New FREE Pattern

My goodness but it has been a long time since I had any new patterns to post! My designing has been put on hold due to health challenges and it has been very hard to not sit at the computer and put the images I'm thinking of into charts. But when my publisher asked me to donate a design for their free monthly pattern series this year I couldn't say no. It is titled "October Leaves" and it was supposed to be for the month of October, however, I was surprised this morning to see that it was moved up to their September offering so stitchers might have it stitched for the season. Just go to everythingcrossstitch.com and you can download it for free.

New Series, Proverbial Sampler #1

I really wasn't expecting to have another pattern done before the year was out, but happily I can post what I hope to be the first in a series of old fashioned samplers featuring biblical proverbs. How often in a rather challenging year have I found comfort and encouragement in the wise sayings of David and King Solomon and I'm hoping to share them so others can find the light in what has become a very dark time for our world. Hope you will enjoy Proverbial Sampler #1 - the pattern can be found through Everything Cross Stitch and as soon as the new page is up for it at Creative Poppy I'll post a link. And one of the sorrows we had in June was losing our almost 9 year old Chessie, Jasper. His illness was sudden, dramatic and sadly fatal. We had no intention of getting another pup until next Spring but through sheer Providence I looked at the area sales newspaper online the next day and to my complete amazement there was an ad for a puppy that is a breed we've tried to own for decades but could not find in our part of the country. So meet, Grady, a Boykin Spaniel and if you go to you tube and search for Boykin Spaniel 101 you'll find what an interesting breed history they have.

We'll always miss our Jasper, but Grady is definitely helping to heal the hole Jasper left in our hearts. Here is Grady now almost 8 months old. He is getting homemade food and loves to 'help' Dad as he puts his 'puploaf' together.

Still Here & Still Designing!

Hello stitchers! I can't believe the last time I posted a new design was last June! What have I been doing??? Lately, I've been inside by the fire looking at the snow that still lingers. The piles that came off of roofs are still prodigious but pathways are appearing and seeds are coming up in the greenhouse and I look forward to being able to touch garden beds again soon. I've also had months of fighting bad bouts of ME/CFS and because of that I haven't even been able to dream of being creative. But thankfully, I finally was able to spend some time designing and am happy to introduce the latest Gracewood Stitches pattern - "Arts & Crafts"

It is my tip of the hat to a favorite style the images found in Arts and Crafts design. I love their natural colors and stylized images of familiar things. I hope you like it. If anyone is interested in purchasing the pattern you can find it at Everything Cross Stitch or at /Creative Poppy Hoping it won't be so very long between posts/designs, be well ya'll.

Monochrome Serendipity 2 & Record Heat Wave

Hello stitching friends from an inland pacific northwest that is hotter than ever recorded and it is only June! Yikes! A whole new type of 'lockdown' is being imposed on us. In the 41 years we've lived in this part of the country we've only experienced a day or two at most during the summer of over 100 degree heat - a big part of why we wanted to live here - but this heat wave is not only putting us in 110 degree range but it is lasting for a week.

Winter is not the only stitching season it seems, lol, since I can hardly poke my nose out the door after we finish watering the poor sweltering gardens. We're up at 4 am to get things ready for the day's heat. Thankfully, we had a lot of shadecloth on hand and the plants we worked so hard to start, plant and tend are making it through so far. Terry is braving the heat of the day to check on any emergency 911 situations out there. The heat loving things like tomatoes, peppers and corn are doubling by the day while the lettuce and spring greens melted days ago.

Praying that this ends soon and does NOT come back again!

While in this heat prison I made another edition of the latest design, Serendipity Sampler #2 that is in monochrome shades of mahogany. It is just fun to see what happens to a pattern when you take it to sepia type tones. It can be purchased through ICG Everything Cross Stitch and will soon be available on Creative Poppy

Serendipity Sampler #2 Monochrome

One of the beds that is getting a lot of water cause I do not want to lose them is the rose bed that I overfilled with poppies this year.

Pandora Poppies from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds

And finally proof that a 'cool cat' can be cool even in such heat.

Nanny Cat after her garden inspection

Stay cool as you can, stitchers!

New Design - Serendipity Sampler #2

Serendipity Sampler #2

First, a quick note, if you've been getting email notices of new posts and want to continue receiving them please take a moment and enter your email in the box on the top right of this page. The service that blogger had been using to send out such notices has changed and you'll need to indicate once again if you wish to receive notices. I've been looking forward to doing the Serendipity Sampler series to have the opportunity to gather some of my favorite images/motifs together and see what happens :) The second in the series is complete and for sale - it can be purchased through Everything Cross Stitch and soon through Creative Poppy . You can also send an email to me at bungard.gracewood@gmail.com and I'll send a paypal invoice for $8.00 and I'll send the pdf charts for the pattern.

Greens Gone Wild

Almost summer on Gracewood and the green things have gone wild.

Chijimisai is a Japanese superfood that we like much better than spinach and heat isn't bothering it at all, great in salads or frittatas!

And after a winter with little to no salads and greens this bed of lettuces is getting a nice clipping daily.

Hoping all are well and you too are enjoying the bounty of late spring almost summer!

ME/CFS and Me

Today is May 12th and for a lot of years it has been designated as ME/CFS awareness day.

I've been afflicted with ME/CFS for 40 years and I've known that when I would get older if nothing has been identified as an effective treatment for this awful illness (and there is none yet) the symptoms would only get worse. In a couple of weeks I'll have my 71st birthday, God willing, and I can verify that indeed ME/CFS does NOT get better with time.

The last two years have seen rapid escalation of lots of very painful and debilitating muscular/neurological symptoms and one of the things I'm missing more than I can express is my ability to stitch! It has always been something that got my mind off of some of the challenges and I've fought hard to maintain it, but finally have had to accept I can't do it any more. Thankfully, I can still design and hope to have a new pattern out soon.

One major change I'm announcing today is that I have closed the gracewoodstitches.com website. If anyone wants to order patterns directly from me just send an email to bungard.gracewood@gmail.com telling me which patterns you wish to purchase and I'll send a paypal invoice to you. I'll still post on this blog for all new designs and hope I'll continue to create patterns you may wish to stitch. Hoping all of you and yours are well, please stay that way :) Happy stitching, Kathy

Serendipity Sampler #1

Serendipity Sampler #1

New design, Serendipity Sampler #1 - all cross stitch - 121 x 118 stitch count

The snow is almost gone on Gracewood and the hoop greenhouse is fully loaded with trays full of seedlings, thanks to Terry! This second year with the greenhouse he's making even better use of it this spring, AND, is planning on building a second and bit larger one by our larger hugelbed garden beds.

So the growing season is getting a jump start here thanks to being able to heat greenhouse, and my attention has to go towards planning what to grow and where to plant it after our last frost date - May 15th.

Knowing my design time is going to be more limited for awhile I wanted to publish this latest pattern, Serendipity Sampler #1. What is ‘Serendity”? Where did this word come from?

It has a great origin – coined by author, Horace Walpole, suggested by The Three Princes of Serendip, the title of a fairy tale in which the heroes ‘were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of’. Don’t you just love that? Well that is pretty much what happens when I design a pattern. I start with a general idea and find as I go along that I end up in places I hadn’t thought I was going. So I introduce my Serendity Samplers and hope you’ll enjoy the journey into unexpected things you might find along the way.

Available on my website Here

Looking foward to including some 'growing things' pics in next post and hoping all reading this are well!