Been a good stitcher, but a bad blogger!!

Well, I've been away from my blog for a while (took even me by surprise when I realized it had been almost a month since I posted anything!).

Had some good excuses though....

First off - a weekend in Las Vegas

There's our hotel room - we stayed at Green Valley Ranch - it's actually in Henderson, not in Las Vegas, but we really don't mind having to drive to get places. We got a GREAT deal on our stay there ($78 total for three nights!), which made having to drive places even more palatable!

While we were there, I was finally able to connect with Rene, from my ILCS group. The last time I was there, we were going to try but we got our signals crossed on which weekend I was going to be there. But this time all was good - we met at Stitchers Paradise where I picked up a piece of fabric for a new project, and a couple of Hinzeit (forgive me if I've spelled that wrong) patterns (with charms). One is for me (Stitching) and one is for my nephew (Hockey). You don't see a ton of hockey patterns, so I was happy to see that one.

Rene was very kind - I was the lucky recipient of one of her cute little cupcakes. I'm not sure if the picture does it justice - but here it is.

And finally - probably the biggest thing that has kept me from updating my blog...I've been stitching like a wild woman on Christmas ornaments for my family. This morning I put the final stitch in the 8th ornament! So I'm done with my family ornaments. All that's left is some beads (in lieu of French knots) and the final finishing (I'll back them with felt and attach wires for hangers). I'll wait until closer to Christmas to do that because they're easier to store this way.

And one more quick thing - a number of people have asked where the dollhouse pattern came from (my last update). It's from the British magazine "Cross Stitch Gold". Unfortunately, my pages are torn out of the magazine, and I don't still have the magazine to tell you what issue. I THINK (emphasis on think) that it was from March/April 2008. The issue has an elephant on the front cover - not a wild elephant, one that has the beaded decorations like when they're used in ceremonies and stuff. Hope that helps!

Anyway - now I've had it up to my eyeballs with snowmen! So...who knows what I'll pick up next (maybe get back to my rotation - what a novel concept!!!).

Thanks for checking out my blog - I do appreciate it, and all of your comments!!!

Victorian Dollhouse Update

I was lucky enough to have a whole day of stitching time on Saturday - a group of us that used to be able to get together every other Friday evening had a full day outing to a local crafts store. There were a total of 10 of us there to talk and stitch...sometimes more talking than stitching, but it is just so much fun to get to meet up with other local stitchers.

I spent all my time working on my Victorian dollhouse. I've posted a picture, both of the full project and of the most recently completed room. This one is taking a while, but I typically work on it at lunch time at work (and I'm only working two days a week) or if I'm a stitching "get together". It needs a table etc.

Thanks for checking it out - I really appreciate all of your opinions and feedback!

It's Raining Men....Hallelujah, it's Raining Men...

...well....maybe more appropriately it's SNOWING men!!! I've finished my third member of the Snowman Trio (a Stitchy Kitty pattern)....I finished stitching Milly today.

As mentioned, Milly is part of a trio.....she has friends (or maybe they're family members) Chilly and Willy!

The pictures don't really do them justice (wait....I don't mean that my stitching is that beautiful). I just meant the color of the fabric. It's really light blue - tried to make it look like the sky. Each of them will eventually be holding buttons - I think Chilly has snowflakes to hold, Willy has a cardinal and a bluebird, and Milly has hearts. I'm going to wait until closer to finishing time to attach them. My plan (although I've never done this before) is to try to make a tri-fold out of them. It's going to be a hostess gift for whichever of my siblings hosts our family Christmas get together. We shall see!!!

Now - I've also been working on perforated paper ornaments for my family - I need to make at least six - I may make eight in order to also give them to do of my friends. I've finished two of them - except for some beads because I HATE French knots. Here are the two I've finished....

They're going to get felt on the backs of them, and then wire hangers (I'm channeling Joan Crawford here, except instead of "NO WIRE HANGERS" I am using wire hangers!). When I get them all done, I'll share....

I'm feeling REALLY good - it's the middle of September and I've made quite a bit of progress on Christmas stitching already!!!

Thanks for checking out my blog, and thanks for all of your kind comments!!

MawMaw's Quilt is FINISHED!

I've finished MawMaw's Quilt by M Designs...it was a fun, challenging project. It's on 40 count linen, over 2, so it's the smallest stitching I've ever done. I used the fabric and floss the pattern called for, which means it was the first time I've used silk floss. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I'm not sure how I'm going to finish it - most likely I'll frame it, but I'm not sure about mat colors or frame styles. Something kind of rustic, I'm thinking since it's a quilty design.

Now it's on to something new - probably some ornaments to get ready for Christmas. I also have a pattern of the famous "Las Vegas" sign that I think I'll work on...might make that one into an ornament as well for a friend of mine who (like me!) loves to go to Vegas!!!

Thanks for checking it out!!

Stop and Stitch the Flowers...

Another week, another bunch of squares on here. I made a couple of minor changes....the 7 seemed to have one stitch too many (it went lower than any other character) so I left one stitch off. The blue square that's up between the C and the D was supposed to have two shades of blue.....but the blues didn't look different enough to me so I replaced the lighter blue with white. The funny thing is that now that I see the picture, the two blues (which are in the flower between V & W) look different enough in the pictures, just not in real life! LOL Finally, the J looked too long and too narrow - again, it went higher in the square and lower in the square than other characters, so I fixed that and I also made the hook at the bottom of the J wider.

Anyway, that's been my project this week. Now I'll be stitching on MawMaw's Quilt this week. I think I only have another couple weeks left on it - I'm on the last diamond. Someone in one of stitching groups finished hers, and it looks really nice!

Hope you all had a good week - and lots of stitching time!!! Thanks for looking, and thanks for all your comments!

Angel of Cross Stitch Update

Well, I got the wing done on my Angel of Cross Stitch...normally I would switch out tomorrow, but since I was at a good stopping point, I decided to switch tonight. I've gone through and pulled the colors for the next section, but I'll just set it aside until it next comes up on the rotation.

It's coming along - I guess extra stitching time is the one benefit to only working two days a week! LOL

Thanks for checking it out - and thanks for your comments!!

An early finish

Here's an unusual occurence for me - I have finished this one, and I'm not planning on giving it to my aunt until her birthday (here's a shock - her birthday is in March - bet you couldn't have figured that out!). It's pretty small - I don't remember the exact measurements, but I'm thinking it's like 4 x 8 or so......it's hard to see in this picture, but it used some stitches I haven't done before, and a couple spots used perle cotton, which I also haven't used before. I think my aunt will enjoy it - she's my Godmother, and we're pretty close.

Thanks for checking out my blog!