IHSW Report & Other Stuff

Happy Monday morning one & all   : )   I will start this post with a photo of one of my most prized daylilies which I found at Willie's last week.  It's called Snow White Dove. Apparently it is very difficult to find.  Willie has always kept it as a display plant (not for sale) but we had it on our list & she said she would let us buy one.  I'm guessing this was extreme kindness on her part since we had bought so many others & she saw how excited we were about them all.  Isn't it gorgeous?  You know me ... I'm a sucker for anything that even remotely references snow   : )

Here's another one that just bloomed.  The color reminds me of the yellow orange crayon in the Crayola box.  I vividly remember sitting in my first grade classroom behind a girl named Rita Long.  We were coloring & I saw her picture & asked her about this beautiful color she was using.  She said it was yellow orange & she passed it back to me so I could use it.  It thought it was gorgeous!  I didn't want to give it back ... lol!  Anyway, this daylily is called Mary's Gold.  It's not a rare or hard to find one ... just a beautiful one   : )

A while back I did a post regarding how I decided I am not a gardener.  I determined that the oppressive heat & humidity & the never-ending fight with weeds & bugs of various kinds, among other things, were not for me.  However, I had to get out & clean up the beds a bit when we were planning to list the house for sale.  I didn't want people vomiting at the look of things while they walked around the yard.  As I weeded (& weeded & weeded & weeded & weeded) things started to look kind of nice.  Then I started trimming & rearranging.  Suddenly it was like uh-oh!  There's an empty spot! Gotta fill that up!  Then I noticed that the plants we planted last year, which looked to be near death's door from the time we put them into the ground, took off & grew like, well, weeds!  I can't believe how huge & full some of these plants are now!  It's nice to look outside & see something pretty.  I won't go so far as to say that I am a gardener or that I love gardening but I am getting some sort of satisfaction from it despite all the drawbacks.  A thought came to me a few days ago.  I think I am enjoying (& enjoying sounds like a strong word to me but for lack of a better one I'll use it) ... I think I am enjoying being out there in the gardens with the flowers because I hate being inside the house with all the chaos & things trapped inside moving boxes & closets packed from floor to ceiling & all the stuff that is wrong in here & all the never-ending insurance paperwork that keeps going from me to the insurance company & then back to me & then back to the insurance company ad infinitum.  Getting out in the gardens, despite all the hellishness it brings, gets me out of here & it's like being set free or something ... at least for a little while.  A bit of time spent in the prison courtyard rather than inside the cell.  Perhaps this is the answer to why I'm doing all this.  

I was checking posts on the knitting group Ravelry yesterday morning & Sophie decided she wanted some attention.  I picked her up & put her on the table & she snuggled down next to my laptop.  I think she likes the warm air that shoots out the one side of it.  As you can see she looks pretty bored with the Ravelry screen.  I think she can't understand why I'd want to knit or stitch or be on the computer or do anything else rather than pay attention to her.  

I had a rather successful IHSW weekend although it was a bit iffy there for a while. In my last post I stated that I had finished stitching my Nash project (4 Joy Pinkeeps) & the next day I would look for a new project to begin ... something with a flower/gardening theme.  I didn't have a lot of confidence that I would find something because although I have a good sized stash the main focus of it is winter & Christmas things.  I have some fall stuff, some samplers, some primitive designs, & a few Americana as well but flowers or gardening?  I didn't have much hope.  After going through my stash twice my fears were confirmed ... not even one flower or garden related chart.  I then decided to search for freebies online.  I came up empty.  I went back to my stash & revisited my freebies folder there & found a small motto piece which had a big bird on it with a few flowers alongside.  I convinced myself that this would work.  The design requires just one color.  I chose a variegated thread thinking how pretty that would look.  I wasn't happy with the fabrics I had to choose from but decided on a 32 count antique white linen.  I wanted to stitch the design over 1 which would've made the stitching area measure 4" x 3" which I thought was a good size. However, the design was looking way too tiny stitching it over 1 & the variegated thread just got lost.  I then started stitching it over 2.  This would make the finished stitching area measure 8" x 5".  A bit too big, I thought, but I'd give it a try.  It turned out that not only was the design looking too big but the variegated thread just didn't look nice on the antique white linen.  I spent the rest of the night frogging.  Yesterday morning I searched for freebies online again & found something I thought I could use but after looking at it for a while I decided otherwise.  Then I noticed a post on my reading list by Niky at Nikyscreations.  I remembered that I had several of her patterns which I hadn't seen in my stash checks.  I went back to my stash & there they were hiding in an unmarked file.  Sigh!  I then found a pattern with some flowers on it ... a very pretty pattern I might add ... & got it ready to stitch.  I worked hard on it all of yesterday & finished it a little after midnight last night.  I will share a photo after it is received by the giftee   : )

Today I will begin a new stitching project.  I had one picked out ... another Nash design x4 ... but I'm going to shelve that in order to make 2 other gift/exchange pieces.  I think the recipients will enjoy them & I'm going to make one for me as well   : ) 

I hope you all enjoy this new week!  Last week was, with the exception of finding Willie's daylily farm, horrible for me & John. Bad things happened every day.  I am hoping that things will turn around this week although it's starting out with a return visit to the dentist (more bridge woes). Tomorrow we are going to Lexington to once again run a few errands & then Wednesday it's back to the hospital for continuing blood tests. Pretty exciting stuff, huh   : )   But there will also be stitching & other fun things ... maybe I'll even get started on some knitting ... so things are looking up in this arena anyway ... fingers crossed   : )