tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-257076852024-03-06T23:12:09.030-07:00Willow Tree StitcherJeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.comBlogger194125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-77619060663470371692016-06-30T10:34:00.001-07:002016-06-30T10:34:40.766-07:00Happy 4th of July!Hello out there...hope everyone is enjoying a nice summer. We've been having a heat wave here in the Southwest but that's normal for June. We finally got some rain last night to cool things down a bit hopefully for the weekend.<br />
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I'm so happy to report that a couple weeks ago I finished stitching my Fruit Bellpull by Teresa Wentzler! This old UFO was a big monkey on my back and I'm glad it's finally done as I started it over 10 years ago. It sat for years without any work being done but I got it out earlier this year and finished off 2 more blocks. The pattern has 6 fruit blocks but I just picked 4 to do and that's enough. I just need to get some bellpull hardware and sew it up one of these days.<br />
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It's so hard sometimes to choose what to stitch when there is so much you love and have in your stash! My list seems to be a mile long of things I want to stitch. I recently stitched this little free design from Threadworks Primitive and I made it into a needle/scissor case. I'm happy with how it turned out! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Dutch Tulip" freebie by Threadworks Primitive</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDxtP2I-FKq4Q_AKv1_6_JgvV_bqNLj-bMUBTP6045VxeOyj3VbVgrWrGaKZq6fejjScYbdf_dW7PUKtFugUIwqiGSS4xeBdL6WgbLCUwmFmyvtXVbrN394cPNXKJbuqMzR9FxBg/s1600/Dutch+Tulip+insides.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDxtP2I-FKq4Q_AKv1_6_JgvV_bqNLj-bMUBTP6045VxeOyj3VbVgrWrGaKZq6fejjScYbdf_dW7PUKtFugUIwqiGSS4xeBdL6WgbLCUwmFmyvtXVbrN394cPNXKJbuqMzR9FxBg/s400/Dutch+Tulip+insides.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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And speaking of finishing, below are some photos of what I did with one of the Little House Needlework ornament patterns. A dear friend gave me this wooden spindle from <a href="http://www.bloomwoodworks.com/">Bloom Woodworks</a>. It's a great way to display small pieces. I sew a little sleeve on the backing fabric before I put it all together and that holds it on the spindle. I have so much Christmas stuff but I just can't stop making more! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Season's Greetings" from Little House Needleworks</span></td></tr>
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I'm doing an SAL with a cyber-friend and it's going well. This sampler is from the Blackbird Designs "Joyeux Noel" book. I've wanted to stitch this sampler for years so I'm glad to finally get it done . I just have the bottom part and border to finish. I changed a lot on this sampler.....I substituted several of the colors and as I went along I stopped following the colors on the chart and just made things whatever color I wanted. The book says this was charted from an antique sampler and there were lots of missing letters, letters out of sequence, etc. I added in some of the missing letters and corrected the letter sequence...I just can't leave things alone but I cause myself a lot of extra work! Here's my progress:</div>
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The list of things needing framing is starting to get too much on it again....framing costs are so high. I like to get museum glass on my pieces and it's so expensive. Also....I've been stitching for almost 40 years and I have about 60 framed pieces! Not all of them are on display because many are seasonal or holiday pieces but what am I going to do with all of this?!?! I'm not going to have room to keep adding to the collection constantly so I try to figure out other things to do with some of the finished pieces. My DH and I are planning to downsize to a smaller home over the next year also so I have to keep that in mind too. Not to mention all the quilts I have too - good thing I only have 2 hobbies!!</div>
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<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-62097309099812367522016-04-29T10:57:00.001-07:002016-04-29T11:01:20.585-07:00Another UFO killed off........<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Happy Friday readers! I'm happy to report some progress with my ongoing efforts to finish off some of my old stitching UFO's that have been sitting around my sewing room for years. Back in 2008 I started one of those "house and garden" neighborhood samplers as a member of a group blog that Vonna from The Twisted Stitcher blog was organizing. It wasn't a round robin, each person designed and stitched their own piece. As usual I got carried away planning the piece - I had big plans to do 3 rows of houses and gardens on a huge piece of linen. Below is a photo showing how far this project ever got. Everybody was in love with a big sampler someone in France had done with a Prairie Schooler birdhouse & sunflowers in the middle. The chart with that birdhouse (Prairie Schooler Garden Samplers) was going for almost $50 on eBay at the time - way more than I wanted to pay but I wanted a birdhouse like everyone else. Instead, I found a $6 Dimensions chart of birdhouses at Joanns and added my own sunflowers to it. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBCE67DAFK4F6DUcn923uNKPGpX7ac-BEU1DcEolVDUSFu1Z6tz24YOJAF9xOMgGnn4MhWcCxph24Gnr5vghhKj4JckZMz1t6PsXEjJmmyy6MYBdafTkwEl6yUthFEw3x_mO_mGg/s1600/Home+%2526+Garden+Sampler+Jan+2010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBCE67DAFK4F6DUcn923uNKPGpX7ac-BEU1DcEolVDUSFu1Z6tz24YOJAF9xOMgGnn4MhWcCxph24Gnr5vghhKj4JckZMz1t6PsXEjJmmyy6MYBdafTkwEl6yUthFEw3x_mO_mGg/s640/Home+%2526+Garden+Sampler+Jan+2010.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As time went on I lost interest in this BAP but I didn't want to just throw out all the work I had done. I thought at one time of filling it in with more houses and stuff in order to make the piece a semi-circular shape (I had to save the birdhouse part in the middle) but even that was too much work and never got done. Last year I tediously frogged out part of that tree on the bottom so I could cut out the log cabin scene, the birdhouse and the little red millhouse I had designed. Here's what I did with those salvaged pieces of stitching:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqik4LOp02AOsBDnHX5M6TcG8qzORi3b0gzUSyyq9a5q4MmvPGkI_LCZxH7YzEPjQ3EVjURO8FYT81QBIB_6QTsXeE6T1hXmfB4hRV2ONI1qepZ90TuEYPrswVK1i4WmaCN1M9Q/s1600/Birdhouse+Banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqik4LOp02AOsBDnHX5M6TcG8qzORi3b0gzUSyyq9a5q4MmvPGkI_LCZxH7YzEPjQ3EVjURO8FYT81QBIB_6QTsXeE6T1hXmfB4hRV2ONI1qepZ90TuEYPrswVK1i4WmaCN1M9Q/s640/Birdhouse+Banner.jpg" width="444" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The birdhouse was made into a little summer wallhanging.......</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijwB7AY5L_PSPVDK2HGqhgKRPhOHBLbd07WU8qa4UzBI6B6WAoL_LbHPLe1dBLizw5QqyPQzoV0gmBdybecPLlxYMPxdKN8HP8DJQYOPkeT3nc6B8SpPwIvWwL_AvcTQbTXnN94Q/s1600/Project+Bag+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijwB7AY5L_PSPVDK2HGqhgKRPhOHBLbd07WU8qa4UzBI6B6WAoL_LbHPLe1dBLizw5QqyPQzoV0gmBdybecPLlxYMPxdKN8HP8DJQYOPkeT3nc6B8SpPwIvWwL_AvcTQbTXnN94Q/s640/Project+Bag+1.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I finished the little red millhouse with a pond and made it into a project bag. I like to design and print coordinated business cards that I use as labels on my bags. These cards have little willow trees across the top.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTtjTS-yUhQFvTpYYgQUhUk4z-mSC3luRBYKLYwdRAnVSdOQK0ixjP4wjllS0g-SWCSKF1P95O_YMe0bLfCg7Xauogo3_tuY2eKJiPMGNesKVO1dWeOV_qCyJMteMGHViFz3IVWA/s1600/PS+cabin+front.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTtjTS-yUhQFvTpYYgQUhUk4z-mSC3luRBYKLYwdRAnVSdOQK0ixjP4wjllS0g-SWCSKF1P95O_YMe0bLfCg7Xauogo3_tuY2eKJiPMGNesKVO1dWeOV_qCyJMteMGHViFz3IVWA/s400/PS+cabin+front.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirHdsoS-S5KbxKu8GxdnFvauaCQ-YK9cPOo81Cx_CSjgfE2wgEOksQIEEWVEPJiFJVyzouzfAcSU8uTChORWnbprZd0OMja63JpNxtpgF1gRakrD29W9IrFbZHhJEmsSSll53-Dg/s1600/PS+cabin+back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirHdsoS-S5KbxKu8GxdnFvauaCQ-YK9cPOo81Cx_CSjgfE2wgEOksQIEEWVEPJiFJVyzouzfAcSU8uTChORWnbprZd0OMja63JpNxtpgF1gRakrD29W9IrFbZHhJEmsSSll53-Dg/s400/PS+cabin+back.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Prairie Schooler log cabin scene I made into a cube-style finish. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It felt great to kill off this big old UFO and I salvaged some remnants of linen I can use for other projects - it's all good!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm also making progress on my old Teresa Wentzer Fruit Bellpull...this project is really tedious! It's taken me almost 6 weeks to do my 3rd block - the Cherries. It's been my TV project for the evenings when DH and I are watching TV. This piece as designed has 6 blocks but there's no way I'm going to do all 6. I've changed the order of the blocks from the design, and I'm going to do one more block and call it done. I think 4 blocks will be fine. That Cherries block was a real pain - here's a photo of what it looks like on the pattern book and below it is my piece. In the photo from the chart you can see a lot more color in the shading especially of the cherry stems. I'm using all the DMC as it's charted and I kitted this up over 10 years ago so I know it's not that the DMC dyelots have changed. I'm just disappointed that the shading is so muted. I had to go over some of the cherry stems with another shade of brown because you could hardly see them after I stitched them. Thankfully the last block I've picked to do looks easier than those Cherries! </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsyjOlsimUr_BBeQXiByVbpipytQvgGRZmZGoyEGNY7ru9teV5tWsXMXLdAMtFDp_Rc8nyePWdnrU2DA444C6Lj1Bo2-MmdHZ9wVw1Vsrx4eh3N-E7DIFxecQUmva4jBGtAqfLwg/s1600/photo+from+book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsyjOlsimUr_BBeQXiByVbpipytQvgGRZmZGoyEGNY7ru9teV5tWsXMXLdAMtFDp_Rc8nyePWdnrU2DA444C6Lj1Bo2-MmdHZ9wVw1Vsrx4eh3N-E7DIFxecQUmva4jBGtAqfLwg/s400/photo+from+book.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Photo of cherries block from the book I'm using.....in real life those brownish/gold shades are muddied greens and the cherries are not "reddish" but more purple-pink.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8d0EmXVcLhWYtZNVk0MMpJzOOFt1VFGoATJ6E_aRUyFq4s2MjOv0hSpmd9oDtXDyGTPkoFD26nb8Ev-Yn-qARfDCEgEhFnqL_lKp5vTy4LwyltYPLPd_Us7wMAZWUVj1qoOzi1Q/s1600/Fruit+Bellpull+progress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8d0EmXVcLhWYtZNVk0MMpJzOOFt1VFGoATJ6E_aRUyFq4s2MjOv0hSpmd9oDtXDyGTPkoFD26nb8Ev-Yn-qARfDCEgEhFnqL_lKp5vTy4LwyltYPLPd_Us7wMAZWUVj1qoOzi1Q/s640/Fruit+Bellpull+progress.jpg" width="252" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My progress - 3 blocks done, one more to go!!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've got 2 more little finishes to share....another project bag made out of a BBD freebie I recycled...it had been a pincushion but I didn't like how I had finished it years back so I put it into a project bag instead. And I've finished off another ornament piece into a little pillow for the holiday bowl........</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFIyXBrkTFeA3qEY8OtxahiuLrCA9i6ia0lRAFICaM_zVblRWqRuByBKdMSkUGEWNEd624-902aelBJCzUxFmJHlXfvcgHULKI99HZZuWsaTTTgXX8wpDml1j3ZL26_nkpogSv9Q/s1600/Project+Bag+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="521" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFIyXBrkTFeA3qEY8OtxahiuLrCA9i6ia0lRAFICaM_zVblRWqRuByBKdMSkUGEWNEd624-902aelBJCzUxFmJHlXfvcgHULKI99HZZuWsaTTTgXX8wpDml1j3ZL26_nkpogSv9Q/s640/Project+Bag+2.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">BBD "Eiffel Tower" freebie from a few years back.....now part of a project bag</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdp6ioO23vdHQWz2vTXgFhEwO_XOm9Xm6APsXCuoKFWwH1OiPOhyphenhyphenwRb6808kPr1-SQNJC7HT4SQHwcTKalZEiwmjQdD4xUbdK6fEC0eC7bVXHgZEhX2FB-CryAQd0K9OTNLjfBlA/s1600/Sue+Hillis+Designs+-+Xmas+tree.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdp6ioO23vdHQWz2vTXgFhEwO_XOm9Xm6APsXCuoKFWwH1OiPOhyphenhyphenwRb6808kPr1-SQNJC7HT4SQHwcTKalZEiwmjQdD4xUbdK6fEC0eC7bVXHgZEhX2FB-CryAQd0K9OTNLjfBlA/s400/Sue+Hillis+Designs+-+Xmas+tree.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Christmas tree is a motif from Sue Hillis Designs 'My Favorite Things'</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That's all for today....I'm off to start on my final block of the Fruit Bellpull but I'm itching to start a new project! It takes discipline to work on these old UFO's but I'm getting there slowly but surely. Thanks for visiting!</span></div>
<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-1164223271571884662016-04-05T11:25:00.001-07:002016-04-06T15:35:18.063-07:00This stitching obsession.. a tour of my XS world<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Sometimes I can't believe how big of a part stitching plays in my life! It's not just the stitching, but the organizing, storing, cataloging, etc. But I can't help myself! I use my home computer a lot - I keep my inventory of charts in Excel, have lots of finishing tutorials in Word documents, have hundreds and hundreds of photos I've saved from online that inspire me (my own "Pinterest" board I guess you'd call it), keep a wish list of things to buy, a list of all the projects I've done and what I used as far as linen and flosses, a file of free and purchased digital patterns, etc etc. Here's some photos from my craft room and beyond....am I the only one this crazy?? Here's some photos of my stitching obsession......</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxz5s7U4YVcYwdB2LoJS3iI87h-oXv5dwQo3vRVYZkl-nHTI0QsLQnoSOh-lUMdL117uepsCwtwzWIFLKz5SaEu6uqYcoSjEA83qwQbFwJc6W9J6K31FUf3dDw-tTtZCBI04a9ig/s1600/1-DMC+storage.jpg" imageanchor="1"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxz5s7U4YVcYwdB2LoJS3iI87h-oXv5dwQo3vRVYZkl-nHTI0QsLQnoSOh-lUMdL117uepsCwtwzWIFLKz5SaEu6uqYcoSjEA83qwQbFwJc6W9J6K31FUf3dDw-tTtZCBI04a9ig/s400/1-DMC+storage.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My DMC storage - I have one drawer with all my DMC - I use drawer dividers I bought online and love how quickly I can pull floss and put it back when done</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUAjiC15_iFWPpPQPiyh4gy4YDTohd8bGBnNzgai2Ul6PazNuVvovjBv7B3_sN7YHoe4ecDHCKXQ9mOSrFJSSTRAolrmqxNcA-7DZWDtwRa9B3JDY-mBf9kSynig9JohyphenhyphenqfiZ48Q/s1600/2-Pegboard+storage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUAjiC15_iFWPpPQPiyh4gy4YDTohd8bGBnNzgai2Ul6PazNuVvovjBv7B3_sN7YHoe4ecDHCKXQ9mOSrFJSSTRAolrmqxNcA-7DZWDtwRa9B3JDY-mBf9kSynig9JohyphenhyphenqfiZ48Q/s400/2-Pegboard+storage.jpg" width="266" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Overdyed and silk flosses live on rings on my pegboard. I need to be able to pull my rings and search for colors so I don't keep them like my DMC floss..</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIMkbyrOhoPXw5HDYC1zlHeMe9ACE4rR6HWWwtkNOIyRsKMjMx86rmXXY294EOC79AUeeVPRTuCldAkMJr1r6Ka2vPYU8lDmyyC0cxq82YMeIzKCuCU9_n9kmo2WeJX6TuLinBHQ/s1600/3-pattern+storage+files.jpg" imageanchor="1"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIMkbyrOhoPXw5HDYC1zlHeMe9ACE4rR6HWWwtkNOIyRsKMjMx86rmXXY294EOC79AUeeVPRTuCldAkMJr1r6Ka2vPYU8lDmyyC0cxq82YMeIzKCuCU9_n9kmo2WeJX6TuLinBHQ/s400/3-pattern+storage+files.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have 2 big file drawers filled with charts in folders by Designer or Theme....</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfikqobt9WwWDAJdn6Bxdhci0eWbpHKIqirR_f0Qigmqxq7efsMmzZrafY2pW56H38f5QHbg24Q8Ci8vIJxPBYLbobW9qr30S8LywOf38jzEgGXE1inLNdhv8Yw9fn7yzNv4SC4A/s1600/3-more+pattern+storage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfikqobt9WwWDAJdn6Bxdhci0eWbpHKIqirR_f0Qigmqxq7efsMmzZrafY2pW56H38f5QHbg24Q8Ci8vIJxPBYLbobW9qr30S8LywOf38jzEgGXE1inLNdhv8Yw9fn7yzNv4SC4A/s400/3-more+pattern+storage.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Smaller charts are stored in binders I got on sale at an office supply store...........</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSFysMyVgAASb-30pOQMMOR2We9Ikpioq-05QHdPV-ix9ZZffgiLS6Y8g4X9WqSQiar_wunHje3_3DIbN60QV2hPvhWNZB8YmJmOL0gqmtfeQO03IWq7t2BM5Vm2Ms5AU2MMHoOw/s1600/4-linen+storage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSFysMyVgAASb-30pOQMMOR2We9Ikpioq-05QHdPV-ix9ZZffgiLS6Y8g4X9WqSQiar_wunHje3_3DIbN60QV2hPvhWNZB8YmJmOL0gqmtfeQO03IWq7t2BM5Vm2Ms5AU2MMHoOw/s400/4-linen+storage.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two drawers of linen storage.......why do I keep buying more?!?</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlIong7ZnoOjRSgbbGC39G3NJcG5oKn244Ex5BSab8g5KtfSQr7CZbYogqPn4xwDCYFg734grI2Zl2GSCWfAgifFw-RRMwnefcfAHCRuOXG4Sxn5djqBZOc4DwyYqCMASTXTSIyA/s1600/4-kitted+projects.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlIong7ZnoOjRSgbbGC39G3NJcG5oKn244Ex5BSab8g5KtfSQr7CZbYogqPn4xwDCYFg734grI2Zl2GSCWfAgifFw-RRMwnefcfAHCRuOXG4Sxn5djqBZOc4DwyYqCMASTXTSIyA/s400/4-kitted+projects.jpg" width="387" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some of my kitted up projects waiting their turn......</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtVbGYLxLDHud9OHLACzsGC9CjPmodfqMzUH_BDrFgI-chN2nBQrn2Gz0wiyDPY0OVLaElsdISftcryXB1JajCWgQm36NNS-NWfjDgcSrxlrT2jTWlbDWYKDR108i9zzuz1eqnNA/s1600/5-Mill+Hill+kits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtVbGYLxLDHud9OHLACzsGC9CjPmodfqMzUH_BDrFgI-chN2nBQrn2Gz0wiyDPY0OVLaElsdISftcryXB1JajCWgQm36NNS-NWfjDgcSrxlrT2jTWlbDWYKDR108i9zzuz1eqnNA/s400/5-Mill+Hill+kits.jpg" width="315" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A box just for all those cute Mill Hill kits! I need to stop buying more stash!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT_09KEeOYN2IulYP8HIBF31zkRrZeS3f9S5bD-eaewVTnX9c_6y6pHmmWIKeiNKJLreAUjs_qz3YqWblxXfzj18p5A8rI3O1SIZpeM_BN8LUdH6E5Cwr2MsBpW8y9Gz0Vg93q1w/s1600/6-qsnaps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT_09KEeOYN2IulYP8HIBF31zkRrZeS3f9S5bD-eaewVTnX9c_6y6pHmmWIKeiNKJLreAUjs_qz3YqWblxXfzj18p5A8rI3O1SIZpeM_BN8LUdH6E5Cwr2MsBpW8y9Gz0Vg93q1w/s400/6-qsnaps.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A drawer full of Q-snaps and tools......</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkWoFX7uBz8D7ez4IvIu4ZVvRPfe-ozZtdKdTXrDKi6Pu-9XIkzaSYHrUGYEDpcKnohH1YtFFUTYmGuLpNju1C4_-D9Ohh1cIrpguRbiQao5E2U5T_-ikjKV3ewfq2i5v3aH_l3w/s1600/7-finishing+supplies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkWoFX7uBz8D7ez4IvIu4ZVvRPfe-ozZtdKdTXrDKi6Pu-9XIkzaSYHrUGYEDpcKnohH1YtFFUTYmGuLpNju1C4_-D9Ohh1cIrpguRbiQao5E2U5T_-ikjKV3ewfq2i5v3aH_l3w/s400/7-finishing+supplies.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another drawer with some of my finishing supplies....trims, pins, and things...</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYwfWAem_74JELWahqK1ls_ols9px7tm4FnraRNE5GMthLTHuqzj7F-9fi38Le52MqjyvFMYtThchGI9VaPeC0XQTpFJfXhzTfPnbB14fF8MaMcP2CKkrxc0appiudA183tsn7oQ/s1600/8-padded+storage+bags.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYwfWAem_74JELWahqK1ls_ols9px7tm4FnraRNE5GMthLTHuqzj7F-9fi38Le52MqjyvFMYtThchGI9VaPeC0XQTpFJfXhzTfPnbB14fF8MaMcP2CKkrxc0appiudA183tsn7oQ/s400/8-padded+storage+bags.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I make padded storage bags for all my framed pieces that aren't on permanent display in my home - mostly seasonal items. I try to match the bag fabric to the theme - Christmas, Halloween, etc. I have a spot on the front of each bag for a label showing a photo and name of the piece so I know what's in each bag. I see our dog Abby snuck into one corner of the photo - snoozing on one of her many beds throughout the house!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCe3gedIZQlwTidXjMuQX52fSf0Ew4txNYTJk5KlgC6ECKKXrPz5d4-PdoBVT8XiZWDxAi9YcFUxTBwjtF22td9cQ333vfZLVSLigiujLNStid6s34RzSNFnlzbSiWVCnt1Mt46g/s1600/9-armoire+storage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCe3gedIZQlwTidXjMuQX52fSf0Ew4txNYTJk5KlgC6ECKKXrPz5d4-PdoBVT8XiZWDxAi9YcFUxTBwjtF22td9cQ333vfZLVSLigiujLNStid6s34RzSNFnlzbSiWVCnt1Mt46g/s400/9-armoire+storage.JPG" width="286" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">All the storage bags plus some of my quilts live in this armoire in my bedroom...I have too much stuff to even put out in my house!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWm4mosYq-4OUfWN7ulRGx7cfQocEZ-3FhGgkGywKh2PMcBH70EdX0xForfYobhoyvdrU-fmlN0pOGd7A9mwsY0kH5DDi9Oqq4Uq_Qo2u7_5OMyDqWuryi7vqzJelIw0uhHf4aFg/s1600/10-Xmas+stuff.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWm4mosYq-4OUfWN7ulRGx7cfQocEZ-3FhGgkGywKh2PMcBH70EdX0xForfYobhoyvdrU-fmlN0pOGd7A9mwsY0kH5DDi9Oqq4Uq_Qo2u7_5OMyDqWuryi7vqzJelIw0uhHf4aFg/s400/10-Xmas+stuff.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A box under my bed full of Christmas cross-stitch items......don't want my stitched items living in the hot garage all summer.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBG_PPa-B9AEmTKhMXXEk7TQosY4VOmyrH8_idgOOYNaFM9yxNH63NrsowtApD7ZpuqMzmmPbjoQ79rALi9MUH56n6RTezQQWrz3K8Gp4EU1BDMlwn-M9ET524g0N85ewwjxuDw/s1600/11-more+storage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkBG_PPa-B9AEmTKhMXXEk7TQosY4VOmyrH8_idgOOYNaFM9yxNH63NrsowtApD7ZpuqMzmmPbjoQ79rALi9MUH56n6RTezQQWrz3K8Gp4EU1BDMlwn-M9ET524g0N85ewwjxuDw/s400/11-more+storage.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another one of the drawers with bags of finished items grouped together by theme - patriotic, etc. Sometimes it seems that XS is taking over my house! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have had some more finishes since I last posted - and I want to thank all of you for your nice comments on my previous post. I was having some email issues getting my comments mailed to me so I didn't answer most of them but I appreciate them! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I did finally finish my "Old Nantucket" sampler from Little House Needleworks - took me about a year since starting it with some breaks when I got tired of working on it sometimes. Most of you may have already seen it if you're a member of the LHN Facebook group. One of these days I'll get it framed but I need to save up a bit. I stitched it on the recommended WDW Cocoa linen but used 35-ct instead of the 30-ct called for as I didn't want it to be so big. I used most of the charted flosses with a couple of substitutions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Below is "Labor for Learning" by Plum Street Sampler. This is a petite sampler about 6" x 6" - it was fun to stitch.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXJyofSvtJCZ2YCOihrQu8Y66T2_dB__0icuWxAqErsMck4kebPDW9Zx1orwQS4oAWNEt7brwnAQ4nwKj9qEH25EOCKQq5zQuNxm6POmXaER0AJW45O8RIuq-lhD-3Uf9100F3g/s1600/Plum+Street+Samplers+-+Labor+For+Learning.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXJyofSvtJCZ2YCOihrQu8Y66T2_dB__0icuWxAqErsMck4kebPDW9Zx1orwQS4oAWNEt7brwnAQ4nwKj9qEH25EOCKQq5zQuNxm6POmXaER0AJW45O8RIuq-lhD-3Uf9100F3g/s400/Plum+Street+Samplers+-+Labor+For+Learning.JPG" width="342" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: center;">A couple of ornament finishes below from Jan & Feb.....trying to get at least one ornament stitched every month but sometimes I get behind on the finishing. The top one is by Lizzie-Kate, the bottom is a motif from the "Favorite Things" chart by Sue Hillis Designs.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5XG7f35Rj7-6kY7dJXZ2nF44UcH7MJdo1kbxq2NpY9aJnDG5VPRgZCcELNO2gALEsYZyS6THOwlZRSj_WIpC2XED3a9B1POGOQZ5EpV2WfyQgLJ3AUZakv_e8q-FcMKvxDNWGzA/s1600/L-K+Jingle+Jingle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5XG7f35Rj7-6kY7dJXZ2nF44UcH7MJdo1kbxq2NpY9aJnDG5VPRgZCcELNO2gALEsYZyS6THOwlZRSj_WIpC2XED3a9B1POGOQZ5EpV2WfyQgLJ3AUZakv_e8q-FcMKvxDNWGzA/s400/L-K+Jingle+Jingle.JPG" width="276" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAramJIAZyxIocMsBvODdcsAXgd7pKCvm6DwEAqA8zjlca5ToeKMokLCPBlzIvuhPEqjsXfLNK66laa8hNXGUtwI5XzQ0jD0Ixm9bppxelSQAkkPCY9mWb4NoCf_YWJOwF3GDfw/s1600/Reindeer+ornament.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnAramJIAZyxIocMsBvODdcsAXgd7pKCvm6DwEAqA8zjlca5ToeKMokLCPBlzIvuhPEqjsXfLNK66laa8hNXGUtwI5XzQ0jD0Ixm9bppxelSQAkkPCY9mWb4NoCf_YWJOwF3GDfw/s400/Reindeer+ornament.jpg" width="307" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here is a little stitched piece I did at the spring 2015 PSS Retreat in Williamsburg VA. It was from a class taught by Lori Brechlin. Instead of making the necklace pouch Lori designed I decided to make my stitched piece into a pincushion instead and I added a little stitched remembrance on the back. I'm making progress on my bag of "stuff that needs finishing work" LOL. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAqXL6r4jKdTFJCuXUlItxDFaSDOpgb48K9XL5BuBT5O1eQKBZ3oEdqrusZVotgnF0MY9_78jMYeV5bzDE1oy2PWPSUejMrDCSRLawZ4F4EzqITXG4FoSzXeUsy4rgG6166JLHUQ/s1600/PSS+pincushion+front.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAqXL6r4jKdTFJCuXUlItxDFaSDOpgb48K9XL5BuBT5O1eQKBZ3oEdqrusZVotgnF0MY9_78jMYeV5bzDE1oy2PWPSUejMrDCSRLawZ4F4EzqITXG4FoSzXeUsy4rgG6166JLHUQ/s400/PSS+pincushion+front.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3LlHyQ0FpzBQKeiXt5eVdjCy8JVPLySLE2TKmdvGI6srs2wKDd5d543CUbwSbfFnHGiN5hGQLDbmIaIJK_Tqa5tAz0U_tthSRO3nJ88n3iffslkJMzazhz_-lrTe26N5DqslWzw/s1600/PSS+pincushion+back.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3LlHyQ0FpzBQKeiXt5eVdjCy8JVPLySLE2TKmdvGI6srs2wKDd5d543CUbwSbfFnHGiN5hGQLDbmIaIJK_Tqa5tAz0U_tthSRO3nJ88n3iffslkJMzazhz_-lrTe26N5DqslWzw/s400/PSS+pincushion+back.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I also picked up 2 quilts that I had quilted by a longarm quilter I use - she does beautiful work and really makes my quilt tops look good. The first one below is a t-shirt quilt for my husband - he has tons of t-shirts he's saved and enough to make 3 quilts. This is the first one I've done for him which has a "places I've visited" theme. I'm currently working on a second one for him that's going to use up the 'miscellaneous' t-shirts and the third t-shirt quilt will be sports-themed. I'm getting better at these with all this practice!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaQ37nRIk3ORBR6ZXAP9z9CG9_fQfq4Qg-N7b1PRvz2J6fMq-i3X3BL8Ro5ucwgwyATSLQZm3bKVNx4s_eJsEHKYUZBiVhUcYnhS_C8f0hNKfeXuvWrM9tlbxjciln3cmDuS07sA/s1600/Places+T-shirt+quilt.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaQ37nRIk3ORBR6ZXAP9z9CG9_fQfq4Qg-N7b1PRvz2J6fMq-i3X3BL8Ro5ucwgwyATSLQZm3bKVNx4s_eJsEHKYUZBiVhUcYnhS_C8f0hNKfeXuvWrM9tlbxjciln3cmDuS07sA/s640/Places+T-shirt+quilt.JPG" width="433" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwHU2OeGUtrSalFlo3Dy2EXQMQYT9H-72gYLj0xWPoOe4flxcpUqd6wT5xXcYYGx_rfhUg6Xur7IaH8KbosLqp2_mhdOQ2q6vBIRaiqNUejiARqO1zO5XqNQgYoerLH2L_gELPQ/s1600/t-shirt+quilt+closeup.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUwHU2OeGUtrSalFlo3Dy2EXQMQYT9H-72gYLj0xWPoOe4flxcpUqd6wT5xXcYYGx_rfhUg6Xur7IaH8KbosLqp2_mhdOQ2q6vBIRaiqNUejiARqO1zO5XqNQgYoerLH2L_gELPQ/s400/t-shirt+quilt+closeup.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Close-up of the geometric quilting pattern - I love how this quilt turned out</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLYpVPRpZ3m7ux2gkEuB-z4Ad_fVnbSNjcBZCpshIDhqg5vSY-eDHdTzKZrTLRYLxCuo6nkSpv5IIi3FjdYXerrFNXdBGHUTGNSZPUQ3jwl7yZfmkG2_20gJxx33KFw9ckcSfCrQ/s1600/Friendship+Braid+Quilt.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLYpVPRpZ3m7ux2gkEuB-z4Ad_fVnbSNjcBZCpshIDhqg5vSY-eDHdTzKZrTLRYLxCuo6nkSpv5IIi3FjdYXerrFNXdBGHUTGNSZPUQ3jwl7yZfmkG2_20gJxx33KFw9ckcSfCrQ/s640/Friendship+Braid+Quilt.JPG" width="548" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is a little lap quilt I made for myself - the pattern is called Friendship Braid - it's a fun quilt to make. I had a hard time getting a decent photo of it but it's pretty colors and very feminine.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I just got back on from a weekend quilting retreat...will have photos of those projects on my next post. I wasn't able to go to the 2016 PSS retreat in Georgia.. that's a long way from Arizona and I didn't want to spend the money this year. But I had fun at my quilting weekend with friends here instead. I'm hoping next year I can go to the PSS annual retreat so I need to start saving for it. Meanwhile I'm plugging away on a couple of stitching UFO's and some more ornaments....I feel good about the progress I'm making on reducing the pile of old projects lying around and I'm almost done with the backlog of items that needed finishing work. It's all good! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Have a great stitching week everyone! I'm off to go visit some of your blogs now.......</span></div>
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Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-49117572577911954682016-03-15T11:13:00.000-07:002016-03-15T11:20:10.724-07:00A few finishes to celebrate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Enjoying a nice quiet Tuesday today with no errands or appointments to go to. Time to update my blog and get some good stitching time in! Recently got 2 more pieces back from the framers. Both of these had been sitting around for months waiting. I always get museum glass on my framed pieces but it sure increases the price! That's the one thing about stitching that really adds up. I'm very happy with how both of them came out and glad to get them off the framing pile.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Here's "Strawberry Fields Forever" by Blackbird Designs:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2oqQji0aDlrEtap4f4C41BXW73R0Bn0aJjQOFR2wwlh2fywNuU2GI2MwzaTqGoqsMaFiI8t0UUXQ4gf3dhMEPO_br_fjoD6OfrI5pVK_PPPd8agOwQvs2ZvJXFU5AlGqB6P3w-g/s1600/BBD+-+Strawberry+Fields+Forever+framed.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2oqQji0aDlrEtap4f4C41BXW73R0Bn0aJjQOFR2wwlh2fywNuU2GI2MwzaTqGoqsMaFiI8t0UUXQ4gf3dhMEPO_br_fjoD6OfrI5pVK_PPPd8agOwQvs2ZvJXFU5AlGqB6P3w-g/s640/BBD+-+Strawberry+Fields+Forever+framed.JPG" width="488" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And finally got this big one below done - this is "Frosty Forest" by Country Cottage Needleworks. I took some liberties with the design on this piece - I modifed the blue house block to make it into a millhouse with water wheel, designed my own center block using some trees and bears from an LHN chart I had, and I charted my own border using a snippet of pine bough from a LHN chart and adding random 'snow'. Love the frame as it has a brighter silver tone on the part of it that goes well with the white floss in the piece - I added a closeup photo of one corner.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1n6jmWGbp_uPoVO6p5iFIEpIDYzQIW5tAZ55lY4oCqKPCBJLim55eiFN7qm_IU2ckI4nAoh0kB7s77M6Al60gaksULWhGJcww2AkEhL9u7lumvxbf-13RbCwUVo_q9HxSfMDk2Q/s1600/CCN+-+Frosty+Forest+framed.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1n6jmWGbp_uPoVO6p5iFIEpIDYzQIW5tAZ55lY4oCqKPCBJLim55eiFN7qm_IU2ckI4nAoh0kB7s77M6Al60gaksULWhGJcww2AkEhL9u7lumvxbf-13RbCwUVo_q9HxSfMDk2Q/s640/CCN+-+Frosty+Forest+framed.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtX81xkdsrJO0NEO7pnrlZ3JRWiHcjjCd-BzAdKi3CEssxchK5ugAeiPqwCZyquKBWjnPlbDVNhz6nn3gKofTF2dycvDnM5hDQFuv7_6IhTSoQrDAu3DSA7PM27auoPl8Dx33ZoQ/s1600/CCN+-+Frosty+Forest+frame+closeup.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtX81xkdsrJO0NEO7pnrlZ3JRWiHcjjCd-BzAdKi3CEssxchK5ugAeiPqwCZyquKBWjnPlbDVNhz6nn3gKofTF2dycvDnM5hDQFuv7_6IhTSoQrDAu3DSA7PM27auoPl8Dx33ZoQ/s640/CCN+-+Frosty+Forest+frame+closeup.JPG" width="616" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I also recently did some finishing work for a stitching pal....thought you might enjoy seeing these cute pieces.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7O2I2KXj2-I_LJp3YjLFUsXy26VNbJ7jCz8swOglbm7qEhQkzRgUWz_yHXup9A22X8OySnfTiHgWksr2tSpkxnS9K6yyYVakUsHarWCmqpHBHFhQvyjN1Tx6o5uV2EihEgbyLOQ/s1600/PS+ornament.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7O2I2KXj2-I_LJp3YjLFUsXy26VNbJ7jCz8swOglbm7qEhQkzRgUWz_yHXup9A22X8OySnfTiHgWksr2tSpkxnS9K6yyYVakUsHarWCmqpHBHFhQvyjN1Tx6o5uV2EihEgbyLOQ/s640/PS+ornament.JPG" width="403" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;">This is a Prairie Schooler piece made into an ornament</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwDhMqL-_nVml41K9DuXnIVACT3gCmBbdr_uByNct7OyEAA6rbaCl7HpOEUIdI73-MI3KC7rIlP-8giBoxmpVJIpjkzlcIpkbsxJ_jFzjPPusaoOKW2wUPLi2u2dBrtkk2MvzNOg/s1600/Cindy%2527s+Strawberry+Fob.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwDhMqL-_nVml41K9DuXnIVACT3gCmBbdr_uByNct7OyEAA6rbaCl7HpOEUIdI73-MI3KC7rIlP-8giBoxmpVJIpjkzlcIpkbsxJ_jFzjPPusaoOKW2wUPLi2u2dBrtkk2MvzNOg/s640/Cindy%2527s+Strawberry+Fob.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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A cute scissor fob......</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiBxFyukbG27N8MRKL5bE2dIgJvVzkp59SjarEGNTSEksbUX-cX2-StrE7JXn-1AwWcFi9iOB0EgTv7I10Xil-sCo0ke7HO2GsyNA0EXv5eT9kzl8HLwdD9quOIZ2GzwE2p6ZTTw/s1600/Victorian+Motto+bird+easel.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiBxFyukbG27N8MRKL5bE2dIgJvVzkp59SjarEGNTSEksbUX-cX2-StrE7JXn-1AwWcFi9iOB0EgTv7I10Xil-sCo0ke7HO2GsyNA0EXv5eT9kzl8HLwdD9quOIZ2GzwE2p6ZTTw/s640/Victorian+Motto+bird+easel.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">and a Christmas bird made into an easel finish</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Did everybody enjoy the Downton Abbey finale? I thought they did a great job - so happy that there were so many happy endings - Edith finally finds love, Anna & Mr. Bates have their baby, and even Daisy on the verge of having a new beau. I hated to see the series end but guess it was time. A few years back I received a boxed set of seasons 1-4 for Christmas, so now I need to pick up Seasons 5 and 6 to complete the set. I think I'll wait until the prices come down though....I saw Season 5 in a store and the price was more than the entire 1-4 seasons set! Prices on DVDs and Blu-Rays are trending downward as more people use streaming and on-demand for viewing. That's good for me as I've been picking up lots of cheap movies on clearance lately.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've been working on this Quaker sampler over the last week and making some good progress. This was a piece that was on my wish list to do for years and I finally started it last year I think. I kind of went through love/hate phases with this piece...for awhile I was sorry I even started it as I wasn't liking it that much but now that I'm just about halfway through I'm liking it again. I'm stitching this with silks on 40-ct mystery linen from my stash. Odd thing though...this linen looks like a neutral beige by day but at night it looks light green - must have some greenish tones in the dye I guess. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeNOYmKtiKFiG6eVLetp2BNrPqwAom0YrRevRdl_8QkiGDdK1hyphenhyphen9QppNufTR4a3DKoycH4mHdjXLBkpNjIdV26J2FAymM9_XAVSn5vLwBc-ghkiZRnv7VHHD5qgOVJmwKWpwqtqQ/s1600/Emblem+of+Love+progress.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="587" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeNOYmKtiKFiG6eVLetp2BNrPqwAom0YrRevRdl_8QkiGDdK1hyphenhyphen9QppNufTR4a3DKoycH4mHdjXLBkpNjIdV26J2FAymM9_XAVSn5vLwBc-ghkiZRnv7VHHD5qgOVJmwKWpwqtqQ/s640/Emblem+of+Love+progress.JPG" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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"Emblem of Love" by With My Needle</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm also making a little progress on block 3 of Fruit Bellpull. Doesn't look like much but I'm happy every time I can hilite a little bit that's done on my chart - all the leaves take forever to do in a zillion shades of green. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiphVzfOCdOXOxTeXr_AFgt9WshEnwZ_MFdlVJAXvTti8DOWwSX4TFjT3rnWU_IAUi922ML2Uzx4pptdQedUW23Bu6_yA40bP6yjLK-QHemZrQh5nzEQRdHKYD_z96lySjOOgoiRA/s1600/cherries+block.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="560" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiphVzfOCdOXOxTeXr_AFgt9WshEnwZ_MFdlVJAXvTti8DOWwSX4TFjT3rnWU_IAUi922ML2Uzx4pptdQedUW23Bu6_yA40bP6yjLK-QHemZrQh5nzEQRdHKYD_z96lySjOOgoiRA/s640/cherries+block.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Keeping busy as usual with appointments for this and that - got new glasses and I'm getting a series of 5 injections for my knee arthritis. So far I'm not feeling any improvement yet and this treatment is very expensive but I'm hopeful....the doctor says some people don't get any relief until a month or so after the injections are finished. DH is heading out of town tomorrow to go see some of the NCAA basketball tournament games in Denver. I plan on having a 4-day marathon of stitching, sewing, and movie watching!! The weather here is beautiful and hope the rest of you are starting to get some nice spring days. </span></div>
Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-33928281003004436722016-02-23T11:03:00.000-07:002016-02-23T11:09:04.954-07:00Long time....no post...<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Well there went my 2016 blogging resolution but I'll try to catch up a bit here. Life has been busy. DH and I went up to Las Vegas for a weekend in January to see John Fogerty in concert at The Venetian Hotel/Casino. It was a terrific show and we really enjoyed it. We're heading up there again in April to see George Strait in concert. I've always wanted to see him but never got around to it and I'm so glad he's come out of retirement to do some shows in Las Vegas. Fortunately for us, it's only about a 4.5 hour drive so we enjoy going up there for weekend shows. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I didn't finish this in time for Christmas but got it done about a week later. This is "Merry Christmas" by All Through The Night. There's a model of this piece at my LNS done over-1 and I wanted to do it so I bought the little wooden pot they had theirs mounted on. I thought it would be over-1 on maybe 32 count but when I went to get started I found out it had to be over-1 on FORTY count in order to fit on the little wooden pot. It was torture to do it and it gave me eye strain even with using my big magnified light but I persevered and finished it. The chart only calls for the piece to be done in red but I opted to add a couple more colors. I like how it turned out but NEVER AGAIN do I want to do that much over-1 on 40-count linen! I put a quarter in one of the photos so you see how small it is.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgapHSbQTtcQm8ATieWo5ScXCy7tG4m-qm65lvpw0_cCYYAnpkOgcUm0yV922jGeyO580PgDxH6yW01M6S5CpUQKk5AHsc8uV8H0TepYBeSdV266P9xka2nMNz7TO_Adqj96Ifppw/s1600/Christmas+pot.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgapHSbQTtcQm8ATieWo5ScXCy7tG4m-qm65lvpw0_cCYYAnpkOgcUm0yV922jGeyO580PgDxH6yW01M6S5CpUQKk5AHsc8uV8H0TepYBeSdV266P9xka2nMNz7TO_Adqj96Ifppw/s640/Christmas+pot.jpg" width="568" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I finished some Lizzie Kate ornaments before Christmas too....these are all from Tiny Tidings 19. They were a lot of fun to do. I love stitching ornaments! You can see in the second photo below how many I have...when I was taking down all the Christmas decorations I was going to pack them all together so it was a good time to take a 'group photo'. Some of them date back to the 80's even but I still have a whole lot more I want to stitch.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP35ldFlzXkTPMY_wNsru8qeoCjG5lKCeN2uLQCW9H_IllAggFvT_cMEvjCwxtAhzAcgw9xFlJgP0XWX8QXhKyU7bF-QFC0odGHi8VRl7vql5KLIWca1oBvxGhCLMmgIUJG8xtUw/s1600/Lizzie-Kate+ornaments.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP35ldFlzXkTPMY_wNsru8qeoCjG5lKCeN2uLQCW9H_IllAggFvT_cMEvjCwxtAhzAcgw9xFlJgP0XWX8QXhKyU7bF-QFC0odGHi8VRl7vql5KLIWca1oBvxGhCLMmgIUJG8xtUw/s640/Lizzie-Kate+ornaments.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUDAAQzCBvjbMqjh05H7K5KqEwDL5WmGhaHHqRUSdujMFGCh7u7LXU8sF8c8SPtaqdDP7Y9qZUQXm8YwbTzElEZrx5SofwzM_m7gf7spGnjgwdozeTwWZ5fUr4oFMoRr9HQYrInQ/s1600/Christmas+ornament+collection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUDAAQzCBvjbMqjh05H7K5KqEwDL5WmGhaHHqRUSdujMFGCh7u7LXU8sF8c8SPtaqdDP7Y9qZUQXm8YwbTzElEZrx5SofwzM_m7gf7spGnjgwdozeTwWZ5fUr4oFMoRr9HQYrInQ/s640/Christmas+ornament+collection.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Christmas ornament collection</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">My current 2 focus pieces are Old Nantucket by LHN which I started about a year ago. The house took forever and once I got it done I was sort of burned out on this project so I put it away for some months. I'm a bit further along than this photo....hoping to finish it up in the next week or two! For years I always wanted to do a wall grouping of nautical-themed pieces but so far this is only my 2nd one. I live in the desert southwest so yearn for the ocean! </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEXUDio5FMI4FJ_-cCupxIrl_e54NicpEWee61c-dVmPtoAaA1CYyY_oDM-GvUPXZS55TlN1sFdKTKTUpVt1wgRKLL6kN-uE_b2bQqfIls4chfo5MigFlC-cuz3pbnw3pkc0Hf3Q/s1600/IMG_1803.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEXUDio5FMI4FJ_-cCupxIrl_e54NicpEWee61c-dVmPtoAaA1CYyY_oDM-GvUPXZS55TlN1sFdKTKTUpVt1wgRKLL6kN-uE_b2bQqfIls4chfo5MigFlC-cuz3pbnw3pkc0Hf3Q/s640/IMG_1803.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">And this one is "Labor for Learning" by Plum Street Samplers. I joined a Facebook SAL for this piece and I'm enjoying this petite sampler. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG0XWWyBfO0qbMqm1keETuAoRWHctuP_OBMTW2u9z3QZfCGxxQcefpWjTyg0nwNZKpcDX-8N_l8HIe23Hdfm1vzvUK-VshwJ11tkjXNdmIbt2Q_O5gvSUl39XFa8Bokd0eZ4RB9g/s1600/Labor+for+Learning.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG0XWWyBfO0qbMqm1keETuAoRWHctuP_OBMTW2u9z3QZfCGxxQcefpWjTyg0nwNZKpcDX-8N_l8HIe23Hdfm1vzvUK-VshwJ11tkjXNdmIbt2Q_O5gvSUl39XFa8Bokd0eZ4RB9g/s640/Labor+for+Learning.JPG" width="540" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">"Labor for Learning" by Plum Street Samplers</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I thought I'd show you a few of my oldest UFO's that I hope to get done this year although I haven't yet worked on them yet since the new year. This piece below is ancient....dating back to the early 90's. I packed it away for a long time as it reminded me of a difficult time in my life when I was stitching it. But it's time to finally get this off my UFO list. I hadn't planned on stitching the farm tools behind the beehive and flowers that is seen on the chart so I only need to finish up the flowers on the right side. It's stitched on some odd linen I got on sale decades ago at an LNS - it was a square tablecloth that I cut up. I just can't throw it out after all that work and so much backstitching</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl2DNS6tkKMaXyCX59RjtsE2fw1EjPdKSrLs40Oh9uP09XKBE8YarMebFCHxvZcNLf_T31nITlTq43iOBoDm31mRIm7YONLM8t-yx3obo4uO8rBVOoVxEBhR_XLn2ECMXZm_5xtQ/s1600/Beeskeep+UFO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl2DNS6tkKMaXyCX59RjtsE2fw1EjPdKSrLs40Oh9uP09XKBE8YarMebFCHxvZcNLf_T31nITlTq43iOBoDm31mRIm7YONLM8t-yx3obo4uO8rBVOoVxEBhR_XLn2ECMXZm_5xtQ/s640/Beeskeep+UFO.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I don't remember how old this other UFO below is....probably at least 10 years or so. It's "Fruit Bellpull" by Teresa Wentzler. I started it back in the days when I belonged to the TW bulletin board and I was enthralled with it. Those of you who've stitched her pieces know how much work they are with all the confetti stitching and blended threads. Just take a look at this - on the right are floss cards with all the colors called for and on the left are floss cards with all the blended threads from the colors on the right. OMG...no wonder I never finished it! I have 2 of the 6 blocks done and I'm thinking maybe I'll just stitch one or two more blocks and call it done. I don't see myself ever getting 4 more of these blocks stitched. This piece always makes me think of a girl named Laura Watkins who was very active on the TWBB back in its hey day....she was the leader of the Fruit Bellpull discussion group but unfortunately she died young although I never knew why. She was a great stitcher and one of the first bloggers even though she was using her own website because it was pre-Blogger days. She inspired many of us. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincdiBThI_gzK1_hykQ-ruC9tqRaR4wpjbFplQ7d79OgJRcVInp9fNyy0_WKhyphenhyphenXWRjdht-bgFuYuEI9Vo-BZ3tVfLU0pqnQJT7obfw-2oXz0TPj3MVXonFS07w8FL8qyrxg2XRCw/s1600/Fruit+Bellpull.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEincdiBThI_gzK1_hykQ-ruC9tqRaR4wpjbFplQ7d79OgJRcVInp9fNyy0_WKhyphenhyphenXWRjdht-bgFuYuEI9Vo-BZ3tVfLU0pqnQJT7obfw-2oXz0TPj3MVXonFS07w8FL8qyrxg2XRCw/s640/Fruit+Bellpull.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I also designated 2016 to be the year I get caught up on framing! I'm tired of having a pile of unframed pieces lying around. I recently got this piece framed - it was another FB SAL I participated in last fall. I didn't get it framed in time for Thanksgiving last year but I'll enjoy putting it out this year. I did the stretching and mounting myself and I think it came out pretty good.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGaK6kphSpBv2hKsAc04Ht-t4UqolLZ277LVnXRJHZO_SxDyFRSvTlYtLcH_IffXitW4gDVI40SD2ZyzgKJALOKK6dv1oyGrRx4R05Tg1Q1HdfWLCw-fsF1yry3jxouKnF6X1OLQ/s1600/Give+Thanks+framed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGaK6kphSpBv2hKsAc04Ht-t4UqolLZ277LVnXRJHZO_SxDyFRSvTlYtLcH_IffXitW4gDVI40SD2ZyzgKJALOKK6dv1oyGrRx4R05Tg1Q1HdfWLCw-fsF1yry3jxouKnF6X1OLQ/s640/Give+Thanks+framed.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">"The Lord's Blessing" by Imaginating</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif; font-size: large;">My other framing piece I picked up is an old piece by BBD - Quaker Garden. I had it framed years ago but I'd been unhappy with it for a long time because the frame I picked out originally is too dark and heavy for this piece. So I finally got a new frame put on it and like it much better. The new frame is sort of a pewter-like color and works well with the olive linen and floss colors. Hoping some day I can reuse the old frame for something else.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">'Before' photo with original frame choice:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFb0MYZXG3TmGcTRJxtj9i0W7gDjw0V9oS9uw1M3G41x-YB3D1HHyEnWL5AHVacthGVapQGSHny7Xg2sU2aWRxdJED6bBJozYDnOKFytSrlD_coSbFm_MSZjUP5gUoV2Duc7ERIg/s1600/Quaker+Garden+before.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFb0MYZXG3TmGcTRJxtj9i0W7gDjw0V9oS9uw1M3G41x-YB3D1HHyEnWL5AHVacthGVapQGSHny7Xg2sU2aWRxdJED6bBJozYDnOKFytSrlD_coSbFm_MSZjUP5gUoV2Duc7ERIg/s400/Quaker+Garden+before.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">'After' photo with new frame:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgORdCBMV1TLNXpFaeoHLKaRQC78jKV091k5HW24FaC0tHuKUsvLBNfzddL24cFYgf11biXBrYwhXKB6pI-aQY-ELT1dhX-BXD8SQdTtVXC0pDHrbSacKDDsKTzLv7BnOPVI9m2Jg/s1600/Quaker+Garden+after.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgORdCBMV1TLNXpFaeoHLKaRQC78jKV091k5HW24FaC0tHuKUsvLBNfzddL24cFYgf11biXBrYwhXKB6pI-aQY-ELT1dhX-BXD8SQdTtVXC0pDHrbSacKDDsKTzLv7BnOPVI9m2Jg/s400/Quaker+Garden+after.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">I've got 2 other pieces at my LNS now getting framed and I'm hoping to get a call soon that they're ready to pick up. One of them is my CCN "Frosty Forest" and I can't wait to see it!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;">Thanks for dropping by....I know a lot of my former followers just aren't keeping up with blogs anymore so I really do appreciate any visitors who might still drop by!</span></div>
<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-63780275203414735522015-11-24T15:56:00.001-07:002015-11-24T21:48:46.559-07:00Finally a new post...and wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving!<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Can't believe how fast the time flies by....I've been a bad blogger but trying to get myself back into it. I think I'm going to designate one day a week as my 'blog day' - a day to catch up on other blogs and update my own and stay off of Facebook! I need to update my blog list too as so many stitchers are no longer updating their blogs so I need to remove them and find new ones to add. I'm thankful for those of you still out there! Facebook groups are fine but on an individual basis I prefer blogging. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I've been busy with lots of small finishes over the last couple of months. I'm loving getting some old quilting and stitching projects off my list and pulling out some things that have waited years to be started. I'm finding lots of cute ornament finishes by other stitchers and want to get back into stitching at least one ornament a month going forward. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Since I last updated my blog I celebrated a big birthday - I turned 60 - yikes! It's scary but you can't avoid aging unless you die young so you've got to make the best of it. My husband and I went to Disneyland for 4 days - we go there on all my 'big' birthdays. I was born a couple months after Disneyland opened in 1955 and this year they celebrated their Diamond 60th Anniversary so it was fitting for me to join the fun. Here's a shot of me in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle all decorated in the blue theme for their 60 years, plus a photo of my husband and I on Splash Mountain (we're in the back 2 seats). We had a great time!</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAuTHuMRVtmn7rvnvNA30USa1jEwK8iSPQAMUOeXP_fmB8i1-ZUhyphenhyphen14Rtq0cgbOjL-h-tUG4RwaAEYl0_ptTEgaEbVu9Kw8j124vBvbbAfCFIqMuYp_B0PFSvO-zc0IZPYLJJfKg/s1600/DisneyLand+2015+019.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAuTHuMRVtmn7rvnvNA30USa1jEwK8iSPQAMUOeXP_fmB8i1-ZUhyphenhyphen14Rtq0cgbOjL-h-tUG4RwaAEYl0_ptTEgaEbVu9Kw8j124vBvbbAfCFIqMuYp_B0PFSvO-zc0IZPYLJJfKg/s640/DisneyLand+2015+019.JPG" width="520" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUMbQE72xHmu_oJt4Z5GU6cWCpz9jPm8vucqr3vsF515vKU9ZnIIOb5WIyT_vMUrsXDrQo86CVbVPSng-nxMLVEhDzfnsjcDQpOwVe-Dc_eP6QwjltVgZet_F4_5RxDoeg1d8RQA/s1600/Dave+%2526+Jeanne+on+Splash+Mountain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUMbQE72xHmu_oJt4Z5GU6cWCpz9jPm8vucqr3vsF515vKU9ZnIIOb5WIyT_vMUrsXDrQo86CVbVPSng-nxMLVEhDzfnsjcDQpOwVe-Dc_eP6QwjltVgZet_F4_5RxDoeg1d8RQA/s640/Dave+%2526+Jeanne+on+Splash+Mountain.jpg" width="512" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here's an update on what I've been working on...hope you enjoy browsing.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-lV-dJZCeO8T6fmE32XjausZxyeloIL0YPE6zn1ho-cxQaiOkLX9hpLIAIRMR_7v-3bQyi_Ct1qCztkXaW9GMn-0KkKGmM0p_ecvmSEHDRQH9OXPD7zbUzIiST9Y74hVglaRoqw/s1600/Give+Thanks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-lV-dJZCeO8T6fmE32XjausZxyeloIL0YPE6zn1ho-cxQaiOkLX9hpLIAIRMR_7v-3bQyi_Ct1qCztkXaW9GMn-0KkKGmM0p_ecvmSEHDRQH9OXPD7zbUzIiST9Y74hVglaRoqw/s640/Give+Thanks.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I finished up this piece but unfortunately didn't get it framed in time for Thanksgiving. It's an older pattern called "The Lord's Blessing" by Imaginating. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Below is a piece I reworked before Halloween. </span><span style="font-size: large;">I received this piece in an exchange several years ago and it was made into a treat bag. I decided to give it a new life as an easel finish to better showcase the design. I love how it turned out. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4lWgk3vuLkGQVf3n-HbFOGulgbkNOB6rXJk7UhTGdyc2q9g_cqIBACw-RmtB2fP75FzuT_nytvfS79AFWclqrg4GBhUHUnKqoI64hgtNevV0WW6fKytCyWsMb_8UCcYXs4SZ8gg/s1600/Halloween+flatfold.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="371" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4lWgk3vuLkGQVf3n-HbFOGulgbkNOB6rXJk7UhTGdyc2q9g_cqIBACw-RmtB2fP75FzuT_nytvfS79AFWclqrg4GBhUHUnKqoI64hgtNevV0WW6fKytCyWsMb_8UCcYXs4SZ8gg/s400/Halloween+flatfold.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Halloween Cat" by Barbara Ana Designs -</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">the front....</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheO1i8yNvlM22qq8lila7wvt6Glmo0qPc5QUfxTh55VsTetSXXHVGrvGHgABcYRnlkiTeVMZPT8D_Km_jUi0SZkAlL5vKDW7eashzHEFZsFnWmUwmecZ16bJs7jA4w2BwQkDdbdQ/s1600/Halloween+flatfold+-+back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheO1i8yNvlM22qq8lila7wvt6Glmo0qPc5QUfxTh55VsTetSXXHVGrvGHgABcYRnlkiTeVMZPT8D_Km_jUi0SZkAlL5vKDW7eashzHEFZsFnWmUwmecZ16bJs7jA4w2BwQkDdbdQ/s400/Halloween+flatfold+-+back.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">the back....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I made some custom project bags for a gal on Facebook to gift to her stitching pals. They're kind of hard to photograph because you get glare off of the vinyl fronts...she sent me the fabric and I think they turned out well. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBqRtEdc_S673hna5GArm70LVAGIU3JaoshCHojVwCvFqk1iIs6Xs0feomZgNEKgyI3mZt1VeRe3FXTbB55q6ARCSVlV8EShZvTbcUHe6Rn9a7ngyUvOxYFh4yRlFsSJw5n3cNug/s1600/Bags+for+Martha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="521" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBqRtEdc_S673hna5GArm70LVAGIU3JaoshCHojVwCvFqk1iIs6Xs0feomZgNEKgyI3mZt1VeRe3FXTbB55q6ARCSVlV8EShZvTbcUHe6Rn9a7ngyUvOxYFh4yRlFsSJw5n3cNug/s640/Bags+for+Martha.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Below is a was a club piece by Plum Street Samplers I stitched earlier this year...I decided to finish it into a small wallhanging/ tablemat instead of framing it. It's "Hurt Not the Earth".....</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Ju7ob_7TJMpJBSbK-roHLAx9ePst5cYQQyengO9sxckFWBx0j0gTSs8WKVA-hP2ATqDdzRhyphenhyphenbfp6CsZcU31HQO5xhghVN68ZhzyXSMvyvT1oLnlZanDkRs8QagtW1yMBm4SHRA/s1600/Plum+Street+Samplers+-+Hurt+Not+The+Earth+quilt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Ju7ob_7TJMpJBSbK-roHLAx9ePst5cYQQyengO9sxckFWBx0j0gTSs8WKVA-hP2ATqDdzRhyphenhyphenbfp6CsZcU31HQO5xhghVN68ZhzyXSMvyvT1oLnlZanDkRs8QagtW1yMBm4SHRA/s640/Plum+Street+Samplers+-+Hurt+Not+The+Earth+quilt.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Earlier this month my quilting friends and I headed up to our annual November retreat in northern Arizona for 4 days. What joy to sit and sew for 4 whole days and have someone cook for you too! We like to give each other fun little gifts and since I retired over the summer I wanted to make something for everyone. I bought this pattern on Etsy - it's "Flora Needlebook" by MMMCrafts. I made 14 of these needlebooks out of wool felt with embroidered embellishments done in DMC. They were a lot of work but I love how they came out and my friends seemed to like them too.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJjwrxUqGZhSCQ-HM2m94pz4oq3XMAW-tk2x-4QQsoOxvEjnQQa8N96k_h4nLhhq2I8kSqxp2Sk038cpGmhdX9kbuPUq7i6tKuT0sgMgfNuwcDZXwsuiyh-6FYyx_w7ZAC3CtXeQ/s1600/needlebooks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="446" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJjwrxUqGZhSCQ-HM2m94pz4oq3XMAW-tk2x-4QQsoOxvEjnQQa8N96k_h4nLhhq2I8kSqxp2Sk038cpGmhdX9kbuPUq7i6tKuT0sgMgfNuwcDZXwsuiyh-6FYyx_w7ZAC3CtXeQ/s640/needlebooks.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">the covers...I did 2 of each color scheme</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAGR3_Rdii8mRMNGTm6Kd4MNwECAFp6lBchSy7GhKklotMrUoQifpi8S7HzD_dHreeSshA4bKwid7lBvP2etA5a08KHoi3TPE-YcJAuj6STwkox0VSVD59MTIZ18C3tcDOPZgzEA/s1600/needlebooks3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAGR3_Rdii8mRMNGTm6Kd4MNwECAFp6lBchSy7GhKklotMrUoQifpi8S7HzD_dHreeSshA4bKwid7lBvP2etA5a08KHoi3TPE-YcJAuj6STwkox0VSVD59MTIZ18C3tcDOPZgzEA/s400/needlebooks3.jpg" width="345" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">how they look inside...wool felt for storing your needles</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Here's a few other things I did while at our sewing retreat:</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCRG7jXtujL9lJ4ACQ5rhAN9k9NC5mLFyDUcmhMbL47qa8Mfstzq7Y38s4D9MoOS0K3wlLBWB7NU_-fXy5n2ym1CdwiL5rFk5DSwqJV4YLCgGTI9S2b3LlbH8DCMkd_vP6h3N3VA/s1600/Peppermint+Twist+finish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="628" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCRG7jXtujL9lJ4ACQ5rhAN9k9NC5mLFyDUcmhMbL47qa8Mfstzq7Y38s4D9MoOS0K3wlLBWB7NU_-fXy5n2ym1CdwiL5rFk5DSwqJV4YLCgGTI9S2b3LlbH8DCMkd_vP6h3N3VA/s640/Peppermint+Twist+finish.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: left;">I quilted this wallhanging. I still have to put the binding on it but I'm almost to the finish line.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheLiaVwBd0UdlWCbyebtwRu2KP38FHWINhmFaqE-6kgHAKkfgvxYBjE35b1umodT-aQx9sFsg4_vymOZjrImotUN_ACeJKGQ8ruQLxzCZJpeDRZffntp2faAS6n_z1HUZqMX5qaA/s1600/appliqued+center+block.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheLiaVwBd0UdlWCbyebtwRu2KP38FHWINhmFaqE-6kgHAKkfgvxYBjE35b1umodT-aQx9sFsg4_vymOZjrImotUN_ACeJKGQ8ruQLxzCZJpeDRZffntp2faAS6n_z1HUZqMX5qaA/s400/appliqued+center+block.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPUHSKorFuRPRV37NkkFXSFEmn4kXcAn6Hqgqu8o-3fuK6TDIX8qmb0PQ1Pu6_gIu2ea_AwjN87f8iTZH5RnLQDIcbOGkRDFBMhavcj6R0Gj0qmZnudQ9UmlzncbtlWTpCHHSZhQ/s1600/repurposed+block.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="632" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPUHSKorFuRPRV37NkkFXSFEmn4kXcAn6Hqgqu8o-3fuK6TDIX8qmb0PQ1Pu6_gIu2ea_AwjN87f8iTZH5RnLQDIcbOGkRDFBMhavcj6R0Gj0qmZnudQ9UmlzncbtlWTpCHHSZhQ/s640/repurposed+block.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This little wallhanging was made from an orphan quilting block I've had lying around for years. No more guilt!</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvAp5SOpfZJx8VQG6SCoxUVW4S1RtgA4RnjYjhLrQACOXxYHsf5XlY9aLIthh1ub4uL0f1DRFgPFyczZeEd-5F-uq0ylYoew0iggnYUUP6vKgSTG4_HHFigm4DqDysKA7SBqS4fA/s1600/Purse+finish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvAp5SOpfZJx8VQG6SCoxUVW4S1RtgA4RnjYjhLrQACOXxYHsf5XlY9aLIthh1ub4uL0f1DRFgPFyczZeEd-5F-uq0ylYoew0iggnYUUP6vKgSTG4_HHFigm4DqDysKA7SBqS4fA/s640/Purse+finish.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A purse for next summer...</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Ht8cMMno_9dWPe3tvGu4Mu-CfwhEZRRUZiffZkSAfReRBrZG-9craiDWz1k_qafxFK1SOqFZMAH8bMZ2FV_oyQWBi5rPmUjsTeIoeg5Odz0JqpQeo1euY_XR1duQJwMAVFG6qw/s1600/Sit+%2526+Sew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="390" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Ht8cMMno_9dWPe3tvGu4Mu-CfwhEZRRUZiffZkSAfReRBrZG-9craiDWz1k_qafxFK1SOqFZMAH8bMZ2FV_oyQWBi5rPmUjsTeIoeg5Odz0JqpQeo1euY_XR1duQJwMAVFG6qw/s400/Sit+%2526+Sew.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large; text-align: left;">This a</span><span style="font-size: large; text-align: left;"> pattern by Cindy Taylor Oates called "Sit & Sew". You hang it over the arm of your stitching/sewing chair and it has pockets for your scissors and notions plus a pincushion and holder for a spool of thread on top. It was fun to make.</span></span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTf_rKZEUi5AWH22e-pQyUQujIt6UNyhM7ROU5DqN6N0_TwwDme2RmFfu3ePoTd3aowknb4CRAw4gUJLtQacWRBNt_3GIyMdsCSSJp1-dWeCPEQO4pvyUHODdFYJctFYRfvhyphenhyphen8sQ/s1600/Let+It+Snow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTf_rKZEUi5AWH22e-pQyUQujIt6UNyhM7ROU5DqN6N0_TwwDme2RmFfu3ePoTd3aowknb4CRAw4gUJLtQacWRBNt_3GIyMdsCSSJp1-dWeCPEQO4pvyUHODdFYJctFYRfvhyphenhyphen8sQ/s640/Let+It+Snow.jpg" width="406" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And here's my latest finish I did last week. This old Ewe & Eye & Friends chart has been in my stash for many years...it's called "Let It Snow". I had a piece of hand-dyed evenweave I got in an exchange years back and it was perfect for this piece. The fabric was from Sugar Maple Fabrics which sadly isn't in business any longer. I finished it with mini pom-pom trim to display on a little stand I received from a stitching friend. These stands are made by <a href="http://www.bloomwoodworks.com/" target="_blank">Bloom Woodworks</a> - love them and plan on getting some more! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow stitchers and bloggers!</span></div>
Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-79790289164142749212015-09-05T15:32:00.001-07:002015-09-05T15:45:18.284-07:00Happy holiday weekend...catching up with my progressIt's finally September - yippee! It's still hot here in the desert Southwest but the temperatures are starting to fall just a bit so we're making progress. August was really a scorcher this year - happy to bid summer goodbye soon.<br />
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I just got back from a trip to my LNS to pick up my framing of "Hannah's Brownstone" by The Scarlett Letter. I love how it turned out! I don't really have a place to hang it but I think I'll put it out on a little easel. I really enjoyed this piece.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvSQq1gZ93o7w749kXiB-WOq6uytseGRbdYPuyYqVSdPBPmxfL-fBS6_5kjdVeBZ7z9IjS4a7SO1oZv0uMLpAi7nNUne6QPvtbHjYKLMIIY5bmIQG39inSdlGDCZIB8i6M0U-z9w/s1600/Hannahs+Brownstone+framed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="564" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvSQq1gZ93o7w749kXiB-WOq6uytseGRbdYPuyYqVSdPBPmxfL-fBS6_5kjdVeBZ7z9IjS4a7SO1oZv0uMLpAi7nNUne6QPvtbHjYKLMIIY5bmIQG39inSdlGDCZIB8i6M0U-z9w/s640/Hannahs+Brownstone+framed.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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A couple weeks ago I finished up the SAL I was doing with a stitching buddy....may I present "Strawberry Fields Forever" by Blackbird Designs. It's waiting its turn in the 'need framing' pile - this was a fun piece to do also. I made a couple slight adjustments in the border from what was charted....the chart has a couple 'missing' strawberries which my orderly mind felt the need to add in.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjayeAYztLDf1AHjb387DNVcOHFlW658RLCJo2gswbZHa7ScWdwcb1PMVZQZ5HkYOy_fLo7LrC8bazmHe-EE3gahlB4P4gZPXM4RwiMwqxvqdA3y34oGSMv2-0x0iROnYFLSLPPJw/s1600/SFF+finish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjayeAYztLDf1AHjb387DNVcOHFlW658RLCJo2gswbZHa7ScWdwcb1PMVZQZ5HkYOy_fLo7LrC8bazmHe-EE3gahlB4P4gZPXM4RwiMwqxvqdA3y34oGSMv2-0x0iROnYFLSLPPJw/s640/SFF+finish.jpg" width="472" /></a></div>
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Do you ever wonder why it is that we keep buying more and more charts with similar motifs on them? I can't count how many charts I have with houses, flowers and vines, birds, etc. Yet I keep on buying more all the time! I've noticed recently that it seems every other pattern I'm stitching or framing has a fruit basket on it - what's up with all the fruit baskets?!? I'm really getting tired of stitching them - enough already!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8zZ_0PK7KVeldVHzJVWXt8EiUuopg19tzdbHYQ4SFslff1hMayI3mEzshtTzWBZTtL90I8MVbaqFlcttPr81Hi4vAH758CUc8vOfYNvphvwSNVDmyqCFOBRwNcZqUvz2drpv28Q/s1600/collage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8zZ_0PK7KVeldVHzJVWXt8EiUuopg19tzdbHYQ4SFslff1hMayI3mEzshtTzWBZTtL90I8MVbaqFlcttPr81Hi4vAH758CUc8vOfYNvphvwSNVDmyqCFOBRwNcZqUvz2drpv28Q/s640/collage.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I'm still trying to get a few Christmas ornaments stitched, I want to go back next year to trying to get one done each month. This year I've only done 3 or 4 but here's my latest finish. I added a little red swirl on the top of the piece so I could make the shape something other than just a plain rectangle. This is also my first time using the miniature pom-pom trim - I've bought it in lots of colors just hadn't gotten a chance to use it yet. It turned out pretty well don't you think? <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdZfBAotyv4-S5hiiFhBbpSREBIbS-Xsw_-EJpoqso56NqcWylwdD6nvLF0AF3BlwvBMcznN0kcXSpJbzwnyxNZwWiBdGJGJYGkPJwzpeZvFCNZ_IwUZvK1yTYXftaJKcFf-b4lA/s1600/CCN+Snowmen+Trio-reduced.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdZfBAotyv4-S5hiiFhBbpSREBIbS-Xsw_-EJpoqso56NqcWylwdD6nvLF0AF3BlwvBMcznN0kcXSpJbzwnyxNZwWiBdGJGJYGkPJwzpeZvFCNZ_IwUZvK1yTYXftaJKcFf-b4lA/s640/CCN+Snowmen+Trio-reduced.jpg" width="564" /></a></div>
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I love doing ornaments. I've got a huge quilting project bag that I keep all my ornament supplies in - all the patterns I want to stitch, different bags of linen scraps organized by size, pages copied out of my many JCS ornament magazines, etc. It's easy to kit up a project and all I have to do is grab the threads and I'm ready to go. I could easily keep myself busy for at least a year just stitching ornaments that's for sure!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4bFt4h2jAwlutIQaJBU9zzmpvD5akQVZ9twGSB0QZhS1rKyurSXyIslJvJ6_QwwruVNpPaw80H2iw87TBd2ZBJlwQ4A7c5wydBjOCQg92Jq7dixkKG2u4NIHq1W_AqqQ5VaVk_g/s1600/Ornie+stash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4bFt4h2jAwlutIQaJBU9zzmpvD5akQVZ9twGSB0QZhS1rKyurSXyIslJvJ6_QwwruVNpPaw80H2iw87TBd2ZBJlwQ4A7c5wydBjOCQg92Jq7dixkKG2u4NIHq1W_AqqQ5VaVk_g/s400/Ornie+stash.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I'm starting to get used to being retired. It's kind of hard to turn your thoughts away from what's happening at work but I've been pretty busy getting various paperwork chores done to transfer our benefits over, handle my 401K savings account, and file for my pension. I'm ready to start receiving that check each month! Not saying I'll never work again...I may do some contracting or some part-time work just for extra money for trips and things like that but I don't have to and that's the good thing about it. </div>
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I joined a Facebook SAL recently to stitch an older pattern by Imaginating - it's called "The Lord's Blessing". I had already saved off the photo below of a stitcher's framed piece I saw on Jill Rensel's blog a few years ago. When I heard there was a group starting up to do an SAL I was ready to jump on board. I love how Jill framed this piece and want to do mine the same way when I'm done. I just started it 2 days ago so not very much to share yet in my progress photo but it's fun stitching along with everyone. You know, it's fun to buy and get excited about all the new patterns that come out every year but I think it's great that there's still enough interest in a 10-year old pattern that a whole bunch of stitchers still want to stitch it!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM2o7Si42QsK2VEmwISi2pnkB3wU6wJpaYonZE8j0vgKALj5dBLE3fupc4GBW07rFCfVnTz3a-VgcaTSOt8bUwGDA8CA7kYF0xaQW9FBuoYO-Tkv3O4WFo6SkxNlFb0AW-V1JiDQ/s1600/Lord%2527s+Blessing+by+Imaginating.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM2o7Si42QsK2VEmwISi2pnkB3wU6wJpaYonZE8j0vgKALj5dBLE3fupc4GBW07rFCfVnTz3a-VgcaTSOt8bUwGDA8CA7kYF0xaQW9FBuoYO-Tkv3O4WFo6SkxNlFb0AW-V1JiDQ/s640/Lord%2527s+Blessing+by+Imaginating.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #134f5c; font-size: large;"><b>Title this next paragraph under "more than one way to finish a project"..............</b></span></div>
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Since I retired I've gotten a little obsessed with wanting to get all my UFO's and WIP's under control. I've got a bunch of really old projects I want either done or off my list as they're sort of weighing on my concience. Some of you might remember the French Alphabet Sampler that was really popular about 10 years ago. It was a customized pattern you ordered and buried in the various alphabets that made up the sampler would be your initials, last name, names of loved ones, pets, etc. I remember justifying the cost of the pattern to my husband back when I ordered it in 2003 - $45.00 for a pattern was a lot to pay back then (and frankly, it still is). I finished almost 3 pages of the pattern but there were TWELVE pages in total and I hadn't worked on it in years. This thing is huge! The size of the stitched piece was about 22" square. I really didn't enjoy stitching on it obviously....and I didn't like the color of linen I had used in combination with the red silk, and to tell you the truth I really don't want such a huge sampler. It would take me years to ever finish it, plus it would cost a fortune to frame and I have nowhere to even put it. So I decided to kill it off! It took a bit of bravery but I cut off the part I had stitched, took a final picture of it and threw it away. I salvaged the leftover linen which I can use for other things. So it's one big heavy UFO off my list! I felt bad for a little while but overall, I'm glad it's gone!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAhKXO-_d3jw0UNDqfro1P5FFk4wdx1IPcdr6M4ugau24oknElkIcACrZQIhbpIcLVZQs5bFIXer_jZqOdM_1in2JfDqYLnYr1I3z0bDeTN0_TrkhUfp-pNqA_LZ5suPWxy3Tlnw/s1600/Killing+off+the+FAS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="620" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAhKXO-_d3jw0UNDqfro1P5FFk4wdx1IPcdr6M4ugau24oknElkIcACrZQIhbpIcLVZQs5bFIXer_jZqOdM_1in2JfDqYLnYr1I3z0bDeTN0_TrkhUfp-pNqA_LZ5suPWxy3Tlnw/s640/Killing+off+the+FAS.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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That's all my stitchy news.....I also recently finished a T-shirt quilt as a birthday quilt for one of my brothers. I used t-shirts of his that he no longer wears and I also added in a few that I purchased from favorite places of his or things that I know he likes. I just mailed it off and hope he likes it when he receives it. I found a nice backing fabric that has darts, pool and other masculine motifs on it and it worked out well with the colors of the quilt. It's the first t-shirt quilt I've made but I'm also making a few for my husband as he had a huge collection of t-shirts he's saved from sporting events and places we've visited. They're a lot of work to make but it's a nice way to preserve memories. </div>
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That's all for today friends. Happy fall!</div>
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Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-32512122693146315832015-07-27T19:59:00.001-07:002015-07-27T20:05:07.233-07:00Some happy news and finishes to share!Well the day finally arrived - I retired last week! I had been thinking about it for next spring but the stresses of work were getting to me and I decided to move up my timeline. It's going to take me some time to get used to not worrying about work all the time but I'm looking forward to all the things I will be able to do with the added time. I'll also be able to help my husband more as his job is stressful too so it's all good. It will be good to finally have more time for blogging and reading other people's blogs - I know a lot of people have given up blogging but I'm not ready to throw it away yet although I admit that Facebook groups are taking a lot of my time. I've already started a massive list of "things I want to do at home now that I'm retired"! I've got thousands of photographs and momentoes I want to get organized, file cabinets I need to go through, etc etc not to mention a massive stash of stitching and quilting projects!<br />
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I do have some finishes to share at least. This is Hannah's Brownstone by The Scarlett House. I had such fun stitching this one! The house takes a long time to do but I loved it so didn't mind . I used a different linen than what comes in the kit - I used Lakeside Linen's Vintage Buttercream which is a favorite of mine. All the floss is what the chart calls for.<br />
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Below is a little finish from Heartstring Samplery called "Instead of Sheep". I love the verse on this as it reminds me of the movie White Christmas when Bing Crosby sings this to Rosemary Clooney. I changed out the sheep that was charted for a freebie one I found online. It's framed in a dark green frame - it looks a little black-ish in this photo but in real life it matches the stitched border very well. </div>
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I met a lady at the Primitive Stitchers Retreat in Virginia in May who does framing in her home. Her name is Patti Nicolosi. I sent her the above piece and another one that I'd had laying around for years unframed - see it below. She did a great job on both of them - I picked out the moldings from a website she uses and then she ordered the frames, mounted the pieces and put it all together. I was very pleased with Patti's work and it was very fast too.</div>
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This is "Quakers & Quilts" from Rosewood Manor. I stitched it on 40-ct linen a few years ago and it's great to see it finally framed. I plan to hang it near another Quaker sampler I did as they go well together. I remember how thrilled I was to put the last stitch in this piece - there was a ton of back-stitching to do and it took a long time to stitch this but I got it done. </div>
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I fell in love with this ornament everyone has been stitching - Snow Love by Country Cottage Needleworks. I do all my own finishing work and this was fun to do. I love it! The polka-dot linen is so much fun to use, I'm looking forward to stitching some more pieces on it. </div>
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And below is a little project I re-worked. I had it framed and displayed many many years ago but my framing tastes have changed since then as well as the decor where I had it displayed. I had it put away for a few years and then I decided to take it apart and do something else with it. So I gave the frame away to a friend and I made a little mini-quilt out of the stitched piece to display on my little wire stand. I think it came out pretty cute and now I can enjoy it again. I've long since gotten rid of this chart and I don't remember what the name of this was or the designer but I'm sort of thinking it might have been a chart by Theron Traditions. It was a long time ago!</div>
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So here's how it looked framed and how it looks now. It felt good to give it a new life.</div>
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Right now I'm stitching along on Blackbird Designs 'Strawberry Fields Forever' - doing an SAL with my pal Cindy. We enjoy doing SALs - keeps us going on projects so they don't turn in to UFO's!</div>
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For those of you still out there reading blogs I thank you for stopping by and I look forward to having more time to spend catching up with all of you! My job has just consumed so much of my life the last couple of years with work travel and long hours - I'm so thankful to now have more time to do the things I love!</div>
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<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-65479600046695561372015-06-15T21:43:00.004-07:002015-06-15T21:43:41.690-07:00Woohoo!! 2015 Stanley Cup Champions!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-71332524610148858752015-06-14T16:52:00.002-07:002015-06-14T21:22:46.623-07:00Summertime and stitching happiness...........<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hello dear readers...here we are again and it's summertime already. We had a beautiful and mild spring here in Arizona which is unusual and we really enjoyed it. We're just starting now to get our hot summer weather.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My stitching life has been busy but happily so! I went a retreat organized by the Primitive Stichers Society (Facebook stitching group) in Colonial Williamsburg at the beginning of May - had a fabulous time!! It was my first stitching retreat but not my last I can tell you that for sure. I got to meet my cyber-stitching pal Cindy finally -we've corresponded and shared our love for stitching online for a few years now, plus I got to meet Faye of Carolina Stitcher, lots of other wonderful stitchers and some designers as well - Nan from Threadwork Primitives, Kathy Barrick from Carriage House Samplings fame, Lori Brechlin from Norforgotten Farm, and Elizabeth Talledo from Dames of the Needle. I felt so blessed to be able to go. We had a finishing class with Lori Brechlin and a punchneedle class with Kathy Barrick. I must say that punchneedle was harder to learn than I thought it would be but with more practice I think I will be fine. I have to master it as I have patterns and kits in my stash that I need to make!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's a few photos from the retreat.......</span><br />
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Here we are finally meeting after communicating online for 3 years -</div>
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my cyber-stitching pal Cindy and me</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our stitching table of friends - what a great group!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Designer Kathy Barrick (left) and me - a thrill to meet one of<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There's a wonderful store called Yankee Candle Village that was near my hotel in Williamsburg. It had a fabulous Christmas store in it with several rooms of Dept 56 village displays - </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">absolutely gorgeous! </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHWlBv0fNMxruoII2GZA-K6F-2WX7ClJyd2uXcqFMWuYcRogZfgMaato3E7XBj1RxrgnEsi6HGpviUuplQol7ylqtG2Mz7uLTXd3t5rY1baVcIQF2bESF1L9UU6doP9D7f3XM-g/s1600/Downton+Abbey+-+Dept+56.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="377" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHWlBv0fNMxruoII2GZA-K6F-2WX7ClJyd2uXcqFMWuYcRogZfgMaato3E7XBj1RxrgnEsi6HGpviUuplQol7ylqtG2Mz7uLTXd3t5rY1baVcIQF2bESF1L9UU6doP9D7f3XM-g/s640/Downton+Abbey+-+Dept+56.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">They even have a Downton Abbey buiding now with the Dowager Countess -<br />it's a good thing I don't have room for all this but it sure was fun to see it.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And speaking of stash....they had a fabulous vendor mall at the retreat and we all shopped 'til we dropped. I spent a bundle but enjoyed every minute of it having never been to a stitching event like this before. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrImn4OdwIoi55za3NrNRD4e5W4fcSR7QLCcc2kBLN_xJOKujg3h-9-9zD-w_VBQhcHRYi27wNWIGFIqfr_0zTiZALxVof9pk2M_SrNqNR7bc-n0tl1EYTFG3o-AQXw81Yv-9G_Q/s1600/stash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="396" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrImn4OdwIoi55za3NrNRD4e5W4fcSR7QLCcc2kBLN_xJOKujg3h-9-9zD-w_VBQhcHRYi27wNWIGFIqfr_0zTiZALxVof9pk2M_SrNqNR7bc-n0tl1EYTFG3o-AQXw81Yv-9G_Q/s640/stash.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I went a little crazy at the vendor mall but love all of it!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here was the exchange gift I made for the retreat exchange that was held on the last evening of the retreat, plus a photo of the gift I received. I stitched Stacy Nash's "Spotted Hare Pinkeep Drum" and I made some carrot pins out of Fimo clay to go with the pincushion. I got a great gift - a primitive-style pincushion mounted onto a lovely fabric-covered box. I think everyone who came had a great time and I highly recommend it if you are part of the PSS Facebook group and get a chance to attend. Next year's event will be held in Atlanta, not sure if I'll be able to go (a long way for this Arizona gal) but I do intend to try to go as often as I can.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In April I made a quilted stitching bag for myself to take to the retreat. I found this great travel-themed fabric a year or so ago and it worked out great - I also made some coordinating project bags to use with the bag - it has pockets to store my portable light, magnetic board and stand, and I made a little travel tag to hold my 'business' card as well. I'm very happy with it.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkAh3fnfINuJw_Emh5GccJmxLrdgJ9aVeD4aMe1-StrnumoXauqgS7gt8RLbmQXCb1khrXKegvW2Lh8EfelvvKnEe-KktyXXekMJrsiJ4ZlT6w3iGEzvynKECV0G3lWKwTams7g/s1600/stitching+bag+outside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGkAh3fnfINuJw_Emh5GccJmxLrdgJ9aVeD4aMe1-StrnumoXauqgS7gt8RLbmQXCb1khrXKegvW2Lh8EfelvvKnEe-KktyXXekMJrsiJ4ZlT6w3iGEzvynKECV0G3lWKwTams7g/s640/stitching+bag+outside.jpg" width="412" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My quilted stitching bag with travel-themed fabric</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGQR9_svuxdq2dOaNebVSQY8lzW62dBxGI01rIbj9SI0114X8HpXb8GiNlLLxWOy2jdOb9EBg7KtAddBTIC8c0XHGTVa2Bf0dok9GpR3OTw5gfpGbenzDBF4aXpVnu9wC3EYpszw/s1600/stitching+bag+inside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGQR9_svuxdq2dOaNebVSQY8lzW62dBxGI01rIbj9SI0114X8HpXb8GiNlLLxWOy2jdOb9EBg7KtAddBTIC8c0XHGTVa2Bf0dok9GpR3OTw5gfpGbenzDBF4aXpVnu9wC3EYpszw/s640/stitching+bag+inside.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Inside of bag with covered bottom insert</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and pockets all around</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Coordinating project bags </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've had a few finishes lately. Below is the first project from the Colonial Gatherings stitching club I joined this year. I haven't decided if I want to get it framed or make something with it. This piece gave me a lot of headaches...nothing wrong with the pattern but I made so many mistakes it seemed like I was constantly frogging. GRRRRR One problem I have is I like to use 36-ct linen but I find that using only 1 thread of cotton over-dyes doesn't give me the coverage I like, but 2 strands sometimes can be a little hard to fit in and tough to frog if you have to. I really prefer one strand of silk on 36-ct but don't always want to do conversions from cottons to silks. I started with the flowers on this project and after getting about halfway done with them I was unhappy with the coverage and I ended up going back over the flowers with an additional half-stitch of floss to get the coverage I wanted. But in the end I'm happy with this project.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3NjeM3MiFXa1GdldvpLWIn69YfuzALyxtSSykZ5PDLF5Of46SkrD-lzMZif1tOWDUQvI6gHajYLKEvyVC3ajYVacc5dEDV9PuPbUHNyCrVDQ5k0gxIC-psmmdRsndlQho_vLZQw/s1600/Hurt+Not+the+Earth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="336" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3NjeM3MiFXa1GdldvpLWIn69YfuzALyxtSSykZ5PDLF5Of46SkrD-lzMZif1tOWDUQvI6gHajYLKEvyVC3ajYVacc5dEDV9PuPbUHNyCrVDQ5k0gxIC-psmmdRsndlQho_vLZQw/s640/Hurt+Not+the+Earth.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">"Hurt Not the Earth" by Paulette Stewart of Plum Street Samplers</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also picked up some framing recently....now don't laugh but I stitched this sampler 25 years ago!! Yes, it's sat rolled up in tissue paper since 1990. It even has my maiden initials as I stitched it right before I got married. I don't know why I kept putting off getting it framed...somehow it kept getting pushed to the bottom of the pile yet it turned out much nicer than I thought it would. I stitched this using Ginny Thompson flower thread which is kind of like wool thread - it was popular for awhile in the late 80's. Funny story....my framer called me and said she found a couple missing stitches in the border and she wanted to know if I still had the chart so she could see what color thread to use. Well I didn't have the chart but I still had the leftover threads even after all these years so I took them to her and she slipped in the missing stitches for me. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally framed! "Ella's Sampler" from Pat Rogers</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is one of my current WIPs - it's "Hannah's Brownstone" by The Scarlett House. The house took a long time to stitch with all the bricks and details but I'm loving this project.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcnGOPjazOPR76YkHGTLnIXuSCDMtdpOp20aTNqgF-dubQA66IQMzwIQXlpNPkUgdjGdMAVgPNiqscKHfCRPUv850kTdFx3ebjvdj6nlRK_gHP8Kh0gJrkK3rJVA7BR18Qg4bJXw/s1600/Hannahs+Brownstone+progress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="548" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcnGOPjazOPR76YkHGTLnIXuSCDMtdpOp20aTNqgF-dubQA66IQMzwIQXlpNPkUgdjGdMAVgPNiqscKHfCRPUv850kTdFx3ebjvdj6nlRK_gHP8Kh0gJrkK3rJVA7BR18Qg4bJXw/s640/Hannahs+Brownstone+progress.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That's all for today...I have a couple other items I'll save for my next post. </span></div>
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<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-54848064438722736182015-04-04T12:57:00.001-07:002015-04-04T12:57:22.218-07:00Happy Easter!We're celebrating with Easter dinner tonite as we have some relatives in town who are coming over. Thought I'd share my "lamb cake 2015" with you and a couple photos of some beautiful blooming trees on our block. We've had lovely weather the last few weeks and so enjoying it before the hot weather starts to come in May. <br />
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Due to getting ready to host dinner tonite and doing all the prep work I've designated tomorrow as 'do nothing" day - doing nothing but stitching and going out to dinner! Should be great. I've been working on my gift exchange for the Primitive Stitchers Society retreat the end of April. Amost done with the stitching but then have the finishing work to do. Pardon the wrinkles, it's still a work in progress. At the end of the retreat we'll draw names for the gift exchange and this is going to the one I'll be bringing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR0JUQqfsllxDV5Go480a788Z6iKw87ndg74shaTsxRCfeOMZqkQDBDcmyBdaHGu5zUSPnlGkw0iY0VPFh5SNdGic5VS0usQBQw-lcntPrMo68SIuxHLJhFrrk3-snliqioHRDag/s1600/lamb+cake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR0JUQqfsllxDV5Go480a788Z6iKw87ndg74shaTsxRCfeOMZqkQDBDcmyBdaHGu5zUSPnlGkw0iY0VPFh5SNdGic5VS0usQBQw-lcntPrMo68SIuxHLJhFrrk3-snliqioHRDag/s1600/lamb+cake.jpg" height="297" width="400" /></a></div>
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Easter lamb cake</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-6mPWf2FqBHQioOewxWiSzn-7qB6AIVQeWBdKW1dqyOT77gnas7-i8RVykldFqlfu8URDUp4GsrZWYK6g0ruBZ6kIWWsC0LDhQpXGItzeTNp1u-Nbjp0Fi5WwGoUAV2NMiFbcJA/s1600/orchid+tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-6mPWf2FqBHQioOewxWiSzn-7qB6AIVQeWBdKW1dqyOT77gnas7-i8RVykldFqlfu8URDUp4GsrZWYK6g0ruBZ6kIWWsC0LDhQpXGItzeTNp1u-Nbjp0Fi5WwGoUAV2NMiFbcJA/s1600/orchid+tree.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Blooming "orchid" tree</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQhdQwpYsxyKSxC_b4EvV9hSIOTolaRaxnNcVPyYfNwiPQEsNz80nf6jHvmBqX3P-EFxI8LlMBX0DidGTVzQGIB_CBwU9ICUHfUBCURkOEQlDSxKQM3JpmA3pd2pwt48KOllva1w/s1600/palo+verde.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQhdQwpYsxyKSxC_b4EvV9hSIOTolaRaxnNcVPyYfNwiPQEsNz80nf6jHvmBqX3P-EFxI8LlMBX0DidGTVzQGIB_CBwU9ICUHfUBCURkOEQlDSxKQM3JpmA3pd2pwt48KOllva1w/s1600/palo+verde.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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blooming Palo Verde tree</div>
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Stacy Nash Spotted Hair Pinkeep Drum</div>
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<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-65417159730997617092015-03-09T20:00:00.003-07:002015-03-09T22:38:00.713-07:00Ornament finish, some WIPS and Stash Sale<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I recently finished this LHN ornament called "It's Snow Cold". I'd seen a photo of one made like this on Pinterest last year and I was obsessed with figuring out how to do it. The stitched ornament is mounted onto a plastic ornament with what I call a "flattened round" shape. It's not totally round so you're able to glue the fabric onto the shape and not have pleats or wrinkles if you smooth it out. I made one for a friend for Christmas but finally got the one for myself finished last week. I've made a tutorial for this type of ornament finish on a separate page of my blog which you can access above.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I changed the charted colors a little bit because I wanted the stitched piece to match the cute snowman fabric I bought last year. The color in the photo isn't just right but the linen is a pale aqua color. I'm glad I figured this finishing method out and hope to adapt some other ornament charts to this type of finish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've got a couple of new starts going. This year I joined the Colonial Gatherings stitching club at the Dyeing to Stitch LNS in Virginia. The first kit sent out is "Hurt Not the Earth" from Plum Street Samplers. It uses a quote from John Adams. That darn Mr. Frog has been visiting me on this piece but I made it to the second page of the chart finally! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also am stitching another LHN chart - Old Nantucket. I've been wanting to stitch this one ever since it was published a few years ago and I've had it kitted up for over a year. It's being stitched on 35-ct Weeks Cocoa linen with overdyed flosses. Not much to show yet but I'm enjoying it!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib8okjEU_AdA7Uu0YYAk0Q13EQI894KkcFg9L2357owklaWgX0lj-0xhNT7FMo8hncqaiqvdLhrnHBAeNIHXbk6a1hgOAS6S0FN3ACugMd9Qy6uu1WPokSDnCWqJp8Wfdk0N9mtQ/s1600/Nantucket+Sampler+start.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib8okjEU_AdA7Uu0YYAk0Q13EQI894KkcFg9L2357owklaWgX0lj-0xhNT7FMo8hncqaiqvdLhrnHBAeNIHXbk6a1hgOAS6S0FN3ACugMd9Qy6uu1WPokSDnCWqJp8Wfdk0N9mtQ/s1600/Nantucket+Sampler+start.jpg" height="261" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ever since helping my husband clean out my FIL's house last year when he moved I've had the urge to clean up/throw out/organize things. I need to get rid of some of the charts I've already stitched or not going to stitch so I've added a separate page to my blog for stash selling. I've offered some free charts you can choose from should you decide you want to buy anything (US sales only please, it costs too much for international sales for these small amounts).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Today was a good mail day! I used up most of a gift certificate I had from Christmas to 123 Stitch online shop. I got the rest of the 6 Fat Men series from Lizzie Kate, and some of that polka dot linen I've been seeing used for ornament stitching . Love how it looks like snowflakes. You can never have too many ornament charts I guess!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmPIhV3TqHllNxFnVhMKejnwawpyHowB3m1B4S5rYfBCkriJmXvsI0tz7EoAJ6ndmDR2GpTXE4KzfNCJODE-fjlOSEihXGDe2m1eh13gWjQhtr_e7sdg1u1d_GPsA_808n2_GCQg/s1600/New+stash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmPIhV3TqHllNxFnVhMKejnwawpyHowB3m1B4S5rYfBCkriJmXvsI0tz7EoAJ6ndmDR2GpTXE4KzfNCJODE-fjlOSEihXGDe2m1eh13gWjQhtr_e7sdg1u1d_GPsA_808n2_GCQg/s1600/New+stash.jpg" height="253" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also got this cute Crossed Wing pattern - our first dog was a sable & white Sheltie who looked just like the dog in this chart. Our dog Elvis has been gone since 2003 but I just loved this chart since I saw a model at The Silver Needle in Tulsa. I want to stitch it to remember him by. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That's all for today folks, thanks for stopping in.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFRdWq-0juqefOALd6W5jKMKIYbZ-Xg8B6rBiVtltXiu1rp6hPHAQK3dZPsAh6dE6ntz7UFnaVUdYQTdFA3SpJ7rrYBlhNo09W-0HI3jg_FPASKfsBoWn5g9mzGqkhdSnQYWDJjg/s1600/Mitten+Games.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFRdWq-0juqefOALd6W5jKMKIYbZ-Xg8B6rBiVtltXiu1rp6hPHAQK3dZPsAh6dE6ntz7UFnaVUdYQTdFA3SpJ7rrYBlhNo09W-0HI3jg_FPASKfsBoWn5g9mzGqkhdSnQYWDJjg/s1600/Mitten+Games.jpg" height="400" width="305" /></span></a></div>
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<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-4659834496636051842015-02-23T18:45:00.002-07:002015-03-07T11:04:19.605-07:00I'm still here!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hello fellow bloggers and dear readers....I've neglected my poor blog for way too long but 2014 was a crazy year for me with family issues and all sorts of life events and things just fell off the track. I'm trying to get back into some kind of normal routine this year and want to get back to blogging a bit more regularly. I also finally caved in and joined Facebook last fall. I've enjoyed joining some stitching groups but it does take some of my time. However, I don't want to quit blogging so need to find time to balance both.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Even while not blogging, I try to stitch whenever I can and haven't lost my love of stitching at all. In fact...I'm so excited - I'm going to a stitching retreat the end of April! I've always wanted to attend one somewhere and since I'm a member of the Primitive Stitchers Society on Facebook I decided to go their retreat in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. I will be taking a class with one of my all-time favorite designers - Kathy Barrick! Woohoo! I'm also taking a punchneedle class with Lori Brechlin from Notforgotten Farm. Plus there will be a vendor mall and I'm getting to meet up with a cyber stitching friend whom I've corresponded with for a few years now. I can't wait!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here's some photos of what I've been doing the past 6 months...I'm making an effort to get through that pile of stitching items that need 'finishing' - either getting them framed or made into a flatfold, pillow, etc. I'm delighted that the pile is getting much shorter!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLCNOGwBptzXahNkq95F1dIektp5AvAswSJVNq9qc3mKAfHO5y5SR6lZjtbriSpkI3Sf0JsPakXrFX6Q217tSYFIN9sXkpEOw1sgISI4VJNxz5CqGDuU4RNSFalF_KwzShFl5lJg/s1600/Forever+Young+framed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLCNOGwBptzXahNkq95F1dIektp5AvAswSJVNq9qc3mKAfHO5y5SR6lZjtbriSpkI3Sf0JsPakXrFX6Q217tSYFIN9sXkpEOw1sgISI4VJNxz5CqGDuU4RNSFalF_KwzShFl5lJg/s1600/Forever+Young+framed.jpg" height="400" width="373" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">First up is this sampler from Heartstring Samplery which I got framed - this is "Forever Young". I did an SAL with a friend and we loved stitching this piece.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtG05U4cX19ya-D4CMbebCka6Lmpq5nt2dX-aiu3p7NhhkgJwKvjRXabmT7wH2QFGfXedXeAllb5jD3mgaP3abduBykzdcbt6-2kozomqkMsfUGYn4Qz3M293o7af-KSoYamkj2w/s1600/Winter+Silhouette+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtG05U4cX19ya-D4CMbebCka6Lmpq5nt2dX-aiu3p7NhhkgJwKvjRXabmT7wH2QFGfXedXeAllb5jD3mgaP3abduBykzdcbt6-2kozomqkMsfUGYn4Qz3M293o7af-KSoYamkj2w/s1600/Winter+Silhouette+2.jpg" height="164" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is also a piece I got framed in time to display it for Christmas last year - this is "Winter Silhouette" from Imaginating. I wish I could get a better photo but the glass interferes with the blue color. I display this one on a little easel as it's short and wide so works well on an easel instead of hanging. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Below is a little project that I've been doing for a couple years now. Several years ago I stitched this entire year of Shepherds Bush monthly-themed pieces ("A Year in Stithced") and I had a frame made that I rotated them in and out of each month. However...I never really liked the frame too much so gradually I took all 12 of them apart and made them into little pillows that I could display each month. I was so happy to get the last couple done in December! I like them so much better this way so I guess it was worth all the trouble. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY9GdXGcqbNK2xKSIhuTCpr87n6uIJBZc8E7QIVVZB2pO3935AhZIymORs6sgAXYIHwUbr1gdYK0tzf-Tj_jR90PU2BPW4kFhzULayBWUfwdLVJJjFf9Kt1yDG1mztNZNLooSETA/s1600/SB+-+A+Year+in+Stitches.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY9GdXGcqbNK2xKSIhuTCpr87n6uIJBZc8E7QIVVZB2pO3935AhZIymORs6sgAXYIHwUbr1gdYK0tzf-Tj_jR90PU2BPW4kFhzULayBWUfwdLVJJjFf9Kt1yDG1mztNZNLooSETA/s1600/SB+-+A+Year+in+Stitches.jpg" height="380" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjewfB-fhSq2a-UICONAJYgHeY2ad86-IuKHr-FyqztraQGbtk64r6inau2V4JSDfX_il76M_jClJlBuzIm2tOw_E3k_E9_QPdFtZRHgzZuAbahemAmaSdrrMsm52-BuCBfC2nBFw/s1600/Plum+Pudding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjewfB-fhSq2a-UICONAJYgHeY2ad86-IuKHr-FyqztraQGbtk64r6inau2V4JSDfX_il76M_jClJlBuzIm2tOw_E3k_E9_QPdFtZRHgzZuAbahemAmaSdrrMsm52-BuCBfC2nBFw/s1600/Plum+Pudding.jpg" height="279" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This is "Plum Pudding" by JBW Designs. I made it into a little stand with a Christmas fabric border and an easel in back. I'm using this method of finishing more often now that I'm gotten pretty good at it. I don't want to get every little piece I stitch framed - I'm running out of wall space and you all know how expensive framing can be. I'd rather put my framing money towards my bigger pieces. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifaoXXNxywXKxrP6zmBX0VsnCxPCnNvw7ysY9Z35qp7JTtM5Y1M9xYv7ttCUlqJjERmyxvIPKqaxOQc52SJVFn6okOVXuH2ZSVRnBApjWYvIqgWz39tyOR2evE45EjP8WrU2-iiA/s1600/Ida+Mae+Crow+finished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifaoXXNxywXKxrP6zmBX0VsnCxPCnNvw7ysY9Z35qp7JTtM5Y1M9xYv7ttCUlqJjERmyxvIPKqaxOQc52SJVFn6okOVXuH2ZSVRnBApjWYvIqgWz39tyOR2evE45EjP8WrU2-iiA/s1600/Ida+Mae+Crow+finished.jpg" height="524" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Above is another easel-type finish I did. This is Goode Huswif's 'Ida Mae Crow'. I stitched it a few years ago - it's out of print now but I suppose you might find it now and then on eBay. I love how it turned out and I had a little crow I had made that fits right in with it.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ZzFzkWYcjkI3goqzNRGrdJ3ZtkuLCzUeyAVnVHSbj4xBdt6GuMXBif11Tc7EtAkViSUHm_5uqPTPgMKkTG07qH5AiL3slxwgwyzqUia9oapoo3Nts_wImCk-abtEb5mmouwMJQ/s1600/Yes+I+Can.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_ZzFzkWYcjkI3goqzNRGrdJ3ZtkuLCzUeyAVnVHSbj4xBdt6GuMXBif11Tc7EtAkViSUHm_5uqPTPgMKkTG07qH5AiL3slxwgwyzqUia9oapoo3Nts_wImCk-abtEb5mmouwMJQ/s1600/Yes+I+Can.jpg" height="640" width="536" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">This Halloween piece I made for a very good friend of mine that I work with. As soon as I saw this pattern by Sue Hillis ("Yes I Can!") I knew I had to make it for her. My friend loves driving a stick-shift car and she loves Halloween and witches. It couldn't have been more perfect and I found some great matching fabric in my quilting stash. That's one good thing about having a large quilting stash....I almost never have to go buy fabric for something!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Just in time for Thanksgiving last year I finished up this cube of "Thankful Quaker" by Bent Creek. I changed up the colors quite a bit in this as I thought there was too much brown. I basically pulled some pretty autumn colored threads from my stash and just stitched whatever color I wanted for the different motifs. I've done cube finishes before but I wanted to learn how to do the ones with hard sides that I'd seen modeled in a shop in Las Vegas. I couldn't find any tutorials online for this type of cube so I just had to experiment but it worked out well. I used several layers of foam core for the inside which I also weighted so it sits nicely and doesn't topple over. I used matboard on the sides plus I added some beads as little "feet" and a twisted cord trim on the front. I'm glad to add another skill to my finishing list!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">I've recently finished these 2 pieces below which I stitched as SAL's with a friend. First is "Penny America" by Tree of Life Samplings, and the second one is "Trees of Green" by Heartstring Samplery . I need to drop of Trees of Green at the framer soon but I'm working on a finish now for Penny America so that one won't get framed. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYYn5LV04QcSZndFZxBcjN9flKjUT8Dibs7DrdgAjRY8wGf1LY9GieVMWOvfhs9yFvhZbnIjUr_hnS_WbAqd0LiKTLXLSdIreNutvMsFyPHHM1RGM6qpzGKvF-Limo0JURee5ug/s1600/Penny+America+complete.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQYYn5LV04QcSZndFZxBcjN9flKjUT8Dibs7DrdgAjRY8wGf1LY9GieVMWOvfhs9yFvhZbnIjUr_hnS_WbAqd0LiKTLXLSdIreNutvMsFyPHHM1RGM6qpzGKvF-Limo0JURee5ug/s1600/Penny+America+complete.jpg" height="345" width="640" /></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-align: left;">I need to get through my blog reading list and catch up ...I'm been reading some posts here and there but still way behind. I'm glad to see so many of the regular blogs I read are still there as I enjoy reading about what all of you are doing. For those who haven't dropped me off their list, I thank you! I miss connecting with my fellow bloggers and I'm looking forward to trying to post at least a few times each month now. I've still got a little backlog of things to share and plenty of projects in progress!</span></div>
Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-91286061279414999742014-09-30T11:33:00.001-07:002014-09-30T15:04:18.925-07:00Frankly my dear....<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Yes you may recognize my post title as part of Rhett Butler's famous last line from Gone With the Wind. I'm happy because I'm going to see the movie tomorrow night at a local theatre! They showed the movie at theatres around the U.S. last Sunday and again tomorrow Oct 1st as part of the 75th anniversary celebration of the movie. It's one of my favorites... even though it's nice to watch it at home on DVD it's not the same as on the big movie screen. I've seen it in movie theatres every 10 years or so when it comes around...I remember going with friends to see it for the 50th anniversary back in 1989. I can't get a decent photo of this framed piece below because I used regular glass on it but it's a favorite piece I stitched many years ago and hangs in my stitching room.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFZEIefz6LTD1MRNnJSANfMcSWe9IHzHDRu5iFQlVDXcNgk49_2EddEvJ79ktykpCEay2cs6bVBZpnHsPvjJGTKKpuDuE2Iz2jztIRcMulpCFLMK9c0cN7xKHeZeqWLk-5_bbBA/s1600/GWTW.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFZEIefz6LTD1MRNnJSANfMcSWe9IHzHDRu5iFQlVDXcNgk49_2EddEvJ79ktykpCEay2cs6bVBZpnHsPvjJGTKKpuDuE2Iz2jztIRcMulpCFLMK9c0cN7xKHeZeqWLk-5_bbBA/s1600/GWTW.jpg" height="486" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(This pattern is out of print but comes up on eBay now and then. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's "Scarlett O'Hara" by Charles Craft Designs.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What else have I been doing? Well for one thing I've been feeling sorry for myself seeing the massive number of finishes those Prim stitchers are posting on Facebook! Some days I think am I the only one that has a job! LOL But I'm plugging away at my projects as I get the time. Here's my progress on CCN's Frosty Forest. I'm getting close - only 2 more blocks and the rest of the border to go! I designed the border using a small motif from LHN's "Pinetop Lodge" - I worked with graph paper to make the design big enough and designed the corners. I also modified block 7 (Snowgirls Cottage) to add a waterwheel and pond to it that I designed. I thought this block as charted was too similar to block 3 (Snowmans Cottage) so I wanted it a little different. (Note - sorry but I can't supply my charted changes to anyone because that would be an infringement to the designer's original chart).</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also stitched up a little ornament that I now need to do the finishing for....I made one like this last year for an ornament exchange but wanted one for myself.</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Homespun Elegance - 2008 Santa ornament</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(I modified the list to do the words in over-1</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">instead of backstitching)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And...I finally have a needlebook for myself! I've been quilting and sewing and stitching for 30 years but never had anything nice to use for parking my needles. I've made them for other people but meanwhile here's what my needle storage looked like:</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Earlier this year I stitched Just Nan's "Beach Roses". I'd stitched it years ago and finished it as a biscornu for an exchange on Becky Bee's old SBEBB forum. I decided to finish it this time as a needlebook so finally I can quit using a scrap of batting for my needles. :-) By the way, does anyone know if Becky Bee is still cross-stitching? I know she made her blog private now but I was just wondering. She certainly contributed a lot to the online stitching community over the years</span>. </div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Front Cover....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And that's what I've been doing lately. Unfortunately we lost our dog Buster to cancer on Sept 19th. He was starting to struggle too much and we just knew it was time. We had tried chemotherapy but it didn't work and his prostate tumor was getting bigger. My husband and I spent an entire day with him doing all the things he loved before we took him on that final trip to the vet. He swam and played in the pool, played ball, had McDonalds fries and a cheeseburger for lunch and even had ice cream with his 'sister' Abby. We miss him of course and so does our other little dog....it's heartbreaking as so many of you know but he had a great life of 11 years we can look back on. We'll never forget you buddy!</span></div>
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Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-14250087496666366712014-07-26T19:50:00.002-07:002014-07-26T20:28:46.964-07:00Still alive and sweatin' through the summer!Hello people and may I say a big THANK YOU for all you nice followers that haven't dropped me off your blog lists! I haven't had much time for blogging this year and I had such good intentions. It's been a pretty crazy year around the WillowTreeStitcher household so far and things aren't looking up either. My father-in-law is 86 and it got to be time for him to move to a facility where he could get some help due to health and aging issues over the last 4 months. My husband and I found a nice assisted-care facility for him in the same retirement community where he's lived for 15 years. He's adjusting well and doing a lot better. The good food, exercise program, activities and medical help he gets onsite have made a big difference. Meanwhile we're spending every week-end clearing out his house to get it ready to sell, getting his car and other possessions sold and taking care of his financial affairs for him. It's been a hectic time. Clearing out and sorting through someone else's home really makes you take a good look at your own house and things you should get rid of! Husband and I aren't hoarders but you sure do accumulate a lot of 'stuff' over the years. My craft room alone would probably make a few people faint not because it's messy but just the sheer volume of it all!<br />
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Meanwhile, my job continues to be very demanding and requiring me to do business travel about once a month which eats into my time. I hope to be retired in a couple years and really looking forward to a slower pace and more time for stitching, quilting, and whatever else I want to do. I certainly will never be bored! Meanwhile I stitch whenever I can grab the time whether it's 15 minutes or an hour here or there. <br />
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I finished up Blackbird Designs "In Full Glory". This was a fun little stitch but took a bit longer than I thought it would - there's more stitching in this than you would think. I have a lot of pinkeeps/pincushions already so I went diving into my quilting fabric stash and made it into a little mini-quilt to hang on a wire stand I had. (the stand is from Ackfeld Manufacturing) I found the perfect fabrics in my stash and the little motifs on the blue fabric look like fireworks to me. I like to leave my patriotic things out from Memorial Day to Labor Day so will still enjoy this one until September. <br />
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Progress continues on CCN's Frosty Forest. I'm starting to see people out in Blogland and Facebook who have finished the whole series since the last pattern just came out. I only started this project in May but feel like I'm making good progress and I'm having fun stitching it. I stole an idea from another stitcher who posted in one of the LHN-CCN groups and I'm adding a border to mine. I took a pine motif from an LHN chart called "Pinetop Lodge" and modified and expanded it to fit my piece. Maybe when I'm done I'll sprinkle some 'snow' in the border as well. Here's a few photos of what I've done so far....I think the block with the two young deer is my favorite so far - they're just so CUTE! Since I took this photo I've started on block 6. <br />
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Once I got that BBD piece done I rewarded myself with a new start naturally! I've had "Emblem of Love" by With My Needle kitted up for a couple years already. My start seemed like it was cursed though. I had kitted it up with a beautiful piece of 40-ct Lakeside Linen's Vintage Light Exemplar and a silk conversion I got from my local shop. When I started stitching the fabric just wasn't working for me. It was a little too orange-y or something. So I started over on a piece of 40-ct mystery linen from my stash. I got the first Quaker medallion done but wasn't happy with it - the thread colors seemed too dull. Back to the square one again...I ripped it out and did my own conversion to silks (it's charted for DMC and overdyed floss) and started a THIRD time. Thank goodness I'm finally happy with my choices. The thing I like about Quaker samplers is you get little happy-dance moments each time you finish a medallion LOL. Here's a shot straight from the Q-snaps.......</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSA8dZ068Ei4OAb-nU9yy38bVBxRpYutViA7VTrWs0cS0weHG9ZMhe3LqZBS_cNK2y6tZV18G6VJY8O20KFYt82DWr09ArJ8vvgfgU3sTWBlVUzXwUOGhoVAHZ3rkI7Jf2HlgvLA/s1600/Emblem+of+Love.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSA8dZ068Ei4OAb-nU9yy38bVBxRpYutViA7VTrWs0cS0weHG9ZMhe3LqZBS_cNK2y6tZV18G6VJY8O20KFYt82DWr09ArJ8vvgfgU3sTWBlVUzXwUOGhoVAHZ3rkI7Jf2HlgvLA/s1600/Emblem+of+Love.jpg" height="400" width="316" /></a></div>
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A bit of finishing work to share.....this little pinkeep was stitched by a friend and I did the finishing. We both think it turned out cute! I just happened to have a piece of purple fabric in my fabric stash that matched it perfectly. I forget who the designer is on this piece...maybe BBD but I'm not sure. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgHnQsi35sRJNZj7rFuISSWgGNXD5h6Rihl-Pb18xL-KiP9USbs6-Qwon-94fywzN7oyLmIQuUf3-OnBpfck4o_cFV98LIppXfXqEhonU1lZ6WHh6RmgBo24UudsJSzJFiouK0tQ/s1600/pinkeep+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgHnQsi35sRJNZj7rFuISSWgGNXD5h6Rihl-Pb18xL-KiP9USbs6-Qwon-94fywzN7oyLmIQuUf3-OnBpfck4o_cFV98LIppXfXqEhonU1lZ6WHh6RmgBo24UudsJSzJFiouK0tQ/s1600/pinkeep+1.jpg" height="353" width="400" /></a></div>
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I picked up a couple Halloween charts a month ago when The Strawberry Sampler had a sale. I just couldn't resist. Aren't these fabulous?! Can't wait to start on them. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzicB_4pPRUsDUXuc7vemJP9s0p4bOaQ5NZYPzoruqHYLH7D9Ha1EjWE7YqlA-T7tSopMMxS5C8Cp09-pp0oODLqjGZUOg4oZMZujOI74SDRDJcunjXvUKGVGZoRYMGsRgRD9uBA/s1600/Halloween+stash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzicB_4pPRUsDUXuc7vemJP9s0p4bOaQ5NZYPzoruqHYLH7D9Ha1EjWE7YqlA-T7tSopMMxS5C8Cp09-pp0oODLqjGZUOg4oZMZujOI74SDRDJcunjXvUKGVGZoRYMGsRgRD9uBA/s1600/Halloween+stash.jpg" height="381" width="400" /></a></div>
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On a sad note....our beloved dog Buster was diagnosed with prostate cancer this week. He's 11 and the outlook they gave us is poor. We are absolutely crushed and heartbroken of course....I know so many of you are pet owners and will understand the pain we feel. We plan to make the most of whatever time left that we are blessed with...they couldn't predict any timeframe for us. He's always been such a lively dog and still acts the same so it's hard to believe he really is sick inside. </div>
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Thank you for coming in to visit for a few moments, I really appreciate each and every one of you who stops by.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFWbbWosWG_YI6feg95qFdtGmAw8gouQakS2d-vGk8M7dhxkptEYlGNiLWGlFvccRxN_x7KgrjJvHhN2d9rL9RfbocDl3BNOlQtXhPM2gZPklTD50bqmvvL4hoEfhrpfqRQIKTDA/s1600/Buster+2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFWbbWosWG_YI6feg95qFdtGmAw8gouQakS2d-vGk8M7dhxkptEYlGNiLWGlFvccRxN_x7KgrjJvHhN2d9rL9RfbocDl3BNOlQtXhPM2gZPklTD50bqmvvL4hoEfhrpfqRQIKTDA/s1600/Buster+2013.jpg" height="320" width="267" /></a></div>
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Our beloved Buster</div>
Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-63142941165153974192014-05-14T15:45:00.000-07:002014-07-10T11:36:08.103-07:00New start finally and framing happiness.........Well it's hump day at work but a good day to do a blog post. :) I finally got started on CCN's Frosty Forest series in the past week or so and I finished up my first block. I've having fun stitching this. It took me awhile to decide on a linen but I liked that the white snow showed up well on this medium gray color. I got this nice piece of Legacy linen when I visited The Inspired Needle in Illinois recently. I wanted some 'sparkle' so I attempted to stitch all the snow with Glisten Gloss blending filament added in but I was unhappy stitching with it so I abandoned that idea. It's okay for a small bit of stitching but there is way too much snow in this project to do that much struggling, plus you can't get the stitches to look nice and even. I've started on block 2 now and it's going well. I'm behind lots of other stitchers who are working on this series but that's okay - I'm just going at my own pace. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfSCDm8aqE2_5ET2HVzBz1iWIEaYl1xW2OQIiSzCX0N7EYcrZFHmEDBp1JUAzz_Znkls5jRRzdvPcdegZhFg1pTVAx9_yefuswtyXa-Ha-iQExJ0Z9Hxc3TThC00fhofPXXln3rQ/s1600/Racoon+Cabin+editted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfSCDm8aqE2_5ET2HVzBz1iWIEaYl1xW2OQIiSzCX0N7EYcrZFHmEDBp1JUAzz_Znkls5jRRzdvPcdegZhFg1pTVAx9_yefuswtyXa-Ha-iQExJ0Z9Hxc3TThC00fhofPXXln3rQ/s1600/Racoon+Cabin+editted.jpg" height="365" width="400" /></a></div>
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"Raccoon Cabin" - f rom CCN Frosty Forest series</div>
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stitched on 34-ct Legacy "Puritan" linen</div>
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I was thrilled to recently pick up my giant framed Pride & Prejudice sampler. (it's 20" x 23") This has been a long time coming and I'm finally ready to put this project completely behind me - yippee! It's still wrapped in bubble-wrap as I haven't had time to hang it yet but I'm just thrilled it's finally done. I picked an elegant frame and I'm very happy with how it turned out. It's behind museum glass so had to play with the photo a bit but you get the idea.<br />
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ADDED NOTE: THERE IS NOT A CHART THAT CAN BE PURCHASED TO STITCH THIS PRIDE & PREJUDICE SAMPLER AS I'VE DONE IT. I PUT TOGETHER PIECES OF MANY PUBLISHED CHARTS BY DIFFERENT DESIGNERS TO MAKE THIS SAMPLER. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN THE LIST OF CHARTS I USED, SEE THE LINK AT THE TOP OF MY BLOG THAT SAYS "PRIDE & PREJUDICE SAMPLER" . I 'VE LISTED ALL THE PATTERNS I USED THERE AS REFERENCE. THANK YOU!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguRnybu_v_iasR8NnGD05wx296NK97qf0hab_UuRJbr6vyswS7dgrmp8GC-aLpiuNIzqjq_8O7dkn60spHr8ovdxwYfOysAYIuic5PkLJe-qntSOU2_wE_NszD4X1sgUWV_gr7Lg/s1600/P&P+framing+done.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguRnybu_v_iasR8NnGD05wx296NK97qf0hab_UuRJbr6vyswS7dgrmp8GC-aLpiuNIzqjq_8O7dkn60spHr8ovdxwYfOysAYIuic5PkLJe-qntSOU2_wE_NszD4X1sgUWV_gr7Lg/s1600/P&P+framing+done.jpg" height="566" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFsVGt3-bqseX2toCZ-LT20OlucBbRFuVdvARQPDLAvY5IYKlQWMBei2x_aPCCv9A6Wil-Bp9hHbULXQAE0qhxPr0O7yD9xlxzenKKpuztC0bAHeKlVUJfJEZtsu53RjSMjRBX_A/s1600/P&P+closeup+frame+editted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFsVGt3-bqseX2toCZ-LT20OlucBbRFuVdvARQPDLAvY5IYKlQWMBei2x_aPCCv9A6Wil-Bp9hHbULXQAE0qhxPr0O7yD9xlxzenKKpuztC0bAHeKlVUJfJEZtsu53RjSMjRBX_A/s1600/P&P+closeup+frame+editted.jpg" height="327" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here's a few other pieces that recently got done also. Jenny Bean got a matte black frame that works well and it's hanging on my sampler wall. Pardon the glare......</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju5SRYMXZwqvZGL1kVOXQupohwISs9OceFQAvdUp9gMpX_L9NkGznu14I3c4TophnZvk-gkWB72SUAj7EuKc5L724xOIm6NTnZMYSjZEYnXnhWdaCTNzRYhx-yy2cQ6LYKCyp8DA/s1600/Jenny+Bean+framing+editted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju5SRYMXZwqvZGL1kVOXQupohwISs9OceFQAvdUp9gMpX_L9NkGznu14I3c4TophnZvk-gkWB72SUAj7EuKc5L724xOIm6NTnZMYSjZEYnXnhWdaCTNzRYhx-yy2cQ6LYKCyp8DA/s1600/Jenny+Bean+framing+editted.jpg" height="640" width="636" /></a></div>
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Jenny Bean Humble Servant Sampler</div>
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by Shakespeare's Peddler </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjeUcIhJXfb_StNoRNbHoLsAzumNTyJRUWQup9w5czGWFccrQwbDJOHyJqWvZcirgFkzn0ZYsZUjPpnvjterSafgvYz-VQnbH3LrRxkBvYypdUhEhoXVUNtYe9D-sGLtWxZ3R9og/s1600/Jenny+Bean+frame+closeup+editted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjeUcIhJXfb_StNoRNbHoLsAzumNTyJRUWQup9w5czGWFccrQwbDJOHyJqWvZcirgFkzn0ZYsZUjPpnvjterSafgvYz-VQnbH3LrRxkBvYypdUhEhoXVUNtYe9D-sGLtWxZ3R9og/s1600/Jenny+Bean+frame+closeup+editted.jpg" height="321" width="400" /></a></div>
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My Mississippi Riverboats piece is getting mailed off to my mother this week. I was supposed to be there to give it to her in person for Mother's Day but due to a lot of personal issues going on with both sides of my family right now I had to cancel my trip. Hopefully I will get to visit in June. I like that the frame has a couple different brown tones that go well with the piece. Thank you LHN for creating the perfect pattern for me to make for my mom!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyh4xQh9_oNIJX02ZqOIJHxAwq8_V3S-slBWtlnoF1XApPQNdOjiAkf2qZbsakvrv0FlkFCayaatd8nnJcRleeqjZxBbhGg0sJVNvYmXipW6XqsvfATzpbB_8F_P3J8xxbE-PoHQ/s1600/Riverboats+framed+editted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyh4xQh9_oNIJX02ZqOIJHxAwq8_V3S-slBWtlnoF1XApPQNdOjiAkf2qZbsakvrv0FlkFCayaatd8nnJcRleeqjZxBbhGg0sJVNvYmXipW6XqsvfATzpbB_8F_P3J8xxbE-PoHQ/s1600/Riverboats+framed+editted.jpg" height="408" width="640" /></a></div>
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Mississippi Riverboats by Little House Needleworks</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicwbbivTeVdYhApvqN_uvJxZEvjqoWvt7f25cj1DG_zDgYkbwi5KqmQ6L2G5oxA6-7kP8K8J0MoMOTjxPv8NlRHoDjD6ZAkNYPF6aw3UrZn0WD0fjMm4lT5wkhWQxkZQNPMm03-A/s1600/Riverboats+closeup+editted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicwbbivTeVdYhApvqN_uvJxZEvjqoWvt7f25cj1DG_zDgYkbwi5KqmQ6L2G5oxA6-7kP8K8J0MoMOTjxPv8NlRHoDjD6ZAkNYPF6aw3UrZn0WD0fjMm4lT5wkhWQxkZQNPMm03-A/s1600/Riverboats+closeup+editted.jpg" height="352" width="400" /></a></div>
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That's all for today folks, thanks for stopping in to visit me for a few minutes.<br />
<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-30444210169813637742014-04-20T17:25:00.003-07:002014-04-20T17:52:27.841-07:00Blame it on Pinterest!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I know a lot of people spend lots of time on Pinterest. I've had an account for a year or two but never had a whole lot of time to spend on it. I was on there a few weeks ago browsing some cross-stitch boards and I decided to search on "cross stitch ornaments". Oh dear........I had one of those "I've got to HAVE IT" moments when I saw a cuckoo-clock ornament posted. I kept clicking until I got to the source where the photo came from and it was <a href="http://flamingosvalley.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Flamingo Valley's</a> stitching blog.</div>
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I hope no one minds I posted this collage of Flamingo Valley's</div>
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cuckoo ornaments but I wanted to share how lovely they are!</div>
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Unfortunately the blog is in a foreign language (Russian maybe?). She has a huge number of followers so maybe I was the only one not knowing about her blog! Anyway I was using the translator function on the blog trying to figure out who the designer was of the cuckoo clocks. Fortunately someone had asked about that very thing in a comment to her post and the blog owner had responded with the name of some French magazine - De Fil en Aiguille and something about "hors-serie montagne". Well thanks to Babelfish translator and Google searching I found out this was a French stitching magazine that has been out of print a few years and she was referring to a special Alpine-themed edition of the magazine from 2004. I was disappointed to find the magazine was out of print but that didn't stop me...I checked eBay and found nothing then I thought of trying eBay France and voila! I found the magazine listed there. I used Babelfish translator again to format a message to the seller and sent her a photo of the ornament and asked her if that pattern was in the magazine she was selling as I wanted to make sure I was on the right track. She responded with a photo of the pattern that was in the magazine and I put in a pretty good bid to make sure I won the magazine. I was so thrilled to have found it! I 've always had a fondness for cuckoo clocks...my great-aunt had a big antique one from Germany and all of us kids always loved it. The pattern is for a cuckoo clock sampler and has 9 different cuckoo clocks to stitch - I love it! I don't give up when I'm on the trail of something LOL. Thank goodness for the internet - when you can find a 10-yr old edition of a stitching magazine sold by a lady in Brittany, France then all is right with the world! This is an incredible stitching magazine too, it's a shame it is no longer printed as I wouldn't mind buying more editions - lovely patterns in it. </div>
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I finished up the piece I was stitching for my mother and I laced it myself because I need to get it back from the framer within 2 weeks. It's only the second piece I've ever laced but I think it came out pretty good and it saves me some money doing the mounting of the piece myself. I modified the pattern a bit - it's charted to say "Sawyer & Finn Riverboat Co." but I wanted the word "Mississippi" in the piece since my hometown is along the mighty Mississippi river. I charted it out and filled in some extra spaces at the ends with little ships wheels. I think it came out pretty good and is at the framer now.</div>
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"Mississippi Riverboats" by Little House Needleworks</div>
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My lacing job..........</div>
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This piece reminds me of the Mark Twain riverboat at Disneyland. No matter how many times I've ridden it I always make my husband ride with me every time we go. I love Disneyland!<br />
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By the way the winner of the "Forever Young" pattern was Cindy (no blog). She had emailed me to enter the giveaway and I'll have it mailed it off soon. It's nice to be able to pass along a lovely pattern I'm done with.</div>
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Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-85591049840426142402014-04-07T20:18:00.001-07:002014-04-07T20:29:49.239-07:00Finishes and Fun.........Hi all you stitchers out there, I hope spring is finally getting to most of you. I was in Illinois last week for a family issue and it was still in the 30's some days - brrrr! Enough of winter already! I was really glad to get back to warm Arizona. Some of you may have seen the latest post on Laura's <a href="http://maudeandmozart.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Maude & Mozart</a> blog - we happened to meet each other when I stopped at a shop in the southwestern Chicago suburbs on my way to the airport to fly home last Saturday. What are the odds?!?!? I always enjoy Laura's posts about the ladies she stitches with at the shop and all the wonderful projects she shows us. So I made time in my schedule to stop and see Laura's LNS The Inspired Needle in Lemont, Illinois. I was there just a few minutes after the store opened and grabbing up some stash when in walked a customer who was greeted by the owner as "Ms. Duet". Well I knew that was Laura's last name from reading her blog and we had emailed once or twice so I spoke up and said "Are you <strong>Laura</strong>?" and explained that I am a follower of her blog and mentioned my blog which she reads also. It felt like the planets were aligning that we both happened to be in the shop at the exact same time yet we live in different states 1800 miles from each other! It was so fun to meet a fellow blogger in person! We snagged another customer to take a snap of us. Laura hopes to get to the Phoenix area this summer for a trip to my LNS - Attic Needlework. Hopefully we can meet up again - Laura it was great to meet you! <br />
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Laura & Me at The Inspired Needle in Lemont Illinois -</div>
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two happy stitching bloggers!</div>
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I do have some finishes to share. I had fun stitching the "Forever Young" sampler from Heartstring Samplery with a friend - we did it pretty quickly and it was fun cheering each other on. I used some of my own thread substitutions and I did use just one thread instead of 2 in the greenery of the big fruit bowl as it seemed to let the "fruits" stand out a bit more. This one is going to the bottom of the big framing pile for the time being because I have 3 pieces out being framed now and a few more waiting in the wings. <strong>If anyone would like this pattern I will pass it along- just leave a comment stating you'd be interested in having it and I'll draw a name at the end of this week and send it to you.</strong> <br />
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"Forever Young" by Heartstring Samplery</div>
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It's been awhile since I've done much quilting but I had a chance to go to an open sewing day at a quilt shop near me a few weeks back. They had a local quilt designer there all day and we had a blast - they were giving away all sorts of goodies all day and having raffles and it was nice just having an entire day to sit and sew again. I've got a pile going of little stitched projects I am reworking/repurposing. Some pieces I just didn't like how they were framed years back or my skills had improved and I wanted to redo the finishing. I took 2 older pieces and put them on the front of 2 lined project bags I made. I really like how they turned out and it was fun seeing some old projects get a new life! I also finished up a little pincushion kit I had picked up a few years ago in a quilt store - the quilt block is called "Arizona" and it came with a matching little charm. It's stuffed with crushed walnut shells - lots of tiny tiny pieces to sew together! <br />
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I was getting in the Christmas spirit early this year doing a bit of finishing for a cyber buddy....I can't believe that we are the second quarter of the year already. The top piece is mounted to a fabric-covered board to hang on a door and the other pieces were finished as ornaments. I love all of them!<br />
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"Jingle as Ye Enter, Jingle as Ye Go" - design by Nancy at Victorian Motto</div>
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This is a little Prairie Schooler Santa finished as a flat ornie </div>
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(yes we have grass during the winter here LOL)</div>
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And I think these are Lizzie Kate designs but not entirely sure now...</div>
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I had grand intentions of stitching an ornament a month this year but my life has just been way too hectic. I did stitch this little JBW design which has been in my stash a long time...it's a little too big to be an ornament so I think I'll make it into a little flatfold hopefully soon. For some reason this little piece seemed to be cursed, I kept making mistake after mistake after mistake. I finally finished the wording along the bottom as the last part when I noticed that the chart has two different capital P's used for <strong>P</strong>lum and <strong>P</strong>udding. So I had to rip out one of them and redo that as well but it's finally done. </div>
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"Plum Pudding" by JBW Designs</div>
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stitched on WDW Cocoa linen with DMC</div>
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Now I have to get busy stitching on a present I'm making for my mom...</div>
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Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-23796863337516700422014-03-06T19:04:00.001-07:002014-03-06T22:57:49.424-07:00Stitching away......I'm still here and still loving my stitching. I'm sorry so many of you are still dealing with awful winter storms the last month or two....it's the perfect time of year here in the southwest. I took time off work this week to entertain houseguests and attend 2 spring training baseball games. It was wonderful being out enjoying good weather - we'll have our bad weather this summer when the high temperatures get here.<br />
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I've been stitching on the Valentine Sampler pieces by With Thy Needle & Thread for awhile. For some reason that project seemed to take me a long time to do. It wasn't only the stitching, there was finishing work to do, the box to paint, etc etc. Anyway, I'm happy to say it's finally finished. I had a few of the Whitman heart-shaped candy boxes that are called for in the pattern. You are supposed to paint one and mount the main stitched piece on the lid. Well I got my box painted but I was a bit dismayed at how flimsy those boxes are and really there is very little room to fit in the stitched accessories and I'd already put a lot of work into them. I decided to look for a better box so I headed over to Hobby Lobby. I was prepared to get any shape that would work but luckily they had a heart-shaped box paper mache that fit it just great and is very sturdy. It's a bit taller than I wanted it but it worked out well. I lined it with music-themed scrapbook paper. I changed things up a bit and did my own pincushion version using a few motifs from the chart and I made my needlebook with a snap closing and rickrack trim instead of the hanging buttons. I want to keep this set by my recliner and use it instead of just displaying it. <br />
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"Valentine Sampler" kit by With Thy Needle & Thread</div>
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stitched on Lakeside Linen Vintage Exampler linen </div>
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The stitching accessories - folded sewing case for needles, a pincushion and scissor fob</div>
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I also started a few new pieces in the last month. I'm doing an SAL with a friend and we're stitching "Forever Young" by Heartstring Samplery. Love the verse on this one which is from a song by Bob Dylan, and also performed by Rod Stewart:</div>
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May God bless and keep you always</div>
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May your wishes all come true</div>
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May you always do for others and </div>
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let others do for you</div>
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May you build a ladder to the stars</div>
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and climb on every rung</div>
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And may you stay Forever Young</div>
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You can see the completed version of this on Beth Twist's blog: <a href="http://thetwistfamily.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-forever-young.html" target="_blank">http://thetwistfamily.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-forever-young.html</a> Here's my progress so far, I'm close to done with the verse and anxious to start on the bottom half of the sampler. I substituted some of my own overdyed flosses and didn't use exactly what was called for in the chart but it's close. </div>
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I also started a piece for my mom from Little House Needleworks. I grew up in a town in Illinois along the Mississippi River. We used to go on the paddlewheel excursion boats occasionally although there aren't many of them left now. When my mother was a young girl she spent several summers at her aunt's house along the river and she has always loved the riverboats. When I saw this pattern I knew I wanted to stitch it for her. Not too much to see yet but the boat is starting to appear and one of the two islands in the 'river' is done. I'll be visiting my mom in May and want to have it done and framed to give to her then. </div>
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"Mississippi Riverboat" by LHN</div>
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I've been seeing some of the Market reports from various stitching shops...more cute items of course but nothing I didn't feel I had to rush out and buy. Of course when you've got a room full of stash waiting to be stitched it sort of dampens the urge to get even more! I can't think of hardly any of my charts that I <strong>don't </strong>want to stitch so I'm content to keep on stitching from stash for awhile. I've got several projects kitted up and I'm so anxious to get started on them but I need to keep my head down and finish these couple of pieces first. </div>
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I think I'm finally going to cave in and join Facebook...I've been resisting as I don't know how I'll find more time to spend on the computer when I can't keep up with all your blog posts. So if you have any tips for me as to stitching groups I should check out please let me know! </div>
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Hope spring is headed your way soon - thanks for stopping in!</div>
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Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-14949738650610111492014-01-31T16:21:00.003-07:002014-02-02T07:53:55.975-07:00New year, same old blogger habits!Well my best intentions again didn't get me to blog any more frequently this month. Just been way too busy with work travel etc but still trying to find pockets of time to stitch. It seems like many of you are off to a roaring start for 2014 with old projects being finished and new ones started - I'm seeing great stuff out there on your blogs!<br />
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I finally stitched up one of LHN's Sheep Virtues...I had bought 6 of my favorites from the set of 12 published last year. I dccided I wasn't that in love with the Dark Chino fabric - a little too dark for me and I prefer a higher count than 30. So I finished up the one I stitched as a hanging pillow:<br />
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LHN "Peace" Sheep Virtue</div>
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stitched on 30-ct Dark Chino linen with mix of DMC & overdyed floss</div>
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I really like how it turned out but I have no place really for 6 pillows...hanging or not....so I've decided I'm going to start over and stitch all 6 sheep on one piece of fabric that is lighter in color and has a smaller thread count. They are fun to stitch so I won't mind stitching this little Peace Sheep again. <br />
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I also stitched up an older Just Nan piece this month called "Beach Roses". I stitched this originally years back and made it into a biscornu for a swap Becky Bee had her SBEBB exchange board. I always wanted to stitch it for myself "someday". Well...someday finally arrived! I plan to make it into a needlebook for myself as soon as I get the wool I ordered for the insides. I love the little stitched white shells and the 'waves' around the edges.<br />
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Just Nan "Beach Roses"</div>
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stitched on lambswool linen with DMC</div>
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I feel like I've been on a country-wide LNS tour the last several months. (my wallet sure has felt it LOL) For some fortunate reason, the 3 places I've had to go for work travel have been places with great cross-stitch shops! I got to visit House of Stitches in northwest Indiana, StitchvilleUSA up near Minneapolis, and this month I was sent to Tulsa Oklahoma. Now you all probably know what's in Tulsa - the SILVER NEEDLE! I've always wanted to visit the shop and when I was told I was heading for Tulsa that's the first thing I thought of. I stayed over an extra day. While my coworkers were flying back home on Friday afternoon I headed over to cross-stitch Heaven. OMG - what a fabulous shop it is!! I was there at least 2 hours and all the employees were just nice as could be. Lucky for me, I had a generous VISA gift card given to me by my brother for Christmas so I shopped and shopped and shopped some more. I bought mostly patterns and linen cuts - they have a wonderful selection of linens. I took some photos of course so I hope you enjoy seeing a bit of the shop - if you ever get a chance don't hesitate but head right over there for a cross-stitch overload!<br />
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Notice the "Help Wanted" sign! Can you believe there aren't stitchers </div>
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Mill Hill overload! This wall of Mill Hill kits blew me away totally. I have </div>
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several Mill Hill kits at home but to see a stitched model of every kit was unbelievable! I wanted to buy one of everything. And that's not even all....around the corner is another section with all the Christmas ones! </div>
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I've been collecting several of the Christmas Village series but not stitched any of them yet. I don't want a bunch of hanging ones but perhaps I'll make them a bit smaller and do cubes. And may I mention that the Silver Needle has the most fabulous finishing work I've ever seen - the workmanship on all their model pieces in the shop is incredible! </div>
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Here's the Lizzie-Kate section - fabulous cubes, stand-ups, etc. Loved how they made these individual cubes and stacked them up for display.<br />
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They had a Shepherd's Bush corner, a LHN area, a Hinzeit wall as you can see above, and an Autumn/Halloween section you see in the photo below. And of course there was much much more. I saw so many models that I already have the patterns for and of course wish I could get them all stitched after seeing them finished in person.</div>
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I fell in love with this new Brenda Keyes sampler and the pattern came home with me - it's "Sweet Humility". Love how French it looks. </div>
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They had several knotted ornaments displays made from Teresa Layman patterns. I've seen some of her works before in person but not as many as they had at The Silver Needle. They are truly works of art. I have a couple of her patterns but as of yet have never finished a single one. These ornaments below were in a little glass case so hard to photograph but stunning in person! They are made of thousands and thousands of tiny knots - see how beautiful the shading is? Unbelievable. The owner of the shop told me that a couple of Teresa's pieces were the inspiration for some Christmas stamps from the U.S. Postal Service. Well-deserved I'd say!</div>
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I'm going to close with a photo of CCN's Santa's Village they had on display in a case by the cash register. It's done over-1 on 28-ct. I have all these patterns and was going to start it this year on 36-ct fabric over-2, but after seeing this I had to change my plans. Now I want to stitch it over-1 - this was an awesome piece - you can judge the size by seeing the owner's hand at the top. </div>
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So you can see what an inspiring visit I had at the shop - just loved it. I'm headed back to Tulsa next Monday but unlikely I'll hit the store again....my bank account needs a rest LOL. Thank you to my new followers and thanks to all who stop by my little cobwebbed corner of Blogland! I just love talking stitching with you all. Next time I'll have some finishing work to share that I just mailed off to a friend. I'll wait until she has the pleasure of seeing them first before posting photos here. </div>
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Until next time......keep on stitching!</div>
<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-64935847110316180952013-12-20T08:54:00.000-07:002013-12-20T19:20:39.426-07:00Getting ready for Christmas and some finishes..........I've been running around non-stop trying to get ready for Christmas. Can't believe we are less than a week away already! Traveling for work 3 of the last 4 weeks really put a kink in getting any shopping done and decorating the house. Here it is Dec 20th and I have not even got out most of my Christmas cross-stitch pieces. I did get my Christmas trees up the day after Thanksgiving before I had to head out of town to Minneapolis for a few weeks. Since I got back I've been trying to do a bit of shopping each night. I'm almost done now and packages that needed to get mailed are winging their way across the country. <br />
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It was tough for this desert-climate girl to get used to below-zero temperatures and snow in Minnesota but I made it through. I don't mind the snow too much but the bitter cold and having to warm up the car, scrape the windshield and all - no, I didn't enjoy that! I was glad to get home to sunny and warm Arizona. (It's actually raining today but it's been beautiful all week until today) <br />
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While I was in Minneapolis I did get to see some relatives and I made a quick visit to Stitchville USA before catching my plane home. They moved to a new location since my visit about a year ago - what fun it was to see it all - so overwhelming! I've never seen a shop with such a fantastic linen and fabric selection - I picked up a few colored linens but didn't get too carried away this time. <br />
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I do have a few finishes to share that I've gotten done in the past month or two. Just didn't have time to post about it. Here is Halloween Rules - I had fun stitching this one, it was my TV project. I plan to send it off to Jill Rensel to have her do her framing magic sometime after the holidays. I look forward to hanging it up next autumn.<br />
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Lizzie-Kate's 'Halloween Rules'</div>
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stitched on 32-ct Zweigart 'Stormy Night' linen with recommended overdyed floss</div>
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I also finished up this little holiday project below - couldn't get the color of the linen quite right in the photo of the whole piece but it was fun stitching in just one color for a change. At first I thought I might make a cube out of it but I think it's too wide (16") for that so I will get it framed instead.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbToWiTNcMyct3PYhuRjlwK9uvwz1VPEos8ytetnN3XXuMOm_qtyHIe7Q3nh_PpRm2p4JLL8unh65jqt0SmRudiBMkpF9Ike7Ho72SSbY4Rg9B69aVTPk-ZdnkxDzYCTz-dwxrkQ/s1600/Winter+Silhouette+editted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbToWiTNcMyct3PYhuRjlwK9uvwz1VPEos8ytetnN3XXuMOm_qtyHIe7Q3nh_PpRm2p4JLL8unh65jqt0SmRudiBMkpF9Ike7Ho72SSbY4Rg9B69aVTPk-ZdnkxDzYCTz-dwxrkQ/s640/Winter+Silhouette+editted.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Imaginating Designs - 'Winter Silhouette' </div>
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Stitched on 36-ct Lakeside Linen 'Midnight' with DMC white </div>
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My favorite part - the little church in the pines (this shows the linen color more accurately)</div>
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I've been seeing a lot of other finishes of LHN Needleworker out there on blogs in recent months and mine is finally done too. I just loved stitching this piece even though I made a mistake which I left in. (can you find it??) It still looks good to me though. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFswsBzanPOjT96xbi-sf8eEG2fDtnLzJ6QFUMvGyxDOyVcufvzN8ES2YTpNAl72FCTGwgrvhUUTyxpaHzJmACQADHpDPYhUzrb8dVaaU44sCSbfRc6-mvOytPe9B5T2UrjzxMA/s1600/LHN+Needleworker+finish+editted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQFswsBzanPOjT96xbi-sf8eEG2fDtnLzJ6QFUMvGyxDOyVcufvzN8ES2YTpNAl72FCTGwgrvhUUTyxpaHzJmACQADHpDPYhUzrb8dVaaU44sCSbfRc6-mvOytPe9B5T2UrjzxMA/s640/LHN+Needleworker+finish+editted.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Little House Needleworks - 'Needleworker'</div>
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stitched on 36-ct Lakeside Linens 'Vintage Basketweave' with recommended flosses</div>
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Here's a photo of our mantel...I made these stars that spell out "JOY" back in November when I went to a quilting retreat. The pattern for them made each of the pillows about 11" wide but I reduced the size and made them smaller. They are done with wool applique blanket-stitched onto the fabric starts. I added twisted cording to give it a little more personality.</div>
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Finally, here's some finishing work I did about 6 weeks ago for a stitching friend....a pincushion, a Christmas ornament and the lovely "Beggar's Night" from Threadwork Primitives. I love them all and was happy to work on them!</div>
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Hope all of you enjoy your holiday time with family and friends! </div>
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Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-60514883191655115642013-12-05T21:10:00.000-07:002013-12-05T21:14:21.955-07:00Technology rant.....I'm sorry but I just have to vent tonite......I'm ready to throw my laptop, iPad and smart phone out the frigid window!! I don't know what my problem is but lately nothing seems to be working right for me and I'm very frustrated. I've been spending at least 10 hrs a day working which is frustrating in itself as we are installing a large new business computer system at work and there are so many problems we are overwhelmed. So my patience is already stretched thin. I know lots of bloggers use Blogpress and I downloaded it some time ago to my iPad and iPhone. I spent time putting a post together a day or two ago in my hotel room (I'm on business travel for 2 weeks). Took some photos and got everything posted and when my post was published the photos weren't clickable. The photos had been loaded to Picasa which is where Blogger stores our blog photos, but when you clicked on the pictures all you got were errors. I ended up deleting my post. Grrrrrrrr<br />
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Tonite I wanted to catch up on reading some of your blog posts as I'm very behind. I notice that the checkmark to mark things as read in Feedly is gone darn it. It could be because my husband updated my iPad recently but I'm not happy as I see nowhere to mark posts as read. So I pulled up my blog on my work laptop figuring I'll just read some posts from the sidebar links I have on my blog. We'll the version of my blog that I'm seeing on my laptop has a different order of blog feeds than what I see on my phone and iPad. ??? What the heck is going on here....I have refreshed to make sure I'm pulling the latest versions and not pulling from the cached memory but it's still screwy. Maybe I'm just getting too old and cranky to keep up with technology....I'm feeling like "Maxine" you see on Hallmark cards....in fact I'd post an image of her if I thought it would work!<br />
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Sorry for being such a sourpuss, guess I'll go watch some boring TV instead while I'm here freezing in cold & snowy Minnesota........it's currently about 3 degrees! Someone please tell me I'm not the only one who has these sorts of issues.......Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-68599974852969466862013-10-26T15:45:00.002-07:002013-10-26T15:57:29.360-07:00Project bags for sale on my blog<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I finally had time today to get these posted on a separate tab on my blog - you can click on the tab right under the header photo. I made a couple of these for myself and really liked them to store my way-too-many projects in progress. Then I made a few for a stitching friend and I got the idea that this would be a way for me to use up a bit of my quilting fabric stash. I have way too much fabric! So I've made several and thought I'd offer them for sale if anyone is interested. I've sewn since I was 8 or 9 years old so they're well-made. <br />
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My husband went off to help a friend with some work at his cabin this weekend so I'm enjoying some extra "me" time. I've got China Beach season one loaded up on the DVD player...been waiting years for it to come out so I'm happy to finally get to enjoy viewing it again. I'm hoping to maybe get a stitching finish in by the end of the weekend. Hope your weekend includes some time in the stitching chair too!<br />
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<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-70855845440997132182013-10-17T13:50:00.001-07:002013-10-17T16:25:31.685-07:00Now where did I leave off??Well once again my poor blog has been neglected for awhile. Life has just been a whirlwind the last few months - I've had a family reunion out of state, work travel and a vacation to Disneyland to celebrate my birthday, been sick with a bout of bronchitis and generally just trying to make it through the days. I've got more work travel coming up in November so there's not much rest in sight for awhile.<br />
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I'm trying to get a few blogs read each day - apologies that I've not been able to visit and comment as much as I'd like to. I find that all the seemingly unending bad news is stressing me....it's bad enough with the government shut-down, health care insurance concerns, and constant calamities we have to read about....but there have been 2 sudden deaths of people I knew at work in recent weeks, and we found out a friend of ours had passed away in August and we didn't even know he had been ill. These things have all been on a mind a lot lately especially when I look at all the work stress my husband and I go through. I'm trying to just focus on the important things in life and letting of some of the other worries go. I know that many of you are struggling with your own personal concerns and I'm noticing again a lot of my favorite bloggers have been missing for awhile. Siobhan over at Notes from Blue Hen Hollow, Katrina from The Needle's Promise, Amy's blog from Down Sunshine Lane, Margie over at Three Cool Pugs & Me, Teri at Chocolates for Breakfast, and so many others I miss reading. I did finally remove about 15 blogs from my reading list that haven't been updated in over a year. It's always sad when someone "falls off the grid". I hope you all are alright and still stitching and that you just have been too busy to post. We miss you! Did everyone go to Instagram or Facebook and not tell me? I still like reading stitching blogs even with all the other social media available. I think we're all just struggling with not enough time to keep up with everything.<br />
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There hasn't been a lot of time for stitching but I'm trying to get a few moments in as I can. I took some projects with me on my work trip but we worked so many hours that it was late at night before I'd have 15 minutes to relax and then I'd be too tired to stitch most of the time. I did start on LHN's Needleworker and enjoying it. I've always wanted to complete a grouping of stitching-related pieces for my sewing room someday so this will fit right in. Here's my progress so far - I'm stitching it on 36-ct Lakeside Linen Vintage Basketweave - this linen has a hint of rusty red in some areas and goes well with the floss colors. I didn't want my piece quite as big as the chart called for so I switched to using 36-ct instead of 32-ct linen. Pardon the wrinkles.......<br />
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I'm still working away on Winter Silhouette from my last post and also started one of my With Thy Needle & Thread projects - the valentine box sampler which has been on my list for a long time to do. I found the colors called for a bit too muted for me so switched them out for brighter flosses. My camera broke and I'm using an old one I have but I'm having trouble working with it...time to look at getting a new camera I guess. I've always struggled with taking decent digital photos...someday when I have time I'd love to take a class so I can improve but this is all I've got for now!<br />
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I spent 2 weeks in South Bend, Indiana for work recently. Although I spent 15 years of my life in Chicago and its suburbs, I'd never really been to "Michiana" as they call the northern Indiana/southern Michigan area. I was working a lot but I had a weekend in-between the two weeks on my own and I drove up to a little town on Lake Michigan to stay. I enjoyed visiting the lakefront, seeing awesome vacation homes along the shore and wading in Lake Michigan. We were forced out of our hotel in South Bend anyway because the whole town and surrounding area hotels were booked up with rabid Notre Dame football fans for a home game that weekend. I did get to go wander around the campus one day and was glad to get the opportunity. It's a beautiful university that's for sure.<br />
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My feet in Lake Michigan...<br />
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Notre Dame campus......<br />
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I visited neighboring town Mishawaka, home of the famous Spinster Stitcher. I passed a PetsMart store there and couldn't help wondering if that might be where Stewey gets his dog biscuits! The best part of my trip was I got to visit 2 great stores and buy lots of stash! I've ordered from Ericas.com website before but never knew it was based in South Bend. I was searching on my phone for quilt shops I might be able to visit while I was there and up popped Ericas - what a great place it is! It's mostly quilting supplies but they do have a small cross-stitch section and knitting, embroidery and other crafting supplies. I got some great patterns for some bags, packets of gorgeous wools and some trinkets. Then I visited House of Stitches LNS in LaPorte, Indiana which was only about 20 minutes away. Oh what heaven!! I've heard of this shop for years and years and finally got to visit it. I think the ladies working there probably were wondering if I would ever leave because I spent about an hour and a half there ogling everything and pulling patterns and linens and asking about this and that. <br />
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A few snaps of the shop.........<br />
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There happened to be 3 other ladies visiting the shop from out of town and all of us were having a great time shopping. It's a fantastic shop and I spent a bundle of money as you can see. Even though I have a LNS where I live, it's so much fun to visit another shop and see different stitching models and products. House of Stitches has a wonderful selection of linen - the most I've ever seen, and it's just an amazing place. I highly recommend it if you ever get the chance to go. Here's my new stash spread out on the table.........<br />
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I stopped in a little antique store down the street from House of Stitches...I'm always on the lookout for vintage sewing notions as I want to do a shadowbox display someday for my sewing room. Well I found some old button cards for a dollar each and look closely at the top item - these are some sort of devices to hold your bra straps in place I think but look at the brand name - "<strong>La Jeanne</strong>" - couldn't be more perfect for me!<br />
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You know, at first I felt kind of guilty about buying all this stash. I have more stash than I'll ever get stitched in this lifetime and I certainly don't "need" anything....but that's okay! I'm going to enjoy just having it even if I never stitch it. I've worked full-time in a stressful profession for over 35 years and my stitching and quilting hobbies are my only real vices (well...not counting Diet Coke and nice soaps from Crabtree & Evelyn....) I have no kids to send to college and if nothing else, some day someone will get some bargains on eBay or at the local thrift shops when I'm gone or too old to see to stitch! In the meantime I'm going to enjoy my greed and revel in my stash. I'm doing my bit to keep this industry going!<br />
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<em>Coming soon.....</em><br />
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I've been working on sewing some project bags and hopefully in the upcoming weeks I'll have them up for sale on my blog. I like making bags and things and what I like about these new ones I've done is they have a clear vinyl front so you can easily see what's in them. If they don't sell I guess then I'll have some gifts to give away to friends this Christmas! <br />
<br />Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25707685.post-60352812792848158842013-10-11T12:35:00.000-07:002013-10-11T12:35:07.917-07:00Honoring the memory of Cathey from Pumpkin Patch & CoI never knew Cathey in person but was a follower of her blog for a few years. It breaks my heart that she could not beat the return of cancer but she fought it with everything she had. Cathey leaves her husband and her little boy who was only 18 months old when she passed away yesterday. It's a sad, sad day.<br />
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Jeannehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05377306162699247372noreply@blogger.com8