Finished cushion & village shake-up

Finally got in the mood to finish my Sampler Girl pillow. Probably because we are having an early summer heat wave here in DC and I just didn't want to spend too much time outdoors. I found a pretty rosebud print fabric so I used that instead of the printed corduroy I had planned on.



Got a bit of a surprise when Sandy released the May installment of the Birthday Village. The motif she designed is a church with a bride and groom outside. I couldn't decide whether to skip this month or re-chart. And once again, I didn't like the people either. So off to the drawing board. We now have a shul instead of a church. And a somewhat changed bride and groom. This is kind of weird. I really didn't want to stitch anything religious, but I couldn't think of a reasonable substitute. Better start thinking of a December idea now.




Last week I received the best little surprise in the mail from Nia. She made me this sweet little bunny sachet filled with super-fragrant lavender. Hope you can read that accompanying card. It really made me smile on a day when I could use cheering up.

Sisters with Brutus the Cat

I got in the mood to do a little more stitchery. It's hard to find patterns to my liking. I don't like the old-fashioned, vintage designs. And I didn't want anything too modern and funky either. I do like the kind of whimsical designs that I see on a number of Australian sites. Maybe this style has become more trendy in Australia. I finally decided on a block from the Red Brolly Catalicious quilt. I used the suggested colors, but I did mostly stem stitch. There are a few other stitch changes and slight modifications due to my poor tracing of the original design. Now I just have to figure out what to do with this piece. I haven't been in the mood for really finishing anything, so it may just wait a while.

Holds Upon Happiness

I seem to be in a somewhat unproductive period these days with respect to stitching and crafting. Too many distractions I guess and not in the right frame of mind. But I did finish stitching this very sweet design from The Sampler Girl. This is done on a piece of 32-count hand-dyed Lugana from Sassy. The fabric looked so different in various lights that it was tricky to pick colors. But I'm pretty happy with the results. I'm planning to make it into a pillow trimmed with the print corduroy fabric in the photo. Just didn't have enough of that for a backing too, so I have to find the right backing fabric before I sew it up.



Spring break is over in the Birthday Village and the kids are going back to school. I tried stitching the kids just as they were designed, but since I had changed the girl on the swing, the new kids just didn't match. So they are all completely re-charted to be a little more in proportion. Don't know if I love them, but I was definitely ready to let them stay as is after stitching them.