A Look Back at My 2017 Stitching and a Sneak Peak Ahead to 2018

I see a lot of stitchers showing their 2017 work so decided to get on the bandwagon.

First up are models I stitched in 2017:


                                        Home Tweet Home by Country Cottage Needleworks

Love Birds by Country Cottage Needleworks

Time for Tea by Country Cottage Needleworks

The Beatitudes by Little House Needleworks

(I stitched another one that will be released soon and am stitching another one now.)

My personal stitching:

Prairie Schooler 12 Days of Christmas.  I decided to stitch these individually to, hopefully soon, make into Christmas ornaments.

I finished more of the Little House Calendar Girls with the goal of finishing them all (maybe in 2018?).

I stitched a few Halloween ornaments with a Halloween ornament sal group but didn't keep up this year.  Maybe next year!

A few other Christmas pieces.

Bent Creek Christmas Eve Stocking.  This is for our granddaughter so I splurged and had the amazing Vonna finish it into a stocking for me.

Cricket Collection mitten

Prairie Schooler

Foxwood Crossings led ornaments I stitched for our family.s  (These things are addicting!  I've already chosen the theme for next year's sleds.)

...and some more:

Prairie Schooler

Niky's Creations

I don't usually meticulously plan the stitching for the year ahead.  (If I would, most likely I'd change my mind along the way.)  I DO have a few things in my head that I'd like to stitch.

Miss Lucy Calcutt 1825

At least one more Bent Creek stockings.

Finish Adam and Eve by Little House Needleworks:

Foxwood Crossings Sled Ornaments:

Maybe finish up the LHN Calendar Girl series.

Etc................

Happy New Year!  

Happy Stitching!

Christmas 2017

Another Christmas has come and gone.

This year's was a little "different" for us.  Shortly before Christmas our water heater (in the attic) leaked and we had to have my closet drywall replaced.  The good news is that we were able to get someone almost right away to get it done.  The bad news is that he was here off and on all the week before Christmas and was one of the things that put me off schedule getting ready for Christmas.

The other thing that affected the schedule was that I caught some 24 hour stomach bug.  Ick!

I did much less baking than I'd planned but we still had a plenty of treats.

We still managed to have a wonderful Christmas with 3 of our children (and a friend) able to make it home.  Our daughter's in-laws from Scotland are visiting them in CA but we got to watch our granddaughter open most of her gifts on Facetime.  (I love FT for allowing us to be an almost daily part of her life even though we live so far away!)  Another highlight for me this year was caroling with a group 2 afternoons at various nursing homes and assisted living facilities.  I know the residents enjoyed it but I think I enjoyed it as much if not more than they did.

DH and I decided not to spend a lot of time/money on gifts for one another but...after he talked to our daughter and found out that her family is going to Hawaii soon and she suggested we meet them there, we now have our flights booked.  Both my brother's and sister's family live on Oahu so we'll "crash" with them.  DD and DSIL will spend a couple days by themselves in Maui leaving our granddaughter with us.  We'll also enjoy visiting with my brother, sister, and their families and, hopefully, get to do some sailing on my brothers beautiful sailboat.

Not a bad Christmas gift, if you ask me!  DH and I are both laughing at the speed at which we planned this trip.  There was more planning involved in our recent trip to Pittsburgh and Ohio for Thanksgiving!

I picked up a wip of LHN's Adam and Eve to stitch the past couple of days.

Starting today, thought, I'll be working exclusively on a new model that I need to finish fairly quickly.  It's really cute and not too big so it should go pretty fast.

I also bought myself a little Christmas gift...Miss Lucy Calcutt 1825.  I'm going to join a SAL in 2018 for this beauty.

Happy New Year!  and.............

Happy stitching!

Winter Wonderland in SE Texas!

I remember not being impressed with snow while living "up North" but when it snows down here in SE Texas, it's pretty exciting.  The meteorologists were predicting some snow falling but we weren't expecting any to make it to the ground so we were pretty surprised to see snow on the ground when we woke up this am.  It's the first time since 2004 that we've had any accumulation of snow here.

They enjoyed some snow in Austin and San Antonio too.

I finished the model so now am working on some snowmen for some sled ornaments.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures to share soon.

Happy stitching!

Family Visit

We got to spend Thanksgiving with DH's family and the following weekend with my parents.  DD and her family and 2 of our 3 sons joined us for Thanksgiving.  We used to always spend Thanksgiving with DH's family in Pittsburgh before we moved to Texas (2001) and this was the first time we've done it since then.

In OH while visiting my parents, we got to see the city park all lit up for Christmas.  It was beautiful!

We took pictures with my parents but they're on my DSIL's camera.

I hand delivered my granddaughter's stocking that I made and Vonna, The Twisted Stitcher (Bent Creek Christmas Eve).  I hope to stitch others from that series for the rest of the family.

I'm finishing up a model, hopefully will be complete by next week.  I'm really enjoying it and will be a little sad to see this one end but I have a lot of personal stitching projects waiting in the wings.

Happy Stitching!

Check in from the Happy Wanderer

I'm back home after yet another trip.  This one was to Ohio to visit my parents and then attending Camp Gottastitch in Berlin, OH (OH Amish Country).

This was my second year to attend the camp and I had so much fun again this year.  It's so great to hang out with fellow stitchers while having no distractions...except from all the "show n tell", and talking and laughing with the other campers.  We stayed at the Berlin Grande Hotel in Berlin which was a wonderful facility in which to hold our camp.  Right across the parking lot is an Amish style buffet where we all had dinner Saturday night.  The food was yummy but what I remember most is the pie.  Yum!  I took a little break from model stitching while at camp to work on LHN's Autumn Band Sampler.  (I'd stitched the model for that one but wanted to stitch another for me and finally got around to starting it.)

Speaking of the model, it's coming along nicely and I'm hoping to finish soon.

We're spending Thanksgiving with my husband's Italian family, 2 of our 3 sons, and our daughter and her family.  It's the biggest Thanksgiving we've had since moving to Texas and I'm really looking forward to it.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy stitching!

Another Contest at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is hosting another contest for some of her beautiful floss.

Check out her blog for details.

Happy Stitching!Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

I'm Baaaaack!!

I arrived home last Tuesday night from what was supposed to be a 2 week trip that turned into a 3 week trip.  The first week went well...I visited my daughter's family (CA) and helped with my 18- month-old granddaughter.  I even had her to myself for a weekend while my daughter and son-in-law went backpacking.  The "baby" loves outings and is very social so I took her to a little farm with a train to ride and a petting zoo.  We really enjoyed that outing.

My next stop was to visit with my parents in OH.  Things started going badly when the room I prepaid/reserved (because I had a late flight and a 2+ hour drive after landing) wasn't honored.  Not only that but they didn't find me another place to stay as is what they were supposed to do.  So there I was late at night with nowhere to stay.  I called Booking dot com with whom we made the reservations (it wasn't their fault but the fault of the local motel) and, since the person with whom I spoke wasn't familiar with the area, I pretty much had to tell her what part of town to look for another room.  Long story short (another 25 minute drive with my friend "Google Maps" leading the way along roads under construction), I finally got checked into my room.  I was so keyed up by then that the last time I looked at the clock before falling asleep, it was after 3 am.

(I put DH on the job of complaining to the corporate office of  (what we used to think was a good quality chain) because not only had I prepaid the reservation but also we'd informed them that afternoon that I'd be checking in late to which they responded that they'd be holding my room.  It took several attempts before finally someone there finally accepted responsibility that they'd (both the local motel and then corporate) screwed up.  (Maybe it was the fact that I told them I would be posting my experience on social media and would name names.)  They apologized and gave me a free stay for  another time...like I'd trust them and make another reservation with them every again.  Grrrr!!!

I finally made it to my parents' house and got sick a couple days later.  Then my mom got sicker but didn't want to go get checked out.  The night before I was to return home, she got so much worse that we had to take her to the ER.  I decided to stay longer until she was feeling better and I'm so glad I did.  (She's doing significantly better now.)

I booked my new flight home to correspond with DH's return from a business trip so we could meet up at the airport and drive home together.  My adventure wasn't over yet.  Apparently there was some weather in Dallas (where I was to change planes) and we circled Dallas for over an hour before landing.  I knew I was late for my connecting flight but then reasoned that if we couldn't land, my next flight probably couldn't take off.  I was right but I still had to sprint from one end of the terminal to the other to get to my gate on time.

After all the pleasant travel from summer 2016, the averages caught up with me on this trip.  lol!  (I'm almost scared for the next trip!)

Stitching....while I was gone, Diane (Little House Needleworks) released a design that I model stitched for her...The Beatitudes.  I loved stitching this one so much that I was a little sad when I finished it.  I'll most likely stitch it again to keep.  Isn't it a beautiful design?!

I'm currently working on another model that I'm enjoying.

Happy stitching!