A little help from my friends!

Last week I headed off to spend a day with some of my Wednesday craft group members, Thea and Shirley. They had offered to help me finish off one of my cross stitched pieces, Maisonnette aux Fraises. Earlier in the year I had brought this piece to the group along with some fabric and asked whether they thought I could finish it off as a wall hanging. I knew I would need their help because I'm not much at sewing.
We tried the fabrics I had brought and ended up only using the yellow one. Thea provided the others from her stash. Here's the end result!

Isn't it great!! I was absolutely thrilled with the results! The ladies enjoyed it so much that Thea asked if I had any more that they could finish off? Do I!! I think the next one we will attempt will be a fall or Halloween finish. Thank you so much ladies for your help. You're amazing!!!

I've done a little more stitching on PSS Fruit of the Spirit. I'm working with a HDF silk conversion and decided that I really preferred the overdyed floss used originally for the bunches of grapes and strawberries in the design. So I've placed an order for those 2 silks. While I'm waiting for them to arrive I'm stitching around them and working in other areas.

I've also had a new start since I last posted. Not enough to show yet but I'll post a pic for you either tomorrow or Wednesday. Can you guess which of my design choices I went with?

I just had to show you the colour of the sky behind our home that appeared a few nights ago.

Before I knew it the sun had gone down and then it changed very quickly to this:

Nature's palette is wonderful, isn't it?

It's Not All That Bad!

Stitching on 35ct that is! For weeks now I've been putting off starting With Thy Needle & Thread Birds of a Feather. You may remember that this is the piece that my friend chose for me to stitch for her as a thank you gift for all the time I spent using her sewing machine. She really preferred the 35ct which I had never stitched on before this. So fabric and floss were ordered and then promptly banished to the drawer of kitted projects once I got a look at the fabric up close. "There's just no way!", were my thoughts. "My eyes can't take working on such a high count."  Would she even notice the difference if I ordered the 30ct and stitched on that, I wondered. Yeah, she would, if only because I didn't want her too!

So this week, after finishing up Maisonnette aux Fraises, I dug it out of the drawer and with a determined attitude, I forged ahead. To my surprise, the stitching started off smoothly and continued in this way just as long as I didn't remove my little magnifiers. Okay, I can live with this! It's going so smoothly in fact that I'm even considering giving the 40ct a try in the near future. 

I didn't start off with the border on this as so many did but rather the centre which is my preference. So here's my progress so far.

I'm using the fabric and floss called for by the pattern. I will really be glad to be done with the tree though. I'm bored with the two colours already and anxious to move on.

As I mentioned above, I also had a finish with my Maisonnette aux Fraises. I love the cheery colours in this one but haven't yet decided how I want to finish things off.

Speaking of finishing, I also had another first last week. For the first time I sewed up a pillow using my very own sewing machine!
I haven't threaded a machine since highschool home economics class so my friend and neighbour, Michelle, came over to get me started. She went through the basics with me, checked out the tension and then had me practise following the seam allowance as I sewed.  When I'd gathered enough confidence, we brought out the pillow to be finished off for my giveaway. I can still use a little more practise but I was pretty pleased with the results. I only hope that Daffycat is!  The design is by The Sampler Girl and I added two of the lovely pins which I'd purchased from Nataly. It's winging its way to you as I write, Sharon.

The Sampler Girl Busy Nothings

The weather here continues to be hot and humid. Last night the weatherman promised rain but so far only a small downpour has taken place and the sun is out once more. So for now I sit in air-conditioned comfort and think of so many who don't have this luxury. The gazebo remains too hot to sit in during the day but I do manage to stitch there in the early morning with my coffee and again in the evening when the sun starts to go down.

Thank you for all of your well wishes. My bronchitis seems to be on the way out now and I'm feeling much better. Now I'm off to do a bit of straightening up. We had a successful garage sale on the weekend and there is still some cleanup remaining from it. Enjoy your day!