Snow!! Snow!! Snow!!

It was our turn to get dumped on by a snow storm. The weekend before Christmas it was the east coast and on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day it was the Midwest Plains States. On Wednesday it rained like it was spring with lightening and thunder, with it changing to snow on Christmas Eve Day. Snowed and blowed all night Christmas Eve and all day Christmas. Sometimes you weren't sure how much it was snowing because it was blowing it around so much. We continued to have light snow on the day after Christmas. It is unusual for us to get this much snow at one time. The actual official measurement was between 10 -12 inches. I don't know how they were even able to measure it with it blowing around like it did. We had a few inches earlier in the month. Tonight they are predicting 1-2 inches. If we get 1 1/2 inches it will be come the snowiest December on record in Topeka.

Here are a few pictures that we took. First, a drift in the side yard.

A drift behind the garage where in the summer the tomato plants are growing. I wonder if snow is good fertilizer. You can see that there is a small drift on the deck. It is almost up to the bottom of the chairs.
A drift around the hot tub and onto the patio. Lots of snow on top of the hot tub. You can see that it was still snowing a little when these pictures were taken.
My perennial flower bed out front has a big drift too. It just about covers the little light-up Christmas trees we have out there. The last two on the end are barely visible, just a little glow through the snow.

Morris made several attempts on Saturday getting the driveway shoveled out so he could get out his pick-up. I had not been out of the house since mid-afternoon on Wednesday and he had not been out since mid-afternoon on Christmas Eve, so we got out on Sunday afternoon and went to the mall to walk around. I think he was getting cabin fever. Needless to say, we did not make our Christmas trek to South Dakota for Christmas with his family. Based on the weather forecast here and for up there, we cancelled the trip on Tuesday afternoon. Mailed their Christmas present on Wednesday. They have already received them. Fast service. I went ahead and made the things that I had planned to take up there to eat. Christmas Eve we had sloppy joes and I did a ham for Christmas dinner. I had gone ahead and bought one a few days ahead of time just in case we ended up not going. Which is what happened. By Sunday, we were both tired of eating Sloppy Joes and ham. LOL!!!

Enough about the nasty snow, on to stitching stuff. Now I can reveal the Christmas stitching that I have been working on the last couple of months. The first was was for Reina. I did not change anything on this one.

Give Us This Day

by La D Da

30-ct R&R Kansas City Blend

GAST Thread

This one was for Anita. Had to make a few color substitutions on this one. I used GAST Dried Thyme instead of Evergreen and WDW Onyx instead of GAST Black Crow. I thought I had plenty of Black Crow, but ran out and picked up another skein at the shop. It was totally different. It had lots of blue in it. The crows did not look good blue and I had to rip out everything I had already put in. Then I had to play around until I found a color that I thought looked good. Tried Mascara and Kohl, but the Onyx looked best. Someday I will learn to check how much I have and whether the latest at the shop is close to what I already have.

Crowflowers

by The Workbasket

28-ct Natural Brown Linen

GAST Threads with changes

This is an older Workbasket design. I got it when we had a trunk show from them at the LNS a year or so ago. I think the date on it is 1997. Just thought the long legs and tail feathers made it an interesting design.

Reina stitched this LHN design out of the 2009 JCS Ornament magazine for me. She knows how much I like LHN designs. I love it and I don't think will put it away when the Christmas things get put away. It probably will be up year round. ( I did not do a very good job of photographing and cropping this one.) Sorry!!

There is still one gift that I am stitching on. It is coming along, but has taken longer than I thought. It is LHN "Under The Prairie Moon". Here is my progress. My brain was not thinking right, I guess, because I need just a little more Moss for the roof. What I have is lighter than what I first started with and have run out of. See there I did it again. Did not plan properly for how much was needed and the change in dye lots. It is stitched on 30-ct R&R Irish Creme with Belle Soie silk. No that is not dirt on the fabric, that is just the way the over dye worked out.
Since we did not travel for Christmas, I decided that I would start something new on Christmas Day. I went looking around to see what had fabric and thread already. I came across this design that Anita did for all of us at our last weekend retreat. She included 30-ct R&R Antique Cotton with the design and it used DMC thread. I substituted my Anchor floss for most colors, but was missing a few so have some DMC as well. Across the bottom is a little figure for each of us charted in our favorite color, with proper hair color and our initials. It will mean a lot when it is done. The verse is "Our lives are but a tapestry".

Here is my progress. Since this photo was taken, I have done one more house, finished the word "Topeka" and done the first figure without feet. That figure is mine and my dress is purple and my hair is silver gray like it is in real life.
With all the snow and cold, I have not been going too many places. Actually the furthest I have gone since Sunday is to the end of the driveway to the mailbox. Been alternating between Prairie Moon, Sunflower Stitchers and a small design model for the Sunflower Seed.

Two of the Yahoo groups that I am in are planning January 1st start projects. The Kansas Stitcher group is going to do a SAL for A Quaker Christmas by ByGone Stitches. Since I have already done that one, I am going to do Quaker Gone Spooky by Michelle Ink. I will be using 30-ct R&R Lucky Penny with part of the silk called for. I am using Silk 'n Colors instead of Prairie Winter and Belle Soie Noir instead of Silk 'n Colors Fading Ink. My hands have been itching to stitch this. Now the first is not far off.

My STO Yahoo group is having January 1st SAL of your choice of designs. This group did this last year too and everyone really enjoyed watching each other's projects come to life. I think that most everyone finished their projects at some point during the year. It is good motivation when you have a group doing something like this. For this SAL I am going to do Shakespeare's Peddler's Jenny Bean's Halloween Sampler using the limited edition GAST threads that were developed for this design on 28-ct R&R Lt. Cappuccino. The thread names for this are rather ghoulish.

Thanks to all the continue to read and comment on my blog. I post rather infrequently, but when I do it is a lot Don't see that changing any time soon. You comments are very much appreciated. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I don't know who it was that wanted a "White Christmas", but I thin they got more than they bargained for around here.

It is hard to believe that another year is just about here. Time flies when you are having fun stitching all the time. Here's wishing you a Happy and Prosperous New Year to all.

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

After All This Time.....Still Stitching

Here goes nothing. All my friends have been screaming at me because I have not done a post recently. Things just keep getting in the way. We got back from Branson and have been dealing with some issues with my Dad and trying to finish the Christmas stitching. The time just keeps flying by. One day it is just before Thanksgiving and now Christmas is a week ago. Where does the time go?

We had a great time in Branson, eating, going to shows, shopping and just generally relaxing. I even did get some stitching done. For the first 3 days, we were joined by friends Martin and Mary. We ate at the normal places we go every year and actually ate at the timeshare a couple of times too. The shows we saw with them were "The Haygoods" and "The Baldknobbers". The Baldknobbers were the first show in Branson and this was their 50th year. On Sunday we ate at the College of the Ozarks Sunday Buffet. Such good food and so much of it. It was a joy. My sister that lives close by came down on Tuesday and basically stitched all day with me. That was fun. Made it to the LNS Cecilia's Samplers twice. One day with Mary and once with my sister. Had to buy a few things. Not that I needed anything, but Anchor floss. When you work in a LNS you rarely need anything.

Here is a photo of Muffin lounging around the timeshare one evening. Her and Morris were watching TV in the bedroom this night. We have been going down here around 8 years and this is only the second year that they allowed us to take Muffin along. She loves it and loves to travel. Morris took her for at least one walk each day.

On Friday we went to the Pierce Arrow show. This was a freebie for listening to the timeshare people try to sell us another week. The Pierce Arrow Theatre had a BIG Christmas wreath in front and here is a photo of Morris in the wreath. It was night and there was not much light on him. He is hard to see in the picture.

One of the design models that I have been working on has been released by The Sunflower Seed. Celtic Christmas Tree is done on 30-ct R&R Antique Cotton with Thread Gatherer Silk 'n Cotton In the Burgundy and Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid. Anita has also set up a blog

Most of the stitching that I have been doing is for Christmas and I cannot show it yet. I think I will be giving it away next Tuesday. Talked to the frame shop today and one piece is done and the other will be done for me by Tuesday. Nothing like getting it in under the wire. Photos later. I still have one piece to finish, but I did not get hers done last year on time, so I guess by now she will be used to it. Probably will not get to exchange gifts with her until after Christmas any way.

Remember we talking about the baby sampler that I was working on and had been having problems with from the beginning. Well, I have done some work on it over the last few weeks. Especially since now I know that my niece is going to have another baby and I need to do another one. The first picture is of the sampler the last time I took a photo. The second photo is where it is today. There has been quite a bit of progress, but lots of color changes and there is lots of back stitching to do later. The color of the fabric is way different from photo to photo. The fabric is 28-ct Lambswool linen.



Here is a photo of the design for the next baby sampler for my niece. It is a girl this time and I have loved this design since it came out. Pulled photo from the Hoffman Distributing web site. Have the pattern, but not started yet. The model is stitched in silk, so now you know another reason why I liked it.
Several years ago I stitched the piece below, but never finished it. Recently I needed a gift for a friend so I finished it. Turned out very nice.

Merry Christmas to My Friend

By Carriage House Samplings

28-ct Dirty Cashel linen

WDW and Sampler Threads

Now I will show you gifts that I received from friends. Perforated paper Santa. I just love this. So cute. The other is a 3-dimensional gingerbread house. I have shown the back and the front of the house. Lots of beads on this too. My friend has made several of these this year. They are so cute too. I think the pattern was in a magazine several years ago.

I have really thrown this together rather quickly. Loaded the photos last night and doing the narrative this afternoon before we go to by Dad's. He had a pacemaker put in just before Thanksgiving and has recently had a bout with the nose bleed that they have trouble getting stopped. He does not like to stay with any of us girls, so he is staying along at his house again. We have several services coming in during the week, but us girls are going to try to take turns being there almost every weekend and see how that goes.

Next week we will go to Morris's family in South Dakota, weather permitting, for Christmas. Been making all kinds of preparations of food for various Christmas get together and to take to both my Dad and up to SD.

Morris home from work and packing things up, so I better end this now. Thank you to all that visit and comment. The comments mean so much. I try to get caught up on blog reading, but I don't think that I will ever be caught up.

Merry Christmas To All.

Happy Stitching

It Did Not Happen

My plan was to do a blog today, before we leave for a week in Branson. Well, it did not happen. Was too busy getting things ready to go. You would think I was leaving the country the way that we pack up things. All I really want to do when we are down there is stitch. However, we will do a couple of shows and some shopping.

I have been stitching, but most of it is Christmas gifts or Sunflower Seed design models, so no photos yet. Two of the Sunflower Seed designs that I stitched are almost ready to be released. By the time I get back from Branson, I should be able to show them here. Also, did some work on the overdue baby sampler. Was going to show you how much progress I have made since the last photo taken several months ago.

Before I forget Anita at The Sunflower Seed now has a blog. She is loving it. You can visit it here.

Apparently the crud and cough I have been battling was allergy related. Much better and don't have much of a cough. The only thing different the did was give me a sample of a nasal spray. My dad is still battling his cough. Turns out it related to congestive heart failure and fluid retention because the heart was not working properly. He is back in the hospital and last evening they installed a pacemaker. According to e-mails received from my sister and a cousin he is much better and should go home tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone that takes the time to visit my little space in cyberland. Your visits and comments are very much appreciated.

Now off to finish packing things up. Stitching is packed, just have to pack my Ott-Lite. My youngest sister lives a short distance from Branson and she is coming down to spend a day with me and stitch. Looking forward to that.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Happy Stitching.

As Time Goes By

It seems that I just keep singing the same tune, different verse about time flying by. It seems just yesterday that we turned the calendar over to October and now we are ready to turn it over to November. My blogging time as been limited. When I have had time, I would rather use it for stitching. The last time you heard from me I had left my Dad in the hospital with his upper respiratory issue possibly pneumonia. He ended up spending 12 days in the hospital and 12 days with my sister after he was dismissed. He even missed the cousins reunion held in the town that he lives and he is the only living member of his generation. It was hard for him to miss, but he knew that he was better off staying away from a lot of people. Earlier this week, I spent 2 days with him to take him for a follow-up visit to the doctor. Both my sisters had other commitments at the last minute, so I was free to go and take care of things. He is very much improved, but still has his cough. They changed some of his meds and when I left him on Tuesday, he cough was better.

Wish I could say the same for myself. I have had some kind of crud for about 2 weeks. Mostly chest congestion and cough. I have gone through a lot of cough drops, prescription cough syrup and some over-the-counter cough syrup. Still coughing!!!!!!!! I have an appointment for my annual check-up next week. Maybe I can get something then. I even did not go to the KSU football game last Saturday due to my cough. I was afraid that those around me would think I had H1N!, so I stayed home. Anita at the LNS has had a cold, etc.. She missed a couple of days in the shop because of it. Otherwise we both have just drug ourselves around to do the things that we needed to do.

There has been some stitching going on around here. I finished a Christmas design model for The Sunflower Seed. It is at the framer. I finished my 2009 PS Hockey Santa and was slow in getting a blog done, that he is back from the framer already. This photo is not very good. I thought I had 2 on the camera, but this is the only one that was downloaded.

2009 PS Hockey Santa

20-ct Natural Brown Linen over 1

DMC threads

This is the first time that I have done a PS Santa in the same year that it came out. Amazing!!!

One of my friends was looking at the JCS 2009 Ornament Magazine and saw this ornament by Sue Hillis that she really liked. I stitched it up and gave it to her for her birthday last week. She loved it. She is a quilter and sewer, so I left it for her to finish. It is missing the buttons that were on the magazine model. I gave her a couple of pearl-like buttons from my collection and she was going to add the rest from her collection. It was stitched with the called for threads and fabric. The only changes I made were that I stitched most of the things that it called to be done with one thread with 2 threads. One thread did not show up very well. This photo is a little wonky because I used my scanner to take the photo. It looks like it is overdyed fabric, but it is not. Again this is a first for me, I did an ornament out of the magazine in the same year that the magazine came out.

I am still stitching some of the BBD Stockings. This is Wild Sunflower House out of the August booklet. Actually, I am a lot closer to being done right now. This is an old scan. This one came out better than the above ornament.
I have started work on one of the Christmas presents that I have planned. No photos until after presents are given. I have plans to do 2 other gifts, but they are not started, just kitted up. With the calendar changing to November, I am getting a little concerned as to whether they will all get done. Since my last post, my niece has announced that she is pregnant and I don't have the sampler done for her son that is 16-months old. It has been a hard stitch, but I have pulled it out again and worked on it while I was at my Dad's. Found out last week that it is a girl, so I have the design picked out for the sampler. Forgot to get a copy of the design for this blog, so it will have to wait for next time.

After Anita got back from market at the end of September, I had to do a little stashing. My requests for her to bring back for me was Shakespeare's Peddler's "Jenny Bean- Halloween Sampler". She got that for me plus the thread packet, Pin Tuffet pattern and these Dinky Dye scissors.
Other stashing in this photo includes:

Blackbird Designs - Midnight Watch
Midnight Stitching - Quaker Welcome
The Primitive Needle - The Witching Hour

Also I got, but is not in the photo Michele Ink's Quaker Gone Spooky and Cherished Stitches - A Quaker Halloween Sampler. It seems that I have been on Halloween overload on patterns. I don't know what the deal is with that. Anita and I were talking about that today and we have decided it is the colors of the designs that really interest us.

Dinky Dye Scissors

Back the middle of September when my friend Sandi and I went to the Kansas State Fair, we did some shopping on the way home. I bought this Jelly Roll, a pattern and lining fabric to make bags. This jelly roll and 1 yard of lining fabric is supposed to make 2 bags. The bag body uses 8 strips sewn together and more strips for pockets inside and the handles. I had thought by now I would have had some work done on this, but not yet. I think once I start, it won't take long and I won't want to put it down until it is done.

I have continued to do some crocheting when I have had to travel somewhere. Obviously, when I was not doing the driving. Below is another finished prayer shawl for the church. It was given to a friend of mine in the church that had a hysterectomy last week. At the beginning of October, I donated 2 crocheted dish cloths to go in a couple of baskets for an auction to benefit the Church Camp run by my church denomination. I have a small start on the next prayer shawl and a baby afghan for a person in Morris's office that we have done things with. Pictures of those later. A couple of days when I felt the worst from my cough and chest congestion, all I felt like doing was crocheting. My patterns are simple and rather mindless. It was easier on the brain than cross stitch.

This weekend is going to be a busy one. Sunday the church is doing a soup and dessert lunch after church. This morning I made a double batch of my Taco Soup and baked a cake. Still need to make another batch of Taco Soup and add the pudding, pineapple and Cool Whip topping to the cake. Tomorrow some members of one of my Yahoo Groups are getting together to stitch, a lady in my church is having an auction of her doll collection and I promised her I would show up as support, we have been invited to friends to celebrate Halloween in the evening. These friends get lots of "Trick or Treaters" and I guess it is fun to see. Made an apple crisp tonight to take over there. All this cooking has left no time for stitching.

Oh, I almost forgot. Anita at The Sunflower Seed has decided to do a blog. So I spent some time with her today showing her what little I know about loading pictures, etc. A while back I set her blog up and now she has decorated it up some and made one post. Today she was working on another post. Working with her on her blog has led me to try to dress up my blog. Have been looking for a free template that I like. Most are too busy and not the right color. I would like something that has purple in it to go along with my name. Guess I will leave it the way it is for the time being. It's hard to think about making template changes when I cannot even find the time to do posts.

Thank you to everyone who has stayed with me through the lean times of my posting. You are all very special to me. Your comments keep me going. Thanks so much. Hang in there. Who knows, I might get back into doing this more often. The best friends are stitching friends.

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

Way Behind

OMG, where does the time go? I had hoped I would have done a report on our retreat weekend and stitching progress by now. It just has not happened. The photos have not even been downloaded from the camera. Things have just gotten in the way. After the retreat, I worked at the shop for 3 days while Anita was gone to market. Oh, and she brought back some wonderful things. Went to two Royals baseball games in one weekend and helped my church celebrate their 100th Anniversary. Then this week I spent 2 days with my dad. He had gotten a cold and upper respiratory infection. Ended up putting him in the hospital and as of tonight he is still there. Yesterday they told me it was not pneumonia, but tonight my sister said they did another chest x-ray and saw something. He is very prone to pneumonia and he is in the best place for them to take care of it.

Still trying to get some stitching done. Here is a stocking from Blackbird Designs "Tis Halloween" pattern book. -- Deadly Nightshade. Stitched on the called for fabric with the called for threads. I finished this at the retreat.

I love stitching these stocking. I have one out of the August booklet started, but no photo. Next time.

Here is my progress on the PS 2009 Santa. He is done over one on 20-ct Natural Brown linen with the called for DMC threads. Since this scan was taken, he has a head and more of the hockey stick is done. Seems like there is more done also, but I cannot remember what it is and I am too lazy to get up and go see what it is. Tried working on this at the retreat, but ended up ripping out as much as I put in. One of the others at the retreat was having problems with some over one stuff. We decided it was either the lighting or we were just in a over one funk. LOL!!

Although Anita had everything at the shop on Monday that she brought back from market, I did not have a chance to look at it in depth. Today, I took time to go look at things and I wanted it all. I had sent a request with her for Shakespeare's Peddler's Jenny Been Sampler and some Dinky Dye scissors. She brought both back for me. Was going to have pictures, but it did not happen. Helped her move the Mill Hill bead display while I was there. Tomorrow a group from my Kansas Stitchers Yahoo Group is coming to Topeka for a stitch-in. This time I am actually going to get to join them. They have been getting together almost monthly for some time and I not been able to join in. Looking forward to it.

Thank you to all my loyal readers for sticking with me even when it is a long time between blogs. Your comments are very much appreciated. For those blogs that I read, I am way behind again. Between working and playing, I have not had much time for them lately. When I have had time, I have wanted to spend it stitching. So the blogs in my Google Reader is back over 200. I had gotten it down below 100 a few weeks ago.

Off to get my stitch bag prepared for tomorrow. Knock on wood, but this post has gone rather smooth. I better hit "publish" quickly before it decides to be onery.

Happy Stitching!!!

Model Stitching and Stuff

Did you hear my partial sigh of relief? I was in the middle of uploading pictures and trying to read blogs at the same time and had crisis. One of the blogs I opened just kept opening new windows in Internet Explorer no matter how fast I closed them. There were at least 6 windows open and I could not close them. Internet Explorer shut itself down. That is after I had 7 pictures uploaded. Once I went back into blogger the Auto Save had saved my work. Now I am editing my blog. LOL!! Had not done any narrative, was still loading pictures. I will do the remainder of the sigh of relief when I get this completed.

As you know, I do lots of model stitching for The Sunflower Seed. I cannot show what I have been stitching on until the designs are released. Two were released today on Hoffman. The first is very appropriate to be released on 9/11. It is stitched on 30-ct R&R Creek Bed Brown with GAST threads.

Proud and Free

by The Sunflower Seed

The next one is a Halloween design done on 30-ct R&R Spellbound Green with WDW thread. Anita did the backstitching and the beads, my two least favorite things to do.

Spiders and Bats, Oh, My!!!

by The Sunflower Seed

On Wednesday, I delivered another completed design to Anita and yesterday while I was working, she brought in another one that I have since gotten a little start on.

Before we made our trip to California, I finished one of the stockings from Blackbird Designs Halloween stockings book. It is done on the called for fabric with the called for thread. I have another one started. Have done a little work on the Wedding Ring one too. Hard to believe, but I did not do any stitching on our trip. On the way home, I actually put all of my stitching in my checked bag. Seems like there is less room on the planes to do stitching and during our layover on the way out, I played on my Acer computer. It is so much fun. Used it some while we were in California, but I did not keep up with blogs like I thought I would. Did keep ahead of the e-mails, but not the blogs or my Yahoo groups.

Previously I mentioned that I stitched something to take to our friends in California, but forget to take pictures before I took it to be framed. Picked up the day before we left. Turns out Betsy was actually born in Kansas, so she got the connection of taking her Sunflowers from Kansas. For those of you who don't know -- Sunflower is the Kansas state flower

Sunflower Sampler

Cottage House Needleworks

28-ct Raw Natural Linen with called for threads

Here are a few pictures from our California trip

Entrance to A T & T Park

Saw SF Giants beat Colorado Rockies. It was hot the day we were in SF, probably 96 degrees.

The next day we went to Yosemite National Park. Saw 2 fires and had to take a couple of detours around them. Here are a couple of pictures of the giant Sequoia trees.

The last day we drove down to Monterrey and Carmel. Lovely beautiful drive. We did the 17-mile drive through all the golf courses, etc. Stopped for a snack at Hog's Breath Inn, once owned by Clint Eastwood.

Lone Pine

A week or so before we went to California my sisters and I, along with all the grandkids and great-grandkids went to my Dad's to celebrate his 89th birthday. We took all the food for a big lunch along with cake and homemade ice cream. We did not leave him much ice cream. Here is a photo of my dad and his 4 great-grandchildren ages 7, 5, 2 and 1.

Well, I am almost done and things have not crashed yet. Better wrap this up before they do. Tomorrow (Saturday), I am helping serve a funeral dinner at the church for about 150. Monday, one of my best friends and I are headed to the State Fair. We are both retired and decided this is something we wanted to do. Neither of us have been for many years. We are really looking forward to it. We will spend the night, since it is about 3 hours away and then meander ourselves back home the next day stopping at various shopping opportunities along the way.

Next weekend is our next stitching retreat. We are all ready for our fun weekend. Should have a report on that the next time. Things have been so hectic since the last one in the spring, I never did do a post devoted to all the hilarity that goes on when we have our retreats. I promise to do better this time.

Thanks for all of your patience with me and my sporadic blogging. I won't even promise to do better, because I am not sure that I could live up to my promises. Thanks to all that do stop by and comment. I am still trying to keep ahead of all the blogs in my Google Reader, but I am still behind. Someday, maybe. Still make comments now and then. I have seen some awesome stitching out there. Many of you are really fast stitchers. It really amazes me. I must be retarded because I stitch much slower than many of you. Keep up the good work.

Happy Stitching!!!!!!!!

(Sign of Relief) Going to push the publish button.

P.S. JCS Ornament Magazine 2009 is out. Lots of good stuff.

Quick Update

It will probably come as a big surprise to my regular readers and my local stitching friends, but this is going to be a quick post. (hopefully) My plans were to take some more pictures tomorrow in the daylight and include more up to date photos of stitching. Got a call from Anita, owner of LNS-The Sunflower Seed and she was not feeling well, so I am working at the shop tomorrow. Not much else on the agenda, so it is not a problem. Just refocus on some other things.

First of all, I picked up my LHN - From Sea to Shining Sea from the framers about a week ago. Here is the final product. I love it.In one of my small Yahoo groups, we had an online retreat last weekend. Last year they had a retreat in Kansas City with several of the group attending. That was just after I joined the group, so I did not participate. I think I had a football game that weekend. Since the group is very diverse in where they are located, the moderators decided to have an online retreat. The group has several designers in it. Two of them designed retreat pieces. One was 2 Quaker Acorns. The other was a floral needlework. Other things included with the retreat was bingo, recipes and lots of chatting. It was hard to keep up with the stitching and the chatting at the same time. It is easier in person to talk and stitch, but when you have to be on the computer to chat, then you cannot stitch. On top of that I was gone the better part of Sunday for my Dad's birthday party. More on that at a later time. I do have a couple of pictures of that to share.

I did manage to finish one of the Quaker Acorns. The thread is Thread Gather Silk 'n Colors Crimson Wood on 32-ct Lambswool linen. I thought it was 28 when I picked it out, but the longer I stitched I figured out it was 32-ct. Oh, well. Now to get the other one done sometime. I am putting them on the same piece of fabric vertically and have requested the designer do another one so I can turn it into a bell pull. Marianne are you listening!!!

It seems that I am almost as addicted to the Blackbird Designs Stockings as I am to silk floss. Here is my start on "Here Comes The Bride" from the June leaflet. There is quite a bit more done since this photo was taken. Wedding Ring is one of my favorite quilt pattens. It is done on R&R 30-ct Korty's Special Blend using CC-Antique Lace and Cheryl Chic and DMC 712. Not much color change in the two off white colors.


Last Friday, while at the LNS the Blackbird Designs Halloween Stocking leaflet came in. Anita and I worked to cut fabric from the various called for colors. They are all so cute. I want to stitch them all.

Saturday, one of the Monday stitchers, invited us all to stitch at her house after the LNS closed at 3 and we stitched til around 10. Good food, great laughs and much stitching what a great combination. So Friday night I got the "Candy Corn" stocking barely started and stitched on it at our get together. Did have a few complications. Left most of my thread at home. Had to stop by the LNS for WDW-Carrot and I used some of Anita's GAST Butternut Squash. Then when I got home, I figured out that about 4 of my corn pieces were off by one thread. So I spend part of last night ripping and re-stitching. Hopefully, I will have it done the next time I post.

MUFFIN UPDATE : She did not have her scheduled surgery. Her blood work showed some problems that they spent all day with more tests and blood work to diagnose. This is the second time she could not pass her tests for surgery. I think she is does this on purpose so she does not have to have the surgery. She was, however, diagnosed with Cushing's Disease, which is a treatable, but not curable. Basically her body produces too much steroid and the pituitary gland that is supposed to shut it off, does not do it. The vet says that there is probably a very, very small tumor on her pituitary gland that prevents it from functioning properly. He told me that we don't do brain surgery on dogs. I read that same thing online. Now we are giving her some type of liquid medicine twice a day for 3 days and then in a week or so they will run blood tests to see if the meds are doing what they are supposed to. After 2 doses, she is taking it like a trooper. Don't know how cooperative she will be in the future. The meds are supposed to be liver-flavored, but it does not really smell that good.

Thursday we leave for out trip to California. Looking forward to it and have lots to take care of in the next few days. Probably no more updates until I return. Will be taking my new Acer computer with me and hope to try to keep up with e-mails and not get to far behind on blog reading.

Sometimes, I forget to thank all those who stop in to see what is going on in my world. Your comments are what keeps me going on this blog thing.

Happy Stitching

I' m Still Here.....

When I last posted, I had just started "Bountiful Stars" from the Blackbird Designs July Stocking. Here it is finished stitching. I did all but part of one star in a little over a day. Ran out of the blue silk and had to order more and that took a week. I like my color choices better than the model. It looks for Americana. I used Belle Soie silk (surprise) Cranberry and Blue Lagoon on 30-ct Korty's Special Blend.

Later this month Morris and I are going to visit friends in San Jose, California. At the semi-last moment, I decided I needed to stitch something to take to Betsy. Looked for something that I thought she would like that would not take too long. Ended up doing "Sunflower Sampler" by Country Cottage Needleworks. It stitched up in about a week. On the way to the frame shop, I realized I had not taken a photo. So I have borrowed a photo from Hoffman Distributing to show the design. I did it on 28-ct Natural Brown linen with the called for fibers. It was a fun quick stitch and now I think I might have to do it for me too. Photo to come when returned from the framer.
Other things on the stitching front include stitching on design models for The Sunflower Seed. I have done 2 models so far this summer. Frames just came in. Now they need to be framed and photos taken to complete the patterns for release. Photos to follow when they are released. Currently I am working on another model and am about 1/3 done with it.

One of my ongoing projects is "Giving Sisters" by Notforgotten Farms. I started this last year before Halloween and then it got put aside for awhile and I have pulled it out to work on again. This has become the project that I work on when we have our Monday night stitch group. Cannot work on design models then so, I work on other things. Have a good start on the second witch. Still not sure whether I will have this done by Halloween this year. Might be close enough that I will keep working even after Halloween. It is on 26-ct white birch Heatherfield with DMC.

Since I last posted I have had a case of startitis. I started and finished The Sunflower Sampler, but also started a couple of other things. I started Little House Needleworks "Cappuccino". I am doing it along with "Frappuccino" and "Cafe Latte" horizontal on the same piece of fabric. It is 28-ct Lt or Dk Cappuccino from R&R. Each of the designs come with the Belle Soie silk. The border is made of little 4 stitch squares of 3 different colors. That sure takes a long time to do. Did have a slight problem happen with the fabric. I had the fabric, etc. all kitted up for a while, so decided I needed to press the fabric before I started. For the first time in a long time, my iron spewed on the fabric. It left some marks, but most of it outside of the area that will show. I figured it would just look like coffee had spilled on it. LOL!!

Oh, the Startitis affliction was not over. Back for Christmas 2007 Anita had given me Victoria's Sampler's "Heirloom Nativity" and the thread pack,etc and the fabric to do it. I had just been dying to start it. Well, I did. Now I think I will be about 100 before I get it done. Lots of color changes and as i get into it there are rows of specialty stitches, beads and other embellishments. Lots of confetti stitching too. I just love the design, just hope I still love it when I am done. I am doing it on 29-ct Smokey Pearl Cashel. Here is as far as I have gotten. One little Angel and the start of another. And Vonna I think I can feel your pain on your own VS project.

Last week I celebrated another birthday. Boy those things sure roll around fast. It was a great time. My friends were so generous in their gifts. Lots of funny cards too. I got 2 little Vera Bradley cosmetic type bags, (Good for storing stitching stuff in.), cute little note pads, 2 pairs of Brighton earrings, some purple cross stitch fibers and 2 bags of red licorice. Reina made me this darling stitched piece. It is 40-ct over 2. I love the look of the 40-ct, but not too good about stitching it. She said she could not remember who this was by, but I just love it.

Then to top it off, on the day after, one of my bestest friends and her husband gave me an Acer notebook computer. I was blown away. You don't catch me speechless very often, but this did it. They thought it would be a good thing to have when I traveled. So it will go with me to Calfifornia later this month and also when we spend our week in Branson at Thanksgiving. Then I can keep up with blogs and e-mails while I am gone. Last Saturday I went out and bought a wireless router for use at home. Reina came over and helped me get everything hooked up, so now I can just use the Acer, instead of sitting at my desktop all the time. I still cannot believe that I have it. It is awesome.

With me taking so long between posts, I know I have lost a lot of readers, but I do appreciate the loyal readers that I have and the comments really mean a lot to me. Have been trying to get caught up on my own blog reading. I have had my Google Reader down below 100 a couple of times. Hopefully, I accomplish that in the next week or so and then try to stay caught up after that. One problem is I keep adding more blogs to my subscriptions and thus more to read. I love reading about every one's stitching. Many are quite inspiring as well as enabling. LOL!!!

Next week includes preparations for taking birthday dinner to my Dad for his 89th birthday. Not sure totally what my sisters are bringing to the table. My one contribution will be homemade ice cream. He loves the stuff. Also, my little furby, Muffin, is going to have surgery to remove a fatty tumor kinda down on her chest just below her collar. It has grown and gotten hard and the vet thought it could come out. I am nervous about this. After all she is 12 years old, and you never know what will happen when you sedate her for the surgery.

I hate to even mention this, but Blogger has treated me rather well in the preparation of this post. Photos loaded a little slow, but few other problems. That is a rarity. I guess I will just take it and run with it.