A prize package

Look at the amazing haul I received from Monique (Inside Number Twenty). She held a blog contest for her 3rd anniversary of My Mark Designs, and I was one of the lucky winners. I opened up a wonderful package from her yesterday, filled with goodies~ 3 of her designs, 2 pieces of linen, finishing forms, and at the back is a cute crafting tote, with lots of zippered compartment to hold all our treasures. Wow ~ Monique, thank you so much for your generosity!

I really do need some lessons in picture taking - this one is so dark :-(

I finished off my second bookmark ~ it really does look so much better with the B/S'ing .... and its right side up this time!

So last night I pulled out my Love Sampler and I was excited to get back to work on it. I am really enjoying working on this. There is something about pulling out a length of silk and working it through to the end. Endless colour changes can be for the birds sometimes!

And I better not forget to add the 'e' to 'Rud'! I left the centre of the motif on the right open (there is a matching one on the left side of the piece that I didn't scan) because the designer mentions you can add the couple's initials in this spot and I'm not sure if Carrie and JF want theirs to be stitched in.

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

One down, one to go

I found some stitching time on Saturday night and finished up my first bookmark. Yesterday I started the second one.....which I just realized as I uploaded the photo, appears to be upside down. Rather an indication of how my morning is going.....

These designs really look awful until the backstitching goes in and then it seems to spring to life! Funny how that works and yet other designs don't need any backstitching at all. I'm kind of thinking I prefer designs that don't require backstitching, its has to be one of my least favourite things about stitching. That and realizing that I am missing just that one particular DMC colour that I need. How is it that I have 3 or 4 bobbins of 501, but none of 502?

Ah yes, Monday morning blues....

Thanks for stopping by!

TGIF

Do you ever have those weeks where you are insanely busy but don't feel like you are getting anything accomplished? It must be spring fever!

I finished up stitching for the SBEBB House & Garden exchange, hopefully this weekend I can get it finished-finished and mailed off. And I received 2 RR pieces in the mail this week, one for the Hello Neighbour RR and Donna's piece for the Quaker Friendship RR.

Meanwhile I made a start on the first of 2 bookmarks that I am making for the teachers in the study group I have been attending since last September. These are from the book Tokens of Affection and there is a series of monthly bookmarks. I decided to rechart the names in place of the month. Here is a scan of my first one....its a design that isn't going to look like much until all the backstitching is in place. Yikes, the dreaded backstitching!
Have a great weekend!

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!!!

Secret Santa Strikes Again!

I have been actively stalking my mailbox, I really hate this superboxes as they are called, they are grouped together in random sections, and ours happens to be down our street about 6-7 houses, on a curve of the road, so you never know when or if the mailman has been by yet. I am so anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new Paradigm Lost fabric and with it, hopefully also my stitching mojo, but instead yesterday afternoon, something very mysterious arrived in a very small envelope with a Belgium stamp.


The Secret Santa has made an appearance in Canada too! I have been reading about these mysterious envelopes making their way in various spots around the world and imagine my delight and surprise when I found one in my mailbox too, accompanied by this lovely skein of floss and card stamped from a friend!

So no PL fabric for me yet but something better arrived instead! Thank you, Secret Santa!!!

Pretty Scissor Pocket

I've been a bad blogger and not updating as much as I should....the days seem to be flying by right now. Kristy's stomach bug got passed on to me last week but luckily it didn't last too long. Nick's asthma warranted a middle of the night trip to the hospital for more treatment but he is much recovered now. Kids do get over things so much faster then us olde folke!

We had a birthday lunch for my sister's 60th birthday on Saturday, it was just a girlie thing, mothers and daughters, and so much fun. There were 12 of us, sisters, nieces and cousins , hosted by my other sister . I recently was able to entice my quilting sister Karen over into the wonderful world of cross stitching so I thought it was time for her to have a lovely pair of snips to go with this fabulous new hobby (or, obsession LOL) . So I picked up a pair of pretty scissors and made this scissor pocket and scissor fob to hold them. This is from a Lori Birmingham kit.
Back view:Rachel (Willing Hands) let me know that she received my PIF for her. This was a fun little freebie put out by Plum Street Samplers and she said she was very happy with it. Hope your week starts out great!

A very sweet gift

I am so loving my mailman these days, or mailwoman? I don't really see him or her, so I don't even know who delivers the mail. But look what he/she delivered to me from Annemarie ~ one of her wonderfully amazing floss fobs. This delightful fob is amazingly stitched with the tiniest of stitches. I am in awe of her stitching as I can barely see them, so I cannot imagine how she made them! She stitched our initials together on the back, and attached a skein of Gloriana silk in the prettiest of colours, called Autumn Arbor. Am I not incredibly lucky to receive such beautiful gifts from such amazing stitching friends!!!

I'm working at my finishing finishing of my PIF gifts, Monday/Tuesdays are always a wash-out for me because of work in the day and classes at night. Tonight daughter Carrie is bringing her Hallowe'en costume over for some fixing and added touches. The entire crew at the Cancer Centre are dressing up at pirates for Hallowe'en and she also has a party to go to this Saturday night. I hope to get these PIF's done and in the mail soon......I really want to get a couple of Christmas ornaments started.

On Friday, I'm taking the day off work to go to the Toronto Needlework Festival with my sister Karen. Of course there is absolutely nothing that I need, but when does that ever matter? I'm hoping to bring a little something back home with me. Its full of so much creative wonder ... cross stitching, quilting, knitting, scrapbooking.... it will take me the weekend to recover!

Thank you Carol!

Isn't it so wonderful to get packages in the mail from such kind hearted stitching friends! Look what Carol made and sent to me for my birthday! She chose "W" for Wisteria from Nature's Alphabet, which she said was her favourite letter on the chart, and stitched this on 32 ct Autumn Fields Belfast, which is actually one of my favourite hand-dyed fabrics! It is such a delicate lovely little fob, I almost don't want to use it, but of course I can't wait to.

And the back side of the scissor fob is just as pretty as the front:


Thank you so much, Carol, for your thoughtful handmade gift! There really is nothing better to get in the mail :-D

I am still recovering from working in our provincial elections on Wednesday. It was such a looooong day, from 8:00 am and I didn't get home until midnight! Whew! Remind me again why I want to do my civic duty? Oh, yes, the nice pay cheque that will be coming my way in a few weeks :-D

From Harmien

All I can saw is Oooohhh, look at the lovely, lovely treasure I opened from my mailbox yesterday! Dear Harmien sent me one of her magnificent threadkeepers, handmade by her, and engraved with my initials! Isn't it wonderful!!! And she included these gorgeous silk ribbons in the most gorgeous shades of purples. What a fantastic birthday gift to receive!

Thank you so much, Harmien! Its taken a place of honour on my desk right now so I can eye the lovely ribbon colours frequently You certainly brightened up a very dreary day for me, especially one that had started out not very well with a very grouchy 15 year old! Teenagers, who can understand them?

WOW!

I don't even know how to begin to thank Sue for her amazing generosity! I won her blog contest a few weeks back (Redwitch's Stitch n Bitch) and she so kindly wanted to send me something as a gift. She asked me for a wish list so I sent her a list of a couple of things that I had my eye on recently and then told me that a package would be arriving shortly from one of the on-line shops! Isn't that incredible! So of course I had to stalk the mail man as patience is definitely not a strong suit of mine, as I couldn't wait to see which goodie she had decided to pick from my list to send to me.

My package arrived today....or rather box, and I eagerly ran home with it, tugging poor little Stu along on his tired little legs (its a hot one out there again - Autumn weather has not yet arrived here) and imagine my great surprise when I found not one of the items on my list but all 4!!!! Wow- I was definitely shell shocked! I'm so touched by the neverending kindness and generosity of stitchers out here world wide and in our little blog-osphere, it never ceases to amaze, surprise and delight me.

Well my words just don't quite cover my feelings. So here are pictures of my wonderful goodies instead:






Thank you Sue!!!!