Happy Halloween!

I found a pair of "deadmaus" or would that be deadmice? At work today!

- thanks for reading!

Finishing & Framing

The finishing streak goes on!

First, last night I picked up my framed Enchantment of Winter and it looks awesome!  When we played with frames, there was really no other way to go then with gold.

Had Chrsitin with me, and we were also picking up her Earthdancer.  She did all the cross stitching on this piece, I did the fringe, beading, and dream catcher.  We played with a lot of frame corners until I pulled out the one you see here.  It was one of those hmmm not sure about this one when you see it on the wall but the minute we placed it with the piece.  Huge WOW factor!

Today I pulled out another piece I finished some time ago... back in 2007.  I finally turned Jeannette Douglas's Pomegranates and Pears Needlebook into a needlebook.  A new type of finishing for me and it turned out quite well.

Now that I'm done here, its time to ignore the rest of the world and stitch!!!

PhotoHunt - Spooky

This week's theme is spooky, and no wonder... Halloween is just around the corner!!!

Eeek!  Its a spider!  I know how much reaction I've gotten out of you guys in the past with spider pictures!  So I thought I'd spook you out again with another one!

Fantastic IHSW!!!

Well, I had such a great IHSW that I had to report before going to bed tonight, instead of putting it off until tomorrow night.  Honestly I don't know what I'm going to feel up to doing tomorrow.  We're having a 10th Anniversary celebration at work tomorrow... which takes place after a full day of work.  So coming home and flaking out might be very tempting!

Delightful Dragon Fob - Front

c2008 Teresa Wentzler

Stitched on 25ct Ivory Lugana

Stitched with DMC, Kreinik #4 Braid & Cord, Mill Hill Beads

First up, on Saturday I had a little finish!!!  I wrapped up the front on Dragon Fob I showed you Saturday morning.  That evening I got a start on the back.

Delightful Dragon Fob - Back

Which I'm very happy to say I finished off this evening.  Now these two pieces are awaiting finishing.

Count Your Blessings - Shakespeare's Peddler

Speaking of finishing, I seem to have found my "finishative" lately!  This morning I pulled out a finish from earlier this year, this is one of the travelling patterns going about lately.  I finished it into a flat fold, it is backed with the red plaid fabric its sitting on.  I haven't quite decided where its going yet.  I could put it in the prayer corner of my LC at work (Learning Commons, forget the term Library... its outdated now!) or I'm tempted to give it to someone, I have a couple of people in mind.  Things of a Religious nature aren't really my thing, I just wanted to be part of a travelling pattern.

ABC Sampler

This evening after finishing up my TW, I didn't work on any of the projects I showed you in my previous post.  I pulled out something "new-ish" instead.  This piece belongs to Kathy, she sent it out as a UFO RR and not as much of it got done as she hoped.  She made a comment back in September that she would just love it if this piece reappeared almost finished.  Apparently anyone who works on this is not allowed to touch the "N" for Nutcracker block!  I worked on gold outlining tonight, everything you see above Holly was put in tonight.  This gold is going to have to be done in fits and spurts, its not bad metallic but not the best either.

Its IHSW!!!

Yay!  Its IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend for you lay-people) and guess what?  I get to stay home sit around in my pj's and stitch!!!  I'll get caught up with the PVR and maybe throw in a couple of DVD's.

I haven't exactly decided what I'm going to work on this weekend so I'll show you pre-weened progress on all of my WIPs and then on Monday evening I'll share with you what got worked on.

Cirque des Cercles by Ink Circles

 The Accolade by Timeless Designs (NOT a HEAD)

Delightful Dragon Fob by Teresa Wentzler

this is just the front which I should finish today, I still have the back to start.

PhotoHunt - Sassy

This week's theme is "Sassy"

I don't think there's anyone out there more sassy than Madonna.  This is one of my best shots from the concert I went to this past September.

TUSAL and Some Finishing

Or is that some finishing and a TUSAL?

Here is this month's artistic arranagement to compliment my big vase full of orts.  Some adorable black cat/pumpkin fabric I picked up during a cross-border jaunt to Ogdensburg, N.Y. with Tracey.  A cute fuzzy Halloween bear from Kathy, and my latest finishing finish!

In the last two weeks I've done quite a bit of finishing ... for me that is.  I know some of you are super amazing finishers, who stitch something AND finish it!  Me, I stitch something and immediately put it into my bin of finished, unfinished projects that I keep under my guest bed.  Recently I've had the finishing bug, so I've pulled a few things out and put them on the table in my craft room.  Meaning I might actually finish them! Three of the items I've finished I can't share with you just yet.  One item is my ornament for my November Knowledge and Needles Retreat.  It is super adorable and everyone is going to wish they got it!  The second is my ornament for the exchange on one of my Facebook groups.  The third is a RAK for a stitching blogger out there!  This fourth item is mine!  All mine!  And I can share!

French Country Scardey Cats from JBW designs

this cute black cat pumpkin fabric backs this crushed walnut shell little pillow (is it a pillow when its filled with crushed walnut shells?)

Its strange, I'm not a Halloween person but for some reason I've got quite a few finished Halloween decorations!

My Friendship Quilt!

If you are one of  my long-time readers my recall my posts from 2011 about the quilt blocks I and my stitching friends were working on.  Follow this link and it'll take you to my posts about the quilt blocks as they were being stitched.

All of the completed stitched quilt blocks

the last blocks were done in November of 2011

Yesterday I finally picked up my very special quilt.  The process for this started back in the late summer/early fall of 2010 when I saw something similar that was made by my friend Marie Paule who made a quilt for her daughter.  I was so in love with what she had done, and the colours used.  I wanted one of my own!  I am not a quilter so I was put in touch with someone who could make it for me (for a price of course but now that I have it, its worth every penny!)

On my bed (Queen size)... and its going to be used!

Marie Paule lent me the quilt pattern and the colour conversions to match the fabric colours.  In January of 2011 I actually started the stitching portion of this project.  I stitched 13 of the quilt blocks, however there there over 49 blocks that make up the quilt block centers.  I asked my very special stitching friends to help me out. Each person stitched anywhere from 1-4 blocks for me!

It didn't take long for Zeus to show up to help model my new quilt!

I am ready for my closeup...

Friends who helped me out with the stitching were: Adriana (my favourite 96 year-old stitcher!), Angie, Ann (owner of Knowledge and Needles), Anne & Naan (mother and daughter), Beatrice (Adriana's daughter), Bonnie, Christin, Clare, Dee, Judie, Kathy, Rebbecca, and Sheila.  With the help of these people, this ordinary project became extraordinary and very special.

 The quilt needed one more block so I did an initial block, its the center of the quilt!

Finally, a couple of years later its finally on my bed and its fantastic!!! (of course Zeus had to help with the modelling)

PhotoHunt - Empty

This week's theme is Empty... there were so many different pictures for me to pick out for this theme but in the end this one appealed to me the most.

I took this picture in 2010 on a trip to Florida for March Break.  My dear friend Claire and her husband took me to St. Augustine for the day... a very beautiful city and well worth the visit!  I saw this quiet little spot at a cafe don't these empty chairs look so inviting?  A little slice of paradise!

A Fall Walk Through My Village

I live in a Village, I really do.  In this day and age it seems like a strange thing to say.  Its not a village that's grown over time that's really a town that's called a village.  Its a village with less than 40 houses, a General Store, 2 Churches, 1 Graveyard, and a Pub that used to be a Mill.  Oh and there's a park.

Saturday i woke up early and thought it would be great to get out for a walk about my Village and get some fall colour pictures for you.

One of the original Village Churches, with graveyard.  Its not used anymore

 Our local pub that has great food and brews their own beer, as I like to say its a 3 minute walk there a 5 minute stumble home

Entrance to the "Estates" the small subdivision that went in a few years ago

 Looking at these pictures remind me of what a pretty place I live in.  That I love this little village that I ended up buying my home in 10 years ago.  I also love the fact that I'm 8 KM from the nearby town, and 25 KM from the city.

Fall Shots

I hope all of my Canadian friends has a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family.

I promised you in a recent blog entry that I would share the spectacular fall colours with you.  I'm going to do this over a couple of posts as I've taken pictures in about 3 batches.

These pictures I took on Sunday evening up at the lake where Todd's parents have their cottage.  We were out there for a fantastic Thanksgiving Dinner with his folks and our good friends Tracey and Ed.