FFO Cross Stitch - Sail Away

Today is Day 4 of another very hot, very, very humid, heat wave. With the tremendous amount of rain we have had and all of the heat waves, this has been quite a summer, but then the weather seems to have been causing problems all across the country. Anyway, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just sail away? That’s the name of this pattern from It’s So Emma of the Fat Quarter Shop. I began stitching this piece in early July.

This twelve inch square ‘tray’ came from the unfinished wood section of Michaels. It has a rope for hanging. I chose to paint it grey as I will use it with other finished cross stitch pieces.

A magnet is glued in the center of the wood, and each time I finish a piece with batting and sticky board I will glue a washer on the back of the piece. I’ll be able to pop this piece out and pop in a Halloween piece if I manage to get it finished by October. 

This photo is a note to self for next year. Each year I plant Sweet 100s in pots along my fence. This year I had a few extra plants, so I put four pots on the patio up against the back of the garage.  They have done great there, far better than those in the other location. Why? I’m not quite sure. My siding is a light color so perhaps they are getting lots of reflected light. 

Tomorrow it is supposed to be cooler, and so I hope to get to a few of the projects that I didn’t get to this week. When it is this hot and humid, I do not know about you, but I accomplish next to nothing. :-)

Stay safe.

Wool FFO - “God Bless America”

This wool appliqué pillow is God Bless America from The Little Red Hen.   I saw someone on flosstube showing the kit for this piece that she had recently purchased, and before I knew it, I was ordering one, too! My plan was to have it stitched by the Fourth of July, and so it is. . . well, that is . . . it’s ready for July 4, 2022. If you have seen this pattern, you might notice that I have eliminated the vines and tiny button berries. As it is a small (8.5" x8.5") piece, I decided to simplify the design a bit.

I’m feeling pretty relieved this afternoon as we had been bracing for hurricane Henri. A hurricane has not made landfall in Massachusetts in thirty years, and we had been expected to be hammered by this storm. I had spent Friday morning removing hanging pots and garden items in preparation for the projected high winds and torrential periods of rain, but the storm was downgraded to a tropical storm, and it changed course. The folks along the south coast and those in the western part of the state took the brunt of this  storm. With the unprecedented amount of rain that we have had in July and August, the fear was that flooding would be a major concern. Also, the ground is so sodden that the winds could easily cause trees to topple and major power outages to occur. [The meteorologists explained that when we have northeasters, the trees have generally by that time lost all their leaves, and the trees can then withstand the gale force winds, not so when the trees are covered in leaves and the ground is so wet.] The rain has stopped and the winds have died down where I live about twelve miles south of Boston; I can only hope that those areas of New York and New England in its path have fared well.

My other dish plate hibiscus has come into bloom. 

I have added two small cross stitch pieces to the summer farm-themed tiered tray on my kitchen table. Though small, they each took about eight to nine hours to stitch. Cross stitchers will recognize these as pieces from Lori Holt’s stitch cards. Maybe next year I will add the cow and pig! :-)

One last thing, if you have ever thought of purchasing an HQ Sweet Sixteen, you should check out the latest Quilt Roadies video, Demo of the Sweet Sixteen and Some Quilt Talk.  For those readers who are not quilters, a Sweet Sixteen is a midsize quilting machine. . . bigger than a regular machine but smaller than a longarm. And in case you were wondering, no, I am not interested in a quilting machine; heck, I can barely get myself to sit down at my regular machine. I had hoped that returning to guild meetings in the fall would motivate me to get busy quilting, but with the variant spreading, I do not know whether or not I will feel comfortable attending guild meeting.

On that cheery note, I will bid you adieu until the next time. Yesterday, I painted a frame to display “Sail Away,” a cross stitch pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop, and I am eager to FFO it.

One really and truly last thing . . . when I went to publish this post, I noticed that this is post # 1001!!! Can you believe that? Wow!!!  Thank you to all who continue to read these sometimes random ramblings. :-)

Stay safe everyone. Have a good week.

A Sunday Smorgasbord

 It’s cool today!!! Well, not really cool, but a whole better than it has been during our four day heat wave. Frankly, the heat and humidity did me in, and I accomplished next to nothing this past week and that includes writing a blog post.  So, this post will indeed be a smorgasbord of things I would have written about if my brain had been fully engaged. :-)

Let’s start with what might be a couple of my best bee images ever. 

Bee sure to click on the images for a larger view. These were taken with my iPhone which I try to remember to always slip into my pocket. 

 

I am happy to report that after our extended rainy spell and subsequent heat wave, I have been seeing more bees and butterflies.
 

Do you remember that tiny little green insect with the red eyes that I wrote about in my last post? Well, I was tempted to title this post,  “I Saved an Assassin,” but I was afraid it might attract the wrong type of readers. Let me explain. It turns out that a search for “tiny green insect with red eyes” brought up images similar to the ones I posted. That “cute” little bug is a Zelus nymph, more commonly called a pale green assassin bug!!! While how it attracts and devours its prey is interesting, I will let those who are interested check that out on their own. One note of caution . . . while the assassin bugs are after other bugs if you disturb one, you might get bitten. The bite for a human can be quite painful, and to think I had carried it outside and carefully placed it on a plant. Good grief!!!

I have managed to get a bit of stitching done, but I’ll show those pieces in upcoming posts. There is so much sadness in the world that perhaps I will just show you some pretty pictures from my garden this week.

The Plum Perfect rose that I purchased in July is blooming again. It is just about as perfect as it can be.

The color is similar to the shade of my dinner plate hibiscus. I love how those blossoms look as they begin to open. My other hibiscus plant still hasn’t put out blooms yet.

Some of my other roses are reblooming.

From a distance, my gardens are bright and colorful but don’t get too close as I fear the weeds are winning. It has been far too hot to do any gardening.

Recommendation: I am strongly recommending The Book of Lost Names  by Kristen Harmel. It’s the story of a young woman who uses her talents as a forger to help Jewish children escape the Nazis. The author writes in such a way as to draw the reader in and allows one to visualize what is happening. This novel has all the elements to be turned into an excellent, suspenseful motion picture. Do give this one a try.

Stay safe. Have a good week. Be careful. Wear a mask.

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Covid deaths worldwide - 4.36 million

United States - 621,000+

India - 431,000+

Brazil- 569,000+

Massachusetts - 18,142

Dinner Plate Hibiscus and a Cute Little Cross Stitch Inspector

This will be a quick post. I just wanted to show you this gorgeous dinner plate hibiscus in my garden. The blooms are six inches across.  I had purchased this beauty and another lighter pink one at a farmer’s market a number of years ago. This one started blooming a week ago and should continue blooming for another month or so. The second one has not begun blooming yet, and I may have to move it to a sunnier spot in the garden next spring.

In my last post, I mentioned that I enjoy photographing flowers, butterflies, and bugs which brings me to the next two photos. ;-). I was happily cross stitching one of my latest pieces when I flipped it over to finish off some stitches on the back. There I spotted this tiny red eyed critter crawling along obviously meticulously inspecting my work to see how neat the back was. I waited until he reached a clear space to get this shot. I have enlarged this image of the “inspector” who was tiny enough to completely fit on my thumbnail.  It looked like a micro mini praying mantis.

I let him continue to crawl around for a bit and then gently escorted him outside. Since it was raining, I placed it under some leaves on a plant on my front porch. . . my good deed for the day. :-)

FFO - “I’ll Bee There for You” and The Buzz

This is “I’ll Bee There for You,” a pattern from Puntini Puntini. The chart came with two buttons: the bee and the tiny pink flower. I’m displaying it on the bee tray I found while visiting thrift shops with friends on a recent Cape getaway.

If you have been following my blog, you know that I love photographing flowers and butterflies and bugs. I plant a wide variety of flowers to attract butterflies and bees, but whether it has been due to the incredible stretch of rainy weather we have had or not, there do not seem to be many butterflies this summer. My butterfly bush is in full bloom, but sadly,  I have only seen an occasional flutterby. 

 

A bee spent quite a while resting on this yellow teapot. I have picked up a few cute thrift store teapots and hang them in my flower gardens. There used to be a string of clear beads hanging from the spout which created the appearance of water droplets sparkling in the sunshine. The beads have fallen off, so I must get around to replacing them. I'll put that on my list!

I was so captivated by the two bees on this coneflower that I didn’t even notice the spider.

 

And speaking of spiders, check out this tiny craftscreature  at work. Well, on second thought, check out this hunter at work. He/she will use this sticky orb design web to trap its prey. Say what you will, I find spider webs like this totally fascinating.

Does anyone know what type of tree this is? It growing in the strip of woods behind my house, and frankly, I have never noticed these green “balls” before.

One last thing. . . Do you enjoy DIY programs? Do you get a kick out of watching  Chip and Joanna Gaines? Then, you will love a new series on Youtube, “Dick & Angel Give It A Go Series.”  Angel and Dick Strawbridge are a British couple who had a series on PBS which followed their process of restoring a chateau in France. In this series, the focus is simple, practical home improvement projects: for example, recovering chair seats, building a raised planter bed, using a saw properly, etc. Even if you never make any of the projects, I promise you will enjoy Angel and Dick.

That’s all for know. Bee happy. Bee safe. Bee positive.