L'Automne est finis!

Finally! Yeah!

I have to say that I found this very difficult. I'm sure that part of it was that I stitched it one over one, but the design itself was very curvy with the winding vines, etc. I do not think I have ever made so many mistakes on a design, at least not in recent history.
There was a lot of improvising going on here, especially towards the end.

Here she is. Sorry about the crooked picture.

L'Automne - Birds of a Feather
Stitched 1 over 1, using DMC threads on 28ct natural linen

Since we have been immersed lately in all things chicken, I couldn't help but be drawn to The Sarah Whiteley Sampler. I love the crazy looking chickens in it!

The Sarah Whiteley Sampler -Reproduction of an 1823 sampler

This is an oldie from 1985, from Susan L Coyle of Creative Designers.

I made a start.

There is something amiss here though. I started in the center the way I always do, and then moved to the left side, and up to the top. I was really surprised to find how much fabric I had at the top. Gives you a very uneasy feeling that there won't be enough on the bottom. There is also more on the left margin than there should be. I have measured this so many times. Mathematically, it seems to be reasonably correct, but my sense is that something is wrong. I am also wondering if the stated finished size is correct. Hmmm! I was thinking of re-doing it, but I would really hate to do that. Aggravating!

The chickens are keeping us in stitches! They are such funny little things! They seem to double in size in front of our eyes. When they were little, I would feed them the small bits from the bottom of the popcorn bag. The mere crinkle of the bag sent them into a frenzy! I created a monster, or monsters I should say. Now they come to my door to beg for popcorn, the silly things! I had no idea that chickens could interact so much with people. I'm afraid they have become unintended pets!

Chickens calling!

Late TUSAL and some progress

This spring has been incredibly turbulent for us! One thing after another. Last week, my brother-in-law had a stroke. It turned out to be a relatively small one. He was very lucky. It totally upset all of us though. Thankfully he is home now and doing well.
Anyhow, here is my very late TUSAL.

Lots of orange from the pumpkins and her hair.

I completely underestimated how long this design would take to complete. All of those swirling vines, etc take a lot of looking at the chart, which slows things down. The basket also took forever. I know there are many mistakes in that basket, but they will have to stay there! LOL!

For a long time, we have wanted to have chickens. Years ago when we moved in, there were chickens living on the property. They had basically gone wild. Needless to say, they did not meet with a good end with all the raccoons around here.
Keith was furloughed from his job for 3 weeks in April. This came as a surprise to us. We certainly were not ready for it. Financially we took quite a hit, but we made use of the time to construct a chicken coop. We had fun doing this!
We ordered the day-old chicks from McMurray Hatcheries. We ordered the "Rainbow Layers" mixture. Looking at them now, I cannot believe they came in this little box. Here I am picking them up at the Post Office.


 We got them April 1st, so they spent the first month of their lives in a plastic box in my foyer.

It is amazing how quickly they grow. They seem to double every other day. We were up to three containers before they were big enough to put them outside (Thank God)!

It was not without its harrowing moments!

Here they are at 4 weeks old, finally out in the coop.

The weather has been warm, so we have been experimenting with letting them out of the pen. Of course this required putting up fencing to keep them out of the neighbor's yard. We still have more areas to fence, but so far they seem to keep to the wooded areas in the yard. I have to keep an eye out for hawks though. We have quite a few of them here.
Here is a picture of Millie that I took this morning:

They will be 9 weeks old tomorrow. They should start laying eggs between 22 and 24 weeks. We should have eggs by October!

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Keith harvested the first honey of the season. We got about 40 bottles. We were hoping for more, but it seemed like a short spring for the flowers. Hopefully, we can harvest again around the 4th of July. The bees seem happy though.
Back soon!
Erica

TUSAL, L'Automne and BLOGGER problems galore!

I know I am late with my TUSAL, but it has been total chaos around here! (More about that later).
Here it is:

All of the threads come from L'Autumne. I am just about 50% done with it.

Please ignore the purple thread across her sweater. Don't know how that got there!
This one is taking much longer than I thought it would, and I have to admit that I am starting to lose interest. I hope I can manage to keep going to the finish.
That sweater of hers, with its knit pattern nearly drove me insane!


I would have posted a few days ago but I am having so many problems with Blogger! I have been close to tears trying to get this published! I just hate their new interface. I thought I had it figured out, but once again, all my settings were changed. I can no longer use my regular browser. I have to go on using Google Chrome! 
I am no longer a Google fan!


So much has been going one here. Much to tell, but I will have to come back later.
Here's hoping this publishes!

TUSAL, Easter Parade, and some progress

Happy Spring everyone!

Here is my TUSAL:

Last week when it started to get warm, I dispersed my 2011 orts on the bushes around my house. I always hope the birds will use them for building their nests.

I do have a finish to announce!

Here is Easter Parade:

Easter Parade by Blackbird Designs - Stitched on 32ct Waterlily with GA Threads.

I loved stitching this one! Now I have to find the right frame. I have an attic full of frames and yet none of them seem right. This is an odd size. It will be tough to find one. I would like to stitch it again on 40ct to have it a little smaller.

I made a little progress on L'Automne. This is very slow going one over one. It is frustrating because I made a critical error somewhere early on. I thought I found it and fixed it, but no such luck. Don't you just hate it when the lines don't meet up! It is especially important in this as it is a line drawing! I have been improvising as I go along but I am afraid there is something unfixable looming out there! Not a good feeling.

Here is where I am:
Hope everyone enjoys the day out there! It is beautiful here in New York. Hope it is nice where you are.

Progress on "the girl with the orange hair" and a new start

Progress comes slowly when you are stitching one over one, but here she is:

Those viney bits take forever!

I decided to take a short break from her to stitch Easter Parade from Blackberry Designs.

I love this design! It reminds me of an old time post card.
I am stitching it on 32 count linen on Water Lily. Sometimes green can be an iffy choice, but in this case I think it works. It is a very pale green, and looks like spring. I am using the suggested G.A. Sampler Threads. I am still waiting for some threads to arrive, but this is what I have so far:

Really hard to tell the color from this, but I hope it will work. It's nice to use up a piece of linen from my stash for a change!

BTW - Blogger is absolutely giving me fits! It has changed all my settings. For some reason it will no longer use my normal browsers. The only way I could post this was through Google Chrome, and I do not have the ability to change anything. Something is really wrong here with Google! GOOGLE are you listening? I HATE THIS !

Tulip Patch is finished!

I should have posted this last week, but here it is:

I wanted to keep the Arts & Crafts style with the signature, so I used a Roycroft font for the initials.It was stitched on 40ct Ivory linen using Needlepoint Silks.

Now I will have to find a frame for it!

After that, I started L'Automne.

I have wanted to stitch this for a long time but have been put off by the huge size of it! As published, I would never be able to find wall space for it. I decided to stitch it one over one on 28 count, in Flax.

Even with that, it is pretty big. I am using 2 threads, making the stitch pop a bit, to give it a 3-d effect.

I have been a little surprised at the colors. I decided to use DMC, and it is coming out nothing like the picture! I knew it would be a bit different, but this is really quite a bit different. The colors are not so fall-like as in the picture. I am not sure how I like this just yet. I am reserving judgement for the moment.

I was unfortunately visited by the frogs! I think I have spent as much time frogging as I have stitching! LOL. This is what I have so far:

That hair! It is much redder in the picture. Here, it is flaming orange!

I cannot believe that it is March! I do love my calendar picture though. We have been getting this calendar every year from Wolf Creek in West Virginia, for years.

I just love the sheep!
March is going to be a difficult month for me. Besides being my birthday month (who wants to face that), I will be having some medical tests. This sort of thing should get easier as you get older, but I find that I have become very distrustful of the whole medical industry! I face them with great trepidation! We are still awaiting the results of our insurance appeal from my surgery last summer. I do not have high hopes for a good outcome. UGGH!

I will have to do a lot of stitching to counteract the stress!