Miss Margaret and a little soreness

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend. I wasn't able to spend as much time with my needle as I would have liked. I have to blame part of that on having my nose stuck in Breaking Dawn, the last book in the Twilight series. Too good to put down.

I'm getting that antsy feeling about Margaret. I just want to finish her and move on to something new. I need to enjoy the process more and not worry so much about getting to everything that I want to stitch in this lifetime. I have to work on that.

We spent Saturday at one of the lakes north east of Phoenix. Here's a little trivia for you. There are more boats here in AZ., than anywhere else, and they were all in water somewhere. It was a beautiful day, not too hot, just nice. I squeezed in a bit of stitching on Sunday, in between running errands. Yesterday, my husband and I headed out early for a bike ride. Here is my bike or what I call the "Limecycle". That weird looking thing on the handle bars is for my basket. We ended up riding around twenty miles altogether. The city that we live in has some nice parks and wonderful bike trails. Along the path I saw Mallard ducks with their little ones, a bunny, several fish in the canals, an Owl, numerous cows and dogs, and even a fairly good size lizard. Quite the variety. I expected to be very sore today, but surprisingly I'm not that bad. It was worth it anyway. I'm way behind in my blog reading, so I'm off to see what you have all been up to.

A weeks worth

Margaret Simcock

It's hot here in the Valley. We have had two weeks of triple digits. Where did spring go? One would think that I would have accomplished something on the stitching front. I wish that were true. I'm dividing my time between Sarah and Margaret. I love the diminutiveness of Sarah on the 45ct., but I can't stitch at my normal pace. It's driving me crazy. The over one alphabets went fast, and they are tiny. As I've said soooo many times before, I hate borders. I think that is part of the problem. This one is pretty, but it doesn't flow well when stitching. That might not make sense, but you know how you start to memorize the pattern after so much repetition? I have to keep checking the chart as it's fairly detailed. I find that my hand gets tired with the 45ct, too. Weird, huh?

Sarah Hartley 1827

I can't resist including this picture of Grandson, Sawyer. He recently turned one. Here he is enjoying some of his birthday cake. I know I'm biased, but is he cute or what?

Thanks to the response for my recent needle case sets, I have to get to painting today. I hope to have something to show soon.

New Sets

No stitching today. My hand has been holding a paintbrush instead of a needle. These new sets are going up on my Etsy tonight. If the last set looks familiar...well yes, I did get my inspiration from my stitched Bird Sampler. I have birds on the brain! Thanks once again for all of the wonderful comments. It's a real treat to hear from each and every one of you. I had no idea that anyone was curious about the ladies in my banner photo. Well, now you know. My Grandmother's name was Fredericka Anna Amelia Christina Grater Schick. That's a mouthful, isn't it? Maybe I should try working that into a sampler one day.

And Julie, I don't know if I should be mad or glad that you inspired me to get into the Twilight madness or not. All I know is this, I am hooked! Those books are seriously interfering with my stitching.

Happy Mother's Day!

If you are a Mother, I hope this day is special for you. My own Mom has been gone for many years now. I've always loved this picture of my parents. They looked so happy together. I miss her not just today, but everyday. The little girl on the left on my banner photo is also my Mom. She was the baby of the family, as am I. The woman in the middle was her Mother, and my aunt is on the right.

I was in the mood to start another sampler the other day. I thought I'd give myself a break from the 45ct. linen. Here's a sneak peek. If you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll remember that I am a huge fan of The Sampler Company's designs. This one is called Margaret Simcock. It's from the book Traditional Samplers by Brenda Keyes. My copy is signed by Brenda, which she will do if requested. Since I have proclaimed myself her biggest fan, it's one of my treasures. This design is very sweet, lots of soft muted colors. The verse and hair are done in black. I love that contrast and look in a sampler. I dyed some 40ct. Bisque to age it a bit. The corner that you are seeing is the darkest.

I treated myself to a new DVD called Monarch of the Glen. It's a BBC video, and it takes place in the Scottish Highlands. I believe it ran for seven seasons. I love British TV shows, and I happened to come across it yesterday at Barnes & Nobles. Have you seen it? Please let me know what you think. I plan to watch some of it today.

Enjoy your day!

Warm Wednesday

Things are heating up here in the desert. We're supposed to reach 100 degrees today. Oh, goody! Happy, hot days are here again. It's actually not that bad until the humidity creeps up, which happens in July. I've lived where I was housebound because of the snow and cold, and I'll take the heat any day. You can always stay inside and stitch or cool off in the pool. My stitching progress has been fairly insignificant this past week. I did two motifs (the pink rose and the tulip) over one on Sarah Hartley on the 45ct. I have to admit that the first couple of stitches made my heart race a little. I was just sure that I had bitten off more than I could handle. It got easier as I kept going, and it actually went fast since I'm doing the tent stitch. I love how they look, so my anxiety was worth it. The Sand Dune fabric looks really pink in the photo, but it's not that bright. I finished the Bird Sampler, too.