July is moving along at a fast clip, do you ever wonder where the time goes, it seems it was just yesterday I was blowing out the candles on my 62nd birthday cake on the first of July and here we are 9 days into the month.
I have been slowly making progress on the Peace symbol Zenbroidery and I am happy to say my satin stitch is looking much better as I work, for some reason I always struggled with that stitch, but not nearly as much as I struggled with the french knot.
Several members of the stitching challenge I am in have made this and told me that once its nearly done it will be very hard to get the needle through, I had noticed how dense the stitching looked on photos they had posted so I am using back stitch to outline some of the motifs rather than have it all filled in, I like the look of some white spaces.
My time on Sanibel Island was lovely, though as it is with vacations too short. The weather was lovely sunny and hot, I forgot the further south in Florida the hotter it gets though it did seem less humid being on the gulf coast enjoy the balmy breezes.
Spent some time shelling on the beach and browsing bookstores during the afternoon rains, the water so clear and the shells abundant.
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| a perfect beach day |
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| hunting shells low tide |
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| tiny shells on the shore |
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| lovely day |
I didn't take too many photos, I was too busy picking up shells and walking along the shore and wading into the water. I will post some photos of the larger shells found eventually. After an early morning of shelling I brought out my beach chair and spent a few hours soaking in the sun.
I located two book shops on the Island, one of the bookshops had 3 buildings and books everywhere.
These are some of the books I bought.
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| a little of everything |
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| City Guide |
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| two in one |
I also found a bookshop in Fort Myers and purchased a few books but I haven't unpacked those yet. I have just started the Terry Prachett Discworld series so I am picking up the books not available at our library, and I just thought to grab the City Guide complete with map. Wicked is the first two novels for a friend. The Randy Wayne White books are written by a Sanibel author and the novels take place in and around Southwest Florida. Now I can start this series too.
On the first of July I celebrated my 62nd Birthday with a little cake that just makes me smile, it was so colorful.
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| basket of flowers cake |
I have to tell you those flowers were amazing and quite sweet, I don't like too much frosting so I scrape most of it off, it was a delicious white cake inside.
One of the new projects I am working on is a witch bonnet Sue quilt, here is a look at two of the blocks waiting for embellishing, I will be embroidering the blocks and adding some beads too.
Here is a close up of one of the Sue blocks, they are appliqued on using fusible web, don't you just love the spider webs.
I'm thinking may be using some metallic threads around the block. Here is a look at a traditional Sun Bonnet Sue block I made years ago.
As you can see the black threads are all the embroidery I added around the edges, added the lines for socks and umbrella handle and her hands.
Well that's all I have for now, I will be posting up dates on my projects as they progress.
