A Partridge in a Pear Tree

It's New Year's Eve, we've had our hors d'oeuvres, everyone is off doing exactly what they want to do - just the way we like it! The rest of the family will probably turn in early. I'm going to try to stay up long enough to ring in the new year (even if that means celebrating it an hour early with the crowd in New York!)

Reading Facebook and watching Flosstube can be hazardous to the health of your stitching stash. I've been introduced to some new designs from some new to me designers.

Case in point...The 12 Days of Christmas by Satsuma Street on Etsy. The 12 smaller designs can be stitched individually or all together on one piece of linen. I'm planning to stitch them together on one piece of linen. The original design was stitched on white, but I wanted some color. I found a beautiful piece of 40 ct Lakeside Linen Navy Bean at Stitchville. It has just a hint of green in it. Between yesterday and today, I stitched the first day.




As you can see, this is kind of a departure from my usual selection of colors. The colors are bright for me, do you agree? It's a bit outside of my comfort zone, but I like it. In January, I will stitch Two Turtle Doves, and in February, Three French Hens, and so on... hopefully by next Christmas it will be finished!

Also included in the 2017 line up are:

Heartstring Samplery: Never Let You Go (I've been working on it for a couple of weeks already)




Heartstring Samplery: Eye is on the Sparrow (I've got the border started!)




I always start a new project on January 1. This year's New Year's Day start will be:

Carriage House Samplings: Village of Hawk Run Hollow




Finally, I need to keep focused on some of the class pieces I have that need to be stitched and finished. First up in that lineup is:

Betsy Morgan: Gathering for Winter




Ambitious list. I know. I should probably have my head examined.

Reflecting on 2016 - Part Four

First of all, I made a little stitchy progress tonight. Mr. and Mrs. are all stitched up!




Let's see if we can find a few more finishes from 2016!

This sweet pincushion from Blackbird Designs was my secret stitcher gift at guild retreat in August.



These little owl pincushions were fun to put together (no cross stitch but lots of hand stitching.



And probably my favorite piece of all....



It was a really good stitchy year!

Reflecting on 2016 - Part Three

Posting a little earlier tonight. Let's look at a few more finishes in 2016.

Took a Betsy Morgan class in May. This is the "Small" that we finished in class from "This One's for Betty".



Followed by another Betsy class. The box on the right will be the pincushion for Tall Year Squared.




I finished the stitching for Pioneer Girl Book Etui (also Betsy Morgan). Still need to do the finishing on this one!




This Friesland from the Amy Mitten series, Around the World!




More Betsy Morgan. Can't help it. I love her projects. This is her Christmas in Virginia needlebook.







Can't say that I don't work on a variety of different things! This is the Miss America make and take it kit from Jackie du Plessis!



And finally, my name tag for guild retreat in August! Pattern was a freebie on Pinterest.



More tomorrow!

Reflecting on 2016 - Part Two

My stitching progress tonight is pretty insignificant, so no picture updates to share. Instead, let's take a tour of a few more finishes from earlier this year.

In March and April I had four more finishes...first up, another sampler from Amy Mitten. This one is called Vierlande.




The next finish was simple to stitch and easy to finish. This design is from Rovaris.




In April I attended Spring Fling and Betsy Morgan was the guest teacher. The project was awesome - the Bristol Sampler Stitching Bag. I so enjoyed learning to do English paper piecing. Here's my finished bag and all the matching Smalls.




I also had the opportunity to take a class with Merry Cox in April (and made some new friends in the process - hi Barb and Torrie!). This is the first Merry Cox piece that I have ever finished. It's called Off to Williamsburg.







I'll dig up some more finishes to share tomorrow night.

Oh, one more thing. A number of Stitchers on Facebook have shared how much they like this three shelf cart from IKEA for storing their stitching stuff. I just happen to work about a mile away from an IKEA store so I stopped after work tonight and picked one up!



Did you notice Josie snoozing in the background?

Reflecting on 2016

Here's tonight's stitching progress. The cow is now joined by a goose, a gosling, and a dog. I've only partially stitched the two people!




Over the next few says, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of my finishes in 2016.

In January, I finished the ruler case from Shepherd's Bush - the Fold.







I also finished the stitching on this La D Da piece, which in February would be finished into this sweet little needleroll.






Also in February, the first sampler in Amy Mitten's Around the World sampler series. This one was the Scottish sampler.




More tomorrow!

Merry Christmas!

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! The weather in Minnesota was "frightful" but we still managed to have a "delightful" time with family. Very warm Christmas, with lots of rain, sleet, and ice. It did not hamper our Christmas plans.

Here's a picture of my tree with handmade ornaments. Pretty soon I am going to need a larger tree.



The Mad Tatter made two new ornaments for my tree this year.






Our Christmas Eve celebration starter early in the day with hors d'ouevres. The dogs and the family were comfy cozy ready to watch the football game.






We ordered in our dinner on Christmas Eve, something I would totally do again. Less stressful and more relaxing!

Christmas Day didn't start so well. The roads were terrible; like driving on ice! I wanted to take my mom to church. About two miles from home (and after sliding down a hill out of control), I decided it was in my best interest to turn around and go home. Cars were sliding into the ditch right and left. About a mile from home another car hit me; he was sliding and couldn't stop. Thankfully, I'm fine. The car can be fixed.

Ready for Christmas dinner!



Five of the Mad Tatter's seven grandchildren were here and agreed to a photo.



There was even time for a little stitching last night...a cow!



Last but not least, look what I picked up at Stitchville last Friday. This is my framed finish of All Creatures Great and Small from Barbara Ana. Don't you just love it?



Hopefully this won't be my last post for the year. I'll try to sneak one more in before the new year!

New York, New York

My job can really be crazy at times. There are days when I sometimes spend more time in airplanes and airports than I do at home or at my destination. Occasionally there are fun little perks with the job. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go to New York. (Just for the day - such a jet-setter!)

I was sitting on the right side of the plane to see the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan in all its glory on the flight in. It's really an amazing city! One day I am going to go back so that I can see the Statue of Liberty up close and personal.

















While I was only there for a few hours, I had the opportunity to see the Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular. First time at Radio City Music Hall and first time seeing the Rockettes!
















After the show, we walked down to Rockefeller Center to see the giant Christmas tree.


Long day, but some fun experiences!

Tonight's Acorns

Stitched two acorns tonight! The green and brown one and the multi-colored one. Top right!