Cat Embroidery SAL - A Start

I have admired the stitching of Nicole of Follow the White Bunny for quite a while and decided to play along with her newest stichalong project for a Cat Portrait.  She does beautiful stitcheries and I hope to learn quite a bit with this project   :)

I have purchased her Cat Portrait Stitch Guide and have chosen my photo and a floss palette for Miss Kittykitty so I am well on my way!!

This is the picture I am going to use, I think...I had to lure her to sit still with some quilt blocks, my Kittykitty loves to lie about on quilt blocks!!

 This was my other photo choice but there just doesn't seem to be enough contrast with this one to make for interesting fur stitching...and she looks crabby, not much for photographs, this lady.

She was quite a fan of helping me pick DMC floss from my stash that matched her fur...oh yes, that was a nice game, indeed!!  I found it surprising that my ginger cat is actually more reddish brown and gold than orange and I found several shades that will be good for her nose and ears and the other bits that are more white into grey.

Anyone going to join in?  It starts officially next week, I think.

Wandering Camera for September

Today I am linking with my friend Soma's Wandering camera series, check out the others here...

These pictures are mostly from my walk this morning:

I believe this flower shows the state of my gardens this morning, pretty but slowly losing vigor and winding down.  We have had really hot days lately and lots of rain, even had a bout with tornadoes in the area but we are thankful that we were not affected by those and there were no serious injuries...there were pictures in the news of an Amish farm not far south of us having their house leveled and a poultry barn destroyed.  Quite a picture with all those chickens wandering in their field in the aftermath.

 It appears I will be able to make a small batch of pear butter soon...

 If I can keep this guy from picking them...this is the problem with dwarf fruit trees.

 I will need to be harvesting the grapes, the birds say they are ready...I see some evidence of them harvesting which means I better get to them soon.

 This is a picture of the brothers, they are getting along most of the time but Sam is still a bit pouty about his new friend moving in.

 My sunflower is preparing itself to become a tasty snack for the chickens.

 This is what is left of my hearth, we are in the process of switching from fireplace to wood stove...I can't bear to show you the state of the house right now, sigh.

 I know this is an awful picture but in my defense, I took it quick before rescuing the little girl from the big girl.  I brought a chick in for my son and I to love on last night and my cat was very interested.  No chicks were harmed, I promise.

Make sure to visit Soma and the others in her linky!!

Have a great day!

Shenandoah Valley Botanical Quilt September Fushia Block

Happy September!!  I am sewing along with the Shenandoah Valley Botanical Quilt project - the pattern is provided by the Virginia Quilt Museum and all pattern sales benefit the museum. Dawn, from Collector with a Needle, and Doreen, from Aunt Reen’s Place, are hosting a quiltalong for this quilt, here.

The pattern size as provided by the museum easily makes 9 inch blocks. I am doing mine in wool so that I can make that size (8 1/2" finished), many are enlarging the pattern and all the participant's resulting blocks are well worth a look...so pretty!

This is my version of the block chosen for September, labelled Serratifolia (known to us today as a "Fushia"):

 I love the quirky shapes in this block and am quite happy with the dark pink wools that I picked for the blooms.

 Here is a picture of the current family of blocks...they are quite a site en masse but are hard to capture in the breeze this morning.  I had to chase two of them across my yard after the photo - wow!!

 A bit of an angle to try to show the texture.

The clouds have been pretty gloomy along with a strong breeze at my favorite time to take photos lately, but the clouds have been pretty to look at between the raindrops.  I got my husband to attend my son's last soccer game in the driving rain earlier this week so I am feeling pretty good about the predicted sunshine at tonight's game I will attend  :)

In other news, I have some new chicks...can you spot the new little boy?  Our rooster is getting pretty old so I asked for a little man to be added to our normal chick order.  He's the little light yellow guy.  

Have a wonderful day!