The Elves Have Been Busy

The presents are wrapped, some cookies are baked and some more stitches are finished.  It is time to sit back and enjoy the next few days - after the boys help me with a quick round of cleaning in the morning!

After making the "Sleigh Rides", as seen in the last post, I was able to get a few more done for gifts.  They work up quickly and I think they look so cute!  Thanks again Sue!

I am now officially out of rusty jingle bells.  I may just have to try and make some rather than buying them.  There are a few tutorials out there in blogland and it looks pretty easy.

"Truly Thankful" by Heartstring Samplery has found a home in this:

And the Dirty Snowmen by Notforgotten Farm are now living in this:

After seeing how the snowmen look in their new home, I believe that "Primitive Winter", also by Notforgotten Farm, will find its home in the same frame. 

And finally, patterns by Sandy, "Merry Christmas" and "Noel".  I was ready to make them into little ornaments when I remembered these tiny frames that my mom bought for me some time ago.  I was so excited that they were a perfect fit!

The boys are all bathed, in their PJ's, and we are thinking of loading them in the car.  And go where?  Why to the Herr's Potato Chip Factory of course!  They have a wonderful Christmas light display set up around the factory grounds, all seen from the comfort of your car as you are driving through!  If you are ever in the area, I'd recommend taking the factory tour.  The samples of hot chips fresh off the line are amazing!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas!  May it be filled with much love and laughter surrounded by those you love.



December Time

Where has the time gone?  December seems to be moving at it's own quick pace.  We've been keeping busy with school craft fairs, school orchestra and band concerts, scout meetings, stitching get togethers, and of course there is the shopping (I'm done!), baking (only one batch of cookies done so far) and wrapping (oops..should get started on that!)

Today I stayed home and worked on finishing.  I started with this:

The "Believe" pattern is from Daffycat.  I stitched it in a variety of colors and made them in to little hanging gift tags.  Some of these will be going to friends as little gifts.

"Christmas Eve" is from The Sampler Girl  It became this:

"Peace" is from Blue Ribbon Designs  It now looks like this:

The small "Noel" and "Merry Christmas" are by Sandy and will be finished, along with a couple of other pieces, in a day or so - hopefully....

I also stitched this one up from Sue.  She was kind enough to share her pattern with me - thanks Sue!!

Another great stitch was from Heartstring Samplery  I loved the first "Truly Thankful" that Beth designed and was happy to hear that she will be making more variations of this for the changing seasons!  I found a great frame at my LNS and hope to frame this up soon.

PHEW!  I'm almost ready for bed.  Of course my boys think I need to wake them in the middle of the night so they can see the historic eclipse that will be occurring! 

I was so excited to check my mail this week and find a package from Myra!  Any one who has been lucky enough to receive something from her can tell you how beautiful her work is.  This is what she sent me:

Myra, I love it!  Myra made this adorable little skate ornament!  She also was nice enough to include not only the big candy cane for me, but a bag of miniature canes for the boys to share! 

In this crazy December Time, I want to thank all of you for stopping by.  Wishing all of you and your families a Merry Christmas!

(I did it!  I woke the boys up at 3am!!  This is what they saw:)

 

Crazy for Crabs!

It seems like the crab is pretty popular!!  Here is a closeup per Glenna's request.  Glenna, please shoot me an email when you get the chance!

And as a thank you to all of your support here is my Christmas Crab.  When I stitched the ornaments, I used both a Christmas red and green for the lettering.  You see the green version above and it was my favorite.  For the eyes, I used two red beads.

Christmas Crab by Bramblewood Stitches

If you decide to stitch this pattern, I'd love to see how you finish it!

We finished our decorating over the weekend and I will try and get some more photos to share.

Thanks again for stopping by and for all of your wonderful comments!

A Touch of the Season

Last weekend while the weather was still warm, my husband put up the outside Christmas lights.  The only other outdoor touches are a decorative sled on the porch bench and  a pine wreath that my mother was kind enough to make and bring when they visited on Thanksgiving.  Our lights outside are simple.  Red and green spot lights that my husband shines up into the branches of our favorite trees.  I'll have to see if I can get a picture that really shows the effect.

  I took a few quick pictures of some things that are in the process of being placed about the house.  The rest will follow this weekend, with everyone pitching in to Deck the Halls!

Primitive Winter and Dirty Snowmen are Notforgotten Farm patterns.  I stitched them last winter when we were snowed in and I am still trying to decide on a finish, any ideas?

The BBD Stocking I received as an exchange that Sharlotte hosted and it was stitched beautifully by Faye!  I have to confess that even though it is a Christmas stocking, I have had it hanging on my lamp since I received it!  I have enjoyed looking at it too much to put away!

On Thanksgiving my mom gave me the Mill Hill Santa kit.  It was a quick and fun piece to do!

  The red felt hearts were a gift from a dear friend. 

The designer for the framed Merry Christmas escapes my memory at the moment.  I really can not go searching through my stash pile to find it right now, as my husband is already asleep.  Can you guess where my patterns are?

The remaining pieces are my own.  Are you curious about the crab?  My neighbors have a house on the Chesapeake Bay and they decided to host a Christmas in July party back in 2009.  Instead of baking, cooking or buying something to take, I offered to create an ornament to mark the occasion.  Thus the crab with the beady red eyes!  This was my first attempt at sewing ornaments and I made one for each family to take home - 25 in all!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Until next time - happy stitching!



Fly on Over!!

If you have not done so already - fly on over to see Jennifer at Feathers in the Nest at http://feathersinthenest.blogspot.com/.  She is offering an amazing give away!!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!  I promise I will be back soon with more to post!

A Win, A Wigham and a Wish

It is a foggy, damp Monday morning here in my part of PA.  A good time to catch up on some household chores before the boys come home.  But first, a win, a Wigham and a wish! 

I recently won a give-away from Scully.  She is a fellow Pennsylvanian, from the other side of the state.  We met via a comment that she left here on my blog.  Her give-away included these two cute ornament patterns and this fantastic pair of scissors!  She was kind enough to also send this great cookbook!  I already have a few things picked out to try!

Thanks so much Scully!

  She can be found at:   http://cheerfullycrossing.blogspot.com  If you get a chance, pop on over and say hello! Like me, she is pretty new to having her own blog and I am sure she would appreciate a visit!

Since finishing "Truly Thankful", I have not started anything new.  I looked in my bag and decided to put a few more stitches in Mary Wigham from Needleprint Designs.  Here is a look at what I have so far:

I chose my own colors for this, using about 11 different DMC colors.  I think I am going to change the initials, dates, etc. on this to make it my own.  I will leave all of those until last, then I will decide.  Mary will be going back in the bag soon, as I have to start some holiday stitching!

So there you have my win and my Wigham.  Now, you will have my wish.  I wish for all of you to have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday filled with family, love and laughter! 

Thanks to all of you for stopping by and taking the time to leave me your wonderful comments!

Thankful Finish!

I put the finishing touches on "Let Us Be Truly Thankful" by Heartstring Samplery!!

 

Then I looked through some frames and found this one:

I used a piece of 36ct Barn Owl from my pile (I don't think that fabric is available anymore), and chose GASTs in Toffee, Summer Meadow, Picnic Basket, Burnt Orange and Avocado as substitutes for the DMC threads.

I enjoyed every stitch in this piece! 

Happy Stitching!

Catherine

*Just wanted to let you know that the trophy in the last post was the team trophy.  Each player will get a chance to "host" the trophy in his home for a period of time. Thanks to all for your congratulations to my son and his team.



Would You Rather......

Would you rather spend a beautiful November weekend outside looking at the sky and leaves....

enjoying what may very well be the last warm weekend of the season...

Or would you rather spend such a weekend at an indoor baseball tournament??

Well, a mother has to do what a mother has to do and when it leads to this:

It's all worth while!

And it wasn't all that bad, for in between games I was able to get a good start on the new Thanksgiving piece by the Heartstring Samplery called "Let Us Be Truly Thankful"

And while stitching on this between some nerve-wracking, nail-biting games, I thought about how truly thankful I am for these:

For without them, my beautiful fall weekends would be empty.

 Many thanks to all of you for the wonderful welcome and support that I have received since I decided to start sharing my life with you.

Bramblewood, My Childhood Home

"If you build it, he will come."  Does anyone remember this famous movie line?  Well, I built it and they came!  I can not even begin to tell you how excited I was to find that I have over 50 followers!  Thank you all for your support and wonderful comments. 

A few of you commented on the name I chose for my blog.  A few years ago, a neighbor asked me to design and stitch some things for her to give as gifts.  I wanted to have a name to place on the back of the pieces.  My mom suggested using Bramblewood and I loved it!  I was raised in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania and back in the day, the house I grew up in was known as Bramblewood.  Now you know the story behind Bramblewood Stitches!

My goal for this past weekend was to finish Tombstone Spots by the Primitive Needle.  I started this last fall, put it away to stitch Christmas gifts, picked it back up a couple of weeks ago and finally finished it this past weekend.  The only changes I made were to squeeze in my initials and the year 2010.

 

Thank you again for being so welcoming!

Catherine



Settling In, Turning a Leaf



Tonite we turn our clocks back.   The amount of daylight will be short and precious.  I love this time of year, a time of settling in, slowing down and reconnecting. 

As some of you may already know, my life is not my own.  I share it with my husband of seventeen years and our three boys.

This is the time of year when our crazy baseball schedule is slowing down, now limited to a few indoor tournaments and practices.  The boys still keep me on my toes with other activities and their social schedules, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I have been stalking reading and following many of your blogs for quite some time now.  Talented, creative, inspirational, generous and supportive - that's how I have found the stitching community.  With the turning of the clocks, I will turn a new leaf and start sharing more of my life through this blog.  Some of you have helped this along with your poking, prodding and encouragement!  Thank you for that - I think.....

When I do find time just for myself, I can usually be found stitching, reading, or digging in my gardens.  More about all that will come in time. 

Please bear with me while I settle in and try to get a handle on writing my own blog. Hopefully, those who find me will stay and join me on my journey!  I can't promise that I will write every day, or even every week, but I will try my best to make it interesting for you when I do write!

Thanks for stopping by!

Catherine