Frogs in the garden!

I've got frogs in my garden LOL!!! I spent this evening frogging out all of the original baby blue that Vikki Clayton had in the conversion for this sampler, and began replacing it with the bright turquoise she sent last week - this is much more like the original color in this sampler. I am liking this so much better now!

I need some help/advice.... I need to be pointed in the right direction, if you can help me! I want to stitch Three Little Words by Papillon Creations. However, I need an enormous cut of either 36 or 40 ct linen. I think the stitch count for this sampler is 400 x 400. So if I use 40 ct, I need a 26" x 26" piece of linen, and if I used 36 ct I probably need something like a 27" x 27" piece (maybe more like 28" x 28").... does anyone know of a good place to pick this up? I am not looking for a hand dyed for this sampler. I would prefer cream or antique white..... any help would be appreciated, especially a shop in the US (due to high shipping fees from Europe, etc...) - but I will be happy with any tip - thanks so much!

New Hampshire doesn't shut down when it snows... but I do :-) I got a lot of comments about that yesterday. That is one of the benefits of self-employment, I suppose. :-) Looks like my area is not going to get hit as badly as Massachusetts/Connecticut/Rhode Island... but I so very much want a snow day and still plan to take one :-)

Happy 5th birthday to my Gig!! Mike took this photo of him only about a week or two ago... sorry he looks yucky - he has a lot of eye gunk in this photo!! We try to keep him clean, but somehow got this photo taken before he got his eyes wiped. I can't believe my little guy is 5 already!!

OK, just a few short hours and I will be inundated with new passwords from Martina Weber... sigh... but I also think the new issue of The Gift of Stitching will be available too... yay, I am ready for the next part of the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler!

Oh, right! Today is New DVD Release Tuesday - today's selection: Pride and Prejudice

Stitched on today: Garden Spot Sampler

Yay, a chance to work on my mermaids again!!

Finally... at last... a chance to work on Mermaids of the Deep Blue tonight. What a relief! This project is such a joy to stitch! I wish I had more time for it.... I am beginning to get more done on the upper mermaid now :-)

Thank you to everyone who left some input regarding Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I have decided that I am not going to rip all of that work out. I figure it will take its shape when it is done, and stay with the color theme of the rest of the sampler. I looked at the chart, and this house just plain old has a weird lawn. Would I have chosen these colors for this square - nope! But, I leave my trust in those who did decide - a combo of Carriage House Samplings and Vikki Clayton... I think it is strange but will work out. I hope this is the only square that will raise concerns for me re: the VC conversion, though.

Looks like I will probably be getting a snow day later this week - yay!! As much as I hate snow, I do love snow days when I can stay home and stitch! We'll see... Thursday is the likely day and that is still a bit of a ways off....

Stitched on today: Mermaids of the Deep Blue and Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler at work (no pic - sorry, it's in my briefcase out in my Jeep)

Back to Houses of Hawk Run Hollow - at last!

But... I am not liking this square (House 4) at all.... I don't think Vikki's conversion is very well done for this house.... it looks all blotchy, which doesn't help with this house that has a weird enough lawn already. Nope, I don't like it. The two shades of green on the front steps and the windows are so similar that you can barely distinguish them. Yucky - we are going for the blotchy, splotchy look here! Yikes!!

Now on to Mermaids of the Deep Blue tomorrow, then the Garden Spot Sampler SAL on Tuesday.... and back to Chatelaine passwords again!

Stitched on today: Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

Very bad roads today! And, finally finished Part 5!!

***Mike and I were NOT in this accident!!***
Mike and I went down to Lawrence, MA to finish the move of my office - it went just fine - I have a lot of unpacking to do next week. It started to snow, as we expected it would, while we were there. On our way home, we got stuck behind multiple car accidents. It took us forever to get up to exit 4 in Derry, NH where we stopped for gas (Mike's new gas guzzler of a car had us nervous that it would run out while we were stuck on the highway - but we did OK) and stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch.... Then we heard of a "25 car pileup on the interstate going south" - we were going north. We saw it! It was not a 25 car pile up, it is listed on the news station's website as a 50 car pileup! Oh my!! Nobody was killed. This is what we saw but from the northbound lane. Gasp! (photo from wmur.com) **This is the main interstate I drive on to work - now you can see why I just stay home on snowy days. More info and pics here.

Now, on to the good news!
I can breathe a sigh of relief now... I finished Part 5 of Medieval Town Mandala tonight. And, I did breathe that sigh of relief when I put in that last stitch :-)
And then, I put in some much needed time on my Neighborhood Round Robin square. Tonight I stitched the door and some of the outline of the house. But most importantly, I also stitched the two little obligatory kitties. I used the two cats from LHN's The Friendship Tree. They didn't fit, but I loved them, so I stitched them over one :-) I was thinking tonight about how I am asking each RR participant to stitch at least one cat in her square. I realized that if someone wants to stitch a dog instead, that would be nice too :-) I will have to let them know that...

Yay Ryan Newman! He came in second in the Busch Series race in Fontana, California tonight :-)

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala, and Gardener's Cottage with part of The Friendship Tree

Almost there!

Just a very little bit is left now.... the specialty stitches (eyelets and rhodes). They won't take me long at all to do tomorrow. I guess I could stay up late and finish it tonight, but it already is quite late here and I do have to get up early tomorrow.... I am in the process of moving from a small office to a much bigger one in the same office building in Lawrence, MA. Today, Mike and I went down there to pack and to meet up with the telephone man to switch my lines over. Tomorrow the movers come. It will be snowing, yuck! But... it should be a quick move and then I can come home and finish Part 5 - at last!! (Another reason I need to quit now is that Beau has decided that he must take over my lap!! He is my biggest of the six - he takes up a lot of lap, and leaves really no room for the Q-Snap!).

I love this German Quaker Sampler! I saw in Bine's blog that she was stitching this in an organized SAL with the designer, Martina Dey. The SAL is closed, but I joined the Yahoo group (Wiehenburg Samplers in my sidebar) in hopes of getting in on the next one.... and, then Martina decided to release the chart for sale! Yay! I got mine - I am so excited!! Isn't it pretty??!!

OK, I am checking out The Phantom of the Opera on Karen's advice. I have it on right now (Mike bought me the DVD)... but I must admit, I am a bit lost - how can one stitch to this movie? I am missing something in the story here... and I hate to admit this, but I wish it were less singing and more dialogue - that is pretty bad to say, I know!!

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala
Couldn't resist... photo from www.nascar.com

At last, I feel like I can see some progress tonight on the fourth corner - all the gold is done and two of the shades of turquoise too - four more shades to go, then eyelets and rhodes stitches. I hope you can bear with me for another day or two and then Medieval Town Mandala can disappear off of my blog for at least a week (or so....) LOL! I know you really must be as sick of it as I am!
I am totally hooked on stitching the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler, so of course I worked on it some more today. It was wonderful to see so many comments and emails from stitchers who are now beginning to see how lovely this sampler is :-) I hope you all will order up these pretty silks from Vikki Clayton and stitch this one too! (The DMC conversion on the chart looks really dull compared to the VC silks). I am almost done with Part 1, as I don't plan to stitch any of the partial motifs until the parts come in that show the other halves of them... some of these silks are a bit variegated, and for the sake of color consistency, I want to stitch each motif in its entirety. There is an asterisk (*) symbol on the chart for the bird's eye, but there is no fiber listed for that symbol and no notation in the directions as to what to use. So, I am going to use a snip of black NPI silk from my Medieval Town Mandala kit to stitch the eye... I wonder what other stitchers are doing for the eye... (***If you want to stitch this sampler and have not yet subscribed to The Gift of Stitching, you will need to subscribe as soon as you can - on March 1st this issue will no longer be available and the next issue, with Part 2 of the sampler in it, will be loaded onto the website... act fast!! LOL) Anyhow, I am so enamored by this little sampler and this designer that I ordered Three Little Words :-)

I haven't posted a stash report in the longest time, and since Mike took me to Colonial Needleworks tonight, I figured it was time to do my sharing. We had dinner in Bedford tonight - how convenient that the needlework shop was only five minutes away from the restaurant, and that it was their night to be open late!! Here is my stash take from the last couple of weeks or so.... one item, the Silkweaver Sandcastle belfast, is not shown as I am already using it for the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler. Also, a skein of Holly Berry GAST is not shown - it fell on the floor when I was gathering my goodies together... But I can show you two new UK magazines (Quick & Easy, and Mary Hickmott's New Stitches), Long Dog Samplers' Time and Tide (this was on my wishlist forever!), Blue Ribbon Designs' True Love and Grace (for which I needed the Holly Berry GAST), Blackbird Designs' Strawberry Garden with R&R Creme Brulee linen (had to get this once I saw it - the colors are amazing, but I shall need to watch for the next SB&B sale to get all the Crescent Colours floss for it), a fat quarter of Dragon Myst belfast by Heaven Lee Creations (hmmm, they never sent a FOTM invoice this month - not very strange, they are so disorganized!!), a fat quarter of Sugar Maple Fabrics Iris 28 ct Annabelle, the three skeins of Vikki Clayton silk needed to finish Garden Spot Sampler (gift from Vikki), the VC silk set for Sampler Cove's Bordeaux (mystery) Sampler - (got the first pdf file for that this week too - going to use the pretty 36 ct linen Bea gave me for Christmas for this one!), a skein of Gold Weeks Dye Works for my Neighborhood RR block, and a pack of size 26 Piecemakers (I am always buying size 28's now, and realized a day or two ago that I am about out of size 26 - LOL)....and I think that is it??!!

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler and Medieval Town Mandala

Stitching on limited time tonight...

I had really limited stitching time tonight, and you can be sure I still tried to motor my way around the fourth corner of Medieval Town Mandala. Why limited time? My husband just had to, for some reason, buy a new car today and I had to go and sign paperwork at the dealership. No matter where you live, you know that takes time to do. Unfortunately, this purchase ultimately entails his selling of the car that he just had to have that I bought for him for his birthday last June. This really, really bugs me. I am not fond of the one he bought today, not at all. I guess it is supposed to be a good car, but you can't go by anything they say at the dealership - they just want to make a sale. Oh well, I tried to do the right thing back in June, and I guess today I just feel disappointed. So... long story short, I do hope I can get this dratted Medieval Town Mandala done soon!
Since my fabric for this sampler came in yesterday, I brought it to work and started the Papillon Mystery Sampler which begins in the current issue of The Gift of Stitching. I am loving this already! It will be a fun and quick stitch - although I have to keep waiting each month for the next installment of the chart... five in all. I am using the Vikki Clayton Hand-Dyed Fibers for it. The colors are amazing! My fabric is Silkweaver Sandcastle Belfast linen.

Some have asked how I handle using the large Q-Snap... I really don't have an answer for you... it is the only thing I can even think to use if stitching a large project. I guess I pretty much balance it in my hands/on my lap somehow. My left hand sure gets crampy, though, no matter what size Q-Snap I use.

I got an email from Vikki Clayton about the conversion I am using for Garden Spot Sampler. She let me know that the conversion has been revised to remove the baby blue and add bright turquoise like the original. She is sending me the replacement skein, and I have decided to remove the baby blue and fix it with the bright blue. I think I will like the sampler much better that way. Fortunately, the baby blue has not been used much yet!!

**Due to the car shopping trip, I am way behind with email and blogs today. So sorry! I will try to catch up on all of those tomorrow!

Stitched on today: Papillon Mystery Sampler (at work) and Medieval Town Mandala

A little winter gardening

This was a pleasant break from Medieval Town Mandala tonight. It is only a one night break, but I was glad for it. Here is this week's installment of the Garden Spot Sampler SAL with Jo.

There were a couple of comments in my blog yesterday about the RR I am in. I figured one of the best ways to answer some of the questions is to show you the blog we are using for our group: Our Neighborhood of Make Believe. To answer specific questions, everyone in this group (there are 8 of us) is doing a neighborhood theme. Each of us has narrowed down that theme a little bit... for instance, I want houses with gardens and at least one cat... another stitcher wants Victorians with a beach theme... another wants a more primitive style neighborhood. We do not have to stitch the same house on each project as it arrives. I doubt any of us could do that :-) Everyone is using a different layout too... stay posted, I will be posting progress on each as they come in, but beware - this group will take two years to complete LOL!

Nancy, the Autumn Fields belfast I am using is a Zweigart fabric. You can find it on the Silkweaver site under "standard fabrics."

My Silkweaver Sandcastle belfast came in today for the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler in The Gift of Stitching! Yay! I am going to go get my silks, needle and a project pack so I can start that at work tomorrow!!

Stitched on today: Garden Spot Sampler

Well, at least it is a start...

While I know my focus today should be on getting that fourth corner of MTM started, I just needed a little break after yesterday's extreme marathon session to finish the third corner. I needed a skein of DMC 3013 for my RR block, so Mike and I went out in search of the floss. It took a couple of tries to find a store that had that color in stock, and we ended up at the dreaded Michael's... they had it, and since they have a floss sale right now, I only paid 16 cents for it.... so.... I came home and stitched for a little bit on my RR.... that is how this will get done on time, doing it little by little. Now I have to put it down and pick up MTM... at least 24 is on tonight, that will keep me perked up!

I didn't get a whole lot of the fourth corner done tonight... but at least it is a start, right? I get a break tomorrow due to a SAL commitment, but then I will be right back at this!

Von, welcome back from your camping trip - this isn't the end of this project though - this is the end of Part 5 of, gulp, 12 parts LOL! I should be finishing it, if I can still stay on track, around the end of September....

Leslie, Gardener's Cottage is a leaflet by Elizabeth's Designs...

Vash, in answer to your kitty/monitor question - yes, Lily is a small cat (about to turn four in June - she is a dilute calico persian) and Mike's monitor is a big monitor :-) It does dwarf her a bit!

Stitched on today: Gardener's Cottage and Medieval Town Mandala

The Magic of Threes

Three is the magic number today! (This reminds me of great play therapy training class I took last year - lots of neat tools in that one, including children's propensity to remember things in threes - you know, the three little pigs, the genie's three wishes, three blind mice, and so on... but, I digress!). I have three corners finished now on Medieval Town Mandala! It took me all day... but three down, one to go!

Another three! Ryan Newman, my very, very, very, very favorite NASCAR driver, came in third in a very close finish in the Daytona 500 today - this is a career high for him, and an amazingly great start to his season (at last) this year! He is now tied for second in points (he had bonus points for leading laps that the second place finisher, Casey Mears, did not earn). And.... with much controversy surrounding the winner and possible cheating by his team, there is some degree of chance that he will be docked points, leaving Ryan and Casey both tied for first place - if NASCAR makes that decision later this week... If they don't, no worries! Ryan is only 15 little points out of first place in the Nextel Cup Chase right now! Woo Hoo!

I joined a new stitching group today, Wiehenburg Samplers, thanks to Bine... I wanted to stitch that pretty quaker sampler she is stitching (and is shown as the cover pic in the group I just joined), but that group is closed. I found out in the group I can order the chart when it gets published though. And, even better, I have pre-registered in the group for Martina Dey's next Quaker Mystery Sampler! This is worth looking into - very pretty!!

Sigh, I see that Passione Ricamo has put a teaser up on her site of her next to be released design, The Night.... I can already tell I will want to do this one too!!



Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

Finally in the mix!

What is this, right? I finally jumped in with both feet, basted my fabric into nine 90 x 90 squares, and then started my house for the Neighborhood RR. I need to have this ready to mail off to The Netherlands by March 15th. It sure doesn't look like much yet, but it is going to be Gardener's Cottage by Elizabeth's Designs. I will be adding two little kitties stitched over one that are from LHN's The Friendship Tree... my request for each stitcher in this RR is that each stitches at least one cat in their block. So, I had to also figure out how to add one (or as it turns out, two) into my design - I figured I can do this by deleting the box planter of pink flowers and stitch the two aforementioned cats over one... I think it will work out perfectly :-)

Once again, my scan is crooked, but I am too tired to redo it.

So, originally I had planned to work on Medieval Town Mandala today. But, the RR really needs attention to make its posting date. I figure on giving Medieval Town Mandala a whole lot of attention on Sunday and Monday.

Thank you to all of you for your lovely comments about Celtic Winter. They are so appreciated! I want to frame her in a nice gold frame, but Mike and I were talking and we would like to hang all four seasons as a set - I am wondering if I should wait until they are all done (that sure could be a while!!) before framing this one??

Yay, the Daytona 500 is tomorrow! Finally, NASCAR!

Stitched on today: Basted my huge piece of Vintage Autumn Fields belfast, and started Gardener's Cottage for the Neighborhood RR

And, here she is....

Finally, I now have my first finish of 2006... and here she is...

Celtic Winter
Lavender & Lace, c. 2005
Silkweaver 32 ct Blue Diamonds Reflections Lugana
Stitched 9/8/05 - 2/17/06

This was started as a SAL back in September, and somehow Katrina and I both managed to finish on the same day... pretty cool! So, now you have it, my first finish for the year - nice to get that out of the way! I loved working on her and will be stitching the other three seasons, just not right away - too many other things on my plate right now! I also really enjoyed that this was a SAL with so many stitchers, and each has been so wonderful! (I am sorry the photo is so small - Mike took the picture in high resolution, blogger wouldn't take it, I had to put it in Photobucket and size it down a bit to fit the blog... and it turned out so small.... but you can see a bigger pic here).

I have been asked what will replace Celtic Winter in my rotation... right now, it will be a good slot to get some more time in on Mermaids of the Deep Blue :-)

There is a new blog for us all to read now! Please check out Karen's Blog when you get a chance. Karen is a very dear friend of mine in Leura, NSW Australia. She owns and operates Dragonfly Dreams, an exceptional needlework shop which many of you already love!! Karen is a talented and very avid stitcher... check out her recent finish of Drawn Thread's An Open Heart, and her stunning start on Mirabilia's Stargazer!! Please say hi while you are there too! I have bragged so much to her lately about how wonderful this blogging community is, and I am certain she would love to meet you too! Thanks!

There are several of us now ready to start Houses of Hawk Run Hollow as a SAL... anyone can join us, if they want! But those who have expressed doing it right now are: Becky, Bea, Barbara and Karen - OK, get stitching ladies so I won't feel like I am too far ahead of you!! LOL

Hand-Dyed Fibers (aka Vikki Clayton) is sponsoring a new online mystery sampler - Sampler Cove's Bordeaux Mystery Sampler - and it is exclusive to Hand-Dyed Fibers. Here is the top section. I love it! I just signed up. Thought you might want to know about it :-)

Whew! Finally - the newest Cross Stitch Gold arrived today. I was really beginning to wonder about it. I received the last one really early last month... but all is OK now.... There is a really cute Venice themed chart in this one... I love it, but cannot figure out why the designer, Maria Diaz, opted to make the water in the canal brown?? That might hold me back from stitching this.... but I otherwise really love this - Bea, is the water in Venice brown? I thought it was quite blue... at least in the films I have seen it is...

Here is what I hope is a better picture of the Venice project... OK, time to see if I can fit in some time on Medieval Town Mandala now while we watch Saw II...
And, I did get a chance to do a little... will put a lot of effort into it this weekend and maybe finish Part 5 (oh, I hope so!!). I really like stitching the gold swirls :-)

Stitched on today: Celtic Winter (Happy Dance!!) and Medieval Town Mandala

Coming around the bend now!

All of the beading is done now and I am finally working on the extreme outer border of Celtic Winter. I can see the finish line now. I hope I can finish her tomorrow night, in fact. I am really feeling ready to have my first finish of the year! She beaded up really quickly, primarily thanks to my Tacky BOB. Beading with four (or even more) colors is just so quick and easy with a Tacky BOB (yes, I know I sound like an advertisement, but it is my favorite needlework tool these days). I don't know why I have two packs of the gold beads and the magnifica beads. Did I read or hear somewhere that I needed two packs of each of those? I can't remember, but I didn't need them. All four colors of beads require well under one pack each!! Oh well, I am sure I can use them for something :-)

I am pretty excited about having registered for Celebration of Needlework this morning. It is happening during the first weekend of May this year in Nashua, NH. That is my wedding anniversary weekend (May 8th), so I get to use the excuse that signing up for classes makes a great anniversary gift for me. Mike didn't mind :-) I have signed up for two classes this year :-) First, on Friday afternoon, I registered for The Elizabeth Pickney Sampler with Betsy Stinner, and then on Saturday morning, I registered for Crystal Winter with Jeannette Douglas. I have to wait for confirmation of these registrations, but I have never had a problem getting into any classes at Celebration before, so hopefully that will be the case again this year. I hope to see a lot of my friends there this year! I had such a good time meeting some of my blogging pals there last year :-)

I need to get back to Medieval Town Mandala this weekend, and then begin to get my Neighborhood RR set up... but first, I really want to get Celtic Winter finished!!

I hope to surf some blogs right now, but my sidebar seems to have disappeared and I guess Blogger is having its issues... so if you don't hear from me tonight, it is because I can't get to your blog link right now!

Oh, Jenna asked what size Q-Snap I am using for my big projects - that is the large size, 17" x 17" and I adore it! Yes, I do get good tension with it. However, the R&R fabric I am using for Garden Spot Sampler is stiff and weird feeling... not the best tension with that one, so I use my tiny 8" x 8" Q-Snap for that sampler or stitch in hand in some areas...

And, another blogger asked if she could use my "Stitched on today" line on her blog - of course, please do!!!!!

Stitched on today: 17th Century Irish Garden for a bit at work today - finally - and I brought it home to post an update pic sometime this weekend, and Celtic Winter

Getting much closer now

My first finish of 2006 is finally approaching! I am getting quite close now on Celtic Winter. I finished the stitching of the left side border at work today, with ten minutes left to spare of my break (so I ate my lunch!!). Tonight I started the beading. I have to finish beading the two side borders, and then I still need to stitch the outermost border. That part is easy and can be done at work... so finally, I have a Happy Dance forthcoming! Finally!!

Q. Comment on your comments (giving and recieving): Do you love comments
or hate them? Do you check them every day, never check them, or find
them helpful? And finally, are you convinced no one is reading your
blog if you don't get any?

A. Yes, I love getting comments in my blog, and I do read them all. Sometimes I check in on them at work while I am reading other blogs. I love meeting people through the comments they leave... I make new friendships that way, get great offers to trade charts, learn some new stitching tips... it's one of the best parts of blogging. I also love to leave comments for other bloggers. I usually do get comments, and my counter shows that I get plenty of hits, so I get the idea that people do read my blog. But, it is really my own stitching journal, and it truly amazes me how many people actually do read it :-)

Stitched on today: Celtic Winter

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here is my weekly progress update on the Garden Spot Sampler SAL. I contacted Vikki Clayton a few days ago about the shortage of three of the silk colors in her conversion, and she has just emailed me to let me know she is sending me another skein of each free of charge, and she updated her site to reflect the new info on number of skeins needed :-) I finished that pretty coneflower tonight!

I got some excellent news today! It turns out that the first mailing date for the Neighborhood RR is not until March 15th! I had thought it was March 1st. I re-read the info that was emailed to me, and it only said "March," so I assumed the 1st. I was last to join - really, they added me into their group because they are all so sweet! - and I did not get much of a chance to truly absorb the details. I am very excited - I don't need to rush now!! Whew!

It is, yet again, New DVD Release Tuesday! Strange releases for a romantic holiday: Saw II and Zathura (the latter of which we are enjoying right now).

Oh, and KarenV has pointed out the most lovely must-have chart to me - Liz Turner Diehl's 17th Century German Garden (I see she calls it the 18th Century German Garden when she teaches it at CATS, so I am not sure what it's real, true name is - but I really want this!!). I see it is sold as a kit... I hope it will also just be released as a chart. My heritage is primarily German, so how can I not stitch this one??

Stitched on today: Garden Spot Sampler

Can you guess what I am still working on??

Um, yep... Medieval Town Mandala.... but not a whole lot of it tonight. I have to quit early to get some more birthday packages ready for Mike to mail off tomorrow!! Busy, busy month for those birthdays!! Anyhow... now Medieval Town Mandala gets put away for two days while I do my SALs...
And, finally... at long last... look what I have here! Yes, that is my Autumn Fields belfast for the Neighborhood RR!! OK, now to get that done too!! Thank you Silkweaver! I will have to bring this in to work in the next day or two and start getting my squares basted, and then once Medieval Town Mandala is done I will stitch my house.... I just hope I can get it all done!

And, speaking of Silkweaver, today I finally received my FOTM. They mailed it a week late again. I love this one - it is Wandering Ivy belfast. So nice!

You know.... I have just been thinking about the incredible gamut of emotions right now in our little world of stitching bloggers... we have the extreme joy of Karen's miracle pregnancy, the excitement of Jo's new job, Katrina's recent nuptials and Nikki's new graduate program....and we have Barbara's home robbery, Isabelle's and Jenna's terrible migraines, and... the sudden and tragic death of Laura... from the most extreme joy to the deepest sorrow, we have really been going through a lot, haven't we? It's great that we are all here for each other, in the good times and the bad... hugs to all of you.


Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

I have found myself to be totally spoilt by Becky! My goodness, I am speechless over this lovely box of Valentine's Day gifts that arrived yesterday! She sent me this cute Lizzie Kate flatfold, an adorable little tote with a Bent Creek design on it, and this most amazing needlebook that I had been admiring on her blog! And, on top of all of that, she sent me a little journal too! She knows how much I love gardening, and she is right - she cannot go wrong with gardening themed items for me. As I said, I am speechless and I really don't know what I have done to deserve this. Becky, you are such a good friend, thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Two corners down now...two more to go - finally, half way there!!!
And, a shot of part of my back porch... we did not get as much snow as originally forecasted. We got a little more than this much, but this pretty much says it all...


Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

On the storm watch

I really had a hard time focusing today to get to work on Medieval Town Mandala... I don't think it was because of the big corners, but rather it just took me some time today to get focused on stitching. We ran errands, went out to brunch, I did the laundry, I did a program on the treadmill and I watched a movie... and then I figured I would get to Medieval Town Mandala... and here is how far I managed to get. I hope to do better tomorrow.

A stash update today too - my Vikki Clayton silks came in for the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler... so now I don't know which one I will bring to work now... the Papillon Mystery or the Quaker Mystery.... very hard to decide! And I got in two of Silkweaver's new limited edition fabrics - the 40 ct Atlantic Storm Linen and the 28 ct Splash! lugana. They are so pretty! And the third fabric is the Silkweaver 40 ct Solo that I had forgotten to put in the photo last night - this is a gorgeous neutral one for a sampler.
Ack! Today we have a new forecast for the snow.... seems the totals up by me (and everywhere) just got a whole lot higher.... still a few hours away from us... but, yuck!! I am glad I can stay in and stitch, but going out Sunday afternoon/evening to clean all of this up and not going to be much fun... everyone in the northeast, stay safe!!

I am a little bit late with the SBQ this week...here is why :-)

Q. Describe your "perfect" project. (Include the designer or specific pattern, the fabric, the floss, and anything else that would make that project "perfect" for you.)

A. I fear I am late with responding to this SBQ because, honestly, I don't really understand it. I guess the perfect project to me always is the one that is calling to me next - they are all perfect to me

I watched Just Like Heaven today, and I have to say that it was excellent :-) Very funny movie.

And, I received a very special treat from a fellow stitcher today. I emailed her personally to thank her already, but will share it all in my blog tomorrow when I can get a better photo of my very stunning gifts!! (I am sure most of you can guess who the sender was!!)...

Oh, and while out today, picked up Elizabethtown, which I had somehow missed as a new release this week :-)

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

One down, and....

...And three more corners still to go! I did get the first corner done tonight, and just as soon as I finished it, I started up the outline for the second corner.

I am wondering how many stitchers signed up in the Medieval Town Mandala group will be able to finish Part 5 this month? Will I??? Hmmmm.... :-) I am pretty much thinking that I can find the time this month to finish it... but I won't be foregoing my SAL commitments on Tuesdays and Wednesdays just to do it - I like my SALs with my SAL-mates too much to drop those :-)

OK, here is a posting of stash that came in over the past week... John Clayton's Big Ben kit (a must stitch to commemorate our vacations in London), A Stitch in Time by The Workbasket (also a must stitch due to its verse: A stitch in time saves my mind), Mirabilia's Stargazer and Hands To Work's Best of Blessings. I also got two skeins of GAST that I felt I may need for this chart. More fabric too - Silkweaver's Sandcastle 40 ct linen, R&R Reproductions' Hog Wild Blue 30 ct linen, an opalescent brown cashel solo by Silkweaver.... and a pretty 40 ct Newcastle solo that I forgot to photograph.. ah well....

Oh, good news today from Silkweaver! The Autumn Fields belfast I ordered back in mid-January for the Neighborhood RR finally came in and they shipped it out today! The challenge ahead of me now is to finish Part 5 of Medieval Town Mandala and baste my fabric and stitch my house before the end of the month...
Well, it looks like I will get some stitching done this weekend! Here is our local snowfall forecast for Saturday night into most of Sunday! I live just northeast of where it says "Nashua" (Nashua, by the way, is where the wonderful Celebration of Needlework festival is held each spring - join me there??) - it is downgraded from the 12"+ that they called for earlier in the week, and only time will tell... but, for sure, it looks like I will be inside trying to catch up on Medieval Town Mandala! Can't complain much - it has not been a snowy winter so far.

I have recently noticed that some of my dear blogging friends are stitching a Quaker Mystery Sampler, and after seeing their starts on the project I was very attracted to it. So, I spent some time today enjoying the benefits of Google, and I found the site. Now I will be putting this together to stitch on at work... my current "at work" project has not been motivating me lately, so I will slide this one in and see if I can get back in the groove. I put the link in this paragraph for you in case you also want to stitch this - I will save you all that leg work that I did today LOL!

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

****Oh, someone asked what fabric I am using for Mermaid Heaven - it is Sugar Maple Fabrics' Impressionism Cashel.