'Gone With The Wind'

It's been a hectic week and although I've dropped by to visit I haven't had much time to bring all of you up to date on the latest from here.

Last Wednesday I headed back to quilting morning at Centennial Quilts & once again had a lovely time. One of the other girls who is also a cross stitch addict had brought along some of her lovely projects to share. I'm now in the process of trying to convince 'B' that she really should join the blogging world & share her work with all of you.

I spent the morning working on the GFG quilt & managed to complete the flower I had previously been working on. I know it probably doesn't sound like I did much but a flower is not stitched in an hour, so I was very happy because I'd made some real progress. At the end of the stitching morning 'B' & I decided to visit Stitcher's Paradise. We were going in her car so I decided to put my things in my trunk before heading out. It was a very gusty day ----- need I say more? The worst part is that I was so excited about going to SP that I didn't even notice the flower blowing away. It wasn't until the evening when I was taking things out of the trunk that I noticed it was gone. Now I know that on the world scale of mishaps this doesn't even rate a zero but I do miss my flower. So friends take one last look & wave a fond goodbye.


Our visit to SP was great fun. This shop contains anything and everything for a cross sticher. I managed to control my urge to buy everything in sight and settled for one pattern plus fabric. Here is 'Mr. Belvedere' from the "Pen & Ink Cross Stitch Collection" http://www.ronnierowedesigns.com/ Isn't he adorable? He reminds me so much of our Max and I'll be stitching him for DH. The fabric is 25 count white Lugana and I'll be stitching one over in black (except for the blue eyes of course). It will be several months before I'm ready start Mr. Belvedere as I don't do well at having too many projects going at once and really do need to finish a few first.

I've been busy working on a 'Love Quilt' square for Katie Rose
http://lovequilts2007children.homestead.com/KatieRoseH.html
The pattern is 'Beauty Angel' from the September 2006 edition of The World of Cross Stitching.

As you can see Katie Rose's favorite colors are pink & purple which is why I've chosen to replace the blue dress with a purple one. Although I'll be using a border similar to the one on the pattern I won't be stiching in the word 'Beauty' as words seem to clutter the quilts up too much. I have also decided not to stitch in the angel wings as I feel that it looks great without.

Hope everyone is having a good week.

Done!!!!

There were four things I felt I should accomplish yesterday and believe it or not they're all done.


The first thing was the guest towel for my secret pal. Done! (colors look a little dull on the image) By the way thanks for the compliments about the pattern. If anyone would like it, just let me know & I'll mail it to you.

Secondly I had to sew the felt inlay into the needle book for 'sp'. Done!!

Next was the finishing of the halloween needle roll. All I needed to do was sew up the back, thread the ribbons & fill with poly-fil but since this is my first needle roll I thought it might be difficult & kept on putting it off. Done!!! and really not all that difficult. It turned out rather cute.

The final thing was not stitch related. I've been reading Susan Vreeland's "The Forest Lover", a historical fiction about the Canadian artist Emily Carr. I had a hard time getting into this book. Yesterday afternoon I sat outside on the patio and before it knew it - Done!!!! The further I got into the book the better it got.

Great stitch day - little stitching progress

Yesterday was a wonderful stitching day even though I probably only placed 25 new crosses on the handtowel I'm working on for the 'Secret Pal Exchange'. What made it so special? Well, not one but three things.

First of all Felicity is sending me the wonderful Margaret Sherry booklet. She doesn't even know me but saw on Alison's blog that I think it's adorable & rushed out to buy it for me. Thank you so much, I'm so looking forward to seeing my first MS patterns.

Secondly Alison agreed to team up with me for a project for all of 2007. We'll tell you more about it later but are both looking forward to a great stitching experience together.

And then as icing on the cake I attended a stitch morning at a local quilt shop. The mother & daughter who own the shop are wonderful women who make beautiful quilts & give quilting lessons (I attended a few when I started my applique quilting, which by the way I haven't pulled out in months). When I was in their store last week they invited me to their Wednesday morning get-togethers where everyone just works on whatever project they feel needs some work. Now I thought "quilt shop = quilting projects" & I brought my Grandmother's Flower Garden flowers to work on. Great surprise when I discovered that although some ladies were quilting, one lady was crocheting and two were cross-stitching. It was a wonderful morning with lots of stitching & chatting (or should I say CHATTING & stiching) & I thought: "I've found my Wednesday morning home here". I will try to resist the temptation of cross-stitching there & keep that morning for quilting as I have a long way to go.

Better share a few images as I'm always looking for pictures on other blogs. When you see these my theme for the 'Secret Pal Exchange' won't be a secret any longer but that's OK as she doesn't know me or my blog. I finally decided to stitch two things & buy a little kit in the same theme.

The needlebook is now finished except for the insertion of the blue felt page for the needles. I've bleeped out her name 'just in case'.

This handtowel is being stitched with a Victorian Homes pattern designed by Debbie Patrick. These houses are from my favorite city in the world (and I've seen a lot), San Francisco. When we were still living in Northern California I would visit Debbie's wonderful shop on Pier 39 every time we went into the city. Last year I heard that this particular shop has been closed but she still designs & sells both on-line & from another location. Her 'Golden Gate Bridge' is in my stash & often calls to me.

And then finally the little kit to round off the theme. It's an Anne Keenan Higgins design from Plaid Bucilla called 'New Home'. Now it's not that I know my SP has a new home, but I thought the pattern was cute (reminds me a bit of Michael Powell) and she can always leave the word or words off.

If your stitching week has been half as good as my stitching day was yesterday you're having a great week.

Lil' Melon House

It looks like a lot of stitchers are enjoying some small projects at the moment. Do you think it's the time of year? I really don't know why, but I just seem to need the feeling that I've accomplished & finished something.

Last week I signed up on the EMS board for their "Guess That Theme Secret Pal" exchange and have started stitching a small pattern which I think is very cute. It's called "Lil' Melon House" and is a complimentary design by Michelle Lutzen from http://www.stitchykitty.com/. I'm stitching on antique white 28 ct evenweave. The pattern has a stitch count of 32w x 53h so it really is nice & small. I hope to finish this into a needle book. The second part of the exchange will be a guest towel followed by ???. I have a few other ideas for little theme gifts which I hope to make (if time permits) before the September 26 mailing deadline. Won't devulge my chosen theme (you can choose from melon, red white & blue, flag, house, water, fruit or stripes>>>or perhaps you see other possibilities).

Hope everyone is having a good week.