Is this cute or what?

I saw it last night.

I called House of Stitches, who had just received their shipment today.

Pulled out credit card and ordered it!

I will probably start stitching it in a couple of days.

Sweetheart Tree Stitchers Favorite Biscornu!

And… the matching scissor fob!

Look at the little spools of thread!  Look at the tiny buttons!  I adore this.

Shopping and Stitching

Saturday I picked up Susan and her son and we headed to LaPorte to visit House of Stitches.  Susan will be moving soon and this might have been our last chance to hang out for a day. 

Susan’s son was kind enough to take our picture out side the shop:

I was looking primarily for fibers for the Victoria Sampler Summer Biscornu Contest (join the group and click on “files” for more info) and found some pretty things…  We also had fun chatting with the ladies who work in the shop.

Anyway, after our shopping, we stopped for lunch then spent the day stitching at Susan’s place.  What a fun day!

Also, I wanted to share the blog award that Eva gave to me a while back.  Thanks so much Eva:

The rules say to nominate others for the award, but I’m short on time so maybe in the future!

Stash Enhancement, Movie, and Theater

So, I took a trip to House of Stitches today to pick up floss and flossaway bags for Chatelaine’s Alhambra Garden (pics courtesy of Annette’s blog).  I also saw LHN’s Traveling Stitcher and had to have that, then picked up a lovely piece of fabric for Alhambra.  I’ll post a pic of the floss toss when I’m ready to get started on that.

DBF was kind and granted my wish to see Twlight…  it was fluffy, but I liked it and surprisingly enough, DBF didn’t seem to mind too much.  I do have to say I’ve been to Forks, Washington and most of this movie was filmed in the Columbia River Gorge rather than the Olympic Peninsula.  I’ve hiked to the top of the gigantic waterfall shown in the movie.  Anyway, I’ve read the whole series of books, and while not really literature, I enjoyed the pure entertainment value of the books w/out having to think too hard about things like symbolism or deeper meaning.

We also had tickets tonight for the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at the Morris in South Bend…. not a bad show, but not life changing either. 

All in all, a good day!

Alpine Seasons Progress and Some Goals

I’ve been stitching exclusively on Chatelaine’s Alpine Seasons since last week and am having fun with it.  I’ve been working my way through the mountains and trees in the upper left hand corner and here’s how it looks so far:

 

I have a goal of finishing up this section before I work on anything else….  At that point I’ll decide if I want to work on more borders in another quadrant or move onto another piece.  I really only have one other WIP right now, so I think something new is in order when I’m ready to move on.

A couple of days ago, I went through all of my old Just Cross Stitch Ornament issues and picked out some ornaments I’d like to do this year.  At Christmas, I wished I had more stitched ornaments on my tree, so have toyed with the idea of doing an ornament a month in 2009.  I came up with 7 and made up a list of supplies I’d need and headed off to House of Stitches on Saturday morning and had a very sucessful trip!  I found everything I needed, got a piece of fabric for Chatelaine’s Alhambra, some pretty gingham linen (called for in one of the ornaments), two JCS ornament issues that I didn’t have, and Mill Hill diamond ornament.  When I got to the checkout, I ended up spending less than I’d estimated, AND received these great “customer appreciation” gifts.  The ruler is magnetic.  They are so cute:

 

Last night I ran across Victoria Sampler’s January/February newsletter and saw that Thea has released the most BEAUTIFUL, HUGE sampler, called Heirloom Stitching Sampler… It’s her 100th publication and this sampler is a full 31″ long!!  It has almost 40 different specialty stitches!  I absolutely love it and just know that I’ll have to stitch it at some point. 

In the meantime, I’m trying to be patient while I wait for details for the Nashua Celebration of Needlework!

Thanks for visiting and thank you for all of the comments that you leave… I love reading them.

Celebration Stash Enhancement

Before I talk more about Celebration, I’d like to send out a big Thank You to Gill, who so kindly sent me the Margaret Sherry “Crafty Cat” chart that I’ve been looking for!

Margaret Sherry’s Crafty Cat

Thank you Gill!  Stitchers are truly a bunch of very nice people.

I love all of the stash I picked up at Celebration of Needlework last weekend. I picked up these goodies in the market:

I caved to temptation and got the souvenier bag, but I have to say that I love it and its twice as big as my current stitching bag.  I can fit sooo much stuff in there.  I also got two biscornu kits from Sweetheart Tree, the Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue, a wooden thread holder, and some pretty scissors from the Silver Needle booth.  The fob on the scissors is from a Make-It-Take-It class that I did Saturday afternoon.

These are the gifts I received at the Friday Night Charity Event – a kit and hardware, a cute bag, a sampler of Zweigart cuts, and a piece of linen that has been hemstitched.  Fun Stuff!

Part of the Friday Night Event included bingo where everyone won something.  These are my three prizes – I’m happy with all of them.

Here is the chartpack and the class supplies I received with the class I took Saturday afternoon with Jackie du Plessis.

I had such a wonderful time.  In fact, earlier in the week I was thinking about how much I loved The Celebration of Needlework and spending time with my internet stitching friends.  I realized that due to schedule constraints, I only spent approximately 24 hours celebrating!

Soooo, I’ve decided to go to the next Celebration in Nashua at the end of April!    I can plan ahead and spend more time!  So barring any unforseen financial or schedule issues, I’ll be there!  Any one else attending?

Labor Day Weekend Stitching

Saturday morning, I finished up my latest project, Little House Needleworks Thread Gathering:

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out. It is my first LHN design. I stayed up pretty late Friday and got up early Saturday to finish it up because I was excited to start my new project, Victoria Sampler’s Where Stitchers Gather. Here are all of the supplies ready to go. I just love the floss colors on this one…

I did actually get some work done on this over the weekend, but got home late from DBF’s family holiday thing today and I don’t feel like getting the camera out and uploading and stuff. I’m thrilled with how its turning out so far, so I doubt I’ll be able to contain my progress pic for too long, maybe later in the week…

Saturday I went on an emergency trip to a LNS, Needle Nest, because I found that I didn’t have the fabric I thought I did (wrong count) for starting Where Stitchers Gather… while I was there I looked through a whole bunch of Laura Perin designs looking for a couple that I saw on her website last week. I think its somewhat fortunate that they didn’t have the ones I was most interested in, as I have too much to stitch right now and am saving up for the marketplace at the Celebration of Needlework next month.  Anyway, I did pick up my first pair of stretcher bars for a canvas work design I have in my stash… to be started…. someday.

I Have The Nicest Friends!

Today I got home from work and found an envelope from my friend Susan. Through e-mails with her earlier in the day, I’d found out that she sent me something that she knew was on my list of designs to purchase. So, it wasn’t a total surprise… the big surprise was the generosity and kindness.  She sent Little House Needleworks’ “Home of a Needleworker (Too).”

I just love the little house in the bottom part of the H!  Honestly I think I love the original version of this design just as much as this one!  I’ve recently become a fan of Little House Needlework designs (I have a couple more on order!) and this was such a perfect pick-me-up to help me shake my post-vacation-depression.  Plus, it was perfectly timed to show up on my first day back to work. 

What nice friends I have!  Thank you Susan!

Tonight I printed out the upper left quadrant of Alpine Seasons and will be set to start on that soon.  I’m hoping to entice a friend to do a stitch-along with me on this piece to keep our progress moving forward.

Celebration…..

Yesterday I mailed in my registration for the Celebration of Needlework in Louisville.  I’ve never been to anything like this, so I’m really looking forward to it.  Susan and I are going to take Friday off work and head down early in the morning.  We’re signed up for an event on Friday night and a class on Saturday afternoon.  The rest of the time will be spent stitching, checking out the market, and hopefully meeting up with other stitchers that we know from online.  I am soooo looking forward to it!

Back of the stitchers pocket…

Victoria Sampler has released the Mystic Needlework Smalls leaflet, which I adore.  That Biscornu is to die for!  I’ve never seen one done with hardanger and I want that to be the first biscornu I attempt.  I also love the stitchers pocket.  I think this will be next on my list of yummies to add to my stash.  This could be the piece that causes my stash storage area to overflow, as its pretty much packed to the brim.

I have a little plastic 3 drawer chest for my stash.  The top drawer is filled with fabric and my watchmaker bead cases, the second drawer is filled with charts and magazines, and the third drawer is where all of my DMC, silks, and other fibers live.  I also have VS accessory packs in that drawer for all of the VS charts on my list of things to stitch.  Additionally, I have a plastic box (which was the original home of ALL of my stash) that now houses all of my q-snaps, hoops, and other various stitching accessories.

I know that this is modest compared to some other stash collections I’ve seen in my lifetime, but I am not a “collector” and only buy things that I fully intend to stitch and usually allow myself to buy any needed materials (fabric, beads, fibers) that I may need for what is already in my stash so that I can start any of them on a whim if the mood strikes me.

I got rid of most of my no-longer-needed stash (previously stitched charts) at the GTG last weekend but had a few things leftover that are free to a good home….Victoria Sampler Green Earth and Crimson Fire leaflets.  Crimson Fire is discontinued, so the link is to my slightly modified version on my webshots page.  If you’re interested in either chart, let me know and I’ll pop it in the mail to you.

The Wonderful Online Stitching Community

The Mailman Has Been Kind… This was the original title I had in mind for this post… but I decided the on above was more appropriate…

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered an extra Mystic Retreat class pack from Victoria Sampler. I got an e-mail a little later on saying that the person before me had gotten the last available pack, but that the leaflet would be released in July – not a problem. I just loved all of the stitching accessories with their sea-side theme and was eager to stitch them, but I had enough to work on that I could wait until July…

Later in the day, I got another message from Cathy at VS saying they thought they had one more available…. Then another message later saying that she was mistaken and that she was going to send me a “tiny gift” to compensate for my “emotional upheaval.” 

None of this was a problem at all – I just planned to pick up the leaflet after it was released.

So a couple of days later, I receive a package from VS that had a nice note, printed copy of the “Serena” angel ornament, available on the VS website, along with the accessory pack for the design! What a sweet and thoughtful thing to do! The people at VS have always been great with customer service, but I thought this small gesture was over the top!

I had shared this story with my friend Susan…. I went home today during my lunch break to find the leaflet for VS’s “Where Stitchers Gather” waiting for me. This is another VS release featuring stitching accessories! How thoughtful of her! How lucky for me! Two items from my favorite designer in less than a week!

In other news… Kim (Cymberleah) was drawn from the people who expressed interest in DBF’s potholders! Kim – send me a Yuku message with your address…

Alyssum Scissor Pocket Progress

I’ve been working away at my Allysum Scissor Pocket. Instead of using the included Dinky Dye, I pulled some Caron Waterlillies “Peacock” out of my stash (leftover from stitching Indigo Rose Desiderata) and went to work on a piece of Belfast Platinum.

While I’m quite happy with the color combination, it wasn’t really what I had in mind when I went to pull some fabric.

I was quite dismayed to find that my stash of neutral colored 32 counts had dwindled to basically the piece of platinum that I used! I’ve been spoiled by having access to whatever fabric I might want in my stash for several years. I immediately had to inventory my fabric stash. I’ve got tons of 28 count, but again, not in the neutral colors I most commonly stitch on. I placed orders for 6 fat quarters of linen in white, smoky pearl, and platinum. I also picked up some cream belfast and lambswool at a lunch time trip to my local Hobby Lobby. I’d like to stock up on my favorite lugana evenweaves too, but that can wait. I also went through and weeded out some colors that I know I will probably never use… a couple of pinks and some really dark colored jewel tones. I separated them out and will bring them with me to the June 21 Chicago GTG (we’re doing a swap meet) and use them for RAKs.

Speaking of stash, I am quite please to learn that Silkweaver is going to start up their regular Fabric of the Month again soon. A couple of years ago they went to only hand-dyed fabrics, which are beautiful, but for the price and variety available, I’d rather buy something like that when I have a particular design in mind. I’ve done their FOTMs before, and they do such a good job as far as letting you choose what types of fabric you receive and also making sure that you don’t get any repeats of what they’ve sent you before. I may sign up for that once they get going again.

So I’m headed off into the long holiday weekend with no definite plans. We have a couple of cook-out type invitations, the promise of nice weather, and other possibilities like biking, canoeing, or hiking. Of course, DBF has his son for the weekend and those weekends tend to be subject to his son’s athletic and social schedule, which changes moment to moment and makes planning anything pretty much impossible since DBF needs to drive him around.