Summertime!

I have been shirking my blog duties .... mainly because I've been playing around on Facebook lately.  I participated in a Summer exchange which finished up a couple weeks ago. 

From wonderful Sylvia, I received this pile of goodies.  I love the crab biscornu she made for me.  The colors are so bright and cheerful.  And the pattern she included, Joyful Summer, is perfect.  It just oozes summer and makes me smile.  I love it!

Thank you Silvia!

For my part, when I think of summer, I think sunshine and flowers.  And so for my partner, Christina, I stitched Summer Rainbow from Country Garden Stitchery.  It was a fun stitch .... bright, cheerful colors, lots of fun swirls and a rainbow, what more could you ask.

This was a fun exchange which seemed to do it's job because summer has finally arrived in Pennsylvania. 

Enjoy!

Big Happy Dance

I'm ever so happy to say I have all my Christmas gifts stitched and assembled!  Yippee!  This is the very best gifting-shape I have been in for many a year.  And, to top that off, I almost have my brown Santa finished.  I started attaching the beads and it's going fairly quickly.  Barring a catastrophe, he should get finished this weekend.  Don't you just love the look of his beard?

Let's go back in time to Autumn . . . in October, I participated in a Halloween exchange and forgot to post a picture of the lovely package I received from Janet.  I adore the pillow (that fat little bird makes me chuckle every time I look at it) she made for me and was sorry to put it away for Christmas decorations.  Though actually, I just moved it into my exercise room where I can still see it while burning those holiday calories.  I love the LK fall basket pattern and the pumpkin fabric is perfect.  Thank you Janet!

For my part, I sent a package to Connie filled with assorted bugs, bats and pumpkins.

I love this pattern and one of these days, I'm going to stitch it for myself.  This trio of jacks gets me giggling every time I stitch it.  I love the goofy looks on their faces -- too funny!

And now back to winter . . . .

Tricks AND Treats received!

Just a quickie post here because I've got some kind of cursed 'itis' in my shoulder and it's hard to type (and stitch -- wah!).  I received a wonderful package from Melissa (thank you thank you thank you!!!) for the Tricks AND Treats Exchange over at Parsley's. 

I   LOVE   the little witchy ornament (the backing fabric is fab) and all the other goodies.  The creepy green finger is the 'trick' and is a sucker -- how funny is that?!?

Now I'm off to ice my shoulder :-(

A finish and some surprises

 I finally put the finishing touches on Night Owl this past week -- hooray! -- another ornie ready to go.  I adore the colors in the cording on this one -- so warm and fall-ish.  Making the cording is my favorite part of finishing.  I love seeing how the different yarns work (or sometimes don't work) together.  It isn't obvious in the picture but one of the rust yarns has some glitter in it, giving this ornie a little bling.

Next up is the latest Stitched with Love Exchange.  The topic for this one was Bees, Butterflies and Birds.  I stitched some birds for Lisa who is a bird watcher.  I'm so glad she liked  it.  The owl is from JMD Designs and the little blue bird is from the BBD booklet With Needle and Thread.

I received a wonderful package from Deb in this exchange.  The pillow she stitched for me is so beautiful, I love it!    I think I'm getting a little goofy about buttons, trim and fabric -- can't seem to get enough, how weird  is that?  So I love that she included some here.  The needles, of course, will be put to good use and I have admired the Hot Cocoa pattern being stitched by other bloggers so I'm looking forward to stitching it.  And check out the Canada tote -- isn't it adorable? I love that moose!  My dad and I got a good chuckle out of it :-) 

Last summer, I trimmed my pussy willow bush/tree/monstrosity to within an inch of it's life (from which it has bounced back wonderfully this year, I'm almost sorry to say -- this thing is out of control!).  I kept some of the straighter branches from this trimming and let them season outside over the winter.  So now I've got myself some really pretty, rustic-looking rods from which to hang stuff.   Deb's gift is the first to benefit from the willow's sacrifice.  Thank you Deb for such a great exchange!

Yesterday I received another package in the mail from MiiStitch (who is also the host of another exchange called the Summer Holiday Exchange).  Check out the lovely stitched pieces I received from her:

Can you believe it?? A beagle with a heart on her arse!!  How cute is that!?  I love it!!!  How do I know it's a she beagle and not a he beagle, you ask?  No winkie ;-)    ROTFLMAO!  This is particularly funny to me right now because my little girl beagle Meadow just came out of season about a week ago.  And my boy beagle Spider (who is also her goofy brother) has been driving me crazy with his amorous advances on his sister (not that she has objected, mind you) -- and he's neutered!  I am so terribly glad that's all over now.  But I digress ....

Back to the exchange.  I love the little sheep pouch.  I can't wait to show it to a friend of mine who adores anything with sheep on it -- she will be so jealous.  But that's not all .... inside the little bag were more little goodies:

How wonderful is that!?!  Thank you Ingrid for this super exchange!

I'm stitching something for Heather in this exchange but it isn't actually finished yet, so no pics.  I've run into some technical difficulties with a new (to me) finishing technique.  I hope to have this ironed out over the weekend -- cross those fingers please and wish me luck. 

And here's wishing a good weekend to you!  After all it's IHSW!!