MawMaw's Quilt

Well, it's Sunday, so that must mean it's time to change projects in my rotation. I stitched on MawMaw's Quilt (by M Designs) this week. It's coming along - I really like the colors and the pattern, so I'm happy with the way it turned out.

On another subject entirely - I can't figure out why I took this picture with the same exact settings on my camera as I used for my Lizzie Kate yesterday, and this picture turned out fine....I usually take six pictures (gotta love digital cameras!) three on "regular" and three on "close-up". On the Lizzie Kate none of them turned out, on this one there was only one that was blurry.

Oh well....I'm not a photographer, so I guess I won't worry about it. As long as I can see the progress, I'm okay with it! LOL

A (blurry) Lizzie Kate finish

I finished up a quick Lizzie Kate Snippet....I have another very similar one that says "Live Simply, Laugh Often, Love Deeply". The colors on it are similar (in fact, a couple colors are the same in each), so I'm going to finish them into a two sided no sew cube. It's going to be a gift for my niece and her husband. They're the ones that have Anthony, who fought kidney cancer (and appears to have won the fight) and their first daughter was 2 lb 2 oz premie, who's doing fine too! So all the sayings fit them perfectly!

Doll House

Well, I started on my Victorian dollhouse....I got the porch done! LOL

Progress will be slow - it's my work project. But I do get in an hour almost very day, so that's 5 hours a week....not too bad! It's a pretty straight forward project, which is why it's okay to work on it at work. No blending, and very few fractional stitches. So even thought it's big, it's not very complicated.

Thanks for checking it out!

Angel of Cross Stitch Update

Here is the latest on Angel of Cross Stitch after another week. I got a little more progress done on the border (my worst part!) and although you can't see it too well, there is now a floating hand hanging on to the stand on which she's stitching.

This week it's Maw Maw's Quilt in the rotation. AND hopefully I'll remember to bring my doll house home next weekend to post a picture of that.

Thanks for checking out my progress!

First Framing Project

Well, I finished Barney and, for the first time, did my own framing. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. The frame was a custom frame that I ordered on-line (along with the mat and the finishing kit). It wasn't very hard to frame it, and I think the frame and mat selection were a good choice.

I gave it to Ralph today (it is a birthday gift - his birthday isn't until February 8th, but I THOUGHT he and his wife were going to Indonesia for the month of February) and he was THRILLED. My friend Ralph is a macho big guy - about 6' 1" or 6' 2" and a heavy set guy...but he is a sentimental softy, and he got choked up when he saw what I gave him. And to make it even nicer, his wife looked at me and said "Where did you get the picture of Barney?" because it looked just like him. And....after they got home, Ralph called me to say they had hung it up and the first thing they noticed was that the green fabric it's stitched on matches their walls almost exactly!

Of course...as it turns out, they aren't going to Indonesia after all. Dientje (Ralph's wife) is from there, and that's why they were going. But there are all sorts of security warnings against Americans going to Indonesia right now because of all the turmoil in the middle east. They are saying that IF Americans have to go, they should keep a low profile....Ralph's comment was that at 350 pounds and a foot taller than most of the residents, it would be REALLY hard for him to keep a low profile! LOL Fortunately, for some reason, Ralph hadn't yet bought their tickets (he said he didn't know what prevented him from doing so, but......maybe it was intuition or something). So...no harm no foul.

He told me (before he opened it) that I could wait to give it to him until his real birthday (since he's going to be in town after all) but I told him I wanted him to have it (I don't think I could wait to give it to him! LOL).

Monopoly progress

Well, I've finished the third side of the board, and I'm starting on the home stretch. (Well...there is the pesky logo in the middle of the board, so I can't REALLY say I'm 3/4 of the way done, but....at least there is an end in sight).

I'm trying to get back into a normal rotation. I'm working on Monopoly, BoInk, Angel of Cross Stitch, and MawMaw's Quilt (at home - trying to do one week at a time on each, switching over on Sundays).

At work I've started on my Victorian Dollhouse, which is going to be a LONG slow process (finished size is 13 x 17 or something like that!).

My travel projects are two Lizzie Kate Snippets - one of them says "Work Hard, Pray Long, Trust God" and the other one says "Live Simply, Laugh Often, Love Deeply". I'm thinking I'm going to finish them into either a two sided flat fold or a cube of some kind and give them to my niece. She and her hubby are the parents of four kids...two of whom have had rough stuff in their short lives (Dominique - the oldest - was a 2 lb. 2 oz premie, and Anthony - the youngest - was our little cancer patient this past summer). Both of them are AWESOME now, and my niece and her hubby struggle to make ends meet, but they are the happiest little family ever. So...they live by those mottoes, and I'd like to reinforce them for them!

I will be better about posting progress....and I do appreciate everyone's feedback!

My first 2009 finish

I stitched this up for a friend of mine (Ralph) to memorialize his akita that he had to have put to sleep in October. He was almost 14 (Barney, not my friend Ralph!)

It was a pretty quick stitch, I started it last Saturday - it's hard to tell from the picture, but it's on a light sage green fabric.

The akita picture was an old out of print pattern from Pegasus that I tracked down on eBay. I personalized it with Barney's name, and I don't remember where I saw the phrase before, but I added that myself as well. It's going to be a birthday gift for Ralph next month. I think I'm going to try to frame it myself.