Enjoying the Mermaids

I am really enjoying my few days of being able to get really into Mermaids of the Deep Blue! It is a fun and relatively quick stitch.... I will be working on the Houses of Hawk Run Hollow SAL tomorrow night... but then I can devote Friday to the Mermaids again (which should be a longer stitching night) before all the new passwords start up on Saturday :-) ***And those who know me well also may have noticed that this is a good day for me... I got the second face done! I love to get faces done as soon as I can!! LOL

I am sorry to those who are wondering what is up with me... I know I have been a little quiet lately... I am just loving every minute of non-Chatelaine stitching I can get right now (I don't regret my Chatelaine commitments at all, but I love the freedom this week)... so sorry! I will get back to my regular emailing habits quite soon, I am sure! (Plus... my work days sure have been long this week - I thought the nice warm weather would evoke some client cancellations, but not the case at all...)

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Mystery Sampler and Mermaids of the Deep Blue

Spring Gardening

With our needles, that is. Tonight was Garden Spot Sampler SAL night with Jo. I worked a lot on the upper right corner, but it may be hard to see the progress as a lot of the lighter colors were used. They are easy to see in real life, but not so easy in photos :-) Moving along OK now...

And, it is New DVD Release Tuesday again - this week, the long-awaited King Kong

Only four more days until the 2006 Baseball Season begins :-)

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Mystery Sampler and Garden Spot Sampler

I feel a bit like a little kid on school vacation

Because I get to stitch whatever I want right now - LOL!!
Here is the requested updated WIP pic of Bordeaux Mystery Sampler. I am stitching this while at work. I am using Silkweaver 40 ct Atlantic Storm linen (limited edition). This sampler is so delicate! The wording is being stitched over one. I did not get to finish this first band of wording today, but not due to its being over one.... just had too busy of a day at work today... I will continue to post progress pics as this sampler grows... I know one or two of you are seriously considering stitching this mystery, so I will continue to keep you posted :-)
I decided to stick with Mermaids of the Deep Blue again tonight. I have fallen woefully behind in this Mirabilia SAL, yet I really love stitching on this one... I am sure they will be back a couple more times this week :-)

I was RAK'd again today!!! Barbara sent me this adorable Mansfield Park Sampler chart by The Sampler Girl! Barbara and I share New England roots and this sampler is so fitting. To be honest, I had been eyeing it and planning to get it. Thanks Barbara!

I have some questions to answer...
Gill - I will definitely be stitching the Fleur de Lis kit of Waiting for Neptune first.... but the jury is still out on the HAED chart... I do want to start Revelations soon and that will take a lifetime, so maybe I will only get around to the Fleur de Lis kit :-) You mentioned wanting to get these kits - try ABC Stitch Therapy in my sidebar... you can either email Marie at the shop or surf around - the kits are on sale right now :-)

Carissa - Yes, I am most definitely stitching the mermaids' arms using quarter stitches (and half and three quarter stitches too). This is pretty typical with Mirabilias... I find sculpting the pattern comes out better than how it is charted... you know what I mean, I am sure!!

Kath - glad you asked how many parts there are to MTM, as it made me smile to realize that I just got to the halfway point :-) There are 12 parts in all, will be ending in September, if I do manage to keep up with this each month...

Yay! Spring-like weather is finally working its way in here to New England - Woo Hoo!!

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Mystery Sampler and Mermaids of the Deep Blue

MTM Part 6 is in the books

It's a wrap! I managed to finish Part 6 of Medieval Town Mandala today. Now, I am off to stitch on something different - something of my own choosing - Woo Hoo!
And... I reached into my project bag, and out came the much neglected but highly loved Mermaids of the Deep Blue! I pretty much just got to work on the upper mermaid's arms, but this was still so much fun! Darn! Now it is bedtime, and away they go again :-(

I know a couple of people have asked me to post my update pic of Bordeaux Mystery Sampler. I promise to do that tomorrow night - I want to finish the over one stitching band at work tomorrow first :-)

A pretty good points day for Ryan Newman today, by the way :-) I know many of you are NASCAR fans, and a good many of you know I adore Ryan :-) Anyhow... he finished 9th and made a large jump up to 12th in points... not without bouncing and banging around - but everyone did that today, anyhow!! LOL

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala (yay, Part 6 is finally complete!) and Mermaids of the Deep Blue

Down to a bit of backstitching now

All righty then! (try to channel Jim Carrey to read that right!). I am now down to just a bit of backstitching left on Part 6 of Medieval Town Mandala. Wow, these past two months have been huge portions, and I would suspect the next three will be same! I cannot agree more with Karen and her feelings about this project. I may end up falling behind at some point too. I have been thinking about this quite a bit, as she apparently also has... So far, I am OK, but if I get a huge urge to stitch something else during any month, I don't plan to restrict myself just because there is still more MTM to do.... this is hard for me and my compulsive personality, but keeping up with two large Chatelaines is quite the task. I am not complaining, just being realistic here :-)

Mike and I went to Boston for a while today - Mike really, really has been wanting to go. We ended up at Faneuil Hall and ate lunch at Dick's Last Resort - which reminded me so much of when Karen andher husband, Bren, came to visit us last June... we also went to Faneuil Hall and ate at one of the Dick's Last Resort locations with them too.... we had such a fun day with them!

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala - and I hope to finish Part 6 while I watch NASCAR tomorrow!

An excellent way to spend my day off...

First... tonight's installment of the saga of Medieval Town Mandala :-)

I had the day off today, and Mike suggested that we do something that I felt like doing. Well, being a stitcher, this was not a terribly difficult challenge for me! We drove up to ABC Stitch Therapy in Grantham, New Hampshire - I had never been there before, despite living in NH.... it is about an hour north of my house, in the mountainous ski area of NH near the Vermont border. The ride was really nice, despite the cloudy weather and intermittent light mist of rain. The shop was wonderful! Although they primarily do their business over the internet, they have tons of stock and customers are welcome to come on in! The only drawback was that they have no prices on anything, so I had to keep asking for price checks! But... I was able to get the Anchor kit for Waiting for Neptune for 50% off!!! I never thought I could get that kit for only $26!! It does need a good piece of hand dyed linen for it.... so, this was the right place to be! I don't think I got the linen for the kit, but I did spend a good hour or so fondling and drooling over their huge stock of Silkweaver, Sugar Maple Fabrics and Kiwi Illusions fabrics in stock! What a treat to see all of these goodies in real life!!! I limited myself to only two fat quarters of 32 ct opalescent lugana - and barely even broke the surface of their huge collection in the process! I got Silkweaver's Dew Drop and Sugar Maple Fabrics' Reflected Majesty Opal. I can't wait until I can go back again!! This was the most xs shopping related fun I have had in the longest time!!

It was a busy week for stash overall, so here goes.... today I received this gorgeous fat half of Silkweaver's new release, Startquest Cashel! Gorgeous! I am considering this for Mirabilia's Stargazer (had to buy the fat half, as it was on discount as a special for FOTM members). I also got in the fat eighth of Silkweaver's 36 ct Golden Harvest from ebay (aka KarenV - turned out to be the seller - LOL), plus a fat eighth of 36 ct Heritage I ordered on my own... these will be for some of the new Blackbird Designs.... plus a fat eighth of light grey limited run Lakeside Linens (32 ct) from the recent Odds & Ends page at Silkweaver... and I got in a whole bunch of various threads from ebay, plus the Hand-Dyed Fibers (Vikki Clayton) silk conversion set for Goode Huswife's 1798 Quaker Sampler (I am going to be sooooo busy now!!)

But, the week didn't end quite there.... I got more... I got in Barrick Samplers' Beneath the Waters, Forget Me Knot in Stitches' Strawberry Moon Sampler and Blackbird Designs' Evergreen from ebay.... and my dear pal, Karen, RAK'd me with a fat quarter of SMF's Heavenly Sky belfast too! Oh gosh Karen, you are too generous and kind!

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

I don't have much to say about this tonight... just still working away at it, so don't feel compelled to think of something new to comment about it! LOL!! Many of you have been very creative in finding new things to say about my MTM... you are too sweet! No need, though - I hope to finish this this weekend. I have tomorrow off, and don't know what Mike and I will do with the free time, but hopefully there will be some extra stitching time.

I have been giving a lot of thought to what I want to stitch on Su's Neighborhood RR. I haven't quite selected which house I will stitch, but I have decided on some of the extras that go with it that will flow with what she has stitched already. I hope to get some stitches in on that before the month ends :-) I am really looking forward to it.

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Mystery Sampler at work (I am now in the midst of doing the over one stitching on 40 ct. - not bad at all, as I am quite surprised how well I can see this fabric in the light in both of my offices - surely no Ott-Lite there!!) and Medieval Town Mandala

It's back!

Medieval Town Mandala, that is... Not a whole lot to say, just still plugging away at it! How did Judi stitch this part so quickly?? Amazes me!!


Q. Have you ever participated in a needlework mystery (i.e., a design that you started before knowing how it will look in the end and by which you receive parts of the design via the internet, magazines, or leaflets at spaced intervals)? If so, why did you decide to do the mystery? What appealed to you about it? Did you enjoy it? If you have not done a mystery, would you ever do one?

A. I submitted this question to Renee a few days ago after I found myself wondering how I ended up getting so involved in stitching mysteries lately. My answer is, yes, I do participate - a lot (at least lately). I think my first involvement of some sort in a needlework mystery was several years ago when Curtis Boehringer put out the "Needlewoman Murder Mystery" leaflets. This actually had a mystery for us to read! I collected all 12 charts (I think it was 12) and read the mystery, but I have to admit, I have yet to stitch it!! Then in 2004 I started the freebie "Le Jardin A Decouvrir" on the internet. I was really enjoying it, but got sidetracked. I didn't seem to save all the chart parts to my hard drive, and I think I just printed them out... Now I don't know where they all are... or even where the WIP/UFO itself is!! Yikes!!! But also in 2004 I started my first Chatelaine mystery, Mystery VI. After seeing Convent's Herbal Garden, formerly Mystery II, stitched up on the internet, I knew I would love this one. And, I did. At that point, I was hooked! Now I am stitching Mystery IX. And... I am also stitching the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler in The Gift of Stitching, Bordeaux Mystery Sampler by Sampler Cove, and am downloading the charts for the freebie Quaker Mystery Sampler on the internet too. Oh, and I also am in the American Quaker Sampler SAL by Stickideen van der Wiehenburg (spelling??) but have yet to start the stitching.... I guess I like the suspense?? LOL

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Mystery Sampler at work, and Medieval Town Mandala

PS - No Karen, it is not that warm here yet! The quilts were in the laundry last night LOL!!

Typical Tuesday Night of Stitching

Very, very typical Tuesday night - I put in three hours on the Garden Spot Sampler SAL, and as is typical, stitched two motifs... This is starting to feel like it is going slowly, but I figure we are actually making good progress overall...
As you can tell.... the sofa was a bit crowded tonight!! The cats displaced me to the recliner to stitch (well, OK, that is usually where I go to stitch... my Ott-Lite is there LOL!!) and Mike to his computer desk for much of the evening! I guess we know who really runs this house!

And, of course, it is yet again New DVD Release Tuesday - fun ones today that I have been waiting for: Derailed and Chicken Little.

Sad to see Adam Vinatieri also leave the Patriots today... but truth be told, I am getting jaded and all too used to seeing Boston sports stars leave the city.... sigh...

I am also a little disappointed with ebay... I put up several really nice hand dyed fabrics that I still love and paid a lot of money for, but hey, I have many, so I put them up for auction... and got really lousy bids on them. What's up with that? Some folks just got some really amazing deals on great stuff, and I lost big $$$$. I have to really rethink selling my good stuff on ebay now.

OK...now I am not known to be negative, so I will end with fantastic news! My Neighborhood RR arrived safely at Annemarie's house in Holland today! Excellent! What a relief!

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Mystery Sampler at work, and Garden Spot Sampler

S-P-R-I-N-G!!!!!

I kept plugging along on Medieval Town Mandala tonight. Why, when there are still 11 days left in the month? Certainly not to rush other MTM stitchers along (sorry to those who feel that way!!), but rather because, like I wrote a few days ago, I really want to slip in a few days on projects I miss like... Mermaids of the Deep Blue, Mermaid Heaven, Little Wings, Girl with Cat, and the like... before the month ends and new passwords come out... So, it doesn't look like a whole lot of work tonight, but it was. I did a lot of backstitching.

Someone asked today if each side of MTM is the same (the buildings, that is). No, they aren't :-) Martina says they are similar but there are differences to make the entire mandala look like different parts of the town.... and I figure I will be stitching more and more buildings in April, May and June too :-)

OK, we have survived another winter here - it is spring, finally, today!!! It is going to feel like winter (very much like winter) here this week, though. But, it is spring!!!! Yay!!!!

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Mystery Sampler at work (have I told you yet how fun this one is?? And... Hand-Dyed Fibers has announced that they will now release parts twice a month instead of only once... so, best keep cracking LOL!!) and Medieval Town Mandala

My little Bavarian Town

It took me a really long time today to feel like I wanted to stitch, but finally, late this evening I did pick up MTM again and I was able to stitch most of the two twin brown buildings today. They just still need their "stained glass windows" added. I don't think I have yet shared why I am so enamored by Medieval Town Mandala. I am of primarily German descent. I adore the Bavarian look of this town, and once I saw it I knew I had to stitch this one. This will be a special touch to the decor of my home when it is done, a real tribute to my heritage. For those who did not know me back in July, I asked my husband to buy this kit and enroll me in the online group for my birthday. He was very willing :-)
Blogger is moody again tonight with putting up photos, so back to Photobucket again tonight.... I figured it was time to do my latest stash update. Here are my latest charts - Birdsong I by Prairie Schooler, Floralie by Papillon Creations, The Beatitudes by My Big Toe, When This You See by Blackbird Designs, and Mary Heaton by Little House Needleworks...
My latest fabrics are a fat quarter of Rue Green 36 ct Edinburgh, a fat quarter of Silkweaver Desert Sky 32 ct Belfast, an 18" x 18" cut of Cream 40 ct Newcastle (for Floralie), a nice cut of Lakeside Linens 36 ct Pearled Barley, a stunning deep blue and deep lavender 36 ct Edinburgh 16" x 16" solo from Silkweaver, and a beautiful fat eighth from Sugar Maple Fabrics - from a "get what you get" ebay auction directly from SMF - Mindy sent me Shimmering Morning Meadows opalescent belfast - soooo nice! I might use this for Mirabilia's Easter Fairy :-) (Then I went ahead and ordered two more... hope I am not pressing my luck here - LOL).
I got in some pretty new fibers too... mostly for the new Blackbird Designs, as well as the silk pack from Vikki Clayton for the American Quaker Mystery SAL...
Some new magazines came in over the past few days too... I recently subscribed to Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly. This is not their most recent issue, but is apparently the one with which they decided to start my subscription. I guess the recent one will come soon now too. And, I just received the next issue of what is now the reborn Cross Stitch & Needlework... yes, it is getting better! Yay!!!
And.... I can't believe it has taken me this long to post this! I was RAK'd about a week ago by a lovely stitcher named Laurie in Iowa. Laurie apparently is one of my blog readers, but I don't think she has a blog of her own. Laurie saw that I had BOAF's All Hallow's Night on my Wish List... she had it and did not want it, so she sent it off to me!! Wasn't that so kind?? Thank you Laurie!!!! Laurie sent me the names of two charts she desires that are tricky to find.... but I am on it! I hope to find at least one of them for her :-)
And... here is how well Ryan Newman did in the race in Atlanta today... LOL. The race was postponed until tomorrow morning (God Bless my DVR, I can still watch it since it is going to take place during the work day!). Anyhow... there is Ryan's car (#12) sitting on pit road in the rain in his 2nd place starting position. Good luck tomorrow!!! (photo is from nascar.com). Speaking of Ryan, I really want to thank my friend Carol S. in Nashua, NH - Carol sweetly sent me a wonderful email article this week about Ryan putting out a fire in a restaurant a week or so ago. Great article. Carol, I had not heard about that! I wanted to thank you via email, but that article hung up my email program and when I had to delete it I mistakenly lost your email address!!
And finally, I wanted to share a photo I took of my little twins yesterday, doing what they do best - sleeping with each other on Mike's end of the sofa :-) (They are Lily and Anouk - I call them my twins because they are littermates).

And now Spring is only a few short hours away... yay! But it won't feel like spring tomorrow - it will only be about 36F, and little warming for the upcoming week as my area here in New England remains trapped under very cold Canadian air... yucky!!!! Oh well, at least the cold blast is keeping a major snow storm from reaching us! Whew!

I got a few emails from stitchers commenting that my daily emails were not arriving to those who subscribe to my blog... so I looked into that - it happens once in a while - it just needed a quick click of a button in the inner mechanics of Bloglet, and I am back up and running again. You should get this entry in your mailbox tomorrow - please don't hesitate to let me know if that happens again - fixing it is very easy, but I don't always know when it happens :-)

Stitched on today:Medieval Town Mandala

More MTM

I was pretty busy today with working on Medieval Town Mandala... but Blogger pics doesn't really care to work well tonight... here is a rather tiny view of what I did :-) It moved along pretty well today :-) Will be carrying on with it again tomorrow...

Von asked if I ever use a magnifier when I stitch over one. No, I have not needed to yet... but I am sure that someday I will.... LOL

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

The first RR has arrived :-) & Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I am back at it again with Medieval Town Mandala. It seemed to take forever tonight to finish the large central building, what with all of its little details, but I did get it done! I am hoping the rest of it will now move along smoother. One thing that did not help tonight is that Martina's diagrams for the Jessica stitches on the large building were hard to read. Even blowing up the image on the pdf file to an enormous size did not help. Rather, it just became further distorted. But, I was able to figure it out after some rotating of the chart and figuring out the rhythm of the stitch... no biggie.

And, the big news of the day today is that Su's RR arrived safely from the UK today. It is the first for me to receive in the rotation. Her stitching is just lovely! I am already thinking of what house and details I will be stitching for her. I have not yet heard that mine has arrived at Annemarie's house in Holland yet - but it did go by Global Priority Mail back on Tuesday... so... really it should be there any second. I am dying to hear that it is safe on the other side of the ocean...
My silks arrived today for American Quaker Sampler SAL, and here are three floss tosses... I am strongly leaning towards one of them, but would love your input - This first one is Silkweaver Sandcastle 40 ct Newcastle linen (so much darker than the Sandcastle on Belfast that I am using for the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler).

Here is Lakeside Linen's Meadow Rue 40 ct linen. This is gorgeous fabric, but I fear that the Cardamom silk, third from the right (I think) just fades in too easily on this fabric.... reminds me too much of how easily this same color is fading in on my Garden Spot Sampler....

And, for my third try... here is the silk on a Silkweaver Solo, 40 ct Newcastle linen. This solo turned out to be a bit rosier than I had thought it was, and I am not sure I care for how the Rust silk (near the center) looks on this fabric... But anyhow... I can be swayed, if you want, please let me know which one you like?? (***I have decided to go with the Sandcastle... the responses I got from you all were interesting! I do think all three fabrics would work well. Thanks for your input and advice!!)

I hope that everyone brought out their inner Irish today and had a great St. Patrick's Day! Mike and I celebrated in odd fashion with enchiladas at Shorty's... Oh well, had the craving :-)

Oh.... and another highlight today - I went to Colonial Needleworks this afternoon, as I needed three skeins of Crescent Colours floss... while there I also picked up another of the Blackbird Designs houses that I adore, one of Prairie Schooler's new treats and some Weeks Dye Works and GAST for the Blackbird Designs house... I guess it is time to put up a new stash report this weekend. And, Sue, the owner, is much better this week - she has a bit of her voice back now :-)

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Mystery Sampler at work, and Medieval Town Mandala

Finished Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler Parts 1 and 2

I had some free time today, so I worked on Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler at work. I finished both parts 1 and 2 today, so now I just have to wait until next month for part 3. I hadn't planned to stitch any of the partial motifs until I had the installments that completed them. However, with the free time today and no other projects in my briefcase, I stitched them anyhow. I love this little sampler. The colors are amazing - Vikki Clayton did a great job with these!
I know I had planned to stitch on Medieval Town Mandala tonight, but I needed something else to bring to work now. So, I decided to start the Bordeaux Mystery Sampler tonight so that it would be available to bring in my briefcase. I didn't want to have to do the math and centering, etc at my office. I had originally planned to use the 36 ct Summer Khaki, but after a few stitches I used my Cross Stitch Guage and saw that the fabric is actually 32 ct. I can't use it. This sampler is 394 stitches long, and using 32 ct that comes to about 24" long... and would not fit on the fat quarter. I then remembered that I had a super pretty fat quarter of Atlantic Storm 40 ct Newcastle by Sikweaver. It looks like a storm brewing, but has a greenish tint to it - just perfect for these three silk floss colors (there are only these three colors in the sampler). Plus, it reminds me of a marble topped cheese board, that would surely go perfectly with red wine :-) So... here is my start! I love it! But... it will be interesting when I stitch the verse over one on 40 ct - LOL!!! I am up for it, though!! (Tomorrow I will go back to Medieval Town Mandala and stitch away on that all weekend!)

Q. Do you stitch “over one?” If so, describe your experiences. If not, have you considered it?

A. Yes, I most certainly do! I love it!! As you can see by my project above, I will soon be on an interesting adventure of stitching over one on 40 ct!! I do have some very signficant visual problems, but they are well corrected with my contact lenes, annual visits to the eye doctor and, of course, my Ott-Lite!

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler and Bordeaux Mystery Sampler

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