Mail Art Happy Dance!!

I was lucky enough to have Barbara as my exchange partner for the SBEBB Valentine's exchange and she stitched me a fantastic piece of mail art - my first ever! It arrived in my post box like this. I think when it arrived in the states, the post office was worried it would be damaged so it came to me in this envelope!

I couldn't wait to get the envelope opened as I've never receive a piece of mail art before - it is sooooo cool! The verse on the back is "Heart and hand will ne're part my friend" along with a heart, hand and a cute dog paw and rabbit design. Inside Barbara included some wonderful red heart buttons, some Stranded By the Sea floss, a skein of Six Strand Sweets thread in Black Cherry, a skein of DMC linen thread which I'm looking forward to trying out, a skein of Old Willow Floss in English Quaker Rose and a yummy piece of 32 ct. linen in mulberry. I especially love the lining fabric which is a yummy pink paisely design. I've been very into paisley lately so Barbara really chose well! Thank you dear friend!

Stitching to show!

Joanie asked for some stitching and I actually have three things to be able to share this evening.

The first is my fabulous SBEBB House Exchange piece from Judith in the Netherlands. She stitched me an adorable piece - Patti's Sweet Shop - from last years market neighborhood. She did a fantastic job finishing it into a flat fold that's sitting on top of my computer monitor. I think I may take to work and set it on my monitor there. Thank you Judith!

Next up is an update picture of my CHS Dainty House Wren piece. The last time I stitched on this was October and I took it with me last Thursday night to my stitching group. I worked the top half of the tree. I'm more than 1/2 way done with this piece so I really need to keep the momentum going on it.

And finally, I picked up my CHS Alphabet UFO to stitch on the first Sunday of every month with my yahoo group. I didn't get too much done because a friend came over for some knitting help with a pair of socks but at least I have some further progress to show. I'm working on H is for Horse. I hope to have more progress on both pieces to share very soon! I also started a birthday present but I won't be able to show that for a bit longer.

Quilting University

A friend at work talked me into signing up for "Quilt University" at my local quilt shop. There are four classes, Quilting 101, through 104. Quilting 101 was getting to know your machine including how to take it apart and clean it and was worth the price of all four classes together. Quilting 102 was how to use your rotary cutter and rulers and cut straight - something I needed very much. Quilting 103 was starting to put together the medallion design that you see here. I have to say I'm really impressed with myself even though I did mix up two of my fabrics which resulted in a design not exactly as I planned - par for the course for me when quilting! I had Donna at Kathie's Quilt Shoppe pick the fabrics for me. Quilting 104 will be next Sunday and I will sew on the border you see (it's just laid on for effect) and do the binding. While I don't know that I'll ever be a true quilter, these classes have greatly improved my confidence and skills. I plan to donate the final product to our United Way campaign raffle in October.

Exchanges Ready to Go

This is a picture of my SBEBB House Exchange project. I had a really hard time picking something and kept coming back to this design again and again. I think I was drawn to the bright colors - not something to be seen around here for quite a while to come. The recipient lives in equally winterly conditions so I hope it brightens up her day. It's a design by Brown House Studio stitched over one on 32ct Ice Blue Belfast. I made it into a little needle book - I'm so not creative or talented when it comes to finshing. I'm just waiting on some delayed stash to send out the package which should have gone today. I hope she doesn't mind the extra day or so.

I've also got my SBEBB Valentine's Exchange package ready to go to the post office tomorrow. I can't show the photo just yet because the recipient knows I have her for a partner! Sorry Su but you'll have to wait until it reaches Cumbria! I will post a picture once it's arrived.

Now it's finally back to some stitching for myself!

When in Maine

Last winter my boss decided that I needed to experience a dog sled ride - a very Maine thing to do according to her. Well we never ended up doing it but the Christian radio station I've been listening to was advertising that they would be broadcasting live at the Mushers Bowl on Jan. 20th. So I checked it out and it was Bridgton's Winter Carnival weekend and they had dog sled races, dog sled rides and a bunch of other wintery type events planned. We haven't had much snow and a lot of the ice still hasn't frozen enough to be safe so they postponed the races until February but you could still take some dog sled rides. So I signed my boss and I up and away we went to Bridgton which is in the western part of the state about 2 hours north of where I am.

The weather has been really cold and Saturday's temps were about 19 with a pretty fierce wind. We got to the apple farm where they were doing the rides and here are some photos of our adventure. It was neat but not something I ever need to repeat. Loud (dogs barking constantly), stinky (dogs pooping on the run) and bumpy (not enough snow cover and frozen ruts) not to mention wicked cold. The poor pups got really tired trying to pull us -we offered to get out and walk we felt so guilty! There was just not enough snow for it to be easy for them to pull. But they were really sweet and all of them were super friendly. Don't they look tired in the photo on the right? This was taken after we had gotten back to the starting point and off the sled.


But my boss and I had a good day out, a nice lunch afterwards and a meandering drive home with a little shopping in Portland on the way back. All in all, a great Maine experience!

January Weather Wierdness

This morning I walked Cowboy in just a sweatshirt and exercise pants (on me that is!!) and today's high is supposed to be in the 60s. Now mind you it's January in Maine!!! Sure gives some credence to the belief in global warming. I heard birds singing yesteday. This is so not normal and I fear we will be getting snow in May at the rate we are going.

I don't have any photos to show for a bit as I'm nose to the needle trying to complete two exchange pieces due for the end of the month. These are the last two exchange committements other than a birthday group I am in this year that I'm going to have for a while. I have not worked on any of my own projects since probably the end of October. And at this rate, I'm never going to be able to buy any new stash because I don't even have one project on my 25 things list anywhere near completion. I have not been counting exchange pieces as they really haven't reduced by stash of charts, etc. so I really need to get some personal stitching time in.

I am going to work very hard to get caught up and back to a routine of regular blog reading this month. Things have slowed down quite a bit thankfully and I hope to get back to a more regular blogging schedule. Hope you have all been well and thanks for stopping by!

Holiday Family Portait

Last year my employer offered all employees the opportunity to have a free 8x10 family portrait taken at the hospital by a professional photographer. I didn't take advantage of the offer last year but this year decided to have one done with Cowboy. This is the resulting photo which I've sent to my dad and stepmother as a Christmas present. Kind of weird to send a photo of yourself as a gift but I've never had a portrait done and my dad will be very thrilled I think. Of course I bought more than just an 8x10 because my guy is so handsome. So look out family!
LOL

And of course in true Cowboy fashion, there is more to the story. After taking this photo, the photographer asked if I would like a picture of just Cowboy so I of course said yes. Well I don't know what I was thinking but I took the leash off - didn't want it in the photo - and he was fine for the first few tries but then of course I took my hand off him and he was out of the door in a flash. So out I go into the hospital to catch him. I think everything is fine as he's heading towards the family waiting room into our special care unit which has a door. What I didn't know was that there's a door from that room into the unit (which was not supposed to be open but of course was). Of course my dear demon dog heads right into the unit and into a patient room which was thankfully empty. One of the nurses got the door shut and caught him but of course it was a bit of pandemonium for a few minutes there.

We went home right after that!

Chocolate Covered Cherries

Yum, Yum!! That is the name of this sock yarn which I bought from Spunky Eclectic, a Maine based yarn seller. This is the first of the 2 pairs of socks that I need to have finished by Christmas and I really love how it turned out. It's going to be hard to give these away! The yarn is great to work with and they worked up much faster using #3 needles and sport weight yarn versus #1 and fingering weight. I've started the second and am going to be knitting madly on the body any minute I get. I hope to finish it by Saturday so I can cast on for another pair with a different color of Spunky Eclectic.

I also hope to put a few starting stitches in a birthday gift that is due December 23rd. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be late in mailing it out but I'm gonna do my best!

Why I'm not a quilter

While I was working on exchange stitching, I also started this. The pattern is called Turning Twenty and for most people it's a very easy quilt pattern. Everything was going very smoothly until I realized, after sewing my last block together, that the yellow, pink and blue blocks in the layout corresponded to light, medium and dark fabric choices. In the Turning Twenty pattern, no two fabrics should touch each other. As you can tell, mine do - largely as a result of the light not dawning as to what the pink, yellow and blue meant. You can stop laughing now!

Oh well, it's my own unique creation. I still have to add a strip border on all sides and possibly an outside border depending on the finished size. The fabrics are what motivated me to make the quilt - they are different from my usual pallet but I really, really like them. And this is a very easy pattern to make - so much so that I will probably attempt another just to get it right! But I don't think I'll ever call myself a quilter.

Yikes it's been a while since I posted!

Sorry about the hiatus but things have just continued to be very busy at work and I have been madly scrambling to finish a few items that I couldn't show. I have been very, very busy the last six weeks. That means no blogging and virtually no blog reading as well. I really feel out of touch and I'm going to have to make a focused effort to catch up with all of my favorite bloggers and there are many of you out there!

I guess I will start my first December post with a photo of the wonderful Secret Santa exchange package I received from Danielle. She and I are part of a wonderful Yahoo group and I was lucky enough to have here as the person sending to me. She stitched the Country Cottage Needleworks ornament from JCS 2006. It is absolutely wonderful and she did a great job with the finishing. I think it's even prettier than in the magazine. She also included a wonderful little holiday note pad I'm hanging on my refrigerator and three GAST threads, Oatmeal, Cranberry and Pine - so Christmassy! She also spoiled me with two charts of my wish list, PS Winter Winds (I got Autumn Winds at Hershey CATS) and HIH's 2006 Collector's heart. Plus there was a yummy chocolate bar that won't last long around here!

Here is what I sent to my exchange partner, Peg. It is a freebie from Brightneedle and I stitched it over one on 28ct Water Lily and used a beaded edge finish and hanger. Peg seemed to be happy with it but one corner came out a little wonky because I think I left too much fabric in the seams - 1/2 inch vs. 1/4 which I think would have been better.












I have also managed to finally finish these socks - both of them although there is only one in this photo - and I've started another pair with a yummy hand dyed sock yarn from Spunky Eclectic. The yarn is sport weight and I'm using #3 needles so it's coming along faster. Think I can get two more pairs done before Christmas? LOL I'm going to try.

Where did October go???

I know I've been missing in action for most of the month but I've been totally buried with work and too tired to get on the computer once I've finally made it home. I was the chair of my company's United Way campaign which took up way more time than I thought it would when I somehow agreed to chair the thing. And we've been implementing an intranet at work which I'm very involved with and I'm still trying to catch up on all the work that didn't get done during October. I am one burnt out woman! But I hope to recharge myself by taking a long weekend this weekend. I have Friday and Monday off so I hope to get some R&R (and not the fabric) to recharge my batteries.

As a result of the work load, I didn't accomplish much stitching during the month. I did manage to finish the bottom half of CHS Dainty House Wren and begin working on towards the top and I've started a Christmas exchange piece that is over one. I didn't get anymore work done on my PS Autumn Winds - I'm so behind Cathy and Joanie on this - and nothing on my CHS alphabet. Hopefully, November will be a much better month for progress. I will share my progress on CHS DHW on Friday as I have to go to a dinner for work tomorrow night.

Does this finish count?

Saturday I hosted a stitch in at my house and Sandy, her friend Lisa and Nancy were able to come. It was a lovely day and I really enjoyed the chance to meet Lisa and to get together again with Nancy and Sandy.

I was able to finish this little house which will be sent off to become part of a quilt that will be raffled off within my Yahoo group. The picture makes it look like the thread coverage is bad but it's really not.

This was not one of the projects I had listed on my 25 Projects Challenge - do you think it should coun't anyway?

10/25/50 Project Challenge

I have decided to join the 10/25/50 projects challenge.

The Rules:

• Have fun reducing your pattern stash.
• There is no time limit- people have different size projects they would like to work on.
• Thou shall not purchase any new patterns until 10, 25, or 50 projects have been stitched.
• Pattern size does not matter.
• This challenge can also apply to knitting, beading, sewing and crocheting patterns.
• You can make some exemptions. My exceptions are that I am allowed to buy stash for inclusion in exchange packages and I can buy supplies needed to complete projects on my list as long as I absolutely can't substitute something using my existing stash.
• Gifts, gift cards, trades, RAKs (stash sent by others randomly) and patterns bought with gift money are not a violation of this challenge.
• Freebies count as part of your total and you can aquire them at any point.
• You do not have to declare the projects you intend to work on. (If listing would make you feel better please do so)
• The offical start date of this challenge for me was October 1, 2006.
  
  Here is my list (30 not 25) in no particular order. I actually have a list of 50 items but I am committing to stitching and completing 25 of the projects listed before buying any new stash for myself.
  
  1. CHS Dainty Housewren - started in June 2006
  2. BOAF Spring Garden
  3. BOAF Summer Garden
  4. Blue Ribbon Heart of Gold
  5. M Designs Floral Sampler
  6. Maggie Bonanomi Live Each Season
  7. BOAF Kindness Sampler
  8. Jeanette Douglass One GOod Urn Deserves Another
  9. Goode Huswife In Her House
  10. Goode Huswife With My Needle
  11. PS Autumn Winds - Started 10.10.06
  12. HIH Halloween Medley
  13. HIH Winter Medley
  14. HIH 2005 Collectors Heart
  15. Stitch Every Day - Cure
  16. Stitch Every Day - Partridge In A Pear Tree
  17. Stitch Every Day - Bring It On
  18. Stitch Every Day - Oh Holy Night
  19. Stitch Every Day - Jingle All The Way
  20. SamSarah - Light In the Window
  21. Sweetheart Tree - Rhodes Butterfly Fob
  22. Trilogy Family
  23. LK Winter Snippet
  24. Le ChenE Dore - Automne
  25. CHS Rejoice
  26. Goode Huswife - Pumpkins and Peacocks
  27. Trilogy Bountiful
  28. Sweetheart Tree - Welcome
  29. This Too Shall Pass Scissor Keep
  30. This Too Shall Pass Pin keeper
  
  I plan to make a list for knitting as well.

Halloween Goodies Galore

Tonight I received my Halloween exchange from Rachel who is part of my yahoo group. She put together the most fabulous package including the incredibly stitched Trix or Treats from Blackbird Designs. I absolutely love this design and had been thinking of stitching it for myself. But I know I could not have done as wonderful a job as Rachel did. I'm just so thrilled and I have it displayed prominently on my TV armoire. It's just fantastic! I also received two skeins of Carries Threads in Harvest Moon and Halloween which I'm eager to try. I now have a new pair of Halloween socks and some yarn to make a quick scarf with plus lots of yummy candy as well.

And she thoughtfully included a Halloween squeaky toy that Cowboy had a lot of fun with tonight. I took it away as I wanted it to last more than one night. He had it squeaking up a storm and had quite a lot of fun chasing it around the house.

Thank you Rachel - it's the perfect end to a long week! Especially on Friday the 13th.

PS Autumn Winds SAL

Here is my progress on PS Autumn Winds. Pretty minimal looking considering its over 100 stitches but I'm happy with it all the same. I was so tired last night thtI wasn't able to accomplish much. I did put a few stitches in this morning before work to get it to the point of this photo. It's hard to put down!

Tonight I should work on my CHS alphabet piece but I'm so tired I'm afraid to pick it up and have to frog everything. Instead I will lay on the couch with Cowboy and read my book group book. We're reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller this month. It's a weird book and I'm not sure whether I like it or not. Has anyone else ever read it? I'd love to hear what you thought.

Scarry Wabbit

I am lucky enough to be on the receiving end of another wonderful exchange piece from Susi. She made me the adorable SD's Scarry Wabbit and her finishing is just incredible. She sued some of the glow in the dark floss which I plan to test out myself since she sent me a skein along with some lovely hand dyed fabric appropriately named "Boo" and some wonderful buttons too.
Thank you Susi for a wonderful exchange piece. Your finishing skills are just fantastic. I must learn to finish better, I MUST!

I've hung it on the door to my bedroom. Once Halloween is over, I will find a place to add it to my heart wall!

Tonight I plan to start stitching on my PS Autumn Winds piece. I've been up since 3:30 this morning so I probably won't last long but at least I'll get to put those first marvelous stitches in. I will post my progress tomorrow!

Weekend Stitching Progress

We had a glorious weekend weatherwise but in between raking leaves and taking long walks with Cowboy, I managed to get a little bit of stitching done. As of today I'm going back to a rotation but here's what I worked on over the weekend.

The left is obviously CHS Dainty House Wren and I'm almost done the bottom half. I just need to complete the green outside border and I can move on to the top half. The project to the right is a house from the Trilogy's Trilogy Square chart which I've had for ages. It will become part of a quilt of houses created by members of the yahoo group I belong to. Everyone who contributes a square will have a chance to win the quilt. Pretty neat huh? Sorry the photo is so lousy but it's coming along nicely. I hope to finish it up this week and get it in the mail finally!

As I mentioned, I'm going back to a rotation in order to keep myself organized. I'm hoping it will keep me motivated to be successful at the 10/25/50 project challenge that is buzzing around the stitching blog world. I will be committing to completing 25 projects before buying any new stash with the exceptions of buying fabric or threads I just can't find in my own stash to complete a project (hard to imagine) and buying something for an exchange partner. I've got a list of 50 projects made already so I will chose 25 and list them here later this week.

So far my weekly rotation looks like this:

1. Monday - Exchange stitching (this includes my yahoo group house for now)
2. Tuesday - PS Autumn Winds SAL with Cathy and Joanie
3. Wednesday - CHS Alphabet Series
4. Thursday - CHS Dainty House Wren
5. Friday - Scrapbooking or exchange stitching
6. Saturday - Sock Knitting and stitching anything on my current rotation
7. Sunday - HAED The Storey Keeper

I'm off to stitch on my house!

Dog Days of Autumn

This evening after work, Cowboy and I took our usual walk and I finally remembered to bring my camera. The fall leaves are changing quickly and I wanted to try and get some pictures of the leaves and Cowboy outside. We went to our usual haunt, St. Ignatius' Cemetery. It really is a gorgeous place to walk and one of my favorite places in town.

Don't I have the handsomest pup in the world?

Cowboy has had a bit of a transformation over the last two weeks. Right before I took him to be boarded, I'd been working a lot on basic obedience. I took him to a different kennel while I was in Hershey and I think they did quite a bit of work with him as well. Last night we went to a drop in obedience class and there were two other dogs in the class. I was so proud of how well he did. He was much less aggressive and agitated and did very well remembering all his commands. And tonight when we walked, I took him out without using the Gentle Leader collar and he was quite good. I think he's finally coming around to trust me and is even now seeking me out for attention. But of course he's no angel - tonight I came home to find he'd chewed off the cover of one of my rental books which of course I now own courtesy of Cowboy! LOL Can't get to comfortable can I?

Stitching Progress at CATS

I brought three projects to work on in Hershey, this CHS piece, the CHS alphabet and a new project, Heart of Gold by Blue Ribbon Designs. But once I picked up Dainty House Wren, I didn't want to stop working on it. I've put some more stitches in since I've been home so the verse is complete and I'm working on another small quilt star motif at the bottom. It would be great if I could finish this in time for show and tell at my stitch in on the 21st but I'm not sure I'll have enough time between now and then. We shall see!

CATS Part Two

Saturday Nancy and I met up with Joanie for breakfast. Since Joanie had a 1:00pm class, we decided to hit Chocolate World early so we could be back in time. I'm really glad we took the time to go - it was interesting to see how they make the chocolate and shop afterwards in the gift area. Boy were there a lot of things chocolate! After we finished shopping, we headed back to the Lodge and basically stitched the day away. Joanie's class ran the full time and she joined us in the Stitchers Lounge afterwards. A lot of stitchers left on Saturday I think because it was less crowded. Pete had gone to a model show earlier in the day and was watching football but we dragged him out to dinner at Applebee's and then Nancy, Jo and I found a comfy stitching spot and just stitched away.

We had breakfast with Joanie on Sunday and then we all headed for home. I spent the night at my sister's again and drove back to Maine on Monday morning. Cowboy seemed to survive his boarding experience at the new kennel and we are slowly getting back into our usual routine.

Here's a photo of my stash acquisitions - not that much compared to what I bought last year.
I bought two large pieces of R & R fabric - 28 ct in Country French Cappucino and Lambswool, a hand dyed piece of greenish 28ct Quaker's Cloth from Dinky Dyes as well as two skeins of their silk, one called Wild Lavender and one called Eungella. It's for The Cat's Whisker's Feed My Soul. Joanie and I are going to do an SAL with this as she bought some lovely lavender fabric and similar threads for this project from Dinky Dyes too. I also bought two Prairie Schooler charts, Autumn Winds which I had to have before I left CATS and Birdsong I which I got for 50% off. I also bought the coolest "candle bracelet" kit made by Liz Turner Diehl. It's a packet of beads that you string to go around the neck of a jar candle. My kit was hearts of course and I'm not sure I will use if for a candle or make a bracelet or use the charms for stitching pieces. It was a really clever idea either way and relatively inexpensive.

Cathy, Joanie and I are planning to do a SAL with the PS Autumn Winds. If you have the chart, feel free to join us!