An ornament and Great News!

I received Leah's ornament from the Prairie Schooler exchange. Isn't he amazing! She did a fantastic job with the stitching, he's actually quite a tiny thing as he is stitched on what looks like 40 ct fabric. I'm so happy with this exchange and I hope Leah receives the ornament from me soon.


I edited this post to change the original pic to one that I swiped from Leah. And I included the PS ornie I stitched for her.


Thanks for everyone's comments on my Blackbird finish! These are great designs to work on, and not as time consuming as most of what I take on. Barbara, if you are interested in joining our SAL, please leave your e-mail and I'll have Eva (moderator exceptionale) send you an invitation to the forum.

As Vonna mentioned, I think I have high octane on my turbo-needles (I love that comment!) as I'm just finishing up with Lynn's RR. I hope to have a picture of the finished piece by the weekend. Now just 2 more RR's to catch up with....my Guild one, which is still in the early stages so should be quick to do, and Ann's Neighbourhood, and I already have the design picked out and ready to start.

It was definitely a great day for good news ~ Carrie was offered a job at the new Durham Regional Cancer Centre as a radiation therapist. This was her first choice for jobs actually so she is absolutely thrilled! This is a new centre that is opening up in the spring of next year, so on the downside, she won't be starting until sometime between March and May, but on the upside, its only a 10 minute drive away. No worries about commuting to Toronto for a job! And on top of that, she was also offered a position on a scrapbook design team. I don't have the details of the name, but I'm sure its all on her blog. So she will have something to keep her busy until the paying job starts!

When This You See

When This You See, by Blackbird Designs
Stitched on 32 ct Antique Ivory Belfast with DMC, GAST and WDW threads.
August 1st-November 26, 2006

I'm one of the last ones in our SAL to finish this.....but its done! This was a very pleasant piece to stitch on and I'm hooked now on Blackbird Designs. The more I see of them, the most I like. Well I guess that can be said for most cross stitch designers, at least where I'm concerned. I'm hoping to get this in to be framed next week along with a couple of other pieces....

Our next Blackbird SAL starts in January, its still up in the air if we start on January 1st or later on, to give everyone a chance to get their materials. The next piece is going to be Garden of Life. And since I joined Needlecraft Corner's Loose Feathers Club, I already have all my supplies so I'm ready to start. All others interested in joining us?

A Finished Finish

Happy Thanksgiving to all my US friends!

Kelly and Chris made the 13 hour drive to New York from North Carolina yesterday to visit with Chris' family. And of course mother that I am, I was very happy to get the phone call that they had arrived safely. I'm sure they are feeling very full right now after a big turkey dinner.












My Noah's Ark bellpull was finally completed and handed off to baby Scarlett the other day. My sister had a family lunch at her new house for all the 'girls' and it was a perfect chance for me to give my niece the baby gift I had made. Being a cross stitcher herself, she was very pleased and I was very relieved!


















And I finished up all the sewing on the Christmas towels I had been working on. I made 8 in total and gave 5 of them as gifts to my sisters and cousins. So that leaves 3 left, one for me and Carrie and Kelly.

And I have to post this picture of Scarlett. She is just such a sweetheart with the biggest blue eyes ever. As you can see from the picture, Carrie really just didn't want to put her down!


Tonight is 4 Saisons night - I'm hoping to get a little more accomplished so I can show an update.

A Finish!

Bent Creek Snappers
on 32 ct Platinum linen, using DMC, GAST and WDW thread.

Started on January 1st, 2006 ~ Finished on November 18, 2006

Whew, a larger finish for me! I'm very happy with the way this turned out. I used two sets of buttons from Dress It Up sets, hearts around the border and teeny tiny buttons in the blocks themselves, instead of using the snaps that came with the patterns. These are really sweet and I will have to use them again.

And I got my parcel mailed out for the Prairie Schooler board ornament exchange. I took a scan of the ornament also and as soon as the recipient receives it, I'll post it.

I'm still looking for 4 more people for my Pay it Forwards. I'm afraid I joined in this too late and everyone has already signed on. Vonna has suggested a sideways swap, so even though you have already signed on with someone, feel free to join mine also!

Paying it forwards

I've been bitten! I've been reading about this for a while, on everyone's blog, but with Christmas just around the corner, I decided it was time for me to plunge in too.

I signed up on Rachel's blog to receive a handcrafted item. Now I'm going to "pay it forward" to the first 5 people who comment here and tell me that they would like to receive something from me. I will send you some form of needlework, and in return, you will add this same offer to your blog. Most folks are giving themselves a 365 day deadline to complete all five gifts, which sounds reasonable (though hopefully we won't need the whole year!).

Please comment, then email me (wjbolduc @ rogers.com) with your snail mail address so I will know where to send your gift, then quick like a bunny go post your own pay it forward offer! This will be a fun exercise in stitching and giving.

I love a parade

On Saturday night, we went to the local Santa Claus parade. We have no little children in the house any more to see Santa and pass along their letters, but it is so much fun to see all the floats and everyone who takes part. I love the night time parades, with all the lights and the music.

















Here are Carrie and Jean-Francois, bundled up as it was a little chilly.














I love a pipe band, and there were a couple of brass bands too.














And what's a parade without clowns on scooters?


But it was definitely getting very cold so we were very glad to see Santa finally show up!















Brrrr, we even have snow this morning. Winter is definitely on the way.

Project Bag

I picked this cool pattern up the other day at the local quilt shop. It was to make a project tote bag and the kit actually included all the fabrics that I am using for my Guild sewing box. So ... well of'course I had to buy it!

I decided to make it first with some fabrics from my stash, because I didn't trust myself to make it with the sewing box fabrics, figuring I would destroy the whole thing and then wind up having to buy another metre of two of fabric.

But this thing sewed up so quickly and easily and its so cool!












There are 2 pockets on the outside of the tote, for storing scissors and assorted other goodies. On the inside, you actually sew in 6 of the large size Ziploc baggies (have I mentioned how much I love Ziploc baggies?) and these are great for keeping all your threads and miscellaneous goodies needed for a project.

There are Velcro ties to hold everything all in together, and voila! you're good to go! I love it. Now that I've made it once, I feel comfortable making it with the good fabric, but I love the batiks that I used for the first one too. Well I usually have more then one project on the go at a time, so I really need several more....;-D

The Graduate

We attended Carrie's graduation ceremony at the University of Toronto yesterday. What a wonderful moment for parents to see! The ceremony was held at Convocation Hall, a 99 year old building, which was also thankfully very warm, since I spent the previous 50 minutes waiting outside for Rick to come from work, try to find a parking place in downtown Toronto (a near impossible task) and find the hall where I was waiting with his ticket.

Really the ceremony was over too fast, given that Carrie had spent the past 5 years studying so hard. So now she officially has her Bachelor of Science Honours degree, with her diploma in Medical Radiation Sciences. Here is a picture of the graduates - Carrie in the centre with her friends Deb and Joanna.

And of course a picture with her mum and dad, too!

My letter K

I read this on Christine's blog and thought it would be a fun thing to try. She kindly assigned me a 'K' and I copied the instructions pretty much directly from her site (sorry :-)

So:
Comment to this message and I will assign you a letter of the alphabet. Then go to your journal and post a list of 10 words that begin with this letter and what they mean to you.

Here goes:

1. K ~ Kelly, of course, my almost 21 year old daughter, is the very first person who comes to mind.

2. K ~ Kids, and I have 3 of 'em!

3. K ~ Karen, my oldest sister, who started me off on quilting and whom I have finally managed to drag over to the dark (but enlightened) side of cross stitch.

4. K ~ Kelsey, daughter Carrie's doggy who lives with us now. She is a Schnoodle and a wonderfully loving doggy, except that hubby keeps threatening to have her 'barker' removed.

5. K ~ Kitty cats, I love 'em but can't have them in the house because of hubby's dreadful allergy to them.

6. K ~ Kits, meaning cross stitch ones, that is, I still buy them even if it means I swap out the fabric and even the floss sometimes.

7. K ~ Knit, another hobby which I love to do but too many other things just get in the way.

8. K ~ Kangeroo, do you know I have never actually seen one of these guys in real life? Well not at any zoos, that is.

9. K ~ Knees, which I am starting to feel a little more tonight, especially since I started back on my 30 minute walks.

10. K ~ Kiss, this one thanks to Carrie, because you know all I seem to be able to think of are C-words? But this one means a lot to me too, so its best left for the end.

Whew .... I did it, and it was harder than I thought. I think its time for bed!

My house

Its finished and ready to pass along this weekend at our stitching get-together. This is my house for the neighbourhood RR that my stitching friends are starting up. It is a Prairie Schooler design, of course, as that's all I seem to be stitching these days.

And last night I finished the stitching on my PS ornament for the exchange that's due out in another 10 days. Now I'm sure its going to take me the rest of the 10 days to figure out exactly how to finish it. No pictures, the recipient may be reading this!

And I'm back on to B is for Blackbird, 22 blocks complete....4 left to go.

But today is Thursday which means its "Saisons" night. The past 2 weeks I've been working on the tree which means it looks like very little progress has been made, so no pics on that one recently either, sigh, its such a huge piece but I love it.

Scrapbook Layouts

I had a great weekend - scrapbooking with my sisters. Here are pics of the 2 layouts I managed to get accomplished. I'm slow - I think I only have about 9,999 pictures left to do! My sister Elaine and I drove to our sister Karen's house in Kitchener and spent the entire day in her new craft room (complete with a well stocked fridge).


We spent the night and then went to Len's Mill where I picked up some absolutely gorgeous fabric to use for my Prairie Schooler blocks that I want to make into a quilt. I'm so excited to get going on this quilt finally, but I still have 4 blocks left to finish in the series. Where are those turbo needles when you need them? Len's Mill is such a great place for fabrics, there is just an endless assortment of everything you can think of sewing-wise. Now they have also increased their scrapbooking section as well, so we ended up spending a fair bit of time (and money) there before we headed out to come back home.

And stitching-wise I got a good start on my Prairie Schooler ornament for the exchange coming up!

Two New Finishes

My latest Prairie Schooler 2 finishes ~ C and D. I finished up C last night at the Guild meeting, I finally had a missing skein of floss that was needed for the grassy areas. And I did make some rather drastic changes to the 'D' block, to make it suit my taste a little more.

I'm so excited to see the end of this series - 2+ years and counting later. I have only A, B, Y and Z left to do (I started with X is for Cross Stitch and worked my way backwards since Y and Z were not released yet). That means 20 blocks! Do you think its time to start shopping for fabric to make these into a quilt?

Meanwhile I have become a crazed Prairie Schooler fan and can't wait for any of their new releases to come out. Which reminds me, I have a Christmas ornament to make for the PS Board, and the deadline is fast approaching.