An exchange received, Poinsettia House and attack of the sheep creatures

Hi everyone,

Thank you for all your kind comments last time regarding my friend. I try to limit the amount of whining about my personal life on this blog, but it's tough when there's a 10-year-old involved who may lose his mom...

On to more fun stuff. This is the last exchange piece I received from Leeanne (Please Pass the Biscornu 2010 exchange). The pic was (unintentionally) rotated but you can see I have been spoiled again. I wish I could show a picture of the biscornu I sent, but once again I forgot to take a snap of it before I sent it on its way, so I will have to wait for my partner to post a picture and then borrow it.

I have still been diligently working on WIP's. This is my travel project, The Good Huswife's Sibley Hall, which has not made an appearance here for a while (if at all). I tend to get bored stitching large areas in a solid color, such as the lawn here, and the sheep (I think they are sheep anyway) are creeping me out--their heads are too small, their eyes are too big, and they are patrolling the front of this house in a very menacing way. Did I mention that I read a lot of Stephen King and similar trash? Anyway, I hope the sheep look less creepy when the whole thing is done, which should be soon, since DS has started baseball and my butt will be planted in a chair for several hours during innumerable games, practices, etc.

As I mentioned last time, I have also been working on Poinsettia House, and here is how it stands as of now..

I have been enjoying this piece a lot and hopefully will have another finish to show before too long.

Last but not least, here is Spot in his frame (sort of...I just set him

there temporarily for picture purposes, he needs a little adjustment before his final framing).

Thank you everyone for your comments and I hope you all have a great week!

Hi folks,

It's been a while since my last post--it's been a rough couple of weeks, and I've just learned that a friend of mine is gravely ill. I won't bring you down with the details, but I will say that my philosphy from this point on is to live each day as though it's the last, because you never know what life is going to hit you with down the road...

Anyhow, this is my LHN exchange which I can finally show has it has been received by my partner. It is "Miniature Winter Gameboard", a freebie, which I altered to make more of a springtime piece. I included game pieces, some little wooden spools which I wrapped with DMC floss to match the board (seemed like a good idea at the time but I was covered in glue by the time I was done with all of them).

Yesterday I received this awesome package (same exhange) from my partner Conny.

Conny stitched Gourmet Garden on 32 ct. linen using the recommended threads and finished it as a pincushion which she stuffed with lavender. She also included the fabric you see here, lace and lots of little ribbon roses. Needless to say, I am pleased!

I am also happy to report that my Spot the Horse (Carriage House Samplings), a UFO from way back when, is finally done. I am really pleased with the way he turned out and I found a perfect chippy-paint antique-looking frame for him, so he may even be "finsh-finished" soon.

Other than that I have been working on LHN's Pointsettia House, my birthday present from my parents last fall, but no pics yet.

I have been good so far this year...working on WIPs only, haven't started any new projects. I don't know how long this will last, some of the things coming out at Nashville are extremely tempting!

Until next time, happy stitching! Thank you everyone for your comments!

first 2010 finish and winner of giveaway #2

Greetings from soggy California! As with last week, I have been stitching on exchange pieces so I dont' have a lot to show, but I did hear from my partner in the BBD exchange that she has received my offering, so I can finally show off my first finish of the year.

This is BBD's "Summer Iris" without the border and the little birds and with the addition of some vintage buttons, done on Silkweavers evenweave with the recommended floss. I decided to make another attempt at making a fabric-covered box, which turned out much better than the last box in that it actually can be opened and closed without the use of pulleys or pliers or other similar instruments...

And since I have nothing else to show, on to the winner of giveaway #2: I used a random number generator this time to come up with the winner, Hazel! I will send you an e-mail later and get this out in the mail as soon as I can swim to the post office.

I am planning other giveaways since I still cannot see the bottom of my stash basket, but I have not had time this week to dig through it to see what's there--but it will be coming soon! I have been itching to break the first of my new year's resolutions and start something new--I have two gorgeous Quakers all kitted up--maybe I will have some stitching of my own to show in my next post. Until then, stay dry/warm and thank you for all the comments!

winner and giveaway #2

Hello again everyone,

I have had a week of stitching on exchange pieces, three of which are due at the end of this month, so I do not have a lot to show. I did not receive my piece for the last exchange which has dampened my enthusiasm for exchanging a bit. I am giving my partner the benefit of the doubt and assuming it was lost in the mail.... still kinda disappointing.

I did pull out another older piece for UFO Tuesday, Peter's Stocking by Shepherd's Bush. This is almost done as you might be able to tell, but is perfect for UFO Tuesday since I can only handle working on for short periods--it has lots of pastel colors which are really not my thing. After I have been stitching on it for a while I feel the same way I would feel after eating a roll of toll house cookie dough--major sugar overload! I think this will be finished into stocking form and then sent off to the school's holiday auction in the fall.

Well without further ado the winner of the giveaway is Emily! Emily, I will e-mail you for your mailing address and get the pattern and floss out to you as soon as possible. I hope you will enjoy stitching it.


And on to the next giveaway: this is "Canon" by Whispered by the Wind. The model is stitched with WDW Turkish Red but maybe some of you are not fans of red, so when you comment let me know what colors you envision stitching this with if you win. I could see this done with a couple different overdyed threads. My LNS has a pretty good selection of threads but they do not have Belle Soie or Carries Creations and might not have the specific type you are looking for, so give me a second choice if I cannot find the first... Anyway, same as last time, just leave a comment on this post and I will enter you. I will draw a winner in one week on the 21st of January.

I did manage to put another older piece in finished form--it does help to have a working sewing machine.

This is a Carriage House pincushion...I couldn't find the chart and don't recall the name of the pattern but I liked the way it turned out. My hand sewing skills are not all that great so don't look too closely!

That's all for this week! Thanks for all your lovely comments!

New Years resolution/stash reduction giveaway #1

Hello all, hope everyone managed to survive the holiday with sanity intact (never an easy task). I am not usually one for resolutions, which is OK since I hardly ever keep them anyway, but I do have a few modest ones for this year:

-- to keep up with this blog on a more regular basis (which is to say, to post more than once a month)

-- to finish two WIPS before starting each new project, with exchange pieces being the exception (I figured this would be a good way to reduce my backlog of projects, but recognize that this is the resolution most likely to be broken)

-- and lastly to dispose of some of my charts that have been sitting around for years and likely will never be done, mostly for the reason that my tastes have changed since I purchased them. I finally realized that if I haven't stitched a pattern within ten years, it's OK to send it on to a new home.

So without further delay, here is my first offering:

Dresden Plate Cottage by Linda Myers. This is a very pretty piece, and includes a quilt pattern as well. This and each subsequent giveaway will come with floss needed to complete it. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. Anyone from anywhere in the world is welcome to enter. I will draw a winner on Jan. 14, so make sure I have some way of contacting you if you do win.

I haven't broken Resolution #2 yet and to that end I worked a bit more on Rest and Be Thankful.

That's all the news for now. Hope everyone has a great week and a great 2010!

phew...

Hello, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! With the big day here and gone, I finally have a few spare moments to post. I am still kind of in the midst of the stitching blahs, but I did manage to accomplish a few things, Christmas-related and otherwise.

I whipped up a couple of these scottie dogs for the kids' stockings (from the most recent JCS issue) and managed to put Chester into tote form for my DD.

My sewing skills are still a little shaky but she seems to like him.

Kiddies got a Wii for Christmas so I have had more time than usual to stitch, but I have had a hard time deciding what I want to work on...I have emptied my basket of stash and examined patterns one by one more times than I can count these past few weeks, but much of it is unappealing right now, don't know why...I have been on a bit of a primitive stitching kick lately, starting with this cutie from Stacy Nash, Liberty Sewing Pouch, one of my few finishes. I did this with the recommended DMC on a grayish Silkweaver evenweave and am very pleased how it turned out.

I also started Lanaster County from Notforgotten Farm on a very pretty 40-count brown linen from R&R. I had planned to make this for my parents (who live in Lanaster County) for Christmas but it didn't quite work out. I am hoping that the 300+ days til next Christmas will give me enough time to finish it but the way I flit from one project to another, who knows.

Other than that I put a few stitches (very few) into Rest and Be Thankful, on which I am showing off one of my favorite presents, Dovos which the kiddies insist on borrowing....

Speaking of the kiddies, I thought I would show some of the things they made me for Christmas. They are a creative lot! DD found a book called "Stray Sock Sewing" or something like that, and has been on a roll lately creating these little animals.

I hope everyone has a wonderful new year. Thank you for all comments, they keep me inspired!

your very contagious stitching slump

One of my favorite things to do lately has been to read other people's blogs, which is usually inspiring, but lately folks been posting mostly about their lack of stitching mojo, and this has now infested the Pumpkin Patch. Consequently, although I have turned out a few more ornaments, I haven't had much desire to work on anything else. Instead, I started digging in my large basket of stitched but unfinished items and have actually begun finishing them (I know, unique concept).

These houses are from an old cross stitch magazine (Cross Stitch and Country Crafts, I think) and since this is about the fifth year they have been sitting in my basket I decided to drag them out and do something with them; I found weighted papier mache house shapes at Michaels and after some very minimal backstitching (which I hate) they will be shipped off to my mom for Christmas.

This snowman is I think just about as old as the houses and has been sitting around so long I forgot who the designer is--I want to say Diane Arthurs but I'm not sure. I made him into a (very long) pillow with vintage lace from an old pillowcase that my cat managed to destroy.

And as much as I love BBD, I think I am about to give up on Bittersweet Moon. I did put some more stitches into it but all the colors seem off to me--the house looks green instead of blue, the alphabet has the charming color of dried blood, and the tree is red instead of the brown in the photo of the model, and I just don't feel like frogging it all and switching out the colors. Am I wrong to want what I stitch to look like the model? After all, I liked the way the model looked, that's why I bought the thing in the first place!

That's about it for this week. I'm hoping my mojo returns after Christmas, or soon at any rate; although my desire to stitch has deserted me, my need to acquire new patterns has not...

Julius says, remember to relax and enjoythe holidays!