The North Wind Doth Blow

It most certainly does! That wind has been quite active and bitterly cold leading to increased time indoors to finish this sweet piece...... Little House Needlework North Wind. This has been a wonderful design to stitch but I've made an error which I won't let happen again. I chose the fabric for this piece from my stash. It's a dove gray Monaco and there was a paper pinned on to the fabric by the seller with the dimensions. I didn't check it, just folded it, found my centre and began stitching. Halfway through I realized that the fabric wasn't as wide as I'd anticipated! I only have an inch on either side of the border. I'm hoping that when John goes to stretch it, he can sew on another piece of fabric and perform a miracle. I won't make that mistake again. I'll make sure to measure each piece of fabric myself after I've purchased it. That said, I really enjoyed stitching on the Monaco and I'm checking my stash to see if I've got any more of it.

Following my accident last week I'd hoped to get in lots of stitching with my extra time off work. However my back has not cooperated. Keeping my head bent as I stitch results in more pain in the upper back and at the base of the neck. I also found things more uncomfortable when I returned to work this week. The commute into work didn't help matters any either. So I think I'll be making an appointment with a physiotherapist to help out. I consider myself very lucky especially when I think of one of my coworkers who also had an accident last week. She lost control of her car on black ice, rolled it three times and ended up landing upside down. This all took place during a snowstorm on Highway 401, our major east-west highway in Ontario. They had to break the glass in her window to get her out. She suffered a laceration to her forehead and she also has whiplash. We're all so glad that she's alright. This highway has a high volume of transport traffic and things could have been so much worse.

I want to thank all of you for the lovely get well wishes and concerned comments which you left for me. It has really helped knowing that I have so many great friends who care so much. Your concern has really touched me.

Following my NW finish, I brought out Fair, Kind, True, hoping to get it completed by Valentine Day. It's moving along nicely and I just may have the stitching completed in time but the finishing will come later. I also love the fabric I'm using for this one. The colour is Earthern by Picture This Plus and I think I will be ordering more of it. The fabric looks too light in this picture. It's a really lovely hand dyed sand colour. Fabric colours never seem to come out right in my pictures. I'm not sure if it's the lighting or what but I can never get them right!

I'll be bringing out Cast All Your Cares this weekend to put in some more stitches. However it's a little too big for taking to work with me so instead I've found another start. It's called Maison No 4 by Tra La La and I love the colours used in it. The colour scheme fits in very with Valentine's Day. I also couldn't resist the pull of Spring Quakers any longer and I finally put in my first stitches yesterday. I'll have a picture of my progress soon.

Last week I was thrilled to find out that I won the Pumpkin Challenge on Becky's blog. I've won a gift certificate for the online stitching store of my choice. I've chosen 123 Stitch and I think I will hang onto this until after the Nashville Needlework Market. I'm sure it will result in lots of new must-haves for my stash! Thank you very much Becky! The challenge was a lot of fun and really got me motivated especially in regards to finishing.

After the arrival last week of the hawk in my tree, I haven't seen any of the little birds around. Or any of the birds for that matter! They've all been in hiding. However the bright sun today has brought them all out again. Here are a couple pics of the some of the visitors to my tree today. I believe the small bird is a gold finch, fluffing her feathers to keep warm.

I hope all of you are keeping safe and warm during all this rotten weather. While we here in North America are shivering, our friends Down Under are having a bit of a heat wave. Maybe they'd like some visitors?!