Catching up

Last year sort of got away from me, so I thought I'd do a quick wrap up here, before I start with this year.

During the Christmas season, I worked on several beaded ornaments. I was planning to complete the entire Mill Hill Crystal series. I got the first one, Ice Crystals, done earlier and showed the photos in a previous post. There are 6 in the series all together. They take a while to finish, because I am doing 2 of each, and stitching them back to back so I can hang them in my bay window, and have them displayed on both sides. I have 2 more left to do. They will be this year's project.

I also did a kitty ornament and a Santa ornament which are only one-sided.
These are quick little stitches that display well when finished.
I took a few photos.

I get such help with my photography!

That second photo brings me to another bit of news.
Our house seemed very quiet after the loss of our cats last year, so we went to the local shelter, and brought home some new friends.

Meet the new kids on the block:

Mickey on the left, and Freddy on the right.

If you ever go to a shelter to look for a pet, please consider getting an older one. Everyone loves the kittens, but all too often these guys just languish there. The two of them were just so happy to get out of those cages! They act just like kittens, chasing each other up and down the stairs. There was a bit of an uproar in the beginning of course, but now the old and the new cats are all getting along just fine!

There were so many cats at the shelter, but unfortunately, we could only bring these two home.


Most of the winter I spent working on this little lap/couch quilt.

Emma & Friends - Dimensions

 It took longer to finish this than I planned, but that was my fault. I didn't like the way the pre-quilted fabric looked with the cross stitching, so I added a backing to it, and quilted it. I picked a blue binding to bring it all together,

It seemed like spring was late for us this year, but it is definitely here now!
I have resolved to try to same some money on garden plants this year. Hope springs eternal!

Behold my little tomato seedlings:

My next project is a bit of a departure from the usual. It is only just coming together. I haven't worked out all the details yet.

I always wanted to make a velveteen rabbit. It was a favorite book as a child.
I never quite liked modern stuffed animals. Yes, they are child-safe, and very plush and cuddly, but somehow they don't seem to have the personality of the older ones.
It took me a long time to find a pattern that was not so cutesy, and was more realistic.

We shall see. I have made stuffed animals before, but I have never made any with the old fashioned glass eyes and jointed head and limbs. Hope it doesn't turn out to be too difficult!

Catching Up

This posting is more than overdue!

This year has not been without challenges and sorrows. It has taken me a while to be able to write about it.

In a year's time, we have lost 3 of our cats,

Hermie

Hermie enjoying the sunshine

Hermie was a stray. He made up his mind that he was going to live with us, and wouldn't take no for an answer!

He had cancer in his intestines, and also on his face. By the time it was found, it was too late for him.
I feel very bad about him because I think he was in a lot of pain and we didn't know it. Cats are very stoic.

Several months later, McGruff was diagnosed with heart failure. He was a stray who had a very hard life. He had been living outside for quite a while. He was missing teeth and had other health problems. He warmed up to us very quickly, but unfortunately it was some time before we could let him in the house because he always wanted to fight with our cats. We have a cat-door going into our cellar, and he spent about a year coming and going. Finally, he stopped fighting with the cats so we could let him in. Unfortunately, soon after, we lost him.

McGruff

McGruff, the tough guy

About a month after we lost McGruff, our Furrytail was diagnosed with lung cancer. We made an appointment with the vet to get an ultrasound done on the mass. While we were waiting for the phone call from the vet, to come pick up Furry,  I noticed that Blue had started acting odd, turning in circles. First, I thought he was playing, but I soon realized that something was terribly wrong. We rushed him to the vet, but there was nothing they could do for him. He had to be put down. We have been just reeling from this!

The shy Blue

 

Our cabinet cat Blue

Blue's death was so unexpected. He was our youngest cat about 8 years old, also a stray. He wandered into our yard, and was living under our shed. We would see him coming and going, but it took us months to coax him out to get food. We started putting the food closer and closer to the deck. He got to know the time we would feed him, and would wait on the deck for us. During a snowstorm, I threw a towel over him, grabbed him,  and brought him inside. Blue never quite got over his shyness, but he did like to follow us around and peek at us from the top of the cabinets. He was just becoming a real member of the family when he had the stroke.

So now, we are watching poor Furrytail like a hawk. Furry is all over my blog. He always has to be in all my photos! He is older now, 16-1/2 years, but he seems to be doing ok. We decided against surgery because of his age. The vet thinks that because the cancer is fairly slow growing, that he may be able to live out his normal lifespan. I certainly hope so. I cannot stand the thought of him being in pain. 

UGH! As I said, quite a year!

I will remember these little faces forever!


Ok, on to some stitching.

I finished up Cape Cod's Girls.

Cape Cod's Girls - The Primitive Needle 36ct linen

Then I decided to stitch the companion piece, Cape Cod's Boys.

Cape Cod's Boys - The Primitive Needle

 Here is the completed stitch:

Cape Cod's Boys - The Primitive Needle 36 ct linen

Next, I started work on one that I have had in my stash for ages!

The Industrious Bee Sampler - Theron Traditions

I have been plodding along on this one. This is what I have so far.

 It is very slow-going. The two yellow flowers, under the birds took forever. They are done in Queen stitch. The visibility gets very limited doing this stitch, especially towards the end when it is so crowded with stitches, but it does give it a nice 3-d type effect.

I took a little break here to work on some holiday stitching.

I am stitching The Ice Crystal ornament from Mill Hill.

Mill Hill Ice Crystal

I am designing this to be hung in my bay window. I love the Mill Hill ornaments, but in the past, I haven't liked how they looked from the back. For that reason, I decided to make two, and put them together.

I finished the first one, and attached the charm at the bottom and the hanger at the top.

I am working on the second one now. I have finished all the stitching. Now I have to finish up sewing on all the beads. This should go faster because I will not be sewing on another charm, or making another hanger.

Mill Hill Ice Crystal - Front and back 

After I finish up the beading, I will whip-stitch them together, and hopefully they will hang nicely in the bay window.

This has been a very long post. I will leave it at that. I will be back to show the finished ornament soon.

2015

What a blur!

I had always heard that time passes quicker when you get older, but this year went by at a dizzying speed!
I felt that if I turned my head, I would get vertigo!

I did keep working steadily on my projects though. Warning! This is going to be a long post to catch up on 6 months!

I finished Sarah Elizabeth Brooke.

I love the verse on this one. A girl after my own heart!

No glory I covet no riches I want

Ambition is nothing to me

The one thing I beg of good Heaven to grant

Is a mind independent and free

She is still not framed of course.


Next I decided to work on a few Christmas presents. I had planned to knit the Winter Wonderland socks for Martha, my mother-in-law.

This one took a lot of planning. I had to find just the right color yarn, and send away for the miyuki beads. The pattern called for a cream color, but I didn't think the mohair "snow" would show up well enough against it. I chose a gray-blue cashmere blend yarn. Unfortunately the "snow" didn't show up as well as I had hoped on this color either.

This is a very interesting pattern that presented quite a few challenges. All the beads all had to be counted out and placed on the yarn (backwards in order of use) before the knitting could start. I had to string 1144 silver-lined clear beads, and 480 green-lined crystal beads! I was in fear the whole time that I hadn't counted right, or I had placed the wrong color bead in the wrong place!

The next challenge was the provisional cast on. I had never done this before. The top part of the sock, with the crystal snowflakes, is knitted sideways in stocking knit stitch.

The piece is then sewn together. Then the stitches are picked up to complete the body of the sock.

The mohair is knitted along with the blue yarn to create the snow drifts. Again, I was a little disappointed that it didn't show up better.

So far, so good. Now all I needed to do was knit my way down the foot.

It went well. The only thing was, now I had to do it all over again for the other foot!

In the end, thankfully, they turned out very well.

Now, it they only fit!


Next, I knitted a simple pair of socks for Keith using an Opal self-striping yarn.

He liked these. He wore them on Christmas day.

Then, I knitted him another pair in brown merino wool.

Hard to tell from the photo, but this was gorgeous wool, very luxurious to work!

Then, I knitted this tan pair for Martha.

After all the knitting, I decided to finish A Crossed Wing Christmas.
I had been working on this one off and on for a long time, and it felt good to have it done.

It is hard to tell from the photo, but there are many pearlescent beads sewn all over the snow.
This also has yet to be framed.

Next, it was time to stitch some Christmas ornaments. I picked Merry Christmas by Samplers Not Forgotten, from the 2015 JCS Ornament issue.

I am still working on the finishing.

This is the backing fabric I chose.

This will be finished up tomorrow.

Also, I stitched the cat from Prairie Schooler's Christmas Past.

This will be a quick finish too.

After that, I stitched two of the Old World Santas from Prairie Schooler.

I love these old Prairie Schooler designs. I may hold off finishing these two because I would like to stitch the whole collection, and have a similar backing on them.

After that, I made myself some socks! I used Opal Yarn's Neon yarn to make these.

During the last few days, I have been plugging away on Winter Watch. This just might be the year I finish it, although I can't think of many things more boring than filling in a large background with gray stitches!

This year has had losses for us. About a month ago, we lost our little Hermie to cancer.
He came to us right around this time back in 2008. You do not pick a cat. The cat picks you!

Hermie

 We hadn't gotten over that, when a week later, our McGruff was diagnosed with a very serious case of heart failure. We are taking care of him as best we can. Hermie and McGruff were the youngest cats. My others are older, so I worry about what is to come of course.

Well. lets hope next year will be full of good things for all of us!

If you have made it all the way to the end of this post, you deserve a medal! That's what happens when you try to put 6 months into one post!

The Sarah Whiteley Sampler is finished!

Yea!
It would have been a day sooner but I discovered to my horror that the border did not meet up.
Every stitcher's worst nightmare! It took me a bit of fiddling with it, but finally, with some creative stitching, I managed to get the ends to meet. Hate when that happens!

Anyway, here she is:

The Sarah Whiteley Sampler
Stitched with DMC on 32ct Natural linen

The chickens are giant! The rooster looks like he can peer into the second floor windows on the house!
I had fun stitching this one! I love the colors. I am always partial to red.

I had some trouble photographing this one. This was part of the reason:

Furrytail was hungry, and was not to be ignored!

I want to thank you for all of your comments. I love reading them. Will let you all know how it goes with the chickens. We are looking forward to our first egg somewhere around the middle of September.

Willie

We lost little Willie last night.
He has been my constant companion for almost 18 years. His favorite spot was the chair in my office.
He did have some medical problems, but until recently they were managed very well. We gave him his daily insulin, and he did very well until about 10 days ago.
He spent 5 days at the hospital. We brought him home last Thursday. We force fed him and nursed him all weekend, but it just didn't work.
I know his spirit is free now, but the chair behind me is empty, and I miss my little friend so much.
I hope he knew how much he was loved.

Willie

(1994 - 2012)

Merry Christmas!

This year, Christmas is a little low key for us. A lot has happened this year, and frankly it has left us just exhausted.
We did however cut down our tree, Usually we go upstate, but this year, we went to Vernon, NJ to get it. Our small living room has very low ceilings, so sometimes it is a challenge to find the right shape tree. I like the tall skinny "Charlie Brown" trees, and Keith prefers a fuller tree. We wandered around until we finally found one.

Keith cut it down.
It is Christmas Eve, and there is still plenty of this to do:
More trips to the attic are needed. We still needs more ornaments on the tree. Here is how it looks so far:
The cats have the right idea! They don't let things stress them out.

Furrytail

Ollie

Merry Christmas everyone!