Wishing You ...

Sunday, December 30, 2007
Considering that I only managed to stitch and finish 4 ornaments this past year, it is really remarkable that I have just completed stitching 4 in the past little while. I did these (and precious little else ) in the week and a half leading up to Christmas. I am thrilled with them and their message which seems appropriate for a post leading into 2008!


All four are from The Gift of Stitching magazine for Dec 2007.

I have no Pretty Pumpkins update and no CdC update because I haven't touched either one in about three weeks! So much for my one day a week plan! But I do have 4 ornaments!!!
Anyway ...I will get back into a routine after New Year's and then just watch that needle fly!

Happy New Year everyone!

JBW fan

December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas everyone!

Here is a sampling of some pillows made by Marie Paule! It is certainly hard to believe that she starting cross-stitching only two years ago! As you can see she is a big fan of Judy at JBW designs and haven't these pillows turned out beautifully?
They were here only long enough to show and be photographed then were being packaged up to give to various people as Christmas gifts. What a lovey hand crafted gifts to recieve!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Updates

December `9, 2007

Good news all around this week... My sisiter-in-law just called to tell me that her son and daughter-in-law had a baby girl yesterday, weighing in at 9 pounds, 3 ounces! No wonder poor Lisa was so uncomfortable when I saw her a couple of weeks ago..no name yet but everyone is well and happy.

Here is my CdC as of last week. Today is the day to work on it so I'll be at it very soon. This is what I got done last Friday on Pretty Pumpkings...It is coming along nicely!
I also dragged out Kaleidoscope this week and I am loving how it is shaping up!
This little ornie only took two days. It was fun to do and I am looking forward to stitching the other three in the series. (The Gift of Stitching magazine December 2007)
And of course we had a storm over the weekend. I did manage to make a snow angel when Dan and I were out snow blowing and shoveling at some point. Alas it quickly got covered up again during Sunday's blizzard.
It was quite a full weekend as we not only had David and Erin and the 2 grandchildren from Saturday afternoon till Monday morning but also Erin's Mom and step-father! It was full house with 6 extra people but we had fun. Mostly we ate and watched Christmas movies...Ernest Saves Christmas, The Santa Clause and at least part of Miracle on 34th Street! In spite of all that I even got a bit of stitching done. Nicholas, my 9 year old grandson, also worked on his "sewing". Up until this weekend he confined himself to plastic canvas and wool but this weekend he wanted fabric and a hoop so I fitted him out and we "sewed" together. I may have created a monster though because he likes the sparkly thread...so some gold and red sparkly stuff was added to his stitching stash! So far he is creating his own designs and not following a pattern...won't be long though!!

Cirque des Triangles

December 14, 2007

Look at what I now have in the shop!!!!

Any takers??? The Thursday stitchers had a lovely lunch out yesterday. Then we came back here for dessert and coffee. Marie Paule made traditional tartes aux sucre for us and what a feast that was! We even managed to get a few stitches in!

What a week

Wednesday December 12, 2007

I have been at best a sporadic blogger of late. That goes the same for my stitching. However I did get some done on Friday on Pretty Pumpkins, after missing a week or two and here is my progress on it. Similarly CdC has been languishing and when I do get to it, my time seems to be limited. Today is actually CdC day for me but this week I am going to postpone it until tomorrow. For some reason I got started on an ornament from Gift of Stitching yesteray and I am going to stick with it for today and until I finish it. As you can see from the next picture it is working up quite fast, so it should not delay CdC too much.
There is a series of 4 ornaments in the issue and I expect I will will to do all of them. ... but not for this Christmas!
On Saturday Dan and I went to the Ottawa area to my youngest brother's place for our annual McDonald Christmas with all the brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, and grand nieces (3) and grand nephews (4) and the two as yet unborn (one due any day and one in May)
Above is a shot of my three sisters -in-law and below my three brothers (and me of course) and one of my brother's grand daughters. She s a real little sweetie. We had a great time.

Look Kathy Look!!!!

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

On Friday afternoon I put the last few charms on the Queen and doesn't she just look great? Are you proud of me Kathy???

B&L had arrived by that time and were both intrigued by the Queen. I thought it a little odd that they were so taken by her but didn't pursue the matter. All became clear on Saturday when we opened our presents.

This was one of mine! Do our friends know me or what???

Today is CdC day and I am looking forward to getting to work on it. I got a great early start to the day today...it helps that Dan was out the door at 5 am and for some reason I did not go back to bed... I have vacuumed, got bread in the bread machine, fudge cooling , almost ready to beat and my blog written! all before 7 am!

Early Christmas

Saturday , December 1, 2007

We have laughed so hard since yesterday afternoon that our cheeks are sore. Our good friends Bruce and Luci arrived in a blizzard on Friday afternoon and we have been having fun ever since. Last night we went out for dinner...today we enjoyed Eggs Benedict for breakfast, made by B & L, and then we broke out the champagne and orange juice for our traditional present opening. Well...we had fun... here are Dan and Bruce in their matching Butthead t-shirts... aren't they just the men you wished you had married?

and of course the backs! Some of you may remember my progress pictures of Luci's cactus ...well here it is in all its glory being opened by Luci..she is very happy!
And of course some of you are aware of the chicken saga that goes on and on and on and on with us...turns out that we gave each other the same chickens this year...here is Bruce with both of them...they are totally annoying ... they do the chicken dance to loud obnoxious music and make strangling noises when you grab them by the throat...totally suitale for the Buttheads.
We also exchanged other gifts...one of which I will show on my next blog because again it was so appropriate but I think that the buttheads and the chickens are all you guys can handle for one day.

Tonight we will enjoy a turkey dinner which I can smell cooking as I type and we'll watch Miracle on 34th Street ( my favourite movie...the old one of course) and no doubt laugh some more. Tomorrow we'll go out for lunch and have hot turkey sandwiches for supper. The wine will be flowing! This is one of my favourite weekends of the year!

Right now I can do this because the buttheads are gone somewhere in the car (who knows where) and Luci has gone for a walk. I am home with dogs (who also received presents) in case I get a customer or two (hope springs eternal) in the shop. Wow...just as I typed that Sharon and Lisa arrived and they bought Lanarte's Spring Ride which Sharon will stitch for Lisa!

BTW, I am typing this on our brand new computer!!! It is lovely and very fast.

Instead of stitching

Thursday, November 29, 2007

I was bemoaning to myself that I have not seemed to have done very much stitching this week and was wondering why that was.

This morning I was thinking about the past week and realized that although I have not been stitching I have been busy ...here is what I have been doing instead of stitching.

Friday evening, 5 of the Cobourg stitchers came over. Three people stitched and 3 of us assembled ornaments. These are mine. (notice there is a definite CdC theme going on there!)


On Sunday I visited with friends for lunch and stitching in Uxbridge. Truth be told, there was more lunching and visiting than stitching happening!

Monday, I realized that we are having company this weekend, starting on Friday and since this is our Christmas with these people, I had better get some decorating done...so here is the tree. That was Monday's job!Tuesday, I went as usual to see Joyce and I did stitch a bit on Kaleidoscope. Love those colours!Wednesday is my regular CdC day but instead of working on it, I made flatfolds and here are my finished products from that endeavour!These are the flatfolds that we made on Wednesday afternoon under Barb's expert and patient teaching. Left to right...Barb's Prairie Schooler, Anne's Santa from a magazine, Judie's angel also from a magazine, my two M-designs Christmas Trees, Judy's elf with a candy cane, Adriana's snowmen, Beatrice's M-designs Christmas tree and my little Stitchopolis Rodeo.
I was so intent on learning a new skill that I neglected to take pictures of the process and our industriousness but I think Beatrice will have some on her blog one of these days http://stitchingwithaview.blogspot.com/

Weekend Stitching

November 20, 2007

As you know if you read yesterday's blog a bunch of us had a lovely weekend away, stitching (and eating). Anyway, I decided that I would take only one project with me and see how much I could get done. Below is what Ink Circles' Kaleidoscope looked like on Friday morning.

This represents my Friday stitching progress....
And this shows what I did on Saturday...
I do not have a pic of Sunday's stitching but I really didn't do very much at all on Sunday so there was nothing much to photograph.

I am enjoying this stitch...the colours are fabulous! And a nice change from backstitching with black on the Queen, although I did do some backstitching today while stitching at Joyce's ...it is coming along slowly but surely.

Tomorrow is Cirque Day!

Stitching Getaway

November 19, 2007

This weekend Knowledge and Needles and Butler Creek Country Inn hosted the 4th annual Stitching Getaway. This year we went for two nights of fun and stitching instead of the traditional one overnight stay. It was lots of fun and I must say some of us even got somewhat giddy at times. I, for one, am not used to staying up into the wee hours of the morning...

Here are some photos...I don't know how I missed getting pictures of Sylvia and Rebecca but they were there too...stitching up a storm

Barb, Sharon, Judie

Beatrice and Dani Bernie and Barb
Anne and Nan
Marie Paule making cording

Olive

The only bad news about the weekend is the fact that the B & B has been sold so we won't be able to go there next year. Our wonderful hosts Burke and Ken are retiring from the business and the new owners are going to be using the beautiful house as their home so it will no longer be a Bed and Breakfast. Judie suggested that they include a clause in the Conditions of Sale that the new owners would be vacate the house one weekend next November so we could use it but alas the papers had already been signed so we will have to make other arrangements!

Good News

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

I almost forgot to post this good news. Angie ( Thursday stitcher) phoned from Arizona earlier this week to report that her new grand-daughter Samantha arrived safe and sound on November 11. Mom, baby, both grandmothers , Dad and big sister Olivia are all doing fine.


Here is my finished teapot. I decided to not include the writing that was on the handle and the base. The sparser look suits me better. I expect it will become a tea cosy.
Kathy...are you looking?..here is the Queen. The backstitching is gradually allowing the pciture to have some definition. It is slow going though.
And finally my progress as of last Friday on Pretty Pumpkins. The colours in this design are fantastic!

The men in my life

November 13, 2007

I don't have any stitching pictures to show, although I will tomorrow so I thought I would share a photo of my family. We were visiting Dan's Dad on Sunday and I got a picture of the 4 generations.... Dan, his father, his son and grandson. The weekend was pretty much of a non-stitching time. I went to Toronto to see Sweeny Todd at the Princess of Wales Theatre (beautiful place). It was a powerful performance but not one you would want to see again anytime soon. Pretty dark show anyway but this interpretation portrayed everyone in it as crazy and had it set in an asylum. Of course practically everyone dies. (violently)

Then Sunday, as mentioned we were off again to Mississauga for the visit. Dan's father did not know Dan had arranged for David and Michael to come by so it was a nice surprise for him to have his grandson and great grandson for a couple of hours.

This morning I am off to Joyce's where I will work on backstitching "It's good to be Queen" (are you happy Kathy??)

I did finish my teapot last night so this afternoon or tomorrow I will take photos of it, my progress on Queen and Pretty Pumpkins for my next post.

Have a great day everyone.

CdC

November 8, 2007

Yesterday was CdC day and for the second week in a row I had a ball stitching on it. For some unknown reason I woke up today full of ambition and get up and go. As a result I even dragged the vacuum cleaner around the downstairs already this morning. Those of you who know me, know how unusual that is given my loathing of vacuuming.

The dogs have been walked and I am ready to do some work in the shop. Yesterday I got in an order of the most beautiful fabric...a fabulous colour called Ray of Light (soft yellow) and some Olive , both in 32 count linen. They are gorgeous. I am already casting my eye around to see what I could stitch on either one!

I don't remember why I ordered the olive, I hope I have it written down somewhere but I think it would be excellent to do Pretty Pumpkins on but oh I am already stitching that one ... and I do know I ordered in the Ray of Light at Colleen's request for something she has planned, but it would also have been perfect to do CdC on, if I wasn't already doing it on 25 count! I do have too many projects on the go to be thinking of starting another one. I should be thinking of finishing something!
Have a great day everyone. I hope my ambition lasts all day and I get lots done both stitching wise and housework wise... I am off to dust! I think there is something wrong here!

Pretty Pumpkins

November 7, 20o7

Here is my latest installment of the pumpkins. I stitched on this last Friday and really have nothing else to show for the weekend! I did do some backstitching on the Queen but it is not worth taking a picture of it till I get it all done. I also worked for a short time on my teapot but got lured away by a Clive Cussler book which had been loaned to me by Olive, one of the Thursday stitchers. Yesterday I spent most of my time going back and forth to Whitby (an hour each way) and while there spending an hour and a half at the passport office for the privilege of spending maybe 5 minutes at the most with an agent who renewed my passport and took my $87.00. I was astounded at the traffic in and out of that place!

Today when I finish my domestic chores and a bit of running around I am going to work on CdC.

CdC has started

Novemebr 2, 2007

My pictures loaded in the reverse order that I wanted them to, but oh well...Here is my teapot. I finally put some time into it and as Kathy tells me...If you actually work on something, it will take shape. The teapot finally is taking shape and showing some progress. I was only working on it for the couple of hours that the Thursday stitchers were here on our stitching afternoon. But yesterday I kept on with with into the evening and that really has made a difference.



I started my CdC on Wednesday, a day early because I want to work on it on Wednesdays but did not want to wait another week to begin. Here is my progress with DMC dark blue variated thread, over one on 25 ct daffodil lugana. I love it! it is so tiny and perfect!Today I go back to Pretty Pumpkins!

Some pictures

October 30, 2007

Here are the two bibs that I made for my brother and sister-in-law for when their first grandchild, who won't even be born until May, comes to their house to visit. I think that they are a little excited about the addition to the family!
"If you think I'm cute...you should see my grandma" and "I got my good looks from my grandpa" Yes we are a somewhat vain family!

Here is my progress on Kaleidoscope. I am looking forward to starting the colour!
And last but not least here is my progress as of last Friday on Pretty Pumpkins (Glendon Place) . I did not get much done the previous week but made up for it this time around. I think I prefer stitching on the bright orange pumpkin parts more than the duller green leaves.
I worked today on backstitching "Its good to be Queen" and her throne is assuming some definition.
This week we start on the big Cirque des Cercles/ Paradigm Lost SAL. That one is going to be fun..and will take up Wednesday's stitching time...with PP on Fridays. Maybe I should just assign days to the rest of my works in progress as well!

I had a very pleasant vist with Jeannette Douglas at the Creative Festival in Toronto on Sunday. Other than seeing her I was a little disappointed with the amount of cross stitch at the show. But if you were a quilter, scrapbooker, rubber stamper or in the market for a sewing machine or a huge sewing machine quilting thing, I suppose you would have enjoyed yourself.

Dan took me out for lunch later and that was fun. We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory which we had not visitied in about 17 or 18 years!

Computer worries

October 26, 2007

Our computer had a fit last night and slipped into a computer coma-like state. Steve, the computer go-to guy tells me that while it is not likely to actually expire this weekend, I should prepare for the worst. I have the computer home again, after he worked his magic on it. It is once again conscious and functioning, and he is busy at his shop de-coding something that will tell him the extent of the problem.

Consequently instead of taking pictures and displaying them as I had planned to do today, I think I will take it easy on the poor thing and just write a bit of text and not burden it with more pokes and prods in the back side as would happen if I inserted the camera cable thing to get pictures off the camera and into the computer.

If I had taken pictures I would have included an up date of Pretty Pumpkins which would not have shown you much since today is the day to work on it and I did very little last week...so really no progress to report. I do plan to stitch on it this afternoon though so next week I'll have something to report.

My "It's good to be Queen" has progressed to the stage where back stitching and embellishments are required. That means the piece is almost done!!!!

I stitched a bib for my SIL's new grandchild which is expected in May (!). Then decided I need to do one for my brother too...so it is partly done. By next week I'll have two bibs to show. I am going to give them to the soon-to-be grandparents for Christmas . They will get a kick out of them.

I also have all the black stuff done on Kaleidoscope. That is going to be a smashing piece. I am looking forward to starting on all the gorgeous colours inside the black swirly designs.

I think that is all my stitching for the last week. The teapot did not make it out of the bag yesterday...the Queen took precedence!

An abundance of Teapots

October 20, 2007

The Thursday stitchers had their teapots on display this week. We are at varying stages of completion...

Adriana...

Lisa's .....
Barb' s....
And of course show-off Angie has hers finished!!! Looks great doesn't it???

Barb's HAED Santa is really coming along also...

My stitching has been slow at best this week...nothing to show. Even Pretty Pumpkins which I worked on yesterday shows little progress...I just couldn't get into anything this week.

Oh well...I'll get back in the groove soon.

Meanwhile, I was tagged with a "You make me smile" award from both Beatrice and Kathy. I am touched and honoured. Thank You my friends!