Another Week Flies By

We have spent this week with our oldest son, his wife and our beautiful granddaughter. It has been a very relaxing week and so it allowed for some serious stitching time. We have spent a great deal of time eating out and saying goodbye to our family and friends. I don't remember the last day I cooked a meal, and no, I haven't done many dishes either LOL.

On Friday, I set off to a stitching retreat at the Gananoque Inn in Gananoque for the weekend with Dani. You will find a detailed report and lots of photos on her blog. It was a great weekend with approximately 55 stitchers and knitters busily working away. There were some classes offered but I took the opportunity to stitch in large blocks of time and to meet some wonderful new stitchers. We ate far too much and ended up going for a walk in the pouring rain to digest the Chocolate Pudding Cake on one of the lunch buffets LOL!

This is the beautiful Gananoque Inn on the Saint Lawrence River at the entrance to the Thousand Islands.

Dani took a couple of wonderful photos that I shamelessly borrowed.. The first is of me sitting on the bed shopping online at Stitching Bits and Bobs. They have a great sale on - what more can I say and it is for an exchange!

The second is Dani and I dressed for dinner on Saturday evening. Doesn't she look great - so slim and with her new hairdo!
On the stitching front - I have finished Marjean's RR and it will go in the mail today. I think this is one of the most beautiful RR's I have ever seen and it was a privilege to stitch on it.Here is my completed White Christmas on her piece. Isn't she a beauty!

I pulled our Lady Periphaeria's Mystery Sampler and started on Page 4.

I worked on Paradigm Lost for the Friday night SAL with the Let's Stitch blog and the many other stitchers in the stitching room at the Inn. LOL - Blogger has flipped my Paradigm - it seems to do that every week.

On Saturday, I stitched some more on Paradigm, then picked up a mystery stitch and completed it.

Sunday, I picked up Noddy and got a large chunk of the back stitching done. I am trying to backsstitch as I go so I am not overwhelmed at the end. This is about 1/3 of the piece so far.

I will focus on Noddy in the car to AZ this week as it is on 14 count Aida and allows for the bumps in the road. I also have an afghan that I promised to finish for someone who is unable to do so due to age and ill health. My fingers will certainly be busy. So, if you see an ivory van with Ontario plates scooting down the interstate and the lady is looking down - you will know it is me!!!! You will have to toot your horn to get my attention.

Till next time...........

Swimming pool, fences and paint cans

Now, how's that for a title! Are you interested?
We have closed up our house for the winter and are now visiting with our youngest son, his wife and our two handsome grandsons. It has been one busy week and hence the title.
DS has had an inground pool installed this past week. DH has been very busy supervising the construction and chatting up the workers. Plus, doing some maintenance work for DS.
Our grandson Jackson's favorite color these days is blue and he decided he wanted a blue bedroom. Hence the paint cans. DIL was able to convince him to do only one wall in dark blue (Gramma heaves a sigh of relief) and so two days were spent by me painting his bedroom. I also painted the guest bathroom since I was already into painting mode.
And of course, when you put in a pool, you must put up a fence. So, the weekend was spent fencing in the yard. Our oldest son came down, our adopted son came over, youngest son and DH spent the weekend installing said fence and gates. DIL and I kept the two grandsons busy and out of the construction site. A great job was done by all and things are looking pretty good in the back yard here now.
And so, I did get some stitching done but not a large amount.

First up, here is the house I stitched on Michelle's Halloween Round Robin. I took several pictures but for some reason every one is blurry. This is the best of the lot. This is from an old Prairie Schooler chart called Trick or Treat from 1987. I like how it turned out.

You can see the house better in this shot of her RR to date. Isn't it just the cutest.
I participated in the Stitchathon at the Let's Stitch blog this week and stitched on Paradigm. The challenge this week was also to stitch on a Quaker design - so I accomplished both in one session LOL. I have finished the motif bottom left and am now working on the thistle on the left. Only 3 1/2 pages to go! Blogger as always, has picked one photo to flip and this is it!

We are packing up our belongings and moving to visit with oldest DS for the next week. I don't know what I will have for stitching time but will give it a shot.

Until next time, take care all!

Fair, Fall and Winter

One morning on my way to the washroom at 5:30 a.m. (I hear you groaning too at those early morning trips) I looked out my bathroom window at this amazing sunrise. Well, in my housecoat and slippers with camera in hand, I managed to capture this - God's beauty and grace. A few weeks back, I won a draw on Rowyn's blog for a kiwi bookmark. Well, the package arrived Thursday. Not only did Rowyn send the bookmark but she sent my own personal kiwi, and some gorgeous New Zealand tea towels. Now, the tea towels caused a chuckle as you know my opinion on dishes but I emailed Rowyn and assured her that I would hang them on the handle of the stove and admire them on my way through the kitchen.

FAIR

Here are the beautiful Fair Squares I received from Mary Kathryn for the Halloween round. Aren't they beautiful. I don't know what color that thread is but it looks gorgeous. Thank you Mary Kathryn.

FALL

Here is my Autumn Leaves by PS finished as a flatfold. Several of us got together at Ann's this past week and did up a few flatfolds. Angie and I are off to Arizona soon so having these completed was a priority. Barb did a great job of showing us how they were done. I am pleased with the finished product.

Backing fabric for P.S.

Don't you just love this fabric. Beatrice and I found it at a quilt shop this summer and knew it would come in handy.

WINTER

Here is my completed section of Sophia's Winter Neighborhood RR. This is PS December. It looks so nice on that beautiful fabric. It went out in the mail yesterday.

And as part of the Let's Stitch blog - Becky's challenge this week was a sampler so I did two jobs at once. I pulled out my Paradigm and finished page 8. So, I worked on a sampler and joined the Friday night SAT. Her challenge this week is to work on a Quaker design so I think I will put some more stitches in Paradigm.

Well, the van is all packed and DH and I are still speaking to each other. Part of the conversation concerned the number of boxes that said fabric and crafts. How do you explain that you need every cross stitch book and magazine in case you are looking for a pattern? Also, you need every kit and thread you have in case you need to start something new.

We close our house tomorrow. We will spend Thanksgiving with one son, then off to visit the second son for a week.

Take care everyone.

If you can, take time to view the sunrise. It will take your breath away.

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.