Last stitched finishes for 2011

Well I think this will be my last stitched finishes for the year. I am hoping I will have sometime to get them finished into ornies, pillows or framed by Saturday. We will see:)

The piece on the left was a freebie from Primitive Traditions called Christmas wishes. I stitched it on 32 count light sand with ST Forest Glade. The next two came out of the 2011 JCS Ornament magazine. The top one is Brittercup Designs--Christmas Cat Tree, it was stitched on 36 count cream with DMC. The bottom ornie is LHN's--Fresh Fallen Snow, stitched on 32 count Olive Green with ST Forest Glade and DMC 3865.

This one is from Theron Traditions--Stray Pins and Mom's Scissors. I think I will be making a pin pillow out of this one. I stitched this on some 32 count I had in my stash. I also used overdyed threads I had in my stash.

I am so happy to have this one stitched. It is from Blackbird Designs Quilt book called Weekend. I stitched the model and knew I would stitch this one for myself. I even found a frame in my stash for this. I will be framing it tomorrow sometime--maybe even later today. I can't wait to have it done. I stitched this one on 32 count tea dyed linen with the overdyed threads called for.

I am planning on doing more stitching the next few days but I don't think I will have anymore finished until the New Year. In fact I will be stitching with the girls tomorrow:)

Happy New Year!!!!!

Some more ornies and finishing

As with my Grandchildren I try to stitch an ornament for each of my six children. I didn't think I as going to make that happen this year. But I was going through my stash and found I had started stitching these--I had two done. So Sunday I got busy and started stitching. They were a pretty fast stitch. I managed to even stitch one for myself. I did the finishing yesterday.

This was a freebie chart from Samplerbird Stitchery called Holiday Spirit. I stitched them on 32 count with DMC 115. I think they turned out pretty good.

After seeing Cathy B's Circling Angels by Sheepish Designs (OOP) I had to stitch up one for myself. I stitched it on 32 count with CC Ye Old Gold and GAST Maple Syrup. I also stitched my LHN ornie #11--Winter Forest. I stitched it on some coffee dyed 32 count with DMC. One more 2011 LHN ornie to go:) Just need to get the pattern.

I have been stitching the dictionary series by Cherrywood Designs. I have had "scissors" done for a couple of months. Had to dig through my frame stash and I found this one which I painted. I like the results on this finish.

I started this piece which is Poppy Maye Russell by Heartstring Samplery before I started my seasonal job. Well I was pretty busy working but decided I needed to get this finished. Then I was on the hunt for a frame. Found this one in my stash of frames and again just had to paint it.

I stitched this La D Da design called My Friend for my friend Lori's birthday--which was in September!!! Now I had the stitching done but just got it framed this week. I was so happy to find this frame in my stash.

I am sure you are wondering about my frame stash, well I have bought quite a few frames over the years at thrift and antique shops. I have had to stop collecting because I really have to many but it is nice to rummage through them and find just what I need. I guess I am cheap--I mean thrifty because it can get quite costly to frame your pieces. Plus I enjoy doing the framing myself.

Well there you go for now. I should get supper ready.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

More Ornies

I was busy yesterday doing some finishing. I stitched this BBD stocking--Crowning The Tree on Tuesday and put it together yesterday. I am really pleased with how it turned out.

Blackbird Designs--Crowning The Tree
Stitched on 30 count with DMC
Started and Finished 12-12-11.

I want to stitch my Grandchildren an ornament every year. So far I have accomplished that. So these are the ones I have done this year. The top one is for my granddaughter Emily and is a design by Country Cottage Needleworks from this years JCS ornament magazine.
The bottom two are Prairie Schooler designs, the one on the left is for my Grandson Silas and is from the PS booklet #151--Santas and Snowmen. The one on the right is for my Grandson Jacob and is from the PS booklet #143--Button Up.

I am happy to have them done. I am still stitching a couple more ornies.
Now I have to get ready for more cookie baking and also get ready to have
the stitching buds over tomorrow for a whole day and evening of stitching.

Have a great weekend.

Some finishing, and some stitching

Last Friday three of my stitching buds and myself got together and did some finishing. Chris (no blog) and Jill (Purple Peacock) did the stitching and then Jackie (no blog) and I and the other two girls put all these together. The job went quite fast with all of us working. Many hands make light the work:) Since I have been working we have not gotten together much, so it was a fun time.

I received this BBD Blueberry Crumb Cake fabric on Friday. Can't wait to use this fabric. I have a couple idea's for it. May even order some more!

I was excited to get this Quilt Book by Blackbird Designs since I stitched the model of the sampler in this book. I enjoyed stitching it so much I wanted to stitch one for myself.

So---here is the start of my sampler. I can't wait to get this done and framed.

Yesterday I received these new Blackbird Design books and got busy stitching. I stitched up the small Gift Box design. I had the round box and got it painted up today. I also can't wait to stitch the Christmas Garden Sampler. Actually I am excited to stitch all the designs.

Here is the inside of the box.

And this is a view of the side of the box. It has a cute little raised design. This was a very fun and quick stitch.

Well there is another quick update. Now that I am done with my seasonal job I plan on spending a lot of time stitching. I am also hoping to post a little more often but no promises.

Hope everyone is having a great week.

Happy Stitching!!

Finishing Frenzy Sunday

I needed to get some finishing done and finally found sometime to do that yesterday.
Here are the results:

Just Nan--Jolly Old Elf
I received this pattern, frame, fabric and fibers from my stitching buds Jackie and Lori
when I was living in Aberdeen. So I thought I needed to get it stitched and finished.
He turned out pretty cute, even though I am not much of a Just Nan girl. Jackie
LOVES these little Just Nan's!!

Next up are these LHN 2011 ornies. I have had most of them stitched up for a couple weeks at
least. Now I am all caught up with the stitching and finishing for the 2011 ornies. Just waiting to get the last two designs. It is always so nice when I can keep up with a series:)

When I received my latest BBD Loose Feathers--Autumn I had to stitch up this design. This is the Pumpkin Blossom sewing box. I stitched it on some of my own coffee dyed and baked 32 count linen and DMC threads. I am happy with how it turned out.

Here is the inside view. I also had to buy these Kelmscott Blackbird thread winders.

I stitched this BBD Loose Feathers #3--Evening Shades a couple of months ago. I just couldn't find a frame for it--as I like to find my frames at the local thrift shops, so I went to JoAnn's with

a 50% plus $20 off coupon and bought this frame. I think it is a great frame for this design.

So I am somewhat caught up for now. I do have a couple more ornies and a picture to frame. They may have to wait until next weekend.

Well I am off to lunch with my hubby and then to work for a 12 hour shift:(
Have a great week.

Quick post

I decided to try Daffycat's tea dying method. Here is how it turned out. I will have to say that I like it.

I think I will be doing some more tea dying:)

Hope everyone has had a great weekend.

I have not......

Dropped off the face of the Earth!!!!! But it seems like it.

It has been quite awhile since I have posted. I started a new seasonal job at Target.com
about2 1/2 months ago and have been very busy. I have been working 4-10 hour days and it seems like I just don't have much free time. I have been doing some stitching, but it's been painful to find time to post. So with that I will do a little catch up.

First I am going to start off with all the scissors that I have acquired since our stitching retreat last August. The top five are the newest premax scissors, then another patriotic scissors, followed by the three polka dots and a stork scissor that I thought went well with our flamingo retreat.

This premax was suppose to come with the previous five but had been on back order.

Then of course the Tessa's arrived. I have to say I do like this bright and mod scissors.

Earlier this week I was at our LNS with my friend Jackie and she spotted these Dinky Dyes--#36. I was strangely attracted to the bats on these scissors. Not sure why because I am
not a big Halloween girl, but had to have them for my collection:)

I had some commitment stitching I was doing. This is a shop model I did for Country Sampler in Spring Green, WI. It is Mansion House at Fox Hollow by With Thy Needle and Thread. It was a pretty fun stitch.

I also stitched up a Sampler for Blackbird Designs which is not in print yet but it is really a pretty neat design and I can't wait until it comes out. I will be stitching it again for myself.

And finally here is some stitching I have been doing for myself. I was catching up on my 2011 LHN ornies and I have started my ornies for the grandchildren. I have one more of those to stitch and I just got the latest LHN ornie so I will be working on that.

Also picked up the latest BBD Loose Feathers--Autumn and put a few stitches in that.


Well that's it for now. Not sure how much blogging I will be doing with the way my work schedule is now but I will try to check in once in awhile.

ALICIA is here--who knew?

Just returned from my JoAnn's and look what I found. A NEW Gingher scissors called Alicia.
Couldn't believe it. I was just there yesterday too. Didn't see them then.
What a difference a day makes:)
I didn't even know that Gingher was putting this scissors out.
I had been waiting for Tessa's.
A nice surprise for a scissors collector.

Hope everyone is having a great week.

Flamingo's Everywhere!!! Retreat 2011

Tuesday, August 9th, was the kick off of our annual retreat. This little stitched piece sums up how we feel about retreat.

Our theme this year was FLAMINGO'S!!!! So I found this sign at JoAnn's and had my DIL personalized the bottom sign. How cute is that. She is such a talented artist.

Couldn't resist this cute door mat, also from JoAnn's.

And here I am in my flamingo shirt--also had pants to match.

This is one of my good stitching buds Chris. She just joins us on our first day of retreat and then heads up to a guild retreat. This year she found the perfect hat while down in Florida. Quite stunning:)

Cathy B from With Needle and Thread joined us on Thursday and Friday because she had to work. But she loved the hat!!!

Every year we try to do a group project. So this year we each stitched a piece from LHN's Dear Diary series. We each had our own color of 32 count fabric and stitched a different word for each of the six of us. Then we assembled each piece into this block. They turned out GREAT!! Here are five of the blocks. Cathy 's block has to be finished but as I mentioned she had to work the day we assembled these.

Jill from The Purple Peacock ordered up this cake for us. It was sooo yummy. What's a retreat without a cake.

My SIL made us wonderful virgin Pina Colada's. And again these cute glasses came from JoAnn's. Look at that cool straw.

Every year we give each other goodies. It seems like we give more and more every year. This is a picture of all the goodie bags before we handed them out. I think we are out of control.

This was what I gave everyone. I made everyone a snap bag and then filled it with the things I made and bought. I stitched a floss tag with everyone's initial on it. I also made a lanyard with a pink stork scissors on it and a matching needle case. The wooden floss holder was a family project. My SIL cut out the shapes, my hubby drilled the holes, I painted them pink and my DIL did the faces and wrote the names. I think they turned out so cute but they were a lot of work for my hubby and SIL. Thanks guys for making such wonderful Flamingo's. I also added a couple of staples such as a pen and small notebook and safety pins in everyone's color. I guess I should explain that we each have a color so our gifts are color coded. My color is green.

I also made these stick pins. They are 5 inches long!! Quite festive I think.

This was our goodie bag from Lori. We got two project bags--a large one and a small one. On these bags the zippers have our color on it. Lori's color is blue. She also included some plates, napkins, straws, a flamingo magnet and towel. A flamingo Christmas ornament, note cards and a pattern holder.

This is Jill's goodie bag to us. Everything was in a cute little bag which is at the top of the picture. She marked out bags with a button in our color. We also got a flamingo pin, a clay baked flamingo thread holder, and magnet board, a magnet and a personalized tape measure, stickers and a pink boa.

Jackie gave us a great Flamingo beach towel, a stitched coaster, a flamingo magnet, stickers, a small bowl for all our snacks and a flamingo pouch.

Last but not least here is Cathy's bag to us. A cute insulated bag filled with a flamingo glass with chocolates in it, a Mill Hill kit--a beaded flamingo, a flamingo key ring, plant poke and hand towel.

Now the following pictures is the stitching I got done these last five days.

First off is a Just Nan Whimzi, Jolly Old Elf. I received this from my stitching buds Lori and Jackie when I was living in Aberdeen and since they were so thoughtful to buy everything for me to stitch and finish it I thought I should get it done. I have the frame and will post this again when it is totally done. Thanks girls.

Next is LHN's ornament Baked Goods. I am now caught up with my 2011 ornaments. At least as far as the stitching goes.

I've been doing the dictionary series by CherryWood Designs. I finished scissors and just received the next one which is "Chart". Now to find a frame and stitch Chart.

My last project was this BBD Loose Feathers #3 Evening Shades the Garden. I really like this piece. Was also fun to stitch.

Well there is the update on our 2011 retreat. Fun times were had. We did a lot of stitching, eating and laughing.
Thanks so much girls for the good times.

Next year's theme is: VEGETABLES. I can't wait to see what we come up with.

If you made it through this whole post--bless you. It has been a very long post.