Happy Dancing to Their Song

Their Song
by Blackbird Designs
stitched on 28 ct. Apple Brown Bindy by R&R Reproductions
with WDW fibers
Yes! It is finally done! I had to look back through my blog archives to see when I started this one and I discovered it was my first new start of 2009. Now it gets to be my third finish for 2011. I'd have to do some more checking but I believe this is also my third Blackbird Designs finish. I only wish I'd discovered them sooner as the prices for some of the out of print charts are more than I can afford. I'll keep hoping to find a deal on Ebay!

Next in the Q-Snaps will be my Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I got the first willow tree done on Block 2 easy peasy, but for some reason I'm going cross eyed with the second one. I'm having so much trouble I'm starting to doubt I stitched the first one correctly! But if it is wrong I'm not about to restitch that thing! So why do I keep looking for a mistake? It's like some sort of stitchy psychosis!

Still no sign of spring here. We're stuck in an infinite loop of snow, melt, refreeze, snow, melt, refreeze. My daughter took this picture of a cedar waxwing in a tree near her apartment trying to eat the frozen berries.


We've been refilling our feeder daily, trying to keep up with the appetites of our local sparrows and cardinals. It was getting a little expensive so we started feeding them the bulk sunflower seeds from the grocery store instead of the fancy cherry-flavored blend. Luckily our guys are not picky eaters. In fact, I've noticed quite a few more finches than we had before and they are some of my favorites, along with the little chickadees.

Today is Thursday and that means it's spaghetti night! (Missy, if you read this, I still use the sauce recipe you sent me so many years ago!) I must be getting ready for a second hiberation or something because my appetite has been out of control this last week. A sure sign that winter isn't over yet... darn!

Thank you all for stopping by! Here's hoping you have your own finish to report soon!

For Lack of Some Moss

I worked on Their Song over the weekend but it remains unfinished for the time being. That single length of WDW Moss is all I have left and it isn't going to be enough. When I bought the fibers for this chart I didn't realize I would need two skeins of Moss and Havana. Luckily I had the Havana in my stash so I was able to finish up all of those bits. And I could swear I'd bought some Moss knowing I was going to need it, but I couldn't find it in any of the usual places. Today might be the day I actually do some organizing around here!

We've been thrown face first back into winter here in SW Michigan. Yesterday started with snow, which then turned to snow and sleet, which then turned to rain and ice. We're back to snow today and it's a mess out there. There are reportedly 85,000 homes in the area without power. I know ours went out at some point during the night because all the digital clocks were flashing this morning. I am counting my blessings because this old house gets pretty darn cold when the furnace isn't running.

Have y'all checked out the new releases from the Nashville market? ABC Stitch has a nice list of them here. My wishy-wanty list has been growing over the last couple of days!

Hope everyone is staying warm, especially if you're in the midst of this latest wintry mess! Thanks for stopping by!

The Great Backyard Bird Count

I know how much we stitchers love to count, so if you have a spare 15 minutes this weekend, consider participating in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count.

Black-capped Chickadee
(Photo from the GBBC website)

Their Song Progress

I pulled Their Song out of my UFO basket on Friday and immediately discovered why I stopped working on it. Somewhere among the leaves and cherries was a mistake. It turned out to be one of those things that fudging would only make worse, so I did some frogging and restitching and now everything is as right as rain. My goal over the weekend was to get the tree and blackbird finished which I happlily accomplished except for the cherry stems which are backstitched. I don't know about you guys but backstitching? I need to be in the right mood for it!

Since Monday was Valentine's Day I celebrated by stitching some of the red bits. I am officially on the second page now and was thinking I'd finish this up by the end of the week. I know that sounds crazy for slow stitchin' me but anything's possible!

We've had temps above freezing this week and the snow is melting everywhere. We can finally see over the mountains of snow at the foot of the driveway when we're backing out! Is spring arriving early this year?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happily Dancing!

Green Snowman
by Shepherd's Bush
stitched on 30-count Weeks Guacamole Linen
with Au Ver a Soie and Overdyed Silk Threads
This is my second finish for the Crazy January Challenge and, I must say, it almost stitched itself! Gotta love those silk threads!

I haven't decided what to work on next but I'm thinking I might dig out Their Song from Blackbird Designs and try to get that one finished. It's been buried at the bottom of my basket for too long!

Snow Day!

This winter we have had snow showers, steady snow, lingering snow, blowing snow, on and off snow, light snow, occaisional snow, and drifting snow. Meh. Then we get news of The Blizzard! The Storm of the Century! Let me tell you, I was glued to the Weather Channel yesterday for hours! (And no, Jim Cantore had absolutely nothing to do with it even though I had the strongest urge to hop in the car and drive to Chicago with a Thermos full of coffee for my favorite hunka hunka burnin' weatherman.) I had big plans to stay up through the night and watch the storm's progress but by 10:00 I was sawing toothpicks. I fully expected to wake up this morning and find two feet of snow on my porch but it doesn't look like we got more than 8-10 inches. That doesn't sound like much until you have to shovel it off your front steps! I have reached the conclusion there is no such thing as 'light snow'!

In stitchy news, here is my progress on Green Snowman.


Can you see the big holes on the top half of the snowman? I switched from completing my stitches one at a time to doing a whole row one way and then back for the bottom half and it seems to have made a difference. If I have enough of the white thread leftover after stitching the hill, I'll rip out the top half and try to wiggle the fabric threads back into place and re-stitch it. I think it'll be worth it in the long run. Those holes are too much of a distraction the way it is.

I hope everyone survived the storm! And if you're having a Snow Day off from work, I hope you get to spend it inside with your stitching!