Purple Wildcat

Long Overdue Update -- Part 2

2010-06-24T23:55:00.013-05:00

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth. It seems like when I have computer time, I would rather spend my time on Facebook playing games, etc. Still need to figure out a 12-step program for those of us that have become addicted to Facebook. My last few experiences with Blogger have not been that great so it does not help me get back into blogging very fast. A couple of people that I have met through blogging have just given up doing it. At this point, I am not going to give it up, but I am going to be a very infrequent poster. When I started this over 3 years ago, I really had fun with it and now it has become work. Maybe with a semi-retired state, I can get my blogging mojo back. Bear with me during this time. I will keep you updated on happening, but some time the news may be old news. As is some of the information near the end of this post.

Beginning shortly after the 1st of the year, I started work on the 2010 Shop Hop Sampler. It was not something that I could show until after the Shop Hop was held. It was the 1st weekend of May. The Hop involves 5 LNS in the area, including The Sunflower Seed where I work. In this year's design, each of the other 4 shops did the individual motifs and Anita at The Sunflower Seed did the extensive border. We added several Just Another Button Company buttons to the sampler to liven it up.

30-ct R&R Cafe Kona

GAST thread

My youngest nephew graduated from high school in mid-May and I stitched this for him. He is a lot younger than my other nephew and niece and I was not sure that he really would want something that his aunt stitched for him. So I just asked him and he said "yes" like he thought I was stupid that I even had to ask. The colors used were his school colors of Red and Pewter Gray.

The Graduate

by The Sunflower Seed

DMC thread

I still am working on several BAPs and have finished two design model for The Sunflower Seed. Those photos will come later. Here is a progress picture of Quaker Gone Spooky. That tree is taking forever. Actually I have done quite a bit of work on this since the photo was taken. The fence on the bottom right is done. A couple of the off white Quaker motifs are done and just this morning I finished the tree. I almost feel like the project is done now that the tree is done.

Quaker Gone Spooky

by Michelle Ink Designs

30-ct R&R Lucky Penny

Thread Gather and

Belle Soie Silks

Have you seen the new design by ByGone Stitches "One Nation"? I am such a sucker for patriotic designs that when I saw it I fell in love with it. Here is a photo of the design (taken from Stitching Pretty web site). You can probably tell where I am headed with this. Yes, I have started it. Sometime before Memorial Day I started this and have gotten a small amount done.

I started looking through my stash for fabric and found some Picture This Plus Shale that I had ordered a yard of for another project. After cutting the piece for the other project, the remaining piece was just the right size for One Nation. Go figure. It was meant to be. The color shown in the picture is far from representative of the actual color. The color is a gray color. In the photo, it looks like a muddy color. I am using DMC threads because I knew it would be a long-term project and was not sure that I would buy enough of the overdyes in the same dye lot to finish it a couple of years down the road.

One Nation

by ByGone Stitches

28-ct Shale by PTP

In the last week, I have finished a Blackbird Designs little stocking that I started over a year ago. That photo will be in my next post. My Jenny Bean Halloween sampler is back from the framer also. It looks awesome. Photo to follow in the next post.

Along with all the stitching, I am still doing some crocheting. Am up to about 35 potholders crocheted and have not yet kept one for myself. Here is another pink baby afghan that I made for Anita's new granddaughter. Baby was born last Tuesday June 29th. Over the weekend I started another baby afghan for a baby due in September. Using a new pattern and had a few difficulties, but have it figured out now.

WARNING--Most of the rest of this stuff is old news.

In mid-March I attended the Heartland Stitch-In at Excelsior Springs, Missouri, north of Kansas City. This was the 17th year this camp has been put on by the Heartland Stitch Counters Society. I have only attended 4 times now. The stitch-in was held in a new place this year. Always before it had been held in Parkville, Missouri. I, for one, liked the old place better. One one good feature of this place was that you only had to go outside if you wanted to visit the mini-shop that was in another small building. When you see the next photo, you will understand why that was a good feature. Beginning before noon on Saturday and until Sunday morning it snowed. This was what it looked like Sunday morning. I think we ended up with 4-6 inches of snow on the 3rd weekend of March. During the weekend, I was able to meet 3 members of my Kansas Stitchers Yahoo group in person. It is so great to put faces with names you read online. Shown below are Laura Landis and Mary Lou Griswold. Mary Lou is the one on the right with her wrist in a cast. About 3 weeks before the stitch-in she broke her wrist in several places and has all kinds of metal in her wrist. She still came to camp and had a great time even if she could not stitch.

The designer for the stitch-in was Ellen Chester of With My Needle with her teaching design "Fruit of the Vine Sampler Huswif". Wonderful design. It is always hard for me to work on the piece during one of those classes. I am a very slow stitcher and I feel really rushed to keep up with everything, so I just did a sample of all of the special stitches on a doodle cloth. I think there are 28 specialty stitches on the design. Here is a photo of the project taken from the With My Needle website.
During the weekend of the Stitch-in the 1st and 2nd rounds of the NCAA Basketball tournament were being held. My school, Kansas State University was playing in Oklahoma City. I had my little Acer laptop and was keeping track online. (They had Wi-fi available. Cool). Before the game on Saturday night Morris called me to say that my basketball buddy had called wondering if I wanted to go to the Sweet 16 in Salt Lake City the next week if KSU won. That was a rather dumb question. Of course, I wanted to go. It had been 22 years since KSU had gotten that far and I was there that time when they did it. The rest of the story is that KSU won and we were headed to Salt Lake City. Fun trip. Meant picking my friend up at 3:00AM to make the 1 hour drive to Manhattan to the airport to meet the KSU Alumni Charter Flight.

On Thursday night KSU played a double overtime game against Xavier and won. See scoreboard photo.

On Saturday, they played Butler and we all know how that ended. Butler won and went on to the Final Four and made quite a run. We had a great time and are looking forward to another good year next year and maybe we can go that far or farther two years in a row.

Upon arriving home from Salt Lake City, I found several e-mails from some very close family friends that their mother was gravely ill. Before I had a chance to deal with that, I received a call from my brother-in-law that the family had called to say that Alyce had lost her battle and was gone to heaven to join her husband and my mom. I know it was a joyous reunion for them, but it was sure hard on those of us left here. I had known Alyce and her husband, Chuck all of my life. They were like a second set of parents. Growing up we did a lot of things together as families. After my mom's passing, Alyce always remembered us on birthdays and holidays, I know trying to fill the void left by the loss of my mom. Morris and I traveled to Beaver Lake, Arkansas, where they had retired to in 1980, for the services. Then on to Wichita for burial beside her beloved husband Chuck. Alyce we miss you.

Our little Monday night stitch group invaded the Sage Inn at Dover again the second weekend of April. A great time was had by all. Not sure how much stitching go done. Lots of laughing, eating and generally enjoying every one's company. Each time we get together, I keep a list of some of the more interesting quotes and include them here. This time it was so long ago, that I am having trouble making sense of them. However, one quote I will include is Jan--- "I am all out of adjustment" and the response -- Anita-"Everything Normal". Sorry Jan, I had to do it.

Below is a picture of everyone, including the Jack and Josie, the B&B dogs.

This is getting rather long, but I need to do an update on my rescue dog, Dottie. About a month ago, I took her in to be spayed. Nothing unusual about that, but when they got in there found that she had a uterine infection. It was a good thing that I took her in when I did. The vet tech told me that in another week or so, I would have had a very sick dog and might have lost her. She is doing good. We have slimmed her down a bit. Sure wish I could do that to myself. She is my shadow around the house and loves to go for rides in the car. She has a few bad habits that we need to work on, but that will come in time.

Thanks for bearing with me on this long post. This is what happens when I don't do this very often. I have had the pictures for this loaded over a week, but just did not get to doing the narrative. I worked 3 days last week while Anita was away with her new granddaughter. I guess I should not call it work, because I enjoy it, but it limits the time for stitching, etc. As I said at the beginning, don't expect a blog very often, but I will keep doing it ever so often. Thanks to all my reader and commenters, you make this worth doing. Until next time................Happy Stitching!!!!!!!!!

Long Overdue Update -- Part 1

2010-05-09T23:29:00.012-05:00

OK, I promised an update over the weekend. Obviously, that did not happen. I will get to that story shortly. It has been really hard to get back into blogging. Seems like I might have a mental block, so bear with me on this one. Maybe I can break through and keep it up weekly or so. I was able to get blogger to upload my pictures last night with plans to do the narrative today sometime. Because so much has been happening I am going to break down into at least 2 parts. Otherwise you would be reading a novel, and I know that you do not want to read that much.

Late Breaking News!!!

We have a new addition to the family. Not sure whether I ever mentioned the little Boston Terrier that used run lose in our neighborhood over a year ago. She was just a puppy and her owners were living with their parents temporarily and she was always running away with a Doberman puppy. We would catch her and take her home all the time. Late last summer they moved away. Took her with them. I was always worried that she would get hit on the road or attack by coyotes. At one time, I mentioned to the father that lives there that I would take her if they ever did not want her. A week ago, he showed up at my door asking if I was still interested in Dottie. Told him I would talk to Morris and get back to them. Well, on Saturday evening Jenny brought her by. We talked for awhile and I said I would take her. Dottie is a not quite 3-yr old Boston Terrier. Jenny said she had papers, but had not been able to find them. She does not look like my Boston Terrier totally. She has the Boston Terrier black and white markings, but more of a Pug body. I am thinking that kind of cross would be called a "Bug"

DOTTIE

Things have gone rather smoothly. They tended to leave her outside or in an unfinished basement all by herself, so they were not sure how well house broken she was. We have not had any problems with that. She is crated at night. Muffin, my Boston, has her bluff in on her. She still rules the roost. Took her to my vet this morning. Got all her shots updated and a physical. She did not mind that at all. Muffin likes riding to the vet, but when we go in she gets very nervous. Found out tonight she might have a little fear of thunderstorms. She had to lay on my stitching couch right next to me.

Now back to the update of things going on for the last couple of months. There are a couple of Sunflower Seed designs that she released at market that I stitched and have not shown here. The first one was stitched last fall, but she held it for release at market.

Be Wise

30-ct R&R Kansas City Blend

GAST Threads (I think)

The second Sunflower Seed design, I stitched 2 of the smaller pieces, Anita stitched 2, and another person stitched the model containing them all. We both do not like to stitch thing twice, so this was a group project. I stitched the Spring and Summer Bouquets at the bottom.

Seasonal Bouquet

30-ct R&R Apple Brown Bindy

DMC thread

Actually, I have had a finish of my own projects. I started Jenny Bean Halloween Sampler as my January 1st project for one of my Yahoo groups. She is done and waiting on the frame. I did it on 28-ct instead of 40-ct like the model was stitched on. I did use the Limited Edition GAST thread pack, but had to get more of the black(Nightmare/Black Crow). Loved stitching this. It was a really fun stitch.

Jenny Bean Halloween Sampler

by Shakespeare's Peddler

28-ct R&R DK Cappuccino

Limited Edition GAST Threads

Lots of things have been going on during the past few months that helped to take away my time to do stitching and blogging. I think in my last post I was getting ready to work at the shop several straight days while Anita was gone to market. Right after she got back, we got a call from South Dakota that Morris's last remaining uncle had passed. The weather was OK for traveling, but the temperature up there was frigid. The morning of the funeral it was 15 below and the high that day was 15.

After we got back from there, my niece had her little baby girl on March 2nd. A couple posts back you will find the pink afghan that I made for her. This photo was taken just hours after she was born.

Lauren Kathryn Elnora

Her second and third names are for her great-grandmothers. The "Kathryn" was part of my mom's name. We went to see her the weekend after she was born. I got to babysit while Mom, Dad and Nana ran some errands. Mom works in the town where I live, so I have offered to babysit some if needed. However, she able to take her to work with her until she is 6 months old or until there is a problem. Below are the receiving blankets that I made for her. Several years ago, I got into making these from 1 1/4 yards of flannel. My niece loves them because they are bigger than the receiving blankets you buy. My sister requested the pink ones since this one was a girl and the other ones she had were for the boys.

The day after Lauren was born, a gal in Morris's office that I am friends with had a baby boy. So I crocheted this afghan and made 2 receiving blankets for her. She and her husband are Kansas State grads and big fans as I am, I had to incorporate purple into everything. Finding yarn with purple and still look babyish and not girlish was hard.

Baby Afghan

2 Receiving Blankets

Since I spent many miles in a car for the trip to South Dakota and the lighting in South Dakota for stitching is not the best, I managed to finish another prayer shawl for the church. Have another one started.

Prayer Shawl

Also have been making more potholders. Both my sisters and my niece have received one. I had enough made up to give one to each of my Monday Night Stitch Group on our Spring Retreat. More about that on my next installment of the update. At the time this picture was taken I had made 21 potholders. As of today, I have made 5 more. My sister found me some leftover yarn somewhere and

There is a lot more to cover, but blogger has been giving me problems with formatting. Either it puts in too many lines between things or it will not let me center thing. Then after awhile it decides to center all the text and I don't want it that way. I figure I should get this posted before it blows up entirely. It deleted one photo, but I was able to recover it from the autosave copy.

Again, I want to thank all of my followers for bearing with me during my time off. I am not even going to promise to do better, because I would not want to break a promise. your comments and encouraging words are very much appreciated. Another thing that might help my blogging and blog reading is if I could stay away from Facebook. Whoever invented that was not a stitcher. It is addictive. Maybe someone should start a 12-step program for Facebook addicts.

Part 2 should be up in a few days. Will try to cover the 2 stitch retreats I have gone to, my trip to the NCAA West Regionals and the Shop Hop among other things.

Happy Stitching to All !!!!!!

PS--Dottie is laying on a big floor pillow snoring away!!!

What The H*** Happened?????

2010-05-06T23:06:00.003-05:00

What the H*** happened to March and April? It seems that one day it was the last of February and the next thing I know it is May 1st. Maybe I should just say that I took a hiatis from blogging. However, it just seems like I never had time to get it done. My apologies to all my followers and I hope you all will stick with me. Hopefully things will slow down I almost feel like I need to re-introduce myself.

Last night (Thursday night) was going to be the beginning of my first attempt at blogging in over 2 months. Today (Friday), I was going to be working at the LNS--The Sunflower Seed, so I thought I would have some time to work on my blog. Was going to upload my photos and then do the narrative today at the shop. After numerous attempts, blogger would not let me upload pictures. I guess after such a long time without doing it, blogger decided what was one more day.

Here is a partial list of things that have gone on in the last 2 months.

2 Out of State funerals

New great niece

2 Stitching Retreats

Traveled to the NCAA West Regionals

Shop Hop

Trip to Vera Bradley and Brighton Jewelry Stores

My plan is to hit the highlights of the last two months. It might mean that I have to do it in more than one part. Posting at least one part is on the agenda for this weekend.

Another unfortunate thing that has impeded by blogging is my addiction to Facebook and its games. Bejeweled Blitz is rather addictive as some of my Facebook friends have found out. Hey, Wanda you are ahead of me now.

Along with doing a blog this weekend, I may be acquiring another Boston Terrier. It is a long story. Will give an update by the end of the weekend.

Wish me luck with blogger uploading photos.

Also, I thank all my followers that have stayed with me during my hiatis. I do appreciate your kind encouraging words. Hang in there, I will try to stay off Facebook long enough to blog and still have some stitching time.

Happy Stitching!!!!!!

Yes, I Know!!!!

2010-02-17T23:56:00.009-06:00

This is a phrase that I use often when my local stitching friends say "you have not done an update to your blog". My response is always "yes, I know". No real excuses, just too lazy or would rather stitch or mess on Facebook. I loaded the pictures for this a couple of days ago and they were actually taken over a week ago. More evidence of my procrastination of doing a blog update.

My last stitching Christmas present is finally completed and was given to the lucky recipient last week. It is LHN-Under the Prairie Moon done on 30-ct. R&R Irish Creme with the called for Belle Soie silk. Frame is Pecan Pearls from East Side Moulding.

I did have a small finish. It is a Primitive Betty freebie off her blog. Done on a left over piece of Irish Creme with my beloved Belle Soie Cranberry and Noir. Had hoped I would take time and make it into a little hanging pillow. Did not happen. Maybe by next Valentine's Day.

There has been some progress on the Shakespeare's Peddler Jenny Been Halloween sampler my STO Yahoo Group January 1st start. It is on 28-ct R&R Lt. Cappuccino with the limited edition GAST threads. Since this photo was taken the house has been completed, the border has been completed to both corners, alphabet is complete except for "Z" and the tree trunk and limbs are in. I have changed the color on the tree. It looked too green and then with green leaves I did not like the way it looked. I used Maple Syrup for the tree. Photo next time. Maybe done or almost done.

The progress on my Quaker SAL with my Kansas Stitchers Yahoo Group is hard to determine. I am still working on this craggy old tree. It is beginning to look like weeping branches of a tree. Haven't worked on this since the photo was taken. I am ready to work on another part of this design. Still have quite a bit more tree before I can get to some other part of it. Just a reminder, it is being done on 30-ct R&R Lucky Penny with a variety of silks. The tree thread is Thread Gather Silk 'n Colors Mississippi Mud and the pattern tells you to stitch thing up and down. That continues to be a challenge.
Other stitching is the sampler for the Shop Hop that The Sunflower Seed will be a part of in late April and early May. It has several little designs with a neat border. I have one little design done, a part of another design and about half of the border. Will be alternating back and forth among these 3 projects.

The crochet bug continues to bite me, so I have been doing some crocheting too. This is a baby afghan for my niece who is to have a girl at the end of February. Or so we thought. I had a text message from her a day or two ago saying it would probably be March 3 or 4th. I guess she is not done yet. Decided it had to be pink, because this is her first girl after 2 boys. (The color in my photos sometimes has a yellow cast. I think that is from taking pictures late at night in my basement.) My mother over the years used up her leftover yarn to make these neat diagonal potholders, but I never learned how to make them. She has been gone almost 14 years and the ones I have are wearing out. So in discussion with some of my stitching friends, I figured out how to make them and have gone crazy making them. Here are 6 I have made and there are 2 more since this photo was taken. Sometimes the combinations are not great, but they make great potholders.

Yesterday was my normal day to work at The Sunflower Seed, but this week my working days have been extended. Anita left this morning for the Nashville Cash and Carry Market, so I am taking care of the shop until she returns on Tuesday. Also have Betsy, the shop dog, at my house too. Looking forward to all the goodies that Anita will bring back, as well as, hearing that she sold out of all the designs she released at market.

There you go girls a blog update. Thanks to all who visit and bear with me during my lapses in blogging. You visits and comments are appreciated.

Happy Stitching.

Some Progress

2010-01-11T10:57:00.005-06:00

With all the snow that we have had, I have been staying home stitching a lot more. Last week, beginning on Wednesday, we got another 4.4 inches of snow. So far this year we have had 25.9 inches and the average for an entire winter season is 20. We are way ahead. This time there was lots of wind like around Christmas. After the snow quit, the wind continued to blow sending wind chills waayy below zero. The schools were closed for at least 2 days, along with many offices and businesses. Various activities around town were cancelled. Since I don't like going out in the stuff or driving on snow-packed streets, etc., I have been home quite a lot. My car has been out of the garage 2 times since December 23rd. Lots of time for stitching and othe little jobs around the house. Have to admit that I have spent a lot of time on the computer playing games, doing Facebook and Yahoo groups.

On January 1st, I started two different projects as a part of SALs in 2 different Yahoo groups. Jenny Bean Halloween Sampler by Shakespeare Peddler was the January 1st SAL for my STO Yahoo group.

Jenny Been Halloween Sampler

by Shakespeare Peddler

28-ct R&R Lt. Cappuccino

GAST Limited Edition Thread Pak

My Kansas Stitchers Yahoo group was doing Quaker Christmas by ByGone Stitches as a January 1st SAL. Since I have already stitched QC, they allowed me to use another quaker design for the SAL. I am doing Quaker Gone Spooky by Michelle Ink Designs. My start does not look like much. You will not be able to tell that what I have stitched is part of a craggy tree in a cemetery. It is stitched with Thread Gatherer's Silk 'n Colors Mississippi Mud. The instructions were to stitch it up and down instead of back and forth across like I normally stitch. It has been rather difficult to do that since one is so used to doing it the other way. Had some counting issues and had to frog out about 80 stitches. I told someone that stitching up and down is kinda like stitching in a foreign language.

Quaker Gone Spooky

by Michelle Ink Designs

30-ct R&R Lucky Penny

Various Silk Threads

I will be doing some substituting on threads when I get to some other parts of the design. The tree is the called for Mississippi Mud from Thread Gatherer.

Here is my progress on the Retreat Sampler design by The Sunflower Seed. This is the project I started on Christmas Day since we were snowed in and did not travel as planned for the holidays. The photo makes it look like one of the houses is leaning, but it really is not. The first person across the bottom is me. I made a little change in the color of the dress to my beloved purple. The color is a little more purple than it was charted for. This has been something really fun to stitch. It is being stitched on 30-ct R&R Antique Cotton with DMC and Anchor floss.The final thing that I have been rotating through during my snowed in day is LHN "Under The Prairie Moon". Since this photo was taken, I have finished this. That was accomplished about 4:30PM today. Will get it pressed and take in for framing tomorrow on my way home from the dentist. Ugh!! Hopefully I will remember to take a picture before I leave it to be framed.

Under The Prairie Moom

by Little House Needleworks

30-ct R&R Irish Creme

Belle Soie Silks called for

One other thing that I have been playing with is using up some leftover yarn to make crocheted potholders that when you are done, are diagonal. I have 2 done and one more started. Will include pictures later. Some of them might be fairly ugly due to the combination of miscellaneous yarns. My mom used to make them all the time and I was getting to the point that I was needing some. Now I have it all figured out, I will be making more. The church kitchen is very much in need of some good potholders. Several may find there way there.

Off to get some stitching done probably on the Spooky design. Watched my basketball team win tonight and was not able to settle down enough to stitch while watching. Now I need to get busy. Thanks to all who stopped by and those who commented. It is always fun to hear from everyone. Stay warm and out of the snow, if that is what you have in your area.

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

Snow!! Snow!! Snow!!

2009-12-29T20:17:00.014-06:00

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

2009-12-17T23:13:00.013-06:00

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

2009-11-20T23:38:00.002-06:00

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

2009-10-30T23:16:00.008-05:00

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

2009-10-02T23:42:00.005-05:00

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

2009-09-11T23:51:00.011-05:00

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

2009-08-24T00:01:00.004-05:00

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.....

2009-08-08T00:11:00.008-05:00

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.

Check It Out - La D Da

2009-07-16T20:26:00.002-05:00

Check out this blog for a giveaway of the latest La D Da design. It includes everything needed to stitch the design. It is a wonderful giveaway from Jolene. Thanks so much. Good luck to all who comment for a chance to win.

Happy Stitching!!!!!

Stitching Along

2009-07-10T09:54:00.010-05:00

Here is the completed birthday present that I had been working on for Anita. I gave it to her late last month. She used to have a wonderful Scottie. The pattern called for 4-5 colors of gray and black and I decided to use an overdyed silk instead.

Vermillion Stitchery - Scottie Dog

28-ct Lambswool Linen

Belle Soie - Noir

It seems that I am still infatuated with the BBD Stocking designs. Here is my latest finish. It is from the May designs. The purple is purple aster instead of the called for Sugared Violets. LNS was out of Sugared Violets and I could not wait for the order to come in.

BBD - Tulip Border Stocking (May)

30 ct. Korty's Special Blend

CC - Poblano Pepper and Purple Aster

Yesterday while I was working at the LNS, I picked up the June and July Stocking designs. Last night I got a start on Bountiful Stars from the July designs. I am using Belle Soie Blue Lagoon and Cranberry. You know me an silk. I cannot live with out it, so I did some substituting. I like the colors being a little brighter than the model. Progress so far.

Actually I have done a little more on this while I was waiting for photos to load in blogger. Should have this done fairly quickly. However, will not get much done tomorrow, as the stitching group is taking a road trip. We are making a Vera Bradley/Brighton jewelry run to KC. It is my birthday month and the birthday gift is burning a hole in my pocket.

I also have been doing quite a bit of model stitching for The Sunflower Seed. Have one design done waiting on the frame. The next one is getting close to being half done. Both have been fun stitches. Also had a case of startitis and have started LHN coffee series. I am doing all three designs on one piece. Have the border almost done on Cappuccino. Progress photo to come later.

Blackbird Designs freebie has been done a while, but I just got it framed. Anita did some rearranging at the shop and this is one model that I had done that she sent home with me. It is a 2005 design by Lizzie Kate. It was from her pocketbook series kits. It will be added to my patriotic wall of designs.

Recently I completed another prayer shawl. It is more of a country blue IRL. A friend and I delivered it Monday to my adopted Mother. She had knee replacement surgery on Tuesday. Have another one in progress. It is probably about half done. I do these on car trips when I cannot stitch with a dog in my lap.
Thanks to everyone for their comments on my last post and to all others that stop by. I guess the last one was a little busy, but things have slowed down considerably. However, I still don't think I have my blogging mojo up to par. Bear with me as I try to get things moving in the right direction. Have lots of photos of stitching retreat, Symphony in the Flint Hills and 4th of July fireworks to show. Maybe I can get my act together and put together another post real soon. Would rather spend my time stitching than messing with blogger.

Just now blogger had a hiccup and I thought I had lost the last hour's work. Was able to retrieve the autosaved draft. I am going to hit publish real soon before it disappears again.

Whirlwind World- Photo Heavy and Long

2009-06-17T22:38:00.016-05:00

Wow!!! It has almost been a month since I had a post. Most of my readers probably think that I have fallen off the face of the earth. Sorry, I am still around. Things have been just a whirlwind for about the last 6 weeks. First there was the Shop Hop, then I spent about 6 days with my Dad with limited computer access. Since I returned from there, I have had just about meeting myself coming and going and still trying to fit stitching in along the way. Attended 2 graduation parties, hosted my church ladies group, attended a wedding and helped with the reception, along with test driving a couple of cars. (More about this later). As we did last year, we decided to go to South Dakota the week after Memorial Day. It just makes it come out that we are there about every 6 months. Since it is about a 500 mile trip one way, we try to spread it out over the year. During that trip, I finished a prayer shawl, except for the fringe. Photo in later post. We had a great time visiting family in South Dakota with aunts and with siblings and nieces and nephews, including a great picnic with wonderful smoked pork tenderloin.

For two days of the trip we went on up north in South Dakota to visit a cousin that visited us in April. We always have a great time together and when all of us get retired we are going to take an Alaskan Cruise together. The growing season is really different from Kansas to South Dakota and I was amazed to see these flowers in bloom. Love both lilacs and bleeding hearts. The lilacs were along the road across from the cousins house and the bleeding heart is in her yard. I had to get the windmill in the photo because I love windmills. Someday, I should include a photo of my collection of windmill pictures, etc. that I have on one wall in my basement.

On our return trip we brought 2 13-year old nieces home with us for a one week visit. One had visited our house when she was about 3. The other had not been here before. Back in April, Morris bought his own birthday present at 50-inch plasma TV. So here is were we found the girls a lot of the time they were with us. The first evening they found the remote and figured out the reclining love seat.

Samantha (light hair) on the left and Robin (dark hair) on the right

We live on a 3-acre lot so Morris has a riding mower to keep the grass down. The girls had fun driving around the backyard on the Sunday afternoon. They did not get up until noon that day. Then Uncle Morris made them French Toast for lunch.

Robin on the Tractor

Samantha on the Tractor

Samantha is very much into horses and we have some really good friends that have horses. So late on Sunday afternoon we went to their house for a cook out and each of the girls got to ride one of the horses.

Samantha on JD

Robin on JD

Monday, they went grocery shopping with me to get things that they would eat. Both also wanted to learn to stitch and crochet, so I made up stitch bags and selected beginner projects for them. With Monday being my weekly stitch group, they both went with me to the LNS. However, after work Morris stopped by and Samantha came home with him in hopes of going swimming in the neighbor's pool. Robin stayed with me and got her first stitching lesson. She did a great job and was really fitting in with our wild and crazy stitch group. Later that evening after we got home she was visited by the dreaded "cross stitch frog". She got off on some counting and I ended up frogging a lot of her stitching. She really did not get too discouraged.

Tuesday, Morris took the afternoon off from work and took them to the movie "UP". Not sure who enjoyed it more, him or the girls. Then we took them to the American Legion for Bingo. Robin got down to needing one number for a $400 blackout. Had she won that she would have been hooked on Bingo forever. They both liked it quite well. Samantha wanted to know if we could come back on Thursday. I had to tell her they did not play on Thursday. They were fascinated by the ink daubers.

On Wednesday, Morris took the entire day off so we could go to Worlds of Fun, a big amusement park in the Kansas City area. It was rather iffy, if we were going to get to go. It rained early in the morning and it is no fun to go if it is raining or the prospect of thunderstorms. However, it cleared off and we had a wonderful day. They rode all the roller coasters but one. Robin could not get anyone to ride that one with her. It went backwards for half of the ride. I definitely don't do backwards on anything. There was one ride that Samantha did not want to ride called "Cyclone Sam" and Robin talked her into it and when she got off she wanted to go again. That one they rode twice. Morris said the last time he rode that one, his brain was scrambled the rest of the day.

Here the girls are standing in from of the Mamba. It has one of the highest first drops of any roller coaster. I actually rode this one, but that was about it for me. I left my stomach and lots of other things at the top of that drop. I became the holder of the glasses. They got soaked riding a couple of the water rides and had to go change into dry clothes. Good planning on our part to bring dry clothes.

This is the new wooden roller coaster "The Prowler". They said for a wooden roller coaster, it was pretty smooth. I did not even try it. All in all it was a good day. Robin was asleep before we even got out of the Kansas City area. LOL!!

Since we live in the state capitol of Kansas, Thursday brought a trip downtown to a lunchtime brown bag concert on the capitol grounds and a tour of the State Capitol Building. They have recently reopened the stairway to the top of the dome. It had been closed for years. When I was in school, i had made the trek to the top, but not this time. Neither did Morris. He went part way, but the girls went all the way to the top and outside. It is a total of 296 steps.

Part of the stairway inside the Capitol Dome.

On Friday they went to a birthday lunch with me and then I took them shopping. That was a treat clothes shopping with teenagers. Friday night we had out crochet lesson. They both got the hang of it pretty good. Samantha was loose with her stitches and Robin was tight. Robin's mom, stepdad and 2 little sisters came on Saturday afternoon to pick them up. We were going to have a wiener roast that night, but it was too windy. After all, we live in Kansas, where the wind blows most of the time. The girls are already planning to come again next year. It was different having to play "mom", considering I don't have kids, just other people's kids at different times.

On Saturday, I worked at the LNS and both girls wanted to go with me. We continued on our crochet lessons. Morris came by a little after noon to see who wanted to go home with him. The only one that went home with him was the dogs. I guess the girls were enjoying their time hanging out at the LNS. There was not much stitching going on the entire week that the girls were here. I did not do the movie with them, so I could stay home and stitch.

Are you still with me?

OK, now on the stitching front. After all this is supposed to me a stitching blog. Here is "Aloha" after framing. The mat is a dark burgundy. It is hard to tell in the photo.

I finished the little Snowman that I had started. Now that seemed like a lot of stitching for no bigger than he was. Have found another kit similar to him and have already thrown away the little piece of 18-ct aida that was with it. There is enough room on the other end of the blue piece of fabric for another snowman. Then I will probably have them finished as little pillow for door hangers.

While I was in South Dakota and since I returned, I have also worked on my Notforgotten Farms-Giving Sisters. Now there is one witch done. A start on the cauldron and where the needle is, is the beginning of the second witch. The fabric color did not come out accurate. It is 26-ct white birch heatherfield.

Currently, I am working on a Sunflower Seed design model, While I was at the shop today, I saw another design that she has about ready to do. I want to get this one done right away, because the new one is soooooo neat. I wanted to start it today. Also, I have a birthday present finished and framed. I will be able to post a photo of it next week after I give it to Anita for her birthday. The May Blackbird Designs Stocking booklet is out. Picked it up at the LNS last week when I worked. I have a small start on the one that is all lavender and green. Go figure, since I love purple.

You have endured all of this, to get to the big news. A few posts back I mentioned that I was considering a new car and/or camera. Several commented that I should do both. Well, I did the car part, but now I cannot afford the camera. LOL.

Last Friday, all by myself, I went and test drove a 2008 Ford Fusion and by mid-afternoon I was the proud owner of a 2008 Redfire Ford Fusion. It was a rental car, used in Arizona and has about 34,000 miles. So far, I am loving it. It has the two things I had said I wanted in my next car--- CD player and remote keyless entry. There are also a lot of other gadgets that I am still learning about. I have driven it every day since I got it. Here is a photo taken from an Internet car site. It is not actually my car, but mine is just like this.

Thanks to those of you that have stuck with me for this long and boring dissertation on my whirlwind world. Still have more to tell, but that will be in a later post. I am going to promise again, to try to do posts more often. These things would not be as long, if would just take the time to post more often. One deterrent to posting more often is that it cuts into my stitching time. Your comments and encouragement is very much appreciated.

UPDATE!!!! UPDATE!!!!! UPDATE!!!!!!!

2009-05-20T09:38:00.009-05:00

Been needing to do a stitching update for about 3 weeks, but things just were not cooperating, camera dying and spending several days with my Dad. So here goes.

This is the final part of a Christmas present for my adopted sister Mary. She already knows about it, so I don't feel so bad about it being late. Tried to do too many stitched Christmas presents and this one just did not get done in time and then some other things bumped in ahead of it. This is the first thing I have done in a long time that required backstitching. Forgot how tedious and boring backstitching can be. The photo turned out sort of yellow, because the fabric is white in real life. Mary loves Hawaii and I thought this was appropriate for her. They are flowers found in Hawaii. Ready for the framer. This was done before I went to my Dad's.

Aloha

CrossStitch and Country Crafts Magazine

28-ct White Cashel

Anchor Floss

Continue to work on the Blackbird Monthly Stockings. They are really fun to stitch.

BBD- Daffodil Stocking-March

30-ct Korty's Special Blend R&R

Recommended Fibers

This stocking was finished while I was at my Dad's.

BBD-Sweet Pea Stocking- April

30-ct Korty's Special Blend R&R

Recommended Threads

I think I mentioned that Anita, aka The Sunflower Seed, has been doing the finishing on the stockings. I just love how they turn out. She is just so precise on how she makes the curves turn out so smooth. I could never get them to look that good. You will notice that there is one unfinished in the photo. It is from the January ones- Auld Lang Syne.

While I was at my Dad's, I pulled out some old WIPs and worked on them after I finished the Sweet Pea Stocking. Did not have any design models to work on for The Sunflower Seed. I rotated between 2 different WIPs. First is Giving Sisters by Notforgotten Farms on 26-ct White Birch Heatherfield with DMC. In order to get really good coverage with the black am working with three strands. All that was done before, was the witch down to the waist the 1761 sign and a little border. Made lots of solid black progress and the pumpkin. I still really like this design, but the solid black can get a little boring.

Next I worked on a baby sampler for my niece. This has turned into a bigger project than I first thought. It has a lot of color changes and backstitching. Doesn't seem like I made much progress, but seemed like I stitched on it a lot of time. I added the light green blanket to the stack and started the little pink booties. The green blanket has about 3 colors of green, plus a blended needle in part of it. The booties have about 4 colors of pink. It is stitch a couple of stitches and change colors. This one that I have to color in the pattern as I work to keep the frog from coming to visit. This design is Precious Baby by BobbyG on 28-ct lambswool linen with Anchor floss.

There was another project I started and have since finished while I was gone, but it is for a birthday present and she sometimes reads my blog. It is ready for the framer and I will show pictures after her birthday in June. It was done with my favorite fiber Belle Soie silk. Go figure.

Last Saturday I went looking for a small project to carry with me to a KC Royals baseball game. I ran across this Snowman kit by Cross My Heart. It was dated as 1995, so I have had it around for awhile. Everything was with it and I had even done some work on it. Thought it would be a good thing to take with me. Tried to figure out where I was on it and decided that I did not like the aida that came with the kit that I had started using. So, I just threw it out and started over on some mystery light blue fabric scrap I found. Now my stitching friends that labeled me as a "fiber snob" have labeled me as a "fabric snob". I guess we could just say I am a snob all the way around. Here is my progress on this little guy so far.

While talking to Anita yesterday, she told me she was picking colors for a new design. I will be stopping by to pick it up today after my church ladies meeting. Have my Ice Cream Sundae Dessert ready to go. Hopefully, I can keep it frozen driving in and put it in freezer at the church to keep frozen before and after serving. Then will run a piece over to Anita when I pick up my new assignment.

Haven't talk to my Dad since I returned from there. Been in contact with my sisters and they have talked to him and one BIL took him to the doctor last week. So nothing new on that front.

Will continue to use Morris's camera for awhile, but need to figure some things out on it because it made some of my pictures look a little more yellow than I like. Old one makes things look pink and now this one make them look yellow part of the time. I guess I am hard to please. The car I was looking out is now off the table. It was too much for what I want to pay. It was a year newer than I thought, so that made it higher in price. I guess I will just keep looking. The one I have now runs good, but I know that someday it will start costing me a lot with all the miles it has on it.

In closing, I would like to give a shout out to one of my stitching buddies. Janet is leaving next week to spend the summer in Minnesota running the family's antique shop. We are going to miss you being with us each week as we stitch. We will call you and put you on the speaker of my cell phone so you can sort of be with us and hear our laughter. Be safe and hurry home.

Not sure when my next post will be. The next few days are busy and then we will be in South Dakota from Memorial Day til the following Saturday when we bring the 2 13-year olds home with us. Then I probably won't have much time to stitch or blog. Still trying to get my Google Reader back down under 200. Maybe I can get that done before we leave. Yesterday seemed like not many added, but this morning everyone had made up for yesterday and had about 15 added before 10:00 AM Yikes!!!!!!!!!

And The Winner Is......

2009-05-17T20:18:00.002-05:00

Well, I am back and have done the drawing for my 100th post prize. I used the random number generator to determine the winner. And the winner is Vonna. Congrats to her. I will get her prize in the mail as soon as I can. Thanks to all who stopped by to read my blog and comment. I wish I could give everyone a prize. Several of you commented on the Snippet/Ort Jars that Anita had painted. We are out of them, but I am thinking of doing another giveaway as soon as she gets some more painted. Stay tuned.

This week is a semi-busy week. Am hostess for my church ladies on Wednesday afternoon, so I need to make some type of dessert. Oh darn!! Right now it looks like an ice cream sundae type dessert that you prepare in a 9x13 pan and cut in squares. Still need to do some grocery shopping for that too.

Also, am preparing to be gone to South Dakota most of the next week and when we return we will have 2-13 year olds with us for a week. At the end of the week, the parents will come after them. Not sure what all we will do with them here, but I am sure we will have lots of fun.

Spent from Thursday to the following Tuesday with my father. He was much better when I got there. After I got there he admitted that he was doing better, but I still stayed for several days. He likes someone to cook and pick up after him. Just like about every man. Got quite a bit of stitching done, but have either not taken pictures or downloaded the ones I have taken from the camera. Thought I would give a quick update without photos and then do the photos later in the week. One of the main things I stitched on is a gift, so you won't be able to see it for a while. Actually pulled out a couple of WIPs and worked on them. There was some progress on them too.

Vonna commented as to what kind of camera I was looking at buying to replace my dying one. I was looking at an Olympus FE25. Have always had Canons, but in reading reviews, I decided to go in another direction. However, Morris told me I could use his Pentax for a while. He is thinking of getting a digital SLR, so I have put off my purchase for a bit. Now I am sort of on a new car binge. My current car is a 2001 with 118,500 miles on it. Never have I had that many miles on a vehicle or ever kept one this long. Who knows what I will do. Camera..... Car..... Camera.... Car. That is quite a debate. LOL!!!

Before I went to by dad's, I had made quite a bit of progress in blog reading. Am further behind now. The local city library did have computers, but you were limited to 30 minutes at a time. By the time I got e-mail read, e-bay checked and a few blogs read, my time was up.

Off to do some more stitching. I promise I will get some pictures up later this week. I still owe you the big rundown on our Stitching Retreat. Several of us were at a Graduation Party on Friday night and were laughing about some of the things that went on at the retreat.

Happy Stitching!!!!!

Out of Circulation

2009-05-06T22:55:00.002-05:00

Well, Anita and I survived the Shop Hop. It was a busy 3 days. I went into the shop to open on Monday morning while she went to the follow-up meeting and to draw for the prizes. Before I left home I received a call from you nearly 89-year old father. Said he was not feeling well and wondered if I could come spend a few days with him and helping out. Told him I would need to rearrange some things, but would call him back with when I could come. Had obligations at church on Sunday and my Thursday work day at the LNS. After numerous phone calls and talking to Anita, I got the church stuff covered and figured out how I could get one day of work in to give her a day off and still make it to my Dad's.

The plan was for me to trade days and work Wednesday instead of Thursday. So I am leaving after lunch tomorrow to go stay with my Dad. It is about 125 miles away. This allowed me to get some grocery shopping done for him and to leave for Morris, do some laundry and get my stitching stuff lined up. Surprise! Surprise!. I plan to stay until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Will look into a few things regarding to help make life easier for him. I think he really is just feeling lonely and depressed. He has never been one to handle being alone. My step-mother has had to be moved closer to one of her daughters out of state for care. She was in failing health too and it was a struggle for them both to take care of each other. I think my Dad will do better just having to care for himself, but he does get very lonely.

Have packed up all my stitch projects, my crocheting, a book and my Ipod. After living in a city of some size since I graduated from high school many, many years ago, it is difficult to go back to the community where I grew up. It is a VERY rural and poor area of the state. For most things you have to drive 30 miles, that includes the grocery store. There is a very small grocery store with basic items, but not much else. I have done this before, but it is always hard.

Since I won't be back until mid-week, the drawing for the giveaway for my 100th post will be delayed until my return. There will be no computer access while I am down there. I might be able to go to the library, but not sure. If you want to sign up for the giveaway or read about it go here. Have finally gotten my Google Reader to just under 200, but it will be back up to a high number when I return. I really try to get caught up, but it just does not seem to happen. So, I am mostly reading and not commenting. Sorry about that. I am seeing some awesome stitching, but just don't take time to comment, so I can move on to the next one. I just don't want the blogging and reading to take up too much of my stitching time.

Not much stitching news here, but I promise to do an update when I return. I have finished the "Aloha" piece that was a Christmas present. Getting it to the framer will have to be after I get back. When I get back I will work one day, go to a graduation party, go to a Royals baseball game and usher at church for the first 4 days after I return. The rat race continues.

Happy Stitching to All and will post when I return.

Shop Hop and 100th Post Contest

2009-04-30T23:02:00.007-05:00

Now I am going to provide you with a little shock therapy. Posts 2 days in a row ought to do it just fine. I promised you a Shop Hop update. We had a great day today. It is always long and tiring, but still lots of fun to see old friends that come to the Hop every year. Later in the post I will speak to the contest in honor of my 100th post.

First of all, is the Shop Hop Sampler that the pattern is provided free to all those doing the Hop. In the past, the Hop sampler has been a collaborative effort with each of the involved shops doing a piece for the sampler and then it all combined into one. This year it was decided to do something a little different. Each shop was to provide their own Shop Hop sampler. This is the one designed by Anita of The Sunflower Seed. I stitched the model on 28-ct Natural Linen with GAST fibers. It will fit into an 8x10 frame. Everything is available in the shop to make the design. After the Hop, the design will probably be released to the public.

There are 2 other Sunflower Seed designs available during the Hop. These have yet to be released by Hoffman or Norden for distribution. The first is "Resurrection". It was done on 28-ct Natural Linen with Crescent Colours. This is another design that I stitched the model for. One of our Monday Night stitchers requested Anita to design an Easter design that was not eggs and bunnies. This is the result. This was a fun stitch. I loved every minute of it, even when I had to do a little frogging.

The second new design is "Needles and Pins". This is such a fun pattern and I am sure all the "real" stitchers feel it expresses their feelings completely. Since I did not stitch this one, I am not sure what it is stitched on, but I think it is an R&R fabric with GAST fibers. Right now I think this will be the prize for my 100th post contest. I will include the fabric and fiber to stitch it. Make a comment to this post by May 8th, and then I will draw for the winner. That will give those that are behind in reading blogs to read and comment if they choose. I don't think I am ever going to get caught up. I start making progress and then I get involved in something or am away from the computer a day or so and then I am further behind again. About a week ago, I had my Google Reader under 200, but now it is back up to about 225.
Now back to things available during the Hop. You know how the new saying among the kids is "SNAP" to represent things that they are not supposed to say. Well, we have the stitchers version. "OH STITCH". Anita designed and stitched this little piece on Monday. Painted the frame from some unfinished ones in the shop. It is sooooo cute. We it kitted up in the cutest little quilted bag with the pattern, fabric and floss. It is done on 32-ct Lambswool Linen with DMC floss.

Over the last few years, Anita has hand painted snippet jars and needle boxes with her wonderful Sunflower. This year she found some interesting shapes for the snippet jars. I love the ones that look like little milk jars.

Another cute quick design that Anita came up with this little "Alphabet Coaster" series. They are so cute. I think I might make some for Christmas presents. We have all the letter available and extra coasters, if you want to do the same letter to make up a set.

Now I get down to this part and there was supposed to be another picture, but blogger must have decided that I had already put in too many. It is a little "Mini Gentle Sampler". about 4 inches square done on Dk Espresso from R&R 28 or 30-ct and done with the newest GAST colors. I stitched it in about a weekend. We have it kitted with the fabric, frame and pattern and have the threads in a separate packet. If blogger was not so picky, I would try to load it now, but it would probably screw up the rest of this post. I have already been working almost an hour loading photos and composing this. Not going to take the chance. I'll post it next time.

Tonight, I started another one of those Blackbird Design stockings from the April set. Anita got the other ones that she and I had stitched, finished. They are just so darned cute. I forgot to take a picture of them when I was taking pictures. Am using Morris's camera totally. Just don't want all my work to show up pink from my camera. Went shopping online last night. Might have figured out what kind I want to get as a replacement. Maybe can fork over the money within the next couple of weeks. I am sure that Morris is not too excited to have all these cross stitch pictures on his camera.

I have probably bored you enough with all my Shop Hop info, so I better close this down and get some rest. We still have 2 more days to go.

REMINDER: Make a comment to this post by the end of the day on May 8th and be eligible for a new project.

Still plan to post a further report on our recent retreat complete with all the funny comments.

Happy Stitching.

Quick Update

2009-04-29T23:13:00.004-05:00

For those of you that are waiting for my report on our recent stitching retreat, I am sorry, it is going to have to wait for a little longer. Decided I needed to do some kind of post in the meantime. Between my busy life and my dying digital camera, things have just not worked out for me to do a full blown report on the retreat. When I downloaded the pictures that I took at retreat, most of them had a pink tint to them. In talking to Reina, (stitching friend) she said that when hers died it was doing that. Waited to get some pictures from one of the others at the retreat. I am including some of them here. Thanks Jan.

Last week I was busy making stuff for a brunch that was held at the church on Saturday. On Friday, Morris's cousin Jackie and husband Richard came from South Dakota for a visit. They were here until Monday morning. You know how stitchers are---we would rather stitch than clean house. So I had to spend some time cleaning and preparing for their visit. I went from Wednesday night until sometime on Sunday after lunch without stitching. That is an extraordinary length of time for me to go without stitching. I am surprised that I did not turn into the b***h that I usually do when I do not get a chance to stitch. We are a wonderful time with Jackie and Richard. Even took them to a Royals baseball game on Saturday night. Royals lost. Boo!!!

However, on the stitching front I did finish something. Finished the Blackbird Design freebie that was on their blog. They were running a contest while they were gone to France. Checked in on the contest yesterday. There were 133 entrants. Wow!!! Congrats to the winner, Brenda and to one of my blogging buddies, Marie P who was one of the second place winners. My sampler was started at our stitch retreat so I put in "Stitcher's Retreat -- 2009.

Blackbird Design Freebie

30-ct Creme Brule by R&R

Mahogany Belle Soie

During our retreat, I finished my LHN--From Sea to Shining Sea. You even get to see a picture of me with it. This is one of the pictures supplied by Jan. I should have done some photo editing to cut down the size, but haven't figured out how to do that yet with pictures that I get from someone else and not downloaded through my camera program. Still am technology challenged on such things. I don't often allow my photo to be taken, much less post them here.

All that I am going to cover about our retreat is to include a group picture of all my stitching buddies. These are the same people that I stitch with every Monday night.

Back Row: (l-r) Linda, Anita, Janet, Jan

Front Row: (l-r)Reita, Reina, Marcia, Moi

Laying in Front: (l-r) Jack, Josie

The B&B where we stayed has a new rescue dog Josie. She is a beautiful Golden Retriever. They were worried about how she would handle the guests. She did great and just came in the room where were stitching and hung out with the girls. The retreat was as wonderful as it always is. Lots of laughs, a good amount of stitching and a really wild game of CLR Floss Toss. More about all of this later. Suffice it to say that there was one time I was laughing so hard that I made myself dizzy.

The big thing on the agenda right now is the Heartland Shop Hop that begins tomorrow morning at 9:00AM. Have worked at The Sunflower Seed from around noon the last two days helping Anita get ready for it. Left there tonight at closing with everything ready to roll in the morning. I am going to try to take some pictures tomorrow and if I am not too tired maybe post them tomorrow night. Anita has a freebie Shop Hop sampler done (actually I stitched the model) along with fabric, floss and frames to go with it. There are several other specials available, like a mini-sampler, a fun new little design and 2 new designs. The new designs have not even been released through Hoffman and Norden yet. I stitched one of the new designs and the mini-sampler. If you are the in the Topeka and Kansas City areas, the Hop runs Thursday through Saturday. Come in and see all the goodies that are available.

My next post will be my 100th. I will be doing some kind of giveaway to those commenting on that post. Not sure now what it will be, but it will probably be a pattern with fabric and possibly the floss too. Stay tuned for that.

Countdown

2009-04-16T21:57:00.002-05:00

This is going to be a quick post with no photos. Am currently in several countdowns. To begin with, I along with my Monday Night stitching buddies are doing a retreat this weekend. Beginning about 1 tomorrow afternoon until around noon on Sunday, there will be nothing but stitching and laughing. I am taking my trusty notebook to record the many overheard remarks that need to be repeated. We all have been leading very hectic lives and need to have some chill out time with our "chick friends". We had a little test run about two weeks ago when a portion of us took a "chick trip" to the KC area to acquire some Vera Bradley bags and Brighton jewelry. I will try to do a report sometime next week. It will be a busy one for me. We will be having company from South Dakota for a long weekend plus I need to do some cooking for some events going on at the church that I cannot attend, but will help with some of the food preparation in advance.

Another countdown is my finish of LHN "From Sea to Shining Sea". I have completed all the 5 parts, now I have a little bit of vine to complete on the border. Thought I would get to it tonight, but I was cooking for the retreat and on the phone with my sister dealing with issues surrounding my elderly father. That is a totally other issue that I don't even want to get into. Not working on any Sunflower Seed design models. She had one ready for me and I started it Tuesday night and I did not think the colors were working the way she would want. Took it back to her yesterday and I was right. We have put it on the back burner for a week or so. This weekend I will work on some other WIPs and a Blackbird little stocking and freebie sampler here. Being the fiber snob that I am, I plan to stitch it with Belle Soie. Pictures later.

Two weeks from today is the first day of the Heartland Cross Stitch Shop Hop for 5 shops in Kansas City, Lawrence and Topeka. Have been helping Anita at The Sunflower Seed to prepare for it. Preparations will really be intense after our time off to re-charge this weekend. Shop Hop will be April 30th, 9-6, May 1st 9-6 and May 2nd 9-5.

The final countdown has to do with my blog. This current post is No. 98. My plans are to do a giveaway to celebrate my 100th post. Not sure what the giveaway will be, but it will be something special. I am selfish, so it will not be a stitched piece. It most likely will be a pattern with fabric and maybe some of the required fibers. Probably be in the neighborhood of $20-25 retail value. So watch for the 100th post and be sure to leave me a comment on that post. I will draw from those commenters approximately a week following the post. All the details will be in the 100th post.

Off to see that my stitch bag is properly packed. That is more important than my clothes. LOL!! Thanks for stoppping in. Have a good weekend.

Framed and Other Stitching Adventures

2009-04-02T23:21:00.007-05:00

With some tweaking and jiggling of the camera, I have managed to get some photos over the last couple of days. Most of these photos were taken at the LNS today where the lighting might be a little better. Hopefully, this was just a little hiccup with my camera. Not ready to buy a new one.

A couple of weeks ago I picked up several pieces at the framer and dropped a hefty chunk of change. It is all worth it because they do a fantastic job.

American Baby Sampler

by Willow Hill Samplings

28-ct Heritage Cashel by Picture This Plus

Mix of called for threads and some changes

Sampler Heart

Freebie

Mystery Fabric

Valentine Pack Sampler Thread

Color Name - Box of Chocolates

Valentine Quaker Heart

Freebie

Mystery Fabric

Needle Necessities Fiber

Quaker Motif

From Long Dog Mouline Rouge

28-ct Lambswool Linen

WDW Stepping Stones - New February 2009

Have managed to get some stitching done on From Sea to Shining Sea. Finished Part 4 and started Part 5 and some more border. Plans are still to have it done by the Shop Hop the end of the month. Haven't stitched on this for several days because....

I have become obsessed by The Blackbird Designs little monthly stockings. This one was stitched last weekend. I changed the colors on this one. I did not like the green they had used. As an example of the funky things my camera was doing, this was shown as done in black. I could not post something that was that off in color.

Fractured Quaker Stocking
30-ct Korty's Special Blend R&R

WDW - Bullfrog - New February 2009

Then this evening I finished another of the stockings. These stocking are out of the March stockings. I picked up the stuff to do the 3rd one in this month today while I was working. It called for a couple Crescent Colours that I did not have. (Just starting to get a collection of Crescent Colours)

Wild Clover Stocking
30-ct Korty's Special Blend R&R

Recommended WDW

Finished the design model that I had been working on for The Sunflower Seed. Not sure when it will be released so I can show it here. Now I am working on another small design model and it should be done in a few days. Especially, if I can stay away from doing the stockings. Anita has done one stocking from January and one from February, so I am hoping that she will provide me lots of help to get these finished to be used as store models for the Shop Hop. They are really fun to stitch, don't take much fabric or time. I am thinking that the Quaker one could be done in several complementary colors and used on a swag or wreath for Christmas.

Saturday part of our Monday Night Stitchers, aka Sunflower Stitchers are going on a road trip. We have all become Vera Bradley and Brighton jewelry nuts. In the KC metro area, there are two stores virtually side-by-side devoted to those two things. Whoopee!! A road trip. Also just down the street is a Cheesecake Factory. We are all dusting off our credit cards and ready for a big day.

BETSY UPDATE: She is doing better. Anita is giving her insulin shops after she eats twice a day. She was so glad to be home from the vet and be at the shop again. Has been doing some limping around, so ended up getting some meds for osteoarthritis and that seems to have helped her. Since she was a pound puppy, we don't know for sure how old she is, but we think in the neighborhood of 13. So she is entitled to have a few aches and pains. We will just take good care of her.

I am still trying to get caught up reading blogs in my Google Reader. I am getting closer to being caught up, but you all keep posting, sometimes faster than I can read. Have not been doing too much commenting. Sorry!!! I am concentrating on getting read and caught up. I will say that I see some amazing stitching going on out there. It all does a very good job of enabling me. Thanks everyone. All your visits and comments are greatly appreciated.

Just was looking at the number of posts that I have had. I am closing in on 100 posts. Have been thinking of doing some type of give-away to celebrate that. Not sure what it will be, but keep watching.

Happy Stitching!!!!!!!!

Camera Problems

2009-03-30T14:01:00.002-05:00

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

2009-03-18T10:25:00.004-05:00

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.....

2009-03-01T11:40:00.007-06:00

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!!!!!

Stitching......Model Stitching

2009-02-16T10:51:00.006-06:00

It's hard to believe that it has been 2 weeks since I last posted. Had plans to do a post last weekend, but was working while Anita, aka the LNS, and Reina were gone to the Nashville Market. Decided I better get one done before going to stitching tonight, as the girls there will be asking "When are you doing another blog?" Thanks girls for always pushing me when I am slow to blog.

I completed one of the Blue Ribbon Design's Green Letter Ornament 'Sled'. The word sled over the snowflakes is over one. I always like the look of over 1, but don't much like to do it.

Here is a little heart that I completed. It a freebie that I got last year around Valentine's Day off the Internet. Not sure where. I really like the look. Stitched on 28-ct Ivory Cashel with a limited edition Sampler Thread from a Valentine's pack. There are also 5 other colors in the pack that I have visions of doing some special things with. Have some other freebie heart designs that I would like to do. Have one that I stitched last year too. Maybe will frame them all separately and hang them together in an arrangement.

Got some more done on BC Valentine Row. Plans were to have it done by Valentine's Day, but got side tracked on the other heart design. Need to finish the tree trunk, the last 'e' , a question mark and a couple of hearts to finish it.

This morning I finished the second receiving blanket for the baby of friends in Ohio. Going to Kohl's this afternoon to get a little outfit to send along. Just used flannel and shirt-tail hemmed the pieces. Started out with 1 1/4 yard of fabric. Straightened the ends and cut off the selvages and hemmed. My niece really likes these receiving blankets because they are way bigger than the ones you buy in the store.
Along with the stitching that I showed above, i continued to do model stitching for The Sunflower Seed. Have been working on the sampler for the Shop Hop to be held locally later this spring. It is almost done, but I made a slight error and have to do a little frogging and put in a few more stitches and it will be done. Now, that Anita has gone to and returned from market, I can show you some of the things that I have stitched for her over the last few months.

First, is the big piece that I worked on late last year. It is called "Tall Seasons" and is on 30-ct R&R Antique Cotton stitched with Sampler Thread and DMC. It is a rather large piece and took me longer than it should have, but I worked on Christmas presents at the same time.

Also, I stitched this Sunflower paperweight design on 32-ct Belfast Raw Natural linen with DMC thread and put into a heart-shaped paperweight. I forgot to take a picture of the other thing that I stitched for Anita. It was a 4th of July design that was a freebie handout at market. Maybe I can remember to take a picture when I am at the shop for stitching tonight.
While Anita was gone to market, I worked my normal Thursday, then Friday, Saturday and Monday. Opened the shop on Tuesday and stayed and helped her get things in the shop returned to normal and began pricing the new stuff. Oh, and the new stuff was awesome. There is definitely some things that will be added to my stash, or 'store' as my sisters call it.

Have slowed down on my Vera addiction. Still watching ebay for a few things. Have received one more item since my last post and have one more coming. Maybe there will not need to be an intervention.

Spent Valentine's Day with my Dad and step-mother. Took lunch of Marinated BBQ Brisket, Cheesy Hash Brown Casserole, Corn and Red Velvet Cake down to them. (they are about 120 miles away). One of my sisters and her husband was there for lunch too. My other brother-in-law showed up after lunch and we met my other sister on our way home. My dad has bought another house in the same town and my sisters are making a weekend retreat/hunting lodge out of it. My Dad has not been feeling very well. He has had gout for a long time, but usually only in his feet. Now it is in all of his joints and he is having trouble getting around.

Not much else new in my world. Time to go do lunch, go do a little shopping and then to the LNS for Monday night stitching.

Happy stitching!!!!!!!

Stitching and New Addiction

2009-01-28T23:05:00.010-06:00

My how time flies when you are having fun. Here it is almost the end of January. Had planned to do a review of projects completed in 2008, but now that the month is almost over, I am not going to waste valuable stitching time to get it organized. As far as number of projects goes, there were less in 2008. That is mostly due to stitching bigger pieces, like A Quaker Christmas, a 6-part Shop Hop Sampler for The Sunflower Seed and a 4-part design model for the Sunflower Seed. I tend to do bigger projects now than I have done in the past.

It has been a rather strange week. Last Wednesday I was hostess for my church ladies group and made soup and homemade bread for them. Early this week we have had crappy weather and I have not hardly been out of the house since Sunday afternoon. Today was the first day above freezing since last Friday. We had little dustings of snow several times, but not the ice,etc. that other parts of the country have had. We feel fortunate to have missed it, but feel bad for those that have had to struggle with it. Missed my Monday night stitch group because they were predicting snow and I don't drive in it. Turns out that it did not do much, but by the time I figured that out, I would have had to gotten dressed in something other than sweats and grubby clothes.

Staying around the house has allowed me to get some stitching done. The second sheep, all the grass and the tree has been added to American Baby. Down to leaves on the second tree, some red berries on the trees and the name, etc. and it will be done.

Been getting some good work done on Valentine Row. Part of the tree trunk is still missing and have done one more heart and part of the "V" since this photo was taken. This seems to be going fast.

This is a little ornament that I started as a shop model for The Sunflower Seed. We have both the Red Letter and Green Letter Ornament patterns in stock. Anita decided we needed a model, so I decided to do the "Sled". She had some little scraps of fabric that she thought would work for it. Well, they almost didn't. We both thought there was more over 1 on them. Only the word "sled" above the sled is over 1. Should have this done by the end of the week.

Green Letter Ornament

by Blue Ribbon Designs

28-ct Lt Mocha Cashel

Called for WDW fibers

Did not get any stitching done on LHN "From Sea to Shining Sea" this week. On Tuesday I did work on the little angel that I am completing for a friend. Down to doing flowers and leaves that call for 1-2 stitches and quarters stitches and then you change to another color. The friend is in Texas for the winter and I want to have it done for her when she comes home the 1st of April. Still have time. Should be done by then. Has lots of back stitch on it too.

As I mentioned before I have been doing some crocheting when we have gone on long car trips. Here is the prayer shawl that I completed a couple of weeks ago. We prayed over it and 4 others at our Church ladies meeting last week. Most of them should have been delivered this week. I have another one started.

Did you notice my post title? Well, I know have another addiction. A while back when I was playing bingo at the Indian casinos 2-3 times a month, some of my friends accused me of being addicted to bingo and that I was going to spend my retirement money on bingo. Well, the bingo hall closed and I very seldom play bingo any more. Now, I have become addicted to Vera Bradley (VB) bags and buying them on Ebay.

It sort of started last summer when I was reading some one's blog about them buying VB's Little Travel Case at ebags.com and how it made a nice stitch bag. I checked them out and got one in the Pink Elephant design. Took it to stitching with me and everyone fell in love with it. So I went out and bough one for Anita and Reina for Christmas. Then about 3 weeks ago Janet went out and bought the Tall Zip Bag at our local VB shop. It is such a nice size for stitching stuff. The bag I had been carrying was falling apart and I had used it for at least 7 years. I started checking on ebags and ebay. In the last 2 weeks, I have bought 5 different bags, 3 from ebay and 2 from ebags.com. My first 2 attempts on ebay, I was outbid. Then I started getting lucky. Here are the photos of what I bought taken from the ebay web site so they are a litle small.

Little Travel Case

from ebags.com last summer

Tall Zipper Tote
from ebay
received last week

Katie Bag
from ebay
received today

Sherry Bag
from ebay

still waiting on

Since I had bought something from ebags.com last summer, I got an e-mail asking me to answer a survey and I ended up with 20% on my next order and they were having a winter clearance sale, so I was able to get 2 more Katie bags for a little over $12 each. Regular retail was $28 and the style has been discontinued. They are just the right size to care my Ipod and portable speakers in. Also will make a nice camera bag. Anita is using one to carry her new flip video camera and accessories. I am sure that I will find all kinds of uses for them. Now I am looking for a couple of other bags to use as stitching bags. The one I am discarding is very large and I will need more than one to replace it.

Some in my stitch group think they might have to do an intervention for me regarding my VB addiction. Now I have found out that one of the new colors is called "Purple Punch" and I love the color purple. LOL!! In the past, they had talked about having to do an intervention with my bingo addiction, but they never did. Now they may try to do it with my VB addiction. Even though they call me "fiber snob" and other names regarding my affinity for silk thread, they have not even mentioned the word intervention. I guess they know that it would be hopeless.

Time to close and head to bed. I work at the LNS tomorrow and we are finishing up getting things ready for Anita to go to the Nashville Market next week. Next week I will work my normal Thursday and then Friday, Saturday and Monday while Anita is gone to market. The best part is getting to see what she brings back from market first hand.

Thanks to all that stop by my blog. Comments are appreciated. I am still behind in reading blogs, but am making some headway. Don't leave as many comments as I should, but once I get caught up that should change. Everyone is doing awesome projects and I enjoy hearing about your stitching and the ups and downs in your daily lives. Hang in there and keep those needles flying.

Keep On Stitching

2009-01-20T16:58:00.004-06:00

It seems that I may have created a monster. As you know, I have this wonderful group of stitchers locally that I stitch with every Monday evening. They are all reading my blog and every week, if I had not done a post during that week, I am bombarded with "Why haven't you updated your blog?" or "I made special effort to go check your blog and there is nothing new" or "You haven't done a blog in a long time". My problem is there are better things to do than battle with Blogger. Although girls I am going to try to do better. None of them have blogs so they do not know how aggravating that Blogger can be or how long it takes to do pictures, etc. to make it an interesting read. I would rather be stitching.

Remember my Yahoo STO group had a January 1st SAL, well another one in that group that is in Australia said they had a "guilt-free January" where you could start as many new projects as you want. I gave into my Stitchers ADD and started another project. Thanks Amanda!! Here is the beginnings of Bent Creek's Valentine's Row.

Valentine's Row

by Bent Creek

28-ct PTP Orphan

Recommended GAST fibers

PTP does not currently have orphans. Orphans are fabrics where there was some kind of issue with the dyeing process and they did not get the color they intended. Everyone that has seen this color thinks they should put this color in their line. Not sure that the color comes through very well in the photo, but it is like a dirty pink. My color name is chocolate covered cherries.

Here is my progress on American Baby. One tree done except for some red berries and both bunnies. Now another sheep and tree, plus baby's name. Coming along nicely.

Also continued to work on LHN- From Sea to Shining Sea. Now part 4 is out and I don't even have part 2 done. Had hoped I would have part 2 done before part 4 came out. Not to fond of the dye lot of the tumbleweed in part 2. I almost changed it and bought another skein at LNS and Anita talked me out of it. Will continue and see if I like it better when it is all done. Might have to rip out some of what I stitched last Saturday. Was stitching while watching the KSU basketball game on TV. They were playing awful, the TV feed was having technical difficulties so you were missing something about every 5 seconds. The longer it went on the tighter I pulled my stitches. Will have to go back and look to see how it looks after I have calmed down. LOL!!!

Been doing some model stitching for The Sunflower Seed. Did one small design model for use at February market. No photo. Then also did a store model of LK Valentine's. Not sure what fabric (I think it was 28-ct Lt. Mocha Cashel). I just took what Anita gave me. Used the recommended thread. The Cameo Pink on the border did not show up very well. Easy and very cute stitch.

Monday being Martin Luther King holiday, almost everyone in our Monday night group had the day off. Sorry Marcia. She was the only one that had to work and some dummy scheduled her for an afternoon meeting. She admitted that she was that dummy. Part of us spent most of the day at The Sunflower Seed stitching. What a fun day. I also helped with customers so Anita could take care of other business. Janet and I were there shortly after the shop opened, Reina and Reita came about noon, Jan came before 1 and Marcia after work. We had a pizza party as dinner. Love that Via's Pizza. Judy showed up as we were finishing the pizza. We had our usual hilarious day. Did not take down any notes and quotes. Part of it would not have been fit for publication.

My STO group had a small stitch-in here in Topeka yesterday, but I opted to spend time with my Monday night group. The STO group did come by the shop to do some stashing. Met Judy and Marcia. Now I have a face to put with the names. Glad to meet you both and be able to help you with your shopping needs. Come back and see us.

Tomorrow my church ladies group meets and I am hostess. I decided to try a new soup recipe on them. So today I have made soup and have put a loaf of frozen bread in the oven to bake. It is a recipe for Taste of Home magazine called Beefy Bean Soup. My assessment of it is that is kinda like Spaghetti Soup. It is a tomato base with basil and oregano with beans, hamburger and elbow macaroni. Hope they like it. Also stitched on a piece for a friend. It is something that her sister started for her, but got cancer and was not able to finish. So glad to be able to finish it for it. It is difficult in parts to figure out what has been stitched and what hasn't. I have had it a while, so have made a pact with myself to stitch on it every Tuesday so I can hopefully have it done when she returns from her winter stay in south Texas.

Thanks to all have stayed with me during my fights with blogger. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. I really appreciate your visits. I need to do some dressing up of by blog, but that takes time and patience and understanding with blogger, etc. I have none of those and so it will stay as plain jane for a while longer.

Better go check the bread in the oven and get some more stitching done.

Happy Stitching!!!!!

Addendum to Last Post

2009-01-11T23:06:00.004-06:00

OK, let's try this again. I thought I had things somewhat worked out last night when I clicked the "publish" button. When I went to view things, it was messed up. However, Google Reader has the text I had written. Will try cut and paste and see how that works. It's hard to remember what I wrote. Well, it won't cut and paste.*#%!! I will try to switch back and forth between windows and do what I can.

My STO Yahoo group decided to have a New Year's Day SAL. You know it is supposed to be good luck to start a new project on January 1st. Here is my progress on Willow Hill Samplings "American Baby" that I chose as my project. This is a more up-to-date photo than the one I was going to use last night. Because I chose to change the color of the sheep and bunny from the pattern, I have since had to rip out about half of each. Originally it was to be some Crescent Colour that I did not like. The DMC equivalent was a yellow color and the photo looked more whitish cream, so I chose to use GAST Oatmeal. What a mistake! It got lost in the base fabric. Took to Monday night stitching last week and Anita picked out a couple of colors for me. Nothing that I thought would work, however, she was right. Told Anita later that I should never question her suggestions for color. They are almost always right on. So the sheep, is now in GAST Fudge Ripple. Chocolate! Woo Hoo!! Have the bunny barely started in chalk. Had to see, but I need to put in a few more stitches, but I think it is going to be good too.

Here is the progress on LHN From Sea to Shining Sea.

This afternoon I finished a small little design model for Anita at The Sunflower Seed. Will take it to her tomorrow when I go to our regular weekly stitch group.

Finally, remembered to take a photo of another of the Christmas presents that I had been working on. Sandi and I decided to wait until after Christmas to do our gift exchange and we have yet to get together. We will probably do it sometime this week. Nothing like extending Christmas a couple of weeks.

Thimble Abundance

by Primrose Needleworks

28-ct R&R Apple Brown Bindy

Poison Apple - Belle Soie Silk

Most recently, I have found that during our long car trips it is easier to do crocheting with a dog in my lap than to do cross stitch. So I have an afghan going and have started making prayer shawls for the church. I finished a prayer shawl on Thursday night and have another one started, so I could work on in yesterday on our drive to Manhattan to the KSU basketball game. I still need to add some fringe to the finished one and get it to the church. Will take a photo before I turn it in.

Not going to tempt the Blogger Gods anymore. Things look like they are proper right now, so am going to publish. Thanks for enduring my issues. Thanks for your visits and comments. All are very much appreciated. Next time I am going to try to do a summary of the things I stitched in 2008.

Happy Stitching!

Stitchy Christmas Gifts and Other Stuff

2009-01-09T23:08:00.010-06:00

Wow, it seems that I go longer and longer between posts. Part of my problem is that I dread wrestling with Blogger and what problems I might encounter trying to put this together.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years. It was cold in South Dakota, where we spent Christmas, but we did not encounter any weather issues in our travels. The morning we left home there had been snow here the night before, but not much. Trip went off without incident.

Want to share with you some of the stitchy gifts I received for Christmas.

Received this ornament from Martha. Right after the JCS ornament magazine came out I won a contest on her blog. She was going to stitch the winner the same ornament that she stitched for her grandchildren. I was the lucky one. I love Harvey.

This ornament comes from one of the Sunflower Stitcher, aka--Monday Night Stitchers. Sometime last year I found this little tree pattern as a freebie online and Reina saw the pattern at my house when she was setting up my Ipod. She asked to borrow it. Little did I know that I would get one for Christmas. Now I don't have to stitch one for myself. She did an awesome job. The trim around the sides are all beads done in little loops. Way more beads than I could ever do. The green tinsel on the tree are also beads.

The last stitchy gift I received has quite a story behind it. I received the pattern and birds eye maple Quaker box as a project at one of The Silver Needle's camps. So when I was going through my stash to find things to donate for our retreat prizes last fall, i put this in the bag of goodies. I was pretty sure that I would never stitch it. Was a lot of over one stuff and I don't do much of that. Anita saw it in the prizes and said you are not putting that in there and she took it. Little did I know she was going to stitch it and give it to me. I love it. Now I need to find some very small scissors to put in it. All the ones I have are too big.

Sampler Scissors Box

by Fancy Work

32-ct Lambswool Linen

Silk 'n Colors Fiber

Speaking of over one!! I am always trying to get into doing more over one stuff. Here is my latest effort in that direction. Had this done before Christmas, but the last time I tried to take a photo it was all blurry. Probably won't get finished into an ornament for a while.

2008 Christmas Tree

by JBW Designs

28-ct Raw Natural Linen

Belle Soie silk - 1 strand

Here is my progress on Aloha. All that is left is back stitch and we all know how boring that can be. Just need to sit down and get it done. The person I am doing this for is actually going to Hawaii the end of the month. Maybe I can have it ready to give to her by the time she gets home.

My STO Yahoo Group had a New Year's Day SAL. You know it is good luck to start a new project on New Year's Day. I started Willow Hill Samplings "American Baby". Here is my progress for a day or so. I have since ripped out the part of the sheep and bunny. (They are hard to see). They were in GAST Oatmeal and did not show up very well. I had changed the colors from the original because I did not like them. Took it to stitching on Monday night and Anita helped me pick out other colors. Now most of the sheep is back in with his head too. Looks really good. Told Anita yesterday that I should always take her color recommendations and not question because they were usually right on. I am sure that she will remind me of that many times as I stitch on her designs.

Have done some work on LHN From Sea to Shining Sea and My Mansions Sampler. The weekend before Christmas, I stitched up the freebie that The Sunflower Seed will have at the Nashville Market in February. Now I am working on another small little design for her. We have had to change a couple colors, so it is going a little slow for a small project. The Sunflower Seed was closed the week between Christmas and New Year's, so the Monday Night Stitchers had to take our show on the road for our get together on the last Monday of 2008. Thanks Janet for hosting us and for the wonderful Mexican Soup.

During our long car trips, I have found that I can crochet was a dog in my lap better than I can cross stitch, I have been working on both an afghan and a prayer shawl for the church. The prayer shawl is done except for tying on some fringe. Picture next time. Tonight I got another shawl started, so it will ready for the trip to Manhattan tomorrow for the KSU basketball game.

Have struggled long enough getting this together. Off to bed for me.Just checked the preview and it shows the previous two paragraphs messed up. If Blogger posts it that way I will redo that part later. It did this to me a while back and I could not figure out how to fix it. #$%*!! I guess in trying to fix the problems, I deleted the Amerian Baby photo and I am not going to go back and add it now. Will include next ##**^&*!!

Headed Out For Christmas

2008-12-24T00:26:00.002-06:00

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

2008-12-17T21:50:00.006-06:00

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

2008-12-10T23:16:00.005-06:00

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

2008-12-10T21:44:00.007-06:00

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

2008-11-21T23:24:00.003-06:00

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

2008-11-08T21:39:00.009-06:00

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

2008-11-06T23:18:00.010-06:00

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

2008-10-30T23:20:00.003-05:00

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

2008-10-22T21:03:00.013-05:00

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

2008-10-06T23:15:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-23T19:44:00.004-05:00

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

2008-09-17T09:26:00.005-05:00

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

2008-09-12T18:44:00.002-05:00

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

2008-09-07T18:30:00.003-05:00

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!!!!

New Release

2008-08-30T09:38:00.004-05:00

This design was just released through Hoffman Distributing by The Sunflower Seed last week. I stitched both models for this a month or so ago. They are very quick stitches for baby gifts. Could be made into door hanger pillows. In fact, I just found out a close family friend is going to have a baby in December. I may do the baby sleeping one into a door hanger pillow for them. The pattern should be available through your LNS or you may contact The Sunflower Seed directly. As mentioned before, I am working on a large design model for SS now. Did complete the first 1/4 and have started on the second. Ran to the shop yesterday afternoon to have Anita check some colors that I was concerned about. We did change two of them. Little to no frogging to be done. That is why I keep checking back with her as I do it, so if we need to make changes, I am not doing a lot of frogging.

Since Monday is a holiday, the shop is not going to be open so we cannot have our Monday stitching group. We felt like we might have withdrawals, so Janet graciously offered up her house for a stitching Monday. The group is meeting at 10:00AM at Janet's house for stitching most of the day. Everyone is bringing something for lunch to share. I have planned a Hearty Beef Penne Pasta dish. New recipe that I am trying out on the girls. Last Monday, the group was totally out of control during our stitching session. There was bad mouthing, love pats and tooting going on. I got a phone call and had to move to the back room of the shop to be able to hear my call. LOL!!! Those girls are the best friends a gal could have. TOOT!! TOOT!!

Today I am off to the first Kansas State home football game of the year. We play North Texas at 6:00 PM. Hopefully, it won't be too hot today. Upper 80s to low 90s. I don't do hot very well. By 6:00PM, it should start to cool off some. Would like to see a better year than 5-6 and no bowl game last year.

Leave you with a picture of my great-nephew, Cameron, that I am doing the Precious Baby Sampler for. I announced his birth a few weeks ago, but did not have a picture at this time. Just received this one from mom, Megan, this morning. He will be 6 weeks old on Monday. My how time flies.

Thanks to all that stop by and for all the comments. It is appreciated. Still trying to get caught up with my blog reading and commenting. Making a little progress, but will keep working at it.

Off to take shower and do a little stitching before I have to leave for the game. Have an hour drive to get there and don't like to fight too much traffic, so go early and then sit in the parking lot and stitch. Go figure.

Have a great holiday weekend!!!!

Travelogue Part I and Stitching Progress

2008-08-24T19:12:00.016-05:00

WARNING: This post is picture heavy. If you only want to see stitching scroll down to the end of this post. Also, if you are a Yankee fan, you may want to scroll down to the end too.

Been home from our trip to Boston, Cooperstown and New York City a week, but it has taken that long to recover from the whirlwind of stuff before we went and then the trip was constant go, go, go. I have also decided to split the trip report up into at least 2 or 3 posts. This one got a little picture heavy anyway. This will be the Boston leg of the trip. Our tour group consisted of 66 people from various parts of Kansas, mostly the Topeka area. Fifty of us went to the Kansas City Airport on a motor coach on Monday the 11th.. The others went either early or on different flights. Everything seemed to be going fine, but right after we got to the airport they went downhill fast. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 2:25PM, but by 1, we found out it was being delayed to 2:55PM, then 4:15PM, then 6:15PM do to weather issues (rain) in Boston. After the last announced delay of 2 more hours, most everyone disappeared to do something to waste time. I slayed behind to try to get in a few stitches. It was not hardly 10 minutes later that they announced they were beginning boarding the flight to Boston. There was some fast and furious calls to people that had left the gate area. Most had to go back through security. We left KC about 5 or so. Touched down in Boston at 8:45PM. We were scheduled to have dinner at Cheers (or whatever it is called) at 8. The tour director had been in contact with them and they were very nice to accommodate us whenever we arrived in Boston. Here is a familiar sign.

After a very nice late dinner, we spent a little time in the bar. Morris said he could make that bar a habit. He really like the looks of it. I guess he thought that he and Norm could hang out together.

On Tuesday morning when I woke up, my back was a mess. Sent Morris out for ibuprofen and I started taking them right away because I sure wanted to be able to go to Fenway Park for our tour and the game. Usually I have such things in my purse, but I had repacked things to have a smaller purse.

With me nursing my back, that left Morris to do some touring basically on his own. We both like to see other state capitol buildings since he works for the state and I am retired from the state. Here are some pictures he took of the Massachusetts State Capitol.

Massachusetts State Capitol Building

Massachusetts State Senate Chambers
(They meet in the round)

Massachusetts State House of Representatives Chamber

Now comes the part that Yankee fans will not want to see. In mid-afternoon we were taken to Fenway Park for a tour and later a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Texas Rangers.

One Entrance to Fenway Park

World Championship 2007 Pennant outside Fenway

Behind home plate on the tour.
Texas Rangers on field
Green Monster in the background

View from the top of Green Monster

Part of the Tour Group sitting on top of the Green Monster

View looking straight down from the Green Monster

View from the Right Field Bleachers where we sat.

As many of you know, the Red Sox are sold out for the year most of the time. Our tour director had to get our tickets through a broker and had to pay on the average of $100 per ticket. Knowing that this might be the only time I ever got in Fenway Park, I just too the ticket and enjoyed the game. And enjoy the game we did. The final score was 19-17 Red Sox. It was not without drama. Red Sox scored 10 runs in the lst inning, but Texas came back and went ahead late in the game, but the Red Sox got a home run and went on to win. David Ortiz had a double and home run in the lst for 6 RBIs.

View of the Green Monster from our Bleacher Seats

As I was planning what to put in this post, I had thoughts of more pictures, but when I started uploading them into blogger, I cut back on the number of pictures. It was going to make this way to long. I did not get too see much of Boston myself other than in the dark when we got there and from our hotel window when I was nursing my back. I was really disappointed that I did not get to take in more of the city. Hopefully there will be another time to do that. The morning after the game we boarded a motor coach for Cooperstown, New York and the Baseball Hall of Fame. Details of that part of the trip to come in another post. My plans were to get some stitching done on the bus, but that did not happen very much. Too much going on around me and as we got closer to Cooperstown, winding roads. My iPod came in handy for that part of the trip.

During the week before we left, I had another birthday lunch with one of my friends, also a stitcher. She gave this beautiful quilted wall hanging that she had made. I had seen a similar one that her mother had started before she passed away. Sandi had finished it and hand quilted it. I fell in love with it. So she made this for me and had someone machine quilt it. The machine quilting is so pretty. It is hard to see it in this picture. Should have taken a photo of the back to be able to see it better. I am so in love with this piece. I have the perfect place to hang it. Have to rearrange some things on wall and put in a couple more nails, but it will be on the wall soon.

Although I did not get much stitching done on our trip, I have been getting quite a bit of stitching done this past week. Sometime the week before we left, I started working on a new design for The Sunflower Seed. It is another rather large piece and is going to take a while to complete. Right now I am about 1/4 done with it. No photos until it is released. Speaking of released designs, one of the small designs that i worked on recently was released this week. I had planned to include a photo, but something happened to it and now I have to go download it again. Try to do a quick post showing it in a day or two.

Here are photo updates for "In My Father's House" and "Precious Baby". There is more grass and the red house is bigger on My Father's House and the green striped book and the rattle at the bottom of it are almost done. Started a white blanket over to the right side. It is hard to see. Also have started 2 of the 4 Christmas presents that I plan to do. No photos of them until after Christmas.

In My Father's House

Precious Baby

I returned to 194 e-mail and 85 posts to my Google Reader. You almost feel like you are drowning when you have that much to read. Between that, laundry, watching the Olympics and the normal day to day things going on, it has been a struggle getting getting caught up on things. Saturday is the beginning of college football and I will be going to the Kansas State home games. We have 2 weeks in a row with home games and then we have 2 weeks off. Actually, I am looking forward to see what kind of team they can field this year.

The dog has been waiting on me to leave the computer ever since I started this post. She has gotten fed up and went and laid down on the couch without me and let out a big sigh. Poor baby. I guess I better go sit down and stitch so she can lay beside me.

Hope I did not bore you too much with all my Fenway Park and Boston stuff Next installment will be posted in a few days. Until then, keep on stitching!!!!!

AWARDS!! AWARDS!! AWARDS!!

2008-08-21T23:54:00.005-05:00

I have been honored with two blog awards. Not sure that my recent blog efforts warrant awards, since I have been missing in action for most of this month. I have no idea where this month has gone, but here it is the 21st/22nd and it seems like yesterday that we turned the calendar page.

The "Brillante Weblog" award was made most recently by Erica. There was at least one other person that made the same award to me, but I forgot to keep track of who it was and now cannot find who it was. I am so sorry that I am so unorganized in knowing who made the award. Let me assure you that is is very much appreciated. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have believed that I would get awards much less make the friends that I have made through blogging.

Mary Ann awarded me the "I Love Your Blog" award. I love reading Mary Ann's blog to see all the charity stitching that she does and she has done some very special pieces. Thanks Mary Ann. I tried to pass this award along faster than the other one. Then I don't lose track of who made the award.

Deciding who to make the awards to was a difficult decision. I attempt to read a lot of blogs. However, the operative word here is "attempt" because it is beginning to take on a life of its own. If I read all the great stitching blogs that are out there, I would have no time left to stitch. In the interest of time, etc., I am awarding both awards to the same 7 people. I hope no one is offended if they are left off this list. It was a difficult decision to pick only 7. I am also trying to pick those that have not had awards before. Everyone is deserving.

AND THE AWARDS GO TO:

Danielle - Hanging By A Thread

Kajsa - Kajsa's Stitching and more

Sharon - One Life to Live

Wanda - WBSTITCHES

Courtney - Santa Stitches

Jane - Jane's Jots

Sarah - Stitching At Home

For those of you who have been awarded, please post the following rules on your Blog.

1. The winner can put the logo on their Blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other Blogs.

4. Put the links to those Blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the Blogs of those you've nominated.

Blogger has not been kind to me during this post. I started this last night and everything was not working very well. Had trouble getting the logos saved and then uploaded into blogger. Therefore I just saved where I was and left it until this morning to finish. This is the first time I have ever had very much of a problem with blogger. Have read where others have had problems, I guess it just finally decided to create problems for me. Oh well, it is done now.

Had hoped that there would be time to do some stitching news and a report on my recent trip to Boston, Cooperstown and New York. Will have to save to another time. Also have received another neat birthday present since my last post. That will come later too.

Thanks to all who stop, read and comment. It is greatly appreciated. Quaker Christmas has received many wonderful comments. Thank you. Thank you. It still amazes me that I got it done. Well, I am off to stitch, make comments to those that received awards and other household chores. Take care everyone and keep on stitching!!!

Quaker Christmas Unveiled and Other Stuff

2008-08-03T20:02:00.007-05:00

Yes, I am still here. It has been over 2 weeks since I last made a real post. Many of you mention that you have lost your stitching mojo. However, for me, it seems that I have lost my blogging mojo. Not sure what it is going to take to get it back, so this might be a very boring and dull post Trying my best to make it interesting. Maybe is because all my energy goes into stitching and keeping up with everyone else's blogs. Man, you guys keep me busy just trying to keep up. The lowest I have had my Google Reader since the end of May is 30. The day that I got it to that level, I left to run errands, attend a meeting and go to Monday Stitch Therapy. When I returned in less than 9 hours, there were 18 new posts in my Reader. That does not even include blogs I try to read that are not in my Reader. How does everyone find the time to blog everyday and accomplish as much as everyone does? I need to know every one's secret. Makes me feel like the laziest person on earth.

Now for the long awaited unveiling. I picked up my "A Quaker Christmas" from the framer a little over a week ago.

The total cost of framing was $95.63. The 15 1/4x24 frame was $64.00 and the stretching and mounting was $25.00. The rest was sales tax. I don't usually put glass on my pieces unless they are going to hung somewhere there will be smoking or cooking oils, etc. To me the cost seem very reasonable for the size of piece it is. Never had a piece this big before. Brought it home the first night and all Morris could say about it was "it's big". We are still trying to figure out the best place to hang it. Currently, it is on display at The Sunflower Seed. It will probably be there for several months. And I love it even more now.

Been getting quite a bit of stitching done between other things going on around here. We are about ready to wrap up the church cookbook. I have all the salads and soups done to the tune of 119 recipes. The total as of Friday morning was 524 for the entire book. The committee has our final meeting tomorrow.

Finished up the second of two small design models for Anita at The Sunflower Seed. These will both be included in the same pattern. For the last week or so I have been working on a very large design for her. So far has been fun to stitch. When I need to have some variety, I have stitched on "In My Father House", my memorial sampler. Have planted quite a bit of green grass and started the big brick red house in the middle. Have all my Christmas stitching decided and part of them kitted up. Even started stitching on one of them. However, there won't be any pictures until after Christmas, because all the giftees read my blog. Never too soon to get started on Christmas stitching. Then there is the baby sampler that I started back after I finished QC. To see a picture of my start go here. It was on 28ct antique white lugana and I struggled with it for about 3 weeks and I was not liking how it was turning out. Most of the outside border was half crosses and they made things kinda lean in that direction. The blue elephant stitches were crappy. After grumbling to Anita about it, she convinced me to change the fabric and approach the design from another way. Changed the fabric to 28ct lambswool linen and started in the middle rather than the upper left corner. Will stich all the motifs in the design and then go back and put some of the background and border in with full crosses. I am liking it better. I knew I needed to do something or I was going to hate the project before I got it done. Here is my progress so far. It is hard to visualize what it is from this picture. It is going to be like a photo album with a place for name and statistics in the middle. The little green and blue blob at the bottom with be a rattle. This is a Bobby G design named "Precious Baby".
In fact, the baby is here. My great-nephew Cameron Lee Jensen Vohs arrived July 21st, 9:09PM, weighing in at 7lbs, 7.5oz, 19 1/4 inches long. Went last week to see him and forgot to take my camera. Has lots of brown hair and looks a great deal like his daddy. Had the baby afghan done, so took it when we went to see him.
While visiting with my niece, Megan, she asked me about some receiving blankets I had made her when her first son was born. They were made of cotton plisse and hemmed around the edge. She liked the size and they were not as heavy as a traditional flannel receiving blanket and Cameron likes to be swaddled. So last week I went fabric shopping at JoAnns. They did not have any plisse like I wanted, but found a couple of suitable substitutes. Spent Friday morning hemming them and then washed them and gave them to her mother this weekend to take to her. One has blue hippos and the the yellow ducky. Love the little ducks.
A week ago today, I had another birthday. I have been celebrating it for several days. Ate our twice on Sunday and once on the Friday before and then have another lunch this Wednesday. I like to spread it out. Received lots of birthday goodies. Gift certificate to the Sunflower Seed, a fleece scarf with pockets (don't need it now with 100 degree weather), KSU CD holder, KSU Magnetic Can Koozie, a Friend picture frame with a picture in it of my stitching friends, Hershey Chocolate cookbook, decorative painted plate and 2 red star shaped Longaberger dishes. That is the short list and I am sure that I left off some stuff. Already had the case and charger for my iPod from Reina. Got lots of wonderful cards and well wishes as well. All in all it was a great birthday and I really don't mind getting a year older. Thanks everyone for the cards, gifts and well wishes.

Along with everything else going on, I planned an Army Reunion for my dad's WW!! Army outfit. This took place this weekend at a local hotel. Friday afternoon and all day Saturday was spent visiting. Last night then we had a banquet for 17. Originally there were around 190 men in the outfit and my dad thinks that there might be only 11 of them still living. Five men attended this year. They have been having reunions since 1967. Originally, they were held every 5 years, then every 3, then 2, and now they are held every year. The number attending keeps going down, but they have made promises to each other that they will continue to meet as long as there is one man standing. Last night they laughed that they might be there, but standing was getting harder and harder to do. The men attending were from Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and 2 from Kansas. Here is a picture of the men. They are all in their late 80s and early 90s. My dad will is standing in the blue shirt and will be 88 later this month. Both my sisters were here for the weekend to attend the reunion with my dad. Since it has been held for so long, not only are the men very close, so are the families.Things don't look like they will be slowing down anytime soon. Tomorrow I have a cookbook meeting, pick up election supplies for the primary on Tuesday and we have tickets for the Royals vs. Red Sox in Kansas City tomorrow night. Tuesday, I work as Supervising Judge at the primary election from 6:00AM to 8:00PM. Makes for a long day, but I think it is my civic duty to help out. Work on Thursday at the Sunflower Seed and then we have Royals tickets for Friday night. On Monday the 11th, we leave for our Hall of Fame trip to Boston, Cooperstown, and New York. As time allow, I will try to post again before we leave.

If you have made it through all of this, I thank you. Sorry I got a little wordy. That is what happens when I go a long time between posts. I think there is still one award that I need to pass on, but I will wait until another time to do that. I am off to do a little stitching and rest up for my early and very long day on Tuesday.

Happy Stitching!!!!!

Blogger Awards

2008-07-25T10:08:00.003-05:00

Michele, honored me with the Kreativ Blogger award - thank you, Michele!

It's a nice pick-me-up to get this. Now it's my turn to pass the award on to others. Here are the rules:

1 The winner may put the logo on her blog.
2 Put a link to the person you got the award from.
3 Nominate 5 blogs.
4 Put links to the blogs.
5 Leave a message for your nominees.

Tina - Stitching in Texas

Kim B. - Stitchful Thinking

Hannah - Totally in Stitches

Jennifer - Our Adventures in Cossland

Michelle - I'm A Little Teapot

I have tried to pick those that have not been picked before and that was hard. Everyone of the blogs I picked are ones that I love reading all the time. There are so many that I read it was hard to narrow the list to 5. Sorry to those that I left off. I still love you.

Hope you all have fun with this.

Picked up my QC from the framer yesterday. Will get a photo taken and posted either later today or tomorrow. It looks awesome and is so BIG. Not sure I have a wall big enough for it. Don't worry I will find one, so don't even try to talk me out of it. LOL!!!

Stitchy Saturday Salad Supper

2008-07-17T23:49:00.005-05:00

One of my Monday night stitching sisters, Janet, invited the group to her house for a stitching late afternoon and evening of stitching. She decided that we should turn it into a salad supper too. We all took salads to share and she provided our favorite lemon cake(actually this time it was lemon/lime) and drinks. No alcohol. There were 9 of us to stitch, eat and have fun. Not necessarily in that order. I have become the self-appointed documentor of all the funny and incriminating comments made during our times together. I started this at our overnight back in April. We always seem to say many funny things. Even funnier when taken out of context. However, there are no incriminating photos, since I got so wrapped up in our fun and stitching, I forgot to take any pictures. Never thought of it until I was driving home and thinking how I could put into words the fun time we have together. And we actually get some stitching done. At one point in time, Janet had to go bring a box of kleenex and put it on the table. We were all laughing so hard that our noses were running and eyes were watering. Then we had to orchestrate a uniform nose blowing that led to more laughter. Also, due to heavy laughter, we had one toot and one diaphragm blown out ( and not that kind) the one in your abdominal area.

Here is a list of comments overheard-- in no particular order--

... is kind of Augusty
chicken or tuna salad ??
Are you sure you are not blonde
We got off on something else down there--- both ends of the table can't keep up
Pot brownies--exlax brownies
My butt hurts -- take an Advil
I'm not going in the hot tub with my Belle Soie
My floss never comes out even
Now you made me put it in the wrong hole
Oh, what's that sticking out there. I could see this. It was big enough

Apparently the following comments were made during our many conversations regarding men--sometimes we get a little racy.

Some parts are swollen more than others
Birth control-- tie it in a knot
Only enough blod to operate one of them

Even with all of our hilarity, we did get stitching done. It seems when we are together the time really flies. Our Monday night sessions go way to fast. So Janet started our Saturday session at 3 when the LNS-The Sunflower Seed closes on Saturday. When the first person asked what time it was, it was 9:45. We could hardly believe how fast the time had gone. That is what happens when you are with those that you enjoy and have fun with. Never a dull moment in our group. I had intended to do this report on our stitch session earlier in the week. All of the gals have been asking when I was going to do my blog. So here it is girls. Tried not to name names that would incriminate any of us.

Here is the latest photo of the progress on my Many Mansions Sampler. I have finished the first little house and planted some grass. Also have started a tree and a little bit of the big middle house. Had more of the big house, but had it in the wrong place so had to rip. Yuck!! Oh, I forgot to take a picture of a new start I made. The other day I just could not stop myself. I started LHN-Where There Is Life. The benefit for breast cancer done by Elegant Stitches in California. Got part of the border and 2or 3 letter done of the words. Am back to doing some design model stitching for Anita at The Sunflower Seed so there will be no pictures until they are published. I finished one small thing and have another about 3/4 done. They are companion pieces that will probably be released as one design.

I cannot remember whether I mentioned it before, but my church is putting together a 100th anniversary cookbook and I have been helping input recipes for that. So far, I have entered about 65 and the cookbook has about 400 recipes in it. I have about 30 more to do by August 1st. Seems like it would be an easy thing to do, but we have to work with a template. Some of the recipes have to be somewhat rewritten to work in the template.

My birthday is just around the corner and I decided that I wanted to join the hip generation and get myself an iPod. Morris is going to pay for part of it as my birthday present from him. Last night Reina and I went out and bought a 4GB Silver Nano. She also bought me a case for it. That is burgundy color that you see. Also she bought we the wall and car charger. Then she came home with me and set it up and got it registered and taught me how to load the music. Now I have 223 songs from 16 CDs on it. Love it. Here is my new toy.

Speaking of birthdays, my little dog, Muffin, celebrated her 11th birthday last Saturday. However, we did not even do anything special for her. Talked about going and getting her an ice cream cone, but never did it. Probably would not be good for her girly figure. The photo makes it look like she has a little red eye thing going, but she really doesn't. That eye has a pupil problem where the pupil stays dilated more than the other one. Nothing life threatening.

My gardening and yard work is minimal. We picked our first tomato on Saturday, but no others are even turning. Will be a while before we have others. Here is a photo of my purple fountain grass in my perennial bed. The liatris behind it is almost out now. Well, it is off to bed for me. Normally I work at The Sunflower Seed on Thursday, but Anita switched days with me so I am working on Friday this week. Almost did not know what to do with myself today. Now my days will be screwed up since I will be working on Friday. I have trouble enough knowing what day it is anyway.

Thanks for stopping in to read all my rambling. I appreciate you stopping by even if you don't comment. I continue to behind in reading blogs. I think that is going to be a permanent condition.

Happy stitching to all!!!

Tag -- You're It!!!!

2008-07-08T23:10:00.003-05:00

I was tagged by Martha Gone Stitchin' Instead of Just A Wishin'.. A little slow in passing this on. Still catching up with blogs. Have fun with this.

Rules: You must answer the questions using only one word. Then tag four others.

1. Where is your cell phone? Purse
2. Your significant other? Morris
3. Your hair? Gray
4. Your mother? Dead
5. Your father? Maurice
6. Your favorite thing? Stitching
7. Your dream last night? None
8. Your favorite drink? Margarita
9. Your dream/goal? Rich
10. The room you’re in? Recreation
11. Your hobby? Needlework
12. Your fear? Blindness
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Stitching
14. What you’re not? Rich
15. Muffins? Blueberry
16. One of your wish list items? iPod
17. Where you grew up? Kansas
18. The last thing you did? Stitched
19. What are you wearing? Tshirt
20. Favorite gadget? Magnifier
21. Your pets? Dog
22. Your computer? desktop
23. Your mood? Blah
24. Missing someone? Mother
25. Your car? Old
26. Something you’re not wearing? Shoes
27. Favorite store? The Sunflower Seed
28. Like someone? Everyone
29. Your favorite color? Purple
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Forgotten

I tag the following blogging buddies Julie (October Eves), Marianne (Stitching, Tea and Me),Jennifer (Ohio is My Dwelling Place)and Michele (X Marks My Spot)