I Can't Believe It!

I can't believe that I, the queen of 28 and 32 ct linen, actually finished something on 40 ct. It has taken a while, but thanks to my Dazor I actually finished it. It is Primitive Needle's Of Female Arts stitched on 40ct Vintage Maritime White with Belle Soie Expresso. I just love this design.

I also did the finishing on Victoria Samplers Ireland and made it into a door hanger that actually is pretty much heart shaped. It is for a good friend's birthday next week.

We had a beautiful few days with warm sunny weather, but today the rain is back and the temps have dropped.

I'll be back on my stitching chair tonight working on Peppermint Twist and SB's Year in Stitches June.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments and

Happy Stitching!

Did You Ever Wonder....?

Did you ever wonder why you make some of the cross stitch decisions you do and then not follow through or wonder why you ever decided that in the first place? For example, the cross stitch series that many designers put out. I've started so many and haven't finished any of them. I think I did 10 of the first series of L*K Flippits, 11 of the HIHN Monthly Manias, and 5 of the SB Year in Stitches. Other things call my name and I never seem to work on finishing these.

Sometimes I wonder why I decided to make my grandchildren an ornament each year. It seemed like a rational decision 13 years ago when my youngest daughter gave birth to my first grandson. I only have 2 daughters and I figured probably 4 grandchildren at the most. But then 18 months later my oldest DD had a little girl, and four months later my youngest had identical twin boys. So then there were 4 ornaments to make which wasn't such a big deal. Then two years later, the oldest had another girl, 18 months later the youngest had another boy, and 9 months later the oldest had a boy. So I found myself frantically stitching 7 ornaments in November and December. Since I've retired the DD's have decided they'd like an ornie too. Then there are the ones for exchanges and friends. I finally decided to try to stitch 2 a month and that works out much better and I'm only frantically doing the finishing in November.

I just finished number 7 for this year. It's a PS ornie from the Santas and Snowmen chart. This makes me wonder too why I think I can stitch much faster than I do. I figured this would be finished in a couple of days, but it took more like 5 days. In my defense, I did work on a few other projects during that time too.

I've done 3 more PS freebies, a Sue Hillis, one by Maryse from the Gift of Stiching, and a snowman I found on Erynne's blog.

Happy stitching!

My Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Okay, I'm only 3/4 Irish but I'm still smiling for a couple of reasons. First of all my computer had slowed to a crawl. Like 20 minutes to start up and almost 5 minutes to get web pages sometimes. So I broke down and called a computer geek to come and work on it. He worked his magic for not too much money and now the puter is moving at warp speed.

The other reason I'm smiling is because I finished this cute little heart for a very dear friend's birthday. She is crazy about anything Irish and has visited Ireland a couple of times. It's one of Victoria Sampler's International Hearts Ireland. I changed the row of green and red stitches to smyrnas from the crossed diamond stitch because I was too lazy to try to figure that one out. I think it looks okay the way it is. My next challenge will be to finish it into a heart shaped small pillow.

I made a little progress on Of Female Arts this week and have finally reached the last border motif. The rest should go quickly.

I worked a little on Peppermint Twist but not enough to show a picture. The frog has been here on spring break this week. I think he likes the cold rainy weather.

Have a Happy Easter!

Flying Needles and Other Ramblings

My needles have developed a mind of their own lately. Sometimes they jump out of my hand and land across the room someplace or slide down between the cushion and arm of the recliner never to be seen again. Tonight's needle was threaded and sitting in my piece. I went to get some coffee and that needle had flown away. I know my DH who never wears shoes in the house will find it and not be too happy.

Tonight was Peppermint Twist night and I made some progress, but not as much as I hoped because I was watching a good movie with Jack Nicholson. I always think I'll accomplish more than I do.

Monday night was Of Female Arts night and I made pretty good progress. It's slow going for me on 40 ct. I've almost made it all the way around with the motifs and the border. Once I get that finished I hope the words will go quickly.

Over the weekend I finished Easter Spots by The Trilogy, that I found while stash diving last week and decided to stitch for Easter. I finished it as a pinkeep today.

While I was in finishing mode, I dug SB's April out of the to-be-finished box and made a flatfold so I've got a couple of new Easter pieces to display.

Tomorrow night is PS Weatherwise night and I hope my needles behave themselves.

Happy Stitching!

Pinkeep and Pillow

I've been working on improving and varying my finishing. So this week I made my first attempt at a pinkeep using LHN's busy Needle. I'm pleased with everthing except the bow and really like the backing fabric I found.

I also tried a new to me type of pillow finishing with JBW's Very Merry Spring that I stitched last year.

I hope to have a stitchy weekend and work on a UFO and PS Weatherwise.

Have a great weekend and happy stitching!

Happy Birthday Jack and Cal!

Today our twin grandsons are eleven years old. It seems like it was just yesterday our DD showed us the ultrasound with two babies in it. What a surprise! They weighed 7 lb 3 ou. and 7 lb 5 ou. when they were born.

It has been so much fun watching them grow from chubby babies...

to blond toddlers .




To the sweet guys they are today. It is so hard to tell them apart. For a while they had different haircuts and it was easy. Then they both went back to shorter hair. I've never been able to tell them apart in pictures, but am pretty positive Jack is on the left and Cal on the right.


I've been stitching on several WIPs and want to share an update of Of Female Arts. It's a fun but slow stitch.


Happy Stitching!

I've Been Busy

The other day I was going through my box of pieces that need to be finished and found this cute little leprechaun from Heart in Hand. Today I finished him into this little standup using an acrylic stand I had. I hate to stitch on cording, but thought he needed it.











Last night I put the final stitches in LHN's Busy Needle. I think this is the cutest little piece and will probably attempt to make it into a pinkeep. I need to head to JoAnn's and see if I can find some cute fabric.



Happy Stitching!