Playing with Red

It's a rainy day out today although there was a sprinkle of snow last night.  Having a bit of rain is good for the flowers and it means it has warmed up a bit! I hope it continues to get warmer. Last night, I had a finishing frenzy and finished three pillows! Two are Christmas pillows and the other a BBD design. It all started with me reorganizing my sewing box and finding my fabrics.  I noticed I had a lot of great red fabrics, so I began to play.  It took me over 4 hours to complete but I am happy with the results.  

First up is Jingle Jingle, by Plum Street Samplers.  I won the chart from Pat, the Southpaw Stitcher last year and finally got it completed.  The jingle bells took an age to attach. Not sure why it takes me so long as I'm sure there's an easier way than the way I did it!

Stitched on fabric that came in kit with GAST threads

I used some cute striped ribbon that my dear friend used to wrap up some Christmas gifts she sent to me.  I think it works perfectly with the bells.  I used the pretty red with with star fabric on the right for the back.  It'll be a great door hanger for Christmas!

Next, I finally put together LHN's Baked Goods.  It has been over a year since I stitched it.  About time it was finished.  Unfortunately, when turning out the pillow and using a dull pencil end to poke out the corners, one of the corners actually poked out! So I used some ribbon and buttons to cover the hole...sigh.

Stitched on 40 ct. Creme Brulee with GAST and DMC

This will be a sweet ornament for our tree!

Continuing with my red obsession, I pulled out the "Bluebird" turned into a Redbird by BBD I stitched awhile back.  Originally, I bought a box to put it on, forgot about that plan and sewed on a black ribbon. I didn't like the black ribbon so I ripped it out last night.  I'm liking this finish much better than what I had.

Stitched on 32 ct. Platinum with CC's Cupid finished with little buttons from Mouse

I finished a little RAK for someone too on Friday night but can't show it yet.  I like the design so much I might just stitch one for myself too...hehee!!

Wonderful red finishes aren't they?! Funny how none of them are Valentine themed when it's Valentine's this Friday!! 

....wonder if my hubby will get me anything....hmm.

Friday night SAL with Maggee I spent frogging, yet again.  I was gabbing away to my hubby plus watching Treme when I started stitching Magic Garden's little bird with two threads instead of one thread.  I felt the stitches becoming harder to do and I couldn't figure out why until I was about halfway done! Out it came and there went an hour wasted.  So I stitched the bird and the little snail. I'll forgive the bird since he's so cute!

No other progress to report.  My granny afghan is getting larger but I think showing it will be boring.  I'll wait until it gets significantly larger and more interesting!

Hubby news.  He's on prednisone which is helping the inflammation although giving him a terrible tummy ache.  We are hoping this will help get rid of the pain for good.  We both want to say good bye to the pain for good!  Speaking of tummy aches, I ate some eggs this morning and spent the better part of the day feeling like I was punched in the stomach.  Too bad I'm allergic to eggs...I love them so much!

We took a walk last week by the river in an industrial area and found some interesting things along the river bank. Then I took another walk on Saturday and kicked myself for not bringing my camera since my cell phone is horrible for zooming in.  The heron was by the river and looking beautiful in the sunlight.  I got some grainy photos that aren't worth sharing.  But I got a few great shots of the ice blocks in the river that appeared to be moving backwards! It was very trippy to watch the river flowing backwards...strange I tell you!

1930's warehouse

old rope on a tree

Heart!!

Old Cola can my hubby found and was SOOO excited about!

That's all for now. 

Thank you all for taking the time to visit and comment.  I appreciate all the support and encouragement from you all!!

Hugs

Anne...and snoring Titus

IHSW and Lovely Gifts!

Be prepared to look at a lot of photos! Get yourself a cup of tea, or coffee or whatever your choice of drink is because I will bombard you with loads of photos!!

First signs of spring:

A delightful evening at the symphony with my hubby:

IHSW Stitching:

I had to add some motifs on Hannah since stitching borders makes me restless.  I love that little basket of fruit!!

A quick freebie stitch from the Primitive Hare that I started and finished in one evening. I used HDF's Barnyard green silk.. an utterly delicious green! (Click on the link and it will take you to the freebie chart)

Found a better fabric choice for Baked Goods:

Picked up another thrifty treat to match our other orange 40's glass bowls:

My RAK I sent to Angela was received, so here it is:

Stitched on Navy Blue 32ct. lugana with Kodak Blue HDF silk

I'm glad she liked the package! I found this lovely freebie pattern from Whispered by the Wind website.

I received another order I made in January and was told by my hubby that I have ENOUGH FABRIC AND STRINGS TO LAST ME A LIFE TIME! DO NOT BUY ANYTHING MORE   :(  So now I can't....

40 ct. Newcastle linen in Mirage and Sand

Trying out Crescent Colours Threads

My first ever SANQ magazine...love it!!

And finally....the mailman/woman has been very good lately delivering me all sorts of gifties.  I received my beautiful giveaway wins from Angela and Lynn.  Thank you so much ladies! Your finishing skills are exquisite and both pieces I cherish so much and have displayed already in my living room.  Dear Lynn sent me a few little extras and threw in some crinkle toys for Titus to play with! There are two crinkle toys but one has disappeared somewhere! He loves them and sends you a big purr Lynn!!

Angela's box is so amazing! I will be trying out her tutorial one day and try to make one of my own!! Thank you again dear Angela!!

Lynn's pillow is so pretty and I love the little buttons and threads she added to the package.

 Hugs to you both!! 

Blessings to you all!!

Titus the Stashaholic and TUSAL

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post.  I have been horribly behind on catching up with blogs, and I feel as though I will never catch up.  I'm looking into purchasing a Samsung Galaxy which I can use while I'm traveling and I hope I can use my long commute to catch up on emails, blogs and reading!! I think it will be a useful tool and it's a lot cheaper than an ipad!! 

Last week I received my giveaway win from Pat, the Southpaw Stitcher, and I am amazed at what she sent! She was so generous and sent me an assortment of ornie fabrics, a cute little ort catcher and of course the PSS chart with the threads and linen.  Thank you again Pat for the beautiful stash!

I had to include the photo of Titus on top of my giveaway wins.  When I opened the package the other night, he sauntered in and laid on top of everything!! He sniffed everything very gently. I had to take some photos to show his love of stash.  He's really addicted!!

Luckily he is a gentle cat and doesn't dare to use his claws on my stitching! As you can see I had fun with the collage feature! 

On the weekend, I stitched a bit on Knotgarden, Hannah and I finally finished Baked Goods.  I looked for some fabric to match Baked Goods and I found one, but I'm not overly sold on the match.  I may have to take a trip to Fabricland to see what other fabric would work.

I also started the lovely BBD chart that Carolyn gifted me.  I decided to work with the 40 ct. Vintage Light Exemplar.  It's slightly peachy in colour and I think it works well with the threads.  The photo shows it as grey which isn't the case.  I need to find some pretty vintage buttons to go along the side there.  Just where I can find some, who knows.  This city is lacking in the vintage button department!

Here's my collection of orts for February's TUSAL.  I took the photo on a beautiful silver salmon platter that my Nana gave to me.  There's lots of orts this month from all the stitching I managed to do!

Now that one of my RAK's was received, I can show you what I stitched for Mouse. I chose Nancy's Christmas freebie to stitch.  I used a mulberry Silk thread and ribbon from HDF.  I'm glad Mouse loves her RAK/Bday gift.  

So there's just a few more things to share.  I finally received my birthday order from Needlecraft Corner.  It was a gift from my mom and I'm so excited to stitch some of the designs I chose!! I feel a wee bit overwhelmed now with all the stash I have acquired! I think I'll lay off from getting anymore until I've used what I have!! Thank you Mom!!

Charts from BBD, Carriage House, and PS

Beautiful threads from CC, GAST and Dinky Dyes Silk

I hope you enjoyed this post.  I'll leave you with a photo of some pretty tulips I bought.  I can hardly wait for more flowers to bloom here.  It's been rather cold out and I only see the snowdrops poking out.  Very late for Vancouver!

Happy Stitching!

Anne

Feeling Blessed and Grateful

Hello everyone!

I have been one lucky gal as of late.  Last week I won not one, but three giveaways!! I couldn't believe it!! I feel very grateful and blessed to have been bestowed such lovely gifts.  The first giveaway I won is from Pat, the Southpaw Stitcher.  Her darling black lab Molly, sniffed my name out of the bowl!! So thank you Pat and Molly for picking me.  She is sending me the Plum Street Samplers' Hares' Christmas chart complete with linen and threads! So generous of her.

 Then, a couple days later, I received emails from Lynn of Kearnel's Korner, and Angela of Hooked on Stitches, telling me that I won their Grow a Blog Party giveaway! Okay.  By this point I was really blown away!!  Angela made one of her famous boxes for the giveaway and Lynn stitched the prettiest little design with flowers and birds to make into a pin pillow! It's always so nice to receive stitching from others.  I will cherish each piece.  So thank you again ladies!! Big Hugs!! 

I was RAK'd a lovely chart with threads from Carolyn, Taking One Stitch At A Time.  Also a sweetie! Big thank you to Carolyn too for making my week!!

Here's the chart and floss.  I want to start stitching the pattern but can't decide on the fabric.  I think I'm leaning more towards the vintage light exemplar (the peachy coloured linen).  

Hmm.  I really like the lambswool linen too.  I suppose I could start stitch a bit on both and see which one I like best. 

Since it's the month of love, I thought I would share with you some of the many musicians I have been obsessed with/infatuated/drooled over when I was a teen and young adult. I may reveal a few of the others later on...hehe.  

I did manage to stitch a bit over the weekend, until I got REALLY distracted by traveling down nostalgia lane listening to one of my favourite bands, Suede.  It's funny how I almost forgot about them! All my CD's are buried in a box in our storage locker and it's a pain to get into it.  I used to be quite infatuated with the lead singer, Brett Anderson.  It was fun looking at old photos of him and seeing him now. He's actually aged quite nicely.  Still a handsome man to me!!

Back in the 90's

Twenty years later

I really adored Suede's music and am excited they are reuniting and will be releasing a new album in March.  They were the original trailblazers of Brit Pop music in the 90's although other bands, such as Blur and Oasis, received more recognition than Suede.  They were very talented and I really enjoyed listening to their music again.  

Oh right, stitching.... I stitched a wee bit on a few things, so instead of posting individual photos, I played around with Picasa's collage button and came up with one photo.  Picasa has so many great features to play with your photos!

 No Titus for now.  He's resting with the hubby since he's so hard at work laying around all day!!

Hugs to you all!

Stitching and Finishes While Sick

Hello everyone!

Thanks for all your well wishes and hugs! I'm feeling a bit better today and am not using the kleenex by the boxful...although I've gone through quite a bit.  While I was sick, I did stitch on quite a few of my projects.  I sort of had stitching ADHD and would pick up one, put it down then pick up another. I took photos today while it was brighter out, however, during my importing session, my computer froze and all the photos were deleted.  

The stitching photos I'm not too upset about those photos but there were some videos of a man playing some beautiful guitar music at my Uncle's house on Friday night, and now I have lost the videos of him playing.  Luckily, my Uncle and Aunt got the impromptu concert on their iphones and will send me their version of the concert.  This man, known as Jan de Chloe, wrote a biography on Boris Perrot, who was the guitar teacher of the famous classical guitarist Julian Bream.  My grandfather also studied under Dr. Perrot and our family contributed many photos, anecdotes and historical papers to the book.  There are a couple of parts about my grandfather in the book which was fascinating to read about. Here's the link to the book if anyone is interested. Boris Perrot: A Life with a Guitar.

My Grandpa is on the left with his hand on his chin

Onto my sick stitching.  Please pardon the horrible photos.  My camera's flash is not working very well and the daylight disappeared for me when I had to retake the photos.  I did finish a really old stitch for Valentine's Day...finally.  I think I stitched this two years ago!!

 

The pillow looks lumpy but it's really not that bad.  I think I needed to add some of the new stuffing I bought to have made it more full.  Well, it's finished and I'm happy about it!! It's a freebie pattern from The Sampler Girl. 

I finished the RAK's too and thankfully, they turned out WAY better than my finishes.  Phew!!!

I finished Tweet today too although I may replace the bow on top.  It's not really how I wanted it to turn out.  I think I should've waited until I was completely better to finish some of my stitches!!

I stitched more on Hannah and was a wee bit concerned about the right side coming to close to the edge.  Luckily it's got about 3-4 inches leeway however, I thought I measured the fabric perfectly and figured out exactly where to start.  I obviously counted incorrectly because there is a lot more fabric on the left than the right.  Thankfully, there's just enough on the right to get it framed! I hope!!

I stitched some of the outlines for the cup handle on TeaBathFairy.  I enjoy making outlines on HAED's and not stitch them in 10 by 10 parts.  That's just too confusing for me to do!!

Some wee progress on Baked Goods.

And a blurry photo of Titus sleeping by the heat register.  He really loves his heat!!

That's all for now! I need to go rest now after all the energy I spent finishing.
Hugs to all!!

(Edited some of the photos)