A good start

I have made a good start on my Quaker Casket over the weekend. I finished up the first end piece on Saturday and I'm almost finished with the second. I would have finished on the way into work today but after working from home for a week, that 4:30am wake up call was a bit of a shock and as a result I fell asleep on the train ride in. I've decided to do the five pieces required from small to big. That way when I'm good and tired of working on the big top piece, I'll be all done. :-) I'm not sure if I'm going to do all five parts without a break yet. I really need to get going on some other fall stuff I've had in my stash for some time now and I really want to start work on St. Reatham again. I only have three pages to go and I really want to complete it by the end of the year.

All in a Moon finis

All in a Moon by Miss Cresent's Crowne

recommended Crescent Colours floss

32 count Silkweavers Poltergeist

I stitched up All in a Moon yesterday - super, super quick! My sister's birthday is next month and I'm planning on giving this to her. I'll buy a small wood frame and add a few embellishments to it and paint it black. It was so quick, I might even make one for me!

Jill received the Prairie Schooler Exchange from the Hooked on Exchanging blog yesterday so I can share a photo. The design is stitched from "A Farmer's Almanac", #144, on 32ct. Silkweavers Poltergeist using DMC floss. I finished it as a pin/needle cushion and it's filled with 100% emery. I'm very happy with how it turned out and I think I might make a similar style one for me.
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Here is my new start - Quaker Casket by Sampler Cove. I'm stitching mine on 36 count Lakeside Linens Maple Syrup using a Vikki Clayton variegated silk called Magpie Warbles. I'm a little worried it's too light of a floss. I wanted a delicate look but this might be a little too delicate.

Loose Feathers Mystery finis

All done! :-) I LOVE how it's turning out. I'm stitching mine on 32 count Silkweavers Heritage (one of my favorite linens) using the recommended overdyed floss.

I can't wait for the next three sections!

almost!

As you can see I've almost completed part 3 of the Loose Feathers mystery. I'll most likely finish up today. I love how it is turning out! And it's big - I love having a big Blackbird Design.

I was planing on starting my big Quaker Casket project but I picked up a cute little piece last week when I was at my LNS called All in a Moon by Miss Crescent's Crowne. It's a Halloween piece so the time seems right for it. I also want to work on the Papillion Creations Mystery. The latest part is very small so it will only take a couple of hours or so.

Yeah Clancy-Boy!

Yeah my Clancy-Boy! On Friday he earned his first Open Standard Qualifying score and it was a first place! This is our first Q since April I think. Here is a photo from the weekend (it's a photo of the photo, I'll upload a better one when I get to the scanner at work). I love how his ears stick up in the air. :-) Four of his other five runs were also very good. Only one mistake per run. We are so close to breaking out I can smell it. :-)

Here is my progress on the Loose Feathers Mystery. It's moving along nicely. I also found time to complete (ok almost!) my HoE Prairie Schooler exchange. I have to make a quick trip to Joanne's and get one last thing for it but it will go out in the mail tomorrow. I'm very happy on how it turned out and as soon as it has been received, I'll post a photo of it.

building the house

I've been working at the start of the house for the past couple of days (the big S is the design detail on the front door). And this is all you are going to see for many more days! :-) This house is a biggy. You can see from the photo that I just ran short of WDW Olive to finish the grass under the house. I think I started with 1 1/2 skeins (maybe two full) but it didn't last through the first three parts. It just so happens that I'm going to be driving past my LNS on the way to the agility trial that Clancy and I have this weekend so I can run in a pick up a couple. I'm also going to pick up a skein of WDW charcoal as I'm getting short on that. I had a ton of the other colors in my stash so I should be ok for the rest of this part and the next.

Loose Feathers Mystery part two

I finished up Part Two of the Loose Feathers mystery. Another fun section! I have a good start on part three but there is a big honking house on it so it will take a while to complete.

Here is a close up of part two. I'm using the recommended over dyed-floss on 32 count Silkweavers Heritage.

a wet weekend

Rain rain go away! Yesterday was the rainiest day in the Chicagoland area ever. At my house, we had to dump the rain gage at 5.5 inches because it was full and we had to start over. And we don't know how long it was spilling over. So I'd estimate we have already received somewhere around 6.5 to 7 inches of rain and the forecast is for another 2 to 3 inches today and high winds as the remnants of Ike move through. We don't have a basement or live by a flooding river but there are huge puddles everywhere. And the pugs hate to get their feet wet. It's been a struggle to get them outside. And driving anywhere has been difficult because all the roads are flooded. But when you compare us to some of the other areas of the country, we don't even have it bad! So I send my best wishes to everyone else.

But I did have plenty of time to stitch! So I finished part one of the Loose Feathers Mystery. I really like how it's turning out. I made a bit of a start on part two so we'll see how much I get in today. Because of the rain, it's a perfect day to stay indoors and stitch and watch the Lord of the Rings movies. :-)

a finis and a new project

On this past Tuesday, the latest installment of Book of Ink Circles was released. I worked from home that day so I was able to finish it before I ate my dinner. :-) Next release is on the 30th.

Here is my new start, the Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers Mystery Sampler. I'm planning on completing all three parts currently available before moving onto my Quaker project. They are all very small and I need the break of working on mono designs before I start another huge one. I'm doing my Mystery Sampler on one piece of linen rather than the six separate sections as recommended. It's going to be huge and very cute when finished. :-)

Randenlap Celtic finis

Randenlap Celtic by Marion Freyzer

32 Count Fresco from Colorscapes

Silk floss Crab Doodles and LE 2451/2437/5307 from HDF

I can't believe I finished this piece up last night! My three hour train rides combined with four more hours of stitching was all it took. :-) I love how it turned out.

Now onto something new!

almost

Almost ready to move onto a new piece. :-) But at the pace of my stitching, I'll be working on this for the rest of the week. I didn't put a stitch in on Friday or Saturday and Sunday I had to work on a Hooked on Exchange piece which I need to send out next week. I so want to finish this one up! So close....

another one down

Thanks so much for all your kinds words regarding my Sampler of Stitches finis! Several new people posted and I have added you all to my Google Reader. :-)

I finished up the top band today on the way into work and I even got started on the center block - the last block! I should be able to finish this up by the end of the weekend. I really want to start working on something new but I have to finish this first. I've been in a mini-slump the past week so it's import to put this piece to bed. Then I can move on without feeling like I've left this behind.

I'm all set to go with the two most current Loose Feathers and the mystery but a much bigger project has been screaming at me. :-)

Through my participation on the Vikki Clayton message board, I found a women who's husband handcrafts the casket that goes with the Quaker Casket from Sampler Cove Designs. Several months ago I found the chart on eBay and I've just been waiting to save enough cash for the casket. Well I received a nice bonus from work and the first thing on my list was the casket. So a couple of weeks ago I made the arrangements for it and it's currently in the process of being created. :-) I can hardly stand it. I hope to have it in a month or so. I have also found the Quaker Huswife chart that Diane created to go along with the Casket design. I'm using Lakeside Linens 36 count Maple Sugar and I purchased a fat half yard. I'll need to purchase some 32 count also I'm thinking.

For floss I ordered 100 yards (two spools) of Magpie Warbles from Hand-dyed Fibers.

The plan is to make as many Quaker small stitching accessories as I can fit into the casket using the Maple Sugar linen and the Magpie Warbles. I'm so excited to get going on this project. It's going to be a blast to put together.