A lovely summer Saturday

Saturday was such a lovely day and the peonies were in full bloom.

Love the vivid hue.

And the paler peonies were lovely too.

A nice time to enjoy the sights and smells and even the sounds of the birds bathing in the fountain.

 

A day to enjoy wool flowers

and stitched flowers as well.

A quick stop at the farmer's market brought home a few more peonies :)

And there's more to this lovely summer Saturday that I will share soon...

"Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.  Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

~Colossians 3: 12-14

Blessings, Patti

Cross Stitcher at Work

"Cross Stitcher at Work"

design by The Primitive Hare

Isabella of The Primitive Hare is an Italian designer who sponsored a little contest.

She sold this sweet design at a special low price and encouraged stitchers to stitch and finish it in a unique way. I used the design to create a stitcher's palette. I added mother of pearl rings for holding threads on the side. 

On the back, I added a heart pocket for scissors and a heart needle holder - a place for all my supplies :) 

I also added antique mother of pearl buttons on the front and back. I felt like I already won as now I had a lovely stitcher's palette to enjoy!

But I was absolutely thrilled to find out that I took second prize in her contest! I won a standard cut of her hand-dyed linen and 3 designs of my choice! I had such fun going through her large catalog of designs and slowly picking my three. Eventually I decided on "Spooky Countdown", "Plant a Garden" and "Witch Hour".

You can visit The Primitive Hare shop here and Isabella's lovely blog here. Isabella's sweet free patterns can be found here. She is so generous to share so many darling patterns for free.

Thanks Isabella for sponsoring this inspiring contest!

"Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power

and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,

for everything in heaven and earth is yours.

Yours, Lord, is the kingdom;

you are exalted as head over all."

~1 Chronicles 29:11

Blessings, Patti

June Offerings

Greetings!

The bees are buzzing here on Winding Vine and summer is almost here! My offerings this month are in honor of those busy bees working hard in my strawberry patch and heading to the raspberry bramble. (BTW, I just picked my first strawberries of the season today!)

My first offerings this month are two pillows inspired by a sweet design by Eszter of Sub Rosa Design from Budapest, Hungary. These cross-stitched pillows feature a soft green flannel and a wool appliqué bee with tiny glass seed bead eyes. They are backed with a gold and brown plaid flannel. As with all of my creations, they are completely hand stitched. 

The Early Bee finds the Bee Skep measures approximately 3 ½ by 5 ½ inches. 

The Early Bee finds the Flowers measures approximately 4 by 6 inches. 

Pillows are offered at $22 each plus shipping. Please specify design when ordering.

My next offering is Bee Garden Pillow Tuck based on a Jenny Hoffman design for Country Rustic Primitives. I changed the colors on this design to match those I used on the other two pillows – I think they all look so sweet together in a large wooden bowl. This pillow features the same fabrics and little wool appliquéd bumble bee. Bee Garden Pillow Tuck measures approximately 4 by 8 inches and is completely hand stitched. 

~*Sold. Thank you ever so much!*~

My final offering this month is Bizzy Bee Pincushion based on a design by The Little Red Hen. Hand dyed wools are appliquéd to a soft flannel base and the little bumble bee faces are hand stitched. The backing is a coordinating brown and gold windowpane flannel. I love the honeycomb shape of this pincushion! Filled with crushed walnut shells for a nice weight & feel. 

~*Sold. Thank you ever so much!*~

To purchase any of the items above, please email me at

pgagliardi9@hotmail.com

I can send a PayPal invoice or I also accept checks and money orders.

Hoping that you are enjoying sunny days in the garden watching the busy bumble bees!

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

~Revelations 21:3-4

Blessings, Patti

June's Theme and a Winner!

June is almost here...

Three people correctly guessed that June's theme for my offerings will be "Bees / Beehives"

So my youngest son randomly selected:

Barbara L. from southern Illinois. 

Barbara selected:

Antique Flag Windowsill Mat

Enjoy Barbara! Your prize will soon be on its way...

I will be back tomorrow to unveil my June offerings.

"If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey,and will give it to us."

~Numbers 14:8

Blessings, Patti

Remembrance, A Sale and A Giveaway

"A Patriot's Sampler"

free design by Plum Street Samplers

that you can find here.

I spent the day at the Memorial Day parade. 

A chance to applaud and recognize our veterans young and old.

A chance to hear my favorite tuba player (on the far right).

And to witness the laying of a poppy filled wreath at the veterans memorial.

I updated my Etsy shop and lowered the prices on several items. I thought I would also offer a little sale in my Etsy shop of 20% off all purchases. Just use the coupon code of MEMDAY2014 or send me an email if you don't have an Etsy account. You can see my Etsy shop here.

I also had a little time to work on my June 1st offerings as well. Every year my June offerings have been strawberry themed, but this year another theme really inspired me. I thought it would be fun to host a giveaway of one item of your choice from my Etsy Shop. All you need to do is guess my June offerings theme. Either leave a comment on this post or send me an email to pgagliardi9@hotmail.com with a subject line of "June Theme". 

If more than one person guesses the correct theme, I will have a drawing for the winner.

 If no one guesses correctly, then everyone will be entered into the drawing.

I will be back on Saturday with the winner.

"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country."

~Deuteronomy 28:1-3

Blessings, Patti

Where does the time go???

Time just seems to slip by faster and faster...

Before it is too far past, I need to tell you about the wonderful Mother's Day that I had.

My niece, Angela, was a competitive figure skater when she was younger. Over the years she sustained some injuries and worked with physical therapists. When she was a junior in high school, she decided that she wanted to be a physical therapist and wanted to be direct admittted into a doctorate program. I thought that was lovely, but having switched universities once and switched majors three times myself, I knew that chances were that she might change her mind along the way...

Fast forward six years and I spent a lovely Mother's Day here: 

My niece's graduation with her doctorate in physical therapy!

She's worked long and hard and her determination and drive remained intact.

Her proud parents and brother.

The cousins (my two sons are the scruffy ones on the ends lol)

We are all so proud and it was such a lovely weekend - my family and my sister's family together out of town. Such wonderful new memories!

Then it was on the the Midwest Dachshund Rescue's Crosstown Barkaround - the biggest fundraiser of the year. The four of us went with our dear Orion. Over 1,000 people and 400 dachshunds in attendance. So fun - but of course, we had so much fun that I don't take pictures. Who knew that dachshunds came in so many styles, colors and sizes...

After that is was on to the Norwegian Independence Day parade.

Small town parades are so fun.

My favorite was the marching band and my favorite tuba player (my youngest son).

I loved all the Norwegian handicrafts.

These mittens look oh so warm!

The band played the Norwegian National Anthem and the US National Anthem in front of city hall.

The best part is that I get to watch them march again at this weekend's Memorial Day parade :)

I think that it is about time for another giveaway, so stay tuned and I'll be back soon!

"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully."

~Romans 12:3-8

Blessings, Patti

May Mantle and More...

I think that this is my favorite mantle so far...

To me, May is the month of nesting birds and so that is my theme.

This is the big picture.

My May mantle features my antique punched tin lantern collection (which usually doesn't stray very far), Maggie Bonanomi topiaries, found nests (some with eggs) and Schneeman folk art birds. 

They all certainly bring a smile to my face.

Although this part on the hearth doesn't fit my theme, they are all well loved items.

Here are the rest of my Schneeman birds that didn't quite fit on the mantle along with a Ginny Henson robin made of linsey woolsey.

A Rabbit Hill Primitives creation along with more bird eggs.

Isn't this robin family the best?!

Created by Audrey Baker of Bay Ray's Child ~ so very lifelike!

Cross Stitch pillow by me of a Primitive Stitchin By Shelly Auen design.

More Rabbit Hill Primitives creations in an old trencher with make do repair.

More robins by Audrey of  Bay Ray's Child.

A few of my Rowe Pottery Historical pieces.

"The trees of the Lord are well watered,

the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

There the birds make their nests;

the stork has its home in the junipers.

The high mountains belong to the wild goats;

the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

He made the moon to mark the seasons,

and the sun knows when to go down."

~Psalm 104:16-19

Blessings, Patti