This one may take a while....

It's a PITA already!!

 Lots of thread changes and fractional stitches.

Both of which give lots of detail.

But detail can be achieved without the fractionals!

Never mind, I've started now, so I'll get on with it.

Or

Maybe this is what it will take to get me back at my sewing machine!

LOL

The design is called Woodland Alphabet. By Jamlynn.

Very pretty. 24 letters with lots of little critters and even more little flowers.

I'll keep you posted.

So will the cat I'm sure!

I tried to shoo her away, but she insisted on being in shot!

Forgot one!

I forgot to show off this one.

Tea Rose was actually finished before the Happily Ever After sampler I showed in my last post.

I working with letters again on my latest project.

A woodland alphabet.

Not much to see yet, I'll post a picture when I have progress.

Another Finish!

The threads I had ordered from the US arrived just at the right time. 

It's a hand dyed floss, and I can tell it's from a different dye lot to the original.

It's really obvious here in this picture, but not so much in real life.

I can live with it.

I included the names of two very special people.

And the date of their wedding.

It's a bit of a private joke. 

Tony reads to me each night. It came about quite by accident, but for years now I have had a bed time story read by Tony. Usually a Terry Pratchett story. :-)

But if Tony is tired, or feeling lazy, or just wants to wind me up he tells me a story he made up one night. It goes.....

'Once upon a time,

they lived happily ever after.

!!!!!!!!!!!

As soon as I saw this sampler being stitched by someone else, 

I knew I had to get my hands on the chart.

I was putting the final stitches in when Tony came home from work this evening.

He was delighted.

And so am I.

*

On with the next one.

Keeping up with the greenhouse.

 The recent spell of very warm weather has meant a big glut of tomatoes in our green house.

We're eating them as fast as we can.

Tomato salad with everything and sliced tomatoes with everything else.

I even gave a bag full away!

But we still have loads.

Well, had!

This morning I turned 2.5 kilos of tomatoes into soup and pasta sauces.

Yum.

I'll freeze these wee pots and use them up over the cooler weather.

A delicious taste of summer, perfectly preserved in our freezer.

*

On a crafty note.

Tea Roses is about 2/3 done now.

And will grow some more this afternoon.

I've been able to source the thread I need for the 'Happily ever after' sampler.

It's coming all the way from the USA.

Of course I can't order just one thread to travel alone all that distance.

I had to add a few items to the package. 

Hopefully it will arrive, just before I finish the roses.

Oh! And I've pulled out my next large project.

I'll show it off soon.

*

Time to sew.

Oh no!

 I ran out of thread!

How frustrating.

I have only four and a bit letters to go, and I ran out of thread.

I'm struggling to find it here in NZ.

A lady who lives here in town has recently stitched this same design and has promised to have a look and see if she has any of this colour left. (It's a hand dyed colour.) Otherwise, I'll have to wait for more to arrive from the US.

*

Meanwhile the roses I showed last time, have barely moved! LOL

I'll get back to them later today and hopefully have some progress to show soon.

*

I haven't really had a huge amount of time for the fun stuff this week. I've had  quite a few chores to do between work shifts and we had a very nice day yesterday, so we were out in the garden, trying to catch up. I had a big tidy up in the green house and brought in loads of tomatoes. There is no way we can keep up, trying to eat them now, so yesterday I made a big batch of pasta sauce and froze it. When I'm ready to use it, I just need to use it like the jars and tins we get at the shops.

The leeks are coming along nicely and the spring onions are as big as the leeks!

There are lots of baby pumpkins. Some capsicum in red, green and banana yellow varieties. Some chilli peppers and cucumbers and my sweetcorn is on it's way too. 

At dinner last night I was able to serve up homegrown silver beet, green beans and broccoli.

Yum.

*

Well, if I want time for stitching later I have to go do the boring stuff now.