A late TUSAL and sweet Irina

I'm very late with my TUSAL pic this month. It's not that I forgot about it but I just didn't have the time to blog. I got tired of picturing my little jars of orts and decided to dump them in this bowl that sits on my coffee table. I didn't realize just how well they would blend in with the colours of the bowl. Most of these originated from BBD Awake The Dawning Day.

My friend Pam came to pick up Awake on the weekend. I forgot to take a picture of her with the piece but I'll take one when she gets it framed. I'm anxious to see what sort of frame she'll go with. While she was here she showed me a pic of her recent finish.
This one is Silver Creek Samplers Northwind.

I love the fabric she chose for this one. I have stitched Little House Needleworks version of the same verse but I also hope to do this chart someday and hang the two finishes together.

I was back at Viktor & Irina recently and put in the final stitches on Irina last night.

This little one has given me a ton of trouble but I can't figure out why. It's simple stitching but I had to frog out and restitch parts of her on three different occasions! I'm so pleased she is finally complete and I can move on in the design. The verdict is still out on my small flowers. They show up better in the real thing and I haven't had the heart to restitch them yet after all the recent frogging. I've chosen a different shade of fabric than was called for and perhaps this is the reason they fade away. I'll deal with them later.
Here's a photo of everything completed so far.

Our snow is completely gone and I've finally been able to make it out into the gazebo. Last night we wheeled out the barbeque from inside the gazebo where it had been stored and had our first bbq of the season - hamburgers. Mmm, mmmm!
The gazebo is still a little cold for sitting in mostly because we haven't seen much of the sun. However that bright yellow ball is supposed to be out in full force tomorrow. If that's the case, I'll be out there stitching in its warmth.

My heart and prayers go out to the residents of Boston and to all those who were involved in yesterday's senseless tragedy at the Boston Marathon. I can't comprehend such violence and I know the lives of so many will be forever changed after these events. May God watch over you.