Friday, March 24, 2017

Feeling Like Seattle

Yesterday was brilliant - one wonderful day in a week of clouds and rain. Today it's back to the rain. I know that the wet side of the state (Seattle area) is worse than here, but for us dry siders, this rain is getting to us. I hope the moisture is going deep for all the crops coming later this year!

Daily life here has been typical. My ESL class size was down Monday/Tuesday - maybe the clouds are getting to them too. I've been going in to work in the afternoon, as usual, but am learning a new little bookkeeping job that has been neglected for awhile. We have a new agent that started for us this week in the Yakima office and training has been going really well, so that's exciting!

As for stitching, once again this week, I haven't done a whole lot, but I'll catch you up anyway. :)

Daisy Sampler - Country Cottage Needleworks
I've completed the alphabet on Daisy, but had to do a little reverse stitching on the border that goes under the flower, alphabet, and basket as it was off a row and really couldn't be fudged.

Springtime - Cathy Jean for Victoria Sampler
Springtime has been a nice, easy project to work on so far. I've enjoyed it a lot.

Now, for some reason, I've been in a mood to add to my stash and a little order from 123 Stitch came in this week.


Promise of Spring by Silver Creek Samplers has shown up on flosstube and blogs lately, and the sentiment appealed to me in this gray late winter/early spring. Then I threw in a couple cuts of 32 ct. linen: Wren by Picture This Plus, and Vintage Sahara (the lighter one in the back). But I have some darker linen in my stash that I'll be stitching Promise of Spring on.

In about a month's time, I will be heading up to Victoria, B.C. for the Victoria Sampler stitchers' retreat and our project came in the mail this week! This is the 20th anniversary of VS, so Thea designed a birthday sampler. It just so happens that I have a milestone birthday coming up in June, so the design seems extra appropriate!

Happy Birthday Sampler - Victoria Sampler
It's very colorful and looks like it'll be fun to stitch, and while it looks good on the Light Sand linen that was in the kit, I'm thinking I want to stitch it on blue.  So I went to my stash to do a little floss toss.


I really like the dark teal blue color, but some of the colors get a little lost. I also have a nice cut of a light blue that I can't remember the name of anymore, but it's leftover from my Neighborhood Round Robin that I participated in YEARS ago. It would work, but I went to a bit of Smokey Pearl linen that seems just right. No surprise there as Thea often chooses Smokey Pearl for her designs and her color palette looks great on it.

Unfortunately, I don't have a large enough piece of Smokey Pearl for the new sampler, so I ordered some from the Silver Needle yesterday. Gotta spread the orders around to my favorite online needlework shops!

Well, my work break is over so gotta get back at it!

Have a wonderful stitchy weekend, my friends!

8 comments:

Pamela said...

Great progress and wonderful new projects. I wish I could join you for the VS retreat!

Vickie said...

Daisy Sampler and Springtime are both such sweet stitches Von. How exciting that you are going to Victoria Sampler stitchers' retreat! Your project is beautiful.

Barb said...

I think everyone is Washington is sick of the rain. We are too. I think we have had two decent days in a long time. Today we worked on trimming our hydrangeas. We had to make hay while the sun shone, tomorrow , back to rain. You are doing some very pretty stitching.

Brigitte said...

Great progress on your projects, Von.
That retreat project will be a lot of fun to stitch and it will look wonderful on Smokey Pearl. That's a colour I love very much, too.
I hope the weather will soon turn and the sun will visit more often.

diamondc said...

Hi Von: A little stitching is better then no stitching, I hope you get sunny days for a while soon.

Blessings
Catherine

Lillie said...

Lovely projects you've got there.
The birthday sampler is stunning. Wishing you a wonderful time at the VS Retreat.

Cricket-bug Corner said...

Your progress looks great. I have not had any trouble with the rain even though I'm new here - I thought it rained all the time so I am ready for it. The rain does make the sunny days seem so wonderful though!!

Julie said...

Lots of lovely things to see in this post. The anniversary sampler does look pretty and I like the sentiment on the new spring project.