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