August Ornament SAL

The last Wednesday of the month and time for my ornament check-in at Stitching Lotus ornament SAL.  This month I actually stitched a Christmas ornament! It seems I've stitched very few of these over the past few months and with Halloween coming it may be a couple more months before you see another Christmas ornie.

My ornament choice for this month is one which I've been meaning to stitch for some time now. I've been a fan of Midsummer Night Designs for awhile and this is one of her freebie designs offered.

I have the perfect fabric for finishing it too. (If I ever get around to my finishing!)
Having just returned home from the cottage, I have plenty of laundry and cleaning to keep me busy for a day or two so I'll check in on all your ornaments towards the weekend. Until then, happy stitching!

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!  

Back to Stitching

Life has been especially busy around our household as of late but this week things seem to be settling down some and once more I'm able to pick up needle and thread. Until yesterday I've worked on nothing except MND Peace Within. It's coming along quite nicely and I'm finding it a fun design to stitch on. I'm working around the areas where I've run out of the required floss for now. Here's where I left it Tuesday afternoon.

I love the different birds in this one, all sitting on their perches. Maybe that's why the cat is hanging around, lol! I'm not totally thrilled with the face on the young girl though. She looks like a bit of a sourpuss! I've yet to get a good picture of the fabric on this piece. It's actually more of a soft creamy yellow colour. In fact it's called Lemon Zest.
Last night I put this one aside to concentrate on Feather Your Nest again. I've finished up the bottom half of the chart and now I'm moving up to start stitching the large robin and tulip on the top half. There are a couple of similar leaves on that tulip and I ended up frogging the one. I was stitching a bottom leaf but was looking at an upper leaf as I stitched it so of course it didn't quite match up where it should in the pattern. That's what I get for trying to stitch while I watched NCIS! Tuesday night is normally my group stitching night but with the exception of one day, I've commuted into Ottawa or Cornwall every day now for the past 10 days. The last thing I felt like doing was getting into a car again so I plunked myself in my stitching chair in front of the TV and settled in.


The mail today brought me an order of charts which I'd forgotten all about. When I placed this order from Anita's Little Stitches, she was away and so the order wasn't mailed right away. It was a pleasant surprise when it showed up and I'm anxious to stitch one of these newbie charts. Take a peek, they're from two of my favourite designers, Shakespeare's Peddler and With Thy Needle & Thread. I'm sure you'll recognize them.

Having had a house guest this past weekend, we did a bit of sight seeing in Ottawa and I finally had a chance to visit The Canadian War Museum. It's amazing how much more interested you become in history the more you age! Although we didn't take any pictures on this visit, I do have one picture of my MIL that Bob took shortly after the museum opened in 2007. My MIL served in the Canadian Women Army Corps during WWII and this pic was taken in front of a display of the uniform worn by these women. My MIL is an amazing woman and was just short of her 90th birthday when this picture was taken. She no longer makes her annual visits to our home but is still in fairly good health. We'll be making a visit back home to check in on her and my mother next month.

I'm so glad I finally had the opportunity to make this visit to the museum too. So many times we live in an area with these wonderful attractions but as locals we don't always take advantage of what's in our own neighbourhoods.


Time to get my butt in gear. It's almost time to meet with my Wednesday afternoon group. I haven't joined them for 3 weeks now so it will be fun to catch up with everyone and see what they're working on now. Enjoy your day!!

A Fresh Start

Here's a pic of my new start, Peace Inside. It's designed by Midsummer Night Designs and it's such a fun stitch! Lots of colour which is just what I needed to brighten up my days. I ended up using three strands of floss for the blue in the house and the red in the roof. The coverage was just a little too thin with only the two strands. Consequently I've already run out of the CC Razzleberry . I didn't have a whole lot of this one left in my stash so I've just placed an order for another skein.  Any change in dye lot should be fine since the remainder is being used as an outline for the garden flowers. I think I'll stick with stitching this one on the weekend and then maybe return to Feather Your Nest next week.


Thank you all for your many well wishes. Since my medication has taken effect I'm feeling much better. I can now get a full night's sleep without interruption which has made all the difference in the world! I imagine I'll find out my test results in a week or so and I'll deal with it at that time. 
It's a beautiful spring day here and I've opened up all the windows to let in the fresh air. Love it! So does Clarisse whose been sitting by the window all day, watching the birds and squirrels.

I hope you all enjoy your weekend doing what you love best. Perhaps a little stitching?

For my sweetheart

Finished just in time for the big day! I put the final stitches in this on Sunday afternoon. I ended up restitching the word True because it looked like I'd stitched it with only 1 strand of floss rather than 2. The floss is by Silk 'N Colors and the colour is In the Burgandy. It's a 12 strand floss and I think that somehow I managed to split one strand into two. It wasn't noticeable but I feel much better about it. This is to be framed and will hang in my DH's office. I'm going to let him pick the frame that he wants.

I had to work this past weekend so Bob took me out for dinner to celebrate the holiday on the Friday night. He made a reservation at our favourite tea house in the village of Williamsburg. Once there, we ran into another couple who are friends and asked them to join us. It was a truly enjoyable, relaxing evening and a great way to celebrate Valentine Day.

I have a new start to share but I'll save that for later this week. I'm heading to bed now. They're calling for a flash freeze overnight and I imagine the roads will be rather tricky tomorrow morning. I'm driving a rental since my car is now in for repairs so I'd rather leave early and take my time. I never feel as comfortable when I'm not driving my own car.

Thank you for your continued well wishes for my back injury. I've improved considerably since last week .

I'll leave you with a picture of a gift that I received from a friend at Christmas which I think is really appropriate for Valentine Day. Trish knows how much I love Jim Shore collectables as well as cats and added this beauty to my collection. It's called Cozy Heart. I hope you all had cozy hearts at the close of this Valentine Day.

The North Wind Doth Blow

It most certainly does! That wind has been quite active and bitterly cold leading to increased time indoors to finish this sweet piece...... Little House Needlework North Wind. This has been a wonderful design to stitch but I've made an error which I won't let happen again. I chose the fabric for this piece from my stash. It's a dove gray Monaco and there was a paper pinned on to the fabric by the seller with the dimensions. I didn't check it, just folded it, found my centre and began stitching. Halfway through I realized that the fabric wasn't as wide as I'd anticipated! I only have an inch on either side of the border. I'm hoping that when John goes to stretch it, he can sew on another piece of fabric and perform a miracle. I won't make that mistake again. I'll make sure to measure each piece of fabric myself after I've purchased it. That said, I really enjoyed stitching on the Monaco and I'm checking my stash to see if I've got any more of it.

Following my accident last week I'd hoped to get in lots of stitching with my extra time off work. However my back has not cooperated. Keeping my head bent as I stitch results in more pain in the upper back and at the base of the neck. I also found things more uncomfortable when I returned to work this week. The commute into work didn't help matters any either. So I think I'll be making an appointment with a physiotherapist to help out. I consider myself very lucky especially when I think of one of my coworkers who also had an accident last week. She lost control of her car on black ice, rolled it three times and ended up landing upside down. This all took place during a snowstorm on Highway 401, our major east-west highway in Ontario. They had to break the glass in her window to get her out. She suffered a laceration to her forehead and she also has whiplash. We're all so glad that she's alright. This highway has a high volume of transport traffic and things could have been so much worse.

I want to thank all of you for the lovely get well wishes and concerned comments which you left for me. It has really helped knowing that I have so many great friends who care so much. Your concern has really touched me.

Following my NW finish, I brought out Fair, Kind, True, hoping to get it completed by Valentine Day. It's moving along nicely and I just may have the stitching completed in time but the finishing will come later. I also love the fabric I'm using for this one. The colour is Earthern by Picture This Plus and I think I will be ordering more of it. The fabric looks too light in this picture. It's a really lovely hand dyed sand colour. Fabric colours never seem to come out right in my pictures. I'm not sure if it's the lighting or what but I can never get them right!

I'll be bringing out Cast All Your Cares this weekend to put in some more stitches. However it's a little too big for taking to work with me so instead I've found another start. It's called Maison No 4 by Tra La La and I love the colours used in it. The colour scheme fits in very with Valentine's Day. I also couldn't resist the pull of Spring Quakers any longer and I finally put in my first stitches yesterday. I'll have a picture of my progress soon.

Last week I was thrilled to find out that I won the Pumpkin Challenge on Becky's blog. I've won a gift certificate for the online stitching store of my choice. I've chosen 123 Stitch and I think I will hang onto this until after the Nashville Needlework Market. I'm sure it will result in lots of new must-haves for my stash! Thank you very much Becky! The challenge was a lot of fun and really got me motivated especially in regards to finishing.

After the arrival last week of the hawk in my tree, I haven't seen any of the little birds around. Or any of the birds for that matter! They've all been in hiding. However the bright sun today has brought them all out again. Here are a couple pics of the some of the visitors to my tree today. I believe the small bird is a gold finch, fluffing her feathers to keep warm.

I hope all of you are keeping safe and warm during all this rotten weather. While we here in North America are shivering, our friends Down Under are having a bit of a heat wave. Maybe they'd like some visitors?!

Brutal cold results in more stitching

I think that's what the headlines should read in my corner of Ontario. And brutal it is. My outdoor thermometer read -33 C when I awoke this morning. That's -27 F for all those of you who don't deal in metric. The days are supposed to start getting warmer tomorrow but for now I'm happy to stay glued to my stitching chair. I've got 2 days off work due to my weekend stint and I'll gladly take them. It was a horrid week, weather wise and work wise. The finale was putting out my back yesterday which is another reason why I'm glued to my LaZyBoy. It's about the only spot where I can comfortably sit.

As a result of all this numb bum, I have a small finish and a new start. First off, A Cat In Snowman's Clothing. This was a really fun stitch which is probably why it finished off so quickly. It combines three things which I love...... cats, cardinals and snowmen. So many of you have left such sweet comments regarding this stitch and so here's a big group [[[hug]]] for all. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and leave a message.

I haven't quite decided how I'll finish this little guy yet. I'm not very inventive when it comes to finishes. Perhaps I can find a sweet frame for him.

After seeing some lovely Valentine designs being stitched on in blogland I decided to get on board and promptly searched my stash. Here's what I came up with - Fair, Kind, True by Midsummer Night Designs. I originally wanted to stitch Plum Street Samplers Beloved but I didn't have all the necessary supplies on hand. Fair, Kind, True calls for the use of GAST Cranberry but I've substituted with Needle n Silks In the Burgundy. I just love working with silk floss. It just seems to glide through the fabric. Speaking of which, the fabric is a lovely piece of 32ct Earthen lugana by Picture This Plus. Here's my progress so far.

I'm itching to start my Spring Quakers but I've vowed not to touch it until I get a little bit further through Cast All Your Cares. But every time I pass my craft room, it's like a magnet is drawing me in and I usually end up drooling over the design and fondling the fabric. It's a sickness, I swear it is, lol!

Many of you may know that as my retirement date comes closer, I'm getting a lot of my previous finishes either framed or stretched prior to framing. I know I won't have the extra cash flow handy to do this in the future. Two weeks ago, Michaels had a framing sale and I dropped off one of my stretched finishes for framing. Bob picked it up for me on his way home yesterday and here it is - LHN Nature's Beauty!

Now I'm headed back to my warm chair. It's much cooler here upstairs. I try to keep from turning up the thermostat too high and rely on the gas stove in the rec room to keep us cozy.

Have a great week and keep warm!