Time for February's TUSAL

Just me and the hubby relaxing after a long day out... actually this is one of my favorite figurines.  I have decided that I will try to hi-light them in my posts.  This is called "True Love" by Annie Lee and it reminds me so much of hubby and I, down to the gray hair and houseshoes.  My TUSAL is full this month with the three finishes and the progress made on the Rose Sampler.  Off to select a new jar and filling it with orts for the next new moon.

2nd IHSW of 2012

Since my last post (15 Feb) I have wanted to announce that after smoking for over thirty years I have now been SMOKE FREE for 3 years.   Wooooo Hooooo!!!  Ok now that I got that out, here are my IHSW updates.  I didn’t seem to get as much done as I thought I should have but, I do have another finish for this year, even though this is only one of three kimonos to be stitched in this project.

I picked up the Rose Sampler and finished page three and started on page 4 as of last night.

Today with the hubby off from work we went out shopping and had lunch at a wonderful Japanese Restaurant, the grilled chicken and shrimp was delicious and of course I saw a kitty statue at the entrance reminding me of my last finish.  While hubby was ordering a new set of golf clubs I was able to get my hands on a copy of “365 Cross Stitch Designs” as if I needed 365 more.  I just love the large variety of card motifs it has and there are even a few Joan Elliott’s in there.   On Saturday I received my copy of “Cross Stitch Gold” magazine (issue #90) featuring Joan Elliott’s “Princess Cinderella”, it is lovely.  There is also a very beautiful rose worked in blackwork, which is actually white on navy blue evenweave.

 That would be something new for me… no I must resist starting another project.  I have definitely been bitten by that “start another” bug.  I have to go back to my old ways and finish the projects I have already started; they are beginning to pile up on my couch in big two gallon Ziploc bags.  All of the packages for my drawing winners have been mailed and I can mark this off as a big success.   

Thank you to all of my followers and anyone else who’s just browsing, please come again and leave comments, I love them all.  I’m off to make more of those wonderful little xxs.

Let's see, what's happened...

Since my last post which was to announce I had 50 followers, I have noticed that sometimes my blog shows I have 56, 53,46 then 42 and actually I think I had 50 for a while before they all showed up.  I have no idea why it jumps around like it does. If anybody knows the answer please let me know if it is something I’m doing wrong. Also do I have to be one of my own followers to comment on my own post?  I'm not very tec savy as you can probably tell. Anyway I have only received two winners’ addresses so as not to keep them waiting I will send out their packages today. 

I hope everyone had a good Valentine’s Day yesterday.  My hubby brought me these lovely cupcakes and they looked so good we ate some before I thought to take a picture to share but here is what I have left.  This is now my favorite bake shop.

As for stitching I started two more items, one is the “His Name is Jesus” I mentioned before and the second is another small Joan Elliott design.  It’s the first of three kimonos and I’m planning on stitching them all on the same piece of fabric to be framed together.   

I noticed that even though I wash my hands constantly during the day and while stitching somehow the fabric still gets dirty and I saw these covers that you could order that fit over your Q-snaps, then I thought why buy when I can make my own.  Which I did, it only took about 15 minutes.  I only made the one size because that’s the size Q-snap I use the most but it I decide to use a larger set I’ll have to make another cover to fit it.

Woop-de-do and La-De-Da

It is truly amazing, I now have 50 followers.  I would have never guessed that 50 people would want to read what I have to say on a regular basis.  So in honor of this grand occasion I have, with the aid of my daughter held a surprise grab-bag drawing.  There are 5 grab-bags and the winners are:
Rose Koslap (Christmas City Stitcher)
Tammy K (For the love of Cross Stitch)
Terri Patterson (no blog)
Mango girl (Naughts & Cross Stitches)
Mary (Stitches and More)
So if you wouldn't mind emailing me with your address I'll get these little tokens in the mail as soon as possible.  Thank you to all of my followers, you all and your comments are special to me. I look forward to reading them everyday. Again thank you all.  xxs

WIPOCALYSPE

It’s time again for Wipocalyspe, my goodness how time flies.  It you don’t know what this is click on the dragon button on my side bar and it will take you to more info.  As I’ve said in a previous post I love my instant gratification so I stitched mostly the last few days on my little lucky cat design and also I had two finishes near the end of January so my wips haven’t changed much but here they are.

One thing I did discover on the Rose Sampler is that I actually used the wrong shade of gray around that top edge.  I used DMC 413 (Dk Pewter Gray) instead of DMC 415 (Pearl Gray), the DMC 318 (Lt Steel Gray) was correct.  That misread turned out to be a good thing, I think that little bit of dark makes that edge pop.

This outline around the third woman’s face is all the progress I made the last time I touched the African Women but every stitch counts (pun intended). The Champagne is still untouched and the memorial is still on hold for soldier info.  Well I have to finish blog hopping so I can make more wonderful little xxs, so thanks for stopping by and leaving comments, I love them. 

What a Greaaaaat Super Bowl

Sale!  They had at “In Stitches Needlework” my local needlework store yesterday, everything was discounted and I got some really good bargains.  I know I need to buy more stash like I need another hole in my head but I couldn’t resist.  I picked up this little chart by Erica Michaels.  It is designed to be stitched on 40ct gauze (can you believe 40ct gauze) and is supposed to only be 1.8w x 1.8w ha ha (roflmao).  My progressive lenses aren’t that progressive, they would probably burst into flame if I tried stitching something that small. Here, take a look.

Anyway here is the chart and the fabric I bought for it, the threads are DMC and two of them are blended together which will make things interesting. My fabric is 28ct Cream colored Cashel.

Since I love instant gratification I have been stitching on and finished this little design from Joan Elliott’s “Oriental Collection” a small booklet that came with one of my many magazines.  If you eat Chinese food I’m sure you’ve seen this little statue in the restaurant before, I liked it and wanted to stitch it.  I don’t know what I’ll do with it but here it is and it’s stitched on a scrap of 28ct linen left over from a previous project so that piece didn’t go to waste.

Here also are a couple other goodies I got, one is white 30ct Northern Cross linen and the other is (to-die- for) 32ct linen in “Coffee Bean”, the picture is not doing it justice.  I have absolutely no idea what I am going to stitch on the fabric stash I have, which is getting kinda large (for me that is) but it’s fun to look at.

 I did watch the game and congrats to all the Giant fans on the Super Bowl win, even though neither of my teams was in it, I was cheering for Eli, you know Peyton’s little brother.   I thought the half-time show sucked big time but I loved most of the commercials especially the M & Ms and Doritos.  Well enough of me blabbing today, time to go make some wonderful little xxs.  Thanks for stopping by.

My first post of February

Well I had two finishes in January, what will February bring?  I am still trying to make contact with the mother of the soldier I stitched a memorial for, sadly with no success.  I have two more of the black and white figures to stitch and I got off to a great start on the African Women.  I haven’t forgotten about the New Year’s bottle but I’ve got 11 months to get that done.  I am totally in love with my Rose Sampler; my needle just seems to fly through the design with the single color.  Every time I start on it I can’t seem to put it down, as of 31 January I had almost completed the first three pages.  I found another design I am thinking about starting it is “His Name is Jesus” it is another freebie, from Joyful Expressions, I want to stitch it on 18ct white Aida but I haven’t decided on the floss yet.  Last night was stitch-in night at the LNS and I had planned to stitch on the Rose Sampler but you will never guess what I did. I pulled out the sampler and was ready to stitch and didn’t have my chart, so instead I worked on the African Women that I had taken to show the other ladies. There still wasn't much stitching getting done (at least on my part) but I had a excellent time as always. Here is just a quick pic of everything.

 Well that’s all for now, thanks all for stopping by, I’m off to make some wonderful little xxs.