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!