WIPS again

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Date26 Apr 2020
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Comments2

I’ve had so much trouble with this post that I’ve just scrapped it and rewritten it. Ugh. Anyway, here’s what I have been up to this past week:

The Pink Sparrow (I can see a finish very soon! Maybe this week!)

Foxy (Just look at that sparkly white tail! That was the most fun part of this project as I anticipated it would be!)

New Small: GPA’s 2016 Ornament stitched with Gloriana silks Old Gold and India Ink. I will call this one my “Purdue-Army Ornament” because Black and Gold are Purdue’s and West Point’s colors, and my husband and his sister are Purdue grads and my dad is a West Point grad! And then I think I’ll stitch it again in other, more Christmas-y colors because I really like the design!

New Small: Chessie and Me Out in a Limb pin cushion. I love this sweet kitty. I’m stitching with the charted colors on R&R Liberty Gray. It’s a really pretty gray.

All this stitching has been very enjoyable. In addition to stitching, I have been happy about these things:

I got a cactus for my birthday last month. It was an impulse buy at Lowes (a big hardware store) because the bloom color was so gorgeous. Well, it bloomed a show for me this weekend which I just had to share with all the world. Look at that bouquet! I’d rather have this than a dozen roses for my birthday!

For those curious about plants, I will tell you about it. This is a Torch Cactus which is Trichocereus. I think the hybrid is Sunset. It is about 18″ high, and that is about half it’s mature height. The blooms are an impressive 6-8″ across! It will bloom like this a few times through the spring each year and each bloom show only is in full glory one day, followed by a more faded day, and then it all shrinks and shrivels up, so the bloom is quite special. I am still looking for the perfect place in the yard for it!

Our family enjoys puzzles. I got several new ones. The kids and I plow through each in about 1-2 days. They are like little potato chip eaters with puzzles-they just can’t stop once they get started! Here are some of the puzzles we have done:

The one on the left is a Pomegranate puzzle by Charley Harper and the one of the eggs is a vintage Springbok puzzle

It is hitting 100 degrees now (that’s 38 C) Is that bad? Well, not for the kids because now it is hot enough to go swimming! Yay swimming! It is fun! It is a great bribe! It tuckers everyone out! It means everyone gets clean! Win, win, win, win!

I hope you all find something to be happy about this week! Have a good one!

April Smalls Check In

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Date24 Apr 2020
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Comments13

Hello, hello! It’s the end of April! Time to show off the Small(s) you’ve stitched this month!

Here is mine, a tiny Janlyn kit called Garden Gnome. He came out pretty cute! Time to hunt for a tiny frame!

This is not my usual thing as you know, but it is for someone else so I was glad to make it up. Though I will say the materials in these little kits are less fun to stitch and if I were doing it again I would have swapped them out!

I have been on a little kitting frenzy. Whenever I need an “escape” from homeschooling and the messy kitchen, I run up to my room and cut fabric and pull floss. It feels productive. I’ve been trying to steal some stitching minutes when I sit to help with schoolwork too, but it is nothing like that glorious 20 minutes in the school pick up line which I used to enjoy. Anyway, it’s mostly been for Smalls so hopefully you’ll see some of these finished later this year:

Have you had more time to stitch, or less? Do you see a light at the end of the coronavirus isolation tunnel yet? Are you coping ok? We are fine. Next week our governor will announce if our restrictions will be relaxed or not. I’m just glad my grocery store is not limiting milk purchases any more! With 5 kids we go through a lot of milk and so that is my limiting grocery! Buying only 1 or 2 gallons at a time means many more trips to the store! Well enough of that digression!

I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ve been working on! You can link up here!

Progress on the WIPs

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Date21 Apr 2020
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Comments4

I just love working on The Pink Sparrow and I made good progress last week! I guess I’m avoiding the border a little bit. But if that’s all that’s left at the end it should go pretty fast!

I have some of the cutwork done on Foxy. Cutwork is when you cut the little spiral tubes to size and sew them on like bugle beads to fill in, like on the ears there. I sewed the eyes on too, and now he has a little personality!

And I finished up Flowers and Lace. Now I need to decide on an FFO plan. I cut the linen too short on the right to finish it like the picture. I think I’ll center the design and look and see if I can find the right kind of lace, then place the lace on both sides of the design. It may have to wait until the shops are open again!

Remember we have a “short” month this month with the last Friday falling this week, the 24th, so if you want to participate in the Smalls SAL, finish up that little project you’ve been working on!

Have a nice weekend!

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Welcome to Mary’s Thread!

I started this blog in 2016 to chronicle my stitching life. My Grandma M. taught me to cross stitch when I was 7 and I’ve had a project (or many!) going since then. I am mostly a cross stitcher who makes forays into other types of embroidery. A lifetime ago I studied French and art history but now I fit my stitching around a busy life raising 5 young kids with my wonderful husband. Thank you for spending some time at my blog!

2020 Stitch-A-Longs

2020 Stitch-A-Longs

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