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 :)

Jenny Bean is Finished!

Jenny Bean Halloweeen Sampler

Shakespeares Peddler

32 ct R & R Alabaster fabric

Regular called-for GAST threads

After having troubles getting the wrinkles out, I put this project onto stretcher bars to finish it. My goal was to finish it before leaving on vacation, and voila! here it is! I even managed not to lose the notes for the type of fabric I used. There are several large projects on the back burner that I am anxious to start, but more to come on those later. Right now, I have pulled out 4 small projects--Jeannette Douglas' Take Time to Quilt patterns (all 4 seasons)-- and threads to take on the airplane with me. Plus a couple of Christmas ornaments AND Day 5 of Renaissance Designs 13 Days of Christmas. That should give me plenty to do for 2 weeks. :)

I finished this last night while watching Kenneth Branagh in Wallander on DVD. It is from Masterpiece Mystery and I was able to get the DVD's from my public library. He looks very different (older and has put on a few pounds) from the Danish prince Hamlet he played a few years ago. Well, I guess we are all fighting that same battle, huh? :)

Update Jenny Bean's Halloween

Here is what I have been working on-Jenny Bean's Halloween Sampler. I am finished with the inside portion and starting on the border. The colors are much more appealing than the picture on the chart shows.

I was working on this in a hoop, but when I tried ironing the hoop marks to take the picture--they do NOT want to come out. And since I am using overdyed threads, I didn't want to use a steam iron or spritze with water. So I did the best I could with a dry iron and put the sampler on stretcher bars to finish it. What do you recommend? I am also having trouble with the hoop marks on My Lady's Quaker.

Happy Birthday, Dear Emma

Happy birthday, dear daughter! I can't believe it has been 25 years since I carried you home-all 4 lbs, 7 oz of you. Yes, you fit perfectly into a shoebox. :) And here you are at your wedding with your nephew. It was a lovely day. Your dad and I are so proud to call you ours.

Nancy's Needle

Two Cabins

Here is Emma's present for her birthday last year. I finished it into a purse made from a placemat. I really like the symbolism of the path from your house to mine. Here is to the next 25 years!

ANG SOTM Progress

The picture is crooked-but I think you can see all the important parts. :) Here is my ANG Stitch of the Month progress thru April & May. I did change the thread on May's part to the Vineyard Silk 051 Macaw instead of the Vineyard silk 008 Berry-it seemed like all I could see was an ocean of red and no green. (You can click on the picture.)

The April and May stitches were ones I had never used before and really liked the results-especially Crescent cup. It gives some dimension and makes a perfect cup to put beads in. I want to try this stitch again on some other project. This mottled brown canvas is starting to grow on me.

Thanks for all your vacation stitching store suggestions. I will definitely be trying to fit in some of the VA and NC stores--even an hour is better than nothing-right, ladies?!