Exchanges and a bit of decorating ...

The mailman has been very busy delivery sweet exchanges to my house again. I participated in an exchange on the Pals BB. The exchange was to stitch and finish either a pinkeep or a pincushion. My partner, Abbie (no blog), stitched Lizzie*Kate's Land That I Love and finished it into a pinkeep/scissor holder for me. This was Abbie's first pinkeep! She did a lovely job ...


here's the back .. love the scissor pocket .. oh and she made the scissor fob too. Abbie included the scissors, some fabric, needles and a few patterns in the exchange package.

Karen and I have been friends for a long time and participate on a lot of the same exchange blogs. For the frist time were finally paired up as partners. We were paired in the Fair and Square Exchange. We decided to "finish" each other's pieces instead of sending them "un-finished" like what we normally do in the exchange. Karen stitched Patriotic Bouquet by BBD and finished it into a pinkeep ... I love it!

and look how she "signed" the back ... how cute and clever is that! I love these two exchanges because one is from a new friend online friend (Abbie) and one is from a dear friend I've know for a few years now. Now every 4th of July, when I bring out all my decorations, have these two lovely pieces to remind me of two lovely ladies ... aren't exchanges great!

Now to share some 4th of July decorating with you ... this is our kitchen table ...

my only new decoration this year was this wood wheel barrow that I found at JoAnne's when they first put out their 4th decorations ... it's so cute!

And here's my mantle this year ... I'm still playing around with it a bit ... I think it still needs some red, white and blue flowers ...

Waving Hi to all of you ... thanks for visiting and leaving me comments .. I love them :)

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for friends ...

Exchanges and some stitching ...

Happy First Day of Summer! Although around here you'd never know it ... we had a very unseasonably wet and cold Spring. We've only had a couple of days that were over 70 degrees ... wonder what July and August will be like?

Summer might no really be here yet, but Summer exchanges are ... first up is my exchange from Karen from the Stitching Friends Through the Seasons blog. Karen stitched the lovely SB design for me ... it's going to look great on my mantle!

Karen also included some ribbon, fabric, beads, charms and some of her wonderful handmade cards! I just love everything Karen *smile*

My exchange partner is Joan. I stitched for her BBD's Pins and Needles. Vonna finished it into a lovely pincushion, filled with walnuts. I wanted to make a little something for the 4th of July for Joan too, so I stitched up this cute Quaker freebie design and finished it into a little pillow. Funny thing about this Quaker design, Joan had just finished stitching it for herself the night before my package arrived lol ... wonder how she'll finish her's?? Along my stitched pieces, I sent Joan some other goodies too ...

After stitching for a couple of exchanges I stitched a couple of things for myself ... This is Bent Creek's Liberty from their Zipper kits. I stitched it on a left over piece of 32 ct fabric instead of the big count fabric that came with the kit. I think it turned out really cute ...

And this is a design by Tanya of The Sampler Girl. I love this design ... not sure how I'm going to finish it yet. I just realized that the word Sweet is supposed to be in red, opps!

I "stole" this story about the design from her blog because I love the story and don't want to forget it...

Design draws inspiration from one of my favorite hymns, My Country tis of Thee, written by Samuel Francis Smith while he was a Seminary student in Andover, Massachusetts. Smith wrote the lyrics in thirty minutes! The song was performed in public on July 4, 1831 at a children’s Independence day celebration in Boston.

My Country tis of Thee

Sweet Land of Liberty

Of thee I sing

Land where my fathers died

Land of the pilgrims' pride

From every mountainside

Let freedom ring!

Last week I was looking online at all the 4th of Juoly designs and found one that I've never seen but knew I wanted to stitch it. Terry and I were married on June 14th, which is Flag Day so I'm going to stitch this in honor of our 35th wedding anniversary. I'm going to make a few changes to personalize it for us. I think I'll put the year we were married on the flag (instead of word Liberty) and then stitch the M T 3 5 in blue. I think it'll be a fun stitch.

Thanks for visiting and for leaving your comments ... I do enjoy reading them!

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for my husband ...

A few more finishes ...

No rotation this week for me ... and I think I'll be putting my rotation on hold for the rest of the month. I have some more 4th of July stitching I want to do and I over committed myself to exchanges so that's what I'll be doing the rest of June.

So besides stitching on exchanges I've been doing some finishing ... and loving it!!! It's nice to have these out of the finish drawer ... I stitched Celebrate Freedom (Bent Creek Snapper) last year. I finished it into a hanging pillow. The backing fabric is the fabric it's sitting on. I just love how it turned out!

My next finish is a pinkeep. Faye stitched these for me last year in the Fair and Square 4th of July exchange .. adorable!

and here's the back ... I put the name square on an angle so everything fit ...

Melita stitched this for me 2 years ago in the Fair and Square exchange ... I had fun playing with all the beads ...

the back ...

And last is my scissor fob. This is the Lizzie*Kate Spring fob. Karen had stitched the design for the Lizzie*Kate exchange and finished it into a floss tag ... now I have a matching floss tag and scissor fob :)

here's the backing fabric to the scissor fob ... colorful and cute ...

No more blogging for me this week ... Terry and I will be heading out of town for a long weekend away to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary ... yep 35 years!!! can't hardly believe it's been that long :) Our anniversary is actually the 14th (Monday) but we're going to go play Friday through Sunday ... I'm really looking forward to getting away.

Thanks for coming and visiting and thanks for all your lovely comments about my finishes ... I really am having a great time with them.

I hope you find your Joy in your stitches ...

I'm grateful for my husband ...