Is it hot enough for ya??!!

   I used to think that was funny when people said that but now, not so much.  It has been so hot here, pretty much since the beginning of June, that it has been all I can do to keep from melting.  I have all the shades drawn again the sun and have all the ceiling fans going to keep the air moving.  I only go out if I absolutely HAVE to so I have been a hermit for the most part all month.  It makes for really good stitching though!!!
   I worked on my Facebook patriotic SAL until it was finished.  It was a fun stitch and worked up very quickly.  I haven't done anything with it yet but it will go into the 'to be finished' box now and be finished into something later.

LHN Liberty 1776
35 ct. Weeks Parchment
w/ listed threads

   Then I got all enthusiastic and pulled out Ann Bowers. She is so close to being finished and I REALLY would like to see the back of her if you know what I mean!  If you remember, I am stitching Ann on 45 ct. linen.  Some of the stitches she calls for don't work on that.  I worked for several days trying to figure out a replacement for the Queen stitch strawberry band near the bottom to no avail.  Queens do not lay well on 45 ct.  All the other stitches I tried didn't look any better.  I ran this problem by my weekly stitch group yesterday and they are of the consensus that I should just leave it off and fill that space with my name and the date.
   I don't know  if I want to do that or not.  I have the companion piece to this sampler and it also has this band. I think it is a band that identifies the sampler to the region it is from and I would hate to leave it off completely.  I will reserve that as an option but I think I want to work on this problem for a little while still.  So, once again, Ann Bowers remains unfinished.
   Failing that mission, I moved on to some of my long term projects.  I added a couple more letters to the Calico Sampler.

  

And it now looks like this!

But this only catches me up for May.  I'm still behind for June so I need to get this caught up this week!
   The majority of my time has be spent working on this! The Red House Sampler makes another appearance after quite some time in hiding.  I bought a new Moira Blackburn recently and it made me think of this sampler and how neglected it was. (I know, strange brain connection but its the English thing.)

So this round, I put in the little scene with the couple and what I hope is a squirrel since I made it grey to match the ones in my yard.

 Then I got really excited because I thought I only had the scene on the other side and the border (of course; doesn't the border always wait until last??!) to be finished.
  Then I moved the Qsnap and all was revealed.  It seems that the entire right side was still undone so I started at the top and have been working my way down. (This is why I like to work on scroll frames. You can see the entire area you are stitching at once.  Qsnaps can be very deceptive since they hide all the edges!!)

I am going to finish the section in the above picture and then I will have to move on to the Calico alphabet I think.  So no finish here yet either.
  So basically I have been chipping away at some of my larger pieces.  I have kitted up quite a few smaller things to work on too but I have gotten very good at putting off new starts until I have a finish of some kind.  If I can keep myself interested in working on a WIP, I do that instead.
  I am off to my cave now for some hermit and stitch time. LOL.  Hope all of you are managing to stay cool wherever you are and that you are enjoying your stitching as much as I am!

Laura