Revisiting an Old Friend

There's trouble brewing on the horizon as I go out and take down the blankets and towels I left hanging on the clothesline overnite.  Thunderstorm is almost here, but will usher in cool, fresh air for a few days.  Sebastian follows me.  It really amazes me how attached he seems to be.  Most cats, you walk out the door and they could care less.  I can't leave the room without Sebastian
following to see what kind of hijinks I'll be up to next.

He's found a stick in the yard and begins playing with it.  Quickly tiring himself out.

Since I finished Opus Magnusson, I picked up American Sampler again.  It feels like I'm revisiting an old friend since I am  no longer intimidated by the multitude of Queen stitches.

Here is the most recent progress; I finished the motifs on one side, all the way down to the urn.  Now I'm working my way back up the other side having started with the urn.  And here's an urn closeup -

The urn is worked in Florentine stitch and I thoroughly enjoyed stitching that.  You can see the outer border beginning to take shape in Rice stitch.

Here is what it looks like over all (a little droopy).

Turns out when I was stitching the strawberry flowers, I made a mistake.  I actually stitched them like strawberry flowers.  Turns out on the chart, each of them have four lavender spots.  Not sure yet whether I'll go back and put the lavender in.  I have also still not decided what verse or information I will put in the car touche below the arch.  There's plenty of time to decide, I think. 

Had some fun this weekend.  While my husband and I were out running an errand, we came upon a community yard sale.  This was a sweet find - for only two dollars:

Yeah, they're prestamped, but after working on the kit for The Chase sampler, I decided that pre-stamped wasn't SO bad.  The color scheme of soft pinks and sage greens is very 80's though.  The blocks are about 12 inches.  Only six come in a package so I am clearly not going to be able to make a quilt with them.  However, all six, or even just three, will make a nice table runner or table topper.  So that will eventually make it into the rotation.  Fun, huh?

Oh, and I also came up with another find (not pictured, but if you want me to in another post, I will).  You remember I got a new car?  Well the console goes up the center all the way, into the dash, so there's no place to put or hang a trash bag.  In my minivan I had a beautiful stitching tin that I would line with a grocery bag and that was my trash container.  So, a girlfriend (thanks Cheryl!!)  gave me the idea last week to use some sort of plastic container with a lid.  One of the yard sales I stopped at had a Tupperware bread keeper - with a snap-shut lid.  For another 2 bucks, I got it, came home, put a bag in it over the lip, snapped the lid shut and now I have a trash container that will sit on the floorboard on the passenger side, or the back, and if it falls over, no big deal - the trash will still stay inside!  Brilliant!

So, that's it from the thundery Eastern Panhandle.  Hope you enjoyed!