And whatever else I have been up to…
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,400 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.
Click here to see the complete report.
I promise you, I am still stitching away. I can’t share the project, but I am seeing a finish in the near future! In the mean time, I have still been adding to my stash collection and have even picked out the next project I will start once I finish the model stitch.
That gorgeous mermaid is Nora’s newest release, Mermaid Undine by Mirabilia. I fell in love with her immediately and ordered her right away. Her colors are magnificent and I just love her tail. I will be stitching her on 16ct Aida Gina by Hand Dyed Fabrics by Stephaine. It will be perfect for her. I am still missing 2 of the Waterlilies threads, in this photo, but they are at my LNS and I will get them before I start her. I know that I have other projects that I want to work on and finish, but I am really itching for a new start and Undine will be it when I finish my current project.
I have not slowed down in adding new beautiful things to my ever growing stash either. When I picked up Undine and her supplies at Stitches N Things, a few other things fell into my bag 😉
Let’s see, we have the 1st and 3rd editions to the Snowglobe Mantle by Bent Creek. Love this piece, but I will definitely be changing out the fabric on this one. Do not like the brown linen it came with. I’m sure I have something in my stash that will work out wonderfully. Noel by T. A. Smith Designs, Trick or Treat by Needle Bling Designs, Summer Laguna Mermaid by Nora Corbett, some petite braids for the PR SAL, a tea pot needle minder (I love tea pots) and Santa Claus Weeks Dye Threads that I want to try on a project.
These beauties I received from my good friend, Annie. She is such a sweetie. I love all the gifties she sent:
Last week I received these beauties from Stephanie’s 4th of July sale along with my August Fabric of the Month. All are 16ct Aida and are gorgeous!
From top left, clockwise, we have Soaring Dragonfly, Pretty in Pink, Oberon, Storm, Silvermist, and Hexing. I can’t wait to stitch on them all some day.
And my most recent additions are a magazine that hubby picked up for me. He works near a Barnes and Noble and new I was waiting for this issue to hit the stands.
Joan Elliott’s Belle de Mer is exquisite! Can’t wait to stitch this one someday, too and I already have the perfect fabric for her. And the Halloween pattern I received in the mail yesterday is an Alessandra Adelaide Needleworks pattern and I LOVE it! I have been wanting to stitch one of her designs. She had a rough time on her face book group from a not so nice individual and I wanted to show my support of her work. There are several other designs by her that I want to stitch, too, but I settled for this one for now.
So, there you have it. All of my new stash. Lots of things for me to dream about stitching one day. For now I will keep plugging away at the model stitch. I’d love to know what you have added to your stash lately??
I see it’s been a while, but I am still here and stitching. Some things happened in my life that caused me to be off-track. I am trying to get back into things again. Some good things that happened-My youngest son graduated high school and will be attending college in the fall. I wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but we finally found the perfect college and he is excited about starting.
I have been stitching on a model stitch, so I can’t share that one. I will say that it is quite involved and is coming out beautifully. I have been able to add a few stitches to the Passione Ricamo Stitch A Long and here is where I am with that one:
This piece is such a joy to stitch on. It will end up looking very similar to a Round Robin. You can see it here on Passione Ricamo’s website. It is going to be beautiful when I finish it someday.
I also have some new stash to share. I visited my LNS yesterday and a few things fell into my bag that was already on hold. A couple of these I picked up on my last trip, too.
I picked up that last 3 Mira’s released. And today 2 more witches and a mermaid were released. I will have to pick them up next time. I found the Snowglobe mantel piece by Bent Creek. I picked up the 2nd piece as the shop was out of the 1st and 3rd pieces. What a cute piece that will be. And my cute froggy bag. Love the fabric, was bummed that the bag is flat. I’m sure I will find some things to put inside, though. Two adorable Christmas patterns by Country Cottage Needleworks. I have seen both of these in progress on a couple of blogs and I just love the colors! Pink and blue and pink and green, marvelous! And last, Chocolate Monday by Kit & Bixby. Before I gave up chocolate in February, I was a chocoholic. This pattern just called out to me. I love the pink and brown and the font is way cool.
So that is my update for now. I am off to stitch for a bit. What new things have you added to your stitching stash?
I celebrated my 50th birthday on Friday, and this weekend. And the birthday present to myself was I finished Angel of Grace! Woo Hoo! Yep, finished her just before midnight on Friday for a great birthday finish. Here she is:
She is Angel of Grace by Lorrie Birmingham Designs. She is stitched on 28 ct Salmon and Gold Linen Banding, which was not fun to stitch on. She is pretty much stitched as the pattern is charted, but rather than outline all the little squares that were left open on the dress, I decided to add gold beads.
A basket charm, Austrian Crystals and 14kt butterfly charms were included in the pattern. She really turned out beautiful, but there were many obstacles along the way on this one. I truly wondered if I would ever finish her. She will eventually be turned into a bell pull and given to my Mom for her birthday this summer. I am just so happy to have her finished, and on my birthday 😉
So speaking of my birthday, here is how I celebrated all weekend: I had a Stamping workshop at my house on Thursday night and the hostess brought me this:
Yummy! White cake, my favorite. And I love that she had 29 put on it rather than 50. She also brought me these:
Beautiful, pink, fragrant hyacinths. My personal Spring! Every time I look at them, and smell them, I know I am edging towards that much awaited day when the weather breaks and green starts poking though. It’s a good thing I am in the basement right now as I don’t want to look out the window at this moment. And a cute little frog key chain that lights up and croaks.
I spent most of my actual birthday on Friday, stitching. My hubby and youngest took me out to Chinese for birthday dinner and then it was back to stitching until I finished the Angel-almost midnight, but I did finish her on my birthday. Hubby bought me this:
My own little personal printer and it’s wireless! I had the earlier model, but the printer cartridge got stuck inside and it would have cost almost as much as a new one to fix it. So now I have a new one and it’s wireless! I love having my own personal printing for my scrapbooking. And now I can print from the computer, too. Awesome!
I also received a Gift certificate for 1-2-3-Stitch from a my sweet stitching friend, Annie. I am waiting to see if they get the new Ophelia’s Pearl mermaid in so I can get that and her bead pack and threads. That will be a super project to have in my stash.
On Saturday, my Friend, Carol, came over and we spent the day scrapbooking. We did take a break for presents!
She gave me pink tiger ribbon (great for all of those zoo pictures I still have to scrapbook), Lindor Limited Edition chocolates (My favorite and in a pink bag :), 2 boxes of adhesive, (we scrapbookers go through a lot of that) and a set of Vampire Academy books. I had not heard of them, but Carol knows I love vampires. Can’t wait to read them. And all my gifts were in a very nice re-usable shopping bag. I love taking them to the grocery store instead of getting tons of plastic bags. We also went out to Chinese for lunch and then back home to scrapbook. While scrapbooking and having fun, this is what came in the mail:
The items from my Birthday shopping Spree at Stitches N Things. The thread is my missing thread for Biancabella. The Snowmen Trio by Country Cottage Needleworks was too cute not to add to my stash. And the newest Mermaid Letters from Nora Corbett. The “G” is for Ginny of course, and the “I” is beautiful. It almost doesn’t look like a letter.
And this was in the other package I received in the mail:
My Best Stitchy Friend, Johanna, sent me this adorable pin cushion. It’s not small either. It’s about 6″ tall and 7″ wide. The most adorable thing I have ever seen! I love collecting decorative pins, so now I have a beautiful pin cushion to put them in. I have to get a better picture of the froggy pin in the back:
Isn’t it just the cutest? And he is even wearing a birthday hat 🙂 I love it!
So I had a wonderful birthday weekend and it wasn’t so bad turning 50. And I finished the Angel!!! Do you have a project that has been hanging over your head for a long time?
As 2013 is winding down to the last 11 hours or so, I would like to take this time to wish all of my family and friends a Happy New Year! I hope that 2014 is all that you want it to be and that all of your dreams come true. This year really seemed to get away from me. It went by in the blink of an eye. I didn’t get to do all that I wanted nor see all that I wanted to see. But all in all it was a pretty good year. I set some really unrealistic goals for myself last year, so this year I am not setting any goals. Not today, anyway. I just want to have fun this year and not be stressed with deadlines and lists of things that have to be done. I only completed one personal project this year. That was “Emmy”, Emerald Mermaid. I did several RR projects and stitching for others. Even though my “2013 To Do List” was quite unreasonable, I had hoped to accomplish more. So, this year, while I have many projects that I would like to do, I am not listing them. I will stitch what I can and list them at the end of 2014. I have received quite a few things in the mail in the last month, and haven’t had time to get on my blog to share. I have been fighting the flu and bad cough for the last 11 days. But I will share all of my goodies received in my next post which will be next year, in 2014. So for now, I wish you all a happy day, happy New Year’s Eve and Happy New Year!
A while back, Katherine, Pillows-A-La-Mode, won a yarn give-away I had. Here is what she created from one on the skeins of yarn:
It’s beautiful! And the colors have that retro-Christmas look. Great job Katherine! Go here to read more about it.
I am working on Rachel’s RR and as soon as I get it finished I will post a picture. Now that I am about done with the hair, it may go quicker. I have recently acquired so much new stash, I don’t know where to begin…Yes I do. A stitchy gift from my BSF (Best Stitching Friend)
This cute little packaged arrive so pretty! Johanna sent it to me as a thank you for stitching the Royal Holiday on her Queen RR. Isn’t she a sweetie? Here is what was inside:
Sorry about the blurry photo. I’ve always wanted to do a sweetheart tree design, but never knew which one do do. Now I have the perfect one. Complete with a key charm inside. The colors are beautiful. I am hoping that when I stitch this up, I can finish it just like the picture. I may have to get some help with that.
Next is last month’s Fabric of the Month from Stephanie. It is called Bewitched.
It is 16ct Aida and it is BEAUTIFUL!! I love the colors in it. Can’t wait to find something special to stitch on this baby!
I received this pattern in the mail:
It is a gorgeous pattern I saw on Patricia’s facebook page. There is a mermaid in it. I just had to have it. And hubby likes Dragons, so it is the perfect combination in a cross stitch pattern 🙂 I picked up a piece of fabric on Silweaver’s auctions last week and I am hoping it will be perfect for this pattern. If you are interested in this pattern, you can contact the designer Particia Aikin by email at particiaallisonarts@hotmail.com I can’t wait to stitch this one up.
And last I have a knit project I picked up this last weekend:
Hubby and I stopped at a local knit shop on our day out this weekend and I found a partially knittied beaded scarf sitting on a shelf at the shop. It was pink, so you know I had to see what it was all about. It wasn’t even half knitted, but it was so heavy with the beads. I loved it! And had to have one! They didn’t sell the yarn used anymore, so I decided to go with a cream yarn. That will go well with my red coat. At Joann’s I found some clear beads with a copper looking center that I thought would look good with the cream yarn. It’s done on a size 5 needle, so I’m sure it will take me a while to knit. Someday I will start it and it will be beautiful and sparkly when it is finished.
So, that is all of my new stash as of late. Still working on some pidge scarves as well as Rachel’s RR. It is due in the mail next Wednesday, so I had better get to stitching a little faster. Thank you for stopping by and seeing what I have been up to. What have you added to your stash lately?
I sat here this morning, remembering where I was 12 years ago today. I remember it like yesterday. The tv was on, and I was getting ready to take my youngest son to kindergarten. When I walked into the living room, the news was showing the first pictures of the plane that hit the World Trade center. I remember thinking “I wonder what happened to the plane or to the pilot that it had flown into a building?” I drove my son to school, just down the street and headed to the post office. It was all over the radio and everyone was talking about it at the post office. I don’t think we even knew at that point what was really going on. I went home and was glued to the tv, just stunned at what was happening. I was so saddened by what I was seeing on the screen and just felt so sick to my stomach. I wanted my children home, but I didn’t want to alarm them. When it came time to pick them up, I remember just hugging them for the longest time. My oldest was 10 and he could kind of understand what was going on, as much as any of us could try to understand. He was saddened, too. It was such a tragedy. A senseless act of violence. I felt so sad for all of those families directly affected. And I felt sad and then angered at the violence taken towards my country. I will never forget this day and all of the heroes of that day. All of the firemen, police and citizens that did everything they could to help those in trouble. To this day, my heart still skips a beat when a plane flies overhead. I don’t think that will ever go away. And I am always aware of my surroundings, especially in a large crowd. It was a day that changed my life forever and forever changed the world.
The photos I am posting today were taken at my local fire department. They have hung this flag on the end of the ladder every year since 2001. It puts a lump in my throat and gives me chills every time I see it each year. It also makes me proud of my community, fireman, policeman, and very proud to be an American. Thank you to all the heroes of 9-11. I will never forget ❤
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
I was able to get quite a bit of stitching in this holiday weekend. Here is my progress on Julie’s RR:
Sorry about the bad photo. Maybe I get too close to the design when taking a picture. I will make a note of that for when I take my final photo. As you can see, I am almost done. The colors are gorgeous! Her face is a little off as she doesn’t have a nose or lips, but that will come when I do the outlining. I love her and can’t wait to finish her. Maybe tonight.
I also added a few stitches to the Passione Ricamo Stitch A Long, but not enough to take a picture. Only about 35-40 sts. Section 5 just came out on the 1st and I need to catch up as I haven’t done sections 3 or 4. Section 3 should go pretty fast, but 4 and 5 will take me a bit. I hope I can get caught back up before section 6 comes out.
I did get a little knitting done this weekend also. Working on my next pidge scarf for Sue.
I LOVE this yarn! It is Kudo by Plymouth Yarns. I love how the stripes form as I knit along. This is a worsted weight yarn and the pattern is for a chunky yarn. I tried adding some stitches to make it wider, but for some reason, I could not get it to work out. There really isn’t a pattern that would need to have a certain amount of stitches added to make it come out properly, but for some reason I had to keep pulling it out and starting over-many, many times. When I casted on the required amount of stitches and continued knitting, I had no problem. I should have gone down a size or 2 in needles, but I knew that would make it too narrow. So I have continued on and will see how Sue likes it when I am finished. I did pick up a pattern for a pidge scarf when I was on vacation last month. It requires worsted weight, so I will try it out and see how it turns out.
So that was my stitchy weekend. I had fun just stitching (and laundry) all weekend. How was your weekend?
I’ve been pretty busy lately with all sorts of things. Let me show you what I have been up to.
Up first is a pidge scarf I finished for Sue. I used Bamboo yarn for the first time and I have to say that I LOVE this yarn! It is so soft and silky and I think this scarf will be really warm. I had a little trouble keeping a consistent tension with the yarn being so slippery, but I think it turned out well. And Sue loves it.
Next up is Emmy. I picked her up from the framer yesterday and she is just so pretty and sparkly.
I had her framed just about identical to Mediterranean. My plan is to hang them on each side of Enchanted mermaid. I will be sure to post pictures when they are hung.
I also picked up my Fairy Round Robin from the framer. In case you don’t know, I had it framed at a frame shop a couple of months ago and the framer did a horrible job. I sent it back only to get it back just as bad if not worse. So I took it in to Juanita, my awesome framer for the last 18 years or so, and she fixed it beautifully. No wrinkles, no wavy lines and my beads are not pressed against the glass. It looks marvelous! You can see the bad frame job here. Quite a difference between someone who basically used sticky tape and someone who knows what they are doing. I will never stray from Juanita again.
Thank you, thank you, Juanita. You are amazing! Now to find the perfect place to hang this beauty. While at Stitches N Things picking up my framings yesterday, I had a “bag in the back”. Things that I have ordered or were back-ordered and came in. I always seem to have “a bag” there and it’s always fun to see what I have collected. Here is what was in my bag today:
The new note cards with Nora Corbett’s drawings. The pack on the left is for Johanna. Stitches N Things was giving away an autographed card with purchase. I am so geeked to get one. On the bottom left is the Cauldron fabric for my Halloween project and the button pack is below it. In the middle is Persephone with the last pack of beads that I need for her and one of the waterlilies. I can’t wait to start her some day. She is gorgeous! And on the right is the next Santa’s village with JABCO button and specialty thread for it. That is another project that I need to start one of these days.
As promised, here is a picture of the bottom portion of the Under The Sea Fabric from Sunny Dyes which I am stitching Siren and the Shipwreck on:
It’s hand painted and to me, looks like seaweed or plants on the bottom of the ocean floor. When I first saw it, I knew that Siren just had to be stitched on it. I will post a progress of Siren in my next post. That is all of my stitchy news for now. May your needles glide smoothly and be without frogs 🙂
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