My Stitching Album

As many of you know, a number of us are working on Jeannette Douglas's "My Stitching Album" As I am going to be seeing Jeannette on the weekend I wanted to have some progress pictures of some of the stitchers' pages ...

Marie Paule's Page 2 ..using JD's selected colours Marie Paule's Page 1...using her own choice of colours

Judy's Page 3 using her own choice of colours

Beatrice's Page 2 using her own colours

Beatrice's Page 1 using her own colours

And my page 3 using my own choice of colours...

We are all adapting the pages to our own tastes...leaving out some things and adding others but sticking pretty much to Jeannette's plan overall. I hope she will be pleased.

Page 3 + fairies

It is so cold out. Lovely to see the sun but man am I ready for the warmth of some Florida sunshine!
Meanwhile, I plodded along on Fairies and finished the last two days for my 5 day rotation. The lettering was fun to do but that #8 braid did in two piecemaker needles in the process. And I finished the stitching on Page 3 of "My Stitching Album" It is a most enjoyable project. All that remains to be done on this page is the addition of the beads and I am still mulling over what colour I will be using. I was anxious to finish this page because I will be seeing Jeannette Douglas next week in Nashville and wanted to show off my pages to her.

Next up on my rotation is Cirque des Cercles which I am doing with Waterlilies Eggplant on 36 ct linen. After my 5 days on it my rotation will be set aside for the trip to Florida. I am only taking one project with me and it will be Froth and Bubble.

And before I forget...a few days ago Beatrice tagged me and I am supposed to tell about 5 addictions. I am also supposed to pass the tag along but anyone who knows me also knows that I never do that...So to the addicitons...

I indulged a few of them this weekend..

1. Reading...I read a whole book on Saturday...it was too cold to go anywhere anyway!

2. Stitching..I spent practically all day yesterday working on page 3, see above.

3. Crossword puzzles..specifically the ones which appear in the Toronto Star on Saturday and Sunday. I consider it my way to staving off Altzhiemers and besides I enjoy the challenge. BTW, I got all the clues in both of them this weekend!

4. Enjoying the company of friends. Yeasterday while stitching I looked up to see a familiar looking person approaching the house but I could not place him. Turns out to be our friend Willie, from Switzerland. You know how it is when you know someone but see him or her out of context and don't recognize them? Well we had no idea he was coming to Canada for a visit...obviously to visit friends, certainly not for the weather! Great to see him. He and the folks he is staying with are coming for one of Dan's great dinners on Friday night.

5. Anything to do with our dogs. They are very special to us and we love their company. The number of smiles they have brought not just to our faces but to nearly everyone who meets them says it all.

Progress

Finally some progress on something....
Here is my work on "There are faeries at the bottom of my garden" I did keep making mistakes and ripping stuff out which was rather discouraging. Also, I did a whole bunch of backstitching which is not my ususal practice. This piece has so much backstitching in it that I knew leaving it all to the end would be a very big mistake.

And here is what I am doing for fun... Page 3 of Jeannette Douglas's "My Stitching album" This is called Scotch Switch ...
The colours in the picture are awful but in real life they are great with lots of Kreinik sparkles.

Boxing Day Sale

On December 26 www.knowledgeandneedles.com will be holding a big 25% off everything in the store Boxing Day sale. E-mail me or drop in to get these great deals!!!

I finished Jeannette's Douglas's Page 2 of My Stitching Album and am very proud of it! Next I picked up a round robin that I told Carmen (last August!!!) I would work on for her...it will be arriving home in the mail soon Carmen.I did three rows of Jeannette Douglas's Northern Shield Sampler for Carmen. There are only 5 or 6 rows left to do. It seems to have been a JD kind of week for me.
Next I pulled out my Heart's Content piece, Splendor II, which hasn't seen the light of day since June and did a few motifs on it last night. I am going to try to continue on it till the end of the year and then I will treat myself to a new start which I think will be Long Dog's Froth and Bubble and I even have the GAST threads for it!

I must mention http://caroliensstitches.blogspot.com/ . Carolien mentioned me in her blog awhile back and tagged me with a Bloggie Goodness Award. Thank You Carolien!

I hope to see or hear from some of you on Boxing 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.

WIP

Some progress pictures...Stained Glass Landscape Fairies at the Bottom of my garden...
And my current favourite...My Stitching Album by Jeanette Douglas...this my progress on page one...Mosaic Muse.
I have not completed all the rows because a group of us are doing this together at Knowledge and Needles and I just want to be a little ahead so I can warn people of possible trouble spots. Why am I doing it on black? ? ? Ask Beatrice...it is all her doing.
In spite of the 32 count black fabric, I am thoroughly enjoying this project and am already looking forward to the next page! Beatrice and I have chosen our own colours for the project and are planning to do each page in a different colour scheme...Beatrice is doing this particular page in pale greeny colours and it looks great! Others in the group have all wisely chosen much more neutral backgrounds and I will post pictures of their progress as we carry on...