July WIPocalypse

Summer is just getting started and it's been a busy one here for us already. I love being outdoors again after being cooped up all winter recuperating. I've already spent many hours in our gazebo happily stitching away. 
I've managed to finish a larger piece and work away steadily at another WIP.
Here's my recent finish. This is In Season by With Thy Needle & Thread. I love how this one turned out!

Now that this one is complete I've had more time to work on my Blackbird Designs Button Box. 

I thought I would never get that house finished! It's one of the reasons that I loved this piece when I first saw it and it's also one of the reasons that I've put it aside repeatedly when I got tired of stitching those bricks.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I finished the house and could move on to other areas. I do love how it looks though! Besides these 2 designs I spent a good portion of the month on finishing smalls. Pics of these can be seen on my previous post.

One of the things that I love to check out each year is Art on the Waterfront in our little village of Chesterville. I missed it last year because of my hip replacement and was so glad that I could pay a visit this year. This little festival takes place downtown in our village where they close off the streets to traffic and have many booths with crafts, art and baked goods for sale. A few years ago the village did an improvement to our waterfront and lots of booths are also set up on that area. One of my favourite things to do is check out the quilts stitched by local women that are on display.  My friend Thea stitched several of these.

The quilt of the International Plowing Match

taking place this summer in the next village

Finch, ON

 Done by my friend Ruth

 This one was for sale & if I'd had $600 I might have bought it!

 Done by my friend Thea

This one was done in chenille

 

 

The above 2 were also done by my friend Thea

 Besides the quilts there were a lot of other interesting sights to see!

 The MacCulloch Dancers of Glengarry

 A Bevy of Ragdolls

My hubby also purchased a new- to -us boat which we've taken for a spin on the St. Lawrence.

I loved being able to get into the boat again. We missed our annual trek to Muskoka last year and now that I'm recovered we'll be heading in that direction again later this summer.

I didn't have time to post yesterday but I do hope that all of my Canadian friends, bloggers or not!, had a fabulous Canada Day. It rained here pretty well all day but our neighbourhood BBQ went ahead anyways and we had a marvelous time.

I also hope that my many American blogging friends have a very Happy 4th of July this weekend. Keep safe and enjoy!

August TUSAL with a finish to boot!

Yes it's August, can you believe it! Summer really must pass by quicker than all the other seasons. With the beginning of the month comes TUSAL time.

Look closely and you can see my ort jar hiding out above the tablet in this pic. Most of my stitching in the summer takes place in our gazebo which is where this little plaque hangs. It was a retirement gift from my younger sister and is just so appropriate for a morning or evening of stitching in the gazebo.

My orts have lots of blacks and whites from my Wicked Plant stitch. Fruit of the Spirit contributed most of the other orts. 
Here's a pic of my stitching spot in the gazebo.

I wouldn't want to be anywhere else at this time of year unless it's  Muskoka!

The cooler weather we've had here for the past week has been so pleasant that I stitched up a storm and finished up A Wicked Plant on the weekend.

Barbara Ana Designs A Wicked Plant
stitched on 32ct PTP Ancient
using DMC and Gentle Art Sampler floss

I love the way that this one looks on the fabric. I think it's going to look great when it's framed. See if you can spot the little mouse. I hadn't even noticed him until I got to that portion of the chart. He's adorable with his curly tail!

I needed a change after stitching with all that black and the neutrals so I hunted through my freebies and came upon this cute, summer project. It's a freebie from Eszter over at Sub Rosa and it had all the light, summery colours I was looking for. I just started it Sunday night and here's my progress so far.

The white on the bee wasn't showing up on my light fabric so I did a little backstitching to highlight it. I'll be concentrating on this for the next few days since we are travelling unexpectedly to attend a funeral in Sault Ste. Marie. It will be a good travelling companion.

Each year our church holds a silent auction as a fundraiser and my DH offers a boat ride as one of the items for bidding. The Civic Holiday Monday was a perfect day for this ride so he contacted the winning bidders and we headed out to the St. Lawrence for a tour.
Here are a few of the sights along the way.

We spotted this osprey nest first thing and then I noticed Mom approaching in the distance.

She posed very nicely for us. I don't think her young were in the nest any longer but she seems to be hanging around the area so perhaps they were flying nearby.

Next we heard a plane overhead and I suddenly realized it was a biplane!

I didn't realize until later that there is a small airport just outside Morrisburg which offers rides in these planes. We'll have to check them out on another venture.

After leaving Morrisburg, the next location we passed on the river was Iroquois, Ontario. At this location there is a dam over the river and the freighters must use the locks here. The dam isn't often in use and when it isn't, they open a couple of the gates for the smaller boats to travel through.

It doesn't look high enough to pass under does it? However, this is the very gate which we had just passed through. From Iroquois we next approached the village of Cardinal. When we got to this point we decided to continue on up to the International bridge crossing at Prescott. This bridge will take you over to Ogdensburg, N.Y.

At this point we decided to turn around and head back. We had been travelling for over an hour now.
On the way back we had to switch gas tanks and when we did there seemed to be a problem with the connector on the new tank. We couldn't get the motor going at all. This happened last year and they replaced the connection on this tank but obviously it didn't help!
After several tries to get going we decided to transfer the gas from said tank into the empty one which we knew had a good connection. Success! We were underway once more.

You may not be able to tell, but those are dairy cows on that island. Yes, it's an island! Each year they are brought over to graze on this land. I'm not sure how they transfer them over or even if they have a barn on the island. Obviously there must be or how else would they get milked? The island is on the American side of the river and I've yet to see them being moved. This particular day the cows were hanging out at the beach!

For me, a long boat ride always results in a great night's sleep. I woke refreshed and ready for today.Tonight I'm heading into Ottawa to hook up with my Tuesday night group. We are being joined by our contact for the Torah project. I have a few questions to ask her and then I'm afraid I have to head home early and get packed for our short trip. See you in a little while and keep on stitching!

Wedding thoughts

My thoughts have been wrapped up in weddings lately. We celebrated two weddings within our church family and the choir had the opportunity to sing at one. I think we have the best view of the proceedings while sitting in the choir. I always get a catch in my throat and feel the tears well up just at the moment before the bride starts down the aisle. Doesn't matter who or even if I know them all that well. It's just such a joyous occasion and often brings to mind my own wedding day and the happiness I experienced .
Then, later in the week, I was sorting through my photo boxes and came across the wedding photos of several of my best friends and my sisters. They brought back some great memories and I thought that perhaps I should do a photo collage of them. I have the perfect frame for them if I can just find it!
Seeing all these weddings gave me the kick in the rear I needed to get my stitching going once more on my wedding sampler. We've been so busy here lately and in two weeks time we head off on vacation. Time to put the pedal to the metal. So this weekend I had a wedding sampler stitching marathon. That is, when we were home, lol! Just to show you my progress I've posted a before and after photo.

I'm being very careful in not wasting any floss since I seem to be running short. If I have any left I just might restitch the scroll on the bottom left. The upper part just seems a little pale in that spot due to the overdyed floss. This is the same sampler that originally started out in a tangerine colour in order to match the bridesmaids' dresses. However it really didn't suit the design so I restarted things using Gentle Art Sampler Gold Leaf. The design calls for the first and middle names of the couple to be stitched so that entailed a phone call to my cousin to inquire as to the groom's middle name. I would love to have this one complete by next Tuesday so that I can leave it with John for stretching while I'm on holiday. Then when I return it could be dropped off at the framer's. Wish me luck!

Canada Day will soon be here and keeping that in mind I finished off my small patriotic stitch by Veeandco.

As of today I almost have all of the finishing done. I'm finishing it as a little pin pillow. Okay now ladies, help me out here. This is my first time using the crushed walnut shells to fill my pillow. How the heck do you manage to get enough in the pillow without making a mess when you're stitching the top closed? I've looked everywhere for a little funnel with a narrow bore that I could stick in the corner but with no luck. We had all kinds of them at work so I'm thinking that just maybe I might be able to to "borrow" one.

I'm heading into Cornwall on Wednesday and will make a pit stop at the lab so this finish might have to wait until Thursday.

I don't have a sewing machine and my hand sewing skills are atrocious but I am learning! If nothing else I'm determined.

Last week the weather here was absolutely gorgeous and I took the opportunity to visit with one of my former coworkers who has been off of work due to surgery. She was unable to attend my retirement dinner or the get together I had at my place because of this. I wanted to take her a little something. Now that I'm not working I have more time to bake and decided I would make her a fruit loaf. June screams strawberries but it seems I have a surplus of rhubarb in my garden this year. So off I went to pull some of the fruit stalks and this is what I came up with.

The sourness of the rhubarb is offset by the brown sugar/cinnamon topping. This is a recipe I've used for years in making muffins. This time I tried adapting it for a loaf. It sure made a whopper!

I've been putting the rhubarb to good use this year. I also made some loaves and a rhubarb lunar cake for the church potluck and the choir's potluck dinners.

The great weather also resulted in our first boat outing. We're a little late heading out this spring due to some alterations, including new seats, that had to be done first. Our first trip was the result of a win by some friends at the church's silent auction. Every year my DH offers up an afternoon boatride for bidding at the auction. This year our friends John and Sally were the winning bidders. We put the boat in the Ottawa River at Rockliffe and headed out. Usually we go down river towards the Parliament buildings but this time we thought we'd try going in the opposite direction. There really wasn't much to see but the weather was pleasant, there was a nice breeze and it just felt good to be out on the water. We did manage to catch sight of this osprey nest with Momma sitting with the eggs.

This morning I felt rather lazy, maybe an after effect of the food consumed at the potluck dinner last night. In any case I put my clothes sorting on hold and dug out Their Song for a change from the wedding sampler. I seemed to be operating on one mode today.... slow! I did manage to get these two little flowers and tree stitched though.

If there is any time left after all the sorting tomorrow then I hope to get back to my LHN America (Canadian version). I'm making a colour change here or there as well and may have to make a stop at Michael's later in the week if I can't find what I want in my stash.  As for a new big start, I'm still undecided. Apparently the mail will be back on track here tomorrow and with that should come the arrival of a few charts I ordered as a retirement gift. Maybe Sixteen Birds?