Making Progress

Good Afternoon, Gentle Blog Readers

This will be a quick little post today to show you the progress I've made on the Soar SAL.

As you can see, it's coming along.  Brenda says that this Friday will be the last time she will post photos of everyone's SAL on her blog, and I don't see this being done by then.  There are large leaves, small buds, a flag and flagpole, another horse, the roof and windows of the grainery, two rabbits, the year, 21 more letters of the alphabet and everyone's eyes, in addition to the small part of the river that remain unstitched.  (I haven't been obsessing about this very much, have I?)  This week will be a busy one, with trips or meetings or errands every day.  I'll give it a shot, but it will take a miracle for this to be finished by Thursday at 9:00 p.m. CDT - the SAL deadline!  I hope you're not getting the idea that I'm competitive, or anything like that....    (smile)

I leave you with this photo of the brave little apple tree in our side yard:

I had to take a photo of it.  I was so excited to see that it actually bloomed this year.  It's got one or two dead limbs--several have already been removed.  We're lucky if it blooms every third or fourth year.  But it's such a trooper that I would hate to get rid of it.  You go, Tree!

As always, thanks for visiting, and may all your trees bloom.

A Tatted Treasure and The March Bookmark

Good afternoon Gentle Blog Readers,

OMG!!  Have I taken up tatting now, too, abandoning my hardanger, cross stitch, blackwork, crocheting and my little lady in needlepoint?   Uhhh.....   NO.  I was gifted with this adorable little tatted embellishment/ornie by GF Lelia.  I love, love, love it!  Thank you, Lelia.  You can see her latest tatted treasure here.

It is much pinker in real life.   It probably looks bigger in this photo than it really is.

That's a quarter on the right--somewhat overexposed.  I'm not that good at "fixing" things in Photoshop.  These photos were taken outside, and it was beginning to spit rain, so the photo session came to an abrupt end.

Mr. Goldfinch was eyeing me warily from his perch on the feeder as I was taking snaps of my stitched stuff.  I'm sure he thinks I'm nuts.  His feathers will look much more like the color on the bottom of the feeder in a few weeks.

And now for the March hardanger bookmark:

I like the color of the fiber.  It's Rainbow Gallery Elegance, Silk Pearl #8.

It's not quite as bulky as DMC #8, but not quite as light as DMC #12.

Here is the openwork part of the bookmark:  wrapped bars, woven bars and adjoining wrap.  The "teeth" really show up if you're not doing tone on tone, but at least I haven't cut any of the fibers.   Yet.

I'm still working on my little lady, too, but all I'm doing is weaving the 1,749 canvas threads attached to the purse into the back of the piece.  (@#$%^&*@!*%!!!)  I have no photos to show of that.

Thanks, as always, for visiting with me, and Happy Vernal Equinox!

I'm Confused...

Good Morning Gentle Blog Readers,
In order to keep myself (somewhat) sane while I attempt to finish my little lady, I am doing small projects as well, and I have a finish to share with you today.  Normally, I do not choose designs with a saying, but this particular one seemed to hit home with me...

This is a Sisters and Best Friends design that I have had in my stash for several years, so finishing it is a very good thing.

The "itsy bitsy buttons" came kitted up with the chart, and I needed a beading needle just to sew them on.

The color of the fabric didn't reproduce too well.  It's a very nice mint green.  It was a scrap I had purchased--if I had had it cut to order, it would have been bigger.  I could have used more fabric on the top and bottom, but the sides are OK.  I'm thinking of sewing some muslin on the top and bottom to help out my framer.

I am still plugging away on my little lady, too.

I have finished all the French knots that make up her faux fur stole--just in time for Spring, I might add.

And, I am done "plunging" all of the unwoven canvas threads that were sticking out of the sides and bottom of her purse.  (I still haven't woven them into the back of the piece.  I have to have something fun to look forward to!)

We had an unwelcome visitor in our yard a few days ago...

Unwelcome to all of the sparrows, finches, chickadees, cardinals, woodpeckers, nuthatches and doves, that is.  They all disappeared when Mr. (Ms?) Hawk arrived.

I'm not a bird expert, although I do enjoy watching them.  From a quick consultation with my bird book, I am guessing this guy/gal is a Coopers Hawk.  They live year round here in Illinois.  Does anyone know if my guess is correct?

And here is a bird that I am able to recognize without a book:

The robins are back, and I spotted my first one yesterday, March 11th!  I don't care what the weatherman may say:  Spring has sprung!

Hope all of you are enjoying this early Spring weekend.