My Neighborhood Round Robin is Home!

What a treat delivered by Ken, the mailman, today! My first Neighborhood Round Robin has finally come home :-) This RR started in March of 2006. I really like it, and I want to thank Annemarie, Barbara, Su, Veronica, Dianne, Rachael and dear Becky for their lovely work on it. I need to stitch the center of the neighborhood and walkways between the houses now. I will be sending thank you notes and gifties as soon as I can. I am so overjoyed to see it home safe and sound - thank you all!

And... busy Ken also delivered these really adorable Fair and Square squares from An - who knows me so very well! They are just the cutest! Thanks An! She also sent me some yummy green apple tea and a diffuser, but those are in the kitchen already since I have already started to enjoy the tea ;-)

I am happy to have great mail to share today... as I am again fretting over a package I mailed out via Priority on April 7th to a country not terribly far away which usually doesn't take long to receive... but nothing yet... sigh...

Stitched on today: SBEBB Garden Theme Exchange

Fair and Square from Laura

I spent the entire day today finishing my Winter House Exchange. It is 11 PM, but finally - all done. I met my goal to be able to post it tomorrow while I have a chance to get to the post office... But, that left me with tons of emails I cannot reply to tonight - sorry! I will do my best tomorrow.... But I shall leave you with a photo of the Fair and Square exchange I received from Laura yesterday. Thank you Laura.

Thanks for all of the nice comments about the gifts for Katrina. I know the biscornu really is pretty, but complimenting me makes me laugh :-) The credit goes to Catherine Strickler of Indigo Rose - she designed it :-) I am just someone who followed her lead... :-) I always feel that way when I get compliments on stitched items. I am sure others feel that way too :-)

Time to wind down and not work on an exchange until bedtime - woo hoo!!

Stitched on today: Finished Winter House Exchange project

Fair and Square for Laura

I discovered today that Laura has actually received the Fair and Square blocks that I had stitched for her. I was beginning to wonder if they were safe, but saw today that she had posted them in the group blog a couple of days ago. I did not hear directly from her, so that had me lost as to what had happened. Anyhow, Laura had emailed me her likes/dislikes and I was feeling rather concerned as to what to stitch for her. Her likes are very unlike my stash. But she did say she likes dragons, and I am very glad that she likes my choice:
Dragon of Hope 2005
Dragon Dreams
32 ct Antique White Belfast Linen, DMC Floss, Kreinik #4 Braid

We are bracing here for very frigid temps tomorrow. It is not like it has been warm, or anything close to warm, here for a while. Now tomorrow we are facing temps in the single digits (F). For my friends who live in the world of Celcius, that is something like -30C .... brrr....

Stitched on today: Finished the first fob for the first Scissor Fob Exchange, and started Winter House Exchange project (No news on any of those international packages I posted so long ago arriving yet..)

Plenty to show....

I finally have some things to show today, other than And A Forest Grew or Victoria's Quaker :-) Annemarie received a parcel that I sent off to her on Monday (she is well, by the way, and I am sure will be blogging again quite soon). Inside the parcel were a few items. Her birthday is next week, and I stitched this for her: (***the chart for this needleroll is now available for adoption by the first stitcher who leaves a comment requesting it) ADOPTED -
November Birthday Needleroll
Victoria Sampler
28 ct White Evenweave, DMC Floss, DMC Perle Cotton, Kreinik #4 Braids

And, also in her package, along with Erin's Round Robin, were my Fair and Square blocks for her. An has more coffee than blood running in her veins, so I could not resist stitching these:

Coffee Crazy!!
Lizzie Kate
Antique White Belfast, Weeks Dye Works Floss

And, oh my gosh! I just realized that I was so tired from watching the World Series last night when I blogged that I totally forgot to post this photo of this sweet Crazy Exchange return exchange that I received from Sherry yesterday. Isn't it adorable?? I just love it - thanks Sherry! (And I am so sorry I was so braindead last night that I forgot to put up a photo!!). And finally, I do have another update of And A Forest Grew... I think I have one more night left on it (yep, that should be tomorrow) - just one more big tree, two tiny trees, two backstitched bird outlines and my initials and year are left! I have really loved working on this one! And I love seeing how many other ones are being stitched in the blogosphere :-)

Stitched on today: Stitched on PIF gift, stitched on Harvest Time Exchange, and And A Forest Grew

Grateful Hearts Exchange for Julianne/Fair and Square for Wendy...

A banner day today! Two exchanges I sent off recently have been received! I am still waiting for word on the Harvest House exchange. It should have been received by now, but no word....

First, Julianne has already received the Grateful Hearts Exchange. I can show you what I stitched, but we will have to wait until she can post a photo of the entire exchange, since, as always, I did forget to take a photo of the goodies too! Julianne, what a sweet email you sent me! I am so glad you like it, as it was so much fun to stitch this for you!

Four Little Hearts Biscornu
Indigo Rose
32 ct Lambswool Jobelan, DMC Floss

I stitched the same design on the back, using only DMC 712...

And a side view, since I find photographing biscornus to be quite difficult... top views don't look right, and side views don't show much...LOL

Also, the lovely Wendy received my Fair and Square exchange for her today... oh Wendy, I am so happy that you like my choice - and thank you too for the wonderful email today!! Wendy likes Prairie Schooler very much, and since we are in a Neighborhood Round Robin together, selecting a chart for her was easy. She told me she had never seen this old PS freebie (c. 1990) before, so I was really happy I could surprise her!

Grey Home Sweet Home
The Prairie Schooler
Wichelt 32 ct Chantilly Country French Linen, DMC Floss

I worked on Bine's Neighborhood Round Robin again tonight... looks more like a house now!! I had to photograph it without flash, thus the blurriness and the house I am stitching looks black/blue when it is really red (Crescent Colours Bandana). I should be able to finish this and get it to Nikki by the next mailing date on 10/1.

Good news! I got to visit some blogs today! My reader says I still have 200+ to go, but the dent I made today was so uplifting - so far, it appears you are all doing well :-) I have missed you, and thank you for your kind words of support.

For those who asked, I emailed Vikki to let her know I am not going to have enough OMG Red to finish VQ. I let her know I am using 36 ct linen and am a very frugal stitcher who wastes no floss. She said she knows of 30 stitchers, at least, who have stitched this with one skein. Now, since I will barely get to the 3/4 mark on high count linen, I was stymied. She is, however, happy to send me another skein gratis. I am not sure how 30 stitchers could have done that... they must have stretched their silk extra thin?? (I am kidding, I know you cannot do that! LOL)

Stitched on today: Autumn Quaker Exchange project, and Bine's Neighborhood Round Robin

A Great Mail Day

I received some really beautiful mail today! Aniza sent me this really pretty little pinkeep for the SBEBB Quaker Alphabet Exchange. It is stitched over one with a lovely purple floss - and of course, is so beautifully stitched.. and so wee :-) And.. wow, I have admired Aniza's own hand dyed floss via her blog for some time now... and now I have a nice packet of several lovely skeins all for myself! Thank you Aniza - what a lovely exchange, I love it all! And, the mail just kept getting better as I received these fantastic Fair and Square blocks from Wendy. Aren't they wonderful? She stitched Opalescent Heart by The Sweetheart Tree for me! Oh Wendy, I adore them, thank you! I hope you receive yours from me very soon too!
And... I finished House 5 on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow tonight ;-) Then I took the plunge and started the border on House 6, aka the intimidating "leave-no-space-unstitched" block, which also features the one house on the sampler that also calls for overstitching. This one will take a while. I had to chuckle when I saw a comment in my blog earlier today about last night's HOHRH post. Someone wrote that my finish is only a few months away - ha! Naive writer, ha! LOL. I think the finish is still some ways off on this massive endeavor.

Stitched on today: Finished Harvest House Exchange project, and Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

Fair and Square, Round One Finished

I am relieved to have heard earlier today that my Fair and Square blocks for Margaret Wong have arrived safely in Kuala Lumpur! Here they are - sorry the photo is a little out of focus, I tried to take it at dusk. I look forward to Round Two starting later this month.

Friendship
Little House Needleworks
32 ct Chantilly Country French Linen, DMC Floss

I have been sticking with Houses of Hawk Run Hollow on Mondays. I don't have much time on Monday evenings to stitch, but still, slow and steady progress is surely going to get me there - so, here is where it got me tonight!

And... a couple of daylilies too :-)

Asian Artistry

Inner View

I received Cathy's Neighborhood Round Robin today for Group 3 - it is gorgeous!!

Stitched on today: Stitched a gift, and Houses of Hawk Run Hollow **I also posted my Freebie Exchange off today, as it has a bit of a long way to travel now

Fair and Square blocks from Margaret Wong :-)

Ah, lucky me! Mike went to the post office today to pick up some registered mail from Malaysia. I received these beautiful Fair and Square blocks from Margaret Wong. I just adore Prairie Schooler and these are so beautifully stitched - thank you Margaret! This is for Round 1, and I am looking forward to Round 2 starting soon. I hope my blocks arrive safe and sound in Kuala Lumpur for Margaret very soon!

I have made Tuesdays into Round Robin night, so I picked up Karen's round robin again tonight. I am using LHN's Psalm 145 to start with. I put the house up high as there would otherwise be an awful lot of sky. I will omit the hilly lawn that is on the chart and do my own landscaping and accessorizing, including a walkway to tie it together and let it flow as well as I can :-)

...and, just to show that I do not only grow daylilies - here is a clump of Japanese Iris growing in the wilder area of our garden. We have about an acre of land to the left of our house that is growing wild - this clump is so close to that area that you can see an old fallen tree in the background. Someday I would love to expand that area into more lawn and garden.

Thanks for all the nice words about yesterday's horrible sighting. I have not found any news anywhere about the driver :-( However, I sure saw the scraping marks on the concrete barrier when I got on the highway to drive west on my way to work this morning. They made me cringe...

Stitched on today: Finished a gift, and Karen's Neighborhood Round Robin

Fair and Square Progress

Today I finally started my Fair and Square block for Margaret Wong. I decided to stitch the smaller friendship chart that is in one of the LHN Dear Diary chartpacks. Margaret lists LHN as one of her favorite designers, and since the theme of Fair and Square is friendship, I thought this would be a good start for her quilt. Now just to decide if I will stitch the border or not... looking at it again now, I think I will :-)

I took some garden photos over the weekend and forgot about them! I will share just a couple, as plenty of blogs are full of garden photos right now... above is Butterscotch Ruffles, one of my daylilies...

And, this is for Becky! One of my rosebushes had a lot of bees on it so I snuck up as close as I could to snap a shot - I couldn't get that close as I had just put on Liz Claiborne's Curve and I didn't want the bees to decide I was a flower too - LOL!! Anyhow, this is for you, Becky!!

I sent off my Summer Quaker Exchange on my way home from work this afternoon - I do hope my recipient enjoys her package :-)

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Sampler, started Fair and Square, Paradigm Lost