JEEPERS IT'S JULY !!!!!!!!

What a great start to July we've had!.  We are just returning from vacation in Tennessee, the Smokies and how glorious it was.  We arrived in the last days of June to record high temps and by time the 4th of July holiday rolled around it was record low temps and we were lovin' it !!!!!!!!!  Can you imagine 59 degrees in July - we were in heaven.

The past few years we have been going to this area with my folks and sharing a condo with them.  We have a great time and this year was no exception, beautiful weather and great shopping, food and sightseeing along with some stitching/knitting time made for a perfect vacation.

Here is a photo of my dear parents standing in the garden at the Old Mill area in Pigeon Forge.

This was one of the cooler days as you can see my mom has a light jacket on. 

I love caladiums and have a few in my own garden but these were just gorgeous.

The Smoky Mountain National Park was loaded with these flowers - all very pale pink or almost white.  They were in the lower elevations near streams - I presume they were rhododendron but I am truly not sure.  They were abundant and beautiful.  We stopped on the way home yesterday so we could get a few shots of them and so my DH could play in the stream. 

The water was C O L D but he loved it !

Here I am on the stream bank with all those flowering trees behind me.  Beautiful tranquil setting.

My mom and I ditched the guys one day and made our annual pilgrimage to Dixie Darlin'.

We have shopped with Cindy for many years.  She is also the designer behind those cute sled designs. Foxwood Crossings and I was privileged to see her market special for the St Charles market later this summer.  Above is my progress on Land of the Free by Willow Tree Sampling.  I didn't have a whole lot of time to stitch but I sure enjoyed stitching on the balcony overlooking the beautiful Smoky Mountain range.

 

 

Cindy doesn't carry a lot of samplers but this year she had some things I had on my wish list.  Here is Mrs Baxter by Stacy Nash.  I just had to sink a needle and make a start on it.  It is on the called for 32ct WDW linen with the called for WDW threads.

The Bucklebury sampler had been on my list for a few months now.  I love this sampler by Rosewood Manor and think I will start out with the Welcome design on the back of the leaflet.

I also bought the new Old Glory design by LHN but I think it got shuffled into my mom's stash enhancement so I don't have a photo of it.  Cute design I fully intended to start up there but I forgot to pick up the threads and never made it back to the shop.

While I was away - more stash arrived in the mail.  This is a counted canvas project by Laura J Perrin, simply called Red White and Blue panel.  This was my first purchase ever from Nordic Needle, a DF of mine orders from them all the time so I gave it a plunge and also got the canvas and specialty threads for it.

I promised in the past blog post I would show you my choice for Camp Loopy 2 - here is Faithful Beauty - Bugga by Verdant Gryphon .  If you are not a knitter this will be greek to you but that is the color and type of yarn.  My project is called Vampyre, the color is a very deep red with darker reddish maroon.  I sure have got to put the turbo needles to work to get this done before the end of July.  I thought vacation would benefit me but I just never had time to knit.  My parents kept us on the go the whole time, their idea of vacation is GO GO GO and mine is let's just sit and relax !

I promised a finish photo of my Camp Loopy 1 project.  Here is Metallurgy and I was very pleased with the project.  It was worked in Shalimar Breathless fingering and see that little string up there - that is all the yarn I had left after binding off - WHEW!!!  what a nail biter that finish was.  Besides being down to the wire time wise - I was running out of yarn.  I really wanted to finish this so I didn't have to drag that project on vacation with me and I accomplished my goal - YEAH!!!!!!!!

 

Here is a close up of the bear of a border.  It was a 44 row repeat and in the beginning - I had a heck of a time getting the rhythm of the pattern.  Finally about 1/2 way thru the border I was able to pick up speed but I had to keep very careful row notes.  The color is beautiful, blues, browns and creams.  

 

Well friends - thanks for sticking with me thru the family vacation photos and so forth.  I hope all my blog friends in the US had a great 4th of July celebration and that you are still enjoying your weekend and able to put in a few stitches along the way.  Thanks for visiting and for your comments, I love hearing from you.