stitching and stashing

This finish has been a WIP for oh, about seven years. I've posted about it before, my plans were to try and finish it up back then, but it never happened. Oh well, better late than never.

I started on this when the design was first published, in the August 2003 issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. Can't remember if this is 35 or 40 count fabric, but it is the 18th Century Blackbird linen from R&R, and stitched over 2 with one strand Gentle Art Sampler Threads.

The design is called Summer Jubilee in the magazine. It was published again later in their book "Souvenirs of Summer", not sure if it's called by the same name in that book. Anyway, now that it's finished, I love it!

Am I the only person having issues with Blogger and their new improved stuff? OY! I can't get this text aligned right, no matter how many times I push the button, it's driving me MAD!! HELP!

Well, anyway, here's the stashing part...my order from Pineberry Lane

Some charts I've wanted for a while, some scissors, bobbins, fabric, and rusty jingle bells.

I love all of it, although I'm not too sure what to do with the bobbins, they're bigger than I expected :-)

I think they can be used for the bases of pincushions or "make do's". Hmm....

It is SO hot here! Even indoors, taking pictures for this blog, I broke out in perspiration! Summer is just not my favorite time of year, although, we do have the big birthday week coming up in our family, first my daughter has hers on the 30th, mine on the 1st and they're always followed up by the fireworks on the 4th, so that part of summer is usually fun :-) After that, it's just a countdown until Autumn!

Stay cool my friends. Stitch much. Be happy!

xo

link for the angel ornament

Several of you have asked where I got the tombstone angel ornament, so I wanted to let y'all know...(in case you don't win the drawing on Sat.), that I got them from the Bay of Evil (as I've heard it called...I for one, love ebay!)...anyhoo...this seller, stitchinthedayaway was lovely to deal with! I don't know her personally, but thought these were very reasonably priced, and her shipping charges were good as well! Not to mention, these are adorable in person :-)

all stashed up

The couch still stinks, as evidenced here:



Actually, I think Astro is pretty oblivious, but thought that face was funny anyway.

The Haverty's people didn't show. All day. Finally, at 4:45pm I got a call from the Service center that they needed to order a solution from the manufacturer to apply to the couch and they will call me when that comes in. Like they didn't know that ONE WEEK AGO when I first called them about the stink. I was not very pleased and told them I'd been waiting there ALL DAY, which got me a big sob story about how they'd tried to call me for FIFTEEN minutes but the line was busy so then they figured out they'd written down the wrong area code so once they figured it out they called me right away. Well just call me tickled pink, that accounted for 15 minutes of ALL DAY, whew! Needless to say, if this cupcake doesn't see some action PDQ, she's opening a can of "frosting" on their butts the likes of which have never been seen before.

So to calm my inner rage at the furniture people, I decided to take pictures of my recent stash. Nothing soothes the soul like S.E.X. And if it's not showing up in your mailbox or you can't drive to get it, just pull out what you have and fondle it. You'll feel better, trust me.

Here's some stuff I brought home from the quilt show:



Shepherd's Bush kit Pumpkin Hill and two punch needle patterns. Actually one is a pattern and one is a kit. I was feeling very "pumpkiny" when buying these.



A pattern for a yo-yo puppy and the Clover Yo-Yo maker in extra large to make him.




A new Mary Engelbreit book by Leisure Arts (and oh boy, I had fun in their booth, they had Debbie Mumm quilt books on sale for $5 each so I bought all four of them that were there, but forgot to get a picture) and a sampler I've been wanting for a while, Kind Fond Love by Brenda Keyes.



Some charm packs (which I'm addicted to) and the new Amy Butler book.



The quilt kit I'd mentioned earlier. They had one of these quilts done up at the Cabbage Rose booth and since I love this line of fabric I just had to get it.



The Wildflower chart I'm stitching for my daughter and the other two I've just wanted for awhile and waited for a month to get them from a certain online place I wont' mention the name of. And only the Dovo scissors in this picture came from the quilt show. DH bought me a new pair because the ones I had just like them he ruined a couple of years ago when he cut some fishing line with them. Oh yes, you read right. Fishing line.

With my DOVOS.

And he never told me he did it, mind you.
I just go to cut my thread one day and they wouldn't cut it.
Would. not. cut. one. thread.
I'm all **WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY SCISSORS????????????!!!!!!!!!!!**
And he's all *I think I might have used them to cut my fishing line. Was that wrong?*

Can you just imagine the can of "frosting" that was opened on him that day?

It wasn't pretty my friends, wasn't pretty.

a finish, a present and a find

Here's my latest finish, Quaker Garden by Blackbird Designs.



The whole piece was too big to scan. Here's a closer look:



and another. I used the fabric and threads the design called for and loved stitching it.



And here is my new Brighton purse, a present from my kids for Mother's Day,



It's called Vagabond and is made from a distressed type of leather and has a cool "bandana" type lining. To say I love it would be putting it mildly!

You can see, I have several other Brighton things in it. Since they put a store in close to me it's been so good. I mean, bad. Well, good for me, bad for the budget. Kinda, sorta...if you know what I mean, lol!




And now, my "find". From Wal Mart in the office supply area, for about $1.80 each:



These are perfect for keeping your stitching projects in, as you can see.



I bought all they had, about 18 or so.

Because that's just how crazy I be.

tgif

My needlework store wanted to keep two of the framed pieces they'd finished for shop models so I only made it home with one of them! Will share that this weekend and the others in three months when they get to come home. Considering the discount they give me on the framing, I guess it was worth it, but I did have my heart all set to bring home Their Song. Oh well.

The UPS man came into the shop while we were there, so I asked if the Norden box was there and sure enough it was, and look what was in it:




The newest Loose Feathers!
Just for me!
Gotta love the brown shorts dude :)

I didn't get the fabric it called for, which was very pretty but when I saw the colors on Lakeside's Maritime White, that really made my heart sing! What a great project this one is!

Have a good weekend y'all!

crazy is as crazy does

Doesn't Astro look crazy in this picture? It just mades me giggle :)

Anyway, my plan was to post about my stash, and post some pictures of it too, in an attempt to give myself a kick in the pants (you know, about how I should not be buying new stuff when all this other stuff is just waiting for me to stitch it), but when I started adding up the numbers, it was frightful. Downright scary! And then the thought occured to me that if that number (with pictures!) were in evidence, on this here intranets, someone...and I'm not sayin' who...just might have me committed.

And I have way too much stitching to do for that!

I'm sure so many stitchers, and other crafters, out there can relate to this. We all probably have WAY more projects than we'll ever get done in this lifetime.
But as I love to say...it's all good! There are worse things we could be doing, right? hee

So here instead, is just a glimpse into the crazy... my Needlepoint Silk collection, as I was organizing them all a few weeks ago:





What's really shocking, if you must know, is that this does not even represent the whole collection, there are some in floss away bags in the closet. And even MORE shocking, out of the 388 skeins of silk pictured here (and the ones in the closet), there were seven colors I had to go out and buy for a new project!! And the price has gone up from $2.70 a skein to $3.70!! I was not too happy about that, lol!



OK, moving on...my newest project:



Ladybugs and Bumblebees by Country Cottage Needleworks. And I am actually further along now than this picture shows...



Will post a progress pic again soon.

Happy stitching ya'll! And thanks for your sweet comments, which I love and am very thankful for :)

a post from Astro

Hello!

I turned 4 months old today and celebrated with a roast beef bone.

And by soaking up some sun...



I did not concern myself with the sad state of the yard or things Daddy was busy fixing:



When Mom wasn't taking pictures of me, or the dilapidated birdhouse, she was inside playing with some new stash, which is really weird, all that stroking and purring...



And her recent order from Williams Sonoma...she said something about a "sale and free shipping" and how rocked her world gets by all that...

And she was so happy that she was done with block three on her Village, she ran right out and did a happy dance on the back porch!

Which indeed, was quite a sight to see.