June/July Goals

June Goals

1. Work on Above the Clouds. Yep, but not much progress this month
2. Work on Geisha. Yep, almost done with the cross stitching.
3. Start on Britty Kitty Stocking (Mom's). Yep, finished it,too!
4. Work on WTF pile...there is a lot there! Yep, had a few finishes this month.

5. Must find pattern for the 4 Seasons Sal on FGBB!-Finally decided on the Bent Creek Arches.

July Goals

1. Mail freebie exchange to XXXX.
2. Work on Above the Clouds.
3. Work on Geisha.
4. Work on Mine All Mine (John)
5. Work on My Gifts.
6. Work on Summer Arches.
7. Work on PIF gifts

TGIF

TGIF!! Funny how that doesn't have the same effect on me as it does when the kids are in school. I had a pretty good day stitching wise. I started and finished the stitching on a exchange piece. I even finished the finishing on it. One down and several to go:)

Not much going on here this weekend. Mike has to work tomorrow so me and the kids will have to keep ourselves occupied:) Shouldn't be too hard....lol!

Have a good weekend!

Still A Blob

I worked on Mine All Mine Stocking today but it is still a blob of colors. Maybe next week he might resemble a dragon:)

It was a pretty good day around here today. First of all, it didn't rain but the humidity was awful. Mike and Mac went fishing and had a good time. I am not into fishing at all so, I was content to stay at home and stitch. The girls had a friend over so they spent the afternoon running in between the bedroom and bathroom. All in all it was a good day:)

Happy Stitching!

I am the klutz of the world! This morning when I Mike was busy in our bathroom I decided to go and use the kids' bathroom since it was empty and I had to go. I was stumbling my way down the hall when I kicked my foot into my vacuum cleaner that was sitting in the hallway. I can't repeat my response:) but my second response was why was it sitting in the middle of the hallway. Ah, yes, I remembered I had told my kids to vacuum their rooms yesterday and apparently didn't put the vacuum away.

So, my hurt toe and I made ourselves comfy and worked on Geisha. I am happy with this week's progress on her.

Have a good night! :)

Summer Arches

I had decided to work on a needleroll yesterday but to my disappointment I couldn't find any fabric that I wanted to use for it. Darn it! I went ahead and started on the Summer Arches from Bent Creek. Hopefully, it won't take me all summer to stitch them! I am planning on working on each season during the proper season:)

Today I will be working on Geisha. Perfect for today! Have you ever had a piece that you have stitched that literally starts to relax you as soon as you start to work on it? That is Geisha for me.

I hope everyone has a good day!

Thank You!!

I want to thank everyone for their wonderful comments on Allie's pillow. She was so inspired by the comments that she has started on another project! Seriously, you don't know how much I appreciate your positive comments! Allie is a very active 12 year old and is often hard to keep occupied. All I can say is she has managed to break a pogo stick! She actually broke the spring inside it from bouncing all over the place. Need I say more?

I did manage to work on Above the Clouds for a bit yesterday. Apparently last week I had made more than one mistake and I ended up having to frog some stitches before I started. Once that was done I decided to start on the dragon. I just worked on the tip of his tail. I just love the colors!

I'm not sure what I will work on today. Over the weekend I picked out the Season Arches from Bent Creek to stitch for the 4 SAL on the FGBB but now I am not so sure. Last night I seen a cute chart to make a needleroll that I might stitch instead. It has a bunch of bright colors in it which I need since it has been so rainy here lately.

Cute Kitty

Allie spent the morning working on finishing her gift for her grandma (my mom). I am impressed with how it turned out. :) She had better keep it hid from me 'cause I might just snatch it..lol.

She even used the sewing machine with no catastrophes! Whoo-hoo! I have to admit I was like a hawk keeping an eye on her.

The design is from Cats Galore from Leisure Arst. I have had this particular book of patterns since 1996 and I still love them:)

Mine All Mine

As far as anniversaries go, this one has been pretty good one:) The kids let us sleep in and were quiet as mice this morning. If I could only convince them to do that every weekend! LOL. We finally made it to the park around 4 pm to ring our bell.

The flowers around it are so pretty this time of year! :)

After that we went and did some shopping (nothing exciting just to get food for the fur babies) and then we went out to eat. Dinner was pretty good. At least I didn't have to cook or clean up the mess:) My plans for this evening are to stitch and watch The Dead Zone.

I did manage to make it to my LNS yesterday to pick up my pattern. Of course, I just had to pick up fabric and the Kreinik threads, too. I haven't gotten much done just an orangish brown blob.

While I was working on Mine All Mine by X's and Oh's, Allie was working on her project for her grandma. She is stitching it on antique white 18 count Aida. I'm not sure how she wants to finish it yet.

The Winners are..

This morning I had Mac draw names from a hat and the winners are...

Dani

Heather
Hazel

Margaret

Vonna

Congrats to you ladies! :) If you would please send me an email (msgal28atgmaildotcom) with your address and any little tidbits of info about you that you would like me to know about you :) I want to thank everyone who entered. I wish I could have been able to stitch something for everybody unfortunately I have to eat and sleep sometime..lol.

A Critical Point

It has been a pretty quiet day so far around here. The kids slept in this morning since they stayed up late last night. That left me able to clean the house and do the laundry. At least it is all done and I don't have to do anything tomorrow! I am planning on not doing anything at all tomorrow..unless of course I want to...lol!

I have been so happy to work on Geisha these past few days because of all her bright colors! This pattern is fairly easy one to stitch. There are a good amount of quarter stitches but there are only 3 sets of blended colors! There is a lot of backstitching to do so I am sure that will maker her even prettier!

I worked a tiny bit on the finishing for the freebie exchange. So far, I am loving how it is turning out. Right now I am at a critical point of where I could easily mess it up and no way to fix a mistake if it happened. Unfortunately, I have a headache coming on so I have placed it aside for now. It's nothing bad, just one over one stitching. Guess I can say that..doesn't give too much away:)

If I get the chance to stitch later, I am planning on starting the Britty Puppy stocking. It is easy to stitch and shouldn't hurt my eyes since I am using 28 count fabric. :) However, it could easily change if I get the chance to run by my LNS tonight. I got an email the other day that my dragon stocking pattern is here. I can't wait to start on that one! All depends on the if it is raining or not. I don't like to drive in the rain. Either way, looks like a new start tonight for me:)

Have a good night!

SBQ of the Week

Today's SBQ was suggested by Kathryn and is:

When you start a new work do you look for something small, do you look for another huge project or do you consider your UFOs?

Normally, when I finish a small design I start another small design. If it is a large piece, I start another large project. I treat my UFO's as new projects so they get picked up when I have had a large finish.

Geisha has a head finally! Those little green spots above her head are the leaves on the tree but I decided I wanted to work on her bottom half instead. I had a nice time working on her because Allie and I were stitching together. She is working on a little kitty design for her grandma.

It rained again today...*sigh*...and forecasted for the next week. I love the rain but even this is ridiculous! Just today we got an 1 3/4 inches of rain. Even Girly, who loves to go out and run in the rain, tucks her tail in between her legs and scampers away from the door. Good thing I have stitching to pass the time! :)

I am still taking names for the gifts drawings until Saturday night. I will draw names on Sunday and post who will be receiving a gift from me. The response has been wonderful and totally surprised me! Thank you!!

Have a great weekend and try and stay dry! :)

I finished the backstitching on the exchange piece last night but I didn't start the finishing. I think I will wait a little bit before I attempt the finishing. This morning I cut and zig zagged the edges of the fabric I will be using for Krissy's stocking. She wanted the Britty Puppy Stocking. I'm not sure when I will start on it. Maybe this weekend.

Speaking of this weekend, this Sunday (June 24) is our 14 year anniversary! I am not sure what we are going to so since it falls on a Sunday. One thing, I know for sure, we will be doing is going to the park we got married at and ring the bell that is there. Quirky I know, but after we said our "I do's" the bell was rung so we have kept up the tradition and have gone back every year and to ring it. Whatever we do I am sure we will have a good time.

Before I forget, Jenna asked where the freebie was that I stitched for the biscornu fob. Here is the link. It is from Kitty T. There are a lot of cutie freebies there!

My Friend Gifts

Thank you for all the encouraging words on my lack of sleep. I normally don't have problems sleeping but once or twice a year I go thru these spurts where I get insomnia. I did manage to get a little bit more sleep last night.

Last night I watched the weather and they said no rain today. So, why is it raining (AGAIN!)? At some point the kids would like to actually be able to go outside on their vacation not to mention so would I!

Rain, rain,

Go Away

come again

another day!

I did work on something yesterday but I can't show it as it is for XXXX for the freebie exchange. For a freebie theme I have had the worst time picking out one to stitch! I have all the cross stitching done I am just working on the backstitching. If all goes well I should be able to do the finishing tonight.

When I first signed up to do exchanges my main reason was to be able to get to know other stitchers. I have found this a little problematic on the exchanges that are secret. It's not like I can ask that person what is their favorite color, etc. Don't get me wrong I have made some wonderful friends thru exchanges! I love participating in them and plan to keep on participating in them. My point of this rambling is I would like to get to know my fellow stitchers better and to say thank you for being a friend.

Here is my plan. I will stitch 5 different gifts for 5 different people. You will know it is from me because I just might ask have to ask what your favorite color is or something like that! If you would like to be one of the receivers leave me a comment. If there are more than 5 people interested I will draw names. This is open to everyone even if I have stitched for you before!

My week is not off to a good start. I had trouble sleeping again last night. It was well after 3 am before I fell asleep and when I did it wasn't a good sleep. I kept jolting myself awake with the feeling that I was falling. Then around 6 AM I woke up to Mike yelling because I had just kicked him in my sleep. Ooops! According to Mike I have been kicking him in my sleep for the past couple of nights. What is worse is we have a California King pillow top bed so it's not like we have a small bed! I must be tossing a turning something bad. For Mike's safety I might end up sleeping on the couch tonight...lol.

Lack of sleep also doesn't help in the stitching area either! I sat down with ATC and stitched for about 20 minutes before I realized I was off by a stitch. *Sigh* Rip, Rip, Restitch! I fixed that area and then moved on to another color and stitched for a little bit. The whole time I kept thinking that it didn't look quite right. It wasn't. I had used a wrong color in a blend. I ripped it out but I didn't attempt to try again. I just put everything in the bag for next week. For future reference to myself...don't work on TW with lack of sleep!

I did work on this freebie last night. I finished the stitching last night but I finished it into a fob this morning. This one Allie is keeping because I used it to show her how to stitch a biscornu together. Which she asked me last night if she could finishing sewing her gauchos. I feel bad as I had to tell her no today because with lack of sleep on my part I don't think I could handle another ER visit. Maybe tomorrow :)

FIL stopped by today his daily visit. Apparently he has a stray puppy that he has took in and now wants us to take it! He is trying to use the guilt trip saying it is for the grandkids. That is all I need is another fur baby! I love animals but I have 4 kids (including Mike..lol), 2 cats, and one dog. I do not need another pet!

Have a nice day!

It's Monday and it feels like one! I didn't sleep well last night so I am tired today but I know if I lay down and try to take a nap I won't be able to sleep tonight. The fact that it is raining isn't helping me either...what a better time to sleep!

I worked on Geisha yesterday. At first, I wasn't exactly in the mood to work on her with all the color changes but I went ahead and worked on her anyways. I am glad I did because I actually got a lot stitched on her.

(sorry the pic is dark but it has been raining today)

Today is TW day so I will be working on ATC today. Of course, I have to finish the laundry and cleaning before I pick up a needle.

Have a great day!

Mom's Stocking

I finished Mom's stocking today! Whoo-hoo!!

One stocking stitched and only 6 more to go. I am stitching Christmas stockings for Mike, the kids, my mom, my step dad, and me this year for Christmas. I have 2 more of the Britty Kitties to do, 1 of the Britty Puppy, and 3 Dragon ones. At least the Britty ones are rather quick to stitch up.

I hope all the Dad's out there have a wonderful day tomorrow!

One Kitty Done

It was a pretty normal day around here today. Krissy went up the road to a friends house so she was in and out of the house all day. Mac has been outside roller blading trying to do jumps...car keys are next to purse in case of accident! Allie has been pretty calm today and reading some books today...need to take her temp to make sure she isn't sick:) With all of them busy doing their own stuff that left me to do some stitching in peace.

I first finished the tree on the stocking. I ended up having to frog the top of the tree after I had taken this picture. I was only one stitch off so it wasn't a lot to frog and restitch.

Then I stitched the kitty in the tree. I think he (or she) turned out really cute! Now, I am working on the strip for the name. The only trouble I see is making sure I have the name centered correctly on the fabric.

Have a great weekend!

SBQ of the Week

Today's SBQ was suggested Jennifer and is:

How do you store your WIPs and other projects that you have kitted up?

Each project that I work on gets it's own Ziploc baggie to keep fabric from getting dirty when I am not working on it. I also keep my DMC flosses (only the ones for a current projects) for the project in another baggie so I can just grab and stitch. I store my WIP's along with their floss bags in my cross stitching bag that I take on the go. I store my UFO's and kitted projects in baggies, but they are kept in a drawer that is only for them.

I forgot last night to post a picture of this flat fold I made. The pattern is from a cross stitching magazine (not sure which one without looking) that I stitched in 2002.

I worked on BK stocking today. I am so close to finishing the Christmas tree. If I can stitch some later tonight I should have it finished so you'll have to wait for a progress pic:)

Finishing Day

I decided today that I would finishing adding the beads to Jeweled Ornament. I only had to add about 20 of them so it didn't take me too long so I decided to go ahead and finish it into a ornament.

It turned out okay not as good as I had hoped. The picture doesn't do the fabric justice. It has a bunch of gold sparkles in it and is really pretty.

After I finished the ornament I was still in a finishing mood so I decided to look and see what was in my WTF pile. I came across some cute pumpkins and decided that they would work perfect on a tin. I have never made one so why not try?!

I think it looks a little awkward but that is okay I actually learned a lot from this first time making one.

Now that I got my finishing out of my system I think I will head off and so some actual stitching today!

Kitty Stocking

I started the Britty Kitty Stocking today. The actual cross stitching shouldn't take me too long but finishing it into a stocking could be a different story. At least I have a few months to find the perfect fabric! :)

Thanks for all the comments on Above the Clouds. I am really enjoying stitching this one so far. I think by the time I am done with ATC I will be ready to start stitching on Woodland Faerie again.

Mondays with TW

Today was my day to work on Above the Clouds. I am happy with the progress I made this week. Especially since I didn't work on it last week!

It's been a pretty quiet day (which is good!) around here so not much to say tonight. Thanks for all the nice comments on my mini biscornu:)

Mini Biscornu/Fob

I had a pretty good weekend. Yesterday, I ran into my LNS and picked up my Britty Kitty Christmas Stocking and Britty Puppy Christmas Stocking patterns I had ordered. I also picked up some fabric so I can start the BK Stocking this week. I also placed an order for a stocking pattern for Mike and Mac. They weren't to keen on having Britty Kitties/Puppies for Christmas Stocking so they picked out one they did like. It's called Mine All Mine from X's and Oh's.

Today I had a pretty good stitching day. I was looking at some of the freebie patterns to stitch for XXXX for the Freebie Exchange on the SBEBB when I came across this mini biscornu pattern. (Scroll down to bottom of page) It was another one of those that jumped right out and said "Stitch me..NOW!" and so I did:)

(Side 1)

(Side 2)

This one was so fun and quick to stitch up! I can see myself stitching more of these:)

Quiet Day

I can safely say that today has been a lot quieter than yesterday! Allie is sore but doing fine. We did learn last night that she still can't take pain killers because they have the adverse effect on her system! Oh yeah, this child was bouncing off the walls until late last night! The last time she had pain killers was in 1996 from another hand injury and I swore then that she would never take any more pain medicines! At least she isn't complaining of pain so I don't have to feel bad about not giving her pain medicine:)

Over the past few days I have managed to make some good progress on Geisha. I really love the colors in this pattern. They are so bright and cheerful.

I am hoping to have a good stitching weekend. Mike is off and as far as I know we don't have any plans:) I do know I would like to make a trip to the LNS to pick up a few things I need but I'll have to see how the day goes.

Thank you for all the caring comments on Allie. She truly appreciates them:) I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Finish for the 4th of July

I stitched this design last year for the 4th of July but I never got around to finishing in time for the holiday. I did get it finished in time this year! Whoo-hoo only took me a year..lol. I made it into a pinkeep. The only problem I had was when I was making the bow, Claudia decided that the ribbon looked like a fun toy!

Speaking of kitties....Here are Zoey and Claudia being cuties tonight:)

What A Way To Start A Vacation....

Allie and I started on her sewing project this morning. I had decided that since it was her project that she was going to do all the sewing and cutting. So here she is cutting out the fabric for her pants.

After she got everything cut out and marked she was ready to sew! She was doing great sewing the seams and finishing the seams......

....that is UNTIL Allie got her finger in the way of the sewing machine needle! YEOUCH!!! She didn't scream or yell but instead was saying "ouch" in a strangely quiet tone so when I looked over I was shocked to see a needle buried in her finger! I was freaking so hard on the inside but being a mom I couldn't show it. I knew I wasn't going to attempt to take the needle out of her finger so I removed the needle from the machine (causing much pain to my daughter) and jumped in the car and headed to the ER.

They had to locally numb her finger and that shot made her cry. After about 2o minutes the Dr. came back to remove the needle. Allie was holding on to my hand so tight I thought she was going to break my hand. There was some thread on the needle that went thru her finger so the Dr removed that first. I thought Allie was going to hyperventilate! She was so terrified as I would have been too! The doctor pulled the needle out with no problems and Allie was relieved.

She has some antibiotics to take to prevent infection and some pain medicine for the next few days. So, it doesn't look like Allie will be doing any sewing for awhile. What a way to start the summer break!!

As you can guess with all that excitement today I haven't gotten any stitching done. While Allie was sewing I was working on finishing a pinkeep but doesn't look like I am going to get it done today.

SBQ of the Week

Today's SBQ was suggested by Ish and is:

What has been your most challenging project and why?

That is easy....Woodland Faerie by Teresa Wentzler. This pattern has a little of everything, quarter stitches, half stitches, blended threads, one over one stitching, and I haven't even started on the backstitching.

One Day Left

I have been pretty busy the past few days so there isn't a lot of stitching to report. I didn't get to work on Above the Clouds yesterday. I did get to work on Geisha for about 90 minutes this morning before I had to do errands with FIL.



Tomorrow is the kids' last day of school. They are all excited and ready for a break. I am torn...I am excited about not having to worry about school stuff and not having to get up early but then again the thought of my kids driving each other and me crazy has it's down side, too.

Krissy had her awards assembly on Monday and she won Most Outstanding Math Student. Ah, like mother, like daughter:) I was always good at math in school and it was my favorite subject. Allie had her awards assembly today but she didn't get any awards this year. That wasn't much of a surprise as she has been lazy this school year. Mac's assembly is tomorrow.

More Sewing

I was able to finish the shirt for Allie today. I won't lie...it was a pain. She is a small person so in order to get her shirts to fit I have to mix pattern sizes. So her shirt is basically a size 10 with 2 1/4 inches added to length. I am not crazy on how the neckline is but that is what Allie wanted. The shirt calls for some ruffles along the top of the shoulders. Allie didn't want the ruffles so I was happy to oblige her.

It is a rather plain looking shirt but the shirt essentially cost me $1.00(for the fabric) to make. The pants cost me $1.25 to make. At $2.25 who can beat that price for play clothes! Especially since the favorite thing in the summer is to walk to the local creek and swim.

(Top & Gauchos)

Thank you all for the kind words on the gauchos for Allie. I was only able to get her out of them long enough to wash them this morning and then she put them right back on! She has already picked out some lavender material for some new ones but this time she is going to make them. This is one of our things to do to keep busy this summer:)

Pink Gauchos

There isn't any stitching news to report today because instead I worked on a project for Allie. Last week she found a pattern for an outfit that she wanted me to sew for her. So, today was a sewing day instead of a stitching day for me. The pattern is from Simplicity #3755. Allie picked out some pretty pink knit type fabric for the gauchos. I really liked this fabric since normally when I work with knits I tend to stretch the material and this time I didn't. Too bad I bought all of it they had at the store.



Allie really likes them. She has already decided what fabrics she wants me to do next for her.





I did get the pieces for the shirt cut out but that is as far as I have gotten on it tonight. The fabric for the shirt is pink floral cotton blend. I am hoping to be able to work on it tomorrow and maybe even finish it.

Have a great weekend!