YOTA Saturday and a finish

It is the first Saturday of July already!  I finally picked a focus piece for this year and have been steadily stitching on 99 by Ink Circles for the past month.

Here's where I was the beginning of June:

And here's how it looks today:

I stitch about a row and a half each month, I am taking a couple of weeks off the end of this month, so maybe I can up that count for July.

So that none of us becomes terribly bored with looking at bottles, I am still stitching on smalls on alternate Fridays and have another finish.

This is Heart in Hand Needleart's Wee Garden Gate:

The bird is charted to be white, but I don't have any white birds around my house and I like crows so a crow it is.  Since there is a finish, I also have a new start.

This is a freebie called Strawberry Delight Ornament by Tink Boord-Dill Needlework.  It's copyrighted 1999 but I'm not sure I have had it in my stash for that long.  It is stitched on 32-count Lambswool with DMC.

Strawberry Delight Ornament by Tink Boord-Dill Needlework

 The Smyrna crosses are charted as Algerian eyelets but I didn't feel like pulling this fabric as it is rather stiff.





 

30 years ago today

Happy Birthday Trevor

June Ornament

Here's my June ornament:

Autumn Blackbird by Waxing Moon Designs - stitched on 28-count Summer Sky Jobelan with Gentle Art Sampler Threads

I also  had a very good start on a second ornament:

Wee Garden Gate by Heart and Hand Needlearts stitched on 32-count Lambswool with DMC

A few more bottles and a gate

I didn't get as much time to hermit this weekend with my stitching, I did spend a lot of time hermitting in the yard - mowing, trimming and weeding.  Not fun but everything does look nice.

We had a new bird come into the feeders this weekend. As I glanced out the window, I thought it was another cardinal, but on closer look, it was a summer tanager.  It is a bug eater so it was using the feeders as a perch and not for the seeds but it was a very nice surprise.

No, I didn't take this photo, by the time I found my camera it was gone.  With the gold and house finches it was very colorful at the feeder station.

A bit of stitching progress this week:

99 by Ink Circles - stitched on 32-count Golden Walnut with DMC

I am hoping to get to halfway on this soon.  Would be nice to say I was on the down side of this hill.

And here's Wee Garden Gate by Heart and Hand Needlearts:

Wee Garden Gate by Heart and Hand Needlearts - stitched on 32-count Lambswool with DMC

A few specialty stitch flowers, back stitching and Mill Hill Treasures and this will be finished.  I am enjoying my smalls Fridays, I do wish I had the idea sooner, but it is something that I will continue with.

A start, a finish, a few more bottles and June's TUSAL

We survived what was left of Tropical Storm Andrea with about 2-1/2" of rain.  We didn't have any problems with flooding, but there were a number of trees around the county that came down due to the wet ground and wind.  We also seem to be surviving the cicada invasion - the rain the last couple of days kept the noise to a minimum but now that it has cleared off, they are back in full force.  In case you haven't seen them, I saw this wonderful specimen resting on the mailbox this morning:

We have another three to four weeks left in this cycle and then quiet again because of the number of cicadas singing at one time there is a constant, very loud hum coming from the woods. On a cuter side, the finches have started bringing their babies into the feeder station.  Although, they are only babies by age as most of them are the same size as their parents.  Our crow family has added two new members.  One of the youngsters has been trying, very determinedly, to pull a rose off the bush the last couple of days.  I am not sure what the attraction is but every time they come in it heads straight for that flower. 

Of course, none of that has anything to do with the blog title so I should probably get back on track.

My start is Wee Garden Gate from Heart in Hand Needleart.  I bought this back in the Dark Ages when it was first published back in 1998.


Wee Garden Gate by Heart in Hand Needleart
Stitched on 32-count Lambswool with DMC

I was able to start the gate because I finished Autumn Blackbird by Waxing Moon Designs.


Autumn Blackbird by Waxing Moon Designs
Stitched on 28-count Summer Sky Jobelan with Gentle Arts Sampler Threads

I was able to stitch a few more bottles on 99 this week.


99 by Ink Circles
Stitched on 32-count Golden Oak with DMC

And last, but not least, here is my June TUSAL.

If you're interested in the TUSAL, hop on over to Daffycat's blog for all the information and to join.

Progress and my late YOTA

Yesterday was the first Saturday of the month which means YOTA posting day.  I have it noted on my calendar but still missed it.  I put 99 by Ink Circles on the stand last weekend and worked on it all week while on vacation I am so not ready to go back to work tomorrow and made lots of progress.

Here's where I left off on the last rotation round:

And here's where it is today:

99 by Ink Circles
Stitched on 32-count Golden Walnut with DMC

As I would like to have this completed for this Christmas, I am going to freeze my rotation and work on just this for the month of June..

An ornament and a half

I actually finished my ornament for this month early and was able to start another.

Here's my ornament which some of you have already seen

Summer Sparrow by Waxing Moon Designs
Stitched on 28-count Summer Sky Jobelan with Gentle Art Sampler Threads

And the half:

Autumn Blackbird by Waxing Moon Designs
Stitched on 28-count Summer Sky Jobelan with Gentle Arts Sampler Threads

No, again, they're not Christmas ornaments, but I want to make a dent in my box of smalls this year, so I am not sticking to just Christmas ornaments. 

I took this week off from work and have been busily stitching on Ink Circles' 99 and should have a full update on that at the end of the week.