There has been stitching!!

Huh, January 9th already? So much for my "post to blog more often" resolution...  Winter is usually the time when I get inside things done, including most of my stitching, but this winter?  Well as someone said, we've had a wonderful spring this winter.  I have these

 blooming all over my yard right now. Yes, that's a dandelion!  There are also some other wildflowers blooming and I noticed that my daylilies are sending up new shoots and my rose bushes have buds on them.  We've had lots of wet weather and with the ground not frozen, it's soaking in so the well is very happy, but it just isn't right.  I am definitely in a waiting-for-the-shoe-dropping mode, I just don't see it staying like this all winter.  If it does it will be the first winter in AGES (maybe ever) that I haven't seen at least a snow flurry.

 

I have fought off the feeling that I should be working outside and started breaking in my new stitching chair (The Hubs gave me a gift card to Amazon for Christmas and I used it for a new desk chair).  Maybe it's the new chair, but I have been more productive the last couple of weeks than I have been in a long while.  I have three column finishes on my Heaven and Earth Design pieces.  Christmas Presence 

 

Its About Time

 



and Shakespearean Fantasy

 

Yes, still a big black block, but it's a larger big black block



All of the HAEDs are being stitched on 28 count antique white Jobelan 1 over 1 with DMC threads.  After we win more than a dollar or two in the lottery, I am going to have a pattern converted to silk.  DMC is a wonderful thread but there are a couple of patterns that I think would be amazing done in silk.

 

I also had some non-HAED progress,   I started Just Nan's Christmas Soldiers stocking on January 1st and after an afternoon of stitching, it was here:

 

 

This is stitched on 28-count cream Cashel with DMC, Kreinik and the included Just Nan embellishments. The pattern calls for Caron Impressions for the trees but I missed it in the thread list when I placed my order and didn't have any in my stash so I replaced it with Thread Gatherers Silk 'n Colors Dark Forest.  This is on my afternoon/evening stitch for today and tomorrow.

 

I also made progress on The Sampler Life block from December.  Marc Saastad of The Silver Lining contributed Marc's Samplerlife Rose to the piece.

 

Stitched on 32-count Vintage Light Exampler from Lakeside Linens with DMC thread

 

I am not 100% sure on this one as the colors just don't seem to go together, but it is probably one of those pieces that needs the backstitching done to make sense.  I will probably add a backstitch border around this one to make it a block.  I am looking forward to starting the January block, Welcome Spring, from Jardin Prive as I have never stitched a piece from that company.

 

I have a chicken in the slow cooker (THIS has become my go to for recipes that call for cooked chicken - thanks  Melissa) and will be making chicken-corn chowder later today, but until then - stitching.

 

And before I forget!  It's  

 time.  I am actually a day early, but it is nice starting the year caught up on my SAL posts.  Daffycat hosts this SAL and if you want low stress, this is the SAL for you.  Just keep all those little bits of thread you cut off, can't use or would otherwise throw away and save them.  Once a month, on the new moon, post a photo.  Super simple right?  Some people are very artsy with their photos.  Me? Not so much.  Here is my January TUSAL photo:

 

 

This is Trouble looking perturbed that I interrupted her bird watching.  Not a lot in there but, in addition to it being the beginning of the year, Spot knocked the jar off the table earlier today and I am not sure I got all the little bits.