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