A Day Downtown

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope you've had a great weekend with a little time for some stitching, too.  I've managed to get a little cross stitch in this weekend, but earlier in the week DH and I took the train to the Loop for a day in the city.  I brought my camera with, and thought I'd share a few photos of my neck of the woods.

It was a gorgeous day, so we took a walk up Michigan Avenue, starting at Millennium Park.  

 

This is Cloud Gate, designed by

British artist Anish Kapoor,

but everyone here calls it The Bean.

You can walk right up to it and take a selfie!

 Another fun feature of the park is Crown Fountain,

designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.

It consists of two glass block towers

with images of 1,000 Chicagoans projected onto them,

and a little reflecting pool in the middle.

Further north is the Tribune Tower,

completed in 1925 and designed by

Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells.

It's neo-gothic in style with flying buttresses at the top.

One of the many cool things about this building

is the fact that there are almost 150 stones

or fragments of structures from around the world

 embedded in the outside walls of the building.

 Nope, not gonna make you look at all of them!

Right across the street from the Tribune Tower is the Wrigley Building.

This building was designed by the firm of

Graham, Anderson, Probst and White 
for William Wrigley, Jr. (the gum guy).

It was the first major office building built north of the Chicago River

(it was built just a couple of years earlier than the Tribune Tower)

and the first one to have air conditioning in the City of Chicago.

And speaking of all things Wrigley....

Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs)

is celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year,

and you can find these decorated seats along Michigan Avenue.

I wasn't going to take a photo, but DH urged me on
(I'm so not a Cubs fan).

It's weird--in Chicago, if you follow baseball,

you're either a Cubs fan or a Sox fan--never both.

I will say that the late Ron Santo was a great guy,

just had the misfortune to play for the Cubs!

One of our newest skyscrapers, the Trump Tower.

Those letters are 20 feet high and the Mayor hates them

and is looking for ways to get them removed permanently.

The Donald, on the other hand, thinks that they're wonderful

and enhance the values of the neighboring property!

It was a gorgeous day for a boat ride on the Chicago River!

And here's the reason we went downtown:

Taking photos was strictly prohibited

inside of the theater, so this is the best you'll get.

The musical was great-- there were over 60 songs

made famous by the Motown artists

of the 60's and 70's.

And here's one last little surprise.

It's stitch-related.

The finishes in 2014 on this here blog

have been few and far between,

not because I haven't been stitching,

but I've been devoting a lot of time

to my larger projects.

But I did manage to finish my funky bird.

This is La D Da's A Bird in Hand

using the recommended fabric and silks,

except for the eye and spots on the bird,

where I substituted Gloriana India Ink.

The recommended color was just too

close in tone to the bird's body. 

It's nice to have a finish once in a while.

I have several other smaller bird designs

which I should plug into what passes for

my rotation these days.

That's it from here.

Thanks for visiting!

May Stitch from Stash... and a Finish

Hey Blog Buddies,

Mel from Epic Stitching is hosting the Stitch From Stash SAL this year wherein the goal is to keep to a budget of $25/month or less for all your stitching purchases.  I'm happy to report that, for the first time this year, I spent nothing during the month on stitching supplies!  I worked on several WIPs, one of which was Needle Delights Originals' Winter Logs, which is now finished (woo hoo!):

 

 I stitched the optional border in Watercolours Quicksilver.

I knew that I wanted to use a gray for the border,

and this had the subtlest variegation.

Since there's a lot going on in the piece,

I didn't want the border to look too stripey.

Kreinik metallic braid was used in several spots,

including in the backstitching separating the four quadrants,

to give the piece a subtle glimmer.

It's hard to see in a photograph.

Here are some close-ups,

to give you a better idea of the texture of the piece:

And now for something completely different,

I also had a new start from stash.

I've had this little chart kitted up for a couple of years now.

I just love that funky bird!

DH says he's a ham radio bird

because he has what appears to be an antenna on his head.

Here is my start.

I'm using 35-count WDW Straw linen and almost all of the

recommended NPI silks, 1 over 2.

It's quite a shock to the eyeballs going from

18-count canvas to 35-count linen! 

Well, that's it from here.
Hope you all are enjoying your spring
(or autumn, as the case may be).

Thanks for visiting!

Spring has Arrived

Hey Blog Buddies,
Spring has arrived, at least here in the Chicago area.  We had a sunny, mild day yesterday, which prompted me to finish-finish Erica Michaels' Random Thoughts of Spring.  I did get the piece mounted and framed, but...

...the black color on the frame has got to go!

It looks a little funereal to me for a spring piece.

I got some green acrylic paint yesterday,

so the black will be just a memory soon.

The changes I made to the design were:

I omitted the bottom row of shamrocks,

and I changed the word "blarney" to "showers."

I love the way the name of the season

is done in Assisi embroidery on these designs.

The fabric is a 30-count springy green overdye

which you can see a little bit from the photo.

I recently entered a giveaway that Chris was having at

Tot Hill Farm Stitches.

I wasn't the grand prize winner,

but she drew two extra names out of the goodness of her heart,

and I won a bunch of goodies from Market:

Clockwise from top right:

DMC coffee/tea mug, 4 of the newest WDW floss colors,

an easel floss keeper, a lovely card,

small notebook and, last but not least,

a small Whitman sampler full of cho-o-ocolates!

Thanks again, Chris!

And speaking of the Nashville Market,

Linda from The House of Stitches was invited to

our guild meeting this week.

Alarmed because I was running low on stash -- :p

I bought a couple of things:

Lizzie*Kate's Flowers Limited Edition Kit and

Tiramisu from Glendon Place.

She also brought the La-D-Da trunk show,

and since I have almost no Halloween charts (cough, cough)

I got:

There was only one of these charts left--what can I say?

This one will probably be displayed all year long...

...once I get a moment to stitch it.

I think Linda should come to all the meetings!

Well, that's it from here.

Hope you have a grand spring (or fall) stitchy weekend!

Thanks, as always, for visiting!