Paradigm is Lost

Well a lost cause that is.....see my lovely motif above? I finished that last night and as I was happily stitching away, thinking, wow I'm really getting a lot done tonight, I may even get this motif completed, but hmm, its just not looking quite right, now is it? I pulled out my picture of PL and looked again at the chart and no its definitely not right, this motif is supposed to be square, not oblong-ish looking. Hmm, again. Time to start counting linen threads. So I started to count linen theads, not the easiest to do, at night, on 40 ct fabric and lo and behold I started to realize my problem! This is a 40 count from I count from left to right and but only a 36 count when I count from top to bottom!!! No wonder my motif came out with such a wonky shape!

Definitely not Zweigart fabric here, which made me remember the mysterious unmarked bag that it came in. All the linens were marked Zweigart or Permin, except for the odd mysterious random piece that were just marked with the size of piece inside the bag. Well you can imagine my choice of language here, not blog-worthy at all.

I'm so disappointed, not that I have so much stitched, but this was the fabric that I had so lovingly tea-dyed and was so pleased with the outcome....and meanwhile what am I going to stitch my PL on? At first I thought, oh well, what does it matter, its PL and the motifs don't have to be square to matter. But then I started looking at my size of fabric and got out the measuring tape again and calculator and since I started 2 1/2" down from the top, I don't have a long enough piece of fabric for PL with 36 ct from top to bottom. And yet more choice unblog-worthy words......

So I'm giving up for the moment, checking out, crawling under a rock and feeling very sorry for myself. PL has got the best of me right now.

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.....

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!

Stitching Update

Its been almost a week since I've updated and I don't know where the time has gone! Its time for some long overdue stitching updates and since the camera isn't cooperating with me today, its scanner time:

Here is my Paradigm Lost start from November 1st, not much to see but its a beginning :-D
Paradigm Lost by Long Dog Samplers, on 40 count tea-dyed linen, using Gloriana silks

Here is a link to the SAL to see all the other lovely starts on PL and Cirque-des-Cercles: Snowbirds SAL. Its not too late to join us if you want to get in on the fun!

My JBW Stocking is moving right along, what a nice little design this has been to work on.

JBW Stocking, on 28 ct Graziano white/celery linen, using DMC


And finally I started Nicole's Neighbourhood RR. I'm using an Elizabeth's Design cottage and I'll fill up the space with some other trees and flowers. So far, so good, I think. I love how the little sheep came out, I'm thinking about adding another one....


I've had 2 sickie kids, Nick's asthma is kicking up and Kristy had a very bad stomach. Something tells me working at McDonald's has its downside - eating too much food there, combined with Hallowe'en treats! Of course a 16 year old will never admit to that!!

Happy Halloween!

Thank you so much for the great comments on the table runner! Really these things are not hard to make, I use a sewing machine and quilt with the sewing machine also. No hand sewing for me! I used the charm pack so the pieces are already cut into 5" squares, so it really feels the work in organizing the fabric and preparing it is already done. And of course it all coordinates beautifully since its all from the same fabric line. What could be easier? I love these charm packs and have a couple more in my stash! I can't wait to tackle my jelly rolls, I bought them because they were a great price, $32 each, and I think I will use them in a split rail design to make a quilt top.

Tea anyone?

I found myself with a free morning yesterday ~ work has been very stingy lately, its either feast or famine. But it gave me time to play with my glaringly white fabric which I have to start Paradigm Lost, which is {gasp} starting tomorrow! November 1st is almost here!! I'm really not a white-white kind of person, I really much prefer warm colours and earthy tones and I have a gorgeous selection of Gloriana purple silks that I have been saving (ahem, hoarding) for PL. I didn't think I liked the way the silks looked against the white linen but since this is such a honkingly large design 363 stitches x 354 stitches, I need a huge piece of fabric. And dear Marg gave me a full yard of 40 ct linen that she had mistakenly bought at a craft sale we were at a few weeks back. So it was time to try my hand at tea-dying.

I used 2 bags of a black tea and 2 cups of water with a smaller piece of fabric to see what I would come up with. And wow, it turned this white linen into a gorgeous shade of amber! I was really pleased with the results. But actually I thought probably a wee bit too dark for PL with my purple silks. So I added a bit more water to the mixture and then took a deep breath and added my PL fabric. This piece came out much lighter, more of a tan shade, I guess between a cream and tan, and actually more of what I was looking for. I guess it was a little lighter than what I wanted, I played with the idea of darkening the mixture with another tea bag, but then I chickened out and thought I could end up something too dark. Besides it was time to take the kids to their dentist appointment.


So here is my final result~ the picture doesn't show the true colour of my final piece which is in the foreground of the picture above - its much nicer in RL. And I'm all set for our PL start tomorrow, my working copy has been made, and my needle is ready. Although I think a couple of the others have cheated and have started or are starting today. Well no Hallowe'en treats for them!

Shopping Stash

Here is a picture of some of my stash from the Toronto Needlework show. I didn't get too much cross stitching stash....but I did buy LHN's Home of a Needleworker, which I have coveted for along time! Mostly I bought quilting goodies, lots of fat 1/4's in lovely greens/peaches which were a great price, a pattern for tablerunners to make using charm packs, and of course a charm pack in some pretty fall prints, 2 jelly rolls in lovely dark fall fabrics, and a great kit to make a roly poly Santa. I took a picture of this cute little kit, and somehow lost the picture on my computer somewhere....??

I couldn't resist trying out my new pattern yesterday with the charm pack. The charm pack is a package of 5" squares of fabric which come from one fabric line. I think this one was called Autumn Bounty. All the fabrics of course coordinate beautifully so it makes putting something together so easy. So for dinner last night, we had this lovely tablerunner to grace the table:

We celebrated hubby's birthday Friday night and then on Saturday went to a surprise birthday party for my oldest sister! And Autumn has hit with a vengeance ~ the temperatures dropped to 0 degrees last night! Time to start on a new quilt I think!!

Only a couple of days to go until the Paradigm Lost / Cirque-des-Cercles SAL starts!

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!

Hallowe'en Exchange from Amy

I love a good mail day, I have been hunting down the mail man lately and all he has been bringing lately is junk mail, the kind that goes straight into the recycling bin....or bills, the kind that goes straight into the look at it later bin. But today is Friday and he blessed me with a sweet little package - my Hallowe'en exchange! This came from Amy (Amy Stitches), who I confess to not knowing before now, which is really another great thing about these exchanges, they introduce you to some wonderful stitchers that I would not otherwise have gotten to know.

And look at the most wonderful sweet little pillow she made for me! Its a design by Heart in Hand and she stitched it on a piece of natural banding and used this to finish into an amazing little pillow. Isn't it wonderful! I really love to see the way people come up with finishing things. Its truly inspiring and always wants me to push my creative limits to try more and more things.



And as usual, stitchers are the most generous people. Inside the cool little Hallowe'en baggy, were an assortment of gifties that only stitchers would squeal over - Piecemaker needles, a skein of Vikki Clayton silk called Pumpkin, a skein of Carrie's thread called Harvest Brew and some cute stickers!

Sorry, no stitching pictures from me! I've been hard at work, slogging away at the last of my PIF gifties and hopefully will be able to finish them up this weekend. Then I need to work on my Fair and Square blocks. Then its back to the Neighbourhood RR. I'm afraid my own stitching has fallen way off. But these other things are way too much fun.

Have a great weekend!

SBEBB Hallowe'en Exchange

Terry (Sylvyrdragonstitcher) received my Hallowe'en exchange. I stitched a design from Prairie Schooler (of course, when in doubt I always fall back on Prairie Schooler) from one of their newest books, #140 Pumpkin Patch. I had in my mind from the beginning to make a sweet bag, so once the I was finished the stitching, I dove into my fabric stash and found some matching Hallowe'en prints to use. I lined the bag with black fabric and found a package of my favourite chocolates to put inside - Lindor chocolate pumpkins!


I have to add a link to my sidebar for the newest blog addition: The Snowbirds' SAL. Dani and Kathy created this blog for all the stitchers who wanted to starting the stitch-alongs on November 1st for Long Dog's Paradigm Lost (which I am starting) and Ink Circle's Cirque-des-Cercles. New members are very welcome.....although the Paradigm Lost members are becoming quite 'lost' - we are fast becoming outnumbered by the Circled group! So we need some help!!! Please join us for the fun!!!

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

My Thanksgiving Turkey

He was finished in time and he was delicious! We had our Thanksgiving at the cottage on the weekend ~ although we had very strange weather for this time of year. Hot - hot - hot! I really didn't like it. I think I much prefer cool weather and bright sunny days, because did I also mention that it rained and rained and rained? Well actually I did see some sunshine for about 20 minutes and I darted about quickly taking some pictures in the sun. The leaves were glorious but it was far too wet to venture very far into the woods, which I really regretted, as I had looked forwards to some wonderful long walks.

Well all that rain did give me a chance to finish up my Harvest Time Turkey, and I worked on a PIF gift, and even pulled out an old WIP, my 4 Saisons Sampler! I had to chase the moths away to find that one!!

I'm afraid though the weekend did have a sour note, one of Nick's cottage friends drowned on Friday night. Nick spent the rest of the weekend with the boy's cousin, they are all the same age. It really just hits home how lucky we really are, how fragile life can be, and what a tragic Thanksgiving this has turned out to be for that poor family.

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?

New look, new month!

I found it! I found it! I know, a lot of you have already had this lovely magazine issue in your hot little paws for a while now, but for those of us north of the border, it can sometimes take several weeks before the Ornie Issue starts to appears on our newstands. And after prowling my favourite places, I finally found it at the local Chapters on Saturday afternoon! Hallelujah!!! I couldn't wait to get home and put my feet up with a cup of coffee to peruse all the lovelies inside. Well, not that I'll be stitching one any time soon, but wow, what are all the complaints about that I've been reading on messages boards anyways? I think this is a superb issue? There are lots of wonderful ornaments in here! So....I've been making my list!

And after reading lots of blogs recently and seeing so many changes, it gave me the bug to do something about mine too. So what do you think? Very autumn-y looking! I found a template that I liked, but it was very blue, which would be great for Winter, but not for Autumn, and I was about to hit the button for presto-change-o, when fear took hold. So it took a phone call to my sweet daughter who is much more computer literate than me, and she happily took over and made the changes for me, before I went ahead and quite likely destroyed my blog. And she even created a cool new avatar for me too! I knew there was a reason I had children :-D

Hubby and Nick were away most of the weekend, so it gave me lots of time for sewing, but for some reason my camera isn't wanting to work for me, so no quilting pictures to post....those will have to come! And sorry, no stitching pictures this time around, I'm working hard at my Hallowe'en exchange. Those will have to come too!

But today is a very special day to me ~ its the anniversary of my very first date with my hubby. We had a blind date set up by his brother ~ to a wedding of all things. That was 30 years ago today, 2 days before my 17th birthday. Who would have thought that meeting would have led us here today!

Wednesday WIP's

Time for a WIP update since my finishes are so few and far between:


Houses of Hawk Run Hollow House #6- I managed to work on this for an evening or two and made some progress on the house and fence, although I admit its a little hard to see. I'll be at this one for a while, folks, so you're going to be seeing lots more of it!




JBW Stocking on Celery Gingham Graziano linen. This has been really fun to stitch on. And its also really fun to thread your needle and stitch along your merry way until the end of the thread! I'm not using the suggested GAST or WDW for this one, just good ol' plain DMC, I didn't think I needed to use a variegated floss with the gingham fabric. I'm liking this one so well, I'm even entertaining the thought of doing it in red also! Crazy, I know, but I'm still anxiously awaiting the JCS Ornie issue, which hasn't arrived yet on any newstands that I have found, so I'm seriously Christmas deprived these days.



And I'm nearing the end of my Thanksgiving Turkey! I do love Prairie Schooler designs so much! This is from Book 93 called Harvest Time and I may just get it finished in time for our Thanksgiving which is on October 8, a little too early in the year to be thinking of it when I really want to turn my a/c back on, its 27 degrees C in the house right now and hot-hot-hot! But I'm sure I'll be much more in the mood in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile all my WIP's are getting tossed aside tonight as I really need to sort something out for the SBEBB Hallowe'en exchange. On Monday nights I have Foster parent training and Tuesday nights a study group, so I can't wait for tonight to roll around so I can put my feet up with some stitching and watch some of the new programs and series premieres!

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!!!!

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!!

Leslie's Neighbourhood

I finished my house in Leslie's neighbourhood...and a little early too! I hate deadlines, I hate the pressure, so I couldn't wait to get this one done before the October 1st mail-out date. The house came from a Jeremiah Junction special edition magazine and I loved the picture of it. I was merrily stitching away when I suddenly realized that it was starting to not look like the picture at all. It was much more orange than the red that I remembered the picture looking like. I guess it was originally stitched in Anchor floss and I used the DMC conversion so it really drastically changed what I working with. So quite a bit of brick frogging later, I reworked the colours and came up with something that suited me much better. I hope Leslie likes it!



My poor Nick has been suffering with his third day of headaches. I really have no idea what to do for him at this point. We have his new glasses on order and Advil do not seem to be working for him. It doesn't seem to be his allergies and he is cringing at the thought of going to the walk-in clinic, but I'm at a loss as to what to do next. And hubby and I have tickets for the Blue Jay ball game in Toronto tonight. I hate the thought of leaving him and Kris on their own tonight when he's like this. Ah, the joys of motherhood!

What's the Buzz Exchange

I received a huge package in the mail late yesterday afternoon from my exchange partner for the SBEBB What's the Buzz Exchange. It was sent from Jeanne from Willow Tree Stitching and she did an absolutely fantastic job with everything. I opened up the package to first find a mesh project back, perfectly suited for the exchange with a strip of bee skeps fabric on the front, which she had made herself! And inside were endless goodies, including a package of Jelly Belly's, a lovely quilt themed magnetic note pad, a card which she had also made from fabric, and of course the pièce de résistance, a beautiful pinkeep and scissorfob with a lovely pair of Gingher scissors attached.

Jeanne commented that she used nail polish on the pinheads so that it better matched the pinkeep. That much attention to detail is amazing to me!

Jeanne's stitching and finishing is exquisite! I am in awe of all her crafting abilities, sewing, cardmaking, stitching, finishing, cordmaking.....wow! And I feel truly spoiled! Thank you Jeanne, so much for such a wonderful package! Your crafting talents are awesome!!



I received a message from Cathy that she received my exchange that I had sent to her. I stitched a Shepherd's Bush design and made it into a little pillow ornament. I really think I need to polish up my finishing skills....

Labour Day Stitching

We are enjoying a lovely 3 day weekend with Monday being Labour Day here and the weather has been perfect! It was so hard to come back from the cottage, it was just so nice to enjoy what feels like the final few days of summer. I won't be back to the cottage for the next few weekends, so I know the next time I go back, the leaves will have started to change colour.

I was able to get in lots of stitching time and I couldn't resist working on Peaches from Little House Needleworks. I actually started this on our summer vacation and put the last few stitches in today. These are such sweet little designs! The fabric you see with it is part of the finishing kit, along with the ribbon and the linen, that I ordered from Mary Kathryn at Ehandcrafts Online. She provides such a wonderful service putting these kits together for you and it makes it so much easier to finish too. I have a couple other LHN kits in my stash, I'm so tempted to start another one now.

Tomorrow is the start of school for us so always an exciting day, the kids are looking forwards to getting back into their routine and seeing all their friends again, and I'm looking forwards to it too :-D

G is for Goose

G is for Goose is finished - and he had to get outlined because he didn't show up on my fabric, which is I think an antique white or off-white. I can never remember the names of these colours once the label comes off.

I got a nice start on Leslie's Neighbourhood RR but not enough to show yet, that will come soon I hope. My house so far looks quite a bit different than the houses she and Glenna have stitched on her piece, I hope she doesn't mind.

And I had such an exciting e-mail from Sue (Redwitch's Stitch and Bitch) that I won her blog-aversary contest and she is sending me a prize! Wow - I am totally bowled over by her generosity!!! And I will be stalking the mailman next week for my package :-D

Some alphabet stitching and kitty feeding

Sorry, I feel like I've hit a dry spell in blogging. I don't feel like I have too much exciting to post about and not too much to show stitching-wise. I have been working on my Fair and Square exchange for my partner, Carol, and I have finished up my squares, but can't show them yet. I have also finished up my exchange for the What's the Buzz exchange, but can't show that either.... so this is going to be a not very exciting post picture-wise.

However Harmien has gotten me very excited about stitching on my Carriage House Sampling Alphabet, after seeing her progress on hers on her blog: XStitch.nl. So I dug mine out of its bag, with a few litttle moths flying out with it. Darn, I realized before I could start in with the fun stuff, I had to outline a few more alphabet blocks, so it was back to 3371 for me!


Alphabet Blocks by Carriage House Samplings on 40 ct Newcastle antique white linen, stitched with a mixture of DMC and GAST

The kids are back from Zoo Camp, where they had a fantastic time! Here are a couple of pictures they brought back. The first is Nick feeding Mama Tiger a little snack:


and Kristy looking after the 3 month old baby: