Something new

Well, new to the rotation even if not new to me. I have decided to pull out some pieces that I bought a while ago from Nancy's Needle that I love and really want to finish. They are done on canvas (as close as I get to needlepoint) with quilt type themes and I love them. I finished a trip around the world a while ago and now I want to do some others to go with it. First I am going to add this one to the rotation as I had started it and never finished who knows why. I think it will be a good drive time stitch as it is larger count than a lot of the other projects I have. Sometimes when we are traveling around the light is not strong enough to do my cross stitch in the car. I want to give this one as a gift to my neighbor who does not read this blog. Hence it is safe to post updates of one of my gift stitching projects.
Along with hedgehogs, I have a fondness for gingerbread men and houses. I therefore had to buy the gingerbread houses that are based on the same them as the Two Cabins. For the Halloween lovers among us there is also Two spooky houses. They are not huge but lots of fun to stitch. I got these all by mail order (what else) already kitted up. I hope to make some progress on this. So much to stitch, so little time.
I hope you have some stitchy time today. Marjo

Surprise

I was so surprised a couple of weeks ago to get this lovely package in the mail.  I had received an email from Carol who read a blog posting about my fondness for hedgehogs. She wanted to share some freebies that she had found and wow did she share. I was blown away but her thoughtfulness.  Not only were there several hedgehog patterns there was also  a sweet Shepherd's Bush kit for a sewing roll that I just love. The colors are so lovely. I cannot wait to get that stitched up. Thank you so much Carol for your very sweet, sweet gifting.  I cannot tell you adequately how much I love it all.  Aren't they just the cutest things??? I love hedgehogs.  Thank you so much for these lovelies.
Hope you have some stitching in your day. Marjo

Progress in pictures

Sorry for the way the pictures look, colors are off due to the gray weather here. We have had rain almost everyday this summer. While we tend to have rainy Augusts here usually May, June and July are sunny and wonderful. Not this year.  It does make it hard to get good shots of the colors on my stitching. I have done a lot of fill in on my CHS alphabets. I decided I didn't want to wait until the end and have all those blocks to fill in. Not done by any means but progress.

My summer stitch a long for the BBD group is a really fun stitch. I love the colors and the design and well just everything about it. I am looking forward to some progress on this and a finish before too terribly long. It stitches up pretty quickly when I can get the time to work on it.

Mary Wigham is just beautiful to me. I am using the thread conversion from Jean at the Attic. She did a wonderful job with the colors and I just love it. I am almost done with the first page and hope to get some more done on it today. Really much prettier in person color-wise.

The other stitching in the rotation is for gifts that I cannot share until after I gift it. I hope to remember to take pictures of the completed product this time. Can't believe I forgot to get a shot of that little frog one...it was so cute.
Off to get a warm drink and settle in with a little bit of stitching. Hope you find time in your day for stitching. Marjo

busi-ness and a rant

I am sorry it has been quite a while since I posted, I have several updates coming now that I can get my camera to work.I have not had a lot of time to stitch lately due to work. I have had the chance to meet with my stitching buddies so some progress has been made. You gotta love those ladies. I got several blocks filled in on CHS Alphabets and am almost finished with the first page of Mary Wigham. I am loving the 45 count now that my eyes have adjusted to it. Not saying I would use it exclusively but would use it again. My idea of starting Victorine Delacroix for my birthday did not work. The kits were filled with the wrong sized linen and the problem was fixed swiftly by The Essamplaire but then I found I didn't have scroll rods that would fit the new size of linen. I have not had time to remedy that situation so that was a non starter for me. I have just stuck with my current rotation with dreams of more whirling around. I did get a great little freebie done that was a frog biscornu for a  friend who collect frog things. It turned out so cute and I forgot to take a picture of it. I will see if she will bring it back to stitch night so I can get a picture to share. It is a free pattern with a flower on one side and 4 frogs on the other, I really enjoyed that one. There are some more gifts in the works but not able to be shared yet. I really like stitching the biscornu's as they are fun and portable. I am trying to post some pictures today so look for more posts and no more rants.  Read no farther if you just don't want to hear it.
I am frustrated today with a lot of things but since this is a stitching blog for me I just want to rant about the stitching industry for a minute. I am not a computer geek by any means but I use my laptop quite a bit and since stitching is a passion of mine I do read a lot about what is published by other stitchers in their blogs, newsletters from various stores I do business with, professional stitching groups such as EGA as some sampler guilds I am a member of. I love browsing the sites and looking for what is latest and greatest by my favorite designers. I love seeing what everyone else is stitching and enjoy spending time with my stitching buddies whenever I can. I live in a remote area and stitching stores are non-existent here. I have to do all my business by mail order by virtue of where I live. I have my favorite shops online and I try to spread my business among several different shops based on their own specialities. I have read how shops are loosing business because of the economy and how many are closing due to the lack of business.  My problem with this is the utter lack of service and communication I have gotten from 3 totally different shops in the last few months. I realize things are hard to come by especially specific specialty threads, or fabrics or whatever. I get that and don't mind waiting for what I want. Really I don't. But I do mind being ignored totally, having orders just not filled with no communication as to why, being told my order is being shipped when in reality the items ordered don't even exist (sold out and no longer available), being told my order will be shipped and not shipping it. That is from 3 different shops recently and I have to wonder if I am being treated this way, and I am a  small consumer for this business no wonder the shops are in trouble.  I do have to wonder though if what I read about shops being in trouble is really something of their own fault.   Oh well enough said. Sorry about that but I have spent quite a bit of time trying to find the status of a few orders I have made recently and when one shop owner suggested that it was my fault that my order had not been filled because I didn't follow up fast enough (why do I have to follow up at all???) that sent me over the edge. Even though I did follow up apparently even that was not good enough as here we are almost 4 weeks to the day that I placed an order and still no sign of it.  Even to Alaska Priority Mail is 3 to 5 days, usually just 3 no matter where you are mailing from. Cannot put all the blame on post office - I always check the post mark. UGH.
I feel like I do need to say that there are still many many stores that give excellent service, great products and are quick to work out any problems either with items shipped or unavailable.  I am always saddened to hear of someone's favorite shop going out of business. I am not trying to bad mouth anyone (no names even hinted at so not to cast aspersions.) Just expressing some frustration here with an industry I love.
Back to stitching.  Hope you find some time today to stitch.
Marjo

4th of July on the beach

Grey clouds could not damper my enthusiasm for being at the beach. Hard to see but there is  a Mother eagle and her baby is on the left. Dad was in a tree just to the left. Sat and watched them for quite a while. Fishing, then feeding the baby then taking turns flying around but always close to the nest. 

Not sure who is walking who.Katachmake Bay in the distance. We hiked from the Coastal Museum down the Slough Trail to Bishops Beach.

Not the beach I would have chosen but to those of us who love the beach, a beach, any beach is not to be sniffed at. My DH and dog of love Kori headed south to Homer, Ak to the beach for the 4th of July. We had a great time and I even got some stitching time in, mostly in the car as the beach and a dog are too messy for my needlework. It was beautiful, did I mention, I love, love, love the beach.

Hope you have time for some stitching. I have now gotten all the flowers done around the border and more of the blue filled in at the bottom of some of the letters. I found that the easiest to do in the car. Got the bottom two corner blocks completed as well. Will not add the year until I am sure that I know the year it will be complete. Happy stitching to you all. Marjo

Progress, not a lot, but progress

I did not get the time to stitch I wanted to on my day's off last week but I did manage a little bit. I  did  get all the flowers done on the CHS Alphabet border and some fill in continued on the blocks. I could do that while I was watching baseball and while in the car running errands. I could not work on Mary Wigham on Sunday as I was not home and I cannot carry it away from the magnifier light since the count is 45 which is  a challenge for me. I did get some more of the white flower completed late in the evening. I have some problems with some gift stitching I am working on but nothing too bad that getting rid of a few frogs would not take care of.  I am organizing my stitching for the weekend so I will stay on track. I am lucky enough to be off 4 days this weekend and I hope to get some stitching and reading done.
Hope you have time for stitching. Marjo

stitching time

I have not touched my stitching at all this week. I had lots of errands to do over the weekend and been too tired to pick up my stitching after work. I have so much I want to stitch and really need to pick it up in the evening if I am ever going to get them done. I still have gift stitching to finish I am hoping to at least get some work done on that this week.
I really missed stitching on Mary Wigham this weekend. I hope to get more time this weekend with her. Now that I can see the 45 count better I am really excited to work on her. I feel like I am making good progress in the limited stitching time I have.
Thursday night is my stitching with friends night. I hope to be able to get together with them this week and get some stitching on the BBD Summer Sal Beneath the Sunlit sky which I did not get to touch on Monday  or CHS Alphabets which has been sorely neglected. I just look so forward to being with my friends it doesn't really matter what I am stitching on just that I am stitching with them.
I broke down and bought the newest Needleprint chart for Hannah Gilpin. I am going to pull the DMC colors and see what I think. I am intrigued by the neutral colors of this one. I have done some monochrome Quakers: Beatrix Potter in Nan's Mulberry by the Threadgather's and Long Dog Mouline rouge in Blueberry by Gloriana. I have never done one in such muted tones of the same shade. I am waiting to see if the Attic does a fiber conversion. I always seem to love what Jean comes up with and I do have a gift certificate from there. They are among my favorite pieces and make me smile every time I look at them on my living room wall. I eventually want to add some of the multicolor Quakers to the wall. That of course would mean I would have to spend some considerable time stitching.

As you can tell we are all a litttle bummed about the lack of stitching progress. Here are the the kids wondering why I am not stitching instead of fussing at them for the mess they have made. 

Hope you are having a better week at stitching than I have. Will update with progress pics after tomorrow nights stitching. Hope stitching is part of your day. Marjo in Alaska