Autumn Project Planning!

Hi there!  Yes, I am still here even though my posts have been not so frequent.  Sometimes the days seem to go by so swiftly and then other times I just don't feel I have enough stitching to show and tell.

It seems we have jumped right into Autumn, my favorite season of all!

My office had an employee arts show so I finally pulled my Mary Wigham sampler out of the closet and framed her up.....  She is set loosely in the frame so as to protect her but now I think she will go right up on my wall as is!  It was wonderful to see how creative all of my coworkers are in all sorts of mediums!

So there has been a bit of stitching happening, although wish it was more!  I am suffering from tennis elbow and hoping for relief ASAP!

Over the past couple of months I have been up to some fun things along with planning out some future stitching projects.

Have had some German-style celebrating......

Been to NYC!  Here is a small forest growing right next to the MET!  

Everytime I see the MET it makes me think of the movie Moonstruck!  :)

The NYPL had a very special Frank Sinatra exhibit.  I was so happy to finally get there to see it before it closed down.  There was so many extraordinary things to see...many personal artifacts of Sinatras' from before he was famous to all through his career.  Below is one of his bow ties, letters from fans and photos from Herman Leonard.  

And here is a jukebox chock full of Sinatra!  I could play this all day long!

There have been so many pretty sunflowers this season... these I came upon at the Bridgeport Ferry!

Another favorite thing I do every Labor Day is go to the annual library book sale!  Here are a few of my finds this year.   So many people have recommended JoJo Moyes to me so can't wait to read her book.  Just started The Girl on the Train but too soon to give my thoughts on it yet!  

And my fun time would not be complete without some live music in my world!  And while the Stones are no longer in town, Bernard Fowler, backup singer with the Stones, has been and I have gotten to a few of his shows over the past month.  He puts on a super rockin' show!  

And for my stitching there has been some planning....  Kathy Barrick's Heaven and Nature Sing is soooo very sweet.  There is a facebook SAL set up for Oct 15 and looking forward to starting this one!  I went with linen and threads right from my own stash....

And here is another sneak peek of Lucy!  She is the reproduction sampler I have been working on.. I wish I was further ahead but this tennis elbow problem has caused a real crimp in my stitching time!  

And over at Our Scarlet Letter Years blog we are planning some New Year stitching already!!  Take a peek here!  Remember waaaaaaay back when I had been planning out Ann Grimshaw?  Well now is the time to go full steam ahead for 2016.  There will more incentive with others to stitch along with!!  But, still, I need to pick a color!!!  LOL!  

I hope to get some more stitching done this weekend if my elbow will cooperate!  

Gigi and I wish you a wonderful Columbus Day weekend!  Enjoy all the beautiful colors Mother Nature is bringing us!  Happy Stitching!  xxxxxx

Summer Smiles...

Summer finish!

American Quaker Band Sampler

Summer stitching WIP....  still working on those eyelets!

Blackbird Designs her sampler SAL

Summer's beauty...

Summer naps......zzzzzzz.....

Summer lunch with a friend.... cranzinger chicken salad with pecans and cranberries, SO yum! 

Summer project planning...

Heartstring Samplery ~ His Eye is on the Sparrow

Summer book fair finds!

Summer black raspberry sweetness!  

It is so hard to believe that the end of summer is near.

Wishing you a week filled with miles of smiles and happy stitches!  xxxx

Saturday Stitching and Sunshine

Happy Weekend!

I have started the Blackbird Designs SAL, her sampler.   Loving it so far!  Has anyone else started yet?

Blackbird Designs her sampler SAL
32 ct R&R french vanilla with sampler threads

I decided to pull materials from my stash so I have switched out a few colors.  I am using Toasted Barley, Grecian Gold, and Brethren Blue as charted, but switched in Raspberry Parfait, Hyacinth and Red Grape for the copper, purple and pink.

I also got a bit further on my Scarlet Letter American Quaker Band Sampler.  

American Quaker Band Sampler
36 ct Examplar Lakeside Linen with dmc thread

I recently finished the book Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland and absolutely LOVED it!!  Definitely in my top list of favorites now.  Next up is The Lady and the Unicorn by Tracy Chevalier and it has grabbed me right from the go.  Love it when that happens!

It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day here in Connecticut!  Here is a pic I snapped this afternoon.....

Seems apropos since today was the Preakness Stakes!  I was jumping for joy for California Chrome!  

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!!  Happy stitching!  xxxxx

TGIF!

Hi Everyone!  Happy Friday!

I am really looking forward to this weekend's IHSW!  Since I have the holiday on Monday off, I have plenty of time for stitching and hermitting!

My hope is to finish up the mooses WIP which was a Christmas gift so needs to get finished!  

Once that is complete, I can then get back to my Scarlet Letter WIPs and hopefully get a finish in before the end of the challenge next month.  

I am also looking forward to the SAG awards on Saturday.  Love watching all the red carpets shows and hoping that my faves win!  One of my faves this year is American Hustle, great story with a twist and awesome 70s music and fashion.  

I also started a new book, Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland.  Only about 20 pages in so far and love it already.  Isn't that the best when that happens!?  It takes place in Paris and is about the artist Renoir.  

I just finished Vreeland's Girl in Hyacinth Blue and was fascinated with how that was written about the history of a painting and the story of each owner who owned it before all the way back to the artist.  All fiction of course but fun just the same.  I really enjoy doing family trees so this was an interesting take on that concept.  

Ok, have to run now.... I am baking brownies and my oven is beeping at me, all done!  Can't wait to see how they come out... I realized I had no canola oil in the house so I used olive oil instead!  hmmmm, Italian brownies?  Will let you know how it goes!

Have a wonderful weekend!  I hope to have a finish to show you after the weekend!  

Happy stitching!  xxxx

Knit, Knit, Stitch!

Happy Weekend All!

I have been having fun knitting my '2-hour' scarves. Although I am getting faster I do not think they will ever be done in 2 hours!  

Also have started the freebie SAL from Heartstring Samplery, Ever Blessed. 

Today I went out for lunch. I have a bit if an obsession with Panera's Greek salad, but at least an obsession of salad is good for me!  Reading Midsummer, so far a very interesting read. 

Hope you all are having a super relaxing weekend filled with fun stitches! xx

September Stitching

Wow!  A whole month has breezed right by!  Where did September go??

I have been giving my focus to SDW and finished a few more bands....

It almost looks like those deer are breathing fire!  

When I am stitching I cannot believe how long this sampler is!  If this continues into winter I could use it as a scarf!! 

I will forge ahead on SDW but will also make some time in my days for this beautiful sampler!!  The gorgeous Saxony by Gigi R!  I will be doing this one on 36 ct Lakeside Linen in Vintage Lentil with silks.  I am so very excited to be working with silks!  

This past month I also got to a book signing.... Michael Symon, Iron Chef and host on "The Chew"!   It was so fun to meet him, I just love his laugh!  The book is chock full of great recipes that look so easy to make.  Only 5 ingredients seem easy-breezy! :)  

And this is the latest book I just finished, in fact, today!  Another by one of my favorite authors, Elin Hilderbrand.  Silver Girl takes place on Nantucket.  I really enjoyed this one.. some drama, a little romance, and true blue friendships.  

And that about sums up my September!  I am so happy we are in my favorite season.  I love the crunch of leaves under my feet.  I wish you a wonderful week full of stitching and smiles!  Enjoy all the beautiful colors of Autumn!  xxxxx

Summer Lovin'

Hello All!  Here we are at September already!  How was the rest of your summer?  We had a gorgeous August here in the Northeast, so unexpected!

Stitching update first... I continue on SDW.  I know, when am I going to get to the END?!  LOL!  I hope soon!!  Every time I pull this sampler out I cannot believe how loooooooong it is!  and that I have stitched it all!

I am working on the lower alphabets.  Love the pop of RED in the crown.  I love all the colors, although hated all the thread changes!

I also did give the peacock and mallard some ground to walk on...  

It has been a quiet month.  I enjoyed spending time at my favorite place, by Candlewood Lake.....

Got to see the new film, Blue Jasmine.  I give it two thumbs up, Cate Blanchett is awesome in it!

Here are a couple of feathered friends we had wandering around the town green at work...hope they find a hiding place before November!  

I did some summer reading and finished the book Summer House by Nancy Thayer.  I really enjoyed this one!  It takes place on Nantucket and the story is told by three generations of women, all from the same family about their secrets and the dramas of the family.  

And today, I went Oktoberfesting!  I always enjoy this annual event.  German weiss beer, German food, German strudel, German music, and German dancing... all great fun!  

Here is a video I took of the Schuhplattler dancers doing a traditional dance.  They are so lovely dressed in their lederhosen and dirndls.....

                                 

Enjoy the rest of this holiday weekend!  I have definitely gotten lots of primetime US Open Tennis watching in over the last few days!!  I love night time tennis in NYC!  

Have a wonderful week filled with miles of smiles!  

Happy stitching!  xxxx

Summer Stitching and Fun!

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are all having a great summer so far!  We have been lucky to get some relief from all that heat we had a couple weeks ago... it is almost bearable!  I am already counting the days until Autumn....only 56 days to go!!

After posting my last photo of my SDW Sampler progress I felt compelled to backtrack to the church band and get that completed before going forward.  

I have veered off from the pattern and made some of my own architectural details..... I made the doors brown and I used a 3 x 2 cross stitch on the roof which I think gives it features that are reminiscent of old European churches... dark, wooden doors and a tiled roof.  I also picked up the pattern in the berry trees to the right and left of the church and used it to give the windows a stained-glass effect....

SDW Sampler

So now I can keep marching forward....I feel a finish is not so far away now!

I also just finished reading a wonderful book.... The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier.  It came recommended by Marsha on the Scarlet Letter Year Blog, so when I saw it on the shelf at my library it was my new pick!  A wonderful story about an English Quaker girl who travels to America to live in Ohio in 1850.  It is a perfect book for a quilter, there is so much detail about the craft.  I found it so interesting to learn more about Quaker life and religion.   What I also enjoyed was the letters throughout the book that the main character writes back to her parents and friend in England.  Definitely two thumbs up!

I did get to a concert a few weeks ago.... I saw Lyle Lovett with his Acoustic Group.  Do any of you know Lyle Lovett's music?  Most know him from being married to Julia Roberts, lol!  I have seen him many times.  He is one of my favorites so when he is in town I am there!  He has a wonderful voice that I could listen to all day long.   He is great at storytelling and the stories are reflected in his music, kind of folksy, jazzy, country, a bit of everything.. with a pinch of humor too!  

Lyle Lovett

Lyle Lovett and Acoustic Group

I hope you are having a fun summer too!  

Have a great week!  Happy Stitching!!  xxxx

  

No stitching, just reading!

Hi there!  It has been a few weeks and UNFORTUNATELY!! I have not a stitch to show!

A couple of weeks ago I pinched a nerve in my neck which has caused my stitching hand to go numb.  I am on a course of meds and HOPE!! that it brings me some relief because I am really really missing my stitching!!

I have been trying to rest as much as I can and although I have become quite adept at using my other hand on the mouse I am trying to limit my typing as it is just frustrating!, so please forgive me for not commenting so much lately.

So instead of stitching I have been catching up on my reading.  Last I mentioned I had started Love in the Time of Cholera.  I finished it a few weeks back, and I give it a thumbs up.  I liked it but didn't love it.  At first I found it so interesting as it was a translated work and I was enjoying the romantic flourish and detail of the story.  Gabriel Garcia Marquez truly has a way of bringing the written word to a new level.  However, and I think mainly due to the way the book was translated and printed, after a while, I started to be at a loss at what time period I was in, it seemed very vague as years were flying by.  And, I did not understand the purpose of having all of the characters named by their full name throughout the entire book?  for those who have read this I think you will know what I mean.   I feel like I have read the names 'Florentino Ariza' and 'Fermina Daza' a ga-zillion times, LOL!  And even if I tried to just read the first name it did not work, in my mind I would read it all.  It started to exhaust me.  Now that I have read the story though I will finally get to watch the movie, which I think will be a good way to reflect back on the book, as well as watch Javier Bardem!

So I am on to a new book, full speed back into the future... Stephen King's Under the Dome...

As only Stephen King can do, I was immediately swept away.  I love getting into his thousand-pagers!! 

The bummer is I just broke my e-reader!!  So now I am reading it on my phone when I am out and about. I had the kobo and was wondering what type of e-readers you all may be using and how you like them??  Since I need to get a new one maybe now is the time to change?  

Hope you are enjoying the Spring weather that seems to have finally arrived!  I hope to be back stitching with all of you soon.  Wishing you miles of smiles!