YAY! My last finish of 2010!!

I finished 'Tis the Season yesterday, right under the wire for 2010.

I am really glad to have this done. It really took much longer than I thought it would!

I bound it with red. It pulls it together a bit more than just turning it under.

I think I will enjoy it more next year!

We are finally moving about easier now. Some of the snow will actually melt this weekend. This is how we looked after the blizzard:

I'm afraid I was not very prolific with my stitching this year. Not a very good showing at all!

Sorry for the terrible picture. In order of completion they were: Love is Enough, Blueberries, The Mary Clark Sampler, Wintertide, and 'Tis the Season.

Seems like most of my stitching time was spent working on Country Garden, and who knows when that will be finished!

The one I enjoyed the most was The Mary Clark Sampler.

Well, time for the ceremonial emptying of the stitching bits!

Here is my last TUSAL picture of the year.

Yes, definitely, most of my stitching (the pink) was on Country Garden.

What do you do with your bits?

I take mine outside and scatter them in my bushes for the birds. I always hope to see them in their spring nests. One year I did see a piece of red wool that I scattered after making my rug. I thought that was cool!

I will be back to post my new TUSAL picture on Jan. 4th. I have already decided on my next project, and hopefully there will be something to see, not just an empty jar!

I have so enjoyed reading your blogs, and all of your comments over the past year! They have meant so much to me!

To all of you:

A very Happy and Healthy New Year!

Hoping for one more finish in 2010!

I am hoping to finish quilting 'Tis the Season by the end of the year. If I get really lucky, I may just finish it.

I have completed all the stitching and most of the quilting. All that is left is to quilt all 4 borders. and to bind it. I decided to put a red binding on it rather than just turning it back as the directions suggest.

In case you were wondering what the lump was:

Furry loves to crawl under things to sleep. By the time I found the camera, he had crawled under it, and was quite annoyed when I tried to re-position it!

I have tried to explain to him that there are many people who would take exception to a large Maine Coon cat sleeping on the dining room table, but like all cats, he has a mind of his own!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope everyone has a wonderful and peaceful Christmas!

Wintertide is finished but . . .

I am not at all pleased with it!

I am not sure what went wrong, but there is a fatal error in there somewhere! I even frogged it, started over again, and I still got it wrong!

It somehow came out smaller than it should have. The threads are all very fat in a very small area. The holes do not show up at all. You have to look very closely to see that there are holes at all! It should be much crisper looking. Ughfh!

I think I may try this again next year maybe, but I will use different threads. I was not pleased with the Kreinik Serica.

Grrr! Frustrating!

It is supposed to look like this:

Not my best work to be sure! Oh well!

I am slowly getting ready for Christmas, although I am waaaaay behind! This year seemed to be much more hassled than last year!

Last week we went up to a tree farm in Ulster County to cut down our tree. I really love that part of Christmas! Also, the tree is always so fresh that I feel guilty putting it out by the road at the end of the holidays because the needles haven't even started falling yet!

I will walk by row after row of perfectly manicured trees to find my perfect oddly shaped, scraggly tree!

I love Charlie Brown trees!

Here is a picture of Keith cutting down our tree.

He always makes it look so easy!

Well, I am getting further and further behind as I sit here (still haven't finished trimming the tree)!

I am very disappointed with my ornaments this year. Next year will be better!

Slow progress

I am still working on Wintertide here. I have stitched more complicated things than this, so it should not be a problem, but for some reason, I seemed to have trouble with this one. I found the silk Serica to be a little difficult to work with and wound up doing some frogging. Of course I ran out of the white and had to re-order. Kreinik products are not always easy to find. It took several days to get it, but I finally finished the blanket stitching around the outside.

This is what I have so far:

(click to enlarge)

I still have to finish all the flowers, do the leaves and vines, create the boxes, and do the cutting.

I have neglected to post a picture of my TUSAL! I know the end of the year is near when my jar starts to push out the top! Here it is:


Seems like most of it is pink from Country Garden.


Speaking of TUSAL, if you would like to join this little group, see Sharon's (It's Daffycat) blog http://itsdaffycat.blogspot.com/2010/12/totally-useless-stitch-long.html.

Should be fun!