In Stitches

Sizzlin' Hot Summer

We have reached that part of summer again, the part that makes me think fondly of winter...yes it is a twisted place. ;) The heat coils up off the pavement and hovers around your ankles while slowly making it's way up your body before slamming you abruptly in the face. It is wickedly hot out there and so deceptively lovely. I look out the window at the lovely seductive green landscape only to be knocked back inside by the heat wave when I open the door. I know when the deep freeze of winter is here I will long for such heat, but now I only want to sit indoors in front of the fan and admire the lovely view from the window. :)

AND the Tour de France is in full swing! I love the Tour and I hate the Tour, just as it loves and hates American cyclists. ;) I love it for the excitement and never ending action, I hate it cuz it makes me feel like a lazy cow for being inside when it's nice outside. ;) The nice thing though is that it is well suited for stitching! You don't really have to watch (unless you want to admire tight backsides) you can just listen while stitching. I imagine this is somewhat similar to what it must've been like back in the days of radio when tv's were science fiction.

So with the increased stitching incentives I have finally finished my "mom" project.



And started on an new project!



And look it's bike related...big surprise. LOL This project came by way of France, the irony of which is not lost on me, and is from a magazine whose name I can't pronounce. It was sent to Greg by Lili as a birthday gift. Of which he was so estatic to recieve. The magazine has some fantastic bike related projects and this was one. When I saw it I was immediately drooling over it, I just loved the simplicity and uniqueness. So when I finished up mom and sat watching bicycling on tv I thought HEY I want to do that project. So here we are. :)

Of course I changed the color of the fabric, which is a bit tricky because of the thread colors, but it will work out in the end.



The thing I love is that it is going FAST. It's easy and fun. Thanks so much LILI!! This was just what I needed. :)

Greg has just continued to stitch away, even though I have been in a major slump.

Here are a few things he has accomplished:



He made this for his work charity auction. They have it every year and he loves to stitch things for it. I love how it turned out and I love his signature done in red, white and blue! This is a pattern that we got in Wisconsin during vacation and I don't know how he could stand stitching it what with all those blank spots, but he did.

Next:



This is also a pattern we got while on vacation. Greg loves his inspirational quotes and he especially loves Albert Einstein, so this was a perfect fit! He totally changed the colors and then we were at Hobby Lobby and found this mirror shelf in the clearance aisle. It was mega cheap and a perfect fit for his project, don't you love it when this happens? It looks great, just needs some plastic to project the project.

Last, but definately not least!

Greg loves to do the most difficult projects, difficult to me. I like them easy. He is still working away on Evangeline and was obsessed with stitching her face as a cameo. Me, not so much. But he insisted and decided he would do it and give it to the charity auction. I felt that one project with Evie was plenty. ;) So he found this 22 count *black* fabric and started away on just her face. Here is his progress:





It looks AMAZING! I can't wait to see it finished, he is an awesome stitcher, especially when you consider that before 2004 he had never put needle to fabric in his life.

Well that's all for now! Everybody stay cool (or warm for some of you)!

posted by Kim at 3:01 PM