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

The Magic of Threes

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

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

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

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



Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

Finally in the mix!

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

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

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

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

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

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

And, here she is....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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