The last of the Stitched Christmas Gifts

Well...today it's Christmas with Jodi, Suzanne, and families. These are their gifts - I know they're going to be mad because we usually concentrate on Naomi (Suzanne's granddaughter) for Christmas, but these were so tailor made for our friendship that I had to stitch them up for them. I think the green one is going to be for Suzanne and the cream/light yellow one for Jodi. By the time they got framed and matted, they're bigger than I anticipated......but I'm very happy with how they turned out. I hope they'll like them!

Lack of posting / new leaf!

Okay - last but not least....(well, actually, I will have two more Christmas gifts to post, but I don't feel like pulling them out - that will happen later today).

I wanted to take a minute to explain my lack of posting (both here and in my groups!) during the month of December. As is the case for most of us, I get very busy in December. A couple of posts ago I included a picture of the front page of the family calendar that I do for my family. It is truly a labor of love, but it is pretty labor intensive. I'm always a bit delusional in that I THINK I can print calendars and do other things at the same time, but it really doesn't work that way. The calendars take enough concentration that I pretty much have to stay glued to the computer.

Then...add in the stitching stuff, the shopping stuff, and my time in December just seems to evaporate.

This year in particular was hard....I lost a full weekend to an unexpected trip to Brownsville Texas due to the death of my stepfather. I had to be there for my mother, even though she and I have had a rather dysfunctional relationship for the last 10 or 15 years. She and Dave had been married for 35 years in November, and his death, while not necessarily unexpected, happened suddenly. He's had a liver disease (hemochromatosis - the build-up of excess iron in your blood) for most of those 35 years and wasn't doing all that the doctors recommended. He apparently went to sleep one night, lapsed into a coma, and never woke up. He was 76, and my mom is just lost without him. They had a strange relationship, but she certainly misses him.

Anyway - my New Years resolution (heck, not even New Years, more like my post Christmas resolution!) is to be a better blogger and a better group member by posting more often - in both places!!!!

Christmas Ornaments - Quilt-y

These are the ornaments I made for my siblings and my niece and her hubby. The pictures aren't great, I was taking them in a hurry before I packaged them all up. The pattern called for a generic back with the date (if you wanted to) but I made my own backs. IF you look at them, the backs look just like the fronts but with a block that says 2008 replacing the center.

These were a very easy stitch....the assembly took a little bit of time (about an hour per ornament) but my family seemed to enjoy them. We don't really exchange gifts with one another (we do a gift exchange similar to what you might do at work instead - there are just too many of us) but I am the only crafty one, so I enjoy making a little something for everyone.

Ornament Stitching - Perforated Paper

At long last I have finished all of my Christmas stitching (and more importantly, my assembly of my stitched items!). Heck, I've even given most of the items I stitched out already!

These are the ornaments that I made for my parents and my aunt (my godmother). They are stitched on perforated paper, with lots of beads. You stitch two of each, and then stitch them together back to back. I did one set exactly the way the pattern called for (it was an old magazine) and then the other set I used the same patterns but in different colors. (Hence the two at the bottom that are one red and one blue in the same pattern). If you look at the others you'll notice doubles of each one. They each got one set of 4.

I gave my parents theirs yesterday (we had our family Christmas at my brother and sister-in-law's house). My aunt's had to be mailed to her, so the jury is still out on those!!!

Family Calendar

Well....instead of stitching much the past week or so, I've been working on my annual project of doing our family calendar. This is the front cover of it. Yep, that's my family - all 34 of us! Starts with my parents and my youngest sister at the top, kind of surrounded (either side, plus next row) with their kids and in-laws. The balance of the pictures are the next generation (my nieces and nephews, including two "nephew-in-laws"). All the way down in the lower left corner are my nieces four kids, including our little miracle, Anthony (second from the left, bottom row). I actually print 11 originals of this calendar because I do one for my parents, one each for six of us "kids" and four for my adult nieces.

Each month has pictures of the people who have occasions that month (birthdays or aniversaries) and the event is marked on the individual day (blue for the boys/men, pink for the girls/women, green for anniversaries, and yellow for holidays). Each person's is personalized to them - saying "Our Anniversary" on the appropriate date, or "My Birthday" for the nieces who don't have an anniversary yet. And the nieces all say "Aunt" or "Uncle" where appropriate....and of course, they say "Grandma" and "Grandpa".

I started doing this in for a Christmas gift for my parents in 2003 (with the first calendar being for 2004) and have done one ever since. I get them spiral bound at Staples (which is really reasonable) and they are always the hit of our Christmas gathering. All my siblings help by contributing pictures.

Anyway - now I'm beading ornaments trying to get THEM done for our family celebration on Saturday. I love my family, but they really messed me up by having our big get together on Saturday!!! LOL

Latest BoInk completion

Well, I've finished the most recently issued section of BoInk. I've decided to concentrate on this one for a bit. With the holidays approaching, my stitching time is a little more disjointed than normal. So rather than constantly pulling projects in and out of rotation, I'm just going to stitch on this one. I have one more block to finish (to be current) plus a lot of border. So...for the time being this is it.

Meanwhile, today is Thanksgiving (at least here in the USA). A good time to reflect back on all the things we have for which to be thankful...for me, that means a loving family, a roof over my head, a job with which to pay the bills, good friends, and probably the biggest thing I'm thankful for this year is the fact that our little trooper Anthony (my great-nephew) pullled through his cancer scare with no lasting damage, and is just doing AWESOME!!!

Thanks for checking out my blog!!!

Angel of Cross Stitch progress

Here's a close up of the area I was working on this week - mostly what I did was the brown posts and diagonal of her stitching frame. This section didn't have a TON of confetti stitches (although I think there are four or five shades of brown in that area, along with four or five shades of gray...but at least not a lot of single stitches!)

Here's a picture of the whole thing so far....it is coming along slowly but surely!!! (Sorry the picture is a little blurry!)

It was an emotional week for me, so not a lot of stitching time. Sunday night I went to a friend's house for dinner - it was a memorial get together for my friend's akita. I know, sounds silly, but it was more an excuse for us to all have dinner together. Barney would have been 14 on that day, and Ralph had him put to sleep the Friday I left for Vegas. He was an awesome dog, and he just didn't need to suffer any more. It's pretty unusual for an akita to live that long...bigger dogs tend to have health problems.

Then Wednesday I had to go to a funeral for a former co-worker. I worked for three years as the accountant for a law firm, and this lady was the mother of one of the partners. She came in and helped me the first part of every month with billing, and she was just an awesome woman. She was the same age as my parents (would have turned 74 later this month) and had lung cancer. Besides working together, we did a few things together socially, so I knew her pretty well. She was the mother of four, grandmother of six (one of whom was just born 2 weeks before she passed away), and had a zest for life that you just don't see very often. She led an inspirational life - she was twice divorced, and worked hard to keep her family together. It speaks of her character when her FIRST ex-husband was at her funeral...and they were divorced probably 40 years ago. So...since I am an emotional basket case at funerals, my eyes were in no shape to stitch Wednesday night! LOL

Oh well - thanks for looking, and thanks for listening to me ramble!

Finished and Framed

Here is Jodi and David's housewarming gift, all framed and ready to go. We're going to their house next Sunday so I will have the perfect opportunity to give it to them. I'm really happy with the way it turned out (the blotch in the bottom right hand corner which scared me on the first picture is actually the reflection of me taking the picture - D'uh!!!!).

I did decide (after getting this framed and dropping off my two "5:00 Somewhere" pictures yesterday that my next framing finish I am going to try to do myself. I can't get over how expensive framing is...and I've had coupons for all of it!

Book of Ink Circles Update

Well, here is my BoInk Circles as of now....I was happy, I got two blocks done this week, and it was only a partial week because I was finishing up Jodi and David's housewarming gift (which is at the framers right now). So I'm only missing one block (that top right hand corner one) to be caught up...well, that and a whole lot of border!!!

Here's the top center block (I think it was the third block released).

And...the most recent block released....I think it's block 10, but I've lost count! LOL

Thanks for checking out my blog!

A little finish

It's been a while since I've posted in here....I finished this up last night, it's a gift for my friends Jodi and David who just moved into their first house. I'm happy with the way it turned out - I think I'm going to get it framed. I debated making a no sew cube out of it, but I think it's something they'll make kind of "permanent" so framing is a little nicer finish.

It's a Lizzie Kate design - I stitched with Gentle Arts Sampler Threads. I did make one change to it. The two light blue stars were supposed to be a light tan color, but they weren't going to show up at all against the cream color fabric I used.

It's been a busy couple of weeks - lots of crazy stuff. Last Wednesday I misplaced my keys at work. I didn't realize I was missing them until it was time to leave work and go to our last night of bowling for the season. When I thought about it, I realized I had probably left them in the ladies' room. We need a key fob to get into the ladies' room (mine wasn't on the key ring I had misplaced) so I went to look. They weren't there, much to my dismay. Looked all over my office, all over ALL of our offices.....in the trash can in the rest room, in the office trash cans, everywhere I could think to look. When I bought my car (used) I only got one key and one remote, so I was pretty much stranded. And...of course...they're the keys that only a dealer can make because there's some magic in the head of the key that makes the ignition work. AND it was 6:00.....

So - had to call Triple A, and get towed to the nearest Ford dealer (fortunately, it was only about 13 miles away, so I only had to pay for about 6 miles of towing beyond what AAA covers). Then my Dad picked me up, and let me use his car until the next morning when I had to back to the dealership, prove I was me, and wait an hour for the keys and the programming. I used that hour to go pick my dad up so he could have his car back!

When I got to work on Thursday we put signs up about the keys, and got no responses....so the mystery deepened.

Friday morning we left for Vegas...about an hour out, I got a phone call from my office. Some one in another office had turned my keys in!!! She had found them (in the ladies' room) and for some unknown reason took them HOME with her - and she only works Monday, Wednesday, and Friday!!! I was SO aggravated! I mean....yes, it was my fault for leaving them. But there are only five offices on our floor, so why not just walk around and ask about them. And if that doesn't work, put a sign up in the restroom that you found keys and the owner should come claim them. I guess she said she thought they were hers (which, of course, makes perfect sense - since they had a key chain from the M&M store in Vegas that says "Welcome to Vegas KATHY" and has the M&M characters on it - and her name is BARBARA!). Today would have been my first opportunity to thank her, and I just couldn't do it....I mean, while I appreciate her returning them (and it did save me having to get a new house key and a new mailbox key) the fact that she kept them cost me over $200!!!!!

Had a good time in Vegas (thought about trying to set up a "meet and greet" with Rene from my ILCS group, but was going with other people besides just Mike, so wasn't sure I could commit to anything). I bowled really well - averaged about 30 pins over my usual average, so came in 2nd out of the women. Earned myself $154.50! Gambling was okay - didn't win overall, but I did have some winning streaks. Nothing on slot machines, but okay at blackjack.

I did go check out Stitchers Paradise, a nice stitching store. They have a TON of specialty threads (which will be good to know for future trips - if I plan better, I can shop when I go twice a year). I did pick up two Las Vegas patterns - one is an M Designs word tree that was designed exclusively for them (it says Las Vegas, of course) and the other is the famous Las Vegas sign. I also got some light blue opalescent fabric for some snowmen I want to stich, some green tinsel type thread for the otter ornament that's in the ornament issue of Just Cross Stitch, a new set of Q-Snaps, and....oh yeah, two emery boards! LOL

So...that was my weekend! Now back to reality - and Halloween on Friday!

MawMaw's Quilt

My latest update on Maw Maw's Quilt....again, a patience tester, but fun to stitch!!! LOL

It was a busy weekend - stitching get together on Saturday morning with some of the So Cal Stitchers (met a couple of new folks, which is always nice, and got to check out another stitching store - good thing it's not closer to my house!). I did pick up a couple of patterns (Don't Get Your Tinsel in a Tangle, Every Person Who Enters This House Brings Joy - Some When They Enter, Some When They Leave, and a cute snowman pattern), along with the threads for my housewarming gift for my friends Jodi and David. Then went to go check out Jodi and David's new place.

Sunday was football (of course) and then errands. I didn't stitch on Monopoly yesterday, I wanted to get cranking on Jodi and David's gift. It's a cute Lizzie Kate that you personalize with the family name and the date they "Established" their new home. I'm going to make one change to it - it calls for a blue star with a beige star on each side of it, but my fabric is too close to the color of the beige, so I think I'm going to do one dark blue with a light blue on either side.

And now - it's Monday night football!!!

BoInk Update

Here is this week's progress report on Book of Ink Circles. I was actually pretty happy with my progress this week. I not only finished the most recently released part (the right-hand cross), but I got all the blocks outlined for the rest of the project! I still have two sections to finish to be caught up on blocks, but I'm okay with that. And obviously, still have lots of border to do, and filling in the border, but at least now as I finish blocks I don't have to worry about outlining the next block, it will already be done.

This week is MawMaw's Quilt, so this will get put away for a couple of weeks.

Thanks for checking out my progress!

Next Part of BoInk Completed

Well, I woke up this morning with a major headache, so I decided to take a sick day. I fell back to sleep after Mike left for work, and didn't wake up again until 11:30 or so (so obviously, I was right to stay home!). But then I got in quite a bit of stitching (I also skipped bowling).

I finished the current part of BoInk..still not fully caught up, but now I'll work on some more border and maybe one of the previously released sections. I think I'll probably take this with me to Girls' Night Out on Friday too, so it should be a week full of progress!!

Monopoly Board - 10/05/08

Here's my latest update on the Monopoly Board - using railroads as landmarks, here's the third one down....one more railroad to go (and one and a half sides!). This one is fun - nice and easy to stitch!

Angel of Cross Stitch Update

Here's my progress after another week on Angel of Cross Stitch. I don't feel like I got a lot done (and this picture sure seems like it's at a weird angle!). BUT that bowl of fruit is a truckload of confetti stitches!!! (That's the part I finished this week). I did one day on the border at the bottom, and then the rest of the time was the silly fruit bowl and a little bit on the stack of books or whatever it is between that little chest with the drawers in it and the angel's skirt.

Slowly but surely, I am making progress. Now it's back to Monopoly for today, then my week's project is BoInk. The section for this week is fairly small, so I'm hoping to get that block done and then maybe either another one I haven't done, or get some more border done.

Thanks for checking out my blog!

A small finish

I finised "It's 5:00 Somewhere"....again....lol. For those of you who are feeling a strange sense of deja vu, you aren't going nuts. I have stitched this one twice, once each for two friends. It was my work project, and I finished it up during the week. The pattern calls for charms at the bottom of each glass, kind of like the little rings you can get for stemware to distinguish one person's glass from another. I bought charms, but even though I tried to buy small ones, they were still too big. I was at Joann's yesterday, and went poking around in the jewelry making department, and I found a package of small stars that are all different colors, so I MAY try attaching those and seeing how they look.

I think it's fine without them, but I'll still check it out.

Show us your backside!

Sigh...on one of my Yahoo groups, our weekly question was to show the back of one of our pieces. It just happened that this past week my project was Angel of Cross Stitch. It has a TON of confetti stitches, and I'm not a stitcher who is very concerned about the backs of my projects (as long as the threads don't show through on the front, I'm good!). But, I did take a picture of it, in all of its glory...and decided to post it here as well!

Weekly Progress Report

Here's my progress on MawMaw's Quilt this week. I'm really happy with the way this one is turning out, although it does require a LOT of concentration for me (that whole 40 count linen thing - even though I am stitching over 2, it's still tiny!). I am enjoying the silk threads!

Friday night we did our bi-weekly gathering of So Cal Stitchers at Tall Mouse - always a good time....we laugh, we stitch, we trade stash (thanks for the Christmas books and the magnets Debi!), we talk, we just have an all around good time!! That kind of messed with my rotation a little bit, since Friday night and Saturday should have been MawMaw's Quilt, and instead I did Monopoly. So, I substituted and stitched MawMaw's Quilt while we watched football yesterday (Go BEARS!!!).

This week is going to be fun for me - hopefully I'll be watching my Cubbies beat the Dodgers to get a spot in the National League penant race. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Thanks for checking out my blog - I know, I'm horrible about thanking everyone who leaves comments, I just get so far behind so fast......but I do appreciate the comments!

Monopoly Update - 9/28/08

I messed with my rotation a little bit this week - had a stitching get together on Friday night, so I took Monopoly because it's one of the easier things I'm working on. So, I left Monopoly on the Q-Snaps and worked on it a little more yesterday. I'll work on MawMaw's Quilt today to make up for not stitching on it Friday and yesterday, and then switch to Angel of Cross Stitch tomorrow, which gets me back onto starting a new week of rotation on Monday.

Whew, I'm confusing myself! LOL

Monopoly Update

Here is my latest completed corner on Monopoly...my car looks like a car!!! YEA!!!!

And here is the board as it stands - since I had finished another side, I figured I'd show the whole thing. It's funny how much "greener" the fabric uses up close with direct light than it looks a little less "lit up".

Thanks for taking a look!!!

BoInk Update

Here's my latest and greatest (well, I don't know about greatest) update to BoInk. I got two more sections done (I think they're sections 2 and 8 - not going in order because I'm still trying to catch up. But....it's in my rotation every one week out of every three, and that's how often sections get released. IF I can get two blocks done each week, I'll be caught up fairly quickly (we won't talk about the border though!).

Oh well - onto Monopoly today, then MawMaw's Quilt this week.

Thanks for looking!!!

Monopoly Board - 9/14/08

Here's another week worth of progress on the Monopoly board. I did get a little extra stitching time in on this one because it's what I took to "Girls' Night Out" on Friday and stitched there too.

The red blob doesn't look much like the car on the Free Parking spot, but I have faith it will eventually! LOL

Thanks for checking out my blog!

Angel Update

Well, another week done on Angel of Cross Stitch. I took one of my fellow stitchers suggestion and put in a little of the border, and then got on to the stitching that's more fun. My plan is that the week that it comes up in the rotation, on Monday I'll stitch on the border. Then the rest of the week, I'll stitch on the body of the project. I didn't get a ton done -a little bit of border, and then the top of the chest that's holding the floss and (although you can't see it much since it's yellow) part of the fruit bowl.

Now this week it's BoInk....

Thanks for looking!!!

All about ME!!!

1. What time did you get up this morning?
6:15 am

2. Diamonds or pearls?
I can't have both???

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
Get Smart

4. What is your favourite TV show?
Brothers and Sisters

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
Hmmmm.....varies from day to day - something fast!

6. What is your middle name?
Margaret

7. What food do you dislike?
Sushi

8. What is your favourite CD at moment?
Toby Keith - 35 Greatest Hits

9.What kind of car do you drive?
Ford Explorer

10. Favourite sandwich?
Quizno's Traditional

11. What characteristic do you despise?
Phoniness

12. Favourite item of clothing?
My soft fluffy "Big Dog" sweats

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Ireland

14. Favourite brand of clothing?
Don't have one

15. Where would you retire to?
Right here in Southern California - but closer to the beach!

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday?
My 40th (6 years ago) when my siblings bought me tickets to The Lion King

17. Favourite sport to watch?
Football - go BEARS!!!

18. Furtherest place you are sending this?
Not sending it, just posting it on my blog

19. Person you expect to send it back first?
Hopefully other people will post it on their blogs too!

20. When is your birthday?
November 14

21. Are you a morning person or a night person?
Night

22. What is your shoe size?
10

23. Pets?
None

24. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us?
Not a thing!

25. What did you want to be when you were little?
Teacher

26. How are you today?
Okay - coughing!!

27. What is your favourite sweets?
Chocolate croissant

28. What is your favourite flower?
Pink Roses

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?
October 24th - Vegas trip

30. What is your full name?
Kathleen Margaret Kenna

31. What are you listening to right now?
The radio thru my computer at work - a talk show

32. What was the last thing you ate?
Stouffer's Swedish Meatballs

33. Do you wish on stars?
Sure, I'll take any help I can get

34. If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?
A bright blue

35. How is the weather right now?
Sunny, and warm (typical!)

36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today?
My boss

37. Favourite soft drink?
Diet Pepsi (especially some of the flavored ones - vanilla or cherry)

38. Favourite restaurant?
Hard to say - I like Lone Star Steakhouse and also like a place called Taleo

39. Real hair colour?
Medium brown with some gray

40. What was your favourite toy as a child?
My Barbies

41. Summer or winter?
Winter (well, California winters!!)

42. Hugs or kisses?
Again, I'm greedy - I want BOTH!!

43. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate

44. Coffee or tea?
Don't really drink much of either - maybe coffee once every month or two

45. Do you want your friends to Post you back?
Of course - it's interesting to learn about your friends

46. When was the last time you cried?Day before yesterday
This morning watching some of the coverage of the anniversary of 9/11

47. What is under your bed?
Giant dust bunnies, I'm sure!!

48. What did you do last night?
Bowled in our weekly league (badly, I may add) and stitched when I got home

49. What are you afraid of ?
Losing a loved one

50. Salty or sweet?
Salty

51. How many keys on your key ring?
I have two key rings - one has 3 plus the remote for the car. The other has 2 plus the key fob that gets me into our office building, and more importantly, into the ladies' room at work!

52. How many years at your current job?
Three

53. Favourite day of the week?
Saturday - can sleep in, and don't have to prep for work the next day!

54. How many towns have you lived in?
Five

55. Do you make friends easily?
Not really - but when I do make friends, I keep them!

56. How many people will you send this to?
Anyone who reads my blog

57. How many will respond?
No clue

Monopoly Update - 9/7/08

Well, as I anticipated, not a lot of Monopoly stitching done yesterday - basically just finished up Community Chest and most of the outlining on Tennessee.

BUT my missed stitching time was for a great cause - a family get together to celebrate my dad's 74th birthday, but also to see my niece Stacey, her husband Paul, and their four kids (Dominique - aka Neeka, Christopher - aka Bubba, Alexis - aka Lexie, and Anthony - aka Boomer). Anthony is the little guy that is fighting kidney cancer and WINNING!!! He's halfway thru his 18 week chemo regimen, and it's going wonderfully. They think they got all the cancer during the surgery in June (a 7 1/2 pound tumor in a 3 year old - well, he turned 3 a couple of days after the surgery), but they're doing chemo just to make sure. To look at him, you'd never know there was anything wrong, which is wonderful! Just goes to show there are miracles!

And in today's mail I got the Lizzie Kate pattern that I ordered to make just for them - it says "Work Hard, Pray Long, and Trust God". Couldn't get more appropriate than that for them!!!

Thanks for looking at my blog!

MawMaw's Quilt

Here is my progress this week on MawMaw's Quilt - I'm really enjoying stitching on this one, although it is challenging for me. Although it's not the biggest or most colorful thing I've ever stitched, the stitching on 40 count linen (over 2) is a new challenge for me. It's slow going, but I SO love the pattern that it's worth it!

Today should be Monopoly, but I'm not sure how much I'll get done on it since we have a family get together for my Dad's birthday. PLUS we finally get to hook up with my niece Stacey and her family (which includes my nephew Anthony - the one who was so sick a couple of months ago) - I'm REALLY looking forward to seeing all of them!

Anyway, thanks for looking!!!