Another project off the list. :)

I finished up my Christmas towels. I bought these towels probably 2 or 3 years ago intending to decorate them and give them for Christmas gifts. Well they're finally finished - yeah! They were more work than I thought they'd be so I'm glad to scratch them off my list. I'm giving my mom and sister their choice for a set and probably give one to coworker and keep whatever is left. These are made from patterns in Nancy Halvorsen's Art to Heart Christmas books - I usually buy her Christmas book every year because she has so many cute ideas. Her books and the Need'l Love "threads" books (Autumn Threads, Wintergreen Threads, etc) are some of my favorite books to pick up for fun projects.

I was showing these to my DH when I was fusing on the applique - I asked him if he could recognize what the elf on the red towel was before I got the eyes and details on it. He said "a pig in a hat". A pig! Of course I was annoyed but the more I looked at it, yes the more it looked like a pig! I tried to make it not look so pig-ish but I'm afraid it will just have to stay that way. It is rather funny and I think I better keep that red set for myself as no one may want a pig towel. :)









Now that '24' is over for the season I don't know what I'm going to watch all summer. I can't believe they won't come back for next season until January! I need a job like that - it pays millions and you get 7 months off every year. I don't watch very much TV anyway - I don't like reality shows so other than a few crime dramas like Law & Order etc I don't watch much. I do have lots of movie and TV shows on DVD at home and I put them on in my craft room to have something to listen to. The nice thing about old movies and shows is you don't have to watch it that much, you can listen and still sew or stitch.

Here's a picture of my little dog Abby. She's very funny and amuses us all the time. It doesn't look very comfortable but for some reason she likes to sit in the doggy door and peer out at the world. Every time I open my walk-in closet she goes and sits under my long dresses. I guess she likes to be enclosed for some reason. The trouble with that is she has gotten shut in the closet twice now when I didn't see her in there. Dogs are so funny.

A Touch of Spring

No stitching updates today. We have some birds nesting in one of the vines on the fence in our backyard. I've named the newest addition Simon. Isn't he cute? Not that I know it's a "him" but I just felt like calling this little one Simon for some reason. :) My husband took this picture without getting too close as we don't want to scare off the mother bird who is busy flying in and out with food every few minutes it seems.

I was out yesterday with all my quilting friends - we had a reunion with another group we met back in March that live on the other end of town. These lovely ladies hosted a wonderful progressive luncheon for our group and of course we did some stash shopping at a new quilt store which is always fun. We "toured" 4 different sewing rooms, had lots of show & tell and just had a great time. Isn't it amazing when you meet people who share the same passions as you do - so much to talk about and learn from each other.

It was 102 here today so we spent the afternoon in the pool cooling off. Summer has definitely arrived here in the desert. It's not quite as bad as it sounds - as long as you stay out of the sun it's fairly tolerable because there is so little humidity this time of the year. Hope to have some other updates later this week - almost finished with my Christmas towels and ready to start a new small stitching project - yippee! I love new starts!

Bah Humbug!

I have a list of 10 small projects on my blog that I wanted to fit in between my big projects. I stitched one of them last week in one evening and finished it into an ornament tonite. I go on quilting retreats twice a year usually and we always have a theme. Last year one of our retreats was titled "Bugmania". We get pretty silly when we go - lots of laughing, singing and general fun times are had by all. We started thinking up bug names for ourselves - we had June Bug, Lady Bug, Stink Bug, etc. I was grumpy about my job so I decided on Humbug. So when I saw this little chart by Bent Creek I knew I had to stitch it. It was fun to do. And as luck would have it, I had some leftover cording from another project which matched it well.

Bought a bit of stash on Saturday. Picked up the new limited edition of Gingher embroidery scissors - the Glory pattern. I also bought a few of the newest Prairie Schooler patterns and "Meadow Hills" from By the Bay Needlearts. They had a model at my LNS done on 40 count pale blue linen in silks. It hooked me!

Rachel had asked me how I attach my cording. When I am doing something firm like the finishes in my blog entry below, I glue the cording on with Aleene's Tacky Glue. Those projects were 2 pieces of mat board glued and sewed together and it makes it easy to glue on the cording around it. For soft things such as this ornament, I whip stitch the cording on and try to use matching thread so it doesn't show much.

I was looking at the pictures from the tornado in Kansas tonite. Wow - I cannot even imagine winds of 205 miles per hour! It must have been terrifying for those people. It really makes you count your blessings when you realize everything you own could be gone in a couple of minutes.

Small finish week for me

I have a few small things I’ve finally gotten the finishing work done on. About 6 weeks ago I made a list of 11 things that I really had to get done. They were not all stitching projects but a few quilting odds & ends and some other craft projects. All of them were close to being done but just needed a bit of a push to get to the finish line. I’m happy to report I have now made it through 7 of the items on my list! It’s a good feeling getting some of these out of the way. My plan is when I’m done with these 11 things, I’m going to make a new list of the next 10 things to work though.

This is a Loose Feathers design by Blackbird Designs called “Winter Delivery”. I stitched it early last year but it’s been sitting in the finishing bag ever since. I had fun digging through my huge stash of quilting fabric for some backing fabric that fits nicely with the colors.

A view of the back:

My other progress this week was the finishing of this little Prairie Schooler design. I stitched it years ago and stuck it in a drawer. I never did do anything with it. I’m happy with how it came out – hard to get a good picture of the backing fabric at night but the backing fabric is the perfect blend of colors and looks really cute. I am getting better at finishing and especially at making cording. I bought one of those Conair hair braiding gadgets and I love making cording with it. It saves me from having to ask my husband to assist me in making the cording and it’s much faster. That little gadget is well worth the money! I got mine on eBay and I think I’m going to pick up another one while they’re still available. I don’t think they are manufacturing them anymore.

Next up on my list is a small quilted wallhanging I started about 2 years ago. I made one for a small quilt auction and liked it so much I wanted one for myself. Isn’t that the way it goes a lot of the time? We find time to make something for someone else but our own projects frequently don’t get finished. Then I have several holiday towels I want to make – these are cotton plaid towels that you do fusible applique on and I have several pairs I had planned to make for Christmas gifts. Well they’ve been sitting in a box for about 2 or 3 years now so I’m finally going to tackle them.

I hope all of you are making progress on your own projects. I appreciate those of you stopping by and taking the time to make comments. The husband usually gives me a distracted nod and a “very nice” whether I spent 2 evenings or 2 years making it!

Happy Halloween - a bit early!

Here in the southwest we are enjoying the last few days of wonderful weather before it starts to get hot. I have hibiscus starting to bloom in the backyard and things are starting to recover from the winter freeze we had.

Here are some photos of a recent UFO finish - a Halloween quilt I started about 2 years ago. It was hard to photograph because it's so big. You can't see much of the block motifs unless you click on it and view the larger version. I really love Halloween and when I saw a model of this quilt I just had to make it. I puchased a panel of motifs for the centers of the blocks. I'm not sure what I will do with it now that's it done - I don't really have a place to hang a big quilt like this just for a holiday. Hopefully it will fit nicely on the guest bed or draped over a chair or something. I really want to purchase a quilt ladder to display some of my quilts on - too many of them are stacked in the linen closet.

I'm also posting my latest progress on the English Sampler. I finally finished the band with the numbers on it - all Algerian eyelets which took forever to do. So I completed that band and carnation band under it and now making progress on the center floral motif. I only photographed the top portion of this sampler - the bottom is various bands of whitework which I have probably about 40% done so far. This picture is a bit blurry but if you click on it you can see it enlarged and clearer. This is one of the projects I'm committed to finishing this year. I'm making good progress lately.

I was at my LNS for open stitching the other day, did very well controlling my spending but did pick up Brightneedle's "Pretty in Pink" along with the linen and a few fibers for it. I have admired this done by members of the Legacy board and glad I finally picked it up. Also showing some of the pearl-headed pins I picked up at Joann's recently - I anticipate doing several pinkeeps but none have been completed yet. I have dreams! I also got a call today that my hornbook pattern and materials are in. Can't wait to pick it up. This is by Pam Schmidt of The Prairie Sampler.

I hear there's a new design out of Gingher embroidery scissors - I need to get to Joann's quick before they run out of them. I believe it's called "Maria". I've seen it on eBay - looks a lot like the last set Alyssa just in a different colorway. Not my favorite colors this time but I'll buy them anyway! :)

Finally back to blogging

I can’t believe it’s been 6 weeks since I blogged! The time has just flown by and I’ve been very busy. My husband and I were helping my father-in-law recuperate from knee replacement surgery for about a month. Someone needed to stay with him the first 3 weeks at least and I did a lot of cooking etc. I also have a new role at work which is causing me a lot of stress even when I’m at home. I’ve been working some in the evenings at home, have even been waking up in the middle of the night worrying, my stomach has been hurting and my left eye has been twitching off and on. This is not good! Anyway without boring people with my work issues, I have just been dealing with all of that and though I have been fitting in a bit of stitching and other things, I just haven’t had enough time to sit down and catch up on my blog. I actually have accomplished a few things during this time. You can click on any of the pictures to get a bigger view.

I finally finished off my Cricket Collection carrot ornaments. I stitched them about 2 years ago but then never finished them into ornaments. They were a lot of work! I’ve only ever finished one ornament before but after all these carrots I now feel experienced. Then I had to get my Easter tree ready and hang up the carrots. Here they are, I think they turned out pretty cute if I do say so.

Luckily I bought some green wired ribbon 2 years ago because I looked for more now and couldn’t find anything. I don’t know if anyone else has this problem but good ribbon is really hard to find. I really only have Joann’s and Michael’s as a resource and it’s hit and miss with what they will have in stock. I’ve searched online as well with little luck. I had one roll that was perfect and wanted more of it but it wasn’t to be I guess. That’s why I don’t make a lot of cube-its either because it’s hard to find good ribbon to use and especially if you need a specific color to match something. I also finished up a little Easter wallhanging that was very close to being done. I think it's really cute, it's a pattern by Bare Roots. I didn't like the border I had put on and just decided to pink the edges and leave it at that.

Two weeks ago I went on a weekend retreat with my quilting buddies. We had a blast! We go to a place where they have built a special facility just for retreats so each person has lots of room, all your meals are cooked personally by the woman who runs it, and needless to say, she is booked through 2008! It’s a very popular place for quilters, scrapbookers and other crafty groups to do group retreats. While I was there I finished up the binding on a Christmas strip quilt I made a year ago (yes an old UFO). My friends and I cut up all our old Christmas fabric we no longer wanted last year and we all made scrappy strip quilts. I also made the quilted bag you see below from some leftover quilt fabrics. Then I finally completed the blocks for another quilt I’ve had going for awhile – all 168 of them! I hope to sew them into a completed top soon but then it probably will sit for awhile before I get it quilted. Most of the quilters with longarm quilting machines around here are booked up months in advance so it takes awhile (and some cash of course) to have it done. I don’t like quilting big quilts on my own sewing machine and this one will be queen size so I’ll have someone else do the machine quilting for me.

I finally got down to my LNS last Sunday for open sampler stitching. I had the last 2 Loose Feathers patterns waiting for me so you know it’s been awhile since I was there! I also picked up some stash – the Alyssum Scissor Pocket to match my Gingher scissors, a few Dinky Dyes, a pattern to make Easter cards on those cute Tokens & Trifles paper cards, yet another CHS pattern called “Be My Love” that the store had a beautiful model of, and Jane Timmer’s (Fancy Work) latest set of accessories for the small Whitman tins. I have several tins and really need to get going on stitching smalls for them instead of just stacking them in my cabinet. I also picked up my Merry Cox kit for her class “Flowers in the Fall” seen below (picture quality isn't too good but you get the idea).

Merry Cox teaches classes at my LNS (Attic Needlework) usually every November. I know some people must think I’m crazy but this is the first year I’ve actually signed up to take one. Almost all her classes are for making smalls and things with a lot of finishing work which I really don’t enjoy much. However, I know a lot of people would absolutely love to take a class with her and since I don’t even have to travel I felt I better take advantage of the opportunity. The class is for making a needlebook and pincushion shaped like a little bird. I’m sure the finishing work will be challenging! It’s not that I don’t like smalls and accessories, but I must admit I’m getting just a wee bit tired of them because it seems that is the main thing everyone is teaching right now. I guess I’m probably in the minority though but that’s okay, it’s just that I’m still trying to get myself a sampler wall at home!

I’ve also been doing a bit of knitting, but just to make myself some dishrags. A few weeks ago I finally threw out some knitted ones a coworker’s 95-yr-old mother had made me a few years back. They had lost all their color and really looked bad but I hated getting rid of them. I decided that I should be able to make my own even though I haven’t knitted anything in over 25 years. I had a friend help me with remembering how to cast on and off and I am now on my second dishrag. I plan to make several and send some to my mom and sister. They are easy and relaxing to do with no counting and a very simple pattern you don’t need to pay much attention to. I wouldn’t mind knitting myself a really nice couch throw someday but that’s about as far as I want to take it. I have no desire to make scarves, socks, sweaters, etc. I live in the southwest where it’s warm most of the time and I don’t have a big need for a lot of hand-knit sweaters and scarves.

I also have been trying to participate in UFO night with Cathy and the others on the Legacy Board WIP/UFO forum. I pulled out “English Sampler” from the old Treasures of Needlework magazine. I took a class in this I think in 2005 but haven’t worked on it in a while. I really want this piece done this year. When I was working on it this week the knob on my oldest set of scroll rods broke so I had to take it off and work in hand. I’ve had that set since 1993 and I don’t have any spare sets right now that don’t have a project on them. I will need to pick up a new set depending on what my LNS gets in stock. Here’s my progress to date on the sampler plus a picture of the completed one from the magazine. This is my first time doing lacis work.- I just hope it turns out well.

Well I don’t know if anyone will stop by my blog anymore since I’ve been dormant for awhile but I welcome anyone who does and love to read comments. I am glad to be back to blogging again.

Taste of winter

In response to some of the comments, yes we've had a unusually cold winter this year - what's all this about global warming?! It's been 17 years since it's been as cold as we had a few weeks ago. We had 4 nights of really freezing temperatures which has basically ruined our back yard. We have a lot of plants like hibiscus bushes which are frost-sensitive. They can take a short spell of frost but not the extended cold front we had. We will have to replant some this spring but that's the way it goes. It has been cold and rainy this week as well. We feel bad for the visitors who come to get away from winter elsewhere in the country as usually we are having good weather this time of year. And yes Red, I am a regular at Attic Needlework! I feel very fortunate to have it here and it is a dangerous place for me of course. I can rarely get out of there without spending a chunk of money. Luckily it is about 40 minutes from my house so I usually only get there on Saturdays, otherwise our family finances would be in deep trouble! For anyone else reading this, a trip to Attic Needlework is mandatory if you ever get to the Phoenix area. Someone else asked about the Family Arts Needlework shop. It is still here, it moved about a mile away from it's old location but still doing fine. I used to go there more often when they had cross-stitch but about 2 years ago they phased out cross-stitch and started stocking knitting supplies instead. The knitters and scrapbookers are taking over! They are still primarily a needlepoint shop but I do go there occasionally because they carry a lot of fibers - WDWS, GAST, all the Silk 'n Colors with the matching hand-dyed ribbons, and Waterlillies silks. One of things I'm excited about is getting Hobby Lobby which has started to move into Arizona. Unfortunately I read on one of the bulletin boards that they are reducing or phasing out their cross-stitch department. Doesn't it figure when they finally get to my area darn it. I wish there would be a stitching boom like there has been with knitting and scrapbooking because so many cross-stitch stores around the country have gone out of business.

I am still working away on my Christmas stocking unfortunately. There is so much backstitching to do and it's somewhat tedious but I'm getting through it. I will be glad when it's done - it's at the top of my UFO list. Next up on the task list is finishing my carrot ornaments from the Cricket Collection - I stitched several when the patterns first came out but never finished them into ornaments to hang on a little Easter tree. I haven't had much time for stitching in the past few weeks as my FIL is recuperating from knee replacement surgery and DH and I have been helping take care of him. So far he is doing fine but it's going to take a while before he'll be self-sufficient again.

GO BEARS!!!!

Yes, it does snow in Arizona! Here are some pictures I took this past weekend in Sedona. A few co-workers and I went up to visit a friend who moved there last year. Those of us from Phoenix don't see snow very often so we were totally excited to wake up to a beautiful snowfall on Saturday morning - huge wet flakes that covered the trees and looked just like Christmas Eve ought to. We spent a lovely weekend catching up, eating out, shopping and seeing the movie "Queen". I liked the movie - I've read a few books about the British royal family over the years. The movie certainly did not paint them in a good light as far as being in touch with the real world. I wonder what the Queen thinks of the movie??

Last week I took a knotwork class at my LNS. We could choose between 2 Christmas patterns from Teresa Layman. If you ever have a chance to see a trunk show of hers, go do it! The pictures just do not do them justice. They are like tiny hooked rugs. These finish up at 2" square! They are adorable. The designer had finished them in a couple of ways - some with Whimsi frames from Just Nan (shown in the photo here),

and some finished with a backing and cording like an ornament. It's pretty easy to do and very relaxing. No pattern that you need to watch closely, no counting, all you do is fill in the pattern with the right color of French or colonial knots. I've never like doing French knots but these are done with only one twist of thread around the needle and go quickly. These projects are very portable and inexpensive as well. The patterns can be a bit more because you get not only the instructions but a pre-printed piece of cotton with the pattern already on it. But once you have the pattern all you need is a small hoop and some cotton floss and you are set. We got to see the designer's brand-new patterns that have just come out and they were real winners as well. I had to add at least one to my wish list. :) Here is my meager progress so far.

Lastly, you might notice I've added the Chicago Bears logo to my blog after Sunday's win! DH was scaring the dogs he was shouting so much at the TV. Our Chicago Bears are on to Superbowl 41! We are former Chicagoans and couldn't be more excited about the Bears finally getting back to the big game after a long drought of 21 years. We will be flying the Bears flag at our house starting a few days before Superbowl Sunday!

Musings on the stitching obsession.......

I was catching up reading Melissa’s blog (http://www.gulfskye.blogspot.com/) today and I just kept thinking “That’s me! That’s me totally!” Sometimes I wish I could back to the days when I started cross-stitching – I liked stitching but I wasn’t obsessed like I am now. I think about stitching way too much! I don’t have much time to actually do it, but I’m always buying stash, recording stash inventory, planning projects, making lists of this and lists of that, organizing UFO’s, making up rotation sheets, reorganizing my stash, making wish lists, planning wall arrangements around projects I haven’t even started yet, etc. I send my UFO/WIP list back and forth between my home and work computers so I’m sure I have the latest one at both places. Like I should worry about my UFO’s when I’m at work! But I do. Sometimes if I have a slow day I’ll check the bulletin boards from work which I really shouldn’t do but I don’t want to miss anything of course. I print out my lists and put them in a page protector with all sorts of promises to myself about what I’m going to get done and when. I kit up projects and they sit in drawers for years. I have a stack of unframed finishes and things that need finishing work like ornaments. I stack up stitching magazines with promises of “someday”. I have probably close to 200 photos on my computer that I have saved from bulletin board posts – ideas of what I want to do or a picture of someone’s beautiful finish and notes on the linen & threads they used. It is crazy! Melissa is right when she says non-needleworkers cannot comprehend our obsession. I used to be obsessed with quilting but the stitching has taken over – I still quilt but not as much. I am envious of some of the online stitchers who seem to complete an unbelievable amount of projects. I try to tell myself they don’t have full-time jobs, have live-in maids and cooks and husbands who do the all the laundry! I’m kidding but I just can’t figure out how in the world they find the time to do it all. My life seems to get busier all the time and I’m not sure why – I don’t even have any children but somehow the days get filled up. My husband complains I don’t spend enough time with him. By the time I get home from work, make dinner and clean it up, give some attention to my dogs who wait all day for us to come home, it is late in the evening. . That’s when I get a little of “me” time and I frequently end up staying up late to stitch. This is a bad habit because the next morning it is all the harder to get up at 5:15 and go to work. Then when I’m at work, I’m thinking about stitching! I think that my obsession is fed a lot by being online – I don’t have any personal friends who really stitch other than an occasional Paula Vaughan or something like that. I have learned an incredible amount from stitching bulletin boards, websites, and blogs. But the more you see, the more you want to have for yourself! I know for sure that being online has increased my stash spending tremendously. My DH has always had a personal computer since I knew him in1989, but a few years after we married he said I should have my own and got me one. I thought it was a waste of money at the time. Now I can’t imagine life without my computer – I’d be disconnected from the International Stitching Organization! I might miss out on something! So technically can I blame DH for this problem I have?? :-)

Sometimes I think maybe I’ll get tired of stitching and move on, but so far it’s going on about 6 years of the obsession stage and it’s not lessening. I’m also like Melissa in that I am not good with decorating – just don’t have “the knack”. I have a friend who loves antiques and decorating – her house is like a mini-museum – everyone loves it. She has many of her walls filled top to bottom with things and it looks great. If I tried that, I know it would end up looking like a flea market. Not to mention that DH stresses over every nail hole in the wall! I tell him “what are walls for if you can’t hang things on them?” I admit that I will hang things when he’s out of town because if I decide it’s too high or low after putting a hole in the wall, he gets all upset. If I do it while he’s gone, I can patch up any errant holes myself and no one is the wiser . Then you have the problem of not having enough framed pieces to really do what you want on the walls – I don’t have a lot of wallspace in my home as it’s a very open plan, but some of the walls that do exist are big and you just can’t place one little picture on a big wall because it looks silly. So then you wait because you have plans to have this whole group of samplers, or Quakers, or whatever it is you like, done so you can hang them all up together. I also am trying to decide what to do about glass on my pieces- I have some older ones framed with glass. My LNS is discouraging of putting glass on needlework (even with spacers) so the last 4 or 5 things I had framed there I didn’t put glass on them. Now I have a mix of glass and no-glass. I have to pick one way or another. I am leaning towards museum glass –that would mean taking some existing framed pieces in and having them add the museum glass. I want a uniform look. I live in the desert southwest where it’s very dusty and we get lots of sunlight. I’ve read everyone’s side of the glass story and there are good points on both, I just can’t decide which way to go. Plus there’s the problem of seasonal stitching pieces and how to hang those so you don’t have to put extra holes in the walls just for a month at Christmas or Easter. Another one of my plans is to have a set of seasonal finished pieces for different times of the year that I could swap out – I’d try to do similarly-sized pieces and therefore making use of the same space & nailhole on the walls.

Well as you can see by reading this, I’m full of stitching plans and thoughts, if I could just somehow get them all done! I have not even addressed my quilting issues - I have 10 years of quilting stash in my stitching/sewing room. We won’t even go there…….not to mention the 11 kits to make Gail Wilson dolls (http://www.gailwilsondesigns.com/) and a rughooking UFO. I just hope I live a long time and am healthy enough to make use of all this!

I'm still out here - Happy New Year everyone!

Well I cannot believe it’s been so long since I last blogged but life has been very busy. I was chasing my tail all of December between work and the holidays. I thought I would have all sorts of free time during my December vacation from work for 10 days but between hosting 2 holiday parties, getting together with relatives etc, it seemed to fly by. I had about one day really to myself to sit and stitch and relax a bit.

I thought I probably should post a couple of pictures as I have none of myself on my blog and it's nice to put a face with a name. So here's one of myself, husband Dave, and our 2 dogs Buster (the Sheltie) and Abby (who would only stay still if she was in her bed). Also I've attached a picture of my holiday table - I love setting the table a bit different each time and I did blue and some lime green this year. And of course another picture of the dogs in their Christmas collars - don't know why dog eyes so often look weird in photos but they do. Abby eye's always come out blue in photos but are really brown. She's a very funny dog we adopted last year from the animal rescue society.









The bad news is I did not get my Christmas stocking finished! I still have some backstitching to do and then the finishing work. I put it away on Dec 23rd and told myself to face reality and not be stressed about it. So I have gotten it back out now and plan to finish it up – DH says he’ll fill my stocking for Valentine’s Day instead!

So there hasn’t been much time for stitching in quite a while and work is keeping me pretty busy as well. DH and I have started a new diet plan this week. We are trying to learn to eat better as we both have poor eating habits and are overweight. The first 6 weeks have a very strict food plan and it takes time to prepare the food to bring to work the next day – no grabbing a Lean Cuisine as I run out of the house anymore. I hope it helps both of us as we really need to get on a better path for our health.

I started a new project by Brenda Keyes – “Plymouth Sampler”. Here’s the pattern and my little bit of progress so far (excuse the poor scan but it's late and there's not much to see anyway). I’m using Lakeside Vintage Meadow Rue with NPI silks instead of the DMC called for.






I have had this kitted up for about a year ever since I saw the model at my LNS and fell in love with it. Not that I needed another WIP of course but I indulged myself for the new year. It’s my first major project done on 40-ct Lakeside Linen. So far it’s a bit tough – I use my big Daylight magnifier all the time anyway but even with the magnification I find it is so small – and even though I am using a petite needle it almost seems too big when stitching with it. I wear transition bifocals and although I love the look of 40-ct I think in the future I will do most of my work on 36-ct instead. I find it easier to stitch on – hate to admit I am getting old but my eyesight is just not what it used to be. I look at things I did years ago and sigh because I never needed any magnification back then. Those were the good ole days!!

Again this year I have stitching resolutions to finish up old UFO’s, decrease my number of WIP’s and reduce stash spending. I did cut down on spending last year but not enough. I am still acquiring at about 6 times the pace of stitching things! I recently picked up Lizzie Kate’s “Love Crazy” pattern. http://www.lizziekate.com/lizzie-127-lovecrazy-models.html
I really like the bright happy colors on it and it reminds me of the ‘Love’ stamp that used to be out. I won’t get it done for Valentine’s Day this year but it should be a fun and easy project.

I also picked up the last of the seasonal patterns I’ve been collecting for awhile from Rouge du Rhin. I love these hearts – one for each season but they run $20 apiece so to spread out the $80 I have been buying one every now and then. http://www.thefrenchneedle.com/coeur_printanier.htm

If there's anyone still out there reading my blog, do you know what happened to Blogroll? It used to work nicely but lately it's broken. I liked knowing who had updated their blog.

Forging ahead on my stocking

I know several online stitchers started new projects over the holiday weekend but I am persevering on my forlorn Christmas stocking that I started over 2 years ago! My husband's has been done for 2 years now but mine kept dragging on. I am determined to finish it in time for Christmas this year. I am getting close to the top where the cuff starts but then of course there is all the backstitching and the finishing work. Wish me luck! This is from the old Cross Stitch & Country Crafts magazine and was originally published in the mid-80's I believe. I always planned on stitching it someday for myself as it really fits me. I also quilt and sew, have my grandmother's Singer Featherweight machine and all so I just had to stitch it. Here is my progress so far - you can click on the photo for a larger image:



I'm having a wonderful 5-day weekend. I had Friday off work and am taking Monday off to go visit a friend in Sedona who retired last year there. We worked together for 10 years and I'm driving up with another friend from work to see her new retirement home and spend the day. It should be fun - Sedona is a beautiful place to spend some time. I have Fridays off for the rest of the year using up my last days of vacation time and I'm really looking forward to those 3-day weekends!

Thanksgiving finish

I just finished this piece by Homespun Elegance on Tuesday night and temporarily put it in the frame tonite so I could display it for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I will do a better stretching/mounting after November but this is good enough for now. (click on photo to see a larger version)



This was a fun and quick stitch that only took me a week (for me that is really good!) I found this lovely frame at my LNS when I bought the pattern last week. This is called "Delivering Plenty" and the great thing is that there are 5 or 6 other "delivering" patterns that I can stitch and swap in and out of the frame for other seasons and holidays. I like being able to swap pieces out and it saves on the framing costs especially for small seasonal pieces. I have to make this short tonite as I still have some chores to do getting ready for tomorrow's guests. I like to have my table all set up the night before and that is the last thing I want to do tonite. I prepared most of the dishes this afternoon and just have to bake everything while DH cooks the turkey out on the grill. Hope all of you enjoy a lovely Thanksgiving shared with family or friends! I'm especially thankful for all the wonderful designers and products that make stitching so enjoyable, and the online community of stitchers to share with. :-)

Secret Garden Box Finished!

Yeah! I finally got this done while DH was out of town this weekend. I had a bit of trouble with my box - I painted per the instructions (substituting blue for the red paint) but when I started to sand it down after the top coat of camel, it started turning green - the blue paint underneath with the yellow-ish camel on top made it green. I didn't like that too much so I decided to paint on another coat of blue and make my box a weathered blue look. I also changed the top a bit and mounted the needlework like a panel instead of stretching it over the lid of the box, then I added a cording around it. I had intended to make my cording out of the varigated Needle Necessities I used to stitch the piece, but Needle Necessities floss is pre-cut into lengths that prevent you making cording out of it. Luckily I had some perle cotton that worked out fine. Here are 3 views of the box - click on them to enlarge the photos.







Yesterday I visited my LNS to pick up the latest BBD Loose Feathers design. Of course I did some shopping while I was there, I couldn't help myself! My LNS had a trunk show from Homespun Elegance, one of my favorite designers. Lovely lovely things for sure. I did see a really cute Thanksgiving stitch and I bought it - it's called "Delivering Plenty". Thanksgiving is one holiday where there aren't all that many cross-stitch designs available. I really like this one and I'm going to stitch like crazy to see if I can get it done in time for the holiday. I picked up a gorgeous frame while shopping as well so I can stretch and frame it myself temporarily for the holiday. Here's a picture of the pattern:



My LNS also had a smaller trunk show for Erica Michaels Designs - they do a lot of punchneedle and miniature knotted patterns. Now up to this point, I have successfully avoided punchneedle and knotted designs - I can't really add any more hobbies to my life. But some of these pieces were out of this world! They had a little round autumn-themed 'rug' that was to die for. Then I saw this miniature knotted ornament and it was all over - I could scan the pattern but the picture on it just does not do the piece justice. It reminded me of petit point in the amount of detail that showed. The 4" round ornament has a sand castle, waves, and ocean with a turtle, mermaid, etc. I was smitten. It's called "Seaside Roundabout" by Erica Michaels. You can do the pattern either in punchneedle or the miniature knotted version which I want to do. I've never done this before so I may have to do some practicing. I know doing french knots was never my favorite so even though the pattern has you do colonial knots it's still going to be a challenge.

My foray into paper arts

My friends and I had our card-making class tonite. It was a lot of fun - held at a "Recollections" store if you've ever been to one. It's a chain of stores and they sell scrapbooking and paper arts supplies. What a great place! My first time in the store and they have a huge classroom where you can take all sorts of classes. We paid $20 each and it was about a 2-hr class. You got all the supplies to make 5 autumnal cards. Very easy and a fun group outing. I felt like I was reliving my childhood again - cutting and pasting! I've always had the 'craft' bug ever since I can remember. As a child, I had a big bulletin board in my room that my dad had made with a nice wooden frame, and I decorated it every month in a seasonal or holiday theme. I made potholders, did woodburning, made puppets, sewed doll and troll clothes, learned to crochet from my mom and grandmother, knitted a little and embroidered dish towels, made popsicle houses, corn husk dolls and all sorts of odd little things. Does anyone remember making Christmas trees by folding Readers Digest magazines or making trees with toothpicks stuck into styrofoam balls? You stacked the balls all together in a tree shape and then used spray flocking and glitter to decorate. I remember using pink flocking spray to make pink Christmas trees. I'm showing my age but I can remember they used to do crafts on the Captain Kangeroo show and I was always asking my mom for some sort of supplies I needed to make something. So I guess it's not surprising I became addicted to stitching and quilting. :)Anyway, here's a picture of the cards I made tonite. I'll send them to some family members for Thanksgiving. Making cards is a lot of fun but the only trouble is most people keep them a few days and throw them away so I don't think I'd do it all the time.



I also picked up some scrapbook paper. I want to make a small scrapbook of all my quilting and stitching projects. I'd like the pages to have a coordinated look to them color-wise without too much 'frou frou'. Now just to find the time to do it!

Back again..........

Wow, can't believe it's November already. I haven't blogged in awhile. I had to spend some time out of town in October and things are just starting to get back to "normal". I am still working on the finishing for my Secret Garden box although the stitching part is done. Hope to post the completed box in a few days. Today while watching the Bears-Miami game I worked on finishing a Halloween paper banner I started a few weeks ago. I'm in a group of 9 quilters and we meet once a month. We don't always do quilting - some of the ladies are into paper arts so in October we all did Halloween banners. At least my banner came out good which I can't say for my Chicago Bears!! You can see on the mantle my Thanksgiving figures I bought this week on eBay - I think they're cute and plan to use them as part of my table decor for the holiday.



I only had a little to do finish mine up but now it is going into storage until next Halloween. It was fun - I got to play with all the tools etc but didn't have to buy them so that's always fun. This Tuesday we are meeting for November at a scrapbooking store. This could be dangerous! I have avoided scrapbooking because I can't handle another hobby! We are taking a class where you make cards so it should be fun. We like to do different things once in a while and since we all live in different areas of our metropolitan scene, we sometimes try to meet in the middle somewhere to cut down on all the driving.

I also made some quilted cards today. Somehow, I found a link to the Craft Apple blog on someone else's blog and that's how I found these. (if you want to see the instructions, view this wonderful blog and check the October archives - http://craftapple.wordpress.com/) I can't remember now whose blog I first saw them on, but I sure enjoyed making them. Since I'm a quilter, I have no shortage of fabric to use! I used pieces from the charm pack of Moda's "Chocolat" by Three Sisters. I made about 10 cards that will be fun to use.



I recently picked up 3 quilts I had quilted. Now I am working on putting on the bindings and will be posting those as I complete them. I am forcing myself to get back to working on my unfinished Christmas stocking. I started it like 2 years ago but haven't finished it yet. It's from the old Cross Stitch & Country Crafts magazine. I really should get this done so I can hang it up for Christmas this year. I think I'm about 70% done with the stitching,but here's what it will look like:

Finally! A Happy Dance!

(click to link to larger version)

I put the last stitches in Carriage House Sampling's "Wild Roses" tonite. This was my New Year's Day start this year. I had originally planned to have it done in June,well I missed that by a long shot but at least it didn't carry over until 2007. I really loved this project - at one point I got a water spot on my linen somehow and had to wash the piece. Because I used R&R linen I lost a bit of the color (it was 36-ct Abcedarian) but it still came out looking good. I like using NPI silks for just that reason - if you need to they can be washed and hold up great. This piece is very long - 26". It will go into the "framing" pile and probably won't get framed until after Christmas. The pattern is modified somewhat from the original - the model stitcher at my LNS did a modification of it and you could obtain her changes as long as you bought the original chart from the store. The letters down the sides read "Bless the Beasts and the Children" which I think is nice instead of just random letters. I'm already planning to hang this piece in my living room when framed - I have mottled yellow walls and brown leather furniture so I think it will fit in well.

This is about the most fun I've had all week finishing this! I've had a stressful 2 weeks at work and working overtime on some problems. In fact I was finishing this in-between monitoring my work email account tonite. Nothing like stitching to perk you up! Now I just have to resist starting a new project because I really need to finish my Christmas stocking that has been a WIP/UFO for 2 years!

Yeah - it's October!

I am so happy it is finally October. Not only is it my birthday month, but it's my favorite month in the year. I love all things autumnal and especially Halloween. Also, it's when summer finally ends here in the desert southwest. Soon we say goodby to temperatures in the triple digits and settle down to a beautiful winter!

I haven't had any time to update my blog in awhile. My DH and I had to take an emergency trip out of state because my father is very ill. He is 83 and been in poor health for a few years now, but it has been stressful. On top of that I've been extremely busy at work and it just seems I can't get caught up with anything lately. I did take my Secret Garden with me when I was out of town and got a little bit done while traveling. It is an easy stitch and hope to have it finished soon so I can make the little box that goes with it. Here are 2 pictures of it - one with the fabric I'll be using to line the box, and another photo closeup - not the greatest photo but the best I could do in a hurry today.





I picked up a few things at my LNS a few days ago. I had some patterns that they had been keeping for me - the latest Loose Feathers design and I finally got my copy of Flea Market Souvenir from Blackbird Designs. Somehow they sold the first shipment out and I didn't get one. My 2006 JCS ornnament issue was in and I succumbed to buying Little House Needlework's "Watermelon" kit. I had seen pictures of it but when I saw the model,well, I just couldn't resist. The model at my LNS was done on 40-ct with a wide frame and it was SO cute! So I picked up some 40-ct Newcastle linen in Summer Khaki and hope to get started on that soon. Here's a photo from my little stash trip - try not to look at my messy cutting table - my sewing room is overflowing with projects lately.



I'm not a big ornament stitcher. I stitched several Prairie Schooler ones back about 15 years ago (has it been that long??). I'd like to stitch some more but they just aren't at the top of my list it seems. That said, I have started buying some of the annual JCS ornament issues and I did buy the 10-yr anniversary one in case I wanted to stitch some of them. Mostly I like sparkly, traditional glass-blown ornaments on my tree. They are getting harder to find though every year, and if you do find any, they are usually very high priced. I don't like the Ladko ornaments because they're too darn big - I think 8" ornaments look too big on a tree unless it's like a 25-foot one. Most houses don't have trees that big. I guess I should try to fit in some ornament stitching over the next year, now that I have improved my finishing skills a bit it's not so daunting to do the finishing.

I need to find more time to update my blog. My DH and I are heading out to take my father-in-law out to dinner in thanks for coming over and staying with our dogs while we had to rush out of town. At least I don't have to cook tonite! Then I have some work I need to do in preparation for work tomorrow - nothing quite like having to face work on a Sunday night. Ugh. I did however finish up a Shepherd's Bush RR today will mail it out tomorrow. At least that's one more thing off of my 'to do' list.