Sept 28/10

Well, what else to do on a wet and rainy morning besides pay bills and finish several little projects (submitting continuing education tests and fixing my bird feeder)? Oh yes! Update my blog. My needle has been going fast and furious in the evenings these past few weeks:

These first three ornaments are the almost finished versions of the bird stamp Dimension series that I purchased earlier this year. I am doing two at a time because I bought two of each, but have only taken a picture of one of each pair as an example of what I have been up to. The back stitching still needs to be done on all of them so they are far from complete although it is a nice feeling to at least have the main body completed.

 I am fascinated with cardinals these days after seeing a couple of them two years ago. They are making an appearance in our region of the country and I was lucky enough to have some of them in my yard. Birds are such amazing creatures and I am also very surprised that any survive in my yard because, yes, I am one of those cat owners who lets her cats out without bells. Before anyone yells at me, no one in my immediate neighbourhood has problems with mice so there are trade-offs. I used to put bells on my cats until the little beggars figured out how to adjust their collars on their necks so the bells did not ring.

 And who can resist Lizzie Kate? Not me! I have also been playing around with floss and fabric colours, using whatever I have on hand to stitch up these ornaments. I always keep the pattern photos close by while selecting the floss and stitching so that I remain true to the designer's original ideas in terms of colour and constantly refer back to the photos. These ornaments come from L*K's Tiny Tidings VII and XV.

 Last but certainly not least came this beautiful post card from my brother. At first I thought that it was a photo and then I looked at the caption on the back. This picture is titled "A Long Halt" and was painted by Silvia Pecota. You know that our soldiers have been there more than long enough when there are postcards of their missions.......



Sept 17/10

Stash picure for Christine (and others!). Here is what I managed to limit myself to last weekend when I was at the cross stitch shop, Because You Count, in Moncton. The fabric is even weave odds and ends. The rolls of linen were tempting, but my hands break out after handling linen any length of time.

And here is the result of using one of my new patterns and a piece of the odds and ends:

The threads were taken out of my trusty mystery thread box, of course. I have a couple of co-workers who are as cat-mad as I am so I am thinking about doing this one again, but maybe with a dark grey cat this time.

Well, off to workity work I go so that I can continue to feed both my stitching habit and my cats!

Jan 26/10 Part Two

The Lizzie Kate is done and in its frame:

Well worth the half hour I spent wandering through the mats and frames section of Michaels the other night because I just could not find a mat and a frame that suited both the piece and the recipients. Years ago, I used to go to a framer who was also a friend of the family. He always enjoyed working with me because my vision was always so very different than his when it came to framing my pieces. My visits to his shop to get a piece framed were never short and sweet, but the results were always fantastic. Unfortunately he moved to the West Coast about 6 or 7 years ago and then passed away. I have not been able to find a framer who can match both the quality of his work and his infinite patience although the last framer I went to may just be a match for me!

Back to the Lizzie Kate.....
And here is my poor finger that got sliced when I was handling the glass:

In the end, the glass did not fit into the frame after putting in the mat, the stitched piece and the sticky board so now I have to figure out how to dispose of the glass without slicing my fingers any further!

Jan 19/10

Whew! Where is this month going? Time is just whizzing by me although the blur may have something to do with meeting an amazing guy, working, curling and deciding to go to Guatemala in May. I did start some new stitching projects recently to take a wee break from the intensity of stitching HAED Iris. Not having my daylight lamp makes HAED too difficult to stitch and I need to do some quick and easy projects just to break up the monotony of stitching one huge project.

Lizzie Kate's "Just Married" on 28 count linen with threads from my mystery box. The colour scheme chosen by LK did not fully suit the friends I am stitching this for so I am using my own colour scheme:


This one was actually started before I started the LK in an attempt to declutter my craft room a little bit. Even though I am not a fan of winter, I LOVE to stitch snowmen for some reason. They are just so cute and adorable and this world could use more cute and adorable!