Stitching again...

This little pincushion has been sitting around (everywhere in the house really) for months to over a year ...well, it must be over a year now...

Totally lost any creative mojo during the main basement area reno.. then we had water damage go from upstairs into the basement and ruin all the renovations we had just completed... then, got that repaired and refurbished and then...the stupid stove went on the fritz causing yet another renovation.  WE discovered that "no built in ovens are to be placed within 12 inches of the cooktop or damage can occur to wiring inside the built in oven"..  ...   so had to opt for a complete range, as we call them in this country ...  which meant we then had to have the granite counter top re-cut to accept a total stove instead of just a cooktop...

The granite cutting was a disaster, and the opening is not the size we need, it is slightly larger and still not square, but you can't make a hole smaller once it is cut.  The guy who installed the range finally managed to make it sit as squarely in the opening as he could and it looks okay.  Not perfect, as it could have been if the granite guys had known their stuff ...but, okay.  Oh, and, the first range had Convection fans that were not working, so we had to order a second stove... which has now been installed and is working great.

This is the type of thing that goes on all the time around here.... or so it would seem.  Thirty plus years of renovations have taken their toll methinks.... if I never have to lift a finger to do or even to oversee anybody else "doing" things round here.... it won't be too soon for me.  I'm so done with renovating.

So, there you have it... and, now ...

Got the last embroidery stitches done on it finally ..or thought I had.. stitched it up around almost the whole thing leaving a small opening to turn it through..I am used to small turning openings from doing the little bears...and, got it turned with no difficulty.  However, I don't like how that corner doily bit opens up so deep under it after all...so now I need to do some little stitches to hold it down at almost halfway into it.  That will be a bit tricky as I need to begin and end and, also stitch, on the inside and outside the already turned pillow.  Darn it.  Oh, well, it must be done.

Here it is so far...  this is the part of the little corner of doily that I don't want to lift quite so deep into it if you know what I mean.  Part way will be enough for me.

Here it is next to a completed one from ages ago when I took Karen's class.

Two posts in the same week

Things are looking up!

Whew!  Another hot one today, just like yesterday.  Forget mad dogs and Englishmen in the noonday sun...around here it is just Crazy Canuck golfers.  Yep... yesterday I golfed in +30C. Came home drenched in sweat.  Just soaked.  Oh, it was soooo  nice to have a cool bath and flop on the bed for half an hour.

Managed to do a bit of work on my pin pillow last night and today.  The guy who was supposed to come to finish off around the skylight... cancelled at the last minute this morning.  Arrgghhh!  It's always something with all of them it seems.  Nobody really wants to work anymore.  It's like pulling hen's teeth just getting them here ..then they look at things and have to go to the hardware store ...then, oh, gee, it's coffee time or lunch.  It all depends on how late they arrived.  Wow.  How did I go through life not ever finding a job like that?  I had to work and work hard at every darn thing I ever tried in my lifetime.  Silly me I guess.

Best laid plans... now he can't come 'til next week... and I have the dentist on Monday, so, it will have to be Tuesday...let's see if he shows ...

I got a bit more stitching done today ..after I worked in the garden 'til it got too stinkin' hot.

Here is the story on these hearts.  I told it on Flickr, but many of you don't go there, so... I'll tell you here as well.
I didn't notice 'til I took off the waste canvas (the grid I use to stitch the little crosses) that the top right hand side X was one space over from where it was supposed to be.  Maybe nobody would have noticed, but I knew, and wanted to change it; so how could I ever get the grid in the proper spot for only two tiny crosses?  And, I didn't want to unpick my little heart.
What did I have to lose if I tried to fix just the top two crosses without using a grid?  If I failed, I could just unpick the whole heart and do it over.   So, I unpicked only the top two X s in order to have thread long enough to knot.  And, did them again, freehand.  You can't even tell.  Happy me.

Some web stitches and some French knots here and there as well... and a little thingy I cut off a bit of trim at the top right corner... it is loose and lifts up and down... like a tiny bell.

A couple more hearts above and little lacy ruffle....

Coming along.  Might be able to get it stitched and ready for outlining with buttonhole lace stitch tomorrow ... fingers crossed....