely up there as one of the greatest tennis players of all time. And I love the fact that he cries. Like Andre Agassi, one of my other tennis heroes, who was also not afraid to show his emotions. Here's hoping that Rafael Nadal overcomes his knee problems and that Federer and Nadal continue their rivalry. And here's hoping for Andy Murray as well -- wouldn't it be something if he won Wimbledon? I always held out hope for Tim Henman, and now I'll hope for Murray too. Wimbledon is my favorite of the slams. And it starts next week! And by the by, if Nadal manages to win the US Open this fall, he would complete a career grand slam as well. Wouldn't that be something!

It's the last week of classes at the high school here. Then a couple of weeks of final exams. The boy child will have his last exam on June 22 and then he'll be free! No more school till the fall! Unbelievable. Where did the school year go? Ack!!!!

I'm off to enjoy one of my last days sans kids. :D I'm putting off the errands and the cleaning for once -- not going to waste the time! lol! Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comments. I love to read them!

Plantation Sampler etc

Well after a bit of waffling, and since my promise to myself to start a Brenda Keyes sampler as the next project can't happen -- don't have the necessary fibers yet (and didn't have the necessary chart in one case) -- I ended up starting something that seems pretty popular at the moment in the blogosphere, the Plantation Sampler. I got my inspiration from Tanya at the Scarlet House. If you click on that link you'll see her finished and framed piece. Anyway, here's my start.




I was going to follow Tanya's lead and use the 45ct vintage Maritime White and the mix of NPI and DMC just like her. But then I decided that I would use the same fibers but a different fabric.



I really like the darker fabric in the original picture on the chart. So I'm using a 40ct limited edition Lakeside fabric from Shakespeare's Peddler called Reindeer.



You can't tell from the picture, but the color of the fabric is sort of similar to the picture on the chart.



In other stitching news, Yuko has two giveaways on her blog. Go check it out. And Melissa has a giveaway on her blog as well. Again, go check it out and enter!

Had to put in another bass carrying picture. This time it's the boy child carrying his bass (the one we've rented for him at school) after the school's spring concert. He's on stage here.



The girl child is all settled in Spain, hopefully happily. She's been taking tons of pictures, and putting them on Facebook. I supposed this is the time for me to succumb to Facebook, but I'd rather let the Father type show me the pictures. :D We won't see her again in person till the end of June. But thanks to Skype, we'll see her on the computer screen whenever she deigns to talk to us. Which probably won't be too often.

The big tennis news, of course, is Nadal's loss in the 4th round of the French Open. Huge! Just to give you an idea of why it's huge, up till this loss, he'd never lost at the French Open. Never. 31 matches worth of never. The last time he lost a SET was when he lost a set to Federer in the 2007 final. In other words, he won the French Open last year without dropping a set. Wow. And now he's lost in the 4th round. Unbelievable! Now I can hope for Federer to come through. The optimist says go! The pessimist says he won't make it. Sigh. We'll see!!! Sorry if you don't care about tennis.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!