Monday, August 5

Couple of weeks went by and I feel a little better, it's true that the best healer is time. Finally my eyes has dried and brain is working again. Thank goodness, because the bills have to be paid and I'm self employed right now. I chose not to have a 9 to 5 job and if you do not have to show up every morning, it's so easy to get sidetrack... So I'm back to work 'full steam'. If all goes well maybe (and that's a big maybe) I can go for that trip across Canada this autumn. It would be so cool to see our Maritimes finally. Frosty Girl isn't taking car rides very well, she is getting car sick. Does anybody has any advice? It will be a long, long trip and many hours in the car.

Terri of This is who I am has a new challenge FAB4FOCUS. I looked on my neglected SALs and decided to go with these 4:

1. The Russian Roster - I dislike this sampler but love the roosters and originally I wanted  to stitch just the little motifs. Well, yesterday I had another look on the whole thing and all of a sudden I realized that the sayings are the perfect conservative values that I admire so much... I made I few changes to the design and fell in love with it. Thank goodness I've started this piece on a fabric large enough to stitch the whole thing.
   
2. Miss Mary Mack
   
3. Ol Harvest Moon - this one I'm stitching over one with one thread on the 25 ct even weave. For some reason I wanted to make an ornament from this design...
   
4. Bluenose Dime - I didn't finish it by the end of July as planned, now I'm hoping to be done with it by the end of summer.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Thank God it's Friday!

It has been a week from hell - thank God it's Friday.

I had no idea how difficult is to find things that I'm grateful for in a time of guilt, grief and stress. My brain stopped functioning, has been taken over by emotions, and one disaster was followed by another.  So far today nothing bad has happen yet (I guess I'm getting a little more stable), I hope it stays that way.

 Today I'm grateful for:

1. My blogging friends with their encouraging comments.
2. Stitching. While working on the Bluenose Dime - I was listening to 'The Last Runaway' (thank goodness for audio books),  it really had calm me down. Below you can see my progress on this piece.
3. Housework. I thought these words would never come out from my mouth but I've discovered that mopping floors isn't a chore when I'm in a stress - actually quite opposite - it has a distressing effect.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Top Three

Nancy of Chickens & Fine China has a page on her blog when she writes daily three things she is thankful for. I think that's a great idea for a positive mind setting. Here are mine top three for today:

1. Freddy
2. 9+ years with Topaz. We had to say goodbye to her couple of days ago. She came to our life in May of 2004 and left us with many wonderful memories. Now she is on the other side of the rainbow bridge.
3. Blue sky and sunshine

What are yours?

So long my friends,
Evalina

Bluenose Dime

I think this is the best summer since we came north. Nice, warm, long days with a lot of sunshine and not too many mosquitoes. Don't get me wrong, the bugs are here but not as abundant as in the previous years.

My stitching stand went to the carpenter for a little adjustment, it wasn't able to hold bigger frame. In the meantime I'd dig out the Bluenose Dime by Lynn Nicoletti and I've done a lot (in my opinion) for 3 days of work.

 before and after

fabric: antique blue lugana, 32ct

floss: DMC cotton and DMC rayon

Now, I have a dilemma - my stand is back and I can stitch  Ann Kirby again but the Bluenose Dime is really calling my name and I want to finish it... I think I can do it in 10 days or so. It would be one less WIP in my pile and one more finish for the year.

A finish and a new start

I'm so delighted! My M. Quertier 1799 is all done, DONE, DONE!

I've change initials inside the motifs to honor Nicola's blog participants, JP is for Jo who can't think of a clever nick name. Jo is helping Nicola to manage her blogs. NP is for Nicola, the birthday girl who started the Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year  MVV is for Marsha of The Scarlet Letter and of course my own EZ. I left the original 'MQ to MN 1799' and the 'M. Quertier 1799'.
I stitched this piece on the 35ct linen that came with the kit with 1 strand of black silk. I love the silk so much that now I even can't imagine of going back to DMC. Thank goodness that my next project (Ann Kirby Sampler) is also done with silks.

This is the sampler:

and my WIP (work in progress). It's also stitched on 35ct linen with lovely silk threads.

So long my friends,
Evalina