Spring Giveaway!

Look who's having a spring giveaway!

Did you guess correctly? That's right, it's Nancy over at The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. Just follow the link over to her shop for a visit and to check out her wonderful selection of trims and floss. Then add your name to the comments for a chance at her giveaway. Don't forget to mention that I sent you!
Good luck!

She's Done It Again!

Nancy that is, over at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. Follow the link to see her latest wonderful sampler chart giveaway. You won't be disappointed! Don't forget to tell her I sent you over.

First TUSAL of Fall and another giveaway

Fall is just flying by and so did my TUSAL. I didn't realize until this morning that the day for my post had passed me by. So albeit a little late, here is my first fall post of my orts.

My little owl friend is standing by to show them off.

Lots of black from my Torah stitch and rust, green and melon shades from my Pumpkin Blossom stitches and Song of Spring. It was a pretty fruitful month as far as stitching goes. 

While I have your attention, I've also discovered a second giveaway over at Victorian Motto. This time Nancy is giving away a lovely Sewing Necessaire Present! This would make an awesome gift for a stitching buddy so drop on by her blog and see the lovely gift she is offering.
I'll be back later today or tomorrow with an updated post of my stitching for you. Until then, keep those stitches coming!

Fabulous Giveaways

Come join in the fun! There are currently two fabulous giveaways being offered by our fellow bloggers.

Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is offering a chance to win one of her new Gingerbread Trim Packs. If you have never used any of Nancy's trims, let me tell you that you are in for a treat! Head on over and pay her a visit and don't forget to tell her I sent you.

Secondly, Chiara from The Grey Tail is offering the choice between two signed patterns that she will be picking up during her visit to Albimente, the biggest needlework fair in Italy. Hurry on over before she leaves!

You don't want to miss these!

Fantastic Birthday Giveaway

Nancy over at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe is celebrating her upcoming birthday in a big way. She is having an absolutely fabulous giveaway and trying to share it with as many of her followers as possible. Drop by here and check it out. Nancy's items are top notch and I can vouch for that having been a former winner. Good luck in the draw and don't forget to mention that I sent you her way!

Giveaway notice

No, it's not me this time (however there's reason to celebrate!). Instead I have two fabulous giveaways to fill you in on.

The first is over at Sub Rosa. Esther is celebrating her second blogoversary with a wonderful giveaway. If you have never checked out her designs you definitely have to pay her a visit! She has a number of fabulous freebies too.

I've been on holidays and consequently am just getting caught up on the blogs so I'm just squeaking in under the deadline on this one. Better hurry, you only have until midnight tonight!

The second fabulous giveaway is over at The Snowflower Diaries. This is the first giveaway for this amazing blog and its budding new designer. Please stop by and pay a visit. You won't be disappointed.

As for me, this is my 400th post and I celebrated the anniversary of my 6th year of blogging in June. I promise I will host a giveaway to celebrate however there is far too much going on this summer and I just don't have the time to organize one right now. By summer's end I hope to have an official giveaway to mark the occasion so keep an eye out for a future notice!

Fabulous Giveaway

Check out Kim's fabulous giveaway over at Wisdom with Needle and Thread. She is celebrating her first milestone in blogging and believe me, this giveaway is amazing! Congrats Kim!

Lynn's July WIPocalypse

Most of you may have already seen these pics on my recent posts but here are all my WIPocalypse stitches for the past month.

Maissonnette aux Fraises

Magic Garden Sampler

Patriotic Heart by San-Man Originals

Lizzie Kate Land That I Love

Shakespeare's Peddler Count Your Blessings
a Travelling Pattern

I've been ill a good portion of the last month so most of my stitching has taken place during the last week or so. I've also just about completed a piece by The Sampler Girl that I'm stitching for my blogging anniversary giveaway. I'll show pics once it's completed. If you haven't had a chance to enter the giveaway yet, get your name in quickly here. The draw will take place tomorrow, July 9th. 

Good luck!

Giveaway Time!

Thanks to all of you for your recent comments and welcome to all my new followers. Yippee, I made 200! I'm amazed that so many find my posts worth reading and I'm so fortunate to have made so many blogging friends through your comments. Before I post about my giveaway I'll show a few pics so you can see what I've been up to. 




May and June have been extremely busy months for us. This is the time of year when my hubby's choirs wind down and there are lots of year end potlucks and parties. The bell choir that Bob directs played during the village garage sale in the neighbouring village of Winchester. This is the last time that Bob performed with them because he has now resigned to pursue other endeavours next year.
I'll miss hearing them and they're always so fun to watch.

Winchester United Church Senior Handbell Ringers

Bob, doing what he does best!

Then came the proms. Yes, that's plural. I only have one niece but she managed to get invitations to three different proms! I considered myself lucky enough to get just one invite. My sister sent me these pics of my niece in the two different dresses that she wore.

My niece Dana and her Mom, my sis, Lana

Back view of the dress

This next one is from her own prom.

Don't they make a cute couple?

Following the prom came graduation. Dana's brother and my nephew graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree. Congratulations Andrew! One more year and he'll have his Nursing degree!

Andrew and family

My Mom was also able to make the graduation. This is amazing because just a few short months ago she was unable to walk because of her back. 

Andrew and Grandma Joy

Mom will turn 82 in August. She sure doesn't look it, does she?

Life has been hectic and there hasn't been a heck of a lot of room for stitching. Finally things are slowing down and I'm able to pick up needle and thread once more. My friend Pam came over last Friday evening and we stitched for a couple hours. I was also able to put in several hours waiting during some of Bob's rehearsals.

Magic Garden Sampler is getting close to a finish now. Only the side border remains.

I pulled out my Canada Day stitch for last year since our July 1st celebrations are almost here. I haven't got it framed yet but I found an easel to put it on to show it off. This one is an adaptation of LHN America.

I've also started stitching another small for Canada Day. Hopefully it will be finished by tomorrow. I'm proudly using my patriotic O Canada scissors from Dinky Dyes. The fob was made by one of our Tuesday night stitchers. It's hard to make out but in the second picture you can see that the charms are little beavers which is our national symbol.

So that's what has kept me tied up for several weeks now so that my blogging has suffered. I did promise you a giveaway in honour of my 5th blogging anniversary. I will also add one for my 200 followers and my 300th post. First prize will be a stitched item made by moi. The second and third prizes I haven't fully sorted out yet but they will be made up of some finishing fabric, scissors, and floss. I know many of you may be away celebrating the upcoming Canada Day and 4th of July so I will wait until Monday, July 9th to draw the winners. You need only comment on this post but, to make it interesting, let me know what your favourite summer pastime is. 
Mine is cottaging in the Muskoka's. I was introduced to this lovely area by my husband on our honeymoon and we've returned there each summer since. We spend most of our time on the water, boating in and around the various islands. This shot was taken from the back of the boat as we made our way through the lake.

Good luck to everyone entering!!

Mother's Day, A finish and giveaways galore!

I hope that all of the mothers out there in blogland had a most enjoyable Mother's Day. Our day turned out to be absolutely glorious with sunny skies and warm temps. My youngest son, Chris, returned home unexpectedly for a job interview so he treated me to a lovely lunch on Sunday at my favourite bagel & deli haunt. Chris' girlfriend and my son Daniel also joined Bob and me. Only Jeff was unable to join us, having visited two weeks ago.

We had a great time catching up. It looks like Chris will have a job waiting for him when he returns to the area on June 1st. It may be only part time for the summer but they expect to have a full time position for him by September. Following our afternoon, Daniel accompanied us back home and spent the day on Monday helping me weed the gardens and lay mulch. Thanks so much Dan! It was a fantastic Mother's Day gift since my hip is not cooperating these days and I wasn't sure just how I was going to get things done.


The lovely weather continues and I was able to plant my containers on the patio. However, prior to my gardening, I had another stitching finish. Early this morning I put in the final stitches on Peace Inside. 

The design called for my initials but there was a gap just above the left side of the house that I filled in with the year of completion as well. This was a delight to work on and only reinforced my love of Midsummer Night Designs. This won't be my last one by any means!

Luck has been running with me in the past couple of weeks since I've been the winner of three separate giveaways! One of my winnings has arrived (BBD Friends booklet) which was a giveaway from Melissa . However I've also been fortunate enough to win two of Donna's latest chart releases. One of these is the start of a whole new series called Birds of a Funky Feather. Love them! Click on Donna's link to drop by at By The Bay Needleart and have a peek. Then this week Edgar emailed me to let me know I'd won a set of Musicals DVDs. How lucky can a girl get? Thank you so much to all my generous blogging friends for hosting these giveaways. Since I just finished celebrating my birthday last Friday, it has been almost like a continuation of the celebration! I'll post pics when all the items have arrived. 


Speaking of my birthday, my DH surprised me with a Brother sewing machine especially for novices. Let the fun begin!! I've only seen pictures because it's on order and we've asked them to hold off shipment until we return from a trip home for our high school reunion. During my absence I won't have a lot of time for blogging. As it is, I need to apologize for my lack of comments lately. Spring cleaning, family matters and getting the yards cleaned up has been taking up a good portion of my time. I've still been checking in to read blogs but I haven't had the time to leave comments. I'm hoping things will settle down mid June. I'll be celebrating 6 yrs of blogging then and I think it's time for me to have a giveaway. Six years of blogging, nearly 300 posts and almost 200 followers! Wow! Time to start planning!  

A truly lovely weekend!

This weekend it finally felt as if spring had truly arrived. The weather was almost balmy and Saturday there wasn't a cloud to be seen. After a week of high winds and rain it was most welcome. I keep peeking around the corner 'cause I know it's just too good to be true!

For the first time this year I was actually out on the deck stitching. Yeah!! It didn't last for long though and this is the reason why

My two most favourite little girls in the world arrived Saturday afternoon to spend an overnight with Grandma Lynn. We've been trying to get together for weeks now but either my schedule or Dad's just wouldn't jive. In the meantime, both Easter and Oceanne's 6th birthday passed us by. Finally we were able to all be together and celebrate both occasions.

Seeing as it was such a fantastic day Saturday, we spent the afternoon out on the deck blowing bubbles with fancy bubble pipes and the like courtesy of Uncle Dan. Great fun was had by all!

When the girls were in bed for the night, an exhausted Grandma attempted to continue stitching but ended up falling asleep, needle in hand.

The picture now following will show you how the day began today! Summer is such a little clown!

So now I sit recuperating, tired, but loving every memory of every minute spent together this weekend. The girls are home in their own beds now but will be returning in three weeks time to help celebrate my retirement. They may have to put me in a home after that visit, lol!

My pitiful stitching progess of the past week now follows.

First up, Sweet Little Berries. You'd think I'd be finished with this little quickie by now but it has been tossed aside lately in favour of Spring Quakers. I'm finally getting around to stitching the berries. The pattern suggests using the floss in such a way as to shade the berrries, dark on one side and light on the other. Unfortunately, the overdyed floss does not always cooperate. What I have left is not all that varied so I'm just stitching the berries as charted. There is some small variation in colour and it's just fine.

Next, Spring Quakers. I've concentrated only on the one motif this week. I'd really hoped that I'd have it finished by now but as you can see I made it only halfway throught.

There are so many colour changes in this piece with a lot of confetti stitching that I find I waste a lot of time changing my needle. Sometimes I feel like I'm getting nowhere fast. I'm sitting here looking at the pic of it and I apologize if it appears a little blurry. Or is that just my tired eyes?

The only other stitchy related pic I have for you this week is of a recent framed stitch which I picked up.

Waxing Moon Witches Garden has been sitting folded in my completion drawer for some time now, just waiting for me to pull it out and head off to the framers. It looks a little washed out in this picture due to the bright sunlight. The leaves on the sunflower's stem are almost invisible! Trust me though, it looks much better indoors.

I may not have been stitching much this past week but I have considered it a rather lucky week. First I won $40 on two of my Lotto Max tickets which had been hiding in the bottom of my purse. Then I received an email informing me that I'd won another giveaway! Karen, a fellow Canadian, celebrated her 300th post with her first giveaway. My winnings are a $40 gift certificate from my favourite online needlework shop! Thank you so much Karen!! I was so excited when I found out. I seem to be on a roll lately.

Speaking of giveaways, Deborah of Cranberry Samplings is having a wonderful giveaway to celebrate her 400th post! She is offering a lovely stitched sewing box, personalized with your inital and filled with sewing related goodies. Go ahead and check it out. Wow, and to think I was excited by 200 posts!

Now I'm off to put up my feet, watch a little TV and perhaps put in some of those little crossed things. That's if I can keep my eyes from crossing too!

A finish for my giveaway

I finished stitching my little chicks on Monday and today I spent the morning getting them all finished up. For those of you who guessed Prairie Schooler, you would be correct. They're from book 107, Just Hatched. I thought I had some 32 ct fabric for stitching this but alas there was nothing but 28 ct so the egg is a little larger than I'd planned. As for the egg shape, my finishing skills leave a lot to be desired. What I lack in finishing I make up for with enthusiasm. I'm thrilled to be sharing something I stitched with one of you. If I could I'd make an egg for each and every one of you. You have all blessed me with your friendship, insight and skills. Thank you all so much!

BTW, I have no intention of sharing just how long it took me to complete this today. Can someone please tell me how to finish off the ends on this kind of trim!? Just suffice it to say that during the process there were several words that need not be spoken here that passed through my lips, lol!

In any case I'm learning as I go and hope that whoever wins my little chicks will be forgiving.

In addition to my own giveaway I've got together some items for the TUSAL giveaway over at Daffycat's blog. I picked a few more fabrics as well as finishing off a small pinkeep. It's from a freebie offered by Donna at By The Bay Needleart.

Now I just have to get everything into an envelope and mailed. This promises to be a very exciting draw at the end of the year to which so many people have donated items, both handmade and otherwise.

I've managed to finish off Maison No 4 this week with the exception of the outside border on 2 sides. I didn't calculate very well and consequently ran out of floss before I'd finished stitching. So now it sits on hold until another skein arrives which I purchased online. I'll post a final pic when that happens. I've spent a couple of evening stitching on Cast All Your Cares but a good portion of that was spent frogging so I won't have an updated picture of that until later this weekend.

I know several of you have commented on the snow you received on the weekend after such a promising leadup to spring with all the milder temperatures. Our snow had pretty well disappeared until that time as well. The first days of spring brought some pretty heavy snow which fortunately has now disappeared. Here are a few pics I took from the window during one of the snowfalls.

I love how the little sparrows have huddled under the boughs of the tree next door.

Gotta feel sorry for all those little critters who are once more out and about and then get whammied again!

Hope everyone is having a good week. Happy Stitching!

Giveaway peek

My camera is back home once again and now I can give you a peek at the goodies in my giveaway! I've included some fabrics for spring finishes, a spool of ribbon adorned with butterflies, a pair of Uptown Girl scissors and the LHN chart Simple Joys.

Besides these I'm stitching up something with a spring theme. I only have about a days worth of the actual stitching left and then the finishing which will probably have to wait until my days off work next Thursday and Friday. Once I'm finished with it I'll post a picture of it for you. In the meantime here's a sneak peek! Any ideas? Just remember to leave a comment on my post of March 17.

Maison No 4 is at a bit of a standstill at the moment. I've put it aside in order to finish up the stitching on my giveaway. I'm so close to a finish on it though. Just a tiny bit of the basket to finish off and then the border all around.

With Spring Quaker I've concentrated on finishing up the motif I'd left half done in the last picture. That's pretty much where I'm at now. I've had a slow weekend with nothing more to do than stitching but I can't seem to settle much. I'm up, I'm down, checking the computer, back to stitching, sorting through my stash.... you get the idea! Maybe it's spring fever!!

Edit.. I forgot to mention that the draw for the giveaway is open until Sunday March 27 . I had mentioned in the previous post that the draw was open until Sunday March 26. I guess I don't know how to read a calendar! Also the draw is open to both current and new followers as well so pass the word along to your friends. The more, the merrier!