Monday, January 27, 2014

The end is in sight

I have been afflicted recently with a nasty sinus infection, however thanks to the miracle of modern prescription drugs I am now on the mend.
While I was under the weather with no energy to speak  of I stayed pretty close to the couch and amused myself with reading a couple of books, playing 35 levels of candy crush (it is a little addictive)  and working on Giovanni's alphabet.
It is coming along beautifully and I have only 2 rows of patterns left at the bottom. I cannot think of any other piece of needlework that has so captivated me. Nothing else has been worked on at all. When this is finished I will go back to a rotation and see some results on other fronts.


Our girls love each other. Mollie does a lot of sleeping  but she is hanging in.
Macy is getting very big...47 pounds  the last time we stopped in to the vet to get her weighed!This is one of her favourite perches. She is comfortable and can see everything that is going on!


Friday, January 17, 2014

I am learning!!!

First of all  here is my progress on Giovanni's Alphabet.
8 pages are complete and there are 4 to go. 
It seemed appropriate to post this today since the January stitching retreat is this weekend at Timberhouse Inn in Brighton.
I started Giovanni at the November retreat and hope to have it finished before the March one.
I am thinking of you all at Timberhouse and hope you are having a wonderful time. I warned Dan that I would be spending the weekend stitching along with you all, although not in the same room.
The learning part of this post is referring to the fact that it is my first blog post created on my iPad.
I was pretty sure that it was easy to do that but I ran into problems when it came to posting a photo. So hey, I looked it up and Downloaded an app!!!!
and here I am using an app and posting a photo taken by my ipad.
I am pretty impressed with myself.
The main reason I wanted to be able to do this is that in a few weeks I will be going to Nashville and I want to be able to take photos of the great new loot I will be buying there and post it on my blog for all to ooh and ahh over. And it appears that now I will be able to.
Also I will be able to leave the computer at home for Dan and I can use my iPad all weekend for emails and photos and posts.
If any of you have favourite designers who will be in Nashville and  you have requests...just let me know and  I will seek them out.
I already have orders for Ink Circles 2 new charts so I have put in an order to Tracy to have some set aside for Knowledge and Needles.
I will also be ordering more WDW thread as well as GAST  thread so any requests for special colours will be appreciated. You KNOW that I will buy a bunch but the one you need will get missed unless you tell me.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Progress

I have been stitching and appliquing. I am now up to 4 ornaments for 2014. This latest one below is from another British magazine that I picked up the other day. There are three of these hearts complete with floss, heart shaped aida, felt and a ribbon for hanging. I like it but I cannot say I enjoyed stitching it in hand. How do you continually stitch on these tiny pieces of fabric, Bernie? My hand got sore from holding it and I didn't did not particularly enjoy the aida but it makes up into a sweet ornament. I will make up the other two. It is good to work on something that does not require magnification.
This is the 5th block for my  quilt. 5 down 20 to go  plus about 60 small blocks of two leaves each...a long term project to be sure.

And  at last, my favourite project in a long time.... Giovanni's Alphabet. I have finished another page and I am still loving it in spite of the need for the magnifier. The Gloriana silk is lovely to work with.


Thursday, January 2, 2014

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone. I trust you all enjoyed a lovely Christmas. We were fortunate to have the family here with us for a  week over Christmas and we all had a wonderful time. The grandsons spent  a great deal of time in the pool enjoying the warmth and  novelty of 80 degree weather in December. They did eventually have to head back to the frozen north  but I think they liked the reprieve from winter's grip.

My stitching took a back seat for a week or so. Giovanni's Alphabet, requiring the magnifier, didn't come out at all but I did manage to stitch up these three  snow globes found in a recent British magazine. There are about 8 in the series but I doubt that I'll stitch them all...maybe one more but that will be it.  
Nice to have a start on my 2014 ornaments!