I was certain I was going to have a Midwest accent. Instead, I’m an Island North…and while I’m from MI and not WI, the description matches.

Here is some progress on Chatelaine’s Rainforest Quilt. I’ve completed most of the two butterflies in blocks 4 and 5.Both butterflies need some backstitching.

Tree down just north of AB Avenue on 12 Street, Kalamazoo, MI

Since I have a picture, I guess I should post it. Last week we had very very severe thunderstorms and a tremendous wind sheer that knocked down trees and powerlines all over. I was at Stitching Bits and Bobs for their Wednesday Sit-and-stitch when it came down. The ten minute trip home took me at least an hour – I had to make 7 detours to get home, there were so many trees in the road. Here is a picture of one of them…

And here is a picture of the limb that fell across my driveway.

Storm Damage

Wow, I last posted a year ago. Guess it’s time for an update. I’m stitching several projects (hence the lack of blogging…). Here are the most recent pictures of my Chatelaine Rainforest Quilt. I’m a bit behind (to say the least). I was working on three projects on black fabric and rebelled at the beginning of June and couldn’t take another stitch on something black! Click on the thumbnail to see a bigger picture.

I found these really neat scissors of a sea horse from Uncommon Scissors for $22.00. They also have butterfly, swan, smiling cat, and squirrel scissors for $22.00. These scissors have sharp points and work beautifully. I’ve been using them for the last few days while working on my Double Dutch Sampler. I’ve finished page 1 — only 8 more to go. You can see my progress on three of my BAP’s.

This is day four of miserable heat sent to us by way of the jet stream. I like it much better when the jet stream does this in January, rather than July. Day one wasn’t so bad, as it was dry heat; day two was the hottest day recorded this summer so far (96 degrees) and sweaty. Yesterday was not quite as hot – 93 degrees (funny it felt as hot!) and today maybe only 89, but still hot and now HUMID.  Bless the lakes (esp Lake MICHIGAN), they keep us cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, but also more humid. I thought a picture of a nice cool glacier would be appropriate for today. If only. And why is it that on the hottest days of the year, my cats insist on lap sitting?

I worked on the Double Dutch Sampler last night for 3.25 hours. Instead of taking a picture with my digial camera this week, I used a scanner. There is a big difference in brightness compared to week 1. Also, I included another pair of my scissors. These are also from Bohn in France. They are lion’s tails scissors named Blue Marmo and I bought them from Silent Stitches

You can click on either picture to either think cool or see try to see the boo boo I made last night.

Here is my name in letters from Flickr

You can do your name here . If you don’t like what you see, just click the back button and try it again! I found this on Tanya’s site

I’m not Dutch, but even so, I like this one from The Gift of Stitching, June ‘07 issue. I’m stitching this on 32 cnt cream Sienna using the recommended Glorianna silks: Midnight, Rosewood, and Autumn Gold. This isn’t the best picture, but you can see the variations in the gold. I included one of my newest pair of scissors from Bohn of France. How international!

I thought I’d include my flamingo I stitched several weeks ago. I am waiting on the rest of the materials needed to complete him (his feet in particular). I put another pair of new scissors next to him – a nice purple pair I found at my local LNS. You know, you can never have enough scissors.

I bet when you see a flamingo you think of lush tropical islands, hammocks, and
piña coladas. Well I hate to put a damper on your pool decorations, but this portrayal is absolutely false. Flamingos inhabit some of the most harsh environments in the world – shallow hypersaline lakes (that means very salty, but not the pool chlorine kind).

Of course everyone knows flamingos are pink! A white flamingo is a very sick bird because that means it hasn’t been eatting flamingo-good-for-you foods containing the source of the pink pigment – shrimp and blue-green algae. In fact, in terms of attracting the ladies, the pinker males get the better mates. Tell that you your husband or significant other the next time you buy him a pink shirt or tie.

I stitched a flamingo ornament over the weekend. No picture yet as I don’t have all the specialty threads I need to finish it. Instead, here a picture from Wikipedia (in the public domain). Since not many species can live in super salty lakes, you can see thousands of flamingos in the right places. In the distance they look like a pink haze on the horizon.

The Humblebee’s Buzz

– Bumble bee: from the old verb bumble to boom or buzz. Also known as humblebees.

Classified in the Genus Bomus, the bumblebee’s buzz is truely a rite of spring. The buzz is especially pronounced in bumblebees, as they must warm up their bodies considerably to get airborne at low ambient temperatures.

As you walk in the woods watch and listen. In the spring the queen bees emerge and begin foraging for nectar. Queen bees have longer tongues than worker bees of the same species and can take advantage of the nectar in long tubed flowers like Dutchman Breeches and Squirrel Corn. Look carefully however, you’ll often see holes in the tops of both these flowers. These are made by “robber bees” with shorter tongues. They have learned to take a short cut to the nectar! Darwin even noticed this in his journals.

Above is a pinkeep I stitched for a family member under the weather. It is from the Jan ‘07 issue of The Gift of Stitching from Little House/Country Cottage Needleworks. I replaced the DMC threads with Crescent Colours Overdyed. You know I could never keep Little House and Country Cottage Needleworks apart. Now I know why. The designers are mother and daughter.

I also thought I’d post some progress on Chatelaine’s Mystery X. I have 1/4 of Part 6 done, but don’t have a picture of it yet.