I had the three big tasks I wanted to get done: clean the garden window in the kitchen, weed the garden and tidy the porch. Yeah. Mostly I just hunkered down in the air conditioning and watched the last season of Six Feet Under on dvd. I sobbed during the finale. Sobbed, I mean great big gushing weeping. I’m really glad I was home alone.
I got some laundry done and keep up with the dishes. I did manage to get the garden window cleaned. It is quite the acrobatic feat to get up there, perch on the counter and windowsill beside the sink and not go out onto the overhang. I’m sure it looked lovely from the street. But it needs to be done once or twice a year. Usually I give it a thorough cleaning in the spring when I take the plants out to the porch- you wouldn’t believe all the dead leaves and plant litter that accumulates over the winter- and a quick wipe down before I bring all the plants back in late fall.
But I never got out to the garden, other than to water my plants. No weeding got done. And it really needs it. Nor did the porch get cleaned. I feel bad. I had such resolve; this was going to be the weekend I got that porch tidy. I kind of let things slip last July when I changed jobs. It looks awful. My ghetto porch. Okay, I’m trying to tell myself it has been bad for nearly a year, what is one more week?
So what did I do? Aside from the above mentioned general housekeeping, I started a new set of pillowcases. I’m really excited about this one. I don’t usually show you stuff before it is finished, but I’m curious what you’ll think.
I’ve had this kit for some time. It is Swirl Flowers from Bucilla. I like the design- it has lots of neat stitching, but I was never really wild about the color combination. I was flipping through google images the other day, looking for inspiration, and I saw a white skirt with a floral embroidery. Done in all black. And the design reminded me of this kit. Can you tell where I’m going with this?
I’m going to stitch the entire design in all black. I think that could be called
blackwork. I’ve also seen
whitework,
redwork and
bluework. I guess you could do any pattern all in one color and call it whatever that color is-work. Does anybody know?
As I discussed way back in… oh my gosh, June? I decided to stitch this one in all black. I am so pleased with the results.
This may be one kit where I should have used regular, divisible 6-strand embroidery floss, rather than my preferred cotton perle #8, which is thicker. The stitching is rather close and I’m afraid some of the details have gotten lost. Eh. Live and learn.
I still really love the all-black flowers on the crisp white pillowcases. Very modern.
I used DMC cotton perle #8 in these colors:
This is the 
I think this pattern is just so lovely. I am mostly happy with it, but I don’t care for the dark blue that I chose. Again, I was trying to use colors that I have on hand, but I think the dark blue called for in the pattern would have been better- more of a cornflower blue, not quite as dark. Oh, well. Next time.
I used DMC cotton perle #8 in these colors:
Green Bungalow Craftworks 
