Stitching Like A Mad Fiend!

     I've been overtaken with craziness since my last post.  Every time it seems that things are going to settle down, some new and outrageous thing happens that needs to be dealt with.  I feel like a whirling dervish half the time and the other half I feel like a zombie.  But since stitching is my calming devise, I've  been stitching like a fiend!
     After finishing Ann Bowers, I went back to the Blackbird Design Garland Fair and put the verse in.

It was my first time using the Tudor Silk.  It was very nice to work with, especially on 40 ct. over one.
    Then I had an itch for a new start (we all know I just have nothing to work on) and since I had signed up for several SALs at the beginning of the year that I hadn't gotten to yet, that is exactly what I did.  In the Facebook Group for Long Dog Samplers I signed up for Dawn Chorus.  It is a very colorful but smallish sampler I think I can finish this year even though it might only get sporadic attention.

38 ct Ivory Italian linen
with mostly called for overdyed threads

I had also joined the Sampler World SAL for Barbara Ana's All Creatures Great and Small and finally made a start on that.  I experienced some difficulty in getting all the supplies together for this one which put me really far behind.  But I figured I probably wouldn't be on schedule with it by now even if I had started it on time so I just went with it!  It is a really fun stitch and I've had a good time with it even though A&E samplers tend to not be my thing.

Called for linen and threads
Probably why it was so difficult to get it all together!

The piggies in this section are just too stinking cute!!

   So I was innocently stitching along and got the call that one of the charts I was waiting to borrow was now available.  Which means I dropped everything else to get to work on it.  This is Moonlit  Garden, another Blackbird Design, and even though I was working on it 'out of season' it was so much fun!!  I just love the checkerboard house!

36 or 40 ct. R&R Chamomile Tea (I'm not sure which)
with mostly called for threads

This is where I was on this one before I packed up and went to Atlanta to visit  the Finishing Fairie.  We had been trying to get together all Spring and couldn't seem to make it work.  It was a last minute dash out of town and the traffic was terrible both going and coming back!  But we had a good time running around and got lots of stitching done.  I put the last stitches in it just days after getting home.

Keeping in mind that I had left my husband alone all week to deal with household things that it turned out he couldn't deal with and I spent most of the next week putting my house back in order!  Nothing less than what I had expected but time consuming none the less.
     After that finish, I felt the need for another!  So I pulled out the last sampler on my short-list of things to finish.  Red House Sampler by The Sampler Co. is now complete!!

I started this 3 years ago on our Spring beach vacation so it was about time!!  I was a little concerned about getting it finished with all the border that was still left to do but I buckled down, worked on it consistently, and it was finished in just a few days.
    Props go out to my LNS owner who spotted a couple of things that weren't right in that upper right corner.  I probably put it down before that particular section was all in and when I picked it up again didn't realize it was half done.  Anyway, I'm sure glad she found it before I had it framed!!
    I also stitched a Habitat sampler during this time but I have no picture since I think it is the ugliest little sampler on the planet.  I do one every now and then  for my EGA chapter since it is our Outreach project but I never enjoy stitching them.  I guess we all have to do penance of some kind!
   So that's where things stand now.  I have a couple of other new starts that are gifts for friends that I'm not sure if I will show here or not.  I guess you can show what you want to if they don't know its for them!  I've done it before.

Until next time, I hope you're enjoying your stitching as much as I am!  Laura