Oh Christmas Tree

Charlotte's Web Needlework

32 count white Belfast linen from Zweigart

DMC Floss and DMC Light Effects Precious metals

Hi, I finished Oh Christmas Tree last night. It is not perfect, as you can see the Rhodes hearts are not centered. I found this pattern very difficult to follow. I did not think the diagram was very clear about the spacing and the lining up of the different areas. Oh well, it is what it is, and I will have this made into an ornament.

I made a lot of progress on Beautie Spot over the weekend. Hopefully, I will get this flower done this week. I made a little more progress last night after pictures were taken.

Over the weekend I thought I would try something new. I went to JoAnn's and bought some reasonably priced 28 count linen in white. I wanted to learn how to dye the fabric. I started out by buying Cool Aid and thought I would look up the directions to Cool Aid dying on Cyberpointers. That was last months education segment. I really wanted to dye the fabric robin egg blue, but I soon realized that it would be easier and more economical to just mail order. Cool Aid dying was for wool, plus the teacher said she only used this for samples because the color could fade over time. Not sure why this was even taught if the color would fade. So now I have packets of blue Raspberry Cool Aid. Like I am going to give a blue drink to a kid.

Next I searched the web for Vonna's dying technique but I could not remember where I saw this technique taught. Fortunately, this morning October Eves posted a link to this tutorial so now I have it on my blog I will be able to find this again when I am ready to go into fabric dying again.

My picture shows the white fabric I started out with, tea dying for about a half hour and the small piece of linen in the front sat in the tea for several hours. The white piece is being used for another ornament. Once I took this hunk out of the fabric, not much is left of the other pieces. I am hoping to find an ornament or scissor fob to use up some of the scraps. The colors are nice with the tea dying but fairly even. Depending on the project, I like the marbling look of some of the hand-dyed fabric. I think I will try this again someday.

Here are more pictures of my summer plants. I love the look of all the colors and the green plants provide. I think I am done with my planting for the season now I just have to wait for them to fill in.

The Inpatients are on our front balcony. It faces north so it gets early morning and late afternoon sun. The building in the top picture is the H2O body products factory. They are having their warehouse sale on June 12th. This is always a good time. I will talk more about this later but if you are near Chicago, mark your calendar especially if you have kids/teens.

I have two of these planters on the front balcony. It looks like the white flowers will fill in nicely and flow over like I wanted.

My last planter box is on the terrace. This was another project for Monday. In the picture it kind of looks like a mess from this angle. Actually, it is very pretty. The purple flowers are supposed to flow over, the white flowers are supposed to grow to be 10-12 inches and the green in the back is Italian Parsley which should grow tall. I did not want to use a spike or grasses because the cat eats these things and usually goes to the carpet to puke it up. He usually does not eat the herbs plus I figured we could use the parsley. Another thing about using herbs for focal points in flower boxes is that herbs are usually cheaper than the spikes or grasses. I saw chives used in one box instead of spikes. Useful and pretty.

Tonight is game 3 of Stanley Cup Playoffs. Hockey is a very superstitious sport. Since they have been winning we have had the same people over and watched the game on the terrace. Hopefully, it will not rain tonight so we can keep up the tradition. Only two more game if they sweep!!

Thanks for dropping by and your comments. Happy Stitching! Kelly