Seasonal Stitching

Greetings, friends!  Have you been enjoying this fresh, fall weather?  I know I have!  I had all the windows in the house open all day yesterday, and I'm planning to do the same today.  It's so nice to feel the gentle breezes and hear the wind moving through the trees.  Back in Lumberton, leaving the windows open could be a pleasure, but also meant I had to deal with the loud sounds of traffic rushing by as I lived on one the main roads going through downtown.  It's so much more tranquil here at the new home.

I went to the wedding of a college friend over the weekend, and, in addition to getting to see how beautiful and happy she was, I got to spend lots of time with other sorority sisters.  Needless to say, not much stitching got done over the weekend.  But there was plenty of stitching late last week and during the first half of this week, so I have two projects to share with you today.

I have decided to devote most, if not all, of this month to working on Halloween and fall related stitching projects.  I continued to work on finishing the exchange project I mentioned in my last blog.  I was almost finished, when I saw a small problem and had to quit.  The background: when leaving the church after the wedding on Saturday, I managed to smash my hand against the opening mechanism of one of the doors.  In fact, I drove the knuckle of my thumb into the metal, and made a nasty little gash.  Fact: it is very hard for a wound to scab up if you are constantly pulling the wound back open through regular movement of the thumb joint.  I hadn't really thought too much of it til yesterday as I was tightly gripping fabric with said thumb in order to bind the fabric together.  My knuckle looked rather... oozy.  So I had to quit doing things that forced my thumb to bend quite so far.  Regular stitching is okay, thank goodness, but no finishing for a while.  (do you get the feeling I am rather accident prone?)  So I guess my exchange piece will have to sit to the side for the next week or so.  I hope this stupid thing heals soon.  I can't hold a pen very well either.

Anyway, on to the things I can show you.   I finished up a pin pillow (before the injury) using a cute little freebie pattern from Primitvebettys .  It is stitched on a piece of 36 count Picture This Plus fabric.  I was being a little experimental with the ribbon trim.  Each place where the ribbon touches the pillow is marked with a mourning pin, and I stuck two more into the pillow itself.  I think it looks okay, do you?

I have also been working on The Primitive Needle's "Black'd Skie."  I started this piece less September after my grandmother died unexpectedly.  I wanted something suitably mournful to work on during that time, and this piece certainly fit the bill.  I put aside in November, and returned to it at the start of this month.  I still miss my grandmother so very much, and I find that she has been on my mind even more as the anniversary of her death has come and gone.  So many things have happened that I wish I could have shared with her: my engagement, my wedding, my first attempts at growing vegetables, all immediately come to mind.  (with a little shake) I've been kind of surprised at how quickly I was able to move on this piece this week and last.  Here's where I was when I put this away last year:

I finished the third block in the lefthand column:

And also finished the second block on the right:

Only one block and the upper and lower band left to go!  However, I am thinking that I will set this aside for another week or so and work on some ornaments from the past few JCS Halloween issues (stitching only, of course) for a little while.

I also found time this weekend to attend an event at the Durham Library featuring Margaret Maron as a speaker.  If you don't know how Ms. Maron is, you are missing out.   She is a wonderful mystery writer who sets her novels in various locations in North Carolina.  Her heroine, Deborah Knotts, is a district court judge.  I haven't read all of her books (I situation I plan to quickly remedy), but I've enjoyed each one that I have read.  There are several more events related to her novels going on at the public library this month, and I hope to attend most of them.  Next Sunday, we're going to be talking about bootlegging (and in case you didn't know, bootlegging is responsible for that sport so near and dear to many southerners' hearts, automobile racing).  So if you're in the mood for a little mystery, check out 'The Bootlegger's Daughter', or one Margaret Maron's other wonderful books.

Til next time, I hope everyone has a wonderful, creative time!