Almost!

One line to go and I'm finished with Toccato II! I'm crossing my fingers that I will be motivated to finish by the end of the weekend. I have a long weekend coming up because tomorrow I'm getting a root canal. Yikes! But it's first thing so I'll have the entire day to play.

It occured to me yesterday that I have not posted a photo of the baby for quite some time. So here is baby Aoife in all her glory! LOL!

Not so much a baby anymore.
With big sister Molly (Aoife is on the right - I could not get her to look at me!)
And the whole gang - Molly is sitting, Aoife standing and Clancy is on the floor.

I heard from my Hooked on Exchanging partner, Rita yesterday - she received my fob. I sent it all the way to Hungary.

Rhodes Butterfly Rob by the Sweetheart Tree (#85)

Silkweavers 32 count Meadow Mist linen

Vicki Clayton hand dyed silk

My first scrap book page

Milwaukee Pugfest is having a contest for the best scrapbooking/journaling page featuring a person's rescue pug plus their pug rescue of choice. Here is my contribution. While I don't think I'll win, I really wanted to submit a page with Clancy's wonderful agility photo. So here it is! :-) This is the first page I have ever tried. Being a quilter, it was hard to not to make it symmetrical - asymmetrical is much more interesting. Also it was hard to edit myself. I purchased a ton of cool stuff and I had to fight the urge to use more of it. LOL!
Here is Clancy posing is his page. This reminds me that I need to talk some photos of baby Aoife. She is not so much a baby anymore.

Not a ton to show today

My blogging has been a little on the light side lately. I've been super busy at work and haven't been getting a lot stitched or completed in the past couple of weeks. And I'm behind again with both my reading and commenting on everyone else's blogs too. And working at home is taking its toll with my total stitching time. When I don't take the train I loose out on almost three hours of stitching each day. I actually came into the office an extra day last week when I could have worked at home just so I could work on St. Reatham. :-)

I spent the bulk of my crafting time this weekend finishing the stitching on my Peacock Chair - that's finished and I hope to start on the actual chair this week. I worked on Toccato II Sunday evening while watching Mansfield Place on PBS. Did everyone notice the cute as a button pug? :-) Loved the pug but this is probably my least favorite Jane Austen adaptation so far.

I also did my taxes and I spent the bulk of my refund on completing my agility course for the back yard and buying a new bedroom look. Remember back several months ago when I finished my Chocolat quilted dog bed? And I made a matching quilt for me? Well this weekend I decided for finally finish my bedroom look and I bought new sheets in a carmel color and pillow shames in a nice shade of red. I also purchased the coordinating Moda Chocolat fabric to make a new duvet for my king size down comforter. It's super easy to make a king size duvet these days. Just look for extra wide quilting fabric. It's 108 inches wide so you only need to purchase three yards for the front and three yards for the back - stitch up the bottom and sides together and figure out a way to close it all (I'm going to put in a row of button) and you're done. So I bought a carmel tonal piece for one side and a very pretty red and tan print for the other. It should only take an afternoon to complete the duvet. I'm hoping to have the fabric by the weekend. I also contacted my favorite machine quilter and reserved a space to quilt my matching throw. I was going to machine quilt it myself but now that I've thought about it, I want something a little nicer than what I can currently do.

some progress

I've been working on St. Reatham on my train rides in for a week now. It's slow going. But I love it. :-) Every time I pick up this piece whether it's for a day or for a couple of weeks, I enjoy every stitch of it.

Remember this chart from last year's Nashville releases?It's Mermaid's Folly by Courtney of the Courtney collections. I almost did this piece instead of St. Reatham. Well she has been at it again. She has ten (!) new releases and these are just the three that I want.

AlphaBlu

Bird of Paradise

Gem Show #1 (I can totally see this in HDF silks)

Lady Scarlet Box Finis

Lady Scarlet Box - Just Nan

Recommended linen and DMC thread

I bet you didn't even know I owned this did you? Well as of last week, I didn't! But when I read on the Needlecraft Corner website that Just Nan was coming out with another box, Barnabee's Bride (wasn't that a bee?) I knew I had to go find the ladybug kit and get on the list for the new one. I found it at my LNS. How lucky is that? I was also very bad - I spent close to $200 on stash. I purchased the Cranberry Sampler from the Needle's Prayse (Kelly - yeah! :-) ) - I've wanted this chart forever and was having a hard time finding it. And there is was, just sitting on the shelf. :-) And now it's mine. I also purchased Two Red Houses and Two White Houses from Little House Needlework's to go with my Two Blue Houses. Since I was there I purchased the over-dyed threads for Two Blue Houses. The three houses are charted for DMC but I want mine to pop a bit more so over-dyed it is. And lastly I bought the coolest LED stitching light. It clamps right onto Q-snaps and hoops. I'll take a picture of it when I have a chance. It will be perfect for stitching at agility trials. Lastly, I picked up M from Haberdashery Designs. This is a new designer for me. You can see A through M here.

I also finished my scissor fob for the Hooked on Exchanging exchange. It's going in the mail today - all the way to Europe! I'll post a photo after my partner receives it. I also worked on St. Reatham. I'll share a photo of that tomorrow. I got started on my Peacock Stitching Chair from Cat's Whiskers since the new one will be out soon. I'd like to have it completed by the time I get the chart and supplies for the new one. It's a super quick stitch. I'd like that part of the project finished by the end of the weekend.

And for those of you working on Sampler of Stitched from The Drawn Thread - STU is now available!

I've been fobbed!

When I got home from work tonight I had the nicest surprise waiting for me. I received my fob from the Hooked on Exchanging group! :-) Dawn was given the task of creating a fob for me. She sent along a couple of spools of ribbon and the lovely scissors that you see with the fob. Thanks so much Dawn, I love it and your work is exquisite.

Of Female Arts finis

Of Female Arts by The Primitive Needle

32 count Days Gone By linen by Silkweavers

Premium Examplar Spinach Delight silk by HDF

I finished up with Of Female Arts last night. I haven't been doing much stitching at home the past couple of evenings. Too tired! :-) And not much on the train either. Also too tired and I've been falling asleep. :-) But in any case, this is finished and I love how it turned out. It's the first time I used the primium silk from HDF and I have to say I love it. It just slides in and out of the linen.

I had a major computer meltdown on Monday at work and today is the first chance I've had to post anything. I have a new laptop but it came with Vista and Office 2007 so every is different and frustrating. But I'm sure within a few days all will be well.

A Quaker Study finis :-)

A Quaker Study by Carriage House Samplings

Lakeside Linen 36 Count Vintage Autumn Gold

Recommended NPI Silk

Happy day, happy day! I'm done with A Quaker Study! :-) I finished up yesterday at 12:00pm. I really need to start to frame some of my stuff. I looked though my box last night of finished things and there are dozens and dozens. It's hard though because I like to spend my available money on new things and not framing. I just need to start to take a piece a month to the framer. And there are always sales so what am I waiting for?

Sunday evening I went back to Toccata II from The Drawn Thread. I did the entire bottom line and I started the motifs to the right of the piece under the big box. I really got a lot done last night and I think I'm going to try to work on it at night all this week.
And lastly, my silk thread came so I was able to start back on Of Female Arts for my train rides this week. I should be done with this by the end of the week for sure. I replaced the 1-2-3 with my initials at the bottom. I still have no idea what I want to start on next for the train but toying with the idea of picking up St. Reatham. I'd love to get another page done by the end of the month.

wow!

I sure did strike a cord with my Of Female Arts. :-) Thanks so much for the kind words. A couple of the comments really made me laugh. Anna's comment regarding her maturing as a stitcher had me rolling. Anna, I don't think I'm mature as much am I'm cheap! LOL! I'm glad every one is liking it. :-) I'm going to purchase more of this linen. I can think of a lot of projects that it work with. I have a couple of Stacy Nash charts that would look great with Days Gone By. My extra skein of Spinach Delight is in the mail. I'll run out for sure today so back to A Quaker Study for the weekend. What's next? I have no idea! :-)

Have a great weekend!

A new start :-)

Since I could not progress any further on A Quaker Study until the weekend when I receive my floss from Drema, a new start was in order. I pulled out of my stash Of Female Arts by Lisa with Primitive Needle. I love it. I'm stitching it on Days Gone By from Silkweaver using a Vicki Clayton premium silk called Spinach Delight. I think the two go great together. Of course I only have one skein of Spinach Delight and I realized last evening that I'm not going to have enough so I had to place a quick order for more. Duh on my part.

Terri, I didn't used to be such a big one at a time stitched as I have become. In my youth, I was a starter - at everything I did and never much of a finisher. Then I started quilting a lot about seven years ago with the higher quality fabric that is available and putting out sometimes up to $200 in fabric, I had to start to finish stuff. I just could not afford to do otherwise. That has carried over into my stitching as well. And since I usually do small to medium size pieces it's been easy to do. I do have a couple of WIPs but I really like to keep that number small. And I want to finish most of my WIPs by spring so I'm really pushing to get them done. Whether they bore me or not. ;-) But I sure am glad to have a break with A Quaker Study. I'll finish it this weekend though - I going to run out of silk for my new project so I'll have to find something to do! :-)

floss shortage :-)

I ran out of one of the two colors of silk floss tonight that I need to finish A Quaker Study. :-) Yes, I'm not so sad. :-) I was looking for a reason to put this aside for a couple of days (weeks?) and I got it. I called Drema today and ordered a second skein and I'm sure it will arrive by Friday but a break is good. I'm not sure what I'm going to pick up but I'd like it to be small so I can get it finished by next week so I can finish A Quaker Study sooner than later. I really am on the home stretch with this one. Just seven small, two medium and one large motif left and I'm done!

slow weekend

I'm finally at the half way point with A Quaker Study and this piece continues to be tough for me to work on. Boring, boring, boring! And I think I'm going to run out of silk floss. :-( I love Quaker's but this is just the same design and the same two colors over and over. I don't want to stop until it's finished but I so want to start something new for the new year. I did break it up a bit yesterday and I stitched my scissor fob for the exchange I'm participating in. I'm pretty sure I would be able to show it because I'm sending mine to Europe and I'm very sure that that country I'm sending mine to has never show up in my country log but I'll wait until after she receives it. I just need to add the beads (which I had to order last week) and do the finishing work and I'm done! Then comes the nerve racking part - is it nice enough, did I do ok with the finishings, etc. I hate it when I second guess myself but I'm sure it will turn out nice.

My Pug Meetup was this past Saturday and it was such a nice day (low 40's) that Aoife came along with the big pugs. She had a blast! And she looks so cute in her little pink coat. :-)

working away

I'm closing in to half way done with A Quaker Study by CHS. By the end of the weekend I hope to be at half way and have started working down to the third row of alphabet. While I like how it's looking, I'm not having as much fun stitching it as some other pieces that I have worked on. I wish now that I had used my own colors. That might be part of it. I've seen others finished in other color ways and I like those so much more. Greens would have worked for me so much more. Oh well, live and learn! :-)

For Christmas, my sister gave me a $50 dollar gift certificate to Needlecraft Corner. I have mentally spent that money a hundred ways so far! :-) I'm thinking of buying one of the Designing Ladies caskets. I like the one from Olde Willow Stitchery - the Sampler Needle Casket & Accessories. I love stitching things that don't just have to hang on the wall.

Thanks for all the kind words for Summer. I passed them on to her mom. :-) And thanks for the kind words for me and Clancy! It's very appreciated. I'm way behind on my blog reading and even worse, commenting. I'll get caught up soon! Have a great weekend everyone!

What a weekend!

After struggling a bit the first three days of last weekends trials, Clancy scored with a first place and a Q in Novice Standard on Tuesday! That was my goal for this trial - our first leg toward our Novice Standard title and he did it. :-) Such a good boy. The above picture was taken by the professional on Saturday during our first Standard run. How could I not buy it? And people say pugs are only good for laps - look at those muscles! And the gleam of determination on his face. :-) I'm so proud. We have two months now until our next trial so we'll have plenty of time to practice on the areas that gave us trouble over the weekend.

Here is my progress on A Quaker Study by CHS. Not much done since I started back on it Friday - I didn't put a stitch in over the weekend during the trial. But I'm back with it now and I hope to start on the next row of alphabet by the time I get home from work tonight. The plan is to work on this piece until it's finished.

I received an update this morning from my friend Peggy on her pug Summer (the one that I wrote about two weeks ago). Today was her second checkup and she had been tentatively scheduled for surgery to remove her eye because last week things weren't looking so good. But there was good news today! They aren't removing Summer's eye! The Vet thinks it looks ok. She has a big ulcer on it and it's still is very swollen and the opthomoligist says it may take a month or two more for the swelling to go down. She probably won't have any clear sight but may be able to distinguish dark and light. I've visited Summer several times since her accident and she is adapting very well to her new circumstances. Every time I go see her she recognizes my voice and her tail wags like crazy. :-) She is such a sweet little girl and even being able to tell light from dark will be a comfort to her.