Threads, thoughts and other notions...

sunday sal, tusal, and ihsw...

2012-01-23T12:08:00.005-07:00

Wow, everything seems to have come together for this weekend and Monday update, that I don't even know where to start!

Let's start with last week's progress on The Last Supper... I worked on that last week and did pretty good considering I didn't get to stitch every night like I normally do. I didn't bother taking them out of the q-snaps as it will be coming up for more stitching time soon enough.

The blue robe on the very left, where I ended, is actually part of the last apostle standing at the table, so I'm getting close to finsihing off all the good bits, after all that stitching is done, I'm left with all the fiddly bits - the skin with all its colour changes and fractionals, all the stuff on the table - more fractionals, and of course the ton and a half of backstitching! So much still to do, but I know it will be worth it in the end.

Next up... the start of the IHSW - international hermit and stitch weekend. Edith and I had a stitchy date on Saturday (sadly Barbi couldn't make it - hopefully next time) and I started a new project - the Birds of a Feather mystery SAL in three parts by With Thy Needle & Thread. Its not so much a mystery anymore as the SAL has been over for a while and I have all three parts of the pattern, but I have been wanting to stitch it since it came out. I finally sat down to start.

Here is my progress from Saturday's stitching session with Edith and some more that evening...

As I mentioned, since I have all three parts, I started in the middle instead of working it part by part, which works much better for me, as I have a hard time starting on projects from one of the corners...

I'm stitching it on 28ct natural peal linen, with the recommended threads. I'm a little weary as the thread pack that came with it is for 35ct, so I'm hoping I'll have enough thread...

I normally don't like stitching on linen, and I know you have all heard me say that many times before, but this fabric is one exception... it is more like an evenweave than a linen in that there really are no slubs in it and I love that about it! Plus the stitches lay so nicely on this fabric! I just have to get over the fact that its sort of itchy feeling... Anyways, this one is up to continue to work on this week.

Next progress picture... tusal... today is the new moon, and I thought I would try something different this year... here is my progress for this past month - from Dec. 24 till last night. I have to admit I've got quite a lot of stitching done in that time, including starting and finishing Mirabilia's Holly pixie, so my jar is quite full...

As you can see, I've have two jars pictured. My regular small one that I usually just keep squishing the threads down in, and a new bigger one... I thought this year I would keep my regular ort jar for the monthly progress pictures and the larger one would hold the whole year's progress of orts... we'll see how it works out...

Here is a picture of the two jars again, but this time I've already dumped this month's progress into the large jar...

Last but not least, it was our Sunday SAL with Barbi yesterday, so that meant Mary Margaret time...

Here she is after last night's stitching session...

I think I did pretty good. I've started the border, as well as filling in the bottom grass/dirt. I did make one change to the pattern, in that I changed the colour of the outline of the raccoon... The colour that the patten called for in its DMC conversion was DMC 730 which is a dark avocado green... I didn't want my raccoon being green, so I switched it out for black instead. Anyways, she is coming into the home stretch, and I'm pretty excited!

That's it for now, I didn't realize my post would be this long, so until next time happy stitching!

mary margaret...

2012-01-16T20:02:00.003-07:00

Well it was Sunday yesterday and you all know what that means! Sunday SAL with Barbi!

I will admit, I didn't stitch solely on Mary Margaret yesterday, as you can see from yesterday's post I also had a happy dance. After Saturday night's stitching session, I only had some beading left to do on Holly - a good hour or two before actually finishing her, so I thought I would tackle that before starting to work on Mary Maragaret, so that is what I did. As you can see I did finish Holly, and I just love the way she turned out. I just love these Mirabilia pixies, even though this is only my second one that I've stitched, I see a lot more of them in my future! Good thing too, as I have a few in my stash just waiting to be stitched!

Now on to the reason we are here!

Though it seems like there isn't much left to do, trust me there is... that is an awful lot of ground/grass on the bottom there that still needs to be filled in, not to mention the other things and the border, but she is coming along, and each Sunday brings me closer to a happy dance!

This week, I'll be pulling out my Last Super again, and make a little more headway on that.

Don't forget that this weekend coming up is the IHSW - international hermit stitcher's weekend, and I am planning on stitching lots this time around! I have a stitchy date all set with Edith, and I'm planning on starting something new! Barbi was to join us but sadly she can't make it this time, but hopefully next stitchy date, it will be a threesome! :O)

Till next time happy stitching!!

first dance of the year!

2012-01-15T17:37:00.004-07:00

Just wanted to do a quick post to share my first happy dance of what I hope will be many this year!

Here she is....

Holly by Mirabila
Stitched on 28ct Jazlyn Wandering Ivy fabric
by Silkweavers

I would like to point out a correction, in that in a previous post, I said I was stitching her on fabric by Sugar Maple, however, I found the package, and it is indeed Wandering Ivy, in 28ct Jazlyn by Silkweaver.

Here is a bit of a close up of her so you can see some of the beads better...

Now since its Sunday, that means its Mary Maragret and our SAL with Barbi! I'm off to work on her for the rest of the evening!

mary margaret

2012-01-10T17:16:00.003-07:00

I'm a little late, but I guess late is better than never! Here is my latest update on Mary Margaret! Not too much left to do, I'm so looking forward to a happy dance with her, as well as seeing Barbi's progress!

This week, its Holly's turn. We'll see how far I get, though I would like to see a happy dance with her in the near future as well!

last supper update

2012-01-08T12:29:00.003-07:00

Well as I mentioned in my previous post, I had this sudden and unexplainable urge to dig out my oldest wip and start working on it - The Last Supper by Leisure Arts.

Here is my before picture, in case anyone missed in my very long winded previous post!

And here is my progress as of last night... 4 stitching sessions later. Not too bad if I do say so myself. I will say though I now remember another reason why its taken me so long to pick it up again... all those fractional stitches and colour changes... just the skin alone has 4 different colours... frustrating to say the least... I won't even mention the amount of backstitching there is on this piece! But its for my hubby so it will be worth it in the end.

Oh well, the journey has begun, and the gauntlet for the challenge dropped. Now to just see how long it really will take me to finish this thing!

Btw its not stitched crooked, I just can never put my fabric in straight in my qsnaps, so when I pull the tension tight it always looks a bit wonky...

Today is Sunday so that means our SAL with Barbi, so I will definitely be working on Mary Margaret today, but first we have to take our Christmas tree down. Not looking forward to that, as I really enjoy having it up especially all light up. But the poor thing is starting to look weary and is starting to droop or at least the very bottom branches...

Tomorrow I'll get back to Holly as she is calling pretty loudly right now too, as are a few new starts but I'll try and keep them at bay for now...

a little more Holly...and a bit of a confession...

2012-01-04T18:16:00.005-07:00

So here she is as of last night's stitching session. Her skirt is all done, and she has legs! I put her aside for a few days for now. I'll get back to her sometime next week, to work on the top part of the design. The missing spots in her skirt are where the beads are supposed to go.

I was lucky enough to get a very generous gift certificate to Traditional Stitches as a Christmas gift this year, from one of my best friends, and I have to say it didn't take me long to spend it! I managed to actually go over the amount of the gift certificate, but not by too much, more the shipping and tax... then again, as I mentioned in my other post I am a true stashaoholic!

I got all the beads (14 packs of beads + 2 treasures) and specialty threads (kreiniks and caron waterlillies) for 3 different mirabilia's - Holly, Fairy Moon, and Sabrina, as well as the newest issue of JCS magazine, and two charts by With Thy Needle & Thread/ Coutnry Stitches - Boughs of Holly and Feather in Your Nest.

I also have a couple of things that are/were backordered from before, so hopefully those will be arriving as well with this order... the crown needle minder by Kelmscott Designs. Gosh these things are almost as addictive to collect as scissors are! (I also got a very beautiful pair of scissors as well with my gift certificate) As well as the Winter Loose Feather's design by Blackbird Designs. I'm on their automatic for those, so as soon as it arrives, it will be making its way here to me! I definitley plan on stitching all three of these together on one piece of fabric.

So you are probably wondering what I actually picked up to stitch, now that Holly has been put aside for a little bit... well you will be surprised... I know I was myself! I actually picked up my Last Supper wip. It is the one major project that my husband has asked me to stitch for him. It has definitely been a wip-in-waiting so to speak... It is my oldest wip to date...This is how it looks from when I last stitched on it...

This poor piece hasn't seen the light of day in almost 10 years, with the exception of last year at this time to take a quick photo for last year's stitching plan blog post. I was quite surprised myself when suddenly earlier today I had an urge to find it and pull it out and get everything orgainzed for it. There is/was a lot of emotional baggage that comes along with this piece and the main part the reason why I didn't want to stitch it...

You see the last time I worked on it, almost exactly 10 years ago... roughly around March of 2002, I stitched on it while hanging out with my Mom... I happened to be living in Budapest at that time, but came home for a visit, for a good month or so - I came back to look into a job opportunity that didn't pan out, but I at least got to spend time with my Mom. I went back to Budapest sometime around the end of March, beginning of April to be home to celebrate my hubby's 40th birthday, and then at the end of May, May 26th to be exact, I got the call at just before midnight Budapest time, that my Mom had passed away. I still get all teary eyed even now almost 10 years later just writing this down...

However, something changed, I don't dread working on this anymore, I actually wanted to stitch on it today. Other than being teary eyed now and a little earlier today when my Dad was looking at the pattern - he thought I already finished it, and we talked about the last time I worked on this, I'm actually doing fine. I've already got myself organized, most of the floss was already set up and bobbinated, I finished putting the remainder of the floss on bobbins, as well as double checked the floss list to make sure I wasn't missing anything, and had hubby iron it and I then put it on the qsnaps, where its all ready to go. I have actually already put a few stitches in it, and will continue to do so after dinner...

Hubby and I have a running joke/promise with this piece... that I have until his 60th birthday or Christmas that year (so until 2022) to finish this piece. I have a secret desire - as of this morning.... to try and finish it off for his 50th birthday which is at the end of this April... but if I don't make that, I do want to have it for his Christmas gift this year... that I know I can do if I put my mind to it! I also want to have it framed by Jill Rensel if possible and I know that will take time, so I'm guessing Christmas is the more realistic deadline!

The only thing holding me back now really, is the fabric, becuase I just can't stand linen... and this is done on 28ct cashel linen... but I've got too much done already to scrap it and start brand new, so I'll plow though it somehow! I mean if I can get though the emotional baggage with this piece, I'm sure I can manage the problem of the fabric!

Wish me luck!!!

a little mary margaret...

2012-01-02T18:25:00.003-07:00

What a great way to start the new year - with a Sunday SAL with Barbi!

It was a very lazy day, being we were out fairly late the evening before, but I did manage to put a few stitches into Mary Margaret!

She is coming along nicely if I do say so myself. I've already put her away till next Sunday, and have pulled out Holly by Mirabilia, to continue working on her this week. I'm still on holidays so hopefully I will be able to get lots of good stitching time in!

a year in review and plans for the future...

2012-01-01T14:36:00.006-07:00

Well it is the first day of the new year, so full of promise and hope. Its funny, I really don't like new year's eve... its one holiday that I don't particularly like to celebrate, I would much rather be at home stitching it through or maybe even sleeping it through, but that never ever happens.

I always seem so reluctant to say good bye to the old year, to head into the unknown of the new one, but yet when I wake up on new year's day, it just seems so silly as it is a day like any other, except that it seems to be filled with more promise. A new start, a new beginning.

So that is how I plan on looking at it, a fresh start and things can only be better from here on end.

On to some stitchy stuff... let's see how I did on my 2011 stitching plan...

1. stitching an ornament once a month (doesn't need to be only Christmasy ones) - well I can't say I did one a month, but I did meet the goal of having stitched at least 12 ornaments last year... I actually managed to stitch 19 ornaments/fobs

2. stitch a freebie every month - again, not one a month, but I did meet and pass the goal of stitching 12 freebies... I managed to stitch 14...

3. Sunday SAL - yes that has been going along swimmingly... at the time of posting the plan, we were working on Molly, well we finished Molly, we started and finished Elizabeth, and we have started and are continuing to work on Mary Margaret of the girls by Carriage House Samplings. We have one girl left after this - Suzanne, and once she is started I'm sure Barbi and I will discuss what our next project(s) will be for the Sunday SAL.

4. work on my wips... well this one is a toss up... I listed 5 wips that I wanted to make progress on - Fairy Moon by Mirabilia, My Stitching Treasures by Jeanette Douglas, Madonna Dolorosa by Kustom Krafts/Solaria, Antique Lace Canvas Sampler by SJ Desings, and PGA by the Goode Huswife... I managed to finish 3 and didn't even really touch the other two... so not to bad of an accomplishment.

5. UFO's... I still haven't made any decision regarding the UFO's mentioned... I really should get on that...

6. Start anything I like.... I definitely met this goal and even surpassed it!

and last but not least

7. only stitch from stash and no stash shopping... I definitley failed miserabley on this one... not so much the stitch from stash but more on the stash shopping... I'm a stashaholic for sure!

Can't say I did too badly, I think I did pretty darn good at following those goals, or at least most of them! Especially since I'm not one to follow them once they are written down! LOL!!

On to the new plans... with a fresh clean slate!

2012 Stitching plan

1. Challenges and SAL's

Again there are an awful lot of cool and interesting challenges, SAL's etc going on this year... I'm going to sit on the sidelines for most of them, same as last year, as like I mentioned I have a hard time following a list of stuff to stitch and only sticking to those projects... but there are few that do fit with me and those I've joined, or actually I joined last year but will continue to participate this year. those being: TUSAL for 2012, IHSW (international hermit stitching weekend), and of course the Sunday SAL with Barbi - all the links for these are in my side bar.

There will be one more SAL that I will be joining, or more like co-piloting, and that will be our SAL for Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Snowmen, with Veronica, and Barbi and whoever else would like to join. We don't have a set date yet, but we do plan on starting sometime around March. Just keep an eye out on our blogs for more details in the future!

2. Stitch whatever catches my fancy...

So far I have a tentative plan of what I would like to accomplish this year, and I have to say there are quite a few new starts on my list!

On the must stitch list to date:
-Suzanne - Carriage House Samplings
-Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Men
-Plum Street Samplers - Sergei, Olga and Boris
-Mirabilia - Fairy Moon, and the Holly Pixie, Sabrina
-Birds of a Feather - Mystery SAL

The stitching wishlist includes:
- Elizabeth - Mirabilia
- Bygone Stitches - Quaker Virtues, A Quaker Christmas
- Stickideen von der Wiehenburg - Rose Quaker
- Angie Designer - Romantique Samper
- Jardine Prive - the 4 season patchwork patterns - spring, summer, autumn, and winter

A fairl ambitious list if I do say so myself... as this doesn't include any smalls/ornaments etc that will more than likely catch my fancy, or any wips/ufo's that I may actually pick up and finish (other than Fairy Moon and the Holly pixie by Mirabilia) And plus know me, this list will change, evolve several times by the year end!

and that is it for my stitching goals! I'm not even going to try and stitch from my stash only or not to shop, as I always fail if I say I'm going to try...I would like to curb my spending a little but we'll see what these desingers bring out as new releases this year!

Till next time, happy new year and happy stitching!

last day of the year...

2011-12-31T12:38:00.004-07:00

We would like to wish everyone all the best this new year,may it be filled with love, happiness, and all things magical...

Szeretnénk mindenkinek a legjobbakat kívánni az újévre,legyen szeretettel, boldogsággal és örömökkel teljes...

another quickie post

2011-12-31T12:15:00.004-07:00

Just wanted to show my progress so far for Holly by Mirabilia... I started her on Dec 28 - fairly late in the evening, and this is where I got to as of last night... I'm stitching it on a Sugar Maple fabric 28ct jazlynn I believe, but the name escapes me and I can't find the baggie it came in...

I'm really enjoying her so far, she seems to be working up fairly quickly.

That's it for now, more stitching updates in the new year!

quickie post

2011-12-28T22:46:00.004-07:00

Christmas has come and gone, and it was a wonderful Christmas at that! We enjoyed ourselves tremedously, and enjoyed spending time with family and friends. I've also been taking it pretty easy since the surgery, and haven't stitched at all until tonight. But before I get into what I picked up to work on, I thought I would share a picture of how we framed the black tulips.

We went with a fairly simple frame, as I wanted to be able to give it to its intended recipient for Christmas. I was fairly nervous about giving it, as I always am when giving stitched gifts, but I needn't had worried as it was very well recieved!

And now on to what I started working on tonight... while my niece was here she started doing a little stitching, she started two different projects, but actually never finished either one... so I thought I would grab one and finish it off. The one I picked was Holly by Mirabilia. She put in about 20 stitches last Christmas before putting it down, so really it is almost like I started it brand new.

2011's last tusal report

2011-12-24T13:18:00.003-07:00

Here is my progress pictures of my last tusal for this year. I can definitely say it has been a very productive year stitching wise, and my ort jar is proof! These last two months, I didn't think I could fit any more into the poor thing, but I managed to squeeze out the most of it by constantly squishing it and squishing it down!

A more close up look at how full the jar was...

And a view of all the threads that were in there...

I had fun doing the tusal this year and even managed to post on time each month, if I remember correctly! I will defintiely be doing it again next year and have already signed up for it.

Since I'm off on holidays now until Jan 9th, I plan on getting lots of stitching done in the next little while, so hopefully my first tusal of next year will be a good one!

Till next time, merry Christmas to everyone, and happy stitching!

holiday greetings...

2011-12-23T14:08:00.003-07:00

Well I didn't get any stitching done over the IHSW, haven't actually touched a needle since sometime last week...

We were very busy with a couple of parties on the weekend, as well as getting ready for the upcoming Christmas holidays...

We had to get everything all ready ahead of time, as I had gallbladder surgery yesterday, so now I just can take it easy and relax and rest and heal. Its strange to be done everything so soon! I don't know what to do with myself! We normally don't decorate the tree until the afternoon of the 24th, but its all done now.

I will be stitching, during my time off, I don't have to go back to work until the 9th, so I have plenty of time to pamper myself, and that is all I have planned!

I would like to also take this opportunity to wish all of you a very merry and blessed Christmas and a very wonderful and prosperous new year!

Áldott karácsonyi ünnepeket, es sikerekeben gazdag, boldog új évet kivanok sok szeretettel mindenkinek!!!

IHSW...

2011-12-16T23:23:00.002-07:00

Don't forget that it's IHSW this weekend! Get those needles smokin'! Sadly I'm not sure how much I'll be able to participate this weekend, as its pretty full up with plans and parties, but I will try and get needle to thread sometime this weekend!

Have fun everyone, I'll be looking foward to all the lovely progress pictures!

doin' a two step through the tulips...

2011-12-13T17:54:00.006-07:00

I've been plugging along these last few weeks, and I managed to finally finish off the tulips! And in time for Christmas! Here they are in all their glory... I did leave off the row of small tulips on the bottom, as I didn't think it really added to the piece either way.

Black tulips by Lanarte
DMC threads, on 28ct ivory jobelan

Not sure what I'm going to work on now, I'll probably do some stash diving and either come up with something new, or find some more ornaments to stitch up. I won't be empty handed for long!

I will be putting up the pattern for sale, with the left over threads - I ran out of two, but I have the DMC conversion so they are easily replaced. The pattern is still readable, I did mark it up with my pink pencil, but its erasable, as well the fabric that came with the kit - an ivory linen is also included. So please check out my sales page on the top if you are interested. (newer stuff is added to the bottom of the page)

just a quick update

2011-12-13T00:02:00.003-07:00

Sunday was Mary Margaret day, or I should say our SAL with Barbi...

Here is my progress on her from that stitching session...

It is coming along quite nicely, though I will admit that next sunday I don't think I will be able to stitch on her as we have a very busy weekend coming up.

That's it for now, as it is fairly late here... until next time... Happy Stitching

oops I did it again...

2011-12-08T22:30:00.004-07:00

Well you can tell I have absolutely no will power once it comes to cross stitching and stash...

My LNS - Traditional Stitches, was having an open house last weekend, and they also let me know that Sergei by Plum Street Samplers was in, so instead of having them mail it out, Edith and I went to go and pick it up in person.

I'm not sure that was a good idea... I ended up coming home with more stash than I originally thought I would... In addition to Sergei, I also picked up Quaker Virtues and A Quaker Christmas by Bygone Stitches. I have been eyeing these two patterns for quite some time, and so far I was safe as they never made it past looking and actually into my cart. However they were just sitting there at the open house just waiting for me to take them home... so I did! Anyways here are some pictures of my newly acquired stash... the rest from my previous post haven't arrived yet, but I know they will soon enough.

Also while I was at Traditional Stitches, I pre-ordered the two new Blackbird Designs! EEK!!! I told you I was bad!

Anyways, it seems to me that my next year's stitching plan is starting to take shape!

So far on the must stitch list:
-Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Men
-Plum Street Samplers - Sergei, Olga and Boris
-Mirabilia - Fairy Moon, and the Holly Pixie
-Birds of a Feather - Mystery SAL

The stitching wishlist includes:
- Bygone Stitches - Quaker Virtues, A Quaker Christmas
- Stickideen von der Wiehenburg - Rose Quaker
- Angie Designer - Romantique Samper

So definitely a lofty plan and list of patterns to stitch as most of them are fairly large, but of course knowing me, this list will change several times before then!

mary margaret

2011-12-05T18:09:00.003-07:00

Its been nice not having to post everyday but at the same time I'm missing it! I keep thinking of things I need to blog about and making a list to make sure I don't forget but I'm falling behind already!

Anyways... yesterday was our Sunday SAL with Barbi and I made a little progress on mine. But I have to admit I didn't get as much as I wanted to get done, as we had a very busy day and I didn't actually sit down to stitch until fairly late Sunday night.

I will also be getting the giveaway prizes into the mail soon, I just didn't get a chance to go to the post office today! Again I would like to thank everyone who played and congratulations to the winners!!

we have a winner!!!

2011-12-03T16:42:00.007-07:00

Actually we have winners, yes multiple! After reading all the comments (whoo hooo 17 of them!) I decided to add a couple of more people to the winners circle. I noticed a lot of the commenters are from Europe, Hungary to be exact, and I know how hard it is to get good stitching magazines there, so I added in two more chances to win.

So... the prizes you can win are one of 2 chances to win the November/December 2011 issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine and one chance to win the November/December 2010 issue of Just Cross Stitch. Both covers are pictured below:

2011 JCS November/Dec issue

2010 JCS November/December issue

The two winners for the 2011 issue with the red cardinal on the cover are:

Jucus and Dani -tdkchick

Jucus!!! Nincs email cimed a profilodban - legyszives kuld el nekem az informaciodat - az email cimem a profilomban :O)

And the winner of the 2010 issue with the Christms tree is:

Fani

Congratulations to all three winners! I will be emailing you all shortly to get your mailing addresses, so that I can get these out to you as soon as possible!!

oh my, oh my!!

2011-12-01T16:43:00.003-07:00

Happy December 1st! The countdown to Christmas is on!! Only 23 sleeps till Christmas Eve and 24 to Christmas day!!! Sadly though other than my blog being all decked out, I don't have too much Christmas spirit just yet, it always seems to come later on in the month for me for some weird reason, but that's okay I know it will show up! I mean Christmas is my all time favourite holiday - tied for first with Halloween...

Have you all gone and checked out the newest designs by Blackbird Designs???? Oh my... that lovely Chirstmas Garden sampler... oh dear I feel another fall off the wagon just waitng to happen! I can hardly wait to see a bigger picture of it...

I just absolutely love it (so far from the picture shown) and that stocking... a must have! I really must get another set of hands somewhere so I can stitch up all the lovely things that I keep falling in love with!

and that's a wrap...

2011-11-30T19:57:00.005-07:00

Well I did it! I managed to post everyday for an entire month. I will admit some days it was difficult to figure what on earth to post, but for the most part it was easy and fun. So here is to my first ever successful nablopomo -> national blog posting month!!!

In honour of finishing here are some freebies to celebrate with!

-Ribbon reindeer by Daffycat: click (she has several cute reindeer freebies other than this one)
-Believe by The Sampler Girl: click
-Adore Him by Plum Street Samplers: click
-Christmas tree by The Stitcherhood: click
-Give Thanks by The Stitcherhood: click (just changing the colours could make it more Christmasy)
-Merry Primitive Christmas by The Primitive Hare: click
-Merry Yule by The Primitive Hare: click

Enjoy!!! And remember there is also still time to get in on the fun with my latest giveaway!!! (click)

gale force winds...

2011-11-29T17:31:00.005-07:00

This past Sunday we had some pretty strange weather, in that we had wind storm warnings for the southern part of our province, including our fair city.

And let me tell you what a wind storm we had! At times it seriously felt like the wind was going to blow the house away! But thankfully we survived with minimal damage, while I know others were not as lucky.

On the news they had said the winds in our area were the same as a category 1 hurricane, and that they measured the wind speed downtown from the top of our tallest building to be at 150 kms/hour at its peak. Most of downtown was actually shut down to pedestrians, transit and cars for safetly reasons.

Anyways, here are a couple of pictures from our yard... luckily all the trees remained intact with the exception of a few branches here and there. We only lost our gazebo - you can see it in the first picture flug to the left of the chairs all broken. The circle of chairs is usually where it sits. And in the second picture we lost part of our fence... and considering how much fence we actually have in our back yard, that is very minimal. The only other damage we had was that we lost two planters to the wind.

mary margaret...

2011-11-28T17:20:00.003-07:00

Yesterday was our regular Sunday SAL with Barbi and here is my progress on Mary Margaret by Carriage House Samplings:

She is coming along nicely and I am enjoying every stitch... I did notice in the pattern that coming up on the tree is a heart with her initials stitched over one... looking at the model photo that came with the chart I'm not sure I like the way it looks so I may skip the over one stitching and just leave the hear blank.... we'll see next week when its time to work on her again!

Till then don't forget to enter my giveway - see my previous post, and happy stitching!

time to play...

2011-11-27T11:06:00.003-07:00

I enjoyed playing in October so much with my giveaways, that I thought I would play again!

This time you can win the November-December 2011 issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. (pictured above) All you need to do is comment on this post that you would like to be included in the giveaway, and once it is closed I will pull a name. Its open starting today and will close at midnight Friday December 2. I'll announce the winner on the Saturday.

It is open world wide, and the more the merrier!

the joy in finishing...

2011-11-26T16:13:00.003-07:00

another ornament that is!

Just a quick posting today. This is the Joy ornament from issue #84 of Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch and Beading magazine (the Christmas issue) that I went on the search for after seeing Barbi's holly reindeer tag that she stitched from it. I was lucky to get the issue as it was the last one in the store (at least the chapters I went to). There are a few more I would like to stitch up from this issue, but I have so many ornaments on my "to do" list at the moment that we'll see which ones I actually will get to stitching!

I stitched it over one on 28ct white jobelan, using my own conversion for the gold coloured threads - just plain DMC -> 780, 782, 783, blanc, 762 and 415...

Now to just find time to sit down and actually finish "finish" these ornaments! For now though I think I'll just continue stitching on my tulips... those seem to be calling my name for tonight.

the november ort report...

2011-11-25T18:03:00.005-07:00

Here is my tusal for this month!

Before and after squishing...

Not much room left in there, thank goodness there is only one month to go for this year's tusal!

We will be doing this again next year, and Daffycat has agreed to host it again (hurray!!!) so if you would like to join you can find more information here: click or by clicking the tusal button in my side bar!

want to join?

2011-11-24T19:21:00.004-07:00

I was contacted after my window shopping post by Veronica about maybe doing Lizzie Kate's 6 fat men as a SAL in the future...

Both of us have just ordered the pattern and have so far set a date for March next year. It is tentative right now, but we will be confirming the date and more information it as we get closer.

Let us know if you would like to join in! (pssst.... Barbi and Edit.... I'm talking to you! LOL!) In all seriousness, let us know if any of you would like to join us for a little fun sal in the new year!

Also if you have a chance please go check out her blog, she has some very lovely stitching going on over there! Just be careful, as she has enabled me more than once already!

I fell....

2011-11-23T17:16:00.003-07:00

Well I did it, I fell off the wagon... not that I was really on the stash wagon, more a self imposed wagon, in that I've been trying not to buy a lot of stash lately...but I couldn't resist any longer! and I will admit I did go a little overboard!

If you remember my post from November 12, where I went window shopping, well some of those patterns - okay most of them - are now slowly making their way to my mailbox... as well a couple of others...

I won't show pictures of them all, but will list my new stash that is on its way... here's what I got!

-DebBee's Designs Diamond Delight VI
-all the charts needed for Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Men
-Mirabilia's Elizabeth plus the beads
-Prairie Schooler J*K*L
-the two new ones by Plum Street Samplers - Colonial Garden, and Sergei
-Blackbird Desings Loose Feathers - Autumn
-Brooks Books Brides Tree Ornament #10 - Eternity
-Lizzie Kate's Ho Ho Ho in a row
-Lizzie Kate's Winter Alphabets

I know more would have jumped in the online shopping cart if I let them, but I had to draw the line somewhere! LOL!!

I really like Lizzie Kate's Autumn Alphabets as well, but that will have to wait till next time with all the rest that I didn't order this time around.

Since I now have so much new stash coming, I will need to seriously start making room, so please keep an eye open in that I will be posting more things for sale on my sale page - tab/link is at the top.

Tonight I'm not sure what to stitch on, as I found a couple of more Christmas ornaments that I would like to do but at the same time, I'm really enjoying working on the tulips... so its a toss up right now. I have both set up in my qsnaps (its good to have multiples!) so I'll just grab one and go from there when I settle in to stitch tonight!

till tomorrow... happy stitching!

tip toe through the tulips...

2011-11-22T15:40:00.002-07:00

for today's post, I thought it was time to show off my progress on my tulips again. You can see where I left off here: click before picking it up last week. I am really enjoying working on this, and love to see how the tulips come to life with each stitch... I'm probably going to keep working on this still this week and then next week will probably be back to some more ornaments.

I have a whole bunch already picked out, but my pile of ones to actually finish into ornaments is growing as well, so I have to figure out time to do that as well.

I also saw on Joysze's blog Random Ramblings that she has a list up of various SAL's that will be going on for the coming year. There are some interesting ones over there, and I am participating in a couple, namely the TUSAL again, as well as the IHSW ones. Go and check them out!

I think that with these two and my Sunday SAL with Barbi, I should be good on the SAL front. Though who knows... with me you just never know. I'm good at making plans just not that great at sticking to them! LOL! But I will enjoy looking at the progress that others will be making as they participate in them!

IHSW and Mary Margaret...

2011-11-21T18:03:00.005-07:00

This weekend was the IHSW (international hermit and stitch weekend) and sadly I didn't get to much time in for stitching. I was only able to really sit down on Sunday for a little bit.

Since Sunday is also our SAL day with Barbi, I worked on Mary Margaret for both the IHSW and our SAL. Here is my progress from yesterday...

Not too much but she is coming along nicely. I am enjoying her a lot, she is a fun stitch. I will admit that this time her face didn't creep me out as much as she did last week, when I had to cover her up!

That's it for today... I'm off to stitch on my tulips! Also 9 more days of nablogpomo as well.

late night blogging..

2011-11-20T23:22:00.004-07:00

Well the day is almost over and I was having problems trying to think of something to post about...

Hubby and I went out today again to another Christmas market, this time it was the Art Market in the convention center downtown. We went there with my brother and my nieces last year, and enjoyed it, so when I got the email that it was on this weekend we decided to go.

I don't have any pictures to show, I again left my camera at home, but anyone who can should go next year. I highly reccomend it. Lots of great stuff there... here is the link for the artisans who were there: click

The Ultimate Gourment was there too, and their hot chocolate mix is the best! Needless to say I stocked up on my three favourite flavours! And the Cranberry Creek Baking company was there too again handing out samples of their wonderfully delicious cranberry cake with a warm butter sauce... OMG is all I can say... so yummy. We went back a couple of times for samples it was soo good!

Other than that tonight I have been working on Mary Margaret, making a little progress, and in between I have been surfing...

Through Elisa's blog - who by the way has a fantastic new Chirstmas tree freebie pattern available : click here, I stumbled upon through her links a wonderful website/blog that has pictures of some of the window displays in the Hermes store in Paris... where various objects are made out of spools of thread...

Click on the picture below to go to the website...

seven days...

2011-11-19T14:41:00.006-07:00

I saw this on Staci's blog Snippets and Stash, who in turn got it from Jacqui at The Barefoot Crofter, where you share a snapshot from each day of the week.

Well I thought of starting this a little too late, so I don't quite have a picture for everyday this time around, but I thought I would give it a shot. I do have seven photos from this week but I promise now that I have a phone that works and has a camera, Iwill try and do one a day so I can have a real snapshot of my weeks ahead! So this time around mine is more like seven photos taken randomly this week, and not one a day :O)

Here we go!

Tea, sandwiches and sweets at the Catholic church's fall bazaar

playing with thread...

Mmmmmm starbucks hot chocolate...

embroidered pillow from Ikea

kitty tile by the front door

Starbucks hot chocolate at work...

Tea and sweets at the Presbyterian church's fall bazaar...

brrrr... its cold out there!

2011-11-18T17:27:00.002-07:00

Okay maybe not that cold just yet but it is getting there! According to the weather network its -18 C but with the wind chill it feels like -25C! The good thing is that it is supposed to warm up by next week - back into the + temperatures (low + temps but still above zero!)

Anyways, just a quicky post today... more of a reminder that it is IWHS this weekend so don't forget to pamper yourselves and get lots of stitching done! Sadly I won't be able to until Sunday but I plan on doing nothing but stitching then!

Happy stitching everyone!!!

winter blooms...

2011-11-17T21:29:00.002-07:00

Earlier this month, I posted a picture of our Christmas cactus and how it was starting to bloom with the arrival of the colder weather...

I thought I would update you on its blooms... we turned it so that the flowers that are actually blooming are facing in, normally that side of the plant are towards the window. As you can see we have lots of blooms as well as three different colours of flowers... we have light pink (almost white) a darker pink and an orange all in the same pot. If the cacti continue as they have in past years, we will have continuous blooms on them from now till about March if not April, depending on how cool our weather will be!

That's it for today, no stitching to show, but I'm working on the tulips so hopefully I'll be able to show some good progress soon!

another ornanament!

2011-11-16T18:56:00.006-07:00

I found this freebie on the net sometime last year, and have always wanted to stitch it up for Christmas, but for some reason I forgot about it last year when the time came. Not so this year! Here is my Christmas pine cone and you can get the chart for yourself here: click

I picked my own colours - all DMC 561, 780, 783, 814, 815 and 895. I stitched it on white 28ct jobelan, though you can't really tell from the picture! LOL!! my wonderful talents as a photographer are really showing through on this one!

It is a very quick stitch and I think it turned out cute. I'm contemplating on stitching it a second time... but we'll see... there are so many cute ornaments that I would like to stitch, and so little time!

I've pulled out my tulips to work on, so I'll be stitching away on those for the next few days, so I'll to figure out something to blog about as well since I won't have any real stitching to show for a while.

Anyways... as always till next time.... happy stitching!!

drive by posting....

2011-11-15T19:07:00.004-07:00

I hate to dance and run but it will be just a quick post tonight... I finished another ornament.... I did the majority of the stitching on the weekend, and finished it up last night...

Its the Prairie Schooler Santa by the Prairie Schooler, from the November 2008 issue of The Gift of Stitching.

I made a little change in that I picked my own colours and stitched the mittens and words with DMC 3371 instead of the green as originially designed.

The white does show up better in real life than in the picture, I'm just not that great at taking good photos of my stitching!

mary margaret and a little holiday cheer...

2011-11-14T18:48:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was SAL day with Barbi, and if you read my post yesterday, you know that we were a bit busy over here playing (oops... I mean organizing) my threads that I didn't have too much time to stitch, so not much progress was made...

I will admit though stitching her face and her skin with ecru and her eyes, sort of gave her a creepy ghoulish look, at least to me... She has sort of that goth look about her, and her eyes seem snakish to me... I actually had to cover her face while I stitched that one leaf! Call me crazy but she creeped me out late last night while I was up alone stitching... But I still love her, and I do enjoy working on her...so that is a good thing!

Also, if you remember my post from Friday we had a snow fall warning for our city... well nothing happened... we got it today instead! We got the wind they said, and the blowing snow but thank goodness we didn't get too much of the white stuff, or at least not here in our end of the city where I live!

We got just enough to cover the roads and the rooftops of the houses. I know we'll lots more later, but for now this will do...

Hubby also managed to redo our Christmas lights on Friday, we had such lovely weather, so he replaced all of them and actually rehung them all. We keep our lights on the house all year long, and just change out the bulbs as they become worn out or broken. However, this past spring/summer we had a really nasty hail storm that did a lot of damage to the garden and the lights, not so much the house, thank goodness.... and becuase of that he placed them in a different spot, a little lower and more protected.

Anyways, we did a test lighting tonight and here is our house all dressed up and ready for the holidays! We won't be actually turning them on regularly each night till Dec. 6th.

in thread heaven....

2011-11-13T17:27:00.005-07:00

or hell depending on how you look at it...

Last week sometime Dani posted about how she loves to organize including her stash... she happened to post about putting away her threads after her projects... well that got me thinking, and I even commented on her blog that I could use some help!

My threads are all over the place as of late. I've been super lazy in putting them away, and it got to the point where it was much easier to go shopping for a new skein of thread when kitting together a project than to actually go looking for the missing threads...

Soooo.... I thought it was time to get organized! Or I should say continue to get organized, as I started to do this in the summer with all my "extra" threads, putting them into floss bags and then into boxes from Micheals, so it would be easier to find if I ran out of a colour etc. I sweet talked my hubby into helping and we got started! I gathered all my thread from all over the house - with the exception of the ones I happen to be using at the moment and here is what we came up with...

The before pile...

And the after...

I ran out of baggies, so we stopped doing those, but did organize the left over thread into piles according to number... and in the mesh bag in front of the boxes are all my extra black (310), blanc, b5200 and ecru threads...

Here is what we sorted and found missing from my jammer boxes, where I keep my threads on bobbins..

Hubby is helping me wind these onto their bobbins while I stitch for the rest of the evening! Isn't he a keeper!?! I think so and I think I'm very lucky with him too!

A million thanks to him for all his help and patience!

Edited to add: here is a picture of all the floss "bobbinated" now to just "file" them away tomorrow in their rightful places...

window shopping...

2011-11-12T19:48:00.004-07:00

As you may have guessed I "LOVE" cross stitch and literally anything that goes with it... some might say I'm obsessed... okay, yes I am obsessed...

I read cross stitch blogs, message boards, surf online stitchy shops, and when we had a couple of actual real brick and mortar stores here in our city I would go visit them regularly. Even when on vacation in Budapest or Las Vegas, I will go and stop at the local stitchy shops, and usually buy stuff too...

Anyways, becuase of this my wish list tends to be fairly large, as is my stash... you could say I'm at S.A.B.L.E a few times over (for those of you who don't know what S.A.B.L.E is, it is Stash Acquistion Beyond Life Expectancy - in other words I've got more stuff to stitch than I can possible ever manage in my lifetime, and its still growing...)

Thankfully my husband and my family enjoy my hobby and support me in it and anything to do with it. Lately however, I have only been window shopping, and hence the title of my post...

I just wanted to share with you a few of the things that keep popping into my virtual shopping cart at the moment. I just really love these designs and will eventually (one day get them and hopefully stitch them too...

Diamond Delight by DebBees Designs

6 Fat Men Flip Its by Lizzie Kate

Girasole by AAN

Elizabeth by Mirabila

Monthly Calendary covers by The Drawn Thread

Anyways, as I mentioned these are just a sampling of some of the designers and designs that I have been eyeing in the last little while, and as you can see its not all cross stitch. There is a canvas design in there as well, as I really enjoy those as well with all their fancy stitches and threads.

road trip....

2011-11-11T17:31:00.005-07:00

Today, hubby and I went on a small road trip. We decided to go and check out the Millerville Christmas Market... considering we live only a good half hour from the place, it was our first time out there. I have heard lots about it over the years, including their summer farmer's market but as I said we had never gone before now.

There were so many people there, it was unbelievable! But it was nice. We didn't buy anything other than some food stuff from a Hungarian lady from Lethbridge - she makes good pogacsa! We were nibbling on the bag we bought so we had to go back to buy some more to bring home!

There were many lovely crafts and artian stalls there, but it was a bit on the cooler side as we went fairly late. We have a lovely snow storm warning for our fair city tonight, and you could definitely tell in the wind that winter is on its way!

Here are a few pictures of our little excursion...Please excuse the quality of the photos as we left the camera a home, and only had our phones...

... and a partridge in a pear tree

2011-11-10T22:44:00.002-07:00

Another little ornament done! I started this last night and finished it up today... I stitched it using materials from my stash. I used 28ct ivory jobelan and DMC 823 - a very nice dark deep blue.

Its from the November 2011 issue of The Gift of Stitching , and again designed by Nancy Pederson. I also modified it again, this time leaving out the date, and adding the musical notes in its place!

I'm not sure what I'll be stitching next, but I have printed off several more ornaments from TGOS as well as freebies I have saved. Though I really should be getting back to those darn tulips!

Its a long weekend here, and a bonus one for me as I have Monday off as well. I definitely have lots of stitching planned in the days ahead, so I hope it comes true!

more christmasy stuff...

2011-11-09T17:58:00.005-07:00

I managed to stitch up another quickie ornament last night, and again it is from The Gift of Stitching magazine's November issue. It is called Christmas Rose and designed by Nancy Pederson.

Again I just used what I had in my stash, and the only modification I did was to leave off the words and date. It really was a quick stitch and quite enjoyable. I really like blackwork type patterns.

One word of warning though... for the roses I used DMC 815, however after the first rose I ran out of thread and started a new skein.... the problem came from the new skein not matching in colour! It was still a nice deep red, but lighter than the one I started with. I had to search my thread stash high and low (and let me tell you its all over the place sadly) before I found a good 12 inch length wrapped on a bobbin hiding in one of the boxes. Thankfully this little piece that I found matched the thread I started with and I could finish it up.

So be careful if you have older skeins of this colour when starting a project!

Though thinking about it after the fact... I guess I could have made each rose a different shade of red as well... maybe I'll do that if I stitch it again!

christmas is coming...

2011-11-08T19:11:00.004-07:00

..the geese are getting fat, please put a penny in the old man's hat...

or so the song goes... I stitched this up quickly last night as my next installment for the Christmas ornament challenge on BeckySC's blog.

Its from the November issue of The Gift of Stitching magazine and is designed by Maria Warmke of The Stitcherhood. The original calls for all white thread on a dark background, well as you can see I changed it a little using threads and fabric I had on hand in my stash...

I didn't have time to actually make it into an ornament, but it will definitley be a bit bigger than the ones I usually make.

progress on mary margaret...

2011-11-07T18:34:00.003-07:00

Well its Monday... not too much else to say... I have been feeling under the weather so instead of complaining, I just show my progress from this Sunday's SAL with Barbi

a little more dancing...

2011-11-06T10:28:00.006-07:00

I recieved the final installment for the iStitch SAL in the mail yesterday, and before heading out to a party, I had a little time to stitch...

I pulled out my SAL to get that final piece done, and here it is in all its glory!

I stitched it on a 28ct white evenweave... not sure if it was joblean or not - no label... over 1 using Nina's Threads in Rose Tea...

I hope Carol doesn't mind, but I changed the little square beneath the scissors... originally it was the year with the little motif on the right... I'm not too keen on adding dates like that to my patterns, so I omitted the year and added a stem to make it look more like a flower. I think my change turned out okay...

Carol finished hers into a beautiful box top. I'm not sure yet what I will do with mine... I'll save that as a surprise for a future post..

I just loved stitching this, and it was a great SAL, one I could definitely keep up with! If you missed out on this when the SAL started, by all means go and check out Carol's website and purchase it, as she has now made it available for everyone! Click here for Carol's website.

She has a whole lot of other wonderful charts for purchase as well and all are well worth getting! Trust me, I know, I have several of them in my stash just waiting to be stitched up!

Today is our SAL with Barbi, so that means Mary Margaret will be coming out later to play! Till tomorrow, I hope everyone has a relaxing and enjoyable Sunday!

mmmmm...yummy!

2011-11-05T15:43:00.003-06:00

cheesecake in a bowl...

dancing to keep warm...

2011-11-04T17:21:00.007-06:00

Brrrrr... its chilly out there... we managed to get our first dusting of snow, and really it is just a dusting for now... the temperatures aren't too bad but it is chilly. It is -6 C out there right now, and this morning with the wind it supposedly felt like -14 C. The good thing is that they say it is supposed to warm up and melt away this weekend.

Here is a shot of our garden from today...

And now on to the dancing... I decided to finish up that little halloween design I stitched the other day and made it into a scissor fob, really it is the perfect size for it... so here it is:

I also have one more little dance to show and share another ornament that I quickly stitched up... this time for the Christmas Ornament challenge!

It's one of those QR-codes that the newer phones can scan for information. The ornament itself is scanable, we tested it with my hubby, but sadly it doesn't seem to work through the comptuer screen. Once this is scanned it gives you a message that says "Merry Christmas!". I plan on making several more of these for friends and family as little gifts.

It is stitched on the same moss green 25ct lugana over 2 using DMC 310. Here is the link if you would like to make your own personalized QR-code ornament : click here

fall clean up

2011-11-03T17:29:00.006-06:00

Well you can definitely tell winter is on the way.. the air is cripser, the temperatures are cooler, and of course if you look at the garden there is literally nothing left after the fall clean up...

Here is our garden after hubby and my dad did the cleaning...

You can also tell winter is coming becuase our Christmas catus is starting to slowly bloom... this is a picture of our largest one, and you can see the blooms starting on the left hand side, closest to the window...

And I hate to say it but the weather man did say we may get some SNOW tonight! Eeek!! I hope it's not true... or at least if it is that it won't be too much and that it won't last too long yet...

a dance and a double challenge...

2011-11-02T17:30:00.004-06:00

I have a little mini happy dance to share... its so tiny that I had a really hard time getting a proper picture of it... this one isn't the greatest, but you can see it :O)

this is the R.I.P freebie by the Stitcherhood (available if you click here). I stitched it up on Halloween night, and was a fun little stitch.

I'm not sure what I'm going to actually do with it, as it turned out so tiny... but I think I may restitch it and make it bigger. This one is stitched over one on 25ct moss green lugana - the picture definitely doesn't do it justice as the colour of the fabric doesn't come through...

Now on the the challenges... the first one is the Christmas Ornament Challenge... both Barbi and I joined this one being held by BeckySC, and basically you stitch Christmas ornaments starting November 1 through to December 31, 2011. I'm hoping by joining this I will be able to actually stitch up some ornaments ahead of time and not leave them till the last minute like I always tend to do...

However, I'm thinking it maybe a bit more difficult than I originally thought, as I'm not quite in the Christmas mood yet, and have an urge to stitch fall and Halloween themed things right now (yes I know I'm a bit late with the Halloween stuff, but there is always next year!) But I guess that is part of the challenge!

The second challenge, and again both Barbi and I are going to give this a shot is NaBloPaMo or National Blog Posting Month... we are going to try and post on our blogs every day for the month of November! I've seen lots of bloggers do this through out the years, and have always wanted to give it a shot, but have never jumped in before. Well this year is the year! wish me luck, and I hope I won't bore you to tears with my posts... Hmmm I could try and catch up on the photohunt challenge I started earlier this year and sort of fell way behind on, as a way to keep the posts going... but we'll see... So far so good! I'm 2 for 2!!

all saint's day

2011-11-01T16:51:00.001-06:00

For all those gone but never forgotten...

we have a winner!

2011-11-01T16:36:00.003-06:00

As promised, I am posting the winner of my stitched fall/halloween ornament... as with previous giveaways I assigned each person a number:

1- Barbi
2. Kaisievic
3. Valare
4. Mindi
5. Nancy
6. Vimminey
7. Marti
8. Jucus
9. Cherry/Ildiko
10. Jennifer
11. Tina

There were 11 people included as I myself commented, and Edo/Edith decided against the giveaway this time :O).

And the winner is, as per the random number generator....

Congratulations Nancy!! I will be emailing you shortly for your mailing address! Many thanks to everyone who participated!

2011-10-31T18:00:00.001-06:00

H A P P Y H A L L O W E E N ! ! !

Hope everyone has a safe and fun evening!

PS: don't forget you still have time to enter my giveaway! It ends tonight at midnight!

mary margaret...

2011-10-31T12:29:00.004-06:00

Just a quick drive by posting... yesterday was our Sunday sal with Barbi and here is my progress on Mary Margaret

Also a quick reminder that there is still time to enter my giveaway - see previous post. You have until midnight my time today to enter for your chance to win a hallween/fall ornament from me! Thank you to everyone who has entered so far!

giveaway, with a little jig...

2011-10-29T17:40:00.003-06:00

Remember my little freebie I stitched up in my last post - the one from Homespun Elegance?

Well it decided to multiply and I ended up stitching two and making them into little ornaments...

Since I now have two, I decieded to keep one and give one away! So all you need to do to get this little ornament pillow is leave a comment at the end of this post. This one will be a quick one, in that you will have until midnight on Oct. 31 to enter and I will pick a winner and post on Nov. 1st.

Everyone is welcome, Iwill mail worldwide, just please remember to include your email in your post so I have some way of getting in contact with the winner!

If you would like to stitch your own little ornament, the freebie is available here: click

tusal, a wip and a mini dance...

2011-10-26T18:00:00.003-06:00

When I left you last, I said I was off to stitch up the next part of the iStitch SAL.... here is part 7

I'm stitching it up on white 28ct jobelan over 1 using Rose Tea by Nina's Threads. Only one more part to go! It was a very quick stitch, as I finished up fairly early that same night. I still had time to start something new!

What did I start now you ask... just a little freebie which will eventually turn into an ornament type finish...

Its the "Happy Fall" freebie by Homespun Elegance - you can get it by clicking here

I left off the word fall to make it a bit more Halloween-y looking... I think it turned out cute, and again it was a very quick stitch...

Last but not least... today is tusal! So here is my jar... very full. I can't believe how much I've stitched this year compared to last year... even with squishing down the orts, I can only get them down to just underneath the blue band around the jar!

a start, a finish and a gift...

2011-10-24T18:41:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, Barbi and I started on our next girl for our Sunday SAL... Mary Margaret by Carriage House Samplings... here is my progress on her so far...

Not too much done, but considering I didn't have too much time to stitch, she progressed fairly well. Also considering that I've been working a lot on 28ct lately, changing to 32ct last night was strange... those darn holes were so small! it will take a little getting used to again, but all will be well.

Next up, is a finish for me! Happy dance time! I finished off my Batch of Pumpkins by Homespun Elegance... what a fun and quick stitch it turned out to be! Except for that darn kitty! I had to frog that thing 2 1/2 times last week, but I finally learned to count again, and got everything in order so I could continue. And as you can see continue I did! I had only a little bit left as of Saturday night, but I had a sick day today, so inbetween naps I managed to do a little stitching and finished those pumpkins right up!

I stitched it up using the recommended DMC threads - with one change - I changed the pumpkin colour to 780 instead of the 782 listed just becuase I had no 782 on hand... it is also stitched on 28ct praire grain joblean - a very nice fabric to stitch on, as well as a very nice colour. I think I may need to add some more of it to my stash as I only have a small piece left.

And last but definitely not least... my gift... I recieved a belated birthday gift from my niece. She made me a pin cushion. I just love it to pieces, and it now sits proudly by my stitchy spot already with some pins in it!

I also recieved the next part in the iStitch SAL over the weekend, so I'll probably pull that out and stitch that up next. After that is done, there is only one part left before a happy dance! Then for the rest of the week, I will most likely go back to working on the tulips as I really should get those done...

and the winner is...

2011-10-21T13:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Friday!! The giveaway closed at midnight and as promised, I am postint the winner today!

So... I did the same thing I did in my last giveaway, each comment was assigned a number - 1 through 12 (as there was a double comment that was deleted) and then those put into the random number generator, and ta da! The lucky commenter is:

Congratulations #6 - Barbi!!!

I'll be emailing you later on to get your mailing address! Congratulations again and enjoy all 3 charts!

I also saw that the number of my followers has grown as well, so welcome to everyone!!! Hope you enjoy my blog!

Remember, October isn't over yet, so keep your eyes open for another giveaway coming up soon!

ihsw update...

2011-10-18T17:14:00.003-06:00

I joined up with a group of other stitches in the Internation Hermit & Stitch Weekend this past weekend... I happened upon it quite accidentally by blog hopping.

I thought it was a neat idea, and it happen to fall on this weekend so I jumped right in! If you click on the link in my sidebar, you can find out more information about it, but basically its the 3rd weekend of each month that you set aside to give yourself some stitchy time and then blog about it... I know that doesn't sound like anything special especially for me, who tries to set aside some time each and every night. But not everyone is as lucky as I am to be able to do this, and to have a set weekend for your stitchy time is a great way to make sure you get some! Plus its a neat thought to know that there are other stitchers around the world all stitching on that weekend along with you!

Anways, it also just happened that I started something new this weekend and here is my progress so far...

I decided to start a Batch of Pumpkins by Homespun Elegance. Its been in my stash waiting patiently for me to start it for a while now - at least a year or two...so I finally gave in... it helped that the other two projects that I wanted to start, I didn't have the right fabric for them, so they still sit and wait...

Its coming along fairly nicely, and I'll probably continue along with it this week and see how far I get!

Don't forget you still have time to join in on my giveaway! You have until midnight my time on Thursday October 20th to enter by posting a comment to the giveaway post!

giveaway #2

2011-10-13T05:00:00.000-06:00

Since the weather is starting to cool down, I thought a nice warm cup of either tea or coffee would fit the bill for my next giveaway...and since we are in the kitchen already, then there should be some herbs there as well!

Mivel kezd lehulni a levego, gondoltam hogy egy csese tea vagy bogre kave jo lenne a kovetkezo jatekra... es mivel mar a konyhaban vagyunk, akkor mar legyenek gyogynovenyek is!

So dear readers and followers, its the same as before... the giveaway is open world wide, and all you need to do is to comment to this post that you would like to join in on the fun. Please include your email address if it isn't in your blogger profile. If there isn't an email address then I won't include the comment in the draw, as I have no way of getting a hold of the winner otherwise.

Igy kedves olvasok es kovetok, ugyan ugy mint az elozo jateknal... nyitott vilag szerte, es csak annyit kell csinalni, hogy ehez a bejegyzeshez hagyatok egy hozzaszolast, email cimel egyutt. Hogy ha nincs email cim, akkor nem lesz beleszamitva a bejegyzes mivel nem tudom sehogyan sem ertesiteni a nyertest...

This giveway will start today - October 13 and will close a week from now at midnight my time on October 20. I'll pull a winner on October 21st. Please spread the word as the more the merrier!

A mai napon kezdodik - Oktober 13-an, es Oktober 20-an, az en idom szerint ejfelig lehet jelntkezni. Oktober 21-en ki huzzom a nyertes nevet es itt kozlom mindenkivel! Legyetek szivesek adjatok a hirt hogy van jatek, hogy minel tobben jatszanak!

And here are the charts for the giveaway...

Es itt vannak a nyeremenyek...

And for you crafty knitters out there, if you would like your own knitted owl, to get to the pattern click either the picture or here

Es a kottogetognek, ha szeretnel sajat kottot bagolyt akkor vagy a kepre vagy ide kattincs

a quick update...

2011-10-12T23:56:00.005-06:00

I managed to finish up part 6 of the iStitch SAL tonight...

Two more parts to go!

some stitching progress

2011-10-12T18:39:00.003-06:00

I thought that I would show off some of my progress on my Lanarte's Black Tulips...

Its been just over a week since I showed it last, and I have to say I'm made some pretty darn good progress! I had a couple of really good stitching sessions, so that helped.

I still have lots to go on this one, but it does seem to be working up quickly!

Next up will be my iStitch sal, we recieved part 6 over the weekend, so I would like to get that stitched up as soon as possible.

I'm also contemplating on starting a new project (yet again) This time it is Midnight Watch by Blackbird Designs. I've had this since it came out last year, with all the threads for it, but I can't seem to find a fabric in my stash that I like... I don't seem to have any beige-y coloured fabrics... and I don't want to do it on ivory, so I'll have to wait and see what I can find that works... so I'm not going to be starting that one right away... but it is just sitting here next to me screaming at me to start it!

Also keep an eye out, I'll be having another giveaway shortly as well...

and the winner is...

2011-10-10T11:56:00.004-06:00

Well not many people entered the giveaway, there was a total of 6, but hey that's okay! As I said in my previous post, it gives those who did enter a better chance at winning!

I numbered each comment:
1. Beauty Bonnet
2. La Bergere Brodeuse
3. Kimberly R
4. Dani - tkdchick
5. Blu
6. Veronica

Then I used the random number generator to pull a winner and the winner is:

Blu! Congratulations I'll be emailing you shortly for your mailing address!

Thank you to everyone who joined in on the giveaway! Keep watching as I'll be having another one shortly!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

tulip update

2011-10-03T20:32:00.004-06:00

Well not much to show on different stitching projects, only the one - Black Tulips, as that is the one I have been working on since my last update.

I am trying to get it done as fast as possible, as its a gift and I want to give it to the recipient as soon as I can. Its been sitting in my stash for far too long!

Here is where I am before starting tonight's stitching session. I have to say its coming along nicely and I am enjoying it a lot.

I'm just waiting for Barbi to finish her Elizabeth, so we can get started on the next girl in our Sunda SAL. I've got my fabric all ready, as well as my pattern and working copy all set to go. I just need to sit down and get the threads together, but that shouldn't take too long. I can hardly wait to start on Mary Margaret!

Also please don't forget about my giveaway that I'm having - you can see my previous post for more information. I see that many people have come by to take a look - so thank you, but not many have entered their names, hopefully more people will join in on the fun, but if not, then it gives those who did enter a better chance at winning! I also saw that I have a few new followers so welcome to you as well!

Can I please get the following ladies to please leave an email address:

Tracey/ph (aka Beauty Bonnet) and La Bergere Broderise

Neither of you have your email addresses in your profiles nor did you leave one in your comments. If I don't have an email address there is no way to contact you in the case you win the giveaway! :O)

Thanks!

time for a giveaway...jatek!

2011-10-01T12:57:00.007-06:00

its October, my favourite month of the year, so I thought it was time to have a giveaway! I haven't had one in such a long time - 2009 to be exact, so needless to say its long over due.

Oktober van! a kedvenc honapom, es gondoltam hogy mivel mar olyan reg nem volt nalam jaktek, akkor most legyen!

So dear followers and any of my other readers out there, come out and comment if you would like to win some stitchy stuff! It is open world-wide, you don't need to do anything special, just comment on this post if you would like to enter. Share the info if you like, the more entries the merrier. Please leave a valid email address though, so I know how to contact the winner at the end.

Kedves Olvasok meg kovetok, gyertek jatszani hogy ha szeretnetek egy par mintat nyerni! Vilag szerte nyilt jatket, es csak annyit kell csinalni hogy ehez a bejegyzeshez hagyatok egy hozzaszolast. Csak annyit kerek hogy egy ervenyes email cimet hagyatok hogy a nyertesel vel tudjam venni a kapcsolatot.

Today is October 1st and I'll leave it open for the week. It will close on Saturday October 8th at midnight my time (mountain standard time) and I will pull the winner and post on Monday October 10th.

Oktober 1 van, es Oktober 8-an Szombaton, az en idom szerint ejfelik van ido jelentkezni. Utana pedig Oktober 10-en Hetfon majd ki huzom a nyertes nevet es kozlom mindenkivel.

Here are the charts for the prize:
Itt vannak a mintak amit lehet nyerni:

Cherised in Thought - Judy Dixon

Fine China - Indigo Rose

Romance - Patricia Ann Designs

For those of you that knit, the little knitted pumpkin at the top can be found at: Nezumi World Blog (just click and it will take you to the pattern)

Ez azoknak akit szeretnek kottni, a kis kottott tok ami a leg elso keppen lathato, a kovetkezo oldaon lehet meg talani... Nezumi World blog (csak katt es oda vissz a mintahoz)

almost forgot....

2011-09-27T23:54:00.004-06:00

it was also TUSAL today!

Here is my progress picture(s) before and after squishing...

I will admit its getting a bit difficult to squish now...but I've still got room!!!

drive by dancing and update

2011-09-27T17:11:00.004-06:00

Just a quickie update right now...

I have a couple of pictures to share including a happy dance.

First off my progress on Lanarte's black tulips...

Then part 5 for the iStitch mystery SAL arrived and I stitched that up as well... I'm enjoying these small parts as I can actually keep up with the SAL.

And last but not least my happy dance! I finished off Elizabeth on Sunday night. I was surprised as I was super tired and didn't think I would be able to stitch very much let alone finish her, but I guess being so close made me want to continue until she was done, so I wouldn't have to wait another week to finish her off.

I'm not sure how Barbi is doing but she has smoking needles that girl, so I'm sure she is close to finishing as well. Not sure who we will stitch next but I'm leaning towards Mary Margaret and then leave Suzannah for last.

stitching along...

2011-09-21T17:58:00.003-06:00

Thought I would post my progress pictures of what I've been working on the last few days...

After I finished up the Madonna, I pulled out another wip... this time my blue kitties... I managed to stitch up another kitty before switching projects...

then since it was Sunday, it was time for our SAL on Elizabeth. I didn't have too much time to stitch but I did make a little progress. Not much to go now till the finish line on this one.

Also over the weekend, the next installment of the mystery SAL by iStitch came so I stitched that up very quickly Monday night.

And last but not least, I started a new project...this one will be a gift, but I won't say for who, as I know they occasionally read my blog! It is Black Tulips by Lanarte, and its been sitting in my stash for quite sometime. I did buy it with the intention of stitching it for the person who eventually get it, but for some weird reason its taken me this long to pull it out and actually work on it!

Here is what it will look like when done and my measly progress...

I'm also adding the Madonna pattern to my sale list so for anyone interested please let me know!

Now I'm off to stitch for the rest of th evening.

happy dance once... then twice...

2011-09-15T21:07:00.005-06:00

I have a happy dance to share! I managed to put the final stitch into Madonna Dolorosa last night around 10:00pm...

Here she is...

Now don't laugh, I didn't notice anything funky about her until this afternoon when I took her picture to post... I don't like that funky looking outline around and throughout her face either... however after taking the picture and studying the chart, I did use the correct colour it called for - DMC 948...

However after taking a closer look at the computer generated model picture on the front, as well as searching the internet, I did see that something was amiss... so I frogged those stitches and tried to find what I though would be the next best thing... however I didn't have the thread on hand - trust me I searched high and low for a skein of DMC 3771 but there was none to be found. I had to resort to plan C... I restitched it using DMC 758... It turned out much better than it was before, but I'm still not 100% satisfied... but I just don't feel like frogging it again... so I'll if it grows on me, if not then I'll frog...

But here the Madonna in all her glory for happy dance number 2!!!

where has the time gone???

2011-09-12T23:28:00.004-06:00

Well its been a good few days since I updated last... we've been busy including taking care of a sick kitty. Good thing though, she is on the mend, at least I hope she is, as she is making small progress, but progress none the less!

Anyways, even though I didn't post here, I did remember to take pictures of my stitchy progress at the right times! I'll start with our Sunday SAL with Barbi... the first weekend of September was a long weekend, and we weren't home on Sunday, so I made the holdiay Monday my stitching day for this project.

Here is last weeks progress:

I also had a pretty good stitching session this Sunday (yesterday) and here is where I stand as of last night:

I've been continuing to work on Madonna Dolorosa, as I can see the end of the tunnel on this one. I'm getting very close to finishing her...

Here she is as of the long weekend:

And again the progress on her as of last night:

Since I'm getting so close to finishing the Madonna, I'm going to keep working on her this week as well. I'm just going to have find my silver thread that I used on her robe, so I can finish off the silver accents on the top of her head in her veil.

This past weekend, is also when the newest part to the iStitch mystery SAL came out and here is my part three... I stitched it up quickly on Saturday...

I'm going to end this post with a quick picture of my favourite mountain.... some of you may have already seen this on facebook, but I can't help myself... no matter how many times I see this mountain, I just feel compelled to take a newer picture. Its so beautiful to me, and no matter how many times we go by it, I always admire it and stare at in awe as we drive by...

Till next time... happy stitching and I hope everyone has a great week!

tusal, wips and cherries (picture heavy)

2011-08-29T19:59:00.006-06:00

Well its that time of the month already when its time to post our ort jars. I have to admit mine filled up pretty darn nicely this month! Even more so than usual. I think that finishing off the backstitching on my antique lace sampler really pushed things for me.

Here is my jar before and after squishing.

I also have some wips to show off, I didn't get too much done on the Madonna this week, but we did go away for a few days and I didn't take any stitching with me.

Also on Friday part two of the iStitch SAL came out and I stitched it up right away Friday night. I was so proud of myself for getting done so quickly! Now to just patiently wait for part 3.

And then yesterday was our SAL with Barbi. It was actually a pretty quiet weekend, so Iwas able to work on it a bit. It felt nice to stitch on it again. Not sure if Barbi was able to stitch on it or not, but maybe I'll actually catch up to her soon!

Also its sour cherry season again here at our house. This year we didn't a big of a harvest as we did last year, but its still a fairly good amount. I'll end this post with some pictures of this year's harvest...

post and run

2011-08-24T23:43:00.008-06:00

Not much going on here that is blog worthy... a little stitching was done, but not on the weekend, so again no progress on Elizabeth... maybe next weekend? I'll keep my fingers crossed!

I do however have a little progress to show on two projects...

One is my wip of Madonna Dolorosa

And the other is the mystery SAL by istitch designs...

**my photo was edited at the request of the designer of the SAL to make it smaller,
as people are stealing the design off of finished photos...

This is the border and part 1, part two is to come out this weekend... I'm stitching it over 1 on 28ct fabric, with Rose Tea thread by Nina.

that's a wrap...

2011-08-16T23:31:00.003-06:00

After stitching this on and off for the last 3 years, 9 months and roughly 2 weeks I finally finished my antique lace sampler by SJ Designs.

It was a class project that my friend E and I started together at our local LNS, which in the mean time was sold to new owners and has now sadly closed.

Here it is all finished...

I actually finished this last week, just didn't post till now. Since finishing, as promised I was a good girl and didn't start any new projects but instead pulled out a WIP from the pile. I decided to work on Madonna Dolorosa by Solaria

Here is my progress as of Monday night. I didn't stitch on Elizabeth this week, as we had guests Sunday, and I didn't feel like switching out projects for a short stitchy session that night. Maybe I'll make progress on her next week!

I'm keeping the Madonna in the qnsaps this week still, I'm making great progress on her. But next week I will be starting something new - I joined an online mystery SAL on the istitch blog. Normally I don't join SAL were there is deadline to follow such as this one has -where you have to stitch the one part and send a picture before getting the next part of the pattern, but that is mainly becuase I can never keep up with them. This one doesn't look like it will be too big, so I'm hoping I can keep up. Now to choose my fabric and thread!

stitching along...

2011-08-09T19:09:00.006-06:00

I have a little stitching progress to show you... I didn't get too much stitching time on Sunday with Elizabeth, but I did manage to work on her some...

I finally finished the dress! I am so thrilled to be done with it, it seemed to take forever! Now on to the other parts of the design!!!

I also worked some more on my canvas project - antique lace, with the backstitching. I made some pretty good progress on that one as well. I managed to finish up to the halfway point in the design, so the end is near! I can see it! I've included a picture of the whole design to date as well as a close up of what I've backstitched up to now...

I have continued on with the backstitching this week, so I'll see how far I can get.

I do really want to start a few new projects (again), but I'll try and be good and maybe wait till at least next week to start them or at least one of them. I'm wanting to start Just Nan's Bluebird Alphabet - I've not stitched a Just Nan before as I don't really like her designs with the exception of her snowflake. However, this one just called to me. More than likely becuase it has the alphabet in it, but the colours too. And the other one I wanted to stitch is the Birds of Feather's mystery sampler by With Thy Needle & Thread - which isn't so much of a mystery anymore as all three parts are out!

Anyways, I'll try and be good and not start anything new this week...

a finish and some progress...

2011-08-03T19:40:00.003-06:00

In my last post I showed you some partial happy dances, one of which was super close to being finished - my maple leaf... well my beads arrived in the mail yesterday and after a fun evening out with friends, I just had to sit down and finish it up.

So here she is in all her glory...

Maple leaf by AAN
Stitched on 28ct white joblean with DMC 815

I really like the way it turned out, and it was a fairly quick stitch too. Very enjoyable!

I also made some progress on my canvas project, with the backstitching on it. So far so good... It is actually going quicker than I thought it would.

And last but not least, here is my progress on Elizabeth... since it was a long weekend here, I didn't get any stitching done on Sunday on her but Monday instead. Here is where I am...

That dress is a killer! It doesn't look like its very big, but it seems to be taking forever to finish it off... I know that I still have lots of big blocks of colour left to stitch on this project at the bottom, but I really hope they go faster than this darn dress! Other than taking what seems forever, I am really liking the way she is turning out. I know Barbi hasn't been stitching on her lately as she has been busy enjoying the summer, but at least this way I can catch up to her!

tusal and partial happy dances...

2011-07-30T13:41:00.002-06:00

Wow two posts in one day! Let's start off with the next installment of the tusal report...

Here is my jar before and after squishing this month... considering I didn't stitch too much this month, I think I did pretty darn good! This last week of stitching really helped fill the jar this month.

I am also finished all the stitching on my maple leaf. I just love the way it turned out. I still have the french knots to do, but I am switching those out for beads. I found the perfect match in my stash, but I didn't have enough, so I'm just waiting for my beads to arrive from Janice @ Traditional Stitches. Micheals doesn't seem to carry mill hill beads anymore, at least the ones I went to, and there is no LNS in our city anymore, and Cochrane was out of stock, so I had to order them online... thank goodness for Janice having them in stock, as I should have them by Tuesday. it would have been sooner but its a long weekend here and Monday is a holiday, so no mail. Anyways, here is my paritial happy dance with the maple leaf...

I finished the stitching on this, on Wednesday night, so come Thursday I pulled out a WIP to work on, my Antique Lace canvas project... I have a mini happy dance to share with that one as well, in that I finished all the filling stitches. Now its on the the real hard part, all the back stitching... Here is a picture of the bottom part where I finished off the filling stitches last night...

I've already changed it on the scroll rods, so I'm back at the top again to start working on the backstitch today in between loads of laundry...

some of our adventures in pictures...

2011-07-30T12:57:00.007-06:00

I thought I would post a few of my favourite snaps from our adventures in July... this isn't everything we did, but most of it.

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking...

Spruce Meadows show jumping

Takakkaw Falls

Natural Bridge

Emerald Lake with the Lodge in the background

Mountain goats - supper cute

Fairmont hot springs - didn't take the camera into the pool...

Mountain sheep - not as cute as the goats

View of the Stampede from the Giant Ferris wheel

View from the summit of Roger's Pass

Last Spike @ Craigellachie, that connected the country's two coasts by rail

Lion's Gate Bridge in Vancouver going into Stanley Park

Gastown in the rain... downtown Vancouver

one of my favourite apartment buildings in Vancouver

@ Canada Place, Vancouver

dipping our feet into the Pacific Ocean @ English Bay Vancouver

Prospect Point @ StanleyPark, Vancouver with a view of the Lion's Gate bridge

its awfully quiet here...

2011-07-26T23:57:00.004-06:00

Wow, its been so long since my last post! I can't say that I haven't been busy though...

Since I last posted, we've managed to put a few thousand km's under our belts with all our road trips and adventures that we squeezed in what little time we had left before my family headed back off to Europe...

We managed to go see an international horse jumping event, here at Spruce Meadows; we also did several road trips to the mountains, where we went to Takakkaw falls, Emerald Lake, as well as a day trip to Fairmont hot springs to enjoy the pools. We saw numerous deer, elk, mountain sheep as well as mountain goats. The Stampede was in town as well, so we managed to go to the grounds twice, once only to see the chuckwagon races, and the grandstand show, and then one full day to enjoy the rides, exhibits and junk food. We even went on a whirlwind road trip to Vancouver, where we put our feet into the Pacific ocean and walked along the beach (plus the many other things and places we saw on our way there and back)

Then after all that, its was packing and more packing, and then one last full family farewell dinner and the next morning a trip to the airport, with many farewell tears (from me), and they were gone. The family left on Thursday of last week, and the house has been so quiet and so empty since then. It's back to just the 3 of us and the kitty. The family has been gone only 5 days, but it seems so much longer than that. Though it was a challenge at times to have them here for so long (roughly a year), especially with so many people in the house (not just 3 but now 6 and sometimes 7 for a while), I really enjoyed having them, and I really miss them. I liked having my brother around, and really liked having the girls around. It was fun to be able to go to what other people may think as boring, like school concerts, piano, swimming, and horseback riding lessons etc.

But with everything going on especially in the last few weeks, I haven't touched a needle, and did absolutely no stitching. I did miss it, but at the same time it was so worth not having the time to work on my projects.

Since they've been gone, things have been very quiet... I was on holidays all last week, so once they were gone, and we got home from the airport, we slowly started putting the house back in order, doing laundry - load after load, as well as changing my littlest niece's room back to the sewing room we had it as before they arrived. I also managed to make up for lost stitching time! I had a great stitching session every day since they've been gone. I've managed to make very good progess on my maple leaf as well as made pretty good progress on Elizabeth.

Here are my most recent progress pictures:

Maple leaf:

and Elizabeth:

I'm going to continue on with my maple leaf, as it does go fairly quickly - at least the stitching. I still have some back stitching on it to do, as well as a ton of french knots which I just may switch out to beads if I can find a good colour match.

Well that's it for now... I should hopefully be back to posting much more regularly again...

a girl, a leaf and some kitties... oh my!

2011-07-06T21:52:00.003-06:00

Not much stitching going on, but I am making some progress albeit small...

I managed to put a few stitches in last week and a few this week already so here is my progress:

Last week I pulled out the kitties to work on, and finished up the second kitty...

then on Sunday we had family over, but after they left, I did manage to put a few stitches into Elizabeth. I'm behind Barbi but I'm plugging along with our SAL...

and yesterday I finally managed to start my maple leaf...

tusal and other stuff...

2011-07-01T13:30:00.000-06:00

here is my latest progress on my tusal... my jar is getting quite full, but I can still squish the threads and fit some more in...

Not much stitching going on since my last post, actually I can say none at all... no progess on any of my projects, the count down is on for when my brother and nieces go back to Europe, so we've been fairly busy doing stuff with them, now that school is out. I can't believe a year has gone by already. It seems like they just arrived! We have 3 weeks exactly before they go..

I am hoping to start yet another new project, hopefully I will be able to put in a few stitches today, as today would be the best day to start it, but if not then I want to work on it for sure this month...

Here is what I am planning to start:

It is Maple Leaf by AAN - Alessandra Adelaide Needlework. I thought it appropriate since today is Canada Day! Even if I don't start it today, I do want to get all my supplies together... I plan on stitching it on white jobelan, using 815 DMC. Hopefully I will be able to show some progress on it soon!

2011-07-01T10:48:00.001-06:00

Happy Canada Day!
144 Years!!!

what i've been up to...

2011-06-20T21:12:00.007-06:00

I haven't felt like blogging the last little while, but that doesn't mean I haven't been productive!

Here are some pictures of what I've been stitching on...

I've missed posting two weekend SAL progress pictures of Elizabeth, so here is last weekend's report, as well as yesterday's progress...

After my last post, I didn't know what to stitch so I pulled out a wip - my antique lace canvas project and filled in some more with the dark grey. I'm almost finished filling in this layer, I only have the four little diamonds and the bottom row left to fill in, and then I can move onto the last layer of the project, but probably also the most work intensive... I know that layer with all the white backstitching will take a while... but at least I'm that much closer to being finished!

I didn't get much stitching done this last week, but I did manage to start a new project that has been calling my name for the last few months... it is by Carole aka Novalee02 from her shop. I saw this on her blog a few months ago, and fell in love! Here is my start as well as a small picture of what the entire piece will look like. I just love those little kitties!!!

I've changed some of the recommended DMC colours and I'm stitching it on 32ct hand dyed fabric from Dinkydyes... there is no colour name on the fabric.

That's it for now, I'm off to work on the kitties some more!

Till next time.... happy stitching!

finally a stitching update...

2011-06-06T18:51:00.005-06:00

I actually have some stitching to share!

Since yesterday was Sunday, it was time to pull out Elizabeth. I didn't get too much done, but there is some progress!

And after my last post, I did sit down to stitch and managed to get quite a bit done on the Madonna. It helps that I wasn't feeling well on Friday so I didn't go to work and when I was not napping I was stitching.

I'm not 100% sure on what I want to work on now, but I think I will put the Madonna away for a bit. I need to stitch something other than pinks right now...

tusal

2011-06-01T19:47:00.004-06:00

Not much to report, still haven't sat down to stitch... maybe tonight? Who knows...

But I do have my tusal progress to show...

Pretty much all of the light coloured thread is from this time around... from my Madonna Dolorosa

Hopefully next month will be better!

stitching - 0, weekend fun - 2

2011-05-30T21:56:00.006-06:00

Well it seems as if my stitching time and mojo have gone awol... I haven't stitching for a week and a half, but hopefully that will change soon! I'm starting to miss it!

Again no progress on Lizzy this weekend (yesterday) for our SAL with Barbi. That is two weekends in a row! Not good! I bet I'm falling so behind that Barbi will finish it in no time while I'm still plugging away at my Lizzy.

We had another busy but fun filled weekend. One of the places we went was the Festival of Quilts here in Heritage Park. There were about 600 quilts on display this weekend and I know we didn't see all of them, but all the ones we did see were beautiful. Here is a sampling of some of my favourites that we saw:

You can see the rest of our pictures on facebook - here

The rest of the weekend was filled with other programs and family visits but no pictures of those...

Now to figure out what to work on stitching wise... hopefully I will be able to get some stitching in this week!

in loving memory...

2011-05-26T00:30:00.001-06:00

1937 - 2002

We little knew that morning
God was going to call your name
In life we loved you dearly,
In death we do the same...

It broke our hearts to lose you,
You did not go alone.
For part of us went with you,
The day God called you home.

You left us beautiful memories,
Your love is still our guide,
And though we cannot see you,
You are alowasy by our side.

Our family chain is broken,
And nothing seems the same,
But as God calls us one by one,
The chain will link again..."

(Author unknown)

liz - 0 longweekend - 1

2011-05-25T20:34:00.005-06:00

Well I haven't touched a needle since last Thursday... It was the Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada, celebrating Queen Victoria's birthday, and as it was the first long weekend of the summer season, we naturally went out of town... (phew... that was a long sentence wasn't it!)

Hubby and I went with the girls out to Fairmont hotsprings - our favourite place to go

We had good weather for the most part, it wasn't the hottest, but no complaints from us... as we still managed to get a little sunburn... at least I did on my shoulders...

We played in the pool...

Took a walk down to the waterfall...

played some mini golf...

and of course back to the pool - several times a day actually, and enjoyed the view...

After it was all said in done, we had a great time, and headed home Monday, and I can definitely say we were pooped from all the stuff we did, especially all the swimming!

I did however stitch a bit last week, and I kept working on Madonna Dolorosa, and here is my progress on that as of last Thursday...

I'm not quite bored with all the big blocks of colour yet so I think I'll keep going on this one again this week ~ or at least what is left of the week.

In Memory...

2011-05-17T21:11:00.003-06:00

It was one year ago that we lost you, but you will be in our hearts forever!

Love you Nagymama!

catching up...

2011-05-16T16:37:00.002-06:00

I didn't get a chance to post last week so I'm playing catch up with my stitching posts.

After my last post, I pulled another WIP - My Stitching Treasures by Jeanette Douglas, and did a little on that. I didn't get too much done as I was stitching over one on 32ct and even though I love the look of over one, I really don't like doing it that much...

I haven't touched this WIP in such a long time! You can see where I was before I pulled it out here: click I stitched on it last just over a year ago...

Last Sunday I didn't get too much done on Elizabeth, instead I had to frog most of the nest that I had done from before, as I had miscounted. I basically took out what was wrong and restitched that and added a little more and that was my progress...

You can see it here:

Last week, I pulled another WIP out, this time it was Madonna Dolorosa by Solaria/Kustom Krafts and got a nice chunk done on that. I just may keep this one out for this week, as it's coming along nicely, and even though I'm just doing big blocks of colour I'm not bored yet! Though I will admit I have a ton of other projects/new starts calling my name!

You can see where I was the last time I stitched on it here: click quite a long time ago ~ just over 2 years ago... where does the time fly???

And yesterday was SAL time with Barbi, and here is my newest progress on that one. I managed to get quite a bit done. It went quickly as I didn't have to count that much once the first colour of the nest was done.

That's it for now... I'm off to continue stitching on the Madonna...

Till next time happy stitching!

ort report and wips...

2011-05-03T18:08:00.004-06:00

First off let's start with the TUSAL... here is my jar as of last night...

Next up, our SAL with Barbi on Elizabeth. I was actually somewhat productive Sunday and got a nice bit done. It helped that I was super tired all day and was nothing but a lump on the couch and stitched between naps! We had a very long night the night before coming home in the wee hours of the early morning Sunday... I'm getting too old for these late nights, and I just can't handle them the way I used to!

And finally what I stitched last week. Since I couldn't decide on what to work on, I pulled out a wip - my Antique Lace canvas project by SJ designs... I last worked on it in February and you can see the before picture here

No the greatest pictures, they all turned out a bit fuzzy no matter how I tried. But you can sort of see in the first one, a somewhat close up, that the dark grey filling has been done up to and including the row of 7 squares - basically the third row down. 5 rows of dark grey filling to go and then I can start the final layer of backstiching filling stitches... not sure I'm looking forward to that as there is quite a bit to do, but it will be pretty when it is finally finished!

Now I'm off to figure out what to work on this week! Till next time happy stitching!

stitching time...

2011-04-26T18:21:00.002-06:00

I would love to come and show you all sorts of stitching that I did last week, especially since we had a long weekend, but can't do it... I didn't make a single stitch all week last week, until Sunday evening... and even then it wasn't much.

Here is my progress on Elizabeth. She is coming along slowly but surely...

Right now I seem to be going through some sort of stitcher's ADD in that all I want to do is start something new, but can't decide on what then I think no I'll just work on a wip, but which one... and in the end I don't stitch a single thing! How sad is that!!! So much stash so little time!

I did however finally (sort of) started getting some of my stash organized - at least what I'm going to be selling. I have put a few charts up for sale and you can see them under the de-stashing tab at the top. If you have any questions, just holler!

Now to figure out what to stitch...

2011-04-22T09:56:00.003-06:00

We would like to wish everyone a happy and blessed Easter holiday!!

Boldog es aldot husveti unnepeket kivanunk!!

gifts, finishes and wips...

2011-04-18T18:40:00.007-06:00

Today was my niece's 10th birthday, so we did some celebrating... picked her up from school, went to the mall where she wanted to go to build-a-bear. She got a puppy from there, and then we came home to balloons, and flowers. We had at her request pizza for dinner, and of course birthday cake and presents.

Here is what I stitched her, as per her request...

She got a lined bag with a skull and crossbones on it, and you can just see the lining peeking out - hot pink spiderweb fabric, which she will also get a pillow case made from it, and she got a little ornament pillow with another skull and crossbones.

It is a freebie, that can be found here.

I stitched it up on 14ct damask aida, the last in my stash. I've always loved the colour of this fabric, and only had a small piece left and have been hanging onto it literally for years for the right project. I love the way it turned out and judging by my niece's reaction, she liked them too.

I also finished up La~D~Da's Flowery Alphabet. From my last post, all I was missing was my initials and the date so here you go...

And last but not least, my minimal progress on Elizabeth... I'm not sure what is going on with this project, but it seems that I'm stitching on it and stitching on it but I'm not going anywhere! Hopefully now that those two birds are out of the way, I'll be able to progress a bit more. For some reason they were just taking me forever to do!

She is still an enjoyable stitch, just a very slow going one!

I'm not sure what to work on this week. I have a little bit of new stash that is just calling my name as well as several other projects that I would just love to start but then my pile of WIPS is just sort of languishing... so I'm sort of stuck as to which to pick up for the next few days...

I guess I just see which one it is that calls the loudest tomorrow night!

slowly stitching away...

2011-04-11T23:40:00.001-06:00

Even with the best intentions, after I posted last Sunday, I didn't get a single stitch done on Elizabeth by CHS. So I'll just show you my progress from last night. Not much, and I was getting sick of the grey in the birds so I moved up a little...

Not a lot of progress, but at least I managed some. I was so distracted yesterday that even though I had lots of time to sit and stitch, I just couldn't sit still and concentrate. Last week, I managed to pick up the thread that I ran out of for La D Da's Flowery Alphabet, and I am basically finished it. I have a 99% happy dance to show.... I'm just missing my initials and the date, which I put on tonight, but I'll save the proper happy dance for tomorrow's post.

I stitched it on 32 ct Sand jobelan by Silkweaver... I also switched out one of the recommended DMC colours as the converstion looked a little dark and blah when I pulled the threads... I switched the colour of the letters, as the pattern says to use DMC 844 but I found that too dark of a grey especially since the cover picture showed blueish letters. I really enjoyed stitching this one and like how it turned out. I hope you do too.

Also, I have one more quick happy dance. I actually finished this a while ago - sometime last month, but completely forgot to post it.

My little niece's 10th birthday is coming up and she too asked me to stitch something for her. She originally wanted Sabrina by Mirabilia but then saw a freebie I downloaded onto my computer and wanted me to stitch that for her. I actually found two of these freebies, and here is one... all stitched up.

She has a fascination with skulls and crossbones, so this one will become a lined bag that she can keep her little things in. I couldn't find pink skull lining fabric, so it will be lined with pink spiderweb fabric instead. I have another skull freebie, with a pink heart around it, that I will also stitch up for her as a little ornament.

I'm also a bit frustrated with blogger... on my side bar (to me at least) my 2011 finished all seem to be spaced out funny compared to my 2010 finishes list... Does it look that way to you or is it just on my computer?? I've tried fixing several times, including completely deleting it and redoing the text box, but it still comes out funny for me.

orts and wips...

2011-04-03T19:21:00.002-06:00

Its ort report time (love that name for it, thanks Daffycat!) and here is my jar... yes it is pretty full... even I can't believe how many orts are in there, but I have actually been stitching quite a lot so far for this TUSAL.

I thought I would also show my progress on La D Da's Flowery Alphabet... I didn't get any more stitching done on Bent Creek's Cabin in the Sticks, but I will be hopefully working on that one this week. I have to put the Flowery Alphabet aside, as I ran out of thread that I'm using for the letters. I changed them a bit from what the chart called for as the letters were too dark and the flowers a bit on the brown side.

Please excuse the terrible photo, not sure why it came out so dark, and I forgot to fix it before uploading, but you get the general idea of where I left off.

Off to have dinner and then start working on Elizabeth, since its our Sunday SAL with Barbi...

more starts and finishes...

2011-03-29T22:57:00.006-06:00

Not alot of stitching this weekend, but I do have a happy dance to share, and some wips...

I finished off my bird on an egg by CEC, and with hubby's help it turned into a little lined bag. I also made a small little lavender sachet using the little flower from the egg. It turned out pretty good if I do say so myself...

Since Sunday has come and gone, I thought I would show my measly little progress on Elizabeth...

I didn't get a lot done, as we had a fairly busy weekend here at our house... it was my neice's 16th birthday on friday and we spent the weekend celebrating!

I also couldn't decide what to work on this week, so I started two new projects... One yesterday and one today. The first one is Bent Creek's Cottage in the Sticks that I was very generously sent by Karen. I don't have a picture of my progress on that one, as for one thing there isn't that much to show, and second, I just couldn't get a decent picture with the black fabric!

Tonight's new start is La D Da's Flowery Alphabet...

Hopefully I'll have more progress to show you on both of those projects on my next post!

spring has sprung...

2011-03-21T18:41:00.003-06:00

Not quite, at least not in our city! We welcomed in spring with ... you guessed it... more snow! It has been falling all day long, and the only saving grace is that not a lot has accumulated, its only begun to stick about an hour ago!

We had some lovely visitors this afternoon in the green space behind our yard...

There were 5 deer in all, but I couldn't get a good picture of them together as they were all lying in the snow behind the trees...

This is part of our street, you can see how much snow we still have, even after a few days of plus temperatures and lots of melting. I took this picture just over an hour ago, and the only different is that the driveway is now covered in snow...

I did do some stitching this past week. I needed something a little springy, so I've been working on this...

It is one of the patterns from the Cross Eyed Cricket book 109 Egg...etera. I'm not quite done, I'm missing a couple of colours and I still need to put it together.

Yesterday was also Sunday, so that meant SAL with Barbi. I had the best intentions of sitting down much earlier to stitch but things just didn't turn out that way, so again I only have a little progress to show...

I'm off now to start working on my other niece's requested birthday gift!

starts and finishes...

2011-03-14T17:32:00.003-06:00

Okay only one start (so far) and one finish to report!

First the start! Yesterday Barbi and I got back to stitching our girls by Carriage House Samplings, and it is Elizabeth's turn... here is my progress from last night..

not bad considering I got a late start, and didn't start stitching till 9pm... hopefully next Sunday I'll be able to stitch more.

And now to the finish... since my last post I've been pushing Sweet Pea by Mirabilia, and here she is in all her blinged out glory...

I manged to finish her on Saturday, those beads took what seemed forever! It doesn't look like there is much on there, but trust me there are quite few beads considering the design size - actually 3 different beads! But it was fun, and I really enjoyed stitching her. I just may have to do this one for myself later on, as this is a sweet 16 birthday present for my niece...

She is stitched on 28ct Spoonful of Sugar jazlyn - by Sugar Maple Fabrics,(who I wish were still in business I loved her fabrics... good thing I still have lots in my fabric drawer to choose from!) using the reccomended DMC threads.

What to work on next.... hmmm not to sure, but it will be a new start. I have a couple of other gifts that need to get done, so I'll more than likely be working on those.

TUSAL

2011-03-05T13:27:00.003-07:00

I didn't get a chance to post my TUSAL progress yesterday, but here it is now...

This month's progress is from that blog of dark red thread and up... its from all that valentine's stitching I did :O)

dancing with Molly...

2011-03-01T23:10:00.006-07:00

I have some catching up to do... I haven't had time to post lately, life has kept me pretty busy, but I did manage to get some stitching in!!! As you can see from the title of my post, I've finished Molly, a little behind Barbi, but she is done!

However, before we get to her, let's do some catch up progress pictures of her!

The weekend of Feb 19-20-21 was a long weekend here, and I manged to get a fair bit of stitching in... it was so nice to be able to actually get so much done!

Here is my progress from that weekend...

During the short week that followed, I put Molly away for a few days, and worked on Mirabilia's Sweet Pea, as my neice's birthday is fast approaching! Here is her progress...

Last Sunday (the 26th) I manged to get another good amount of stitching time in... here is Molly's progress after that session...

I kept Molly in my q-snaps, since I was so close to finishing her, and I almost still manged to do it in February, but I was too tired last night and had only the border left, so I finished her up tonight. Here she is in all her glory, hot off the needle!

Next up for the Sunday SAL with Barbi, is Elizabeth, number 2 of 4 girls in the series by Carriage House Samplings. Barbi, if its okay with you let's start next weekend - the 13th, so I can get my act together and get my supplies ready!

dancing away the weekend...

2011-02-14T00:10:00.001-07:00

Happy Valentine's day!

First of all I have to apologize to Barbi, as I didn't even touch Molly this weekend, so zero progress. However I do have a good reason!

Originally I wasn't planning on doing any Valentine stitching this year, as I really didn't have time, but at the last minute I changed my mind and all this week, including today, I was busy stitching up a storm and finishing them into little ornaments, as Valentine gifts for my family. Here is what I was working on this week:

All of them are freebie designs, I found while surfing the net...

Love by iStitch and can be found here: click

Baratsag sziv or Friendship heart by Barbi from Hungary

can be found here: click

Love by Debbie Draper Designs

can be found here: click

Thunderheart from Wyrdbyrd's Nest

can be found here: click

This is the entire design, I wanted to make it into a pinkeep but ran out of time. It will be a Valentine gift for my hubby, so he can help finish it off later. :O) At least the stitching is all done in time!

I then took the center portion and made a small ornament out of it.

All of these were stitched on 28ct fabric. The iStitch Love and the friendship heart on ivory/offwhite jazlynn I think, and the rest on ivory joblean, and all stitched with DMC 815. It took roughly 3 skiens to do all of it including the cording, which I also made.