Huge Happy Dance!!!

Almost 13 weeks to the day later I have finished Teresa Wentzler's Birth Announcement for Zachary, my friend Claire's first child. This wee guy who I'm looking forward to meeting the last week of July (I'll be in the Charleston area) is VERY special! So he deserves the most labour intensive birth sampler out there!!!!




These are just quick iPhone pictures. I'll wow you with some high quality pictures tomorrow!!!!




















- thanks for reading!

January Crazy Challenge Day 3

I must say I've had very good third day of the January Crazy Challenge.  Actually I had a very productive day!

 Cardinal Tweet

c2013 Just Nan

I had a bad case of insomnia so I had my first finish of 2014, not only a finish but a finished finish! If I had realized I had so little left to do, I would of finished this cutie sooner!

Wear a Smile

Lizzie*Kate

Stitched on 28ct African Daisy Joblean

Stitched with: Carrie's Creation Wildberry Breeze and Sassy & GAST Mediterranean Sea

Today's start also turned into my second finish of 2014!  Though I actually stitched this on the recommended fabric, I totally changed the floss 100% and added some beads from my Mum's stash that I inherited.  The colours in this picture are not quite true due to the light I took it under.

Somehow today my finishative mojo kicked in and I did the finishing on quite a few ornamehts I had waiting to be ornamentified.

Bent Creek's Glad Tidings

Daffycat's Reindeer

Rudolph Cross Stitcher Magazine Feebie

Busy, busy, busy!

Christmas is almost here and I think each and every one of us can agree, we're VERY busy right now. Friday night I very gladly turned off my 6AM alarm until January 6th!

I didn't realize it's been about two weeks since I last posted. I've done a little stitching, a little more finishing, out for lunches, breakfasts, parties, and getting ready for Christmas.

In the last two weeks I stitched and/or finished a few more ornaments.



I did the finishing on this last Lizzie Kate, just a simple beaded edge on this one.







I stitched up this ornament and finished it for my friend Tracey's sister. It's double sided from Rosewood Manor's Red Threads. This is stitched on mystery fabric using Carrie's Hearts on Fire. Again, finished with a simple beaded edge.



I stitched up this little piece at my Sister's request. She keeps asking me for a rude cross stitch. I thought this fit the bill nicely. This little pattern is from the book Subversive Cross Stitch, which is full of all kinds of not so nice sayings but with pretty flowers and what not. I've stitched this on 28ct white lugana using DMC and using Carrie's Hearts on Fire, Blue Dreams and Sassy.



I just finished up Dragon Dreams 2013 Holiday Treat! This chart can be found on the Dragon Dreams Facebook page. It is so cute and I'm very happy with the fabric I picked, 28ct Bedazzled Blur Lugana. I've stitched it with the recommended threads.













Last weekend I finally put up our Christmas tree! It's been a few years... I always find it best to put it up in stages.... First just the tree, so that the cats can check it out/climb/chew on it.



After an hour or two I'll decorate it. I've decided it was best not to put anything breakable on it as Zeus likes to chew on our fake tree!



I know I've mentioned in the past I work in a school. This last week we had spirit week, each day is a different dress-up theme. I think I totally rocked ugly sweater day! I stole Todd's Toronto Maple Leafs jersey, I got a lot of great reactions. To help you understand if you're not into NHL hockey, out local team is the Ottawa Senators and one of our biggest rivals is the Leafs! I've found you either love or hate them.

I'm now into the final preparations for having my family over on Christmas Eve, the first without our Mum. I've not changed anything from what we've done in the past. Hopefully we'll still enjoy the evening.


- thanks for reading!

Weekend Stirching

Well it turned out to be the perfect weekend for stitching. Friday night I did all of my running around, Todd and I had a nice dinner out (which we rarely do) and I settled in for the weekend, especially when the snow started to fly on Saturday morning. I wasn't going anywhere (also had my snow tires out on just in time!).




I picked up this Lizzie*Kate chart with all the threads a couple of weekends ago at Knowledge and Needles when I went to the November Timberhouse retreat (I haven't blogged about it, but have pictures on my camera). I had been on the fence about buying it for awhile, until I saw it stitched up on Sally's blog, then I had to have it.

After working on the Accolade since I came back from retreat, I decided it was time for a bit of an over-one break, and these we're calling my name! I pulled out some 28ct fabric to stitch these on. Digging around for the perfect fabric I realized my 28ct drawer is ready to puke fabric everywhere... In other words it's getting hard to close it without some escapees. So I either need to start using this stuff up, or I need to buy more fabric to fill up my 32ct drawer which isn't even half full. I've been gravitating towards higher counts lately so of course the 28ct has been piling up.

So since Friday night I have stitched up all 3 Lizzie*Kate Flora McSampler 2012 Ornaments. They are stitched on mystery 28ct fabric using a combination of Weeks Dye Works and DMC threads. I also outlined each of the designed and did a backing piece so I can whip stitch these together... Whenever I find my finishative. I also included a motif from each pattern onto the back of each piece. I'm not sure if I'm going to just whip them together or add a beaded edge.




Rejoice



Noel




Believe

I really love the colours used to stitch these.

Since things have calmed down just over a week ago, not only have I been stitching quite a bit, I've started something else back up again. I've started posting to my other blog again after a long silence. I use this blog to talk about my struggles to loose weight, and to lead a more active and healthy life. I think I need it at this time in my life to get and remain motivated. I've been doing a combination of either treading water or drowning for quite awhile now, and I need to turn things around again.

- thanks for reading!

Catching Up Yet Again!

Wow its been a couple of busy weeks for me!  I've been so busy, I haven't even managed to get into the gym!  Thank goodness I've got a treadmill in the basement so I can get that exercise in!  What free time I have had, I've wanted to spend stitching!!!


First of all, last week's PhotoHunt, the theme was "spark"

I just love the sparkle of a good firework show!

Two weekends ago Tracey, Christin and I popped across the border for a little shopping.  We visited JoAnn's and I picked up these cute fabrics!

Also I made Tracey stop at the side of the road, I finally found THE basket to display my smalls in!  There was an Amish man selling baskets and baked goods at the side of the road.  I got this beautiful basket for a great price!

This past weekend Christin, Tracey and I piled into the car again, this time to Kingston!  We went to check out the Cataraqui Guild of Stitchery's annual merchant market.  I took a little money with me, I managed to pick up a few things, a beautiful piece of fabric, the new DMC colours, and a great Ottawa Balckwork piece with is a fundraiser by the Ottawa Guild of Stitchery for Seminar in 2014.  We then all headed to Rebecca's for a fantastic day of stitching, comraedarie... and well food too!

Kathy surprised me on Saturday with this cute little martial arts themed fabric!  I love it!

Also on the weekend was TUSAL time.  Finally, here is my ort jar, full of browns and other earthy tones.

Cat's Meow

cThe Drawn Thread

Stitched on 32ct White Lugana

Finally, I have a Happy Dance to share with you from last night!  This is the 14th of my 15 Crazy January Starts that I've finished!  This was so cute and fun to stitch!

Huge Happy Dance, Kathy's Labour Day Stitching Weekend and Sneaky Fobbing

First of all, lets get the important and exciting part out of the way... I've had my first BIG Happy Dance for myself this year!

 Cirque des Cercles

c2006 Ink Circles

Stitched on: 32 Queen Ann's Lace Joblean

Stitched with: DMC 4240

Isn't CdC fantastic?  You can't really tell from the picture but the floss is a gorgeous shade of blue/purple.  The fabric is supposed to be Queen Ann's Lace, one of my favorites but for some reason this piece I ordered on line (hadn't seen in person) had non of the lovely grey mottling that I normally see.  So it was the perfect piece of fabric to stitch design like this on.

I started CdC in September of 2012, I got a wee corner done between then and this past February when I last picked it up.  The almost all of this piece was stitched between July 24th- September 2nd (at 1:30AM!).  It was a great piece to stitch and perfect to work on while I travelled this summer.

The last couple of years Labour Day Weekend has become Kathy's Annual Stitching Weekend.  Christin comes into work with me on the Friday before Labour Day to help get the student packages ready for the first day of school.  Then we hit the road and road trip down to Kathy's where she has her guest room set aside for us.

Saturday (and Monday) was a rainy day, perfect for stitching!

We spend the weekend putting into practice our favourite motto with some really good friends: Eat. Sleep. Stitch (repeat).  Here are some shots from the weekend.

Fran showing Barb how to make a bullion knot

 Adriana, the most amazing 97 year old stitcher!!!

 Beth

 Christin

 Fran, Barb and Beatrice

 Kathy & Beatrice trying to put lavender in an ornament

 Julie was new to the group this year and it was a pleasure to meet her!

I wanted to show off Clare's amazing knitting!

A short while ago I was making a few scissor fobs, and I had the most perfect penguin charm, so I snuck it into a certain Penguin lover's belongings.  I know she's since found it but ... so far hasn't accused me of planting it!

Time For The Travelling Pattern To Move On

Well, I've finally downloaded all of the pictures off of my cameras from the last month or so!  Next step is to start going through them, keeping the awesome shots and getting rid of the ho-hum stuff.  That takes so much time!  That and I want to do noting but stitch!

Life's A Stitch

cLizzie Kate

Stitched on 28ct Cashel - Amertine from Silkweavers

Stitched with - Old Willow Rebekkah Green & September Sun

- Carrie's - Sassy & Spring Delight

I'm sure you'd prefer something more exciting like a.... Travelling Pattern giveaway!  Would you like to be next to stitch Lizzie Kate's Life's a Stitch please leave a comment here.  I'll pick a winner sometime next week after the Labour Day Weekend!