Happy Halloween from the pugs

Yes, I do dress up my pugs for Halloween. :-) Yesterday we attended a Halloween party at the training center where we train for agility. A good time was had by all. And we won second prize for best group - I also had on a poodle skirt. The hours I spent on the costumes where well worth it I think. They looked so cute - Molly's photo even made the local newspaper today. :-)

Molly in her pink poodle skirt
Clancy in his letter jacket from PUG U.
And of course little Aoife in her blue poodle skirt.



I barely put a stitch in all weekend so I have nothing to show today. Maybe tomorrow or Wednesday I'll have a stitching update. I did start a small Halloween design because it felt right to be working on pumpkins. There is a small chance I'll be able to complete it by Friday but it's slow going since it's on black and I hate working on black. :-)

Friday is my birthday and no major plans for the day/weekend. Like the past few years, I'm taking the day off work so I can play. And a hot date with the SO at one of my favorite restaurants that evening. Nummy. :-) The pugs have another costume party to attend with our meetup group friends. That should also be fun. I love seeing pugs dressed up.

a small finis and a new start

Thanks so much for all your kind words regarding my Quaker Casket. I find myself looking at it all the time. :-) And I can't wait to start filling it with little Quaker treasures.

Part 11 of the Book of Ink Circles was released on Tuesday and I finished it up yesterday. Only six more sections to go! Although I do wish I could have them all now. I'd love to have this piece finished. As much as I love mysteries, I hate when they drag on and on. The last section of this one won't be released until February 24th - a full four months from now.

On Sunday I started the newest Loose Feather from Blackbird Designs, Beyond My Heart. I still have to find time for the one before this and I'm still trying to get to the last release from the previous year. I told myself if I don't stay current with these, I will stop the auto ship that I'm signed up for. So far I've been pretty good with keeping up with these and for the most part, they have all been must stitches for me.

When this is finished sometime next week, I'll start back on my St. Reatham and the goal will be to finish at least one page but I'd really like to finish two pages. This is where I left off.

Quaker Casket finis

Quaker Casket by Sampler Cove

32 count Lakeside Linen Maple Syrup

Magpie Twitters silk floss by Vikki Clayton Hand Dyed Fibers

one over two

It took many hours yesterday to install the stitched pieces into the casket. I'm not sure if you can tell, but I purchased museum glass for all five panels. It cost $85.00 for a 24x30 inch piece. But the results are so worth it, there is no glare at all and when looking at the panels, it's hard to tell there is glass there at all. I posted photos of the two panels that I changed from the pattern. I added my initials to one of the end pieces in one over one and I swapped out the family initials and changed it to the alphabet.

I'm so pleased with this piece, it's a true heirloom. A stitching friend told me about another casket pattern and she is going to scan a photo of it so I can see it. If I like it, I'll start to search for the magazine it was published in. I also found another pattern - it's a Spanish style band sampler and I'm looking for that one also. I would love to be able to swap out the panels every couple of years or so. But really any band sampler could be adapted with just a little work. I have many band patterns so I'll be set for many years to come. :-)

The rest of the weekend will be about sewing the pugs Halloween costumes. We are going to a party next Sunday. This year I'm even going to dress up so I had better get going! I have a ton of sewing to do today.

Quaker Casket finis and an exchange piece

I finished up the stitching for my Quaker Casket last night. I also received the actual casket itself. It's amazing. I'm planning on putting it all together over the next few days and I'll post photos as soon as it's complete.

Today I received my Prairie Schooler exchange piece from the Hooked on Exchanging group. My partner was Mylene from The Netherlands. I love it! She stitched a mattress style pincushion for me. It's so cute.
Mylene also sent along the above goodies! Thanks again, I can wait to play with everything.

almost :-)

Just three motifs to go. :-)

it's in the mail

My casket is in the mail and the expected delivery date is this Friday. I'm almost finished with the stitching on the current page - just one tiny motif and a biggish sized one left. I'll be done with those by tonight if I stitch before leaving for agility class with Clancy. Then it's onto the last page which has two small motifs and three larger ones and a couple of numbers. There is a small chance I'll be finished before I get the mail after work on Friday. :-) If not I'll be finished with the stitching by Saturday for sure and that means sometime on Sunday, I'll have a finished Quaker Casket sitting on my coffee table full of my stitching treasures. :-) I can't wait.

Then of course I need to pick out what's next! I'm really thinking of stitching my St. Reatham for a couple of weeks. The plan had been to finish it this year and I still have three full pages (out of eight) of chart to go. I dated it this year and I don't want to have to pull out those stitches. I haven't worked on it a bit since June - I can't believe how long it's been. Much, much too long. If nothing else, I could always try to work on it every Thursday. That had been the plan when I started it last year (on April 26) but I only kept that up for a couple of weeks.

The last page

I'm over a third of the way complete on the top of my Quaker Casket. As I said last week, it's a very fast moving piece. I did have hopes of finishing it by today (if I stitched like crazy over the weekend), but I had an agility trial with Clancy and didn't stitch much at all. I also need to find a place to put my initials. The front piece as charted had room for it but I changed mine a ton so there was not room for initials after I was finished. Maybe on the end pieces there will be space. I'll have to take a look and check it out.

As mentioned above, Clancy and I had an agility trial over the weekend. We bombed big time. On Saturday he was so hyped up he had no control and had several off courses and on Sunday I was just off, sending him to the wrong things and generally just flat. Currently we nothing on our calender but there are a couple of three and four day trials around the corner that I'm looking at.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your kind comments! :-)

a couple of small finis

I finished up part 10 of the Book of Ink Circles by Ink Circles. Only seven parts to go! I'm hoping for a couple more animals like the bird before it's over. I'm very pleased with how this piece is shaping up.

I also finished up Part 9 of the Papillion Creations Mystery, How Does Your Garden Grow? I'm really late with this one as I except Part 10 to be out any time now. I'll start back with the Quaker Casket today with the final section - the top. :-)

And I finished up my front piece to the Quaker Casket. Only the top to go! :-)

sad weekend

My beloved Cubs didn't make the cut. Again. A gloomy pall hangs over the city. Most of us die hard fans thought this would be the year because they have been playing so well. They were only out of first place for a couple of days the entire season. But a different team showed up for the playoffs. Next year for sure. :-)

I've continued my work on Quaker Casket but I didn't get as much done as I was hoping. The plan was to be working on the largest section by now but I just didn't feel like stitching much. If you are familiar with the design of this piece, you can see I changed the above front panel. It was designed to be a memorial sort of piece with family initials/dates and such. But I don't have much family of my own (well actually none except for my three pugs :-)) so I changed it to be the alphabet. I like how it turned out very much. I only have one more motif and a couple more letters and I'm ready to start the top piece. And just in the nick of time! I received an email yesterday saying my casket was almost ready to ship. I can't wait to see it.

progress

I haven't been making a ton of progress with Quaker Casket because I haven't been stitching much. But what I have completed I love. I'm very happy with the color now - at first I was worried it would be too light. Now I think it's just right. :-) My goal is of course to have all the stitching completed by the time my casket comes. I'm figuring that will be sometime in early November. I should make it with plenty of time to spare.

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.
Back
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.