IHSW, Jane and the Frog Prince

Hello everyone!

Welcome to my new followers!! I would like to start off by saying thank you for all your well wishes and comments on my last post.  The cold has left the building and I'm back in business!! I've been quite busy with work, cycling and my hubby's birthday which was yesterday.  I have been doing a lot of stitching in the evenings too, which has been wonderful!!
IHSW Plans 
I hope to work more on Jane, since she's been having most of my attention lately.  I think I just need to focus on her as much as I can so I can try and finish one BAP.  You see, I have a couple of other BAP's in the wings and I would love to start them, but feel that I need to finish one of the two I'm currently working on.  If I have too many BAP's on the go, I feel antsy for whatever reason.  Reading too many books at once also gives me that feeling.  Oh, and on the topic of books, I've read 95% of War and Peace!!!!! I've only been reading it on transit and can't wait to finish it in a couple of weeks!!

Right, IHSW.  So I'll be working on Jane, maybe TBF, my secret project and finishing a finish I started when I was sick but couldn't actually finish it.  You know what I mean!!! The finishing fairy almost left the building, but I've got her held back and seated drinking some tea.  I'm not letting her go quite yet! Then, the Frog Prince visited this morning.  He is quite pesky I tell you! All the stitching I did this morning I had to take out.  This has been the first time in a long time the Frog Prince has been a problem.  Don't worry though, I got him handled and he's gone now!!! Here's my Jane as of noon today.

And the flower that the Frog Prince messed around with!

I am really loving Jane's flower garden that has sprung up.  Each flower has been a lot of fun to stitch, even with the frogging!! I'm working on some birds around the flowers right now...kinda itching to get back to it!!

Now onto the Tea Bath Fairy.  In my last post I said I finished the handle.  What I meant to say is that I finished a full page that had the handle in it.  I worked on TBF for quite awhile.  I'm surprised it doesn't look like much progress.  But then again, it's an HAED! Sorry for the wrinkles but I don't want to iron it until it's finished and I can wash it. 

Before I get into some info about my giveaway, I want to share with you a little thank you gift I stitched up for Melissa at Words and Blooms.  She has been so generous to me, giving me all sorts of lovely linens and for awhile now, I have wanted to make her something special.  I stitched up a lovely freebie design from Threadwork Primitives. I stitched it on one of her linens, using GAST and Carrie's Creations threads. I am happy that she likes what I made for her and that it turned out rather well!! Her picture of the little pillow is much better than mine, so go take a look.  She has a lovely blog and often shares amazing photos of her incredible garden and her two cute kitties!  Hugs for you Melissa!!!

Poll and Giveaway Details

On the side under followers, I have entered a poll for all of you to do!! A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that I wanted to do a 200 follower giveaway and stitch a Gift of Stitching design.  So, I had an idea! Why not have all of you decide which design I get to stitch first for the giveaway?! Sounds like fun?!!! Please choose one and I will close the poll in the next week or so.  I've chosen some small designs that won't take me long to do or finish.  Here are the designs and some pics/links of what they look like:

1.  Lizzie Kate's Plant Love  courtesy of The Stitching Gift website
2. LHN's Bee Pinkeep courtesy of The World's Largest Collection of Smalls (and it would just be the center   design which is also in the GOFT magazine.
3. Prairie Schooler's Summer courtesy of The World's L. C. of S.
4. Blackwork with Nancy Pederson.

So go ahead and take a look at these lovely little designs and help me choose!!!

One more thing.  I have received the Knotgarden kit.


YAHOOO!!!


However, I still need to make my scroll rods before I think of starting it.  I'm on the fence about it though. Having three major projects, I dunno.  But the silks! And the bling!! They are calling me!! Maybe I can put TBF outta rotation for awhile and start Knotgarden. We'll see!!

Oooooh!! Look at that!!!!

Titus says good bye and don't even dare think about stealing his toys!!!!

Hugs and I will try and catch up with all my blog reading/commenting this weekend!!!

Anne

Stitching, Lovely Visits and Loads of Photos!!

Hello everyone!

It has been quite some time since I have done a post. I am still working on catching up with emails and blog posts (got it down from over 500 to 350!) Thank you for all your lovely comments on my last post.  Know that each and everyone of them mean a lot to me!

It has been a very busy couple of weeks so I will fill you in on what has been going on in my part of the world.  Last week I worked with a lovely group of grade 3's and 4's.  Split classes are quite difficult to manage but the teacher I worked for has her class set up perfectly.  There was one day during the week I didn't work, so we took advantage of the semi-nice day and took a long bike ride all over the city.  We traveled to North Vancouver by Seabus, then decided to go up to Grouse Mountain, where the school I work for is located.  I have actually never been up to the top of the mountain before so I was glad to get the chance to enjoy it.  Wow, the air is so fresh up there!! We also visited the Cleveland Dam and I have to say I as a bit of a chicken trying to take a photo of the dam.  I'm not too keen on heights! After the damn, we had the immense thrill of  cycling down the mountain! We even cycled over the Lion's Gate Bridge! Bit scary, but I'm proud to proclaim I have conquered the bridge. Needless to say, I was extremely sore for the next couple of days, particularly my upper back! I suppose going down a mountain you need a lot of upper body strength, something I'm sorely lacking in. Here are some photos of our 8 hour long trip!

My chicken shot of the dam through the bars

Lion's Gate Bridge view of Georgia Straight

So then on Friday, I met up with a fellow blogger for tea! Melissa, from Words and Blooms, is a most wonderful, sweet lady who I have enjoyed getting to know.  She stitches the most beautiful Blackbird Design pieces and samplers and was one of the first blogs I followed.  Both her sampler stitching and Margaret's, inspired me to stitch a sampler of my own!! She is always so generous and brought me the most beautiful frog, linens and a cute cat pin cushion! I stitched her a design from Nan's Threadwork Primitives but hadn't found the perfect fabric, or time, to finish it! I'm on the hunt Melissa!! Be sure of that!! Look at the beautiful frog she got me!

Isn't it beautiful?!

I LOVE his little bag of fish!!!

Lovely linens!!

Threadwork Primitives freebie I stitched for Melissa

A new Quaker small using one of Melissa's linens!

This past weekend was so beautiful here in Vancouver.  We had sunshine!!! AND MY MOM VISITED ME!!! I was so happy to have her stay over, even if it was just for one night, it was fun. We watched a foreign film that was really slow moving, but okay. In the morning, we chatted, looked at loads of your blogs, ooh'd and ahh'd over samplers, Chatelaine's, cute ornaments, HAED's, everything!  It was a great morning! Then we did my taxes. Bleh. However, we are getting quite a bit back from the government so a BIG happy dance going on here!!!! After that, we took a long walk along the Quay and enjoyed a lunch/dinner at the PaddleWheeler Pub.  Unfortunately we didn't have anytime to do any sewing but she may stay a bit longer and come over again...I sure hope so!!

I love that last photo of a kid's bike caked with the mud from the river.  The tide was out so we could see what sorts of things lay at the bottom of the river!

Sorry if this is taking awhile. I hope you had some tea or coffee to enjoy this post...I am nearly finished!!

Even though I have had a crazy couple of weeks, I have managed to put in some stitches here and there.  I have added a lot of little motifs and bit more of the border in Jane. I put in a couple of stitches in TBF too. I know Margaret has been antsy for an update.  I should probably mention that Margaret was the other recipient of my RAK and I'm happy to report that she loved the little gift! It seems that both Mia (Margaret's cat) and Clarisse (Lynn's cat) were VERY interested in the pillows too! I think they smelt Titus' scent on the pillows!I do try to keep him away but he likes to be in the midst of my stitching and sewing!!

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter! I hope you all had a wonderful time with your family and friends.  We will be celebrating our Pascha this weekend and boy am I looking forward to it! It is the most important time of the year for Christians: the resurrection of Christ!! I will do a separate post after Pascha to share with you some of our traditions.

Sunshine, my cousins' bunny

If you read down to here you made it!! I hope you enjoyed my post and I am looking forward to spending some time reading all of your posts today.  It's nice to finally have a relaxing day to read, stitch and enjoy some good tea!

Hugs to you all!

Anne

1st TUSAL! And a Pic of Jane before ISHW

Bonjour mes amies!!

I hope I find you all well and happy.  I have to say it's been quite the week here in the city! I have been working with some lovely groups of children that have made me smile all day.  I feel so blessed to be given the opportunity to work with such lovely little souls.  Even though I don't have a contract, it's nice to go and teach at the schools you have taught at before because the children get to know me and then I get little hugs!! Sometimes when I leave work I want to skip to the bus stop but stop myself because I'm not 12 anymore!! Although I do sneak in a skip here or there :D

So before I head out to babysit my little cousins, I wanted to show Jane pre-ISHW so there can be a progress pic for Monday.  I, ehhem, still haven't replaced that colour yet, but I will! It's just that Michael's is out of my way and I have to make a special trip.  It's okay though because I have been putting in some of the grass and just having fun with the sampler!

As for my last query about how the girls made their designs, I found an interesting article about American Samplers (not sure how to upload the pdf file).  To sum it up, since it's a large article, the girls were usually taught by teachers in schools.  The purpose, as I'm sure you know, was for the girls to practice stitching so they can use their skills to adorn linens, clothing, etc, for their future homes. The designs were either inked on by the teacher following a template, or done by freehand.  Then the girls would stitch over the markings.  Some may have created their own designs while using templates that the teachers provided them.  The materials the girls used varied according to their status.  The poorer the girl, the poorer the materials, the richer the girl, the richer the materials, like silks and fine linens. You get the idea! Here is a link to a list of the motifs the girls used in their samplers.  It's really neat to read up on what each symbol means!!

The wedding heart is completed and I love it! I should really stitch one for me and my hubby!! It will be framed by next week.  The colour is really quite beautiful! Some of you mentioned that I should use the lace for the design, but the pink is a lot more rosier than the pink I used for the design.  I will use the lace for something else. Here is the link for the design: Needleprint. It's the design on the upper right hand corner.

I also stitched a really sweet little design for my friend's birthday but since she reads my blog, I can't post it yet!!
Without further ado, here is my Tusal "jar".  I haven't found one yet so I'm using a pretty white dish.  I've noticed that there isn't a lot of orts even though I stitched quite a bit.  I think it's because I'm very thrifty with my threads!!

Wow.  It really looks like I haven't stitched at all?! Those pale pink bits is from the heart, the blues from the snowman and the dark bits are from Jane.  Odd.  I thought I had more!
Here's a pic of a beautiful candle my little brother bought me for Christmas.  He picked it out himself, which is quite amazing! It's handmade in Prince George!!

(I am horribly behind blog reading, but will try to catch up tomorrow!)

Take care and Hugs for all of you!!

EDITED: Oops, just looked at the dates for the TUSAL and I'm two days early!!

A Decision Is Finally Made!

Hello lovelies!!

I am happy to announce that I have made a DECISION about Jane!!! Thank you all for your advice and suggestions.  I really appreciated it! I think that after all is said and done, if I'm not completely over joyed with a colour or whatever, go and change it because I will stitching this for awhile!!

After scrutinizing the photo in my pattern and finding the original Jane Philpott's sampler, that pale green that I have is far too light.  I also searched for a picture of the green AVAS silk for it and found that it is much darker than the HDF silk.  Sooooo, I am going to do the DMC equivalent because I'm not going to wait a month for 1 silk to arrive.  I think that I will use the pale green silk in other parts of the sampler, just not the border, and I think little Jane would have no problem with me doing that!! I have also decided to keep on going with the 1 over 2 because I think the coverage is fine, plus I'm too lazy to frog!!

I have to say that while stitching this sampler, I've given a lot of thought to that little girl and how I am amazed at her subtle colour choices.  It also got me wondering about how she plotted out her sampler.  Did she sketch it before she stitched it? Or did she use a guide, like we do? I would love to research the methods of how these girls created their samplers.  I know that they were practicing their stitches, but was there a standard book from what they learned from? Or was it people's imaginations were so much greater back then because they didn't have TV's or movies to watch?!  I really love stitching samplers because I feel they tell a story of the past, and being a major history buff with a history degree, I can't help but want to do research!!

I'm making this a quick post because I have to take off fairly quickly. I remembered that I should be posting more than once a week, but hey I do what I can do!!

Almost finished my mom's ornie!! Just need to find really tiny beads now and actually make it into an ornament!

I started another wedding heart, from the Needleprint site, for a dear friend who got married in Hawaii on my birthday! I told her now she will have to chose between me and her husband!! I was kidding of course, it will obviously be me!! I should have started this in November, but I didn't so now I am! I'm using Dinky Dyes silk in Madi's Rose. This is one of the loveliest silks I have used.  Maybe it's because I'm using two strands of silk instead of one like I usually do, but it truly glides like butter through the fabric!!

I also won a small pack giveaway from Victorian Sampler Motto Shop!! Nancy is so generous and sent me a lovely selection of the prettiest of gauzy laces in a dusty rose colour! I will have to peruse her shop when I have more time (and funds!!).

I really love her black crow spice bags and am thinking it would be a perfect gift for a friend of mine.  Too bad her birthday is in two weeks and there's no way to get it and stitch it in time.  I may reserve it for next Christmas!!
Speaking of that friend, I forgot to post her gift tags in the last post!! Must be loosing my mind now that I'm older!! She really is quite talented!

I know I haven't responded back to everyone's comments from last post, so I will say thank you here!! My Christmas was lovely, minus the cold I got that I am still trying to shake.  The neck and shoulder situation is still an issue, and I've been putting off going to the doctor's (I really hate waiting for hours at the clinic).  But I will muster up the courage to go this week and see what needs to be done.

Take care and happy stitching!!

Hugs for all!!

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