Stitching and Family

 I am going to start with a little stitching even though we all know I have grandsons on the brain.

 I never shared what I did with the doggie pillow that I stitched way back in the mid 1980's. I had thought I would frame it, but ended up with a flat fold stand. I figured it had been unframed for a very long time so it would be ok opened up some more. It is so hard to tell from the photo, but I found a military boot shoe string in Walmart to put around it to highlight the boot shoestring in the stitch. 

I love how it turned out.

I completed Lindsay a back to school ornament for her cabinet knob. Now, she has a full year of seasonal ornaments. The black school fabric is what I used for the back.

I am using August to stitch some smalls. I have a long list of things I want to complete. Miles needs a Christmas ornament and an M on my Christmas stockings for the family. I have a new bird to go with the Scattered Seeds one I finished earlier this summer to name just a few.

I am only sharing one thing though for now and that is a Halloween pattern that Carol at Stitching Dreams shared with me. I love vintage Halloween stitches...the ones that remind me of my childhood in the 60s.  This one does that.

I pulled it out way back on the 4th of July to take with me to Auburn. I took 2 pieces of fabric with me and thought I would decide when I got there. It proved a little harder so I will share my thinking.

I took a lighter piece because it looked more like the called for linen, but I had a darker piece that Arlene had dyed and sent as a present. It caught my eye for Halloween. I packed both. When I got to Auburn I started on the darker piece with the called for colors. The black cat and jack-o-lantern eyes and so forth called for 3371 which is a brown black color and frequently used in patterns such as this. I liked it but I wondered if the cat should actually be black, so I pulled out the lighter linen and stitched the cat in black. I liked it and after a while I decided I would stitch it twice. I would finish the darker linen with 3371 and the lighter linen with black. I am going to let Lindsay have one and I will keep the other one. I like both. I have finished one and am trying to finish the other one this coming week.

I have been busy squeezing the good out of the days of summer. I have been knee deep in a home improvement project. I am beyond sore! I have been loving on grandsons! I could never have imagined how wonderful 3 grandsons could be.

I have some pictures to share of them. It is all good over here in spite of the crazy in the world. I am just trying to keep the focus on what is right in front of me.

Here are family pictures.

Despite the times we are living in, I choose to concentrate on the goodness right in front of me as long as I can. 

I hope to do a treasures post, a stitching post, and a home improvement share post in the coming days. I have been busy and quite frankly tired from all of it. I could use a few days of rest.

August is a pretty month. The light is changing and I am trying to slow it all down.