Bitter Flower Sampler Finished!

Well, it's my second finish and my third post of the year.  I'm on a roll. NOT! Oh well, life gets us busy and things go to the wayside when you spend most of it sick, writing reports and going to appointments all the time.  Thankfully, I'm on the mend with Spring break to look forward to.  I have a number of little projects in mind for Spring break so we will see if I get them done.  I want to attempt making a cloth diaper, make those cute crocheted booties and a wet bag.  Should be manageable right? We will see! 

Onto my bitter flower finish.  It's a BOAF design that I had kitted up for awhile.  It was a pleasure to stitch in hand.  I used 32 ct. Ray of Light Belfast with the recommended WDW threads.

The linen is a bit topsy turvy for some reason. Hopefully it'll straighten out when I frame it.  

I've made some progress on my other big WIP's so here are the photos.

JCS

Knotgarden

Sarah Chapple

I'm itching to do a little small but not sure which spring one to do. I'll have to look through my freebie charts and other spring charts to see what speaks to me.  

Speaking of spring, we have had an early start to spring.  Many of the blossoms and flowers are out although we are now going through a bit of a cold snap.  Hopefully the flowers will be okay!

I've also done a wee bit of knitting just to practice my knitting skills.  I'm attempting to make my hubby a scarf for next winter. So far so good!

Knitting in the BClabs waiting room

Hum, nothing much more to report other than I'm having loads of fun with my acid indigestion and pregnant insomnia.  Thankfully I smile when I feel Bean roll, kick and push parts of me.  It's such an amazing feeling to have in my belly!

Of course I can't forget my first fur baby...Titus!

Helping me with reports

Hiding under a blanket

Giving me "I want kibble" eyes

Hugs to you all and thank you for visiting!!

Anne

The Bad Blogger

That would be me! I have wanted to blog multiple times since my last blog but I have been sidetracked by a nasty flu, work, and now a congested head cold since last weekend. We have also stopped packing and gave up on finding a decent place since we should probably buy our next home instead of renting with the crazy prizes here in the Lower Mainland.  But where to buy, we don't know.  I think that with baby bean's birth on the horizon, moving is just crazy which was stressing us both out a lot, and I can't afford to be stressed right now.  So we are going to improve our place a little bit instead. Baby Bean can stay with us for the first few months and then we will see what to do.  So I unpacked some of my stitching supplies and have been working on my WIP's while sick.  It helps with the stress! 

I had one finish this year so far! Woohoo!! It's BBD's freebie Souvenir de Paris I stitched for a colleague who will be retiring this year.  It will be placed in scrapbook so I didn't need to finish it into anything.  I used GAST Blue Jay, a divine blue, and a scrap of linen I found. 

I personalized it with her initials and the year of her retirement.  I hope she likes it!

After pulling out my stitching supplies from boxes, which was a silly thing to do, I grabbed Knotgarden and stitched on it all yesterday and the night before.  

The corner is complete except for the beading and fancy stitches which I'm going to leave out so they don't get squished by the qsnaps. I highly doubt this will get finished in the next year with Baby Bean's imminent arrival.

Sarah Chapple had got a lot of love from me the past month or so.  She's such a beautiful sampler to work on.  I can't wait for her to be finished!

The border with all the honeysuckle flowers will take quite awhile to do. It's such a unique design that is very ornate.  Stay tuned!

The Bitter Flower Sampler by Birds of a Feather is nearly complete.  It's been fun stitching it on weekdays as it's easy to hold in my hand and I can speed along as I wind down from work. 

I've made two bunting triangles, with a third in progress for Baby Bean.  They are fun to make and I think I'll make 4-6 more of them.

The Granny stripe has been growing too.  Hubby says I need to get it done so we can have at least one finished blanket this year.  

I feel like a bad mother who has made nothing for Bean yet! So I found these adorable booties online that looked fairly simple to crochet.  I'm going to give it a fair shot in the next few weeks and see if I can make them.

Aren't they adorable?! Teeny tiny baby shoes always fills me with delight! I'm going to make them in white and maybe grey too. At least Bean will have stylish feet! 

I'll leave with a few photos from my walk yesterday.  I had to get out although I was very tired and the walk wore me out. I really hope this cold goes away and that I don't get another one for awhile.  I'm sick of being sick!!!

My February display

Oh, can't forget about Titus!! He's such a big suck.  I wonder how he will be when Bean comes.  Hubby says we can't ignore Titus but I don't know.  I know that Bean's first few months will be attached to me so how much can of myself can I give to all the babies in the house, hubby included.

Take care and thank you all for taking the time to read through this post.  I have been a bad commenter as well but I do peak around to everyone's blogs early in the morning as I wake up.  My comments wouldn't make sense that early so I have been refraining for a reason.  I hope to take some time during spring break to do some visiting.  Hugs to you all!!

Anne

A Long Time

It's been too long since I've updated my blog and come by and said hello to you all.  Life has been so busy as of late and it will only get busier.  So I have to pause this morning and write an update on me, stitching and a wee little giveaway I want to throw at the end of this post.  

Work hasn't wound down.  School life never does and with all my meetings morning, noon and afternoons, it feels like my life force is being sucked dry.  The kids are great of course, even though I'm training them on how to walk down the hall to the learning assistance center ready to learn, and not all kooky and hyped up.  So these past few weeks it's been about training, self-regulation...getting ready to learn is my mantra! Report card writing will be needing to happen soon and all of us teachers are counting down till Christmas break.

Stitching has taken a bit of a back seat as of late because of school but I have done some stitching.  I finished a sweet little design that I need to put together for a friend and mail off. Can't show it yet though till she gets it.  I'm already thinking of stitching Christmas gifts, like all of us are, and am woefully behind!  The other day, dear Annette sent me the sweetest little package.  She knew I didn't have the JCS magazine yet, although I do now, and sent me the linen, threads and some fabric for that adorable LHN ornament.  Thank you my dear! It really made my day!

You have to see her adorable finish.  I want to finish mine like that and she even gave me some of the fabric she used! I finished mine but on 40 ct linen.  I'm going to stitch it again on the linen she gave to me and then give one of them away.  I did use a different red though.  Nina's Chilli Pepper because I just wanted to use a Nina thread.  The other one will use Annette's red.  This design just makes me smile.

I made some progress on my samplers and believe it or not, Tea Bath Fairy.  Didn't take a photo of TBF though since it doesn't look like much has changed. Just filling in with that pesky kreinik.

Wow that photo is bleak.  Anyways, just filling in the border.  Thinking about taking a break from that border and stitching the massive vase that's above the bird's head. But then again, I might have to take a break from sampler stitching and get going on Christmas stuff. 

I did buy some charts with my JCS magazine but why, I don't know.  I'll never have the time to stitch all the things I want to stitch...but the charts just begged to be bought!

More BBD charts.  I love BBD and their Beatles series are amazing.  I adore strawberry fields forever and I can see that Blackbird would be a great RAK gift to someone in the future.  

Next up is my progress on the Bitterest Flower.

I can foresee this moving along a lot faster once I get going on this.  Titus seems to enjoy this design a lot.

He really likes to embed his fluff into everything I own.  The other day while I was in the principal's office, no I wasn't in trouble, I was talking and moving my hands around, as I do, and I saw fluff flying everywhere! I felt so bad adding Titus fluff into his office since he has allergies.  

As for my Sheep Sal with Sarah, Lija and Kaye, I made minimal progress on Kindness. The border is taking a really long time stitching up. 

Giveaway Details!!

If you've made it this far, congrats!! I really want to give back to my friends and would like to giveaway a $25 gift certificate from 123stitch.

All I ask is you enter your name stating you are interested and I will do the draw at the end of this month on November 30th.  I would have stitched something but I really lack the time and oomph to get it together to do that this year.  I will also be announcing some fabulous news in the next little while so please stay tuned!!!

I'll leave you with some photos we took on a rare sunny day. 

Hugs to you all....I'm sorry for not commenting, I will try but I'm off to the island this weekend and the next few are report card time.  Maybe that will be a good time to procrastinate and do some blog hopping...ehhehehee.

Ciao!

Sampler Stitching

Bonjour mes amis!

It's a fair day out today compared to the super hot day we had yesterday.  I completely overdressed yesterday with a sweater and wool skirt and the temperature was up to 25 degrees Celsius! Who could have guessed we had one more hot day in October? Very strange. 

I don't have much to report other than I've done a wee bit of stitching this weekend.  I didn't start a new Sheep virtue yet, but will get to that next weekend.  I focused instead on my samplers since that was my fancy.  I do feel a twang of guilt for not stitching on my Chatelaine for many months.  The trouble with that one is that it's on a massive lap stand and quite cumbersome to bring out and put away.  Anyways, here's my stitching progress so far.

JCS 1707

A naughty Titus

Sarah Chapple and the taking an age rooftop

Bittersweet Flower sampler

Granny Stripe progress 

Who's under there?

Titus is!

Another sweet Titus photo after he smushed up against my charts

He just wanted to make sure I knew that he likes my stitching.

One of the best things about Autumn other than the beautiful colours, is the gorgeous dahlias. 

One day, when I have a garden, I will be planting many of these beauties in all sorts of different colours.  

So I've been giving some thoughts to a giveaway and I think I'll post about it on my next payday.  It will be a simple giveaway since I don't have much time to make something this year.  So stay tuned in the next week or so for an announcement!! 

Many hugs to you all and happy stitching!!

Anne

Feeling the Love

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my last post.  It means a lot to me to have your support. Still no news on going back to work.  The union and the government have been negotiating all weekend but nothing has been reported yet.  So I continue to keep busy and am trying to be positive.  I finally put some trim on the last pillow I sewed up when I thought to myself, wow, I take a long time to finish my stitches.  I should get more into the habit of finishing my projects right away instead of taking a long time to get them done! 

I hand sewing the cording to the pillow since I wouldn't have the first clue how to sew it with the machine.  I like how I finished a February stitch in September...lol! Yes, I do take my time! 

Now I really need to work on my Christmas gifts instead of starting new projects, but hey, that's what stitching ADHD is all about.  I decided to join Sarah and Lija in a Sheep Virtues SAL.  Sunday is the post date but Mondays should be fine as well.  The girls have all the charts, but I just have Love! So I began that on the weekend and managed to work on the border. The goal is to put in about 100 stitches in which I think I surpassed. I'm stitching it on 40 ct. Natural linen with DMC threads.

Made some more progress on Bitter Flower Sampler although somewhere along the way, the count is off on the top alphabet but I can't seem to find where I messed up.  It doesn't make that big of a difference so I'm not worrying about it.  

Sarah Chapple's house is nearly completed.  I have a bit more filling in to do then I'll be finishing the birds on the left tree and working more on the border. 

I was thinking back to when I last posted about my granny stripe blanket, and I think it was in May or June.  Well, summer feels like it is still here, hot yet cool in the evenings.  So I have been working away again on the stripes.  I've also crocheted a little gift for my mom-in-law but I think she looks at my blog, so I can't post anything yet until she receives the package.  Anywho, here's Granny!

Those bright colours are going to be perfect to work with when the rain comes.  Nothing like a bit of cheer inside when it's miserable outside!

The other day we went down by the river and decided to try to fly our kites.  With a lot of fiddling with string and sticks, we managed to get one of our kites up.  You know the best kites are the dollar stores ones.  The kites we've bought from shops tend to not fly very well and often break.  Best to spend a dollar and not worry about loosing or breaking the kite.  

It looks so pretty against the azure sky.

Speaking of blue, here's a winky photo of Titus blue eyes.

Really not much else to report other than I am crossing my fingers and toes for a work resolution soon.  Please pray for that!

Hugs

Anne