Back in the Land of Nod

{The sweetest little collage picture was a perfect gift from Lauren (Rugs and Pugs)}

It's the 20th of July and I feel as though I've been gone - or preparing to be gone or unpacking from being gone - for most of those 20 days.

I spent some time at the lake over the 4th of July holiday.

The days were mostly temperate, but the lake was unsettled and moody.

A few days later, I left for my (now annual?) trip to Country Sampler in Spring Green. 

The skies were hazy from the Canadian wildfires but the rich colors of the fields and 

hills were vibrant and entrancing all the same.

For those of you for whom the names are unfamiliar, Country Sampler is a destination quilting/stitching shop in Spring Green - a village in southwestern Wisconsin. Although small (1,500-people small),

Spring Green may be recognizable to some as the home of the estate and 800-acre sanctuary of Frank Lloyd Wright, Taliesin.

And Taliesin has a famous (and infamous) history all its own.

While "reincarnated" several times, and steeped in history of many sorts, Taliesin's most unfortunate claim to fame is being the site of the tragic murder of 7 people, including Wright's then-partner, Mamah Borthwick Cheney, and her 2 children in 1914.

A disgruntled servant, Julian Carlton, set fire to the living quarters while Wright was away on business and bludgeoned those who attempted to flee with an axe.

While there has been speculation about the reasons for the attack, no motive has been definitively established.

So much unrest in such peaceful surroundings.

But, as usual, I digress.

The purpose of the trip was stitching...and shopping.

I spent a few days with my sister-in-law and her friends, staying in the rooms above Country Sampler.

For my stitchy pals, here are a few snaps of some of the design models that caught my eye:

{Love the Fraktur folksiness of this one! It is "Fraktur Friends" by Shakespeare's Peddler}

{Another Shakespeare's Peddler design: "Mary Bate 1796." This was just beautiful, and I loved the verse. Hopefully you can enlarge to read it?}
 

{"Christmas in July" by Plum Street Samplers - top half of pattern only.}

{"Sesquicentennial Alphabet in Blue - 1874" by Thread Milk Design. This pattern may have come home with me. 😉}

Personally, I, of course, got little accomplished stitch-wise. Nothing to really show there. But I did finish the stitching on this before leaving:

"My Country" by La-D-Da.

I'm working on one more small patriotic piece while I mull over finishing options for both, then I think it will be time to move on to a different topic for a while.

All in all, I've decided I'm much better at shopping than stitching.

I hope all has been well in your corners of the world.

Happy Birthday Americal!

 

249 looks good on you!

{"Parade Sam" by Notforgotten Farm}

Sodden, Soaked, and Saturated

 

{View out my kitchen window}

I guess there has been a lot of this going around, but YIKES!

Enough already!!

I generally love dark, rainy, days but this weather we've been having is more than enough even for a sort like me.

It has rained every day this past week save one, and the past few days it has been over an inch each day.  While the forecast changes as quickly as you can refresh your screen, it looks like rain almost every day next week as well. 

And cold...very cold. "High" temps are in the low 50's - and yesterday, the "feel-like" temp was in the mid-40's. 

Inconvenient for the likes of me, but I feel so badly for the farmers. They cannot get into the fields and the ones they did manage to sow before the monsoons hit are standing in water.

Being unable to do any of things needing done outdoors and tired of my indoor chores, I thought I'd slip in a quick post to wish you state-siders Happy Flag Day!

This design is "Grand Olde Flag" by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle & Thread.

I stitched this over 2 years ago already, but it took me a while to get it fully and finally finished since I could not decide whether I should frame it, stuff it, hem it, or chuck it. 

It ended up as a flatfold and I'm ok with that.

I also want to acknowledge Father's Day tomorrow. I don't believe I have many fathers reading my blog; and I know many of my followers are of a somewhat "like" age and have lost your fathers...many, like me as well, way too soon.

I was only 15 when my father died but I still remember him well.

So, the day may be bittersweet but, if you can, reach back and grab a good memory - and hold on tight to it.

Meanwhile, Back in Nod...

It's a rainy, gloomy, day here in Nod with areal flood warnings posted...and extended.  But I am not complaining...we do need the rain and, while I have more outdoor work to do than I will ever accomplish, the rain gives me a guilt-less excuse.

I thought it would be a perfect time to squeeze in a post and then saw my half-hearted, half-started, post from last week.

So, I thought I would just trash the words and dump the photos...

A look around Nod, if you will.

This photo is a bit dated, obviously...last month's full "Flower Moon."

It was truly dazzling.

Like most full moon nights, I did not sleep well.

I gave up around 5:15 a.m., and the moon was just going down.

Guess it's a night owl like me.

The magnolia's fragrant blooms:

The flowering crabapple trees: 

{Pretty even at night...}

My very favorite:

The rabbits are, once again, more than plentiful...

...Wait...there are more....

(...and actually, 2 more out of range of the above photo.)

...of all colors and sizes....

{This guy looks like he needs a smoke... Hmmm, wonder what he was doing.}

{The fawn was still wobbly on this day...}

{Nothing special to most of you, I'm sure, but, around Nod, black squirrels are rarer than white deer...}

And because someone asked....

Grace and Sovereignty

Grace and Sovereignty...

Sounds like a pretty deep and ponderous post, yeah?

Well, it's not..

"Grace" is Grace Bridges, a piece I stitched some time ago, but she is finally framed and home. (Not on the wall yet...give me a few years.)

The design is by Stacy Nash and was stitched on 40-Count "Boardwalk" linen by Colour and Cotton, using the mostly called-for DMC flosses.  Many liberties were taken with the original design to accommodate my OCD.

(Marly (Samplers and Santas) would be so very proud.)

If the frame looks vaguely familiar, it is. 

This was the second piece I took to a local artist for framing, the first being Noel Sampler by With Thy Needle and Thread.

(Did I share the framed finish of that or not? I can't seem to find it in older posts. In any event, here it is:)

As you can see, they are the exactly same frame.

This was completely unintentional on both my and the framer's part.

If nothing else, I guess I am consistent.

(I prefer "consistent" to unimaginative.)

And Sovereignty...

Sovereignty is the horse that won this year's Kentucky Derby.

For many (many) years, our neighbors have hosted a Kentucky Derby party.

(I know I've posted about at least one of them before, but the posts don't show in the searches as I apparently wasn't using labels back then.)

It's been a few years since I've actually gone to one of the parties, but this year I broke hermitage and went.

Each year they do it up better.

There are mint juleps, horse betting (and other forms of gambling - scratch offs, pull tabs, bingo -all with a horsey theme), and an amazing spread of food.

This year, the track was a muddy mess, and I was grateful none of the horses were injured.

The horse, Journalism, was favored to win but (ironically??), Sovereignty beat out Journalism, and Baeza came in third. 

Although I've been a bit out of the derby loop for a while, I actually did well in the betting - winning the first place ("win") pool, the third place ("show") pool, and even the trifecta pool.

Yeeesss!!

Sometimes walking amongst the living isn't so very awful.

Happy Easter

Wishing you the blessings and peace of grace.  

May the gift of new life ever flow in your family.

Where Winter Lives

There is a place where the pines are crusted with snow and the spruce are coated with the dusty glitter of frost.

A place where the wind howls in misery as the winter passes,

and Spring shivers meekly in the unwelcoming cold, hesitant to come.

But every once and again, the fortunate soul catches a glimpse of the place transformed.

The gateway to a crystal forest opens and a tantalizing fairyland unfolds.

Dressings of ice sparkle like shards of glass, iridescent in the lucent sun,

and one is surrounded by heaven's great tears of icy glass, richly furring branches that once were bare.

While the maples groan and the pin oaks splinter, the tinkling branches laugh in the wind.

For a few short days, the world is terrible and beautiful at once and there is a nothingness in between.

This is where winter lives.