TAST week 11 ~ whipped wheel

Happy Saint Patricks Day.

no shamrocks from me today but i do have these happy little 'sunbursts' for you.


the stitch for week 11 with TAST is the whipped wheel.
this is considered a 'woven' stitch as the first layer is made up of stitching that passes through the fabric, but the second (sometimes more) layer is woven in and out of the first layer.

apparently the 'weaving' became part of my whole thought process as i looked for a suitable place to work this stitch. i found an area on my wonderful husband's stocking that held fabrics of a very fragile nature . . . this is part of working with antique textiles and not unexpected. i decided to cover part of this area with closely spaced long stitches creating a sort of warp and began to experiment with weaving on a very small scale. i used a blunt tapestry needle and various threads for the weft part of the weave.  before i knew it i had covered the entire area. it's very primitive but it was interesting to try and i now have a head full of ideas on how i might take this further . . .

once i had that all done i placed some half whipped wheels at regular intervals along the side of the woven area. i used the same light colored thread (used throughout most of my experimental woven 'patch') to create the base of the (half) whipped wheel. this part of the stitch cannot actually be seen as i covered it completely (with a medium weight blueish/purple thread) to continue creating the stitch.

i took things a step further by adding a single colonial knot (using a medium weight turquoise thread) in the center of each of the stitches and then i added more single colonial knots (using two strands of cotton floss in variegated oranges) at the ends of each rib of the wheel. i think they look a bit like a bunting of some sort.

interestingly i have a very good friend who weaves and she frequently shares odd bits of leftover threads with me. all of the threads within today's post (except for the orange cotton floss) are gifted from her.

there are several fun and well done examples of this stitch shown here and here.  i LOVE this wordy idea and my favorite use of this stitch: grapes anyone?

if you think that you may be interested in learning embroidery or practicing the stitches you already know it's well worth a visit to Pin Tangle to join in with this project.


recent gifts include:

• realizing that the 'full circle' can sometimes be a long time in materializing 
• a simple but satisfying dinner eaten quietly at home with my husband
• reading a novel

TAST week 8 ~ chain stitch

this is week 8 (chain stitch) with Pintangle's TAST.
one that i like because it can very easily be be used in a 'fluid' way. this makes it a great stitch to use for embroidered writing. i've known that i would place a word onto each stocking when i felt that the right stitch had been presented and the time was right so i was happy to see this week's choice.
i asked both my wonderful daughter and husband to pick a single word that had personal significance or meaning for them.

the wonderful daughter chose the word 'peace'. i used a medium strandable 4-ply cotton in a variegated green color.

the wonderful husband chose the word 'joy'. i used a woolen strandable thread; hand dyed and also variegated. i was disappointed in the way that the color placements ended up falling and felt that this word sort of disappeared into the background towards the end. he liked it just the way it was and asked that i not change it.

i chose the word 'play'. and play i did. i used a variety of threads and combinations of threads throughout the word. most of the thread was bits and pieces that had accumulated in the bottom of my thread tin. i just poked through and found fun combinations. i did try to use the color purple throughout the word to form a little bit of continuity.

and last but not least there are two fabric covered buttons that i made using the chain stitch within the embellishing.
the button in the background is monotone  in fabric and thread choices. this isn't something i do very often but i do like the look and should play with the idea more frequently. for the embroidery i first laid down a chain stitch (a twisted light weight thread) and then added a fly stitch (a variegated medium weight twisted thread) which i secured with a colonial knot at the 'catch point'. i then added two small colonial knots (in two strands of a strandable silk thread) centered over the open end of the fly stitch.
the second button was embellished using two strands of a variegated cotton floss. i was careful to load these strands onto the needle in such a way that they weren't always shifting color at the same time. i formed a chain spiral and then added small single stitches along the sides of the chain stitch using only one strand of the same thread. i placed two single stitches at the outer part of the spiral in order to form an 'easement' to/from the chain stitch.


if you think that you may be interested in learning embroidery or practicing the stitches you already know it's well worth a visit to Pin Tangle to join in with this project.

within this weeks contributors i found some wonderful whimsical examples of this stitch. check here and here for stitches that will make you smile.


recent gifts include:

• homemade chocolate cake (the wonderful daughter strikes again)
• feeling the love and devotion from a rescued dog 
• accomplishing work on all three of  the stockings this week

15 minute challenge ~ feb. 20

more begonia love

the phrase "an incredible lightness of being" comes to mind . . .  



my weekly report card for the 15 minute challenge:

tuesday, feb. 14th: applique on secret birthday blocks

wednesday, feb. 15th: sampler practice with TAST (detached chain stitch) ~ detached chain stitch onto stocking

thursday, feb. 16th: fabric covered button using the detached chain stitch

friday, feb. 17th: prewashed, ironed &amp cut background fabric for hexie project ~ basted 7 background hexies

saturday, feb. 18th: basted 11 background hexies

sunday, feb. 19th: applique on secret birthday blocks

monday, feb. 20th: basted 9 background hexies ~ made 4 pinwheel quilt blocks for a guild member

if you would like to see what others are doing with their 15 minutes or you're interested in joining in, you should visit Kate at Life in Pieces. she will be doing some fun give-aways during the month of february for those participating in the 15 minute challenge.
i have found it to be an excellent way to continue making my own sewing/creative time a priority.

now to catch you up with my hexie project.
many years ago i thought it would be great to have a grandmother's flower garden quilt and i promptly chose a yellow fabric that i thought would make a good center for my flowers and began making them. it was my first experience with the english paper piecing method and i liked the foolproof accuracy of it as well as the hand sewing involved. i believe all of my 'flowers' are of a different fabric although i haven't actually gone carefully through them to check. i have quite a few but don't remember the number off of the top of my head.  at some point i got distracted and although i thought about the project and even occasionally looked at it briefly and once or twice made a real attempt to begin again, in the end, i was still looking at an unfinished quilt.

so sometime last year i seen various other blogs with a hexie wednesday project badge and read a few blog posts that eventually inspired me back into wondering about getting mine done. i got it out once again and decided that i needed to think about what colors/fabrics i was going to use between my flowers as a background area. i thought about yellow but decided against that. i eventually decided that a variety of greens was the way to go. i basted some green hexagons only to decide that browns would be better. so i basted some brown hexagons and prepped many more for working on while i recovered from my hip surgery. i happily basted many brown hexagons while under the influence of painkillers. at some point i was jarred into the realization that i hadn't made anything for my guild's annual christmas bazaar and time was running way short . . . so i decided to sew some of the brown hexagons into a doll quilt. i bordered it with a  vintage pink calico that i found in my stash, hand quilted it, added a dark brown binding and donated it. ta-da~!

that was all well and good  and i was happy to be able to contribute. however, i still needed to finish the original flower garden/honeycomb quilt. after the chaotic christmas season  passed i got back to working on it and decided that i wanted to sew a few of the brown hexies around one of the flowers to see how (fabulous) it was going to look. i got about halfway around when i decided that it was waaay too busy and not the look i wanted at all. i immediately removed them.
at this point i began to wonder if i was ever going to find just the look i wanted. i contemplated gently tucking the small box and it's contents back into the cupboard and pretend that it didn't exist for another ten or fifteen years. after all, there were certainly other unfinished projects that i could move on to.
in a last ditch effort i laid some of the flowers on top of various solid colored fabrics as well as a natural colored muslin to see if something would 'grab' me. no grabbing happened. i was beginning to get very discouraged when i ran the whole thing by a friend who suggested that i use a shirting as the background fabric.

so we tossed some flowers out onto one that i had handy and i thought it might actually work . . . i purchased a bit more of the same shirting and have now begun to baste shirting hexies. the next test will be sewing a few around one of the flowers . . .
i'd love to know what you think. 

recent gifts include:

• being able to help my daughter as she successfully patterned and constructed a bag for her laptop
• being gifted with a beautiful new sketchbook
• discovering pandora radio

TAST week 7 ~ detached chain stitch

flora on rose petal

these are the tiny white flowers that came within  a bouquet of flowers resting on a single fallen rose petal from the same bouquet. the white flowers where not the usual baby's breath but i don't actually know what they were. if any reader knows please feel free to share this info with me within the comments.



this week (7) the detached chain stitch is the challenge on TAST.

it's a simple stitch that i've been aware of for a very long time but i still learned something in regards to it: i've always called this stitch a lazy daisy and that is not it's actual name.

i decided to do my sampler so that i showed the difference between a chain stitch and a detached chain stitch. the top example is done in a luscious red chenille which probably wouldn't hold up to pulling through the density of a regular fabric but did fine through the open weave of this linen.

the bottom example is done in a single strand light green thread of unknown content. two very different looks for these stitches simply by varying the thread. the stitch uses the same count/spaces in both examples and has been worked with a slightly elongated catch stitch portion.

the christmas stocking features the detached chain stitch done in a single strand of fine white thread  (unknown content). i stitched it in groupings of three (once again worked with an elongated catch portion of the stitch). this has been positioned onto the top of an already stitched portion that you may remember from an earlier post.

and this is one of my fabric covered buttons.
here are the details in the order that i worked them:

1. a buttonhole stitch in a single strand of green thread was worked directly on the seam seam line.
2. a detached chain stitch in two strands (one of orange and one of a variegated yellow to orange color) using regular cotton floss applied to the purple side of the buttonhole stitch at regular intervals determined by the buttonhole stitch's spacing.
3. wrapped the extended part of the buttonhole stitch (once) with the same two threads used to make the detached chain stitch.
4. fly stitch on the yellow side of the buttonhole stitch between every other space within the buttonhole stitch. i used a purple Gutermann quilting thread.
5. a colonial stitch was centered above the fly stitch in the same Gutermann quilting thread.
6. a single running stitch was added above the colonial knot, once again using the same Gutermann quilting thread.

if you think that you may be interested in learning embroidery or practicing the stitches you already know it's well worth a visit to Pin Tangle to join in with this project.

some of the examples this week that have caught my attention from other 'Pin Tangle Players' are  the use of it in combination with shisha work here and the lilac's done with this stitch here.

recent gifts include:

• a treasured long distance friendship renewed with a visit.
• food choices that rivaled gourmet cuisine
• thoughtfully exchanged gifts

TAST week 6 ~ the chevron stitch

a little more romance . . .

and week 6 of Sharon B's TAST ~ chevron stitch

the first row on the sampler above has the chevron stitch worked in a purple single strand cotton thread. simple. no frills.
i liked the idea of the chevron stitch providing a sort of 'platform' on the top for secondary stitches, beads, charms, etc. as well as a place from which to possibly dangle the same from the bottom of the stitch so i played around with that a little bit. first i worked the chevron stitch (quite a bit smaller than the first example) in two strands of a medium green cotton floss. i then used a single strand of heavier cotton  red thread to place a single lazy daisy detached chain stitch with every other one having a slightly longer catch stitch. under each of these i simply centered a small running stitch.
i then went on to play a bit with the top of this same bit of chevron by adding a colonial knot in a single gold colored medium weight thread on that top 'platform' bit. then i used a very tiny single strand orange thread to stitch a fly stitch 'under/around' that colonial knot.
i barely scratched the surface of what could be done with this stitch. i wish i had more time to explore all of the possibilities that it presents.

however, while looking around at what other stitchers were doing i found this beautiful idea and these incredible interpretations.

i have decided to bring all three stockings into the action rather than just working on one at a time. this will allow me many more choices of where i can put whatever happens to be the current TAST challenge stitch. previously i've only worked on wonderful daughter's stocking but the chevron stitch has me pulling out wonderful husband's and using the same single strand purple cotton thread that  i used in the very first sampler row above. however this time i added a silver filament to it. i also decided to use the upper and lower bar part of the chevron as a spot to add some detached buttonhole stitches, same thread sans filament.

recent gifts include:

• the thoughtfulness of friends/neighbors who will willingly/happily do mechanical work for you simply because they can hear that there is a problem and they know how to fix it.
• a daughter who graciously helped me figure out the geometry of a quilting issue.
• the ability to accept help (with a smile and a thank you) when it is offered.

report card tuesday ~ feb. 7th

it's february~!

how's this for a little romance~!? one of my begonias has these clumps of tiny little flowers (about the size of a pencil eraser) on looong stems at this time every year. which leaves me with actual floral valentine confetti for the whole month of february. how cool is that~!

it is time to show what i worked on for at least 15 minutes every day last week.

• tuesday, jan. 31st: finished a quilt binding ~ one fabric button
• wednesday, feb. 1st: quilting on pink lemonade quilt ~ hexie brainstorming
• thursday, feb. 2nd: quilting on pink lemonade quilt ~ practiced the herringbone stitch ~ herringbone stitched onto christmas stocking
• friday, feb. 3rd: practiced/experimented with herringbone stitch on fabric covered button
• saturday, feb. 4th: NADA
• sunday, feb. 5th: quilting on pink lemonade quilt
• monday, feb. 6th: quilting on pink lemonade quilt

if you would like to see what others are doing with their 15 minute challenge or you're interested in joining in you should visit Kate at Life in Pieces.

all of that quilting on my pink lemonade quilt-a-long quilt and i'm still not even finished with the straight line quilting that is going over the pieced blocks. i also will quilt something special into the (yellow) alternate blocks but i'm still figuring that out.
btw: i know that the double pink used in my pieced blocks is looking a bit purple/lavendar . . . i'm not exactly sure why i have (so far) been unsuccesful photographing it but i'll keep trying.

this is the fabric that i chose for the backing of the pink lemonade quilt. i adore this fabric and so wish that i had bought more of it~!! what's not to love. big fat bumblebees, sweet soft looking bunnies, lace, postal bits, hand written letter bits, alphabets, and more. i should have bought a whole bolt~!~instead i bought one yard. what was i thinking~!

i'm quilting the pink lemonade with a size 12 perle cotton and an embroidery needle. i'm also using a slightly larger stitch . . . making it not too fussy but still looking good.

and here are a few more of those fabric covered buttons that i just cannot seem to stop making.


recent gifts include:

• having several of my houseplants flowering which makes it slightly easier to wait for spring to get here
• having just enough time in my life to get a few more photos taken
• the availability of clean drinking water. right out of the tap. whenever i feel thirsty.

TAST week three's feather stitch

this post probably looks a bit out of season. i'm ashamed to say that our family's christmas stockings are badly in need of replacement. the reason i'm ashamed to say it is because i make and embellish stockings every single year . . . just not for my own closest family members. shame on me~!
this year i decided that the time had come to get down to business with the family's new stockings and even still i only got the fronts/bases cut late on christmas eve. i had to hang them by a safety pin for christmas morning display. how very sad is that~!

so slowly but surely the "light" went from pretty damn dim to about as bright as it gets (really not very) and i decided i should use Take A Stitch Tuesday as a working format for getting these stockings embellished. what you see above is feather stitching which is this weeks (3) stitch. i decided to let a white thread and a burgundy thread P L A Y together and this is what happened.

you can also see that i have couched down a tatted snowflake using tiny fly stitches (from week 1) around the edge. i carefully picked a thread of similar weight and kept them relatively regular as they went around which resulted in some tiny (additional) snowflake symmetry. it worked very well.

this is part of the toe of the stocking. i worked a fly stitch (week 1) along a seam and added a pearly white bead to the tail part of the stitch.
the wandery stitching in the variegated thread that you see below that is a buttonhole stitch (week 2) that morphs into a feather stitch (week 3) and then back again.
i think the buttonhole stitch got a bit cheated here so i'll probably be thinking of other places within the stocking that i can work it in.
there will be a total of 3 stockings in this project. i won't show the whole stocking/s until i have each of them stitched, lined and finished. i think this should keep me nicely involved with TAST as well as fulfilling a project that (finally) deserves it's turn. i anticipate being able to hang these lovely finished pieces next christmas season. and i won't be waiting until late on christmas eve to do it~! i hope.

this last photo is some covered fabric buttons that i've made. i wanted to see how stitching on them might work . . . and added feather stitch (in one form or another) to each one of them. they are the same size as a nickel. they are a bit fiddly but great fun to make and i anticipate using them within the stockings as well as on other pieces that i work up.

today's gifts include:

• a warm fire and stitching time in front of it
• a friendly dog at my feet
• needles and thread aplenty

report card ~ jan. 17

i have committed to 15 minutes of sewing a day. today i'm giving my first "report card".  if you want more information on this there is a button on my sidebar that you can check out or you can visit  Life in Pieces.

• tuesday, jan. 10 ~ CPS mixed media postcard
• wednesday, jan. 11 ~ hexie project and cutting half blocks for  the pink lemonade quilt-a-long
• thursday, jan. 12 ~ sewing half blocks for pink lemonade
• friday, jan. 13 ~ applique on secret birthday blocks
• saturday, jan. 14 ~ applique on secret birthday blocks
• sunday, jan. 15 ~ applique on secret birthday blocks
• monday, jan 16 ~ made the four corner blocks for pink lemonade and embroidery on a christmas stocking  

i know one thing. i'm going to have to start writing it down on the day i do it because i cannot seem to remember just exactly what i did on what days . . . what i do know for sure is that i did get some sewing done and i generally spend quite a bit more time in the studio than 15 minutes once i get started.


the blanket stitch was the challenge for last week on Take a Stitch Tuesday.

i've used it here to attach the stem of the pear on my current AAQI project. very tiny stitches. very tiny thread. love the results~!

this week the stitch to use/explore will be the feather stitch. one of my favorites.

today's gifts have included:

• not having to do the dishes this morning
• a bright sun on snow creating millions of sparkles everywhere i look
• a visit from the resident wild bunny "nibbles"

"If you reveal your secrets to the wind you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees."

Khalil Gibran

"Alone with myself

The trees bend

to caress me

The shade hugs

my heart."

Candy Polgar

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

fall seems to be making it's presence (presents?!?) known more every day. a chill in the morning air and afternoons beckoning with wonderfully mellow sunshine in a sky that is somehow bluer than at any other time of the year.

the hollyhocks thrive during this time of the year. while photographing them i was intent on noticing the glorious light and the deep red color of these particular stalks. it was only after i uploaded the shots onto the computer that i also seen the hollyhocks had another visitor at the time . . . a surprise that made me smile.

you may have noticed that i haven't been posting much and have been pretty slow to answer most comments. this is due to most of my extra time going towards preparing myself and my household for my upcoming hip surgery. the date has been set and during the second week in october i will go in and have it done.  i'll be blogging quite a bit less for approximately the next six weeks. it may be a shorter amount of time but there is no way for me to really know and amazingly at the six week mark the holidays will be upon us all and so that may slow me down as well. 

in an effort to be more prepared i've been trying to get some of my holiday creating done early . . . i do hope to be able to share that here in my blog in bits and pieces as i can as well as do some blog-hopping to see what everyone else is up to. i may be a bit of a lurker, checking it all out when i can . . . hang in there with me. i'll do my best.

today's gifts included:

• time with the trees
• the autumn afternoon warmth
• freshly picked corn from the garden for dinner
• that blue BLUE sky

busy as a bee . . .

these shots really must be clicked on and seen large to be fully appreciated. i hope you enjoy them as much as i enjoyed taking them.
today's gifts included:

• watching the bees and other pollinators within the mint blossoms
• productive 'nesty' feelings
• a cool evening on the back deck with my family

a finished mixed media postcard. i made this one using a chunk of the hexagon pieced paper i was experimenting with. i've included a bit of vintage embroidered pillowcase edge, a fussy cut butterfly, a piece of vintage book page that i have sketched (watercoler pencils) a california poppy onto and some of my own embroidery work. this one is on it's way to my mom in celebration of her birthday.

and here's a sneak peek/teaser shot of the progress on the AAQI  pear quilt that i am working on.

today's gifts included:

• spending some time with my daughter
• brainstorming and gathering materials for an upcoming birthday quilt that i want to make
• the arrival of my new needle felting machine (!!)

Texture Tuesday/ 8-9-2011

it's all about the small stuff over at Kim Klassen's Cafe today. i used her  free 'Not too Shabby' texture with one of my photos (square crop). Thank you Kim~!~

today's gifts included:

• playing tug and fetch with River (she's not 'lost' anymore)
• watching the hummingbirds chase each other around the feeder
• participating in the texture tuesday challenge this week

today i mailed off all three small AAQI quilts. the process really is quite simple and i will be watching for when they've been posted for sale. i imagine it will be a while but having never done this before i'm really not sure.

 #3

yesterday i was out of town seeing the orthopedist. it seems i'm in need of a 'hip replacement'. the up side is that once it's done i won't be in pain anymore. the down side is it scares me. for now there are lots of insurance details to figure out as well as dates to clear on calendars and what-not. i may be less regular than ever with my posts as well as hopping around to all of the other blogs that i like to visit, but will get them in when i can. this is why i did not post my texture tuesday image. i hope to find time later in the week to work on that.

i promised to show progress of the latest AAQI quilt that i am working on so below you will see that the body of the piece now has the two 'border' pieces attached. i've cropped the photo so that the other two (raw woven edges) don't show much. i'll decide what i'm going to do with them later on.
next i will be cutting a pear shape (from the hand dyed fabric that i posted shots of recently)  and then i am looking forward to beginning the embellishment and appliqueing of it. i have no plan and will just stitch what feels 'right' as i go along.

toady's gifts have included:

• getting my AAQI package mailed
• taking some time to think
• being able to relax (a little) about some of the goals i haven't met

Texture Tuesday/7-26-11

good morning. the texture tuesday challenge this week is 'Dream'.

Free To Fly



i've used a recent shot, a layer of 'not too shabby' and a quote that i like.
the layer is a freebie from the very generous and talented kim klassen.

today's gifts have included:

• a few extra minutes of sleep
• the beloved ritual of watering/tending the houseplants
• frozen grapes on a hot summer morning ~ yummy ~!!~

i've been steadily working on some AAQI quilts and now have two ready to label and one more ready to quilt. next step is looking into the shipping process/instructions and getting them mailed out.

for these star quilts i went through my orphan blocks and came up with three that i thought would possibly work. after measuring them it was just a matter of applying simple outer borders to bring them up to the 9 x 12 inch size (the maximum that they will accept) that i wanted. i think they turned out okay and was happy to be working towards the goal of furthering the research into Alzheimer's Disease.


the newest project in the works is also related to the AAQI project.
i did receive a couple of comments that suggested i try using my zentangle pears as a jumping off point for one and then some serious brainstorming began. 

i decided that i would try appliqueing a pear and stitch/quilt/embroider (?) some 'zentangled' type of designs within it. but what to applique it onto . . . ? . . .

as i thought about it i remembered having seen (in various places) some cloth work that was hand stitched and free-form and sort of had that 'doodled' look . . . as if created spontaneously right off of the top of one's head. this lead me to some googling and after lots of research i've finally found a resource that i'm thrilled with. Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth has a blog that sums things up rather nicely for me. if you are interested in this type of work i highly recommend a visit.

after all of this reading/research i still didn't have any real instructions per se. maybe this work somehow defies instruction . . .  after all it's a whole lot about intuitively 'listening' to the materials at hand and the project being created as it comes along.
so i decided to just jump in and see if i could create a background from some skinny/selvedge edge strips that i had originally set aside for rug making. i deliberately chose pale and mostly neutral colors. i ironed them and trimmed them to approximate lengths of 12 - 13 inches and then began weaving them together securing them with a running stitch as i went. no seam allowances as they are stitched rough edge to rough edge with some having fringey edges (which i love). i carefully trimmed off any fringe/threads that i felt were too long as i stitched them together. this piece has no backing (yet). it was a little slow at first but as the piece grew it became more and more it's own self/cloth and not so much small strips that needed taming.

i've used quilting threads that were still on the needle to sew the strips together. it seems that there is always some left in my needles after completing a piece and i generally leave it on the needle and then tuck it into the spooled thread for future use in that color. well, i've gone through my quilting threads and am using up those various threads. quite randomly, just using what is closest at hand as i go. in future i anticipate using various threads from my embroidery tin . . . etc. there are lots of possibilities here.

so this is what it's looking like so far. i'm only putting in enough stitches to hold everything together nicely but i will be going back over this and adding more. when i feel happy with the way it looks and behaves i will begin the process of appliqueing the pear onto it.

in the above photo you can see one of the edges and how that looks as it's 'growing'.

and here a very close macro of the stitches and the 'woven' unions.

this is a wonderfully soothing way to work with fabric. it actually moves along more quickly than i anticipated it would but certainly is not as fast as sewing by machine. the cloth being created has a beautiful soft hand/feel to it due to being hand sewn and working in this way feels meditative and calming. i don't want to put it down once i've begun and i very much look forward to picking it back up again: a lot like when i hand quilt, embroider, crochet, hook a rug, etc.

so this is my newest stitching adventure. it will be fun to see where it takes me.

this is my 'poster' picture of a dog that strayed into the yard right after the fourth of July and was in need of some TLC. fresh water and food have been provided as well as some comfort in the shade should she choose to stay (and she has).  she was in pretty rough shape and seemed to need lots of rest as well as wounds that needed tending. at first she wouldn't even let me touch her and acted as though quite traumatized. she now won't let me out of her sight when i'm outside and lays by whichever outer door she thinks i'm closest to when i'm inside the house. i come home from going somewhere and she's there waiting on the steps for me. on the poster i've stated that she will be taken to the pound on the 20th if no claim has been made. we've had a couple of calls but none that panned out. the nearest pound is an hour away as we are so rural.  today i realized as i sat down to blog that it's the 20th and some decisions are going to have to be made . . .


today's gifts include:

• the house to myself ~ so nice and quiet
• time to blog
• time to think
• time to stitch
• time
• lovely. quiet. time.

Texture Tuesday

here we are at another tuesday. the challenge at Kim's this week was to use at least one layer of her (free) texture 'aurora'.
my columbine have mostly finished their bloom time and now present their funny little jester style seed pod heads.

 Sweet Surrender

i used the (challenge) texture of 'aurora' as well as 'pour vous' on these two images.  the second image is different only in that i've added a border.

do you prefer one more than the  other?

Sweet Surrender (with border)

today's gifts have so far included:

• waking up in my own bed (i've been out of town for a few days)
• cinnamon rolls for breakfast
• the ability to 'lose' myself while playing in photoshop