Almost Finished!!!!

Here is my latest progress on Egyptian Sampler!  I feel like I can say it’s almost finished!!! Since this picture was taken, I’ve stitched the color block border and the corner block and am just backstitching  those before I finish the papyrus in the center part of the border.

Most of my stitching is done over the weekends, but with the advent of spring, we’ve been busy doing Expos to support my husband’s business. My last finish, the butterfly, was stitched in a car and hotel room.  This is the busy season for expos with another really huge show this weekend. 

I haven’t decided whether I’ll take this with me this weekend for stitching in the evening or if I’ll take another small kit that fits in my purse.

 

Snack Stitching

A friend of mine coined the term Snack Stitching to be small project to as a break from stitching on larger pieces. Even though my Egyptian Sampler is nearly finished, I was traveling a couple of weeks ago and grabbed this little mill hill kit and brought it with me. The kit came with a magnet that I hot glued to the back and stuck on my fridge 

I ran out of 931 while stitching (my own fault) and my husband, who understands my goal-oriented nature, stopped at a Michaels while we were out of town to  get a single skein so I could finish up the cross stitching.   He is the best!

I love it and beads used are very sparkly in real life. 🦋

Vacation Stitching!

It’s amazing what a person can accomplish when you don’t have to go to work!  I took this before moving the Q snaps over to the right hand border to finish that. I love it!  I hadn’t realized how BIG it is!

i had hoped to finish this by the end of the year, but with only a couple of days left I doubt that will happen!  It’s ok…  I’m happy with the progress I’m making. 😍

Beaded Stocking

So over a year ago I was in Nashville and some friends took me to visit their LNS The Stitchin Post. I saw models of a set of 6 Mill Hill beaded stockings. Alas, they no longer had the kits stocked. 

A few months later I thought about them and did a web search and found them on Amazon!  Two days later they arrived at my door step. 

I grabbed one as a travel project for a trip over Fourth of July weekend. I finished the stitching during the trip and did the beading when I got home.  It’s so cute!

At some point I need to get some felt to add a backing to this as well as The Mittens! I did several years ago. 

I’m committed to finishing my TW Egyptian Sampler this year so maybe working in the rest will be “easy” stitching after finishing the complexity (and dreaded back stitching) of a TW. 

Flu Shot PSA

I wish to implore everyone who has not had a flu shot to go to your doctor or a pharmacy and get one.

    My sister who was in perfect health 10 days ago and rarely gets sick, has contracted H1N1 influenza and is literally fighting for her life against this potentially deadly flu strain. She leads a healthy lifestyle (doesn’t smoke or drink), has no condition that would have reduced her immunity, and doesn’t work outside the home or come into contact with a lot of people. She recently had a perfect physical.

If it happened to her, it could happen to me or you or someone in your family who is also generally healthy. I don’t mean to be alarmist and I’m not looking for sympathy or attention… I just don’t want anyone else to deal with what my family is going through when it is easily preventable.

She did not get a flu shot this year and the doctors firmly believe that if she had, she might have still gotten sick but wouldn’t be in the ICU with a 50% chance of survival.  This strain of flu is included in this year’s flu shot. I know that vaccination is a personal choice but please consider this unthinkable consequence that my family is facing.

Ornament and TW Updates

HI…  Even though I’ve been quiet on the blog, I have been doing quite a bit of stitching!

Here is my progress through yesterday on my Teresa Wentzler Egyptian Sampler.  I think my husband, who I’m stitching this for is finally starting to get what goes into cross stitch!  I’ve been working on this, on and off, for about a year and a half.  I’m happy to say that I’m more than halfway through with a long way to go!  I’m happy to have finished the frame all the way around and the background in the arch.  A little tedious but not as bad as I thought it would be.  When I started doing the background I had to pull out the staff and the flail on the middle figure but it shouldn’t take much to add those back in now.  I’m loving stitching this!

I spend the week of Christmas with some family and kitted up a Victoria Sampler ornament from the 2015 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Edition to take with me.  When I travel I like to take something small.  There were some errors in the pattern as published, so for some of this I was just on my own.  Plus the accessory pack that I ordered had two different sized stars!  I contacted Thea at Victoria Sampler and she sent me the correct button size.  I love the little gingerbread man buttons!

So for now, I’m just going to keep on working on Egyptian Sampler and ignore all of my other WIPs.  I’d love to finish it up this year.  🙂

Epicosity

I had a lovely weekend last week with a group of internet friends that I “met” online way back in 1999.  Several i had met in person over the years, but over the weekend I met several in person for the first time…..  Wonderful, strong, smart, stitchy women.  

During the weekend activities, I made some decent progress on my Teresa Wentzler Egyptian Sampler.  I did mostly border work on the right side… long stretches of straight lines that required very little counting so that i didn’t have to concentrate too hard.  🙂  I might continue to finish the border outlines all the way around and then start to do the border fill work as I go.  

  
(Click to see a bigger pic)

I’m very happy to report that I’m blogging on my ipad.  I never thought that would be possible because even though the WordPress app is pretty good and easy to use, I don’t do too well with the virtual keyboard.  One of the things I saw last weekend was people using bluetooth keyboards to type on their ipads and although I knew these existed I never knew what to get or how well it would work.  I got the keyboard on Amazon (Prime) and I LOVE IT.  It was hard to turn down a purple keyboard that was half the price of the same model at Best Buy.

So, for now I’m out of town again for a week visiting my family in Ticonderoga, NY and experience the “Best Fourth in the North.”

Happy Fourth of July!

WIP UPdates!

OH its been so long since I blogged!  I accept the fact that my regular readers have given up on me!  Here it goes anyway:

So after I moved to Pennsylvania, I wasn’t feeling very inspired to stitch, so I didn’t blog since I didn’t have any stitching to talk about or show off…  I was busy with a new job, had met a new person in my life that I spent a lot of time with, and was reading a lot in my spare time.  It seemed far easier to fire up my kindle than try to pick up on a project that I hadn’t worked on for a long time.

Life now is much more settled down though and I’ve actually been stitching 2-3 months.

This is a new project I started entitled Colonial Roses by Sweetheart Tree.  This will someday be a biscornu.

Sweetheart Tree Colonial Roses:

Here is the closeup view of what I’ve stitched so far:

I’ve also added three new words to my Lizzie Kate Living with Charm Banner….

Believe, Care, Encourage:

Here is How the Whole Project looks so far:

And finally… the massive 8+ year WIP… Chatelaine Alpine Seasons!  Will I ever finish it??

Upper right hand corner confetti detail:

The whole thing!!!

Now that the confetti in this section is mostly done, i’m working on the mountains which are relatively large bands of color and very little counting.

So who thinks I can finally finish this beast in 2014? Once I get the stitching done there are hundreds of beads and crystals to add, but getting the stitching itself done would be fantastic!

Finished Project of the Week

Honestly… I thought I had already published all possible “Finished Projects of the Week.”  These posts feature stitching that was completed prior to my starting a blog.  In my recent picture re-linking I came across one that I’ve never published.  This is:

Victoria Sampler Woodland Garden

Isn’t it sweet?  I love the rhodes butterflies.  I’ve never finished or framed this one… Its probably too small to make a bellpull out of it, but maybe a pinkeep finish would work… someday….

Its funny when you look at things you stitched and remember where you were and what you were doing when you worked on them.  This was a travel project during a trip to Oklahoma to visit my family.  I think my nephew, very young at the time, sat on my lap and I would let him pull the needle through a couple of stitches.  I also was working on this in a hospital waiting room while my mother was having some tests done.

Thank you for visiting my blog!

Cute Little LNS in Fairfax, VA

I was pretty dismayed when I moved to Pennsylvania to find that there were no LNS’ in my immediate vicinity.  It’s not like there was in Indiana either… I happily would drive an hour to the wonderful House of Stitches because it was totally worth the trip.  I think my closest LNS might be in Baltimore, but haven’t really sought it out yet.

So, anyway, I’ve been spending time with a new friend in Reston, VA, and last weekend I googled and found a LNS about 10 miles from his house!  It took a little driving around to actually find it, but at last we found Stitcher’s Stash in Fairfax, VA!

It was a smaller LNS, but very cute with lots of great samplers, fibers, and fabric.  It was decorated nicely and had a cozy feel to it.  Unfortunately, nothing really jumped out at me and I left without purchasing anything.

Here are some pics…. these were taken with my phone so they aren’t super clear, but you get the idea…  If you click on their link above, you can learn more about the shop and there are lots more pictures there.

Check out some of the things on the upper shelves… little blue bottles, baskets, and that lamp in the middle of the store made it feel cozy inside.  Well, it was also pretty cold outside and nice and warm in the shop.

Even after visiting a LNS with me, I don’t think my new friend really understands the extent of the obsession… lol.  Even though I haven’t been stitching much, the obsession still is there and it has been pulling at me lately.  I might pull out some WIPs are put a few stitches in this week.  😀  He’s seen some of the things on my walls, but I haven’t showed him my stash yet.

If any of you are in the region of DC, Reston, or Fairfax, give me a shout as I’m always looking to make new stitching friends.