My Heart

Here is my sweet little heart that I am making for my husband.  This sweet heart design is from Barbi's blog.  She has wonderful patterns on her blog and is a fantastic stitcher.  If you do stitch her designs, please send her a photo and make sure you link her blog to your post.  I really hope I can find the perfect fabric for the back of this little heart.  I think I want to personalize it a little bit with our initials, but I need to get cracking! Only two more weeks till Valentine's Day and I have to sneak in moments when my husband isn't around (like today!)  I used R & R reproductions linen in St. Valentine's Blend, how very fitting, with Dinky Dyes Ruby Red thread.  I found the ribbon randomly a few weeks ago searching in a drawer and lo and behold, it matches the thread colour perfectly!

Happy stitching!!

Anne

Hearts and Red Robins

A little while back I stitched a Christmas Robin by The Victoria Sampler for my Nana but never found a frame for it until about a week ago.  Originally, I was going to stitch the little robin into a pillow ornament for my Nana, but she requested that she wanted it framed so that's what I did.  It was my first time framing a stitched piece ever and I'm happy with the result! Once I find a good frame for my geisha, I will also be framing her myself.

Onto hearts, cause it's close to Valentine's Day.  I was thinking about what to do for my husband.  I found the perfect heart to stitch and the perfect threads and linen!  I got the pattern from a wonderful Barbi's website.  I have never stitched a heart before so I've been thinking about the process and how to finish it.  It will take me awhile, like all other finishes, because I muse over how to do it for a week or so.  Hopefully he will love it and cherish it with his heart, like I cherish him! Before I can post the heart picture, I have to wait for permission from the creator of the pattern.  But here is the robin!

Stitched on 32 count Natural Linen, DMC Threads

Geisha Finished!

Finally! After two years the geisha girl is done! I am very happy it is finished and can't wait to frame it. I managed to take just one picture with my testy camera before it gave out on me completely.  Here she is!

Mai by Dimensions Finished 1/26/11

The sticky scroll tape I used glued itself to the top and bottom of the fabric, which I couldn't take off, so I had to cut about an inch of fabric at both ends.  Luckily there is just enough room to fold the fabric behind a piece of matte board for framing.

LESSON LEARNED: NEVER USE SCROLL TAPE AGAIN!!!!!

A Mad Stitcher

Ever have one of those nights where all you do is stitch until your neck hurts? Well that was me last night.  I decided to pull out my geisha girl and attack all the lazy daisy stitches and backstitching that I have put off.  Plus I started a new Dimensions project and made some progress on that.  I'm pretty proud of myself that I managed to finish the geisha's obi!! My first lazy daisy stitches were ok, but I got better at them as I progressed. 

Look at the lazy daisies!!

Hobbit town as I like to call it

Half a man, buggy, door and horse!

I'm going to try tackling the geisha backstitching and try to finish it today! It was started, eh hem, 2 years ago! That's how much I hate backstitching!

Celtic Knots

Hello!

I stitched up two cute little Celtic knots for a scissor fob that I am making.  I love all Celtic patterns and especially loved this one.  I stitched two sides, one in a dark red and gold, the other in a dark purple and gold.  I am thinking about trying my hand at making a twisted cord, but we'll see if that works! The pattern is from this wonderful website that is called Dragon Bear. It talks about the history of samplers from various parts of the world and is quite a good read if you are interested in the history of samplers.

DMC Threads stitched on 32ct Sandstone Linen

Teaching, Kids, And The Things They Do

I just have to share this bit with you all today.  So here I am teaching at a literacy center, where the kids all have chores to do.  I tell one of the fellas that he has to water the plants.  He tells me he doesn't know how to do it, at that point the aid and I chuckle and tell him "Use the jug fill it with water and pour the water into the plant!"  As he is filling the plants with water, I check each of them to see if they are damp when I notice (here's the bit) that he filled the PLASTIC FLOWER VASE WITH WATER!!!! So cute! I tell him that "these are NOT real flowers honey! Feel them! They are plastic!" He replies "Well someone was watering them before! Look at the other vase it's full of water too!!"  So someone else in the class started the "watering the silk flowers" trend well before this lil' guy.  I think they need a lesson in what's real and what's not real!

Glitches and technical frustrations!!

Hello all! I've been noticing that the blogs that I have been following all switched to my google account, so there was no link to my blog.  I linked the blog to that account, but now I've been having revisit all the blogs to switch to the picture I use now.  So silly and frustrating that I have to deal with technical stuff! Also I'm wondering if there's glitches with joining my blog? If so let me know, there is an email attached to my profile.  If there is one then I need to let the technical support know about this.  I think I'm plagued with glitches.  This one is a funny one though.  So the other day, um maybe three days ago, I texted the bus stop to see when the bus would come, three times, and lo and behold I receive the times one day after another, the last one coming in this morning at 4:30am!!! So when will the glitches stop I ask you?!?!? Have I done something to piss off the computers, satellites, phones and other electronic devises? If so I am sorry for what I might have said or done in anger! I take it back!!!


Okay, so not much stitching lately.  I put in my order for threads for Tanglewood but it won't come for 3 weeks!! So in the meantime, I finished my aunt's "A" and maybe I should take this time to finish up some of the smalls I stitched over the holidays.  Also I received a most wonderful gift to make my own lil' quilted bag from a dear friend.  I can hardly wait to start the project!

Take care and keep stitching!!

"A" from Sajou Alphabet

The colours are so lovely but the camera doesn't capture it properly.

New Linens and Patterns Oh My!

Whoohoo!! Just received my package today from 123stitch.  There's nothing more exciting than coming home from a long day at work and finding a glorious package on the kitchen table!!  Now all I have to do is get the threads for the patterns that I want to finish this year.  I will be ordering them this weekend using my gift certificates that I got for Christmas!

Before I post the photos, I want to thank all my followers for becoming my followers! It is exciting to meet new people from around the world and make new friends! I love all the comments and the encouragement from my readers and I am always open to suggestions on how to improve my blog and even my stitching!  I truly admire all the beautiful stitching and finishes that people create and am amazed at how fast some people can stitch, since I am a slow stitcher.

Toodles!

Anne

My beautiful new linens and three threads from The Gentle Art

My cute lil' Elizabethan scissors

Two patterns I fell in love with and can't wait to get the materials to begin stitching

Another "A" for my aunt using the Sajou Alphabet

Useless Post

Hello all!  Yesterday I noticed everyone is posting jars of floss so I began to investigate why.  I found out that Sharon, aka Daffycat, started a totally useless stitch along.  Wow there's tons of members!! What fun!! I really wanted to join Daffycat's TUSAL but unfortunately it is too late to join. Ah well, maybe next time.  Perhaps I'll start my own jar of useless bits of floss just to play along.  Here are some pictures I thought I would post just for the sake of posting them.

Snow in North Van about two months ago

Greeta and Hamish playing (my aunts' dogs)

My brother's dog Misty...sooo cute!!

Backstitched squirrels frolicking

I think the above squirrels deserve a bit of a story.  They are part of this really OLD WIP I started when I was a teenager and is, embarrassingly enough, not yet complete.  It's a rather large project and unfortunately I used 18 count aida, which I don't like stitching on (at all!!), especially when the pattern has a gazillion 3/4 stitches and uses loads of Kreinik 004 gold filament.  This is the main reason why I haven't finished the project.  Not only that but I have had to seriously frog out loads of it throughout the years, noticing the mistakes I made from years ago.  For some reason I tend to work on this project when I'm tired or there's bad lighting.  It's the bane of my existence!!!! Perhaps tomorrow I will reveal other bits to you, so check back soon!!

Trying to vamp up my blog

I'm liking the background but not really liking the really bright white columns.  Anyone know how to change that? I would prefer it to be a light grey background so my eyes aren't blasted by my computer screen (and probably yours too).  I can't seem to find where to change that...a little direction would be greatly appreciated!!

As for stitching, I am still waiting for some things to arrive and have just celebrated Christmas yesterday.  It was a fairly quiet Christmas but lovely all the same.  My husband and I really wanted to be up in Prince George with my family where all the craziness was happening.  My father decided to build a fire pit in the backyard amidst the snow! They were supposed to cook wieners but I heard that there was more drinking and silliness happening in the snow instead!  Perhaps next year we will make the trip up to good ol' PG and join in the revelry!

Itching to stitch....need fabric....need threads.

Birthday Fun then sickness

So I had an amazing birthday on the 3rd with family and friends.  On the second, my aunt took me, my husband and my nana to the boathouse for lobster...yum!!  The next day my friends came over to play games and drink coffee and tea.  It was really nice to see lots of people come out to celebrate my birthday, which is rare seeing that my birthday is so close to New Years and most people are pooped out from the holidays.  Unfortunately, the next day I caught some sort of stomach bug, or perhaps it was the two raw oysters I had on the 2nd that made me sick.  I don't know.  But I will tell you that I haven't been sick like that since I was a little girl.  To top it off, I got a call from the school district to work for the next five days which I had to decline!!!  Luckily, one of the principals of a school called me and wants me to work for her for the next 6 Thursdays at her school, so all is not lost!  Funny that even while I was sick, I wanted to stitch but my achy body wouldn't allow me to even lift my arms up!

I have a few stitching plans for 2011.  If I am correct, my mother bought me two charts for Christmas, which I won't receive until next week (we celebrate Christmas on the 7th of January).  One is "Tanglewood" by Ink Circles and the other one "Queen's Sampler" by Plum Street Samplers.  I spotted the Queen's Sampler on Meadow08's stitching blog and fell in love with it.  I can hardly wait to get the charts so I can order the linens and threads to start stitching.

By the way, I got yet another Traditional Stitches gift certificate from my friend in Prince George for Christmas!!!! I have a lot of fun shopping to do and some great stitching ahead of me!  I will post pictures of the goodies I get once I receive them, then I will motivate myself to finish the projects this year.

Happy New Year!!

Here's to hoping 2011 will be a good year.  I look forward to working on more projects, and more importantly, finishing them.  I have a couple of finished pieces to show that I have wrapped and about to send off to my mom and my friend.  The pillows were fiddly to finish and took many hours to do.  I had to hand stitch the lace onto "The Rose Garden" by Blackbird Designs because the trim is crocheted. I think it worked out well but wished that I had made some sort of pocket on the back for my mom to put her glasses into.  I'm learning slowly but surely and I feel that this year I will be much better with my finishing touches. 

Rose Garden by Blackbird Designs

 

 And for my friend, I chose my own threads and fabric and monogram from Sajou alphabet.

 

Another "A" for a friend from Sajou Alphabet (I'm a bit obsessed if you can tell)

This photo was taken by my cell phone so it is very grainy.

Take care and I wish everyone a Happy New Year!!