So close and yet so far...

I was closing in on a finish on Ornaments ala Round and hit a couple of snags.  First I realized I was low on DMC 367 and after a search through stash, I found none.   Never fear, it has been ordered along with some other have-to-items.   

I had less than three motifs to do last week and stitched, stitched, stitched and somehow I have less done today than I did on last week.   

Frogging, you guessed it.  This is one of those times that I am eating my words.   I told my daughter's when I was teaching them to stitch, you are not really crossing stitching unless you have to rip out sometimes.   I was trying offer soothing works over a mistake.  Pass the salt and pepper!   

Anyway, I was zipping along and kept looking at the 7th of 8 sets of the dreaded branches and something wasn't right.  I kept checking the patterns for stitch placement and it was fine.  It wasn't until I held the piece at a distance and my mistake just jumped off the linen.........I had swapped the placement of the light and the medium greens.  And trust me it made a difference.   It almost made the branch look like a 'negative' image of the one next to it.    I really am the master of my own disaster.  I was at a point last night when I just had to walk away from it! No worries....frogging will be back  in full swing today and I will get it all out and be ready to start anew.  However I do think that for today I am better suited to go outside and pull weeds - that is until I melt into a puddle.  

I did manage to finish Hollyhocks, second in the Summer House Stitche Workes series.    I did change the bee.   It was charted to stitch using Blue Corn but I changed it to DMC 310/Black.  I have heard of the Bluebird of happiness but never a blue bee.

Now if I were smart, I'd finish each of these as I complete the stitching.  

My hummingbirds come to visit each day.   It is so hard to catch a photo of them.   They must see me move towards the door and whoosh, off they fly.

And I caved.   I have been wanting to go to the custard stand all summer.    I finally made it.  Small hot fudge sundae with wet nuts.....so good.

In my region we have been battling heavy rains, high winds and severe thunderstorms the last week or so.   Thankfully most of the damage in the area is only downed trees and typical flooding in low-lying areas.   Some are without electricity but crews are working hard to restore it.  I live in an area where a tornado used to be a once a decade (or longer) event; now they are happening several times right around this time each summer.  Thankfully while still causing damage they are not the strength of what is seen in Tornado Alley in the middle of the country. 

Seems like the rainbow is holding back the dark clouds.

This week I hope to finish Ornaments ala Round as well as the quilt I am working on.   The backing fabric I was waiting on finally arrived.  It is frustrating that the tracking information showed it as "delivery to customer" almost a week before it actually showed up.  I guess that is one way the Post Office tries to show 'speedy deliveries'.

Hopefully the weather will even out, the heatwave will end and I will be able to get back into the yard for longer than an hour or two in the coming weeks.   As for stitching,  I do want/don't want to start anything new.   I have a couple of SAL's starting in the fall and I need to clean up some WIPs and UFOs that I should work on some finishing.  Since I deactivating my Facebook account for a time, I am now 13 weeks behind on the blackwork SAL and the blackwork could be  a good one to concentrate on.  

On a good note, I had a follow-up with the eye doctor and whatever was torn or pulling away is 75% back where it should be.   Still no jumping on a trampoline or a pogo stick for me but good news just the same.

Hoping everyone stays safe and healthy as we continue to battle the pandemic.   Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.