Where to Begin?

Lots to write about today especially since I have been absent for a while.  Sorry - that thing called life getting in the way again.

I'll guess I'll try to do this in a somewhat chronological order.  First up a picture of an early birthday gift received from my friends Claire-Ann, Debbie, Janice, Phyllis, and Sherry (in alphabetical order.)  I think this is the earliest I have ever received a birthday gift.  What a wonderful surprise and something I would not have bought this for myself contrary to popular opinion. :)  Thank you ladies.  I just love this piece from Liberty Hill.

Next are pictures of a gift given to Debbie for her birthday.  I made this bag following the pattern Zippy Strippy by Atkinson Designs.  What a wonderful pattern, easy to read and more importantly follow directions. The zipper was so easy to do following the directions.  I look forward to making some more of these in the future.

I made the little beaded zipper pull and added a flying pig charm to symbolize one of Debbie's favorite expressions.   Then as an extra I made this Thread Catcher (Ort Collector) from a pattern I found on this blog but am unable to locate there again.  I think that it was only up for a few days during the Moda Country Fair.  Again, easy to follow directions.

 

And finally a scissor fob with the signature flying pig charm. 



I wrapped this all in fat quarter of fabric from Moda by Blackbird Designs - you know the one that looks like a sampler. 

Next up are continued progress on Grandmother's Flower Garden.  For some reason, I've put a lot of purple and red in these flowers.  I was never a fan of purple, but have been coming around.

This came in the mail this week.  I hope to spend some time this weekend adding it to the Summer piece.

And now for some disturbing pictures of the weather here in Eastern Pennsylvania today.  I commented on someone's blog this week that we rarely get snow in October.   Do you think that jinxed us?  I took these pictures from the windows - I'm not ready to go out in this yet.  Thank goodness it's not a work day!

I was upstairs a few minutes ago and see that there is much more snow now.  I'll take pictures later today and post them.

I have lots more to share, but will save it for another post.

Thank you to those who have become followers and those who have left comments. 

Keep on stitching!

Did you ever notice?

Did you ever notice how hard it is to establish a new routine and how easy it is to abandon the same routine? That's how it goes for me and blogging. I am going to try to do better.

Admittedly I have not been doing a lot of stitching. Other things have been happening.

On Friday I left home on a road trip to see my dad in Bath, NY. My first stop was at The Village Stitchery Shop in Lewisburg, PA. What a great shop. It's in what was once a one room schoolhouse outside Lewisburg in the hills. Beautiful views no matter where I turned and I was still in the parking lot! The inside of the shop is my kind of place. Lisa has used antiques and vintage pieces including picnic baskets as displays. So charming. I did buy a few things there. The best thing I saw there was a Mirabilia (I think) reindeer finished as a standup rather than framed. What a wonderful idea - so cute to have them all lined up along a shelf or mantel rather than framed individually. I am thinking this would be a great way to finish the reindeer I have in my stash (once I stitch them.) You can see their website at http://www.villagestitcheryshop.com/. Such a nice place to visit - unfortunately I didn't think to take any pictures.

My next stop was at The Village Sampler in Big Flats, NY quite a bit north of Lewisburg. What a pretty ride up there. Unfortunately, I arrived there a bit late in the day so didn't have time to really look through their quilts and fabric, but I was able to do the front room with cross stitch and some quilt kits. I did a little stash enhancement there as well.

On Saturday I met up with my sisters and brother and two of my nephews. We went to visit dad and get him out in the fresh air and sunshine. It was a beautiful day. We ventured up to the Glenn Curtiss Museum later in the afternoon to see their quilt show and tour the museum. The quilts done by the ladies were lovely. My favorites were the redwork quilts. I don't think I have any pictures. Mind you I had my camera but didn't use it.

Here are two of the flowers for my Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt.  I have a few others done and will add these to the pile.

This is my progress on A Red Thread by Bent Creek.  I have made this my travel project since I don't have to concentrate on it too hard.  So this one goes to my groups and to lunch with me.

And some more progress on An Open Heart.  I haven't worked on this in over a week.  I hope to do more with weekend.   

I'm sorry about the picture quality but I can't do much about it right now since my camera needs to recharge.  Better pictures in the next post.

Keep on stitching! 

Monday Update

I've made some progress on An Open Heart by The Drawn Thread.  This is fun to stitch, although I find I'm making stupid mistakes that lead to some serious frogging. 

So good progress for the weekend. 

I also made a little bag over the weekend but need to find a great button to truly finish it up.  I'll post a picture of that once I find just the right thing.

Have a great week.

Keep Stitching!

Wednesday Update

 I've been busy the past few days and haven't had much stitching to post. But today is the day.

I had a three day weekend last weekend.  I had planned to get lots of stitching done.  Friday I was off so that my dishwasher could be delivered. I was getting things done around the house and the dishwasher was delivered without incident. 

I went outside to empty the garbage and found that I had locked myself out of the house.  Forutnately, it was a beautiful day and I was able to enjoy sitting in the sun until someone came home.  I kept thinking while I was sitting there that that would have been a great time to be stitching.  In fact, that was the first question someone asked me about the incident - did I have my stitching. Somehow, I managed to fritter away the rest of Friday without any stitching.

And more of the same on Saturday, without the getting locked out part.  I did do my Fall decorating.  It's too dark today to take pictures to show that.  Hopefully, it will be lighter tomorrow and I can do that then.

I did read How to Knit a Love Song by Rachel Herron over the weekend.  Each time I read a book about knitting I want to be a knitter.  Only thing is that the gauge thing trips me up every time.  Unless it's a project where gauge doesn't matter a lot, like a scarf, I'm out of luck.  I am going to go and watch someone else knit one of these days to see if I can see where my problem is.  I may even have to take a lesson.

I did get some stitching done on Sunday and finished stitching A Very Merry Autumn.  I hope to get this put together this coming weekend.  Actually, I had hoped to do that last weekend, but I would have had to finish the stitching before Sunday night.  

I decided over the weekend that I would like to choose one of my projects to focus on - meaning that's the one I work on exclusivelly while at home.  I chose An Open Heart by The Drawn Thread.  Here is my progress so far.  I am finding this piece to be a lot of fun and a tad addictive.  Each little motif is a different stitch and last night I found myself wanting to do just "one more" before I went to bed. 

Tonight is stitching at a friend's house.  I made brownies last night to take there tonight.  Not sure which project I'll take, but I have all day to figure that out.

Keep Stitching!

A Finish

I've finished the 1992 Santa.  It took a little longer than I had hoped, but it's finished.  Or the stitching is finished.  The  finish finishing will have to come later.

I spent some time looking through my stash and decided that this will be my next piece.  It should be a really quick stitch.

I'm off to start my new project. 

Have a great night!

Monday, Monday

First up, the progress update on the 1992 Santa.   He's coming along - I think he only needs accessories (boots and fishing pole) and he'll be finished.   Here's hoping that I can focus enough to accomplish that tonight.  So I may be able to post a finish tomorrow.

This is where I had lunch today.  I actually eat under this tree on most nice days.  A peaceful place in the shade.  At least that's what I tell myself when I try to tune out the trucks on the three-lane highway within yards of the park.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you'll come back soon.

September 11

No stitchy post today. 

I am thinking about what happened ten years ago and how our country has changed in that time.  I had an opportunity to see some of the news coveage this morning and found that it was very moving.  The creativity that went in to the memorials is inspiring.

Gone but Not Forgotten.