Super Bowl Sales

As I mentioned, I did not even watch the Super Bowl this year (I am a dyed in the wool baseball fan) but I must admit I did take advantage of the Super Bowl Sale from Inspired Needle. Cathy, the owner of the shop, is such a sweet lady and has already put my order in the mail. Her shop is just a year old. I highly recommend her lovely shop to you if you shop online or live near enough to Chicago to get there. One of the good things about the boy child going away to school :) was finding her lovely store. I will post pictures when the box arrives but is is mostly just thread for a pattern I am stitching and a linen cut. I did order a Sweetheart Tree pattern that was just too pretty to pass up but for the most part I am trying to not buy much else until Market and I already know of several things I want from there. I hope the pre-orders I have already made are all that tempt me but I doubt it.

I do have some pictures from my New Year's Eve sales that I took advantage of this past year. I found some sampler charts I had been looking for specifically plus a couple of new ones I had not seen but looked like they would complement the ones I already had and ones I want to do. Please excuse the glare but it is snowing here and not much light for the pictures but if I didn't get it done I wouldn't ever remember once I start stitching.

Back to the stitchy place to get the Alphabets out. Hope you have a great stitchy day. Marjo

Progress on the CHS Alphabet

Work has been busy and stitching did not get much attention this week at all. I have a three day weekend this week and will do all my errands on Saturday so Sunday and Monday will see some serious stitching time. I did get a few stitches in CHS Alphabets. I still love this and got quite a bit done on the border and couple of blocks done. I am leaving the bottom of the blocks until last to fill in I think or at least I thought I would and then decided to use a blue and see if I liked it by just doing one block at first.

I also need to work on gift stitching for the next up on the birthday list. I hope to spend some time working on And They sinned but I do so want to get CHS alphabet finished that I may not touch anything else.

We usually watch the Superbowl for the commercials. This year I retired to my room to read and stitched instead. I even took a short nap...too many hours at work this week. Hate to sleep through good stitching time.

Last weekend I got to go to tea with some friends and it was delightful. There is a small restaurant that does a tea by invitation only and while I am not on the list my friend is and she always opens the invite to us all. It was fun to see an old friend and to make a new one as well and the food and the tea was wonderful. I quite enjoyed it. I do believe I was born in the wrong era.

It is snowing quite heavily tonight. It is quiet and peaceful as the white stuff blankets us yet again. Hope you find some time to stitch. Marjo

Stitching wth Jane

Thank you for all the kind comments on the stitching set I made as a gift. It was quite a lot of fun to stitch and appreciate all the nice things you had to say about it. My finishing skills are not great so I was pleased it came out okay.

After an almost year long visit in the WIP black hole I got this out to start back to stitching on it this weekend. Or really Sunday and Monday as I worked on Saturday. While I watched Emma I worked on the middle part of the cloud. After running errands all day I am going to settle in and stitch some more on this piece. I recently read an article on stitching on one piece for 10 hours and then changing to the next as a rotation. Would probably work for me but right now it is strictly by who screams the loudest or gift stitching. I have another birthday gift due in February and have it started but not nearly finished and I should be stitching on it but ATS won the screaming match and so it goes. I don't think I said in the previous post this design is being stitched on Elegant Bean with the called for fibers. I am enjoying stitching on it. Doubt I will get it done but it is a nice break from the alphabets and sailing ships which have been the most stitched besides pumpkins and spiders of late around here.

I enjoyed Emma so much on PBS last night I am going to stitch to it again tonight as it is just me and the puppa. I would prefer to watch it on TV but the online version will have to do.

My books came from Amazon. Tea with Jane Austen by Kim Wilson with some lovely tea recipes and a collection of Jane Austen letters entitled "Letters of Jane Austen : Selected from the Compilation of Her Great Nephew, Edward, Lord Brabourne. Emma has quite put me in the Austen mood. Now if I could just figure out how to make my hair look like that.......

Enjoy some time stitching today. Marjo

happy birthday friend

This week we celebrated one of my stitching friend's birthday. I had been stitching on her gifts over the holiday as not to be late. It all started with Just Nan patterns.

My friend loves Halloween and all things pumpkin and when I saw this design I thought I had to stitch it for her birthday. This is a Just Nan design for a needlebook.
The front of the finished needlebook. I love the way this one was put together, something different and so cute.
This is another Just Nan pattern that was supposed to be the top of the witches hat. It seemed suited to the idea of a halloween emery so I adjusted it a little and added some spooky pins. I enjoyed the needlebook design so much that I decided the square design would make a perfect biscornu.
A sneaky spider crawling to the top
of the same pattern as the needlebook stitched into a biscornu. It was such a fun stitch. The outline looks so dark black because I added some beads as I joined it together. That alone made me decide I was going to buy some short beading needles.
And here is the set all together. I added a tombstone thread winder and a pack of my new favorite needles and there it is. Happy birthday dear friend.

Have a great day stitching. Don't forget to watch Emma tonight for all you stitching Jane Austen lovers.

Marjo

Cries for attention from the WIP basket

From the deep dark recesses of the heavily overloaded WIP basket come two long neglected projects. First up is the New Year start from 2009 which made it through half of one page before finding its' way into the basket never to see hardly any light of day the rest of the year. I really want to get this done. I found the perfect frame for it when last I was at the framer and it will probably be discontinued before I get this done. I need to add it back into the working rotation (which is not really a rotation at all, just more of who screams loudest today kind of thing). I really like it and intend to get started back with it this year. I got lost in the second half of the cloud and need to get back to it. Sorry the pictures are both kinda of gray but it is a gray kinda day here.

I was reading a thread on one of the Yahoo groups I belong to asking about favorite Gloriana colors especially for a pink and it made me think of French Alphabet Sampler that has been in the WIP basket for years. I made a big mistake in the A and didn't find it until I stitched the B and then had to take them both out. I lost my enthusiasm for the piece. It has been long enough now and I really would like to work on this for a while I think. I did manage to get the letter A back in before into the basket it went but it is a huge project and much more to go. It will go faster if the frogs will stay away. I am working it on Elegant Bean with Gloriana Dried Pink Roses. Really more of a pink brown than mauve at least in the hank I got. I really like that color and may use it for another big project. It has a sweet variegation.

Did not get enough stitching done on CHS Alphabets to take a picture of...slow progress. Not much stitching time after work these days.

Have fun with your projects. Marjo

Stitching accessories

I love pretty things and I love having my stitching organized so I don't waste my time searching for what I need to stitch. I thought I would show you some of my favorite things. I love putting the whole project in these lovely mesh stitching bags. These two were gifts from one of my stitching buddies. I love them. They are large enough for the entire project on scroll frames or qsnaps with thread etc all inside. I can just grab and go. I love tins so I found a long Whitmans tin that holds quite a few of my on the road necessities. I have one ready to grab with thread for basting, an emery for needles and pins, an extra pack of needles and a tape measure, and small magnet. It is long enough to hold my scissors on a zinger as well.

This picture shows a glimpse of my new favorite the Bohin needles. I took an online class from the Essamplaire and she offered these needles to us. I really like them much better than the Piecemakers or John James petites I was using.. These have been added in all my stitching buddy gifts since I was introduced to them. Might as well spread the addiction around.
I don't always sit in the same place when I stitch at night (unless I need my big stitching lamp and it is on wheels if need be) so I use a wooden carrier to make my stitching portable at home.
I have scissors, a thread holder that also holds not only thread but also has a slot for my laying tool and for my scissors and star detailor , thread for basting, floss holders and pincushion, extra needles, fabric scissors, ruler, tape measure, and 3inch square.My ort jar fits in there as well. It also holds a covered Altoid tin with thimble, magnet, beading thread and needles.
The pincushion with attached bag and altoid tin were gifts in prior years that are favorites that I use all the time.
This new light with magnifier by Craftlight is my newest accessory that I love. It is great for scroll rods or q-snaps and provides enough light when I need it. Sometimes when I am stitching on the road a little extra light comes in handy.

No stitching progress yet today. I may post again today as I was pulling out two old WIP that have been screaming for some attention. I will update later with where I am starting the new year with them. I really like to have 4 things going at once so I will see which 4 will make the cut for first up this year.

Off to stitch. Hope you have some stitching in your day today. Be Warm.

Marjo

Little bits of stitching

This is the third section of a gift for a friend. I will post a picture of this if it turns out. It will be a lot of fun if it works out the way I want it to. Unfortunately I cannot always make things turn out the way I envision them. We will see how it goes but first I have to stitch it.
The fabric is really a bright purple. Of course it is dark up here so pictures are not the best for true colors. This set of gifts is the first time I have used Weeks Linens. I love the colors but it seems like it is fuzzy. This is the third piece I have used and so far they all do it.

Yes, these are the threads from last years projects so i decided I would empty the jar to start over for all the new projects or rather new old projects for this year. I love looking at the threads remembering the fun projects they were part of. The jar is one I found in a little shop up here. It is actually the bottom of a older cheese grater jar. I like using old things in new ways.

Hope you have a great stitchy day.

Marjo