Years ago, when I was a busy mother

to 3 very busy small children, I would look through my cross stitch magazines several times,........marking the ones that I wanted to someday cross stitch...................for someday , after my children got bigger and when I finally had the time to actually stitch .

I even found the floss that was needed for each design and placed it in a large Ziploc bag with the magazine that the pattern was in, and then stored it away in a box..................for later. Now the years have swiftly flown by, my children have grown and don't need my attention.  As I was going through my books, the vibrant fall colors of the floss in one bag called out to me and my memory .....................

of a set of 4 designs, one for each season,........of an item on a clothesline with the same little bluebird perched somewhere on the line.

This is the Fall design and I just love these colors most of all! I was surprised to see how many different oranges, browns and beiges were in this one design. It is stitched on an 8x10 light blue cross stitch fabric. The design measures about 7 x 4 inches. I think this set will look adorable when framed and hung on the wall above the dryer in my laundry room. I am starting the winter design next.............can you guess what it will be?  It is just as charming as the sock.

 How about you?

Do you have seasonal sets of something to cross stitch or embroider?

What colors do you like the best?

I would love to hear!

I love to see designs with baskets

loaded down with flowers............don't you? This little design

was in with a load of vintage designs that a customer gave to me last year. She told me that she had once enjoyed embroidery and wanted to pass the designs on to someone who would enjoy using them as much as she did. I was over- joyed and humbled at her sweet gesture.

I also love designs that have vines and flowers trailing in this or that direction.  This design will be stitched on various towels for my booth sales and Etsy shop. Do you have vintage designs that you love to embroider or that is on a particular linen?

I also picked up my crochet hook this past weekend and made a few plaid potholders for later sales. I love flannel shirts because of their plaid design and was so thrilled when I learned how to incorporate the plaid design into my crochet! My plan is to use up all of my overflowing crochet yarn..........and try not to buy anymore until I have done so.............I know I won't be able to make that plan work out.............yarn calls to me from the store shelves.........sigh.

How about you?

A field of red poppies

swaying in the breeze, always catches my eye.............however, I have never seen a field of poppies like this.............not in my area.................only on video or posters. Do you have fields of poppies where you live?  The only poppy I have ever seen growing in a garden here........was years ago , while I was visiting a dear friend Bell. She never allowed grass to grow in her yard...........only flowers. Her yard was hard packed where one walked, but where her flowers grew...........the ground was soft and rich and held a bounty of beautiful blooms. In one corner of her yard,  a tall and proud poppy grew.............swaying in the Texas spring breeze. I fell in love with it!  Bell gave me seed to plant my own..............and after all of these years, I still have not been able to get a poppy to sprout.

Whenever this kind of disaster strikes in my garden............I turn to my needle and thread............and create the blossoms on linen,.........that I cannot grow in the ground.

After seeing the brilliance of the color of the poppy in Bell's garden............I started appreciating the color of reds in my embroidery. I never used to like red...........I always chose pink or yellow for my stitched posies.............but this poppy made me realize how red draws the eye in to see the real beauty.

This week, I am stitching quite a few poppy designs for towels for my booth and for my Etsy. I really like this vintage design...........I think if placed in clusters on the corners and in the middle of a large white linen piece, this design would look lovely as a tablecloth in the middle of a French/ country kitchen................what do you think?

Do you like poppies as well?

 I would love to hear!

Vintage transfers, floss and linens

are scattered over my work table this week as I prepare them for embroidery.

I have taken on a business venture with a friend in Dallas, who is selling my embroidered

linens in a booth in an antique gallery. She and I have been talking and dreaming of having a shop together for the past 2 years...........we just live so far apart that it has not come together.

Recently she came into this idea and it has proven to be a great way to sell her items as well as my linens.

Right now I am in the middle of embroidering hand towels . I plan to make a few for my online Etsy shop as well.

Salem, my color and floss consultant, is enjoying every moment of inspecting the floss being prepared for this work. I think he likes yellow the most!

Live creatively, friends...........

............Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that.

 Don't be impressed with yourself.

 Don't compare yourself with others.

 Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can

 with your own life.

Galatians 6:1, 4--5

From "The Message" (MSG Bible) 

Something has been in this box..............for a long time.............

waiting to get out...........

floss of vibrant color beckons me to bring it to life...............

and for the past 8 weeks, maybe longer, I have dedicated my time and stitches in getting it created and finished. Years ago, when we first moved out to the farm, I purchased this kit as a beginning statement of the farm I wanted to create.............full of chickens, orchards and berries.

I started out stitching in delight.............then, as all of you can probably relate to, life swept me away, demanding my time of other issues, and I placed this project into the box................

although it was there waiting, my needle seemed to follow other paths and other projects. I would return to this rooster, I have come to realize, in moments when I had many things on my mind and going on in my life. Stitching the squares away as I waited for a teenager's car to pull in the drive from a ball game.............or waiting for a teenager to come back home after flying away to find their own way.  Moments in prayer for loved ones........moments of worry as to what will we do ??

and life would once again turn to "normal" and I would once again, stray off onto another path.

Then after all of these years, children grown and gone, life running smoothly.............

my eyes once again came to rest on the box, that waited in the corner for my attention. With each stitch crossed off, the more my anticipation grew to finish.  With the help of the extreme hot weather and drought, my time was spent more inside..............stitching.  Once again, I rekindled the love for cross stitch and can't wait to start another project. I am also thinking of offering my embroidery services to those who have unfinished cross stitch pieces.................but that is still a plan in the thought process. I can't wait to get this rooster framed.................he will then reside in my kitchen.

How about you?

Have you started something, put it away, and then fell back in love with it again?

 I would love to hear!

This week I am embroidering on a vintage

tablecloth, that I found, years ago, in a junk store, and that I have previously, over the past year , posted about.

It was tossed over the railing of an old baby crib. It had only a few flowers, here and there, stitched, in a very heavy thread, and what looked to be in a very hurried fashion. The photo above is how I have embroidered it and how it will look when I am finished with it all.

I purchased it for pennies, took it home, and removed the previous stitching.

I then decided on the colors and started stitching away.

As time has gone on, many things have taken me away from stitching on it. Growing children leaving the nest, family occasions, my attempts at getting a farm to grow, and the ups and downs on the roller coaster of life.

Haven't we all been on that ride now and then? {: 

But this week,

with the heat keeping me inside, I decided to give it my attention again.

There are a few stains that will need to be removed after the stitching is finished,

and I can't wait to get to that last flower

and to that last stitch !

 I already have a place where it will be looked at and enjoyed every day. My dining room table is needing such a tablecloth.

How about you? Has life swept you away from your needle and thimble?

What project would you love to finish and what will you do with it afterward?

 I would love to hear!