catching up

I spent much of last weekend outside. We've been cool and wet here and while I had the chance, I got some garden plants in. We had a mostly nice weekend. On Saturday we bought plants, always a fun excursion, and dirt and on Sunday I got busy and planted them.

We buy our plants at a local place, Field of Flowers (Joe Orr Road in Chicago Heights) and enjoy seeing their changes and additions each year. They do wonderful hanging basket and planters. I wish we had a place for a hanging basket, but I've never figured one out. (We have a very shaded house and yard, good for the electric bill, bad for pretty flowers.)

Most of our garden is perennials, I got a few photos this weekend of the roses and peonies. We also have lilies of the valley going strong and violets, the phlox, day- and tiger-lilies are on their way, the passion flower vines are poking up...

I have some huge pots around the yard and I planted some flowers in front (the same as last year, I still can't remember their name), dill, rosemary, parsley, and thyme in the back yard and cherry tomatoes in the new pot.

I did some stitching. I mostly worked on the Hardanger State Day project, hours spent, little to show for it, so I took time out to stitch Susan Johnson's new beaded design--a pretty and quick project. Here's the booklet with my stitched heart below. It was a fun project to do. (I kind of felt bad, but I walked into her studio and said "I WANT IT!" and then made her kit it up for me. I don't think I'm usually quite that pushy.) The kit is available to order from her website.

I stitched it on perforated paper like the model. I haven't worked on perforated paper for a long time and I enjoyed it. I've been contemplating finishing possibilities. Of course, I've thought of stitching it to a slightly larger wool felt heart, perhaps pink, and making a pin. Or backing it and making it a scissors fob. Or adding it to a collage of some sort. The design is charming and I can see it added easily to a lot of projects.

I need to get some more beads from Susan and then stitch a few more hearts on canvas or linen.

Wordle

Just for fun, I did a Wordle of my blog. I input my url and this is what popped up. It looks like it's taken from the most recent posts. I like the way Thread pops out.

sign of the times

When I returned from vacation last week, this sign had been added next to my door plate. I was totally blown away!

We were renovated, redesigned and got new furniture a couple of years ago, but when I started I had this old wooden desk in the office and, of course, I wondered...

It seems to be that we're not 100% sure this is the place, or that my old desk was the desk. He was a visitor then and visitors get moved around and their rooms aren't always listed in the directory. My office is a "visitor" office (as opposed to a larger "faculty" office). And it's the most likely candidate, but more research is being done to hopefully find that elusive proof. And we had a storeroom at the time, with desks, tables, cabinets, etc., that would get swapped around and used as needed. (When we renovated, the old furniture was sold or recycled. I saved the pencil drawer from that desk, thinking to use it as a collage frame--it's still sitting here, under my spiffy new desk.)

My office got the sign only because 514, the other office mentioned, is now a student conference room and no longer an office. Still and all, I'm impressed and a bit awed.

Wooly Thread

The Wooly Thread is one of my favorite online shops and they're having a fantastic sale on A-Z books going on right now... Check it out here: Wooly Thread Blog. NAYY, just a happy customer.

Woo-hoo! I won!!

Well, I've been sitting on this for a couple of weeks now, ready to burst. I was on vacation when I read the post on Small Works in Wool, telling me I'd won the stash enhancement draw. Bob Barker hosted--I was most honored! (Her blog is a real treat and her sense of humor often has me bouncing with laughter. I love the vintage magazine images.)

Susan M. Hinckley is a wonderful artist, mostly in wool right now, and her birthday was in May. All month long she celebrated, with several amazing giveaways! I love this idea and may steal it for my birthday celebration this summer.
My goodies arrived on Monday. I am totally blown away by the fun things in the package. Oh, the possibilities! My mind's just percolating away. The photo at the top is the whole pile.

Here are some details. First, the felt: A giant piece of multicolored, inlaid felt and some great solids (take a peek at the little South American dolls on the blue felt. Plus some cool felt ovals. I love working with felt so this is really exciting. The lilac is a lovely wool fabric.

Next is paper--Look at that "m"! It's just awesome, as is the "makes" word card. I love vintage cards (I've been using scans of some that were sent by my grandparents in the 20s for holiday cards for several years now). And very cool papers. What if I backed them with muslin and stitched them? collage? scan and make up greeting cards from them? collage? Use them as a frame or backing for a stitched piece? from the felt?


The final photo shows the threads and odds and ends. The buttons are vintage mother of pearl. The vintage red box is full of beads! I love the stamens. I just got some wide black ribbon--what if I made flowers with the turquoise stamens? The colors are so cool.

Look at that card of gray thread toward the middle. Plain gray. That is a fantastic thread. Put it against anything in this package (probably, anything, anywhere) and it subtly morphs to enhance what it's up against. I'm sure this thread will be used to it's very last inch. And who'd 'a thunk it--plain gray?

Well, I feel like it was my birthday. I'm havin' so much fun! (at home at least, work is still deep in paperwork frenzy) Thank you, Susan! You rock.

new giveaway

While I was visiting her on vacation, Susan Johnson of SJ Designs offered to provide a treat for this month's giveaway.

Gala is her new thread and she has offered to send THREE WINNERS! a twist of Gold and of Silver. I'm sure she'll also be happy to include her latest newsletter.

These luxurious metallic threads are structured like Jap gold but are a little shinier and thicker. I think they'd be perfect for longer stitches on canvas (not tent stitch). I plan to use mine to outline a crewel design (that I have yet to stitch), using outline stitches.

Please leave your name and contact information in a comment on this post by Monday June 29. I'll generate THREE random numbers then to pick the winners.

I'm late, I'm late...

Apologies... Things are nuts and I'm way behind with everything. Random.org selected #1 this time for the May giveaway. Karol is the Winner! I'll mail it off to you, Karol, as soon as I get a chance.

I have a cool giveaway planned for June; I'll get it up as soon as I can. I have loads to say and share and not a minute to spare...soon....