Farewell to Spring...

And a hearty "Good Morning" to you my stitching friends! Can you believe we have reached the very last week of Spring? And a chilly spring it's been--I'm a bit tired of wearing sweaters or my fuzzy bathrobe each morning when I get up. Why, we even had to turn our heat on again last week for a couple of mornings--I don't ever remember having to do that in June. But, with summer arriving on Saturday, June 21st at precisely 6:51 A.M, I'm confident that we'll have many more of those warm, lazy sunshine filled days that we all look forward to. Today it's supposed to reach 91° here in western Pennsylvania with an equally high humidity. I can take the heat, it's the humidity which really wears me out.

With this still being spring, though, I do have a few final spring finishes to share with you. But, first of all I want to thank you all so very much for the kind comments on my last post and your heartfelt congratulations on the magazine article. You are all such wonderful and supportive friends! I want to send a special thank you to Sherri from Maryland who bought not one, but two copies of the magazine and sent me one so I could have my very own copy... Sherri, that was so thoughtful of you and I know I'll enjoy sharing it with my family and friends. Thank you so much!

Well, enough of my babbling--you're here to see a few finishes, right? I actually stitched all three of these spring designs back in April, but am just now getting around to finishing them. First up is the Spring portion of the "Four Seasons Band Sampler" featured in the March/April 2011 issue of "Just Cross Stitch Magazine." When I saw the main colors were blue and golden yellow I just knew I had to stitch it. (And the fact that it had two bunnies didn't hurt either!)

Of course, I had to change a couple of the colors to work better with the 40 ct. flax Newcastle fabric that I chose. I used DMC 3790 on the bunnies and 3052 on the leaves. I also added the word "SPRING" (from this free alphabet) to the top of the design since my goal is to create a bowl of Spring finishes in the future. This one is finished off with the solid blue fabric (from a cloth napkin) and a pretty blue ruched satin ribbon. I love the dimension the eyelet stitches in the butterflies wings and the satin stitched flowers add to this design.

Next up is a little freebie from Cosmic Handmade called "Carrot Patch" which you can find right here. I've had this chart in my stash forever it seems and thought it was high time I stitched it. This one is done over one on 28 ct. cream Cashel Linen using the following DMC threads:  3776, 3052, 3053, 712, 676, and 3790. I gave the bunny a tail full of colonial knots and accented the pale green polka-dot finish with a little fabric yo-yo. What do you think?

Carrot Patch freebie

And finally, a finish you've seen on my blog many times, but since I've given them all away--I'm finally keeping this one for myself--hooray!! You'll all recognize this old spring freebie from Prairie Schooler. It is stitched on 32 ct. antique white Lugana with the suggested DMC threads. After having stitched this one at least five times, I do believe I could do it my sleep, but I love it so much, I never get tired of stitching it...  That pretty sage green fabric in the background is used on the reverse side along with the handmade cording to finish it off... I imagine I'll be making this one again and using it in another giveaway some day!

Prairie Schooler "S Is For Spring"

Here are all three together--a nice start to a bowl full of spring finishes, wouldn't you say?

A trio of Spring finishes

My dear friend, June, in England, had a birthday last week so I wanted to make her a gift in honor of her special day. As many of you know, June loves to garden so I thought this charming umbrella-toting bunny admiring his beautiful spring posies would be perfect for her. This is just the bottom third of "Spring Sampler" (Prairie Schooler's Book No. 60) and is stitched on 40 ct. antique white Newcastle with the suggested DMC threads (although I changed the bunny to DMC 611). June seemed to love her gift and I hope she thinks of me each time she sees it!

Prairie Schooler gift for June

And, just look at what I received all the way from The Netherlands... Sweet Annette sent me some darling crocheted pieces to add to my monthly bowl display. For my bowl of April's rabbit finishes, she created a tiny white bunny with a little blue nose, and for my bowl of sunflower finishes (which I decorate with each August), she made a trio of beautifully crocheted sunflowers. Included in her package were six bars of genuine Dutch chocolate--yum!! Only three are left, Annette--it was delicious! Thank you so much, my friend--your RAK gifts were such a treat and I have so enjoyed getting to know you through your happy, up-beat posts!

RAK from Annette!

And, because it's June--you know what that means?! It's BLUEBERRY TIME!!! I love all summer fruits, but especially blueberries. I put them on my multi-grain Cheerios each morning, make desserts, breads and muffins with them, and even freeze them to use throughout the year. They make me smile :) 

As a little treat I found this tasty recipe for Blueberry Buckle which I made last week. It sure didn't last long even with just two of us in the house. I found myself eating it for breakfast, as a mid-afternoon snack, and as a semi-healthy dessert! Very easy to make and it was one of those dishes that tasted even better on the second day.

Dessert anyone?

Unfortunately, desserts like this are the last thing I should be eating because my normal 3-mile a day walking routine has been interrupted. Yes, I have developed Plantar Fasciitis in my left heel. It was my own fault--I wore some old worn-out sneakers when I took a long walk last month and the next morning I could barely hobble out of bed. It is slowly getting better and I've been good about doing my at-home exercises, but, boy, is it bothersome. Have any of you every had it? Mine isn't bad enough to have to wear a night-splint on the foot--yet, anyway--and I'm trying to keep it that way! Moral of the story--wear good-quality sneakers (tennis shoes, whatever you call them!) and change them after every three to six months depending on how often you walk or run. I should probably have been buying new ones after four or five months, but I think I've had this old pair for two years! Bad, bad Carol!! Needless to say, I have now bought a new pair of walking shoes and plan on replacing them at least by year's end...

Although it's been a cool spring here, our lavender and white  clematis bush was the best it's ever been. My middle son gave it to me for Mother's Day a few years back and it's grown and bloomed so beautifully ever since. We lost both of our other clematis bushes to the frigid winter so I'm thrilled that this beauty survived.

Thank you all for stopping by today--I know what a busy time of year this is so I appreciate your visit and your kind comments all the more! Hope you have a delightful start to your summer on Saturday and I'll be back with some patriotic stitching soon... Bye for now...