Christmas Stocking and ISHW

Hello my lovelies!!

Beware! Loads of pictures in this post!! Grab some tea/coffee and settle in!!

It has been quite the eventful week!! I'm pleased to say that I finally finished my husband's stocking!! Yahoo! I received a lot of help from my mom when she came over on Tuesday to fix the tension on my machine as well as give me tips on sewing.  It was hard for her to not do the entire stocking herself!! Even though she let me do the sewing, I could feel her wanting to get her hands onto it!! I think she really misses sewing. Although I made a couple of boo-boos along the way, like cutting the batting too small twice, I managed to get it done! Now I have to still make my sisters placemats and my auntie's table runner.  Luckily I still have some time until January 7th to finish both projects.

Since we don't have a fireplace or a mantelpiece I decided to prop the stocking on the tree to take a decent photo.  It doesn't stay in the tree just so you know!!

I also stitched up my Dad's ornament but still need to actually finish it, which I may do on Monday seeing as I want to keep to stitching this weekend for the ISHW.  The design is from Daffycat and if you ask her nicely she will send you the pattern.  Please abide by her requests and only provide a link to her site and do not upload the pattern. I really had fun stitching this design and I think my Dad will love it too!

The photo doesn't do it justice cause the colours are really rich and very Christmasy.  Oops I forgot to iron it!!

I also started my Mom's ornament and I think I can show it here.  I'll just remind her not to visit my blog until she receives the present!! It's from the JCS 2010 magazine and she actually pointed out that it was her favourite ornament sometime ago.  Too bad I'm not organized enough to start my ornament stitching in the summer!! Oh right, I was traveling around in the summer....well maybe I should start them in January!! One of these days I will get it together!!

I'm stitching it on some 28 ct lugana that Joyce sent to me and it's 1 over 1 so it will be a tiny ornament!! Thanks Joyce for the lugana!!! I'm loving it a lot!!

Onto framing.  So last week I bought a couple of frames from Michael's and spent some time putting some of my old finished pieces into frames.  I finally got my geisha girl her frame and guess what?! The backing of the frame barely, and I mean BARELY, closes and looks like it is ready to explode at anygiven  moment! I'm seriously frustrated with finding a frame that works with cross stitch.  I really can't afford the crazy costs of getting my smaller pieces professionally framed and to find any sort of box to mount the pieces on is also proving to be difficult.  Our city is somewhat craft unfriendly! Anywho, griping aside, the Geisha will have to be satisfied until I can find a better frame.

This BBD freebie design I decided to give to my friend for Christmas, along with some linen and threads to her so she can start cross stitching!! This frame wasn't too bad and it wasn't a struggle to get the piece to lay flat and FIT the frame!! She loved it and is excited to give cross stitching a go!! Woohoo to converts!
PS: photo taken on skytrain because I forgot to take one at home...so it's a bit blurry with all the motion.

More fun news to share.  Yesterday, while I was with above mentioned friend, we went into the most darling little store that was filled with tons of curios, antiques and the most fabulous Christmas decorations.  I also found some antique mini sewing machines but didn't take a photo of them.  The machines were going for $500!! The antique lace spools and thimbles were upwards to $100!! Canada seriously???? Why is it that you have to charge SOO much for everything??? Anyways, we did stumble upon some really cool retro baubles that were exactly like my Dad's ornaments!!

I loved those fishing lures!! I thought about getting my Dad one because he's a fisherman, but he is so particular about what lure to use with each fish.  I may run back there though and get one anyways. They just look so alluring...hehe! I need to call him up and tell him about the decorations and how expensive they are now!! He will get a kick out of that!!

Okay, nearly done.  Just wanted to mention how amazing the Tori Amos concert was!! The string quartet she had with her were genius!! She brought out a lot of her old songs which made us go wild!! I think this is my 5th or 6th time seeing her, and so far it's been one of the best concerts yet!! The venue where she played is one of the best in Vancouver.  It's called the Orpheum and it has the most beautiful ceiling and decor.  The acoustics is perfect there, hence why our symphony plays there all the time.  Here are some photos of the night.  One of the photos I took before the show started, included the annoying girl that hooted and yelled at the most inappropriate times during the show.  We all sort of secretly wished that the usher would usher her out!! I really don't know why people didn't tell her to be quiet.  She was so disruptive! I get that she was excited, we all were,  but lets keep the hooting and "I love yous!!!" to before and after Tori sings!!

Wow! I'm finally done!! I'll be posting a little update on my ISHW progress on Monday. Hopefully I will get my mom's ornament stitched!!

Take care,

Happy Stitching!!

Anne

Um, I forgot to add what project I will be starting in January....maybe I'll let you guess!! It's one of the patterns I bought this year.  That's my hint :D

BBD Finish, Shepherd's Bush Start, and a WIP

Hello my lovelies!!

Yay! I am back at home and reunited with my hubby!!!  Sitting on a pug was fun but I felt it was time to let him go.  Seriously though, everything went fine,the pug was fairly good, except the excessive snoring and the leaping up onto me giving me bruises!! I'm just really happy to be at home, with my own stuff, my own computer and of course my man. 

Hamish

Once I got home, I decided it was time to start Shepherd's Bush's Tiny Garden.  Teresa had sent me the chart and Joyce had given me some lovely light bluish grey 25 ct. lugana to use, and since my thread order came, I was more than eager to start.  It was such a PLEASURE to stitch on lower count after I have been peering over my HAED WIP stitching 1 over 1.  As I was close to finishing one side of the Tiny Garden, I realized I forgot to order 1 Weeks Dye Works thread!! URGH! How frustrating is that?!!! So I laid down my stitching and off I went to 123stitch.com to add that one thread. I then decided to look around at the other threads they have, particularly the Valdani Threads and Dinky Dyes silks. I spent a REALLY long time browsing through all their threads, until 1 am.  Oops! I haven't order anything YET, but when I do..hehe...I am going to be adding some Valdani and Dinky Dyes silks just for the heck of it!! I also ended up adding BBD A Schoolgirl's Work to my wishlist cause I am hoping that either my mom or my hubby will get that for me for Christmas. I hope my hubby doesn't read this post because he would state "You have enough threads! You don't need anymore!" This is always his response. Like he knows anything!!

Anywho, stash stalking aside, I ended up finishing BBD's freebie design "Now I know my ABC's".  A lovely quick stitch that I am thinking of either framing or finding some sort of box to put it on.

 Yesterday before I headed home, I purchased the new Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments Issue and am pretty excited about making a couple of their ornaments.  Though I really need to focus on what I have going on now, so I probably won't make anything until the end of October.  There is definitely not enough time in the day to make all the projects I want to make!!!

Here are some photos of the Queen all framed and another pretty blue glass object I found at a designer store closing out sale.

Don't forget about the giveaway draw tomorrow! I'm pretty excited to see who the winner will be and what colours I will be using!!!

With Hugs and Pugs!

Anne