Row o penguins, etc...

I love this design. I went through my stash today, listed all my patterns and any fabrics and embellishments I had for them. I decided to do this after reading someone's blog this morning who was doing this too. Thank you! I can't remember who it was but I am glad I read it. I needed the inspiration. I saw Night at the Museum last night. It was fun. Anyway, I am off to purchase some threads at my new favorite online store, Robin's Nest Designs.

Row o penguins

I started Winter Line-up yesterday by The Trilolgy. It is so sweet. I am doing it on 32ct Blue Dynasty linen to give it that winter feel. Here is the row of penguins minus their beaks and feet. :)

The Mayflower finally set sail

I finished it!!!! And, I have to give serious props to Robin at Robin's Nest Designs. You see, I ran out of midnight madness from olde willow stitchery over the weekend. I only had half of the words on the top to finish and if you read my blog back in the fall, I was very upset by how long it took stitching bits & bobs to order and mail all the colors I needed. No one seems to stock Olde Willow threads....until Robin's Nest. I ordered it a few days ago and received it today. And, I finished it! I couldn't wait to stitch. I also bought Winter Line-up by The Trilogy. The penguins are so cute. I also did some work on the Be Not Weary rabbit at the beginning of the week when I was sick. I believe I had a touch of the flu but it's almost completely gone now. I did stitch on Celtic Autumn but didn't do much at all so I am not putting a post until next week. I hate posting when there are barely any new stitches. Anyway, I am off to work on my stash list.

I almost forgot that Sue tagged me to answer the following question: List 6 things that are weird about you.

1. I "meow" to music. It's addictive and contageous. And for those of you who are dying to try it, any song works, but the best meowing song is "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas ;)

2. I also break into song, usually at work and it's usually to Christmas carols

3. I don't break the bindings of any of my books

4. I have to say "bye" to each cat before I leave the house

5. I use an insane amount of hairspray and have bottles of it at home, in my purse, and at work

6. I "snooze" every morning at least 7 times. I cannot jump right out of bed, it feels like I am missing something by not going back to bed.

Castle SAL

There is a SAL started for The Castle by Theresa Wentzler that I am starting. I actually started this design over 10 years ago on some boring white linen with the dmc it called for. For 90% of the stitches you blend 2 colors of dmc. It just became so monotonous I ended up throwing it out after looking at it in the UFO pile for years. Then I saw the SAL for it on Dani's site and went looking for the pattern. Evidently, I threw that out too. I bought it online and my good friend Sue and I went to a LNS yesterday to find fabric. She helped me pick out this awesome stormy fabric from Sugar Maple Fabrics called Night and she also helped me change the colors to overdyes. Thanks Sue! I started stitching The Castle yesterday. So far, so good with the color changes. I also picked up Women of the Mayflower again. Would you believe I ran out of another color? Getting thread for this design has been extremely frustrating but it is a blast to stitch. And, I am almost done with it.

Thank you for all the kind words about Celtic Autumn and the confetti quilt. I can't wait to get it quilted. Barbara, no mouse ghosties prowling, at least I hope not. :) That cracked me up. Lee asked who designed the pattern. It is from a Christmas gift my friend Robyn gave me called Super Simple Fat Quarter Quilts by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith. There are some terrific patterns. Wendy also asked if I am using Petite Treasure braid in Celtic Autumn. Yes. Actually, as braids go, it is nice to stitch with although stitching with any sort of braid is not on my fun list. :)

The mouse(s)

Well, starting about a month ago, there was a peculiar sound coming from the wall in my bedroom. Something was definitely nesting in there, making a complete nuisance of itself. The cats, especially Bella, were quite intrigued, but when it started waking me up at 3 in the morning, I was less than thrilled. I first thought it was a squirrel or chipmunk and someone even suggested it was a bat, but the timely was off for that one. I got one of those $30 rodent sonar repelant thingies but that didn't work since it was scratching around 6 inches above where that was plugged in. I tried a have-a-heart trap but it was so light, it wasn't setting off the trap, just licking all the peanut butter off the bread in the trap. I was totally against the killing of the creature but finally it came down to it....or me and my sanity. So, I got a mouse whacker. Mouse goes in. mouse doesn't come out. I got 2 of them. And there haven't been any sounds coming from the wall since. Well, except for Bella scratching the wall, hoping to get an answer back.

So, here is the confetti quilt I did last weekend. It is so much fun and was a blast to make. I love it and the coolest part is I had all the material already so no purchase was necessary. And, I am not going to be able to stitch Celtic Autumn this thursday so I did it early and here it is. I finished the entire bottom of the dress.

Week #something of Celtic Autumn

I can't remember the week and I'm at work being sneaky so I can't go check it. Here is a Celtic Autumn update. I didn't get much done on the braid last night because I didn't get home from my board meeting until 9:45 and then had to deal with a mouse issue. (more about that later). :)

Hello Rabbit!

I love the bunny in Be Not Weary by Hands to Work. It's such a cute pattern and I am happy to be working with Needle Point Silks again. A few of the colors are DMC b/c I didn't have a close enough color in NPS but that's okay. School is going okay but I cannot wait until it is done in August. I am so ready to be finished with school. I have a board meeting tomorrow night but I hope it is a quick one so I can come home and work on Celtic Autumn.

I did some work on Piecemakers II by Told In a Garden. It's so cool to make 8 little quilts in one night. :) I'm off to quilt for real. I am working on a quilt called Confetti that is wicked bright colors. It's a fun quilt and I hope to have it done by the end of the weekend. I will post a pic soon.

Pillow Finish and some UFO's

I finished this cross stitch design by Needle's Content at the beginning of 2006 but never finished it. They finished it into a pillow and I wanted to do the same. It is such a cool pattern. I found 2 fabrics I wanted to use with it and finally put it together last week. I love how it came out. I used a pillow form and did an envelope back so I can take the pillow out if I need to.

I pulled out some UFO's yesterday and found some I really should finish up. Winter Queen by Mirabilia and Piecemakers II by Told in a Garden are 2 designs I started a few years ago but never finished. I used to be wicked into the TIAG amish designs and have a wall in my living room with 5 finishes by them on it. I have another 5 or 6 patterns waiting in my stash too. I also have been working on Women of the Mayflower. I am the closest to finishing that one.

I am suppose to be doing homework today. Well, I was suppose to do it yesterday but I am blowing it off. I can't wait to be done with school. On to stitching. Woohoo! And thanks Sue for telling me about the progress bars. I added them below to the designs I am working on.

Note to self...

Remove the needles from the sleeve before you go to bed. Ouch.

I actually worked on Celtic Autumn when I was suppose to. :) It was a nice relaxing evening. I did a chunk of oranges on the right side plus started the braid on that side too. Sue and Joyce are also doing this SAL. I have also done work on all the other WIPs I have pics of down on the left. Oh, and if you are noticing I no longer have a list of favorite blogs that is because I switched from blogrolling, because it hadn't worked for over a month, to google reader. Google reader and bloglines both do the same thing: list each of your blogs and let you know when they have been updated. However, you log into google reader/bloglines instead of having the list on your blog.

And, the F was right!!! :)

WIP it good!

Yea! Another finish! And, a WIP to boot. I finally picked Bent Creek's Winter Soapbox back up and finished it. I love these soapboxes and already did the autumn one but for some reason sat on this one for months. I still have quite a few WIPs but one less is awesome. I have also included in this post the framed Two Red Houses by Littlehouse Needleworks. It came out awesome. This was for my aunt and uncle for Christmas. They live in Newburyport, MA and if you have ever been there, you know why this design is perfect. It is a city on the water with many old federal style houses. Just a beautiful place, where I was born, actually. Also, my other aunt, who also lives there, has a birthday wednesday so I finished a shlep bag for her and mailed it saturday. I added her initials to it and her favorite color is purple. My Mom and I couldn't remember her middle name, we think it is Frances, hence the F in the monogram. We consulted with another aunt and tried to call her daughter but were fairly certain this was correct. We hope. I kept joking that I will get a thank you note that says "thank you for the bag, but what does the F stand for?" :) Happy New Year.