Headed Out For Christmas

Plans are to leave Wednesday morning for South Dakota for Christmas with Morris's family. Right now we are receiving light snow, so will see what morning brings. Actually, it is morning when I writ this. I mean later this morning. Been working in the kitchen to make things to take with us to help his sister and brother with Christmas dinner and a Christmas Eve get together. It used to be aunts, uncles and cousins, but they are either all gone or moved away, this will be those that cannot be with us for Christmas dinner. I have made, a potato casserole, apple pie-type dessert, 3 pounds of hamburger into sloppy joes, sugar cookies and peanut butter balls. Also have plans to make the French Toast Souffle that I made in Branson at Thanksgiving. Like to cook, but hate the clean-up, so this has been a big job for me. Everything is laid out and ready to load in the car in the morning. Might not get as early of a start as we had planned. Will probably not be there in time for Christmas Eve services like we usually do. They have them at 4 and 6 and that is way to early for someone driving 9 hours.

This is going to be rather short compared to most of the posts I do. Have not had time to take photos of stitchy gifts I have received. Have 2 ornaments and a scissors case. The scissors case also has a story with it. Did give the last of the secret Christmas stitching gifts last Thursday to Anita. Here it is. She was very surprised.

Blackbird Sampler (freebie)

By Blackbird Designs

28-ct R&R Korty's Special Blend

CC Belle Soie Moss

If you have been following my Christmas stitching, I sort of had a theme going. Three of the designs were stitched in all one color using Crescent Colours Belle Soie. I really like working in one color and I lived up to my nickname of "Fiber Snob".

Guess I better go check my stitch bag once more to make sure I have enough projects to last until Sunday when we return home. ROFL!! LOL!! I could probably stitch on projects in my stitch bag for months and not get them all done.

MERRY CHRISTMAS to all. Enjoy the time with families and friends, but most of all remember the reason for the season.

Oh, What Fun It Is......Stitching

Well, I guess I am feeling adventuresome, after the problems I had with blogger the last time I tried to do a post. Here's hoping this time works a lot better.

It is getting to the time that I can show Christmas presents that I have been stitching on for the last few months. Last night (Monday) the Monday night stitchers, aka Sunflower Stitchers had their Christmas Party at The Sunflower Seed. A fun time was had by all. Sometime late last summer, Janet had just finished stitching Carriage House Samplings--"Matter's Choice". Reina mentioned that she wanted to stitch that sometime. An idea popped into my head to do it for her as her Christmas present. I proceeded to stitch this for her. I finished while in Branson at Thanksgiving and picked it up from the framer last Friday. Here is the finished product.

Matter's Choice

by Carriage House Sampling

30ct WDW Mocha

CC Belle Soie - Cranberry

About 3-4 weeks ago at stitching one night when I was not there Reina asked to borrow Janet's pattern for Matter Choice. She agreed to get it to her. Later that evening, I got a call saying "were you stitching that for Reina?:". So e-mailed Janet and then she had to proceed and tell Reina stories as to why she was not getting the pattern to her. She bugged Janet several times about it. Since this all had taken place, I had to give Reina's Christmas stitching present to her at stitching. To start things off, I pulled out my copy of the pattern out and handed it to her, saying "I understand you are wanting to stitch this". Her response was "Yeah, I want to do that". Then I pulled out this wrapped present and told her that she needed to open this part of her Christmas early.

Her is her reaction after opening the gift.

Got a big "thank you" hug and an e-mail the next morning saying "you really got me, girlfriend". She is a hard one to pull a fast one on, so this turned out great. Everyone had lots of fun with it.

Our little party included pizza and lots of laughs, but not much stitching. I left there with, homemade toffee, peanut clusters, cranberry orange bread, peanut brittle, cinnamon candy , needles and 40-ct fabric and thread to do a new little design. Oh, you girls are the best friends a girl could have. Can you tell we like to eat. Besides the pizza, we had other treats as well, including more chocolate. I had made peanut butter balls. That turned into a whole other subject. You can guess where that headed with this group.

Another treat we received was a poem written by our own resident blonde. We did not know she had such talent. If you remember my write-ups about our retreats, this will make a little more sense.

TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

(with apologies to Clement Clark Moore)
by Jan

Twas the night before Christmas and at the Sage Inn,

Nothing was stirring, nary a needle or pin.

The stitchers were nestled, all snug in their beds,

Visions of linen, dancing in their heads.

When out on the lawn, there arose such a clatter,

Twas the mower again, dirt all a-scatter.

Elevator music was blaring once more,

Their ears started to bleed, it was such a bore.

And what to their wondering eyes did appear,

The ghost of George Custer, becoming quite clear.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And filled all the tote bags, with chocolate and stitchwork.

With Sampler, with Weeks, and with DMC,

With all kinds of linen, he filled with glee.

Then he winked and he said, as he grabbed the doorknob,

"I left lots of Belle Soie for that cute fiber snob".

And we heard him exclaim, as he rode out of sight,

Happy stitching to all and to all a good night.

We all left stitching Monday, knowing that whatever else happened we had just had one of the best Christmas celebrations that we would have all year.

Now onto the serious stuff. Stitching progress. Making good progress on my ALOHA. There are 2 full flowers and 2 partial flowers left to do and a whole lot of back stitching. Have not stitched anything with back stitching in awhile. I guess I had forgotten out tedious and boring it can be. This is turning out very nice.

Part One of "From Sea to Shining Sea" is done. Since this photo was taken, I have finished the box on Part Two and some stitching in the box. Like someone else said in their blog I might have to change the cloud color in Part two. It doesn't show up very well. Have I said it before? I love stitching with Belle Soie silk.

My part of the design model for The Sunflower Seed is done. Talked to Anita today and she said she was going to change one of the colors, so was ripping out part of it. I knew she was bothered by one color, so I am not surprised. Said she would have another one for me to stitch soon.

In my STO Yahoo group, I through out the idea of starting a new project on January 1st. They have jumped on it and several are going to join me in a "Start-A-Long". There were several choices in my stash, but I chose "American Baby". It is for the daughter of my college roommate. She is just like one of my kids. She has a new baby born the end of October, so thought I should get on this.

American Baby

by Willow Hill Sampling

28-ct Heritage from Picture This Plus

Recommended Fibers - GAST and CC

Tuesday we got around 3 inches of snow and now they are predicting freezing rain for Thursday. Don't like this part of winter. I have been staying home since I don't like to drive in the yuck. Trying to get some cooking done for various things. Have made 2 types of soup, peanut butter balls, sugar cookies and a potato casserole for Morris's office Christmas lunch. It is getting down to crunch time on Christmas preparations. The tree is up, but not many other decorations. Most of the gifts are bought, but not wrapped. No cards done and may not do any. Might do some after Christmas. Not sure where all my time goes, but cards does not seem to come to the top of the "to do" list.

Thanks to everyone for there comforting comments regarding the loss of my stitching friend. She would have loved our party Monday night. We miss you Joann.

Blogger is now messing with my spacing. Tried to fix it in HTML, but still wants to double space somethings and center everything. @@!!##$^&*!! Guess I am not smart enought to outsmart Blogger.

This has turned out longer than I planned, so sorry. Hopefully, I will find time to do one more before Christmas.

Happy Stitching.

FINALLY, At Last - Part 2

OK, here we go with Part 2. That ***** Blogger really messed me up. Sorry guys.

On the stitching front, I finished 2 more Christmas presents. Both were taken to the framer last week. Below is "Thimble Abundance". The other one I cannot show until after it is given as a gift.

Here is another Christmas present that I started right after we got home. It is for a person that loves Hawaii, so I thought it was appropriate. Since this photo was taken, I have completed ALOHA and have 2 of 7 flowers done. It has flowers from Hawaii in an arrangement below the word and in both of the "A"s.

ALOHA

Mar/Apr 1991 Cross Stitch and Country Crafts Magazine

28-ct Antique White Cashel

Anchor Floss

Still working on "From Sea to Shining Sea". Here is my progress. Have Part 2 in my bag. Thought I would get the first part done and start the second while we were gone. As you can see, it did not happen.

This afternoon I finished as much as I could on The Sunflower Seed design model that I have been stitching on for a long time. Now Anita will put the finishing touches on it. It will be released at market the first part of February. Told her the other day that I was ready for the next project. It seems that I do a better job of getting things done when I am spending part of my stitching time working on something for her.

Tomorrow is my day to work at The Sunflower Seed. When we are not busy, we are preparing to get the inventory done. Last week I got the itch to do this little JBW Christmas Tree over one. So I came home and started it right away. NO picture. That will come next time. I have the border in and over half of the tree done. My eyes started getting crossed after awhile. It is looking so good being so small. Of course, the silk person (slut) that I am, I am doing it with Belle Soie. The girls in the stitch group really do like calling me all those silk names.

Speaking of the stitch girls, we are having a Pizza Party as our Christmas Party on Monday night. It will be a fun night. Just heard the weather forecast and it is supposed to be really cold. We will be having so much fun we won't even know it is cold.

Remember the Purple Quaker Cow!!! Several of you wanted to know the reaction of Joann when I gave it to her. It is with heavy heart that I write this part. She was sick off and on around her birthday so I did not get it to her until after her birthday. She was at the shop on Wednesday, November12th. So I gave it too her. She was so thrilled and pleased that done it just for her with her fabric using her favorite color. She just hugged it to her body and said "I love it". Later that evening she called me to tell me it was hung right by her chair and she was so pleased that I had stitched it for her. Sunday morning I got a call from one of the other stitcher girls to tell me that Joann had passed away the night before. We were all very saddened for our loss. Our group has a big hole in it now that will take a long time to fill. We know now that she no longer has all her health problems and is stitching up a storm watching over us. I have photos of her with the Purple Cow, but I just don't feel right posting them her. We miss you Joann.

Hopefully you all can follow what I have said since I had blogger problems. Still working on decorating my tree. Next time I will have pictures of my tree. Having problems getting into that too. Today was a cooking day. Made Carrot Pineapple Quick Bread for use at a fellowship coffee at the church on Sunday. Also made Paula Deen's bake Macaroni and Cheese. Morris does not like it and he left this morning with his buddies for Colorado skiing, so I made it today. Will take a container for lunch at the shop tomorrow. Still need to make something for Monday night at the shop and I am making soup for my church ladies group on Wednesday. So will keep busy on the cooking front. I have sort of gotten out of the mode of doing much baking, etc. for Christmas. Used to do a lot, but ended up eating way too much of it myself, so I cut way back. Also need to make sugar cookies for Morris's barber. He loves the ones I make. He usually gets almost an entire batch.

Well, off to bed with me. I have had too much stress with this stupid blogger.

Happy stitching.

FINALLY, At Last--Part 1

Been back from our trip to Branson a week and a half and still have not done a post. Decided that I needed to do something soon or I would lose the few readers that I have. It seems like I have lost my blogging mojo or something. I really have to force myself to make the time and do a post. Maybe it is because I am so far behind in reading posts. I was behind before we left and am further behind now and don't ever seem to make much headway. I know I don't have as many subscriptions as some people, but it bugs me to be behind.

Our trip to Branson was a good one. The weather was very good. Most of the time I just wore a fleece vest around. The dog had a great time. She and Morris went for a walk almost every morning. If not in the morning, then sometime during the day. The resort has a little fountain pond with ducks on it. She loved to try to catch the ducks. That is a little hard when you are on a leash. LOL. We saw The Oak Ridge Boys, The Haygoods and Tom Mullica as Red Skelton. Morris and I went to an IMAX movie on the Grand Canyon and Colorado River. It was very interesting. Learned things I had never heard before. Someday there may not even be a Colorado River because of all the demands on the river. The Haygoods is a family of 7 boys and a girl ranging in age from 30 to 15. They put on an amazing high energy show. They play so many different instruments, from the harp, to the piano, to the fiddle and others in between.

While there I was able to do a little stashing. Went to Cecila's Sampler and got 2 pieces of R&R fabric, 2 skeins of Gloriana Silk thread and took care of my list of needed Anchor floss. They have a very nice little shop there. Not sure where I got the advice, but someone told me to check out the quilt shop called Quilts & Quilts County Store. Oh, I did that in a big way. Had to make 2 trips there. Have been looking for a neat bag pattern. Well, I found it. It can be made using several different fabrics and putting them together to make stripes or you can make it with 2 yards of fabric. Those 2 yards become the outside and the inside of the bag with batting in between. Then you quilt the piece just like it were a quilt. Then you cut off 2 pieces on the ends and they become the handles. Then you use some type of fabric to bind the top edge of the bag and the edges of the handles. I bought 2 yards of fabric, but did not know I needed fabric for the binding until I read the pattern. Had to go back a second time to get binding fabric. NO, I don't have any pictures of my purchases. Lazy I guess. The pattern says that once you make one, they become addictive. We will see. Have not started one yet, but I have plenty of fabric in my stash for when I get addicted.

All of a sudden I am having blogger issues. I am going to do this much and then start over with the rest in another post. I was trying to finish up and all of a sudden the words were not visible in the preview. This is not a good way to get my mojo back.

Part 2 to come in a few minutes.

Kathy

Taking a Holiday

This is going to be quick and fast. (I know that is hard to believe for me.) Got my owl back from the framer. He looks awesome. It is a new moulding at the frame shop. Might have to use it on other things.

Here is the progress on this Christmas present. Actually, there has been more done since this photo. I think maybe 6 letters of the alphabet and over to the middle of the row with the little round motifs. I don't like stitching them.

Now for the progress on "From Sea to Shining Sea". Which also has some more progress around the door and the upper window. I am loving this piece. It is hard for me not to work on it exclusively. You know it is that silk thing again. The second panel is out. Had hoped I might have the first one complete before that happened.

Continue to work on the Sunflower Seed design model. We have had to change a couple of colors, so did a little ripping. Not much. Have finished one of my secret Christmas presents and the frame shop called yesterday to say that it was done. Have another besides the one shown here to finish, plus one that is not even started. That one might have to be late.

The reason this is going to be a quick post, is we are leaving very early Saturday morning for our normal week of Thanksgiving at our timeshare in Branson. The car is mostly packed. The dryer is finishing the last load of laundry. Stitch bag is packed. That was the first thing that was ready. We have friends joining us for Saturday and Sunday nights. Will be attending shows with them. I have made a chicken casserole and Taco Soup to have while we are there. Since we have a full kitchen, thought we should take advantage and not eat out all the time. Also have plans to make a French Toast Souffle (casserole) one morning for breakfast. Hope to get a lot of stitching done and maybe some Christmas shopping.

This week has been a crummy week because on Sunday, actually probably Saturday night, I started coming down with a stupid cold and then it went to my lungs and now I have a cough. That will probably linger through most of the winter. Most recently I have gone 2-21/2 years between colds, which is a good thing and I hope that can continue.

A new twist to our stay in Branson is that the dog gets to go with us this year. We have tried to take her for about 8 years. Now after so much b******, they told me when I called a few weeks ago that they are "pet friendly". I sure hope so because she will be with us. Nice to not have to board her while we are gone. She does like to go for rides.

There will be no computer access for this week, so I will be buried with blogs in my Google reader when I get home. I am way behind before I even leave. Maybe I will always be behind. LOL!!

Signing off. Run through the lists in my mind to make sure I am not forgetting anything. Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!!

Busy Stitching

Last Saturday I picked up "Happiest of Holidays" from the framer. Our frame shop does an awesome job. This one seemed to take a little longer than I expected, but I had told them it was "no hurry". That might not be the case when it gets closer to Christmas.

In my STO Yahoo group we had a SAL weekend for the weekend before Halloween. This is what I started and completed during that week. Did not get it done until Tuesday, I think it was, but was done before Halloween. Took it to the frame shop when I picked up the other. I think I will hang it up year round. Doesn't look all that Halloweeny, as a witch or something like that would be. Pardon the photo. It is an untouched photo because I forgot to crop it, etc before starting my post.

Night Owl

JSC Halloween Ornament Issue

by Prairie Schooler

Mystery Fabric DMC and WDW fiber

Have still been stitching on several things that I cannot show here. I am on the final part of 4 parts to The Sunflower Seed design model and have 2 Christmas Presents in process. Here is a shot of the progress on another Christmas present. I don't think this person reads my blog, so I will show it here. Last week, I worked a couple of extra days at the LNS because the owner was sick. On Halloween afternoon, I was able to do some stitching on this project. Then this last Tuesday when I worked the election, I had a few minutes here and there to work on it. Even found a mistake, ripped it out and got it put back in.

Thimble Abundance
by Primrose Needleworks
28-ct R&R Apple Brown Bindy

Poison Apple Belle Soie silk

Since I had bought the fabric and patterns for LHN "From Sea to Shining Sea", I could not resist starting it the other day. Here is my progress as of Thursday evening. Have put in quite a few stitches since this photo was taken.

From Sea to Shining Sea
by Little House Needleworks
28-ct R&R 18th Century Stone
Belle Soie silk (comes with the patterns)

The Thanksgiving holiday is fast approaching with Christmas not far behind. Have not done too much Christmas shopping. Usually start it early and am done lots of time by shortly after Thanksgiving. We will again be going to our time share in Branson for the week of Thanksgiving. Maybe we can get some shopping done there. The next two weeks will be spent preparing food and shopping for things to take for the week. Also must make my plans for what stitching to take along. My stitching bag is pretty much packed all the time, but may have to add a couple of things before we go. Plans always are to get more stitching done than I actually get done while we are there. LOL!!

Getting close to the end of my secret Christmas stitching presents, so I am off to put in a few more stitches. Keep those needles flying.

Floss Fight at The Sage Inn -- Part II

My original plans were to follow up the first installment of our adventures of our retreat at The Sage Inn right away with additional pictures and quotes. I guess life and stitching got in the way. Hope that you can remember the lst part, so it can transition into this follow up. Thanks to Jan and Reita for letting me use some of their photos.

First of all here is the stitched model of the design that Anita did especially for us at the retreat. I love the little add-ons on the frame. I think that almost everyone has finished this by now. Jan has actually stitched it twice. Once for herself and once for her friend Kathleen in Maine. Mine is waiting for framing.

Usually I do not allow my picture to be taken nor do I put it out here for all to see, but we had fun with this. Someone brought these cookies that come in a canister and are rolled into thin stick-like cookies and are filled with chocolate. I thought they looked like cigarettes, so here you see me acting as if I am smoking my cookie. It must have been late at night. No wait, it probably wasn't since everyone crapped out on me early. I am the night owl of the bunch.

Now this is a double treat because he you have another photo of me with my overdyed floss winnings from the CLR game. They all thought that I fixed the game, since I was the organizer and the one who stole the idea from other bloggers. I am showing off my 27 skeins of WDW and GAST. Mostly WDW. Goes right along with my nickname "Fiber Snob" tacked on me for my love of the Belle Soie silk. Last Monday at the meeting of the Sunflower Stitchers, a very small group (4 of us), I received two more nicknames. Fiber Whore and Silk Slut. Don't you like the names that my friends give me?

Wow, what do we have here? Oh, yes, it is Janet modeling the latest in lounging stitch wear. We do love to be comfy when we are stitching.

With all that stitching and wild games going on, an occasional massage is necessary. Here Reita is giving Reina a massage with a mini-massager and sometimes called a vibrator.

When I was reviewing the pictures to pick out the ones that I wanted to use, I discovered that we must have had a thing about taking pictures of someone else taking pictures. Now when I got to loading pictures I could only find the one of Linda taking pictures with her lime green camera. Linda is our resident lime green lover. She loves that color and has a lot of it in her wardrobe and several bags in that color too. Notice the color of her sweater. Yes, it's green too.
Now for what you have all been waiting for. The tidbits and quotes overheard during the retreat. Some you would have had to have been there to understand, others are just what you think they are and you will laugh too.

-- That makes me all tingly.

-- You would not want to do that on a full bladder.

-- How long does it go in for? Response--For as long as you can stand it.

-- Oh, look these are swirly-about Werther's Chocolates

-- Reina gave us all really cute tins with the Werther's Chocolates in them. We are really into the name calling and she was labeled as Reina Tin Tin.

-- Who's going to pull out first?

-- Is this fat enough?

-- Pull it out of the crack --- No thong thread--- No Butt Floss

-- I like mine big and hard

-- Oh, I have to put on my glasses to hear you. That would be our resident blond Jan

-- Hang on and I will wiggle it.

-- Be careful not to rub it raw

-- Yeah, Yeah, I want some silver balls.

-- We are not going to do your end until you are finished with it.

-- I will see how long my thing gets.

-- One will just hang.

-- Everyone gets a turn in the barrel

-- If I take the Beano with my Ibuprofen will I fart my head off?

-- Oh, I just dribbled between my legs.

-- Knit me a dickey

This just illustrates why I say we have so much fun at our retreats that it is almost illegal. Several in the group have gone to various camps and retreats near and far and the most often heard comment was this is way more fun, less expensive and we only had to travel a few miles instead of hundreds of miles. We want to try to do this at least once a year. Reina's only son is a senior, so we want to work around her schedule of senior activities. As of Monday night, all calendars have been cleared for the 3rd weekend of April. Janet is to call The Sage Inn to see if they will allow us to come back then. We might be too much for them.

Have some stitching progress over the last week or so, but will make that another post. This would be too long to include it here. Things have been rather hectic here and I will relate that in the stitching progress post maybe tomorrow. Hopefully, you all won't be to shocked to find posts from me on back-to-back days. Hope you enjoyed hearing and see more about our little retreat. Thanks for stopping by. The dog has started not going to bed without me. She laying by me waiting for me to head off to bed. Guess I better start that way.

Happy Stitching!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Finish and Other Gibberish

It is hard to believe it has been over a week since I last did a post. Had meant to do another one a day or two after the last one. Don't know where my time goes. Might be that it took me over 2 hours to do the last one. Problems with the pictures loading and there were a few of them.

Here is a photo of the finish that I spoke of in my last post. I bought some trim at Hobby Lobby the other day and found some fabric for the back to make it into a pillow. Just have not gone there yet. Was talking to someone today at the LNS about a lady that does finishing and I got to thinking it might just be easier and faster to let Sherri do it. LOL!!

Smell My Feet

by La D Da

from JCS Halloween Ornament Magazine

28-ct Mystery Fabric

WDW Mascara and GAST Mistletoe

Recently, (within the last couple of months) I joined a new Yahoo Group. A very small active group name Stitcher's Timeout. What a fun group. This past weekend they had a Halloween SAL. I had big plans to do a couple of different small Halloween pieces. Started with "Night Owl" from JCS Magazine. Got a great deal of it done. There was a KSU home football game on Saturday that interfered with my available stitching time. That group also has an "Elf Stitching Night" on Monday night. Have been trying to participate in that. Elf Stitching is the time to stitch on Christmas Presents. Well, I had to change my Elf Stitching to Sunday, since I have my Sunflower Stitchers group on Monday and the Christmas Presents I am working on are for a couple of people in that group. Therefore, I had to take Sunday off from the Halloween SAL to do Elf Stitching. Are you confused yet? Monday then I stitched on my owl. I finally finished him late this afternoon while working at the LNS. No photo yet. I may not finish into an ornament, instead frame him. He is very cute. Other stitching has been on a Sunflower Seed design model. Of course, no photos of it yet either.

Since the election is Tuesday, I will be working there as Supervising Judge. Always have to go to a 2+ hour training the week before. That was yesterday. They expect us to be very busy all day. It is a very long day. Getting poll workers is very hard so I feel it is my civic duty since I am retired. Ask me next Tuesday night if I feel the same way.

Plans were to provide a Part II of Floss Fight at The Sage Inn. However, I was waiting for some more pictures from others. Have them now, but I have to decide which ones should be published. Others might be too incriminating to my stitching buddies. Janet, I won't put up the one of you modeling your jammies. Hopefully, I can find the time for that in the next few days.

After church on Sunday, we are having a fundraiser soup and dessert lunch like we did last year. I am making at least a double batch of my Taco Soup. That is on the agenda for making tomorrow and Saturday. Saturday noon, I am taking a couple of ladies from my church to a Chicken and Noodle dinner at a nearby church. Nothing better than homemade noodles on mashed potatoes. I can already taste them. Speaking of food, remember the Church Cookbook I had been working on. Well, it has arrived and we have sold around 400 of the 794 received. Here is the cover of the cookbook.

Today and earlier in the week, I did a little stashing at the LNS. I bought fabric for Little House Needleworks "From Sea to Shining Sea" and the 3 designs of the coffee series. Both can be seen at the link provided. I got 28-ct R&R Lt Cappuccino for the coffee pieces (all on one piece) and 28-ct R&R 18th Century Stone for the Sea to Shining sea design. All the patterns come with the Belle Soie silk floss that I love. Again, I am being the fiber snob. Not sure when I will get them done, but I am sure I will get them started soon. The other thing I got is "American Baby" by Willow Hill Samplings. Saw this on someone else's blog and just had to have it for my college roommate's daughter that was going to have a baby in November. Just before I went into the football game on Saturday, I got a phone call and my friend was in Oklahoma City instead of at the ball game because she had a new granddaughter that morning. Sophie Marie was born that morning. So now I have another project. Still working on Precious Baby for my niece's baby Cameron. Not enough time to stitch it all. The fabric I bought for American Baby is 28-ct Heritage Cashel by Picture This Plus. As you can tell, I prefer to stitch on 28-ct.

Thanks to all that stop in, read and comment. Want to say an extra greeting to Theresa in Hays, KS. So enjoyed receiving your comment. Glad you found my blog. Would e-mail you, but don't have an address. Tell the kids "hi" from me too.

Off to put in a few more stitches before hitting the hay. Yes, I am a night owl. Sometimes it catches up with me. Don't forget to change your clocks Saturday night and VOTE on Tuesday.

Happy Stitching!!!!!!!!

Floss Fight at The Sage Inn

This past weekend my Monday Night Stitch Therapy group had our long awaited stitch weekend/retreat at the Sage Inn B& B in Dover, Kansas. Dover is a very small unincorporated community 13 miles west of Topeka. You will remember we made a one night trial run at this same location. We had been looking forward to this weekend and we were not disappointed. A great time was has by all. I even said I thought someone messed with the time and made things speed up and gave us less time there. Everyone arrived around 4:00PM. That is the earliest they would let us come. Some took the entire day off work in anticipation of our big weekend. Since it is a B&B we had to figure out what to eat outside of the breakfast provided. You know we are all concerned about eating. On Friday night we ate at the little community cafe across the street. They had a buffet of mystery meat (beef ribs???), corn, baked potatoes (big!!!) and salad. It even came with chocolate cake for dessert.

Last time we stitched in the living room, but this time we decided that the dining room was better. Better light and a little bigger for all of our stuff. I did not get any pictures of the room with us all in there.

Although we have been stitching together for some time, we had never come up with a name for ourselves. We had tried several times, but nothing really stuck. Did not feel the Stitch 'n Bitch Club was unique enough for us. Finally this weekend we named ourselves the "Sunflower Stitchers". I think all or almost all of us were born and raised in Kansas and the Sunflower is our state flower. Besides the LNS where we stitch weekly is called The Sunflower Seed. Also, we are also beautiful that we should use a flower in our name. Here is a picture of all of us that was taken Saturday afternoon. We had said that we were not going to get out of our jammies all day, but you can see that we did. Comfortable clothes, but not jammies.

Our picture was taken on the back deck and this is the view of the backyard from the deck.

Have any of you heard of the children's book, Flat Stanley? flat Stanley is a flat drawing of a little boy. I took a page out of that story and something done by my STO Yahoo group when they had a retreat. Had been getting comments from Martha of Gone Stitching regarding us going on our retreat and how envious she was of our chance to do the retreat. She is trying to set something similar up with her stitching group and encountering some issues. So I decided to take Flat Martha with me to the retreat. I went to her blog and printed off the picture she had of herself on her blog. Now she tells me it is a really old picture of her. Whatever, I just needed one fast, since I only thought of doing this on Friday morning. So here are some pictures of Flat Martha at the retreat.

Flat Martha in the middle of the Dining Room Table


Flat Martha in amongst the snacks

Day 1 Breakfast

Day 1 Breakfast with all the other things served

Flat Martha with Day 2 Breakfast

Yes, that is stuff French Toast

I made up goody bags for everyone with things that others donated. Included were colored loose leaf rings, floss drops, initial note cards, colored binder clips, tootsie pops, highlighter and many more fun things. Since the note cards were specific to each person, I had to put name tags on them. In trying to figure out how to tie them on, I came across a bag of Loose Threads from GAST that I had been given some where. It contained 2-3 lengths of various Sampler Threads, but not labeled. I picked colors that fit each person and then tied the names on with the thread. Now they all have to figure out which color they got.

Reina has made lots of beaded fobs and other jewelry. So she brought all her beads along and assisted us all in making a fob for our scissors. Here are Jan and Reina working on fobs. Anita is seated in the background and Marcia is off to the side.

Here is the fob that I made. Purple, of course. While I was making my fob, I figured out that Reina had made this wonderful bracelet she gave me a while back. My fob has some of the same purple beads in it that my bracelet does. Love that bracelet because it fits nice and does not slip off like a lot of mine do.

Anita, The original Sunflower Seed, designed a little piece for us to stitch at the retreat. And to most people's surprise, I stitched it all up while at the retreat. I meant to get a picture of her model, but I did not. It goes in a black frame with some glued on wooden ornaments of a witch and her boot or hat. So very cute. My door looks a little wonky in the picture, but I have since re-done the back stitching and it looks a lot better. It is at the shop for framing. The fabric color does not show up very good since I laid it on a white table to take the picture. Fabric is R&R 18th Century Rook stitched with sampler threads and a brass bat charm. I just love it.

We also played our games of CLR Floss, Scavenger Hunt and Stitcher's Bingo. There was a bag of stitchy stash items donated by others in the group for the winners to draw from. Anita won the Scavenger Hunt. Various people won in Bingo. We played 3 rounds of CLR Floss. Two rounds with DMC floss and one with overdyed floss (Sampler Threads, WDW or Crescent Colours). I had planned to divide the 9 of us into two tables so more people could win, but the group thought it would be more fun to do it all together. So each winner won 27 skeins of floss. Reita and Janet won in the two rounds with DMC and I won the Overdyed Floss. Woo Hoo!!! I did not even cheat. Everyone really liked playing the CLR Floss game. I had put 82 items on the Scavenger Hunt list and I only had 48 of them in my stitch bag. Guess I should have read the list closer. I was going to list some of the things include on the Scavenger List, but my post is getting rather long and I still want to include some of funny quotes that I recorded during the weekend.

When we first started having retreats or special stitch days, I started writing down all the strange and funny little things that were said. Most I can attribute to the correct individual, but will leave that off so as not to ruin some of the quoted's reputation. Many of these are "you had to be there", but others you will find the humor in just reading them.

- We need to loosen up. response: Jan, you are way to loose.

- Aged Pewter-I sort of feel like that some mornings.

- All in favor of Jan ripping out---unanimous

- Whole lotta slapping going on, led to "Let's Get Physical", led to a discussion of John Travolta being fat, old and pointed headed. John your Hunk days are over.

- Oh, my ears have stopped bleeding. The owners insisted on playing elevator music for us and no one liked it. So when they would leave we would change it and then when they came back they would change it back, so one time after it was turned off we were relieved. This could also apply to the fact that the owner spent all afternoon mowing the front yard right outside the room where we were. Most of that part of the yard did not even have grass. Maybe he just wanted to look at the lovelies. LOL!!

- Be careful I can see your cord.

- Snot sisters, sniffling sisters. We always end up sniffling at the same time and especially after a major laughing episode.

It is getting late and I have been working on this way too long. I will put more in the next post. I have another finish and a couple of other things ready for the next post, so these quotes will be continued later.

After all this I did not mention that we even did some of our own cooking for the other meals besides breakfast. Next post.

Janet decided that we needed to award a booby prize to one member each time we have a retreat. This time the overwhelming winner was Jan (aka TP). Her is Jan with her new doll with stick pins. This will become a tradition in future retreats. Jan will make the award next time. We are betting that Janet will get it back.

As we were all packing up Sunday morning, plans were being made for the next time. We are hoping to do this again in the spring. If not then, we will absolutely do it again next fall. It is hard to put in writing all the fun and pleasure we get out of each other's company. We are truly becoming stitching sister, maybe even snotty sisters. Several other took more pictures than I did, so I will try to get some more pictures to post with the next round of quotes.

Blogger has been a little temperamental tonight, so this has taken way longer than I planned. Taking valuable stitching time. Tomorrow I work at the LNS, so need to go get things together to be gone tomorrow. Been rainy, dreary and cool the last couple of days. Supposed to clear up by the weekend. Love fall, but not sure about the winter to follow.

Thanks for stopping in and reading all this babbling. Hope it was not too much. Keep on stitching.

Stitching Instead of Blogging

Tonight at Monday night stitching I was severely chastised because I have not done a blog for almost 2 weeks. It seems I have been doing a lot of stitching and not taking time to blog. Mostly because several of the things I cannot show here. Two things are Christmas presents for for people that read my blog and the other is a design model for The Sunflower Seed. Over the weekend, I decided to stitch something as a shop model. It is a really cute JBW design and have been wanting to do it for some time. I have become convinced that I could stitch fall/Halloween designs most of the time, with a little time out for Christmas things. We ordered a frame for this tonight. Sorry the picture is a little crooked.

Autumn Harvest

by JBW Designs

28-ct Lt. Mocha Cashel

Fibers- WDW Carrot, Terra Cotta, and Pumpkin

GAST - Dark Chocolate

Also have gotten a little more work done on the Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet from the JCS Halloween Ornament Magazine. Maybe I can finish it this week. Found some black stringy type fringe at Hobby Lobby the other day. I think it would look cool on this, if I make it into a pillow. Will decide that later.

Picked up the Purple Cow from the framer a week ago. It turned out very nice. Not sure whether the frame comes through as purple as it is IRL. Purple is one of the most difficult colors to photograph. Joann's birthday is later in the month, am saving it til then to give to her.

Quaker Cow

by The Workbasket

28-ct Anita Original Linen

Needle Necessities - 196

On one of the Yahoo Groups that I belong to, an individual posted that she had closed a LNS and had some fiber to sell. She also mentioned that she had quite a bit of Needle Necessities in her stock. If any of you know me, I was on to that real quick. So I think I ordered another 40 skeins of NN plus some Waterlilies silk. I guess I am just obsessed with NN fiber and have to have as much as I can. When I will ever get it stitched up, I don't know, but I have to have it!!!

The church cookbook has arrived. Had planned to take a picture of it for use here, but I forgot. Try to remember it for next time. Talked to the committee chairperson today and we have sold well over 230 of the 700 that we ordered. I have sold 9 to friends and a lady at the bank. Still need to get some to use as Christmas gifts.

Had home KSU football games the last 2 Saturdays and that sure cuts into my stitching time. The worst part is they are not playing well. Last Saturday, I could have left a halftime and I would have been happy. I know I am a sore loser, but when it seems like they are not even trying, I get fed up.

This weekend is a cousins reunion in the town where my dad lives. My cousins that plan the reunion want to have it where he lives as long as we have him. He is the last living of 9 in his family. Planning to take Calico Beans in the crock pot and will make a peach cobbler too. Got my box of Colorado peaches tonight. They are awesome. Some of the peaches are the size of softballs. I could almost make a cobbler out of one of them.

Been working to get things ready for our Monday Night Stitchers Retreat in a little over a week and a half. This past weekend, I finalized the Stitch Bag Scavenger Hunt list. There are 82 items and 4 extra credit items on the list. Tonight we finished up the menus for the weekend and everyone signed up what they are going to bring. Since we are staying at a B&B, we need to do our meals other than breakfast. However, as much as they fed us for breakfast the last time we were there, we might not need any other food. Also made up the goodie bags for everyone with the stuff I have to put in them. Waiting on stuff from others that are going to provide stuff.

Hey, stitch girls are you happy now? I have done a post. Will try not to wait so long between posts next time. Thanks to all that stop by even if you don't leave a comment. Your visits are appreciated.

Have a good week and keep those needles flying. Christmas is coming.

Happiest of Holidays

Another finish!!! Woo!! Hoo!! I finished Happiest of Holidays from JCS Christmas Ornament Preview Magazine. Actually the same design is in the Ornament issue with the colors reversed. Have decided to give this to Morris's niece for Christmas. We drew names this year and I got hers. Where the stitchers initials were to go, I put hers. Tomorrow I will take this to the frame shop. I think I will have them put a mat on it to help bring out the colors a little more. Last night at Monday Night Stitch Therapy several thought that I had cut the thread to make the colors variegate like they did, but I did not. It just worked out that way. It's magic. The picture is clickable.

JCS Happiest of Holidays

28-ct Lt. Mocha Cashel

Needle Necessities - 151

Now I have started "Trick or Treat" from the JCS Halloween Ornament Magazine. Have made changes to the colors listed. It called for Needlepoint Silk and I am using WDW Mascara for the black and Sampler Thread Mistletoe for the green. I like the color changes in the green. The fabric is a mystery piece from my stash. I think it is Prairie Grain linen, 28-ct. The photo does not show the right color and is too light. To get good coverage with the black I am stitching the shoes/boots with 3 strands. The border is only 2 strands. Will experiment with the lettering, but I think I will do it in 3 strands too. Don't usually stitch 28-ct with 3 strands, but sometime it is necessary with black.

Spend today stitching on the design model for The Sunflower Seed that I have been working on for several weeks. That is when I was not on the phone. It seems everyone knew I had the entire day at home today and I got several calls. However, the one that I made turned out to be long. Will finish this up and get back to stitching.

Last Saturday, I spent several hours sorting through some boxes of stash. Preparing things for game prizes for our Monday Night Stitchers Retreat that is coming up next month. There will be 9 of us taking over a B&B for 2 nights. The B&B may never be the same. Have plans to play Stitcher's Bingo and Stitch Bag Scavenger Hunt. That is a new one. Have been working on the list of things that everyone will be looking in their bag for. I cannot even give any ideas of what I am going to use here, because all of them read my blog. Don't want to give any of my secrets away. Also, I am going to try to play the CLR Floss game that I saw on Martha and Deb's blogs. Hope they don't mind me stealing their game. Sounds like fun, especially if you are the winner and get all the floss in the middle of the table.

The last 2 Saturdays I have had off from KSU home football games. Our next home game is this Saturday and then again the following Saturday. Cuts down on the stitch time. Hopefully they can play well and win and then all is not wasted.

Thanks for all you comments on my Purple Quaker Cow, they are all appreciated. I will try to get photos of Joann when I give it to her. Several have wanted to know her reaction.

Off to stitch. Happy Stitching!!!!!

MOO-Cow

Finished the Purple Quaker Cow on Saturday. Took it to the framer yesterday. Of course, the only moulding that would work was a purple one. It matched the purple in the cow fairly good. Someone made a comment about the new fabric. Anita, at The Sunflower Seed did this custom work a few years back using Vintage Antique Tan or something like that and used bleach to make the splotches. Ask her about how she did it and said that it only worked on that Vintage fabric and she tried on other fabric and colors with no success. So I guess you could say this was one of a kind. She says that Vintage fabric has now been discontinued. I thought it was pretty cool stuff. She has a couple of shop models done on the same fabric.

Quaker Cow

by The Workbasket

28-ct Anita Original Fabric

Needle Necessities 196

After I finished the cow, I worked on Anita's design model and my Precious Baby Sampler. Then I got the itch to do a couple of the Halloween ornaments from the Just Cross Stitch Magazine and an ornament out of the Christmas Preview issue. Have fabric ready for 2 Halloween ones, the Trick or Treat one and the Owl one, but need to do some floss conversions to overdyes and might need to get a couple of colors at the LNS when I work tomorrow. However, I did start the Happiest Holidays ornament. Mine is going to be bigger because I changed the fabric. I may end up framing it and using it as a Christmas present for Morris's niece. Here is my start. The photo is a little blurry. It seems when I try to take close-up photos that they come out blurry sometimes. Not sure what I am doing wrong, but I am sure it is operator error.

Happiest Holidays
28-ct Lt. Mocha Cashel

Needle Necessities - 151

The red and greens from the overdyed of the floss do not show up as well as I thought they would. I figured if I added mats when I frame it, that might get the colors to pop a little better. You can sure tell that Needle Necessities is one of my favorite threads. Need to find time to try some of the new Threadworx to see if it is Needle Necessities reincarnated.

Another rather short post for me. LOL!!! Maybe I am learning to not be so long winded. Have my Google Reader down under 40. I really might get caught up soon. I want to get caught up before I take another trip and get behind again.

Have a Church ladies group meeting this afternoon. We are becoming a smaller group and it is difficult to keep things going. We lost one early this summer and another has had a stroke and is in a nursing home. Although these ladies are a lot older than me, I enjoy them so much and have learned a lot from them. Losing anyone of them is like losing my mother all over again. We are starting a new lesson year, so we have lots to look forward to.

Thanks to all who stop and visit and comment. Love getting your comments. Hope everyone in Texas is recovering. That has been such a tragedy.

Happy Stitching!!!

EDITED: I forgot to include that Muffin went back to the vet yesterday and they re-ran the blood tests. Her liver results were better. The one that she was to be under 100 was at 95 and the other that she was to be under 200 was at 185. I guess the meds, etc. worked on correcting the problem. We will wait another 2-3 weeks before we re-schedule the surgery to take off the fatty tumors. Hopefully, the liver enzymes will stay where they are supposed to be.

PCP--aka Purple Cow Progress

It seems I have been sort of obsessed with this purple cow. When I have not been working or stitching at The Sunflower Seed, I have been doing some stitching on it. Here is where she was at about noon when I took this picture. Since then I have finished the tail and most of the rest of the floral-type motif in the middle.

Quaker Cow by The Workbasket

28-ct dyed fabric by Anita at The Sunflower Seed

Needle Necessities 196 - Renaissance

We have had rain all day today. Cool front and remnants of Tropical Storm Lowell from the Pacific. Not long ago they even issued a tornado warning for counties east of us. The forecast is for continued rain through tomorrow. Managed to get out and go to the grocery store, but It was mighty wet.

Have gotten my Google Reader down under 100, but have mostly been reading not doing much commenting. For the longest time, I was up to date almost every day and with being gone a week in May and then again in August, I got way behind. I like to keep as current as possible. Hope to be caught up in a week. That is my goal.

Surprise! This is going to be the shortest post I have ever done. I am going back to stitching and watching a ballgame and keeping an eye on Ike. My thoughts and prayers are with those that are in the path of that dangerous storm. Hope everything turns out better than they are predicting.

Hope everyone as a great stitchy weekend!!!!

The Week That Was

When I last left you, I was preparing to go to the first Kansas State football game of the year. Since then I have attended 2 games, that one and then the second game of the season last night. They won the first one 45-7 and it was rather warm that day and into the evening when it started. Last night they won again with a bigger score of 69-10. The weather was totally different. It was about 60 degrees and drizzling rain. Some times it was more than a drizzle, but not a total downpour. You would still get wet if you did not have rain wear. We stayed for most of the game. I was ready to leave at halftime when it was still raining and there were little doubt about the game. However, I was not the one driving. Ugh!! Even with rain gear you can get a little wet. Not too bad considering it rained over half of the game. No more home games for 3 weeks. More stitching time, instead of losing time in travel and during the game. LOL!!

Last Monday being Labor Day the LNS was closed so our Monday Night Stitch Therapy Group could not meet. That did not deter us resourceful stitchers. Janet invited us to her house for a day of stitching together. Always a fun time. We all took something to share for lunch. I tried out something new called Hearty Penne Beef. I guess it turned out OK, everyone ate it and no one got sick. We had some great food including CHOCOLATE!!! We stitched from about 10:00AM until 4:00PM. I even was prepared for any quotable quotes, but we were rather subdued, I guess. I have no quotes. There was no tooting either. One of our group has told us that you can use Depends as mufflers. Guess everyone had their mufflers on. During the day, we had two finishes. Janet finished a little Halloween design from The Sunflower Seed, including the buttons being sewn on. Reita finished LHN - Home of a Needleworker, too. Great job gals. Marcia was 1 1/2 letters from finishing "I am of Ireland" by The Sunflower Seed. A couple of our regulars could not spend the day with us. We missed them. Maybe that is why we did not have any quotes or stories from the day to pass on.

I guess because it was a holiday weekend, I decided I needed to start something. So I started and finished on Tuesday this "Noel Santa" from the new Prairie Schooler - Santa and Snowman. Plans are to finish it as an ornament. The picture shows the choices of backing fabric that I found in my stash. Had to go to Joanns to buy some ribbon for the hanger. Changed the colors on the original pattern to using Weeks Dye Works and Sampler Thread. The red is GAST - Cranberry. Now I want to do one of the Snowmen from that book. Oh, I almost forgot, I stitched this on 28-ct lambswool linen. It was to be on Summer Khaki, but I love lambswool. Some of the oatmeal I used does not show up very well.

My startitis has come back to me. However, it is for a good reason. At least that is my story and I am sticking with it. One of our regular Monday night stitchers is an older lady that lives in a local retirement community. You saw pictures of her last year around Christmas, because she was the subject for annual friendship sampler done by The Sunflower Seed. Joann struggles with various health issues and had some problems going into the holiday weekend. So on Tuesday evening Anita and I took take-out Chinese food over to her and spent the evening with her. When I arrived she told me she had gone through all her fabric and separated the linen from the evenweave because she says she cannot stitch on linen. She did not know why she had so much linen. Told me to go through it and take what I wanted. I felt a little like I had died and gone to heaven. I found this one piece of linen that had be dyed and distressed by Anita. Joann kept saying that she always liked that fabric and now she just wished she could do Workbasket's Quaker Cow on it. So later in the week, I decided that I would stitch the Quaker Cow for her. First I thought for Christmas, but remembered her birthday is in late October. Now my intention is to get it done for her birthday. Us stitch gals are about all the family she has so I know she will love getting this for her birthday. Joann loves purple almost as much as I do, so I went to my stash of Needle Necessities and found a purple (196) and here is the beginnings of a Purple Quaker Cow.

Since this photo was taken, I have finished the head and started on a front leg. I just love doing these Quaker monochromatic things. Joann does not have a computer so I figure I am safe putting this on my blog. Now, the rest of you Monday night stitchers that do read my blog, DO NOT BLOW THIS!!!!!!!!

The following Lizzie Kate design has been framed for quite some time, but I keep forgetting to take a picture when I do the other pictures. Now I just need to send it to cousin Jackie in South Dakota. Hope she had forgot I have a blog or it might not be much of a surprise to her.

There was one other significant thing that happened this week, that I almost forgot to mention. My little dog, Muffin, was supposed to have surgery on Tuesday to remove a couple of fatty tumors. The key word there is "supposed", because she did not have it. During the pre-op blood test, they found that her liver enzymes were not right. The liver is what filters out the anesthetic from her system, therefore they would not do her surgery. Put her on some pills for 2 weeks and changed her dog food to Hills Prescription LD for liver function. We go back in 2 weeks for recheck. She has not really had any symptoms that they told me she might have. Doesn't seem to like the new food. Was not a big eater anyway, but she seems to need to be very hungry to eat it. Will see what happens at the end of the 2-week period.

This has turned out to be longer than I planned and my fingers are itching to get back to my Purple Cow. Still need to do a few pictures for the rest of our trip, but tonight I had problems with the pictures that I was preparing for a blog, so I gave up on it for now.

Happy stitching to all!!!!