Happy Holidays!

Just wanted to show you this year's ornaments. I never manage to stitch all the ornaments in my head, but atleast I got a few done. Unfortunately I have not finished them yet. If I have a few minutes of peace tonight, I may be able to finish a couple anyway.

As a cat lover, I couldn't resist the Britty Christmas Kitty. I made up 2 of these. One was stitched one over one thread. The other was one over two threads.

I was thinking of using the small one as a Christmas present tie-on. It is only about 1-1/2 inches square.

I am a little torn about this though. I cringe at the thought of someone just tossing it out with the Christmas clutter, After all, not everyone appreciates the time and effort spent on these little thingies!

I got this pattern from the Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments 10th Anniversary Collection,

Boy did I have a hard time getting ahold of this one! The people who have it, don't want to let it go, and when you can manage to find it, it is very expensive!

The reason I wanted this book though was for my favorite, Holiday Sled from Ursula Michaels Designs. I love this one! Unfortunately I don't think I will be able to finish it this year. I have in mind a special backing for it that I cannot seem to find right now! I have been re-organizing my attic, and it is somewhere up there in all the clutter.

Last but not least is the cutie Christmas Cat in the Window, from The City Stitcher. I got this from Just Cross Stitch 1989 issue.

I stitched this one one over one, so it is really tiny.

Hopefully I can finish up atleast some of these.

On another note, I have had some questions about the bees.

Unfortunately one of the hives is completely dead, and we suspect that a second one is dead also. The first one has no sign of bees, and no activity. The second one had a small number of bees, but we suspect that they were robber bees from another hive trying to rob the honey.

After all the rain over the summer, the vandalism and the early cold weather, it looks like we went into the winter with one viable hive. Keith did his best to feed them sugar water all fall, and we did not harvest the honey this year, leaving it for them to get through the winter. Hopefully they will come through the winter. Nothing is certain at this point. I guess it depends on the severity of the winter and the hardiness of the bees. We are hoping for the best.

I want to wish you all the very best of the holidays. Hope you experience a maximum of warmth and good cheer, and a minimum of stress and conflict!

The Old Aviary is Finished!

Hooray! This has been a long time coming! I started it back in March.

Here is part 4:

(click to enlarge)

I love all the critters in this! There are many birds of course, including an owl. There is also a rabbit, a squirrel, and a very odd little porcupine! The only thing I am not too crazy about is the flowers. They are all exactly the same style. I think if I had noticed that earlier, I would have changed them a bit. All in all though, I am pleased with it.

Here is the whole thing:

(click to enlarge)

I aplogize for the photo. This has been a miserable experience trying to get good pictures of this sampler. I promise that it looks better in person!

This is going to be a bear to frame, but I think I already have a frame for it, so I will give it a try. I will post a picture when it is completed.

For my next project, I chose Love is Enough, a Christmas present from my husband. I am a bit nervous about it though. I decided to stitch it on 36 count instead of the 28ct that came with the kit. I made a small start on it, and I am finding myself worrying if I have a big enough piece. That is such an awful feeling! Aghhhh! I am keeping my fingers crossed.Here is what I have so far:

If I weren't so tired, I would be doing a major Happy Dance!

HOORAY! HOORAY! HOORAY!

The rug is finished!

Yes, much to the surprise of a certain individual who thought it would never happen, the rug is finally finished!

I put a major push on this, worked all weekend, and finally finished it up.

Here is row 57, the final row:

Next, the braid was cut off. (This part is very scary)!

Then, about 8 inches was un-braided. The braids were tapered, and re-braided as far as they could be. When you can't go any further, they have to be sewn to the rug. This was the part I am not too sure of. It doesn't seem strong enough. I just hope it doesn't come undone!

Here is the 'rattail' finished.

Then came the really hard work. The rug was very large, so all the furniture had to be moved!

I bought an organic rug pad to go under the rug. Not so sure this was necessary, or a good idea now. It was very hard to maneuver it into place, position the rug over it, and then cut around it. Of course it wound up a bit skewed under the rug.

Unfortunately the rug did not lie totally flat! Really an OMG moment - My worst fears!

Thank God for my steamer! It really worked wonders!

The rug lies mostly flat now, and hopefully over time one of the other ripples will work its way out. If not, I can live with it the way it is!

The final measurements wound up 95-1/2 inches (8 ft) wide by 11 ft-6 inches long. A good bit of it wound up under the couch but due to the long thin shape of the room, there was no avoiding that.

It was very hard to get pictures of this, but I tried to get some before the furniture was moved back. You can click to enlarge the pictures to get a better look at the colors (and the bumps before they were steamed away)

Gracie had to position herself right in the center to inspect it. This was before the rug pad was cut around it.


The problem with it was the weight of the rug. It is extremely heavy and maneuvering it, especially on top of the rug pad, is a really tough job.

Oh my aching back! Literally! I pulled some muscles moving the furniture that put me out of commission yesterday, but today I am a little less sore, and yes, I am very, very happy that it is finished! I will make another one for the dining room (much smaller), and I will make some small rugs for the traffic areas on this rug, but I will be taking a break for a while.

Keith helped with all the furniture moving. He thinks the rug is ok, just ok, not sure it was worth all the work.

What can I say?!?

A Finish, a Cake, and YIKES!!

I finished up Peace in the Country last Thursday, but didn't get around to taking a picture until today. Finally I have my first 2009 finish!

Sorry for the crooked picture, but here it is:

The detail on the angel's dress is what took most of the time. It is hard to see, but there is quite a bit of back-stitching on the sleeve to give it a golden look.

I will have to look around in my travels for a frame for this one. It is practically square. Hopefully I can find one at a yard sale this summer. If not I will have to break down and actually buy one!

Now for the cake!

This requires a bit of an explanation!

About a month ago, Keith came home and announced that he had ordered a bee hive as well as a colony of bees to go with it! Yes, BEES! To say that I was surprised would be an enormous understatement!

He had mentioned it once or twice before, but I had never given it another thought.

You see, we are not exactly "bee" people. We live in the NY suburbs, just about 25-30 miles from Manhattan. In fact, other than a tomato garden, we have no background in farming or animal husbandry of any sort, (well except for a very brief and unfortunate interlude with chickens who inhabited our property when we bought our house, but I digress)!

Some of the bees are being delivered in April, and we will be driving upstate in May to pick up the colony. Yes, I have been drafted into this duty! Yikes!

Anyway, Keith's birthday was on Saturday, and when I saw this cake, I knew I just had to make it for him. It is a lemon cake with a honey-lemon glaze, buttercream frosting, and a Royal icing drizzle. It was made from a special pan that was molded in the shape of the hive. Of course there were some major goofs, things that I would do differently next time, but all in all, I was rather pleased how it turned out. My baking projects have not always been met with such success (LOL)!

Oh boy! Bees! yikes!

Stay tuned. It should be an interesting summer!