Threading Along: Back to blogging

It has been a few months since I've blogged on a regular basis. That is because I've spent an unprecedented 12 of the last 15 weeks home in Rhode Island, and there is so much to keep me occupied there. Cooking for more than just me, gardening with my husband, playing with the cats, seeing friends, birthdays, graduations, and weddings, holidays and family. The weather was perfect and we were busy. Our garden is bursting with life--there are green tomatoes growing abundantly and we are close to our second planting of salad greens. Our flowers are flourishing and the bunting is all hung. In fact, all the hard parts of the spring clean up are over and it is time to relax and enjoy the bounty of summer. Unfortunately, it is also time for me to return to Denver, where the weather has been violent--flipping between too much rain and too much heat. In Denver I have no garden, no family and few friends outside of work. The friends I do have, however, are all embroiderers, so I will be back at my handicrafts and I have a lot to do

I have promised to make some purses for a silent raffle to benefit a local school, and I want to work on some projects that I have prepped, but not started, as well as some that still need prepping. I'm itching to do another landscape and may set up more than one. The next one I have planned will have an abundance of French knots, and even though french knots are fun and easy, they can get boring. Having two landscapes to work on will help keep me going.

It was only last week that I even picked up a needle in my whole time at home. I stretched the linen onto a frame for a wedding sampler to commemorate my husband's and my wedding, and then found that without magnifying glasses I couldn't see the threads. So that project went into a closet to start when I return. I also traced my fish pattern onto linen. I am looking forward to trying a full color version of the blue fish I did in February. Then, feeling guilty for my sloth, I also finished embroidering three easy baptismal bibs. I have three more to do before I turn them in and get new ones. I had expected all six to be done before the end of April!

My only needlework success over the last 12 weeks, is locating and reading more novels about different needlework related themes. So over the next few months I'll review some of the novels and series that I've been reading. It's summer, so the reviews will be a little heavy on cosy mysteries, but who doesn't need a good needlework beach read?

I expect that I am back to blogging for the remainder of the summer and I can't wait to catch up and see what everyone else has been working on in my absence.

Below are just a fe highlights of my time home.