Dragon Birthdays

With the change in season but particularly the time change, I think my mind is just a bit more slider-y, all over the place. There are so many things to do and enjoy! For this post though, I will focus on stitching! "Focus" is the word! Here are some finishing of my smalls. The first is a part of an OOP design by Birds of a feather called Anne Wells. I am so glad I decided just to stitch it as a small so I can really enjoy the little house surrounded by flowers and two lovebirds. ;-)  I used a pink fabric to bring out the pinks in the flowers. Anne Wells by Birds of a Feather  The second one I love too for those orange flowers! Actually I think Paulette picked really wonderful colours for this one. This is stitched on a 32 count linen and ended up quite big. Imagine if you are a over one stitcher...this would be so adorable as a much tinier pincushion! My Pinzzzz by Plum Street Samplers Here is my start on my third Santa for my Prairie Schooler Santa SAL with Caro...

Unintentionally, I have finished stitching my Green Santa, just in time for Saint Patrick's Day!  On St Paddy's Day, we are all Irish, right? ;-) He's my second Santa this year. As you can see below, I am stitching my Santas on one piece of linen stretched on my scroll frame. I have space for a third Santa (to the right of the green santa) to come before I cut the linen away and maybe attempt some finishing! Speaking of finishing, I did spend a few days last week finishing about 10 smalls! Oy, I shouldn't wait till the pile is that big! Here's a bunny pulling a cart of shamrocks - called, of course, Shamrock Bunny by Homespun Elegance.   Next up, is Thankful Heart by Heartstrings Samplery.  I left out the words as I like the clean, simple design.  Here's the fabric I used on the back. Love it. It's leftover from one of my homemade tops.  It's been raining on and off for a few days so I will show you one of my blooming orchids.  I wish I k...

Hello dear peeps! It's a beautiful sunny morning here so I am already charged up with rays of peppiness! I started on my second Santa for the SAL. In case you are wondering, it's from the Kris Kringle booklet again and it's the one holding the Canada Goose.  Since I am from Canada I had to stitch him! Other than my SAL, I am not stitching much else these days as I am back to my dressmaking spell. If you are interested, my sewing blog is A Closet full of Posies.  I do have a couple more photos of my February shelf to show you. So, the Nashville Needlework Market is happening next weekend. Have you seen the sneak peeks? What's on your list ?  I am trying to not look too hard right now. No doubt I will get caught in the frenzy (at least some) when more and more new designs are revealed. There does seem to an awful lot of goodness showing already in those sneak peeks! Thanks for stopping by. Welcome to my new followers as well! Have a great week!

Good Monday morning to you all! I'm happy as there's sunshine outside and there was sunshine yesterday too! What a mood lifter. Now onto meeting Mr Handsome Sweater Man. That's my first PS Santa of the year! I just love stitching Prairie Schooler again.  Right now I am stitching from the Kris Kringle booklet.  I think I may stitch three from this booklet then maybe move onto something else. We shall see! Since I seem to be leaning towards stitching smalls these days, I needed to add some small designs to my stash. Here's my recent stash acquisition which, sadly, took over a month to get to me from the USA! In particular I have wanted to stitch "Wintertime" for quite awhile so I am thrilled that it's finally here. For some reason I guess I have Christmas on my mind! Thanks for stopping by! Have a great week!

Hiya.  So we are a couple of Sundays into our PS Santa SAL.  I had a slow start last Sunday. Today, I made a lot more progress!  I realized today I made a boo-boo with the DMC colour for the reindeer/trees part of the santa. I used Ecru instead of 738! Ecru was supposed to be used for the hair and beard! Oh well. I wasn't going to frog so I just used white on the hair and beard. It will have to do! I am really enjoying stitching Prairie Schooler again! Here's a peek at my Valentine shelf.  That's me for another short&sweet post!  Thanks for stopping by. Hope you are all doing well and if you are caught in the deep winter freeze, I hope you are able to keep warm and stitch! Enjoy your week!

Hi peeps! I hope you are keeping well. I know it's been freezing in many parts of this continent so I can't complain about the rain that just resumed this morning. (What would we talk about if not for the weather?) After my last post, I must've been hit with some virus (that's the little hiccup) although it didn't seem to be the flu or a cold. I was just extremely tired and had an upset stomach. I suppose I am thankful it wasn't anything worse but it really threw me for over a week! I have a couple of smalls to show you today, both are from Homespun Elegance. Shamrock Bunny With Shamrock Bunny I either bought the chart without the carrot button or I lost the button, so I just stitched in a carrot.  Sewing Bird  I had stitched the Sewing Bird last year and finished it as well. You can see it here. I gave it away to Ann when she had admired it, so now I stitch another for me. I love smalls! Here are my two furry pals. Daisy seems to like to sit o...

Happy Monday morning to you! Hope you had a good weekend. Mine was mostly filled with reading. I'm feeling the January blahs, that call to snuggle down with a blanket and read, and snooze, and read some more. So, stitching smalls is a very good idea right now! Here's my latest ~ Yes, it's part of the Anne Wells sampler. I changed the colour placement slightly and added the heart. It's stitched on the 32 count linen that's recommended but I goofed up on the number of strands of floss used. The model was stitched 1 over 2 while I did 2 over 2. I didn't read the instructions! (I only read novels it seems - see below.)  I just love this minature Anne Wells! It's so quirky and sweet. In case you are interested, a couple of good books I read the last two days were: Still Alice by Lisa Genova. It's a novel narrated by Alice, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease at age 50.  The Magician's Lie by Greer MacAllister.  I woul...

My first finish of 2015 may be a surprise to a lot of you. It's a freebie from Examplars from the Heart from 2009 called Berry Sampler. I've had this hanging around for years and I'm so glad I finally got to stitch it.  She's a sweet one. I used DMC floss and also substituted whatever I'd felt like since the original was stitched using Hand Dyed Fibers.  If you are interested in stitching this I think you need to contact Vilma at her blog for the freebie since I think she's taken her freebies off her site.  It's been great to see stitching from many of you so early in the year. We are off to a great start!  I have been stitching smalls and I will need to get my sewing machine out soon and do some finishing.  Speaking of my sewing machine, lookee here - I made Mama-to-be-Anne a tunic for her and the growing bean!  Doesn't she look great? Her husband took this photo. Note the lovely stitching all around! Bonus photo! Well, that'...

Happy Monday to you! As we slide back into routine after the Christmas season, I bet a lot of you have been thinking about stitching goals, especially since there have been a lot of blog posts doing year-end wrap-ups and setting goals for 2015.  I usually don't set stitching goals, especially quantitative ones.  I find I can easily change my mind during the year when I see someone else stitching something I GOTTA have! You know the feeling!  I didn't name it but I like Mary's TYRA - The Year of Reckless Abandon is the spirit of her stitching this year! Pop over to Mary's blog and have a read, and then you can ogle her beautiful samplers too!  OK, so after having said that, I do want to continue to stitch smalls, especially Christmas ones. I might stitch the Birds of a Feather Santas, or Prairie Schooler Santas, or just some man in a funny red and white suit!  I do want to get back to stitching at least one big sampler this year but I think I will wait till S...

*Poof* Christmas went by so quickly and now the New Year is almost upon us! As we "sail away" from 2014, here's my last finish of the year...      Noah's Garden by The Goode Huswife I've wanted to stitch this for a long time and I'm so pleased it's finally done! I've even tried stitching it a couple of times and gave up.  This time it's stitched on 32 count mystery fabric with DMC, 2 over 2. I love it! It's so colourful and happy! I really lazed around for a few days after Christmas but now I am finally getting back into action mode. Time to get ready for a New Year and that means some clean-up and tidy, some reflections and maybe, finally, some goal setting for this new year!  One last thing, I did make up a page for my 2014 finishes for your browsing pleasure! I wonder about my stitching goals for 2015. This past year I did do a lot of smalls which actually worked out quite well, so I might do that. I do miss my bigger sample...

A quick post today! (Three more sleeps till Christmas)! This past week has just flown by and my original plans to do some sewing has completely evaporated. I did sneak in this tiny freebie from Pineberry Lane called, aptly, Ho Ho Ho! It's just the cutest little Santa. Thank you, Wendy, for the freebie! Stitching was all I got to squeeze in. It will have to go into my finishing pile.  It's been a cooking and baking factory around here but after Christmas I hope it be the Sewing factory as I miss my sewing! Maybe then I can attack my finishing pile too. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas with your family and friends!

Hello there, happy stitchers! Are you busy or should I even ask? I have been busy baking cookies this past week and giving a lot away to happy munchers! I like doing it for precisely seeing the happy smiles, the gleam in their eyes, when they receive the home baked cookies.  I left some at a friend's doorsteps and she told me when she got home she ate three before she even hung up her coat! That just makes my day! So, no fresh stitching to show this week but I thought I would collect what I have to show you. I stitched and finished more Christmas designs in the last year than I've ever done, which actually reminds me ... I have some I should dig up. They were meant to be framed but maybe I could temporarily fudge them to just hang on the wall, a la Marly!I love her displays! Here we go: My husband put up a couple of these IKEA picture rails above a work table recently and I so love them for I can quickly change the display.  Here's my "bowl" for this year...

Naughty?   or Nice? Such a sweet design from Blackbird Designs. I think this comes from the Christmas Garden booklet. I have stitched this once before for an exchange and I liked it so much I wanted to stitch it for myself.   Here's a peek at my next project in progress. Any idea what the design is?   It's been busy around here as I've been doing lots of tidy up, clean up, and decorating. I don't know where I'd gotten the energy from but I just went with it and got 'her done! Now will begin the Christmas baking!  I need to take a break from stitching as well. I tend to just sit for what seems like hours at a stretch and now my neck feels like it's going to give me grief again so I'd better do something else! Does that happen to you with stitching? How long can you sit and stitch for at a time? I am just curious.  Thanks for stopping by. I hope you won't get strained by all the Christmas shopping! ;-)  Have a great week!