The finished Stitch A-Log for the Birdhouses #OcttoOctSAL #BirdhousesSAL.
Pattern: Au Fil des Nichoirs
Designer: Jardin Prive
Fabric: 40 count Newcastle Linen "Vintage Country Mocha" colorway by Zweigart
Threads: DMC as charted
Stitches: Cross (one over two), backstitch, double running
Framing by "The Frame Warehouse" - Topeka Kansas 11/9/2024
The last section of the SAL is complete! I need to take out the basting along the bottom and give it a good wash and press before it goes to the framers. Look for a finish post later this week.
Minimal check in this week. I've been a bit under the weather the last few days. Just a slight fever with light headedness and headache, muscle aches and general blah. It's going around my friends and family, so I'm not surprised I came down with it, but ugh. Hopefully it won't hang around too long.
All I've worked on since I took sick was the perforated paper Santa - and not much on that to be honest. Just sitting and zoning out in front of the TV is all that I have managed, though I did catch up on a bunch of flosstubes that I had marked to watch later, so needlework was on the brain (such as it is right now). And of course the Olympics have been very distracting.
I've worked on just two needlework projects this week. I reported on the Mead Dragon in my usual end of the month post (here). Then on the first, I switched to the Birdhouses SAL. After several hours, I have all the picket fence for this month done except the backstitching. No flowers along the bottom this time, just sand and sea grass and isn't that the cutest little crab?
Hope everyone in the US had a wonderful Independence Day, and those in Canada had a good Canada Day celebration as well. Happy Birthday to our respective nations!
My church traditionally has had a huge (standing room only) service of hymns and prayers with patriotic music and choirs from all over the area and a local VIP giving a speech every year on the Fourth. The last one prior to this week was in July 2019 and loosing that service was one of the things I hated the most about the pandemic. Well, we reinstated that service with a great 'bang'. And the bells played for it. We played my favorite version of "Amazing Grace" as part of the prelude and then joined the organ, brass and massed choirs for the closing hymn 'Finlandia" with the bells and brass parts written by our director. Donald is so talented! The speaker was one of the Kansas Supreme Court justices. The service was posted on the Grace Cathedral Topeka You Tube. (Hopefully that link works, since embedding did NOT.)
Some people are 'over' the fence, but I really don't mind it all that much. Doing just two 'bars', a picket and a post isn't all that much and the rhythm of the white fence really adds so much to the work.
This is going to be a VERY quick check in; I am reading the lessons today at church and need to check in early so they know I'm there. (Also need to make sure the ribbons marking the readings are in the right places in the Bible - I've had that not happen in the past and it's disrupting and embarrassing.)
It's been a good week - feels like I am on a 'stay-cation'. I've worked a lot in the garden, my tomatoes and sweet peppers are all blooming like crazy, the summer squash are just exploding into masses of leaves and I'm about to harvest my second crop of lettuce (hopefully I'll get a decent batch over the next six to eight weeks before they bolt in the summer heat). I'm still holding out hope for the cucumbers this year, five of the six plants have made it to the 'beginning to climb the trellis' stage. So they are already doing better than last year.
And of course there's been crafting.
I'm also working on clearing out my closet and donating old work wear that I don't need any more. I already have two boxes to take for donation and I'm just getting started on the decluttering! Trying to get in the habit of getting unwanted stuff out of the house. Not leaving this stuff for my son and daughter in law to cope with!
Linking up with the SSS crew.
Speaking of the bees, aren't these about the cutest dozen stitches EVER?
It's been a good week for stitching. I had a couple of online meetings last week that gave me some stitching time on my travel piece. It's getting very close to the start of the beading. Just that darkest tree color and the backstitching of the plaid on Santa's coat and bootlaces to go before it's no longer a travel project. Mill Hill ornaments "Northwoods Santa: Scotch Pine" kit.
I spent my 'house stitching' time the first few days of the week finishing up my monthly SAL. This round took 7.5 hours - it's one of the smaller sections. The little trio of 'birdhouse condos' is so cute, though.
With the SAL done, I then switched back to the Blackbird Designs "Keepsake" piece. At five hours total on the project, I'm 3/4 of the way done with the basket. Good progress all around!
Linking up with the SSS crew (current round up).
Wish me luck this morning - bells are playing a really 'stretch' piece for us. "Now the Green Blade/Sing We Now of Christmas" arranged by Kevin McChesney (link to a YouTube of a high school choir performing it, though we aren't going quite that fast). Lots of percussion technique!
Back on track for the SAL this month. We are in Spring in a big way - Tulips and Forget me not flowers with a robin perched on top of the trio of 'condo birdhouses'.
And look at the tiny bugs! They are SO CUTE! Though the "got an 'A' in biology" part of my brain objects to only four (out of six) legs showing on an insect. Let's just assume the middle pair is tucked in under her wing covers, shall we?
This week's stitching was divided between two projects. Monday and Tuesday, I worked on the new Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers -
#33 "Keepsake". I am using the kit silk floss, but downsized the linen
to 40 count. I met my goal of getting to the halfway point on the
basket. The skipped stitches make an interesting secondary pattern (and
yes, that's what the chart shows. I'm trusting Barb and Alma - as much
as it bothers my natural instinct for order to have an irregularly scattered
pattern!)
Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitching Crew (current link party).
I was a little slow getting started on the April section of the Jardin Privet Birdhouses SAL But I got there in the end.
This month there's a large "sampler house" birdhouse, a rather cartoon style duck and little brown wren perched on the picket. I watched a flosstube by Colette (@highwaystitcher) and she really didn't like the duck. She replaced him with a copy of another bird from somewhere else in the piece (Colette's flosstubes 115 and 116 talk about her struggles with the duck). He actually rather grew on me as I worked this section. Some of the birds are realistic (though very stylized), but some are whimsical. And I'm OK with that.
It's been a tough week. Two deaths in my church family, both unexpected. One of our ringers discovered last week that she was in the final stages of an aggressive cancer and she passed on Wednesday morning. The funeral was yesterday and the bell choir played. It was hard, Darlene was one of our founding members. And I feel for her kids. Her husband is in the early stages of dementia and she was the primary caregiver. I don't envy them the next few months.
Our director did an arrangement of Amazing Grace that omitted her bells in a setting with the base bells doing a funeral toll throughout. It was beautiful and went well. We also put together a small tribute at her place in the choir; nobody but a fellow ringer would notice her upturned bells "at rest". And we wear black gloves to ring, so hopefully someone looking at it without that knowledge would understand the intent.
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The other death was even worse. I'm not going to give details, because the police inquiry is ongoing, but it happened just two blocks from my house!
In spite of tragedy and funerals and the garden getting started, I did have a good stitching week. There were a couple of quarter end video meetings where my camera was off, so I got some time in on the current perforated paper Santa. The cross stitch part is coming along. There's still a couple of tree colors, the second mitten (shows through the tree branches), and a cardinal perching on the top of the tree to go before I get started on the beads.
And I'm very close to finishing the current month section on the Birdhouses SAL. Just the rest of the fence backstitch and neat little wren perched on top of the right hand picket left to go. Look for a changeover post later today. (ETA: That post is here.)
Let's see. This month's offering on the Jardin Privet Birdhouses SAL offers Lucky Clovers and Irish Bells plus a pink lily in the flowers at the base of the fence, and a Mardi Gras mask hanging from the end of the birdhouse platform, a green birdhouse with a 'leprechaun hat' roof, a butterfly and two birds. All very "spring is on the way" motifs.
The February section of the Birdhouses SAL is all about hearts and flowers - dangling heart ornaments, a heart shaped entrance to the birdhouse, and a pair of lovebirds dancing on the birdhouse roof. And spring flowers all along the bottom of the fence - hyacinth, snowdrops and daffodil.
January section of the OcttoOctSAL is in the books. (And a bare start in the 'clouds' and 'snow' for February - just finishing out the thread I had on the needle). Another fun section with all the icicles and snow bits.
I am enjoying this project, but each section is in the close order of an entire rotation slot. The January section took me 9 hours to complete. So working on the SAL is slowing my regular rotation down a bit.
Next up is the first slot of 2024 Rotation #1 - pictorial slot, which is the remaining parts of the Sugar Skull - there should be a finish soon!!
Since I took this picture, I've added a piece of muslin to the top to give me a little more top margin in the qsnap. I don't like stitching too close to the clamped section.
My next goal on this piece (scheduled for later in the month) is to take the border all the way across the top of the piece and establish the left side for January's bit.
The November section is complete. 20 hours of progress so far.
Those tiny leaves (just seven stitches each) were tedious, but so effective!
