August 30/17

On vacation.

A few stitches were done during the long car ride to this cottage on Lake Simcoe in Ontario. A few more will be done during the long car ride back to Nova Scotia. Have I mentioned that our vacation involves many hours in the car?

Aug 16/17

The dog days of summer have seen a whole lot of this (the dog is not dead, I promise!)

and not a whole lot of stitching. I have been busy enjoying the beautiful days and evenings by being outside as much as possible, walking the dog when she looks more alert, swimming, sight seeing or reading. My French lessons are coming along nicely as well. We rarely have such a glorious summer, being on the Atlantic coast of Canada, so we are all taking full advantage of this gorgeous weather.

The fella' is in the military and his kids live a few provinces and 20-25 hours of driving away from us so when I found these cute little bears, I thought that they would be perfect for the kids to cuddle when they are missing their dad.

Then, I came across some of his old badges that he no longer needs for his uniform so I asked him if it was okay to personalize the bears with his badges. I tried to figure out how to also include his chevrons, but I did not want to destroy the chevrons as I removed them from the epaulets so they are set aside for another project that I have yet to dream up. The kids are going to love these bears!

Happy stitching!

Aug 9/17

You know when you are constantly busy and on the go, but can not pinpoint just what is keeping you so busy? That has been my life recently. Between it being so hot here recently, trying to exercise more thanks to my Garmin step counter gizmo, socializing with friends, being busy at work because of vacations and enjoying summer, I have not felt much urge to stitch. Add in not liking how the back stitching is designed on the seahorse pattern and that finish is taking forever. I don't like having more than one WIP on the go so I force myself to finish all of the stitching before going on to another project. I do not always do the final finish as is obvious by all of the not-quite-finished projects in my craft room, but I finish the cross stitching.

Anyhoo, here is the current state of the seahorse bag:

The back stitching is about half way completed and it will not be completed tonight as I am about to go to bed.

I am looking forward to stitching this pattern although instead of doing it on white as pictured here:

I am considering a piece of variegated blue and green 28 count even weave (I lost the tag as to the exact fabric although I think that it may be Monaco) that I have in my stash. The road block is that the stitched pattern is 16 inches by 20 inches and my fabric is 20 inches by 23 inches so there is not much left on the sides for framing or finishing. It is unfortunate because I think that it will look really cool with the varying shades of blue and green so I am measuring several times and contemplating several times plus one while I finish the seahorses. I do have a blue and white variegated piece and a white piece with gold flecks that are both large enough, but they do not capture my attention when the skeins are laid out on them while I contemplate the pattern. Maybe my next post will be a photo array of my fabric choices.

Happy stitching!