It's been a long time - WIP update

It's been a while since I've posted, but I'm finally getting back into my stitching after DH's heart attack last November.  I've been working on Papillon "Castles in the Air", Mirabilia "Winter Queen" and The Workbasket "Quaker Sampler".  I've mostly worked on Quaker Sampler and am 3/4 of the way done with it I believe.

Here are some pictures of where they are now.

Castles in the Air

Winter Queen

Quaker Sampler

Oh, and almost forgot this one that I'm working on.  LHN "Trustworthy & True" - I bought this one to make and give to my daughter & son in law for their 2 year anniversary this year and I also bought the "Strong & Beautiful" and "Soft & Sweet" from the Little Women Virtue series to give to my daughter and grand-daughter respectively.

Trustworthy & True

Speaking of my grand-daughter, Emma has grown like a weed and changed so much over the last few months.  She is now 2 1/2 and definitely becoming her own little person.  My son in law with his parents have a farm where they raise alpacas, Dexter cattle/beef, and Jacob sheep, in addition to his Dad running a recycling business.  Emma loves to help feed the animals (including their own egg chickens), and work in their "shop" with mommy and daddy helping them sort the metal.  Here's a few peeks at our precious girl.

Mommy & Emma 2nd birthday

Emma Easter 2012

"winking" while goofing with Uncle Devan

On our way to church

Thanks for visiting!

Millenium Embroidery Frame

In my email today from Craft Gossip there was a link to a review that Mary Corbet from Needle n Thread  did for the Millenium Embroidery Frame.  She did quite a lengthy review  along with pictures of the frame and her fabric on it and also included a video of the frame and how it goes together that was made by the maker.

Can I just say....I WANT this frame!  It looks absolutely perfect!  It's made of all wood, and there were several commenters on the review that indicated they'd had that same frame for many, many years and it's still in great condition.  Her only "con" to the frame was the fact that at this time it's only available in the UK, which in turn means it's a bit heavy on the shipping costs.

The company name is Needle Needs and the owner is John Crane.  I tried to go to the website from Mary's review, but it came up as bandwidth exceeded.  I'd be willing to bet they're getting a ton of hits from this review.

This is going on my "must have" list!

Oakhaven SAL 2011

And last, but certainly not least, I have joined along with the Oakhaven Yahoo group 2011 SAL.  Tonia is designing monthly owls and they're adorable!  I wasn't sure how I wanted to stitch these - individuals, on a big piece of fabric, a few together or what.  So I searched through my stash and found some wall banners that I forgot I had bought a couple of years ago from a lady local to me.  She'd sold cross stitch supplies out of her home and was finally selling off her stash.  I have 5 of the banners, so I decided to do 3 wall hangings with 4 owls each on them.  I've completed the January owl and am getting ready to start February and March has already come out also, so I need to get a move on.  These use DMC fibers, but I did have to alter my first owl though, because the colors were too light for the fabric.  I believe I used GA Sampler thread & Weeks Dye Works, and I really liked the way it turned out and I think these are going to really cute hanging when they're done.  Here's a close up of my first owl. This is a bit washed out even without the flash, and the fabric is more of a cream color. What do you think?

And here's the whole piece of fabric w/the lines between each owl stitched in.

And just because, here's a picture of my adorable Grandbaby Emma thrown in for cuteness!

 As always, thanks for stopping by and I welcome any comments!

2 Cross Stitch Finishes

I have actually finished 2 pieces, but need to "finish" them both still.  I completed these the first week of February and intended them to be Valentines Day gifts, but didn't find what I wanted for the actual "finishing" in time.

This first is a Lizzie Kate that I did for my daughter and son in law for their first Valentine's Day as a married couple.  It's stitched on a piece of 28ct Silkweaver Solo Jobelan.  I didn't have the called for floss, so I substituted with Vikki Clayton HDF and a skein of Caron Waterlilies.  I picked up the frame at the thrift store for it.  I've never yet framed a piece of stitching (for that matter, my first real finish of my stitching was the ornie exchange I sent to Vicky L), so this will be a challenge for me.  I plan to use the tutorial that Meari has on her blog.  I really love the way it turned out and this is one of Therese's favorite sayings.

 

The next finish is a freebie from Oakhaven Designs.  I belong to her Yahoo group and this was a freebie she gifted us with for Valentines Day.  I stitched it on a piece of unknown linen from my stash, that I'm pretty sure is 28ct.  I used Vikki Clayton HDF to stitch it.  When I ordered the floss for Winter Queen, I bought one of the "carrots" that Vikki offers with each order and I got a mini spool of 1 strand premium and it's colors are 2469/3107/2237 and I just really liked the way the blue/green/teal came out on this.  I also used a red HDF for the hearts.  I had intended this to be a little gift for the hubby, but didn't get it done in time.  I plan to finish it as a pillow with the blue fabric for the back and then use the cording as a little hanger.  I need to browse some of the finish sites I have bookmarked for the best one to use. 

 

And a close up of the peacocks.   My Grandma always used to tell us that the peacock was part of the Royal crest of our family back in the Black Forest area of Germany.  I wish I'd paid more attention to the whole story, but it was on my Grandfather's side of the family and I vaguely remember her saying that my many years ago my Great-Grandfather had been contacted by someone over there about claiming family land, but he never did.  Who knows if it's true or not, or got exaggerated over the years, but she always loved peacocks and now I do too.

TUSAL Update

It's time for a TUSAL update! I really didn't get a lot of stitching done these past few weeks, unfortunately my depression seemed to rear it's ugly head for a while. When that happens I just can't stay focused enough to stitch, so here's my TUSAL offering for this New Moon.

Winter Queen WIP

Here she is!  I made a tiny start Friday evening and then worked on her both Saturday and Sunday in between household stuff and doing things with my boys and dh.  I had to force myself to put her down last night in order to go to bed shortly after 11pm.  If I hadn't I probably would have stitched on her all night.  I kept saying "I'll just do this little bit over here" LOL!

I believe it to be a respectable start. 

Thanks for looking and comments are always appreciated.  Have a great week!

Mirabilia "Winter Queen" floss toss!

My daughter fell in love with this piece and so I am stitching it for her 21st birthday in December.  The fabric is a 28ct hand dyed Jobelan called "SummerSky" that I bought at a LNS.  I've converted the DMC floss to HDF from Vikki Clayton.  Don't they look just yummy?

Here's the fabric and floss along with the picture of the finished piece.

And here's just a picture of the fabric by itself.  I just love this fabric and will stitch it so that the piece will be top to bottom as it's shown in this picture.

I'm planning to start her this weekend.  I need to dig out my scroll frame and see if the one I have is wide enough for this piece.  If it's not, I'll go ahead and start it with my Q-snaps and then order a longer rods.

Again, thanks for visiting!