Life little stitches and glitches

Things here are slowly returning to normal in my neighborhood after hurricane Irma blew through last weekend. Most of the debris has been bagged up and hauled off with just some smaller sticks and twigs to get while working in the garden. The gas stations locally have gas with normal wait lines so the lawn mower will get some use this week.

On a sad note my youngest sister is once again in the hospital waiting on a blood transfusion she was admitted again with uncontrollable bleeding and still have no idea what is going on with all the blood clots etc. I'm going to donate a pint of blood at my local bloodbank and have them ship it there to have on hand for her. That's one of the things I learned when I worked for the bloodbank, you can transfer a blood donation directly to the patient or even donate in her name which cuts the cost of the blood she gets.

On the stitching front I have taken slow stitching to new heights this week by not getting any stitching by hand done at all until yesterday evening when I was finally able to pull out the Aine kit 

the Aine kit

and put in a few stitches I snapped a photo mid stitch so I would remember to post it today for Slow Sunday Stitching which I will be linking up to todayhttps://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2017/09/slow-sunday-stitching_17.html

a few stitches

Once I finish watering my plants this morning I intend to sit down and put in some serious stitching time.  Yesterday I wrote replies to several letters, finally put the new shelf unit in my laundry room and put up the blue drapes in my bedroom; all those items on my to do this weekend list are done.

A few day before the hurricane I did complete two more Witch bonnet girls for a total of 6, these are so cute I can't wait to put it all together but I think I will embellish each block first before I put them together.

2 more witch bonnet girls

On Thursday I ordered a new embroidery kit one of those Crabapple Hill studio patterns I love so much, it arrived yesterday.

The pattern

the floss and fabric

It is another of those cute Salem Quilt Guild patterns this one is Show and Tell, I decided to buy the kit which includes the floss and fabric so much easier to get it all together so I have everything set to go once I trace the pattern.  

Well that's about all the news for now, I hope if you were in the path of Irma life is getting back to normal for you.  Happy Slow Stitching to all of you.

Beaches, Books and a Birthday too.

July is moving along at a fast clip, do you ever wonder where the time goes, it seems it was just yesterday I was blowing out the candles on my 62nd birthday cake on the first of July and here we are 9 days into the month.

I have been slowly making progress on the Peace symbol Zenbroidery and I am happy to say my satin stitch is looking much better as I work, for some reason I always struggled with that stitch, but not nearly as much as I struggled with the french knot.

Several members of the stitching challenge I am in have made this and told me that once its nearly done it will be very hard to get the needle through, I had noticed how dense the stitching looked on photos they had posted so I am using back stitch to outline some of the motifs rather than have it all filled in,  I like the look of some white spaces.

My time on Sanibel Island was lovely, though as it is with vacations too short. The weather was lovely sunny and hot, I forgot the further south in Florida the hotter it gets though it did seem less humid being on the gulf coast enjoy the balmy breezes. 

Spent some time shelling on the beach and browsing bookstores during the afternoon rains, the water so clear and the shells abundant.

perfect beach day

hunting shells low tide

thousands of tiny shells 

a lovely morning

I didn't take too many photos, I was too busy picking up shells and walking along the shore and wading into the water.  I will post some photos of the larger shells found eventually.  After an early morning of shelling I brought out my beach chair and spent a few hours soaking in the sun.

I located two book shops on the Island, one of the bookshops had 3 buildings and books everywhere.
These are some of the books I bought.

a little of everything

City Guide Discworld 

two books in one

I also found a bookshop in Fort Myers and purchased a few books but I haven't unpacked those yet.  I have just started the Terry Pratchett  Discworld series so I am picking up the books not available at our library, and I just thought to grab the City Guide complete with map.  Wicked is the first two novels for a friend. The Randy Wayne White books are written by a Sanibel author and the novels take place in and around Southwest Florida.  Now I can start this series too.

On the first of July I celebrated my 62nd Birthday with a little cake that just makes me smile, it was so colorful.

basket of  flowers cake

I have to tell you those flowers were amazing and quite sweet, I don't like too much frosting so I scrape most of it off, it was a delicious white cake inside. 

One of the new projects I am working on is a witch bonnet Sue quilt, here is a look at two of the blocks waiting for embellishing, I will be embroidering the blocks and adding some beads too.

Here is a close up of one of the Sue blocks, they are appliqued on using fusible web, don't you just love the spider webs.

I'm thinking may be using some metallic threads around the block.  Here is a look at a traditional Sun Bonnet Sue block I made years ago.

As you can see the black threads are all the embroidery I added around the edges, added the lines for socks and umbrella handle and her hands.

Here is an up date on my  progress. for the Summer of Love Challenge piece. I will be linking my post up today at Kathy's Quilts and on Monday at Supermom No Cape.

Summer of Love

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.ca/2017/07/slow-sunday-stitching.html

http://www.supermomnocape.com/