I know! It's been ages!

Every time I thought about blogging, something seemed to get in the way.

I was hoping to post some more pictures of Loara Standish, but I have put that one aside for now. I really think there had to be something wrong with that girl! Anyone who would stitch like that must have had a twisted mind! I made a mistake, (or I thought I did, - then turned out, I really didn't make a mistake after I frogged everything), and took 2 full evenings frogging. The stitching pattern is very odd to make it reversible, so the frogging becomes really impossible because you cannot tell where the stitch is coming from. (Those of you who have tried reversible stitching will know what I am talking about). Anyway, I found the whole thing sooooo annoying, that I decided to put it aside for a while.

I have been making progress on my Country Garden quilt, but I do not have any pictures yet.

I had a busy summer and fall. This was our second year keeping bees, and we finally got some honey!

I made a sign. (Keith cut it out and I painted it and did the lettering).

People are getting to know that we are here, and we have been selling several bottles a week. We have put a lot into it, money and time. Keith figured out that if we sold the honey for what it cost us, we would have to charge about $67 a bottle! LOL! We are selling the bears for $6 each. Gradually as we sell them, that cost goes down. If we have a good year next year, we will break even.

No one gets rich selling honey! It does give you a good feeling though. It has been a very positive experience, and people do seem to appreciate it. We have one customer who has been here 4 times, and says we have the best honey she has ever tasted! That makes you feel good!

One thing I tried was the honor system which I am happy to say has worked very well. We have a little table that we put out when we are not there.

I spent last weekend bottling up the honey from the 4th hive, the last harvest of the season.
This is what I got. My little army of bears!The bees need what is left so they can make it through the winter. We will not be harvesting again until next spring.

Now, back to stitching . . .

For my holiday stitching, I decided on Patricia Andrle's Wintertide.

This is a handanger ornament. It is a freebie, and is available here.

I am stitching it as designed on 28 ct white linen, using silk threads, although I think this one could be done very nicely with Perle cotton as well.

I have just started it, but you can see the Kloster blocks here done with the silk serica.

Well that's it for now. I promise it will not be so long til next time!

Hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Does anyone know of a Irish reproduction sampler?

My ancestors all hail from Ireland, and I thought it would be fun to stitch an historical Irish sampler.
I have been looking, but so far with no luck. All I seem to find are shamrocks, leprechauns, and the like.
The Scarlet Letter has some from Scotland, but I have not seen one from Ireland.
If anyone knows of one, I would really appreciate it if you would drop me a line.

A Finish and a VERY Nervous New Start!

I finished up The Mary Clark Sampler last week, but have only now gotten around to posting the picture.

I stitched it on 40 count linen using silk threads.

This was a fun sampler to stitch, and I am pleased with the way it turned out. I am looking forward to finding the right frame for it.

The May edition of my Totally useless stitch-along shows the colors from the Mary Clark Sampler, as well as a bit more pink from my Country Garden quilt.

Now, for the new start.

I have finally decided to bite the bullet. This has been in my stash for years, but has intimidated me every time I look at it!

This is one big, scary box!

Yup, the beast itself!

I have finally decided to take on The Loara Standish Sampler!

Just a bit of history:

This is a reproduction of America's oldest known sampler (circa 1640). It has been preserved in Pilgrim Hall, America's oldest museum since 1844. Loara was the daughter of Capt. Myles Standish and his wife Barbara , of Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts. The stitches are all very intricate, and the whole thing is reversible! The original was stitched on a fine linen (50 threads by 66 threads, and measures 7-1/4 X 23-1/2", using silk floss.

The kit came with 35 count hand-dyed linen and silk floss. There are instructions for stitching a non-reversible version, but I have chosen to make it reversible.

I decided that the only way I was going to get through this, was to treat it just like any other sampler, modifying it as I see fit.

I am changing the linen to 40 count, but perhaps the biggest change I am making is with the silk thread. The instructions call for using 2 strands of silk thread over 3 threads. I tried this and did not like the effect. Some of the stitches require the thread to pass through a single hole, many times. It comes out very thick and chunky. I decided to use 1 strand over 3 threads. I am hoping that increasing the linen to 40ct will make up for the density. This is not entirely without issues however, because some of the colors were intended to be blended together using two colors on the needle. The shades are very close however. I will have to make the decision which color to use when I come to it.

There was a huge amount of prep work for this piece. I dyed the linen in a mixture of tea and coffee, rinsed, dried and ironed it. This closed the holes even more.

It took an hour to read through the huge instruction packet, and I am still not sure I have gotten it straight! Then I had to make a stitching line down the left side of the linen, stitching over every three threads, to mark where the bands begin.

Finally I was ready to start. The first band was to be stitched in the famous Standish stitch.

This is not as easy as it looks! Your brain gets very used to stitching over 2 threads, and it is very hard to get used to stitching over 3! The 40ct makes it even tougher. Also,you have to constantly check the back to make sure it truly is reversible. It requires that one stitch be done twice in the same spot, and this is very easy to overlook. There were 67 of these stitches in Band 1.

This is how it came out:

(click to see detail)

Phew! This is going to be a tough one!

Mary Clark Update

Just a quick blog update on Mary Clark. Here she is so far:

This has been a fun stitch with all the flora and fauna in glorious colors! Love the navy blue deer!

I should finish it up in the next few days. It has taken a little longer than I thought. There have been a few nights that I was just to tired to stitch on 40 count linen.
Things have been very busy here with the house and of course the bees, but that is another posting!
Soon!

Bountiful Blueberries is finished!

This was indeed a quick stitch. It measures about 2" X 2-5/8" on 32ct. It was completed in less than 3 evenings. I needed a quick little one after all of my big projects!

I outlined the blueberries, sewed on all the beads and the charm, and Voila!

Click to enlarge

Now of course, I have to find a frame for it.

Lately I have been spending my time working on my family tree. I put in a good deal of work back in the 80's, but I have found a little bit more with the help of the internet. I still need some major breaks though to trace my ancestors across the ocean.

I have a Mary Clark in my family, and I thought it would be fun to do the Mary Clark Sampler. Of course my relative is no relation to the Mary Clark who originally stitched this, but I really like the sampler anyway, so it seemed destined to be my next project.

I am stitching it on 40ct linen that I coffee-stained. I decided to use silk thread on this one.

This is what I have so far:

Hope my eyes hold out on that 40ct! It's slow going!

Finally a finish!

Tuesday evening I finished Love is Enough. This one seemed to take forever.

Although I liked the way it turned out, I didn't really enjoy working on this one. It was a very finicky, fidgety piece, with a lot of teeny tiny back stitching with constant change in direction.

Rather tough on the old eyeballs!

Now I have to find the right frame for it.

After this, I decided to work on a quick little one. I have had Bountiful Blueberries from Sweetheart Tree, in my stash for ages. This one is only 43 X 34 stitches, and works up very quickly.


The first evening I finished up most of the cross stitching. Then last night I finished up the rest of the cross stitching and did all the back stitching for the tendrils. By the way, I think the designer has probably never seen blueberries growing in nature. There are no tendrils or vine. They grow on a bush! That said, I like the design.


This is what I have so far:


Tonight I will do the outlining on the berries, and attach the beads and the little charm in the center.

I totally missed the March edition of the Totally Useless Stitch Along. Here is the March-April edition. Atleast there are a few more colors in there. Before it was totally pink from my quilt.

The Bee Drop

Early this morning (about 2 AM), Keith met the bee truck at the Palisades mall.

It was pouring rain!

Everyone was tired and just wanted to get their bees and go home.

Unfortunately Keith didn't get a chance to meet any of the bee people, so we still don't know who these people are!

Later, about 9 AM, when it stopped raining, Keith transferred the bees into the waiting hives. This is the worst part! The bees are dumped out into the box, but the remaining bees have to be removed by banging on the bottom of the box. Needless to say, this does not please the bees!

Luckily, I think Keith only got one sting! The part I hated was that they clung to his shirt, and he brought several of them into the house!

Yikes!

All in all, it went pretty well, and it seems like they are starting to calm down now. We will have to wait and see how they take to the new hives.

Today is my birthday . . .

and oh, what a large and terrible number it is!!!

Ugh! Do not know how I got here! I couldn't possibly be this old!

Ok, don't think about it! Just don't think about it! Just keep going!

That's it! Denial, denial, denial!

Not much going on around here today. It is very, very cold here today, and windy too. Looks nice out, but way to cold to be out for any length of time.

I have gone back to working on Love is Enough. It is a difficult stitch, and frustrating with back stitching at odd angles, and color changes every 2 or 3 stitches. It is quite a slow-go. I will be glad when it is finally finished.

Here is a picture of what I have so far:

The colors in the photo came out a little off. The blues and the greens are ok, but the pinks came out too coral looking. What is hard to see, is that there are actually three shades of green, three shades of blue, and three shades of pink. The pink colors are too subtle,
and unless you look really closely, it looks like one color. That is a bit of a disappointment.

Oh well that's all I have for today.

Guess I have to go back to face my grim reality!

A Bit about the Bees . . .

Good news!

The two remaining hives survived the winter!

Last week, the weather was unusually warm so Keith opened the hives up to take a peek. He has been fretting about these bees all winter!

Both hives are very healthy, and very active!

Keith took a video of the bees returning with some pollen, but after trying for 2 days to get it to load onto my blog, I have given up!

As is tradition to name the hives, Keith named his after his mom Martha, and her two sisters, Connie and Ethel.

Unfortunately Ethel died off very suddenly last fall.

Martha was the hive that was attacked by the neighborhood kids last summer. Keith really babied this one, constantly feeding it, and fussing with it. I guess it paid off because she is thriving now!

Last year due to the rotten weather we had, we didn't get any honey. I am looking forward to getting that first jar this year!

To replace the lost hive, Keith ordered 2 new sets of bees. Now here is the weird part -
He has made arrangements to pick up the bees at the Palisades Mall, which is very close by our house. The guy is driving a truck up from Georgia. On his way to Connecticut, he is stopping at the mall. There have been many people who wanted to get these bees, but he has announced that he is sold out for the mall run!

Who are these people?

I don't know anyone else who has bees! Apparently there are quite a few of them around here! Very strange! They are all going to rendez-vous at the mall about midnight or so on April 9th!
Should be interesting!

Country Garden part 3 is completed!

I meant to post this last week when I finished it, but here it is:

I know. It looks just like the last panel!

This is the outer panel on the left side, so now I have the center panel and the left side of the quilt finished. Of course I still have to stitch them together and stitch the motifs where they are joined.
3 panels finished, 2 to go!

I was very anxious to finish up this last panel because I have decided to take a little break from Country Garden, It has gotten pretty monotonous, and I need a change.

It has been bothering me that I left Love is Enough unfinished, so I think I will try to finish that one up. The reason I left it, is that it is pretty difficult and takes a lot of concentration.

Thanks to everyone who commented on the kitties! Willie is recovering nicely from his operation, although we are still having problems adjusting his insulin dose.

Max has been holding his own, and has not had another attack, seizure? whatever, but he is still not gaining any weight. The vet wants to see a little weight gain when he goes back next week. He remains very weak. I don't know why, but no one seems to be able to diagnose what is wrong with him. This all started over 6 years ago, although clearly he has gotten much worse lately.

I will post again with a picture of Love is Enough shortly.

Happy Spring everyone!

Febuary was not a good month!

It is bad enough to have one sick pet, but two is just unbelievable!

First our 15 year old Willie became blocked. those of you who have male cats may be aware of this condition. Some cats are just prone to it. To complicate matters, Willie is also diabetic. Anyway, he became blocked so we took him to our local animal emergency hospital. They inserted a catheter and successfully unblocked him.

We took him home only to have him reblock about 12 hours later!

Back to the hospital! This time they kept him for several days.

Our regular vet was not available and we were receiving varying updates from several doctors.

The last night he was there the doctor seemed optimistic that he was doing ok. The next morning another doctor called saying that they had to remove the catheter and they weren't sure if he would unblock or not. She felt that he needed to have surgery (PERINEAL URETHROSTOMY "pu" - basically, the penis is removed and a new urinary opening is made - your basic sex change operation - poor Willie!). Unfortunately their surgeon was on vacation and she didn't have any othe on call. She asked me what I wanted to do.

I found it unbelievable that an animal hospital would not have a surgeon on standby. That is afterall, why I brought him there because of their facilities.

Well, to complicate things further, this was also the day of the giant blizzard! I had to go get him and transport him with the catheter inserted, to an animal hospital in New Jersey!

Thank God for 4-wheel drive! We could hardly see the road in front of us on the Thruway!

They took Willie in right away and did the surgery. He was back home the next day.

He is still recovering, but he is coming along well.

Well, while this was happening, my cat Max, had some sort of attack. He lost the use of his hind legs. I saw him favoring one of his back legs. The next thing I knew he fell head over heels all the way down a flight of stairs. He could not get up on his own.

Back to the hospital!

After blood tests and x-rays, they still don't know what is wrong with him. Yes, he has the very beginnings of what is probably kidney disease, but they say his numbers are not very bad, and that had nothing to do with it.

We now have to take him back to see a specialist for more tests. He has made a little improvement. He is now able to get around a little better, but he is still weak.

We are just reeling from the astronomical costs associated with all of this, and we are not through yet!

My nerves are shot!

Anyway, I don't have a lot of stitching to show here. I am still working on the 3rd of the 5 panels of the Country Garden quilt.

My only picture is the Febuary edition of my Totally Useless Stitch-along (TUSAL). Still only 2 shades of pink in there. I am longing to see some other colors! This is one of these projects that seems to take forever!

What a Bust!

Not even a single flurry!

After all the hype, media coverage, storm of the century, etc.

Nothing! Nada!

Of course, everyone canceled all their plans! Oh well!
Atleaast we don't have to shovel out today.

I do like snow!

Some progress on Country Garden

I finished one of the side panels on Country Garden. There is a center panel, and then each side has 2 side panels. This is the smaller of the two on the left side.
This is really hard to photograph! It doesn't look like much here, but this is a really long piece.
Oh well! Two down. Three more to go! Ugh! Then of course it has to be made into a quilt, and quilted! That is another lifetime!

I am looking for a little project to take a break from this, but so far I haven't put anything together.

There is a big storm coming that will affect most of the east coast. Weirdly enough, it seems that we are too far north to be affected by it too much though. That's a switch! We may get about an inch or so, but that's it.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

A Very Cold Day in January!

Brrrr!

It was only 8 degrees here this morning, and it hasn't really warmed up much since!

I can't believe tomorrow is the last day of January! It has been a very fast month.

I have gotten quite a bit of stitching done on Country Garden, though the project is so large that it doesn't seem like I have accomplished very much.

I managed to finish the center panel.

(click to enlarge)

It is really hard to photograph it with any detail. This is the biggest panel, but unfortunately there are 5 panels altogether in this King-sized quilt. At times it does get very monotonous working on this. I have started on one of the side panels, and I am a little over half way done.

I would like to work on another project, but I have never been much good at establishing a rotation. I may have to re-visit that, because this one is going to take a very long time!

Also, I have joined the Totally Useless SAL!

Here is January's contribution:

I would love to add some other colors to this jar!

Besides this, I have been spending my time painting my house. I am finally just about finished with my bedroom. That has taken over a month.

Before I go, I just wanted to show you one of my estate sale finds. For years I have been looking for a Slipper chair for my bedroom. I got this for $25!

It is covered with a very ugly green paisley vinyl or plastic fabric, really yucky, but the chair itself is in perfect condition. Actually I am not sure if this is a slipper chair. I am not sure if slipper chairs have to be armless or not. I do like it though. I love the heart-shaped back on it. I figure it is from the 50s. Eventually I will re-cover it, but for the time-being it will have to remain ugly!

Santa was good to me !

Look what I got!

DMC floss in every solid color they make! I think there are something like 454 different colors!

WOW! If that doesn't inspire you to stitch, nothing will! This is just like getting the Crayola box with all 64 colors when you were a kid! (Does anyone remember that)?

and. . .

DMC linen threads.

I will have to look for a special design to use these! I like the way the linen looks on natural things like trees, grass, etc.

and . . .

My red tea kettle!

I specifically asked for this one. I love how cheerful it looks on the stove!

Quite a haul!

Thanks all of you for all your kind words on my ornaments. I still haven't gotten them finished, but hopefully soon!

Ruchi, I think it is wonderful that you are teaching your daughter to stitch! That is such a nice thing to pass down to the next generation. She is young, and even if she does not continue with it now, she will probably come back to it someday when she is older. She will always remember that you taught her. I learned from my grandmother when I was about her age. I will never forget it. It is one of my most cherished memories.

Have a Happy New Year everyone!

Hope it's a good one for all of us!

Happy Holidays!

Just wanted to show you this year's ornaments. I never manage to stitch all the ornaments in my head, but atleast I got a few done. Unfortunately I have not finished them yet. If I have a few minutes of peace tonight, I may be able to finish a couple anyway.

As a cat lover, I couldn't resist the Britty Christmas Kitty. I made up 2 of these. One was stitched one over one thread. The other was one over two threads.

I was thinking of using the small one as a Christmas present tie-on. It is only about 1-1/2 inches square.

I am a little torn about this though. I cringe at the thought of someone just tossing it out with the Christmas clutter, After all, not everyone appreciates the time and effort spent on these little thingies!

I got this pattern from the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments 10th Anniversary Collection,

Boy did I have a hard time getting ahold of this one! The people who have it, don't want to let it go, and when you can manage to find it, it is very expensive!

The reason I wanted this book though was for my favorite, Holiday Sled from Ursula Michaels Designs. I love this one! Unfortunately I don't think I will be able to finish it this year. I have in mind a special backing for it that I cannot seem to find right now! I have been re-organizing my attic, and it is somewhere up there in all the clutter.

Last but not least is the cutie Christmas Cat in the Window, from The City Stitcher. I got this from Just Cross Stitch 1989 issue.

I stitched this one one over one, so it is really tiny.

Hopefully I can finish up atleast some of these.

On another note, I have had some questions about the bees.

Unfortunately one of the hives is completely dead, and we suspect that a second one is dead also. The first one has no sign of bees, and no activity. The second one had a small number of bees, but we suspect that they were robber bees from another hive trying to rob the honey.

After all the rain over the summer, the vandalism and the early cold weather, it looks like we went into the winter with one viable hive. Keith did his best to feed them sugar water all fall, and we did not harvest the honey this year, leaving it for them to get through the winter. Hopefully they will come through the winter. Nothing is certain at this point. I guess it depends on the severity of the winter and the hardiness of the bees. We are hoping for the best.

I want to wish you all the very best of the holidays. Hope you experience a maximum of warmth and good cheer, and a minimum of stress and conflict!

Back from Oblivion!!!

Not that I have actually gone anywhere! Just life getting in the way!
Time, since the summer has been just a blur! Although I have been very busy, I don't really seem to have much to show for it. I have been spending a lot of time fixing up my old house. It seems everything needs to be re-painted. Also, I have been trying to finish a part of the attic so I can have a little craft studio. This has proven harder than I thought, not to mention colder than I thought! There is no heat up there, so for now the plans will have to be on hold until spring.

I really appreciate all your comments! I am always amazed that anyone out there would care about my little scribblings!

I still haven't gotten The Old Aviary framed yet. Soon, hopefully. Atleast I have the frame for it.

I was working on the William Morris design, Love is Enough, but I put it aside for a while to work on a few other projects. This is a deceptively intricate pattern and it really requires my full alert attention. It is nagging at me to finish it! This is where I was when I left off:

With so much going on, I picked up a fairly brainless project that I have been working on off and on now for over a year. I am happy to say that I have finally finished stitching the little Christmas lap quilt, 'Tis the Season. It's ok, but frankly, I am not sure this one was worth all the work. Maybe I will feel better about it when it is quilted. I hope so.

I had some trouble finding the backing fabric for this. Finally I found one the other day on ebay. Of course it will be a while before it is quilted and finished.
Oh well. There is always next year!

After I finished that, I still wasn't ready to go back to the William Morris design, so I picked up another Cross stitch quilt. I love these old kits, but unfortunately they do take forever! This one is called Country Garden.


It didn't come with the thread, so I picked my own. The colors I chose are not as bright as pictured. I wanted a more antique look, so I went for some muted tones. This is a a king-sized quilt, and is a huge design !
I started working on the center panel. The part between the borders hangs down at the bottom of the bed. I have really just started the center design. I guess I have about 2-1/2 feet before I get to the top. Then I have the 2 side panels to do!

This is what I have so far:

I did manage to stitch a few little ornaments, but I have not finished them yet,

Well, I guess that is it for the stitching for now.

Sorry for such a rambling post. I promise, I will not be gone so long this time!

The Old Aviary is Finished!

Hooray! This has been a long time coming! I started it back in March.

Here is part 4:

(click to enlarge)

I love all the critters in this! There are many birds of course, including an owl. There is also a rabbit, a squirrel, and a very odd little porcupine! The only thing I am not too crazy about is the flowers. They are all exactly the same style. I think if I had noticed that earlier, I would have changed them a bit. All in all though, I am pleased with it.

Here is the whole thing:

(click to enlarge)

I aplogize for the photo. This has been a miserable experience trying to get good pictures of this sampler. I promise that it looks better in person!

This is going to be a bear to frame, but I think I already have a frame for it, so I will give it a try. I will post a picture when it is completed.

For my next project, I chose Love is Enough, a Christmas present from my husband. I am a bit nervous about it though. I decided to stitch it on 36 count instead of the 28ct that came with the kit. I made a small start on it, and I am finding myself worrying if I have a big enough piece. That is such an awful feeling! Aghhhh! I am keeping my fingers crossed.Here is what I have so far:

Getting closer to the end . . .

The verse is finished now. It reads:

HE WHO LOVES AN OLD HOUSE

NEVER LOVES IN VAIN.

HOW CAN AN OLD HOUSE

USED TO SUN AND RAIN

TO LILAC AND LARKSPUR

AND AN ELM ABOVE

EVER FAIL TO ANSWER

THE HEART THAT GIVES IT

LOVE.

I have already signed my name, even though it seems funny to do that before I have finished the whole piece, but that is the spot it is supposed to go.

Then I moved on to the aviary part. I finished 3 trees and the gazebo. I only did one of the birds. There are many more birds and other animals in this part.

The rose bush was the most challenging. The roses are done with the ribbed spider web wheel stitch. Hopefully you can see the roses in this close-up shot.

(click to enlarge all pictures).

Bee update: The damaged hive is behaving as if they have a new queen! For a while there was just erratic flying about the hive, but now Keith reports that he sees the bees returning to the hive with pollen. Supposedly they won't forage if there is no queen.

Keith smoked them and peeked inside. The hive is very weak, few in numbers, but it does seem to be operating normally. Now, the big question is whether they can make enough honey to sustain them through the winter. The other hive that was damaged is also weak, but doing a little better. One of the problems is all the rain we have had this spring (over 10 inches in June alone)! The bees need lots of sunny days to make the honey. They have been few and far between this year!

Well, that's all 'til next time!

Old Aviary Part 3 is Finished!

Finally part 3 is finished!

What a pleasure it is to work in color!

I apologize in advance for the pictures I really think the reason I have been posting more, is the trouble I have getting good pictures of this sampler. Click on the pictures for better view.

Here is the completed part 3:

I have started part 4. This is what I have so far:
This is the whole sampler so far:

I am moving right along on part 4, but I am a little afraid that I will not have enough of one of the colors to finish. Oh, I hope it makes it. Otherwise it will be the third time I will have to go back to Vicki Clayton to request more. The thread package was supposed to be enough for the whole sampler, but something went wrong somewhere along the line. It is a little stressful worrying if you will have enough to finish.

Thank you to all of you who have left comments or emails. It is really nice to know there are so many nice people out there!

About the bees: All of the hives are a little weak due to all the rain. (I swear it rains every day here in NY)! The bees do not come out in the rain or on very cloudy days, so they have not been too successful making honey. We are watching closely the damaged hive. We still do not know if they were able to make a new queen. It will be another 10 or 12 days before we know for sure.

Even though I have not been posting regularly, I have been reading your blogs every day. They are positively inspiring!

Old Aviary Update and Thanks!

The first thing I want to do is to thank everyone who left a comment about the bees!I really appreciate it! I guess we were a bit shaken up by the senseless act of violence.

Keith was worried that whoever did it would return, and decided not to wait for the weekend to move the hive that was closest to the cemetery. We still don't know if it has a chance, but he wanted to give it every opportunity. He waited until dusk when the bees are quiet, and picked up the hive to move it away from the cemetery, and closer to the center of the property.

Well it wasn't exactly a smooth move! The hive started to come apart, and needless to say, the bees were not pleased! He did manage to transfer most of them, but a few remained at the old site. Poor things! They have been through so much! Even with all that uproar, Keith did not get stung!

Yesterday early in the morning, he returned to the old hive site and found a cluster of them all huddled onto a stick. He picked up the stick and moved it to the new hive site. The bees were very calm and clung to the stick while he was moving it.

Most of the bees have been transferred now, but there are still a few milling around the old site. Keith put the temporary white box (this is the box the bees come in when you buy them), near the site. It was raining last night, and most of the bees went in it, so he is hoping to transfer the rest of them tonight.

Who knows if we are doing this right! We are still amateurs at all of this. I guess time will tell.

On the weekend we are going to post NO TRESPASSING signs. I don't know if that will do any good or not, but atleast now they have to walk quite a bit onto our property now to get at the hives.

I will keep you updated.

Now for some stitching!

I ran out of the main neutral color silk for the whitework. I contacted Vikki Clayton. She has excellent customer service and sent more very quickly. She was surprised that I ran out and said that she had sold 35 conversion kits for the Old Aviary, and no one else complained. I really don't know what to say about this. I am using single thread, and I am really stingy about the way I stitch with it, using up every bit! As I told her, it really wasn't even close! I only made it halfway through part 2, and had a long way to go.

Oh well, I think maybe some of those people ordered it to kit up the project but haven't gotten as far as I did. Still, it bothered me. Makes you wonder if you are doing something wrong.

Here is a shot of a finished Part 2.

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I know this is whitework, and it is supposed to be light, but it does bug me that it doesn't show up a little better. I hope it will show up well enough when it is finished, and I haven't gone through all this for nothing!

Here is a shot of parts 1 and 2. I am sorry it doesn't show up a little better.

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This is my progress so far on part 3:

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Here is a closeup of the half-Rhodes, one of the specialty stitches used:

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I was considering tea-dyeing it when I am finished. My thinking was that the silk might soak up the dye more than the linen would, and hopefully make it stand out a bit more. Mmm, not sure about that just yet.

Well there you have it! That is what I have been working on!

My other news is that I have won the Rabbit Rondel drawing on Riona's blog, Oubliette! I am thrilled!

Update on the Bees

Some time ago we decided to give beekeeping a try.

We have always been environmentally minded, and are very aware of the plight of the bees in our area as well as the globe in general.

Our property is certifed by the National Wildlife Federation as a certified Wildlife Habitat. We have pledged to help the wildlife by providing a friendly place for them. We have many bird houses, feeders, etc. We also do not use chemicals on the lawn which are responsible for a lot of ecological problems.

I confess to being a little leery of handling the bees at first, but once they were set up, I saw how gentle they were, and how easy it was to manage them.

It is amazing how attached you can get to these gentle creatures!

Our property is 1.27 wooded acres, and we are bordered on one side by an old abandoned cemetery. There is plenty of room, and the bees are located deep in the woods, and are certainly not a problem to anyone.


Yesterday we discovered that someone trashed the hives!

We figure they came through the cemetery to get at them.

The hive that was the smallest, was completely trashed. They took rocks from the stone wall and threw them at the hives until they knocked them over!

The first hive was completely opened and exposed to the elements. We don't think the queen survived. They can make another queen if they have brood (eggs), but that was all exposed and surely died. (The hive must maintain a constant 98.6 degrees to sustain life, an interesting parallel to humans).

The next hive was only partially turned over, so we are hoping the queen survived. Only time will tell.

The third hive fared the best. That one has marks on it from where they threw the rocks, but is pretty much intact. We figure that the bees were swarming by the time they were approaching the third one.

On the weekend, Keith is going to move them to another location. He feels certain that whoever did this will return to try again.

As long as I live, I will never understand this behavior!
They are such gentle creatures that do not hurt anyone unless really provoked! It is actually hard to get stung! It is amazing how attached you can get to these creatures. I feel very bad for them

As Keith says, this is the price we pay for living in suburbia, where most people have no true connection to the land, no appreciation for nature or private property!
All they seem to care about is their chemically manufactured lawns and their property values!


It is not bad enough that the bees are facing colony collapse syndrome, no, they also have to put up with idiots who have to destroy what they do not understand!

Very upsetting!


Unfortunately we did not take pictures of the damage. Keith wanted to get the hives back together as quickly as possible, and did not stop to take pictures. It was a pretty ugly sight!


Here is a picture of the hives in the early Spring when they were first set up.
Here is one of the little guys on a blackberry bush.

I don't know if "karma" is a real thing or not, but if it is, I really hope the creeps who did this, get what is coming to them!

Old Aviary Update

I am still working on Part 2 of The Old Aviary.

It seems like the white work goes more slowly than the sections with color.

This is what I have so far:

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It is very hard to see any detail on this.

The first few rows are cross stitch, followed by a row of smyrna stitches.

The next section was a nailbiter! That involved cutting seven horizontal threads and unweaving them to the ends. This area took quite a bit of time. Finally, the silk ribbon is woven through. The bow is a little big, but I am not going to cut it until I finish because it keeps coming un-done, and it will need to be tacked down with a stitch.

After that, there is a row of pin-stitch variation, followed by a row of triple cable stitch.

Next comes the diamond eyelet stitch, followed by a row of three-sided stitches over 4 threads.

Then there are two rows of faggot stitch over 2 threads.

Next a horizontal cable stitch over 2 threads between the 2 rows of faggoting.

The next 2 rows are worked in half-diamond stitch over 10 threads.

After that, there is a row of woven stitch over 6 threads.

Next is a diamond eyelet stitch over 8 threads, followed by a diagonal satin stitch row, and a diamond smyrna cross stitch.
Then there was some decorative cross stitch that look like snowflakes, followed by the decorative boxes.

Unfortunately on the second one, I ran out of the #12 silk. This is a thick silk (like DMC perle).

I contacted Hand Dyed Fibers, and they are sending me some more. Hopefully I will get it early next week.

Phew! Believe me, there was a lot of frogging going on here!

This is an enormous project, but I am already looking forward to moving on to the next one! Hopefully it will be something a bit less intense!

It has finally stopped raining here after a whole week! I hope it has stopped anyway! My lawn looks like a jungle!

Hope everyone has a nice weekend out there!