Feeling Like Fall

For my birthday, my friend Julia sent this beautiful table runner she made. It makes my table look perfectly dressed for Fall. Don't you love the colors?

And look at the hand-embroidered detail she added. It will look really pretty with my amber glass turkeys for Thanksgiving too. Love it!

And even though the weather isn't cooperating to make me feel like Fall has come to stay, it is almost October. And so, with that in mind I needed a new start after finishing Where My Heart Blooms. I decided to start Garden of Eerie by Plum Street Samplers - a perfect Halloween choice. It was between Garden of Eerie and Primitive Needle's Black'd Skie, but my threads haven't arrived yet for that.

I've had more than the normal amount of woes with starting this project, but I think I've got it settled now. And so on Saturday, when we'd planned a guild stitch-in, I decided to take this project with me. Here's what it looked like before...

And here's the after...

I've since finished filling in the left hand cloud and am halfway done with filling in the right. I was afraid I'd mis-measured and was going to run out of fabric, which is why I was working in outlines across the top. Now that my fears have been laid to rest, I can get on with it.

And since Fall makes me feel like curling up with a good book (especially with all the rain we've had lately), I've done a book review over at the other blog if you're interested.

I'm grateful for being reminded to take some down time.

Spoiled and Foiled

I have more goodies to share from my birthday and you're going to think I'm really spoiled after you see this. Sylvia and I have been working along on trying to create our own A&E walls. I've got two finishes to add to my imaginary wall, and Sylvia has a few more I'm sure. (Did you see her pretty Evil Serpent finish??). Anyway, to jump start my new wall, Sylvia gifted me with this gorgeous plate from Eldreth Pottery. I had been coveting this when I saw a couple of fellow A&E lovers purchase a plate for themselves. But, even though I hadn't said anything to dear Sylvia, she knows me too well. And when this arrived on my doorstep, I may have squealed and clapped a bit. In fact, so happy was I with my beautiful plate that when Sylvia said there was another package on the way, I felt the need to remind her that I already had a present. But that generous woman sent more...

You may have seen Le Chat on her blog. I love the colors in it and his sweet little face does remind me of my Romeo. He would sit very patiently and wait to be fed. He didn't ask or beg, he just sat and waited for you to get the hint.

And since she knows me well, she included this skein of silk because of the name. I thought it went well with my web scissors!

I'm sure I can come up with something delightfully undead to stitch with that.

And if that wasn't enough, she included this gorgeous German cookie. And while I never pass up an opportunity to eat a cookie, I thought this one was better served by saving it. I put it on a ribbon so that it can dry out.

And because it seemed like the perfect spot for it, I hung it in our bedroom. A nice addition, I think. Of course Eric being Eric came downstairs and said "why is there a stale cookie on the wall?" He does love to harass me.

So many pretty things! So you can see why I included the word "spoiled" in the title of this post. Now, you may be wondering where the "foiled" comes in. Well, I did start a new project - something Halloweenish. But, as I mentioned in my last post I had to rip out the first two hours worth of stitching I did on the "middle" because it wasn't the middle. So, I restarted in the top left hand corner. Well, I miscounted and then had to rip that out. So while I'd intended to share a progress photo of my new start, my intentions went a bit awry. Foiled again!

That's all that's fit to print for today. Hopefully I'll be sharing some progress on that new start rather soon. I think it's finally coming along. And the guild is having a stitch in on Saturday, so I'm looking forward to doing a good bit of stitching then. (Of course the chatterbox in me may have other plans).

I am grateful for an unexpected Sunday at home.

Where My Heart Blooms

Where My Heart Blooms (Loose Feathers No. 29)
Blackbird Designs
Belle Soie on 36ct Meadow Rue
Finished 9/5/10

I was determined to finish Where My Heart Blooms prior to the Guild's September meeting, which was last night. I finished this piece on Sunday night. I'm so happy to finally have this one done. I love it and I am so happy that I used Joy's conversion to Belle Soie for this. It looks really rich in person. This one is going in our bedroom as soon as it's framed. I already have a spot picked out for it.

And I thought I'd show you another birthday gift. My sweet friend, Ava, stitched this for me. Isn't it fabulous? I love the colors and I'm loving using it as a stitching bag too. Do you see the little gold heart charms? Just the sweetest thing, it really is.

I'm plugging away on my reading, but there's no way it's going to get finished by book club on Friday. But, hey, at least I'm reading. And I've started a new project - I know, shocker - but had some difficulty with it. I have a tendency to start my projects in the middle. Well, although this chart had the center marked, it wasn't actually the center of the chart unfortunately. So, two hours of stitching had to be ripped out. I've restarted in the top left corner, which is probably where I should have started in the first place. Oh well. Lesson learned. Just because the chart says it's the middle, doesn't mean that it is.

That's it for me today. It's rainy rainy rainy here, which I love. Other than the fact that my umbrella turned itself inside out this morning and I came into work looking like a drowned rat. I would have loved to stay at home curled up with my book and the cat.

I am grateful for another finished project.