Lighthouses Abound

As you know, I have been up to my ears in paint. Here are the photos of the finished guest room. I used a grey wash on the walls.

The center attraction is my framed lighthouse RR. The framer did a wonderful job and I am very happy with it.

Scattered around the room are gifts from many of my stitching friends - lighthouse goodies. My father made the boat shelf. On the bed is my Hello Neighbor RR made into a cushion. I think of you all when I enter this room. Would you like to come and stay for a bit?

We had a lovely visit with our friends and my parent's quilt is finished. The quilter did an amazing job. Each block has a flower in the corner and small leaves in between. The outside sashing has larger leaves  (family tree). This is my left handprint on the quilt.  I did the left hand for myself and my two left handed nieces. The top section has my parent's dates, their original wedding photo and a photo of the entire family taken last summer. My friend and I sewed on the binding while visiting. She taught me how to do a proper blind stitch and I am so much happier with this hem.

I won Joy's 6th blogaversary recently and this is the wonderful package she sent in the mail. The fabric is gorgeous, the threads just so delicious and fondleable (is that a word? LOL) and the Just Nan design - just perfect. It was on my wishlist. I am trying hard to resist picking it up until Fairies are done. And the tea towel - isn't that just so cool.

Thank you so much Joy for your generous gifts. 

I did all the back stitching in the latest section of the Fairies. I love how the fairies just pop from the design with a little outline.

I picked up my Jardin Prive and stitched away. I stitched that bleeping little bird at the top three times before I got it in the right place.

I added the beads to my Band Sampler RR and pulled out the pink row and changed it to light blue. I could just feel that pink glaring at me saying "I don't belong"

Finally, I have read through 265 blog posts. As you can imagine, I did not comment - my eyes were crossing just reading everyone's adventures. You all continue to amaze me with your skill and beautiful choices.
I will try to be a better commenter!

My DH has gone away for the weekend to do some work at our cottage. A couple of stitching friends are coming to stay for the weekend. Will hopefully have lots of stitching progress to show.
Until then, keep those x's crossed and may the counter-stitching frog find some other pond to swim in.

And life continues it's crazy path,......

I know it has been two weeks since my last post. I have been busy working on my new house.
I have finished the front garden finally. Here is the overgrown front yard before

Here it is now.

I painted the guest bedroom - 4 days - 2 coats to repaint a mint green ceiling and  3 coats of paint on the walls. Photos to follow in next blog post. I got my lighthouse RR back today and it will be featured in the new room.

We had a new back door installed in our kitchen. The previous door let in no light whatsoever. Isn't it just the prettiest door!

I went away for 4 days stitching with my buddies - Beatrice, Anne, Dani, Christin, Barb, Clare, Rebecca, Sylvia, Bonnie and our wonderful hostess Sheila. It was beautiful, peaceful and so restful. We ate too much, laughed too much, stitched a lot and enjoyed each other's company to the utmost. I developed a serious case of stitcher's butt and loved every minute of it. You can also see photos and stories of this wonderful weekend on my buddie's blogs.

Here is Christin - stitching

Here is Dani stitching - oh wait, she's texting with her stitching on her lap

Sylvia is sampling the food.

Ann and Rebecca stitching away.

Clare, Sylvia and Sheila stitching like crazy. Can you smell the smoking needles???

I am joining a new band sampler RR and I plotted out and got the bands done on my RR. These are bands from Parlor Ribbons by Just Nan. I have some beads to sew on. It doesn't look like a lot but believe you me some of those stitches were very tricky and were ripped out more than once.

I picked up Fairies in the Garden and did another chuck on it. I have now finished this page and will be starting on the back stitching. With this one I have been backstitching as I finish a page. I didn't want to face all that at the end. One more page to go!

I also completed a secret stitch.

Our granddaughter is studying for her exams and calls for one of us to go get her because she wants some company. We drop everything and go.
We have friends visiting for 5 days.
What can I say - it is summer time and it is so brief, we try to grab every minute of it.

My google reader has over 250 posts. I will do my best to get them read as soon as I can. I will try to comment as I catch up.

And oh yeah ----------- Canada Post is on strike. I have one RR in the mail to Arizona, one of the way to me and goodness know what else caught in this ridiculous strike. How very frustrating! Let's hope the strike is short lived.

Until next time, enjoy your summer breezes - it just goes so fast.

Hugs to all

TUSAL and a catch up post

It is TUSAL day. I found this wonderful frog at a sale and thought he would make an excellent container for this month's orts. He is a greedy little fella and has eaten plenty of those orts.

I have been away from the net for a bit. The weather has finally improved and my DH and I have been doing plenty of gardening. We spent a week visiting our youngest son and his family. While we were there, we planted trees, shrubs, bushes, plants and flowers in their newly landscaped yard. And I finished grandson Jack's quilt while we were there - with him asking me quite often if it was done yet LOL.

All that digging and planting made me want to do our home. We have spent the last several days landscaping our yard. We had some old overgrown cedar trees out front. After cutting them done, pulling up a million roots and getting rid of the stumps we relandscaped our front. I am very happy with the new look.

Berit was the winner of my blogaversary and she received a $25 gift certificate to Knowledge and Needles and Ann (the owner) filled the envelope with free stuff from her shop. I hope she liked her gifts.

I was the 500th commenter on Kathy's blog and it was for an ornament finish of my choice.  I sent her a set of Fair Squares that I did not quite know what to do with. This is the wonderful ornament she returned to me. I was thrilled with her awesome finishing and now I can hang this with great joy and pride. Thank you so much Kathy!!!

My friend Dani is working on a series of squares that will be made into a quilt. Here are the two squares I stitched for her.

I have done some more work on Fairies in the Garden. I love each of the little fairies as they appear.

I have received the latest Mirabilia RR and am stitching away. Isn't this gorgeous! It is Christmas Elegance done in shadow boxes. You can see my progress on the bottom right. I hope to finish it this week.

Do you remember my Jardin Prive? I had bought a 1/2 yard of fabric for this one and my friend Beatrice has decided she wanted to do this piece as well. I offered to have her take the bottom 1/2 of her fabric for her piece. When I went to get the bill for the fabric I realized I had bought 28 count fabric instead of 32 and would not have enough room to do all three parts of the sampler. Thank goodness I discovered it before I got too far. So, I started over and stitched madly. Here is my progress now. I love this one!!

                                          28 count on the left and the new 32 on the right.

As if my plate wasn't full enough I have joined a Band Sampler RR starting in early July and a Seasonal Exchange due August 1st.


Until the next time, keep those needles smoking. Mine had better be smoking like crazy lol.