Sunday, May 22, 2011

Bugs Bugs Bugs

THEIR HERE!!!
This post is not for the faint hearted. Proceed with caution.
You may have heard on the news that the 13 year Cicadas are emerging this summer.
So without further ado here they are.

                                     
 Piles of little bug shells and bodies that were not able to get out of their skin.  They are piled at the base of all our trees in the yard.  They were doing great, but then we had a few cold days and many were lost, however due to such shear masses and the return of the warm days many will survive.


 These bugs are drying their wings so they can fly off and do their thing.

 Empty shells.

 In the trees singing and looking for mates

 They are just everywhere and very loud.

If you made it this far here is a finish of a bird (Dames of the Needle), to bad its made of linen and thread otherwise it could eat all of the bugs!


Hope you all have a great week, lots of stitching and few Bugs.




Thursday, May 19, 2011

A Jane Thomas Finish

Look at what came in my email,
Bonnie Olson's lovely finish of Jane Thomas!
But here is the crazy thing....it is stitched on 48 count linen!
When talking with Bonnie she kindly sent me a piece of 48 count linen to try, and while I could stitch on it I began to realize that it might just take the fun out of stitching for me so....
I will look and praise all stitching done on 48ct linen, but I will stick with 40 count so I can still look forward to stitching each night.
What count and type of fabric to you like to stitch on???
Do you use a magnifier?
I like to stitch on linen. My favorite counts are 35, 36, and 40 because I can use one strand of floss, I'm lazy and don't like to lay the threads.  Right now I'm lucky to say that I don't need a magnifier, when I tried using one it just made me dizzy, maybe because I didn't really need it yet.  I hope that if and when I do need one that I will be able to adjust, because I don't think that I can live without stitching!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Happy May Day





 May Flowers

Well I have gotten the random number generator out to pick our May Day Winner and the winner is........
Laurie of Corgi Cottage!
Congratulation if you could please email me your address I will get your pinwheel box and patten in the mail.

Now on to what I did this weekend!
I skipped work on Friday and went to spend the day with Jean and Deb at Deb's shop
 3Sisters Antiques and Needlework in Knoxville TN




A few photos of the shop, many wonderful antiques and lots of cross stitch.
Something for everyone so make sure if your in the area to stop in I can guarantee that you will find some thing you can't live with out.  Oh did I say some thing...I meant many things.
So while I was trying to figure out what I had to have, who do you think stopped in?  None other than Stacy Nash and her Mom.  I say Mom, because Stacy introduced her only as Mom and I still don't know her full name, but she was such a lovely lady that I would be more than happy to call her mom.
Deb Franklin, Stacy Nash and MOM

So this was what happened on Friday, oh wait there is more we then all  went to dinner with a few other special ladies and Deb's patient husband David (sorry no pictures by this time I had forgotten about the camera).  Of course it gets better because then Stacy, Mom and I get to go to Jean's house for the night. 

Driving into Jean's

An awesome dry sink that Jean got at none other then 3 Sisters Antiques

So we all stay up way to late only to have to get up to go back to the shop for the Stacy Nash class.


Candi Smith aka the sampler police quizzing Stacy and Mom

 Ramona Bishop, Candi Smith and Jan Hall

 Linda Wallace along with some other lovely ladies that I failed to get their name, please forgive me I was sleep deprived.
Such excitement these ladies could hardly sit still.

It was a lovely day where learning and exchanging ideas was going on.  After these type of events I can hardly wait to start ALL of the new projects that I purchased during the break.
The day was not over as I then got to spend the night at Candi's house.  Lucky me as Candi has a head full of stitching ideas and a chart stash that could rival any cross stitch shop, pure heaven.  Oh I forgot to mention most of it is located in the guest bedroom so another night without much sleep.
So now its Sunday and I have to think of leaving all of this for home, but I have one more stop to make and that is to visit Ernie at Ilona's Antiques.  Oh my goodness what do I find there...

A neat postal desk. Two shelves of pigeon holes and a roll top.  This sits on top of a table and would be great to store all of your crafting treasures. 


A precious Butlers Chest in Mahogany and a steal at $295.00


Then this sweet walnut jewelry box that has many compartment that embroidery scissors fit in exactly, believe me becasue I ran out to the car to get mine to make sure.

Well I know that my husband would have been less than happy if I had hauled all of  these awesome finds home (my house is already packed to the gills) so they are still in the shop so please give Ernie (865) 856-5768 a call if you would like to give them a good home.  The scissor chest I do have with me and I'm trying to secure a loving home for it. 
I hope your weekend was wonderful also.