Lizzie Kate Be My Valentine

I recently found a freebie by Lizzie Kate and, since I didn't start another seasonal project, I stitched up this little cutie.  I think I'll FFO it into a pillow finish to put in a small bowl on our entryway table.

Someday, anyway.

Happy stitching!

Samplers, Stocking, New Floors, Grandchildren, Valentine's Day

January seemed to fly by this year!

I'm enjoying working on 2 samplers....LHN Melicent Turner (participating in a Sampler Sunday sal on the LHN/CCN Facebook group).  I'm stitching her on 32 count (over 2) champagne linen overdyed by Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler and using the called for conversion to Crescent Colour (cotton overdyed floss).

I'm also stitching HATS Jane Marshall sampler.  If you don't know already, Jane was an Australian girl.  HATS released the sampler as a fundraiser for 2 fire brigades in Australia battling the fires there.  I'm stitching Jane on 32 count (over 2) lambswool fabric by Wichelt and using mostly Vonna's DMC conversion.  (The only change I made myself is to use DMC 407 for the lightest pink.)

I've finished the stitching on our daughter's Bent Creek stocking which I'm stitching on 28 count (over 2) Wichelt lambswool.  Because it will be smaller than if I'd used the called-for fabric count, I'm using some buttons in my stash.  Lots of buttons!!  I need to get in gear and stitch them on so I can send it out to be finished.  Next up on the stockings will be another BC stocking in the same series for our son-in-law.  I think it will be one of the snowmen ones but haven't decided for sure yet.

We had our floors replaced in early January from carpeting and wood laminate to tile that looks like hardwood.  It was a lot of work unloading/packing up furniture, moving things around (the floor crew moved the big stuff) and then cleaning up the construction dust and reloading the furniture but it was well worth it!  We both love the floors now and they should be easy to maintain.  They're also waterproof which is a nice feature since we have an elderly dog that often has "accidents".

We also spent about a week in CA visiting our daughter's family and helping out with the kids while our son-in-law was out of town on business.  While there, we celebrated Burns Dinner.  (DSIL is from Scotland and they host a Burns Dinner every year.)  Lucky for me, there was a vegetarian version of haggis that I actually enjoyed.  I don't know what was in it but I know what was NOT in it and that was good enough for me.  ;-)

The "grands" are both doing well and filled with energy which reminded us that it's good that we have our babies when we're young.  Later in the year we get them all to ourselves for about 10 days while our daughter and son-in-law celebrate their anniversary by going on a nice trip.  (DH and I should probably start working out with a physical trainer now to prepare.)

As usual, we have low-key plans for Valentine's Day by having a nice steak dinner at home.  (We've always thought Valentine's Day would be our least favorite day to try to go out to dinner somewhere.)  Weather permitting, we may put a fire in our fire pit and look at the lake that evening.

I'm about to hit my stitching nest and spend some quality time with Melicent.

Happy stitching!

Happy New Year!

I finished stitching The Prairie Schooler's Home for Christmas before Christmas.  I'm hoping to figure out a way to share a frame (change out the stitching) with it, Harvest Time, and a spring/summer PS about the same size to change out for the different seasons.  We'll see how that goes.

We had a nice Christmas with 2 (out of 4) of our "children" here, talked to our son on the phone, and visited with our daughter's family via Facetime (at the same time as her in-laws in Scotland were on Facetime) to watch the grandchildren opening their gifts.  Isn't technology amazing?!

We're bucking our normal New Year's Eve tradition (staying home and watching the East Coast New Year arrive before going to bed) by going with friends a NYE party at our city's Civic Center.  There will be a band, dancing, good company, and refreshments.  I don't know if we can stand the excitement; we've both already talked about the need to take a nap this afternoon so we can stay up late tonight.

We've already started taking down the Christmas decorations.  This is earlier than I've ever done it (I usually wait until after the new year to start.) but since we're having our floors replaced next week (!) and need to do some prep for that, we thought it best to get an early start.

I'm currently stitching an oldie but goodie, Primitive Snowman by Ewe and Eye and Friends and also started a Little House Needleworks sampler repro, Melicent Turner, for a Sampler Sunday SAL on the LHN/CCN Facebook group.  I'd been wanting to start "Mellie" for some time so this was the push I needed to get started.  I chose to stitch her with the suggested overdyed cottons instead of springing for the silks as I was tempted.  After I finish Mellie, I may restart LHN's Elizabeth Hancock in a higher count fabric....WITH silks.  Woo Hoo!

I have ambitious stitching plans for 2020.  I often make plans and do some of it but also change my mind as the year goes by.  I'm in another SAL with some friends in which we'll each stitch one of the Carriage House Samplings Hawk Run designs.  I'd been collection silks for Autumn at HRH so that will be my Jan. 1 start.  There's also a SAL of Brenda Keyes' Red House sampler.  It's another one I'd planned to start so, by golly, I'll start that one too.  I'd planned to stitch Bent Creek stockings for our daughter and son-in-law that co-ordinate with the stockings I stitched the grandkids and then my oldest son asked if I could stitch stockings for him and his girlfriend.  Add in some Christmas ornaments, seasonal projects, some model stitching, and it looks to be a busy stitching year.  I'll never be bored let alone understand the meaning of that word.

Happy New Year and as always....

Happy Stitching!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Greetings!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Pittsburgh with my husband's family.  All our kids came along with our 2 grandchildren and also our oldest son's girlfriend.  We had a great time, ate a lot, laughed a lot, and then all made it back to our home destinations with no problems.

Now I'm concentrated on preparing for Christmas.  We'll stay home this year and our 2 youngest children will join us.  I'm getting a late start on decorating because we're replacing our floors in January and had a guy come measure this week.  I'm starting to get excited because we finally decided on what flooring to use, the color, and have nailed down (pardon the pun) the contract.  We even have a tentative date on which to start. 

I also pulled some ornaments out to send to our 2 oldest kids.  I'd collected (either bought or made) ornaments for each of the kids over the years and our oldest asked for some of hers (she's the one who's given us our 2 grandchildren) and our son's girlfriend asked if I'd send some of his to them.  It took longer than I thought it would to go through them and choose a nice assortment that fit in the box.  I had an idea when I was in Hobby Lobby earlier this week that it would be nice to put them in a Christmas box so they can use the same box in which to store them.  They're safely in the mail now and I hope they enjoy using (and storing) them.

On the stitching front, I finished stitching Cat's Meow (Drawn Thread) for my son's girlfriend.  I took the picture before pressing it and the piece is now at the framer.

I also put together a couple of Foxwood Crossings Sled ornaments for this year's ornament and tucked them in the ornament boxes I just sent out.  I'll make 3 more of these this year.  2 are stitched and it won't take long to stitch the last one.  I love how quick and easy they stitch up and taping them onto those little sleds is my kind of finishing.  Quick and easy!

I'm still plugging along on Home for Christmas by Prairie Schooler.  I'm really enjoying this one!

Break's over!  Time to get back to decorating.

Happy stitching!

Camp Gottastitch, Alone in the Garden, PS Santas, Shingles Shot

Last weekend I attended Camp Gottastitch in beautiful Berlin, OH in the heart of Amish Country.  It was a treat to get to see the fall foliage in OH since we don't get that much of it here in SE Texas.

The retreat was great to get to stitch with friends and enjoy being fed.  lol!  The Amish cinnamon rolls the hotel provided us each morning were a special treat.  Yum!

I mostly worked on La D Da's Alone in the Garden which had been languishing in my stash unstitched for quite some time.  I was able to finish it on Friday which was almost sad because I enjoyed stitching it so much.  I used the called-for silks, a special treat, and used some dyed champagne fabric by Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.

My friend, Vonna, did a Fiber Talk with Gary Parr while we were there and several of us "appeared" with what we were stitching.  Fun!

Friday I decided to go find some Prairie Schooler Santas I'd stitched.  I'd forgotten about the round robin I did years ago with 5 other stitchers...and some others I had tucked away with them.  It was a pleasant surprise to find them!  My plan back then was to make the RR ones into a wall hanging...which I still should do.  Some of the little ones need some more stitching to finish those and would make great ornaments.

I think my next cross stitch project will be a Prairie Schooler Chistmas design similar in size to the fall piece I just stitched.


DH and I had our second "date" to finish getting our shingles shots series yesterday.  Both of us have sore arms, achy muscles, fatigue, and headaches.  We also both had a low grade fever overnight.  I keep telling myself that these symptoms are far more tolerable than actually getting shingles.  (Our sweet neighbor had shingles recently and even had some in her eye.  It was scary for a while because she lost some vision but she's doing much better now.)

Happy stitching!

Harvest Time, Sports

I give you....Harvest Time by the Prairie Schooler.  I really enjoyed stitching this one.  Love those colors!!!

I haven't figured out what to stitch next but some wips need some attention.

It was a big sports weekend for us this past weekend.  We attended the University of Texas vs. Kansas game in Austin.  The score was closer than it should have been so it was an exciting game.

At the same time, Houston Astros were playing what turned out to be their last play-off game and we kept looking up the score while watching the football game.  We listened to the last couple of innings in the car after the football game.  Astos are going to the World Series again!!

Also, my Ohio State Buckeyes handily won their game Friday night.

Happy stitching!

Back Home from Another Trip

We spent almost 2 weeks as Grandma and Grandpa's Day Care as our daughter transitioned back to work after the birth of our new grandson.  The 3 yo went to her day care (and her many friends) during the days and we played with her a lot in the evenings and weekends.  The time flew by and we enjoyed every minute...although we were exhausted much of the time.  (It's a good thing we have our children when we're young and more energetic.)

On the way back home we stopped in the Denver area to visit with our son and his girl friend.  Almost as an afterthought, we decided to spend Saturday at Rocky Mountain National Park.  We had a perfect day for visiting the park and really enjoyed ourselves.  We all felt the altitude when we were at >12,000 feet!  (Especially DH and I who live at 22 feet above sea level.)

Colorado is so beautiful!  We heard from our son that they had a big drop in temperature and their first snowfall of the season yesterday.

I had no stitching time while I was gone and have been enjoying getting back to my Prairie Schooler Harvest Time.

I'm thinking of starting La-D-Da's "Alone in the Garden" soon as well as getting back to the Lucy Redd sampler.

Happy stitching!