It's been a while!!

I didn't realize how long it's been since I wrote so I'll do a little updating. I finished a few pieces and if my camera cooperates, I'll show you what I've done. Again - stalled at the finishing stage! The finishing fairy still hasn't visited and whisked away the finished stitching that is piling up. I saw the finishing challenge site but I think what I need to belong to is "finish a piece from your drawer" group.

I went to Niagara Falls with my husband. We reserved a "fallsview" room. By "fallsview" they meant - you are able to view the falls from your room but it's an effort and you have to stand in one spot and crane your neck to see them in the distance! The actual huge window wall looked out onto two cement walls of other buildings nearby. We have had "fallsview" rooms there before and the whole vista was the falls - you could lie in bed and wake up to the view of the falls. We approached the desk but "there were no other available rooms". Hmph! We had a good time anyway. I planned on doing a ton of stitching while my husband presented at a conference. I did not get "a ton" done. I got approximately 10 ounces done.

Here's part of my stash - I'm getting organized - my cat was "helping".

I ran out of Floss A Way bags - went back for the package of 100 - no one has them. My project is on hold.

Here are the chickadees I finished a few months ago. It was a kit and believe it or not, I started this in 2001!! It's embarrassing but true! The photo doesn't do it justice - the aida is more yellowish. I need a class in how to photograph my work.....


I really love chickadees and it's hard to find really pretty patterns for them. This one is so pretty and one of the few I have fallen in love with. Eight years to stitch.... how many years till it's framed??? Ohh dear......

More updates when i find some more patience for the camera.....

Hows everyone doing? Thanks for stopping by!

more action!

I'm getting a little more traffic on my site thanks to my PIF on Michele's site! It's really fun meeting all these new people - thanks for stopping by and leaving comments.

I went to Joann's to get some floss and who do I run into but my neighbor from across the street. I hardly see her from day to day, but am more apt to run into her at a store! We went for bagels and tea and had a lovely time catching up. What a perk! New floss AND a tea break!

I am going to be posting a photo of a chickadee piece that I finished recently but haven't ironed. I had a request to have it posted so I'll try to get that up soon. I really need to get some sleep before work tonight and finish gathering my needlework.

Have a great day!
Hugs,
Jean

WIP

Here's something I started at work - I don't have a pattern to work on and this was in a folder of stuff I collected. I had seen it in purples and blues- did the right hand heart in blue and don't like it. I think it will work better as a one color piece so I'll rip out the blue. I'm enjoying doing it.

I went to the lns after lusting after everyone else's patterns but felt lost in there. I hadn't slept much and felt sick to my stomach from not eating (I hate the day after my last night of work!). I browsed but wasn't moved into buying a single pattern. I did end up with a freebie that was stitched up which looks fun. The best part was I got a few packages of fabric. They didn't used to have these, but now they have baskets filled with precut pieces of different sizes (probably remnants) and that was fun to look through. For a change there was a really sweet clerk who I didn't mind dealing with and eyeballed a piece of fabric for a needlebook I want to do some day.

I am now in limbo - unsure what to make next but desparate to get something going! PANIC!

I stopped at my newly discovered needlework shop and did find something I liked - $26 not including fabric. I told her I'd think on it!

Thanks for stopping - I appreciate your comments.
Jean

Here's the PIF I sent!

It was really fun doing the PIF. It was my first one and I still have 3 more people to make things for and they are currently in the works! Here are some pictures of my finished piece-








The bag is made out of red corduroy. The cross stitch is a pocket on the front of the tote.

The lining has little red strawberries on it.

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate your comments - they're really fun to read!
Jean

Wow!!!! My first PIF!!

I woke up from a long day's sleep and what should I find waiting for me on my kitchen table? My PIF from Staci. Now it was exciting enough to get a package in the mail, but to have it from Staci was simply exciting. Here's what I got!

Look at the ribbon!! It has my initial on it! (Staci, how did you do that???) Isn't it exquisite? I just love it!!!

Here's a photo of the back:

My camera is acting weird so the photos don't do it justice, but believe me, the stitching is perfect and the finish is unbelievable. Impeccable.

Staci - thank you!!!! Those words don't seem sufficient to to express my love of your gift to me, but multiply it about 100x and that's how much it is!

The scissors came at the best time possible! I have been using some scissors lately that in comparison to the ones she sent to clip threads close work like preschool chunky scissors with blunted ends. I have been so frustrated with them! The timing was perfect.

Staci inspires me to greater heights. She attends so much to details - it was wrapped and had raffia tied around it. The whole presentation was part of the gift and that is what makes her work and her so special.



My day is officially made!

more white woes!

I'm working on a freebie chart which is sort of a sampler. It has a white flower and it is on kind of an ecru aida. I didn't like it - the flower wasn't showing up and just fading into the background leaving the center standing out! I backstitched around the white petals with a light grey and it did the trick! I'm sure having my problems with whites, aren't I???

How's everyone doing?

Thanks for stopping by - love your comments.

Jean

Shout outs

A shout out to Andrea who helped me find a pattern I was lusting after - thank you!! And a shout out to Staci, bless your heart for answering all my questions. I'm not new to cross stitch, but having a blog and reading everyone else's blogs has helped me stretch in my craft, exposed me to new ideas and have given me immeasurable inspiration. At first it was intimidating to see how prolific some stitchers are. Now I just see their work as a catalyst to keep stitching. It's not a competition - it's a pastime. I love doing it. I am loving cross stitching more than ever before. Thank you to all who share your photos and your hints and experiences. I am so glad to have you as fellow stitchers - all accomplishing great things and friendly to boot!

I have finally uploaded my tote bag finish and will post as soon as my PIF recipient receives it!

Many thanks for reading my blog and leaving comments. It's always fun to read your comments.

Happy stitching!

Jean

Finished!

I've finally finished my first PIF! I can't show photos yet, I want my recipient to get the first look. I hope she likes it!

Thanks for the advice on the red needlework. I never thought to change my needle - maybe it is shredding the thread a bit and shedding onto the unstitched areas.

I'd love to hear how people are finishing their cross stitches. I'm not a fan of pinkeeps, and I already know framing things. I'm looking for more ideas. In a perfect world, I'd stitch and give it away unfinished or there would be a finishing fairy!

I have had an unexpected bonus of not having to work most of this week due to a low census. I can guarantee that the minute school is in session for a few days, we will be full again. Little do the patients know - they have a few hours of school in the hospital, too!

I am enjoying the beautiful weather that always comes with the first week of school. How cruel for the students but great anyway.

Any advice from other stitchers?

I can't believe summer vacation is over. The kids are returning to school and the kids will be returning to the hospital. We typically have a low census until school starts. Hmm.....

I have been stitching a lot but have no photos to show my progress. I finished stitch Peace but am uncertain how to finish it - any suggestions?

I am also looking for some input about redwork. I just did a piece and when I moved my hoop I noticed the color of my cloth was a bit darker than the portion which had been outside the hoop. The background seemed to have a reddish tint. I know I didn't pull the thread over the bare part when stitching. Does floss give off a fine lint that collected? I took one of those lint rollers and went over it which helped. That light residue even seems to be in between the stitched parts. I'm guessing floss sheds a bit when you stitch. Maybe when you use other colors it isn't as obvious as when you use all one color. Let me know if you've had the same thing happen to you and how you deal with this. I used DMC floss - I'm not sure if that might be an issue or not. I look forward to hearing your experiences.

I hope everyone had great summers! Thanks for visiting - feel free to leave a comment and visit me again soon!

Valuable lessons!

I would love to post more photos, but I think my cord has a short and it's taking way too much time to download photos from my camera. In spite of that, here's my progress! Now that the dove is done, I'm feeling better about this piece. I took everyone's advice to clean up the white area. The most interesting thing happened when I looked at the dove under a magnifying glass - sure enough, not visible to the naked eye - cat hairs and lint. My tweezers looked HUGE under the magnifying glass. I did the best I could to extract the offending hairs and lint and it did improve the white immensely. Thanks for the suggestions! I am now religious about putting my piece in it's plastic bag the minute I'm finished with it.
I also learned a valuable lesson about ripping out red thread which leaves a residue. I had been frogging by putting my needle under each stitch and pulling the thread out and went from stitch to stitch. Of course there was nasty red fuzz left behind. Then I figured out if I pull the thread from the top, then turn it over and pull the next half of the stitch from the bottom, there wasn't as much lint! There seems to be much less tug on the thread that way. It's more time consuming, but it's worth it to not have that much red lint on the front of my piece. So, after all these years, I've figured out a great hint!

I have been taping my thumb joint to support it while I'm stitching and that is making a big difference. I'm not feeling the pain afterward. I had to tape my joint years ago and when I remembered to do it again, it was like a miracle. I know there are gloves you can wear, but I've found them to flimsy to be any benefit. I'll have to show you my taping! I'm like an Olympic athlete with all that tape!!

Last week I couldn't sleep through the LEMONADE! TWENTY FIVE CENTS! and today I awoke to huge sawing noises - much louder than your DIY sawing. I look out the window after I gave up on trying to sleep through it and found they were removing my neighbor's tree which is only a few feet away from my window! Life! The upside is I won't have to be raking all the fall leaves from this tree, so it's a good trade off.

Thanks for stopping by! Leave me a message if you please!

white on white

I'm working on a piece that has a big white dove and I'm doing it on white aida. I have to say - this is a drag and I'm totally not enjoying it. I had a quiet night at work and started plugging away on it and the time flew as my tech and I exchanged stories of our labors and funny anecdotes. I'm happy to say the dove is done - not my best work by far. Somehow some lint got woven into the white making parts of it look soiled even though it isn't. I'll be happy to get the backstitching done and some of the Peace stitched. Unfortunately, I'm having some thumb joint pain and had to tape my joint which helped a bit.

Here's the start to a lap robe I'm making for the veterans. They are trying to collect 25,000 lap robes for the vets by Nov. 1. I've made this pattern before - it's fast and dimensional which I love! The yarn is so soft to the touch and I'm really enjoying working on this piece!
Have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Lemonade!! 25 cents!

Nothing new to show you on my cross stitch - I don't think it would show up as it is white on white and is really boring to do.

I tried sleeping yesterday afternoon (I work the night shift) and woke up to children shouting LEMONADE!! TWENTY FIVE CENTS! LEMONADE! TWENTY FIVE CENTS!!!! I wanted to get up and buy them out but frankly, I didn't have the energy and did sort of fall back asleep.

I have made a little progress on the lap robe for the Vets. I had time to work on it last evening and had left it in the car. I can show you that photo later.

Have a great day - thanks for stopping by!

Monday camera woes!!

I don't know what is with my camera, but it won't download my photos. You all know I struggle posting photos and this was not the way to start the day. The photo you see isn't that great, but I've reached the limit of my patience with this camera! I upgraded the software so I should have better luck next time.
This is my finished Christmas motif sampler II by JBW designs. I really enjoyed stitching this!

I didn't stitch at all yesterday! I kept reading people's blogs which is addicting! On a good note, I did find my scroll frame and will start a sampler that I will work on at home. I will have something small going for at work.

I'm also staring a lap robe (crochet) for the Veterans project. They are looking to collect 25,000 lap robes by Christmas. After 2 starts on one - I decided the yarn wasn't soft enough. Found some nice soft blue yarn, started and realized it wasn't wide enough. I decided to wait till I found my original pattern. I might have to make the crochet project my work project - it doesn't take as much concentration and in the wee hours of the morning, it's a bit more challenging to be precise. We'll see. At any rate, it will be done for Nov. 1.

Thanks for visiting my blog! I appreciate it - I love your comments and look forward to getting to know you all better in the upcoming months.

Happy Weekend!

It was a rough week back to work in terms of sleeping! I couldn't get back into the groove of sleeping during the day. I finished the christmas tree and started a Lizzie Kate freebie which I have wanted to do. My DH worked on bills while I stitched and finished the piece! (I'm not that fast- he had 2 weeks worth of mail to go through!). I have to start framing or finishing my pieces before I get too far behind. Heck - I've got stuff sitting in my drawer that has been there for a few years...oops. I hate to admit it! It's one thing if it's a WIP, but these are finished pieces!! I should take a few photos. Maybe someone could put a little pressure on me......

It's a weird weekend - the sun pokes out and looks like it's ready to take over and before I know it- thunderstorms. We have now had rain EVERY single weekend this summer. It isn't always a washout, but enough to just ruin plans and festivals. Our city has a big arts fair this weekend on a trendy street. I feel bad for the vendors. Maybe tomorrow will shape up to be nicer for them. I'm content to skip the festival and work on my cross stitch.

I am starting a pattern called Peace by Sanman designs. I saw a finished piece and couldn't find it online. I emailed Sanman and she sent it over to me really fast! I'm going to start watching out for her designs.

My Peace, Joy, Love looks a bit lopsided, but it's just how I put it back in hoop to take the photo- still struggling along with that skill!!! LOL!

Have a wonderful weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Back to the real world

Today is the last day of my vacation. Boo hoo. We didn't have good weather for most of it and the rain subsided on Friday. It's hard to leave such a lovely place. Two of my three children were able to join us for the full week, the third came up for a few days. Our family stays with my sister and brother in law at her lake home for a week every summer and we get our fill of chatting and talking till the wee hours of the night. We play games with the family almost every night and we all take turns cooking. Little by little the kids left until we are left with one niece here and we will all leave today. It's the best vacation I can imagine - our two families together for a week!

On the cross stitch front, I have worked a bit more on my Christmas tree and might actually finish it today. If I don't - that's ok too. I have no way to post photos from here so it will have to wait. I will update you soon! I look forward to seeing what all of you have been working on!

Thanks for visiting my blog!