Last Stitches for 2011

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! I wanted to post a quickie with my last stitches for 2011. I made Lisa and I a Happy New Year's pillow ... the design is a freebie from Carol at iStitch. This one's for Lisa ...
here's the back ...
and this one's for me ... love this red!
and the back ... fun fabric!
I also stitched Lisa Merry New Year by The Stitcherhood ...
This sweet design never made it to my finishing table. It's by Pineberry Lane, called New Year 1861 Sample, but I left off the 1861 and put 2011 instead. The fabric it's laying on will be the pillow fabric ...
and finally my very last stitches was the date 2011 on my funky New Year's pillow ... I love it!

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve ... we're off to a movie and dinner with Ken and Lisa. I'll be back next year!

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

I'm grateful for the year 2011 ...

Family and Finishes

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. Ours was very nice with lots of family and a few gifts :) We spent Christmas Eve with my father-in-law. Had a wonderful Italian dinner at our favorite restaurant's, Vince's.
The kids came over for our Christmas on Christmas morning ... even though my kids are little any longer, Santa still comes a visits ... this year they all got Pillow Pets! lol ... you are never too old for a soft stuffed animal. Robert got the Seahawk, Monica got the WSU Cougar and Chris loves polar bears so of course he got the polar bear ...
Rob looks ready to open his gifts ...
and so do Chris, Monica and Terry ... we had lots of fun, received really nice gifts from everyone and had a yummy breakfast, complete with mimosas.
After our Christmas morning we headed over to my dad's house for Christmas with my side of the family ... more good times ... lots of fun, laughs and presents ... I really enjoyed getting to be with ALL my family through the holidays ... very special times.
I've been on vacation all this week and decided to do a few more ornament finishes. I stitched this sweet design sometime this year, or was it 2010? I can't for the life of me remember when I stitched it but I'm glad it's finished now to enjoy for years to come. The design is by Beehive Needleworks, called Cranberry Deer.
Here's another design that I stitched last year. It was a freebie by Carol at iStitch. Love how this one turned out ...
Seems I don't remember much these days at all! This is another ornament that I've had sitting around for a couple of years. This one I didn't stitch, I think it was stitched for me through the Fair and Square Exchange Blog. Unfortunately I couldn't find the 2nd square, which would have reminded me who stitched this lovely piece for me. I'm so sorry to not know the name of the stitcher that stitched this cute design for me, but I've very glad to have it ready to hang on my ornament tree ...
I do remember about this one!!! lol ... I stitched this ornament a couple of months ago for my dear friend Lisa. We baked Christmas cookies every year and I thought it would be perfect for her ... now it's all ready to give to her this New Year's Eve ... that's when we get together to celebrate our Christmas together ...
Here are all 4 of the ornaments ...
and here's the back of them ...
I also have a couple of stitching finishes. Joy was in this years JCS Ornament magazine. Drema at Needlecraft Corner kitted up this sweet ornament so the cost wasn't as expensive at it would have been buying all the Belle Soie silks. I just love this design. So much so that I sent it to 4 of my stitching friends for Christmas.

Joy by Blackbird Designs

Stitched on the recommended fabric with

the recommended Belle Soie silks

This ornament is also from this years JCS Ornament magazine. The design is Tanya of The Sampler Girl. What a fun stitch!

Good Tidings To You by The Sampler Girl

Stitched on misc. fabric

with the some DMC and

substitution of Victorian Motto's SP P for

WDW Louisiana Hot Sauce and GAST Baby Spinach

for DMC 732

Back to taking down Christmas ... love putting it up ... hate taking it down :(

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

I'm grateful for Christmas ...

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day filled with friends and family, laughter and a few tears, lots of good food and maybe a movie or game with loved ones.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours

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

I'm grateful for Christmas ...

Stitching, finishing and a couple of presents ...

Last couple of weeks I've been doing more Christmas stitching and a bit of finishing too. First up is Joy and Peace by LHN. Instead of stitching the snowflake in the left corner I opted for a lovely snowflake button instead. This was a sweet stitch ...

Stitched on the recommended WDW fabric

with the recommended CC's floss

This is a design by Tanya of The Scarlett House. The original design is on a green fabric with red lettering. Amy at Down Sunshine Lane knows I love red and made a suggestion to stitch it on red fabric ... I love love love how it turned out. Now to finish finish it.

Jingle all the way by The Scarlett House

stitched on Ruby Red fabric with

CC's Toasted Marshmallow and English Ivy

I also finished up the Sew a Mystery SAL that Carol held. I really enjoyed participating in this SAL and hope to get my box finished up early next year.

Below are a few ornaments I finished up today. Peace and the ribbon reindeer are freebie designs by Sharon. Thanks for the freebie designs Sharon, I love them! The other two ornaments were stitched a few months ago. I really liked how they all turned out.

and here the backing fabric for all of them ... fun fun fun :)

I received two lovely packages this week from dear stitching friends. Staci and I have gotten to be very good online friends over the last few years and I was tickled pink when this package arrive. Staci knitted for me one of her lovely dish cloths and included some yummy tea. I'm using my new dish cloth and love it! Being a red girl, I'll be using it through out the year.

and this box of goodies came from my dear friend Diane. Sure was a fun box to open! Lots and lots of goodies ...

I was out reading blogs a while ago and found a new to me blogger, Shannon, of A Bit of This and That blog. I really enjoyed reading her blog. One of her posts was asking if anyone wanted to do an ornament exchange with her. I commented that I would like to and we set up a mailing date of December 1st. Here is the lovely ornament she stitched for me and the goodies that came along ...
I forgot to take a picture of what I sent to Shannon so I shamelessly stole this one from her blog ...

Thanks for the Christmas ornament exchange Shannon. It was fun and I would do it again with you anytime.

I still have a couple more ornaments to finish and some Christmas shopping to finish up too ... tomorrow will be another busy day! Hope to be stitching in the evenings though. Thanks for peeking in ... love hear from all of you.

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

I'm grateful for blogging friends ...

Almost Christmas ...

Hope this post finds you all ready for Christmas! I still have a bit of shopping to do and lots of wrapping but I'm on vacation all this week so the stress hasn't started building ... yet lol

A couple of weeks ago we went to a tree lot to pick and cut our Christmas tree. It was a fun filled day ... perfect Washington weather, no rain! Here's a few pictures of the family picking the tree and cutting it down.

I think we found The Tree ...



Are you done yet?


The tree is home and up and we start to decorate it ... I love watching the boys rediscover their special ornaments ...



I love this picture! I was standing in the kitchen watching Chris and Monica have a tender moment ... priceless ...


is this not the most pathetic picture you've seen lately ... poor Maddy ... feeling total ignored lol


Tomorrow I'm doing some more finishing of Christmas ornaments. I should have lots to share soon. Thanks for visiting and leaving your comments. I love reading them!

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

I'm grateful for blogging friends ...

Happy December!!

Wow, can you believe it's December 1st already? I sure can't! Where the heck did November go? I have to say I feel just a little bit behind this year and I honestly don't know why. It's only the 1st of December and the house is almost done being decorated, my shopping isn't done ... but my list isn't too long! lol ... Christmas tree farm on Saturday and baking starting on Sunday ... and I'll work on Christmas cards in the evening watching tv ... doesn't sound that bad when I write it down ... but I'm still feeling behind ... owell, this too shall pass.

Thank you all for your lovely comments about my blogiversary ... it was so nice hearing from so many of you. I used the Random Number Generator to pick the winner ... but for the life of me I can't get it to post correctly ... doesn't matter ... here's the winner ... Nancy, who's blog is Lovely In Chocolate.

Nancy said...

Happy Blogiversary Michele! I always enjoy stopping by your blog and seeing what you have been stitching and what you have been up to. Please enter me in your giveaway.

Congrats Nancy ... give me a week and I'll be mailing you your goodies.

I'm off to relax and do some stitching this evening. I hope you enjoy your evening too.

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

I'm grateful for blogging friends ...

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Whether your celebration is large or small I hope you have a wonderful day. I am so thankful this year for all my wonderful friends and family. We had Thanksgiving with our kids last Sunday. Chris and Monica head to her parents this year. We had a great day filled with lots of good food, racing and football and lots of laughs. Tonight we'll be going out to dinner with my father in law and my dad. It's be nice spending time with them both.

I have been doing a little stitching, some I can show, some are for gifts that I'll share later. This cutie is by Country Stitches called October Word Play. It was a fun stitch. Can't wait to get November's Word Play and I'm really hoping there's a December one :)

Country Stitches October Word Play

Stitched on 35 ct WDW Beige

with recommended threads

Give Thanks is a freebie from Paulette at Plum Street Samplers. I stitched this once for myself and once as a gift for my neighbor across the street. The one on the left is stitching with 1 thread over 2 and the one on the right is stitched with 2 threads over 2. I really love how they both look. I used the recommded DMC colors and stitched them on the same 35 ct WDW Beige that I used for October Word Play.

and here they are all finished up ... this one is mine, the rick rack is some of Nancy's from Victorian Motto Sampler. I love her trims. I made mine so it could hang up.

and this one I gave to Joan ... she loved it and hung it up right away. I really enjoy giving stitching gifts to Joan, she really really appreciates what I stitch and displays it right away. I used some of Nancy's chenille trim in dark brown .. love how it looks.

You have a couple more days to leave a comment on this blog post if you want to be included in my blogiversary drawing. Thanks for visiting ... talk to you soon.

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

I'm grateful for my wonderful children ...