July - Larkspur

 I finished the July Larkspur flower last night. 

I hope to start August - Gladiolus later today or tomorrow.

Monthly Flower borders

Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Dave & I have both had head colds for over a week now.  We feel better, but can’t seem to get rid of the cough and stuffy nose. I haven’t stitched much this month, but did manage to measure and cut my fabric, then stitch the borders for the last 6 monthly flowers.

I am about to start the July - Larkspur (top left) flower today.

The other flowers are August (gladiolus), September (aster), October (calendula), November (chrysanthemum), and December (poinsettia). 

2023

 Happy (late) New Year!

I am still cross stitching, but just terrible at blogging.  I started a new project for my husband.  He asked me to stitch something to hang on the wall that isn’t winter themed because I already have a winter wall hanging (Snowman Wisdom) and he wants to replace it during the other seasons of the year.  So I looked through my computer files and thought flowers would be nice to look at throughout the other parts of the year.  You can find the free monthly flowers by Ellen Maurer-Stroh on her website.

This is what the flowers look like (I borrowed these images from her website. 

I plan on doing 2 columns of 6 flowers. This is the butterfly fabric I will be using in between each square. I couldn’t find one with brown, but I think it will be fine with the flowers.

The pattern calls for DMC 3864 for the square borders (outside and inside), but I used DMC 3862 (a bit darker) for the outside double border and the DMC 3864 for the inside square border instead.

January - Carnations (Nov 14-23, 2022)

May - Lily of the valley (Dec 2, 2022 - Jan 5, 2023)

February - Violets (Jan 5-13, 2023)

March - Daffodils (Jan 15-19, 2023).  This is the only pattern so far that has backstitching.

April - Sweet Peas (Jan 19-27, 2023)

June - Wild Rose (Jan 27 - Feb 1). I added the backstitching because I thought it needed it. Might go back and add to the other flowers, but not sure yet.

I am thinking of participating in the 2023 Botanical Blackwork SAL at The Steady Thread. I have joined their Facebook page and am watching everyone else to see if I want to commit to the project.  It is 47 weeks long.  There are 2 versions (square and hexagon) with different border options to make the project more personal for everyone.  I’m planning mine out first on my computer to see which border and extra items to add to it in case I want to join in.  It won’t take long to catch up on blackwork.

FFG - October 2022

I'd like to thank Rachel at Ten Hour Stitcher for hosting this SAL. You can visit her site to join or for more information about this SAL.

This is the first time participating this year, but I do have 2 big projects that are now framed.

Dave & I designed and built a shadow box frame to put my 2021 Animal Crossing Switch project inside. I took the photo before adding the glass, so there is no glare.

I finally completed Frederick the Literate which was a wedding/anniversary gift for my youngest son Jordyn and my daughter-in-law Sarah. I bought a 14" x 14" frame at Michael's and framed it myself. I took the photo without the glass, so there was no glare. We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving this past weekend, so they took Frederick home.

Cobble Hill puzzle - Colorful Rainbow

 This is a puzzle I borrowed from my sisters. I loved building this because it is organized by colours. It took Dave & I 2 days (1 afternoon and the next morning) to complete.

Frederick Bottom Shelf & Puzzles

 I know it has been a while since I showed an update on Frederick. I have been stitching at least once or twice a week, but don't always feel like photographing and updating my blog. 

I am working on the bottom shelf of books. I have run out of a few colours from the kit, but I went through my DMC floss and found something close enough to substitute instead of contacting Dimensions and ordering more floss.

Dave & I have worked on a few puzzles in the past month. We like to sit outside on the patio working on the puzzles.

This one is a 1000pc called the Beach Hut by Ravensburger. We enjoyed all the bright colours and beach theme.

This one doesn't have a name, but we loved the colours and it was very quick to build. It only took us 4 hours to complete.

This is the first time I have built a shape puzzle. I love tea, so I borrowed this one from my sisters. I thought it would be easy to assemble. Well I was wrong. I started it, then Dave helped me. I think it took about 4 days off and on to complete. I am happy to say we finished it, but I don't think I will go out of my way to do another one. It was one of the hardest puzzles I have completed. There are pieces that look like edges that are not.

This puzzle also had 13 hidden object pieces.

Let The People Choose - Pets

 

Thank you Jo at Serendipitous Stitching for hosting the Let The People Choose each month. The theme for July is Pets. 

As a child my family only had dogs. My husbands family had lots of animals living on a farm.  When we moved in together way back in 1985, we had 5 budgies. 

When our boys were young we had many different pets ... 

hamsters (Hammy & Digger). This is Digger, he was so sweet and didn't bite people.

guinea pigs (Eeyore, Popcorn & Jellybean). This is the habitat we built them.

red-eared slider turtle named Frodo who lived 12 years.

and this is the first fish tank (20 gallons).   

Now our boys are adults, but we still have a fish tank (75 gallons). We have a pleco (algae eater) named Waldo who is 16 years old and 5 clown loaches, but they don't have names.

  

I have stitched a few cats for my sister-in-laws back in 1998 & 2003.

and yes, I'm still working on Frederick the Literate for my son and daughter-in-law.

I stitched this turtle in 2006.

But my favourite is the Rainbow Bridge by Sue Hillis stitched in 2011.  This is a tribute to all of the pets we have loved over the years. I added extra animals to this project to make it personal (budgies, a hedgehog my sister had, a ferret that my sister's friend had and a nicer looking turtle).