Spring...Maybe...Maybe not!

It might be the first day of spring but the weather report is that we may have ice and snow tonight. It isn't all that surprising...I remember an Easter when I was seven or eight that we had a half inch of ice. It was so sad...my oldest brother and his family were home for Easter. All of the girls had new Easter dresses and bonnets to wear to church but the ice was so bad we couldn't get out of the house. I'm not sure how Dad made it to the barn to do the chores that morning.

Blogger still won't let me upload photos...wish they would get it fixed.

Still here

Sorry it's been so long but there hasn't been anything to blog. None of my projects are far enough along to share and I have had other things to keep me busy this week. Soooo....I thought I would share some photos....but blogger will not let me. Blogger has had several problems this week...for two days my blog was lost on a server that was down.

The best that I can do is send you to my flicker site to look at the pictures of my daffodils. We have had frosts the last two mornings and I'm worried about the ones that haven't bloomed yet. My tulips are showing themselves but hopefully they won't show buds for a couple more weeks. My crab apples trees were showing green...I haven't been brave enough to look at them since the frost.

There is also some photos of my Chain of Hearts vines...also known as Ceropegia woodii. The original plant was my mother's. When she passed away I rooted four or five plants from the original so that my siblings could each have one. The vine grows very fast and I have rooted several new plants and given several away. Now I have five plants and two of them need shortened. They are easy to start...they have nodules on the vine and I lay the section I want to root on soil in another pot, anchor it with florist wire until it roots itself then cut it from the original plant.

I'm off to have another cup of coffee it's cinnamon hazelnut this morning...would anyone care to join me?

Snowflake

It's finished...it's not great... but it's finished! I just wish I could get the turns right...if you look closely you can see were it looks twisted and doesn't lay flat. Tension is a problem for me too...some places are too tight and some to loose.

Saturday was a fun day even if it did rain all day. My dearest and life long friend and her husband were here for the weekend and she and I want shopping. I had found an ad for a yarn shop that I wanted to visit and we went to check it out. The lady that owns the shop spins a lot of her own threads and weaves... there is a workshop with several looms set up. It would take several weeks to look at all of the things in her shop. It's definitely a place to visit often. After the yarn shop we had lunch at a local steak house then spent some time at Hobby Lobby. On the way home stopped at Starbucks and treated ourselves to a latte. All in all a very nice day.

Sad Tatting Attempts

I have had some very nice compliments on my tatting and thank you all.......but I thought I would share some of my sad tatting attempts with you. I plan to persevere in spite of my "sta" (sad tatting attempts) and I'm determined to improve.

The sta on the left should have been a medallion I think.... but I couldn't figure out when to join the picots.

The sta on the right...well I didn't make it loose enough ....anyway it doesn't look the way it should.

I had a very good start on this sta when I realized I wasn't making some picot joins where I should....then I realized that not all of the large rings were facing the same direction as they should have been. But I didn't give up and a second attempt is on the needle at this moment.

These two are actually pretty good. I have had several sta at this heart...I like it but it needs to be done on a shuttle I guess...it doesn't look like it should. The Butterfly I actually like but this is the result of the second or third attempt.

Hearts and more Hearts

I spent last week and the weekend working on improving my skills using silk ribbon and these are the hearts I worked on. Three ladies have their choice...Maureen B has first choice then Rosemary and Toni. I'm afraid Maureen is having trouble making up her mind which one she wants.

Yes, it is a piece of my tatting on Millie.

Sadie and Millie


Water Lilies and Cardinal

Topiary Tree

I finished the tree over the weekend... the only thing left is maybe signing and dating it. When I have improved my stash of silk ribbon I would like to make another one. Thanks again Julia for sharing the design with me and for your help.

Hearts Received

Thought I would share my resent swaps from the Chain of Hearts group.

This one is from Maureen B in Australia.




Pat from Indiana sent this heart.












This heart is from Sue in the UK











Toni from Ohio sent this heart.








There are all so lovely... I wish the scanner could really do them justice. I think I'll make a frame to put them in when I scan them....might help the hearts stand out a bet better. Still not sure what I want to do with them just yet...it's just so much fun to look at each one and see all of the detail and admire the work.

More Tatting

This piece of tatting I did this evening...its the same pattern that I used on the first piece I tried. Today I worked out how to finish it.

Tatting

I did it! I did it! I actually finished a piece of tatting actually two pieces of tatting! The one on the left is the first one tatted and it's a little rough in places but I think the second one is much better. If anyone out there does needle tatting and would give me a few pointers I would love to hear from you. I can't always figure out what the pattern means for me to do next. The piece that I'm working on now is more difficult and the instructions aren't as clear for a beginner as they could be.

New Hearts

This week has been full of highs and lows...well maybe more lows than highs. It doesn't do for me to work on my stitching projects when I'm upset... never satisfied with my work and pick it all out again. I did finish a heart last night and two earlier in the week.



It's obvious that I don't have a certain style or color preference. Maybe I should and maybe it will come with time. The heart with the peacock is vibrant to say the least...but I like it. Each one has a dragonfly... seems most of the ladies in the COH group like them...so do I.

Old Man Winter

Maybe spring is on it's way at least the birds and flowers seem to think so. The daffodils on the south side of the house are up and I noticed one bud...just hope it doesn't get nipped. I planted them along with tulips last fall and they are my very first bulbs here at the cabin. Yesterday there were over 20 robins in the yard...always a sign of spring....in the evening five deer were in the back yard.

We had snow over the weekend and the bird feeders were busy. I'm not sure the birds even knew the feeders were there until it snowed. This is a picture from my back porch which faces the east... a very nice place to have a cup of coffee and watch the sunrise in warm weather.

Old Crazy Quilt Blocks

Mary of Frequently Wrong but Never in Doubt is working on CQ blocks and is looking for ways to set the pieces together. I have several old crazy quilts some are tops and I have one set of blocks that aren't sewn together...and promised to share pictures of them.

I'm not sure but I think this set of blocks came from my maternal grandmother (part of my mom's inheritance and now mine too).

This is a crazy quilt top that is made from flower sack material. After I looked at it closely I would guess that no one wanted a dress made out of any of these prints.

This one is a silk and satin tie cq top. It does have some filler material too. There are some very... and I do mean very... ugly ties in this quilt.

This is the back of the silk tie cq it was sewn in 15 x 20 inch panels.

Jo's heart

Jo's heart arrived in the mail yesterday all the way from New Zealand.

The Ohio valley is having it's usual strange winter weather. For the last three weekends we have had snow. It is snowing this morning too. But the weekdays have been very mild. Wednesday and Thursday the temperature was in the mid 60's and on Thursday night the wind blew vary hard all night. Friday I noticed that the grapevine friendship tree on my front porch is lying down and a flowerbox is out in the yard. I had the tree tied to the house with wire so the wind was strong enough to brake it and topple the tree and the concrete block that it set on. The flowerbox had hens and chicks in it so they must be scattered across the yard. I hope we have nice weather this next week so that I can fix what the wind damaged.

There is a good breeze most of the time here at the cabin except in August when I could really use it. I wish I had a wind generator then I wouldn't have an electric bill to pay. Maybe I'll get one installed this summer.

Since it is cold and snowing I think it will be a good day for sewing and embroidery. I'll put the teakettle on and get started would anyone like to join me?

Sandie's Heart Arrived

My first swapped heart arrived in the mail! It's from Sandie in South Australia. It's lovely and so much to look at! I see something new each time I look.

Now that my mail-person is bringing me more than bills ....I've been watching for his car to stop at my box. I'm expecting more hearts and some packages from my online shopping sprees. I'll share my goodies from the shopping sprees when they arrive.

It's snowing here this morning...but doesn't seem to be accumulating. We have had such warm weather for January and February that my daffodils are peeking out of the ground ... not good news. Luckily the tulips haven't started showing themselves yet!

The Sisters

My mother always teased me that I needle the thread instead of threading the needle. For a right handed person I do a lot of things left handed. It's just easier for me to hold the thread steady in my left hand and slide the needle onto the thread with my right.

On this heart I used a Chinese knot something new for me. It's used at the ends of the feather stitch along the top and as the flowers on the left. All of the other knots are French knots. Some of my designs and most of my inspiration for The Sisters came from The Big Book of Crazy Quilt Stitches by Patricia Eaton and Floral Stitches by Judith Baker Montano.

Yesterday was one of those days. I just couldn't get anything done. I picked up The Sisters to do a little embroidery but I would just look at it and put it back down; no inspiration. I finished the heart this morning. I also started a crazy quilt block but stopped once I got the material cut out. Again no inspiration. I'll try again later.

Pistol Anne has found a home with Jo and Desert Sands is on it's way to Karen!

Another note: Jesse seems to be totally recovered from the bruised paw.

More Hearts

This is Pistol Anne, I liked the diamond shapes on her skirt and added the ones on the right.
Desert Sands is a little different, but when I saw the print I new I wanted to try to make a heart with it. We will see if anyone in the COH swap group is interested in it; if not then I won't have to make a second one for me.

Redwork Flowers

Lilac
Lily of the Valley

Don't know what happened; I posted these redwork flowers Saturday and today everything I posted is missing. Now I'll make a copy of each post for a back up.

It was a busy week, my niece delivered a baby boy Tuesday. Shayne is very cute with lots of black hair. I'm a Great Aunt nine times (five boys and four girls). Now don't guess by age by that my brothers are much older then me.

Yesterday I spent the day in my sewing room/computer room loft sewing hearts for the Chain of Hearts swap group. They will show themselves as I finish the embellishments.

Jesse is much better he actually walked down the stairs this morning without any assistance.

Well I'm off to emblellish hearts.

My Little Chickadee

This little heart gave me trouble. I just couldn't decide what I wanted on the blue above the chickadee. I tried three or four stitches and picked them all out. Then I used the woven running stitch with two colors of floss and was finally pleased enough to leave it in place.

I have swapped the Rose Mauve heart with Sandie. How exciting to get a beautifully stitched heart in the mail... much better than bills.

The Jesse saga continues...he tripped on the stairs this morning and slid down the last four steps on his belly. It scared him... so he got lots of love and hugs until he recovered. He kept looking back at the stairs like they had tripped him on purpose. Jesse hasn't even attempted to come upstairs today. My poor baby.

Nutty for Hearts

I think I've gone nutty for these hearts. The chickadee is from beautiful fabric just covered with all kinds of birds. Scanning doesn't show how pretty it is and I can't do digital images right now so scanning will have to do.

Rose Mauve

There seemed to be a bald spot on this heart so I added a bead flower. You can't see it put I signed it too. Just a small "I" among the roses. Rose Mauve (the heart's name, title) is up for trade with the Chains of Hearts swap group.