Baby shoes

Hello one and all. Hope the weather is treating you well. Me - it's just rain, rain, rain and more rain!
I am so tired of it all. Our 14 days at the cottage included 11 days of rain and we get home Saturday, well it rains Sunday and it's raining today. Okay, complaint department is closed.
There is one beautiful result from all that rain.

This gorgeous rainbow above the shed at the cottage. It almost makes up for the rain.

For those of you who are following the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pattern - it is finished and ready to move on. Go add your name at www.itsdaffcat.blogspot.com.

I had two lovely packages in my mail when I returned.

Here are my beautiful Fair Squares from Daniela in Finland.

They are an adaption of a Mon Ami Pierre design. Aren't they wonderful!

My next RR for the Mirabilia RR was in the mail too. This belongs to Jenn.

I love it. Jenn wants children or fairies on this one. I have the pattern all picked out, just need to pull the threads.

And here is my meager start on a baby sampler for my new nephew, Owen.

There is so much white on white, I am struggling to see where I am and of course, it doesn't photograph well. Here's a photo of the kit. I am, of course, doing the blue in the bottom right corner.


On a personal note, I am very excited today. We have some very good friends from Rogers, Arkansas arriving today for a visit. This will be their first trip to Canada and we are looking forward to showing them some of our beautiful country.

There are over 400 posts in my google reader on my return. Please be patient with me as I work my way through them and comment where I can. Please be assured that I am checking up on all your beautiful works even if I do not comment.

Till next time, may all your stitches lay straight.

Family time at the cottage

Hi one and all.

First, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who left a comment on my last post. I did not realize so many of you had watched my Noddy progress. I was astonished and oh so flattered by all your nice comments. It still seems strange not to have that piece in my stitching bag. It is washed and ironed and ready to be handed to the owner next week.

I took a break from large pieces this week and did a couple of small things that were in my bag.

First up, is a Pie Tart pincushion from BH&G Cross Stitch 1993 - it doesn't look like much now but will when I put it in a little tart tin with all the trimmings. There were a great many half and quarter stitches in this one.
Then I stitched a little gift that my BFF Beatrice had given me when I got home in the spring.
It is Lighthouse Boo Quilt from Hand Blessings Patterns on 28 count blue Jobelean.


I received word from Daniela from Finland that she has received my Round 14 Fair Squares. Daniela had her trusty bicycle stolen just before I received her name and so I stitched her this little bicyle in remembrance.

We are at our cottage in Northern Ontario and the weather has not co-operated. We have had a great deal of rain. We spent several days touring the area for a way to pass the time.
Here is a photo of DH with DS and his family at the Miner's Memorial in Kirkland Lake.


I am, of course, not in the photo cause I'm taking the picture. I tease my family that I am never on vacation with them cause I'm always behind the camera and not in front.

Here is photo of my little grandson Hunter picking wild blueberries. I just couldn't resist adding this one. He is just so cute!

This past holiday weekend we had a family get together at the cottage. There were trailers and tents everywhere in the yard. Some of my extensive family read my blog and so I have posted this photo for them here.
Here is most of the group with the exception of little Joey who did not want his photo taken and Jocelynne and Mark who left just before the photo.Check out my grandson, Jackson in the back making a face LOL! With a quartet of visitors plus the family we were 37 for the weekend. It was a fun time with lots of laughter. I am a big fan of family and to have us all together warmed my heart. I consider myself very lucky to have such family.

Till next time, please stay safe and dry. Oh, and a prayer for the end of all this rain and black skies would be nice.

Keep those needles flying!!!

45,000 Stitches = HAPPY DANCE

It is done. 45,000 stitches and two years later, on July 26th at 8:10 p.m. I put the last stitches in Noddy.

It was a long haul, not always fun but there is a great sense of completion now.

I am on vacation at our cottage deep in the bush of Northern Ontario until August 9th. Internet will be very sporadic but will check in when I can get in to town to the local library. We have our youngest son and his family with us for the first week. Assorted cousins and their families will be arriving with trailers and tents for the August long weekend. It should be a lot of fun.
The second week will be a more restful time with Leo's brother and his wife sharing some time with us. They have a new grandson born in Victoria, B.C. last week and so Leo and I have a new great nephew - welcome Owen Cooper!! and yes, that means another baby sampler. Now that Noddy is done I can start stitching the sampler.

A special thank you to Vonna for all her encouragement when I struggled to find the incentive to stitch on Noddy. Her quirky comments always made me smile and pick up my stitching again.

Well folks - our typical summer - another day of rain - and so we have all piled into the van are off to Kirkland Lake on a "road trip".

Till next time - keep those needles smoking everyone.

Emerald Mermaids and animals galore

Hello every one.
It looks like summer has finally come to the area. We have had a few days of wonderful sunshine and warm weather. We still get rain but just enough to send a busy stitcher scrambling to take her clothes off the line and drape them all over the house like some madwoman who couldn't decide where to hang her belongings. No, photos are not included lol.
It has been a very busy week socially. I have not had to cook a supper since Monday. Hurrah!!
We did Christmas in July with some friends this week that caused lots of hilarity. I did a Red Hat Luncheon with Beatrice this week and then to friends for a BBQ. Friday, it was golf day for DH. I joined him for supper at the golf course. Saturday we spent with our son Bob and his family and they BBQ'd dinner. Sunday we arrived at the grandsons and their parent's home to stay for a week. They cooked dinner and so the week has gone without having to make a single supper. Now, who can I visit next week so I don't have to cook again. Any volunteers?
On the stitching front, it has been a busy Mirabilia week.
I stitched Emerald Mermaid
on Deb's beautiful fabric. This is my first addition to the Mirabilia Round Robin. It was a great stitch. And the beads - I was surprised at how many beads there were in this small section - 30x70 stitches. I used invisible thread and that had me cursing at times. I love how it turned out. Deb has let me know she approves. I am looking forward to the next piece arriving.

Noddy has gotten some serious work. I completed the dog, cow, pig, boat, the blue sky and since the photo was taken completed the ostrich. And that pig, he is lucky I didn't make him into bacon when I discovered he was in the wrong place, after finished, and I had to tear him out and do him again. When I was out visiting this week, the owner of Noddy presented me with a substantial gift certificate to Knowledge and Needles to thank me for all my work. Now, the push is really on to finish it. I am hoping to have it done by the beginning of August.
We are at our youngest son's house for the week looking after our two grandsons as their daycare is on vacation. It will take Leo and I together to handle two very active, noisy, busy little guys. Thank goodness we are off the clock when their parents get home at 4 p.m. Let's hope the weather stays nice as they have a lovely pool in the backyard to help keep them occupied.
That's all for this week. Keep stitching everyone.

Snowy days and hearts galore

Well, hi there all. It has been another busy week for me. The stitching and finishing bug has hit hard so I have been quite productive.

I did receive a message from Melissa that she received the blogaversary package that I sent her.
Melissa and I had participated in the Winter Neighborhood RR together and my theme was snowmen. She is also a bunny lover so this is what I came up with.

A snowbunny to remind her of the RR and me and the bunnies because she likes them. This chart is from the Cross Stitch Calendar. I added some other goodies to say thank you.


I understand the package was a hit.

I took out the sewing machine and finished my Winter Neighborhood RR.

Beatrice and I find this lovely fabric while we were browsing quilt shops and I thought it fit with the little birdies in the blocks. I quilted it and added the buttons. I will add some tabs at the top to hang it but ran out of fabric.

Also this week I got a call from Donna - a member of my Friendship Sampler RR. We discovered that we did not live very far apart. Donna was camping in the local area so she and I chose to meet at Knowledge and Needles and she handed me over 2 RR's to work on.

It was a real pleasure to meet her and we are currently making plans to meet again.

Here is Simone's RR done and ready for mailing.

Simone chose to use red for the hearts and loves overdyes so I chose NN# 153 Razzle Dazzle Red and white to stitch my heart.

Here is Ann's RR done and ready to go in the same package.

Ann wanted us to use our favorite DMC colors so I chose DMC 991 and 993 to stitch my heart.

It had been a while since the Friendship Samplers have been on the move. Hopefully, now they will be moving well again.

I am currently working on Emerald Mermaid for the Mirabilia RR I am participating in. I will save a photo until I have more than a few strands of hair to show.

I also completed my Round 14 Fair and Squares and they will be in the mail flying to Finland by week's end.

DH and I took the opportunity this weekend to make a flying trip to Northern Ontario to celebrate Leo's uncle/godfather's 80'th birthday. He is a very special man and the only member of that generation still alive in Leo's family. We saw so many family that we had not seen in some time. It was wonderful to be all together. And the little ones, I think there were around 8 all under the age of 6. We sure are a prolific family LOL.

Thanks to all of you who have stopped by and left such lovely comments. I do appreciate each and every one.

Until next time, keep those needles flying.

Never too old to learn

Well, it has been one busy week. The constant rain kept me indoors a great deal and so the needles and sewing machine have been busy.

I finished "Nobody Loves Me" into this pillow.

I added a bee, a ladybug and a couple little dragonflies to dress it a bit. It was wonderful fun and I so enjoyed doing it.

I have my Winter Neighborhood finished stitching and the borders sewn on it but I will save the photos until I have it finished. It will be soon.

Thanks to the prodding from Vonna - see last week's comments - I dug Noddy out of the pile and stitched away. Well, I got the two giraffes done, two little deer and two bears. I am pleased with how quickly it went. I am now planning to make this my focus until it is finished. I hope you don't mind seeing quite a bit of it as a plod my way through.

Dani arrived late Thursday evening and we had a wonderful weekend. Beatrice joined us for most of the weekend and we travelled and stitched. We went to the Waterfront Festival in Cobourg - wonderful. We had lunch at a lovely Swiss Restaurant - The Matterhorn - we had schnitzel and spaetzle. I highly recommend this one. The rain held off until we got into the car to come home.
Next day's road trip was to Michael's and we stopped to watch the Canadian aerobatic Snowbirds do their show. Dani had her amazing camera and took some gorgeous photos of them and the rest of the weekend. Check them out on her blog.

A group of my stitching friends came for lunch and a stitching afternoon. What fun we had!!! and the food ----- delicious!!!!!

And the never too old to learn - Dani taught Beatrice and I how to make beaded scissor fobs.


The little yellow flowered scissors I found at a Fabricland and the black are a pair of Ginghers that I won at the Yuma County Fair. The pink scissors are a pair for my Mom who at 74 is a new stitcher. I decided she needed a pair of stitcher's collector scissors and of course, no scissor is well dressed without a fob so I made her a tiny little one. It will go in the mail to her this week. I made the same scissor fob for Dani - who hinted heavily when she saw what I was making - but I forgot to take a photo.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who stops by, reads my blog and takes the time to comment. I appreciate each and every one of you. I try to stop by your blogs when I can and comment too.
Have a great week everyone and keep those needles singing.

Edited to add: I forgot to add that my DH was away for the entire weekend. Dani's rent for the three day weekend - she did all my dishes. See, there is more than one way to get out of it - Trick #327a - invite a friend for the weekend LOL LOL LOL.

Tick Tock It's A Clock

Yep, I cross stitched a clock or rather the inside of a clock.

This was such fun. Taking the clock apart and inserting the fabric was not as much fun but I love how it turned out. This is intended for the Arizona house as it is all in blues.
The free design came from leblogdecathy.canalblog.com and is stitched on 28 count antique white evenweave. You can see a different color version on my BFF's Beatrice blog.

I received a gorgeous set of Fair and Squares from Susan P. for the latest Fair and Square round.


And "The Lovelorn Sisterhood" is finished and ready for mailing tomorrow. This was a fun stitch and caused much laughter and many comments every time I worked on it while I was waiting in someone's office. I picked out a lovely green fabric with some flowers and pots yesterday to make this into a pillow.

DH and I made a trek to Ottawa to celebrate our friend Richard's 60th birthday and visited them at their lovely summer home on Clayton Lake. The wildlife there was amazing. If you have never seen a baby loon floating on it's mother's back, it is just the sweetest ever.

And here is a photo of the little one taking swimming lessons with Mom and Dad hovering around.
Richard did not put his boat in the water while we were there as there were two little robins in a nest by the tongue of the boat. I tried to take a photo but the mother kept swooping at me. And to our surprise and delight, as we were leaving the last day, we met a doe and her newborn fawn on the road. They were gone in a flash but what a treat to see them. Mother nature has indeed been busy.

Dani is coming Thursday to visit for three days while DH is off male bonding. I am looking forward to her visit and she and I will have those needles singing. We will also have some of the stitching ladies come by over those three days so there should be lots of laughter and lots of stitches.