Moonlit Garden, a finish

Howdy friends, this is a drive-by posting. Forgive the haste, but I have to run to the grocery store, and then continue to help my son Chad in his quest. He's in the process of moving into an apartment, and he's been working on it two weeks now. You'd never believe the tons of movies and cd's he has--not to mention books, furniture, clothing, etc. He has scoured our house to fill up his own place and I'm hoping to see an end to the moving this weekend.

My finish is Moonlit Garden by Blackbird Designs. I used the charted thread colors by Weeks Work but changed out the color of the fabric. Had a piece of Prairie Moon that I thought went really well with the thread colors. The lettering below the house and stars is a Bible verse so I added the book, chapter and verse, and to balance that, added my name to the other side. Oh, and the middle of the flowers were stitched in Smyrna stitch, along with the period and dots for the "i"'s. What do you think?

Does anyone have a suggestion to frame color? And should I tart the frame up or leave it plain? All suggestions will be considered so. . . . have at it!

I was happy to have this piece finished--those stars were driving me nuts. So many of them, and very few were charted the same. But, I'm happy to say that I have pulled threads out for my next project, which will be--drum roll, please--Little House Needleworks, Rose Hill Plantation. I pulled the threads yesterday, and I've decided to use Crescent colours for all the threads but one. Couldn't find a good match for one of the DMC threads, so I'll go ahead and use that one DMC color. I'm stitching it on 32 count Vintage Examplar with one strand of thread. Got the roof done and while the one thread is not covering as well as I usually like, it's looking sort of old and faded. And I do like that.

Okay, off to add pictures to this post and then to the grocery store. (I so hate spending money on food but its a necessary evil!) Stitch on, my friends and have yourselves a wonderful weekend.

And now it's MARCH?

This year is flying by, isn't it? I can't believe that March is half over already. Soon it will be spring, the snow will be melting, and leaving mud pits all over the place. See, I look at it that way because of dogs coming in with muddy paws.

I had planned this update a lot sooner than it is taking place. We've had nearly two weeks of rain and gloom, where the sun didn't show its face and made it difficult to get pictures. Of course, there was some lazy in there too, or too tired, or too distracted, or plain just too much to do.

I forgot to take a picture, but I'm 3/4ths done with BBD Moonlit Garden. The house is done, the pumpkin is done, the lettering is done and half the stars are done. I'll just wait and show you a finished piece, ok? Now, I have Befores and Afters.

BEFORE: My tea cozy, stitched on the linen that came on the finished piece. As I told you before, I couldn't figure out how to stitch the blasted thing while it was all together so I took it apart. Here are all the pieces, after I ironed the stitching. Couldn't really fit the words "The Tea Room" on it because of how they cut the linen for the ruffle.

BEFORE: Shepherd's Bush MY PINS pincushion. Here it is, stitched up with all the finishing supplies. Took me an hour to find that envelope with the fabric, as I had placed it some place to keep it safe. Yeah, even safe from me, it seems.

AFTER: My tea cozy, all put together. If I had been smart, I'd have checked the size because it doesn't fit over any of my normal sized teapots. Seriously! It only fits over the 1-2 cup pots. Anyway, here is how it looks all sewn up--or sewn back together.

AFTER: Shepherd's Bush MY PINS. I hate it. As you can probably tell, I did NOT stuff it, or fill it with anything. That giant rick rack was a major pain, and I'm taking it apart, sewing it back without the rick rack and then will apply the rick rack to the outside by hand. Just what is wrong with cording or ribbon, or even tiny ruffles? Rick rack? ICK!

I don't remember if I even said I was stitching this one, but my son thought he would surprise me (knowing that the money doesn't stretch to stitching stash) and pick up this little Lizzie Kate flip-it. He even bought me two pieces of fabric, one for the over 2 stitching and a piece for an over 1 for a fob. So that is exactly what I did. I'll frame up the larger one and give it to him, as he likes all things Halloweeny, and I'll make a fob out of the tiny one. As you can see, nothing has been done on the finish finishing but I'll get to that soon. And last weekend, when he was out shopping, he picked up the newer LHN piece, "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Isn't he a sweetie? He is in the process of moving into his own apartment so I'd best get some framing done so he has something for his walls.

This is LizzieKate's October Flip-it, done with the recommended threads.

On the home front, hubby is waiting for a call for a job he applied for, that would mean more money and probably shorter hours. I'm really hoping he gets it. Right now he's working upwards of 65 hours a week and not getting paid for overtime. And his schedule seems to be different every single day which is incredibly wearying.

Dinner is nearly ready and after clean up, I get to stitch while my shows are on. Stitch on my friends. I am thinking of you while I ply my needle. Thank you for the kind comments you leave, for the encouragement, and the prayers.