A tiny bit of stash enhancement

Finally my exchange piece arrived that I stitched for Rosa, so I can show photos. This was for the Christmas exchange on the Hooked on Exchanging blog, and it had to be a Prairie Schooler design. I loved the fox riding on the sled. Though I think if I stitched it again I would use more of a reddish or orange-brown for their fur. I love PS Santas, and I most likely will stitch this again for my own tree. 

And here is my early Valentine to myself. Just Another Button Co. "Lovebird" chart, a fat little cardinal perched upon a spool of thread. Also Hands on Design from the Year in Chalk series "February". I have stitched six other months of this series so far. And I forgot to post my favorite Christmas present from my sweetest husband, a pair of Gingher scissors, "Emily" a pretty pink design that are just perfect for spring.

 Last but not least, I am trying something new with my stitching a little bit of Thread Magic. Though I do have a question for my blogging friends. I tore it out of the packaging too fast to actually read the directions (totally not like me at all is it?) So if you stitch with this how do you coat the thread with it? Do you poke your needle all the way through the wax (cause I would think this would make the needle slippery) but there are holes on the side of the lid that kind of look like that is what your supposed to do. Or do you just swipe the thread along the outside of the little wax ball, cause that doesn't seem to coat all of the thread? Any comments are appreciated, also if you use it if you have noticed a difference in your finished pieces, like does the waxy coating make any difference in colors (they say it won't but i'm pretty risk averse when it comes to my stitching).

Making up for lack of talent or skill with sheer enthusiasm!

This is my project for my weekend, the pattern is "Venetian Windows" out of Easy Quilts magazine. The fabric is "In Bloom" by Quilting Treasures. I really wanted to showcase the poppy fabric and the beautiful blues/yellows/and reds in it. But the quilting pattern got the better of my limited skills. Apparently "Easy Quilts" was not quite easy enough for me! The first block took me several hours to put together and still came out an inch too small with none of the corners matching up. So that one will become a pillow or something else. I seem to be on track now after figuring out that an accurate one inch sashing with 1/4 inch seam was too much for my limited skills. I have been  quilting for maybe ten years now, and I love it! But a detail person I am not and cutting exact sizes and sewing exact seams is well....not exactly my strong suit. So I have had to add a 1/4 inch to all of the measurements and that seems to be working for me, i'm glad I bought plenty of fabric.

And still stitching along on Autumn Village. I think it is stitching up quite quickly. I am trying to work on one building at a time, from left to right. So the needlework shop, the barber shop, and most of the bakery in the center of the piece are all 90% done. Now for the grocery store and the red school on the far right and then all the confetti trees and EEK backstitching!

Hope your New Year is off to an awesome start! I have been a good girl so far with most of my goals. I've even been managing to fit a 2 mile run in each day, and it's been raining cats and dogs here all week!

I've been run over by a reindeer!

Does anyone else feel exhausted after the holidays? I feel like I have been run over by a reindeer! Christmas was wonderful at our house, I always love seeing the kids open their presents. This year the kids picked out presents for each other and their cousins. The girls were almost more excited to see how the cousins and their brother & sisters liked the presents they had picked for them. It's also really nice having the kids off school for two weeks and not having to rush off to school in the morning and worry about homework at night.

Above is my exchange received from Maria (all the way from Spain). It was a Prairie Schooler exchange from the HOE blog, out of PS #163 "Signs of Spring", I love it cause I can leave it out on display for a few more months with my spring decor. She also painted the Beatrix Potter inspired goose. It is a watercolor, and just amazing. She is so talented, I am always in awe of people who can stitch AND draw AND paint AND any other creative talent that's out there! My exchange that I stitched hasn't arrived yet so I can't show it off.

Here is what I am working on though, "Autumn in the Village", they have all four seasons and I think I may stitch the Christmas Village next. Lots of back-stitching, but I love the details and the colors.You know, I might actually finish something if I would just quit starting new projects (like this one!)

And last but not least a sweet little Christmas card (and super cute reindeer buttons) I received from Rachel of the Wandering Bunny blog.  Rachel if your reading this I couldn't find a way to email you directly, but THANK YOU for being so thoughtful! Rachel was my exchange partner for the Halloween exchange on the HOE group. I thought it was so nice of her to send me such an adorable card, and I can't wait to find just the right project to use the reindeer buttons for. I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday season, and is getting some much needed rest and relaxation afterwards!

I'm on the naughty list?!?

What do you mean i'm on the naughty list?!?

We tried to get some pictures today for our holiday cards. While my girls were angels as usual, it's impossible to convince a toddler to just hold still and look at the camera. So we've scheduled a portrait studio appointment for Tuesday cause there is only so many animal noises I can make...i'm just going to have to leave our holiday photos to a professional. I do love his expression in the above photo though, doesn't it just perfectly capture the surprise of being on the naughty list!  

And here is what's in my stitching basket for this month. I am debating whether "Winter Row" can be saved, I hand dyed the linen, but had put it away for a few years and now it has a brown spot above the lettering. I tried spot-treating it but then that washed out some of the color of the linen. I almost want to just throw it out and start over. 

And this is a Trilogy design, just a simple checkered snowman, really not much left to finish him up. 

I am kind of winging this one, the letters are from Lizzie Kate's "Winter Alphabet", but I just wanted to make a small ornament of it. Not sure if I am loving it yet, but I may as well finish it now.

And probably the closest one to being done, another Lizzie Kate. All I need to do on this one is add the buttons and stitch Mr. Cardinal's beak. Fingers crossed he finds his way onto my tree for this year and out of my WIP basket. 

Hope everyone is staying cozy and warm! I think the coldest it has gotten here so far is 37 degrees in the mornings, but still that is too cold for me! (I know i'm such a wimp about the cold! Good thing I live in Arizona)

Things done and undone....

In my ongoing effort to reduce the size of my WIP basket, I have started selecting a bunch of seasonal charts to try and finish each month. For November I did manage to finish Bent Creek's "Thankful Quaker", but put a pitiful number of stitches into "Uber Turkey". See the half finished feather on the right hand side? That was my progress, all of it. So Mr. Turkey will be put away for next November, and I am moving on to the "winter" section of my WIP basket. 

And this is the "done" part of my month, our foster dog Robin completed her convalescence in our home, and returned to the Humane Society to be adopted. Actually her recovery was pretty easy on our part, she had lost her hair due to malnutrition so we just had to feed her and give her lots of love. She did have a beautiful blonde coat, and a funny smile whenever she was happy or excited (you can see it in the photo above). I think she set the record for least amount of time actually spent back at the shelter, she was adopted within two hours of us dropping her off! Most of our foster dogs that we have returned have been adopted within a few days. It still makes me a bit sad when we have to give them back, but knowing we saved a life and that they can now find forever homes helps.

Time to be thankful

Trying to move some WIP's out of my stitching basket before the end of the year. This one is now done, well not in the photo above yet, but I worked on it all last night and now just need to iron it. It is Bent Creek's Thankful Quaker. I loved all the shades of brown/gold in it, very seasonal colors. 

I have also been doing a bit of Christmas stitching. I keep a small lap sized quilt on my couch, and am working on having one for each month of the year. So far I have six done, and it always bugged me that I hadn't made a quilt for Christmas yet. This is a Kate Spain fabric for Moda called Jingle. I'll post a close up next time, but I love the cardinals and the aqua/red colors. Fingers crossed this one will be done by December, I have about 5 more rows to sew together.

And these are my girls sewing with me at the kitchen table. My oldest is 12 now, and has her own sewing machine to work with. She was making a little doll for her baby brother. My younger daughter will be 9 next month, and I helped her make a small doll quilt. I hadn't planned on doing a sewing project with them, I was trying to work on my Christmas quilt, but it is always fun sharing my creativity with them, I can only hope they grow up crafty too (someone has to inherit my stash someday!)

A Sunday well spent....

One of my favorite quotes is:

"A Sunday well spent brings a week of content"

But I was thinking today that what it means to me is probably far different than how it was originally meant. Not that we don't take time for rest and relaxation and spirituality on our weekends (which is how I imagine the quote was originally meant). But for me I always like to use my weekends to get ready for my week. Meaning most of my time is spent cleaning/shopping/doing laundry. We have so little time during the week to run out to stores to get stuff or do extra loads of laundry, and it really bothers me to come home to a messy house. So I enjoy the feeling of having everything done before we return to work and the kids start the school week, it helps me start my week content.

On that note we did have a busy and fun weekend. Friday night we spent at the state fair. I had entered my Mirabilia mermaid. I didn't get a ribbon this year, but it was fun to see the pieces that did, and have my work shown. Here is me with my mermaid before dropping her off at the fair.

The girls and I also entered the decorative mailbox category, and Zoe took third place for hers. She painted a sunset with dolphins silhouetted in front of it. I was impressed with how much work and creativity she put into her project. I did a sunflower theme with mine and cut out little flowers to "plant" inside my mailbox.

 

Here is another cross stitch  at the fair (not stitched by me), a Rosewood Manor design I believe, that took third place. It's one of those pieces I didn't know I needed to do until I saw it in person. It was very cute. 

And my favorite quilt, this one took home a blue ribbon. I loved the Halloween theme, and their applique was beautifully done. 

And Calvin enjoyed all the animals at the fair. He especially liked the goats this year, I think because they let him pet them in their stalls. He was a little sad not to be able to ride any of the rides yet when big sisters got to go, but by next year he should be big enough to go on at least a few. He also loved the funnel cakes, though we couldn't get him to even try the cotton candy.