Needlework Tuesday - A mellow time in the studio

The weather here is just begging for spring.  It's still cold at night, oft times rainy in the day and not all the warm.  Makes me want to crawl back under my sheep skin and sleep for another month or so.  Hasn't been at all conducive to stitching of any sorts.  Only thing it has done is kept me away from my temperature scarf.  Since I stopped wearing scarves about a month ago, I have temporarily lost interest in working on one.  Oops, I really had better get back to it before I have two months to catch up on.

As you may recall, I have been working away at the 350 Block Challenge hosted by Shelly at Prairie Moon Quilts.  Last month was almost a complete write off except in the last day, I did pull a rabbit out of my hat and stitch up three lovely postcards.  If I hadn't been part of the challenge, I would have let the month pass by without making even a single postcard.

Needlework Tuesday is a regular weekly post where I share the progress of my various needlework projects over the past week. I enjoy the encouragement that I receive from my readers and in return visit their blogs and cheer them on with theirs. You are welcome to grab the cute little mouse and create your own Needlework Tuesday post. Leave a comment with a link and I'll be sure to visit with you

The next two cards are essential the same, though I did change the embroidery along the seams.  Not much of a difference when you use such light thread colours.  I'll have to try this with darker threads to compare the visual impact.















To get May off to a good start, I have cut and fused this Old Rose motif.  It is the same that I am working with in the repair of an antique quilt that I wrote about in an earlier post.   The quilt has gone back to it's owner and I'm putting together a kit for her repairs.  I thought it would be a good idea to make a test of the rose and ensure that it has the look we are trying to achieve.  Success.

I am really falling in love with this Checkerboard Textures Crochet Along from Red Heart.  Since I taught myself to crochet, I really don't have a teacher or family history of crochet to fall back on.  I do what ever project catches my eye and if I don't get it quite right, I'm not going to complain to myself.  Before starting this project, I had no idea about the textural stitches you could make with single, double and triple crochets.  wow.  Each pattern in this afghan has been a learning experience for me and I am glad that I am working along with it.  This month is a Front Post Double Crochet.  It is so thick and cushy.  We have a few more blocks and then we will assemble the body of the afghan and then finally, add the borders.  It's not to late to start, or at least collect the stitch patterns for latter. 

Now that I am gaining more knowledge about the possibilities of crochet, I am wondering if my readers have any favourite stitches?  Links?

Mr. Linky is waiting below for your current needlework post.  don't forget to leave a comment as well, so I'll know you've been here and I'll pop by and visit with you.