Back from the framer!

I picked up these pieces from the framer's the other day.

Friendship Heart
Can you believe it?  I forgot to sign and date this one -- duh!

Purple Garden
I'm going to call this my Sunshine Garden instead
Lotsa  P O P ! ! !

Tree of Stitches
Not only is black hard to stitch on, it's hard to get a good picture.
The original picture is awful, this has been photoshoped
 significantly to make it look better
(and it still doesn't look as good as real life)

And here is a new project.  It's a Sticklounge SAL with 24 tiny parts -- like an Advent Calendar.  Many of the stitchers are making ornaments.  That's too much finishing for me.  I'm making one large sampler with all the tiny ornies and calling it "A Sticklounge Christmas".   And as for finishing, I plan to make it into a banner.  This is the first installment -- isn't it sweet?

The pattern calls for traditional Christmas colors but I'm not going in that direction.  Mainly because I really dislike what happens when red and green are next to each other -- either you get brown or they visually fight each other, which drives me crazy!  So I'm going with burgundy, pink, teal, brown and gold -- a calmer color palette.

And now to totally change the subject, my Spider was officially 6 months old on Monday.   It doesn't take long for them to grow up.  Hmmmmm, maybe I should take a more recent photo of him?

Happy 6 Months, Spider!

Egads! It's been a month since I last posted. My excuse -- I've been sick and had a house guest.

Even though I was sick as a dog for about three weeks with some kind of upper respiratory ickyness, I did manage to finish the Tree of Stitches:

I love it -- it's pink, has lots of glitter, a bunny and a butterfly -- what more could I want??  It's at the framer's right now.  I found a lovely gold frame that makes the whole thing pop.  Gotta love things that pop.

I also managed to finish my "Purple" Garden while near death's door (and no! I will not point out the errors made while stitching sick):

It too is at the framer's where I found the perfect bright yellow frame (can you believe it?).   POP * POP -- lots of that wonderful pop-factor :)

I have no idea where to hang this piece.  In case you were concerned, my house is not decorated in these bright colors.  Since I grin everytime I look at the thing, I'll probably take it to work, where grinning and POP are in short supply.

As I was recovering from my near fatal sinus infection/bronchitis, an old college friend came to visit for a couple weeks (she had her wooden floors refinished and kitchen remodeled and was asked to leave her home for a few weeks by her contractor).  We had lots of fun plans but since I was still sick, we didn't get to do much but spend some quality time watching movies, chatting, and eating.  Toward the end of her stay I started feeling better and did a little stitching on the Golden Cat (which hasn't been touched in months).  Kitty is almost finished -- unfortunately I got bored with the same color thread and put him away again.

After my friend went back to her practically new home, I decided on Halloween that I needed to get stitching on my 2011 Santa.  You may (or probably don't) remember, I started this back in January as one of my crazy challenge pieces.  Isn't he adorable?

I'm not really happy with the beard.  It's really nice in the original picture but my interpertation lacks something.  Right now, I'm just going to live with it as I stitch the rest of this piece and hopefully, I learn to like it better.  If not, I'm a firm believer that french knots fix many beards and will just add a few to the beard to make it better. 

Of course, I'm just using threads from my stash instead of the wonderful Rainbow Gallery threads listed.  I'm trying a couple new threads (to me).  One is a linen thread (the french knots on his cuffs) from Thread Gatherer called Flax N Colors.   I've never stitched with a linen thread before and probably won't do much with it in the future.  This thread is stiff and kind of scratchy.  It made okay french knots but I like the look of the ones in Santa's hair better.  I picked the linen for his coat cuffs because I thought it would look more like wool -- and it does, but I really don't like the feel of it.  And since, for me, stitching is very tactile,  I didn't enjoy the experience of the linen thread.

Another new thread-type I used is made from bamboo -- go figure.  I used Rainbow Gallery's Mandarin Floss (a 6-ply strandable thread) and The Pure Palette's Luster Solids (a thicker thread like Perle Coton 12).  I love this stuff!  It's soft and has a lovely sheen to it.  I used the Luster Solid for Santa's hair, beard and mustache (a great thread for french knots).  The Mandarin Floss is in Santa's coat, his mittens, and the ginger bread men.  I like both brands and types of the bamboo thread and will be using more of it in future projects.

And in case you're curious, the yellow in the border is Rainbow Gallery Fiesta (a rayon thread -- wonderful shine-factor), the green is a Rainbow Gallery silk thread, Santa's skin is DMC, the green afghan is a Caron Watercolour, the chair is a Caron Wildflower and Santa's socks are a Needle Necessities overdyed floss.

And last, but not least, I finished the next part of my Heart Note Alley SAL:

I have a mild dilemma here .... how should I continue with the flowers?  Should the remaining two make a symmetrical pattern (light, dark, white, dark, light) or a sequential pattern (dark, light, white, dark, light)?  Another thought is to make those flowers 2 entirely different colors.   One could be the light peachy-pink thread from the first row.  I haven't used this color any place else yet and maybe this would be a good place to add it again.  Now the problem is I would have to introduce a  new color for the fifth flower and it's kind of late in the game to be adding a new color here.  However, I really like the idea of all the flowers being different -- it breaks the strong symmetry of  the bands in this lovely piece.  What I'm toying with is to add the new color to the third band from the bottom -- the light colored thread I chose is kind of wimpy and is getting lost between the 2 strong flower bands.  I could fill the knots with the new color or even alternate the fill-in colors (since one is already filled in).  Or I could rip that entire row out and put in the new color.  So many decisions .....

Isn't this what makes stitching samplers so much fun??

Have a good weekend everyone!



I have been stitching but ...

Even though it's been awhile since my last post I can't show much today.   I've been stitching some surprises for friends -- all of which are now finished and in the mail.  As soon as I can, I'll posts pics of them.  But for now here's what I can show you:

Heart Note Alley -- I love this one!

Purple Garden -- I love this one, too!

Small sampler for a Habitat for Humanity family
 that will be moving into their new home soon.

And last but not least I have a new start!  I decided after doing all that gift stitching, I needed to reward myself with this lovely called Tree of Stitches, designed by Abi Gurden.  I'm using the black fabric from an aborted piece that drove me crazy because of my color choices.  This will only be the third time I've stitched on black.  The first was The Castle by T. Wentzler (which came out great but drove me crazy stitching it), the second was aborted, and now this attempt.  So far so good.  The stitches are larger - which helps.  I'm stitching really slowly.  And I'm only using 3 threads, #13 Perle Coton, a gold thread and a Caron Wildflower -- all larger, easy to see threads.  Here's the result so far (actually I've done more but didn't photograph it yet):

I love this one, too!
Are you sensing a pattern here??

Finally, here are a couple pics of Spider and Meadow, just hanging out in the yard:

Poor Spider is teething now and I swear he's grown since I took these pics.  He and I have been taking a puppy foundation class once a week to get him ready to be a good adult beagle.  He has two classes under his collar and since he gets lots of cookies, he's having a blast!

Hey -- I added this later.   A current pic of Tree of Stitches.

Have a good one .....

Stitching, stitching and more stitching -- woohoo!

To begin, I belong to the Fair and Square exchange group and have been working on my partner's squares.  She's a big fan of snowmen, hardanger and the color blue:

And if this little guy looks familiar to you, it's because I've stitched him before.  Isn't he the cutie?  He's also a fun stitch.

I received these square from my partner -- gorgeous!  This is by iStitch Designs and is so perfectly delicate.  I love it!  Thank you Linda.

 

For my next piece, I actually broke out my little sewing machine and used it to make my first little quilt -- taa daa!

Okay now -- no giggling or snickering from the back rows!  Yes, my sewing machine is about the size of a dictionary, only does straight stitches (that's 2 lenghts, thank you very much!) and is mostly plastic but it's "NOT A TOY"  and "Requires Adult Supervision" -- as is clearly labeled on both the machine and it's box. 

This was a first for me and I think it turned out okay.  I had a couple minor  problems while assembling my little quilt but I was determined to finish it without getting cranky and tossing the whole thing (that is, the cute little machine) across the room in frustration.  (Sewing machines and I have a somewhat rocky history that I would rather not go into here.)   I should also mention that I actually did hand quilting (another first and not viewable on this picture) along the seams.  Needless to say, the hand quilting needs some practice.

I painted the dowel rod black (so it looks much better) and still want to add a big button to this but that's basically it. 

I am very proud.


And now onto my Sticklounge projects:

This lovely piece, called Heart Note Alley, is becoming one of my favorites.  It is so graceful looking and the colors I chose are so soothing.  I love it!

This second piece is called Purple Garden (though mine isn't purple).  Everytime I stitch on it, I can't help but feel cheerful:

And this last project is called Berlin Work Sampler by Pelin Tezer.  I just started it yesterday so there isn't much to see yet:

And now for three beagles resting comfortably:

May your weekend be as restful!

Entertaining house guests .....

I had the cutest house guests the last 2 weeks -- 3 little boy beagle pups:

So needless to say, I haven't really gotten much done in the way of stitching, house work or gardening.

I did manage to get one of my Crazy January Challenge pieces finished -- yay -- Jane Austen On Weather by the Sampler Girl:

Plus I spent some time on StickLounge SAL's:

Friendship Heart

Purple Garden

Have a good Monday!

Puppies!!! and a little stitching

Aren't they adorable?  Three boys born May 7th.  We call them Crosby, Stills and Nash -- here's hoping they can sing as well as their namesakes -- gggg.

Puppies always make me smile -- doesn't little Nash look like a guinea pig from the backside?  Too cute.

Anyway, I don't seem to be able to get much stitching done but here's what I've managed to squeeze in:

Homage to Japan by Remy Lawler (a SAL from the Sticklounge) is finished.  I plan to make it into a bell pull.

My pink Odds & Ends by Tams Creations is almost finished -- only one more part to go.  This has been lots of fun to stitch.  The original is all cross stitch but I decided to use it as a specialty stitch sampler of the different shapes.  Honestly, I'll be glad when it's finished -- it's becoming more difficult to think of different color and stitch combos -- my poor brain is getting tired.

I've stitched on some other things but don't have pics of them - duh! - so I guess I'll leave it at this.  Have a good day.

I'm baaack ....

It's been awhile but things are finally settling down and getting back to normal at work -- hooray!  

Now if the weather would only settle down.  We are getting more rain today -- yuck!  The back yard is a big puddle that the dogs refuse to go out into to do their biznez BUT have no problem charging through to chase that elusive squirrel or crow.  Sigh.  And in addition to my dogs, I have a couple house guests for the week.  Happy is old and not so interested in being outside much but Moose is young and full of himself.  He loves to run around the yard, picking up as many sticks and pine needles as possible in his long, lovely Papillion hair.  What a sight!  The first time I let him out he came back a total mess.  Hehehe -- so much for the bath his mom gave him before his visit.  Let's see, today's Tuesday ..... we're supposed to get rain every day this week ..... soooo, by Friday, he should have all the sticks in my yard cleaned up and I'll be hosing him down to get the mud off.

Mind you, my beagles are just as guilty when it comes to getting dirty but not nearly as useful when it comes to yard cleanup.  Willow had mud splashed all over her face the other day, in addition to most other parts of her body.  She, Meadow and Moose had a grand romp through the yard.  When I suggested they spend some time in the kitchen to dry, instead of immediately jumping onto the couch for a nice rub and roll, Willow's feelings were hurt, Meadow didn't get the point and Moose wanted to go back out for another romp. 


Speaking of beagles :)  Shasta is making some beautiful puppies, even as we speak.  Check out that belly -- and that's not from eating too much .....

I'm getting a little long winded here but before I go on to some stitching, I have to tell you about her 'baby'.  A couple weeks before she came in season, Shasta started carrying around this little red bear.  She would take it everywhere with her and protect it if anyone(dog) got too close to it.  The purple bear is her third 'baby'.  The other ones were stolen and de-stuffed by Meadow.  Once de-stuffed, Shasta seems to loose interest in it.  Unfortunately, I only had the 2 until a couple weekends ago when Stormy won 3 more at an agility trial.  Yea Stormy!  Shasta was so happy to get a new 'baby', she almost took my fingers with it.

Okay stitching update ....

I finished this fun Easter SAL from Carol -- and totally enjoyed every minute of it.  Don't you just love the bunnies nibbling on the carrot tops?  Too cute.

Homage to Japan has one more part before it's finished.  Sorry it's laying side-ways, I forgot to change the orientation when in Photoshop.

My "Purple" Garden is coming along nicely.  When I picked the colors, I was thinking "Spring" Garden but everytime I look at it now, I think summer and watermelon.

And last but not least, I have started a new project (can you believe it?  I must be bonkers) called Friendship Heart.  This is the left top lobe of the heart and only part 1.  The photo colors came out kinda sucky -- the fabric is totally off.  In reality it's more a blue-green color, not grey.

Ummm, as to my crazy 15 challenge .... not much happening there but I hope to get back on them now that I have more free time.  

Take care everyone --- stay dry and mud free!