June 2025

Finally sitting down to get this post done.   It just seems that lately my lists have lists.  I finally got my vegetables in Memorial Day weekend.   If I ever get a yield this year it will be amazing.   Strawberries however, were coming out my ears the beginning of June!    And I have been having some nice fresh green beans as well.   I had the little boy from next door come over when I was out of town for 10 days and pick all the strawberries he wanted.   

I didn’t realize I should trim my Rosemary and Sage plants in the fall so I have taken care of that now.   I have been trying to limit my time in the yard from 7 to noon - with water breaks for sure.   It has been kind of dreadful here, weather wise, as it has been in a lot of the country.  Sure makes a person miss their pool even more.  A lot of rain recently and I need to give all the beds a good once over for weeds again.

We needed to replace our sliding glass door and this is what I woke up to the next morning.   It must be some their suction cups.   All the condensation makes it look like an alien.

I am not going to make my deadline of a completion by July 4th on Land That I Love.  It was an unbelievable relief to take it off my to do list and removing the self-imposed pressure.   The bad thing is it is from a SAL that I SUGGESTED.   The others have been done, framed, won ribbons for, displayed and maybe even accumulated a bunch of dust on their frames and I am yet to finish..    A small hip-hip hooray may/will be in order by month’s end.      I am not discouraged because I did make a lot of progress.

I had to put Land That I Love aside to work on Harvest Friendship from Teresa Kogut.   Three of us are working in this together.   We are each sewing one of the pumpkin headed ladies on each others piece.   This is my lady on Caryl’s piece.   I have until the 15th to finish her head.    EZ PZ

 

My next start is going to be Cabin in the Woods.   I will be going to Gatlinburg, TN in the fall and this is the suggested group stitch.      It is for the Stitching in the Smokies Retreat in November.   Inadvertently I keep referring to it as Smoking in the Rockies (??) !   I plan trade off between this and working to complete Cornwall Cottage by Rosewood Manor, another large piece that I really want to move to the finished column!

Lately I have been stitching using my floor lamp and its magnifier and stitching is going much better.    I was able to pick up a Potoky stand second hand and I am finding I sit up straighter and I am back to two-handed.

A bit of a yard tour.   My favorite place to sit and glide and read and stitch.  I admit to having taken a nap or two in my chair as well. 

I lost some of my Cone Flowers so I bought more.   They were not marked and I am thrilled that they opened up to this pretty orange version.

They are blending in nice with the other flowers.

Inside, I’ve got the patriotic stitching out.   I am toying with the idea of stitching one small patriotic piece a month between now and the 250th Birthday of America next year.   Toying with……no committing yet.   And definitely only stitching from stash.   LOL

And I almost forgot.   I took this wool piece to Wisconsin and worked on it there.   I did not finished it until I got home.   I am going to make it into a pillow.   

Lil Miss Raegan had her first ballet recital.   She didn’t have every step correct but she had a good time and danced her little heart out.    This girl loves to dress up.  Her hair looks red only because it was recently dyed pink for fun.  

Catching up on blogs, I read Carol/Stitching Dreams post about her trip to Italy last fall.   I realized it was not too late for me to put up my last post for my trip to Canada last fall.   I hope to post that next month.

Mid-July, I will be in Rochester, NY area for my guild sponsored retreat at Hobby House in Pittsford, NY.  Again, I pledge to refrain from purchases but with there being a wool section and a quilting section in addition to the cross stitch, it is going to be hard.   It really is a useless use of energy to pledge to not buy.  I have been busy to within an inch of my life making the plans.   I want everyone who is attending to have a great time.    I just need to let it go and say it will be what it will be.   My internal perfectionist needs to dial it back.  

It has been a rough 8 weeks of guild obligations, dealing with the hotel arrangements, form generating, information packets and just stuff in general - albeit, self imposed.   Some good (travel), some bad (summer head cold).  I know I am my own worst enemy by committing to too many things and then feeling like I don’t know which way to turn.   No worries.   When that happens I make a list.   (of course I do)  First list didn’t help; it just overwhelmed me further.    Couple days later, I started again, prioritizing by deadlines and filtered in a few of smaller tasks and before you know it, I felt less overwhelmed.   I need to working on learning to say no.   You know it is bad when your husband, who never says a word about all I do, makes a couple of comments a couple of weeks in a row about letting myself being taken advantage of.   I don’t know why I feel like I need to fix everything.   

In July, I hope to work on my bins of finishing and fully finish any fall or Christmas stitched .   Here’s hoping I can be successful.  Not to mention I haven’t done the June quilt blocks.   Deep breath.   It will all get done in time. 

Stay tuned for my follow up on my trip to The Country Sampler Summer Camp that I took in early June. 

TTFN - Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.