Sunday, August 30, 2009

More Pillow Talk

This is where my cat, Pumpkin, slept last night as I worked on Christmas by the Letter:

Mes Girafe is now safe in a drawer until it's time to frame it. I'm playing with fire (fur???) leaving it out!

Today I'm doing a floss toss for a Harvest/Fall exchange piece I'm doing. My first! Woot, Woot! I'm very excited about that and can hardly wait for Tuesday when I find out who my partner is. I have some Gentle Arts Limited Edition mystery colours that I received (as a freebie) with an order that will work perfectly for the chart I've chosen. I'm also doing more organizing in my stitching room, AGAIN! Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Happy Stitching!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

NOT a pillow!

I went upstairs last night to my stitching room and this is what I found...


...my Bichon/Shih Tzu Oscar having a power nap on my completed Mes Girafe. What a brat! Good thing he's so cute!

Friday, August 28, 2009

Fini!

It's done! I finished putting in the last stitch to my initials and the year last night and now it's framing time! Hopefully that will go as well! I just love how the back stitching on the tails turned out. The chart didn't call for beads (horns, hoofs, eyes, flowers) but I thought they would add nicely to the finished project and I think I'm right.





Mes Girafe by Tom & Lilly
28 count Raw Cashel Linen
DMC Floss & Mill Hill Beads (my conversion)


I'm still making good progress on Christmas by the Letter as you can see here:




I want to add another WIP in the rotation to keep from getting bored. My plan is to make ornaments for my family this Christmas so I should probably get a leg up on that.

I got some stash in the mail yesterday from The Silver Needle. Yet more stitching to do:




Happy Stitching!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Progress and Birthdays

The last few days have been very busy with stitching and organizing and my son's 12th birthday on Friday. Isn't it hard to believe how fast they grow? Dad and Grandpa took the boys to paintball. DD and I hung around long enough to get some pictures and then we had to pick up the...cake!...yeah, that's why we had to leave! ;-)

I swear things like this are genetically programmed! Why else would boys want to go shoot at each other and girls want to go for mani's and pedi's! My DH and I actually censor TV and video games (no 14A TV or movies or T or M games in our house!) so it's not like he's desensitized or anything. Oh well, he had a blast, it was great excersise and he enjoyed showing me his one "war wound" or welt, whatever you'd like to call it.

I organized my 2nd spare bedroom, which is also the library and stitching room, this week. I now have so much credit at the used book store that I had them put my dad's name on my card so he can help me use it up. My dad also spray painted this small tool storage cabinet for me Heirloom White so now I just have to figure out what stitchy things I'm going to organize in it!


I've made a lot of progress the last few days on Christmas by the Letter:


Tonight I'm going to finish up the beading on Mes Giraffe and hopefully start the framing process. I found a great tutorial at The Twisted Stitcher so my dad is going to help me frame it for my DD. Here's hoping I'll have a picture of the finished stitching to show you tomorrow!

Happy Stitching!






Thursday, August 20, 2009

"M" Finished

I finished "M" last night on my current WIP, Christmas by the Letter by Lizzie*Kate. It didn't take too much time at all. I'm having issues with my stretcher bars though, and it's driving me bonkers! I can't seem to keep the tension on the fabric taut enough for very long. I'm using stretcher bars because my fabric is 11 x 30. Any suggestions?



Thanks to Daffycat for the great advice on project photo taking! I think this photo turned out way better than previous attemps.

I went to my LNS yesterday and got my Nymo thread so I'll do the beading on Frosty Blue House today and take it to the my local quilting shop to find some pretty backing fabric for finishing. I was also inspired by this post on Daffycat's blog and bought paper bunches to make my own floss tags. Too cute!

Also, more very exciting news, to me anyhow. I noticed I have 3 more new followers of my blog! In one day!!! Woot, woot. I find that hugely exciting. Thanks for reading and Happy Stitching!

Posted by Picasa

Monday, August 17, 2009

Finished Frosty Blue House...Almost

I'm almost finished all the stitching on Country Cottage Needleworks Frosty Blue House! All I have left are a few random "snowflakes" which are single stitches and smoke above the chimney, both of which I want to do in Mill Hill beads. I have to wait until tomorrow because I want to get clear Nymo thread and my LNS isn't open on Monday. Here is my almost finished project:




Frosty Blue House
Winter Wonderland Thread Pack
Country Cottage Needleworks
32 c0unt Vintage Mourning Dove by Lakeside Linens
Supplied Crescent Colours silk threads
47 x 89 stitches
Finished size approx 3 x 5 inches


I'm still trying to figure out how I want to finish this into an ornament. I'm not sure a pillow ornament is the way to go. If I'm lucky enough to have one of you fabulous stitchers out there read this post PLEASE feel free to give me suggestions on finishing!!! I would love your input!

I could also use some help on getting a better, brighter quality picture of my work to show the detail and colours better. Any advice would be appreciated.

Today I'm going to get my fabric set up on my scroll rods and frame for my next project, Christmas by the Letter by Lizzie*Kate. I've never used scroll rods before so it should be interesting! Happy Stitching!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Back from Holidays, Time to get at it!

Well, after a 11 hour drive the kids and I arrived home from Alberta. Luckily there wasn't much traffic and other than 1 scary semi-truck driver it all went well.

I didn't do any stitching in the car with my husband on the way to Alberta. All the herky-jerky freaks me out when I'm not watching the road. Plus, I feel the need to stop my hubby from passing sometimes on those undivided highways through the mountains. I'm sure he wished I'd sleep the entire way!

On the plus side I did get to go to Traditional Stitches just outside of Calgary. I bought fabric for a few projects, some WDW and GA threads, 2 pair of Kelmscott Little Gems scissors (silver and blue, so cute! I couldn't resist) and a little gadget organizer for my little stitchy things. It's a great shop that is run out of the proprietors, Janice, home. She had the most amazing stitching hanging on the walls. All sorts of antique samplers and her own amazing stitching! It almost makes me want to try a sampler! Almost...
I did start a new project while staying at my parents house last week. It's Frosty Blue House from Country Cottage Needleworks. It was so lovely, sitting in the sunroom at my parents acreage, a gentle breeze blowing through, tunes playing on my iPod...I was in stitchy heaven. The piece is going fast, I'm stitching it up as individual ornaments instead of one piece. It's a thread pack and comes with silk threads that are so pretty and shimmery, I've never worked with silks before and they are lovely to work with. I'll post a picture tomorrow when the light is better.
Happy Stitching!