Perfect PIF Surprise

Last week I received a PIF gift from Jen. She stitched me the PS Spring and made it into a little pin keep. It's much prettier than the photo and so neatly done. I wish my finishing skills were half as good - there's no glue anywhere it shouldn't be which never happens for me! Thank you Jen for your kindness.

Fair & Square Exchange Received

Today when I got home, I found my Fair & Square Patriotic Exchange from Jill in the mail. What a nice surprise after a very long day. Jill stitched the most adorable sheep design. I am thinking it will finish nicely into a little tasseled pillow. She also included some great patriotic buttons, a fat quarter of patriotic fabric, a home made stitch counter with a wonderful heart charm, some Caron Watercolors in the color Williamsburg, some blue ribbon and a great Remember the Ladies kit - Nice Matters. I love this saying and will stitch it remind myself that it does matter for those days when I'm feeling not so nice. Jill also made the wonderful card you see in the photos. Thanks Jill for making my first F&S exchange such a nice one. Now to finish the squares so I can display them for the 4th of July!

An FO and a start and some knitting goodies

Well, I finally completed sock one of my Butterflies socks and immediately cast on for the second one - no second sock syndrome here as I need this pair to be finished before June 21st which is the start of the summer of socks adventure. The completed sock fits perfectly so I'm really happy about that. I will have to figure out a way to photograph them to show the butterflies.

I also received a Knit Picks order last week. My butterfly socks are being knit on Knit Picks 6" nickel-plated DPNs and I'm really enjoying working with them. I was concerned with them being longer than my usual 5" needles but I find that I loose less stitches. I never thought I'd find anything I liked better than my beloved Brittanies but these just might be the needles. In fact, I like them so much I ordered a "variety pack" to have more sizes on hand. I also succumbed to two more knitting books - 2 Socks at-a-Time by Melissa Morgan-Oakes and Knitting in Plain English by Maggie Righetti which was recently reissued.

I've read through the 2 at a time socks instructions and this morning I ordered some 40" nickel-plated needles from Knit Picks to try the technique. I still love working with DPNS but must admit knitting two together would improve my odds of completing at least one pair for the Summer of Socks challenge!

Needlework Show Aftermath

The aftermath of my visit to the Needlework show has arrived. There are still one or two goodies left to arrive but the majority came on Tuesday. I'm thinking I got a little out of control! LOL

I just couldn't resist the CHS Black Horse Inn after seeing the photo on Joanie's blog and when I looked at her other charts, Frederick really called to me too. I have Anna's Bird and they remind me of each other and will probably look good together - once they're stitched in say, 20 years?


I also fell in love with these three My Mark charts. Two are new - the Grace and Home and one is an older one. I've never stitched anything by this designer but am looking forward to getting started on Grace which I will give as a gift.

I also bought the first Salem Sisters chart to go with the second one I bought a while back and a new chart by the Marking Sampler. In addition to the samplers, there is a sewing type pocket that isn't shown.

I've decided that I need to start time allotments for all of my ongoing projects and reading - if I work on each different project for an hour at a time, I might have a hope of getting something

accomplished! Wishful thinking? Maybe......

It's that time again....

I've once again signed up for the SOS or Summer of Socks 2008. Last year was pretty dismal but I have hopes that I will have much more to show by the time September 1st rolls around. I will need to kick it into high gear to finish these before the official start date as they won't count towards my total for most socks contest. I don't have high expectations to win that category but I intend to set a personal goal of at least three pairs this summer. I'm trying to get all of my house related chores done before summer starts so I can just sit out on the porch and drink sweet tea and knit socks. Gotta give the neighbors something to talk about right?

Speaking of getting things done, Sunday was UFO Sunday so I picked up my CHS Alphabet project. I didn't get a whole lot done but some progress is better than none. I also worked on finishing an exchange that's due to be mailed out by 5/30 and started my first ever Fair and Square exchange pieces. I'm off to work on those right now.

Tossing & Binding, Binding & Tossing

Well, I've been mulling over what to do about my Waterlilies Cherry situation. Yesterday, I dug through all of my specialty threads and fabric to see if I could come up with either a better fabric choice or a different thread option. I just happened to find that I had two SNC Shepherd's Moon skeins and did the old floss toss.

The top fabric is the original 28 ct. cashel I bought when I ordered the Waterlilies and the bottom, darker fabric is a 28 ct. R&R fabric I had in my stash. I think it's called light mocha or light cappuccino. I've already lost the fabric tag and it was just yesterday! While a large part of the appeal of the project was seeing it in the Cherry colorway, I'm really thinking of using the Shepherd's Moon and the darker fabric. The contrast won't be as great but I think it would be really pretty and subtle. I'm probably going to sit down this afternoon and put in the basting lines for the project and just start stitching.

While I've been mulling over what to do on the stitching front, I've been working on my quilt. Last Sunday I went to the quilt shop an hour before it opened and the wonderful and talented Donna helped me get the binding sewn on. I was so thrilled to finally cut off all of the excess fabric and hit the home stretch in finishing this project. Thursday night I took it to SnB and started hand sewing the binding. I worked on it a little bit this morning and I'm almost finished with one side. I think I will pick this up whenever I can't decide what to work on and little by little it will get done. My goal is to have all the binding done by May 31st. I think I'm more in love with my backing fabric than the front! LOL I just love how that little rim of black sets it off. It's much prettier than in the photo but I just couldn't seem to get a nice crisp picture. I will try again when we get some sunshine.