Sunday Slow Stitching and What's been going on in my corner of the globe.

Time sure does fly I can't believe it's been a month since I made an actual post. It's been a little topsy turvy here at casa Deborah.

Nuisance ailments,  hard to believe I follow a healthy diet and exercise and still seem to get every bug passing through.  Just getting through the strides of daily life seems to have consumed my time lately though  I did manage to do some slow stitching and finished all the stitching on the Celtic Cross piece.

The photo is right after I washed the stitch and wash product off and it dried, it needs to be ironed and then framed.  I am quite happy with the results I did leave off some of the tiny knot work it looked messy even with a single strand of floss. Just a reminder the Celtic Cross is from a free coloring page from Dover Publications. https://www.doverpublications.com/zb/samples/826686/sample7b.html

Progress on the simple granny stitch shawl I am crocheting is coming along quite nicely.  I'm glad I chose the Prism colorway of the Shawl in a Ball yarn from Lion Brand.  My friend refers to it as the Mardi Gras shawl.

I also made crocheting progress on the Shell stitch using another Lion Brand yarn this time Wool Ease cake in the Athena colorway.

My thoughts have been drifting to Spring so I ordered some pastel felt and floss from Benzie Design one of my favorite places to purchase felt because they give you the option of buying the felt and

floss together, they do such a great job matching the DMC floss to the felt.  This is the Pixie Dust color palette.  Benzie Design has a web store here: https://www.benziedesign.com/  and an Etsy shop here:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/BenzieDesign?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=709530662

On the non crafting side of things, my son Nick proposed marriage to his girlfriend, she said yes and are celebrating their engagement with a vacation in Ireland and are having a lovely time so far.   My grand niece Tessa celebrated her 7th birthday last weekend as I said time flies I can believe 7 years have gone by since we were blessed to have her in our lives, my son celebrated his 39th birthday on the 6th, was engaged on the 13th and left for Ireland on the 19th Life is good at Casa Deborah!

UPDATE 2/23/20
I began reading The Jasmine Moon Murder by Laura Childs I was looking for something new to read a light mystery to wile away the hours when  my sore fingers need a break from stitching.

I haven't read a Laura Childs novel in over 10 years so I thought I would give it a try and it has one of my favorite subjects in it, Tea, and I like light cozy mysteries and 3 chapters in and I'm liking it so far. After 3 chapters I decided to audition new floss colors for my next project.

I started the hand embroidery for a new Drum and Dance series piece. I am using DMC Coloris floss 4507 for the sash and the solid floss will be for the clothing.

DMC Coloris 4507 DMC 602 798 959 3808

I started with the hands using just one strand of floss for the fingers and hand so they don't look too bulky I did the same for the feet and toes.

I like the way she is progressing and glad I decided to use only one strand of floss on the hands and feet they look pretty good.  I will be linking up at Kathy's Quilts today for the Slow Sunday Stitching
here: https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2020/02/slow-sunday-stitching_23.html

A new month begins with a birthday, a good read and a yarn a long.

Here we are starting a whole new month, summer is well underway here in Florida with lots of hot humid days and thunderstorms rolling through just about every afternoon.

On the 1st of July I celebrated my 63rd birthday, enjoyed a lovely day with my son and some birthday cake in the afternoon.

The day before my sister and great niece Tessa came for a visit, Tessa made me a sweet birthday card and bookmark.

I am using my new bookmark to keep my page in this week's read Hardcore Twenty-Four another fun Stephanie Plum novel by Janet Evanovich, I really enjoy her Plum novels they make me laugh out loud and always bring back memories of my home life back in NJ.

We spent a few hours at Silver Springs State Park, took the 30 minute glass bottom boat ride which Tessa just loved.

fish seen through the glass bottom boat

I finished stitching the Green Woman hand embroidery piece last week, now I am trying to decide whether to frame her or make her a wall hanging or pillow cover.

In the meantime I am crocheting a continuous granny square afghan for Tessa using Lion Brand Mandala yarn in Wood Nymph colorway. It's odd for me to be crocheting an afghan, usually the summer months in Florida are too hot to have a large project on my lap even with air conditioning yet I have been itching to crochet and so far the heat isn't bothering me. 

growing granny square

When Tessa saw the afghan she rubbed it on her face claiming it was so squishy and soft it was like fluffy clouds.  She says she loves pink and purple so I told her it was a good thing I was making it for her.

So yesterday I spent 45 minutes at the DMV to renew my driver's license and to my surprise the birth certificate I have had for 63 years is no longer acceptable and I will have to send for a new copy. Which I just finished doing, hoping it is processed quickly but I have the ugh moment of ordering a new birth certificate from NY.  In the meantime, I have an exception letter so I can drive using the new license for the next 60 days and if I don't have the new certificate by then I just bring in proof that I sent for the birth certificate and I can get an extension.  I'm fairly confident I'll receive it in time since the place I ordered was actually an outsourced company, which take up to 3 weeks to process and I paid $17.00 for UPS express shipping rather than the US Mail.   Our local DMV office is quite helpful, the employees are friendly and I always have a pleasant experience. Oh and the eye test was a breeze.

For my birthday one of my friends sent me some lovely Shawl in a Ball yarn in the Prism colorway

I love this blend of cotton and acrylic yarn and I love the colors. I'm not sure what I'm going to make yet though I was thinking of trying the Virus Shawl pattern, I've watched much of the YouTube video and think I will use it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOQ6GBjTjO8

I am linking today at Super Mom No Cape https://www.supermomnocape.com/embroidered-felt-christmas-baubles/
And also here for Yarn Along http://www.gsheller.com/2018/07/yarn-along-july.html

July coming to and end

Well here we are in the last full week of July and my needle and floss seem to be flowing along at a decent pace.  Late last week though I hit a snag when I was hit with some type of pain and some rather nasty dizzy spells,  I had plans to spend time with my sister and niece at our community pool however I spent the entire day sleeping.  Saturday morning I didn't feel as dizzy or sore so I spent the day reading and crocheting.   I managed to do 7 rows in the Ruana  pattern  I purchased a short time ago.

I didn't feel much better yesterday when I woke so I found myself once again lying around on the sofa managed to finish reading The Hideaway and finally started on The Beach at Painter's Cove.

A Good Read

I had planned to read the Beach at Painter's Cove while I was away but started another book instead.  I really enjoyed The Hideaway.

I did manage to get some hand embroidery stitches in on Friday while resting, I used a split stitch on the Flower Power portion, I have to say I really like the look of the split stitch.

I didn't get as much done as I had hoped to on the Summer of Love piece as I had hoped so I have plans to get some stitching done on it today, it is nearly complete, I just hope I can focus on the stitching.
Yesterday I added another 3 rows to the Ruana pattern and I love the loose, soft feel it has using the Shawl in a Ball yarn, I also changed the stitch from half double crochet to a double crochet for a lighter airy look.

10 rows done

Here is the pattern I am making The Playa Ruana, from Two of Wands website.  I just love the soft flowing look it has.

I am using size "N" crochet hook and Shawl in a Ball metallics yarn from Lion Brand in the Om Opal colorway.

The metallic threads are very subtle throughout but it does give a nice little sparkle to the overall piece.  I have this yarn in other colorways and I plan to use it with beads on the next piece I make. I also ordered a few other colorways last week.

I'll be linking my post to Super Mom No Cape today I hope you will stop by and have a look at what other bloggers are embroidery today.
http://www.supermomnocape.com/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-120/

Hello June

Well Hello June you have arrived and brought with you our first mid-day rains which is much needed. Today also marks the start of hurricane season which we really don't need but those daily rain showers would be nice.

I have been working on my winter Goddess hand embroidery piece though I am kind of dragging my feet on it, I'm just not sure I even like the piece at this point and keep asking myself if I want to finish it.

Here is a look at my ORTS from January 1^st to June 1^st I'd say I accumulated a nice little pile of bits and pieces of threads, floss and some yarn too. Not bad for 6 months of stitching my jar is half full.

Orts January to June

Orts Jar

I have a new project I plan to start crocheting this month, it's this lovely Ruana pattern from Two of Wands I bought a few weeks ago.

I don't usually crochet during the warm weather season but I just loved this pattern when I first saw it I knew I wanted to make it right away. Here is a link to the site I purchased the pattern from:

http://www.twoofwands.com/patterns/women/playa-ruana-pattern?category=Ponchos+%2B+Ruanas

There are other crochet patterns and some lovely knitted patterns too. 

I want to use the Shawl in a Ball yarn I purchased a few months ago from Lion Brand yarn I was just waiting for the right pattern, I think this is the one. Here is a link for the yarn http://www.lionbrand.com/yarn/shawl-in-a-ball-yarn.html

I also need to get started on the Stitch at Home Challenge embroidery project the August 15th deadline will be here before I know it so its time to stop tweaking and get stitching.  

Stitching away through November

The month of November is speeding right along and here we are starting the week of Thanksgiving, where does the time go?
My progress on block 11 of Hocuspocusville Quilt is coming along though I did take a much need break to let my fingers heal, the cool weather dries the skin which makes the skin split on my fingers.

block 11

I have been having one of those weeks where I feel restless in my creative endeavors so I thought I would change things up along with the change in weather, which has been quite cool this week.  So along with my hand embroidery projects I've pulled out a crochet project, in March 2015 I started this shawl and somewhere along my stitching I wasn't paying attention and worked several rows in the wrong direction so I unraveled the entire shawl and started over this week so far I am on track.

in progress shawl

The yarn is silk and very soft causing it to slip off the hook easily if I work the stitches too quickly so I am trying to work a slower manageable pace, so far so good.
While researching crochet patterns the other day  I stumbled onto Lion Brand yarns website and found the Shawl in a Ball yarns which I just loved on sight.  So I ordered 2 skeins of the Metallic blends which are not currently available in the area shops here.

Colorway is Om Opal

I just love the way the metallic threads run through the yarn, you may need to click the photo to see the colors of the metallic threads. I can't wait to get started on a project, it's a 61% cotton 34% acrylic and 5% other blend.  After it arrived I ordered a few other colorways.

Another project I have in mind to work on involves using some of these 10" squares from the Island Batiks Seashore colorway collection.

There are 21 colors in the package with a total of 42 squares,  for the project I have in mind the 10 inch squares are the perfect size so for once instead of purchasing fat quarters or yardage I bought the layer cake packet.

I will be linking up https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2016/11/slow-sunday-stitching.html at Kathy's Quilts today for some Slow Sunday Stitching.
On Monday I will be joining the linky party over at Super Mom No Cape's blog here: http://www.supermomnocape.com/vintage-embroidery-monday-stitchery-link-party-85/

Why don't you hop on over and check out what other talented bloggers are stitching this week.