Busy fingers

Good day everyone and how are you all these days? I am doing okay. The weather is starting to change. The nights are cold and the days are cool. My bones are starting to ache and it is time to move on. DH and I winter in Arizona. So, this next week my focus will be on packing up and closing down our home here in preparation for our shift to Arizona.

It has been a very productive stitching week and I have lots to share.

I received an email from BeckySC that she received the Autumn pinkeep that I made for her. This was her wish from the Make A Wish exchange. It is from Prairie Schooler's Autumn Leaves. It was my first pinkeep and I was very nervous about it. If you have seen Becky's blog she does the most beautiful finishes. Thank goodness, she likes it. My Halloween stitching. I found this freebie somewhere on a blog but can't for the life of me find it again. It turned out okay. I wished I had picked a bit darker fabric as the skeleton is a bit hard to see. I am going to finish it as a flatfold. I don't usually do Halloween as we are on the road to Arizona at that time of year but couldn't resist this one.I finally have some progress to show on Fairies in the Garden. We have some border and flowers. I think that my woes with this piece are behind me and now I can concentrate on moving forward. This is my Wednesday SAL with Anne from Knowledge and Needles. I also found the information on this - Britain's #1 Cross Stitcher magazine - May 2005.

My progress on my Winter Neighborhood RR. This is the new Winter pamphlet from Prairie Schooler. I love the little cardinal in the corner. It is progressing well. And in the mail this Friday - Michelle's Halloween RR. This is just the cutest. I have picked the pattern and threads and will start on it as soon as I finish the winter RR. And from waaayyyy down in the bottom of my stitching trunk - this piece. I started this Christmas stocking in the early 2000's if not sooner. It was stitched on 18 count navy. I could not see the holes. There are sections that are stitched with 3 strands of thread and on 18 count I did not like the look. I perservered at it for a few years and got the ark in the center done. Then one day, I decided no more. So, after reading the new blog "Let's Stitch" that Becky has started to encourage us to work on those old UFOs and BAP's that are languishing somewhere I decided to try again. I bought a new piece of 16 count navy and sat down for the Friday SAL. I am pleased with my progress. And I can see the holes in the fabric without a magnifier. So, hopefully this one now stands a chance of being finished! The old piece of 18 count navy - in the garbage - even for ornaments I would not be able to see it.

And last but not least, I found these questions on a blog and they made me stop and think. I will ask and answer these. Please feel free to answer them too. I would be very interested in your replies.

If you could put the last stitch in a piece of needlework you have already started what would it be?

For me it would be the aforementioned Noah's Ark Christmas Stocking.

If you could put the last stitch in a piece of needlework that you have not yet started what would it be?

Long Dog Samplers - Bagatelle.

Have a great week everyone.

Lucky, lucky me

Oh, I love my mail person. I have received several packages this week.
Without further ado, here are the contents of the packages.

From BeckySC - My Make a Wish exchange
I wished for a biscornu and received this lovely one. I love the color red. Her stitching is beautiful and her finishing is perfect.

The pattern is February Quaker from The Workbasket on 28 count off white using DMC 115. She added our initials and the date. I LOVE IT!!!!! Thank you Becky.

A few weeks back this same Becky had a giveaway on her blog of stitched pieces she no longer wanted. I put my name in for this piece and it came my way at the same time as my biscornu.

It is a standing joke amongst my family and friends that I don't do dishes. My DH does all the dishes and when visitors come they know to do the dishes too LOL. There is no stitched piece more perfect for me. I intend to frame this and hang it in my kitchen.

From Annette, I received my Round 9 Fair and Squares. Check these out. I just love it and the color is stunning. The info is Periphaeria Designs - Courtyard of Alahambra on Toasted Almond Belfast and stitched with Apricot Grove by Gloriana Silk.

And then, another envelope arrived. Becky from OK knows that I am a nutcracker collector and last year had stitched me a beautiful nutcracker as part of a Christmas exchange. She was sorting through some old magazines and found this for me. I see some new nutcracker ornaments in my future. Thanks for thinking of me Becky. I so appreciate it.

And the packages continued.

I received the package from Australia for my Winter Neighborhood RR. I was getting a little concerned as it took 3 weeks for the envelope to arrive. This fabric is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. It is a Silkweaver Opalescent called Starquest. Sophia also included the most lovely booklet for us all to contribute our little bits of info. I have already picked out my pattern. I am just waiting for a general concensus on stitching direction and then I will start. Since I am left handed I believe I stitch in the opposite direction to many others. I want to make this as easy as I can for the other stitchers. I have a feeling I am going to be stitching sideways again to make my stitches go in the same direction as most of the others.

My mom gave me a belated birthday gift - a gift certificate to Ann's store. Although I am on a stitching diet, I don't think gift certificates count. Here is my purchase.

Chatelaine's Evening in the Park, a fat quarter of Opalescent White 28 count Lugana and a pack of Piecemaker needles.

In stitching news - I have done some stitching this week but no major progress. I put some stitches in my Mirabilia RR and yes, it is White Christmas. I have put some stitches in Fairies in the Garden but not enough for a progress photo and I have a small start on a new piece.I have been asked for info on Fairies in the Garden. I have a enlarged photo copy and need to find the original magazine to give that info. I will keep loking. I will save photos of my little progresses for the next time.
Until then, have a good week everyone and keep on stitching.

Hurricane Ike drops by

Guess who came to visit? We returned to our home after visiting with our son for the weekend, with grandson Hunter (2) in the car, to be greeted by this. We have very large poplar trees on our property. Sunday night, we had a tremendous windstorm courtesy of Hurricane Ike. A limb 8" around and 30' long landed on our back deck. It missed our house by inches but did damage the corner of the overhang on our upper deck. You can see in the next photo the damage to our gazebo. It also took out the canopy to my swing and the tabletop to our firepit set. The glass table that was under the gazebo was not damaged in the least.

And sitting quietly on the shelf, amidst the rubble was this ceramic frog light. Can you believe it? And now, we wait for the insurance company to sort out the damage and cost of repairs.

On to some stitching. I received news today that Mary Kathryn received the Fair and Square Halloween Squares I sent to her. She says the cat looks just like hers. This is from the 2007 Cross Stitch Pattern a Day Calendar. And of course, blogger has come by to turn this photo on it's ear or side LOL.

Annette also received her Fair and Square Round 9 squares. She said she was into Egyptian so I stitched these squares for her from an unknown magazine. It is part of a sampler. The name and place - Kathy and Canada are stitched in hieroglyphics. I found the alphabet online and then translated it into stitches.
As I mentioned earlier, we brought out little grandson home with us. My stitching progress was understandably small. It was stitch one - change a diaper, stitch two - find the missing Matchbox car, stitch three - Gramma I hungry - stitch one - Gramma train broken LOL. It was wonderful fun to have him here and to do some one on one bonding.

I did manage to get some stitches in Fairies in the Garden. Although the progress is small, there is some after so many frustrating starts. Tomorrow is my day to stitch on it so I am hoping to have some progress of note. And, of course, blogger did it's thing.
I stitched and finished a design for the MAW exchange so I cannot share it until it is received. It is going in the mail Thursday. I do have to show it off to my fellow Thursday stitchers before it flies off to it's new home.

I picked up Marjean's RR again and plan on making this my focus for the next few weeks until it is completed and returned to her. Can anyone guess which Mirabilia I am stitching?

To finish off my week and weekend in fine form, my children and I threw a surprise 60th birthday party for my husband Saturday night. His birthday is in March but we will be in Arizona and I wanted him to be able to share his birthday with his family and his friends from home. It was a total surprise to him and we had a blast. Here we are - one happy family. DH and I, our sons and their wives.
And a little walking story to share. This morning I was going for my morning walk down the road. I was not happy to be going and I was grumbling along. My knee hurts, my leg hurts, my hip hurts, why am I doing this, I don't want to be doing this. Suddenly, I had this vision of Vonna walking along beside me griping away too. I started to laugh so hard that I had to get to the side of the road so I wouldn't hurt myself. I am sure passing cars thought I had gone a little strange. That thought put the spark back in my step and I made it down the road and home again.

Take care everyone. Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog and leave your comments. I am still struggling with my dialup but do read most everyone's blogs from my google reader. Three more weeks, and we will be on highspeed until the spring. YIPPEE!!!!!

Keep stitching and remember when you go walking, you could find Vonna or me grumbling right along beside you. LOL

SOMETIMES

Hi everyone. This has been a couple of weeks of sometimes.



Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, things don't work out the way you want them too. I had such great success putting Hunter's quilt together and tying it. Then I tried to put the binding on it. For some reason, the fabric kept slipping and I had to take the binding off three times and finally pin the fabric every two inches to sew it on. One corner ended up a little wonky but you know what - he is only 2 and he won't have it forever. He will outgrow Thomas in no time. Here is the finished set for his room.

Sometimes that frustration continues to build. This is my start -" Fairies are the Flowers in the Bottom of the Garden" that Ann of Knowledge and Needles and I are SALing. I picked a beautiful piece of 32 count natural linen and spent an evening stitching away on the border. I had made nice progress. The next morning in the daylight, I discovered the fabric was faded everywhere it was folded and I could not work around it. I was so annoyed I chucked the piece of fabric in the garbage. I went to Ann's and bought a new piece of 28 count evenweave called Mushroom. Loved the color and started again. Well, the border threads are an olive green and on the mushroom fabric the fabric looked orange and I did not like the 28 count fabric. So, tear out what I'd done and back to Ann's for a third piece of fabric. This is 32 count dirty linen. I love this color. Work away on the border for a couple of hours and discover I was using the wrong color. So, at the end of the two weeks here is my progress - a wrinkled piece of fabric and not a stitch on it. Maybe next week - she sighs hopefully!



Sometimes things go right. I have finished my squares for the two Fair Square rounds that I am currently in and they are out in the mail. No photos yet.

Sometimes if you sit quietly for a couple of evenings and your DH is away you can make some real progress. I am almost done with page 8. I am working on the monster motif on the bottom right and then on to the next page. As usual with my posts, blogger has flipped this photo sideways LOL.

Sometimes you get to do something that is fun. This is the birthday cake I made for Hunter's 2nd birthday yesterday. Each little fish is made individually without a pattern and then added to the cake. It is all made with fondant icing.

Sometimes your heart is full when you little grandson opens his quilt and pillow and lays on the floor, hugs them both and wants to take them upstairs for his nap. Then, his eyes light up when he sees his fish cake and he grins from ear to ear.

Here is Hunter blowing out his candles with a little help from big brother Jackson.

And sometimes, you realize your little frustrations are minor in the wake of Hurricane Ike. My sister and her children in Houston have made it safely through the hurricane but they are without power and will be so for an undetermined period of time. They are also without city water for who knows how long. They are okay and that is all that matters. I am so happy to hear that our fellow stitchers in Louisiana and Texas have weathered this hurricane without incident.

Till next time everyone.

What a Giggly Stitchy Weekend!

Welcome one and all to the group photo of our giggly stitching weekend. What fun we had!!! Our neighbors said all they heard from my house was laughter and more laughter.
They obviously missed the sounds of glee at all that food and the groans at the end of each meal.
We laughed, stitched, ate, showed off our stitching. laughed some more, ate some more, stitched a bit, then ate some more and laughed some more. I took the out of town girls on a road trip to Knowledge and Needles on Saturday afternoon. Hey, you can never have enough stash.
This is the Sunday group photo
Back Row L-R
Ann of Knowledge and Needles, Christin of Christins Ramblings, in the background Beatrice of Stitching with a View, Angie, and behind her Barb, Judy and Sharon
Front Row L-R
Lynn of Kearnel's Korner, Our Queen Adriana, me, Rebecca of Rebel in Ontario and in front our official photographer Dani of Dani Black Belt Stitching Wizard.
The second photo was taken on Saturday. All that beautiful blue water, unfortunately, made the picture really dark. We have
Back Row Christin
Middle Row, Beatrice, Ann, Barb and I
Front Row - Nan, Judy, Angie, Lynn and Dani

Oh what fun we had!! So much that we have decided to do this again next year. Want to join us?
LOL
If you would like to see other photos, I am sure you will find them on Lynn, Christin, Dani and Beatrice blogs over the next few days.
I received a couple of lovely gifts from some of my guests. I must show you the lovely gift from Dani. Details can be found on her blog.
Isn't this just the cutest thing!I have this smalls basket that has nothing in it. Dani's biscornu will take pride of place beside my Book of Stitches that now resides in that basket. One day that basket will have lots of lovely stitchy things in it.
Do you remember this piece? This was to be a Fair and Square and I stitched it on the wrong count fabric. Well, I turned it into a biscornu as a gift for a neighbor who is moving away. I think it will make a great pinchushion for her.
Now, I did a little stitching this week but not enough.
I pulled out Noddy and now he has a car. Once I get the background filled on this piece I will outline the car and then decide where to go from there.
I did a little work on Marjean's RR but am making slow progress. Everyone keep her in your prayers as she is in Louisiana and in the vicinity of the hurricanes. I don't know if she has evacuated or not.

And surprise, surprise - Paradigm has made an appearance. I worked on the motif on the bottom right and got a nice chunk done. I will post this to the Snowbird Blog. I expect to see other posts to that blog too as Dani, Beatrice, Christin and I all worked on it at some point during the weekend. I did some exchange stitching as well but cannot show that for some time.
We have had the most beautiful weather these past few days and it is supposed to continue until late next week. I am going to end now, pick up my stitching and enjoy some of this lovely weather.
Happy Labor Day Weekend to you all!!

Books, Quilt and Neighborhood

It has been a very busy week or so around here. We have had visitors from Denver for the past few days and then our two sons were here for the weekend. Dad and the boys did some male bonding watching race cars at Mosport. Mom stayed home and stitched and quilted.

Progress for the week is:

First up - finished Book of Stitches. I had some trouble putting this together. I am not a big fan of hand sewing since I'm not very good at it. I need a lesson in making stitches that are hidden. I made an error with the corners too. The instructions said to trim the corners and when I did, they frayed. I should have sent this off to Vonna's Finishing Service. However, this one is for me, so I can handle it's little errors. I am so happy to have this off my list.

And it just wouldn't be one of my posts, if Blogger didn't flip a photo sideways. Don't you just love it!

Next up - Judith's Neighborhood

Judith has asked us to pick one of Maryse's houses. My choice - the August House. Why? My birthday is in August and my home is yellow with blue trim. I think her RR is going to be just beautiful.

I received this and stitched it in four days. I was on a roll and just could not put it down. It was quite the challenge for me as Judith asked that we all stitch in the same direction. I, of course, stitch in the opposite direction. Many thanks to Annemarie for telling how to do this successfully. You turn the fabric and pattern 90 degrees and stitch sideways. Lo and behold, when you turn it around, you are stitching in the right direction. How cool is that!

And here is her neighborhood so far.

Next up, a little piece of Marjean's RR. I have got some stitching done on it. This is just a teaser. I will let you know what pattern I have chosen once the stitching gets further along.

I have done a little sewing and quilting this weekend while the boys were bonding. My grandson Hunter will be two in September and it is time for his room to have a little character. He is crazy about Thomas the Tank Engine so Gramma has decided to add a little color to his room.

His valance:

Since I took this photo I decided the curtains needed some punch and I added a three inch navy strip to the top of the fabric.

And his quilt:

It is sandwiched and ready to be quilted. However, I have developed some muscle spasms in my neck and upper back so sitting at the sewing machine does not seem to be in my near future. I think I will tie this one instead. I have picked a nice bright red for the binding. I will make him a matching pillow and purchase decals for his wall. It has been such fun doing this for a little one.

I need to answer a couple of questions here from previous posts.

The dragonfly cubit is from the Cross Stitch and Needlework magazine from November 2007. If you would like I can send you a copy of the pattern - just email me.

The candle ornament is in a pamphlet from Dimensions called Holiday Elegance and it is #330.

The snowman stays in my RR - he is the tour guide for my neighborhood. I have put in a note that my neighborhood is about the people in it and to please add a snowman to their block if possible and/or if they wish they can add a companion to my snowman. I've also named him "Cheer".

I am looking forward to this weekend. We are having a stitching retreat at my home. I have 4 out of town guests coming and several of the local stitchers will be in and out. We will eat too much, talk far too much, stitch lots and hopefully, have lots of photos for you next week.

Thank you for the award nominations this week. I have decided to pass on listing any specific blogs. Like many of you, I find there are just too many great blogs and wonderful stitchers out there to list specific blogs.

I am struggling with my isp still. I read all your posts as they come into my google reader but am not commenting much as it is just too slow. Please bear with me and when I get to Arizona in November and am back on high speed, I will be all over the place LOL.

Stitching and Wedding Cakes

Warning Photo intensive Post (finally)

First up, this is the Round 9 Fair and Square that I sent to Sandra G. in Portugal. It is from an old cross stitch magazine that I tore out the pages. That was in the early days before I realized that stitching was becoming my passion (obsession) and that my tastes change at any given moment. It is stitched on 32 count antique white lugana.

In return, here are the lovely squares she stitched for me. I have no idea what the pattern is but it is very pretty and I love the blue. It will reside in the basket with my other squares until I have enough for a friendship quilt. Next up, is my completed ornament for the month of August. It is part of a set of 8 and I may well do some of the others. It is done on Silkweaver 32 count Blue Fusion. I finished my Prairie Schooler "Autumn Leaves". I love the colors in this one. This will become a flatfold when Barb has time to get a group of us together to make it up.Do you recognize this stitch? If you notice, pages 1 and 8 are not the same size as the middle page. You got it. I stitched it on the wrong count fabric, so I am restitching pages 1 and 8. Lesson # 233 (I think) label your fabrics. How I got these two pages a different size is beyond me. Next up, I have signed up for a Winter Themed Neighborhood RR on the Worldwide Round Robin board and here is my layout with my block stitched. I love this snowman - he is just the cutest. The saying at the top is "There are no friends like snow friends."Now, I have a problem and I need some advice. For some reason, I did not read (Lesson #1 that I need to repeat) the word neighborhood when I joined this RR and so my plan was to fill the blocks with snowmen. Well, that's not gonna work. The other blocks will be winter houses and I can request that a snowman be included wherever possible. My question is - do I leave my snowman in or tear him out and stitch a house instead. Opinions please.

And in my mailbox this week, was the most stunning Mirabilia RR I have ever seen. This belongs to Marjean of Linen and Lagniappe. One of her stitchers has backed out and I have offered to stitch a block for her. I have the pattern picked out, the threads pulled and a couple of stitches started. I love Mirabilia and am looking forward to stitching this for her.

And last, but certainly not least. I have done very little stitching this week as my hands have been busy. A good friend of mine is getting married tomorrow and my wedding gift to her is her cake. And so you see, one completed wedding cake. The bow is just laid on top. I will attach the bow and ribbons after it is delivered to the reception hall tomorrow.

I also baked 2 slab carrot cakes to be cut and served iced with cream cheese icing. The top layer of her cake is carrot and the middle and bottom layer are styrofoam. I prefer not to use all three layers of cake when the weight may cause a possible collapse. We do not need a wedding cake disaster.

And now you know where the wedding cake comes in.

Becky - yes, I made the little ort box. If you would like any more information please feel free to email me.