A much better night of stitching!

It's that day of the week again... Garden Spot Sampler SAL night. I think I had a much better night of stitching :-) I was able to stitch 2 1/2 motifs tonight. I really enjoy this sampler - it is a nice break from everything else I am stitching. It is so different (even though I don't care much for this R&R linen).

I had to smile today when I realized I won a piece of Silkweaver linen on ebay... and then realized the seller is one of our best stitching bloggers! Funny :-) I had no idea until I saw her email address after I won!

I just realized today that the American Quaker SAL starts... tomorrow! Oh geez! My silks have been shipped, and I have to choose from my linen stash... but oh, that is right! I am just going to stitch this at my own pace - whew!!

And... the Neighborhood RR is officially underway now! Mike posted my project off to Annemarie in Holland, via Global Priority Mail, today :-) Now I am going to gather up my gear and go camp outside by my mailbox, because Su posted hers off to me on Saturday from the UK... should be here soon!!

New DVD Release Tuesday - this week: A History of Violence

Stitched on today: Garden Spot Sampler

Sleep Stitching and Frogging

I really must have been "sleep stitching" yesterday when I started Part 6 of Medieval Town Mandala. But, fortunately, Judi was keeping an eye out for me today! Thank you Judi - you saved me from a whole lot more frogging!! Judi noticed that I had used the wrong color on the awning of this building, and she pointed me to the EZ Board for more info... while there I discovered that the brick color I was using was also wrong. The symbols are very similar, but I did as I always do - I triple checked before committing to each floss color. I guess I was just sound asleep! Tonight I had to frog both colors out... which was a bit of a brutal frogging as the black was secured under the brick color in several spots. Grrrr.... But, all caught up now - I just hope I am using the proper colors now! (Bad photo again!??!! I thought I did better tonight, but seeing it in the blog now, oh yuck!)
I received my FOTM from Silkweaver today - a little late again... Anyhow... wow, I love, love, love this Oceantide Belfast! It was well worth the wait - isn't it stunning??!!

OK, I signed up today for the American Quaker SAL. I couldn't resist... I even ordered the silks for it from Vikki Clayton today - I selecteds the colorful option (the top row). I probably won't be able to keep up with this SAL, but I will be happy to have the charts and silks, and will take it at my own pace. Martina Dey's quaker samplers are just too, too pretty!

Mike went to the funeral today. It was very sad.

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

Medieval Town Mandala

Oh boy, is this a bad picture - so sorry! It is just too late right now to take a new one... I will make sure tomorrow's update shows a better picture... Anyhow, managed to start Part 6 tonight!

Not much else today - we took Erin home, Ryan Newman came in last in the race today, and Mike is heading off to the funeral in the morning - he has been asked to be a pall bearer... And, back to work tomorrow for me!

Happy 5th Birthday to my Angus!! Here is one of his baby pictures - shaved, as always! He has the worst fur :-( The ones I took today of him came out terrible - I need lessons on using my new camera!!

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

Gardener's Cottage Happy Dance!

And, here it is.... my Neighborhood RR is ready to post off to Annemarie in Holland - I made it before the deadline!! Yay!! I still need a day or two to put together my letter to the stitchers that will go in the packet, as well as gather some little cat and dog charts for them to use if they need them :-) Now, originally I had not planned to put any charms on this design. The chart calls for them, but I am not fond of them and also feel this design is plenty busy enough without them. But after stitching the blue splotch of sky at the top, I have begun to think that when this comes home to me (in about two years, hopefully less) I might attach the Mill Hill Treasure bird to that area. It does seem to need something there....

Q. Do you have an organizational system for your patterns? If so, how do you organize them? If not, have you considered organizing them?

A. I keep forgetting to answer this one this week... because...no, my patterns are not at all organized. Not even close - they are all just piled up in a spare bedroom, some are down in the den on my computer desk... others are, well, in other places! I have a good reason why, you see - I much prefer to spend my free time stitching than organizing my stash!!


Earlier today I decided to take the "Coffee Cup Challenge," or so it appears to be called in a few blogs here - I thought this looked fun. The general idea seems to be to reveal your coffee mug. OK, I will reveal three - when I am home I use the big black mug (which some call a soup bowl!) and refill it at least once. On workdays I fill two of the big blue plastic Dunkin' Donuts travel mugs - I drink the better part of one on my 45 minute commute to work, and work on the second one in my office throughout the morning. When I am lucky, as I was today, I get a big cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee - today was very spring like, so I got the large iced coffee - when it is cold out, I get the "Great One" hot coffee - I take my coffee drinking very seriously - LOL! How do you take yours? I pass the challenge along to you now!

Erin and I had some fun today while she is visiting. Although XBOX 360, Sims 2 and cleaning/organizing my kitchen (honestly!!) seem to be her favorite activities of the day, we also made a ride out to Colonial Needleworks - I wanted to check out her 36 and 40 ct linens, planning ahead to stitch Floralie, which I have on order. I did get a nice cut of 40 ct Cream Newcastle for it. We didn't stay and chat with Sue for long today. Poor Sue has a terrible chest cold. Her voice is just about 100% gone right now. Then I took Erin to Quiznos for lunch - they don't have a Quiznos in the Haverhill, Massachusetts area, so this was a first for her. (I love Quiznos - they have those lovely "craveable" salads there - the Roadhouse Ranch one is my favorite - roast beef, cheddar, bacon and BBQ sauce atop a salad - excellent! They claim it is 0 net carbs, but I know it does have a few from the BBQ sauce and the veggies... but oh, I could stop and get one of those anytime!)

The weather was again oh so nice here!!! I will be so unhappy around Wednesday when we are looking at 40 degree temps again :-(


Stitched on today: Gardener's Cottage - Happy Dance!! (oh yay! I just realized - this means I can start Part 6 of Medieval Town Mandala tomorrow!!)

***Ooops! Almost forgot - note to self - (I update my DVD Collection List by checking my blog - strange, but most reliable!!) - Mike picked up Jarhead and The 40 Year Old Virgin sometime this week...

Spring's Sneak Preview :-)

OK, I am really close now - barring any distractions tomorrow, I should be able to finish my Neighborhood RR square! However, it appears that one of our members has lost her RR fabric in the post already and is planning to bow out of the group unless it turns up. That is, at least, what I have been told. Yikes. In that event, my piece will need one more stitcher... I hope one of my pals will be willing to stitch that block for me (??) :-)

Red, I found that Traditional Stitches has the issue of Fine Lines available that you need for The Women of the Mayflower Sampler. How cool that you are related to one of the ladies who were on the ship :-)

Spring made a debut today - at least a sneak peek! Mike and I spent much of the day waiting around in Concord, NH for my Jeep to be ready - it had an appointment for a remote car starter. Boy, did that run late! Anyhow, it was 43F when we left the house. A couple of hours later I noticed it had jumped up to 73F! Wow! We spoke to my SIL on the phone and while we were waiting for my Jeep drove all the way down to Haverhill, MA and picked up our youngest niece, Erin, for the weekend (she will be 13 in May - not so very young). She and Mike have spent much of the evening playing XBOX 360 while I stitched.... :-)

I owe a large number of emails right now - I am so sorry about that - if you are one of the ladies waiting for an email from me, I do plan to work on that tomorrow. My time management has not been well controlled this week :-(

Stitched on today: Gardener's Cottage
**Ann, the bottom of the house is not filled in, as per the chart - that is a bit of a trademark for Elizabeth's Designs - I am leaving it that way :-)

I decided to follow my rotation schedule and work on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow tonight. I am beginning to like House 4 a bit better now that the actual house is starting to grow. I have looked at this block done in NPI silks as well as Soie d'Alger, and see that it is a bunch of strange colors no matter what fibers are used :-) Anyhow... here is my question, how did Becky and Karen get their first house blocks stitched up so quickly? Mine feel like they are going soooo slowly.....

And, now I have another sampler that I have the strongest urge to stitch! I just recieved the Spring 2004 issue of Fine Lines from ebay today.... I adore this "Women of the Mayflower" sampler by the late Sarah Ullman of Olde Willow Designs. Maybe it is my New England roots that draw me to this, but I think it is the composition and the colors as well. Does anyone else have any plans to stitch this sampler?

OK, I am ready - the big weather warm up is due to hit us right.... now! Whew! And I have tomorrow off - I have an appointment to have the remote starter put in my Jeep in the early afternoon, and other than that, I am on my weekend now!!

There is sad news, though. Mike's friend that he went to see last weekend in NY passed away last night. Mike went to see him when he learned he was on hospice with 6-12 months predicted. Less than two weeks later, and it was all over. Very sad. This man was very dear to my husband.

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler and Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

Now the garden is growing :-)

Finally, the cottage is finished and I could begin to work my way up the slope into the garden on my RR.... I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, and I am beginning to really love my choice. I figure I will work on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow tomorrow night (I am sure Becky will be glad that I will finally be stitching with her on our designated night! ...And, Becky, what's with that teaser I just saw on your blog today?? LOL). And then I will get back to this RR over the weekend until it is done, and with luck it will get done and I will even be able to start Part 6 of Medieval Town Mandala before the weekend ends - let's hope!!!

I got some great news today! I received the confirmation from Celebration of Needlework in the mail today, and I was able to get into both of the classes I registered for: The Elizabeth Pickney Sampler with Betsy Stinner and Crystal Winter with Jeannette Douglas! This is going to be a great year at Celebrations!!

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler at work, and Gardener's Cottage

Tuesday in the Garden with Jo

It is Garden Spot Sampler SAL night again :-) I hope Jo is busily working away on hers too! I quit a little bit early tonight. Just feeling tired, will be better tomorrow. But I think I caught up on replacing that baby blue with the stunning teal silk now... and a little bit more to finish another motif as well... back on course! Have I mentioned, though, how much I dislike this R&R fabric?

Thanks to all who had sweet words about my Ava. She is a sweetie, we agree :-) But, she is also an imp and gets into an awful lot of trouble too :-)

Also thanks for the nice comments on my Neighborhood RR progress - Barbara, I usually do the details last too, but last night I was a bit caught up in watching two back to back episodes of "24" to be able to do any other parts of the design... the backstitching, at least, did not require as much counting :-)

New DVD Release Tuesday - we are watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire right now, and also got Prime (which will be another farce poking fun at psychologists, but oh well!!)

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler and Garden Spot Sampler

Does it even look any different??

Here's about three and a half hours progress on my round robin square... does it look much different to you? I spent most of the time on house details - backstitching the chimney, window panes, steps, walkway and under the flowers that are under the window... then more fill in on the house... but is the progress there to see? Hmmm.... I suppose some of it is....

Annemarie, please, please don't worry about what you will stitch on my RR....whatever you choose is going to be stunning, I am absolutely certain of it! Just need a house, some type of garden and either a cat or dog... easy as pie!

Anyhow... still moving along - the countdown to spring continues in full force with warmer temps straight ahead - about two more days, I think.... yay!!

Oh, right! My cats were tagged! Well, I surely cannot fit all six here - my blog entry would be volumes long! So, here is the baby for you:

My name is Ava, and I am the baby of the family. Carol said that one of us needed to volunteer to answer this tag - I jumped right up! I was born on October 1, 2003 at Irish Star in Sandown, New Hampshire. My cat parents are Poppy and Ranger. I am a long-haired exotic persian cat, and I am a calico. Mike came to Irish Star and adopted me the day after Thanksgiving in 2003, as a Christmas gift for Carol. When I got here I found that two of my half-sisters, Lily and Anouk also lived here! We have the same cat father!!! I also have three older brothers here: Beau, Gig and Angus! It is a crowded house, but I am the princess!! (I am snuggled up to Beau in this picture that was taken only a few days after I came to live here).

Six things I like to do:
1) I guard the downstairs bathroom constantly. This is also Carol's laundry room. The washer and dryer are tucked in behind folding doors. The humans here don't know this, but there is something very special behind the dryer. They cannot see it, and the other cats do not seem to care about it, but I love it!! So, if I hear one of the humans go into the bathroom, I charge straight in from wherever I am and I make sure to rub on their feet and give them cute looks so that they keep the door in front of the dryer open just enough for me to be able to sneak in! I can hear them from anywhere! I know if they try to quietly close that door! I get there in plenty of time to make sure they don't get away with it!

2) I love to sit in the bathroom window on the fluffy window shelf that Mike bought for us cats. He put a birdfeeder in that window for us, and I just love to sit there and watch the birds all day long.

3) I am an indoor cat. Carol says it has something to do with my fur needing so much care, and she gets worried if she doesn't know where I am. There are lots of wild animals here, because we live in the woods. I know she is right, but I would love to go and investigate! But, sometimes in the warmer weather, one of the humans will let me go outside on the front steps or on the back porch to feel the breeze, smell the air and catch some sun. I have to be under very heavy supervision though! When I was a baby, I used to jump off the porch and go underneath it to looks for chipmunks (that is where they live). But I am trying really hard now to follow the rules. When I don't, Mike puts me in the house for a really long time while the other cats can go on the porch - I hate that!

4) I don't miss many meals. We always have dry crunchy food out for us to eat. But around 4:00 every day, and often later because of her work schedule, Carol opens up a small can of wet food for us to share - I love to push the other cats away from the food to get my best shot at it! Why not? I am the baby, so I deserve it!

5) There is a cat climbing tower downstairs in the family room, and Mike attached a plastic stick with a stuffed toy mouse on it to the tower. Normally, this wouldn't get my attention. But, I found that when you slap it with your paw, it squeaks! I love it!! And, while I am there... I love to bolt straight up the four story tower from the outside - I am faster than a Corvette!

6) I love to sleep in bed with Carol and Mike :-)

I would like to tag:
Jade (owner of Vash)
Violette (owner of Isabelle)
Sjors (owner of Judi)
Coonie and Plume (owners of Sylvie)
... and any other stitching blogger kitties that Carol is too tired to find right now!! LOL

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler and Gardener's Cottage

Gardener's Cottage Progress

With the March 15th mailing date approaching, I took today and will take tomorrow night to work on my square for the Neighborhood RR. I think I made quite a bit of progress, but not as much as I had hoped I would... considering I stitched this for a very, very long time today... sigh.... Oh well, I still feel as if I am on track and will make the mailing deadline. I figure I am about half done now.

There were a few comments left yesterday expressing an interest in learning more about the new Blackbird Designs charts that I have been raving about... OK, here is "My Missouri Home," the one I bought yesterday... nice, isn't it??!! Of course, mine will read "My Auburn Home." Even if I stitched the lettering over one, "My New Hampshire Home" would look a bit too... long... You can see all of the new Blackbird Designs here.

I see my kitties have been tagged by Tess (owner of RosieKiwi) to do a meme.... well, I will ask them tomorrow who would like to volunteer (I am owned by six cats!!), and will have one of them do the meme as soon as possible :-)

Only fifteen days until spring....

Stitched on today: Gardener's Cottage

Mystery IX Part 3 Done

Done! Part 3 of Mystery IX is done - I am looking forward to seeing what flowers or veggies Martina will have us put in those triangular gardens.... This was really repetitive, but not even half as burdensome as Medieval Town Mandala last month. So... now I can devote the next couple of days to my Neighborhood Round Robin square!! I will move on to Medieval Town Mandala in a few days.

I went to see Sue at Colonial Needleworks for a little while today, while Mike was still away (he came back late this evening from NY)... had a nice little chat with Sue and picked up another of the Blackbird Designs charts that I love - My Missouri Home this time... as well as some fibers and an 18" x 18" cut of Lakeside Linens 36 ct Pearled Barley for an amazing price :-) My Missouri Home calls for two GAST that are from Nashville Market - I was going crazy trying to locate them... found them at Stitching Bits & Bobs though - good news!!

And, a side trip off to WalMart later today included a stop at the DVD Dump Bin (aka $5.50 per DVD), and I chose The Vanishing - a psychological thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland, one of my favorites, so why not??

Stitched on today: Mystery IX

Still motoring my way around Mystery IX.... maybe tomorrow it will be done - looks very likely :-)
Stash report time... over the past week or so.... maybe longer, probably longer... the following has arrived here: Three Little Words by Papillon Creations, Purl the Knitting Fairy by Lynne Nicoletti, A Must Noble Pursuit by various designers, the March 2006 issue of The Gift of Stitching, Black Crow Cottage by Elizabeth's Designs, and Be Kind and True by Blackbird Designs - as well as two Weeks Dye Works and one GAST I needed for it.... Now, why is that Blackbird Designs just came out with the most amazing MUST HAVE charts? Oh my! They have really stepped up in quality (at least, for my taste) in the past few months! I am thrilled - there are more I must get, like My Missouri Home - too nice!

And then I also got my new Monthly Bits option from Stitching Bits & Bobs, and I am thrilled! I have opted to get the six spools of Kreinik #4 braid option - super nice, this selection is labeled "Dance" - all in the 3500 range and so pretty! OK, get out those Mirabilia charts now :-) And, I got in all the Silk Mori skeins for A Stitch in Time by The Workbasket... now to find just the right linen for that one!

And, then I came across these that have been here the longest and were put away elsewhere - a fat quarter of 28 ct Frangipani metallic lugana by Sugar Maple Fabrics, and the much coveted 17th Century German Garden chart by Liz Turner Diehl!! Yay! I emailed LTD, and they gave me the easy directions to get the specialty fibers and embellishments for this one - you know for sure this one is going to be stitched!!

So, I have been told that my husband, Mike, subscribes to my blog and reads it here and there to see "what is going on" in my life - LOL!! Well, Mike is out of town tonight... so Mike, here is my update for you: I had a movie marathon of Only You, Pride & Prejudice and Must Love Dogs - a bunch of movies I love and you are not excited about... and I went out and got an iced coffee too.... and of course, I stitched! And, I picked up Yours, Mine & Ours too, but I cannot imagine it will be nearly as good as the original was with Lucille Ball :-)

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler at work, and Mystery IX

Mental Health Day

No snow north of Boston today, and even after hearing the change in the forecast I just knew that today was going to be a day to have a "mental health day." I have been hearing way too much trauma from my clients lately - I stayed home and didn't deal with any trauma at all :-)

First my stitching for the day.... you would think that with a day off I would have been able to stitch my heart out... well, no. It took me forever to get into the groove and actually pick up a needle and stitch. I kept finding reasons not to, but I don't know why. But around 7:30 or so, I did get going... here is what I did...

I just got a new truck today - I got a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited, and it is a very bright silver color. We traded in my 2004 Grand Cherokee (which was dark blue) - I loved my old truck, but it had almost 48,000 miles on it already! The new one is really quite nice! This picture is from Jeep's website... getting too dark here right now to take a photo of my own Jeep. Ohhh, and "it's a hemi" - I can just hear that commercial in my head now! LOL
And... for those who had asked what Mike traded his pretty Corvette for... here it is... he got the Chrysler 300c SRT8... (that's not my yard - LOL! This pic is from Chrysler's website... I think that's his color... dark pearl gray)

Welcome back Manny!! Manny Ramirez arrived at Spring Training in Florida yesterday and will play in the first spring training game tonight - looking a bit wild with the hair and goatee... but that's "Manny, being Manny" - just can't be Manny without any drama - LOL! Seriously, welcome back!

I fear that Karen isn't going to be too thrilled with this photo! She made this quilt for me for my birthday last year. She is more of a dog lover than a cat lover.... I just found my Lily sound asleep on the quilt. Sorry Karen! Lily has good taste!! So cute, though, that I had to share :-)

And, not to leave Beau out either!! He was right next to her on the sofa... but had to settle for the snowman throw and the newspaper - Lily was not in the mood to share!!

Stitched on today: Mystery IX

It's Chatelaine time... again!

It's that time again... first of the month and two new passwords from Martina Weber! Once again, Mystery IX appears to have the smallest part, so I started with that one tonight. I managed to finish one quarter of it today, as shown to the left here. The zig zag areas on the sides of the triangle gardens, as well as between each square, will feature petite royal blue bugle beads - neat, huh? I really love this one! And, to show how it looks with the rest of the mystery so far...

Martina is having us stitch the whole top row of buildings for Medieval Town Mandala this month... it's a bit to stitch, but I think it will be better than last month - not as repetitive as those four blue corners were!! LOL

February Goals:
1. Finish Part 5 of Medieval Town Mandala - yes
2. Finish Part 2 of Mystery IX - yes
3. Set up my Neighborhood RR fabric, stitch my square - set up fabric, square not complete as mailing date turned out to be 3/15/06
4. Continue Mermaid Heaven SAL with Jenn - yes
5. Continue 17th Century Irish Garden - yes, a tiny bit!
6. Continue Mermaids of the Deep Blue SAL - yes
7. Continue Houses of Hawk Run Hollow if Becky, Barbara and Bea are all ready - we are now SALing... - yes
8. Continue Celtic Winter SAL (hope to finish this month) - yes, with Happy Dance!!
9. Continue Garden Spot Sampler SAL with Jo - yes
10. Icing on the cake would be to find time for: Angel of Love no, Convent's Herbal Garden no, Girl with Cat no, Little Wings no and A Christmas Spirit no!!
***I did start the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler as my latest at work project...

March Goals:
1. Finish Part 6 of Medieval Town Mandala
2. Finish Part 3 of Mystery IX
3. Finish Part 2 of Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler
4. Continue Mermaids of the Deep Blue SAL
5. Continue Garden Spots Sampler SAL
6. Finish my square (Gardener's Cottage) on my Neighborhood RR and post off to Annemarie by 3/15/06
7. Start Sampler Cove's Bordeaux Sampler at work
8. Continue Houses of Hawk Run Hollow SAL

Q. What cross-stitch magazines or other publications (as opposed to
blogs) do you read on a regular basis? What do you like about them?
What do you not like? What would your perfect publication include?

A. Currently I subscribe to Just Cross Stitch (my favorite), Cross Stitch & Needlework, Cross Stitch Gold, The Gift of Stitching and Samplers & Antique Needlework Quarterly (awaiting my first issue of that one, actually). I also like to go to Barnes & Noble and check out some of the other UK magazines, like Quick & Easy, Mary Hickmott's New Stitches, The Cross Stitcher and Cross Stitch Collection. While there, I also check out Jill Oxton's Cross Stitch & Beading from Australia... My ideal publication would be devoid of cutesy designs - no cartoon characters or silly sayings. Mine would be filled with lovely samplers in all styles - French, German, Reproduction, Dutch. And it would feature popular designers too. Too much to hope for, apparently so!!! I feel lucky if any issue has at least one design in it that I would at least consider stitching... but often, that does not even happen!!

I love the new issue of The Gift of Stitching that came out today! Oh, and thank you to those of you who have subscribed to the magazine using the link at the top of my sidebar. Funds from your subscription will be donated directly to the National Alliance for Autism Research in a few months time... it takes a while to get the funds, but then - zip! Right off to NAAR!! I will tell you when it happens - I am so proud of you all for helping this wonderful organization!

Oh, and thank you to all of you who took time to give me some ideas on finding fabric for the Papillon Creations HUGE sampler! I was hoping to find a place that will give me a custom cut instead of buying a fat half... looks like Silkweaver does come closest.... But I suppose I could always use any left over fabric for one of the hundreds of other charts I've got lying around here, right?? Thank you, thank you!!

Oh, and another new DVD today: The Ice Harvest, which will be another fun one to watch this weekend while Mike is visiting a sick friend in NY. Well, if he goes.... he has been quite under the weather for a good two weeks now, and the doc told him today that he has acute bronchitis. Well, a few days of antibiotics and he should be quite cleared to drive out to NY... a quiet weekend for me, I am quite pleased!

Stitched on today: Mystery IX and Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler at work...(no pic today)

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