An Iris Blooms in March

 So very happy this evening as I finished off the last of the french knots for the stamens, worked under a few loose ends and could say I was finally done my iris.  I'm very pleased with the outcome but have to say it was a tough piece to stitch especially with getting the angles of the threads right.  It became easier with each petal and drawing pencil lines to help with the thread placement was an absolute must. I'm ready for something a lot easier where I don't have to concentrate so hard on each stitch.

 I continue to work on my tatting and figured out how to do a split ring.  It's rather neat as after 3 double stitches, a picot and 3 more double stitches, you turn the needle around, un-thread the needle and tat 3 ds, a picot, 3 ds over the eye of the needle.  Then you turn the needle back over, re-thread it and then slide them all off onto the thread.

Every morning my mother goes out and scatters cracked corn for the dozen or more Sharp-tailed Grouse that make their daily visit to our yard.  They are so enjoyable to watch especially when they start chasing each other around. Lately, a few of them have taken to flying up onto our deck.  My mom shoos them off but I was glad of this shot taken through the window of a grouse and a redpoll on the deck rail together.  Quite the size difference.

ATC Tats

 This week I've been getting the hang of double stitches and picots and decided to put a few of my practice tats on an atc.

 They are not even as my tension needs work but I was so glad that I at LONG LAST figured out how to tat a little piece.  I'll keep working at it that's for sure.  Fox from Tatology recommended 2 tatting websites that have some needle tatting patterns:  Welcome to Needle Tatting  and InTatters.  Thank you Fox!  I continued this week to work on my iris as well.  Really hope to get that last petal done this week!!

 Another one of my amaryllis bulbs came into bloom. That's the 3rd one this month :)

 I have tried time and time again to keep something nice on top of this coffee table in the living room but this picture shows the culprit who keeps knocking things off. Momo Stinker Cat strikes again ;)

A Stitching, Knitting & Tatting Day

 I'm progressing very, very slowly on my iris.  Getting each thread to lie just right is quite painstaking but I'm pleased with the progress and haven't had to take out too many threads so far. Yeah!

 I'm not much of a knitter but I loved the look of this yarn and have started a simple scarf that is only 7 stitches back and forth.  It's a nice easy relaxing break from my long/short embroidered iris.

 Last year I valiantly tried to learn how to shuttle tat and gave up in despair.  I ordered a set of tatting needles from Nordic Needle and very happily figured out how to do the double stitches and picots.  Today I tried to tat this simple flower design but obviously I need to figure out how to read tatting patterns next.

 It's pretty hard to stitch, knit or tat when this beauty is peering in through the window :)

The male Downy Woodpecker is also a pleasure to watch as he feasts on suet from the suet log.

Needle Painted Iris Take 2

 With all the leaves on the iris finally finished I can now say I know how to do split stitch embroidery. Now for the best part - stitching up the flower with all lovely different shades of purples.  The biggest challenge will be to get the angles right on the various sections. 

 Tanja Berlin certainly did a beautiful job on designing this iris :)

 Deer damage on our cedar.  As we keep getting more snow the deer just get to keep reaching higher. Looks like we'll be taking it down in the spring and planting something else that the deer won't demolish.

 At one point I counted 28 of these sweet little redpolls on our deck.  Managed to snap a picture of this one in mid hop :)

 Our garden snow drift.

 Such a handsome Mr. Redpoll.

 While I was stitching on my iris, my mom was doing some cross stitching.  She finished a lovely little windmill, a couple of cats and an elephant which will become card inserts.

Bob, our wonderful neighbour, came by unexpectedly with his snow blower and cleaned our driveway.  Our yard has been blown in by snow more this year than in the past 5 years put together and it's still only February!

Needle Painting Iris

 Last year I was fortunate enough to take a needle painting class from Tanja Berlin who studied at the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court.  I finished the pansy design which was our in-class project and I bought her Iris kit as well. 

 I am getting the hang of all these split stitches and hope to finish the main stem this week and then start on the bud.

 As I've posted before, we've been seeing a lot of the mule deer this winter.  We've had a lot of snow and it's been bitterly cold and they are hungry.  How could I not take a picture of this handsome buck Grant has dubbed Torn Ear as he stares at me through the window.

 The bucks certainly are a sight to see.

 We went for a walk on the ice in the afternoon and it was such a nice reprieve from the bitter cold we've been having.

Spotted these 3 bucks heading into the hills.  Probably looking for the ladies and the rest of the herd.

Bingo Clear Purple Pansy

Finished my pansy at 5:30 this morning before getting ready to go to work. :)  Sooo happy to be finished and even though there are numerous mistakes as this was my first attempt at long/short embroidery or needle painting, I am very pleased with how it turned out.  It is stitched on 100% cotton muslin fabric using DMC embroidery floss.  The workshop I took from Tanja Berlin was excellent and I have another of her kits that I am eager to start on :) 

Pansy Progress

 I woke up super early this morning and put in a few more long/short stitches on my pansy kit from Tanja Berlin before heading out to work. Just the leaves to finish & I think I'll add a few more dark purple threads on the petals.  I can tell that long/short stitching is going to take a fair bit of practice but I'm loving how it looks!

Since I was up so early I also went outside and picked this small bouquet of zinnias, yarrow, bachelor buttons and baby's breath to set on the kitchen table.  Wishing everyone a bright and flowery summery day :)

Needlepainting Pansy

 Thoroughly enjoyed my stitching class weekend taught by Tanja Berlin.  I chose the easiest beginner design she had and I'm very glad I did!  The stitching is all done using one thread but the stem wasn't difficult to do as it was 6 rows of stem stitching using 3 different shades of green.

 The leaf was my first attempt at long/short stitching and keeping the angle right and the stitches the right lengths is tricky and I struggled with it and had to redo some of it.

 Starting on the flower and working with the shades of purple was fun and I slowly began to get the hang of keeping the angles right and the long/short threads spaced evenly.  Again I had to redo many of my stitches as my curve was often out and I either stitched my threads too close together or too far apart.

 Whenever I had used wooden bars before for stitching I had always put the tacks in on the top.  Tanja recommended putting the tacks on the side which certainly helped in not getting my threads tangled!

 Threads in the kit for stitching my pansy and very small #10 crewel embroidery needles.  A needle threader was also included in the kit but threading the needle with just one thread wasn't difficult.

 This is the kit we received from Tanja.  Hope mine turns out 1/2 as well! 

 We had quite a storm blow through Saskatchewan last night and here are a couple of pictures I took of these spectacular Mammatocumulus clouds (also known as breast clouds).  I had never seen anything like them before.  Thankfully we didn't get any hail :)