New Moon and TUSAL Time

 Well her it is the New Moon for April and it's that time once again for the TUSAL(Totally Useless Stitch A Long) report. Here are my Orts for April so far.  The current project I am stitching is for my personal Goddess a Month project. This is the goddess for March I need to finish.  The pattern is from Urban Threads, I wasn't too crazy with the pattern I designed and truth to tell I not so crazy about this pattern either.  Originally I was going to alter the pattern to elongate the figures as they look squash to me, but as I am stitching further I am liking the pattern more. 

Not sure what a TUSAL is you can click the link to It's Daffy Cat's blog https://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-totally-useless-stitch-long.html

UPDATE: I'm late posting this I thought I had it posted but it was still in draft mode. Ugh! one of those days.

Happy Easter

 

It’s been a crazy few weeks since the first day of Spring and I haven’t had much time to post here, I have taken advantage of the days when I wasn’t feeling ill and spending time in the sunshine, getting in some reading time and working on my goddess of the month hand embroidery project.

This month I also joined in the Susannah Conway April Love 2021 photo challenge and thought I would share my post for today. The prompt is vintage:

Day 4: Vintage, The Rider Tarot deck my first deck of tarot cads. I purchased these in 1971 when I was a girl of 16. If you look close enough you can see my hand written notes on the cards as I taught myself to read the cards. Over the years I bought new decks and have quite a growing collection of Tarot and Oracle cards. When I give a reading for an old friend they always ask me to use my trusty old Rider Deck. 

Here is the link for the challenge if you are interested in the prompts and participating https://www.susannahconway.com/april-2/

 I am enjoying this challenge quite a bit, seeing what other participants are posting is interesting and quite revealing too, the post for notebook disclosed many of us with multiple notebooks, avid journal keepers, and others like me that are quite addicted to notebooks, not to mention those creating notebooks of their own. I think notebooks was my favorite prompt so far.

The Goddess of the month for March is slow going and I hope to have her done soon here is my progress so far, I think the problem is I am not too fond of the pattern, I made my own Hecate pattern that one wasn’t so great so I purchased the pattern I am using for Hecate, from Urban Threads, I was going to elongate the image before printing it but forgot. I usually like the patterns from Urban Threads but for me this one just doesn’t grab me. Oh well it doesn’t matter I’m stitching her. I used DMC Diamant Grande for the triple moon, and DMC retired floss for the hair and the torch flames. All other floss is DMC stitched on 100% cotton white tone on tone fabric with spirals.

I will be linking this post to https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2021/04/slow-sunday-stitching.html for some Slow Easter Sunday stitching.

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter!

 

It's April!

 

Gosh is it really April? This last week with the temps pushing the mid 90's it's felt like August, then the temps dropped yesterday when the rain started now it feels like Spring.

One of the first signs of Spring's arrival in my yard is the lovely Dandy Lion err dandelion which grows to beastly heights here in my Florida garden. 

Hand embroider was slow going through March I just had days when I didn't feel like picking up a needle, so I put the March goddess aside to get in a bit of crocheting and added a few rows to a project I began last March. 

The shell stitch afghan was put aside in the summer months in favor of other projects, this is being done in Lion Brand Wool Ease yarn  in Athena colorway.  I put it away after crocheting a few rows, I think I may be allergic to the yarn.  My eyes get quite itchy and watery when I am working with the yarn, it may just be coincidence and be seasonal allergies, except during the winter when I had another afghan I made with Wool ease tossed over me my eyes would get very irritated.  I've had reactions to angora wool before so I'm not sure, the wool content is only 20% in the yarn so I have my doubts. The next time I pick it up to crochet and my eyes get irritated I may have my answer. Though who knows maybe the acrylic content is irritating me. 

Progress on the March goddess, Hecate, is slow here is where I am as of today. I'm sure I'm dragging on because I don't particularly like the pattern, and the pattern I designed I liked even less so I bought the pattern you see here from Urban Threads.  I had planned to alter the pattern a little by elongating the goddess but I forgot all about it.  Since it's part of my Goddess a Month project I'll finish it and who knows once it's done I may like it. 

I'm still putting the finishing touches on the April goddess design and hope to have her started by the weekend.

I hope Spring is settling in where you are unless you are south of the equator then enjoy the cooling weathers of Autumn.

It's Spring!

 

The last day of winter

 Today is the last day of winter, here in Florida though its hard to believe it's winter with temps the last few days in the high 80's.  We were expecting rain today and heavy wind but that has changed to mostly cloudy and breezy and much cooler for the first few days of Spring.

It's certainly been spring like for the last few days and the dandelions in the yard have been growing like beanstalks.

These beast grow over 4 feet tall yet the flowers are smaller then a US dime, and the seed puff not much larger yet they fly everywhere.

Each time I look at those dandelions I'm amazed at how tall they grow.  The lawn service should be here next week and those beast will be gone, my seasonal allergies will be happy.

Move those clocks ahead

 Did you all remember to set your clocks ahead one hour?

Goodness where did the time go?

 Goodness has it really been over a month since I last posted?  I think two post I typed up in February went the way of the interweb black hole.  

Anyway it's International Women's Day 

My son was married on February 27th, the ceremony was held at the Margaritaville Resort Hotel in Kissimmee Florida.  A lovely full moon hung above during the wedding reception , the weather perfect and clear the entire day.

I had the angiogram on February 11th, unfortunately one of the arteries in the abdomen was fully calcified and the other one was too narrow to put in a stent, the 3rd wasn't as clogged as it was first thought so that was left alone,  Next option is to treat with blood thinners to see if it helps, and it not possible bypass surgery.  First before any surgery I need to know if it's the cause of this illness that has had its grip on me since last March.  I am at the point where I don't even want to see another doctor because all I get is I have heathy organs which is great and no answer to what is causing the pain.

On the stitching front I finished the February Goddess for my personal goddess of the month embroidery project.

I chose to do The Cailleach, a fitting choice because she is as unpredictable as the winter weather, this is how she progressed through the month:

 I used DMC Etoile floss in C798, using the etoile floss to give the appearance of ice on her clothing, I added a quartz crystal to the staff and a twisted jump ring as a buckle on her belt.  She is stitched on 100% cotton with tone on tone  white spiral, The last photo is before the wrinkles were ironed out.

I haven't started the March goddess yet, not even sure which one I will do next, I am leaning toward Hecate, Airmid or Kali.  Linking here at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching check out what other talented bloggers are slow stitching https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2021/03/slow-sunday-stitching.html

I finished reading the latest Janet Evanovich book, as always lots of laughter throughout the pages, it 

will be entered as a book for  both the Crusin thru the Cozies Reading Challenge 2021

and the TBR 21 in '21 challenge.

I just finished A Thousand Days in Tuscany for the European Reading Challenge 2021

I haven't chosen the next book for the European Reading  Challenge yet so I'm not sure where I will arm chair travel next, but I did enjoy A Thousand Days in Tuscany  it's non fiction and I felt I myself was in Italy enjoying the taste of foods and wine that filled almost every page.  She has written a few other books which I plan to read as well.