TUSAL MERRY CHRISTMAS

How to do it all!!! Merry Christmas and a TUSAL post all in one!

Merry Christmas to all my wonderful friends. You have made this a wonderful year with all your stitches, comments, emails and caring. Thank you so very much.

On behalf of Frosty and I, we would like to wish you the most wonderful holiday filled with family, love and laughter. And after that - needles, fabrics, floss, charts

Wow, A finish, some pretty stitches and a nut!

Well, making a WIPocalypse list seems to have spurred me on to some new stitches.

I picked up my Jardin Prive - Sampler des Bouquets and finished another section. I love working on this one but get bored with it easily. I am on Part III and hope to have this finished the first of the year.

I picked up the latest Band Sampler that arrived. This one is based on Drawn Thread bands. I picked a few bands from Toccato Two and stitched away. What a beautiful sampler this is.

Browsing around in my basket I found this one tucked in the side. The color appealed to me and I pulled it out. I worked on it most of the weekend and tonight. Before I knew it, it was finished. Oh why did I procrastinate so long. This is JBW Teddy Bear and I will frame this as a birth sampler. The fabric is a beautiful mauve Sparklies cut that was gifted to me.

And Dani and I decided on an ornament exchange this year. She has emailed me that she received the ornament I sent her and here it is.  Handsome fella isn't he! It is laying on a piece of the backing fabric.

I would like to take a minute and thank all the wonderful people who stopped by and commented on my blog lately. I have been very remiss in posting and reading and commenting on blogs and was concerned that my readership may have fallen off. It is nice to know that my blog is still of interest.

Well, the Christmas rush is in full swing and there are lots of events taking place these days.
Leo and I will be hosting 6 couples for Christmas dinner - Arizona retirement style - potluck! Since none of us will be going home to spend the holidays with our families this year, we will get together and celebrate the season the best we can.

Until next time, I hope the smell of all that wonderful Christmas baking and all those smiling faces don't tempt a single frog your way.

WIPOCALYPSE 2012 and some other little stitches

Warning: This will be a photo intensive post!!!

Good morning everyone from frigid Arizona! That's right FRIGID!!! It was 36F this morning. What is up with that. The weatherman is calling for rain Monday and Tuesday. Did I stop for the winter in the wrong state????

Well, since I can't do anything outside I have worked on my new Mirabilia RR that will start in January. This time I have picked Christmas as my theme and I have gridded out a window. At least, I hope it looks like a window. This took me forever to stitch - it is only 4 rows thick. All I stitched for this entire week was DMC 535 in rows. Making the archway look like an archway took some doing. I tore it apart several times until I got the right look. I don't think I want to see that color again for a while.This fabric shows blue but it is actually a gorgeous green and cream called Wandering Ivy - Silkweaver 28 count lugana.  Did I accomplish my mission? 

I received the latest UFO RR in the mail this week. This is - The Good Huswife - Book of Spells. This is how it looks when I received it. I hope to get a lot accomplished on this one over the next few weeks. It looks like a fun stitch.

I have joined Measi's 2012 Wipocalpyse. Here is my list (photo intensive). I so hope I get some of these things marked off  I need to be on a NO BUYING diet.

1. Jardin Prive - Sampler des Bouquets -  I think I stand a chance of finishing this one.

2. Prairie Moon - Merry Xmas -  for my son and DIL

3. LHN - Summer Splendor -it was a gift

4. Long Dog - Bagatelle - My Jan 1, 2011 start - not much accomplished here. Am I signing up for a new start in January 2012 - NO WAY!!!

5. 4 designers contributed - A Petit Sampling Etui - I am into this one to the tune of $150 and really should get it done. The fabric is gridded.

6. Glendon House - Witches Wheel - love this fabric!!!

7. LHN - Acorn Hill - it was a gift and has those two skeins of the world's most expensive silks lol

8. Point Loma Lighthouse - it was a gift

9.Handblessings - Hooked on Lighthouses - would make such a nice addition to my lighthouse guest room

10. Nora Corbett - Sunflower Fairy - this was a SAL that I failed at miserably

11. Birth Sampler - Quaker Teddy Bear - this child will be 2 this summer and not a stitch is done

12. LHN - Travelling Stitcher - been carrying this around forever. Bought the backing fabric 3 or more years ago.

13. Chatelaine's Desert Mandala - love this one and it cost me a fortune.

14. The Stitchwork - Malcolm the Moose Race Car - for my son who is a Dale Earnhardt collector

15. JBW ornament from 1997 - found this in the very bottom of my trunk

16. HAED - Peacock Lagoon - love this but what was I thinking????

17. Lynn Nicoletti - Hockey Player - grandson Jackson wants a hockey Christmas stocking and so I have to design one around this chart

18. Autumnal Abstract - another one that cost a fortune. Lent the chart to a friend. She has it stitched and framed and mine is stilll like this

19. Mill Hill - Queen Anne's House

20. Lizzie Kate - Christmas Rules - had this one forever

21. M Designs - Las Vegas tree - Juls - remember this one! - had this one for a long time too!

21a. Finish my current Mirabilia RR

22. New Mirabilia RR starting in January

23. UFO RR - ending in April

24. Band Sampler RR - ending in March

25. Band Sampler RR - starting in May

26. Twenty-twelve RR - nutcrackers - starting in January -  with some new Facebook Friends



Wow, I am almost embarrassed to write it all down here. Hopefully, I will be able to accomplish some of this.
I will start with my Jardin Prive, then the baby sampler, then some of the smaller pieces to get them off that list. PLEASE, wish me luck.

If you made it to the end of this post, I appreciate you taking the time. I hope you have a wonderful stitching week and are frogless the entire time.

Busy little fingers

Boy, is it nice to have all that dust cleared away and be back to stitching and quilting. And another post in just one week! Can you believe it????

Every year my quilt group here makes a quilt to be raffled for charity. This year the theme is "Black with White, White with Black and One other Color". Here is the block I have sewn together. It is called Formal Garden and I will be interested to see it and the other blocks together.

I have seen the quilt that we all contributed a square to last year and I will take a picture when I can. It is amazing!

Annette's Mirabilia RR arrived this week. I sat down right away and stitched. This is the last round before this RR goes home and I wanted it home to her before Christmas. I stitched "Deepest Love". What a beautiful RR this is.

My own Mirabilia RR arrived home a couple of days later. Feast your eyes on this one.
I love it! I will stitch the last square soon. It will be Lily of the Woods - The Dreaming Fairy.

I have done some secret stitching and sewing and will have to wait until those things are received before I can post them here.

Oh, the internet can be wicked some times. There are just so many beautiful things out there to look at. I have enhanced my stash too. These are my new purchases.

Sunflower Fairy - fabric, Valdani threads, Kreiniks and beads.

I had purchased the pattern and beads for Witches Wheel - and look at the gorgeous fabric that just came to stitch it on!

I ordered a couple of skeins of Belle Soie silk to use on a LHN chart - $19.52 for two skeins - won't do that again!!

This gorgeous 14 count hand-dyed aida is for a RR next year with a Yahoo group.

I don't know when I think I will be able to stitch all these wonderful new things but oh well!!!

And I will leave you with this beautiful sunrise when I went to get the newspaper recently.

Until next time, keep those x's crossed and those frogs far away!