First Walk...

No, it is not my first walk! Today my husband came home from work and look what he brought.

Yes, little chicks! And that was their first walk, and their first fight.

Though they are very weak they did their best to learn their new world and they tried to scratch and to fly and to chase bugs and got tired very soon.








A little nap on the brothers' shoulders after a long walk.








Just very tired...






They are very funny but I am afraid now I will get less time for cross stitching because I will be chick sitting lol.
I also took some more garden pictures after watering it.












I did some cross stitching today too but not enough to show any progress.

Thank you for stopping by and leaving your comments, I appreciate this.
Happy stitching to everybody.

Freebie Design Exchange Received!

Today I got Freebie Design Exchange from Carol! It was a pleasant surprise, I did not expect anything to arrive so early, especially before I mailed my package for the partner. But everything happend on the same day.

Carol chose a very pretty design for me - Martina Weber "Martina's Roses", one of my favorites . The design is very beautiful by itself but Carol stitched it on Black Jobelan which helps the design stand out so nicely. To stitch on a black fabric is not so easy, even if you have OTT-LITE . I hope it was not too hard on your eyes Carol.

The gold beaded edge of the biscornu and the gold rose button are just perfect extras which greatly complement the design and make the biscornu a real beauty. I absolutely love it!

Carol also included a chart by The Stitching Parlor which I have not seen before but I will sure enjoy stitching it. In the package there were also some fabric, hand dyed floss, pearlized pins and body lotion.

Thank you Carol for everything, you spoiled me a lot.

Well, I promised to show some more pictures of my garden. But I did not feel well last week: a terrible sore throat and fever besides I think the garden did not look its best after hard rains which we had recently.

Here are some pictures to enjoy:

Would you care for some strawberries?

Happy stitching to everybody and take care!

A New Finish

Before showing my new finish for you I'd like to thank those who left so nice comments about my rabbit needleroll. I see many stitchers liked the idea of adding an extra piece of the fabric . Yes, it works all right in case your pieces of the fabrics are more or less identical in count and structure. Some of you asked me to try to add two extra pieces, well I am planning to, just let me think a little.

A special welcome to those stitchers who visited my blog and left a comment for the first time.

Today I want to show you a new biscornu which I finished yesterday. It is "Lilly Of The Valley" biscornu free design by Fabby Reilly ( you can find the link to her blog in Links). I liked the design the moment I saw it: lillies of the valley have been my favorite flowers since my childhood.

My family moved very often when I went to school. One of my elementary schools was very small, there were only 10 students in my class and about 20 students in the whole school. Behind the school there was a large valley and my teacher often took us there and we read stories, draw pictures or played there. Here for the first time in my life I saw the villies of the valley. The valley looked silver white when the flowers were in full bloom, it was a gorgeous view! It is a shame these flowers do not grow here.

Ok, back to the topic. The biscornu is stitched on 28 ct. Evenweave with DMC floss. There are some specialty stitches in the design, if you like French knots - the design is just for you , there are about 200 of them there, not less!

I started stitching the biscornu with the hearts and when they were finished I noticed how pretty and elegant the design looked at this stage and decided to use this motif for the back of the biscornu.
The biscornu is finished with green beads in order to add some green color for the back and to keep the same color palette. To embellish the corners I made dangling loops, some kind of tassels. Faby called them "handles", lol. Anyway, handles they are or tassels - they are sparkling and look great on the biscornu!




















And some more pins, heart and butterfly pins go well with the biscornu.





Thank you Faby for such a pretty design, it was pleasure to stitch it!





Thank you for dropping by ,
your comments are always highly appreciated.

Happy stitching to everybody!

"B" Is For Bunny

After the garden tour I spend more time working in the garden than stitching. It was so inspiring to see nice gardens that I also took my husband to one of the gardens to show him some things that he likes: maple trees and pools. I did not take any garden pictures during the tour as I do not want to copy anybody's garden, a garden is a very private thing, at least for me.


We spoke to master gardeners and learned some new facts about plants and got some ideas. Almost all our free time last week we spent working in our garden. I will show you some pictures later.


Now I want to show you what I had been stitching all this time and managed to finish. The Bride's Tree task for April was to stitch a rabbit. I chose "B" Is For Bunny by The Sweetheart Tree. I was a little late with my piece but... I stitched 9 rabbits not one, lol! Is it an excuse?

After a lot of thinking I decided to make it into a needleroll but there was a little problem - not enough linen for it. For a long time I had been wondering if it is possible to add some more fabric to the piece that you are working on and how this is going to look like.
I like experimenting. So I sewed two pieces together, on both sides of the seam I stitched a band and added some more bands to the top and bottom parts, here is what I got:








I guess the piece of the fabric which I added makes the design look brighter. I also coffee dyed a piece of the ribbon for the bottom part for a better contrast and finished the needleroll.
Here are the pictures of the needleroll and its sides:

But this is not all. I have another bunny to show to you! Here it is:

This little rabbit lives in our garden and is not afraid of me at all. When I go out to work or walk in the garden, he ( I think it is "he") also goes out, sits somewhere close to me and eats the grass from the bed. I say he is the only one who helps me weed the beds. He takes grass from my hand but does he not like bread. He made his bed under the Azalea bush, in the morning I can see him there through the window and I begin to worry when I do not see him there: we have a hawk in the garden too. My pet rabbit has a Russian name Zika , pronunciation is Zi-kar. Isn't he adorable?







Thank you for stopping by and leaving your comments , I enjoy reading them!

Happy stitching to everybody!

Le Tour des Jardins and "English Cottage Sampler"

A friend of mine invited me to go to Le Tour des Jardins tomorrow. This Tour features best Master Gardeners' projects and privately owned gardens here in North Louisiana. The gardens are so pretty at this time of the year here and we are looking forward to this great event.

I want to make a little present for my friend. Among freebies by Teresa Wentzler I found a nice design "English Cottage Sampler"- it perfectly suits the topic of our tour. I was thinking hard what to make it into and when at Michaels yesterday I saw nice little satin boxes I thought that is it! As you can guess I like to make boxes but usually I buy wood boxes for my crafts, that is the first box not made of wood.

Though Teresa Wentzler is one of my favorite designers I have stitched only one more design by her but I did it several times and made pincushions and fobs for me and one of my friends .

The design is called Geometry and I think it looks good on pincushions. Still I want to stitch something more intricate from TW designs... one day.

Nice weekend and happy stitching to everybody!

April-Rose Needleroll

I have been absent for quite awhile: my computer collapsed and my husband bought me a new one. We were busy installing software, learning and tuning the new computer. I can't say I like Vista but my husband says I will like it when I learn it better.

I did not have much time to stitch but I have one finished piece and a couple pieces more unfinished yet, just do not know what to make them into.

I usually do not show WIPs but today I will show you some WIP pictures. Janaina and I were once discussing how to stitch with a neat back . Janaina is famous for making very neat back, her stitched towels are very pretty from both sides. I said I can stitch with a neat back a little. At the moment I was working on April-Rose Needleroll by Lena Rose. It is stitched on very hole-y linen with different silks. Here is a piece which is done in solid colors:















Of course, that is not the way to stitch with variegated flosses. When stitching flowers I like the color to change gradually without many stripes - so - forget the neat back .



And here are some pictures of the finished needleroll. There are some mistakes in the instructions for the pattern because of that I got some excess of the fabric. I decided to fill the space with the lace, coffee dyed a little to match the color of the linen and I used Swarovski's butterfly to embellish the needleroll.


















That was my first needleroll and I am pleased with how it turned out.




Thank you for stopping by, special thank you for those who leave comments , it's a pleasure to read them.


Happy stitching!