CLOUD HOPPING AND A FALL FINISH !

Oh my goodness - time just flies on by - I can't believe it's been so long since I have made a blog post.

It is officially fall here - not according to the temperature - it was 85 just now when I made a Starbucks run.  EGADS - had to run the A/C on full blast and I got an iced pumpkin spice latte instead of a seasonal hot one.

I wanted to introduce you to Petunia the Pig -   She looks kinda like a pony - I tried getting a side shot but looked like a baby donkey so this is it.  This is by the same folk artisan that did my Harriet the hare and the bunny baby on the giant carrot.  The Jack is distressed wool and I love his face.  Actually this was a birthday gift from my mom and it has been put away until it was time to come out and play.

I have been busy with work and when I'm real busy with work that usually means lots of travel. Have been taking more trips on the company plane lately.   Here is a shot of the beautiful clouds on a recent trip home on the plane - it looks so surreal when you are up in the air.

 

and the finish - WHOOOOOOO - I finally finished - well finished the stitching part on the BBD Partridge from the Loose Feathers Part 1 booklet  - I can't wait to show you what I have planned for this piece.  I just need to get to the finishing part - yep - don't faint - I am going to do that myself and hopefully next post I will have the real finish to show you.  I used the called for Vintage Pear by LL and the called for Belle Soie silks - 2 strands made the coloring very vivid.  This was my first time using Dinky Dye silks and I must say I was very impressed.

For a long time I was stumped on what to do with those wheat sheaves/sheaths or whatever they are and I apologize to anyone who knows way more than I do about farms and so forth.  I put this close up so you could see how they were drawn on the far right and how the stitched ones looked on the far left.  I think this stitch is working out well.  The orangey ones are a mix of Vineyard silk and Planet Earth stranded silk and the golden ones are 2 colors of Planet Earth - I actually love that fiber too - my first time using it as well.  I'm not a big fan of the vineyard - it gets easily distressed and to me looks just like perle cotton.  I asked a fellow ega member about it and she said maybe I was using too long a strand - well not in my opinion and then she said I should pay careful attention to make sure I was stitching with the correct grain - EGADS - if I have to be so particular about all that - I would just avoid using it.  I'm not knocking their product - just sharing my observations - I don't want negative comments because I am ditzing someone's favorite silk.  We all have our preferred products to stitch with and I'm just sharing my opinions.

Here is the full shot - not much left to go now - I wish I had picked it up earlier this summer so it would be done for the fall season but alas I am always a day late and a dollar short.  I'll enjoy stitching it in the season and when it is done - it is done !  I am not sure what to do with the sky - I definitely want black but I might experiment with Gloriana Florimell in Antique Black - I adore this fiber - but then I adore Soie D'Alger the base for this thread.  I don't know what fiber to use for the stars - I do want them sparkly so I am thinking Krenik probably but I'll try several things until I find the perfect solution.

I never could understand what those black things below the fence were meant to be - rocks?  Buckets - oh well whatever they were - they are going to be dirt in my field and I will put in those grassy shoots last on top of all the stitching.  I have really enjoyed this piece.  Just a reminder it is Autumn House by Melissa Shirley Designs and I just went wild with stashed fibers using many different things.  I did buy a few new things but at least half or more of it was from my vast stash of threads.

Haven't shown my Spanish sampler in a long time.  This is only 1/2 of the sampler - the right side is stitched.  Sad to say this piece has not gotten much attention this summer - it is is fondly referred to by Jody as the "lap robe" (inside joke) and therefore if you get the hint - this is a 1/2 yard piece of linen and during the dreadfully hot summer months - it was just too hot to work on especially under my bright Daylight lamp.  I need to make a point of working on it at least one night a week so that some forward progress is being made.

This is a SAL with the Attic and I saw the first finished Spanish in Jean's recent newsletter.  I think the SAL leader has changed a few of the colors in the bands more to her liking - not sure I will make changes - I typically like to be in the ball park of what the original sampler looked like.

So - that concludes a brief tour of what's been going on around my house.  I have not been hooking much but hooking always ramps up in the fall and winter.  Hopefully I will have enough progress on my scarecrow to show a new photo next time.

Hope you are all enjoying lots of stitching, knitting, hooking, pumpkin pickin' apple eatin' and fall festivals in your neck of the woods.  Thanks for stopping by my blog and please leave a comment - I love to hear from ya'll !