Bright Colors and Strawberries

I have stitched another session, rotation I suppose you could say, on my Mary Engelbreit piece, To a Friend's House the Road is Never Long. This project has very bright primary colors, and it is always a shock to my system to go from stitching on a more muted piece, like my Dear Diary sampler to these typical Englebreit colors. I do love Mary Engelbreit's sense of color and her boldness with bright hues though. I think if I ever am blessed with a stitching room, it will be decorated a la Engelbreit. Her art always makes me smile. Here is a progress picture of this project. Next time I stitch on it, perhaps the merry skier will get some legs to ski with.

Now I am back to stitching on Dear Diary again. I really should be stitching on Petite Maisons de Campagne, but my hands just keep going back to the DD sampler. I am eager to finish Julia Flynn's section. The little sheep are so much fun to stitch. I still need to order one of the DD patterns, so a wander over to Stitching Bits and Bobs for a little shopping is on my list for today.

In March, I plan on starting Strawberry Fields Farm by Victoria Sampler. I am going to use the Vikki Clayton silk conversion which is posted on her website, with a few changes because some of the colors don't seem quite right to me. When I get it all sorted out, I'll post the conversion here on my blog. I am eager to start this project because it will be a breath of spring in my erratic rotation, and it has specialty stitches. Right now, I don't have anything going that has specialty stitches and it is enjoyable to do something besides the little x's now and then.

Until next time...

I just thought I would make a quick post to show some of my progress on ongoing projects. I am still working on the Dear Diary Sampler, which is a compiliation of all the Dear Diary charts by Little House Needleworks. I am now working on the second little sampler, Julia Flynn from Steamboat. The fence, which is what I am stitching now is driving me crazy...I keep making little counting or chart reading mistakes.



I am also continuing to stitch on Sampler Saisons by Anagram Diffusion. Here is the progress that I have made.

And finally, I thought I would show some of my favorites amongst the many new designs that are available so far this year. Just below is Crab Apple Hill by Elizabeth's Designs.

Then here is Hearts of Freedom (I think) by Little House Needleworks.

And these are the Saltbox Seasons which are a Little House Needleworks/Crescent Colours collaboration.

I also love the new Shores of Hawks Run Hill by CHS, but I'll refrain from showing a picture of this one as it is getting lots of bandwidth EVERYWHERE.

Well, I had best get back to my stitching if I ever want to finish something. I hope everyone can wrap February up with a fruitful stitching week.

San Antonio

This last week, we were visiting San Antonio while our daughter was rehearsing and performing in the All State Honors Band. Here is a picture of the All-State Honors Choir, All-State Honors Orchestra, and the All-State Honors Band. Allison plays the Bass Clarinet and this was her first year to play in All-State, although she has done All-Region at the Middle School level for a couple of years.

While she was in rehearsal for most of the day, my husband, son and I went and explored the city of San Antonio. The Riverwalk is a beautiful area downtown along the river with restaurants, shops, boats, and lovely walkways. Everything is very colorful in keeping with the area's Mexican heritage.

The Alamo is in downtown San Antonio and my son especially enjoyed visiting here. We were there on the first Saturday of the month which was fortuitous because they do re-enactments then.

I didn't get a whole lot of stitching done this weekend, but here are a couple of pictures showing the progress that I made on the Dear Diary Sampler and Sampler Saisons. I am not happy with how well the white is showing up in Sampler Saisons and I am contemplating switching to a varigated thread or a lighter blue for the white parts. I have only stitched a tiny bit of white so far, part of the skirt above the two blue legs.

Well, that is all for now. I hope everyone has a wonderful week of stitching.