February's Smalls SAL

Good morning! It's another cooooold morning in my little corner of the world and snow is lightly falling. I'm supposed to join my local craft group for some stitching this afternoon. I need to get out but I'm so tempted to just sit and stitch by the fire with a cup of pumpkin tea beside me. I think perhaps this is my favourite tea!
However I do have to get in this month's Smalls SAL post first.

I have two small finishes this month. One is a Valentine finish by Stacy Nash designs and the other is for a dear friend and is designed by Annie Beez Folk Art.

The one for my friend will be made into a pillow but I'm thinking that the first design will be made into a finish resembling an envelope. It will take me a bit of time to work at this though since I'm really not into sewing and I tend to procrastinate. My friend Nan suggested this finish though and I think it was a brilliant idea for it!

Yesterday I received two of my finishes which I'd taken in for stretching. I know I could learn to do this by myself but it's very tedious and I don't think I have the patience for it. My framer John has offered to stretch the pieces for our Tuesday night stitching group and that way the cost of framing is broken up somewhat. Now I can at least display these on an easel until I have the funds saved for the final framing. Anyone who follows my blog regularly will have seen these before.... Heartstring Samplery The Strawberry Bower Sampler and Plum Street Samplers Promised Lamb.

 I had an order of fabric arrive this week from a new shop which I think I will be dealing with quite often in the future. I stumbled across it by accident while searching for a particular colour of linen and although it is in the UK, the currency exchange works out better for me than ordering from the US. As many of you may know, the Canadian dollar's value is very low at this time and between that and the cost of shipping from the US it's killing me to order anything. The exchange rate between the British currency and the Canadian dollar worked more to my advantage plus the shipping costs were a flat rate & cheaper and the package arrived a week earlier than if I'd ordered from the states.  I'm not sure why that is but it's not the first time I've noticed this.

 Each one of these Lakeside linen fabrics has an upcoming project kitted up and ready to begin. I just have to finish working on my current stitches first.

I found another treat waiting for me at the post office today. 

My dear friend Jodi had this made specially for me! You may recall that Jodi is one of the ladies I met at the From Our Hands show in Ohio this past November. Jodi and I had never met before and we shared a room during this trip. What a great time we had and I'm very fortunate to have met her. Thank you so much Jodi! I love this and it's already in use.

One last pic for you. I had heard there were a few more snowy owl sightings in our area recently so I took a drive on Saturday afternoon and to my great pleasure I found one!

 
 The snow really started to come down as I was searching and I almost missed him. He just blended into the landscape.
Stay warm and above all stay safe during this nasty, frigid winter. A local man lost his life out here yesterday in a head on crash on icy roads. So sad....

Winter Doldrums

Those winter doldrums have hit and I'm afraid I don't have much stitching progress to show. I've been housebound too long what with all the snow and cold and I can't seem to settle. Just too antsy as I move from one project to the other. I've had three new starts during the past month but very little done on any of them really. Here's where I am at this point.

 I continue to plug away at Threadwork Primitives Wintertime. I'm looking at this and the lighting is really terrible. You can't see one colour difference from another. Sorry about that!

My first new start is La D Da Briar Rabbit. As you can see, there's no sign of the bunny yet.

This was followed by My Dear which is from Blackbird Designs The Gift is Small leaflet. Not much to show but this is going to be a lovely stitch!

The third new start is the one piece on which I've made the most progress. This is called Such Friendship and is designed by Annie Beez FolkArt. I may be stitching this design more than once since I have a couple people in mind which I'd like to gift this with. There are a couple of new stitches in this one which I'm learning as I go along. One is a Leviathon variation stitch and the other is the Rhodes Heart which I haven't tackled yet.

Besides my cross stitching I've been busy putting together a couple of photo books. One is of all the deer photos which I've taken over the years and the second one is a compilation of all the snowy owl pics I took during their visit to our area in 2014. I had a coupon for the photo books that was expiring at the end of February so I spent a lot of time on these so as not to have the coupon expire before I could use it. I'm happy to say that I managed to get them both done and ordered with one day to spare!

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny but bitterly cold day. Despite the cold, Bob and I decided to take a drive out towards the bird sanctuary and see if we could spot any wild life or feathered friends. We had a bit of success on both counts. About halfway to our destination I spotted from a distance what looked like a log resting on a tree branch. You can see it in this pic to the left of the centre.

Here's what  was revealed as we got closer.

Mr. Turkey was settling down for a nap.

There were lots of deer on the road which hightailed it (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun!) back into the woods as the car approached. 
We had been told to watch out though for this particular fellow as we continued on our route. Can you see what it is?

A little closer now:

Yes, it's a snowy owl!
 

  This is our first sighting in 2015. I spotted one lone owl at the end of October just up the road from our place. I was excited that they were back in the region but I hadn't seen another one since. Although there are not the numbers around as we had last year, I'm still glad to see one or two of them in the region. They're such beautiful birds and fascinating to watch.

Following this we finally arrived at our destination. The bird sanctuary does have a number of winter birds in residence but we visit mostly to see these lovely creatures.

 We've seen as many as 30 deer in this area but on this visit there were 2 moms and their yearlings. They were picking at some corn that someone had left for them and at times they moved out to the road to lick at the road salt.
As we left to head home we ran into this little fellow who was not shy and was quite proud to show off his fluffy white tail.

 We stopped one last time at the area town dock to snap a pic of the frozen St. Lawrence river. The trees in the distance are on the American side of the river and are part of a park where I camped frequently with my boys when they were young.

All in all it was a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. We stopped and grabbed a Timmie's coffee on our way home and we discussed the fact that perhaps next year we can return to the area and make use of the trails available for snowshoeing. This year is out of the question as my knee replacement surgery is going ahead on Mar. 16.
I hope you are all finding ways to keep warm during this bitter winter and for those of you down under, enjoy your warmth while you can. Wish I could visit!

October Smalls SAL

I had really hoped to get in more than one small project this month but time just got away on me. Consequently this is my one and only Halloween small stitch which as you can see is still lacking the final finishing. This is Witch's Kitchen by The Primitive Hare and is a freebie which is available on her site here.

 

 I'm already scouting out some smalls for next month's SAL. My mojo has somewhat deserted me though and I just don't feel like any new starts. I must be sick!!

I know that winter is just around the corner but I was a little surprised when I came across this fellow on my way home late this afternoon.

 

We had a large number of the snowy owls in our area last year due to a shortage of food in their own habitat. The flew further south than they had ever been seen before. I wasn't sure how many we would see this year and I certainly didn't expect to see one here quite this early! Now I'll be keeping an eye out to see if others are arriving. 

My youngest son dropped by this weekend for a short visit. While he was here he decided to get started on some pumpkin carving for me. He picked out a pattern, got my pumpkin cleaned and scraped and then transferred the pattern onto the surface. After that he ran out of steam and I ended up carving out the pieces. This design was a bit of a challenge to carve but the results were certainly worth it.

 

This piece took about 2 1/2 hrs to complete so we'll see just how ambitious I am when it comes to doing another. 

Happy Halloween!!! 

 

A New Framing Addition

I'll start off today's post with a picture of a finish I completed back in March of 2013.... Baby Its Cold Outside. This is designed by Heartstring Samplery and I started stitching it last year during one of our final storms of the season. I knew that I wanted to have it completed and framed to hang the following year during the winter. Courtesy of a Christmas gift, I am pleased to say that it returned home from the framer a week ago and is currently adorning my dry sink.

The frame isn't white as it appears in this photo. It is a lovely mix of grey and cream and is textured to give the appearance of barn wood. When we were looking at different frames for this we tried out a pure white frame and it just didn't do the picture justice. 

There, I gave it one more try and this is closer to the look of the actual frame. You can see a lot more of the texturing in this one too.

As for stitching, here is what I've been up to recently.

With Thy Needle and Thread - A Pink Sparrow update:

Saturday I put this aside and went in search of something else for a change and found Hands To Work -This Is The Day which I'd started last fall. When you last saw this I only had the house completed.

I've also been working on some smalls for February's Smalls SAL. I've completed two already including the final finishing which is amazing for me. Here's a peek at one of the finishes. I've chosen an opalescent fabric for this one although you can't tell from the picture. Can you guess which design this is?

I also wanted to show you a lovely card which I received early in the new year from Chiara in Italy. 

Chiara sent this to me with Christmas greetings. It is actually a postcard with the greeting and address on the reverse. Each of these words is the word Beauty in English, French, Italian and Spanish. I think it is actually a lovely stitch for Valentine Day and I hope to have time to work on it this month. Thank you so much Chiara for your wonderful greeting!

One of my step-grandchildren has shown an interest in learning to cross stitch. Although all the grandchildren like to watch me and inquire as to what I'm stitching, Yanie shows much more interest in how to accomplish my design and is always complimenting me on the many framed works in my home. So for Christmas I found some beginner kits on Ebay and ordered one for each of the kids, although I knew that Yanie might be the only one who completed her design. She's 10 and has the concentration to stick with it.

On Sunday I spotted this post on Facebook announcing her progress.

Yeah Yanie! I'm so happy that she was able to finish this and in such a short time. I haven't talked to them lately but I can only hope that she enjoyed it as much as I do and that she didn't just complete it to make me happy. The kit I had sent for Summer was a stamped one. She's 7 so I figured this would be a bit easier for her until I opened it. All the other kits came with Aida but her design was stamped on a cloth similar to evenweave but the weave was quite tight. She was unable to see the holes in the fabric so I mailed them a piece of Aida when I returned home and told them she would have to follow the chart like the others. So much for making things easier!

Yesterday was a beautiful, bright and sunny day here. My son Daniel had been visiting us for the weekend and I was heading back to Cornwall to take him home. He has been quite interested in my owl sightings and inquired whether I had seen any lately since he would love to see one up close. I told him that if he didn't mind we'd take a longer way home and see if we could spot one for him. Luckily we didn't have to go far. This fellow was sitting on a post just outside our village on the main highway. This is the closest owl I've seen to us yet.

We also spotted one other during our travels, sitting just around the corner from our local Tim Hortons coffee shop.

The sun seemed to have drawn the wildlife out just as much as the people. On our return from Daniel's place the sun started to slowly sink in the sky and the deer suddenly started to emerge from the woods and the cornfields in our path. We could only inch along this one portion of the road for fear of running into one. There had to have been between 40-50 deer in this area crossing the roads back and forth at various times.

After leaving the deer, we rounded the corner and in the distance near the rail tracks we saw another owl.

I was driving and my hubby was snoozing during the latter part of the drive. Suddenly I saw a large dark mound in the top of the trees as I drove towards the woods. Was that a hawk? It seemed a little too large. No, it's an eagle!! I made a quick U turn (we're on the back roads at this point and there is very little traffic) and headed back to the spot. Bob woke up and quickly grabbed the camera. He was so thrilled and in his haste he didn't focus properly when he took this shot.

Unfortunately it was the only pic we could get. I think we spooked the bird a bit and immediately after this he flew off further into the woods. This is the first time I've ever seen one of these magnificent birds anywhere near our area. I've seen them when we've been boating on the St. Lawrence River but never this far ashore. I would love to return to the area again and get a better pic but I'm sure that's the last we'll see of one for quite awhile.

I've been watching the weather reports and I know that many of you received more snow on the weekend as we did and are expecting still more in the next few days. It seems our Ontario groundhog, Wiarton Willie emerged from his home only to discover his shadow, immediately signalling another 6 weeks of winter. I not sure exactly how accurate rodent predictions are (LOL) but from the long term forecast in my area it appears he may be right! Keep warm, keep safe and keep on stitching!!

What a Hoot! First WIPocalypse of 2014

I hope everyone is off to a great start with this year's WIPocalypse. I know I am!You'll understand my title more once you've finished reading all about my stitching. If you check the pages below my header on the blog you'll see the page for this year's list of hopefuls. I've included quite a few larger projects so we'll see just how far I get this year.

I decided to start off the year with something that brought thoughts of spring especially since so many of us have had just a miserable winter so far. I wanted lots of colour, flowers, birds, etc. and I found just what I wanted waiting for me in my pile of kitted projects. Here are my first photos of  With Thy Needles and Thread Pink Sparrow Sampler. 

I'm really loving the colours in this stitch. I finished up that little dog this morning. At first I couldn't figure out what was in his mouth but now I see that it is a basket of flowers. Sweet!

Besides Pink Sparrow I pulled out another sampler that is just begging for attention. Remember A Mon Ami Pierre Paradis Perdu?
I'm surprised anyone remembers it as I haven't touched it since last winter! Here's where I left off......

and here is the stitching that I put in over the past week.

Slowly but surely!!

My first finish for the year was this ornament by The Primitive Hare called Welcome Santa - Ho, Ho, Ho.

I also stitched up this little quick stitch by The Primitive Apple. I hoping to finish this up into a small pillow along with another finish I completed for my 2014 Smalls SAL. I'll post a photo of this one at the end of the month.

When I woke this morning I had lots of plans for my stitching and then my husband called. He was on his way into work and called to let me know that he had seen two owls within a 5 minute drive of our home. Our area has become home to an influx of snowy owls recently which is rare for this area. It seems that there was an increase in the number of owls hatched this year in the Arctic and their food supply is running low. Hence their arrival in our neck of the woods. If you're a regular follower of my blog you will have seen the photos I posted recently that I snapped in the area. To date I have spotted 6 different owls and today I added number 7 to the count. 
The rest of this blog post is picture intensive with owl sightings so if it doesn't interest you, you should check out at this point.

The weather was overcast and perfect for sightings. We haven't seen any in the area of the past few days and figured they might have moved on. Boy were we wrong! As I drove along our usual route I looked up and spotted the first one flying overhead.

I slowed the car down, pulled over and waited to see where it would land. It was starting to snow and was difficult to see especially since the birds are quite often white against all that white. Can you spot where it landed in this photo below? Look closely now!

Here I am!

A little closer now....

Although I was parked at a fair distance, the owl grew uncomfortable with my stares and moved across the road to this post.

A little blurry so I inched the car a little closer so I could focus better.

Please turn your head!

Finally he had had enough of me and my intrusions and he took off where I couldn't follow.

A little further down the road I spotted this fellow watching the scenery at ground level.

He was a little too far away for a clear picture. Both of these owls tend to hunt in the same areas as do the other four which I have seen. Today I added a new owl to the group. I decided to head in a different direction and found this fellow right along a main highway scanning the fields for lunch.

These last few pictures were taken over a week ago on another of my owl forays.

The next one is a little blurry but I wanted you to see the feathered feet they have.

I've gotten a little carried away with all my photo shoots but they may never be in this area again and I feel I have been so blessed with this opportunity to view them. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.