Saturday was one of those gorgeous Spring days that just seem to be a gift
from the gods. Warm, but not hot, and sunny with bright blue skies. I
settled on the back deck as you can see in the above picture, and I stitched
the afternoon away. Pure bliss! Wish some fellow bloggers could have
dropped by to join me. Linda, we could have gotten Rupert to do your hair
for you while you stitched. Lol.

And this is what I've been working on this week. I think that I began this
on Monday, so this is just under a weeks worth of work. My first Drawn
Thread design which is "12 Houses Sampler". I don't know if you can
make it out, but this is being stitched on a pale green 28 count material
that I've had for many years now. I think it's called Annabelle, and I also
have it in a rose colour.

This is my first time trying stitches different from the plain old cross
stitch. I was so worried when I began this piece that I wouldn't be able to
get the hang of stitching rice stitches, smyrna crosses, satin stitches etc.
The chart provides diagrams on how to do each of these fancy stitches and
they are clear enough, but what it doesn't tell you is how to carry on
to the second stitch, and the next, and so on. This was a wee problem with
the diagonal satin stitch. I seemed to recall from photo's on other bloggers
sites that the first square has stitches running in one direction, and then
the next square shows them going in the opposite direction, if you follow
me. And the photo on the front of the chart of the finished model is so
small you really can't make out how they've done it, even with a
magnifying glass. So I just did what I thought worked, and hoped for the
best. I'm loving this design.

DH and I are on vacation this week. I have to work on Tuesday because I
swapped that day with a co-worker so that I could have the day after the
Loreena McKennitt concert off, but that's okay. We'll be going to the
dentist, taking the cats for their yearly vet visit and shots (should be a
barrel of laughs) and taking Mom to the mall for shopping and lunch. We'll
also go to the plant nurseries around here to get plants for our pots, and
our hanging baskets. Hopefully we won't see any more frost in future
weather forcasts. It's only going to be in the low 60's today.



I took some shots of the garden yesterday, and I've posted two of them
above. The first is the shade garden in front of the deck, under our birch
tree clump. Lungwort, Primroses and Violets are all blooming in this area.
The plants in this section seem to prefer the cooler weather, and some will
even rebloom in the fall. The second photo shows the garden around our
silver maple tree. In the tree box the Hostas are putting up their leaves,
and the Lamium is just starting to bloom. In front of the tree box is a
lovely carpet of Sweet Woodruff, also just coming into bloom. The bush on
the left of the picture is a Service Berry. DH spent yesterday mowing the
lawn and using his new trimmer to trim the edges of the yard. I cross
stitch for pleasure and relaxation, DH mows the lawn. It's a guy thing.


I picked up Christie Dickason's book "The Firemaster's Mistress" when I
was in the World's Biggest Bookstore last month. It was on sale for under
five bucks, which is a great deal for a hardcover. It is a wonderful book.
The story takes place during the time of the Gunpowder Plot (Guy
Fawkes) and is an excellent, well written mixture of history, romance and
suspense. I loved this story and I'll be looking for more books to read by
this author.

Shannon, thanks for the suggestion about using the Rainbow Gallery
Petite Braid next time. I'll have to add them to my very long list of
specialty threads that I want to collect. I'm using Weeks Dye Works
threads (along with DMC) for the first time in the above sampler and
I love how the varigated colours show up. There are so many specialty
threads available, it's hard to know which ones to collect.

Well, I should go throw some laundry in the washing machine, and do some
chores so that I can then spend time stitching guilt free. Have a great
weekend everyone. Cheers!