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!

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!

Bountiful Blueberries is finished!

This was indeed a quick stitch. It measures about 2" X 2-5/8" on 32ct. It was completed in less than 3 evenings. I needed a quick little one after all of my big projects!

I outlined the blueberries, sewed on all the beads and the charm, and Voila!

Click to enlarge

Now of course, I have to find a frame for it.

Lately I have been spending my time working on my family tree. I put in a good deal of work back in the 80's, but I have found a little bit more with the help of the internet. I still need some major breaks though to trace my ancestors across the ocean.

I have a Mary Clark in my family, and I thought it would be fun to do the Mary Clark Sampler. Of course my relative is no relation to the Mary Clark who originally stitched this, but I really like the sampler anyway, so it seemed destined to be my next project.

I am stitching it on 40ct linen that I coffee-stained. I decided to use silk thread on this one.

This is what I have so far:

Hope my eyes hold out on that 40ct! It's slow going!

Finally a finish!

Tuesday evening I finished Love is Enough. This one seemed to take forever.

Although I liked the way it turned out, I didn't really enjoy working on this one. It was a very finicky, fidgety piece, with a lot of teeny tiny back stitching with constant change in direction.

Rather tough on the old eyeballs!

Now I have to find the right frame for it.

After this, I decided to work on a quick little one. I have had Bountiful Blueberries from Sweetheart Tree, in my stash for ages. This one is only 43 X 34 stitches, and works up very quickly.


The first evening I finished up most of the cross stitching. Then last night I finished up the rest of the cross stitching and did all the back stitching for the tendrils. By the way, I think the designer has probably never seen blueberries growing in nature. There are no tendrils or vine. They grow on a bush! That said, I like the design.


This is what I have so far:


Tonight I will do the outlining on the berries, and attach the beads and the little charm in the center.

I totally missed the March edition of the Totally Useless Stitch Along. Here is the March-April edition. Atleast there are a few more colors in there. Before it was totally pink from my quilt.