The Fortunate Traveler

The Fortunate Traveler

design by Teresa Wentzler

story by Jennifer Aikman-Smith (Dragon Dreams)

finished 2006

Summer's Magic

Summer's Magic
by Jennifer Aikman-Smith (Dragon Dreams)
SAL with Renee
Finished 2009

Moving Chaos

I am sorry for my absence from the blogging but things have been beyond crazy for me. The main cause of the craziness is we moved to Nebraska. My family is here so this is a very positive move for us. My mom didn't get to enjoy the older three kids when they were little but now she gets to enjoy being around teenagers and a baby.

Even with all the chaos I did still manage to do some stitching. :) These finishes were done before the move. I haven't touched a needle in almost 3 weeks but at least I have located my stitching stuff so hopefully I can get to stitching soon.

Summer's Magic by Dragon Dreams

SAL with Renee

Happy Everything by Stoney Creek

RR with Renee, Veronica, and Chris H.

Quilt for Allie

I have some more finishes and some WIP's to show but I will save that for another post.

I can't end this post without a picture of Megan. She is doing extremely great! She weighed in at 14 pounds 11 ounces and 24 inches long.

I'm sorry to make this so short but it's late and I am exhausted plus I know I have a full day of running around and unpacking things.

Have a great night everyone!!

I'm Still Alive

Hello everyone!! Time flies even when your aren't having fun. As of right now, Mac is back on for surgery this Tuesday. I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that everything goes smoothly for him.

Megan is doing fine. She had a check up today and her Synagis shot (RSV shot) so she is a tad cranky. Dr. A upped her belly medicine because she is starting to have problems with her throwing up again. Otherwise, Megan is doing wonderful.....much better than the doctors thought she would be doing. :)

Allie made it to her 14th birthday this week.....jeez just typing that makes me feel ancient!

Krissy made the track team so they have been practicing after school everyday. She comes home totally exhausted but she seems to really enjoy it so far.

As for me.....I am doing pretty good. I occasionally have a bad day when I think about Megan's sister. I don't know if I had posted this or not but the baby that passed we did give her a name....her name is Morgan Elaine.

I have to admit I haven't done much stitching since the start of the New Year. I have been working on a little on Summer's Magic SAL with Renee. I just have a little backstitching to do and then I will be done. :)


The little princess is starting to fuss...can't say I blame her either...so I will end this with I hope everyone has a great day and try to stay warm!!

More Finishes

Like I said, I have been busy on my stitching stuff the past few weeks.:) Here is Pumpkin Pete finished into a flatfold.

And I finally did something with Spring Kitty Paw! I used a wooden box and painted it purple for a little gift type box. I ended up having to put an extra coat of paint on the box so I wasn't exactly happy with how the color turned out but it's not really that bad.

Lastly, here is my progress on my SAL with Renee.

September Already

I can't believe it is September already! That means Fall is almost here. :) That also means the parade of birthdays and holidays begins for me. From now until after Valentine's Day we have a birthday or holiday (some months both!) every single month. I hope I can find some time to breathe!

Yesterday was a pretty lazy day for me. I worked on my Summer's Magic SAL with Renee. I wasn't sure if she was going to be able to work on SM this week so I only stitched for a couple of hours. I noticed on my fabric that my hoop has left some marks and I need to wash the piece. This always happens to me. I think it is because I have to have my fabric tight in the hoop to stitch. I mean so tight you could bounce a quarter off of it! Does this happen to anyone else?

After I put SM away, I decided to start on Veronica's RR. I only got to stitch on it for about an hour before I had to put it away and go to sleep. It's funny how one minute I am not tired and the next minute I can barely keep my eyes open with this pregnancy. Anyways, I didn't get much stitched so no picture of it yet.

Happy Stitching!

Summer's Magic SAL

I haven't worked on Summer's Magic for the past week or two so I was quite happy to pick it up yesterday and work on it. I mainly just did the back stitching but it still counts as progress. :)

I was given the "I Love Your Blog" award from artystitches. Thank you so much!!

The rules of the award are:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you’ve nominated.

I have over 100 blogs I read and I love each and every one of them, that's why I read them in the first place. :) In the spirit of the award, here are 7 blogs that I love to read.

1. Renee

2. Cathy C.

3. Jenna

4. Itching to Stitch

5. Eledwhen

6. Joanne

7. Karin

Have a great day!

Hot Weather

I hope the weather has been cooler for you than it has been here this weekend. It has been yucky hot to the point even the dog doesn't want to go out and play. Now, that is bad! LOL

Anyways, with it being hot the kids and I just hung out around the house this weekend. I worked on Winter Chair for a bit on Saturday but then Winter Fun on Ice started calling me so I ended up working on it. :)


Today was Summer's Magic SAL with Renee and I am happy to say the baby dragon now has a head. :)

Tomorrow I have an appointment for an ultrasound. It is just to make sure the babies are growing fine. I am hoping this time the girls are cooperative and we can get some good pictures of them. At the last ultrasound they were kicking each other so much that the pictures didn't turn out very well. I just hope they aren't giving me a glimpse of what they have in store for me when they arrive! :)

Have a great night!

RR and SAL

I decided yesterday that I had to finish the chair on the RR before I could pull out anything else. I am happy to say that I did finish the chair and even finished the candles that go around it. :) Now, all I have left to stitch is the snow on the ground and the wreath that hangs on the chair.





I did start on Winter Fun on Ice but not I didn't get much stitched on it last night. I am planning on working on it today so hopefully I can make some good progress on it.

I keep forgetting to post my picture of my progress from Sunday on Summer's Magic SAL with Renee. This week the baby dragon will get his head! :)



Have a great day!

I've Been Stitching

I hope everyone had a nice weekend. Friday night I decided since I couldn't work on MAM I would work on Topaz Fairie instead.:) I finished one of her four wings. I am still missing one Kreinik and the beads but I will work on what I can. As for her wings, I have to say I am not impressed with the colors. I think they are blah looking.


Saturday I did get my flosses needed for Mine All Mine but after talking with Renee, we decided that it would work better this week for us to work on Summer's Magic on Saturday. After I put that away I pulled out Mine All Mine and worked on it for a little bit that night.

I was hoping to finish MAM on Sunday but I just couldn't get motivate to stitch. So today, I decided I was not going to put Mine All Mine down until it was finished. Which I am happy to say I did finish this afternoon.:) Mac is thrilled that I am done and is ready to go fabric hunting!

I was a little unhappy to see some of the red color bled on the fabric. I put a little bit of Shout on it and hopefully it will come out. If not, Mac is still happy with it and that is all that matters.:)

Jenn asked who I will be stitching the next stocking for and it will be for one of the babies. I actually have both of their stocking picked out to stitch. I won't be stitching identical ones for them but the pattern themes are similar.

Happy Stitching!

Weekend Progress

With Mike having a 3 day weekend that meant I could close my bedroom door and ignore the world.:) On Friday and Saturday I worked on Mine All Mine. I ran out of a couple of more colors but I am working around them right now. Mac is so excited that I am almost done with the stitching.:)



Sunday I worked on Baby B's quilt. It is "this close" to being finished. I ran out of the satin binding I am using on the edges so I am only one side away from finishing it. After I put the quilt away, I picked up Summer's Magic. I only stitched on it for about 90 minutes but progress is progress!:)



Have a great day!

Harvest Witch

As of this evening, Renee and I finished our Harvest Witch SAL. :) On my piece, I decided not to stitch the web because my fabric was too light and it didn't show at all. I also didn't add the buttons. I bought some that matched closely to what was called for but after laying them on the fabric I decided that I didn't like how it looked. However, I love how the witch turned out!


The next piece we will be working on is Summer's Magic by Dragon Dreams. You might remember we started this piece back in May while waiting on threads to arrive. Here is where I am right now.

Have a great weekend!

Summer's Magic SAL

It's not much but here's my start for Summer's Magic SAL with Renee. :)

Exhausting Weather

I didn't get as much stitched on ES yesterday as I had hoped because we had another bout of severe storms. It was scary for a little bit. Around supper time the tornado sirens went off and shortly after that we lost power. We were lucky enough and didn't have any damage but I have come to the conclusion that Baby does not like mommy getting upset. During all the chaos I started getting sick. Needless to say by 9 PM I was completely exhausted and fell asleep only to be scared out of my skin when the power came back on around 11 PM. I sure don't remember the TV being that loud before the power went out!

At least today was a beautiful day full of sun and temperatures in the upper 60's. Now, that is my kind of weather.:) I will enjoy it as long as possible because on Tuesday we are have a chance for more storms.

I had a pretty good Mother's Day. We didn't do anything special but I didn't have to cook or clean so that made for a great day.:) I did start on Summer's Magic but I'm too lazy to take a picture tonight. The best part is I get to watch the one and only sport we watch on TV. Monster Jam....I love it!! Of course Mike and I root for different trucks..LOL. He roots for Grave Digger aka Dennis Anderson and I root for Maximum Destruction aka Tom Meents. Go Max D!!

I hope all mothers had a great day today! Happy Mother's Day to everyone.:)

Ladybug

I was able to get this little ladybug finished into an ornament yesterday afternoon. Originally I had planned on making it into a fob but I miscalculated the length of my cording so the result is an ornament.

The ladybug is from Summer Fobs from Heart in Hand. I stitched it on some 28 count white fabric with DMC threads.
I did work on ES a tiny bit until I ran out of DMC 3045. I will probably work on ES some more later today.

Tomorrow I will be starting a new project. I will be stitching Summer's Magic from Dragon Dreams with Renee. What a better way to spend Mother's Day....relaxing and stitching one of my favorite designers designs.:)

Have a great day!

Future WIP's

This week was a pretty slow stitching week for me. After I finished Purrrfect Partners I lost my stitching mojo! I made a small run to my LNS this week and picked up some more linen and a spool of the glow in dark Kreinik threads that is needed for Harvest Witch. I have been dying to know if the the threads do glow in the dark and they do! :) I can't wait to see Harvest Witch all finished in the dark now! LOL

Since I couldn't get interested in stitching this week I dug through my stash and kitted some patterns up. So far here is what I kitted up this week:

1. A Child's Prayer-Calico Crossroads
2. Fairy Roses-Mirabilia
3. Snowman & Friends-Kooler Design
4. Mine All Mine (Mac)-X's and Oh's
5. Summer's Magic-Dragon Dreams (SAL w/Renee)
6. Tour des Marques-The Silver Lining (I blame this one on you, Dani! LOL )

Becky K. asked me a few days ago what breeds of dogs I have. I have to admit I have been shy on saying that Gracie is a Pit Bull Terrier because I do not want the controversy on if they are good dogs or bad dogs. I will say I am a firm believer that dogs are just like humans, they are born good but due to bad circumstances can turn bad. I know Gracie will be a wonderful pet as all of us spoil her with love.

Girly is part Black Lab and part Rat Terrier. I like to call her my Miniature Lab. :) She looks just like a lab except she is only 13 inches from her shoulder to the floor. For a dog with short legs she can move pretty fast when you show her a Frisbee!

Have a great weekend!

Gift for Dani

I heard from Dani that the gift I made for her arrived safely. I have been reading her blog for a long time and she is an awesome stitcher! Usually, I have to go thru my patterns a couple of times before I actually decide on what to stitch but not this time. I stitched the freebie Love Takes Two from Dragon Dreams. I decided to finish it off by making it into a tin. I really have come to like making these little tins!

Yesterday I managed to sew Allie another pair of gauchos. As you can tell she loves colors that are bright and stick out. That is so much like her personality! I just want to say that I am not playing favorites when it comes to sewing clothes for my kids. Krissy is 13 and won't be caught dead in something that is handmade. *Sigh* I know it is just the age (I hope!) but I miss making her clothes and hearing her proudly telling her friends that her mom made them for her. Mac is all boy so anything I do make for him instantly gets stained or ripped.

I think today I will start on the backstitching on Geisha. I am so close to being finished with her that she is all I want to stitch on right now. :)

Dani, the Stitching Dragon

The weekend is starting off good for me. I finished all the stitching on Dani, the Stitching Dragon and I even finished it into a flat fold. I had some interesting moments while I was putting the flat fold together. Normally, I use regular craft glue but today I discovered it was empty so I had to use my glue gun. I have to say I prefer to use craft glue than a glue gun and I have the burn to prove it!



I am quite pleased with how it turned out. I chose some dark blue fabric with stars to use for the finishing fabric. It has it's own place of honor in our bedroom on top of the mirror on my dresser. It has a ledge that I keep different stitched projects on for display.



I am not sure what I will be working on this weekend. I kind of have an itching to start something new but I don't know what I really want to start!

Have a great weekend!

What Day Is It?

This week I have had the hardest time keeping track of what day it is for some reason. Tuesday I thought it was Thursday and today I thought it was Friday! I really hate when that happens because that makes for a long week.

I started out today finishing the back stitching on the spring scarecrow on ATFE but I ended the day working on Dani, the Stitching Dragon. When I was in Friday mode, I decided to make a quick trip to my LNS and check and see if the last of my order had arrived. It did and so now I can work on finishing Dani. I am thinking about finishing her into a flat fold for me. :)

SBRR is Done!!

Here is my square for my piece in the SBRR. I have been going back and forth about putting our names in our squares. I really wanted to since this is something that is going to be special to me. Once I put my name on the left side it was lopsided and I did not consider that before I started to stitch my name. I quickly came up with stitching the element the dragon is representing.. I used the Kreinik VFB #4 thread to stitch and the backstitching. I really like how it has turned out so far. So it is all ready to be sent to Renee to stitch her dragon. That is not the impressive part. The impressive part will be when I actually get it mailed to her.