From My Garden And An Ornament

I just had to show off my broccoli that I grew! I know, I'm weird. I get excited over the strangest things sometimes. The taste of home grown veggies cannot be beaten.


This is an ornament that I stitched for my little niece that passed away after only 4 weeks at the beginning of 2010. I am also working on an ornament for my Nephew so I am planning to give them both to my sister at the same time. We have all been missing Lucy and this was my way of dealing with the sadness. We are at the same time excited to welcome Atticus into the family. It has been a very emotional holiday to say the least. Oh, I almost forgot to give all the details of the orni. This is Frosty Friends by Mosey 'N Me from the JCS Ornament issue 2008 stitched on 14 count Polar Ice Charles Craft Aida. I had to change one or two colors to accommodate the fabric but this color just caught my eye as being the perfect snowy background. Hopefully my ornament for Atticus will be done soon and I will show that off as well.

Brave Knight Finished

My nephew finally decided to come! So here is "Brave Knight" by Bucilla, all finished (edited for privacy). I had just a couple of days to stitch the date and frame it so I could give it to my Sis for Christmas. I even had to make an emergency trip to Michael's because the frame I had bought just wasn't going to work. And it was a pretty red one too. :( I work best under pressure I guess. I didn't manage to finish his Christmas Ornament but oh well. No big deal.

Our family drama wrapped itself up and ended in time for us to have a decent Christmas Day. I'm hoping next year goes alot better though.

Bah Humbug!

I'm going to go ahead and say "Merry Christmas" now since I can't guarantee that I will be on here any closer to Christmas. This year has been full of family drama so I'm feeling very Grinchy lately. I have never felt this awful at Christmas before but I'm sure it will all be ok eventually. I hope your holiday celebrations go much better for you than mine are going for me.

Brave Knight Somewhat Finished

It's all done! Well sort of. I have to wait till my Nephew is born (which could be any day now) to finish this.

UFO RR

This is Lisa Anne's Enchanting Geisha from Dimensions/Gold Collection. Here are the Before and After photos showing what it looked like when I received it and how it looks now before I send it along to the next person. I'm looking forward to the next project!



Speaking of next project, I find myself thinking about what I'm going to start next. That can be dangerous thinking! Ha ha ha!

Q & A

A question was asked about how big Brave Knight is and if it is blanket size. There is a blanket kit in the design series as well as matching bibs. The one I am doing though is a birth sampler about 10.5" x 13" to hung on the wall. I found the photos of all three on the Plaid/Bucilla website. They really are too cute!

Brave Knight

It's amazing how much stitching I get done when I stay off of Facebook and all the games on it. Lol! I *might* actually get this finished before my nephew is born. I have a few stars, a crown, a dragon, and then the name/date left. Of course then there's the back stitching but hopefully all that won't take too long.

In Memory of My Grandpa

This was my Grandpa in the Korean war. He was a Sgt. in the Army.

Brave Knight Progress

Here is my progress pic of Brave Knight. I wanted to finish (except for the back stitching) the knight and his noble steed before I took a photo. This is going to turn out so cute!

I'm also making good progress on the UFO RR. Hopefully photos of it will appear soon as well.

I'm Still Here

Wow! Where does the time go? It's been ages since I last posted. Sorry about that.

I have been stitching but it's kind of been scattered. I did a little here and a little there so there's really not much to show yet. Pictures will come soon hopefully. Currently I'm working on the UFO RR piece and the baby sampler. I may also start some ornaments soon as well. See? Scattered.

I do have a photo that I can share. This little guy has been coming to our backyard at night to eat figs off our tree and our dogs go crazy every time. I found out that possums also eat baby rats/mice and cockroaches so he can come over any time he wants. Ha ha! He may become a problem when we finally get our chickens though.

UFO RR Progress

Before:


After:

This is Rachel's project Wizard of Oz by HaED. This is going to look very pretty when it's all finished. Stitching on this has made me pull out my HaED charts and start to kit some of them up. I'm trying to resist starting anything new till I finish my list of obligation projects (which seems to get longer and longer).

Update on Dad

Dad made it through the surgery with no complications and he is doing very well. He should be coming home soon. We were blessed to have really good doctors. A doctor that we almost used told us that he would most likely die in the OR so I think we were steered towards the right doctors in the end.

Upcoming Events

Sorry no pictures this time. I have been working on many projects including Rachel's RR. When I get to the point that I am finished with my part on it, I will post photos of it.

I have several TW wips that I could pull out for the TWOctober sal on The Wagon BB. I have Above the Clouds, Noah's Ark Sampler, Legends of the Dragons, and the new Hummingbird freebie if I can round up all of the threads. I have yet to decide what I may work on.

This Tuesday, my Dad is going into the hospital to have his kidney removed. It has a mass on it and they aren't sure if its cancer or not. There are several potential complications so prayers are appreciated. I may or may not stitch on something small while in the waiting room. We shall see.

We have been building a chicken coup so we should be getting chickens soon! We are leaning towards Araucanas/Americanas which lay various hues of blueish-green eggs.

Christmas Ornament

This is "Nickademus" by Raise the Roof Designs from the 2010 JCS Ornament issue stitch on Siren's Call Opalescent Linen from Enchanted Fabrics that I had on hand. I love how cute this turned out! I made this to be my coming nephew's first Christmas ornament. I am planning to stitch his name and the date on another square to put on the back when I "finish" it into an Ornament. I think I'll wait till it gets closer to his birth just to make sure they don't decide on a different name or something like that. Lol!



Here is my weird but adorable dog who decided to take his nap half on the chair and half on the table. Hee hee! He thinks he's a lap dog.

Open Theme RR

Here's my latest progress on my Frog RR from the Open Theme Round Robin. I just finished the top frog border. Not much left and it should be done. I lost the chart I had picked out for the empty square but hopefully I'll find it soon. Grumble..I hate when that happens. I have the empty square, the bottom frog border, and then the letters in the middle block left to do.

Castles In The Air Start

I had finally decided on the fabric and ordered it for Castle in the Air by Papillon Creations. Since I had been agonizing for several months over the last fabric I had chosen before I finally just replaced it, I decided to go ahead and start it. I wanted to at least get part 1 done. So here it is Part 1 except the beads. I think I'll wait on the beads for now. I don't want them to get messed up in the q-snaps. Oh, and I'm stitching on Miracle Mint Lugana. The hand dyed fabric that I had chosen before was too busy and clashed with several of the colors that I really wanted to use.

Progress on "Brave Knight"

Hee hee! He's looking so cute! I have so many other projects to work on too but I would really love to get this done about the time Atticus is born which should be in December. I also need to make his quilt and finish Nathan's quilt. I just don't know if I'm going to be able to make all of those goals. But...I'm not going to stress over it if I can't meet those goals.

My Progress

Here is the Knight's head. It's not a very good photo but it was the best one of all that I took. I'm making very slow progress. I was feeding farm animals for a vacationing relative all of last week and it was taking a good 2 hours every evening. Hopefully this week I will be able to get more done on it. (If I can stay off of Facebook long enough that is! ;-) Hee hee!)

What I'm Currently Working On

So this (Brave Knight by Bucilla) is the super cute birth announcement that I've chosen to stitch for my coming nephew, Atticus. I loved this so much that I bought it long before I knew if it was a boy or girl. I figured it would come in handy eventually.

In other news, I have signed up for a UFO Round Robin starting sometime in September. I will try to update everyone with all of the fun projects that come my way with that. Let the fun begin!

Aunt Bekah

I'm going to be an Aunt again! Some of you may remember that my niece, Lucy passed away at 4 weeks old due to whooping cough. By the way, most kids are vaccinated for whooping cough but by the time they become adults, the vaccine wears off. It is then very easy to pass it to babies who haven't been vaccinated yet. So if you are around babies or plan to be, it would be wise to get your vaccines updated. That was my public service announcement for the day. ;)

Anyway, my sister is having another baby and this time it's a boy. I'm sad for Lucy but overjoyed for the new baby coming around Christmas time. :) So now all of my previous cross stitch projects are being put on hold so that I can get a birth announcement done.

Happy Dancing!

I finished the last block with a little alteration to make it say 2010 instead of 2009.


And here it is all finished! BoInk or "Book of Ink Circles" by Ink Circles stitched on "Champagne Cocktail Flair" Monaco dyed by Enchanted Fabrics. This was a really fun project. Hmm....Does this mean I can start something new? *Evil laugh* I will have to look over my stash and see what I may start next (not that I don't already have plenty of projects to to work on now).

Robin Hood Progress

I really love this piece. I have been working on other stuff too but I'm waiting to take photos of them when they get to a good stopping point. I'm currently trying to decide what to work on this week. I would love to go ahead and finish up BoInk.

BoInk Update

It's getting so close! I didn't get to stitch much last week due to VBS but I did manage to work on it on Saturday. I am refusing to let myself do the last block until all else is finished.

A New Start and an Old Finish

Here's my new start. It's Robin Hood by Little House Needleworks. As soon as I saw this design I knew I had to stitch it!


This is my first time to finish a project into a "cube". I couldn't decide on what ribbon to use for a bow on top so right now it just won't have one.

And as you can see, maybe it doesn't even need a bow.

Framing Happy Dance

I framed this small piece today to practice on before I attempt a bigger project. The blog, http://tts-tutorials.blogspot.com/ (sorry, I haven't quite figured out how to add a link yet) , by the Twisted Stitcher has some great tutorials. I had framed some things before but it wasn't the correct way. Now I think I may have the confidence to frame some of my larger projects myself which will save me quite a bit of money in the future. I'm hoping to try some of the other finishing ideas on her blog soon.

I have started a new cross stitch project. I should be posting a progress pic of it towards the end of the weekend.

BoInk Progress

It won't be long before this is finished! I'm trying to be good and save the last block for the end while I finish up the frame and borders.

My Frog RR

I stitched another froggie on my Frog RR. One more block and a border between the two sections to go! This little cutie came from the August 2004 issue of Crafts 'N Things magazine.


Here is the whole thing so far. It's getting close.

For the rest of the weekend and all of next week, I will be dividing my project time between a quilt and BoInk.

Dogs and Pin Cushions

I decided to buy a pre-made doggie hat for Pete to see if he would wear it or not. I would love to make him some doggie costumes but I don't want to go to all that trouble just to find out that he won't wear it. He looks so cute in it but he really doesn't like it at all. He will wear a bandana around his neck if the weather is cool enough so I guess that will have to do.


I am done with all of the pin cushion ladies! Yay! I am relieved. Now on to the next obligation project which is a RR piece.

Pin Cushion Ladies

This is what I've been working on. I have to make 80 ladies. Yikes! I'm hoping to finish them all in a week.

Busy, Busy!

As you can see, I have no crafty updates. Spring is always a busy time for me. We seem to expand our garden a little more each year so I have been out there planting, watering, composting, and weeding. If all goes well, I will be harvesting tomatoes, squash, zucchini, green beans, purple hull peas, Lima beans, corn, cucumbers, potatoes, swiss chard, and various peppers. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

I am hoping to get a few crafty things done this month though. I have a RR piece that I need to work on and I promised my Mom to help her make 60+ pin cushion ladies (It's a pot with a painted face and a pin cushion hat) that she is making for a Mother's Day banquet. When we get some of those done, I will post a photo. They really do turn out cute.

I also need to work on my cousin's quilt but I doubt I could finish it by the end of this month.

BoInk Update

It's getting close! Just two more blocks and the rest of the borders to go!

A Quilt Finish!!

I have finally finished Emily's quilt! It's only a few months late. *sheepish grin* Now I need to work on Nathan's quilt. I have to rip out some mistakes and then re-quilt it. Hopefully that won't be as hard as I'm thinking it will be.