August WIPocalypse

Summer's end is near. I can feel it. The evenings are getting dark sooner and the days have been a little bit cooler. Already I'm spotting trees that are changing colour. As the season gets ready to change I feel the urge to get into some autumn stitching. I'm browsing my stash to see what I can come up with.

In the meantime I have some progress on This IsThe Day although it is meagre. I'm working on background fill and outside borders.

 Here's a closeup of the background. I had thoughts of not stitching this portion but in the end I pulled out needle and thread and got started on it. It's very time consuming and boring!

The other piece I worked on this month was Heartstring Samplery Stitchers Resolution. If you remember I had started this one at the tail end of July when I realized that I had the fabric going in the wrong direction as I was stitching. I was too annoyed at myself to start frogging and I was anxious to get started on it again so I pulled another piece of the same linen out and restarted. The frogging on the other can wait until a rainy day. I was just lucky that I had more of the same linen in my stash!

I'm about a third of the way through this one now. I'm working on the top half and then I have a border all around the piece to complete. The colours are predominately neutrals but they look good on this fabric and I'm happy with the results so far.

I did a bit of antique shopping on my recent vacation. I'm looking for other ways of displaying my needlework besides framing it.

I purchased some rather interesting pieces including an old bread board with the inscription "Staff of Life" along the top. I have a Blackbird Design piece in mind for this one. The child's slate has slate on both sides so I can display the needlework on one side and still have the slate showing on the other. The large file drawer in the first pic has a felt bottom and I plan on displaying some of my work inside the drawer or using it as I would a dough bowl, displaying some of my small finishes. I'm hoping I can use the frame I purchased for one of my smaller finishes.
I'm really starting to enjoy these antique hunts!

Now I'm off to check out  those autumn themed charts again. See you next month!

August Smalls and a Muskoka visit

I'm ahead of the game this month with two small finishes. Both involve flowers since I have very few summer smalls to display around the house. The first is designed by Teresa Murgida of Primitive Acorns and is called Wild Camomille. I love the bee in this one!

The second finish is designed by Esub Rosa and is simply called Summer Pincushion.

This will be a pincushion once I get a finishing day underway.

 I haven't had much time for anything other than the smalls this month. I will post a progess report on my larger WIP at the end of the week. Hopefully I'll have added to them by then. Vacation has taken up most of my time this month. We visited our beloved Muskoka region for the first time in two years. We didn't book our usual cottage because it's on an island and we weren't sure how well I'd be able to get in and out of the boat with my new knee and hip. However the new joints performed admirably and we hope to return to the island next year. Instead we booked a cottage in the Torrance region on Lake Muskoka.
Here a just a few pics of our lakeside visit.

 The view from the dock

 Our rental

 A lovely wooden launch

 Muskoka sunset

 A dinner cruise aboard SS Segwun

 Port Carling - hub of the 3 big lakes

 One of the many boathouses seen on the lake

Dockside stitching

 The Segwun steamship entering the narrows on Lake Muskoka

 The Segwun is the longest operating steamship in North America

 There's a seat by the lake just waiting for you!

See you all soon!