Framed!

Hello dear friends. No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth; not yet anyway. The past two weeks have been crazy busy at work. I have been working many extra hours and when not working, I'm sleeping! Needless to say, very little stitching has been done. I'm happy to report though that I finished up the stitching for an exchange that's coming up soon. The finishing will be done today yet or next weekend and once it is received you will get to see a picture!


Today I picked up two pictures at Michael's. I took advantage of their 60% off sale a couple weeks ago. You might be surprised to know that I really have never done any serious framing of my own. One of these days though I am going to dig in and try it. Until that time, my stitching continues to be framed by someone else, or sadly, it sits in a drawer waiting to be framed!


The two pieces I took in are Earth Sampler from Primitive Needle and Friendship Sampler from BOAF. I'm pleased with how both of them turned out. The frame for the BOAF piece compliments the thread colors nicely.

Earth Sampler - Primitive Needle

Friendship Sampler - BOAF

Finally, I'll leave you with a picture of the fruits of my labor yesterday. There's nothing like a bowl of hot, homemade chicken soup on a cold winter day.

Hope you find some time for stitching today. Thanks for stopping by.

A & B

I'm so happy to have two blocks finished that I had to share them with you before heading off to bed. Please forgive me, I did not take time to press the fabric so it is a tad bit wrinkled, but I think you can see the progress I've made. I plan to fill in the lower blocks later. Not sure yet if I will fill them in with Bittersweet or a variety of different colors like Edgar is doing.





I can't wait to stitch the next block! But I think I will need to put this away until February as I have a few other things I need to work on.


Now, I must head off to bed!

A Gift and a Finish

How's your Sunday going? I've been watching football, sort of. I'm not really watching it. It really just provides me with something to listen to while I stitch! Go Vikings!

I received a package in the mail from Jill. Enclosed was a skein of Belle Soie called Tulip and this magentic scissor sitter. She read my post about losing my scissors in the chair and said that this should help me to keep better track of my scissors! Thanks Jill!


While stitching today, I finished up the recent LHN ornament of the month called Pear Tree. I stitched mine on 40ct fabric so that it wouldn't be so large; I like smaller ornaments. I probably won't get around to doing the finishing on this one for a couple of weeks.

LHN Ornament of the Month "Pear Tree"

40ct Iced Cappucino (over 2)

DMC threads

I finished up a couple of ornaments this afternoon; the backstitching was done, I just needed to stitch backs to fronts. Then I had a couple of stitches that I had forgotten to stitch on a sampler I did last year; they are now all stitched in place. I hope to show you some framed photos in a couple of weeks; I took some of my framing into Michael's yesterday and took advantage of their 60% off sale! So now, I'm headed back to my happy chair to work on CHS Alphabet Blocks.

Hope you had a nice weekend and that your week is filled with stitching! Hugs!

Jenny Bean's Pin Tuffet

I'm so excited to post tonight. I have a beautiful finish to share! On Sunday night I started stitching and the stitching continued into Monday and Tuesday. Tonight I did the finishing and voilà - may I present to you, Jenny Bean's Pin Tuffet!

Jenny Bean's Pin Tuffet

Shakespeare's Peddler

40ct LL Vintage Light Examplar

Sampler Threads/DMC

Sudberry House Shaker Pincushion Base

Thanks again to my friend Judy who gifted the pins to me!

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm a Winner!

I'm not usually very lucky, but last week was different. I was the winner of Staci's last giveaway for 2009!


The package arrived yesterday and everything was wrapped beautifully. Enclosed was some homespun fabric, some Czech beads, some gift tags for next year, a very unique scissors and an ornament handmade by Staci. Love it all, thanks Staci!

New Starts

Thank you friends for extending a warm welcome to Darby at Sew Many Desires! I remember back to when I first started blogging; I was hesitant about getting started and didn't really know how all of this worked. I really appreciated all the encouragement I received from others!

So, I promised you (and Mama Joan) that I would start a new project for the New Year. On Sunday, I started the Alphabet Blocks from Carriage House Samplings. I've had the chart for awhile and have been admiring the finishes of Deb and Siobhan, as well the progress Edgar has been making. This is really beautiful all finished! I'm hoping to stitche maybe two of these blocks a month - we'll see. I'm stitching on 35ct WDW Parchment using GAST fibers.


Then on Monday night, I started stitching the most recent LHN ornament - Pear Tree. (I still have to stitch the first one, Fa La La, but at this particular time, Pear Tree appealed to me more!) I am stitching it on 40 ct Iced Cappuccino since I like smaller ornaments! DMC fibers for this one.


Last night I didn't stitch; DD had a basketball game. Tonight I'm catching up on blog reading. Maybe tomorrow night I'll get some more stitching in!

So how has YOUR week been going? Thanks for stopping by!

Would You Do Me a Favor???

Dear Stitching Blogger Friends,

Would you mind doing me a favor? Just before the holidays I befriended a new stitching friend via email. She's been lurking in blogland visiting all of our blogs. Her name is Darby. On Christmas Day, Darby built up enough courage to start her own stitching blog. Would you please drop by her blog and welcome her to the stitching/blogging world?

Darby - Sew Many Desires

Thanks for welcoming her into our stitching/blogging community!

Cathy

Starting the New Year out Right!

Greetings and Salutations! My new year is off to a great start and it comes with pictures to share.

First, my husband gifted me with a wooden dowel tree. I hope you can see it okay in this picture. It is painted black and doesn't show up great against the red wall! I've been wanting one of these for sometime and he was more than happy to take on the project. He followed Vonna's tutorial with some minor modifications. Doesn't it look great? My plan is to display seasonal ornaments on it throughout the year.
Next up - my first two finishes for 2010! Have you ever been to a stitching retreat where a prize was awarded to the first stitcher who finishes a project? Invariably there is someone who comes along with a project that only needs like ten more stitches in it. That should hardly count, but it does and they win the prize. Well, that's kind of what I think about this first finish, it shouldn't really count! All but the dog house on it was stitched in 2009, but I just didn't have time to finish it up before the end of the year. Nonetheless, it is now completed.

Lizzie Kate

Dogs Leave Paw Prints

30 ct Weeks Cappucino

WDW Fibers

(Just noticed that I need to stitch on the dog bone charm yet!)

This next finish was also started in 2009, but I only had maybe about a third of it done. I started working on it in December but then got caught up with ornament stitching and it kind of sat for awhile. After two nights of stitching on it, voila' it's finished!

Blackbird Designs

Evergreen - Loose Feathers #17

30 ct R&R Iced Cappucino

WDW/GAST fibers

I have to apologize to Barb and Alma. I just didn't like that pink (pomogranate) blackbird down in the left corner, so I replaced it with a heart, just like the one on the other side!

The Christmas decorations are boxed up and put away and I'm ready to relax in my stitching chair and will likely watch some football. I promised my friend Joan that I would start a new project for the new year. That's what I'm off to do now. Maybe I will have pictures for you tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope your evening is filled with stitching!

And the Morale of the Story Is...

You'll have to hear the story first! Two nights ago, I was sitting comfortably in my stitching chair, busy stitching away...


I started collecting my things to put them away for the evening - a not so little doggie named Maggie likes to play with my stitchy things if they are not put away, but I digress - I realized that my scissors had gone missing. I searched and searched - under the ottoman, under the chair, checked the stitching stuff again just in case I overlooked it - no scissors.

MISSING SCISSORS:

It then occurred to me that the scissors might have slipped down the side of the chair. Sure enough, that's where it was. but when I slid my hand down the side, the scissors slipped further down into the "bowels" of the chair! I don't have a picture to share, but let's just say that my arm was nearly all the way into the chair trying to locate my scissors, to the point where my hand became stuck and I struggled to get it out!

Decided to wait until yesterday to enlist the help of my husband to retrieve my precious scissors. I figured that if we used a large, strong magnet, we might be able to get the scissors closer to where my hand could snatch it up and pull it out. Which is exactly what we did (after about 30 to 45 minutes of struggling.) At one point, my family was concerned that I might want to take the chair apart! But alas, the scissors was retrieved and all is well again in my stitchy world.

And the morale of the story is....

...always, always have a fob attached to your scissors! This will help to prevent your scissors from sliding down into tight spots!

Off to stitch --- Happy New Year!