Sampler of Stitches finis

Sampler of Stitches - The Drawn Thread

Recommended 30 count Custard Cream Dower Quality Legacy Linen

Recommended NPI silks and speciality fibers

I finished up the last chapter of Sampler of Stitches this evening. :-) I started it on March 6, 2007. It seemed like it took forever for all the parts to be published. Now I need to start a new Drawn Thread piece since I always have a large piece in the works. So what's it to be? I have several at home.

Aoife and I had a wonderful time at our puppy agility clinic. I really learned a ton and the instructor, Ann Braue just loved Aoife. And even better, my own agility teacher Anne who also attended the seminar, told me I was doing great with Aoife's training.

another one down

I'm down to just two sections. :-) Yeah!

only three to go

You can now see the completed size of Randenlap Celtic as yesterday I did all the remaining outlines of each band. How I would love to finish this one by the end of the weekend! Yesterday in the mail I received the new Loose Feather chart, Beyond My Heart and I really like it. I also had Drema send me all the fibers for this one, the mystery and #32 which I haven't had time to start yet. Seeing that package all full of pretty colored floss, makes me want to get going on something new. :-)

Have a great weekend!

half way at least

I'm sure I'm over half way with Randenlap Celtic and I love how it's turning out. I'll finish the small band today during my lunch break and start work on the band at the top. Then there is a band to the right and then the huge center motif.


The next week will be hectic and I'm how much time I will have to stitch. Clancy and I have an agility trial this weekend and on Tuesday Aoife and I leave on a three night/two day vacation at a puppy agility camp in Eau Claire Wisconsin with agility great, Ann Braue. Ann and her border collie Spree, along with the other members of the US Team, won the Silver Medal in the Team Competition at the World Championships in Hamar, Norway last September. And placed 14th out of 118 teams in the individual competition. They made the US World Team again this year and are travelling to Finland to compete. It will be a wonderful two days.


This is our first getaway for just the me and Aoife. She is a spoiled little brat now, I can't even imagine how she will be when she gets back. :-)

BoINK Part 8 finis

Part 8 of Book of Ink Circles was released yesterday afternoon and I did mine last night. It's fun watching this piece come together. Next release is on September 9th and it's the cross to the left
Here is the promised progress photo on RC. There is a slight difference between the two colors but you really have to be looking for it. :-) But I'm happy with it.

changing things around

Here is my progress on Cirque des Cercles. I'm happy with how the silk I picked out is working with Phantom. Of course it's hard to tell because I still haven't learned the art of taking photos of my work so the colors show up true. ;-) Maybe one of these days I'll figure it out. The plan was to work on this until this morning and I'm following the plan so I put Randenlap Celtic in my bag for the commute to and from work this week. The difference in the two shades is very small and as I feared it is a different weight silk. I tried using one strand and then two strands and I like the way that two strands look the best. I'll take a progress photo tomorrow because I had to pull half of what I put in so there is not much done.

It's been a good year for my veggie garden. This is just one day's harvest. I've been picking like this a couple times a week now for several weeks. :-) Nummy!

Happy First Birthday Aoife!

I can't believe my little puppy is a year old today. :-) My how time flys.

My three kids together :-) from the left, Molly, Aoife and Clancy.


Here is her first official photo as a member of the household taken the evening she arrived, from the left, Clancy, Aoife and Molly.

And about 30 minutes after that photo was taken. :-)

Last night in agility class my friend Peggy and I had a little party for our two puppies. Here is Aoife (on the left) and Seven together.

I made pug cookies for the class.

And the reason most of you stop by.... ;-) Here is my new start, from Ink Circles, Cirque des Cercles. I'm stitching it on Picture This Plus Phantom using a Vikki Clayton silk called Glacial (it's in variegated shades of light purple, light green and light aqua blue). I've had this chart since the day it came out two years ago. And I've finally started it! Yeah!

I also received my new skeins for my Celtic piece and the color change is very very slight. But I'm going to use them in any case. I might be the only person who knows there are two different colors! :-)

moving on for now

Well this is it for this color - unless of course the silk I ordered on Saturday doesn't work for the piece. And it occured to me last night that I might end up with two different weights of silk - premium vs. regular. If that is the cast I'll have to check if looks ok.

I've made some progress ;-)

As you can see, I've made some progress with Randenlap Celtic over the weekend. ;-) I literally rotted in front of the TV watching the Olympic coverage. How about the US Swim team? I was jumping up and down rooting those guys on during the relay late last night. What a win! I really enjoy watching the games every time it comes around.

But back to RC. As you can see, I've been skipping around on this piece. It's charted for two similar colors and the original plan was to only use one color (the one that is stitched on the piece is called Crab Doodles). But I remembered at some point on Friday evening, that Vikki Clayton put out a limited edition color that is very similar to the variegated color I'm using. So I went ahead and ordered enough to complete the piece on Saturday. Below are the two color sets. The top three skeins are the colors that comprise Crab Doodles (2453/2435/5307) and the bottom three are the colors that comprise the LE color (2451/2437/5307). So at this point I only need to finish one band in Crab Doodles and then I'll start a small band with the LE color when it comes and see if it works. I'm hoping it will be a subtle change. In any case, I will finish the last band today and I'll have to put this piece aside until the fibers arrive in the mail sometime later in the week. I'm not sure what I'll stitch but I'm thinking maybe St. Reatham or maybe a new start.

I'll leave you with a photo of the pugs. They were sleeping and I had the camera on the coffee table but when I moved to pick it up they all went on alert! I'm sure they were hoping it was time for a walk. :-)

Papillion Creations Mystery Part 7 & 8 finis

I finished up the Papillion Creations Mystery "How Does Your Garden Grow?" parts 7 & 8 today. It's 13 parts long so we are now half way. But it feels like there should be a lot more to go judging by how much extra linen I have at the bottom.

Here is my progress on Randenlap Celtic - as you can see not a ton done since my last progress photo as I've only had one round trip train ride this week. I've been working on other stuff but I think I'll work on it tomorrow and the coming weekend. It's been tough finding the flow and I'm sure just as I find it, it will be time to start work on a new and different band. :-)

No plans for the weekend - just the usual dog training and lawn work. :-) But with temps in the 70's it will be a beaut. And I'm so slow at work right now, I just might take tomorrow off.

Book of Ink Circles - part seven finis

Another winning block from Tracey! Here is part seven of Book of Ink Circles. I love it. :-) And to think a month ago I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. But the last two installments have put me over the edge. Since all my border is complete, I'm thinking I'm closing in at over half way done with this piece. It's too bad I have to wait for each piece to come out. I have a feeling if I had access to the whole thing, I would go ahead and finish it. ;-) Next out (in about 10 days or so) are three of the tiny boxes.

I'm working from home this week so when I have stitching time (working from home means no train time), I'll be working on the Papillion Mystery, How Does Your Garden Grow? - parts seven and eight came out a couple of weeks ago. That is another fun piece.

I took a little time yesterday to go through my charts. I have manged to fill two 4" binders to capacity with charts I have purchased and freebies! WOW! I had no idea I had so much around the house. :-) Stash is good. Now if I just had the money to kit some of the ones that I really like. Oh I have a ton of linen but fibers? Not so much. :-) And I need to buy/order some more time. Does anyone know where the closest time store is? LOL!

Thanks for stopping by!

Medallions finis

Medallions from Rosewood Manor

Vikki Clayton HDF - Strawberry Shortcake

32 count linen I dyed myself

I finished up Medallions on Sunday morning. This really is a fast moving piece and I enjoyed working on it. I love how the silk thread looks next to my hand dyed linen. It's exactly what I wanted. :-) Not bad for tossing in a bit of this and a bit of that into the dye vat. Here are a couple of close ups.

Today I started on Randenlap Celtic from a Dutch designer - Marion Freyzer, using a HDF called Crab Doodles on Colorscaps Fresco 32 count linen. This is going to be a slow moving piece. Below is all I manged in a hour and fifteen minutes of stitching on the train. I'm doing it one over two using the regular weight silk floss.

This is a really good shot of the actual color. The teal blue really pops and it matches the bit of teal that runs subtlety through the linen.

And lastely, how cool is this? I was award a KreativBlogger award from Jeanne, Jackie and Katrina! Also Michele award me a Brillante Weblog award! :-)

You can't even imagine how excited I am. I've been blogging for over two years now and a week doesn't go by where I am inspired by everyone's work and the thought that I inspire anyone is a thrill. I've made friends and someday I hope to even meet some of you! When a person is nominated, the recipient is asked to in turn nominate five others. Truth be told I can't possibly narrow it down to 20 let alone 5 so I'll just say, you are all KreativBloggers in my world! :-) And while I don't always comment on the blogs I visit daily (and are many more than I have links to here), I value each and everyone of you.