May Smalls SAL

I managed to finish up a couple of small projects this month. One is completely finished and was given to a friend for a going away gift. It is by With Thy Needle and Thread and is called Forget Me Not pinkeep from the Mary Valentine leaflet. It can be seen on this post.

The stitching on the second one was just finished up this weekend.
It's designed by Teresa Murgida and is called Flowers Pinkeep.

Final finishing will have to wait on this one for a bit. I love the simplicity of this design with just the two colours. Now I'm off to pick out a stitch for next month!

May's Stitching From Stash

Sweet May is upon us and the good weather has finally arrived....minus the hailstorm which passed by yesterday afternoon and once more damaged the gazebo roof. Only the outer panes have been perforated and the panels are still holding for now. You may recall that this happened to us last year and I ordered replacement panels for the damaged pieces. Fortunately we haven't put those in yet but it does look like I will have to order one or two more panels.

So okay we won't count that storm and will revel in the mild sunny days which we've had lately. I've spent this month stitching on some lovely spring designs. Actually one was designed as a Valentine offering but the motifs in the piece do resemble spring.
First up is my completed Blackbird Designs Spring Tulips.

I love the soft, pastel colours in this piece. I'm hoping to finish this one as a pinkeep which I can display on a small easel.

This was followed by my second finish, With Thy Needle and Thread Forget Me Not Postcard Pinkeep. I stitched this for a fellow choir member of mine, Joanne, who is returning home to Hong Kong after spending 4 years in Ottawa for her university studies.  I changed the wording to Forget Us Not to represent all of the choir members and edged the piece in some green lace which matches the leaves.

I gave this to Joanne yesterday when we all took her out for lunch. She was thrilled and told me that it touched her heart. 
I finished this piece just as the designer Brenda suggested by ironing the pillow finish flat to resemble a postcard. I love the finish although it does show up just how crooked my sewing is!
The rest of the month I spent time working on Primitive Betty Live, Laugh, Love which has been hiding in my stash for at least a year or so.

This is slowly coming along and will probably be my go to piece in the next month. I'm also working on a small piece for my Smalls SAL which I will post a pic of on Wednesday for this month's commitment.

I did dip into my allowance this month and ordered a couple of patterns which popped up on eBay. I have been looking for these for some time now and didn't want to let them go. They are Blackbird Design patterns which are OOP. The total for this purchase came to $23.18. May is my birthday month so I was gifted with two patterns of my choice as a birthday gift from a friend. I ordered two of Jenny Hoffman's patterns from her Etsy shop which I have been eyeing for a while. Also my youngest son gave me a $25 GC for 123 Stitch which I can put to use when the urge strikes me! 
Here's a pic of me celebrating my birthday which happened to fall on Mother's Day this year. My family took me out for a fabulous lunch at a favourite restaurant in Ottawa's Byward Market. Only my eldest son and his family were not able to join us since they live at a distance.

That about covers it for this month. My stitching might be limited somewhat for a little while. I'm going into hospital tomorrow morning for a total hip replacement. Hopefully I will recover well and can spend many hours stitching when I return home later in the week. After all, I won't be going very far at first!  I hope all my US friends are enjoying a lovely long weekend. Take care and I'll see you all soon!

Spring WIPocalypse

Spring has sprung.....sort of! It finally arrived here later than usual and it seems to have promptly disappeared! The days are cool again and there seems to be nothing but overcast days or rain. Not so good for getting out in the garden but perfect stitching days. 

I've been concentrating on three projects over the past month and have finished a fourth one. My finish is Primitive Hare's Cross Stitcher At Work. Follow the link to see the picture which I posted on my blog recently. 

Blackbird Designs Spring Tulips is sooo close to a finish! I only have to finish stitching the Algerian eye stitches at the bottom of the piece. You can see some of them at the bottom right.

 I also want to frog out one of my initials and move them. I don't like the placement as charted. It was fine for the designer's initials but mine seem to sort of run together. So I shall either move the top L up or the bottom J down. Then I'll be happy dancing! This one is going to be finished as a pinkeep.

Two new starts are occupying my time right now. When I was browsing through my stash recently I found a chart which I had misplaced. I was so happy that I had found it that I decided to start it right there and then. This Primitive Betty's Live, Laugh, Love.

I started this two weeks ago and should have been much further along but another start interrupted me. One of the members of our church choir, Joanne, is from Hong Kong but has been living in Ottawa the past four years while she attended university. Her studies are now complete and in early June she will be returning home permanently. We are  really going to miss her and I wanted to stitch something for her to remember us by. She has always been so complimentary of my stitching. After browsing through my stash I settled on With Thy Needle and Thread Forget Me Not Postcard Pinkeep from the Mary Valentine's Handework leaflet. Sorry about the pic. The day is overcast and I can't seem to get a good photo.

I'm planning on changing Forget Me Not to Forget Us Not. The urn in this shows up much better in real life. I have to have this completely stitched and finished by May 25 when we are holding a going away party for Joanne. When I was looking for a link to this pattern I found Faye's (Carolina Stitcher) fabulous finish of this piece here. Like Faye I am planning to change the colour of the bird. The called for floss was just a little too close to the colour of the leaves for my taste and I just wanted a little more colour in the piece. I can only hope that my finish is have as nice as hers! I would love to try something like Faye's finish but Joanne has a lot to take back home with her so I will probably finish this as the called for pinkeep.

As I mentioned earlier the weather has been so poor here that I'm afraid to put out most of my flowers. We have still had some nights with frost. I needed to buy my flowers early because I won't be able to get out and about after my hip surgery. Consequently my favourite stitching spot in my gazebo/solarium is currently being used as a greenhouse.

Never fear, I've still managed to save a little corner of the space for myself and my stitching as well as a spot for Clarisse. She is so happy to be back in her summer spot!

See you soon. Yippee, the sun is coming out!