Camera Problems

Last night I was all ready to do this big post with lots of pictures and the camera started acting up. All the photos came out with a slight pink cast to them. Could it be that my 5 - year old digital is dying on me? Planned to show 4 framed pieces and progress on "From Sea to Shining Sea". Also this weekend, I finished one of the Blackbird Designs Stockings from the March set. Of course I changed the color and "no" I did not use silk. LOL. Have done a little playing with the camera and I have taken a picture here at the LNS while I am working. It looks better. Maybe tonight I can get some photos up.

Yes, I am working on a Monday. Betsy the shop dog has been sick and Anita called me yesterday that she was not doing very well and had an appointment at the vet for her this morning. We were both thinking the worst. However, this morning she was better so we may have dodged a bullet. Late last week she was diagnosed with diabetes. Never heard of it in dogs, but have heard of it in cats. Hopefully she continues to improve. Those furbabies are a very important part of our lives.

Better get back to work/stitching. Try to have pictures, etc tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks to all who visit and comment. It is greatly appreciated..

A Finish, Progress and An Award

Although it has been a while since I posted, I will try to keep this from being a novel. Sometimes I get carried away.

American Baby is finished and at the framer. Finished it on March 1st after starting it on January 1st. As documented during stitching, I made a few changes in the colors of the sheep and the bunnies. Then at the end, instead of stitching the stars on with floss, I used gold looking star charms. I think they add just the right finishing touch.

American Baby

by Willow Hill Samplings

28-ct Heritage by Picture This Plus

GAST and Crescent Colours Floss

Have been spending a lot of time stitching on LHN "From Sea to Shining Sea". The first photo was taken on March 8th. Had plans to do an update around that time. Then something happened and I did not get it done. This was a few days after I worked the election board for the city election when I knew I would have plenty of time to stitch. For a 12-hour day working the election we had a total of 32 voters. Very slow day. The most we had in one hour was 7 voters. Got to get quite a bit of stitching done.

This photo was taken after a weekend of stitching at Heartland Stitch-In 2009. It is a weekend camp sponsored by Heartland Stitch Counters Society out of Leavenworth, Kansas. Usually they have a designer come in for the weekend. This year they decided to have no designer and make it a relaxing weekend to just stitch on whatever you wanted. I was able to finish part 3 and make a good start on part 4. Got a little more border done.

The weekend stitch-in was great fun. It had a 50's theme and was decorated accordingly. Everyone won a door prize and was given a chance to delve into the big grab bag barrel. Lot of fun, good food and stitching was going on for the entire weekend. I had a very pleasant surprise too. A friend that I had met at another camp in 1995 was there. We had not seen each other for at least 5 years. We had gone to the other camp together for several years. She is from Arkansas and although we had each other's contact information, we had not kept in contact. Tammy it was so good to reconnect with you. The camp where Tammy and I met was the first camp for each of us and the other stitching friend with me. We really connected since we all showed up with a small stitching bag and a pair of scissors and everyone else in the room had big magnifying lights, special chairs, and lots of bags. We soon learned that you practically move your stitching nest with you to camp. LOL! Along with seeing Tammy again, I made friends with 3 other stitchers from Texas. Thanks, Wanda, Eileen and Helen for a great weekend and we will do it again next year. Actually, Wanda came into the LNS when I was working on Thursday and during the course of the conversation, we found out that we were both going to the same camp the next day. Then we sat at the same table for the weekend. Have already had e-mails from both Tammy and Wanda, since this weekend. Stitching friends are the best friends.

Michele-X Marks The Spot made a "Special Friends" award to me several weeks back and I am just getting around to thanking her. The description for this award reads "These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these kind writers. When you pass the award along please include these guidelines. I am to choose eight friends to share this with." Receiving this award is very special because it states that just exactly how I feel about my blogging and stitching friends and why I do this. Thanks, Michelle.

I am not sure that I can choose only 8 people to pass this award on to. There are so many special friends in my stitching blogging world and many have already received this award, so I think I will just leave it at that. That way I don't have to make the choices and leave off some deserving ones.

Still working on a design model for The Sunflower Seed and will continue on From Sea to Shining Sea. Had a little visit from the frog on the SS design, but have it fixed and moved on. Should have it done by the end of the week. Preparations are in full swing for the Shop Hop that the Sunflower Seed participates in that is April 30th, May 1st and 2nd. Hopefully I can have From Sea done before then. Today I am off to a meeting at the church and then more stitching later.

Happy Stitching.

Keep On Stitching.....

A FINISH!!! I tend to have a lot of things going at the same time and it is hard to know when I might have a finish. Finished BC-Valentine Row just a few days after Valentine's Day. The frame is on order at the LNS. Really pleased with this finish. Like the design and it was fun to stitch. It is a Picture This Plus orphan fabric. Everyone that sees it says they love the fabric. Now I need to see if Marilyn and Shari can figure out how they made this orphan. LOL!!

Continue to work on LHN-From Sea to Shining Sea. Finished up part 2-Southwest and have Part 3-The Mountains started. Tuesday I work the local city primary election. In the area where I work, there is only one thing on the ballot. There are 5 people running for mayor and the primary will cut it down to 3. Therefore, I think I will be able to get a lot done on From Sea to Shining Sea. Or, at least, that is my plan.
Have had a couple of Long Dog Sampler pieces on my "I want to do" list for some time. Anita brought Mouline Rouge back from market for me. This is a BIG piece. The design size is 364x364. On 28-ct fabric the design size is 26x26. Just itching to stitch this. And of course I want to use Belle Soie. Oh such a fiber snob that I am. Right now I am looking at Elegant Eggplant for the floss color and the new Shale from Picture This Plus in 28-ct. Tried to find something in 30-ct, but so far have not found anything that I like. Not to fond of going to a smaller count. It is more difficult to see when I am not at home with my Daylight magnifier.
Since I have been in such an itch to stitch this new Long Dog, I decided to take a piece of mystery fabric (I think it is Lambswool linen) and a new color from WDW to stitch a motif out of the design. Here is the end result. The WDW color is Stepping Stones. It is sort of purplish with some gray in it. Hard to see in this picture.
One of the gals in my STO Yahoo group was doing some downsizing of her stash and I relieved her of 3 pieces of fabric. Did not take a picture. I got 28-ct R&R Irish Creme, Silkweaver 28-ct Days Gone By and Sandcastle. Have never had any Silkweaver fabric before. Am anxious to find something to use it on. Yeah, another project to start.

With Anita gone to market in February, my regular weekly day and her having jury duty last week, I ended up working at the LNS 9 days in February. I use the term 'work' loosely because it really is not work. It is like being in the candy store all the time. Finished up the design model for the Shop Hop Sampler and the frame is on order. Now I am working on another design model for her.

Hope this makes sense, because I have been interrupted a couple of times. Morris came down to tell me that there was a coyote in our back yard. Then had to call the neighbor since it went their direction and they sometimes have a little Boston Terrier outside. Also talked to another neighbor and ate lunch before I came back to finish this up.

Just had to include this photo. It was taken this morning after breakfast and reading the Sunday paper. Muffin and Morris laying in the sun taking a nap. We had an inch or two of snow early on Saturday and was cold all day and supposed to be the same today.

My stitching friends will be so thrilled when they log on tomorrow morning to see that I have done a post to my blog. They bug me all the time about adding to my blog. Little do they know that I would rather be stitching than taking photos and fighting with blogger to post something. Actually the last couple of times I have had good luck with blogger. (KNOCK ON WOOD).

Thanks for all your visits and comments. They are all appreciated. I am going to try to do better and now wait 2 weeks between posts. The key word is "try". LOL!!!

Happy stitching to all!!!!!