HAPPY NEW YEAR ONE AND ALL

As the sun sets in the Arizona sky, the sun sets on another year. 2007 was a year filled with much love and laughter. Our three grandchildren kept us smiling and filled our hearts with joy. Our family and friends enriched our lives in every way.
My new stitching and blogging friends were a wonderful addition to my life.

To all I wish a Happy New Year and a wonderous 2008 filled with love, laughter and sunshine.

After Christmas tales

Well, Happy Christmas everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We had a lovely day with friends. We go home every second Christmas and this was our Christmas to stay here. It was a bit rough going in the morning when we talked to the children and grandchildren on the phone. Hearing their excitement as they told us of their gifts and my grandson Jackson's little voice saying "Merry kissmass Gramma, I love you" kind of choked me for a bit and made us very homesick. However, DH and I pulled it together and got onto the business of making the most of our day. We had 13 guests for a potluck Christmas dinner. DH and I cooked the turkey, dressing, gravy and dinner rolls. We provided the hall and set the place up all festive. We had enough food for 10 dinners and enjoyed every single bite. We broke out the dice and cards and played into the evening. There was lots of laughter all around. Without even realizing it the day flew by and we all managed to put our homesickness aside. Everyone pitched in and helped sort the place at the end of the day. DH and our friends helped do all the dishes and put everything away. By 10 p.m. I was exhausted and in bed.

I managed a little stitching. Here is my big progress on Crystal Tree. I have put it on Qsnaps and have started the back stitching. The back stitching is all in Kreinik!!!! Yuck!!

The ornament package that I received from Margaret is completed. What a lovely stitch it was! It this my last ornament for 2007 or my first ornament for 2008?

I have been asked for the colors that I am using for Paradigm - DMC 502. I hope to work on it later today or tomorrow. Take care everyone - till the next time.

New Stash and stitching progress

Well, I have been on a bit of a buying spree. Check out my new goodies.

From a company in Englewood, Colorado called Diversions - a collection of Needles Necessities, WDW and Waterlilies threads for a stash of Sweetheart Tree pieces I hope to do some day. I have a very good friend who lives in Denver and she travels quite a distance to pick up these lovely threads for me. Thanks Patty. P.S. I am looking for a thread from a company called The Thread Gatherer called FNC40-001 Heather. Can anyone help me find it please?

From my friend Ann at Knowledge and Needles - another 10 skeins for my Little Book of Stitches - I was very optimistic buying 5 skeins wasn't I! LOL

From Stitching Bits and Bobs - Drawn Threads Sampler Gameboard, JBW Designs Christmas Stocking, a hibiscus needle minder and 8 packages of Piecemaker needles. I know - 8 packages - 3 are for my BFF Beatrice. I use a different needle for each thread color so I need (well, want) lots.

Now, here is my stitching progress for this week. I seem to be moving very slowly on Crystal Tree. I am so close to the end of the regular stitching but, as with everyone, it is a very busy time and when I sit, I just sit.Paradigm, however, is moving along well. I worked until 12:45 a.m. on this particular motif to get it finished. I had to give up before I got to the back stitching. - Ah, well, next week. The members of the Snowbirds SAL got a lovely surprise this week - a nice letter from Tracy Horner at Ink Circles. The link is in my sidebar. Check it out!

I also received the loveliest gift in the mail yesterday. I participated in a Christmas Ornament exchange this past year that fell apart in the middle. Some of the other participants lost their supplies and it was very disappointing for everyone. One of the stitchers - Margaret - sent me the loveliest Christmas card and a little package. Inside the package were the supplies for Rosewood Manor - Victorian Lace Snowflake Christmas ornament from the 2007 JCS Ornament issue.

What a thoughtful little gift. I appreciate it very much Margaret and plan to stitch it right away. Perhaps we will meet at another RR and it will turn out well for us all.

It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Now that the deck is finished and all the mess is cleaned away it is time to put up Christmas. I have been impatiently waiting for the job to be done so I could decorate. Here are a couple of photos.

I always put my Christmas village out front. It looks so nice at night when it is lit. The only snow we get to see is around the village and frankly, that is all I want to see. On each side are my bougainvilleas. I love these. They grow like vines and have thorns on them as big as thumbs or so DH says. He would love to get rid of them and is always after me to trim them. I just ignore him and 5 years later they are still here and blooming beautifully.
Here is my new deck - all porcelain tile. The three guys did a wonderful job and it is so much easier to keep clean. We get some wicked sand and wind storms here and the sand is so fine that carpet is almost impossible to keep clean. Over the last few years, people are replacing carpet with tile. We don't get much rain so the tiles hold up well outdoors. I am planning to put my Christmas tree up on the deck later today.
Here is my updated photo of Paradigm. I finally got the chance to work on it last evening.

And, I am still slugging along on Crystal Tree. I think I have two presents left to stitch then I will have to put it in Q-snaps. I usually work in hand so this will be my first use of them. I have many things to add that will require the fabric to be straight - silk ribbon, beads, rope, garland, snowflakes and charms - Oh darn, here I thought I was near the end. Oh, well, maybe next Christmas.

It's Raining AGAIN!!!!

Wow, I can't believe it! It is raining again. Grant the fact it is just a gentle rain and not a downpour, I still wish it would go away. It so rarely rains here it seem strange - and it is cold, well, cold for here 53F. BRRRR!!!

I have a little something different to show you today. I do some quilting. I took beginner's classes last year. I made a set of 6 placemats for my sister, Sherry - the Texas sister. She has her big country kitchen done in roosters and I thought she might like these. They are going into the mail on Monday.

I also received a package in the mail Saturday from my BFF Beatrice. Look what she found in a quilt shop while shopping for fabric for her mother's Dutch quilt. I am a very proud Canadian and will be out shopping for fabric to make this after I get a few other projects done.

If you notice that I am not commenting on blogs much lately, please forgive me. I am reading them but we have some issues here with the wireless and it cuts out quite suddenly. Many times I have typed out a great (in my mind) comment and it refuses to go through. Am I the only one having trouble with the comments? I try to read all your blogs. I so enjoy all the different projects that everyone is working on!!! Keep stitching one and all

We got rain!

Well, what an experience it was. Yuma very rarely gets any rain and this past week, we got RAIN. You should have seen the rain. It was a torrential downpour. Our average rainfall for the year is 4 inches and we received 2 inches in a short time. The streets were flooded and the roads were full of puddles. Several friends of ours had leaky roofs. We escaped any damage but we have a metal roof and the noise was wild. It was kinda fun. They are predicting rain for the entire weekend - we shall see. One good thing about the rain, the desert will be in full bloom in the spring.

I have had a good stitching week. I have made great progress on Crystal Tree. All the confetti stitching on the tree is done and 1/3 of the presents at the bottom are stitched. All of the presents have some Kreinik threads so they are a little time consuming. Thank goodness for my Thread Heaven cause it keeps those threads under control better.

I worked on Paradigm all day yesterday and really enjoyed this section. There were several small motifs and so you felt like you accomplished something at the end. Hey, I get my enjoyment where I can.

Yesterday, I spent jumping from my deck to the ground. My DH and his friends are replacing our carpeted deck with ceramic tile. When they took the carpet up, the stairs were rotten, so an entire day was spent replacing the stairs. If you are as nimble as I you can imagine jumping off that deck every time I wanted to leave the place. Of course, when there are no stairs you find 100 reasons to go in and out. I will post a photo when they finish my nice new deck.

Paradigm and Crystal Tree

Here is my latest progress on Paradigm. At the end of week 5 I have completed page 3. Now, in case you are wondering why I started at page 3, I am a leftie and so started on the right side of the piece.

I finished the large motif on this page, did all the backstitching then added the small "a". After checking my placement I realized I was out by 1/2 stitch. It took some time counting and searching until I found that the R was the problem. With much grumbling and mumbling, I frogged the letters R and Q and the small "a" and restitched them. I ended up pulling a midnight shift as I would not go to bed until I had them all done. What is it with having to put back the stitches we remove right away! I am excited to be on to page 2 next week.

I have some progress to report on Crystal Tree too. I have picked it back up and I am making progress. I have been able to add a couple of Kreinik threads. I even got to stitch one present under the tree. For some reason, the camera actually did a better job of capturing the colors this week.


You will notice several new names in my blog list. Many of these are new stitchers that have joined the Paradigm/Cirque blog. Check them out when you can - Joyus, Tannia, Gail, Rob at Coastal Stitching, Lesley, and Mindi are the ones I can think of right now.