Stitching

 My adorable five year old neighbor girl loves to go barefoot, even on days that most of us would deem too cold. No parental neglect here, she just likes to go shoeless. She brought to mind a book I used to read to my second grade classes way back in the 60"s.  Going Barefoot by Aileen Fisher. The book was written in 1960 and is out of print, but I was able to find an old library copy in very good shape for a decent price. Over and over she refers to June as the barefoot month.

Of course I read it all over to myself and it is just as delightful as I remembered. It all in rhyme and has wonderful illustrations.

So I had to include it on my June page, which I am doing in a different style. There will be several large circles encompassing  more than one block. I have finished one.

For my circle design inspiration I am using the quilt that I made out of 286 hand embroidered circular designs. I'm also using mostly variegated threads.

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

I'm still here

 My sister reminded me of how neglectful I have been in my Facebooking and blogging. No excuses, altho I have been busy with gardening and my son was here for a few days, too. But when I went to write this entry, I saw how very behind I am.

I finished my April stitching. I liked having spaces between the blocks, but did narrower spaces for May.

So here is May,  finished except for one block which I will do tonight. My color scheme was coral, aqua and lime green, with a few variations.

The colors look different, depending on where I took the picture. This one, taken outside has a bluish tint.

On some designs I used more than one block, like this one that uses 5 blocks.

And this one that uses 2

I plan to do more of that in June and will also use brighter colors and some variegated threads. 

I also used my page to document some things going on in my life, like finding a robin's egg in my driveway. No sign of a nest, but I do love that fabulous color. I had a lot of trouble depicting this nest. I think the only thing I got right was the color of the eggs.

Or the little bunny who was in my garage for two days, don't know why and it wasn't easy getting him out. Then that night he ate every single flower on my new Dianthus plants....no leaves, no buds, just flowers. I know it was him and I have since sprayed with an animal repellent.

I'll try to blog more often. I used to be so diligent, but it's easy to slip away.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Still in April

 I've managed to keep up with April and even keep a little ahead

No, this is not a bunch of asparagus or corn stalks. It is meant to be palm fronds in honor of Palm Sunday. I brought one stalk home from Church with me and the color was spot on, but it went downhill from there.

Again for Easter Sunday, I wanted a cross with Easter Lilies. Well Easter lilies are white and I knew they wouldn't show up against the unbleached muslin fabric, which is whiter than the picture, so I did them in pale yellow. After all the stitching, they did NOT show up, so I took them out and just did some Norma flowers. I did not want to unpick the big lily leaves, so they stayed. Happy Easter!

I've been told that all the Spring flowers are in full bloom home in CT. I will be sorry to miss them. Hopefully there will be some late bloomers when we get home.

Just a little fantasy flower because I love French Knots.

I think I mentioned before that I am not necessarily putting the blocks in numerical order, but using the block that fits the design for that day.

Happy Easter and Passover and Spring!

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Moving on

 For April I am separating the blocks and stitching them in purple, my color for the month. I will also use some yellow and green, but it will be predominantly shades of purple

A paisley-ish design.

I loved doing this one, because I love French Knots.

                                 My mother was very fond of pansies and so am I.

An itty-bitty garden, just 1inch by 2 inches.

I'm still having fun with this and hope to continue.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

January, February and March

 

All three months finished. Please click on the picture ad scroll around and you can see much bigger views.

 I had to have a gecko, since we see them so often in Florida. They really are very cute and I managed to fit him in a very small block

I do love pears. One of my favorite snacks is half of a Bartlett pear sliced very thin with equally thin slices of sharp cheddar cheese.

Another big fellow, a sea turtle, who needed two blocks.

I know I am ahead of schedule, but there will be some major interruptions next week and I don't want to get behind.

I recently bought an iPhone 13, one number below the newest, which is a 14. My previous phone was only an 8 and giving me some trouble. I was happy to have a new phone because it was supposed to take great pictures, but guess what?...it does not take macro (very close up). If I get too close, the picture is fuzzy. I went on Youtube and watched a video of an Apple guy comparing the 12  and 13 for taking macro pictures. The 12 does a great job and the 13 does not. Phooey! 

These close-ups were taken with my iPad. 

I am linking up with Off the Wall Friday. BTW Nina Marie writes a terrific blog each week. Go check it out.

It's Not Easy Being Green

 I didn't realize how long it's been since I posted. We have been busy with house guests and beaching and shopping and eating out, etc. but I still managed to get some stitching done and now I am ahead of myself for March.

I started out by following the number sequence on the grid, but then just starting doing embroidery that matched the size of the segments.

For example, my dinosaur was not happy staying in one segment and insisted on taking up three. You don't argue with a dinosaur.

I outline stitched around his body and colored in the green part with diluted acrylic paint. Saved me a lot of stitching and I like the way he looks.

Had to have a shamrock for St. Patrick's Day. I have always been fond of Ginkgoes. The spotted background is made of small French knots in a very dark green. And, of course a palm tree, since I am doing this now in Florida.

Who doesn't love Kermit the Frog? He got the same paint treatment as the dinosaur. I had a terrible time with the stitching of the words. When I did my 286 circles, I was able to trace my designs onto the fabric using a light box and get some very intricate designs. But this whole scroll of muslin is backed with flannel and I cannot see the design thru both layers of fabric, so I am either tracing around cutouts or drawing free hand. Not happy with it, but at least it's legible.

Ignore light blue lines on top right. That is washable marker that hasn't been washed out yet.

I'll try to post next week. Maybe I'll be finished with March.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

February finished (almost)

 I finished the bocks for February, except for one, which I hope to finish today. 

What's that blue fish doing in my pink and red page? It's my homage to Dr. Seuss...One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish. Blue Fish. The colors in this are a little washed out and the colors of the two below are a little dark. The actual color is somewhere in between. The fabric is unbleached muslin.

Remember that all pictures are clickable for a bigger view.

I'm looking forward to doing March with many shades of greens  Think leaves, trees, frogs, snakes shamrocks, etc.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

On to February

 

I am actually up to date on February. I'm using a little of other colors, where necessary but trying to stay with the reds and pinks. I'm trying to balance easy blocks with more labor intensive ones. For some reason the mushroom took forever filling in with red around the white circles. The fourth was my birthday so I had to make a cake. Lots of taking out and doing over and it still looks wonky. Oh, well on to the next blocks.

Last year in my Floria community someone was putting rock creatures here and there along the walkways in the mulch. They were so much fun to look at. My sister and Claire and I made some and put them out.

When we came down to Florida in November they were all gone. I wonder what happened to them. Did the grounds crew throw them away when they put down fresh mulch? We'll never know. When I'm walking in the morning I see new ones and I straighten them out if necessary. This fabulous turtle is fairly new and when I went to take a picture yesterday one leg was missing so I took the tail and put it in for the missing leg. I cannot understand why anyone would mess them up. There are a few new ones and I'll show them next week.

I'm linking up with Off the Wall Friday.

Finished!

 Hooray, January is finished. I tried very hard to finish on the date, Jan. 31 and I did. These blocks are tiny, the smallest is 1" x  3/4" and the largest is 2" x 1 3/4".  I am finding it a bit challenging to work so small.  I seem to spend a lot of time unstitching. My circles were 3" diameter and were much easier to do.

I started on February and was planning to do it all in shades of red and pink, but I think I will add some other colors here and there (like green for leaves) and make it predominately reds and pink. 

I will show you some more next week

I am linking up with Off The Wall Friday.

New Year, New Project

 I really missed having my circles in a square project from last year. I was so glad that a friend clued me in to this daily stitching project. You can read all about it here. Karen Turner, an embroiderer in the UK is the inspiration. She also set up a group Facebook page where members can post their progress. You have to be a member to view it, but it's oh, so easy to join. 

She has a very nice template that you can download to keep your days in order and that one month tessellates into the next. I am way behind because it started on the first of January and I didn't start until the 12th. I am trying hard to catch up so that I can just do one day at at a time.

I am also behind because I had so many false starts. I first started on a piece of an antique linen sheet, given to me by a dear friend, but found that it was difficult to stitch thru. Then I switched to washed unbleached muslin. I drew and did a running stitch to outline the blocks and found that it was not laying flat. I then spray basted it to a piece of washed flannel.

Then to start stitching. After doing two or three blocks in different colors I decided that I wanted each month to be in its own color. So unstitch three blocks and start with a blue and gray theme, appropriate for January. The turquoise stars and spray of leaves are wash-out marker.

This strip is 11 inches wide by 195 inches long. A LOT of stitching. I'm finding it challenging because the blocks are so small. I loved working on my three inch circles last year, but having some trouble with these. Hopefully I will improve. I also learned that a finer thread works best on these small blocks. I used size 8 Perle cotton almost exclusively on my circles, but it is too heavy on this. I am now using mostly two or three strands of floss.

If you like to embroider I would suggest your joining us. I will try to post every week's progress.

I will be linking up with Off the Wall Friday.