Frederika finis!

Frederika - design by Carriage House Samplings

36 count Silkweavers Antique Gold Linen

Recommended NPI silk one over two

Finally Ms. Fred is complete! Well except for the date which I will make 2010. I need to design it so it matches the initials that I'm going to put on Mr. Fred. As I mentioned last week I did make a small change to the chart - the bottom row of diamonds in the border don't butt up to the black border like charted. I'll do Mr. F the same way. I'll take a better photo tomorrow after she is ironed. I finished her on the way into work this morning and still had time for a tiny nap.

What's next? I'm going to get started on one of my six Christmas gifts for my family. I'm doing six counted needlepoints that I'm planning on putting into box lids.

Have a great long weekend for those of you who get one. I have an agility trial with Clancy Saturday and Sunday but Monday is all mine. :-)

Enjoy!

oh so close!

Here is Ms. Fred in all her glory! I'm almost finished with this piece. Just the bottom part to go. :-) Yeah! I'm most likely not going to fill in the border with the two recommended NPIs - I want it to match Mr. Fred and he doesn't have the filling. At least that is the story I'm telling myself. I know I could go the other way and fill him in but that just makes more work. :-)

What's missing from this photo

A ton of stitches! LOL! I didn't put a stitch in all weekend on Ms. Fred. I was way to tired after two very full days of gardening and lawn work. I had way more to do than I had time for and it was sun up to sun down both Saturday and Sunday. And when I dragged my weary butt in late Sunday afternoon I knew I was close to getting caught up with things. A good thing too, I have agility trials for the next two weekends. I'll have to get in the habit of doing little things after work for an hour or so. It worked for me last summer so I know it's just a matter of getting outside and doing it before I sit down for the evening.

Have a great week!

happy happy joy joy

I participated the the Hooked on Exchanging Early Christmas Ornament exchange and yesterday I received my ornament. It's from Janet and she stitched me LHN's Red House in Winter on the front and Jeannette Douglas's ornament from the 2009 JCS magazine. I so love it!

Here is my progress on Ms. Fred. Home stretch here - almost complete with Ms. F herself and then it's just the bottom where she is standing and the rest of the border to complete. Those of you who have stitched Ms. F already will notice that I changed the chart up a bit. The bottom border is charted so the black outline and the diamonds merge together. Despite how much I like folk art, that sort of thing drives me crazy to stitch myself so I changed to what it is now. That means I'll have to fudge the bottom a bit but I'm fine with that. I'll never have to look at it in the future and wish I had done it differently or even worse once I have forgotten how it was charted wonder why I name such a big mistake. :-) I'll do the same for Mr. F also.

Have a great weekend! Mine will be all about gardening and the pugs having fun outside.

Ms. Fred is looking so bird like now. :-) I didn't have much of an update yesterday so I didn't post anything. I haven't been stitching at home at night and I've been napping on the train. :-)

I would LOVE to have her completed by the end of the weekend. I can totally do this if I work on her at night and over the weekend. I really NEED to have her completed so I can start on my Christmas gifts. I'm almost six months behind.

off weekend

Here is Ms. Fred. Not a stitch put in over the weekend. My interest in stitching is starting to wain. I can just feel it. That happens every so few often years to so. I'll do some sort of craft for a while and then move onto something new. I always come back around but the last time I stopped cross stitching it was almost 20 years before it came around again. I have way to much stash for that to happen (I hope).

Clancy and I had a very uneven agility weekend and I think that is my number one reason for getting frustrated - our lack of consistency. One week we are brilliant and the next week we suck. On Saturday Clancy didn't do his weaves and yesterday I was just a bad handler. I sure hope time works this out.

Have a great week!

friday, friday, FRIDAY!

Ms. Fred looks a bit Egyptian tomb to me right now. I kinda like it. :-)

I'm so glad it's Friday - I've been so out of sorts since my friends left way over a week ago and just finally got caught up with everything at work and sort of at home (although the grass is so high in the backyard that I can't see the pugs when I let them outside). I could really use a weekend at home but I have an agility trial with Clancy-pug. Wish us luck! I really, really want Clancy to get his last Open Standard Q so we can get into Excellent A but will just be pleased with a happy pug who wants to do agility. :-)

Have a happy weekend!

it's a bird!

I've started on Ms. Fred herself this morning. This piece if flying. I'm doing her on 36 count Antique Gold from Silkweavers using the recommended NPI silks.

It's almost Friday. :-)

love the little pieces

I love the little bits of this piece. In fact I think I like stitching them more than the bigger pieces. :-) Just a couple more to go and I'll be ready to start on Ms. Fred. I'm stitching mine using the recommended NPI silk. I love these colors and I'm positive now that I'm going to stitch Mr. Fred on the same piece.

I've been a bad blogger buddy lately and haven't had much time to visit all my friends let alone comment. But I'm still surfing by and checking out the pictures. :-) Thanks for stopping by here and I'll be sure to say hi soon.

a great weekend!

Clancy and I had a great weekend at the agility trial! On Saturday he earned a second place in Excellent A Jumpers and on Sunday he upped himself by one by earning a first place in Excellent A Jumpers! That got him his Excellent Jumpers agility title! (AXJ) He is now at the Excellent B level earning championship points towards his MACH. We still need to get out of Open Standard and are working very hard on that. Maybe this coming weekend at the two day trial we are entered in. We only need one more qualifying score for his Open title and then we start to compete at the Excellent A level. Three more qualifying scores there and he moves into Excellent B (where he is now competing in Jumpers) and we can start to work on Double Q's. To obtain the ultimate AKC agility title which is called a MACH - Master Agility Champion a dog needs to earn 20 Double Q and 750 speed points. A double q is earned when a dog gets a qualifying score in both standard agility and jumpers agility on the same day. It's pretty tough to do because a dog as to be perfect in both - at the Excellent B level a dog can have no faults and no time penalties. So he needs to be perfect and fast.

I didn't have a second to put needle to linen but I did manage to stay awake on this morning's train ride into the city. I think I'm going to put in all the little motifs before I start on Ms. Fred herself.

Have a great week!

almost back to normal

Here is my Ms. Fred - she is on Silkweavers 36 count Antique Gold. It's moving along. :-)

Did ya miss me?

I had the most wonderful six days with my buddy from out of town. Lot's of wine, food and shopping with a Cubs game tossed in. :-) I didn't work on a single thing during the entire time. But I'm back and I even staying awake on the train ride in this morning. I'm planning on making this just my train piece for a while. I really need to get going on some of my Christmas gifts and I'll try to do that in the evenings. I'm also going to stop playing Farmville and other Facebook games in the evenings - I can't believe just how much crafting time I've lost since I started to do that. Ms. Fred is coming along and I'll start on the left hand side of the piece tonight on the way home from work.

I only have to work two days this week as I have an agility trial Friday, Saturday and Sunday with Clancy. I sure hope some of our hard work in the past several weeks will pay off. He was great last night in class as was Aoife. Sometimes it amazes me how differently I need to handle them. Aoife is so much faster than Clancy but I can't give her any distance yet because of her inexperience. I have to run so much faster to stay just a little ahead of her and I have to be right on all the equipment still. I can keep up with Clancy AND give him distance because I just know he is going to do something. But it's a ride with Aoife for sure. I can't wait to trial her again in a few months. Maybe in the fall she will be ready to try again.

Here is my Trollbead bracelet. I'm so happy with the beads I purchased from Etsy and eBay. The bracelet, clasp and silver beads are all Trollbeads but the glass beads are all from artisans and they ranged in price from $2.99 to $8.99. Plus I have two more glass beads coming from Denmark. I'll need a few more silver beads already plus a larger bracelet. It filled up fast and when you get the beads on it the bracelet tightens up. I bought one that I felt was fairly large but I still could have gone bigger.

My favorite bead so far is the fat little Venus on the left.