A Sort of update

Sorry I haven't been updating much lately.  I'm working on a model lately so I can't really talk about what I'm stitching.  Also the end-of-the-school-year activities are revving up so I haven't had much stitching time.  Hopefully I can get some more stitching time done this week but with Easter coming up (and choir cantata Maundy Thursday), who knows.....

Yesterday was busy with DS's high school prom.  I sang with the choir at a memorial service for a dear friend so I didn't get to be there for the "send-off" and pics.  DH was assigned picture taking duty and he did pretty well.  I think the kids had a great time.

Happy Friday!

We've had some absolutely gorgeous weather here for the last few days.  I'm trying to drink it in because soon enough it will be way too hot and humid.  My walking buddy is out of town but I've managed to motivate myself to keep up my 3-mile walks this week except for one day when I was a slacker.

I've made progress this week on my Village Square Sampler.  I got the biggest part of the inner border finished as was overjoyed to see everything "met up" the way it was supposed to.  Hopefully it will turn out that way when I get the outer border stitched up.

I also stitched just a bit on ALTWL.  I'm devoting some time on Wednesdays to work on this one along with some stitching buddies who are working on the same project.  I've played around with the colors on this one just a bit.  I was a bit too tired to think much about counting so since I'm playing around with the idea of making the outline of the "boxes" in rows of red, white, and blue, I just worked on getting some of the boxes stitched.  The jury's still out about the colors of the boxes.  I hope to finalize a decision before many more are stitched...esp. if I decide to frog them out.

I saw a sampler on others' blogs last week that I instantly fell in love with.  I didn't have a chance....bought it the same day.  It's an antique repro called Marianne Wenn and available for purchase as a downloadable pdf from Needleprints...if I remember correctly on their blog.

I hope to soon be working on another model.  From the description from the designer, it sounds like I'm really going to like this one.

Until next time, happy stitching!

Hi, again!

It's been a while since my last post.  Here's what I've been up to since the last one.

First, DH celebrated a milestone bday this past week.  Our kids thought it would be great for us all to celebrate together so our older two surprised him by flying into Houston last Friday afternoon.  (We'd been plotting for weeks.)  The other boys and I drove up and met them at DH's office where we "kidnapped" him and took him out to dinner at a Tuscan/Texan "fusion" restaurant called Stella Sola (Lone Star in Italian).  He was totally surprised!  The next night the kids cooked dinner at home including making homemade pitas which are really fun to watch baking b/c they puff up like a ball.  The kids alwyas have a good time when they get together...it makes this mom's heart feel good.

On the stitching front, I finished and mailed out another model to Nikki from Country Cottage Needleworks.  I can't say anything about it except that it's a really cute one and I love the color combo.  I'll let you know when it's been released so  you can see it.

For my personal stitching, I finished a little wip of a freebie from Val's Stuff.  I also worked a bit on LK's Harvest Blessings, Village Square Sampler, and America, Land That We Love.  The last one I'm stitching along with some friends and I've altered it a little from the original.

Thanks to seeing a stitching buddy's blog, I fell in love with another antique repro sampler and ordered it the same day I first saw it.  It's called Maryanne Wenn (sp?) and is available for download from the Needleprints blog.  You'll need a paypal acct. to order it, something I'd resisted for a while but since I had to order this one........

Spring has definitely sprung around here.  My walking buddy and I have enjoyed hearing the birds sing, the warm temps, and seeing the flowers.  The other day we saw an armadillo crossing the path in front of us. 

Speaking of flora and fauna, we live on a lake and often see ducks, geese, turtles, etc.  I had a close encounter with one of the geese last week who came up close to the house.  Never a dull moment!

Giveway on a beautiful blog

My friend Carolyn is having a nice giveaway on her blog, Just One More Stitch.

http://carolyn-justonemorestitch.blogspot.com/

Even if you're not interested in the gifeaway, she has a beautiful blog and you won't want to miss seeing it.

Another Friday already

Happy Friday, everyone! My younger boys have spring break next week and I celebrated by buying some flowers for them to help me plant.

I've been stitching too. I may have mentioned that I recently stitched a model for Country Cottage Needleworks. Nikki's released it on her blog so I can now share it with you. It's a beautiful design and it was a pleasure to stitch it.

I also finished a couple of blocks for exchanges. One is a summer themed block by Erica Michaels, and the other is an owl themed block from a blog called Stickeule.

I'm working on another model for her now. I'm also working on an older freebie by Jean Farish called America, Land That We Love. I decided to stitch the states in the order that they became states instead of alphabetically.

Happy Friday

DS's coming home from college for the weekend so I've been busy baking cookies today. I also made some bread in the bread maching that I'll slice and freeze in small packets for him to take back to school.

I get to join some of my buddies for a stitching day tomorrow so I'm baking rosemary foccacia for that. Yum! The house smells good. Unfortunately, it's warm and humid so it was hot in the kitchen.

On the stitching front, I started (finally, I've had it in my stash for a long time) LK's Harvest Blessings. Maybe I'll even have it stitched and framed for next Thanksgiving. I also worked some more on my bap. Since I liked the BC Sow Kind Seeds so much, I thought I should start one for myself since I already have the threads pulled for the other one for the exchange.

I have a couple of finishes too...the church from the Town Square freebies (Trilogy) and LHN's Joy to the World ornament. Both were just about finished wips. It sure feels good to finish some!

Small Finish

I stitched this Bent Creek design Sow Kind Seeds for a block exchange in one of my groups. I really like it...which means I'll have to stitch it again for me someday. lol!

I've also been working a bit on my bap sampler (see it in posts below), a freebie church deisgn from a 2006 freebie series called Town Square, and even picked up a wip of CHS Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I had just a start on it using DMC's and have been debating with myself (funny to watch, I'm sure) whether or not to invest in silks for that design. After seeing another stitcher's one done in DMC's, I finally decided to stay with the DMC's. If I stitch another of the Hawk Runn series, I may go for the silks.

I'm getting overwhelmed with all the stuff I want to stitch and how little time to stitch it all. I'll never be bored. :-)

The weather has really warmed up here. After a bit of cooler than usual temps, now we're having warmer than usual temps in the mid 70's. I like this but dread the really hot and humid weather to come.