Almost Done!

I'm getting there! Slowly but surely, Fruit of the Spirit is nearing a finish. I really haven't had much time to work on this lately what with a road trip to my family's home and visits from my son and family. However I snuck in a few hours here and there. The one thing I noticed after taking this pic is that the walkway from the middle house isn't very visible. I think I'll frog it out and replace it with a darker colour. 

I'm now in the process of deciding on my next start. That's besides the Torah stitch. My kit for the Torah arrived shortly after I returned from my visit to Windsor. It looks pretty straightforward.... black lettering on white Aida. I can add a border when I'm finished but I'm limited to only three or four colours. 

Summer is well on its way as my next post will illustrate. It's going to be picture intensive and no stitching pics so be forewarned! I should have it up later in the day so I'll see you soon.

Giveaway notice

No, it's not me this time (however there's reason to celebrate!). Instead I have two fabulous giveaways to fill you in on.

The first is over at Sub Rosa. Esther is celebrating her second blogoversary with a wonderful giveaway. If you have never checked out her designs you definitely have to pay her a visit! She has a number of fabulous freebies too.

I've been on holidays and consequently am just getting caught up on the blogs so I'm just squeaking in under the deadline on this one. Better hurry, you only have until midnight tonight!

The second fabulous giveaway is over at The Snowflower Diaries. This is the first giveaway for this amazing blog and its budding new designer. Please stop by and pay a visit. You won't be disappointed.

As for me, this is my 400th post and I celebrated the anniversary of my 6th year of blogging in June. I promise I will host a giveaway to celebrate however there is far too much going on this summer and I just don't have the time to organize one right now. By summer's end I hope to have an official giveaway to mark the occasion so keep an eye out for a future notice!

Summer Blog Hop

This summer I signed on to be a part of the Summer Blog Hop which is being hosted by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching. We're celebrating the staycation this year with pictures of anything we've stitched on a home theme.

My lovely photo arrived courtesy of Christine.

Here is Christine's comment on her photo:

"A compass to help you find your way home."

I love Christine's take on the home theme. After all, we could all use a little help once in awhile!

If you are interested in participating in this year's Blog Hop, please check it out here and contact Jo. The more, the merrier!

Speaking of home, I have only just returned home from vacation as of last evening and have lots of laundry to catch up on and groceries to pick up. I'll update you with my stitching news later this week once everything has settled down here. See you soon!

An exciting new project and my finish revealed!

Recently I learned of a new stitching venture from some of my Tuesday night stitchers. It seems that there is a group in Toronto who are planning to stitch The Torah. Now for those of you who do not know, The Torah consists of the five books of the Hebrew bible, known more commonly to non-Jews as the Old Testament. 

I was told that Torah Stitch By Stitch is now underway and they are looking for volunteer stitchers to aid them. In fact, a total of 1463 stitchers are needed!  The project is open to stitchers of all nationalities and religious persuasion. The Torah is stitched in Hebrew and once you sign up you will receive a kit with the necessary fabric, floss and chart. Each person stitches 4 verses of the text. When completed, the stitching will all be assembled into a scroll measuring 2 metres high by 86 metres long! 

Several of my stitching friends have already signed up and received their kits and stitching is underway. I wanted to be a part of the project but I had a few questions first which they answered for me. So earlier this week I went ahead and signed up. I'm anxious to get started and see which 4 verses I will be assigned. At this point, only the book of Genesis has been charted and several of my friends are stitching of Noah. Although the text is in Hebrew, you do know which verses you are stitching so that you can look up the text in English. I think it's an amazing project and I'm really looking forward to being a part of it.

Today I put in the final stitches on one of my WIP and did a little dance. Which one? Weeds Make Haste! It beat out Fruit of the Spirit and arrived at the finish line first!

Shakespeare's Peddler Weeds Make Haste
stitched on 28ct  LSL Vintage Lentil
using GAST and WDW floss

Since this was stitched on 28ct it was a faster stitch than Fruit which is being stitched on 36ct. I ended up making the legs under the bee skep a little longer after making an error in counting. Consequently the bees had to be adjusted some too. You'd think by now I could count, lol! 
Tomorrow I'm off to visit family for a week. Fruit will accompany me and with any luck I'll actually find some time to work on it. I don't always have access to internet while I'm away so if I don't respond to your comments please be patient and I'll check in as soon as I'm home. 

First Summer TUSAL

Summer has arrived and no summer would be complete without a TUSAL pic. After all, I have to prove that there has been some sort of stitching taking place!

Lots of reds and whites from my patriotic stitch last month and greens from Weeds Make Haste. The floss I'm using for Fruit of the Spirit is silk and I'm only using the one strand at a time so it's difficult to see it hiding out among the orts but trust me, it's there.
So where were my orts hanging out?

They're hanging in my garden lilac bush alongside my latest birdhouse addition. I keep a couple of these hanging ort jars out in my gazebo where I spend a good portion of my summer evenings, stitching. 

Next post, I have a finish for you. Yes, I'm doing a little dance! I just have to add my initials, date and iron it. So which is it, Weeds or Fruit? You'll just have to check back and find out! 
See you soon.

Happy 4th!

Wishing all my American family and friends a very Happy 4th of July! I hope you enjoy a safe and fun-filled day.

Tea Anyone?

A few weeks ago I paid a visit to one of my fav stores, Homesense. I was with a friend and just browsing when I came across some wonderful teacups. They were bright coloured, textured and huge! I love a good cup of tea but my biggest complaint has always been that most teacups hold only a small amount of tea and I like a good sized cup. These were perfect! The cups were reasonably priced and I picked up a couple. I knew that if I waited long enough the rest would end up in the clearance section on sale. Over the next few weeks I picked up one here and there at their various stores and eventually found the teapot too.

I love them! They are so bright and cheery and the textured surface is really neat. Several of the cups have motifs in the inside surface as well.

I'm still short by one cup but I'm sure I'll be able to pick up another one. The cups are still showing up here and there. 
I don't normally drink a lot of tea in the summer but so far our summer has been cooler and rainy which fits the bill for tea time.

Speaking of rain, we had a good thunderstorm late last Monday afternoon. The storm brought hail with it too. I could hear it hitting the back door of the house. What I didn't realize was that the hail did considerable damage to the roof of our gazebo.

At first we thought that just the tinting had come off from the impact but on closer examination we realized that these were actually holes. There was no water in the gazebo but the panels are actually double paned and only the top pane was damaged.  Every one of the smaller panes on the top of the roof were damaged as well as four larger side panes. Fortunately we're able to order replacement panes from the company online and they're not quite as expensive as we expected them to be.
It won't be long before it's all returned to its previous condition.
We've had hail at other times since the gazebo installation but this is the first time we've experienced any kind of damage. Due to the direction of the storm, the neighbour's identical gazebo was not damaged.

I spent some quality time with Fruit of the Spirit this weekend. I can't seem to put this one down!

Now I just have to concentrate on the bottom portion of the sampler. Coincidentally, this Sunday's New Testament reading from Galatians 5:22 was about the Fruit of the Spirit.
As much as I'm enjoying this one I forced myself to put it down and stitch some on Weeds Make Haste. I'll have an updated photo on this one for you on my next post.

We had a very quiet Canada Day here. We've been very busy lately and decided to just sit back and relax. Both of us had spent most of Sunday in the city, each doing our own thing. I headed off to the National Arts Centre with my friend Trish for a performance of Jersey Boys. It was awesome!! If you get a chance to see this, Go!
You won't be disappointed.  I hope everyone had a great weekend and your week is off to a good start.