Merry Christmas

Dear stitching friends,


Merry Christmas to all!

We have spent a very pleasant day here today and yesterday celebrating. Mike was off work yesterday so we had our family dinner on Christmas Eve. It made for a more relaxing day today.

We were able to visit via Skype with my sister and BIL and their family today, so that was fun. We also exchanged several messages with Mike's brother and his family. Their children are still pretty young, so they were up before sunrise looking for their gifts from Santa. I remember those days well. Now we all were gathered at the leisurely hour of 9:30 opening presents at our house...

Mike left for work around 2; then we have been relaxing the rest of the day.

Finished my current book, then started another one. Tried on my new pajamas...think bedtime will be early tonight.

Hope all of you had a pleasant Christmas holiday. I will be returning to work on Thursday. Vacation time is ending soon....

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Snow!

Hello stitchy friends!

I didn't think I would get another post in before Christmas. But I wanted to share some snow pictures with you. We got hit with a blizzard last night...I know I had secretly wished for some snow before Christmas, but this was over the top.

I'm not sure how much snow we actually got, guesstimate around 5". But the wind!! Man, it howled all afternoon yesterday and all through the night! Gusts as high as 50mph. So, I woke up to a winter wonderland for sure.




This is a view of our yard north of our house. I haven't ventured outside yet, just have taken some pictures from the windows. My hubby works about an hour away from where we live. So, he left for work a couple of hours early yesterday, and took an overnight bag with him. Good thing, because he did make it to work, but had to spend the night at the hotel there. The interstate he travels on was closed by IDOT sometime last evening.

Our son has a new job near where his dad works. He works first shift, so he tried driving home last night. He ended up getting stuck in a snow bank about 15 miles from home. Luckily a good friend of his got his 4 wheel drive truck out to pick him up about an hour later... So, needless to say he was about 4 hours getting home instead of one hour. But I was so relieved no one got hurt.

The library is closed today. But, I am on vacation until the 27th. Our power went off at least 6 times last night, but it would come back on. So glad we had heat and power throughout.

I did do some stitching last night. Today, I hope to bake some rusks. I am waiting on my yeast to proof now. We will go out and shovel some paths later.







Take care friends.

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Christmas is just around the corner....

Hello Stitching Friends.

We are watching the skies for snow tomorrow. But it sounds like the heavier snowfall amounts will be Northeast of us. We will most likely have a green Christmas.

Like all of you I have been busy preparing for Christmas. Things are coming together tho. Shopping is done and presents are wrapped. I still need to do some baking for our family and some to give away.

There are no words to express the sadness from the awful event in Connecticut. Our thoughts and prayers are sent to those grieving families.

I haven't found the time to sit and stitch very often lately. I did take a recent picture of where I am with Reindeer Roundup.




It has been a fun piece to work on.

We had our cross stitch group stitchers party on December 10. It was extra fun for me this year because my niece hosted the party at her part-time Illinois home. (She resides in California most of the time). And then, my sister from Minnesota was at our house with her husband for the weekend, so she was able to join our stitchers party as well. I forgot to take pictures that night. Next year I will have to do better! We all made an ornament to exchange. In all the years we have been doing this, we have never had a duplicate. But this year took the cake...we had 3 duplicates...
"Fa la la" which was sold as a small kit with tuck-away pillow. Designer may be Bent .creek.

I received this ornament




My friend Susie stitched it, and I love it. It is hanging on our tree. I stitched 'hot cocoa' by little house Needleworks. My sister was the recipient. It was one of the monthly charts from 2012.




Our tree has many stitched ornaments on it, some stitched by me and others by friends and family.




Mike, Holly and I have been sharing a nasty cold. ny-quil has been my night-time ritual for several nights. We are all tired of it and ready for it to leave.

My sister brought me a beautiful new stitching bag...




Sorry the picture is kind of dark. She has used the prettiest red fabrics!
the fabric in the top right corner is a window with a cat looking out. (she knows me well).... She also embellished it with some pretty antique buttons.

Well I hope all of you are finding some stolen moments of peace and reasons to find joy each day.

Happy stitching friends!

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Thanksgiving

Hello Stitching Friends.

I am up early here this morning.  Getting ready to put the turkey in the oven.  We are having an early dinner, since Mike has to go to work this afternoon.  But, I wanted to post and wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I am thankful for all of you online stitching friends, you have truly enriched my life. 

Hope you find some quiet time to spend doing what you love the most! 

RAK received

Hello stitching friends!

I just have to share the lovely surprise I received in the mail today.

I am a lucky recipient of a RAK from Andrea.




This is such a pretty ornament.



She even included a handmade card. I feel so lucky to be a recipient of her beautiful stitching and finishing!!

Thank you Andrea.

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Foggy night

Hello stitchy friends.

I have been busy around here today. I've done a major amount of laundry... Then I had some help from Holly to help rearrange furniture in our living room.

I washed the curtains in the living room and Mike washed the windows. So we have a much cleaner house for the holidays.

I am ready to start Christmas decorating. Although I am going to hold off until after thanksgiving.

Tomorrow I will have to spend some time in the kitchen doing some advance work before the big meal.

I have also done a major clean out of my needlework fabric. I pulled all my Aida cloth and have stored it in a separate container. How many of you still use Aida cloth? I am curious. I don't use it any more.




I thought I would share a picture of a couple of favorite pieces that are framed in the living room.

Also I will have to share a cute picture of our only male cat, Simon.




I have done some more stitching on 'reindeer roundup'.




Well it is getting late and I should be heading off to bed soon.
Happy Stitching!

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Happy Dance

Hello stitchy Friends,

I am happy to report Rest and Be Thankful is finished! I was getting close last night, so I stayed up late and put in the last of the back stitching. I haven't had a chance to wash it and press it as yet. I will post a picture after I have.

So, I sorted through my stitching bag this evening. I put the floss away from that project, and put some other charts away that are more fall themed. Then I looked through some my basket of newer charts and pulled Christmas themed pieces.

I have one ornament kitted up ready to start.



I will probably start this soon.




I also have a small start on a Prairie Schooler piece. 'Reindeer Roundup'.

I have this coming week off work. So I hope to start doing some Christmas decorating after Thanksgiving. We will have Thanksgiving dinner here at home. I will be cooking. Mike and the kids are good about helping with the last minute details.

I still have to go to the grocery store for a few items necessary for the meal. Our son especially, wants the same favorite items on the menu. He's ok with me adding something new, but not replacing. Ha!

Well guess it's time to wrap this post up for now.

Happy stitching!

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early November morning

Hello Stitchy Friends.

It is early morning hours here on a cold Friday in mid-November.  The sun isn't even up yet.  However, I woke up early and since I couldn't go back to sleep, I finished my current book.  The Bone Bed by Patricia Cornwell.  It just occurred to me I don't often talk about what I'm reading on my blog.  Maybe, it's because I talk and write about books so much at work....  I write a newspaper column every other week for our small local newspaper, and then talk about books so much in work related ways as well. 

I have always worked in a library, even in high school.  I did work for a local optometrist while I was in high school, but other than that, it's all been about the library.  I do love my job.  It's scary when you think back how many years I've been working.  Guess these early morning hours are making me reflect. 

Well, nevertheless, I did enjoy Cornwell's newest book.  She is getting better again.  She had a rough spell in the middle of this series where I didn't think the books were as good as they should have been. 

Now, it's on to the next book on my shelf waiting to be read.  I always have a book in progress as well as a stitching project or two.  I haven't decided what I will read next.  If you are a reader, and haven't found goodreads.com yet, I encourage you to check it out.  A great website to interact with fellow friends, and if nothing else, to keep track of what you are reading, and what you've read.  Several of my online stitching blog friends are also friends on goodreads, which I think is very cool.

I have been slogging away on this Cricket, Rest and Be Thankful piece.  I am getting close to the finish line.  I don't want to abandon it now since it is so close to being done.  But I do seriously need to do some more ornament stitching for our exchange in our stitching group and for some other small gifts. 

I don't like it that the photo I just uploaded is sideways.  But you can see that I've made quite a bit of progress...  Not too much left.  The row of checkerboard border at the top and then I think just the birds in the sky and backstitching. 

Well, it's time to put the coffee on, then head to the shower and work.  I have a meeting this morning in a town about 40 miles away.  So, I best get going.

It's hard to believe Thanksgiving is less than a week away!

Hope you are all finding time to stitch!
 

Election Day

Hello fellow Stitchy Friends!

Just wanted to say hello on Election Day.  We have done our civic duty and voted.  It was our daughter's first time to vote, and she was pretty excited.  I have to say, I've been proud of her for doing her research on the election and voting with some knowledge of the issues.

The best part of Election Day, besides the pride in doing your duty, is that the political ads will finally be over!

I am working at the library until 8 tonight, but after work, I am looking forward to watching some election returns with our daughter, and possibly doing some stitching....  :)

 

November already?

Hello Stitching Friends

Well Halloween has come and gone. We only had about five trick or treaters. I resisted buying any candy until the afternoon hours of Halloween. Then I selected some candy I knew I wasn't particularly fond of. So it was all good. I indulged in one chocolate tootsie pop sucker. So, I didn't sabotage my week with weight watchers.

I have been on vacation this week, I've been working on cleaning out our big walk in closet. Holly has been very helpful with sorting my clothes especially. She has even been rather tactful, which if you saw the 'vintage' clothes that came out of my closet, you'd be amazed at her restraint! It was good to see them bagged up and gone. I'm still struggling with sorting some of the other accumulations of crap...

I'm embarrassed to admit I found a collection of 'artwork' that the kids brought home from elementary school. They have been out f elementary school many years. I plan on bringing it downstairs to the kitchen table and let them take a look at it before it heads to the garbage can.

Have you ever watched those episodes of Hoarders on television? Whenever I've seen one of those I have the strong urge to clean. But, I digress. You aren't interested in reading more about cleaning...on to the stitching.

I tend to be a one project at a time stitcher with a few exceptions. While sorting through some stitchy stuff a couple of weeks ago I unearthed something I had started a few years ago and then abandoned.

Since I had been stitching mostly small things of late I decided to pull it out and work on it for the rest of the evening. Well, that was probably 2 weeks ago, and I'm still plugging away on it. I'm rather ambivalent about it. I realize I'm not 'in love' with it, but I don't hate it either.




Sorry for the sideways picture. It is a Cricket design. When I picked it up two weeks ago, the words at bottom were stitched and the door to the house as well as a small area to the left of the door. So I have made a lot of progress.




This is what the completed design looks like. So, I don't have a huge amount left to finish. It would be a nice fall thanksgiving design to have done. And actually as I type this I am telling myself to stick with it and finish it. What do you think?

I have some other things recently purchased that are calling my name...




This is probably my favorite new chart. I haven't ever stitched one by this designer.




It is almost getting too late in the season to get excited about stitching this design. But I have the other three seasons stitched in this series. And actually, two of the three are framed, which is pretty darn good for me...




Then I was looking at Christmas charts the other day, and have been thinking of tis one. I have it all kitted up, ready to go.




Then lastly, this is a cute recent Little House Needleworks chart I picked up earlier this summer. Again, it's all kitted up, and ready to go.

Well, enough about projects in the wings... I know I will never lack for something to stitch...

I do want to stitch and finish a few more ornaments this month. I haven't decided what I want to stitch for our ornament exchange yet in our stitchers group. But then the Christmas party isn't until December 10. It would be nice not to be gluing an ornament together the night before though... So, choices need to be made and stitched!

Nancy, at Victorian Motto sampler Shoppe is going to be having a wonderful giveaway in December. You need to take a look and sign up! ( I'm sorry I haven't figured out how to do a hyper link on my iPad.)

Hope this finds all of you happily stitching away, on something you love.

Happy Halloween!

Hello, Stitching Friends!

Just doing a quick post to wish all of you a Happy Halloween!

We have been enjoying some vacation time.  We took a quick trip to visit our family in Minnesota, but we are back home now.  Mike went back to work today, but I still have this week off.  I am hoping to get some small things done at home...  We will have to see if that happens or not.  I would like to do some closet cleaning...

I have been doing some stitching, I will take the time to get a picture of the WIP and share it with you later this week.  It was an old  wip that I discovered when doing some organizing...  So, since it was seasonal, thought I would spend some time working on it.  I have made some real progress, so guess I will stick with it for awhile... ha! 

Hope all of you that were in the storm's path are faring ok.  Take care friends.

 

Autumn days...

Hello stitching friends!

I always have the best intentions to post more frequently...but everything else gets in the way. I have been stitching tho! I also recently caught up on reading blogs, at least as of yesterday....

I have enjoyed doing some smaller stitching projects. I tend to have a larger project underway instead of doing small ones.

But I have loved working on these two ornaments this week.




I really liked doing this new ornament from Little House Needleworks. I may have to do it again for a gift. I haven't decided if I will finish it as a small pillow ornament or do a flat finish.




This is my current project. It's also by Little House Needleworks. From an ornament magazine from a previous year. My friend Jane was kind enough to lend me her issue. I also really like the sparkly linen I'm using. I bought a remnant piece of it from a stitching store I visited a couple of weeks ago with my niece, Barb. She had discovered a stitching store in Elkader, Iowa, called Backstitch. So we took a road trip to check it out. The variegated green floss was something I had in my stash, that I thought worked well for this.




This s another smallish project I completed recently. I found the chart in an old cross stitch magazine. The chart was designed by Kathy Barrick. I changed it up some. I charted my Great-Great Grandmothers name and inserted it along with the year of her birth in Sweden. She was an emigrant to a small town called Bishop Hill very near where we live. I have always been intrigued by these hardy emigrants in my family tree. Some of them traveled on foot from Chicago to Bishop Hill (about 150 miles)! Pretty hardy pioneer stock... I do think I am going to stitch a small crown in the open area above Elizabeth's name.




I have been busy putting up some halloween decorations over the weekend. i recently got Trick or Treat sewed into a long skinny pillow thanks to the help of my sister. The cute Halloween runner on the coffee table is also more evidence of my sister's sewing talent.




This is a corner of our living room...Jolly Jack was sewed into a long skinny pillow with my sisters help also...

Mike and I have some vacation time scheduled to start at the end of this work week. We are both counting down the days.... It will be great to have some time off!!

I hope all of you are enjoying these beautiful Autumn colors. I think this is my favorite season.




This is a favorite Fall book of mine. I've been busy reading also. I just started the new J.K. Rowling book Casual Vacancy. I hope it will be good.

Happy Stitching Everyone!

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Happy Fall Everyone!  I think this is one of my favorite seasons!  Hope you are all finding lots of time for stitching.  I have been busy working on some small pieces.  I hope to have pictures to share soon.  I am so glad the weather is behaving more like Fall. 

Framed finishes and balloons....

Hello Stitching Friends!

It's been awhile since my last post, but things have been busy around here...  First off, I went to my LNS and picked up some framing I had done.  I'm pretty pleased with the results!

This one I did some time ago, it's Library by Little House Needleworks.  I am glad to finally get it framed.

Next up, is my BAP of this year, finished and believe it or not, framed in the same year! That is an accomplishment for me.  I am very happy with the way it turned out.  Holly helped me hang it when I brought it home on Saturday.  We took down some pieces I had hanging on this wall and made a new arrangement with these three.  Shores of Hawks Run Hollow, then Long May it Wave by Carriage House Designs as well.  And last Simple Joy Simple Life by Little House Needlework.

Then, these two small ones, I finally decided to frame. I had stitched them up years ago, and they were hanging out in my drawer of finished but unframed stitching when I decided it was time.  I hung them up in the kitchen under the upper cabinets.  They are by Bent Creek I believe. 

This is the piece I posted a progress picture of in my last post.  It's the Halloween Prairie Schooler pattern from this year's batch of new releases.  I am thinking I want to finish this as a flat fold.  I have some other Fall pieces I want to finish as flat folds as well.  Now, just to make the time to sit and do that....

I am currently working on Autumn by Little House Needleworks.  I should have it finished in a few days.  But, I already have the frame for that one...  So, that is a good thing.

Mike and I went to a hot air balloon festival this past Saturday.  It was a first for both of us.  It was a gorgeous day.  Finally, some beautiful Fall temperatures arrived.  So, I will share a couple of pictures.  The balloons were so pretty.  It was on the campus of Western Illinois University in Macomb.

It was a beautiful day and evening for this event.  At dusk, all the participating balloons were on the field in front of us, and the balloonists would light up their balloons with their burners.  Such a pretty sight.  There was also a live band playing, so it was a fun afternoon and evening. 

I better wrap this post up.  I am hosting Stitcher's Night at our house tonight.  I still have to put the kitchen back together, and do some finish work on our dessert for tonight.  We're eating healthy tonight, I'm serving angelfood cake with fresh strawberries.

Happy Stitching everyone!

Beautiful Sunday

Hello stitching friends!

What a beautiful day here in central Illinois today! What a welcome change from those awfully hot days in July.

I've spent some time on and off stitching on 'all hallows eve' by prairie schooler. I think I will like this one when finished. Not very many color changes tho, lots of 3371...






Forgive the wrinkles please. I just took a quick picture with my iPad.

Mike and I went for a ride to some marsh land south of where we live, near the Illinois river today. You can really notice the drought, the water levels are way down. However I think Mike got some good pictures of some Heron Cranes. It was a beautiful day for a ride.

On Saturday we drove along on a Memorial ride in honor of one of our son's high school classmates that died during their senior year of high school. Our son organized the event and had tshirts designed for purchase with the proceeds going to a suicide prevention organization. We were proud of our son for putting this all together.

The weekends always seem to fly past so quickly!

Hope all of you had fun and were able to spend some time stitching!

Happy Stitching!


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Vacation weekend

Hello stitchy friends!

Mike and I are back to work today after a nice long relaxing weekend visiting my sister, BIL, and family in Minnesota.

The heat wave finally broke before we left bringing much nicer, cooler weather to us here in central Illinois. We are still very dry with just slight rain from time to time, but the departure of the hot temps has made everyone feel better.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, my sister is an amazing seamstress. She had some wonderful surprises waiting for me...





She sewed this super cute purse for me, one of the coolest things about it is that the bottom part is removable, so she sewed a fall cover for the purse as well....




How cool is this...it's the fall cover to button on, then she made this one reversible to this cute Halloween print.


So, as if this wasn't enough she also stitched up a beautiful tote bag for my cross stitch.




She made a matching chart pouch, which I neglected to take a picture of...
If you look closely, you can see she embroidered my name on the front.

We had a fun weekend with them, a little swimming, a parade and community dinner, as well as hanging out with nieces, nephews and their children. So, all-in-all, we had a great time. It felt so good to get in their pool and swim! Plus it was great to do some knee exercises in the water.

Our daughter was glad to have us out of the house for the weekend as well...she had some friends over for her birthday celebration. She turned 21, so it was a big milestone for her.

I finished up stitching 'Summer' by cross-eyed Cricket- I don't have a picture of that, I will save that for another post. I have been stitching on the new Halloween piece by Prairie Schooler. It took awhile to adjust my eyes to stitching on 32 count linen, most of my recent projects have been on 28 count linen.

I took some stitched but not 'finished' pieces to Minnesota with me, so Karen and I did some finishing together.



I am really pleased with how Ida and Ira came out. I have to stuff them and hand sew the seams yet, but I'm happy to have them done.




Jolly jack came back almost done, I just have to tweak the stuffing add a bow and hand sew the opening shut.




Then this one got sewed into a long skinny pillow that I will put on a shelf. It too just needs the stuffing smoothed out and hand sew the seam shut.




Finally last picture for this looong post, a freebie I stitched up which we sewed into a small pillow. I found some cool old hand crocheted lace to add to it.

Thanks for sticking thru to the end of this long post.
Happy stitching friends!

Too funny

I've been having fun today on pinterest....I had to share this one. They were making me laugh. I also found some good librarian ones. I will save those for another time.


Stay cool and keep stitching friends!

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Finishes!

Hello stitching friends,

I am home from spending the evening with my local stitching friends, and thought it was time to share a couple of cute finishes with you.

I had so much fun stitching Ira and Ida Crow. The charts were generously lent to me by an online stitching friend and fellow blogger! How nice was that? Thank you again, Carol!




Please forgive the creases, I rolled them up to take to stitch night to show.




-I just think they are too cute. I haven't decided if I will sew them into fat pillows or search for frames. But I'm pretty happy with them.




Well blogger decided to put this picture on it's side...but i wanted to share my current project with you. It's 'summer' by Cross Eyed Cricket. I am enjoying this project. After this one is done i will just have autumn left to do in this series.

It's still beastly hot and humid here in Illinois. I have not had any desire to spend time outside, its just too miserable. Plus with the drought conditions everything is drying up. I've been busy stitching and reading in my free time.

Our summer reading program concluded last week with a carnival. It was a great turn out, and I think the kids had a lot of fun. Our daughter, Holly manned the wacky hair coloring booth. I assisted. It was a busy and popular destination! Glad that is over.

I hope you are all managing to keep cool and find time for some stitching.


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