Santa at Last

Prairie Schooler Santa 2005
Stitched on 20 ct New Khaki Lugana

I'm a couple of days late posting this but I finished my Santa! I started this during the January weekend of the Christmas Ornament SAL but I only got him about 1/2 done. So he had to wait for this past weekend's SAL to get finished. And I managed to put those last few stitches in on Monday night. Ta-da!

At this rate, I won't be getting too many ornaments finished for this year but I'm still ahead of last year, when I didn't make any!

New Stash

Where did the weekend go? On Sunday Marj and I drove to Ann's little shop Knowledge and Needles to check out all the charts she brought back from Nashville. And of course to enhance our own stash .... a couple of things managed to find their way into my nice little pile! It helped that I had been stashing away a few dollars here and there so I could spend freely to my heart's delight. What made for an even better day, was enjoying lunch along with Anita and her daughter (who is also a stitcher - who knew?) and then having a mini-stitching get-together when the shop got too crowded during the Open House.
Here's a few that managed to make their way home with me: Carriage House Samplings Mary Margaret and Elizabeth. I loved all 4 of the new girl designs and had such a hard time deciding which ones to get...for now! I also picked up La-D-Da's Love is Patient. This is one of Carrie's favourite sayings so I have a good idea what to do with this chart. Underneath those are 2 JBW Designs French Country Apple and Celebration of Love.

I found 3 Prairie Schooler charts to add to my growing collection: Holiday Homestead, Forget-Me-Nots, and Christmas Trees II. And then the 2 charts I specifically asked Ann to pick up in Nashville for me ~ Papillon Creations Ring O' Roses, and With My Needle Ackworth Friendship Book.

Whew, what a haul! Of course I'm dying to start something new, and Mary Margaret looks like a good one to get moving on. As does that sweet pillow Celebration of Love. Too many choices.

Luckily in spite of the snowstorm that was predicted, the highway was dry and the sky was clear so it was a perfect day for a drive.

But here is a picture outside my front window from the other day when a sudden storm kicked up out of nowhere. And from the looks of things outside now, it is looking like yesterday's snowstorm is headed here today.

Guild present

It is my needlework guild's 10th anniversary this month. Although I missed the actual party date, due to the nasty cold a couple weeks ago, look at the cool gift baggie of goodies I got ~ some John James needles, GAST thread, beads, charms, a small piece of evenweave, and best of all ~ a gorgeous pair of scissors!

Last night we started hemstitching for a needlebook. And I have to say most of us were definitely 'all thumbs'. Trying to turn 1/4" hem twice seemed almost impossible. I didn't get too much accomplished before I packed up to come home. But I am determined with this little project, I am not going to set it aside and then forget entirely what I'm supposed to do with it. I love the look of hemstitching and I want to get this one finished!

And speaking of procrastinating, I started to make a list of all the things I need to set up appointments for ~ doctor, dentist, optometrist, naturopath, massage therapist...... and it almost seems overwhelming. And then I really needed to give myself a good shake. With our extended health care plan, all these things are covered! I don't need to pay a single dime for any of these visits for any of us. So what on earth am I complaining about? So I'm determined this morning to start making those calls and start getting these things arranged, even one a week, its certainly doable. Funny, I have to pay the hairdresser and yet I don't avoid those appointments? So look out Nick, I'm going to keep you and I busy for a while. Hubby can take care of his own appointments since he usually cancels anything I arrange for him. Harumph!

And even more houses....

I finished and I'm happy dancing! Here is my quilt called Row Houses. I didn't get a picture of the entire quilt top and I just realized I didn't get any pictures of the border either but ..... its done and whew I am so relieved. I started this quilt on January 1st, 2006, and it was put away for a good portion of last year. As much as I enjoyed it, the entire thing is made up of log cabin blocks, 1" strips of fabric, and they start to get very very tedious after the first few. Each house is made up of 8 log cabin blocks, there are 20 full houses and 8 1/2 houses, which means....192 blocks! The border looks more like a sidewalk with colour chips surrounded by a border, and it took 92 of those to go around the edge.

I do have the backing fabric but I think I'm going to sit back for a while before I get around to quilting this one.

And this house theme I have going these days ....Sampler Gameboard, Houses of Hawk Run Hollow, and two neighbourhood round robins....I wonder what that means?

And more houses...

Aren't these beautiful! Its so nice to see some colour at this time of year, especially when outside everything is so white. Not that I'm complaining, in spite of the freezing cold and blowing snow, it was wonderful to be outside yesterday and enjoy that fresh crisp air with crunchy snow beneath your feet. And of course the dogs loved it.

Last night I worked on my Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. It takes a little getting used to, this magnifier, but its coming.

And to the lady who asked me about the magnifier I use, I checked all over it and couldn't find a brand name anywhere on it. I bought it used from a garage sale a couple of years ago. It was lying on the ground at the side of a driveway and I recognized it from ads in the stitching magazines. And from CSI! This one attached to my table and has a lot of knobs that allow you to find the correct position to hold it in. And it has the true daylight bulb which I love. I think I paid a whole $7 for it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

...and we have lots of snow but to Nick's disappointment, no Snow Day has been called for the schools. We have about 15 cm and another 10 cm is called for during the day. But from all the weather forecasts, it looks like we got off pretty good. And if this is the worst winter storm we get, its great! Of course I say that because I don't have to get out this morning and try to get into work!!

I scanned the Valentine's card that Carrie made for me and left on my desk this morning. Isn't she so sweet? And hubby left a card for me also. Presents to come later.... :-D
And here is an update on my Sampler Gameboard. This one is going along great, its fun and easy to pick up and throw in a few stitches here and there. Those little houses can get done so quickly. I'm doing this on Willow Green 32 ct linen, something I've had in my stash for a while and I liked how the floss colours popped off the fabric when I tried them.


Meanwhile, I've been sewing on my Row Houses quilt and I'm so happy to say my houses are finished. I've been sewing them together, into rows, and next I need to tackle the border.

I hope to get outside for a bit of shovelling. I don't do a lot, the driveway is too big for me, but I love getting out after a fresh snowfall....before the doggies have been out there and the salt trucks have been through!

Garden of Life Update

What a great weekend with my sisters - lots of scrapbooking, a little shopping, great food and a lot of laughs! The time just went by far too quickly. And I was off to bed early Sunday night to catch up on some sleep. I'll have to get some pictures up of the lay-outs I finished.

To start the weekend off just right, Marj and I went to the Stytchen Tyme sale and I treated myself to a little stash. Stytchen Tyme is our local LNS, but not exactly a bricks and mortar store. Kim sells all cross stitch related items from her home (dining room actually) so while she has a great selection of fabrics, beads and fibres, its more of an order and pick-up type of business. So you really can't get down and dirty in rooting about through bins of charts and mess about with fabrics, the way I would really like. However once or twice a year, she has an Open House, and everything is spread about so I can root through to my pleasure. I bought some great Homespun Elegance charts which were 3/$10, a Blackbird Design called Willow House, and some small pieces of fabric which were different colours, some hand-dyed, just for playing with. I don't have a lot of stitching to show from the past few days but Blackbird Design's Garden of Life is coming along. I should be finishing up my house just in time for the next section to start!

Thank you so much for all the comments and all your good wishes for my nasty cold. I'm finally seeing the other side of it and its on its way out....3 boxes of Kleenex later.

Chatelaine Mystery X

Here is an update on Mystery X. Sorry it looks rather 'holey' but the beads and crystals are not going to be added until the end, since I use a small hoop when stitching and I would hate to crush anything.

Not too much going on the stitching front this week, this head cold has gotten a good hold and I've just felt miserable. Combined with sleeping terrible! Even hubby took his pillow and left for another room a couple nights ago. Usually I would delight in having a king size bed all to myself, but the only joy I'm finding right now is having my Kleenex box near me and who cares where they fall?

I have my sisters coming this weekend for a scrapbook session so I'm sure that will perk me up! And I've kicked the men out of the house (they're off to the cottage for a snowy weekend) so it will just be the girls here.

Oh, almost forgot! I finished my first pair of socks!! I would take a picture but they are already gone and taking up residence on Carrie's feet! They turned out so nice, I love that self patterning yarn. May be I can start on a new set today.

Sampler Gameboard

I have my first house! I started on February 1st for the SAL and of course after the usual frogging episode (the border of all things), I did manage to stitch my first house. What a fun piece this is to work on and I really really hated to put it down. But I also had my next section for Chatelaine's Mystery X come in so I wanted to make a dent in that because this section is HUGE. So if I want to get it finished this month, I'll be working on this quite a bit.

Busy weekend - Friday night I went for dinner with 2 stitching friends and had a wonderful time catching up. Saturday we went to a dear friend's 40th birthday party - wonderful food, including a chocolate fountain (yummm!) and music and billiards. Sunday though I was assigned myself some couch potato time as I had a scratchy throat and stuffed up nose - Nick decided it was time to share his cold with me.

Becky very sweetly invited me to join the SBEBB and I am so eager to start some exchanges. Unfortunately several of the recent ones have just closed sign-ups so I'll have to bid my time and wait for some new ones to open up . I haven' t had a chance yet to post on the board so I'll have to do that. These ladies make the most amazing things and their finishing is superb, I hope I can live up to the fantastic exchanges that they participate in.

Brrr, it is so cold out today even though we are getting snow, the wind chill has us at -30 degrees C. Days like this, I am sure glad that I work at home!

Framed!

Finally! Long long (and boring) story but I finally got my framed pieces back! I'm sure you could all hear me breathing with a huge sigh of relief. Hubby even hung them for me already! The first one is Carrie's Attitude piece which was her university graduation gift. We hung it in the living room since really its the safest place to keep it for now until she and JF have their own place again. Although it doesn't show in the picture, we used a dark green suede mat for this, oooh, I love suede mats!

Then is the Bent Creek Snapper series:

And finally my Blackbird piece called When This You See:
Sorry for the slightly crooked pictures (hubby took them!).

Today starts a new SAL over here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sampler_Gameboard/

Monique mentioned this in her blog and I was enticed to join in. I was thinking of buying the Drawn Thread Sampler Gameboard after seeing tidbits of it posted here and there on several blogs, and when I pulled out some charts last week, imagine what I found! I hate to admit it but I forgot that I already had it!! I even had floss already bought to go with it.

Well I guess forgetting that I had this chart, along with my current use of the magnifier, is definitely telling me something! Yes, yes, it must be the long winter months, not enough daylight hours or sunshine, the need for Vitamin D. It really has nothing at all whatsoever to do with my age, right?

Saturday Sampler

Thank you so much for your comments on my last post about the 1923 Needlecraft magazines. I absolutely love reading old magazines/books and I'm so glad you enjoyed some of the ads and text as much as I did.

Our Saturday Morning Sampler Club started this past Saturday at my favourite quilt shop. I signed up thinking this was a 6 month club but its another 12 month one! Hopefully I can manage to get to more of the sessions this time around, I ended up missing so many last year (twice I was in the hospital!) that I gave up on it and still have a box full of pretty little fabrics and a few blocks and nothing else. I need to hunt online for some 4 1/2" blocks and 10 1/2" block patterns to try to finish this one.

I picked our 1/2 m cuts of 6 fabrics for this year's club and hard as it was, I managed to get some 'blues' in there this time. I realized everything I pick out is green/gold/red and I'm really trying to get away from having always picking out those colours.

And I worked hard on our Christmas SAL this past weekend, working on a Prairie Schooler Santa on 20 ct khaki lugana. I didn't get him anywhere near finished, as so many of the blogging ladies managed to finish theirs, I was disappointed. He's been tucked away until the last weekend in February for the next SAL.

Last night while watching Prison Break and 24 (love those shows!) I did get started on my next block for Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. This is actually the first block in the piece. Of course it stitched up wonderfully with the use of my wonderful magnifier. Why on earth didn't I start using this sooner?

Needlecraft in 1923

On Saturday, hubby and I drove to Cambridge to visit an amazing antique market. It was huge, 30,000 square feet, and we spent hours there looking through all the amazing things there. Even more amazing, to me, was seeing household articles that I remember as a little girl, and thinking hmm, these are now antiques?!? What does that make me?

I did find 2 sewing boxes filled with some cool little goodies, one with a ton of wooden spools of thread, and the other with odds and ends that used to fill ladies' sewing boxes.

I indulged in these 2 issues of a issues of Needlecraft Magazine, one dated April 1923 and the other December 1923. Of course I had to buy them! The original price was 10 cents and today's price $5.00, still cheaper than any current magazines on the rack today.
Most of the patterns inside are for household items ~ surface embroidery for tablecloths, crocheted edgings for table runners, one article describes a dining-room set (cloth and napkins) with "Graceful Decoration in Cross-Stitch Embroidery". But there's no pattern and a very simplistic picture of the finished product, and in fine print how to send away for the items described as "white butcher cloth for 6 napkins, unstamped, with Penelope canvas, and working-chart of cross stitch design, 70 cents, floss to embroider 44 cents" . I'm guessing that was pretty pricey, since the magazine itself was only 10 cents originally.

The paper in these magazines is very fragile, not much thicker than newspaper quality, and most of the pictures are in black and white. I found the ads to be fantastic reading though, if I squint hard enough, I can read the really fine print in most of them.

Some dress patterns for the discerning ladies, only 12 cents each! The description of dress design in the bottom right hand corner even offers that it can be " made in an Hour" and is "cut for 16 years" (I don't get that part, it looks like a huge dress for a 16 year old to wear).


Imagine my surprise on finding this ad for DMC. No mention of price, though, I'm curious to wonder how much ladies had to pay for it then.


It seems people were worried about brighter, whiter smiles even in 1923. No one liked "dingy film-coats" and the ad describes in significant detail how this comes about (yuck - that's what is going on inside my mouth?) This ad is for Pepsodent....hmmm, toothpaste?


And in 1923, ladies were concerned with their weight. Somethings never change! Although its remarkable even today to think that it was possible to lose 53 lbs. in 9 weeks, that's almost 6 lbs. a week! And this was apparently achieved by "Mrs. Bayliss, a well known young matron of social elect" not by starving, but simply listening to "Wallace's records but ten minutes a day". This ad offers a free 10 day trial, there's no mention of cost in this ad, just to "let the scales decide", mail in the coupon, and your first week's record will be sent to you. I would love to hear this record, its too bad I'm 84 years too late to get my free copy.



And my favourite ad has to be on the last page, a gorgeous ad for Jello. They sure don't make ads like that any more!

Be Happy and more alphabets

I finished Shepherd's Bush Be Happy freebie really quickly. This was my first time working with 10 ct Heatherfield fabric and it seemed really odd to be making such huge stitches. But it was really a nice break from the 40 ct fabric that I'm using for the Carriage House Samplings Alphabet. The 3 buttons are from a Dress it Up package and I think they work well in this piece.


And I added 'C' and 'D' to the alphabet. I was struggling though with D last night and finally hubby pulled out a light magnifier for me to use. I tried this a year ago, the first time I tried 40 ct fabric and hated it. I found I could stitch much easier without it. But I'm now a year older and obviously my eyes are even that much older, so once I got myself in a comfy position and found the best way to manoeuvre the magnifier, I finished up D without any more trouble.

It looks like this magnifier is going to find a steady home next to my stitching chair ~ especially with the new Neighbourhood RR on high linen counts.

Carol (Garden of Stitches) has organized 2 groups for new neighbourhood RR's and done an amazing job with arranging 18 stitchers into groups. She is creating a new blog for us and I'll put in a link as soon as its started.

And this is the first weekend of the Christmas Ornament Stitch-Along. I think I'll work on a Prairie Schooler Santa that I have been wanting to do, I have my pattern and fabric waiting for me! Click on the link if you want to join us, or see what everyone is working on.

6 Weird Things...

So I've been tagged it seems, by Carolyn (Carolyn's Corner) and Berta (Busy Hands, Happy Heart) .....

Each player of the game starts with "6 Weird Things about You"People who get tagged need to write in their blog 6 weird things, as well as state the rule clearly.In the end you have to choose 6 more people to be tagged and their names.

Six weird things that you didn't know about me...

1. I'm a news junkie. While I'm working (and surfing the net, reading blogs, online shopping) I have the TV on with the news, either CBC World News, the BBC or CNN. Then whenever I get a hold of a 'real' person, I love to talk their ear off about current events.

And I have also recently become hooked on The View. I love the opening when the 4 hosts talk current events and give their opinions on what is going on. I've been missing it recently, so I just started TIVO'ing it so I can watch it later in the day (and fast forward through all those commercials).

2. When I'm driving alone, I play music very LOUD! And sing along, as loud as I can, but as long as the music is loud enough, I can't really hear myself....because I couldn't carry a tune if my life depended on it.

3. I love watching hockey games (okay not so weird I guess since I'm Canadian), baseball games but can't stand to watch them on TV. Way too boring and the commentators drive me nuts, especially since I tend to stitch while watching TV.

4. My idea of a good meal is hitting the local Tim Horton's for a coffee and toasted Everything bagel with herb and garlic cream cheese....and lately cucumbers and tomatoes on top! And when I really want to live dangerously, I'll order some Tim-Bits! (donut holes? ...yummm very delicious)

5. As soon as I buy anything cross stitch related (or really even craft related)....I'm dying to buy something else (my daughter offered this one up). I can just never seem to have enough!

6. I have a strange new addiction to Ginger Altoids! I really have no idea why, they taste just terrible but I love them. And I'm dying to finish the candies, so I can use the tin to make something. But I just can't throw the candies away? In fact I have a hard time throwing anything away!?!

Whew, that was hard, I'm sure I have at least 600 weird things and I'll think of them later, but for now that's all I could come up with!

And I'll tag whoever reads this and wants to play along. Just let me know so I can visit your blog and learn a little more about you too!

Two more Prairie Schooler blocks!

I finished off 'A' last night and 'B' was actually done over several months last fall. I don't think I ever got around to putting a picture of it on here. It seemed to take forever! That means only 2 left.....Y and Z. And then I can start putting my quilt together!

I bought my fabric for the quilt last fall, its from a Moda fabric line called 'Bound to the Prairie' - very appropriate name I thought and the fabrics tie in perfectly with the PS blocks. I wanted to start putting a few of the blocks together but they need a good cleaning after my hours of pawing at them. I searched all my cupboards, and I couldn't find my treasured bottle of Orvus anywhere. I have a sneaky suspicion hubby didn't realize the value of this strange looking stuff and tossed it. Luckily Ann now carries it in her shop and was able to bring me a bottle at our last stitching get-together. So now my blocks will get a nice refreshing bath to clean them up.

Speaking of....Ann is soon on her merry way to the Nashville needlework show! She has so kindly offered to pick up any items we might (ahem) need and of course top of my list is the Ackworth Friendship Book by Ellen Chester of With My Needle. There may be a few other things that I need, its going to be difficult to keep this list short enough.

We have some very cold weather coming out way....time to get those socks knitted up!

Edited to add: Here is my Prairie Schooler album!

Some pictures to share

Nick and his pals went snowboarding Saturday afternoon/evening. He's on that hill somewhere, but I can't pick him out!




And here are a couple of pics that hubby took of the sunset on his drive home. Amazing colour - it looks more like a fire than the sun!

Neighbourhood RR

I put the last few stitches into Anita's RR last night and here is my offering. Its a Homespun Elegance design called Summer House Sampler. I accommodated it slightly and it fit in perfectly with the 70x50 block.

And after that I was in a baking mood, so I made up a batch of Everything But the Kitchen Sink cookies. These cookies have, well, a little bit of everything in them: chocolate chips, raisins, walnuts, coconut, oats, and so on. 6 dozen were made and I think there are still 3 dozen today. I have a hungry family!

Today is bright and sunny but cold and Nick has plans for snowboarding today, his second time this week. Luckily the ski hills are only a 20 minute drive away but I am hoping to get there with the camera to take some pictures of him. Its such a pretty area and the only place that is completely snow-covered. Although our backyard was looking nice until the dogs hit it this morning.

Oh and one more pic:

These are one we made at the guild meeting on Wednesday night - the first one is a scissor point fob ~ the blue thingy is what will go on the pointed ends of scissors and the lobster claw clips on the scissor handles. The smaller one is a needle threader fob. I think I'll look for a few larger, prettier beads to put on and redo the top one, especially since I messed up a little with the end. Cute things though and its nice to play around with beads too.

Scruffy Stu

Ever have one of those really lazy feeling days? Well it seems Stu is having them most days, although he does perk up considerably for a walk. Its far too icy out there right now for us to even consider that. So he has his messy winter coat and a very dirty face from ? last night's dinner?

No real stitching to report from here, although I have pulled out a quilt I was working on last year and I have gotten a few more blocks put together. I finished a round robin for the embroidery guild which I'll hand off tonight.

And I have a rant about Michael's. I went in this afternoon to pick up some floss, it was on sale 3 for $1 which is a really good price any more. And armed as I was with my 40% off coupon, I decided to indulge in a cool quilting book. This was a second one in a series, the first one I had taken out from the library last year some time. The price listed on the back was $26.95, so 40% off and I was laughing. Until that is, I got to the cashier. The book scanned in for $44.95!!! I kindly pointed out that the price listed was $26.95, which no other price showing anywhere and I was informed that was the US price, the Canadian price was $44.95! However what a bonus I was getting with getting $18 off with my coupon, the cashier pointed out. Outrageous!!! Why wasn't the price we pay listed? As the book is being sold in a Canadian store, I expect to see a Canadian price tag. And even with the exchange rate added on to $26.95,the book should have been around $32.00.

So stupid me, I bought the book anyways but when I got home, I thought no way am I going hand my money over to Michael's so easily. I checked online, and found the same copy at Amazon.ca for $19.60 so it looks like they will be getting my hard earned dollars instead. I've already taken the Michael's book back and ordered from Amazon. Jeesh. It looks like I'll be buying my floss from Michael's and that's about it in the future.

Time to get off my soapbox....and ready for dinner.

Be Warm

Although we had a quiet weekend, I really didn't get too much stitching done. My eyes were bothering me far too much with the dreaded dry eye syndrome. I remembered too late, after prying my eyes open on Saturday morning, that I haven't been running the humidifier in my bedroom and this hot heated air in the house has done me in. So in between the irritated scratchy feeling, I have bouts of my eyes watering as if I'm crying. Needless to see I look a little raccoon-ish right now, and gridding Christmas Elegance was out of the question.

I did get out on Saturday with Marg, to our favourite quilt shop in Uxbridge, called Quilter's Cupboard and we signed up for the Saturday Morning Sampler.


I finished up a small Shepherd's Bush piece, from the Be-Attitude series from last year. This is called Be Warm and seems very appropriate for this January weather - we are having freezing rain today. I used some buttons called Dress It Up and they match very nicely. I think I'll try to finish this into a small pillow, hopefully I can find some fabric in my stash. And, with my thanks to Heather (Quilt or Stitch), I have the SB freebie Be Happy which she so kindly sent to me.

UFO time

I guess Marj talking about digging out her poor Fairy Idyll out of the depths of UFO'edness, made me remember I had a Mirabilia of my own hidden away somewhere. Yes way up out of sight, on top of my china cabinet. Christmas Elegance actually ended up somewhere high because she is on scroll rods (my first ever piece on scroll rods) since I wanted to save myself from beading despair at the end of stitching and doing the beading along the way. Which is actually why this poor thing became a UFO, I ran out of beads! What a poor miserable excuse really. One of the cheapest things to buy and I just never got around to buying any more?

So here she is, I'm determined this time not to let her languish any more with the dust bunnies on the china cabinet. I still don't have this beads I need, but I also remembered that I need to do a little gridding in the background for all the snowflakes (more beads) that need to be placed, and I found it next to impossible to count fabric threads on this dark fabric.

Can I encourage anyone else to bring out a poor UFO to join mine?