Aury's 2009 & 2010 4th of July Ornaments

Aury's blog freebies

30 ct fabric

GAST Freedom & Buckeye Scarlet, Crescent Colours Khaki Mocha

Here are Aury's 2009 AND 2010 4th of July freebie ornaments. Don't they look great? The one on the left is the 2010 ornament-it is on the exact same fabric as the 2009 ornament, but it is bigger. I love them both! Now they go into the "to be finished" pile.

I am going to be busy stitching this holiday weekend and hope to finish He's A Flake and make some progress on the Prairie Schooler ABC project. Have a happy 4th of July!

Vacation Stitching

Top Left: Little House Needleworks

Pear Tree

32 ct fabric

Called for DMC threads

Top Right: Aury's 2009 4th of July ornament

30 ct fabric

Crescent Colours khahi mocha, GAST Buckeye Scarlet and Freedom

Bottom: Little House Needleworks

He's A Flake

32 ct fabric

Called for DMC threads

Between graduation festivities, visiting tourist attractions, and helping my mother-in-law close down her home and put it on the market, there wasn't much time to actually put needle and thread to fabric! When there was time, my eyes were too tired to stitch.

Here is Little House Needleworks Pear Tree. This was a fast stitch and a joy. I do still need to apply the beads on the ends of the backstitched branches.

Next is Aury's 2009 4th of July ornament on the top right. You can't tell from the picture, but there is enough fabric left on the bottom of this piece to stitch the 2010 ornament-that will be my next small project.

Last, but not least, is Little House Needleworks He's A Flake. He's coming along nicely and was started on the plane ride HOME!

I wish I had more to show for 2 weeks work! Thanks for all your kind comments--it makes my day to read them!

Stitchy Stash News

Here is the latest vacation additions to my stash:
Where Stitchers Gather actually arrived AFTER I left for vacation, so I am counting it as vacation stash. :) The Sarah Munday sampler was on the wall at In Stitches in Alexandria, VA. It was stunning! A wonderful needlepoint/cross stitch store only a stone's throw away from Mt. Vernon.

Rainforest Crunch by Needle Delights has been on my want list for a while. It has SOME of the threads to go with it. Also, check out the Grime Stoppers. They are slipped over the edges of stretcher bars (or scroll frames, I suppose) to keep finger marks off. No matter how careful I am to wash my hands, I still manage to leave marks. So I am hoping this will help.

Here are a few canvases I picked up. Three of them (and the Grime Stoppers) were in a clearance bin at Threads LLC in Charlottesville, VA. Yes, that is $5 on Dorothy and Toto! The Painted Pony angel is to commemorate our trip to Yellowstone National Park 2 years ago. We are planning to revisit next year with some friends.

A beautiful Mother Goose canvas from French Knot in Raleigh, NC. Also clearanced for $20!

And the piece de resistance--Raymond Crawford canvas from In Stitches! Just love the bright colors, 18 mesh, etc. But, it is going on my canvas wall to admire until I get to it.

Check back tomorrow for ACTUAL stitching updates!

Finally Home!

It seems like forever since I posted to this blog! I just got home from my vacation and will share a few photos of my fun. Here is my sweet niece-Elise. For some reason I never got a picture of the graduating nephew?? We attended the graduation and my niece went with me to visit 3 stitching shops in Raleigh-Lazy Daisy, French Knot and Needlepoint LLC. I was able to help out the economy in all 3 shops. :)

From Raleigh it was on to Colonial Willliamsburg. It was so hot that day-94 degrees and similar humidity. For a girl from the mild Pacific NW that is misery! I visited here in 1968-boy, what a difference! There are shops at the end of the main street, restaurants galore. I did appreciate the tavern we ate in-it was cool in the candlelit basement where we sat. :) Here is the fife and drums corp.

Doesn't it seem funny that 3 of the fife players are girls?? We saw a small theatre production circa 1750. And a courthouse hearing with 3 cases being heard-that was fun.

Here is Mount Vernon-George Washington's home. The last time I visited here was also 1968-no visitor center, no educational center, no restaurants, no wharf or boat tours on the Potomac. Nothing stays the same, huh? The line for the home tour was no longer than 30 minutes at anytime. Not terribly crowded on a Wednesday. It was a lovely place. And what an honorable man was George-both personally and in his military/political career.

This is Monticello-Thomas Jefferson's home. This is the first time I have ever seen this one. He was truly an ingenious man for the times he lived in. He designed a W shaped roof over the wings of his home that took rainwater into covered gutters and down into cisterns- 4 of them that held 3200 gallons of water each-pretty amazing. Not one to admire for some decisions in his personal life, but his contributions to our country were remarkable.


Tune in tomorrow for stitchy updates!

Sylvia's SAL Update

I am as caught up with Sylvia's SAL as I can be. I didn't have some of the right colors of DMC floss to finish May and June's entries. But, the border is entirely finished and the block outlines are finished. It will be easy to catch this one completely up when I get back from vacation.

By the way, we leave on Thursday. Looking forward to having lots of pics when I return. Keep stitching!

Prairie Schooler ABC SAL Update

Here are the two letters I was working on in May-L and M. Unfortunately I didn't finish either one. But I did finish V (see below). Next month my goal is to finish these two letters and O. Don't know if that will happen since I will be gone 2 weeks in June. But we'll see.

Here is the entire project so far. Whew--this one is big, Vonna! Even on 24 ct congress cloth :)