Farewell to April

Good morning, my stitching friends! Happy last day of April... And on to  the (hopefully) warmer, sunnier month of May. I always loved May Day when I was a young girl. Invariably, we made conical shaped paper "baskets" similar to these in school. Of course, when I went to school back in the dark ages, I made them from course construction paper--there were none of the lovely scrapbooking papers available like there are now. I would simply decorate them with crayons and colored pencils and fill them with a flower or two and carry them home to hang on our front door to surprise my mom. I would ring the doorbell and run and she would act "oh-so-surprised" to find my May basket of flowers hanging from the doorknob. Do children do things like that anymore? It was such a sweet way to mark the beginning of what is usually one of the prettiest months of the year...

I've been doing a bit of finishing in between my travels this month and have my March and April Christmas ornament finishes to share with you today.  For April, I stitched this darling freebie from a French blog which you can find right here. It is called "Joyeux Noël" and is stitched "over one" on 28 ct. black Monaco. I used most of the suggested colors, but did have to change a few due to stitching on black. For instance, her shoes were supposed to be black, but obviously that would never have worked, so I changed them to red. I also had to change her hair color from the charted black to brown and I made it a bit longer while I was "playing hairstylist." The nose area is a bit different from what was charted, too. It is still a bit large, but stitching over one on 28 ct. made it impossible to make the nose any smaller...

"Joyeux Noël " French freebie

For the finish, I had my usual struggle with making a flat ornament. I don't know what it is about these finishes that gets me so anxious. I find sewing my usual pillow finishes to be so much easier. I guess everyone has a finishing technique that they feel most comfortable with--what is yours? I think it turned out well, but I rarely do this finish as it frustrates me to no end! I chose a velvet ribbon for the hanger and the small accent bow in the corner and added a few green holly leaves and bead berries to finish it off.

 

Here is a closer look at the bow and holly detail--there is just something sweet and old-fashioned about it, isn't there?

If you read my previous post, you already saw my ornament all stitched up for March. If you didn't, it is called "Snow Birds" and is a design by Country Cottage Needleworks that can be found in the 2013 "Just Cross Stitch" ornament issue. I had a tough time finishing this one as I never realized how many different shades of gray there are! I had nothing in my fabric stash that coordinated well with this particular shade of gray so I just went with a black and white polka dot backing fabric. I did have a gray and white polka dot ribbon that I thought made a great hanger and perked up the finish a bit... And rather than adding my usual handmade cording, I chose this store-bought cording that resembled white rope--thought it was a nice touch for the nautical looking birds.

"Snow Birds" finish

We are hitting the road again and traveling to the beaches of Delaware this weekend to visit some college friends. Although I don't look forward to a seven hour road trip, I'm excited to see them again and on the way home we'll be stopping in Washington, DC for a quick dinner with my youngest son--yay! Anyway, I didn't want to arrive empty-handed so I stitched up this cute Lizzie Kate "A Little Beach" design. Since I already had a white frame just waiting for a finish, I had to downsize things a bit and stitched this on 40 ct. raw Newcastle rather than the fabric that came with the kit. I also added a real seashell to the piece (yes, with glue--I can hear a few of you gasping in shock!!). I think it turned out so cute!

"A Little Beach" finish

The friends we will be visiting just retired and bought a house near the beach so I think this is a perfect little housewarming gift for them. It can sit on an end table, mantle, or be hung on the wall. I really love it and plan on stitching the same thing again for my sister who has a beach condo in Florida... The shells in the photo below were all collected along the shores of Naples beach in Florida over the past few decades. I think that pretty pinkish shell in the right corner is one of my favorites...

Gardening Woes... Between work and travel, April has been a bit of a scattered month for me as far as stitching goes--I hope May will be better! Many of you have less time to stitch at this time of year because you're working away in those beautiful gardens that you are showing on your blogs, but we have just about given up on flower gardening due to our ravenous--and ever-growing--deer population. I can't tell you how disheartening it is to see your new flowers all chewed off within days (or hours!) of planting them. So we are waving the white flag of surrender--the deer have won. My husband will still plant his vegetable garden within a fenced area along with a few flowers for cutting, but that's about it. It makes me sad, but what can we do? We couldn't possibly fence in our entire yard as it is more than acre and has a large pond at the back. I took these photos just this week--yes the grass really is that green at this time of year!

Backyard ~ April 2015

 

These beautiful tulips are growing safely within the confines of my husband's fenced in vegetable garden so it's been a treat to have them to cut and bring inside!

Can you spot the tall Purple Martin house in each of the pictures above? It's one of the the things we fell in love with when we purchased our home 31 years ago... We've never gotten Purple Martins, but other birds sure enjoy it! If any of you have any tips about attracting Purple Martins, I'd love to hear them!

The beautiful ferns are unfurling their dragon-like heads everywhere--they seem to be one of the few plants the deer don't bother with.

Well, time to get packing (again!!)--short post today for a change! I hope May brings happiness your way, my friends. Thank you, again, for all of your sweet comments and always welcome emails. I appreciate them all so very much! Bye for now...

Wishing you all a very merry month of May!