November

11.13.11 updated to add finished pic
Hey, Friends!

The leaves have mostly fallen today, but a few days ago I caught some colors of fall at home 2011.  They are so beautiful… the golden maple held her leaves long enough to turn, and the burning bushes are truly ablaze!

Remember I said I’d be stitching a few ornies?  I’ve decided to pick up with the Little House Needlework ornies I started last year – on 28 ct over one.  I just love ‘em!

Instead of stitching a lot the last few days, I’ve been searching for the little sticker that goes on the license plate – I have the registration side, but not the sticker – what on earth did I do with it?

This week my new phone came – it’s an iPhone.  You probably don’t know (or care) but I’ve been a Blackberry person for quite some time, so this is my first adventure with the touch screen.  It has been ok, but I Am glad to have Siri – the  assistant I can chat with for problems!  Who would have ever thought it possible?

Thanks for stopping by!  I appreciate all your words of kindness and humor!

I hope you have a delightful autumn weekend – watching football, playing in the yard, traveling, stitching, or whatever else with those you love!

PeaceëLoveëJoy
and Happy Stitching
Charlene♥SC

A finish, a start, and a SAL

Hey, Friends!

It has been a busy work week– so much that I didn’t even venture out for Stitch Night this week – not that I didn’t stop by the LNS to pick up the new Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart, Pumpkin Farm, and a couple of BBDs that were in the sale bin! 

What is the finish?  It’s the December Cardinal ornament from Victorian Sampler Button Up Birdies series (I meant to pick up number two and forgot it).  I used HDF silks and some DMC rayon to get the sheen I wanted.  It called for red beads, but I wanted the snow to show up more, so I used beads there.

The SAL is with a Yahoo group called The Stitch Specialists.  Abi is the moderator/owner of the group, and she is offering a SAL that will teach a number of special stitches.  The first in the series, to get us going, is the trunk of the tree in cross stitch.  I’m using 28ct Irish linen in Tea and started with DMC Variations 4140.  Each ‘limb’ of the tree will focus on a different stitch.

And the new start?  It’s the continuation of BBD’s Anniversary of the Heart series, Valentine Rose.  It is a very tiny start - the green.  There would be more if I hadn't had to take most of it out - I missed the change in design along the border there.  I’m enjoying being a part of the BBD Yahoo group - a great gathering of very nice stitchers!

I did set up a new system for my fabric, some graphs, and threads.  They’re now in rolling plastic-drawer bins.  They're not the most lovely things, but they are practical for me.  I can drag the whole thing around, or pull out one drawer and take it along. 

There are graphs in these.  They're by season, holiday, or theme...

 

These are fabrics, and this drawer has the 32ct and higher . 

The top drawer here IS   reserved for BBD graphs (my new obsession)!

And these are special fibers - the DMCs are in plastic tool chests*.

You will note that I didn't say "organized" within the system.  These are Vikki Clayton's silk Hand-Dyed Fibers. Once I asked her about a certain color, and she asked what design I was using it for.  When I said, none, I just like the color, she laughed ... 

These are silk on wooden spools - often called Buttonhole Twist - that I've collected over the years.  I used them primarily when doing embroidery on crazy quilts.  They are mostly Belding - Hemingway, Coats & Clark or Corticelli.

 These are a variety of miscellanous silk fibers.  The ones on the big cardboard spools are what is sold today as buttonhole twist, but it's not quite the same as the fiber on the tiny wooden spools.  The little black spools are Krenikik, Soie Perlee - don't know if they make it any more.

These are again some old fibers that I collected when I was into tatting.  They're mostly cotton, but a few lovely silks on the wooden spools.  They're smooth and so fine to touch.

One of these days we'll have show and tell with some buttons!  I hear your question, and No, there is hardly anything that has to do with needle arts that I don't love!  

*- the DMCs are in plastic tool chests.  Well, they were.  While moving things about the other day I knocked over one of the chests that fell into the other and pushed half the drawers out, and then I grabbed for it, the others fell out, too.  They're still spread out in there, but I'll get over it one day and put them all back in order!  NO, I'm not showing you that but will show you how they did look.

The forecasters are saying we may be in for more snow Monday or Tuesday.  It’s not that I love snow so much, as you probably guessed, but I really do enjoy the extra stitching time if we don’t have to work!  And since I’m not working today, enough dilly-dallying – I’m off to do a little more blog visiting then on to stitching!  

Thanks for coming by today.  I look forward to hearing your Needler’s Point and checking in to see what you’ve been up to lately!

PeaceëLoveëJoy
and Happy Stitching

Charlene♥SC

December - Winter?

Hey, Friends! 

It’s not winter, but it sure has been feeling like it is!  At almost 11:00 a.m. and only 32~.  So… what’s better to do on these cold, December days than stitch?

Yesterday was the SC Stitch-In at The French Hens in Manning, coordinated by Amy (Down Sunshine Lane).  Typical for me, I arrived late (not last), but it was a great day with good stitching, good food, and great fun chatting and laughing with the other folks! 

 We had an ornament exchange, and I got this very pretty ornament from Hildit.  She said it was her first, but I don’t know that I believe that.  It’s hanging on my little stitched ornaments’ tree now!  Great job, Hildit, and Thank you! 

Yvonne got the one I made, the cardinal from BBD, Tis the Season.  Ladies, you were correct.  The red is CC Cupid. 

Amy had a surprise gift bag for each of us, too.  There's a pretty fabric that will be perfect for backing ornaments, one of everyones favorite DMC - 115, and several nice goodies for treats.  My pics aren't the best, but you can see more at Amy’s Stitching blog.

I’ve made a few other ornaments since Thanksgiving.  The tree is from a Just Cross Stitch Ornament edition.  The little hearts with snowmen are Heartstruck Friends.   

Just so happens that today is the New Moon, which means it’s TUSAL day!  I will finish stuffing the month of December, then begin a new ornament in January.  If you’re interested in becoming a TuSAL participant, visit Bonny’s Bits. She mentioned recently that she was going to try to give the project a jump start.

Do you remember a while ago that I won a gift from Pat at Gatherings?  Well, I finally decided what to use it for.  It's a paper trimmer to use for cutting mat board for finishing ornaments, etc.  I've wanted one for a long while, but didn't want to pay as much as needed for the heavy-duty model.  Thanks to Pat's prize from CSN Stores, I didn't have to! 

Planning for next year?  Karen mentioned over Thanksgiving that she uses holiday time to inventory stash and plan for the coming year.    I decided to do something similar and have been going through a box of graphs that need to be filed or organized in some way.  I’ve found things that I loved and had forgotten, didn’t remember at all, and thought ‘what possessed me to buy that?’  One thing I plan to do for sure.  I joined a new Blackbird Designs yahoo group, and they plan to have a SAL with the Anniversary of the Heart series.  I showed you the fabric I’d chosen in the last post, I think.  What else?  I haven’t nailed it down – probably whatever strikes my fancy at the time! 

Thanks for taking time to stop by today for a visit – and I always love your Needler’s Point comments!   I especially appreciate all your concern and well wishes for my health over the past month.  I’m feeling fit as a fiddle – better than I have in a very long time. 

Peace♥Love♥Joy
and Happy Stitching

Charlene♥SC

What a week…

I haven’t taken time to read messages or even blog scan, much.  Doesn’t seem so overwhelming if I keep up and do a bit a day, but now there are over 500 unread messages from one of my yahoo groups this week, and several hundred in others.  That’s where I found many of your blogs that I love to keep up with, and where many of you found me, but unless I have time at work to read messages, I’m sorry to say they get behind.  I don’t mean to be so quiet, but guess I’m falling into the lurker category.  I will take time to catch up with blogs, but that may be on the slower side too.

This was the third Tuesday week, which means Stitch Night at my LNS, The Stitch and Frame Shop.  I do love my LNS, and the ladies who run it.  Carol, one of the sweethearts who works there, was finishing up her scissor bed.  It was precious, and I said, that may just be next in my list of to-do’s.  So when I got home I started looking for it, just SURE it was in my stash.  I remember not buying the ‘bed’ thinking I could make one, but “did” get the chart.  So I looked with no luck.  Then I said, I think it was about the time I got Quaker Diamonds… which I did find, but the other wasn’t there.  So again I looked, in the stack of various stages of finish; no… and looked, in the bag of linens; no… and looked, in and through the works in progress; no… Guess I decided not to get it at all. 

I did finish my He’s a Flake ornament stitching, and started another little project.  This is a tiny preview…

Remember last week there was a contest from Vintage Workshop?  If you posted the link on your blog, they offered to send a sample of indigo junction cards.  I did, they did, and aren’t they just precious?

Well, that’ about it for me this week.  Hope you’re all having a fun-tastic weekend!  Thank you for stopping by, and hope to see you again, really soon!!

    Peace~Love~Joy
and Happy Stitching!

Charlene

Happy Valentines' Day

Happy Valentines’ Day to all my friends and readers out there!  I hope you have a very fine plan for this Valentines’ Day. 

I just noticed this observation on one of the blogs of a friend from UK.  Valentines’ Day in the UK is devoted to lovers, but in the US it is to celebrate the other types of love as well.  It hadn’t occurred to me that there was a distinct difference, but perhaps it’s because we in the US who don’t have lovers like to celebrate, too.

Oh, my!  I just about forgot to show you the snow we actually GOT this time it was predicted!  I started between 4 and 5 pm on Friday evening, and by midnight my deck looked like this.  Saturday morning, this was the view.

It was such a soft and pretty snow - yes, snow cream was in order!  Snow cream is a thing from childhood that can't be resisted when there is 'good snow.'

The recipe is simple - mix eggs, sugar, vanilla, evaporated milk, and slowly add snow!  When it's all mixed, put in containers for later consumption and place in the freezer - but keep out a bowl for the chef.  Yummy - so good!!

I’ve been the fortunate recipient of another RAOK (random act of kindness).  One of my long-time cyber friends, Judy, was organizing her craft room and decided to part with some of her cross stitch magazines.  I don’t know how she did, but it sure makes me happy!  I sat down with them last night, and there are loads of Halloween and Christmas graphs that will just HAVE to be done!  Thank you so much, Judy, for sharing all these great magazines with me – even the premier issue of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts. 

Isn’t it wonderful that there are such great and talented designers?  If it were left up to me to design, I’d get to use up my stash!!  Giggle  Even when I want to pick different colors for a chart, sometimes it’s not the easiest thing to do.  I spotted this over at About.com – several colorways to use when selecting.  It’s probably not the be all, end all, but it may be useful to help get started. 

Today is time for a TuSAL update.

With all the hearts and valentines I've been stitching this month, you can definetly see a tint of pink - and lots of red, too!

On to the stitching this week:

I finished Pear Tree, All Dolled Up ornament by Little House Needleworks. It is stitched on 28 ct Tea Monaco 1x1 using the recommended fibers.  If you'd like to see what the others who are in this SAL are up to you can visit here and from there there's a link to the original blog.

I did another Hugs by Khris Hurber of Dragonfly Stitches from the November 2006 issue of The Gift of Stitching on 28ct cream linen using DMC 48 variegated pink.

I saw a version of this Heart and Key in a Country Stitch magazine from 1992 and wanted to do them, and finally Be Mine from The Sampler Girl.

I do believe I’ve finished all the Valentine and Heart ornaments for a while, and I’ll be off on another genre soon… or catching up with all the SALs I’m doing!  Hum...no mention of actually finishing off all these ornaments, was there?  That has to be a priority one of these days.

I’ve started the Weather Poems for March with the Round Robin a group of us started recently.  Haven’t gotten a great deal done, but here’s the progress.

Thank you for stopping by and please do come back again soon!

    Peace~Love~Joy
and Happy Stitching! 

Charlene