BUTTONHOLES AND BUNNIES

Well its been a while since I've made a post.  Thought I would get this done last week but its been crazy busy at work and I am usually able to take a short break to visit blogland.  Nevertheless - here it is almost the end of another busy week.

I am looking forward to our rug hooking guilds annual hook in this Saturday.  We have about 30 members and guests coming.  Our guild members all bring a dish or dessert to share and our guild purchases the main entrees.  Hopefully I'll have some photos of this event to share next post.

In my last post I mentioned going to a needlepoint class down in central florida at Needle Orts.  The class was so much fun and it was good to see Deb the owner again and a few women I knew when I took classes at my beloved Black Sheep in Winter Park.  Those days are gone forever and it has been very hard to get back into needlepoint.  The shop owner was a dear friend and mentor and I enjoyed spending time in her shop - we became close personal friends over the 20 years I patronized her shop.  So now I am tryng to find my way back to needlepoint thanks to the local chapter of EGA which I joined last year.  All those ladies mostly do canvas work and they have inspired me to dust off my NP books and projects and become involved again. 

I don't have much progress to show you on my class piece which is a bunny tree by Ruth Schmuff.  I'm embarrassed to say it took 2 hours to complete that one purple flower I am going to show you.  There is also a bunny next to it that flower that just needs his fluff and bunny #2 will be completed - at this rate - this will be finished in time for Easter 2020 LOL !  Ok - it is fun using all those great fibers - I do miss that about NP.  I also paid a visit to my other new fave NP shop in Savannah last week - the French Knot and stocked up on some silk threads for a canvas I bought from her in the fall.  I'll show you in another post.

The title of this post refers to the fact that every one of these flowers are edged in a buttonhole stitch - that's why it took 2 hours to complete one flower.  It is lovely and I am really enjoying the fibers but getting that butonhole stitch to lay just right is tedious and time consuming.  I'm sure the results are worth the effort.

Is this wool gorgeous or what???  the color is called Poodle Skirt and I found it on my foray to Savannah last week.  This is a gorgeous cowl from the Shibui Luxury book - The Staccato variagated yarn is a wool silk blend and you knit it together with 2  strands of Silk Cloud which is a kid mohair/silk blend - to say it is heavenly is an understatement. I have been in  a huge knitting slump for so many months it's really hard to believe.  However one visit to Wild Fibre and I'm back in the saddle again.  Knitting every night is such a zen thing for me.  Even if I stitch for a couple of hours - stopping and knitting a few rows before bed really seems to relax me and prepare me for a rest ful night.

Is this mermaid pin pillow precious or what !!!  DF Carol  stitched this darling SB piece for me.  She even did the finishing herself and put on that dreamy ruched edging.  The lovely scissors in the photo are KAI scissors from Japan - I had never heard of them before so I was excited to add them to my collection of scissors.  I found some interesting info on the KAI website and would love to order a rotary cutter from them and a pair or fabric scissors even though there is certainly nothing wrong with my little used Gingher fabric scissors.  Carol has made me so many treasured gifts over the years - she knows that I love mermaids.

Look at the perfect fabric she found for the back of the pinpillow.  I think you can see the ruching even better in this shot.

I did not get to make a post for mothers day but we had a great one.  My mom has been wanting an orchid so here is the one I found for her.  What lovely creamy yellow blooms it has - sorry I don't remember the name of the type of orchid.  She also got some pandora earring charms and a new pandora pendant to hang on one of her bracelets.  We love collecting pandora and I still have not shown a photo of the new leather pandora bracelet I got for my birthday.  Next time !

the last photo is the sad progress I have made on my Spanish SAL.  I am not even 1/2 way across this band for April.  I do have a very valid excuse - I am using the Attic's silk conversion for their SAL - on this particular band - the Belle Soie color was so light those golden leaves just faded completely into the backround.  I kept on stitching them until I had about 6 done and was having such a difficult time stitching the leave because I could not see the thread against the linen - URGHHHH - So I found the color that Theresa at SP actually used in her chart (Gloriana Lacquered Gold I think) and did another flower in that silk - OMG - WHAT a huge difference it made - so then there was the dreaded task of pulling out 6 leaves which I could hardly see - I was so scared I was going to pull the linen threads by accident.  That took several sessions because it was just so unpleasant and so unproductive.  AAACCCKKK - Sooooooo - that is my sad story as to why I am behind - very behind on my April assignment.  Plus the lure of the buttonholes and bunnies did not help my plight.  I'm going to keep at it - I really do enjoy stitching on this sampler but I really like forward progress.  Here's hoping all my friends in blog land are making lots of forward progress of their own.