Happy New Year!

I am back from a blogging hiatus and ready to blog again. I do not expect to blog every day as I don't have that mush interesting going on in my life, but I will update with photos of my stitching a few times a week.

While I was away, I pieced four quilt tops made of patches and have about a third of a yo-yo quilt done.

I knitted and embroidered some Christmas and birthday presents. Here is a photo of a small wall hanging that I stitched.

It will take me about a week to catch up on all of your blogs, as well as edit this blog. I have missed seeing all of your stitching projects.

Thanks for visiting my blog.

Beeswax Candles

I'm working on getting my free patterns into PDFs for you to download. I have to reinstall programs due to computer crash during the big storm a few weeks ago--almost lost my whole hard drive due to having plug only on surge protection and not battery back-up + surge protection.

In the meantime, please take a look at this project. If you are a fan of beeswax candles and/or vintage items, you will like these:



http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/freshpastrystand/fresh-pastry-stand-beeswax

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe: The best give-away at The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe-Enter Now!

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe: The best give-away at The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe-Enter Now!

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe: A new sampler chart give-away

Giveaway closed.

Coeur Bonheur WIP

This is "Coeur Bonheur," a freebie by Maryse.

It is being stitched with Northern Lights magenta silk floss on 28ct. white evenweave (maybe Lugana).
Happy stitching!

Robin Freebie Finished

I finished my Robin On An Egg (Bent Creek) freebie:

I stitched the egg in startling colors on purpose, because I wanted to use some of the DMC variegated floss.
Happy stitching!

The Herald of Spring

OK, I know that robins might have been around all winter, especially since our winter was so mild, but I saw my first robin of March last week. I'm remembering him as I stitch this freebie by Bent Creek:

DMC floss (my choice of colors) on 28ct. Lugana

My Flickr is not the way I want it--if someone can explain to me how to get it to be a moving slideshow, like on Blacksheep's (and most) blogs), I'd appreciate it.

Happy stitching!

Scissors

Here's a picture of the scissors that I received in an exchange a couple of years ago. They were purple, but it has almost all worn off. I want to buy some new embroidery scissors, and want to know which models or lines of the colorful embroidery scissors will not end up like these.

Progress on Winter Heart

I woke to see a flock of turkey buzzards sailing overhead. It's supposed to be 65 degrees out today, and sunny! I'm still in winter stitching, trying to get this Winter Heart (Passione Ricamo freebie)  finished. Here is my progress so far:

Happy stitching!

Floss Leftovers

I'm embarassed to tell you that it took me several hours to clean off my sewing table. I had to sort through several projects worth of floss orts and filled plastic bobbins, extra plastic bags, charts, etc. I sorted and put away all of the floss bobbins into their plastic storage containers, then tackled the leftover threads lying around.

After holding each piece of floss up to each storage box of bobbins, I was still left with all of these "orphan" pieces. I cannot match the colors. I realized that the reason I have these continues messes is my habit of taking the floss out of the needle every time I want to switch colors. No more! I have enough tapestry needles now to be able to thread up 5-6 needles with different colors of floss. Oh, I guess I will use this big bunch for something--some kind of motif sampler wherein I can use up all of the colors.

Happy stitching!

Floral Sampler Progress

I apologize for the tardiness of this post. I was in some anxiety because there was a possibility that I'd have to make plans to move to another state. I've only lived in this city/apt. for one year, and the thought of having to go through a move again so soon was very unsettling, along with other family reasons why a move is necessary.

Thankfully, a move will not take place until about 2014, so I can relax and focus on creating beautiful needlework.

I am almost done with the Floral Sampler (Reader's Digest chart). I need to put in my initials in the upper left.

Happy stitching!

Stitching Updates

I'm almost finished with my Floral sampler, but Michael's Crafts was out of the bright yellow DMC  floss that I needed, so I will substitute some other color in the remaining bottom border flowers.

I stitched some on my Coeur d'Hiver. I used some DMC specialty glistening  floss, and found it stiff and difficult to get to lie flat when used in two strand crosses. I'll be using it as one strand for some of the backstitched snowflake flowers.

 

I'm afraid we will have a drought this summer, what with the lack of snow and rain.

Happy stitching!

Mama Sparks Giveaway (Closed)

Now closed!
Mama Sparks is giving away two fabric pre-cuts to celebrate her 1,000th post. Enter her giveaway right now!

Back from Hiatus

I'm back from taking a blogging break. Since my last post, I have spent most of my time either creating something or researching on Ancestry.com. I received a 6-mo. gift membership (USA research only) and have been putting together the family tree for my (grown) children & granddaughter. I discovered that two of their lines go back to colonial America--Dutch and English settlers. pretty amazing! I feel this was money well spent as granddaughter has become intrigued by it all and now has info to use for certain school projects/essays.

So, that research has taken up many hours on the computer, and has made me bug-eyed at times. I have done some cross stitch. Now I'm almost done with this lovely floral sampler from "Reader's Digest Big Book of Cross Stitch Designs," borrowed from my local library.

I had my door paintballed by unknown assailants:

I waited until today to wash it off because it has been so cold--below 25 degrees. Today it is supposed to warm up to 42 degrees--a real heat wave!

I began this for my daughter for Valentine's day, but this is as far as I got:

It is the start of "Austrian I," by Bleu de Chine, from JCS Jan/Feb 2010.

I sewed a casserole carrier and machine quilted it with (my own) sunflower design.

This pattern only fits a small casserole or food container. The pattern is from Shannon Herbert. I plan to make some larger ones. I have them cut out, but need more of the heavy batting. It's so much better for carrying containers of food than plastic grocery bags!

I won't be joining any more cross stitch exchanges. Since my cancer has been declared gone (at least now), I just want to make things for family and close friends. I was so fortunate to receive the following box full of stitching goodies from stitching bloggers Jill and others (will add names later).

I have started on "Coeur d'Hiver,"  a freebie by Passione Ricamo, using a piece of blue linen from the box.

Last but not least, I went through my stash of fabrics and separated the cheap cottons from the better quality, brand-named cottons. I'm cutting out the cheap stuff into circles for yo yos and pie/casserole carriers. I have had some fabrics for over 10 years, and just had to be ruthless and sort it out. I'm not going to buy any more cheap cotton--only the best quality, because I want to make some quilts.

So far, I have completed about 120 yo yos to be assembled into a yo yo quilt top.

Thank you for reading this long post. I will be blogging regularly once more about my cross stitch.
Happy stitching!