PhotoHunt Catch-Up

Gosh, life has been busy I've not done a PhotoHunt since late May!!!  So here's two to start getting you all caught up.

May 28th theme was "Looking Down"

This picture was taken in August of last year at the Montmorency Falls just outside of Quebec City.  There's a bridge that goes right over the falls and you can look right down and over the falls.  Bonnie and I will be heading back later this summer with our significant others for a wee summer vacation.  We're really looking forward to it!

June 4 the theme was "Dirty"

This picture was taken this past February at the Batey Vascas outside of Consuelo, Dominican Republic.  A little girl is washing the family's dirty laundry.  I'm very excited to be going back with a different group of students next February!

Things have been crazy busy for me lately, this summer at work my carpets are being replaced!  What does this mean but having to pack an ENTIRE library into boxes.  Boy, I'm getting tired of the sight of boxes!  So today I got a wee bit creative with some of the empty boxes... proof I'm going around the bend?

Zeus is still proving to be quite a handful!  Here she is CHEWING on the stem of my grapes!  Naughty girl!

Its a long weekend coming up, we'll be celebrating Canada Day on Friday!  Living in the Nation's Capitol we have the opportunity to go downtown and celebrate on Parliament Hill.  I'd be absolutely CRAZY to go downtown this year William and Kate are in town!  I just don't tolerate crowds and idiots very well anymore... nor can I tolerate the drunk on the back of the bus who throws up once its all over on the way out of the downtown core.  I am looking forward to Saturday though, I'm doing my second race, the Perth Kilt Run, an 8 km race and the kilt is MANDATORY.  I've got to figure out how I'm going to carry my camera because I've got to get pictures of this race for sure!!!  Last year's race made the Guinness World Record!

Of course I hope to be able to find some time to stitch, I've not done much since Sunday.

A Long Awaited Update

I had another wonderful stitchy weekend, but this time no pictures were taken!  I think we were all too busy stitching, and I mean who wants to see the same faces again, and again?  On Friday after work Christin and I headed down to Kathy's for the weekend.  On Saturday we were joined by Beatrice for the day, and Bonnie who stayed until Sunday (like we did).

Zipper bag, with Kathy's help I made two from the same fabric

Oh boy did we stitch?  Also Kathy was kind enough to show Bonnie and I how to make the adorable zippered bags she had gifted us with some time ago.  It was my first time sewing anything with a zipper on it ever!  I made two of them at Kathy's with her close guidance.

When I got home this evening I also took the time to be creative in other ways, and made three scissor fobs.

Of course you want to see some stitching right?

I finished up this ornament last weekend, but had yet to share it with you.

A Nordic Mitten

c2007 JBW Designs

Stitched on 40ct Linen using DMC overdyed cotton

Here are my two current WIPs both, I'm really enjoying!

 The Accolade, page 1 finally finished and started page 2

 Enchantment of Winter, focusing on the over one portions!

Quilt Squares Progress

Late last year I saw a fantastic quilt a friend had made with stitched quilt blocks at the center of each quilt block.  It was amazing!  Slowly I have started the progress of stitching these quilt blocks with the help of some of my special stitching friends!

Here's the progress on the quilt blocks so far:

My 6th Quilt Block

Blocks 1-6 that I've stitched

Stitched by Judie

Stitched by Kathy

Stitched by Beatrice

 My good friends Christin, Rebbecca, Bonnie (hers are done, but I don't have them yet), Sheila, Clare and Dee (she'll get them as soon as the postal strike is over) so far are all working on blocks for me as well.  They are all being great sports to help me out with getting all these blocks stitched up and the quilt will be extra special!

2nd Annual Georgian Bay Stitchy Weekend

Sorry fair readers, its been awhile and my blog is woefully out of date!  Its been a challenge to sit down and find the time to update what's been going on in my little stitching world.  That or all I've wanted to do is sit and stitch.

Nature's Majesty

Last year we had our first every stitchy weekend up in Georgian Bay, prime Ontario cottage country.  Sheila, our hostess has a home and a cottage on a beautiful piece of waterfront and last year invited a group of us up for a stitching weekend.  We all fell in love with her home and her view and all easily agreed that we should do it again the next year.  I had been looking forward to Sheila's weekend for some time now and I wasn't disappointed!  Well worth the 6-7 hour drive!

The Cottage

In attendance at various points of the weekend were of course our hostess Sheila, Kathy, Beatrice, Christin, Bonnie, Rebbecca, Sylvia, Clare, Barb, Ann, and myself.  Our numbers were a little smaller than last year.

Christin Stitching in the Warm Sunshine.... getting a little red????

The weather was better this year than last, it was a little warmer and we did have one sunny warm day where both Christin and I got a little too much sun!  It was glorious to sit out in the sun and stitch with a front row seat to nature's beauty!  It was also nice enough that weekend for me to get out and run twice, one run was 10K and the other 6K, it was so lovely to run a different rout.  Saturday morning I was out early enough that I managed to startle a doe at the side of the road.  She ran off ahead of me, there was no chance of me even keeping up with her!

Kathy stealing all of Barb's awesome Apple Dip!

I spent the weekend trying to avoid the wonderful food we had all bought along, of course our motto is: Stitch, Eat, Sleep (exactly in that order).  I spent the weekend focusing on Enchantment of Winter, and a little bit of time on The Accolade as well.  I'll have stitchy updates in another post soon.

I think I'm just going to let the pictures do the talking!

Beatrice & Bonnie

Rebbecca

Bonnie and Molly

Sheila has fantastic gardens!

And a pond!

Our hostess!

More wildlife

Clare working on something on a ridiculously small count!

I'm looking forward to going back later this summer, and of course our stitching weekend next year!

TUSAL & Goals

Last night I was home too late from Ultimate Frisbee (my newest activity) to get a blog entry in, but here it is today.  I took my Ort Jar out to get some fresh air this evening to be photographed.  You'll notice lots of blues/whites/greys in this layer all from Enchantment of Winter.  I have to say when you're stitching over one or backstitching you don't produce a lot of orts.

I also realized, gee this is the start of a new month so I should review my goals form May and set some for June.

May Goal Review
Work on Enchantment of Winter - Sure did
Work on The Accolade - Going pretty well actually
Stitch 1 Ornament - Yes
Work on Quilt Blocks - Barely touched it, but touched it a little

June Goals
Work on Enchantment of Winter
Work on The Accolade
Stitch 1 Ornament
Finish 1 Quilt Block

Thanks everyone for your awesome words over my 10K race last weekend!  Your comments mean a lot to me and made me feel great about my accomplishment ... though it did make me realize how slow of a runner I am, but I am a runner!

Here's a great shot of Zeus I got last week as the sun was setting.