Happy Easter friends!!

Easter Treasure Hunt

Don't you just love a treasure hunt? I know I do! Many thanks to Jo for organizing this. We're getting near the end of the hunt now. Here's my letter:

S

Along with my letter, here's my Easter stitch.

I chose a Prairie Schooler design taken from Book 152, April.

It was stitched using DMC on 28 ct Lambswool. I did have it hanging on one of my cupboards at first but I just threw it in my bowl of Easter/Spring finishes and it looks pretty good there.

Happy Easter Everyone!

March WIPocalypse

March has just flown by but I think I've managed to do pretty well with my stitching this month. With the arrival of spring and Easter almost here I wanted to stitch some smalls or ornaments to add to my decor. I managed to stitch three pieces, two of which I also did the final finishing on. I'm unable to show one of my finishes since it's for an Easter treasure hunt taking place this weekend. I'll be able to post a pic of it at that time.

The above was completed for my commitment to the Ornament SAL. Then I continued on my Prairie Schooler kick!

Prairie Schooler Cheep minicard

The ornament for the Easter treasure hunt is also a Prairie Schooler design.

I also completed this handsome fellow just in time for St. Paddy's Day!

Heart in Hand Needleart St. Patrick's Bird

In addition to the smalls, I finished up two of my larger WIPs.

Heartstring Samplery Baby It's Cold Outside

and

Blackbird Designs Awake The Dawning Day

I'm so glad that I got the latter one done because I really want to get this housewarming gift to its new owner so it can grace the walls of her lovely new home. It's off to be stretched today and when that's done Pam can pick out the frame of her choice. 

As a reward for all these finishes, I started not one, but two new stitches. Both are Plum Street Sampler designs - Fruit of the Spirit followed by Viktor and Irina. 

That about covers it for this month. Watch out for some updated photos of the new starts over the next few weeks.

March Ornaments

I really needed a taste of spring around here after all the snow we received during the month so my ornament for this month was completed fairly early on. I chose this one for its pretty spring colours. Stitching it was like a breath of fresh air.

I ended up finishing it as a small pillow to display in my dough bowl with my other spring/Easter finishes.

This one stitched up so quickly that I moved on to another PS design. This is from the Cheep minicard.

This sweet chick is really quite small and I plan on finishing it up as a felt ornament. 
I've got a taste of Spring fever so next month's ornie could be another spring addition. I've got a thing for tulips so maybe I can find something with them in it. Hello sun, let's melt away all that snow!!

A progress update

It's been a little while since I've posted a pic for you of my BBD Awake the Dawning Day. This piece got put aside for a bit but now I'm back on track and making an effort to make a serious dent in this one.

 This is a housewarming gift for my friend Pam so I'd like to get it completed fairly soon.

This is the only thing that I've stitched on during the past week. The springlike weather earlier in the week got me on to some spring cleaning especially since I knew we were having a house full of guests this past weekend. We hosted a potluck dinner for one of Bob's choirs and about 25-30 attended. Clarisse loves it when we have people over! She acts as hostess and greets everyone at the door. Mind you, she got a bit lazy at one point and in typical Ragdoll fashion flopped down at the top of the stairs to watch the proceedings from there.

She was a big hit and there were many who would have liked to take her home with them!

My Wednesday afternoon craft group are really getting into preparing for spring and Easter's arrival. These are some of the projects they're currently working on.

Thea's Welcome

Another of Thea's lovely applique

Shirley's Easter Chick

Thea is our master of applique and I swear she churns out 1-2 new pieces each week. 

I allowed myself to place a small order following the Needlework Market to purchase a couple of the new releases. I also included a couple of recently released charts. 

I'm a huge fan of both of these designers and can hardly wait to get started on one of these new additions. Aren't they lovely?

The school winter breaks in our area have come to an end and the kids returned to school just in time for our latest snowstorm. We are supposed to receive 15-20 cm of snow today but it's currently stopped and we only have about 8 cm on the ground. I'm not disappointed though. I've had my fill of winter and can hardly wait to see green grass once more. I'll leave you with a pic of my grandchildren celebrating their school break. They thought perhaps a swim at the local pool would be a great change of pace from toboganning.

My latest finish and a new start

Could spring be just around the corner? I'm certainly hoping so. I heard the first flock of geese returning to the area yesterday. I've yet to see a robin but I expect it won't be long now.

With the change to daylight savings time I'm feeling much more energetic. Yesterday I finished up two more smalls. One is my ornament for the month and the second is for an Easter blog hop so unfortunately I can't show them until the end of the month. However I can show you this!

Heartstring Samplery Baby It's Cold Outside
stitched on 36ct PTP Ale
using WDW and GAST

Just as winter is coming to a close I finished up this beauty. I loved working on this piece and by next year at this time I hope to have it framed and gracing my walls. 
I managed to get three more of my finishes stretched and matted this month so that I can gradually have them framed over the coming year. Spreading them out doesn't hurt the pocketbook as much as when I take them in together. I decided to display one of them on a easel for now until it's framed. This is one of Midsummer Night's Designs called Peace Inside.

I also finished up this little fella just in time for St. Patrick's Day  celebrations this weekend. I'll be working on a pillow finish for him today. I was hoping to find a large shamrock button to grace that empty spot on the right but so far no luck. The chart called for a JABC large shamrock which it appears they don't make anymore. All I can find are the tiny shamrocks.

Heart in Hand Needleart St. Patrick's Bird

Today I'm halfway through stitching one of the Prairie Schooler minicards which will be finished off as a spring ornament. 
I've completed a little more on BBD Awake the Dawning Day but not enough for another picture.

Having finished Baby It's Cold, I allowed myself another new start on the weekend. It's from Plum Street Samplers and is called Fruit of the Spirit. I'm stitching this with a silk conversion provided by Vicky Clayton of Hand Dyed Fibers on the recommended 32 ct Vintage Sand Dune linen. I've started on the centre house and haven't got too much done yet. The colours of the silks are just gorgeous! This is such a colourful design and I'm looking forward to seeing more of it develop.

We had some exciting news here last week. My mother bought a ticket in Ontario's Heart & Stroke lottery and won one of the vehicular prizes. She has the choice of a 2013 Lexus, a 2013 Mercedes or $70,000 cash! My mom is on vacation in Florida at the moment and they were unable to reach her. However I guess there is a spot on the back of the ticket for an alternate contact number so they were finally able to reach my sister with the news. 
Since Mom doesn't drive she has decided to take the cash prize. She plans on using it to replace her home's carpets with hardwood and to help her vacation down south next winter. Woo hoo, congrats Mom!!

It's a dull rainy day here and the week promises to bring back some colder temperatures. I was really hoping that the sun would remain a few days and help melt some of that snow, especially in our back yard. The back yard faces north and it seems like it takes forever for the snow to disappear back there. I'm trying to get out to the gazebo on some of the warm days but so far the snow is still too deep to get anywhere near the door. My DH says he's going to shovel a path for me to the gazebo door which will certainly help.  When the sun is shining it's very warm inside there and I'd much rather be stitching outdoors than inside after being cooped up all winter. Then I can watch some of my feathered friends as they are all starting to return once more.

We're running out of room here!

These two were having a territorial battle!

Thank you for all of your well wishes. My cold has finally exited after two weeks. It's about time!
Hope your week is off to a great start!

March TUSAL

I almost forgot about my TUSAL report today. It wasn't until I checked the calendar regarding an appointment that I noticed the new moon on today's date. Here are all my orts since last month's post. Lots of greens from my St. Paddy's Day stitch and browns and whites from Baby It's Cold Outside. Both of these pieces are now complete and I will be posting pictures tomorrow. There's also some greens in there from my BBD Awake the Dawning Day.

I got tired of winter and with the official start to spring just around the corner, I pulled out some spring decor to brighten up the house.  
Temperatures have been warming up so now all we need is for all this snow to melt a little quicker. I'll be back tomorrow with another post detailing all my recent stitching and finishes.

A little of this and that

I've managed to come down with my first cold of the season and I'm feeling pretty miserable. Just your typical stuff, nothing exciting but you all know how it feels when your throat is raw and your nose is stuffed. I was already feeling housebound somewhat after we were hit with another winter storm. Look, the poor birds won't even be able to get in their house after this storm! They'll have to shovel too!

Now, after another 10 inches or so of the miserable white stuff and then this cold, I needed a taste of spring. So here's what I whipped up yesterday.

Stone & Thread Hoppity

This little stitched piece has been hanging around for three years and it was time I finally did something with it. Besides this I sewed up another small pillow finish for my Random Acts of Stitching Kindness group. It will be mailed out today to surprise one of the members. 

A check of the mail brought a couple more items to brighten my day. First off was a RAK from Melanie who is a new member of the above blog. Melanie gifted me with a chart from my wishlist.

  
In addition to this, Patty C RAK'd me with a copy of one of her new designs called Let's Stitch.
A big thank you to both ladies for making my day and bringing a smile to my face!

The mailman also brought me a package containing these lovelies.

I won these fabrics from Needleworker's Delight (aka Silkweaver). It seems they have a draw on the first of each month from all their email newsletter subscribers and I was the lucky winner for February. These fabrics are 32 ct overdyed Wexford linen. They're huge cuts too. I think the one piece is 18 x 35! It's hard to see in this pic but the latter fabric is a light shade of the colour of thread used for the serging. Gorgeous!!

You may recall that Anne was the winner of my Grown Your Own Blog party giveaway. I had stitched for her one of Patty C designs called Heartfelt Stitches which is currently my blog header. I finally got it sewed up into a little pillow for Anne and it has now reached its destination in BC. I'm sorry Anne but I've had to borrow one of your pics here because I forgot to take a picture of the finished pillow.

I spent most of the day of the storm indoors, stitching on Baby It's Cold Outside. It's almost complete and I should have a picture for you on the next post. Now I'm hunting down some spring and Easter stitches. I'll leave you with some pics of the visitors to my bird feeder this morning.