Still Stitching

Lizzie*Kate's Spring Alphabet  on a hand-dyed 32 ct Jobelan in a much prettier pink tone that what shows up in my photo, using a mixture of GAST and DMC.

Here's a better picture LOL!

Shepherd's Bush Christmas Stockings

Two Shepherd's Bush stockings for two sweet little boys... and ready in time for Christmas! Stitched on 18 ct natural linen, using DMC perle cotton, and charm packs. I changed the charts slightly to make them the same, but different, as are these two little guys :-D

My Granny Shower

Last Sunday I got together with my stitching friends for one of our fun get-togethers, what I thought was a normal get-together ~ an awesome potluck lunch and afternoon spent showing and sharing all our crafting finishes and WIP's, lots of fun and laughs. But to my great surprise, this past Sunday's get-together was actually a Granny Shower....for me!

It seems like the 7 of them have been planning this for months, since shortly after I announced my 2 girls' pregnancies. They busily started scheming and planning to make handmade baby gifts for all of my new grandbabies, and then were as surprised as everyone else to find out that Carrie was having twins which meant....another baby gift! And they managed to do it (although Clare has given me an IOU LOL) and presented me with some absolutely spectacular baby gifts - all made, decorated and embellished by their incredibly gifted and nimble fingers!

I was incredibly surprised by the shower and the wonderful gifts made by these amazingly talented and warm-hearted friends.

Here are some pics~

Ann (of Knowledge & Needles)


Marsha and Clare (on the mantle of the fireplace, you can see Anita's newly finished and framed Mother's Bliss)

Nancy, Anita and Marg

Three beautiful sweaters for the babies knitted by Nancy.

Two wonderfully cozy hooded towels made by Marg.

A sweet, supersoft sweater knitted by Clare. Sweater #2 is on her needles and she showed us the gorgeous pink yarn for sweater #3!

Two knitted faceclothes by Marj, 3 sweet cross stitched bibs by Anita, 2 Baby is Sleeping cross stiched hangers by Marj and another lovely Baby Sleeping pillow by Ann. Ann took back her 3 baby bibs to wait until the births so she can stitch the babies' names on them.

Three sweet 'onesies' embellished with a zebra, lion and elephant, stitched by Marsha.


And me in the Granny Rocking Chair! I wish I was wearing my Granny Shawl that Marg knitted for me....in my favourite colour ~ purple!

Happy 1st Day of Summer!

I don't have any progress pics for anything to show :-( Hubby is away with the camera for the week. But I do have a somewhat older finish to show off:
This is Mirabilia's Christmas Elegance, finished on the recommended fabric, with DMC, a little treasure braid and about 4396 beads LOL! I don't even remember when I started this one...but I finished it. It is hanging on the wall of my sewing room, unframed, because if I stick it in the drawer to join its forgotten companions, it won't see the light of day for a loooong time.

And I have been reading:All I can say is WOW! Great book and if you haven't read it yet, run out and buy it. Can't wait to start the next one in the series.

Thank you for reading and commenting on my last blog post. I was shocked and surprised that anyone would bother to read this sadly neglected blog. Your comments are much appreciated!!!

Long time, no see!

Helllloooooooo~~~~~ there is definitely a big echo here.

Its been a long time since I have posted anything here. Not because I haven't had anything to show or talk about....just life seemed to get in the way. I have missed the Blogworld terribly and I have been pining for months to get back to it.

What have I been up to??? Sadly stitching has taken a back seat in recent months, and baby stuff making has been in the works. Because there are 3 little grandbabies cooking away and getting ready to make their entrance into the world in a few short months. And when I think of how much time I have left to get everything ready, my crafting mojo goes into overdrive.

And up first some pics of the baby quilts~
This is a twisted log cabin design done in beautiful bright colours. I love this quilt, it makes me happy just to look at it. Here you can see a pic of the fabric used for the backing. I used a jelly roll to make this quilt, so just used pieces of the leftovers joined together to use for the binding. I like the scrapiness of binding strips like this and it fits in with the scrappy log cabins. This quilt is for my future grand~daughter!

And next up ~

This is from a pattern in the book called Schnibbles x2. I used a layer cake called Lily & Will by Bunnyhill (love their patterns!). I had this layer cake in my stash for a few months, anticipating the need to make a baby quilt.

And then I learned, I needed to make another one when my daughter found out she was expecting twins! Luckily, Bunnyhill made this fabric line in a couple of different colourways :-D
So another layer cake was on the way~
....and a blue one this time, once I found out the twins were going to be boys!

So as you can see I have been spending a lot of my free time here:
But eventually I hope to get back to this lovely sampler~
Heaven Doth Ask, by Brenda Keyes
Stitched with DMC on 40 ct Lt. Sand linen

Remember the sweet baby puppy I showed in my very last post? She grew .... a lot! (and needs a day at the doggy spa)And Bella says hi too
Okay, enough already, I get the hint....

Meet Chloe

We have a new member of our family!
She is actually the same Schnoodle mix (Schnauzer-Poodle) as Bella is - but with very different colouring. We picked her up almost 2 weeks ago now, at only 7 weeks old - such a little baby. And after auditioning about 2 dozen different names, we finally decided on "Chloe". After a fretful first night, she is making herself at home with her big sister Bella who absolutely adores her.
Stu, on the other hand, has decided to be the old crochety guy and steer far clear of this interfering, noisy (she insists on barking at him) puppy-thing. Although he has to admit to a few perks - he really does like her food!

Beware of lots of puppy pics!
Aww, their version of 'spooning' - so sweet to see them sleeping together - next to my desk!

I finally put the last few stitches into a huge Christmas present - whew, this is such a relief. This is as close as I like to be to a deadline without feeling panicky. Pictures will have to come after Christmas once the recipient has received it. And now its back to a little self-Christmas stitching - this is a freebie that I found through Gazette94's blog:
I started off using the DMC variegated thread and of course ran out too quickly. I thought this variegation was the same when I bought it at Michael's but once I got it home, it had too many pinks. So its back to regular DMC - mixing a couple different colours in to try to get some variegation. And I've been working on an ornament for an exchange too. Time to put my finishing skills to work.

And a little baking ~ banana-walnut bread ~ gluten-free of course!

A Halloween finish - a little late....

Thank you - thank you for all your sweet comments, welcoming me back to the Blogging World. I really have missed this kind of contact with other stitchers and its so heartwarming to have you still coming back to my blog. I'm trying to make the rounds of all the blogs in my sidebar and slowly but surely I'm getting there.

I don't have too much to show for my week but my daughter Kelly sent me a picture of the the Halloween banner I made for her last month.
Its called Lost Spirits, by Birds of a Feather and its stitched on a piece of 28 ct linen called Fossil - I think its by Picture This Plus fabrics. Its a really gorgeous brown shade and I would love to get more of this, because I have a couple more Birds of a Feather Halloween charts and I think this works great. Don't you love the Pumpkinhead girl at the bottom!

This weekend can't come fast enough - Sunday is a stitching get-together at Clare's and it sounds like there will be a houseful. I'm taking my camera so I'll have pictures! Have a great weekend all!!