Feeling Better!

I am not one to sit for any length of time during the day...except maybe to get lost on the computer from time to time...or stitch with my friend Jen once a week.  Being sick and lethargic is torture for me!  But...I've gotten a lot of stitching done in the last week with this cold/flu or whatever this had been.  Finished up a La D Da piece I had started some time ago (Zippity Do Da...too cute!), finished two of my designs I had pencil charted and am working on a 3rd that's still evolving.  I've had to step away from the 3rd one for a bit...nothing I seem to add really adds anything to it...I need a little distance.  So, I've started on a small piece from Blackbird Designs (Clara Ellen) to "clear the mind".

This first piece I think I'll call "Clover Pearls".  I spent many an hour as a child making clover flower necklaces.  It was always a thrill when we found a patch of red clover (with the pink flowers) to add to the pale yellow "pearls".  I remember one of our neighbors found us sitting on his lawn making the day's jewelry.  He had the best clover in the neighborhood!   After explaining what we were doing, he offered to pay us per unbroken foot for our day's accomplishment.  Seems to me he offered a nickel per foot...he kept his word and we were happy with our windfall!  Don't know what he did with his clover chain, but maybe it saved him from cutting the lawn for a few days!

There's that lace again...maybe that will be my "trademark"!  My mother found this great bag of vintage lace at a flea market.  She used to do a lot of needlework (cross-stitch, crazy quilting, knitting).  In her 80's now, she has put most of that aside and purged her stash...giving me most of it!!!  The lace is so great that each piece I stitch there just seems to be a place for it!

The next piece is "Autumn in Madison County".  I think I will finish this one as a "shelf pillow" and sit it on the bookcase next to Waller's books.  If you've never read the epilogue to The Bridges of Madison County (A Thousand Country Roads) and you liked the first one, you will like the second as well.

The 3rd piece is my take on a Scottish Sampler (celebrating my Scotch-Irish heritage).  These were usually stitched in red and green threads and I've gone for a paler version with a few other colors thrown in.  Still stitchin' and rippin'...may have come up with the final plan...we'll see how it looks!