Here I am

I feel like I haven't blogged in about a week. Oh, I haven't. I have been crazy busy. I have barely stitched in the past week. I am on the board of directors at my condo association and just got promoted to president because she stepped down for personal reasons. OMG! I thought I was going to be sick during the meeting when I found this out. Kim, the former president, is so knowledgable about law, rules, etc. and I feel so behind so for the past week I have been reading bylaws and rules and regulations. I am obsessed with Roberts Rules of Order and just want to be super prepared for the next meeting I will have to run. yikes.

When I have been stitching, I have been working on Scarlet Berries (pic soon) and Sheldon Hawks House which is the picture here. I love this design. It is all dmc and it is on 40ct, which is crazy but I love it. Well, I am off to finish watching Project Runway and then to bed. Oh, I finished Divided Minds and it was so amazing. I totally recommend it. I started Midwives by Chris Bojhalian and it is wonderful too. Oh, and the new show on tonight, Justice, was awesome! Okay, bye!

Cutting it close

Well, I have pulled a Sue. ;) I have left myself this tiny, tiny space at the top and bottom of WOTM to frame with. Woops. So, I did more on WOTM becasue the colors are so much fun. However, I see I am going to need more Moonlight Madness and Shacklewell Wine. MM because it is all the wording plus accents throughout and SW because I am pretty sure that is what I am going to do the WOTM title in. Now comes the fun part, ordering it and waiting for it to ship. The last pattern, one pattern, I ordered from Stitching Bits & Bobs is taking over a month to get. I ordered it on July 25th and was finally emailed today that it shipped. I am just not happy with how long they take. I don't think I will do that again.

I finished Kiss the Girls by James Patterson and it was awesome. It was completely different than the movie and much better although I loved the actors who were in the movie. I am also reading Divided Minds about two sisters, twins, one with schizophrenia, one who becomes a psychiatrist. It is such an incredible story. Project Runway was on tonight and it was good but I miss the season 2 people. That's it for tonight. :D

Tons of PIctures

I have so many pictures to show you. First of all, I framed friday night and made a frame in this cool pink/purple color for the La-D-Da Bloomin' Alphabet. I did the date and my initials in WDW Cranberry Ice and the paint color matches it perfect. I wasn't sure of it at first but I like to experiment and take color chances and this looks amazing. The picture doesn't show the color as well as it is in person but it came out great. Next, I had a frame I purchased years ago that I freehand painted white stars on. Well, I can't freehand anything (my stick figures are unproportional) so I primed it and painted over it in black. That was for Haunt the Night Away. And it looks great too! I am going to enter it in the Silkweaver contest b/c it is done on a SW linen. Sue told me about that yesterday. She did the sweetest thing too. She gave me a gift from my wish list of CHS Scarlet Berries. It is so beautiful. With Fairy Dust 32 ct linen and the 4 NPS colors to stitch it. She is so thoughtful and such a good friend. I started it yesterday and here is a pic of it. The colors are so fall and rich and I love the feel of the silks. Next, I did some work on WOTM, which is coming right along. I know I say this every time I stitch it but it is such an enjoyable piece to stitch. I do think I am going to need another skein of a few colors which will probably take forever to get since everyone has to order them. Finally, Maggie helped me take a picture of Bent Creek's Spring Snapperland. I finished block 4.

I bought season 1 of Prison Break and watched the entire thing, minus last season's finale, this weekend. I am going to watch the finale before the premiere tomorrow night. I so love that show. It is very clever and just fun. That and LOST are my 2 favorite shows.

Busy week

Well, it has been a busy week so I haven't been able to do much stitching or blogging. Today I stayed home from work b/c I wasn't feeling well; I think I was fighting off something. Anyway, I was able to finish the La-D-Da Bloomin' Alphabet piece today. I changed the date and initial color from WDW putty to WDW cranberry ice because the colors are so dull. I have also been working on Women of the Mayflower which is a lot of fun. Last week I finished this cute scissor keeper. There is an emery fob also but I haven't made that yet. That's all I have tonight but I will try to write tomorrow or friday.

Presto...Chango.... Shazaam!!!

New blog! I couldn't take all that pink anymore and I also noticed there was no blue anywhere on my last blog, and I love blue. So, now there's blue. And white, so everything stands out better.

Thank you all so much for the comments about Plymouth Sampler and your suggestions for what I should do with the Lilttles designs. I finished Haunt the Night Away by Brittercut Designs. There are 3 buttons on it and it looks so cute. I think I will frame it but if it was smaller I would make it into a stand up or something. The next pic is of Bloomin' Alphabet by La-D-Da. It's not the most exciting design but it's a quick one and the colors look much better in person. So often the pictures don't do the designs justice.










Haunt the Night Away
Brittercup Designs
32ct Autumn Breeze linen
color change: used WDW Dolphin instead of TGA Slate

Plymouth Sampler is Framed and your opinions

Here it is! Plymouth Sampler is done. I am so happy with how it turned out. I just love it. I have it hanging over my chair in the living room and it fits the room perfectly.



Plymouth Sampler
The Sampler Company (Brenda Keyes)
28ct Cream Cashel linen
DMC - no color substitutes
Frame - Cat and Turtle Custom Framing
CT10 (Maple with Beveled edge) - STN06 (Cherrywood)

I need your opinions. I love The Littles series from Bent Creek. I have all of them (5) and have finished 3. The problem is, I have no idea what to do with them. I did them on 18ct I think so they are much larger than called for but they are still only 2" x 2". They are on separate pieces so I can't frame them together and framing seems a little silly considering how small they are. Does anyone have an idea on how I can finish these? I appreciate your thoughts.

Fun Finishes

I decided when I got up this morning that it was a day for finishes. I made frames the other night for Welcome Spots by the Drawn Thread and Roses are Red by Heart in Hand. I already picked up the mats for them and put them both together. They look fantastic and I am so pleased. Next I had this little quilt punch needle piece that I had no idea how to finish. But, last night I went to Michael's and bought some paper boxes and then wrapped it in fabric and secured the quilt to the top. It is really cute. And finally, I made my first flat fold, thanks to Judy Odel's book, from Lizzie*Kate's Beware of Cat. I am so proud of the way this turned out and it was fun to make. I have a few more patterns I want to turn into flat folds soon.


A few posts ago Sharon asked who the designer of the watermelon piece was. It is called Watermelon in the Garden by Fanci That and is one of my favorite pieces. It was a lot of fun to stitch. The Hippity Hoppity Spring bunny design was also a Fanci That and is called Folk Art Rabbit 'n Tree. Joyce asked if I had changed the colors on When This You See and yes, I did. Sue helped me pick new colors out because the colors they call for are mostly greys and brownish greens. I changed some of the browns to greens and greys to blue, especially the house.

And finally, Plymouth Sampler will be done tomorrow night. I would have been done tonight but I ran out of thread (370) with about 30 stitches to go. I was scouring the house for any thread bits in that color. I found a few but ended up with the background behind the Y and Z unstitched. I just had to laugh at how ridiculous it was to have so few stitches left and no thread. I made the frame for it the other night so I will put it all together tomorrow and post a pic.

Why I don't garden and dive bombing bats

Well my friends, there is a reason I don't garden and this is it. I usually kill the pretty plants. It seems I have forgotten something here, what could it be??? Aha, I have it. Water! That essential ingredient for all plantlife. I did pretty good with this one though; brought it back from the brink of despair a few times, pulled all the deadheads off and trimmed it up. Even put it in a special place out back on the deck thinking that would remind me to water it. Nope, didn't matter. The evil plant killing lady struck again. :D

So, I am sitting at my desk today and I see this bird looking thing fly in my office, circle around, dive bomb me, and fly out. During its departing flight I realized what it was a bat. You see, we have a small bat problem at out office. The first time we realized we were infested was four years ago when a co-worker, Ruth, took her winter boots off and slipped a foot into the shoes she left under her desk. She realized something was in her shoe and upon further investigation....well, it was a bat. In her shoe. I would have run out of the building screaming. So, back to today's bat story. It flew down the hallway and into the conference room where Jenn was relaxing with a book. After she freaked out and I was down there talking to her we hear screeching from upstairs. Somehow (and Jenn and I still think there were 2 of them) the bat flew past us and upstairs where it was crawling around on the floor near another office. Then, we hear a scream and a door slammed shut. That was David and let me tell you that scream was all woman. Evidently the bat was in the stairwell and then flew up at him as he was coming down the stairs. He was able to shut it in Diane's office then came down to huddle with the rest of us wimps. So that is my bat story for today. Stay tuned next week at the same bat time, same bat channel.

Anyway, back to cross stitch. I am almost done with Plymouth Sampler but I want to wait until it is done and framed until I post another pic of it. I made frames with my Dad last night and the one for PS is so pretty. It is done in maple with a beveled edge and stained in cherrywood which really brightens up the piece and accentuates all the colors. I made 2 other frames for projects I bought mats for and will hopefully have them done this weekend. Here is a picture of the 3rd design in spring snapperland, the coop.

What a Nice Surprise

Yesterday was such a boring day at work, it was awful. When I got home I had a surprise waiting for me from Carol. She saw my wish list and sent me Sudden Storm by Silkweaver. It is this great big piece and it is so beautiful. It is 32ct Jobelan, which I love. There was also a sweet kitty card with it. Thank you Carol so much! That was so sweet of you.

As soon as I opened it up I ran upstairs with cats in tow to look at my design stash to see what it goes with the best. I decided to use it on 2 pieces. Peter Underhill's Wizard and Bent Creek's Winter Snapperland. I think I have enough on one end for the snapperland and the rest for the Wizard. I can't wait to start them.

Did anyone watch Project Runway last night? Scandal! Someone was asked to leave because he brought pattern and fashion books with him to the show which is a big no-no. I am so addicted to that show, it is just so much fun to watch. And Prison Break starts up again on August 21st. Another awesome show.

Blogger is being a PITA, it won't let me upload pics which I saw Carol was having that problem last night too. I hope they fix it soon. I have decided to do a To Do list for August. My first one.

1. Finish Plymouth Sampler and frame it
2. Finish Spring Snapperland
3. Make frames for 2 Welcome Spots and Roses are Red and frame them with mats
4. Work on Women of the Mayflower SAL with Carol, Sue, and anyone else doing it.
5. Work on Leslie's Peacock Garden
6. Finish one UFO
7. Work on Sheldon Hawk House
8. Finish Haunt the Night Away
9. Finish Winter Soapbox

Ambitious but do-able....I hope. :)

Framed projects

Thought I would post a few pics of framed projects. Halloween Fairy is framed in this awesome green frame and When This You See is done in a blue stain. It looks so good on the wall. I am thrilled with each of them. I thought I would show you my seasonal wall too. Right now it is covered with spring and summer designs but soon I can move all my fall and Halloween stuff to it. It is suppose to be over 100 degrees here today. More later.