Ornaments

I have been stitching and finishing ornaments on this round of my rotation.
We have been invited to a Tree decorating party early in December so I made this little ornie for the hosts. The name of their house is Cressyview because it is in Prince Edward County and appropriately enough has an impressive view of the Lake from Cressy.... Some ornaments also got finish finished and here are a few of them. I had done a couple of the JBW angels on a black background also but once they were made up I decided that they were not right to give my little great nieces. I have therefore stitched a couple more angels on white and will make them up with the lace sometime before our family Nov 27 get together.

More ornaments

Well...there are ornaments following this picture of the Magnolia from "Pillows from Paula's Garden" that I stitched this month for my friend Luci for Christmas. I managed to do it in 15 days. I dropped it off this morning to be made into a pillow and Debbie has already called me to say it is finished, so I will pick that up tomorrow and my Christmas shopping will be finished! And here are the ornaments ... a woodpecker from one of the JCS Ornament issues...

These are also from various JCS Ornament issues...

I believe these came from "Gift of Stitching"...I usually finish my ornaments with glue and fabric backing but I beaded these and they have personalized backs...I am kind of proud of them.

They're fired!

In all honesty I cannot recommend this Security service to anyone...see my previous post!

This is how they usually can be found...it is either a clever ploy to trick thieves into a false sense of security...not so false as it happens...or else they are always just lying down on the job.

In any case they have been fired and Mollie and Paddy will just have to find other jobs to earn their Christmas money this year!

Here are some of the ornaments that Dani and I finished on Saturday...

Cardinal from JCS magazine 2007.
Celtic Beasties from Ink Circles
Wishing you...Happiness, prosperity , inspiration and friendship from Blue Ribbon designs in last years Gift of Stitching magazine.

I also want to thank you all for your supportive comments and your friendship over this shoplifting incident. You have all been so kind and sympathetic to the situation. I really appreciate everyone!

In my next post I will show you pictures of an incredile gift I received this week from a good friend. You will all be suitably impressed by the generosity of time and effort and spirit of this person. It will make the small mean-spirited shoplifter fade from memory and it will restore our faith in human kindness.

Ornaments

Where does the time go???
I have a few ornaments to show and not much of anything else...so here they are..Joyful Blessings and Glad tidings. Both are Blue Ribbon designs from the recent JCS Christmas issue and the preview issue. I seem to be a sucker for these over-one designs.

This next one is a Sue Hillis design also from the above mentioned magazines. It is to match the one in my previous post.

And lastly, I have been knitting a sock. I had told my father-in-law ages ago that I would make him a pair of socks for Christmas so I finally go around to starting them. So far so good. As you can see I am down to the heel.
Today I will be heading out in the pouring rain, to pick up Joyce and we will proceed into the city to see "The Sound of Music". Her two daughters and two grand daughters have seen it already and reported that it is excellent so we are looking forward to our day. We'll have lunch out and see the matinee...As good a way as any to spend a rainy windy yucky day.

Happy Thanksgiving

Finally I have some stitching to share wth everyone. Here is Sue Hillis' ornament from the JCS Ornament issue. I am also partway through the companion piece that was in the previous issue. And...here is Jeanette Douglas' Mosaic Muse, the first page of "My Stitching album" As you can see I used my own colours and altered the pattern only at the bottom where I left out my initials and added some medallions instead. There are 10 of us working, sort of together on this album and I think everyone is pretty much enjoying it. It certainly is fun to pick the colours and fabric and go crazy. The stitching was addictive (but then when isn't it?) and I could hardly wait to finish the page complete with beads and sparkles...
The next page should be out within the month and I am looking forward to starting it.

We have a long weekend coming up to celebrate Thanksgiving and of course we are having friends and family in to help celebrate. In spite of the financial crisis which seems to be worldwide now, we have much to be thankful for...if nothing else than to have heard on the news last night that Canada's banking system is the strongest in the world...kind of encouraging I'd say!

It will be fun to have the grandsons here tomorrow and to be surrounded by good friends and loving family members.

Edited to add... for those of you who were interested to know where..the Mother who read to me pattern came from...I will look and try to find the magazine where I found it...I stitched the piece a couple of months ago and the magazine has been put back in the box...but which box? I do know it was a Cross stitch and Needlework mag from a few years ago but I will get the complete information and post it soon, or e-mail it to you , if that was your request.

Way behind in blogging

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Here is where I'm at with Cirque. Tomorrow is my traditional day for working on it but I am getting so close to finishing Kaleidoscope that I may push CdC back a day or two so I can have a finish! I will be taking this to Florida with me though, but I don't know how much stitching I am going to get done. In past years I have stitched a lot while sitting out in the sunshine but this year we are not in the RV and we will be with friends so we may travel around a bit more.

And since we will be snowbirds, if only for a couple of weeks...here is my completed "snowbird" from one of the JCS Ornament issues.

For the birds

Tuesday January 8, 2008

I was in Cobourg at Joyce's this morning and took this photo of her HAED "The Tempest" progress. It is coming along nicely but like everyone she did not get as much done over the holidays as she would usually. I worked on this ornament from JCS 2007 yesterday and today. This Woodlands Woodpecker (as he is called in the magazine) stitched up pretty fast with only a few colours in him. I still have to add a bead for his eye.
And here is my cardinal which I just love. He too was a pretty fast stitch and is also from the JCS 2007 Ornament issue. I sttiched him on dark green. He is shown on red fabric in the magazine but it was just a little too much red for me.
I was wondering to myself this weekend why I didn't do any ornaments last year. Then it came to me. I spent oodles of time doing about 35 or 40 name tags for my retreat in August. So really I did even more small ornament sized things...they just got finished differently!

Stitching Marathon

Monday January 7, 2008

Dani and I stitched up a storm on the weekend...actually to be accurate, we stitched up a thaw! The snow is sure disappearing fast around here!

Anyway on Thursday I finished this ornament from The Gift of Stitching. On Friday I finished this companion to it.
Then I pulled out Kaleidoscope and worked on it for quite awhile. Then I sarted the cardinal (CWC) from the 2007 JCS Ornament issue. I finished it on Sunday evening! What a stunner he is!

I haven't taken pictures of those last two efforts yet so they will have to wait for another post.

Meanwhile here are two finishes from a couple of the Thursday stitchers.

This is a table runner done by Judy (not Judie of Cows with Blankets fame..the other Judy)

This fabulous Santa was done by Sharon...

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!

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/

Pictures

September 18, 2007

I am fighting a cold and feel kinda lazy so rather than chat today I am going to share a few pictures.
These two, soon to be ornaments, are circles from Cirque des cercles...waterlilies cherry and emerald, respectively, on 28 count fabric.

This is my meagre progress on the teapot SAL we are doing among the Thursday stitchers.
These two incredible pieces are Barb's stitching...This is Prairie Schooler's Autumn piece finished as a flat fold...
And this is Barb'a progress on her HAED Santa...isn't it fantastic????

M-designs

June 8, 2007

Since M-designs is the featured designer at

Knowledge and Needles (20 % off any in-stock M-designs kits or charts) this month I thought I would also feature some of Mary's designs here on my blog. These are some of the trees and some of the letters which I made up into ornaments for Christmas presents. I stitched over one on 25 ct fabric with variegated threads, some in Waterlilies and some in Weeks Dye Works.

I really enjoy used variegated thread of practically any kind.

My current project using variegated thread is a Mandala from Mariska designs (which I purchased from The French Needle). For it I am using a colour called Hampshire Clay from Sassalynne. I will have a picture of it sometime to share with you.