Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Three - ops, Four Cool Pugs and me!

a lost weekend

A week ago I really thought I would have this block completed by today but a bad case of food poisoning on Thursday pretty much ended that idea. I was on my back for a solid 24 hours with the rest of the weekend a loss. I have never been so sick in my life! Stitching was the last thing on my mind. But hopefully with a couple days working from home this week I'll and being able to find more stitching time and I'll start to make some progress. My dye lots of my overdyed floss are off compared to the chart. I not really happy with the colors (it's the alphabet I don't care for) but I also just want to move forward. So that's the plan. This piece will be so large that I'm sure it will end up fitting in nicely. Or at least that is what I'm telling myself. :-)

Have a great week!

Valentine Rose finis

Valentine Rose design by Blackbird Designs

32 count Purely Primitive from Silkweavers

Recommended Overdyed floss

I love that these are as fast as I thought they would be. :-) Given how little time I seem to have these days to stitch I'm working through them pretty quickly. As you can see with the piece, the changes I made were to the vase, I made it longer to fill in the bottom and I added a stem of flowers on the left. This covers up where the personalization is supposed to be nicely I think.

Here is the start to the bonus pattern #1 (what a boring name). This one is going to fly! I'm losing track of where the publication of the charts is at. Maybe through September? That would leave three more plus the bonus pattern #2. I wonder if I can get caught up before the last one comes out. That would be sweet. :-)

so close and a big thank you :-)

I'm so close to finishing up Valentine Rose I can taste it. :-) Just that little bit on the house and it's finished. I have the chart and floss to start the next section and most likely will tonight on the way home from work.

The pugs and I had a good four day trial. Our overall Q rate (we ended up 1 for 16) does not show how good we really were. Day one was shaky but it got better from there. Clancy made each and every contact for a total of 12! And his tables were perfect! That has never happened before. Clancy's only Q was in Excellent B Jumpers and it was amazing. I love that pug. :-)

Aoife was 50/50 in terms of excellent versus bad pug. :-) Her jumpers runs were almost all Qs but her standard runs.... She got picked up four times out of four. We still need lots of work.

When I got home I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me! A box of Christmas goodies from Edgar! How cool is this? He even included some treats for the pugs. Edgar those cherries are to die for and what can I say about the white chocolate?? And I can't wait to try the jam. Huge thanks to you and Rico. You guys are the best. :-) That is Clancy checking everything out as I unpacked it.

I don't often chat much about Georgie my fourth cool pug and I never chat about Lily the lab that also inhabits my life. But here they both are keeping each other warm during this cold streak. They can be found like this most days. :-)

oh so close

I'm almost ready to start the last step of Valentine Rose - filling in the bricks on the house. But I won't have much time for the next week to finish. Tomorrow I have dinner with friends so no stitching time there. On Thursday to Sunday I'll be attending my big agility trial of the year in Milwaukee - Hounds for the Holidays and I'm staying this year in Milwaukee rather than driving home each day. I'll bring the stitching along but I'm sure I won't have the time or energy as lots of friends will be there.

Wish me and the pugs luck - we have been working really hard and I'm hoping for a couple of Qs. Especially for my wild child girl pug, Aoife. :-)

busy weekend

I got a lot stitched in on Valentine Rose over the weekend. All that is left now is the big honking house. I did make a couple of changes - I made the vase longer to cover the personalization and I added the flower on the left of the short vase. I like how it turned out. I also changed the funky "S" on the door. I never like how it looked in past pieces so I figured why not change it for this one? :-)

Have a great week!

Snow Garden finis

Snow Garden - design by Blackbird Designs

32 count Purely Primitive linen from Silkweavers

Recommended overdyed floss

I did finish up my Snow Garden on the way home from work last night with time to spare. And got a start on Valentine Rose this morning. :-) I'm happy with the two extra keys I stitched in. It was easy to remove the initials on this piece but it won't be so easy on some of the others. But I'll work at it and I'm sure I'll come up with something I like.

I took a photo of the entire piece of linen. Wow, I have a way to go!

Here is the start of Valentine Rose. Not sure if I will work on it much over the weekend. I'd rather get some more done of my silk glove project.

Have a great weekend!

almost

Just a few more stitches to place and I'm finished with the first part of Anniversaries of the Heart. I'm going to find a couple more keys to stitch in rather than the personalization recommended. In fact that is the plan for all the charts to the series. I'll pick out something from another chart in the series or something that relates and stitch that rather than the initials of others.

Hopefully I'll start on February's chart tomorrow. :-)