Another Finish!

I completely forgot last week that I had one more unfinished project in my purse as my "take along" project when I was listing all my UFO's. I had had this Washington Heart by Victoria Sampler in my purse for about 3 weeks, and usually only worked on it while I was waiting for Lizzie during her piano lesson. I worked on it again yesterday while we were at a State Park for a couple hours, and was so close to finishing that I pulled it out this morning and put the last stitches in. (Thea, don't look too close...I got off by one thread somewhere!!! LOL!) I have pulled another small Victoria Sampler Beyond Cross Stitch kit to put into my purse to replace this one.

My various irises in the garden are still blooming, here is one that was incredible this week. I am finding that there are some early bloomers and some late bloomers in the iris family also. Most of my pure lavender/purple ones are finished blooming, and now the yellows and peaches are beautiful.

Today is Memorial Day in the United States, and we have the day off work. It is a day where we honor the veterans, family and friends that have passed away by taking flowers to the graves. Amazingly the weather is sunny and beautiful today, usually we have rain. We are going to have a "picnic" at my parents house this afternoon, with all the traditional American picnic food, fried chicken, potato salad, watermelon and chocolate cake. Hmmm...I should have made Apple Pie, not chocolate cake. We have a saying, "As American as Apple Pie". Do any other countries have sayings that are comparable? It would be interesting to find out.

I hope everyone has a great week!

A rainy Satuday afternoon project

This last Saturday, I sat down in my stitching chair and was flipping through my basket where I keep all my unfinished stitching project. (yep, only one basket, but it is crammed full!) One of the pieces caught my fancy, and I wanted to stitch on it, but realized that all the threads for it had somehow migrated into other projects or places, and it would take awhile to gather them all back together again. Then I realized that almost every project in the basket was in the same condition, making it impossible to just sit down and grab something to stitch right quick!!! So having the time, and since it was raining (again!), I decided to re-kit ALL those projects so they would be ready to stitch at a whim.

4 hours later I still had two projects left to finish. I finished those on Sunday morning, but now I am REALLY organized. I am so proud of myself! Not counting the two pieces I am designing I have 12 unfinished projects, and 5 more unstarted but kitted up and ready to go.


Here's my list if anyone is interested. I don't have many good photos, and 17 of them would be too much anyway...These are all in various stages of completion.

Unfinished projects: (in no particular order)
Tudor Needleroll by Teri Richards (SB)
Joy of My Heart by Lorri Birmingham
Heirloom Birth Sampler by Victoria Sampler
Gazebo Roses Sampler by Victoria Sampler
Spring Hardanger table runner by Lorri Birmingham
A is for Angel by Victoria Sampler
Terri's Needle Case by Lorri Birmingham
The Perennial Border by The Drawn Thread
Simply Elegant Needlecase by Lorri Birmingham
Toccata I by The Drawn Thread
June Bellpull by Victoria Sampler



Kitted and ready to start: (again in no particular order)
2006 Christmas ornament, Mary and Joseph, by Shepherd's Bush
Simply Elegant Scissor Case and Fob by Lorri Birmingham
G is for Grandma by Victoria Sampler (did anyone catch two posts ago I am going to be a grandma again?)
Beach Roses by Just Nan
Rhodes Butterfly Beyond Cross Stitch by Victoria Sampler (3rd time for this)
Spider Web Beyond Cross Stitch by Victoria Sampler (2nd time for this)

Current designs of my own being worked on:

Hardanger needlecase in waterlillies, as yet unnamed
Beyond the Garden Gate
Quaker Alphabet

Betcha can't tell who my favorite designers are, LOL!!!!

I don't know if my stash confession will actually motivate me to get more stitching done, but hey, now I can't hide a project and pretend it doesn't exist any longer when I have it down in black and white, right? I still have oodles of patterns in another basket waiting for the right time to be stitched, meaning they will probably join the Unfinished Basket one day. And let's not even think about all the designs waiting to come out of my head!!! I think I already have enough to work on until I retire! (which will be in 13 years I hope!)

Tour my Garden!

I was inspired by another blogger who had given us a tour of her flower garden, so I thought I would do the same and share with you some of the flowers I have in bloom right now in my garden. I won't try and show them all to you, you'd get bored and Blogger would probably freeze up with all the pictures!!!

Let's begin with this beautiful lavender rhododendron...(The state flower of Washington). Were you aware that rhody's bloom in order of color? For instance the light pinks normally are through flowering before the darker colors (red and purple) have flowered. This rhody has alot of sentimental meaning for me, as my father started it from one of his rhody's at our old family home in another town.
Now, we go around to the south side of my house, and my dogwood tree has been very full of blossoms this year. This is the first year it has really bloomed this well, as it is only a few years old. As to the variety, I have no clue. I have four different varieties of dogwood in my yard, this one is the prettiest this year.
Also on the south side of the house is where I have most of my irises. This is actually a deeper purple in real life, it did not photograph well. This one was also a start from my father's garden.
In the front of the house next to the driveway I have a red hot poker plant. This is only about three years old, and grows like a weed. I cut it way down to the bottom of the plant in early spring (about two months ago) and it is already blooming this well!And here is my first rose of the season, a small old fashioned tree rose that climbs a trellis next to my front window. It blooms all summer long as long as I trim off the old blooms.

Hope you've enjoyed my quick tour!

Well, it's official....

My city is among the nation's rainiest places! I knew we get alot of rain, but according to a study by a San Francisco based company, we rank 24th in the nation. We even beat out Seattle and Portland (41 and 42 respectively) because we don't have a rain shadow to hide in like those two cities.

And get this...we have the MOST rainy days a year. The Most in the whole United States!!! we had 63 rainy days last year. Mobile Alabama came in second with 59. Our normal is between 40 and 80 rainy days.

So, it may not be important to you, but it is to me. It is validating to find out I wasn't imagining it!

Also, another announcement of great importance to myself and my family. Amy Sue is going to have a baby in November! Yep, I get to be a grandma again!!! Woo Hoo! We are all very excited!

No new stitching pictures today. However I would like to direct you to a new blog that I have contributed to, that seems to very popular. Pictures of Freebie designs that have been stitched by lots of people. If you are interested in seeing pictures of freebie designs, please check out The Freebie Gallery.