Sunday, February 21, 2010

Very little stitching


Work has taken me away from stitching much over the last couple of weeks. This is my weekend to work so needle will not meet thread until tomorrow when I am off. I had been gift stitching so no pictures of that as I have not been able to actually gift the item yet.
It is time for our Spring stitching retreat and I cannot wait. I absolutely love going off with my stitching buddies and spending some serious time stitching. And while the stitching may be serious as we go in search of the elusive finish little else about the weekend is serious. We laugh and relax and stitch. It is absolutely the best thing I do for myself short of my once a year trip "outside" with my best friend.
It seems we each have a piece that becomes the piece we take to retreats to work on until completed. Last retreat several folks finished their pieces so I am looking forward to what ever one will be working on. I have decided to use FAS as my retreat piece. I love it and the color is a very nice shade of Gloriana called Dried Roses. I look forward to getting back started on it. Along with that I will take Sail Away, CHS alphabets and one other yet to be decided. I always take way more than I can stitch on but you never know what will be crying out for attention.
I have already made meal decisions, picked out my pieces to work on and thought about what clothes I want to pack. I am ready....
I hope this weekend finds you with plenty of time for stitching. Marjo

Friday, February 19, 2010

Stash came today


This is the stash I ordered from Inspired Needle at the Super Bowl sale. The Victorian Rose sampler by The Sweetheart Tree, Autumn Leaves and Sunflower Seeds by Blue Ribbon Designs and some Prairie Schooler charts. I got some floss and a clip on light magnifier for a friend, some fabric that was backordered as well as a piece for the Sweetheart Tree design I bought. The floss is for the BBD newest Loose Feathers and the BRD pattern I just bought. No more until Market and then I need to go on the wagon, really I do......


Thank you for all the sweet comments about the puppa. He is a mess and a sweetheart. He is such a sweetie he is known around here as Kori dog of love. He appreciated all the hugs and treats he got out of the deal and said he would be happy to pose anytime particularly if there was food involved. He is out in the snow walking with my DH, his second favorite past time after eating.

I don't have much stitching to show as I am gift stitching and don't want to spoil the surprise. I did get a little more done on the CHS Alphabets and a few threads into ATS but not that you could tell with the pictures. I am working overtime this week so not much stitching time to be had.
Hope your day has some stitching time included. Marjo

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Thank you


Thank you all for letting me know it was Vonna from the Twisted Stitcher blog where I found the lovely spool chests. I looked and looked for that post and could not find it. It even make Kori happy to get it all figured out. He always gets excited when I do because he thinks there will be a treat in it for him. Hope springs eternal.

Marjo

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Stitching storage finds

I am always looking for a better way to organize my stash and I love old looking wooden items the best. My sewing room is a hodgepodge of wooden cabinets that I just love that are used to store all my stitching stuff. On another blog someone showed a spool cabinet she had purchased off Ebay. (I cannot find that post and I apologize to not be able to credit her with the find, I am so sorry) I could not resist trying to get one for myself and the seller was having a sale and was willing to ship to Alaska (not everyone is at least for a price I can afford). I was able to get three chests for the price of another one I had been considering including the shipping costs. I am so excited.
I bought the little one to store all my beads, buttons and embellishments in. It will hold packs o needles and other items I tend to loose in my stitching room.
This one is in the living room by my chair. I can slide my currently project in the drawer along with threads etc so they are waiting right there when I get ready to stitch.
This one will hold all my threads except DMC which I will leave in the Thread organizer binders they are currently in. All the perle and Krenick threads will go in here as well as some of the odd bits of carded threads that I use at times like Whisper.
I have not stitched much since the weekend but what I have done I cannot show you as it is gift stitching. I am stitching on Lambswool 32 count. I was surprised with just how stiff the fabric is. It seems harder to stitch on stuff that is that stiff.
I am trying to do a strand a day on ATS, it will take forever to get it done that way but once I finish CHS Alphabets and Sail Away, I will use ATS as my focus piece I think. I really want to get it stitched and framed and on the wall but I have to finish the other two first. The next to must finish pieces will be French Alphabet sampler and Mary Wigham. I couldn't settle on just one project yesterday so I stitched a little on all of them. Talk about stitching ADD.
I have so many samplers I want to stitch but I want to make a little more progress on the Monster WIP list.
I hope to have some stitching to share on the next update. Have a great stitchy day. Marjo

Monday, February 8, 2010

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

Sunday, February 7, 2010

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