Slow Stitching Sunday

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Another beautiful day awaits us here in the Northwest.  This being my birthday, I have nothing planned except to take it easy and do what I want...just like the other 364 days of the year.  Today I can do it guilt free...you know, like the other 364 days of the year.  (Personally, I think guilt is highly overrated.)

Already this morning I've been out to check the tomatoes in the greenhouse and give them some water.  They are looking so much better.  I need to repot a few more of the little ones, and the larger ones--the ones repotted once already--are almost ready to go into their biggest pots of the season.  I might do them all at once.  Some of the smaller ones have a little bit more to grow, but they are looking green and have plenty of new growth.  Just when I thought my seed experiment might be a failure, they perked up.  This makes me very happy because I have some great varieties going.

So once that was done, I decided to make up my next embroidery block.  It's been over 48 hours since I did my last hand-stitching and my hands barely know what to do with themselves.  I started auditioning fabrics for the Wonky Houses wall hanging.

Wonky Houses is a pattern by the talented Jenny of Elefantz, although it looks like she's removed the pattern from her website at this point.  If you like this, you might be able to obtain it directly from her.  A light lemon yellow is suggested for the background of the stitcheries, and that is what I will use.  Also, I pulled these fabrics from my stash.

I don't know if I'll use all of these.  Probably not, but it's a place to start.  I was all set to trace out the embroidery motifs, then realized I was woefully lacking in the embroidery floss colors I needed.  So I punted, and decided to trace out the next Quilting Snowlady instead.  This one is called "Snowed In and Lovin' It".  Now that might seem cruel to those of you who are sick to death of snow for the year, but here it is:

I love the "Retweet Center".  Here's how it will look when it's finished.

My friend Lisa in Idyllwild would love this as a single block wall hanging.  As I'm looking at this, I'm realizing that the first block I did for this quilt had a little kitty hiding behind the snowlady.  See it down on her right side?

I'm thinking I should add a little kitty to this one.  It would be simple enough to do.  What do you think?

So she's all ready to go now.  I always start my new projects at the bottom left.  Sometimes I'm kind of wild and crazy (yes, it's a dull life around here), and I start them from the top right.  Still, it never seems right when I do that.  Sort of like reading a book from back to front.  This being my birthday, I didn't think I could take too much excitement, and so I started in my usual way.  You understand how it is when you're feeling old and dim.  Or maybe you don't.

Also, I fixed my little "Princess" block by giving her a lighter shade of lipstick.  I think it looks much better.

A few of you thought I should leave the "hussy" look.  I briefly considered adding whips, chains, and black leather, but then decided it would be easier to just change the lipstick.  Then, I tried getting those dark stitches out, and it turned out to be more of a trial than I anticipated.  It just goes to show that you can take the hussy out of the woman, but you can't take the woman out of the ... oh wait ... that doesn't work.  Never mind.

So that's what's going on here at the Three Cats Ranch this Sunday morning. Tonight we're going out to dinner.  I'll have to tell you more about that tomorrow.  For now, I'm linking this post to Slow Sunday Stitching over at Kathy's Quilts.