Let's talk about stitching

 I love HAED! Two years ago I was browsing all charts and I have found Fruity Bunch. Each time I looked at it it made me smile

I even found a place to hang it when I'm done stitching. This was my progress until I picked it again just this month.

I started working on the left side and right now I'm here

I'm stitching this piece with tent stitch on 28 easy count with single floss. Since September 10th I have done 7,600 stitches!

Goodbye summer. hello autumn

 This year, the Autumn Equinox  occurs on Monday, Sept. 22 at 11:19 AM PDT (18:19 UTC) and it brings roughly equal day and equal night to the entire planet. North of the equator, it's been summer, with more daylight than darkness, so September's equinox marks the first day of fall; south of the equator, it's been winter, with more darkness than daylight, so the equinox brings spring.

Do you love fall? What are your best things about fall?

Mine are:

1. Colours. I adore autumn colours, love when leaves are turning red, brown, yellow...

2. Rain. I know, I'm a little weird but I love rain.

3. Hiking. It's awesome to walk trails in the fall with all the colours around.

4. Food!

5. Cozy fireplace and a glass of red in the evenings.

6. Thanksgiving and more food...

7. Autumn decorations around the house (in and out)

8. Making jams and pickles.

9. Visiting farm markets.

10. Halloween!!!

 

 

Is anyone still here?

 

 OMG, years went by since I was blogging... do I still remember how to do it? This is a test :) 
Couple days ago I was sorting my craft room and I found a lovely Irish Blessing Sampler (I will call it IBS for short) that I started sometime in 2012 and haven't look at it for 13 years 6 months and 15 days... I was planning to finish it for St Paddy's Day in 2013 but didn't make it... I hope I will finish it in time for 2026.
I looked on my old WIPs and I have noticed that I managed to finish some but some are still work in progress and some are just plain UFOs (unfinished objects).
Here is my post from time when I stopped stitching IBS.

Below are latest pics of start and finish

I need a plumber and it's a long weekend...

It's hard to admit but I'd fail miserably with my faucet replacement project. Now valves are leaking all over the house  and my new kitchen faucet is still in the box. I should listen to Freddy and never touch that darn thing. Now I'm trying to find a plumber...

So long my friends,
Evalina

Hello Saturday, hello long weekend!

I don't know why but I'm very cheerful this morning. I guess because of the extra day off. I'm back to corporate world again, giving up my freedom on one hand and gaining extra cash on the other. I guess isn't time for retirement for me yet.

I have a lot on my 'to do' list today. Number one is to replace kitchen faucet. It started to leak a while ago, Freddy did nothing... then couple days ago he was standing in a paddle of water on the kitchen floor. Two days went buy and my man did not even call the plumber... Since my man refuses to do any repair jobs in the house (I guess he was a woman in his previous life 'cause he is great in the kitchen), I decided today is the day for me to look after. Yesterday I watched a few videos on YouTube how to replace the faucet and it doesn't look too difficult at all. Guys were saying that it should take about an hour and new faucet is around a hundred bucks. Will see when I'm done.

As promise here is my update on the Pumpkin Man. I also have a SAL Facebook group where a few of us are working on same project: Jack O Man SAL

Wish me luck and I will keep you posted!

So long my friends,
Evalina

Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Blog Hop 2017

Happy Halloween my friends!

It's a spooky time of the year and Jo of Serendipitous Stitching is hosting another blog hop with a mysterious phrase.  Here is your letter:

T

You will find your next letter there: http://apatchworkofcrafts.blogspot.ca

So long my friends,
Evalina

In my next post I will show you my stitchy progress on this lovely Pumpkin Man.

Zodiac SAL

Jo of Serendipitous Stitching has done non-imaginable thing: she brought me back to blogland! She is hosting Zodiac SAL and I would love to be part of it. I'll be stitching this:

It is a large piece of 347,900 stitches. If I would like to finish it in a year I must be making close to a thousand stitches a day every day. Nope, isn't gonna happen... but I'm hoping to finish in this lifetime. I think I have enough floss to start but I must make a trip to LNS to buy some fabric.

I know it will look fantastic when done and I know that I will enjoy stitching it.

so long my friends,
Evalina

Flora: A

Deborah started another abecedarium and I decided to join her. She discovered that June 28 through July 4 is designated as American Flowers Week, so she is blogging about flowers. I love flowers too and in Canada every single province and territory has an official floral emblem.

Let's start with Alberta. 

 

Since 1930 Alberta adopted Wild Rose as it's emblem. I guess because in Alberta it can be found almost everywhere! Starts blooming in late May and lasts until early August.  The fragrant flowers are bright pink with petals 3-5 cm in size and can be used for the manufacture of perfume. The plant grows up to 1.5 m (5 feet) tall and has "bristle like" branches.  The larger stems are densely covered with small prickles with the occasional thicker thorn.

I absolutely love rose hip tea and rose hip jams. Wild roses are very abundant in the Yukon also. While I was living there June was my favorite time to take long walks and smell the roses.

Some are saying that smell of roses can be use for protection from ghosts and evil spirits.


And this is for my stitchy friends: Canadian Hearts by Victoria Sampler

 So long my friends,
Evalina

Still here...

Oh man, it has been a long time since my last post. You see, I decided to get a 10 to 5 job and that stole eight hours of my day. Thank goodness my contract is over, now I have a lot (and I mean it!) to catch up. The house is a mess, the garden is a mess, I'm behind with my stitching and there is a ton of work in my office. It's overwhelming but one step at the time... hopefully by the and of the  month I will breath easier and sleep better.

The weather is awesome, I managed to go for a few hikes with Frosty:

Maybe tonight I will find a little time to curl up with the book. I have 'The Coldest Girl in Coldtown' by Holly Black on my list.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Saturday morning in Port Alberni

Snow, snow, snow everywhere... about a foot thick blanket of snow had cover Port Alberni over night. It was snowing yesterday but just a little, this morning I woke up to real winter-land. This is on my deck:

I tried to go for a walk with Frosty but I was sinking in the snow - maybe later I will drive with her to a place where she can have a good run without the leash.

In February we usually have crocuses and camellias in bloom (that's from February a year ago)

Thank goodness there is a rain in forecast.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Goodbye 2016

Six more hours and 2016 will be gone forever. As always there were some ups and downs and, for some unknown reason, I'm looking into 2017 with real excitement.

Last January I started the year with minimalism challenge. The idea was to remove what wasn't adding value in to my life and to make room for stuff that is. And let me tell you -I have so much room now that I must to start 2017 with maximalism challenge (if such thing exists).

Definitely I have a lot of room for more love, more compassion, more friends, more money, more finishes, more fun, practically more of everything. I read very few books this year (just 33) and I made very few blog posts (56). Can you agree that I have plenty of room for more?

I'm not setting any goals and I'm not making any resolutions. Instead I'm making an action plan!

As for the stitchy part... I DID IT!!! I finished sixth page of my Guardian Angel and I'm ready to start another one. Here is the finished page:

So long my friends,
Evalina

Merry Christmas!

How was your first day of Christmas? Mine has started awesome! We were driving to our friends for Christmas dinner and there it was... a Santa fishing on our beautiful Cameron Lake.

After dinner we were driving through Ladysmith and enjoyed festival of lights. In reality it was spectacular!

I'm not doing so good with my Guardian Angel and I do not think I can finish that page by the end of the year...

I guess this time Christmas got in the way of accomplishing my goal.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Oops!

It looks like all of the sudden my tunnel got longer, much longer. Santa's 12 Days of Christmas went to the 'to do' basket and Guardian Angel again is brought to the light. I really would like to finish two columns of pages by the end of the year. Here is where I'm now:

There is about 7700 stitches to accomplish my goal for the year. If I can stitch just little over 400 a day I can do it. What do you think?

So long my friends,
Evalina

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

I've started stitching Santa's 12 Days of Christmas in January 2015. I thought it never be done...
I was wrong! I finished Santa #9 and#10, now I'm working on the #11 and it looks like I will finish all of them by Christmas.

 

So long my friends,
Evalina

Rain, showers, scattered showers, more rain...

It is pretty wet on the West wet coast, perfect time for relaxing, stitching, reading or updating the blog. Nothing very exciting has happened in my life lately other than sailing. Last Sunday the sky was cleared for a while (it actually turned blue!) so we jumped on the boat and spread sails. We had a lot of fun with sea lions. It looked like they were playing with us. They were sticking their heads above the water, making some kind of noises and as soon as I try to catch them on the camera they made a perfect flip and hide under the water only to show up in a different spot. Here are couple of my attempts to capture the fun.

And, of course I was stitching some. I promised to myself that I will work on one project at a time and now I'm keep stitching my Santa's 12 days of Christmas. Santa number 7 and 8 are finished, now I'm working on Santa #9.

Colours are showing depending on the light. The closest to original is Santa #7. I hope I can finish Santa #9 tonight and then I will have to finish three more Santas before Christmas. Can I do it? What do you think?

So long my friends,
Evalina

Life is good!

Summer is gone, September is almost gone - time for an update! Let's start with stitching. My Woodland Santa is done

and Santa #6 is done

and that makes the whole project half done

And let me tell you about biggest surprise - we bought a yacht. Yeap, a 40 footer sailing yacht. I have never sail before, I'm a glider pilot but Freddy is the sailor and I figured that us and mom can have fun together and add a little adventure to our lives.

This baby will be ready to sail tomorrow to her new home.

So long my friends,
Evalina

It's about time to post an update. We had extremely hot weather, I was stitching but had no energy to do anything else. I put on the side my Honest, Kind and Good  and, to keep me little cooler, I decided to work on one of those past January Crazy Starts. I was working on one of the Woodland Santas by The Prairie Schooler.

That's where I left it off in February 2015

and this is where I'm now.

Santa did not help much with lowering the heat so I jumped in the card and went north to Telegraph Cove. It was lovely cold there, just 16 degrees Celsius (where in Port Alberni was 35 degrees). It was so chilly that I needed a jacket. And I got the most beautiful sunset there:

This week is much cooler and I should go back to Honest, Kind and Good but I think I will finish this little project and then will go back.

So long my friends,

Evalina

Couple days ago I mentioned being a part of Jane Austen festival in Port Alberni. Here is a little more about it and you can see me here and there all dressed up. It was the first JA festival held in Canada, next year we are planning to break Guinness world record for attendees in regency costumes.

So long my friends,
Evalina

an hour a day

Yesterday I came across Emily's Cupboard who joined Meredithe in a "1 hour a day" challenge.
It's easy:

• you can use your time for any crafting project; knitting, sewing, quilting, whatever you want

• the “1 hour” is a minimum! You can stitch/knit/sew to your heart’s content, all day if you choose, or until your fingers wear out!

• this is not a competition; it’s a challenge with yourself to get a minimum of an hour’s work done on whatever project/s you choose

Why not to join? Of course I'm in! Below is my progress of the second day (yesterdays stitching I'm counting as a day one).

I have survived Jane Austen festival and my birthday. Both occasions were a lot of fun and all went well. There was time when I celebrated my birthday much longer (twelve days to be exact) but now with my mother-in-law around I'd lost desire to do long celebrations. It looks like only stitching helps me to stay sane and, oh gosh, sometimes I feel so ready just to spread my wings and fly somewhere far away from my current situation. When I was younger I had so many dreams - some of them came true but so many did not...but, after all, I do not feel that all is lost. I strongly believe that I can still dream and, who knows, some of my dreams maybe will come true.

I was faithfully working exclusively on Honest, Kind and Good. Here is the progress:

 
So long my friends,
Evalina