ABC Hornbook

I finished Primitive Needle's "ABC Hornbook" last night! I really enjoyed stitching this pattern, the words stitched up so quick! Here are some pictures (wrinkly fabric, as usual).

Here it is in all it's glory. I can't wait to have some money so I can frame it and hang it in my craft room.

I love the little fox!

The top half

The bottom half

Now that I'm done with this, I'm going to concentrate on creating a baby sampler for my friend who is having a baby in December. I'm really excited about it and I hope she loves it.!

In other news, I found this website called Swagbucks where you can earn "bucks" for searching the web (which we all do anyway). You can redeem the "bucks" for prizes or gift cards (i.e., Amazon & Paypal).

CLICK HERE TO JOIN

Prudence Wilcome

I finished Prudence Wilcome yesterday! I apologize for the poor quality of the photograph. Now I just need to wait until I have some extra money so that I can buy frames for Carolina Handley and Prudence Wilcome. They are both designs from Carriage House Samplings and were both stitched on 40 count Purely Primitive from Silkweaver.

I absolutely love this new design from Plum Street Samplers, Paradise Lost. If only I had the money to buy it right now :(

Great Giveaway

There is a wonderful giveaway going on over at Belfonte Notes. She is celebrating the release of "Rare Treasures" by giving away a free pattern of the design. It is beautiful!

My stitching mojo...

is back :)

Actually, right after my last post, I picked up my needle and gave it a go! I finished Carriage House Samplings "Carolina Handley" yesterday! And even started "Prudence Wilcome"! I am stitching them both on 40 ct. Purely Primitive from Silkweaver.

I thought I'd leave you with a few pictures from my backyard. This is a beautiful tree, I think it's Hibiscus.

Here are some lovely flowers that are growing in front of the pool deck.


My mother and father brought me this calla lily as a housewarming gift when they came to see our house for the first time this July.


I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my backyard. If you could see the whole thing, you'd freak. It's becoming overrun by weeds and I am just thankful that the people we bought the house from already had landscaping in place or it would be much worse. I definitely do not have a green thumb and my husband doesn't have the time.

Great giveaway!

Head on over to this blog Dip Diddly Designs, she's got a great La-D-Da giveaway that you don't want to miss!

I haven't been stitching at all lately, I guess I lost my mojo. Hopefully it will come back soon!

Awesome giveaway

Yuko is having a wonderful giveaway for her three year stitching anniversary. You should go sign up, her work is beautiful.

In other news, I've been stitching Carriage House Samplings "Carolina Handley." I started a couple of days ago and have been making decent progress. I thought it would be much harder to stitch on 40 count than it actually is! I also purchased a Q-Snap and I love it. I've never been one to use a hoop or anything else to hold my fabric but I thought I'd give it a try and see if it would help with wrinkles in the fabric and to keep my stitching more uniform. So far so good. I'll post progress pictures soon.

Two finished finishes

I did wind up making the BBD Sampler into a pillow for my mom for Mother's day. This year was the first year that I wasn't able to be with her on Mother's day and it was hard. I count everyday with my mother as an extra blessing because almost 10 years ago she had a liver transplant without which she obviously would not be with us now. I'm going to Michigan tonight to attend a tea party with her tomorrow :)

Since I wasn't able to be there, I mailed it to her and she got it on May 9th. She called me as soon as she opened it and said she loved it, it was perfect! Below is the backing fabric I used (it really does match better in person). I kept it simple and am pleased with how it turned out. I wish I would have done better on the hand sewing where I closed the pillow.

I also finished a gift for my sister who got married this January. I hadn't planned on stitching her anything as I didn't think she was particularly fond of handmade gifts. But when I mentioned the one I made for my friend, she said she like handmade things. So, when I saw this free pattern "Wedding Swans" from Carousel Charts on the online needlework show, I thought, why not. So, here it is, I hope she likes it. I added some ribbon to the sides so that I could use a standard 8 x 10 frame without having so much extra linen showing on the sides. I used a small piece of silkweaver solo, I can't remember the count, either 28 or 30, and white and black DMC (those were her wedding colors).

Thanks for stopping by,
Meghann

Another finish and a giveaway

I have another finish to show. It's La-D-Da's "The Ark." I love how it turned out. I stitched it on 32 count Sudden Storm by Silkweaver with the recommended DMC floss. Soon I will find a frame for it so it can actually be finished finished :)



You should definitely go on over to this blog and enter yourself in the wonderful grab bag giveaway that she is having for her blogoversary!

My BBD sampler

The picture isn't great and I didn't have time to iron it because we've been on the road back home from Michigan and I just wanted to be sure to send it before the deadline. So here is my interpretation of Petites Lettres Rouges. It really is much prettier in person ;)

I used a piece of scrap linen from my stash and DMC colors 367, 368, 369. Green is my favorite color. I stitched my maternal grandparents names (Marie & Foster) and the year they were married (1946). My grandfather passed away in September or 2006, just a little over a month shy of what would have been their 60th anniversary. I still miss him everyday. I plan on giving this to my mother for Mother's day and I think I may try to finish it as a pillow.

Two posts in one week?

My friend is getting married this Saturday! I thought that rather than get her something from her registry (which I did for the shower) I would make her something :) I know that she doesn't read this blog, she doesn't even know it exists, so it's safe to show the present here. Her colors are iridescent raspberry and white, so I chose to use hot pink (light and dark) and white for the present. I sure hope that she likes it!

The design is from a wedding leaflet that I found at Hobby Lobby on clearance for sixty-three cents! There are three or four other designs in there. I can't remember the designer off hand and the leaflet is somewhere in my craft/guest room in the mess that will remain until I finish painting and decorating in there.

A Finish Finish

Although not done by me. I had Mirabilia's "Scent of Old Roses" framed at Hobby Lobby. I am not as happy with it as I have been with the other framing I've had done at JoAnn's. I just don't think Hobby Lobby did as good a job at stretching the fabric as JoAnn's does. I'm sure it's partially my fault because I used LYI Wonder Invisible Thread to attach the beads so I asked them not to use any heat on it which means they couldn't press it like they normally would. Oh well, it still looks pretty! I have two more Mirabilia's (among the total six or seven) that I've used the Invisible thread on. I won't be doing that anymore :( I like it because I don't have to switch floss colors at all and I can attach all the beads at once instead of one color at a time but I'd rather have the final product look really good in a frame than just okay.

As you can see, it's still in the plastic. I am in the process of painting my craft/guest room and I plan to hang it up in there, so I'm going to keep it safe in the plastic until the room is done!

Here is a closer shot of the frame, I really like the detail on the inside. I normally keep my framing pretty simple. Usually two mats and a fairly simple frame. I figure that way they are more likely to fit with the decor of any room.

I've got other stitchy news but I will leave it for another day, except to say that I am working on the sampler contest at BBD so there will definitely be a picture of that soon. I figure that since I don't post often, when I have some news I should try to spread it out :)

Birthday Present

I had a great birthday yesterday! I drove to Michigan to have dinner with my family (strange that they didn't come to be but oh well). I got to spend time with my brother and his new girlfriend, my sister and brother-in-law and my nieces and nephew, as well as my mom and dad! We ate at my favorite restaurant, Olive Garden. My parents got me The Primitive Needle's "ABC Hornbook" and all of the floss required for the project (WDW & GAST)! The fabric is on order from Picture This Plus!


I can't wait to start this one :) But I have to finish a wedding gift first. It's taking me forever to finish and it's only 7x9. I liked the pattern in the book but I don't like the way it's looking on the fabric. I think the problem is the colors. My friend has chosen hot pink and white for her wedding, and pink is not my favorite color. But I will persist and have it done before the wedding next month. I've already got the frame!

Can anyone help me with a fabric choice?

I was looking to see if I had any fabric in my stash that I could use for "The Ark" (see pic in last post). How about this? It's Silkweaver's Sudden Storm. Do you think I could get away with using a grey/blue for this pattern or should I stick to the brown family?

Thanks for your help!

Meghann

I got stash!

I'm so excited! I got an early birthday present! Technically they are from my hubby but I picked them out and ordered them myself :) Great service from 1-2-3 stitch! They came in two days! I have fallen in love with tombstone themed patterns! It seems kind of morbid but I think they are great! Hopefully the picture is clickable and you can see them better. The are La-D-Da's "The Ark" (which I just love), Carriage House Samplings' "Prudence Wilcome", "Carolina Handly" and "Sarah Hook", and Plum Street Samplers' "Amos Figg" and "Tillie Figg". I'm looking forward to stiching them all! I'm also excited because I am going to try stitching on 40 count linen for the first time.

Today I made a quick trip to pick up some DMC floss I needed and I found the most incredible bargain! I may go back and get more ;) The picture below shows more stash. I found DMC linen on sale for $2.97 for the large size and $1.97 for the smaller! I couldn't believe how cheap they were. The more I think about it, I think I should go back tomorrow and buy whatever is left!

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog!

Meghann

First finish of 2009

I finished Crystal Symphony late last night! Sorry the pictures aren't good, it was quite a gloomy day here. I have to admit that I am super glad that I was completing the beads as I went along because if I had waited until the end it would have taken me so much longer to finish. I can't believe the number of beads in this project!


I guess the chandelier wasn't 95% beads but it had to have been at least 70%.


I'll probably be slow on the stitching front for awhile because I am going to try to turn my attention to my dissertation. I have completely lost my motivation for it but I've got to try and find it again so I can finish. I am so close, I just have to collect my data, complete the analyses, and write them up. If all goes well, I will be Dr. Meghann by December! I do plan on making a couple of wedding presents for two of my friends that are getting married this year. They will be my reward for getting work done on my dissertation.

Crystal Symphony Update

It's been awhile since I've posted a pic of my progress on Crystal Symphony. I've been diligently working on her. I apologize again for the wrinkles but if you read my blog, you know my projects always have wrinkles. Very soon she will have a head! I've been beading as I go because she is so full of beads I know it would take me forever to finish her if I waited until the end because I get tired of beading very quickly. I'm actually looking forward to doing the chandelier even thought it is 95% beads. I think it's going to be gorgeous!


Thanks for visiting my blog. Have a great day!

Winter sucks

We have gotten so much snow in the last few days. It is extremely cold here, -6F (but it feels like -21) right now. I took a few pictures to document the snow. The first picture should be my husband's car, I think that it is hiding under all that snow. He had to take my van to work today because there was no way he was going to get his car out of the driveway.
Here are two views of the backyard. The first shows how high the snow is on the railings of the deck and the second shows the huge mound on top of the grill and the railing behind it.

Now, for a whole new topic. Since we don't have any children yet and we have two extra bedrooms, one of them has become the "car" room and the other will be my "craft" room. It works out nicely, hubby gets to have a room to keep all of his car related memorabilia and I get a room for my hobby. Right now the craft room is a horrible yellow but painting will have to wait as we need to fix our bathroom first. A couple of days ago I bought a storage tower to keep my cross stitching items in. It's not really fancy but it is my favorite color, green! Of course I put all my stash in it right away. Now I'd like to get a little desk or table for my sewing machine (which I need to learn to use) and a small bookshelf for my stitchy books. Here's a crappy photo of the storage tower. The yellow is much brighter in person :(