Fair and Square

I received my squares from Paula today! How pretty this sweet little design is!! And I love the blue silk she used for the stitching.

And below is a picture of the squares I sent to her. This was a freebie design that I found online from Windy Willows. The size was perfect for the 50x50 squares and I loved how sweet it was.


I haven't been able to commit to any more F&S exchanges right now, too much on the go, with my Love Sampler having taken a backseat in the last week as I'm working on a SBEBB exchange.

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

p.s. Here is a link to the Windy Willows chart:

RR's, F&S's, and stash

I finished my section on Nicole's Round Robin! Another one is ready to put in the mail and send off to Carissa. I'm really happy with the way my section turned out. I used patterns from two different designs from Elizabeth's Garden and I managed to squeeze a couple more sheep in there because I thought they looked so cute! Here is a scan of most of Nicole's RR, not the entire piece, it didn't all fit in my scanner, so the last section with Leslie's house I had to leave off.
And yesterday's mail brought Ulla's squares for me from the Fair and Square exchange, all the way from Sweden. Look how sweet they are, hmm, she doesn't mention but looks like a Prairie Schooler house to me?!?
And here are the squares that I stitched for her (I remembered to take a picture this time around). She commented that she liked redwork and quaker designs so I chose this for her, which is actually part of one of The Workbasket tree freebies. I thought the red and white were a good choice, since they were the colours of the Canadian flag, which is a coincidence, since Ulla stitched the Swedish flag on her block.


And one more picture, bear with me! I got some long awaited stash in the mail yesterday, my birthday stash which only took 6 weeks to get here! Well we can all guess where I ordered from :-D

And for some reason this one particular design has absolutely caught my attention. Its called 'Of Female Arts' by The Primitive Needle. I'm in love with it and its just one of those that I'm dying to start.

Of course there are only like 9 or so Christmas things I really really want to do in the meanwhile....but I just really have to do this too. If only I didn't have to work for a living! And the kids didn't have to eat!! Meanwhile I'm envisioning fabric choices and floss choices....and getting myself started to work.....

Fair and Square Exchange

The squares arrived from Carol, my partner in Round 2 of the Fair and Square Exchange. She stitched an older freebie design from the Prairie Schooler, and one of my favourite designers! She said she chose a house design, because we are also in a neighbourhood round robin together. Isn't this a sweet design and the colours are just right for this time of year too, very autumn-y.

Thank you, Carol, I love the squares!

Time for a Christmas Stocking

Thank you for all your good wishes for Nick's headache. He is still complaining of a slight one so its not completely gone, but better. I had him to see my sister who is a massage therapist and while that helped, it didn't take his headache away. So he finally relented and saw the doctor and she gave him some anti inflammatories and that seemed to work some magic finally. Let's keep our fingers crossed that going back to school tomorrow doesn't make it worse!

I finished another RR yesterday, this time my Eastenders' Neighbourhood, that makes 2 RR finishes in 2 weeks. I won't post a picture yet until I pass it off next week at our get-together, but I will mention that there are alpaca in this one! I worked on Marg's and we relentlessly tease her about starting an alpaca farm when she and her hubby retire!

So to reward myself for my RR finishes, I have a new start as of last night (and also because the fabric I ordered finally came in the mail this week too :-) JBW Designs French Country ~ Stocking. I ordered the #28 count Graziano linen in the celery-white gingham combination. I hadn't tried this linen before and I really liked the green over the red. But I'm just using DMC and not the GAST thread.



Carol let me know she received my blocks for the Fair and Square exchange. I had fun stitching this square for her. It was a design from Sweetheart Tree from the June issue of The Gift of Stitching and fit perfectly in the 50x50 square limit. Sign-ups are being taken for Round #3 of the exchange. The link is in my side bar on the right hand side of my blog for more info. Please join us!!

PS Wreath SAL

Here are my first 2 blocks done for the 12 days of Christmas SAL. So I haven't fallen behind...yet! Click on the link on my sidebar and see what some of the other ladies are doing. Some are doing the new Cranberry Christmas pattern and others have decided to do entirely different PS patterns. What a great variety!

Hubby worked hard this weekend on my sewing room, it is all freshly painted, and then he installed my cutting table and some new cabinets he had made for me to store all of my quilting/stitching stash. I spent a good part of Sunday moving everything up 2 flights of stairs and sorting through, trying to organize things. Pictures will come, once things start to look a little more organized.

Then we were off to take Kristy and Nick to Zoo Camp at Jungle Cat World for a week at teen camp which means, yes, gasp, an entire week with the house to ourselves! We celebrated last night with dinner out at hubby's favourite restaurant, he certainly deserved it after his hard work on the weekend. And then he had to make another trip out to the zoo as Nick had forgotten an extra pair of shoes for caving which they are doing today. Caving, which also means water caving, not an experience for claustrophobic me but the kids are very excited about it. Kristy has done it before and loves it. I can't imagine Nick will be able to fit his 6'2" body in a lot of these enclosed tiny spaces but....I won't think about that.

I am also stitching on my square for the Fair and Square Exchange. My partner for Round #2 is Carol. I had so many choices when it came time to find a design for her, as she loves so many styles, and although my first thought was of course to stitch a house for her, as we are in a Neighbourhood RR together. I finally decided on something and got started on the weekend. Of course I won't be showing that here although may be a peek later on.

Fair and Square Exchange

My Fair and Square Exchange package arrived from Barbara, and all the way from Malaysia. Look at the wonderful square she stitched for me! Barbara noted my love of Prairie Schooler designs and alphabets and managed to combine both for me in this wonderful square!! I haven't decided yet how to finish these - into a pinkeep, needlebook, or save them up and make them into a small wallhanging. I have finished off my squares for Barbara and will have to get them into the post office so she gets them soon.

Sign-ups for Round #2 are still being accepted if anyone wants to take part. The squares are small - no bigger than 50x50 so not a huge amount of time to do and they do not need to be finished as that will be left up to the receiver. Here is the blog site: Fair and Square if anyone is interested if joining us! There are great pictures of some of the blocks received so far.

I'm still tossing around ideas for a new start and I have been going through my stash looking at what has been languishing ~ so far I have Celtic Banner or Paradigm Lost or an HAED pattern that I bought 2 years ago and got all ready to start on my summer holidays (I can't believe that was really 2 years ago already!). Or may be I should just start all 3 LOL!

Wednesday is finally here and that means Kelly and Chris are on their way here for a 10 day visit! Hubby has booked the next week off work and I have only Thursday and Friday to work and all of next week off! So we will be cottage-bound for 5 days over our Canada Day weekend. I'll won't be around much for the next week or so but I hope to have lots of pictures to show next week! Have a great week all!!