Last post of 2011

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

I got some wonderful goodies!

My husband got me this bamboo floss chest from DMC!

The chest is surprisingly heavy, and just a bit hard to move, so I have it still sitting in the plastic until I can find a good place for it. Of course it is already jam-packed with my floss and many duplicates! I also got Country Life from the Scarlet Letter. This definitely goes on my 'to do" list!

Meanwhile of course, I am still stuck in the middle of the green sea!

Doesn't seem like I have made much progress from the last post. This green stripey fill-in just takes forever!

Here is the whole thing: When I finish filling in the last bit around the tree, I will be able to start the last page, and more green sea of course!

Considering that I have been working on ATS since July, I could have had a couple more 2011 finishes, but this will be a big one for 2012 when it is done.

This year went very quickly!

Here are my 2011 finishes :

I think my favorite was This is the Day from Hands to Work.

I don't typically make many resolutions, but here are a few:

• to frame more of my finishes (I didn't get one thing framed this year)!


• to finish my ornaments


• to knit a sweater - (I haven't knitted anything in decades)!


• to find a picture or icon of some sort to replace that ridiculous google "head" as my profile


• and of course "to get into shape" LOL Yeah right!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Some stitching and the LAST TUSAL of 2011!

Very hard to believe that the last new moon of 2011 has arrived!

Here is my jar:

I will wait until late winter and then sprinkle it about outside on the bushes. I hope the birds will use it in their nests.

A lot of it is filled with threads from this:
Just impossible to get a good shot of this!

I am stuck in this sea of green right now. IT IS TAKING FOREVER!!! I do not like this stripey bit in the grass at all! I like the other parts where the green looks more natural. I thought about taking it out, but I didn't want to do all that frogging. Not sure how I like the way this looks though.

Here is a close-up:

I have one more finish, to show you. I stitched First Snow, a freebie from The Drawn Thread. I love this design, but I am a little disappointed that the snow did not show up so well on the fabric I chose. It is on a pale blue. I may stitch this again on a raw linen or a gray color for more contrast.
I do not know how I am going to finish this one just yet.

TUSAL and Some Ornaments

Meant to post yesterday, but a Dell update software for my printer managed to crash my computer. My husband recovered it, but only after hours and hours of effort. I think the end may be near for this computer! (If you have a Dell AIO 962 printer, watch out for that update. It's a killer)!

Here is my November TUSAL along with the Thanksgiving gang.

Soon it will be time to replace my fall tablecloth with a more seasonal one, but I just refuse to decorate for Christmas before Dec 1st! I try to hold on to fall as long as I can!

I have been working on some ornaments from an oldie but goodie, Prairie Schooler (#10 Prairie Christmas) from 1985. I stitched the cat as designed:

Then I stitched it again to commemorate Max ,who we lost this year.
I always forget just how long it takes to finish these ornaments. I only finished one of them so far. Finishing is not my forte to be sure, but I think this one turned out ok!

We miss you Max!

These are terrible pictures today! Sorry about that. I don't seem to be able to take a good picture to save my life! They really look better in person than they do here.

My Thanksgiving Friends

It occurred to me that I really don't have many Thanksgiving decorations. I usually rely upon natural decorations, pine cones, acorns, etc. I have always wanted to stitch something appropriate, but I was never able to get the timing right.

I decided to take a break from And They Sinned, to work on these little guys.



Thanksgiving Friends is a design by Need'l Love from 1989. The Pilgrim Dolls were first published in 1989 and they were so popular that it was reprinted with the Indians and turkey in 1991.

The pattern called for 7 count Klostern. I only had a small piece of this which wasn't big enough. I got the idea to use a piece of burlap, which I had on hand. Admittedly, burlap is not the easiest fabric to work, but I got used to it as I went along. I like the rustic look of it for these designs.

The finishing was a bit fiddly. Their size was different than the base size given, so I had to play with it a bit. Not my forte, but by trial and error, I got it to work. I sewed solid fabrics to the backs and the stands.

Here's how they turned out:

Furrytail had to check them out of course!

By the way, I wanted to give a shout out to Sharon at It's Daffycat . She will be hosting the 2012 TUSAL. Hop on over to check it out!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It is wonderful to have the power on again!

I'm BACK! from surgery, earthquake, hurricane, tornados, floods, etc!

August is my least favorite month! And that is during a regular year!

This August has been the worst I can ever remember!

First of all, I had to have back surgery on August 9th. The initial recovery was pretty gruesome, but I am doing better now. I am finally getting back to doing some stitching again. At first it was just too uncomfortable to sit in one place.

We were fairly lucky during the hurricane. We did lose power, and get water in our cellar, but no other major damage. It is hard to look at all the mess, and not be able to clean it up (I still am unable to bend)! We certainly fared much better than much of our hamlet. Parts had to be evacuated, and now they are inundated with water. This includes our post office. The streets are all still closed. I have no idea when we will get mail again! Travel was of course impossible with bridges and the NYS thruway closed. Thankfully outside of our hamlet things are getting back to normal.

That said, I actually have a little finish to show.

I finished the little Mill Hill ornament Diamond Holiday, from the Christmas Jewels series.

I finished the back very simply with some purple felt.
Normally I'm not much for beading, and I don't really like to stitch on the perforated paper, but this little ornament just appealed to me.

I think if I did it again though, I would substitute some 28ct linen for the paper, perhaps some blue or lavender would be nice.

I made a little progress on "And they sinned".
Please forgive the wrinkles. It is just too hard to hobble off to use my ironing board!

This is a very slow stitch! I have been in that blasted tree forever! I am working on the spotted snake that is crawling through it right now.

Lastly is my TUSAL. Here is, showing lots of color!
I hope all of you made out ok in the hurricane, and are recovering from that or whatever other crisis you are facing.

It's always something. Isn't it?

Another TUSAL and a finish!

Two new moons in one month took me by surprise!
I have been stitching, and here is my TUSAL jar to prove it.


I did finish the Shelburne Sampler. Actually, it has been finished for some time. I gave it a quick tea bath, but it didn't seem to do too much for it. Seems a bit more yellow, not particularly the look I was going for, but here's how it came out.

My new start is "And They Sinned". I have had my eye on this one for a while.

I am stitching it on 40 count lambswool with the suggested GAST threads.

This is what I have so far:
Actually, I am finding stitching on this to be a bit boring. There are many large areas of fill, which can be tough on 40 count. I will keeps going on it though. Maybe I will like it a little more as it takes shape.

A couple of finishes to show

May has been a very difficult month!

Just two days after losing Max, we had to bring Furrytail (our Maine coon) down to NJ to have surgery for a gigantic (non cancerous) cyst (or collection of cysts) that had attached to his liver.

Fortunately everything went well, and he is back home with us! In fact, I have never seen a cat recover from surgery so quickly! He had a huge incision, from top to bottom! You would never know it to look at him now though!

Of course all of this was quite unexpected and quite expensive!

Now, it seems to be my turn to have health issues, mostly with my back. I am hoping to be able to avoid having surgery.

Good thing I had my stitching!

Margaret Ledden has actually been finished for a while now. I just haven't had a chance to post the photo.

Here she is:

I love the trees! They seem strangely art deco-ish to me.

Then, I turned my attention to an older kit that I had in my stash. This was a kit for a pin cushion doll. The kit included a half-doll, but when I looked at it, I was disappointed that it was rather modern-looking. I was really going for an antique look. So, off to ebay I went. I found the perfect little half doll. I love the coloring in the cheeks. The only problem was that it was considerably smaller than the one included in the kit. I scaled it down by stitching it on 32ct instead of the 25ct that was included, but it still came out a bit big.

The verse says

Pins and Needles
Needles and Pins
My Sewing Friends

It was an easy stitch, but gathering the fabric was quite a chore!

I also decided to make a little strawberry emery that was not included in the pattern. Luckily it turned out ok. I was fortunate to find a bit of wool left over from my rug that exactly matched the green floss.
I decided to give it to my mother-in-law for Mother's day.

Happy St. Pats Everybody!

and what better day to show this finish?

Nil aon tintean mar do thintean fein translates to "No hearth like your own hearth", or "Home Sweet Home".

Stitched from a freebie found at http://www.gryphonsmoon.com/.

I stitched it on 32ct Natural Irish linen with 4 skeins of DMC 935 (dark green). Hope to find a frame for it soon.

What I wanted to stitch next was Ann Grant because I love all the pinks in it! I just couldn't justify spending the $25 though when I have quite a few projects waiting for me in my stash. So, I picked The Margaret Ledden Sampler. This is one that I have had for ages! From The Scarlet Letter in 1986, I don't even think it is still in print.

This is what I have so far:

Do you ever have times when you are just too tired or wiped out to stitch, but still want to work on something?

When I am just too brain dead to work on anything complicated, I pull out one of my easy peasy little ones. I picked this one up at an estate sale.

Now, I do not have any children, so this might seem like a strange choice, but there is something very endearing about these old pieces. I think many of them deserve a second look. I have also found that they look very nice framed with a colorful mat, something I don't usually do with the traditional samplers.

Here's what I've got so far:

It is very, very weird stitching with 6 strands of floss!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Celebrate your Heart is finished!

YAY! ! !

Not without some problems though!

I kept running into a mistake I made early on. I kept thinking I had corrected for it. but nooooo! I kept running into it.
The heart shape is much like a circle and can be a nightmare if the ends don't meet!

It seems slightly askew to me, but I am very glad that it is done! I added my very teeny, tiny initials just under the Christmas tree, near the date.

I hope to get it framed shortly.

I didn't really know what to do for my next project.

I decided to stitch "Nil aon tintean mar do thintean fein". This is Gaelic and translates to"There's no hearth like your own hearth", or "Home Sweet Home".

This is a freebie that I found on http://gryphonsmoon.com/freebies/cross-stitch1.pdf .

I had trouble deciding on the color thread for this. I finally decided to use a traditional green on natural Irish linen. I was tempted to use a color that was lighter than the fabric, and I am still second guessing myself on this, but this is what I have so far:
I enjoy stitching these letters. Years ago I did calligraphy, and I always enjoyed writing in the Uncial hand.

After the 1 over 1 on 40 count, this looks absolutely HUGE to me! I had to keep checking that it was indeed 32 count, and it is! If I did it again, I might do it on 36 ct though.

It is still very much winter here. Our latest storm on Monday, dumped another 6 inches or so on us. Our furnace is not working very well so we have to use our woodstove to supplement the heat. Somehow or other I managed to hurt my back. It is just killing me. I can't seem to get comfortable in any position! Carrying wood in does not help either! To make matters worse, today I managed to burn my hand. Nothing serious, just annoying! I am hoping it does not leave a scar.

Ah Winter! Can spring be far behind?

Hope not!

This is the Day - 1st Finish of 2011

Yay! Finally a finish! I thought it would happen in January, but it just wasn't to be. I was stuck filling in that box with the numbers forever!

I decided to order another skein of Conch after all, so now the bottom box matches the top.

Unfortunately this is a terrible picture, but here it is:

It looks a bit more gold in person than it does here. The picture is out of focus. I couldn't straighten it out no matter what I did!
I haven't found a frame yet. I may actually have to buy one for this one.

We are being crushed by all this snow and ice. I am worried about my porch roof. It is flat, and at the moment it is supporting a lot of weight with all this snow!

I didn't shovel yesterday, so now all the snow that fell yesterday is encrusted with a thick layer of ice. UGH! My muscles hurt already!

We always try to feed the birds in this sort of weather. Here is a picture that was taken last weekend before the recent snow. Just look at what showed up at the feeder!

You can't tell so much from the photo, but this thing is HUGE! I actually saw the shadow of his flapping wings, before I saw him. He was not interested in the birdseed. He was interested in the things eating the birdseed! When we went out later, we found the blood. He ate someone!