Another busy week!

I got lots done over the weekend, most of it finishing work.  First up is the blingy ornament from Threedles Needleart Design.  I am pleased with my first attempt at this type of project.

More Chirstmas ornaments finalized:

And a few more in the process of being finished:

Now for a couple Halloween finishes:

And a few in the process:

Being on a roll, I decided to finish a couple Fair and Square ornaments:

And a couple flea market finds that I just couldn't throw away after scavenging the frames:

And lastly, a scissor fob that I finished a couple months ago and never showed off.  Another first for me, silk ribbon:

Whew!  Have a good week!

Weekend stitching

Over the weekend I finished stitching the Bling! ornament.  I had planned on making it into the ornament on Saturday but after reading the finishing directions (several times), I decided to add some fray check around it.  I've never cut close on canvas and thought it a good idea to add some adhesive around the edges 'just in case'.   Well, it had to dry a bit and then I wasn't home most of the day Sunday so it still isn't done yet.  Anyways, here she be at this time:

While the fray check was drying, I added the cording to 6 ornaments:

They still need assorted baubles, buttons and bows added but it's a good start to the final finish.  And I tell you this, my fingers were sore (ouch!) after tacking all that cording down.   I really need to learn to use a thimble.

And last, but not least, I put in a few stitches on Mary:

Happy Monday!

Bling! and my Mary

I spent some time on the bling-y Christmas ornament this week.  Only one more section to go and I can assemble it.  This finishing technique will be a first for me but it seems similar to biscornu finishing so I'm hoping it isn't too difficult.  I'll be glad when this one is done.  The silver thread is still bothering my eyes and I'm making many small counting errors.  Most of them I've corrected but a few I'm just letting go.  They aren't that important.

Mary Wigham has an update as well.  I worked on the dark bird motif and the empty one in the middle.  I only stitched the border in the middle because I was anxious to see if the third motif would fit.  There are lots of counting differences/errors from the original and I was concerned.    I changed the size (reduced the width) of the dark bird's border just in case.  And happily they all fit nicely.  Woohoo!

I need to decide what to put in the empty spots on the bottom.  Mary has initials on hers but I decided to change the pattern and leave them off.   There's still plenty of time to decide what to do here.  And it's fun to be thinking about it as I stitch.

A couple weeks ago, I posted some pictures of my pups and I realized I didn't have any current ones.  Bad me!  So I took a few pics of my pack on Tuesday and will  now bore you with a few . . . .

 First up are the papillons.  I think Firefly is the most photogenic little doll.  It was because of that face that I adopted her.  How could I resist??  River is a neurotic little dude but loveable none the less.  Both of my paps are 9.5 years.

Next up is my old fellow, Stormy.  He turned 14 on Sept 13th and gets chilly easily at his age.  He's been a pistol all his life and it's difficult watching him slow down.

And finally . . . . the beagles.   Missy Willow is my oldest beag.  She's 11 now and definitely slowing down as well.   When I adopted her, her whole face was brown, now it's all white.  Willow is auntie to the 2 pups, her brother is their daddy.

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Shasta is only 6 but one of the laziest dogs I've ever met -- she was born slow.  I hate to see how much slower she'll get as she ages.  Eating and sleeping are her favorite past times.  Shasta didin't want her picture taken outside so she hid out in her crate chewing a bone.  She's mama to the 2 pups.

And now the pups . . . . Meadow is 3.5 and very tiny in stature.  She's a doll.  Since she wouldn't hold still for me, her picture isn't the best.  She definitely inherited the silvering gene from Willow's side of the family.  Her muzzle is almost entirely white already.

Spider is 2 and definitely trouble with a capital T.  It's a good thing he's so cute!  He has a girly collar with flowers on it because he got one of his front legs caught in his old collar.  The collar looped around his neck and under his armpit.  I have no  idea how that happened but thankfully it happened while I was home.  The old collar had to be cut off. 

You can see in this picture the size difference between Spider and Meadow.  He's always walking over her or she's sliding underneath him.  Neither gets offended and it's funny to watch.

Happiness is a warm pup!

September's IHSW

My plan for this month's IHSW was to begin and finish the first part of a new SAL.  Here's what I accomplished:

And, unfortunately,  I'm afraid that's about all I'm going to get done of it.  I got much too frustrated with counting to the next stitching area to continue with this project.  I hate to give up on it so early but that's the way it is :-(

So I switched to Mary Wigham.  I started this one back in 2009 and haven't touched it since the end of 2010.  I can't believe it's been that long.  I took it off the stretcher bars, gave it a good shake to get some of the cobwebs off, put it in a hoop and just started stitching.  Here she is as of this morning:

 

 You can see from the hoop marks where I was working on her.  I finished the lower left motiff, the flowers next to it and the bird medallion near the bottom.  I'm still working on the little yellow flower nearby -- the one that looks so washed out in the picture.  Here's a close up of this area:

There is lots more stitching to do on this piece but I would like to get her finished in the near future (maybe by the end of 2013??).  Wish me luck . . . .

My September WIPocalypse update

I knew it must be WIPocalypse time because last night as I was driving home the full moon was shining so brightly.  It was beautiful!

I'm sorry to say that I haven't worked a smidge on any of my older projects.  I've been stitching Halloween and Christmas ornaments and Exchange pieces exclusively.  Two exchanges are still in process so I can't show you anything on them yet -- both are Halloween related.  I participated in an exchange hosted by Mii Stitch last month and haven't posted the item I sent my partner Heather yet.  So, here it is:

I found this pattern in an old Just Cross Stitch issue (May/June 1995).  It's called Sandcastle by Marie Barber.  The theme of the exchange was Summer Holiday and nothing reminds me of summer fun like a sandcastle.  I liked this pattern so much, I stitched another for myself.  I didn't have any more of the dark linen, so I put it on some coffee stained linen instead.  I think I like it better on the darker fabric -- it just shows up better against the darker background.

I'm currently working on a cute little snowman ornament (times 2) and am almost finished with them.  They just need the words, Let It Snow, added (though I may add a little border, just for fun).

The pattern can be found in the 2009 Christmas issue of  Just Cross Stitch.  It's called Let It Snow by designer Glory Bee.

And finally, I started a new Christmas ornie with tons of bling:

It's by Threedles Needleart Design and is called Christmas 2011.  The silver thread is driving me nuts, not because it's difficult to stitch with but because it's so shiny.  All that glitter is straining on my eyes so I only stitch this one early in the morning when I'm fresh.

And that's about it for September.  I hope you have a nice weekend.  Mine is going to be busy with dog-related activities but I hope to get a little stitching in on Saturday for IHSW.

Thursday 13

This is my first list for Thursday 13.  It's just a spur of the moment post so forgive the lack of order to it.  Here are 13 of my favorite puppy pics in no particular order or favoritism (I don't want the dogs peeking and getting offended or big heads about this whole thing):

 Now I hope this works -- here are the links and stuff:


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!
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IHSW report for August

Most of my stitching time was spent on an ornament called "When Santa Got Stuck In The Chimney" or something along that line.  It's from the 2010 JCS Christmas Ornament issue.

I changed the words from the designer's because the entire time I was stitching this one, the song "Up On The Rooftop" kept running through my head.  I adjusted them to fit Mr. Claus' current predicament:

I suspect the reindeer are out of the picture because they're rolling around on the snow covered ground giggling their antlers off  :D

The other project I worked on was a finishing job that I cannot show just yet.  It's a surprise.

And that's about it for my IHSW report.  Have a good week everyone!

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!!

And the winner is . . . . .

Don't you just hate it when they drag this out on tv shows then break for a commercial?  Very annoying.

Here's one of the Halloween ornaments finished that I want to show you.  I think it turned out kinda cute:

I have another one almost done but it needs a couple little finishing touches before the unveiling.  Plus I finished stitching the Summer Holiday Exchange piece but I can't show that one until the exchange is over. It was an interesting piece to stitch.  The blended threads were fun to do.  I'm still thinking about the actual finishing of it.  I like the pattern so much that I started stitching one for myself.  I was going to wait and do it later but I figured it would never get done if I waited.

And that's the end of our commercial break, now back to the program in progress . . . . .

I wasn't sure how to go about picking the winner at first but after some thought, here's what I did. There were 23 people interested in Quaker Moon.  I gave them each a number 1 through 23.  Then using some old Dungeon's and Dragon's dice back from my college days, I took a 20-sided and 6-sided dice, rolled them together, totaled the roll (6+5=11) and subtracted 3 to give me 8.  Can you tell I work with numbers all day??

Anyway, the winner of the Quaker Moon traveling pattern is Giovanna.  Congratulations!  I will email you for your address after I finish here.

This was fun and brought back some memories.  First, digging out my old dice reminded me of all the good times I had playing D&D with my friends in college.  We would get together almost every weekend, drink beer, eat junk food and have a blast killing orcs and other nasty imaginary creatures in our pursuit of wonderful imaginary wealth.  Second, the bowling case I keep my dice in is OLD.  My grandmother gave it to me when I was probably in 2nd or 3rd grade, making it about 45 years old.  She used to belong to a bowling league and either won or bought the little leather case and gave it to me.  It came filled with some of the nastiest smelling hard candy, which I promptly threw away.  I can still smell it - yuck! - being made of leather, that scent lingered with the case forever.  It was the perfect size for my jacks and ball (do they still make jacks??) and stored them until I needed something for my D&D dice.  And then, of course, the jacks remind me of the summer my brother broke his leg playing baseball.  He couldn't do much that summer but he became a super jack player sitting on our kitchen floor.

Isn't it funny how memories are triggered?

And how odd am I for keeping a little leather case?

I'm glad I did -- this was fun :)