Spring Exchange & Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! I think spring has finally arrived and has decided to stay. I had thought pigs would fly before warm, sunny days arrived but when I looked out the window today, it is just gorgeous! Here is a picture of my neighbor's pink dogwood which is one of the prettiest I have seen this year. Isn't it gorgeous???
I just sent a spring exchange out to my partner, Karen, from my Yahoo group, Every Stitch Counts. I decided to stitch a very old freebie pattern from Prairie Schooler which I found and the colors were just so complimentary to each other. After finishing the stitching, I went to the local fabric store and this dogwood fabric caught my attention within moments. I completed this piece as a small pillow and I am hoping my exchange partner will like it when it arrives.

Prairie Schooler Complimentary Design (1994?)
Stitched on 32 count Lambswool Jobelan
Threads: DMC

I am now working on The Musician once again after almost a 3 week hiatus. I have missed working on this piece and that is good news since I have a long, long way to go; about 20,000! Yesterday, I started to use the Krenik Very Fine Braid and should be starting some of the back stitching of the design soon. I think that is when she will really pop!

Last of all, I must share some other spring pictures. My daffodils were beautiful this year although they did not last for Easter. My azalea bushes are starting to bloom and when taking this picture, look what happened to fly by...... Happy Easter!!

Until next time, keep your stitchin' and knittin' needles moving, spend time with family and friends, and most of all... enjoy life!

April TUSAL Update and Stitching/Knitting Report

Wow! I went into blog land today to check some other blogger updates and realized that I needed to post an update on my Totally Useless Stitch A Long. I seem to making progress right along on this project, however I am sorry to report that it is because of the friendly frog stopping by for a visit and he is definitely overstaying his welcome this time! So if any of you are interested in inviting a small, green amphibious looking creature who likes to play havoc on your stitching progress, please feel free to drop a email to me and I'll send the little sucker on his way......

Stitching wise, I have made some progress on the Musician; albeit less than I would have liked thanks to the assistance of my slimy fiend (err... friend). While on my way home from work, my cell phone rang and it was a local stitcher that was calling to see if Heirloom Stitchers was meeting at the library. Although we do meet on Tuesdays, we don't meet until next Tuesday but I decided to swing by, keep her company, catch up on life and stitch since I actually had my bag with me. I fixed the area I had to rip out and did a little more stitching on the gal last night. Hopefully this weekend I can get my needles working on her and make some real progress. So far I have completed 2,023 stitches and have 20,392 stitches to go!

This past Saturday I attended the entrelac scarf course my cousin, Sharon, and I had signed up for. I have heard from so many knitters that this would be a breeze since you only needed to know how to knit or purl to hearing other knitters who are more advanced than me saying they thought they would tear their hair out trying to work on their scarves. So with some trepidation, I went to class on Saturday which was being taught by a local Kellie Nuss. She is a fantastic teacher and was very patient and understanding when she realized that Sharon and I were the ONLY beginner knitters in her class. Pretty much the rest of the class is working on their Master Knitter certifications with the knitting guild, so to say we were struggling was an understatement. I did complete 2 tiers of the scarf and only need to figure out tier 3 in order to complete the pattern. Kelly helped Sharon and I learn so much on Saturday such as reading an actual pattern,the slip-slip-knit stitch and picking up a row. There is some terminology/stitches I do not understand (yet!) so I am hoping to catch up with some of the wonderful knitters in my Annapolis Knitting Group on Monday night to figure them out. I want to post a picture of a completed entrelac scarf along with a pic of my start so you can understand what I am aiming for. Wish me luck!