In the Gazebo Stitching!

Spring has sprung and boy has it arrived here in a big way! We are having an unheard of heat wave for this time of year. Since the weekend the temps have been in the mid twenties Celsius which translates to the upper seventies in Fahrenheit. Today it's actually a glorious 27 C or 81 F! All good things must come to an end and this weekend the warm air moves out and we are back to more seasonable temps which means a drop of about 30 degrees F! Totally unreal....wearing capris and sandals one day and coats with gloves the next! No wonder everyone is getting sick! 
Illness hasn't escaped me either. I'm suffering from a virus of some sort which is supplying me with a sore throat, stuffed head and tightness in the chest. So I'm nursing myself by sitting in the gloriously warm gazebo, stitching my heart out!


I have two small finishes to show you this week. First up is my Sew A Brown Bunny. I started stitching this one with an overdyed Dinky Dyes floss I found in my stash which was in various shades of pink. I thought it would be a nice change from the green called for in the pattern. However the overdye didn't work out all that well so I pulled it and carried on in a DMC pink, the number of which escapes me at the moment. This one will be a pillow finish.

iStitch Sew A Brown Bunny
stitched on 32ct linen using DMC

The next finish is soon to be made into a carrot shaped ornament. Its from The Cricket Collection Rabbit's Delight chart. There are four ornaments in this series and I'm hoping to complete the one with the chicks next. 

The chart calls for 30ct linen but I had a 32ct Wichelt linen in Colonial Pumpkin which is a perfect colour for these little stitches.
So consequently my carrots ornies will be slightly smaller than those on the chart. The picture doesn't really show the colour well but if you follow the link to this chart I can tell you that this fabric is the same colour as the lighter fabric on the chart cover.


Having finished those two up I concentrated next on Feather Your Nest. This is a perfect spring stitch with its robin and robin's nest. I'm loving the colours in this one too!  

There are certainly plenty of robins in my yard at the moment, out enjoying the sun and digging up the worms from the soggy yard. 
My tulips are well on their way now and the lilac is even blooming. I even spotted some green shoots on my clematis and a lone viola in my garden.

Look at that blue sky!

 All this has me a bit worried since the warm weather has advanced their growth quite a bit and next week they will be thrown back into the cold. I hope everything survives! My sister told me yesterday that her magnolia tree in her yard has blooms on it which look ready to open and that is about a month ahead of schedule! She lives in an area further south and west of me but just the same, that's crazy!


We stored the lawn furniture in the gazebo but I haven't brought out the cushions yet because I just know we're in for some damp, cold weather in the near future. So for now I'm sitting on one of the plastic lawn chairs soaking up the sun while I can. 
Hope there's a little bit of spring in your neck of the woods!

The Cat's In The Bag

May I present my latest finish, the cat with an attitude, Olga!

Plum Street Samplers Olga
stitched on 32ct Zweigart Silvery Moon
using CC, GAST & WDW floss

I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this little beauty. I'm pleased with the colours changes I made to the design. Following my WIPocalypse post, I ended up frogging out the large pumpkin. I wasn't happy with its colour scheme and replaced that minty green with a GAST Limited Edition floss. I also decided not to add the vines on the pumpkins. I did actually stitch them on the small one but they really couldn't be seen so I pulled them out.


As I mentioned in my last post, my new start is With Thy Needle & Thread Birds of a Feather. I actually started this one in the fall but I hadn't got very far before I discovered that I'd turned the fabric in the wrong direction when I started and was going to run out of room. So last night I frogged out what little I had stitched and restarted. There's not enough to post yet but hopefully I'll have something to show you next time.


In addition I made a new start on another small, iStitch Designs Sew A Brown Bunny. I had an overdye pink floss that I thought would work but I didn't like the effect once I got started with it so I stuck with just a plain pink. I'm liking this much better.

Carol has designed some really lovely little stitches so if you haven't given any of hers a try before, go and check them out. They're quick stitches and reasonably priced. She'll send you the pdf which I just love because then you can get started on things right away.


The mailman has brought me some new stash additions this week. What a great way to start a week! First up is my giveaway win from Pickle Barrel Designs. Another blogger introduced me to her designs and I'm so glad that they did. Nancy had a giveaway in February to celebrate the release of her new design, Love Letters. Isn't it cute! She sent me the kit which also contains the necessary Sullivan floss. This will be the first time I give these floss a try. Thank you so much Nancy for this wonderful gift! 


From Theresa at Shakespeare's Peddler came some more goodies which were actually bought with some of my Christmas cash. During the month of January, she offered a kit special for Blackbird Designs Christmas Garden with the fabric and silks. I also received a kit for A Wassailing. This kit was specially designed for the Williamsburg, VA retreat. Theresa had a few left over and offered them on a first come, first serve basis. I spotted this offer early, put in my request and was lucky enough to receive one.

I also received some charts last week from one of my favourite designers, Midsummer Night Designs. I've only stitched one of her designs, Forget Me Not but there were several others that I wanted to stitch in the future but just hadn't gotten around to ordering. When I went to order one recently I discovered that they're very hard to come by all of a sudden. It looks like she might have quit designing and a lot of her charts are just not out there now. Does anyone know what happened with this designer?
When I managed to find a few I snapped them up right away. 

I think Peace Inside will be my first choice to stitch.


Not much else going on. Hubby is sick with a cold and has stayed home today which is almost unheard of so I know he must be feeling pretty miserable. So far I've managed to escape the bug. It's another glorious, sunny day and I'll be heading in to join my stitching group later this afternoon. I hope you're all getting a taste of this wonderful spring weather!