Weed Pulling Weakling!

I've spent the last couple of days in my back yard pulling weeds -- not my idea of fun but it needs to get done.  Needless to say, the back of my legs are screaming at me to stop doing that kind of thing!  I also pulled out a couple of dead rose bushes.  Man are they mean to get out.  I look like I've been through a war but the yard is starting to look much better in the back at least.   I'm going to try and plant some flowers again this year.  A green thumb I am not.  Plants and flowers come to my house to die.  I would much rather stitch them!     Sitting on the patio reading or stitching is my reward for doing yard work but I don't think I'm supposed pull one weed and sit for an hour -- I guess that's why it takes me so long to get the yard work done!   I've actually been known to plug in my old sewing machine and sit outside and do some simple piecing for quilts.  There is just something about sitting outside in the fresh air.


Here are a couple of finishes to look at.  The first one is a wall hanging that I have had pieced and hanging on the wall in my sewing room for about 3 years.  I finally got the border on and did some simple machine quilting and decorative stitching on it.  It's hard to see in the picture but it is done at least.  This one will be hanging in my bedroom.

Here is a pillow that I stitched many, many years ago and I didn't like the finish on it -- it had some kind of tacky lace around it.  Well, I pulled it apart several years ago and it's been one of those projects where I just  kept moving it from pile to pile thinking I was going to do something "different" with the finishing on it.  Finally, last week, I just got tired of moving it around and just sewed it together and now it's done -- it works for me!  This one is also going in my bedroom.

Have a good week everyone and get some stitching time in!

Nothing new and exciting at chez Diane in the last week or so but I've been doing a lot of puttering and re-discovering things I thought were long gone.  I've been putting together quite a donation box for charity.  I have been having my share of small appliance break downs in the last couple of months and have been noticing strange noises from some of the bigger ones too.  Maybe it's because I'm home more now and when I'm by myself I like the quiet so I don't have any TV or radio going or anything.  So maybe I'm just noticing the "white noise" more than I have before.


I have been stitching a bit.  I put some stitches in my "Sew Fine" piece from Shinysun's Cross Stitch and my Christmas stocking -- not enough progress though to post new pictures.  I decided I needed to find my laying tool because I'm getting ready to start a canvass design from Laura Perrin.  In my quest to locate at least one of the several laying tools I have, I found a canvass piece that I started back in 1996 as part of a group project my EGA chapter was doing. I had half the outlining done so I decided to sit down yesterday and do the rest and started one of the small blocks.  It is a Harriet Segal piece called "Phoenix".  

Phoenix - This is what I have so far

This is what the finished piece will look like

Amazing but true I did "finish" something too!  This is a biscornu I started in November.  It is done in red metallic floss  - remind me not to work with that stuff again!  Actually, I read a tip on working with metallic floss that if you run it through a thread conditioner (I used Thread Heaven) before you start stitching with it, it will go much more smoothly.  I did that and it did work much better.    I got all the stitching done in January but I just hadn't put it together.  Here it is all stuffed and sewn up but I still haven't found the right bauble to place in the center to pull it into form. If you have any suggestions, let me know.  Ok, so it's only 99.9% done...

Side #1

Side #2

Have a good week and getting some stitching time in!