The Graduate and Her Mom...

Another milestone, another memory...my baby graduated from high school last night. I am so proud of her!



We had beautiful weather for the occasion; the graduation mass and ceremony lasted just over two hours. Then they were off to the local community center for an all night party. I volunteered until 2am; my DH worked the graveyard shift from 2am until 5am! The graduate is still sleeping, the rest of us are moving at a slow pace today.

Hopefully I will have some stitchy pictures for you later today or tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

It is unseasonably warm here in Minnesota today with temps in the 80's and muggy! I expect we'll have some thunderstorms move through later today; the sky is overcast and it just kind of looks like we're in for a good storm. Good reason to stay inside and stitch!

It's been a delightful weekend thus far. On Friday night after work, I went to my daughter's last regular season lacrosse game. It was a beautiful evening to watch a lacrosse game and they won! Section playoffs start next week. After the lacrosse game I headed over to Joan's house for some stitching with the Friday night gang.

Saturday morning was spent running errands. Since my husband was cleaning the garage, my son was working and my daughter was spending the afternoon with friends, I was free to do my own thing. If you were me, what would you do? Ummm, more stitching of course! The gang got together at Joan's house again and we stitched until 10pm or so.

Which brings me to today. Too hot and sticky to do anything outside. I'll keep the laundry going and make a good dinner for my family today, but in-between time, I think I'll stitch. :)

Not too much to share with you on the stitching front. After finishing BBD Summer Basket I decided I better get busy stitching on my blocks for "A Token of Friendship" from With My Needle. There are six of us who have been working on this projects; we are each stitching two blocks for ourselves and then two blocks for each of the other six stitchers. Here are the two blocks that I stitched for Joan followed by the first block that I stitched for Jill. I gave Jill her second block before taking a photo of it. I'm now working on Chris' blocks; one of them is done. I'll post a picture of hers in another post. We need to have all of our blocks done by August and then we're going to try to do the assembly together!

I also need to send THANK YOU's to Kathy A and PJ (no blog.) Recently, both of these ladies gifted me with beaded scissor fobs. Kathy A sent one as a thank you for stitching on her Neighborhood (remember the neighborhood round robins?) PJ sent one as a thank you for sharing a pattern with her. (Note to PJ -- I can't find your email address, could you email me with it please?) Anyway, aren't these fobs beautiful? Kathy send the one with the topaz colored beads; I like the key charm at the end. PJ sent the one with red, white, and blue colored beads with the angel charm at the end. Aren't they beautiful?



Before I go, I'm going to share some pictures of my flower beds. We've been busy cleaning up around the yard in preparation for our daughter's graduation party which will be in two weeks. Here is the shady area under our deck; the flowers in this garden mostly bloom in the spring.


Are you familiar with the plant called "Jack in the Pulpit?" My mother transplanted this from her wild flower garden.


I noticed that a lupine is growing amidst the ferns:

Last summer, we put a new flower bed in around the gas meter; we needed to do something to make this side of the house look better. The flowers in this bed are blooming like gangbusters!




Here's another bed that we just planted this weekend; this one will be beautiful when the plants mature and the flowers start blooming!

A smaller bed in the front yard:

And finally, take a look at these beautiful irises. They are actually in our neighbor's yard, but we have the best view of them!


Here's to wishing you a great Sunday filled with lots of stitching!

Summer Basket Finished

Back from Orlando -- thank you for your suggestions regarding needlework shops. As it turned out, I didn't have a speck of free time. Maybe next time I am in Orlando I will be able to check out the needlework shops!


I brought back a nasty cold and have been feeling a wee bit under the weather. Since I've been kind of "laying low" I've had more time for stitching and managed to finish Summer Basket by Blackbird Designs.

Summer Basket
Blackbird Designs
30 ct WDW Baby's Breath
GAST and WDW threads

Thanks too for the needle feedback. I think I'm going to invest in a bulk package of Bohins!

Kathy A - thank you for the beautiful scissor fob that you sent. I will get a proper thank you sent off to you in the next day or two.

Until next time - thank you for your visit.

More Blackbird Designs

Hello Friends! Thought I'd stop in for a minute and show you a picture of my latest project. I'm working on Summer Basket from Blackbird Designs (Loose Feathers #38). I've had it in my stash for a little while and started it at the BBD retreat two weeks ago (or is it three?) Anyway, the linen is WDW Baby's Breath, kind of a soft pink, and the fibers are mostly GAST with one WDW - the colors remind me of Spring!




Mother Nature is quite mixed up and we are experiencing winter, not spring weather here in Minnesota. After no snow in March or April, today it snows! My DD had a lacrosse game today and baby it was cold and windy with rain and snow mixed...brrrr.....hopefully this return to winter will be short-lived.


I have a couple of questions for you:

1) Which brand of needles do you like to stitch with? Piecemakers, John James, Bohnin, other? I guess I usually stitch with Piecemakers or Bohnin. On Tuesday night I was stitching with some #28 needles from John James and I broke two of them. Very frustrating!

2) Does anyone know if there is a needlework store in the Orlando that is worth a visit? I will be in Orlando next week; not sure if I will have any free time, but if I do.....

3) I'm looking for a copy of the BBD Loose Feathers #1 called Spring's Promise. Anyone interested in selling or loaning their copy?

Thank you for stopping by to visit. To all the mothers out there, I wish you an enjoyable and relaxing Mother's Day tomorrow!

More Framing

Before attending the BBD Spring Fling retreat, I had some of my BBD finishes framed. I wanted to include them in the "show and tell" display. As it turned out, I only took two of them with, but I will share all three of them with you here.

Quaker Garden
Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers #19
Recommended linen and fibers

Special Delivery
Blackbird Designs
GAST fibers
32 ct Lakeside Linen Strawflower

Evergreen
Blackbird Designs - Loose Feathers #17
GAST & WDW fibers
30 ct R&R Iced Cappuccino

Finally, some answers to your questions --

Margaret asked why there was no house in the 4th Anniversaries of the Heart block. Don't worry, there will be; the house just hadn't been stitched yet on the piece that Alma shared with us.

Kim asked why there was a big gap between blocks 2 and 3. There are going to be some bonus charts later this year and one of the bonus charts will go in that spot.

One last photo before I go...here's a close up of the sachet that I stitched.

Hope you had a nice weekend! I'm off to my stitching chair now...

Spring Fling Part III

Sorry, I kind of disappeared and left you hanging. Didn't mean to do that, but you know how life gets in the way, right?

I think I was about to share with you some photos of the project we worked on during our Blackbird retreat weekend. The first project was a small sachet that we stitched and finished. We stitched an initial on it. Then we could embellish it with some rick rack and/or buttons. Here's a picture of some of the finished sachets. We all started with the same materials, but you can see that each sachet is finished a little bit differently! Cute!

The main project we worked on is this stitching box. We painted, sanded, distressed, and waxed the box until we got the right effect. Then we lined three of the sections with some coordinating fabric designed by Blackbird Designs for Moda. Finally, we stitched a little pincushion to fit in the fourth compartment. I stitched both front and back of my pincushion...the back has my initial "C" on it. I still need to stitch the piece that will be mounted on the front of my box, but if you visit Joan's blog, you will see that hers is already finished.

(Joan's box is on the left; mine is on the right.)

Here is the finished project that Barb and Alma brought with them:

There are many, many more pictures on Barb's and Alma's blog too.

For today, I'll leave you with a final picture of Barb and Alma, with our host, Deb, the owner of Stitchville. Deb did such a nice job with this retreat and I look forward to attending the next one!



Thanks for stopping by! Enjoy what is left of your weekend!

Spring Fling Retreat - Part II

Thank you for your visit and your kind comments! I realized after publishing that last post that I failed to post the middle section of finishes. Here it is for you to enjoy.

"Spring's Promise" on the left again, next to it, a box finish "Trix or Treat" from the book of the same name. Behind it is "Autumn Bouquet" and in front on the right is "Quaker Garden" another Loose Feathers design.

Now on to part two of the retreat....

After the stitchers got settled in at their tables the guests of honor arrived. If you ever have the opportunity to take a class from Barb and Alma of Blackbird Designs - just do it! They are amazing ladies - so friendly and personable. They brought all kinds of treasures with them.








Please, click on the photos to enlarge them. You will likely recognize many of these stitched items from their books, primarily from Honeysuckle Manor.

Barb and Alma talked about "Cross Stitch Beyond Framing" and referred to many of the items they brought with, how and where they got their inspiration for the piece and some thoughts on finishing. They also shared many funny, personal stores which made you love them even more!

Here's a picture of Alma holding the Anniversaries of the Heart series stitched on one piece of linen. (Yes, we got a sneak peak at the next release, #4.)



Barb brought along the original "Honeysuckle Manor", stitched by Louisa Bell which was the inspiration for Barb's "Hannah Lovina Joslin's Honeysuckle Manor." What a treasure! (Alma is holding "Hannah Lovina" but it is blocked by a stitching lamp!)



Here's a great picture of Barb and Alma. Barb must have been telling a really funny story!

It was such an enjoyable evening; so fun to here all of their stories. But the evening had to end because they had a really exciting project in store for us on Saturday...to be continued...

Great Friends, Great Food, Great Stitching

What a great weekend this has been. I just returned from 2 1/2 days of stitching bliss. The weekend was the first-ever retreat organized by Stitchville, my LNS, and they did not disappoint any of us. The guests of honor were none other than Barb and Alma of Blackbird Designs! It might take me a couple of posts to tell you everything that we did; so bear with me. I promise it will all be worth the wait!

I was excited to attend this retreat; my friend Joan (Stitching Squad) and Judy from Alexandria (no blog) were going to be there. Joan picked me up on Friday; it didn't take too long to load up the car. We each had one or two bags of stitching stash, two lights, and a suitcase. My mother happened to be at my house and asked, "Why do you need two lights?" We told her that one was for the classroom and the other was for our hotel room - what if we wanted to stitch into the wee hours of the morning in our jammies?

Joan stitched a special gift to celebrate the weekend - she stitched a blackbird and made a necklace with it. She made one for herself and also for Barb and Alma. I was honored to receive one too! Thanks Joan - what a special treat.

Check-in for the retreat didn't start until 4pm, so we did like any good stitchers would do and dropped in to pick up a few things that we just had to have at Stitchville. Of course, we weren't the only ones with that idea, Judy was there when we arrived! We encountered at least one other retreat bound stitcher before leaving the store.

Destination: Chaska - the Oak Ridge Hotel & Conference Center. All I can say is, what a great place for a retreat. The guest rooms were very comfortable. The classroom was spacious with comfortable chairs, tables, and more than adequate lighting. The setting was beautiful (too bad it rained this weekend.) The meals were the best I've ever had at a retreat. All were served buffet style, but there were many food options and it was all delicious!

Deb, the owner of Stitchville, didn't miss a single detail. There were gifts waiting in our room - a small potted pansy, a candle, and some chocolates -- ah, but that was just the beginning.

Stitchers started gathering from near and far in the classroom. There were about 30 or so stitchers attending this retreat. While many of them were from Minnesota, there were also stitchers there from North Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, and even one came all the way from Maine (hi Deborah!) Here's what we found at each place setting at the tables in the classroom:


Here's a picture of Judy holding the fabric covered magnet board; we know that her favorite thing though was that cute flower pot pincushion!


One of the best parts about the retreat was the display of Blackbird Designs finishes that were brought by all the stitchers attending the retreat.

In the photo above you will see a framed Loose Feathers "It's Berry Time." Check out the "Flowers for Sarah" needleroll - this was made by Kathy from Illinois. The flatfolds and the stockings on the table were stitched by Judy.

This is one of my favorite framed pieces that someone brought to display. Does anyone know which book this might be from? I don't think it is a Loose Feathers design. Sadly, I forgot to ask about it while I was there.

Here's another beauty - I'm not sure who stitched this one either, but it is the very first Loose Feathers design and it is called "Spring's Promise." Let me just say that it was stunning!

Some additional pieces - you might recognize the pillow on the left in the back. This is the one I finished using my grandmother's crocheted lace. For more details go to this post.

The framed piece in the front on this post is Joan's; it's called "Summer Basket" and it is a Loose Feathers from last year. In front of it is Joan's Sarah Tobias pincushion. In the back on the right is the birth sampler I stitched to honor my mother's sister that died as a baby. It's called "Special Delivery." You can read more about why I stitched this sampler here and here.

Last but not least, here is one of my all-time favorite designs from the Joyeux Noel book. It's called "Tis the Season." I'm not sure who stitched this one, but they did a beautiful job on it.

I should have tried to take more close up shots. Later in the weekend someone brought a stitched "Strawberry Garden." Wish I had remembered to grab a photo of that one. All of the pieces were beautiful. It was so much fun to see the collection of finishes.

That's all for now -- check back later for more pictures and more details on the projects we worked on!

Another Fob?

Just when you thought there couldn't be anymore....another fob finished last night. It feels sooooo good to stitch and finish some of these kits that have been in my stash for a long time!

This is the Glad Tidings fob from Shepherd's Bush; the kit might still might be available as I don't think it was a limited edition. It came out in 2008 (I think) and was made to go with the Premax scissors pictured below.

Glad Tidings Fob

Shepherd's Bush (kit)

And just in case you haven't seen enough fobs, here's my collection of Shepherd's Bush fobs. The second fob on the right was stitched a year or two ago (modeled with Gingher Glory); the one on the end was a gift from Jill - Purple Peacock; it's the 2007 Shepherd's Bush fob.

Enjoy what's left of your weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

One Fob, Two Fob, Red Fob, Blue Fob

What do you think about this collection of spring colored fobs? I stitched these a few weeks ago and shared them with some new friends on Thursday! More fobs to come - stay tuned!

Fob Frenzy

And just when you thought there couldn't possibly be any more fobs in my future...yes, I finished another one. These stitch up so quickly and are an easy finish. I'm asking myself why they sat in my stash for so long!

"Life is Great in 2008"
Shepherd's Bush Fob Kit

Believe it or not, I still have one or two more of these kits in my stash. Since I'm on a roll, I may as well keep going, don't you think?