Saturdays are for play with color, threads and designs

oh, yep, it's a big mass of white floss, curled in a blanket, trying to gain my attention from stitching.........

shedding everywhere right now.

working on a pattern I made for August, the Dog Days of Summer.

 Just peak outside and breathe in the humidity, fog your glasses and then slam the door, putting your back against the door and thank God for air conditioning! Whew!

Now, this is certainly the sticky, stormy, Saturday in August I used to feel in South Ga.

I pinch myself and no I'm not in South Ga anymore but in the jungle mountains of North Georgia.....in muggy August but I smile because it's so much better here. :)

I sort out some colors and seems that the white shade is here.

this thread is called Abigail White from the Yodel Sampler Company

It graces our floors and sofa. Hence, I really need to be vacuuming instead of playing with threads right now.

If you think the weather gives you a bad hair day then take a look at this.

yes, this puts things in perspective for me. Where's my leave-in conditioner?

A blurry peek at my start.

Play, sleep, play, sleep.

That sounds pretty good to me.

what else are Saturdays for right?

Here's hoping you are enjoying a dog breather from the work week!

What a beautiful finish!

I was pleasantly surprised today by an email with a pic of Hillery's stitch of the freebie I designed last week. She also has a love for The Velveteen Rabbit and personalized her finish to her bunny's color. I love it and thought I would share.
This is my next finish to work on this weekend. Hillery's blog is  http://www.northcountrysamplings.blogspot.com/

I don't know why my computer didn't save the clear picture.......but pop over to her blog and you can see a much better, clearer pic she took of her finish! I just saw this email from her and this is so applicable to the movie I saw tonight, Eat, Pray Love.

Well, computer time is short as there are thundering and storms heading our way.

Have a great evening and sleep well,

Jennifer

It was a movie night Friday

It's been such a long time since I went to the movies but after a long day of work, I spontaneously went to see Eat, Pray, Love with Julia Roberts in it. It was GREAT!  SOOOO many good lessons from that movie. I have had the paperback book for several weeks and haven't read it but I plan to. I always like to see the movie first. I know that sometimes movies differ than the book but that's ok.
All the actors were awesome in this movie. It's very much a chick-flick though. But aren't those the best kind?

 http://eatpraylove-movie.net/

After you see this movie, you'll want to take a year off somewhere for reflection, meditation, love, and good food in between.

Of course, in my opinion, Julia Roberts is the best actress and I probably have every one of her movies somewhere tucked away. She is still going strong in her acting career and this movie proved it.

Still some works in progress.........

I'm still working and tweaking this sampler for Abbie's summer. So far.......with some other items I've pulled to work with as well, here it is pulled out of my bag, still unpressed and needing a few more details.

 I'm on the last row and I found this fringe that was perfect for it this week. This will probably be a pillow instead of framing and will blend perfectly in the guest bedroom/studio.

I love this shade of pink with dark brown, a chocolate brown.

Totally unrelated is this long large piece of serged pink flannel and chenille that was rolled up and in a remnant basket for 2 bucks.

I have some pink flannel just like this darker shade and hope to make Abbie another blanket with this piece in some way, maybe by the time we take our trip.

the back is serged well.

Tonight I took a plain grapevine wreath and added some flowers and cut some "late summerish fabric"  for the bow and put on the front door.

I'm so ready for that drier air and cooler nights. Usually, by the first week of September here in the mountains, we can feel just a bit of  it in the air.

Speaking of outside, Body Guard brought THE best, juiciest peaches home from somewhere??? by the road and they are wonderful. I peeled 3 or 4 tonight after supper and made this:

Peach Cobbler

This time I added some vanilla and cinnamon and it was lovely with Cool Whip. I sat in the front porch rocker and fed the mosquitoes a while and then took a walk around on the porch near sunset to see some pretty shadows of trees across the pond.

It's hard to see where the reflection and the trees begin and end

a close up shows ripples from something down there. I may not want to know what it is! :o

And soon the different shades of green will debut the most beautiful Fall colors imaginable. I can't wait!

 Fall is my favorite time of year.

Well, off to watch the news and catch up. Glen Beck has an interesting segment tonight. Then I flip over to Nancy Grace and watch the latest court cases and can put some things in perspective....LOL

Till later,

Jennifer

Midnight Progress

Abigail was a challenge. She is too pale for contrast with Bo Peep pink linen so I had to surround her with CC Bella Rosa floss. It's hard to recreate a long hair chi.

2 or 3 more motifs and this one will be done.

I'm in a Tizzy when I get this busy!

Yep, that's what my grandmother, my Mama Grace, would say on days like these. I'm in a tizzy and so very dizzy over all the colors and projects I have started and when I'm in a tizzy, I have to get busy. It's a good busy thought.

Miss Abigail is lounging on the sofa while I'm in the stitching chair frogging her and restitching her on the summer sampler. She doesn't mind at all to stare at me and then close her eyes for a nap so I can be inspired. ;0
I'm making so many revisions on this pattern I designed as I stitch it that I will have to go back now and change my pattern but when you have colors, things change sometimes on how they fit to the cloth. Abbie is so white but has some pale to medium brown heart patches on her backside that I'm actually putting a block of Bella Rosa (Crescent color cotton) around here for contrast. This is one of the beautiful shades of pink I ordered and it's plain beautiful! When I get further progress, I'll show a pic.

Other things keeping me busy are thinking about The Dutch sampler I'm designing for my brother-in-law's one day restaurant called The Dutch Onion, therefore it's name The Dutch Onion Sampler.

This fabric I got last week at a quilt store inspired me to pick out these colors.

isn't this fresh and so Dutchy???

Wouldn't you know it that Buckeye Scarlet is one of the red shades in the design!

There are a few more more I have to add but these are the main ones.

I have a pewter motif pitcher in this one so a Lexington gray color may just do the trick.

We'll see. That's what I love about this is getting to choose and rearrange and see colors come to life.

Well, Fiddle-dee-dee. I have to hurry and run to town for some errands and then get take out tonight so I can play more with these colors.

My overdyeds came today in the mail. Happy dance!

This is the most overdyed threads I have gotten at one time. But I needed wanted to venture into some colors I was not as familiar with so, here ya go.

I'm using this Snowball color as one of the main colors for Abbie's fur the Abbie summer sampler. Wait, I have a black shirt on today and I can just use all the doggie hair from my shirt. Isn't that gross? Sorry. LOL

The other color is called Noel and is absolutely beautiful, Weeks Dye.

More views:

I tried several Fallish shades. I designed a small Halloween design and had to see what the colors really looked like first before putting it all together.

I added many new colors to my stash that I had never seen before!

Next comes organizing these into my stitching studio and probably scattering a few into projects tomorrow.

I'm just going to take a deep breath and stare at these colors for a while, then I'll probably go to bed and have some wild color dreams.

One of the disadvantages to ordering in bulk is that the lot variations can vary, sometimes a good bit but in this tight economy, I'm just as happy with this. If you order in bulk, savings are greater and choices are more.

So, I guess you have to weigh the advantages and disadvantages. Right now, I'm very happy with these colors to add to my stash.

Hope your Monday was a colorful one too.

Freebie for you to stitch

Today I worked on several designing pieces but this one I had to share now. I haven't models for any yet...well, almost one. The book The Velveteen Rabbit is one of my favorite childhood books and it was published in 1922 by Marjorie Williams. Her principles are so applicable to adults as well as children.

Colors used are

DMC 223,224, and 225 for the pinks

 and DMC 433 for medium brown.

Hope you enjoy it. I plan to stitch into a pillowkeep with some coffee staining afterwards.

If you share please give me credit for the design, Feathers in the Nest. Thanks,

Have a great week!

It' a muggy night in Georgia

Tonight, we were sitting on the back porch for a few and talking about the weekend and Body Guard looked up to the foggy window and said, "did you make this heart with the line through it?" and he pointed to the glass. I said, no but looked and sure enough there was the door all fogged up but a perfect heart with a arrow through it.

He swears he didn't do, and I didn't do it.

The pictures of it are much more blurry than I could get them.

Have you ever felt the spirit of someone who has passed? Sometimes, it happens in dreams. But this, I felt it again. Makes me wonder sometimes and I don't think that this was coincidental.

Well, here's hoping you have a great week and feel at peace in some kind of way every day.

Till later,

Jennifer

Progress on Abigail Sampler

It's nice to take a break from the daily grind.

My office space gives me a spot to hang my

medical thinking cap for a few or a reading

room. No fanciness, and mostly messy, and

ever-evolving space of literature and work.

I found this pillow in needlepoint at a thrift store

for 5 bucks last year! I love it!

In my office space, I have all the pictures of my kids, big and small! This pic was taken at my old house in South Georgia. One of my faves as I used to play the piano for them to sleep at night sometimes.

Hoping they are happy now as young adults finding out what the real world is about like we all had to do in our 20's.  ;)

I can trade my office chair for my stitching chair and take a breather from scientific-evidence based practice to needlework, where there is no black and white view but creativity in progress. I love both and the balance between the two is sometimes tedious to find as I tend more to the creative part at this stage of my life.

I have many things to inspire my spirit as it flutters around the nest today.

so far, still working on this one.

just snapped a pic of Abbie, as she was asleep in the her favorite chair. Having a bad hair day?

I heart Abbie.  ; )

I think it's treat time now.