Stitch Every Day finish

Hi again.  

I didn't realize I hadn't posted a picture of my previous finish....  So, here is Stitch Every Day

Waiting game

Hello Stitching Friends!

Mike and I are sitting at the hospital, waiting for the birth of our first grandchild.  Thank goodness for a hobby that keeps my hands busy!  

I am stitching away on Miss Peepers by Little House Needleworks.  I needed a smaller piece to do, and this fit my mood.

My sister recently stitched this one as well.  I will share a picture of her finish.

She does lovely stitching and finishing.  We like many of the same designs and often find ourselves stitching the same thing without being aware that the other one is stitching it as well.  Spooky, huh?

We are enjoying some beautiful Spring weather around here this week.  The flowering trees and tulips are so pretty!

I will blog pictures of the new arrival once we get to finally meet her!

Happy Stitching.

Early morning

I am up early this morning.  We have had thunderstorms the last two nights.  That means the dog has been sleeping in our bed.  Like many dogs, he is not a fan of thunderstorms.  Then about 5:30 he decided it was time for his morning bathroom break.  

Instead of going back to bed, I started the coffee and headed to the computer.  It's my usual habit to read blogs over my morning cup of coffee before heading off to work during the week.  Some mornings I only have time to grab the coffee and go, others I have time to read awhile.  I don't set my alarm, I don't oversleep enough to be late for work.  I don't miss setting an alarm to get up to wake kids up for school.  Neither one of our children were morning people.  It was always a job to get them up and moving.  Well, I digress.  But today I not only caught up on my blog reading, I thought I would indulge in more coffee and do a blog post of my own!  You will have to forgive me if there are typos since I didn't grab my glasses on my way downstairs.  

It sounds like we are in for more storms later today.  I don't mind them, in fact I rather like Spring storms, unless of course they produce tornadoes.  We had a tornado touch down in our town in 1996.  It did quite a bit of damage to homes.  Most of it was confined to the other side of town from where we live.  The house we used to live in before this one was one that had to be torn down because while the tornado didn't level it, the house was twisted due to the winds.  So much so, that the walls cracked on the inside.  My sister was here visiting at the time.  Mike was at work.  I remember Karen and I taking our kids to the basement with us as the tornado sirens were sounding.  The kids were ages 5 and 8 at the time.  They both remember the tornado well.  After it was over, and reports started circling around our neighborhood about the damage, I was very worried that the library was damaged.  I had only been named the Director a few months prior.  I had visions of a building without a roof!  But I was finally able to make it over to the library relieved to find it unharmed, with the tornado's path starting a mere three blocks to the north.  Needless to say we felt very lucky.

I did spend time stitching last night.  I will share a picture of my progress.

Sorry for the wrinkled shot.  But that's as good as you are getting for now.  I don't have a lot left on this before it will be done.  But there is satin stitching and a bunch of specialty stitches at the bottom edge of the design.  I am mostly concerned about how well the satin stitch will be covered.  

I do have pictures to share from my recently framed finishes.

I think this last one is my favorite.  If you need to know designers or names of them just comment.  I was glad I was able to get several framed at one time.  It helped that my LNS had a framing sale of 20% off.  But I have to say I am pleased with her work.  I can frame things myself, but I get frustrated trying to get my piece mounted squarely and evenly on my backing.  Also, it's difficult to find ready made frames the right size.  My husband has made frames for me before, but the selection of wood molding available isn't the best.

Well if you are in the path of Spring storms I hope there won't be anything too bad coming.  Take care.

Happy stitching.

April already?

Hello Stitchy friends 

Time has disappeared again after my last blog post!  We have been busy around here.  Last weekend was a big family event.  There was a lovely baby shower for our daughter at our library in the children's room.  It was such a perfect spot for this!  

Holly husband Joe attended as well.  It think he had fun.  They received some lovely gifts for the new baby.  We are anxiously awaiting her arrival.  We had family here from California, Minnesota, and Maryland.  It was quite the weekend!  After the girl shower for Holly, we hosted a Dad shower for Joe at our house in the evening.  It was a beer and diaper party.  The invitees were asked to bring a box of diapers and some beer to share.  I made the food for that.  We had a great time with everyone.

I guess I don't have any pictures from that to share.  I was too busy being hostess!  

Well I know get to the stitching updates...

I finished the black capped chickadee from the Prairie Schooler chart.

So I decided to take a break from the birds and stitch the piece I had promised my friend next.

I think she was pleased with it.  She is going to make an oval fabric basket, and then stitch this to the front of the basket.

Mike and I had a chance to get to Bloomington the weekend before the baby shower to find a stitching shop a friend had told me about.  It's about an hour and thirty minutes from us.  We don't head that direction very often.  We tend to gravitate towards the shop in Clinton Iowa more often, since my husband works in that area.  But it's always fun to see a new store.  I was disappointed that she didn't have many things left from Market.  I did buy one chart and the linen.  I actually came home and started it!

And here is my progress....

Check out the lovely project bag my sister made

She is always so thoughtful and a talented seamstress.  She also brought a project bag for the newest stitcher in our family, our sons's fiancée.  She was pleased as well.  Sorry I didn't get a picture of it, but it was a cute wedding themed fabric.

I also have traveled to Clinton to pick up what I had left there for framing.  One of the pieces was for the new baby's room.  

I should probably save the other framed finishes for another post.  This one is getting rather long.  

I hope all of you will have a lovely Easter tomorrow!  I am hoping for a quieter weekend.

Happy stitching!

Signs of Spring!

Hello Friends.

I just finished catching up on blog reading over my morning cup of coffee In my favorite mug.

 You are all so darn inspirational!  The beautiful things you make just have me thinking gee, I need to add that to my stash too.  Lol.

We are all so excited for Spring to arrive. It sure seems like it was a long cold winter.  We have been plagued with ice that hung around for at least 2 or 3 weeks.  It never warmed up enough to melt.  But that should change this week!  We have temps projected in the 40s or better all week. That is guaranteed to bring smiles.

I got new glasses last week.  I love getting new ones! I get excited about having a whole new look.  For the first time in a long time I have plastic frames.  I guess I chose well, because Holly commented that they were cute.  Nice when your daughter thinks you made a cool choice. Lol.

I have been working on bird #2 in the Prairie Schooler bird series. We had to take our car to the dealership an hour away this morning for a bit of recall work, so I took my stitching along with.  

As you can see I am working on the black capped chickadee.  He just needs the rest of the leaves and berries stitched and then he will be finished.  I'm not sure if I will start a third bird after this one is done or not.  

Weren't there some beautiful pieces released at Nashville?  I told myself I didn't need to be serious about purchasing any of them, but I especially like several that Brenda from With Thy Needle released.

These two are my favorite ones.  I do love the look of the over dyed threads but after you figure the cost of them and chart and fabric the Cherry Tree Hill piece comes out to about $92.  Ouch. So I'm still mulling this over. I sometimes use a combination of DMC flosses with over dyed ones to make it less costly.  What are your thoughts? Do you do the same or stick only to what the designer has done?

Well, I best sign off for now and get something accomplished today.

Happy stitching!

Finished!

Hello Stitchy friends!

I had to do a quick post to share a finish. The blue jay is done! Now I have to decide what to start next...

He is 5 1/2" square, it would be nice to find frames that would work for them at Michaels or somewhere. I will have to start looking.  

When I pressed him I took a picture of Robins Song to share.

It looks like 2015 stitching has a bird theme... Lol. Totally unplanned.

Well it's off to the grocery store now. 

Hope you're having a good weekend.

February nearly gone

Hello stitching friends!

I'm slow in getting another post written.  I can't believe I haven't posted since before Valentine's Day!  Well, I have been stitching, going off to work everyday, reading, and doing the other usual things.  I have finished "A Robins Song"!!!  I actually finished it February 10.  I'm going to try to do better this year in tracking start dates and finish dates of stitching projects.  I'm very diligent about doing that with the books I read, but haven't ever been too focused on stitching completion lists.  Nor do I have lists of projects waiting for their turn to be stitched.  I guess I'm more of a free spirit and go with what strikes me at the time.

Right now the finished piece is languishing on the ironing board upstairs in my sewing room.  I will share a picture soon.  I think it will be going to my LNS soon for framing.  I have several pieces there now since she had a framing sale late in January.  I will share pictures of them after I get them home.

I've been catching up on blog reading.  I was woefully behind at one point, but I'm happy to say I'm caught up for now at least.  Mike was home sick from work two days last week with bronchitis.  He rarely takes a sick day, so I know he felt crappy.  But that threw my schedule off... I figured I would be the next lucky person to catch the bug, but so far it hasn't happened.  

I did start the blue jay from the Prairie Schooler chart "birds and berries".  I was lucky to borrow the chart from a stitching friend.  I saw it online awhile back and couldn't get it out of my mind that I wanted to stitch 2,3 or all 4 of these to hang in our dining room.  We have bird fabric valences in there, and I kept thinking these would look great with them.  

So I took this photo last night.  You can see I am nearly done.  I just have to finish the second green shade on the remaining leaves and add the second color to the berries.

I will have to share pictures of the pretty flowers that brightened up Valentine's Day.

We opted for dinner at home instead of going out.  We felt it would just be too crowded.  It was a good choice.  

I was happy to find these tulips at the grocery store as well.  There's nothing better than some early spring flowers! 

We had snow again last night and are supposed to have bitter cold for the next few days just to warm up a bit for another snow event on Sunday.  I'm so tired of winter!

We went shopping for a baby crib for the much anticipated baby in our family.  There's a baby shower and Dad shower planned for late March.  The kids have been working hard on finishing up some remodeling projects at their house before the out of state family members arrive for the baby shower.  Mike has been offering assistance and I have been doing meals for everyone fairly often.

Well it's about time to head off to work.  Hope you are finding lots of quality stitching time!

Stay warm.