Getting numb butt ...

Hope September is treating you good. I'm still on leave of absence from work and since all I can do is sit until I have numb butt I've been turning all my sit time into major stitch time and I'm loving it! Sure will be a shock to the system when I have to back to work :(

First up is my new wip ... I've had this design for a year and hadn't started it ... but it's started now and I'm loving it ... It's called Thine is the Trick and the Threat by Prairie Moon. I'm using the a really pretty piece of fabric. Can't find the name of it anywhere :( And the floss I'm using is CC's Blackbird.
Here's what it will look like when I'm finished with it ...
Along with starting a new project, I have a few finishes. I love this one by Threadwork Primitives. It stitched up really quick and is such a sweet design. I think I see a pillow in it's future ...

Woodland Noel by Threadwork Primitives

stitched on misc piece of fabric using

WDW Whitewash, CC Bandana, CC Roasted Chestnut

and GAST Shutter Green

My next two finishes are from The Trilogy's EEHology leaftlet ... they were fun to stitch and very quick too :) Love Frankie ...

Frankie from EEHology by The Trilogy

stitched on 32 Queen Anne's Lace

with recommended WDW threads

EEK! from EEHology by The Trilogy

stitched on 32 Cream Belfast

with recommended WDW threads

I also finished up another Christmas ornament. This is from the 2010 JCS Christmas Ornament magazine. I love this ornament and was thrilled to see there's a 2011 Stamp Ornament in this years JCS magazine ... it's next on my list of need to stitch ..

2010 Stamp Ornament by Jeannette Douglas Designs

Stitched on 32ct Vintage Country Mocha

with recommended DMC threads

We're all excited in this house that football season is starting. Hope my fantasy team does well this year :) With soccer still going strong ... Sounders are unbeatable right now! and Nascar heading into the last 12 races of the season ... our weekends are all about sports, and stitching.

Thanks for peeking in and thanks for all our comments. I love hearing from everyone.

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

I'm grateful for fall ...

I'm seeing red ...

and lovin' it! This was such a sweet stitch. I'm in love with this fabric and Victorian Motto floss .. heck I'm just in love with it all! lol

Diagramme réalisé par Rosa D. pour le PCB

stitched on 32ct very light examplar

with Victorian Motto Red 24

In my past post I talked about my little mixup with floss colors. I decided to finish the border with Cocoa, which was the recommended floss color. I really like how it looks. Peaceful Night is from the 2010 JCS Ornament Issue. This ornament will be a Christmas present for a dear friend.

Peaceful Night by Knotted Tree NeedleArt

stitched on a misc. piece of fabric with

recommended GAST and WDW floss

I finished up Part 2 of iStitch's Mystery SAL ... I'm just loving this design ...

Thank you for all your comments about my stitching ... I really enjoy hearing from everyone.

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

I'm grateful for red ...

Lots to share ...

I had a pretty productive week stitching. This was the first week I've really felt like stitching ... starting to get my energy back.

I'm participating in Carol's Mystery SAL along with a lot of other stitchers. Check out her blog for pictures of everyone's Part 1. Here's my Part 1 ... I'm stitching on 40 ct cream fabric with CC's Manor Red. I love how it looks so far ...

While rummaging through my project bags I found this fun design that was almost done ... don't know why it sat for so long unfinished, only took me 30 minutes to complete ... lol

Merry New Year by The Stitcherhood

stitched on a misc piece of fabric with

Belle Soie's Old Crow

The first time I saw this beauty was on Staci's blog and knew I had to stitch it. Well I'm finally getting around to stitching it and I'm so glad I am ... it's so pretty! It's a freebie and can be found here ... I'm using Victorian Motto Red 24 on a very pretty piece of linen, too bad I can't remember the count or the color!

I need your advice/ideas on this next piece. I went a little brain dead and messed up on the border. I'm stitching this over one and wasn't about to rip it all out. Below is the picture ... here's the dilemma ... the border has three lines which should be Cocoa, Lancaster Red (I substituted Garnet), Cocoa. As you can see, the middle line isn't Lancaster Red, it's Dark Chocolate ;( Now I'm not sure if I should continue with Cocoa or use another color? Oatmeal and Schneckley and the other two colors in this design.

I've also been working on Home of a Needleworker ... building a blue house is fun!

I treated myself to a bit of new stash ... you knew I had to get these two charts when Amy at Down Sunshine Lane told me about them ... she knows me all to well :)

Here's the rest of my new stash. DH wants me to stitch him Death by Candy Corn and I'll be stitching Baked Goods for my friend Lisa ... we've baked together for 20 years ... I love new stash!

Sending out lots of safe and positive thoughts for everyone in Irene's path. Mother Nature is one tough lady these days.

And lastly, thank you all for your comments about my surgery and my dad's. Last night we had dinner over at my dad's house. It was my first real outing, that wasn't going to a dr appt ... I even put on some makeup! lol ... my brother cooked dinner for us, dad was his sous chef lol ... it was really nice getting out and seeing my family, but more it was nice to actually feel good enough to want to go out *smile*

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

I'm grateful for feeling better ...

Peeking it to say hi ...

It's been a long three weeks around here. On July 27th my Dad had total knee replacement surgery on his right knee. I took off a week from work when he went home from the hospital to help him out around the house. After the 1st week of him being home I went in to the hospital for a scheduled hysterectomy. My brother and one of dad's neighbors took over taking care of him while I did my surgery and am now home and recuperating. Dad's doing really great! He's walking with a cane only, still can't drive and is still enjoying being waited on :) Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since my surgery and all in all I'm doing pretty good. Terry and the boys have been taking good care of me. 4 more weeks and I should be as good as new :)

When I arrived home from the hospital I had a package from Kathy waiting for me. Inside was the sweetest gift ... she found some Wizard of Oz fabric that reminded her of me so she whipped it into a project bag and sent it to me ... I just love it!
It's now the new home of my wip, Home of a Needleworker (two) ... I worked on it while taking care of my dad ...
Before my surgery I stitched up this freebie by primitivebettys ... I just love sunflowers so this was a must stitch for me. Not sure when it will get finish finished ... not really feeling up to dragging the sewing machine out quite yet ... I stitched it on some coffee dyed by me fabric and used these threads GA Sunburst, Victorian Motto Red 24, CC Caterpillar, BS Noir and Creme de Menthe. I really like how it turned out ...
Kim was my partner over on the Fair and Square exchange blog for the BBD design round. Here are the squares she stitched for me. They are lovely and stitched over one! I can't find pictures of what I stitched for her ... hopefully they'll turn up.

I've been stitching a bit while recovering from my surgery ... not as much as I wish, but a little here and there ... hopefully as I continue to feel better I'll get more stitching done. But for now, I'm off to nap ...

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

I'm grateful for sunny days ...

8 years later ...

8 years ago my Dad and I were in Santa Barbara, California helping my great aunt move to an assisted living residence. After a few days of moving and getting her settled, Dad and I took a drive to Solvang for the day. It's a lovely touristy city with lots of fun shops and good food. We found a cross stitch shop that I had to visit. While I was shopping, Dad brought over this Dimensions kit ... a lovely scene of wolves in a forest. He loved it and asked if I would stitch it for him. It was the first time he'd asked me to stitch anything for him so of course I said yes ... a yes I struggled off and on for 8 years. After the first couple of years he stopped asking how the wolves were doing ... lol, smart guy! After 8 years, all I had gotten done was part of the main wolf. I was so gung ho on this at first, but soon realized I just didn't have the brain to work at pattern like this ... every time I picked it up I hated it more and more and felt sooo guilty for not getting it done for him ... well this year he was turning 80 (on June 19th) and again the guilt was really really hitting me hard because they still weren't done. Well, I swallowed my pride and emailed a dear friend of mine, Theresa (no blog), that we affectionately call Turbo Needles. Theresa has done huge designs, loves doing them and said yes when I asked if she would finish the wolves for me. 8 long years later they arrived back at my house last month ... seriously it only took Theresa a couple of months to finish them!! And WOW did she do a great job. I had them framed and gave this incredible framed piece to my Dad on Saturday. He was thrilled and hung it up immediately! I will always been indented to Theresa for getting this piece done for me and my Dad. Ignore the flash on the pictures ... May I present to you ... The Wolves ...
Last week I picked up a wip I had started last year and finished it up ... I loved stitching this one!

Sneak Peek Halloween by The Trilogy

stitched on 32 ct. Belfast Dirty Linen

with the recommended floss

I also finished by Lizzie Kate's Life's A Beach ... fun stitch that should have gone quicker but the 4 ply floss was slow stitching for me ...

Life's a Beach by Lizzie*Kate

Kit complete with fabric, floss and buttons

I hope everyone is staying cool these days! We had a lovely weekend of weather here ... high 70's ... it was perfect! And Terry and I made the best of it. Saturday we spent at the local farmer's market and then went to dinner and a movie. If you haven't seen Midnight in Paris yet, don't delay .. go see it!!! It was wonderful!!! Nice to enjoy a Woody Allen movie again. Sunday we spent in the yard ... then I stitched the afternoon/evening away working on another older wip. It was really a nice weekend ... I hope you all had a nice one too!

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

I'm grateful for sunny days ...

No Red White and Blue ...

but I have been stitching! Here's a couple of my wips that I'm stitching on this week. First is Home of a Needleworker (too) by Little House Needleworks. I'm loving this design and can't wait to start on the house ...

My other wip is Life's a Beach by Lizzie*Kate. Great quick summer stitch ... but stitching with 4 strands of floss is not my favorite! Driving me crazy and without a needle threader I'd be at a loss ... but it's turning out really cute ...
Last weekend my friend Lisa and I played tourist in our own city ... we headed to Pike Place Market and had a blast! It's so much fun rediscovering your city ... here's a few pictures from our day ...

love all the fresh fruits and vegetables ...look how big these lobster tails are!

and the flowers ... oh they were lovely!
Here's Lisa with the Market pig ...

At the park there's all these incredible flower baskets ...

and of course a trip to the market isn't complete without visiting the first Starbucks ... it open in 1971. I love the original logo ...

I brought home some yummy fruits and vegetables and the lovely flowers in the picture below .. and yea I bought a couple of coffee cups ... surprised aren't ya! lol

Hope everyone is keeping cool in this heat wave ... well heat wave everywhere but here! lol ... but we have had some lovely days ... and Saturday while we were downtown Seattle was at it's best and everyone was enjoying it ...

Thanks for all you comments about my patriotic stitching/finishing ... I so appreciate everyone's kind words.

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

I'm grateful for sunny days ...

Happy 4th of July

I did it!!! I finished everything before the 4th of July! I have to say I'm pleased with most of my finishes. Below is a little more about each design ...

I thought this pillow turned out darn cute ...

Liberty by Lizzie*Kate (freebie)

stitching on a misc piece of fabric

with suggested floss

stitched June 2011

I tried a new pillow technique on this design. Next time I'll make sure there is more of the fabric showing. Love the raffia hanger ... I gave this pillow to my daughter in law, Monica ...

America by Glory Bee (freebie)

stitched on a misc piece of fabric

using suggest floss

stitched July 2010

I wasn't sure at all about this design while I was stitch it. The red (House Wine by CC) was turning out a bit more pink than I wanted. When I finished stitching the flag, I wasn't any more pleased with it and didn't if I had any fabric that was going to work with the colors. Well it turns out I had just the perfect fabric and didn't even know it! lol .. the fabric has a bit of pale pink in the stars and the blue was perfect too! Added a bit of chenille trim from Victorian Motto and it turned into one of my favorite finishes!

SamSarah Design Old Glory

stitched on misc fabric

using suggested Crescent Colors floss

stitched June 2011

I backed Happy Happy Flag day with the fabric it's laying on, added some chenille trim and love how this one turned out too ...

Happy Happy Flag Day by The Trilogy

stitched on misc fabric

using suggested WDW and GAST floss

stitched June 2011

When I first saw this design I fell in love with the font! Love the rustic look of this finish ...

America by Threadwork Primitives

stitched on misc piece of fabric

using suggested WDW and GAST floss

stitched July 2011

Here's another finish that didn't turn out exactly like I wanted ... it's a bit too top heavy ... but cute ...

Let Freedom Ring by The Sampler Girl

stitched on misc fabric

using suggested floss

stitched June 2010

I used some of my coffee dye fabric for this stitch and I didn't stitch the "white" stripes, I liked the look of the coffee dye color working with the red and the blue ...

July 4th by Hodgepodge Cottage (freebie)

stitched on a coffee dyed piece of fabric

with suggested floss

stitched June 2011

Whew that was a lot of 4th of July stitching and finishing! I don't think I'll ever leave that many pieces to finish for one holiday again! lol ... but I'm sooo pleased to have them all done!!! And now I get to enjoy looking at them all month long *smile*

I hope you all have a very fun and safe 4th!

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

I'm grateful for sunny days ...