Toccata II Finis

Toccata Number Two by The Drawn Thread

Recommended 32 count cream linen

Recommended NPI Silk thread and specialty threads

I finished up Toccato II last night! I can't believe it's finally finished. One down and two to go. :-)

All went well at the dentist this morning - one root taken care of! Now just a crown or two to go and I'll be finished with him for a while. :-) Actually the hardest part about the entire morning was just driving to the dentist seven miles away. I had somewhere around 8 to 10 inches of snow in the driveway and it took forever to dig myself out. And the drive there was horrible as it was still snowing and the plows hardly made a dent in all the snow in the road.

I'm not sure what I'm going to start stitching on next. I'm still working on St. Reatham as my train project (almost finished with the current page) and I know that Drema mailed me the new loose feather yesterday so I'll be getting that package tomorrow. I think I'll work on St. Reatham until the mail comes tomorrow afternoon and then I'll get started on the LF. I also need to finish putting my peacock chair together. All the pieces are are cut out, the boxes put together and the batting has been attached. I just need to start the real work of putting it all together. I'll think I'll make a start at that also this weekend. But I've got a powerful urge to start another large piece to replace Toccato. Either Celtic Sampler or Cirque des Circles. I'm not sure which is calling loudest to be but they are both starting to talk. :-)

Have a great weekend!

Sampler of Stitches MNO / PQR

Sampler of Stitches - MNO / PQR - The Drawn Thread

Recommended 30 count linen

Recommended NPI Silks

I finished up PQR last night leaving the queen stitch quilt for last. I don't know why I think I hate that stitch because I always end up enjoying it. :-) Like all the others, these two charts worked up super quick and I love how they are all looking together. Only three more to go!


I started a small project from the Blackbird Designs book, With Needle and Thread. I'm using a really pretty Silkweavers 28 count called Marine Blue. I'm using the coolest Needle Necessities overdyed floss called Snoqualmie Falls - it's dark marine blue, dark green and dark mauve. Needle Necessities is sadly going out of business so a couple a weeks ago I picked up about 15 skeins of my favorite colors. Anyway, this will be a birthday gift for my sister. She as been really bugging me for about a year now to give her something. Personally I think that's very rude but she just keeps at it. So hopefully this will shut her up for a while. :-) I was going to make a mattress type pincushion out of it, but I think it will finish too big for that so I might end up putting it in a small frame. I'll have a photo tomorrow for sure when I have more than just a couple of letters complete. I should be finished by the end of the week for sure. I'm not sure what I want to start next/finish up. I'm not really enjoying working on Quaker Samplings from CHS but I really want it finished. So maybe I'll work on that for a couple of days and start the new Blackbird Designs Loose Feather. I'm already to go with that one.

Summer Arbor Finis and more!

Summer Arbor - The Drawn Thread

32 Count Antique Tan Wichelt Linen

using recommended NPI and Gloriana silk thread and beads

It was quite the finishing weekend! I finished stitching up Summer Arbor on Friday night. This completes the series of all four seasons. I love them all and I'm now on the search for the matching mats. On Saturday I participated on the Focus on Finishing Pin Keep class. I used my finish from last week, Joy of My Heart as the basis. It was a great class and even though I've done a pin keep in the past, I learned a few new things and this is definitely the best I've done so far. I'm still working on how/where I put my bow but the photo shows it on the side with some beads that came with the kit.

On Sunday, and I mean all day Sunday, I finished my dog bed! :-) Of course there wasn't much else to do as we got over four inches of rain on Saturday and Sunday!

Who knew that when I start this two years ago that I would take so long and I would spend so much money. But the results are worth it I think. And the pugs are very happy and that is all that counts. It's big but I wanted it to be large enough for three pugs to use it a once. I'm hoping there is a new pug puppy in my future. :-) It's two pieces, the zippered cover which is the quilted section and a down/feather insert. I quilted the sides and back also in a simple grid pattern and I made the zipper placket wide so I can flip the bed over so the pugs can use that side also without rubbing on the zipper. Now I just need to get my matching quilt quilted! :-)

Dog Bed - based on a quilt pattern from Miss Rosie's

Fabric - Chocolat from 3 Sisters by Moda

Machine Quilted using 100% wool batting

Stuffed with a feather/down pillow

After all that I did find time to start a new stitching project - the Wool Whimsy Barnard Quartet from Heart in Hand. The four in the series were sold as kits and packaged separately. I purchased them all at half price and I'm stitching them all on the same piece of linen. I started off with the sheep and I'll be finished with the first of four by the time I get home from work tonight. This will also be my train project for the week. I'm not sure if I will stitch all four right away, I might just do one or two and do something else and then pick it up again in a couple of weeks. This is from my "waiting in the wings" list. I'm really moving along with that. I'm moving along with it so well, soon I'll be able to start planning what I want to buy next.

Sampler of Stitches Finis

As predicted yesterday, I finished up with Sampler of Stitches Part four - JKL on the way home from work yesterday. I really enjoy these sort of projects - I just wish I didn't have to wait so long for the next installment, September I think? Katrina, look for a package later in the week - I'll try to get these two charts in the mail to you by tomorrow.

Last night I worked on the Village block two - I didn't take a progress photo - I will tonight for sure. I was feeling lazy.

Today I started work on the new Loose Feather - Awake the Dawning Day. I'm doing mine on Silkweavers Purely Primitive. I hope this linen works - it's kinda close in color to the WDW Pebble used on the house. Not much to see yet but here it is. The WDW fiber used in this piece are gorgeous.

And a good time was had by all

Eleven ribbons from four pugs! What an agility weekend! My Clancy had two first places with one being our first "Q" in jumpers. That means we have our first leg toward a NADAC jumpers agility title. He also got a third place (my fault he didn't do better and get a second or even a first place) so that made him 3 out of 3 for the weekend. Molly didn't fair as well as she preferred to run around on the course during her runs. So out of four runs, we only got one second place in tunnelers on Sunday. We almost finished her standard run on Sunday but when she neared the place on the course where I had dropped a treat 30 minutes before, she took off the course to go and look for it. :-( What a memory.


My friend Peggy had a very good weekend with seven ribbons from her two pugs. On our next trial, I'm going to enter Molly in only one event a day until she comes around and I'll enter Clancy in three events per day. He's ready for it.


I have a couple of progress pictures. First my St. Reathum Thursday photo - just a front leg to go and I'm finished with the first of four big creatures. I'll go back up to the top this week after I finish his leg and do a couple more dogs.


Next is my progress on Sampler of Stitches from The Drawn Thread - I've almost finished part four, JKL. I should be finished with L by the time I get home tonight from work. Tomorrow I'll start on a new project for my train ride. Mabye the new Loose Feathers. But I'll see for sure tonight. :-)

Drawn Thread Finis

I finished up Sampler of Stitches GHI yesterday on the way home from work. I love how this piece is coming together. I'll start on JKL tomorrow morning. I also worked again on Block two of the Village - I changed the working on the bottom of this block. I live in a village and it works better with all the other personalization that I've done so now it's just Village Church.

I took a little time last night to go through my charts and such. I'm going to start a second blog which lists things I have for sale, trade or just freebies to those who ask (the really old stuff - I just can't bare to toss it away but I would love for them to find homes). I had a lot more than I thought I would. I'll put my wish list there as well so maybe I can work out some trades. I'm hoping this weekend I will have the time to totally populate the lists. I'll take photos of the really old stuff so people can see that they look like.

G H & I

I'm making pretty fast work of Sampler of Stitches GHI - just three motifs to go and I'm done with Part 3. I'll start Part 4 (JKL) Friday on my way into work because I need to get back to St. Reatham tomorrow. I haven't worked on it in two Thursdays in a row in my effort to get caught up.

I'll need to start thinking about what I want to start on my train rides for next week. I'm all set to go with the new Loose Feathers but I'm thinking maybe I'll do something from my waiting in the wings stack. Maybe Summer Arbor to stay with a Drawn Thread theme? Or maybe I'll do one of the M Designs pieces I have - I've been looking at those charts more and more lately. I have so many nice Silkweavers linens and fibers to pick from these days. I also have two autumn Blackbird Design pieces that are all ready to go but I just can't see me working on a fall piece in June. That just seems silly. As much as I love the autumn tones, I need to be working with nice summery colors right now.

I have been making progress with Block two of the Village but since all I've done so far is the outline and a white fence which is hard to see I haven't taken a progress photo of it yet. I'll take one tonight for sure.

Both pugs were great last night at agility. Which is good news because we have a trial this weekend. It's our first outdoor trial of the season and the weather should be great. I can't wait.

ABCDEF! And I can't wait for more :-)

I completed The Drawn Thread's Sampler of Stitches DEF over the weekend so I'm finished with the charts currently available. I can't wait for GHI and JKL to come out in May. I'm addicted to these sort of things. I saw from comments on my blog, that several of you were on the fence with this piece - can I nudge you over the edge? :-) I really enjoyed it and actually learned a couple of new stitches that not only work for cross stitch, but would work for some of the painted needlepoint canvases that I have laying around. Because of the enjoyment I got from this piece, I'll be starting Toccata II sooner than I had planned - maybe on my cruise in May?


I also had plenty of time to resume working on a couple of my WIPs. First I worked on Marquior ABC part 6 for several hours Saturday and a little on Sunday. All I have left are three big letters on the bottom, D, E and a partial F. I was hoping to have this part completed before the 16th when part 7 comes out but I'm not sure if time will allow for that. I also made a good start on Block 5 of the Village. I didn't take a progress picture but I did complete the entire border of that block and started a little on the trees. I'll take a progress picture tonight if I work on it instead of Marquior.

I also started work on Celtic Birds from The Sunflower Seed - I'm using a Vikki Clayton silk called Indigo Ocean. I wanted to see if I could really work on the 40 count linen I purchased. It wasn't too bad at home where the light is perfect but it was a little harder on the train this morning on the way into work. The light is not the best and the movement of the train, while not a big deal when I'm working on the larger weaves of linen was sometimes a problem when working on the 40 count. All in all not to bad so I'll work on this as my train project for the week and just in case I start having a hard time, I also tossed in my bag an ornament kit which is on 32 count. I can't waste any train time! :-)

I took the pugs to a fun run on Saturday - Clancy did everything I asked of him and I think he is ready to move up into Molly's class on Tuesday nights. I'll have to speak to my teacher about it. As for Molly, she pulled something in her back leg after the a-frame so I pulled her so she really didn't get to do anything. She was limping for the rest of Saturday and on Sunday but this morning she didn't limp at all so I think she just had a strain. But to be on the safe side, we might skip agility class this week. Maybe I can take Clancy in her place? He would love to go to class twice in a week.

Moving onto E

I worked on the letter D for two train rides and for a couple of hours last night - definitely the longest letter time wise so far. Some cool stitches though. I made a change from the way the Damask Darning was charted. I didn't like the way Cynthia didn't compensate for the rectangle so I compensated mine to be a complete rectangle. Also I only used one strand of thread vs. her two strands. I liked the way mine has a 3-D appearance with only the one strand - that effect goes away with two strands. Other than that, I did it the way it was charted. I started with E last night but as you can see, I didn't get to far. I'll finish this up today and tomorrow.

No did plans for the weekend - I do have an agility fun run tomorrow and I'll take both pugs with me - it will be Clancy's first fun run. I hope he has fun. As for stitching, I plan on working on one of my two big WIPs, Marquior or the Village.

Have a great weekend!

It's sunny today!

For those of you who live in Northern Illinois, know that the sun coming out is reason to shout! Finally we are having a warm up - mid 30's today and in the 40's for the next several days, maybe even 50 by Tuesday. It's been a long time coming. We'll be getting a bit of rain but that's ok - it will help melt the snow that is piled up everywhere.

Above is my progress on Sampler of Stitches. I've completed ABC now and I've moved onto the next set of charts for DEF. Katrina has kindly agreed to partner with me in the purchase of these nine charts. Start watching the mail Katrina, I'll be sending you the first two next week! :-) It really helps only having to purchase half of them. I should take the money I save and start purchasing my CHS Alphabet charts. I'd like to start to do one letter a every couple of weeks or so. Maybe I'll make real plans when I'm finished with the Village.

Clancy was great last night in agility but the real news is how well Molly did on Tuesday. She was a star! Where was that dog over the past weekend? :-) I received notice this morning that I did make the draw for the next agility trial on March 31st and April 1st but sadly my agility partner, Peggy did not get in again. I'm so bummed but not nearly as much as Peggy is. Her pug Molly is really ready for trials and I'm sure they will have their novice titles before spring - if they can start getting entries that is.

Give me an A!

I love working on this piece. It really is a lot of fun using all the different stitches. I finished up A yesterday and B this morning. Now onto C. It looks like C will take a little longer than the first two sections but I'll work on it before I take Clancy to agility so I'll be popping DEF into my bag for sure for tomorrow's train rides. :-)

Thanks to the commenter who mentioned some of the pattern problems with DEF. Someone from the Legacy Board also posted that there were a few errors so I printed it off and have made notes onto my charts. So hopefully all will go well. :-)

I need to start planning my next train ride project already as I'm sure I'll need one next Monday for sure. These Drawn Thread pieces are flying off my needles. Since I enjoyed Quaker Samplings I so much, maybe Quaker Samplings II? I'm going with the recommended threads for this one - Milady's Teal. It goes really nice with the thread I used for the first piece. I also need to work on the piece for the Tie-on Pillow class for the Focus on Finishing group. The planned weekend is the 24th and 25th. I have picked out this piece from The Sunflower Seed - Celtic Bird. And I purchased a piece of 40 count! Have you seen how small those threads are?? LOL! What am I thinking! :-)

I also need to get a head start on my Christmas ornament for the month - I will be at an agility trial on the 31st and 1st so I won't be able to get much stitching done at all those two days and I don't want to miss a month. I love the idea of having 12 ornaments done before the holiday's even start. This year my stitching tree will be so pretty! I'll have almost 20 ornaments on it this year.

Spring Arbor Finis!

Spring Arbor

The Drawn Thread

32 Count Lavender Mist Linen

Recommended silk threads

Here is my completed Spring Arbor. This was the fastest one yet I think (I have previously completed Winter and Fall Arbor) - I only started it on what last Wednesday morning? :-) Almost instant gratification. I was thinking yesterday that I'd love to have the money to send these four projects to Jill Rensel for matting and framing. How pretty that would be! Maybe I'll win the Big Game Lottery this week - it's up to $355 Million. :-) I'll buy everybody a mat! LOL!

My new start for the train is Sampler of Stitches from The Drawn Thread. I'll complete both charts currently available - ABC and DEF before stopping to start something new. I read on the Elegant Stitch website yesterday, that Cynthia Zittel the designer, has GHI finished and she has charted JKL and they should be available in mid-May. Like most of my multi-part projects, I want to stay current with this. It occurred to me the other day that I'll end up paying over $100 for these charts since there are nine of them. Wow! And I'm putting off buying the Carriage House Samplings Alphabet Series because of the cost? It's less money to buy all 24 of those charts (two are freebies and I have those already - just need to find the border chart). And I'd really like to do that big sampler. I think I just need to start buying them here and there when I see them on sale somewhere. Maybe find an auto program that only charges what they really pay in shipping. I hate getting over charged for shipping charts. I've stopped using Stitching Bits & Bobs for that reason alone. Well and the fact that it takes months to get things.

If anyone is interested in splitting the cost of the Sampler of Stitches charts let me know - I'll send you ABC and DEF and you buy GHI and JKL and send those to me. And then I'll send them back to you as soon as I'm finished with them. Then we can do the same for MNO & PQR and STU & VWX. I'd just toss in YZ. :-) Or we could split the cost of that last one.

Well, one of us had fun... :-)

What a weekend! Molly had a blast and I was frustrated. I'm trying to focus on the high points rather than what went wrong with the trial. Molly did make three of the four starts so that was a huge improvement from our last trial where she didn't make any. On the first Jump With Weaves course on Saturday, she made it all the way to obstacle number 7 or 8 before she missed one. She also made some improvement on the standard agility course with the contact obstacles. What I seem to be having trouble with is she came to a total stop on all four courses and I could not get her moving again. I don't know if she is frustrated with me or she is uncertain on where she needs to go next or maybe it's something else entirely. I just don't know what to do to make a difference. Our next trial in at the end of the month so I'll try to get to the bottom of it before then. I'd still like to finish a complete course. But I'm seeing improvement and that's a good thing.

Above is my progress of Spring Arbor. As predicted I didn't have much time to work on anything. I did get a little stitching in at the trial on Saturday and I did a bit before I left on Sunday. I should be able to finish the stitching today and hopefully get the beading done. To be honest, beading is not my favorite thing to do so I need to take care of it right off or it will sit for a long time. So hopefully this piece will be finished tonight. Then I can start on my other Drawn Thread piece, Sampler of Stitches. My silk came in the mail on Saturday and it's so pretty! I can't wait to start. So for the week I'd like to finish Spring Arbor, work on one of my biggies (Marquior or the Village) and start Sampler of Stitches. Have a great week!

a couple of trees

I'm making good progress with Spring Arbor. These trees really move along quickly. Only three to go. Last night I worked on Marquior for a couple of hours and I'm about half way done with part 6. Tomorrow is my much anticipated agility trial with Molly and it will be a long day. I need to be there sometime before 7:30am I think to check in and get her measured since we don't have an official AKC height card yet. And then we wait. And wait. Novice dogs won't even start running until 1:30pm at the earliest. But it good for me to watch the other handlers at the excellent and open level. And I figure I can bring along some projects and stitch when I can. I'll probably bring my Spring Arbor and also My Treasured Workstation, part 5. MTW will be good no-brainer stitching for a trial. Sunday will be a shorter day, I don't have to be there until we are ready to run - again no early than 1:30pm and I bet I'm home by 3:00pm.

So think of me tomorrow and send a quick wish for good luck - as I said yesterday, our goals are very modest, just mostly to have fun so she wants to continue with agility.

February recap: I made all my goals for February and my March goals are almost the same. :-) Kinda boring, huh?

It's March already

I can't believe it's March already. Spring is in just 20 days! Yeah!

I'm making good progress on Spring Arbor. I really enjoy working on all the different stitches. It's a nice break from straight cross stitch. As with the last two Arbors I did, I'll do the beading when everything else is complete. I hate to try to work around the tiny beads with my hoop. I did work on Marquior ABC last night also before agility but still don't have much to show so I'll hold off with a progress picture until I can really see a difference. Maybe tonight.

A Drawn Thread start

Since I just ordered the silk I need for The Drawn Thread Sampler of Stitches, I went with another DT piece, Spring Arbor for my train rides. I have already completed Fall and Winter so it's fitting to move onto the Spring piece at this time of the year. :-) These projects go super quick so I should be able to finish this up by next week sometime and then move onto Sampler of Stitches. The fabric I'm using the one of the recommended ones, Lavender Mist, although it's hard to tell from my photo. I need some sunshine to take some better photos!

I finished up Part 4 of My Treasured Workstation yesterday on the way home - part 5 will be available for the group members tomorrow. I'm glad I'm keeping up. And that this project will be coming to an end soon - just two more months of stitching plus a month to finish it. I can use one less commitment right now.

I did work on Marquior ABC before leaving for agility last night but really didn't get much done. Most of my time was spent going though my stash to figure out what I wanted to start next. Always a fun way to spend an hour or so.

Almost there

I'm almost finished with Bluebird's Message. Just a bit of border to go. I think I will leave work a little early today and finish it up. I'll pop a new project in my bag tomorrow. What to do, what to do.

I could start on this, the Barnyard Wool Whimseys from Heart in Hand. I have all but the pig - and the fabric I ordered came in the mail yesterday. I'm doing all four on the same piece of 32 count Summer Khaki. Normally I don't go for cutesy stuff but these are more folk art than cute I think and I could not resist them. And I bought them all for less than $10.00 a piece - that is half off retail. I love a good deal.

Or I can start on Sampler of Stitches from The Drawn Thread - I'm already to go with the first two parts - my silks from Vikki Clayton came last week.

Or maybe something that I've had hanging around for a couple of months? I've had the Quaker Samplers from With My Needle ready to go since October. I'm doing them in different colors - one in Milady's Teal and the other in a beautiful green.

Tune in tomorrow to see what I pick next! LOL!

I had a bit of cool news this morning - there were several mentions in other peoples blogs this morning about the Silkweavers Showcase - the winners were announced. So I went over to check it out. I was a finalist in the medium category! Not to bad for my first try :-). From The Drawn Thread, Linen and Lace stitched on 32 count Cameo.

Congratulations to the winners! They are all spectacular!

A good week

I finished up Winter Arbor from the Drawn Thread last night using the recommended fibers and linen. These arbors stitch up super quick and I have now finished two of the four. I'm all ready to go with Spring but I will probably wait until January or so to start that one. I've got a ton of Christmas gifts to work on. I was thinking, wouldn't a tree on an ornament be pretty? I could use one of the ones below and just add a border.

I had a great stitching week - three finishes! And this morning I started Quaker Meetinghouse. And I managed to work on the Village block 10 a couple of evenings this week. For the weekend I plan on starting part two of Marquior ABC and hopefully put a little more silk into the Village.

Here were my office mates from yesterday at home. At least Clancy looked up once and a while to see how I was doing. :-)

I have no big plans for the weekend but tonight I'm having a fondue party with my parents. Dad asked for it a couple of days ago and we will light the fireplace on the desk and bundle up against the cold and enjoy a hot cheese fondue outside. It should be fun. Enjoy your weekend!

Not much happening

I'm working at home again today so no train ride in this morning but I'm sure I'll find some time today to stitch a little. I'm hoping to have Winter Arbor complete by Friday so I can start on the Quaker Sampler when it comes. I did manage to stitch a little on the Village - I'm finding oddly enough, that it's hard to get me to work on this piece but when I do I enjoy it. The feel of the silks is wonderful.

No mail yet

I did have more extra time then I thought I would yesterday so I was able to work on both Winter Arbor and my Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I decided to work on a WIP (Winter Arbor) rather than start Quaker Meetinghouse and thereby creating yet another WIP. :-) Pretty clever huh? LOL! My new Quakers did not come in the mail and at this point I hope they don't until I've finished up Winter Arbor. I don't think I will have the self control necessary to put it aside for even a couple of days and the thought of even a small stack of WIPs is not fun to me. I have a past history of being more of a starter than a finisher and I do fight that tendency. It even drives me crazy to have large pieces like the Village and Marquior sitting around. I think I just need to relax a little more....

I received my Caron Cooper thread yesterday for my Quaker Reindeer from the 2006 JCS ornament issue. When I opened it I thought it looked a little funny. And then I realized that I purchased wildflowers and not waterlilies! The wildflower thread is a single stranded cotton - pretty thick and the waterlilies is of course a silk multi-stranded. The two can't be interchanged in a cross stitch application. So I need to order the Cooper again. Bummer, I wanted to start that ornament next.

Molly did great in agility last night - for the first run! She did the entire course off leash and she only ran off once and came back to me right away. I won't talk about her other two runs - the bad Molly was back... LOL!