Imaginary Botanicals - Stripes finis

Imaginary Botanicals - Stripes by Sam Sarah Design Studio
32 count Silkweavers Dark Tan linen
Recommended WDW and Gentle Art floss

I finished up my Imaginary Botanicals series last night. I'm so happy with how it turned out! :-) I started back on A Quaker Study by CHS. I'd love to finish this one up by the end of next week. All part of the plan to finish up all my WIPs. We'll see how much I manage before I feel compelled to start something new.

Clancy had a good first day of our four day trial. No Qs but he had a good Open Jumpers course - he missed his weave pole entrance and an even better Novice Standard run. He did everything but hit his contact point on the A-Frame. He was just inches from our first Standard Q. We still have three more tries! Cross your fingers for us. :-)

Sleigh Bells Ring finis

Sleigh Bells Ring by The Sunflower Seed

32 count Silkweavers Dark Tan Linen

Weeks Dye Works Floss

Here is my finished Sleigh Bells Ring. As you can see I finished it into a box. I used the box method used by Blackbird Designs (instructions are from BBD Secret Garden Necessity Box). I love how it turned out. I did add the little tree to the right side to make it fit better on my box.

Tomorrow Clancy and I are participating in a four day agility trial. I'm hoping for a couple of standard Qs. Wish us luck!

rap up of 2007 ornaments

I did the finishing work on the last three ornaments of 2007. I look forward to 12 more next year. :-)

Merry Christmas

from my house to yours...

Merry Christmas!

almost on vacation :-)

Here is my progress on Stripes. If I had done this flower first, I doubt the other two would ever get finished! :-) It's so unflower like so far and since I'm working from a copy and have put away the color chart, I'm not even sure what it's going to look like when it's finished. But I'm about a third of the way done so almost to the home stretch. I'd like to get about a half of the way done before I have to put it up on Friday to work on a couple of last minute (second!) Christmas gifts. I have a little stitching to do yet and I have to do some quilting. I'll be busy this weekend for sure. Tomorrow is my last day working until January 2nd. Yeah!

Thanks for all your warm wishes for Summer. She still has her eye stitched closed and it will remain that way for two weeks. Right now she has a 50/50 chance of keeping her sight.

I'm thinking about goals for next year. I want to complete a couple of my WIPS - well, all of them actually. :-) The one that is crying out the most is Marquoir ABC. I have not worked on it in eight months and I actually dated it 2007. I got to the half way point and just put it aside. And it's such a pretty piece it deserves to be finished. I also want to finish St. Reatham in time next year to enter it into the Silkweaver's Stitchers Showcase contest (I managed to enter 12 pieces this year). The other three on my WIP list are all totally doable and I plan on having all three done before winter is over. They are: Sampler of Stitches from the Drawn Thread, Toccata II also from the Drawn Thread and Quaker Study from CHS.

I also want to do several items from my waiting in the wings list, most notably, Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I'm pretty sure I got a $50 dollar gift certificate for Neeldecraft Corner from my sister for Christmas and that will go a long way toward buying all the NPI silk I need. I would also like to do my Cirque des Cercles from Ink Circles. I had to have been one of the first people to purchase this chart and I haven't even put a stitch in it yet. Also high on my list is Celtic Band Sampler by Homespun Samplar - that one is all ready to go. Most of the others are smallish pieces and I should have not much problems getting to most of them.

little progress

I want to finish up with my Imaginary Botanicals series so I started on Stripes on Monday morning. And as of today hardly have anything done. I'm having a hard time staying awake on the train - both ways. In fact yesterday morning I didn't even bother taking my stitching out of my bag. I just sat down and settled in for a nap. :-) I plan on working on this until Saturday and then I start on Sleigh Bells Rings from Sunflower Seed Designs. Thanks again Kathy! It was kind of you to send me this chart. It's perfect (quick and easy) for my exchange on the 25th.

My friend Peggy's pug, Summer had a terrible accident yesterday. She is Peggy's one eyed pug and is doing great in agility. Last trial she earned two Qs in jumpers! We both had high hopes of her earning her novice jumpers title in the new year. Well anyway, yesterday Summer got in a scuffle at home with one of the other pugs and her remaining eye popped out. This is not an uncommon injury to pugs because some pugs eyes bulge out more than others. Peggy and her son rushed her to the vet and her eye was put back in and then temporarily stitched closed. Summer is going back to the vet today so the damage can be assessed. Please keep Summer in your thoughts today. She is a rescue and we have a feeling that love, kisses and laps were not common in her past and she deserves the best possible outcome.

Productive weekend

I got a ton done over the weekend. First off I finished stitching Toy Shop Sign from CHS and did the finishing work. So cute! I did it on the recommended 36 count Lakeside Linen using the DMC conversion.
Next I stitched the above design (I can't remember the name) from Erica Michaels using the recommended 40 count Lakeside Linen and assorted Crescent Colors cotton floss. And even did the finishing. :-) And I even found time to stitch one more. This is Snowflake Heart from Wild Heart Designs from last years JCS Ornament issue.

This is a photo of how the tree is currently looking. Much fuller from last year! I still have to finish off the other two ornaments I stitched from last week plus the one above but I have met my goal of 12 ornaments this year. :-) I need to quilt myself a little tree skirt to finish off the look but I'm very happy with it this year. Oh, and I need a star. :-)

Snow Bunnies finis

I finished up Snow Bunnies from Little House Needleworks yesterday - so cute! I did it on the recommended 32 count linen using the recommended DMC colors. Today I started CHS Toy Store. I don't have enough stitched in yet so no progress photo. In a prefect world I'll be finished by Monday. :-) But you know how that goes. I'd also like to finish into ornaments the couple that I have stitched. I need to put up my tree this weekend.

I've joined a couple of exchange groups - the Birthday Exchange Group and the Hooked on Exchanging Group. Question for those of you who have done the birthday group before. Do you stitch something for your recipient as well as buy a couple of little things? This is all new to me. :-) But I want to get more involved with my fellow bloggers and this seemed like a great way to start.

Thanks to everyone who emailed me a chart with a sleigh in it, had a suggestion or even offered to look for one for me. Kathy found me a perfect one that is just the right size and pretty easy to complete (all whole crosses :-)) and has sent it to me. It's from Sunflower Seed and it's called Sleight Bells Ring. Thanks so much Kathy! I can't thank you enough. :-) You guys are the best.

Have a great weekend!

sleighs anyone?

Finally a stitching update! :-) I've been working on a couple of ornaments over the past couple of days. Here is my progress on Snow Bunnies from Little House Needleworks. I love this little piece! I have a couple more ornaments ready to go and I hope to have them finished by the end of next week or I'll be short of my goal to complete 12 this year. Time sure did get away from me.

Does anyone have a freebie of a holiday piece that has a sleigh in it I could have a copy of? I don't have anything at all close, free or not that has a sleigh in it and and none of the four ornament issues I currently own do either. Sleighs are the theme of my families gift exchange this year for Christmas and I have no idea where to go with this and I'm running out of time to buy one and have it sent to me.

An amazing day :-)

I would like to introduce you to the AKC's newest titled dog, Clancy O'Shay, NAJ! :-) Today Clancy completed his first AKC title in spectacular fashion. He completed a Jumpers With Weaves course rated at 44 seconds and 110 yards long in 26.5 seconds - a first place finish. It was a pretty difficult course and no other dogs in his class even finished. I had tears in my eyes as we finished. He was just amazing. We are now competing at the open level in Jumpers. In the standard agility level, we still are looking for that elusive first qualifying score but have come very close in the past two trials and we have one more shot at it tomorrow. Excuse the photo, I just noticed that Clancy is huh, quite the happy boy. ;-)

And if the day was not complete enough I had a package in the mail today. I wasn't expecting anything and I was quite puzzled when I looked at it. I recognized the return sender's name but I wasn't expecting anything since we were arn't currently trading anything. I opened it up and inside was the most beautiful scissor bob I have ever seen! :-) I could not believe that someone thought to make me a give. I gave Tracy a chart a couple of weeks ago in the spirit of paying it forward. She expressed interest in it and since I really like her blog and her work inspires me, I sent it to her. Never in a hundred years did I expect such a kind give in return. Thank you so much Tracy! I'm quite humbled by your generosity. I had no idea that when I started to blog a year and a half ago that I would become involved with such a kind group of people. I will take a better photo when I'm not so wonky, it's been a long couple of days and I still have one to go but I could not let a day go by without thanking her.

isn't this beautiful! The colors are wonderful and there is the cutest little button on the backside. :-)

Day one success!

Today was the first day of Clancy's first four day agility trial - Hounds for the Holidays in Milwaukee WI. We earned another 2nd place and qualifying score in Jumpers with Weaves! One more and we have our first novice title. We have three more chances in this trial and I've got my fingers crossed. :-) And Clancy has his paws crossed too!

No stitching today - the light was terrible at the trial location. :-( I might try again tomorrow.

First snow and catching up

I'm really behind things - I just started on my Christmas ornaments (this is the La-D-Da, Yule Flower) but I did manage the first one yesterday. Boy do I ever hate stitching on black! This was a good project to find that out on, very quick! :-) I just today managed to catch up with the blogs I read but I didn't have a ton of time to make comments. I hate when that happens.

We woke up this morning in Gurnee to find around six inches of snow on the ground and it's still snowing! Sure is pretty but to avoid the roads I'm working from home again today. I took Aoife out for her first romp in the deep snow. I'm still not sure if she liked it or not. The other two pugs don't mind it at all. Here is Aoife and Clancy in the tunnel. As you can see the snow is still flying.
Then I had an idea, wouldn't it be cute if I could get them in the tunnel for our Christmas photo? As you can see, it didn't really work out! Aoife just wanted warm feet. Even roast turkey couldn't change her mind. :-)

Many, many thanks for the kind words you left regarding my Alpha piece. I had a couple of new commentors also. That is always nice. I'll link back to you if you have a blog.

Alpha Sheep Finis

Alpha Sheep from Sheepish Designs (part 3 of 3)
32 count Wichelt Latte Linen
Recommended NPI Silks - 2 over 2

I finished up Alpha Sheep this morning. :-) I love how all three look together and the colors are so bright.

In case anyone is interested in doing all three pieces together on one piece of linen like I did, here is the NPI silk fiber skein count. I started the piece will all new skeins of NPI silk. At the end of section 2, I purchased additional skeins of 222, 224 and 746. When I was finished with Alpha Sheep, part 3, I had only used the extra 222. I'm not very frugal with my floss usage and I literally had none of the 224 or 746 left from the first skeins. So I doubt if you did this piece on 32 count 2x2 you would need the extra skeins of the 224 and 746 and certainly not at all if you did it on 36 or 40 count.

almost done

I heading into the home stretch of Alpha Sheep. Just a couple more days work and I'll be finished with all three. It's a really large piece since I did mine on 32 count linen. I would have used 36 count but as I had a perfect size and color of the 32 count laying around how could I not use it. :-) A lot of people have been commenting that they would like to do this piece together like I have. I recommend it, each piece was super quick (took me less than a week each) and the colors are great! Sorry though, I have already traded away my three charts.

On Saturday the pugs where sitting in the together in the perfect group. So I took a quick photo. Then I thought, since the are behaving so nice, why don't I try for a Christmas card photo? So I put them in this years selected accessory and gave it a go. Even though they took some good shots, them being on the couch just wasn't working for me so I tried outside. I couldn't get them to sit close to each other. :-) And I didn't like the background so I ended up with a ton of outtakes. I'll try again later in the week on a more neutral background.