Canada Day Stitching

Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian blogging and stitching friends and family! I hope you all have a very enjoyable day no matter how you choose to celebrate it. Myself, I plan on spending the day stitching . The weather is cooler than usual and the crowds will be larger than usual with the Queen's visit to Parliament Hill in Ottawa so we've decided to stay put for the day. We may go down to Morrisburg on the St Lawrence River for fireworks this evening if the weather holds.

After having just worked the last weekend, I had several days off which allowed me to get a lot of cleaning done at home. Now I'm home free, so bring on the stitching!!

I'll start off with a pic of my Nantucket Sampler which I picked up at the framers on Tuesday. I wanted a frame for it that gave that beach or cottage look and this is what we came up with. I love the results and it proudly resides in the entrance of my home over the deacon's bench. I've been so pleased with the framing I've had done here. I was worried about quality framing and stretching of my stitching after my LNS closed. They had always done such a fantastic job. This shop has picked up where my LNS left off. We've been fortunate that the man who did the stretching for us at the LNS agreed to continue to do so at this framer.

My trip to the framer's had a dual purpose. Besides picking up Nantucket, I dropped off my LK Prayer Sampler and while I was there I chose a frame for my upcoming finish of Forget Me Not. I only have a few days of stitching time on this one and it'll be done. I got started on stitching the remaining flowers on the top border and found I didn't really like the colour of floss called for. Since I've altered some of the colours in this already, the floss called for just didn't seem to fit in with things. I rummaged through my stash and came up with several choices which I took with me to my Tuesday night group for some input. I had a choice in mind and as it turned out the majority picked the same colour that I'd chosen. So instead of GAST Used Brick, the flowers will be stitched with CC Clay Pot. The frame I've chosen for this one is a red mahogany which really picks up the colours in the piece. I can't wait to get this one finished and framed! I trying to get as many pieces framed as I can afford during the next year before my retirement. My budget will be limited after that. That's also the excuse I'm using for enhancing my stash!

Speaking of which I'm awaiting the arrival of a copy of BTBN Halloween Cove as well as an online order from Violarium of some charts by Tra La La and Tournicoton. I'll be anxiously checking the mail during the next week or so!

I brought out LHN He Is Risen this week to try and get finished. I was going great guns on this one and then it came to an abrupt standstill while I worked on completing Nantucket. Here's where I am after last evenings stitches. I might have to do some BS around the angels' wings. They're not showing up very well with the white on white. What do you think?

I'll continue stitching on this one today. I'm also hoping to bring out my Winter Sheep ornie. It's long overdue for finishing. Speaking of the LHN ornaments, Diane Williams just posted on her blog that she's designed another year's worth of the ornaments so the SAL should continue. I thought it was great news because I'm a big fan of LHN designs and I really love these little ornaments.

My upcoming weekend SAL has been changed to only a one day stitch. I hated to do this but we have a lot more going on here than planned in the next few weeks which takes priority and I really need the extra days to get things organized. My DH is in the process of moving his mother from her apartment into a retirement home after she had a nasty fall recently and I have my sister and Mom arriving for a visit the week following our return from vacation. Our vacation begins on July 15th with a trip to Victoria, BC planned to attend the Canadian organist convention. I'll be seeing the sights while Bob is at lectures, etc.

We're only just arrived home from BC when my family visits. The trip here was unexpected but circumstances are such that my sister is alone for the week and would like to come up and see all our renovations. Mom then jumped on the bandwagon and asked if she could join her. I can hardly wait since it's been several years since my youngest sister was up here. When I heard my Mom was going to join her, I called up my eldest son to see if his vacation coincided with their visit. My Mom has never met her great grandchildren and this would be the perfect opportunity. Jeff and family are not able to travel to Windsor for her 80th birthday party in August so this would be the next best thing. Yahoo! He's off work during the last 2 weeks in July and is able to join us for the visit. My other 2 boys are also hoping to land in that week. Now I'm scrambling to get things organized. I only have the next 2 weekends left before holidays in which to get things cleaned up around here. You see, I've been using 2 of my extra bedrooms as storage rooms during our renovations and have yet to get them cleaned out again. And I'm definitely going to need that extra space for all the beds. After all isn't that what a bedroom is for!!

On top of all this we were informed at work that there are several extra evening and weekend shifts that need to be covered. We had just finished training an extra tech for this purpose however he gave his notice and left! Now it looks like we'll be pulling some double shifts this summer and one of them for me is on the Sunday of my SAL. We were really trying to avoid a lot of overtime costs but have no choice now. Same old, same old. This sort of thing seems to happen every summer. I can't say I'll miss all this when I'm finished work.

I'll take this time now to wish a Happy Fourth of July to all my US stitching and blogging friends. I hope you have a great holiday weekend and may it contain lots of stitching!