Monday, May 01, 2006

Winter Into Spring Finished

Winter Into Spring is all finished now. I am not a fan of the term "happy dance," so I am opting not to use it here. The beading took all of about fifteen minutes this afternoon :-) I am glad I didn't do it last night, though, as I was really feeling tired while I was doing the darning stitch near the bottom of the sampler. Some have asked how I got this done yesterday on limited stitching time. To be honest, it is simply a quick stitch. The band are only about 2" wide :-) So, finally a finish for me! Yay! (I gave it a press, but it looks like it needs a better press before I can frame it). Now... on to the LTD SAL tonight :-)

Well, well, well... it appears that I actually do have some yellow daffodils in my garden! Mike planted some various spring bulbs last fall in an area of the garden that had to be dug up last year to fix a little crack in our foundation of the house. I see today that he put in some yellow daffodils! Cool!!

And, these are finally blooming... the only yellow daffodils that I actually knew I had, other than the tete a tetes.. this is a double yellow daffodil variety that I planted years ago. It blooms quite late for a yellow variety. Well, here it is today.

And, a real classic around this part of the country, as it truly, truly thrives from a good cold winter... Ice Follies. I have them naturalized along the tree line, thus explaining why there are still so many dead oak leaves there :-)

And, my precious little almost-white Thalia daffodils are finally blooming. These little sweeties do not like to hold their faces up. I sure wish they would!!! I can never, never get a good photo of them because of this...

And, to round out my little lengthy list of spring blooms today - here is part of my huge bleeding heart bush for you... love this, even though it blocks the inground sprinkler head in the backyard every single year... I don't really have the heart to move this plant... I am sure Mike will be bugging me to do so any day now... sigh...

And... here is this week's part of Emerald Jeweled Garden. I wonder if Karen finds Sapphire Jeweled Garden to be as difficult to put down as I am finding this one to be? I love this little colorful piece! I was a bit distracted tonight, though, swapping between 24 and the Red Sox dramatic victory over the Yankees at Fenway Park tonight (Yes, Johnny Damon was righteously booed by the Boston fans - and I don't think he got a hit at all tonight... and welcome back Doug Mirabelli!! Great night for the Red Sox...but I digress....)... Now I am pretty much at the bottom of the garden, so this is about half the piece's size now.

Review of goals time!
April Goals:
1. Finish Part 7 of Medieval Town Mandala - yes
2. Finish Part 4 of Mystery IX - yes
3. Finish Part 3 of Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler - yes
4. Continue Mermaids of the Deep Blue SAL - yes
5. Continue Garden Spots Sampler SAL with Jo - yes
6. Start Emerald Jeweled Garden in the LTD SAL with Karen V. and Judi - yes
7. Start Su's Neighborhood RR square - yes
8. Continue Bordeaux Mystery Sampler at work - yes, but only a tiny bit... waiting for Anne to catch up now
9. Continue Houses of Hawk Run Hollow SAL - yes
****My biggest goal for April, though, is to get myself back into some kind of rotation - I disliked being out of my rotation last month :-( - kind of, sort of, I guess so.... I did add in Quaker Garden and Winter Into Spring this month...and Mermaid Heaven and A Christmas Spirit got some time too...

May Goals:
1. Finish Part 8 of Medieval Town Mandala
2. Finish Part 5 of Mystery IX - actually finished that on 4/29/06
3. Finish Part 4 of Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler
4. Continue Mermaids of the Deep Blue SAL
5. Finish Emerald Jeweled Garden in LTD SAL
6. Finish Su's Neighborhood RR and post it off to Annemarie
7. Continue Houses of Hawk Run Hollow SAL
8. Continue Quaker Garden at work
9. Put some time in on Mermaid Heaven
10. Enjoy Celebration of Needlework!!
11. Continue Garden Spot Sampler SAL

Thanks to WalMart's $4.88 DVD Dump Bin, some classics are now in my collection - Pretty in Pink, Donovan's Reef (one my parents loved), The Scent of a Woman and Wayne's World 2 (already had the first one...so, what the heck)...

Stitched on today: Quaker Garden, Winter Into Spring - Finished!! -, and Emerald Jeweled Garden

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahhhh... more beautiful photos! I have two bleeding hearts to be planted at some point. I love all of your daffodils! So many different varieties. And all so sunny! They brighten my day. :)

Unknown said...

Love your bleeding heart Carol. Your photos are so bright and cheerful too :) The sun and flowers definitely make the day seem brighter.

Katrina said...

Hi Carol, thanks for sharing those bright and cheery pics, especially since the weather here is pretty miserable right now. But,would you believe I have a spring bulb flowering in my garden, its either a very late bloomer or extremely early! lololol.

Winter into Spring looks great too.

Gill said...

Congratulations on your finish, and its nice to see those flowers appearing in your garden!

Running Kiwi said...

Pretty finish - aren't DT's lovely to stitch :)

I love seeing all your flowers again, definitely must be spring in your part of the world.

Pretty in Pink is the movie DH and I saw on our first "proper" date ... 20yrs ago this week :D

Julie said...

Congrats on your finish. It turned out really nice!

Your flowers are so bright and pretty. It's officially spring now!

Bastet said...

Well done on the finish! Your daffies are looking lovely. But my favorite of the lot are the bleeding hearts.

Cindy said...

Congratulations on your finish! I have this one on my "to do" list, and am glad to hear it is a quick stitch!

Von said...

I love your bleeding heart plant, Carol! Guess it attracts me as I haven't had very good luck with them even tho I love them so. Think they need more consistent water than I've been able to provide. Perhaps if we ever get a sprinkler system installed, with a timer, I'll have better luck.
Congrats on the wonderful DT finish!

Mel in Dubai said...

Congratulations, Carol, Winter into Spring looks wonderful!

Love the pics of your flowers too.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on your finish! Ann.

Unknown said...

Congratulations on your finish - it feels good to have a finish, doesn't it :)
Your other piece is looking good too.

Lana said...

I knew it must be spring when I saw flowers in your blog! Very beautiful! Love your stitching photos also...of course!
~Lana~

Karoline said...

Congratulations on finishing Winter into Spring, it's gorgeous

Judith said...

A Beautifull finish Carol. Congrats. I have to say that I didn't work on Colonial garden due to not having time to stitch yesterday, but I will stitch on it tomorrow afternoon

Shelleen said...

congrats on your finish. it is beautiful!

Andrea said...

Congratulations on the finish, it looks fab!

I have been enjoying your plant section too, I love being nosey and looking at everyones gardens!

Kathy said...

Wow what a georgeous finish. I think I am going to have to start some samplers soon. They look so quick and easy to stitch up. You will be pleased to hear I finally picked up a needle and am in the throws of stitching again. I shall be sorting out my rotation this week, I have not enjoyed stitching on one item at a time it gets boring lol.

Take care

hugs xxxxx

Robin said...

Carol; So beautiful! It is so great to finish a project. Ok-I have to ask...How many UFOs/WIPs do you have? I am always curious to know about other people's stash. Allright I'm nosey. I think I have about 10? On another board someone considers stash not started to be UFOs-don't go there sister..then it would be in the thousands (Blush) Robin

Kitty Couture said...

Winter Into Spring is gorgeous, Carol! Love those colours and that little heart charm :)
What a treat to see your flowers! I seem to enjoy a garden by proxy thanks to my blogging friends ;)

Love how your stitched garden is coming along as well! ;)

And you did great on your April goals - congrats! :)

Lelia said...

Beautiful flowers! Nice finish on 'winter into spring'

Lucky you to snag silks for The Sanctuary. I've seen it stitched with the silks & the colors are fantastic. It is a great sampler to work on -- never a dull moment.

Anne S said...

Sorry I haven't been commenting lately ... been avoiding blogs to try and meet some stitching deadlines (which has really helped) - your DT finish is gorgeous ... I just love those designs for the actual stitches in them, they're fun to stitch :) Your other WIPs are looking great too - the Vege Garden is looking good, as are the Mermaids, and your LTD Garden ... and MTM is just "fab"!! :D Hope to be back to commenting regularly again soon {hugs}

Karen's Blog said...

Winter into Spring is stunning Carol and so is your beautiful garden. I remember it so well from last well. Still have heaps of those cute chipmonks? VBG.

BTW Carol, I meant to tell you that I haven't been getting your Blog updates by email. Do I need to do something from my end?