Chrys Progress & a Waif's Story

It is snowing heavily today and supposed to continue through the weekend so I'm hoping to have some serious stitching time. Getting close to finishing Chrysanthemums and that's good, because I have some ideas for new designs that I'm looking forward to translating to new patterns.

I want to tell you about a waif that showed up last month during the coldest part of our winter. One afternoon I saw some deer at our feeders looking intently and on 'alert' at something in our driveway. Terry went out to see what it was and came back with an almost frozen and nearly starved tabby cat. As starved and dehydrated as he was he wouldn't eat or drink until he'd had some serious petting, he seemed so very relieved to have found people again.

I think you can see from the look on his face that he was in trouble. After he realized he'd found a safe warm place he drank and drank and drank, he was so dehydrated, and then ate a small amount of food and curled up and slept deeply.


Now a month later, you can see that he looks so much better. He's gained weight though he still needs to gain a bit more and he's happy enough to be sunning himself on the firewood and also keep an eye out for the squirrels that live in it.
Buddy

We've named him 'Buddy' because he is so very friendly and sweet, you have to be careful when you take a step since he's always right beside you. We've looked for any notices of someone losing a cat but none have appeared. Sadly, sometimes people do dump their pets out in the country, but what counts now is his future not his past and he seems to have become a part of the Gracewood homestead.

I think Terry is going to have to do a painting of this shot.

Chrys Halfway

You would think that this would be a pretty easy piece to stitch, straight lines and all but it has been one I'm finding I'd better concentrate while I'm doing it or those lines don't go where they should, lol

I'm glad I decided to go with the lines of the screen being in varied thickness, I think it does add more interest and adding interest to a design is what it is all about. It needs to make you look just a little closer.

I'd also like to take the opportunity of announcing my husband, Terry, now has a website for his art. Hopefully, he'll have a few more pieces up soon. He gets more work done this time of year too.

I hope everyone affected by the big storm back in the eastern part of the US came through it safely. We're used to such things but it is a whole different ball game when you live in heavily populated areas!

New Design, Free for Limited Time

Easter/Resurrection Day is going to fall earlier in the calendar this year, it is going to be the end of March.

I've wanted to create a design for this holy holiday since I started designing and I'm jumping ahead of myself a bit by introducing a new pattern before the one I'm working on is done in order to give those interested the opportunity to stitch this one in time for the holiday.

Christ is Risen

I'll be stitching it on a dove grey 18 count aida cloth and will be using two varigated Caron Waterlillies floss. the center in Opal and the lillies in Creamsicle. It measures 9" x 4.5", 162 x 80 stitch count.

It is available for free to anyone requesting it until next Sunday, Feb. 10th. Then it will go up for sale after I finish the model, it is simple enough I don't think I've made any mistakes in the pattern so hopefully there won't be any corrections to be made. Just send an email to bungard.gracewood@gmail.com if you would like a free copy.