Blackbird Designs

I kind of went off track this last week. Did I stitch on my beloved Dear Diary Sampler? No, not a stitch. Did I then work on my Anagram Diffusion sampler? No, it is still folded away. Perhaps I went back to the Mary Engelbreit piece? But alas, no, that was not the case. What then happened? Well, to put it succinctly, I caught Blackbird fever while surfing around the glorious worldwide web. Are you familiar with this malaise?

It all began when I came across Keka's beautiful picture of her completed Beneath the Sunlit Sky. It is gorgeous! While still recovering from seeing that stunning image, I then ran across Nivaira's Awake the Dawning Day. I then found that I could not shake the beauty of these two finishes from my mind. So in the persuing days, I found myself hunting the web for other pictures of Blackbird WIPs and finishes. I found plenty to feast my eyes upon! It is strange, I had looked briefly at Blackbird Designs before and dismissed them as not quite my taste...disportionate foliage, somber colors. It must have been before I got glasses ;-).

So now I am in happy possession of three Blackbird charts as the picture below testifies. And I have Awake the Dawning Day and Moonlit Garden on order.

And I already made the plunge and started House on Acorn Hill. I started this one because I had all but two of the required threads on hand and some fabric that I have had forever and not ever found the right project for it. The fabric is actually darker and more yellow-toned than this photo depicts.
And now, that I have started one, I feel the Blackbird fever abating somewhat and I think I might be able to return to my Dear Diary sampler for a couple of days.

Fair and Square Round #5

Yesterday, I received these lovely squares in the mail from Nancy. K. for the Fair & Square Exchange. She stitched part of LHN's Schoolgirl Lessons one over one in a lovely varigated rose thread. They are so delicate and pretty, this pattern looks marvelous stitched one over one.


And here are the squares that I sent Nancy. This pattern came from a magazine out of my extensive (embarassing even) collection of cross stitch magazines, and I stitched them using Gentle Art Sampler Threads.

And finally, I did manage to find just enough time to finish Julia's portion of the growing Dear Diary Sampler.

Here is a picture of what I have stitched on this so far. Next, I think I will work on the next virtue square which goes above the Mercy one.

Have a great stitchy week everyone!

Julia and Her Sheep

Just a short post to show the recent progress that I have made on the Julia Flynn section of the LHN Dear Diary sampler. And just let me say that I did not enjoy stitching the fence. No, it is not complicated or difficult in any way, my brain was just not fully functioning that day. I can't recall when I made so many little counting mistakes before that had to be frogged.

But I think I will keep stitching on this so I can hopefully finish the cabin, as everytime I look at this sampler, Julia seems to be reproaching me for not finishing it, so she can go in out of the snow. And looking at this picture, I just realized that I still need to finish the buttons on her coat, so she can't even button up against the cold. Unfortunately, I don't have much stitching time in the remainder of this week, but I'll see what I can do.


Happy stitching!