A day Late and a Little Short!

I am a day late in posting my SAL progress with FAYE and MARILYN  and a few days behind in stitching!  

I went to my friend Julie's house on Friday to help her with some graduation party decorations.  

Silly me, I thought I might get a little time to stitch that evening, but I did not and when I left her house, I left my stitching, too.  Julie lives about an hours drive from my house so I didn't want to drive all the way over there just to pick it up.   She brought it to work today so hence, the late posting and little stitching progress.  

I am SURE that if I'd had it this weekend, my progress would be much more impressive!  

Rather than gardening, I would have stitched a BUNCH on Saturday and Sunday.  

YOU KNOW I WOULD!!

Anyway... this is called the Adam and Eve Reproduction Sampler from the May 2009 Cross Stitch and Needlework Magazine.  I am stitching it on 36 count, Lakeside Magnolia with a conversion of threads.

This is where I left off on Friday afternoon:  

The over one on 36 count is not my favorite but I love how over one looks when done.  

I'm also not crazy about the constant color changes in the words but I'm not going to change it at this point.  Over one on 36 count is not my idea of fun stitching.

In other exciting news..... Matt turned 21 in early May and here's a pic of he and Rob enjoying his

first beer.   

Okay, you and I both know it's not his first beer but it was his first legal beer, with his dad.

Matt was born right around Mother's Day and it's always a special treat when his b-day falls on Mother's Day.   It didn't this year, but both days were extra special because of him turning 21.  Amazing.  Not amazing that he's 21.  Amazing that I'M 21 years older.  

Golly.  That makes me.... oh, never mind that.  

Focus, Terri, Focus.  It's about Matt, not you!

Geesh... conversations with myself in writing.  Wonder what that means?

Anyway, Matt is a great kid and he is considerate and kind and smart and I love him dearly.  

I got beautiful tulips for my Mother's Day flowers and when they opened up, this is what they looked like.  The light was coming thru the window the next morning and I thought the flower looked so pretty.   I love how they looked in my Desert Rose water pitcher.  

The colors were perfect!

And finally, I found this little sewing table at a recent estate sale.  

They had marked it $75.  Always having been a bargain shopper, I asked if they'd take something less.  The lady working the checkout area said she'd "let it go" for $55.  Not quite a good enough bargain for me.  I asked if things would be 1/2 price the next day and she said they would so I told her I'd just come back tomorrow and take my chances.  As I was checking out with a $3 purchase, I asked if they'd hold the table for me tomorrow if it didn't sell that day.  Another worker overheard me and said, "Oh, for gosh sakes, give it to her for 1/2 price."  

She did!  So, I got the table for $37.50 when not more than 10 minutes prior, I was asked to pay $55!  So glad I didn't take her $55 offer!  As you can see, it needs a little work but that's okay!  

It's a darling table and I'm tickled with it.    Being a Leo, I LOVE the lion head pulls!  

What do you think?  Worth $37.50?

I am behind in answering some emails but I will get to it.  I am super busy at work this week and will catch up when I can, in the evenings.

Thank you so much for coming by and for your kind notes!  They make my finding time to blog worthwhile and I appreciate them a great deal!

Have a wonderful week, I'll see you again in two unless something earth shattering happens. 

Be well,

Peace!

Terri 

Stitching Along and Other Tidbits, too!

Good evening, friends!

     Today is the day!  

This is the day that Marilyn, Faye and I are supposed to post our SAL progress.

Be sure to check their beautiful blogs to see their progress!  

As you can see, my progress is somewhat minimal.   

Honestly, I have frogged more than I've gotten acceptably stitched.  

I'm not kidding.  

First, I stitched the darker green part of the border going across.:

 I got almost to the end and, "Uh-oh!", not enough fabric.  So, rather than frog (rippit-rippit), I flipped the fabric end to end and started over, but not until I had done a grid line to make sure I had it right this time (pics are clickable).  

Geesh!

Then, I stitched about 2 of the strawberries with the light pink color I had converted.  Blech!  It didn't show up AT ALL.  

So, I frogged those and began again with another color which I thought looked okay and then decided it also looked BLECH, so I frogged EVERY SINGLE STRAWBERRY you see stitched.  

Okay, it was only the lightest pink color I had to frog, but still... GRRRR!  

THEN, I re-stitched all the strawberry tops in the pale pink color you see now.  

It's staying. 

We are not even going to discuss the over one verse!  Seriously, I've frogged every stitch that you see, at least once.  

Basically, I have stitched every part that is now complete at least twice, in some cases three times.  

What is wrong with me?

Don't answer that!

Anyway, this is my progress to date:

I hope that progress will pick up now that I finished the SB Eve's Garden Sampler (one project at a time, for the most part)!

I'm also really hoping that the frogs, which way overstayed their welcome, have moved on.  I hope they don't come to your house but that they go out in the yard and eat some bugs and flies. 

I picked up Mary Gibson from Jo-Ann's today.

This is one big sampler and I'm not sure where I'm going to hang her yet, 

but I'll find a spot.

I was worried after I had picked out the frame that I wouldn't like it but I think it works.  The sampler is BIG so I wanted the moulding to be big, as well.  

The black and red in the frame work well with the sampler.  

I think.  I hope.

Finally, I was looking out into the backyard the other day and I spotted a baby (I think) cardinal and a baby robin, both splashing around in the bird bath together!

Unfortunately, by the time I found my camera, the cardinal had flown away.  

The robin hung out for a while though so I did get some shots of him 

splishin' and a splashin'!

  A few minutes after the robin finished his little bath the cardinal came back.  

I guess they must have decided they didn't like bathing together.

 I'm sure it's my glittery and sparkly wind chime that drew them in!

Thank you all so much for the supportive and sweet comments on my SB finish and my bitch session!

It would appear that I am not alone in my opinions.

Thank you so much for visiting and for being so generous in your comments!  

Welcome to my new friends.  I'm glad you're here and hope you'll come back, soon!

Have a wonderful week, dear friends!

Life has been a roller coaster lately but then, it always is...

Be well,

Peace!

Terri

Eve's Garden by Shepherd's Bush

pics are clickable

Adam and Eve just couldn't be happier!  

They are now, having given way to temptation, living in Eve's Garden, beautifully clothed.  Well, Eve is beautifully clothed;  Adam, not so much!  

I love Eve's skirt - it looks like a fairy skirt, don't you think?  

I did, for the most part, enjoy stitching this piece, as I do all SB designs, but I have a few notes for you.:

Chart Alert:

There is a small error on the chart (I called the SB gals and let them know).  The strawberry at the very bottom was missing the two rows of red at its base, just below the "seeds".  If you stitch it the way it's charted, it's fine (meaning borders will meet up but your strawberry will look funky).  If you want the strawberry to look right, you need to add two rows of the pinky/red color at the base of the strawberry and then find a place to adjust your vine by two stitches (easy enough).  I also added the year in a the tan color, over one, which I really like.

Forewarned is forearmed!

Do as I say, not as I do:

I made a few mistakes (I ALWAYS DO) that I had to compensate for later.
~ I skipped too many rows (and nothing consistent) between bands.  Count your threads!
~ I used the wrong green in several places which means I ran out of one of the greens before I should have.  Watch your Symbols!
~ I had to make some additions to the design because of miscounting.  I added a pink flower to the bottom left of the border (looks kind of like a heart) and another to the bottom right (the little yellow and black flower) to compensate for my inability to count and the incorrectly charted strawberry.  Okay, the strawberry didn't cause that much of a problem but I'm not going to take all the blame!  I also added the year, over one, to fill some of that extra space created by my growing garden.

~ I removed the heart on the upper left corner because it just got totally lost on the fabric.

This was my initial "finish" before frogging the heart:  Poor picture, sorry....

When I looked at it, I just didn't like it.  Unless you are right on top of it, the sampler just looks like it has a lot of empty space at the top.  So... I added a pair of over one cherries and found a bee button from some forgotten project (don't think it was this one) and sewed that in the corner to fill it in.  Actually - I like it MUCH better.

Soapbox:

I've stitched quite a few SB patterns and generally really like them because the patterns are sweet, the fabrics and fibers are beautiful.

BUT, and this is a big, ole but.... 

I don't like that the symbols are all hand drawn - I know it's supposed to look "folksy" or more "handcrafted" but some of their symbols are difficult to read.  In this chart, three shades of green, which are very close in color, had almost the same symbol.  There are small dots for light green, medium dots for medium green and open circles for dark green.  Really?  My mind reads "dot" when looking at the symbols so I frequently grabbed the wrong "dot" meaning I used the wrong green.  AARGH!!!  You know, as I do, that if you frog silks they get yucky looking in no time so I just left the greens as I stitched them.  In the end, you can't really tell that much difference but it aggravates me.  SB charts are expensive (IMHO) and it wouldn't be that hard to make them easier to read.  There are a ton of symbols (how about a heart or anything but dots!) that can be used - why use various sizes of the SAME symbol?  AND, if that isn't bad enough, they often use a circle with a dot inside it that is hard to read or a small square that looks like a dot.  

Seriously - This makes me crazy!!  

Don't get me started about differentiating the colors of silks.....

Obviously, I still like their designs enough to buy and stitch them and I do like their diagrams of the specialty stitches but the charting and trying to figure out which fiber is which just aggravates the p-willies out of me!

Okay, that's enough bitching for one day.

A few parting shots just because it's so pretty!

 

 Remember that little wheel I found not too long ago?  This is what I turned it into.  I used some beads I had in my stash and some old skeleton keys.  I really like how it turned out although I wish I'd used more blues.  I may have to "fix" it, one of these days.

That's all I've got for today!  I'll be back Sunday with an update on the SAL with Marilyn and Faye.   I hope to get quite a bit done between now and Sunday's post.  I had to finish this SB piece before I could get started, too much.

Have a great rest of the week and thanks so much for all your sweet comments! 

Be well.

Peace,

Terri