Paradigm Lost and Love

I spent last night working on Paradigm Lost...still working on this huge motif that I've been at the past month. I'm thinking this one will be in the works for months at the rate I'm going. I have to admit its a little discouraging to spend a good part of the evening stitching and see such a little bit get accomplished. Well I guess it doesn't help that I had to frog the end section, not once, but twice! I should comment on the amazing recuperative power of Gloriana silk - its awesome. Most threads would have crumbled away after being pulled out bit by bit but not this stuff. Its like the Energizer bunny, its just keeps going and going, no matter how many times I pulled it back out and re-used it.

I've been asking Carrie to pick a wedding sampler for me to stitch for her and JF and she settled on a gorgeous one, and it really is one that suits them so very well. Its Papillon Creations Love with a Capital L:

Beautiful! But .... humongous! I almost fell over when I saw the stitch count ~ 260 x 434! And I'm hoping to have this done and framed for the wedding in September .... of this year! I guess if I could put in some stitching all-nighters, for a month or two LOL.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Carol's RR

I've been making good progress on my section on Carol's RR. You can see her house to the right of mine and below mine is Nicole's lovely addition. I'm using Elizabeth's Design Gardener's Cottage. Its a little larger than I would have liked, but I like the lighter colour, I thought it would be a good contrast to the 2 red/darker houses. I'll have some room to add some trees, flowers, etc. too, I'll have to decide which to add.

I finally got my Friendship Quaker chart in yesterday's mail. What is with the slow mail these days? I am still waiting for my partner to receive her Valentine's exchange. It has me worried that it is taking so long. I know it had to go overseas, but really by slow boat?

And for those of you who asked, no the doggies do not keep me company in bed with my potato chips. Now that hubby would definitely not tolerate. Although Kelsey has been known to take his place once he gets up in the morning, but no one is ever the wiser!

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow....and a tag

I'm happy dancing....I finished the dreaded Block 5! So much black.....egads! This was certainly a block that I looked forward to finishing as it is completely filled with stitching. I'm almost ashamed to say that I started it last summer while on holiday, but most of the fall it was ignored. The idea of stitching this one was more daunting than I realized. So hallelujah, its done!

And since I was tagged by Lynn, here it is:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged

How do I come up with 7 weird facts about myself....there must be at least 70!

1. I am a very anal stitcher when it comes to my thread. I use it all! Yes all of it, down to the very last cm. It makes it difficult sometimes to get that end threaded through on the back but I've become quite a pro at it. On the other hand, when I only have 1-2 stitches left and not a very long piece, I can't see the point of rethreading. Yes, I guess I am a thread miser.

2. I like to fondle my fabrics ~ that's not too weird is it? Stitching fabrics, quilting fabrics, it makes no difference, but if I don't feel like stitching or quilting or knitting, which is rare, then I quite happily play with my fabrics, sort through them, refold them, and see what I may possibly need in the year 2050.

3. I'm a newshound and I usually always have a news program on during the day...no soaps for me!

4. I have 4 doggies in my house and I would have more if I could...only I think hubby would find a new place to live.

5. I love to work in the morning, the earlier the better, but afternoons kill me.

6. When I'm upset, I like to curl up in bed with a good book and a bag of potato chips. Something else hubby isn't too happy about.

7. I'm currently learning therapeutic touch and hands-on healing.

Yup, that's it for now...hope you're not too weirded out, LOL!

Quilting...and a mail surprise

Sewing...that's about all this drab weather is making me want to do these days. So I dug into some 5" charm packs that I bought a while ago and decided to make a lap sized quilt for our cottage. I only had 2 packs of 32 pieces each, so I needed to add a little onto each charm piece or this lap quilt would be baby-sized!




Its amazing really how fast this has gone together, I think having all those charm pieces pre-cut makes a big difference. I have the entire thing put together, I made a 7 x 10 sized quilt, as I dug into my stash and found a few more brushed cottons that fit in very nicely so I could make this a wee bit bigger.

On the stitching front, I have been working on my Fair & Square blocks so can't show those. And to soothe my ruffled feathers since Carrie and JF have left for Las Vegas....without us.... I made a wee order to Needlecraft Corner. I admit it, I couldn't resist all the fantastic new things coming out from the Nashville Show. I ordered one of the new Blackbird Designs books, the Goode Huswife Book of Designs, and Quaker Turtles by With My Needle. I am so looking forwards to getting all these goodies in the mail, hopefully with the Blackbird Design Loose Feathers piece too, since I am on automatic for that.

I almost forgot, I joined in the Quaker Friendship RR that Edgar set up, so the pattern is on its way for that too. I still haven't decided on fabric/floss yet. Where's my mail when I'm so desperate for it???

But I did get a fantastic little package in the mail that gave me such a lift! This was from Bine, who set me a very sweet card, and included some lovely Valentine's fabric, and silk floss, ribbon and sweet little charms. Bine, this was so unexpected and so wonderful of you to send to me! You certainly made my day and I can't thank you enough!!!

A new start and exciting news!

Sampler Lady by Little House Needleworks, using GAST and DMC, on 32 ct Lakeside Linen remnant.

Here is my newest start ~ Sampler Lady. Its hard to see right now but the alphabet is done in her skirt, its just the same colour as the linen LOL. I have to fill in the background still. I'm using the same Lakeside Linen fabric that I used for Home of a Needlworker. There's no name for this colour, it was just a test piece that was done in a 1/2 half size and I was able to buy it for a good price. It looks almost tea-dyed actually, and the colour is perfect for designs like this.

My BIG NEWS ~ my daughter Carrie and Jean-Francois are officially engaged!!! He presented her with an enagagement ring on Thursday. We knew it was coming but it didn't lessen any excitement when the big moment was actually here. They are looking at a September 2009 wedding date.

And Carrie and I already hit our first bridal show yesterday. To top off the fun day, I won a door prize and Carrie won the grand prize, $1000 towards a trip through Cruise Line Centre! We met a a wonderful couple who own a resort about 40 km northeast of us, what was once a ski lodge, and we are going to check out the place and the food on Valentine's Day as they open for special occasions.

WIP Update

Its that time again, well actually I guess Wednesday WIP's sounds better but I missed out yesterday. We had a huge amount of snow drop on us yesterday - 30 cm (12"?). Although it sure makes everything look so pretty with all the trees covered in snow, it really makes a mess to drive anywhere until the streets can get cleaned better. And I realized how bad traction my SUV gets, when I went into a slide and narrowly missed hitting somebody!

Today is clear and sunny though chilly. I dropped by the library while doing my work run, and found a Philippa Gregory book called The Queen's Fool. Judy (Crazee 4 Books) gave a great book review on this, and since I have already read The Other Boleyn Girl (can't wait to see the movie) and Fallen Skies, I was eager to pick this one up.

So here they are~
Carriage House Samplings Alphabet series ~ J is for Jump is finished!

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow ~ I made some great progress on this one, the house itself is done sans roof!

Paradigm Lost ~ sorry for the blurry pic. Its coming along slow but surely. And tonight is PL night so I hope to make some progress on the motif on the right.

I picked up Sampler Gameboard again and finished up a couple more houses.

That's it for me ~ Hope you all have a great day!

Valentine's Exchange

I received an amazing package in the mail today ~ my Valentine's Exchange from Edgar. He stitched the most wonderful Valentine's Heart pinkeep, using a design from AMAP Victoria's Quaker and a combination of Soie d'Alger, DMC, Crescent Colours and WDW to stitch this. Isn't it spectacular!!! His attention to detail is awesome, I wish I had taken a close-up of the edging with the lovely lace and cording.
And here is a picture of all the goodies he sent along - some yummy looking Valentine candy, silk ribbon and a skein of Gloriana silk Luminescence, called very appropriately 'Valentines', and John James needles. What a lucky person I am to have received such a great exchange ~ Thank you, Edgar!!

I have already earmarked this pretty silk floss for a couple of Valentine's freebies that I have recently copied off the 'net. I can't wait to try it.

My SBEBB exchange parcel just went out in the weekend's mail and as its flying overseas, I don't expect the recipient to be getting it too quickly, but I'll post a picture of what I made once I know its been received.

February Finish

Thank you so much for all your very sweet comments! I am feeling so much better and I'm sure reading all your lovely comments had a lot to do with my cheerfulness!! The first couple of days are always so rough, especially with the after-effects of all the drugs I was given. I wonder now if stitching had been such a great idea but at the time, I did find it soothing to pick up my stitching and if I lost interest, then I made some crochet blocks to make for the baby afghan. I'm hoping to start slowly back into work tomorrow.

On the downside, hubby and I cancelled our trip to Las Vegas in 2 weeks. I am really feeling bummed about it, I was so looking forwards to going with Carrie and JF as its their first time there and we were looking forwards to showing them around. I just didn't want to take a chance on a recurrence of the problem, since the doctor was only able to do so much with the laparoscopy, and it looks like I'll need further surgery not too far down the road.

I have been slowly reading through everyone's blogs but please forgive me if I haven't been commenting recently.
Home of a Needleworker by Little House Designs, stitched with a mixture of DMC and GAST on 32 ct Lakeside Linen remnant.

I finished Home of a Needleworker and I love it! Its such a pretty piece to work on and so much fun to do. I have LHN's Sampler Lady in my stash too and I think I'll try to start that one next, as I think it would look great framed next to Home of a Needleworker.