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!