And the birthday celebration continues......

On Saturday my birthday celebration continued when my best bud Lori picked me up and took me for a pedicure--and while I was there I decided to get a manicure too.

Here is the results. We both had a luxury spa pedicure. I wanted some nice slutty toes and fingernails:) Hence the red polish. Mission accomplished. I hope your not offended by the word slutty--but you get the idea.

Thanks for the pedicure Lori. I love it.

Then we were off to Texas Roadhouse for some ribs and of course their wonderful buns!!

Here is what was left that I brought home. Tasty.

As promised here is the piece that Jill stitched for my birthday that she "stole" from my stash. I managed to get this framed yesterday. I love how it turned out.

I finished this LHN--Psalm 145:20 last month. I don't think I even posted about it. I stitched it on 28 count prairie grain with DMC threads. Just framed this up yesterday too. Another fine frame from my stash of frames.

Well I think I am pretty much birthday'd out although I do have one more birthday lunch with my friend Jackie.

One last finish. I made this quilt and the pillows for my DIL and son. Here it is on their bed. I think it turned out pretty good. And that is a KING size bed!!!!

Thanks again for stopping by.

Birthday Celebration--Part Two

Here is how my birthday morning started. My good stitching bud Jill--Purple Peacock greeted me at my door at 8 am with this--my favorite Starbucks drink a vanilla bean creme frappuccino.

Did I mention I love these drinks!!!!

So with this Jill and I settled in to do some serious stitching.

Then Jill stole a couple of projects from mu stash with the help of my daughter Kelsey. She stitched these up for me. I just love them. The one on the left is LHN's Virtue Sampler. I already found a frame in my stash for it. The other piece is Heart In Hand's Friendship Endures. It is finished off so cute.

Jill also took me to one of my favorite places to eat for lunch--Chili's. We had some good food and a fun time. Even got a free Ice Cream and Brownie Sundae for my birthday!! We left there stuffed. Thanks so much Jill for the fun day.

As promised here is the finished fob from the Shepherd's Bush kit that I received from Cathy B.

This is the front side. I turned out really cute. Thanks again Cathy.

Here is the backside of the fob.

My daughter Chastity brought me this wonderful Coconut Cupcake from a little place called--A piece of Cake. It was very yummy!!

One of my favorite cakes is from Sam's club. So my daughter Kelsey with the help of Jill got me this cake. I so love these cakes.

After my day with Jill three of our children came over and we had Five Guys for supper and watched Survivor--because that is what we do every Wednesday night.

I also had many phone calls, texts, emails and comments from my blog followers wishing me a Happy Birthday.

I had a great day. I am very blessed to have the great family and friends I have.

I still have some celebrating to do on Saturday with my good bud Lori and a lunch date next week with another bud Jackie. So I will be posting some more birthday fun.

I did mention that my birthday goes on--probably more than I deserve.

Thanks again to everyone who wished me a happy birthday.

Birthday Celebration--Part One

My Birthday is today--March 21st, but the celebrating started about the 3rd of the month with this card from a friend in Aberdeen. I met Bobbie when my hubby and I lived in Aberdeen for 9 months about two years ago. I worked with her and she is the only person I have kept in touch with from there. Now with that being said before I turn a certain age I would start telling people that my birthday was coming about a month before my birthday. So in the short time I have known Bobbie she got the idea of how my birthday went and she sent this card wishing me a Happy Birthday Month. So that started it.

Then my very good friend Lori has been reminding me almost daily that my birthday is coming. Last Wednesday she brought over a birthday cake and pizza to celebrate since she would not be able to celebrate with my today. I didn't get a picture of the cake but it sure was good:)

On Monday I received this wonderful package from Nancy. She is my birthday partner in the Friends through Threads blog. Nancy stitched up this cute bag and pin pillow plus she sent some threads, a couple of charts and the hot pad. Thanks so much Nancy. It was a great surprise package.

My stitching friend Chris sent me this glass cleaning cloth with the sampler design on it and a full punch card from our LNS. So I had some "Mad" money to spend and I did yesterday.

So I ran right to my LNS yesterday and got me this kit from Chessie and Me--Glory House. What was even better I had a 25% off coupon to boot!!!

I also received a gift from Cathy B and I am almost done with the finishing so I will post that tomorrow.

So there is the first installment of my birthday. More to come.

Have a great day:)

Some more finishing

I did some finishing yesterday. Here are the results:

Shepherd's Bush--All Season's Fob. This was stitched on 28 count jobelan with the threads from the kit. I paired this fob up with Olivia--a Gingher designer series scissors.
This stitched up pretty quick I started it on March 12th and finished it on the 13th.

Here is the view of the back of the fob.

I really like how the edge was finished off. It took a bit to get the hang of stitching the ric-rack on but I love the results. I would do this finish again.

I have seen the pendants from the Bee's Knees that came out at Market and I decided to stitch and make my own. I stitched this on 40 count linen with Belle Soie Rose of Sharon.
Then I soldered my stitching between two pieces of glass. I have made similar pendents with other cross stitch designs. I do like making these. I have also used old family photo's too.

I decided that I should put my last name initial on the back. I am really happy with how this turned out.

Here is a photo of my grandparent's that I made into a pendant. This picture was taken in 1930 just before they were married. I just love this picture. It make such a nice heirloom.

Since I was doing some of my glass soldering I made a scissors fob too.

You can't see it here but I stamped the definition of Handmade on this piece of glass. I am not very good at picture taking!!! But you get the idea.

I stitched this Lizzie Kate--Strawberry Sampler last July. Finally finished into a pin pillow. I should have gotten a picture of the back because the fabric was pretty cute.

Lastly I saw a tutorial on how to make a self binding receiving blanket, so I had to get it a try. I think it turned out pretty cute. I will be making some more of these. This tutorial came from the Missouri Star Quilt Company on their Youtube channel. If you like to quilt you should check it out.

Well I am off to do some more stitching or sewing.

Thanks for stopping by and I want to thank everyone who has left good will comments about my ankle. I must say it is getting better:)

Project update since ankle injury

Since I injured my ankle last Wednesday and have had to stay off it as much as possible so I have been stitching. Here is what I have gotten done.

This is the extra chart in the LHN/Shakespeare's Peddler Nashville kit. I stitched this on a piece of 28 count I had in my stash. I used up the CC Clay Pot that was in the kit. I think I will be making a pillow with it.

I finished up my last 2011 LHN ornament--Glad Tidings. This one I stitched on 32 count LL Palamino with DMC threads. Now I just need to get it finished and take a picture of all 12 ornaments. I am glad to have them all done:)

I will be going on a retreat with my LNS in April and we have some pre-work to do. Since I wasn't real excited about this work I thought this would be a great time to get it done. I am not sure why I wasn't excited because it really wasn't to hard, just putzy. I've never worked with silk ribbon before and that maybe was why also. I will have to say it was pretty easy to make the silk ribbon flowers once I started. It just takes practice. Anyway I finished the front and back of the pinkeep and I finished the stitching of the strawberry. Now I just have the pincushion to stitch and I will be ready for retreat!!!

This is the project we will be doing. I can't wait to get to retreat and do the finishing.

I have also been working on my Holy Moses. I am almost 2/3 done. This is the middle 1/3 of the piece. This is a long project. It will be cool when it's done.

So that is what I have been doing while waiting for my ankle to get better, which it has. In fact it is a lot better. Not as swollen just turning color now. Doesn't hurt as much to walk which I am grateful for.

I made this camera strap cover before my injury for my daughter. I think it is pretty cute.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

OUCH.......

I don't usually blog about this kind of mishap but I felt I needed to share this.

Here is what your ankle looks like with a moderate sprain. I twisted my ankle this morning just stepping out side my front door. I will have to say this hurt like crazy. I didn't have this much pain birthing six children!!!!!

So after a trip to the clinic, some ice, 800mg of ibuprofen and this handy air cast plus elevation in my stitchy chair I am feeling better:)

Guess I will be doing some more stitching!!!

Saturday stitching with friends and some finishes...

Cathy B organized a stitching day on Saturday at Rosebud's Cottage-- quilt shop in White Bear Lake, MN which has a very nice classroom. So I got to spend sometime with some of my close stitching buds and some new ones.

Here is a picture of the group.

We had a little show and tell at the stitching event. I wish I would have taken a picture of all the goodies but I did get a picture of Jill and my Busy Needle pillows.

So while I was there I was working on this project. It is the Little House Needleworks and Shakespeare's Peddler "2012 Nashville exclusive kit" I started "Gentle Stitches" on Friday and finished it up Saturday night. I started "Stitchers heart" on Sunday and finished it up this morning.

Then I got busy this morning and did the finishing. Here is my Gentle Stitches roll. I finished it a bit different from the instructions. I cut a piece of wool felt and rolled it up. Then I turned the sides in and also folded up and long ends so when I wrapped the stitching around the wool the ends would meet.
I did finish the ends with wool as instructed.


I added a magnet to the inside of the roll where the spool of thread was stitched.



Then I finished the Stitcher's Heart. I also did my own thing when finishing this heart. I put some interfacing on the back of the stitching and the backing fabric and I machine stitched the piece, left an opening on the side of the heart and then stuffed it and hand sewed the opening closed.
Again I put a magnet on the inside of the pillow where the work needle was. I just like that little added effect. The fabric in the back ground is what I used on the back of the pillow. I thought it matched the piece almost perfectly:)

Here are both of the pieces. I stitched them on 32 count Country French Chantilly with the threads provided in the kit. This was a fun and pretty quick stitch. I really enjoyed stitching them.