January Celebrations and a New Year of Stitching

The past week and a bit has been full of wonderful celebrations.  On the 3rd I celebrated my birthday with my wonderful family and friends.  Usually I don't do much for my birthday other than a quiet dinner, however, this year I felt it would be good to get everyone together to celebrate. It actually became a joint birthday party with one of my hubby's friend from elementary school.  His friends and my friends were a bit too encouraging with the drinks.  At one point in the evening, I suppose I decided to sing La Bamba.  I don't remember this!! Oh dear!

My auntie and me

Then we celebrated Christmas on the 7th.  We had a lovely service then ate lots of turkey and all the trimmings.  That first week of January always goes so quickly yet it is nice for things to get back to normal so to speak.  We still need to take down our Christmas tree but we are both dreading the process. Going back to work was a bit of an adjustment.  I enjoyed seeing the children but didn't like getting up at 5:30am again.  I am not a morning person, whatsoever!! 

On the stitching front, I started my new sampler, worked on WIP's and started a few little stitches. I also received a few gifts from Nia, Shirlee, and Vickie.  Shirlee made me the most darling little PS ornament.  She finished it perfectly and I placed it on my tree right away so I could enjoy it for a little while.  Thank you so much Shirlee! I will treasure it always.  This is my first stitched Christmas ornament from a friend.  A very special gift indeed!!

 Dear Nia sent to me a sweet little chart to stitch called Love Birds by Crescent Colours as a thank you for sending her a Tatty Teddy chart.  It included the luscious Belle Soie silks! I had never tried these silks before. I am now quite the fan!! Thank you sweetie!! I'm so excited for her baby Lourenco to be born.  He's going to be one well dressed baby!!

I started stitching it on Friday night on 32ct Platinum Belfast linen.

Vickie sent me some lovely homemade pins and a beautiful card.  I forgot to take a photo of the card! Oops!  Thank you my dear.  I will use these in my finishes this year!!

I also sent Vickie a little gift too.  I stitched it awhile ago when I saw the pattern and thought of her.  We have become sisters in Christ so I thought it fitting to stitch her this.  It's a freebie from Feathers in the Nest.  I stitched it on 40 ct. legacy linen with various silks. (I will have to email Jennifer for the link as it seems to have disappeared).

For one of my oldest and dearest friends, I made a Blackbird Designs Box for her.  Since she has received it I can show it now.  I used a pattern from BBD's Flowers of the Field book using the recommended threads and a mystery linen.  I painted the box a pretty robin's egg blue and finished it with Victorian Motto's chenille trim.  I am glad she loves her box!!

Another Christmas gift I stitched up was for my sister.  She requested a monogram awhile back and am happy that she loves her "C"! This is for you my darling sister!! I stitched it on dove grey 32 ct linen with DMC ecru using a pattern from Sajou. 

Now onto my new start, JCS 1707 from the Scarlet Letter.  I started it on New Year's Day, made a mistake, frogged it, then restarted again last night.  Not much to show though.  I am using NPI, DMC and AVAS threads on 36 ct. Newcastle linen in cream, the same as Hannah Brassington.  I just love that linen so why not stitch on it again!!

Teeny tiny start from the upper left hand corner.

I also made some progress on my WIP's.  I stitched a beet on Shakespeare's Peddlar's Magic Garden 5 stitches off so I hope I can fudge the rest of the pattern. I just don't have the heart to rip out the beet.

A wee bit of progress on Knotgarden and Teabath fairy.  I didn't take a photo of TBF for the progress is barely visible.  

If you got this far, congrats!! Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my 2013 stitching.  I haven't responded to all of your comments nor visited all of your blogs but I hope to make that happen soon.  I have a wee bit of work to do for school so that will have to be finished first.  I have noticed lots of people posting daily with their crazy challenges and WIP's.  I decided to not be a participant in any of the challenges this year.  The reason being is I have a hard time committing when I'm working plus all the health issues we are trying to deal with.  My hubby had a test on Friday so we are waiting for the results tomorrow.  I am praying everything will be ok.  Please send a few our way as I know you all will.

Take care!

Anne

Oh, here's a foggy photo of our New Year's Eve walk to the river.  It was so magical and romantic since we were the only ones by the river!

Happy New Year! Goals for 2012 and a Look back at 2011

Hello my lovelies!!

This might be a bit of a long, 3 part post...or  4 part.

Before I begin, I need to let you all know that I am so happy to have all of you as followers and the comments I receive make my days brighter!!

I also want to let you know that I am currently trying to work down the blog roll and catch up on the multiple posts I have missed over the past week.  The reason being is not only because it was the holidays, but also because of a horrible accident I had three days ago.  CAUTION MY ACCIDENT MAY MAKE YOU FEEL FAINT! (I am somewhat okay as I type this so don't worry please!!)

The Tale of the Toilet
Alright, so the day after Boxing day, I woke up and had the worse cramps in the world (this may make you want to skip ahead). I went to take a wee on the toilet when I started to feel the familiar FAINTY feeling.  I have fainted in the mornings throughout my life, not all the time, but on occasion.  So, instead of staying put, like a SANE human, I decided to get up and walk over to the couch to lie down.  As I passed the bathroom mirror, I saw a ghost.  Wait! That was me!!! Next thing I knew, I woke up as I was banging the back of my head on the floor! Serious pain ensues.  My husband comes running out of the bedroom to see what was wrong because he heard a massive THUNK.  Well folks, I fell flat on my back when I passed out and tried to break the fall with my arm.  This is what we THINK happened.  The funny thing is the pain of my cramps was winning over the pain in my arm and head and back! We probably should've called 911, but I HATE going to the hospital, so we decided to pump me full of advils.  I "slept" most of the day away and by the next day, the pain in my shoulder was so severe we decided to take a trip to the hospital to see if I broke any bones.  I won't bore you with the long wait I had to get any sort of help or pain meds.  What I will say is how disgusting the hospital was!! It was dirty! We are in Canada?!!! And this is the sort of "help" we get?! We pay over $300 a month in health insurance and extended health so why can't we get a clean hospital with people who aren't overworked?!??!?!  Luckily, the Xrays they took showed that I didn't have any broken bones, but I do have some serious soft tissue damage :(  My arm will take awhile to heal and this puts a damper on my sewing/stitching plans :( Double sad face :( 

The Tale of the Toilet Fainting Episode Ends.

Okay!!! Onto happier news!!

The Tale of the "M" Pillow

So remember that "M" I stitched awhile back? Well, on Western Christmas day, while my hubby worked, I spent the entire day making the "M" into a pillow.  The reason being, is that I am not the BEST sewer at ALL!! I tend to rush ahead and cut fabric without really thinking/planning beforehand--this is one of my 2012 goals for myself...more to come on that later.  Unfortunately, when I bought the fabric, I didn't purchase enough so the mistake I made in cutting the fabric, I just had to fudge and make it work.  After seam ripping the panels twice making sure I sewed straight, I sat down to prep both pieces for the zipper I was going to sew in.  LAUGH ALERT!!  Soooo, here I am all happy, sewing my two pieces together, loving my straight stitching, when I noticed I stitched the entire pieces together without an opening!!! HAHAHAHA!! How the heck was I to add the zipper when I sewed the pillow closed! Oh My Golly Gee!! So off I went to seam rip this pillow for a THIRD time!! Although it wasn't too bad because I watched the Princess Bride (for the billionth time) while I did it.  Needless to say, I finished the pillow, sewed my very First Zipper EVER, and the pillow looked amazing!!! My darling cousin-in-law loves her pillow and will cherish it always!!

Stitching News

My mom's ornie, my sister's and auntie's gifts are still not finished due to my arm being injured.  So I will have to finish them in the new year.  Here is a progress photo of my mom's ornie that is taking an awfully long time to stitch 1 over 1.

I also received a lovely thread from June from Butterfly Wings.  I had won one of her mystery giveaways awhile ago.  Isn't the card and thread lovely! Thank you June!!

Stitching Firsts for 2011

Finished Ink Circles Tanglewood-First ever BAP

Finished the Queen's Sampler by PPS--First time using silks...and now I'm addicted!!

Finished Barbi's Biscornu design-First biscornu ever and loved it! Joyce won it !!

Finished Debi's Roses by Chatelaine-First Chatelaine design ever and second biscornu

Finished M's pillow- First time I ever sewed a zipper!!

Finished Hubby's Stocking-First time I ever lined and sewed a stocking!!

Finished Ornies--Everything I made this year was a first for me!!

I feel pretty proud of myself for accomplishing a lot this year.  I tackled projects I was scared of in the past, but am no longer scared.  In fact I say, bring it on!! Truly though, I couldn't have done it all without the encouragement from all of you.  It's like I have a troop of supporters that help me plug along.  The blogging community has been so kind and generous.  THANK YOU!! HUGS TO ALL!!!

Personal Goals for 2011

1. Slow down.  Stop. Think.  Plan.  Seriously this is a MUST for me.  It will save me a lot of headaches in the long run.

2.  Stop pointing out the flaws in myself.  No one really notices.  This has been a problem for me since I was young.  I really need to cut it out!

3. Be more organized in all facets of life.  I always have these grandiose plans that never get done but could get done if I start lists and focus.

4. Be loving to everyone.  I usually am really loving to everyone, but in this big city, sometimes I get cranky in the crowds.  I am trying to throw out more smiles to people because you know what, it makes their day and mine too!

5. No more moving around if I feel faint.  I just need to sit down and let it happen!

6. Cycle more!! I need to burn off this winter weight I got going on my thighs!!

7. Read War and Peace.  This has been on my list for two years!! My Nana gave me her old Kobo so now I can finally take it with me on the skytrain!!

8. Learn to drive.  Yeah, I don't know how to but I think I should!!

There are probably a lot more goals that I should list, but I think I should be realistic and keep it simple.

Stitching Goals for 2012

1. Start Jane Philpot's Sampler-Got the kit all ready to go for January 1st!!!
2. Start Bird's of a Feather's Bitter Flower Sampler-Still need the materials for this!
3. Start Ann Taylor Sampler by Heartstring samplery-See number two
4. Start anything Quaker!!!
5. Finish HAED's Tea Bath Fairy--She hasn't been worked on since November...oops!
6. Look for a BIG Chatelaine design and save up for it!!

HDF silks by vicki clayton

If you made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back for me!!! I think I should add another goal: post more than once a week so it's less cumbersome for my readers!!

January 3rd is my birthday and the 7th is my Christmas, so I'll probably post in between those dates.

Happy New Year from me, my hubby and my darling, silly, fat, fluffy, quirky, meowy, Titus!!!!!!

One done...more to go!

Hello everyone!

I have been debating whether or not to do a post today, sort of feeling under the weather, therefore I feel this post will not be as good as it could be.  The other reason is I am really not happy with my blurry out of focus photos.  Having a close friend and auntie who are both professional photographers, I feel the need to create half decent photos.  I have thought about getting a camera this year, but it is not a complete necessity, so we will look into one sometime in the future. As for stitching, I managed to sort out the frogging issues on both of my Sajou projects and am happy to say one is complete!! I cannot frame it until this weekend because I need a foam board for the backing.  The frame I am going to use I found in a thrift shop and it fits the piece perfectly!! I love how that happens :D

I loved how "MP's" turned out!! "M's" will be great as well once I stitch a 1 over 1 crown above the "M" and sew it with that lovely crown fabric I have.  I think they will both love their gifts!!  As for the rest of the sewing and stitching I need to accomplish, I will begin a couple of them this weekend as well.  The reason for the wait is I need to go buy some DMC threads that I don't have.  In one pattern, I have only two out of all the DMC threads I have?!!! Seriously, what's with that? Anywho, I'm looking forward to a trip to Michael's.  It's always a good time in a craft store!! My husband's stocking is still in parts.  I got the proper batting I need but I don't feel up to sewing today. 

I've really been loving everyone's posts and stitching for the holidays.  I love how our blogging community is so inspiring and kind with encouragement!! Thank you all for taking the time to visit me.  I will be barraging everyone's blogs this weekend...it's a bit too hard for me to sit up right now!

Off to eat some borscht...just managed to make some...and here's a progress on TBF (Tea Bath Fairy).

Love and hugs!

Anne

Finishes for ISHW!

Good evening my lovelies!

I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Over here in Vancouver, we had a fairly decent sunny, but chilly Saturday, perfect for shopping! I had a delightful day with my cousin-in-law scouring fabrics at Dress Sew.  She is the best to have around, with all her interior design and sewing experience!! I felt a little overwhelmed thinking about my sewing projects and what I needed to get for them, but she calmed me down and helped me work out what I needed.  I don't know why, but for whatever reason, I have to visualize, down to the very last detail, how I am going to make something.  Not just the finished product, but the actual motions and procedures of making it.  As she says, I make things more complicated than necessary and just to trust my skills and creativity.  So true!! It's so good to have an amazing friend!!!! After our fabric frenzy, we marched onwards to H & M.  That was a crazy time! The opening of the Versace line had happened that morning, and the store was still filled to the brim with people.  I had tons of things breaking my arm, hot, overdressed, not finding anything I wanted...not good.  I'm not the best shopper, let's leave it at that.  On the other hand, my friend is amazing at shopping.  She is like my sister...knows what she wants, goes through everything, finds what she wants, and tackles it with gusto! I tried on some things and hated how they made my back end look bigger than it actually is.  Pretty in the front, but horrible in the back.  So I left the store with nothing after I felt deflated. As we were walking to the skytrain, I said "Let's go into the Bay! They just opened up a TopShop!" The Bay....I love the Bay.  My Nana shops there and I have many fond memories of her and I shopping there.  So off we go to TopShop, and lo and behold, it's airy, bright, and spacey! I felt invigorated to try on things again!  I grabbed a couple dresses and put them on with renewed vigor!!  The first one was waaay too big ontop and made me look odd.  The second, a Chinese Cheongsam dress, LOVE THEM!, I couldn't get over my hips...sigh.  Then, I tried the most gorgeous teal, blue dress that was quite sassy and it fit beautifully!! Plus it didn't make me look all that bad either! So I got it! Yay for finding a gorgeous dress!

It's a lot shorter and prettier on and in person.  Looks great with some opaque black tights and silver high heels with some bling on the neck and arm!! Can't wait to wear it for my friend's stagette!!

Onto stitching news.  I managed to do a lot more frogging than stitching. My weekend was the International Frogging Weekend! For whatever reason, I made a mistake on two gifts for my friends.  Those Sajou patterns can be tricky and hard to count.  I don't have a program that can make them bigger to print, so I make do with the tiny charts I print out.  Not good though.  I will have to re-look at where I went wrong when I'm not exhausted from teaching/traveling and rethink how I'm going to fix the mistakes I made EARLY on in the pattern.

(Photos are going to be not so good since I took them right now in bad lighting)

Then, after not much luck with stitching, I decided to attack sewing.  As I was re-watching the Youtube video for making a stocking, I realized I bought the wrong kind of batting.  What I need was polyester thin batting, and what I asked for and got from the lady was "thin" quilting batting, which is still pretty big and kind of hard for me to work with.  I was very frustrated with myself for not writing down the correct materials and making things more difficult for myself in the long run.  So I figured, why not just finish my other Estonian snowflake and that cute PSS ornament?!!  It was a lot of fun picking out all the trims for my ornaments!! At least I'm okay with making them now!! The outcome is fairly good, not professional, but good nonetheless.  Then I noticed, hehe, that I actually didn't finish the pattern on the green Estonian snowflake.  See if you can spot the mistake!!  Now I am going to have to keep the ornament instead of gift it like I planned. 

Hopefully by Wednesday, I will have caught up with my blog reading and comments for all the ISHW participants.  Again, I love each and every one of your comments and really want to be good and respond to each one.

Take care and happy stitching!!

Anne

Christmas Ornament Finished!!

Bonjour mes amies!!

I am happy to report that I caugt the finishing bug on the weekend and managed to finish two ornaments!! Chippy is pretty adorable I must say.  I really loved the trim that I used.  I find that while I am stitching, I mentally choose the trims and fabrics I will use to finish the piece.  If it doesn't come to me while I am stitching, like the Plum Street Sampler ornie, the piece usually ends up in my to do pile for awhile. I have to envision the finished ornament before I can make it.  Odd isn't it? What is the process that you go through for finishing a piece? Is it before, during, after....?

The red fabric is on the back of the Snowflake

Estonian snowflake stitched last year

Sometimes I don't have what I need to finish, actually, most of the time I don't have what I need to finish a piece!! For example, all those beautiful designs I stitched through out the year, still need frames or boxes or whatever will work to display them.  While I was busy piecing together Chippy, I pulled out some of my stitching and tried to find at least one frame to use! Alas! Nothing fit or looked right!! I sadly put my pieces back into storage and I think I heard their sad sighs of dismay.  Especially my Geisha girl....insert tears here :(  Tanglewood is sad too.  Really sad.  I really need to save some money and just bite the bullet and get the two of them framed.  Sadness aside, I am quite impressed with my mad skillz and gusto for finishing two ornaments. As for the reindeer fabric, I think I will make a couple of gift bags and perhaps a table runner.  Good thing we have Youtube!! There are some great sewing tutorials on how to make both of those projects.  I'm looking forward to next weekend to sewing up a storm!!

Here's my friend's "M" finished.  I still need to stitch the "P" , then I will be done 1 gift.  I am trying not to freak out so much.  Thank you all for your kind comments and suggestions.  It really helped me organize my list and just work steadily down the list.  I think that if I stay focused, I will get everything done that I need to do!!

Remember this Chatelaine I started awhile ago? Well I got sidetracked from my list and decided to try and finish it.  Nearly done!! Just need to finish the Algerian eyelets, backstitching and beading!!  Hopefully by next weekend it will be complete. 

I hope to visit and comment on everyone's blogs today.  I have to say that there are some of you who are posting everyday, making it difficult for me to keep up!! Even if I haven't commented, I do enjoy reading each and everyone of your posts!!

Take care and happy stitching!!

Anne

Stitching Gifts...Freaking Out!!

Hello everyone!

So here we are in November.  I am sad to say good bye to October since it was such a lovely month of glorious weather, beautiful colours and not so much rain.  I still have high hopes for November though.  Yesterday it was a decent day, albeit blustery, but nice. 

With November beginning, so does the FREAKING OUT!! Eeek!! I feel as though there are FAR too many things to stitch up in time for Christmas.  Yes, I mentioned the "C" word! Maybe I should take a deep breath and focus on one thing at a time.  Perhaps I should set myself a schedule so I won't be freaking out!! I want to stitch ornaments for my mom, sister, Dad, friends, and of course for me and my hubby. The problem is every time I want to finish something, I don't have the materials?!! Yes I have some fabrics, like those cute reindeer ones I bought last week, but they don't match with any of my stitched pieces.  So what should I do with them? I've been wracking my brain thinking of how to use those darling fabrics.  I wish I was a master sewer, or at least have my mom around, since she's an amazing sewer.  If you have any ideas for simple/easy sewing projects, let me know!

Ok, freak out done...onto some stitchy stuff.  First off, since I didn't post a progress pic of TBF (Tea Bath Fairy) in the last post, here's one now.  I've managed to really tackle it over the past few weeks and am pretty pleased with the progress.

Yes! I can see the outline of the cup!!

Seeing as my eyes can handle only so much of teensy stitching, I began to work on two personalized gifts for my girlfriends.  I am using two of the Valdani threads I ordered and I really love the deep wine red colour a lot!! The threads aren't too bad, although I do notice a tad bit of fraying at the ends, but what thread doesn't?! I still have to put in an order for HDF threads and I asked my husband if I could buy some more "strings" that will only cost xx amount and he said yes, if the STRINGS are needed for a project...hehehehe!! And I also mentioned that I need a smaller Qsnap frame and if I could buy that too...you know to help out my wrists.  He's agreed! I love that he's become more agreeable!!

Valdani and DMC threads stitched on 32ct.Sandstone linen

The above design is from the Sajou alphabet.  J'adore SAJOU!!!  The second gift I won't bother posting a picture of because it only has a few stitches on it and is basic black on white.

Now  I started doing another cute Christmas ornament from the JCS magazine.  This one is from Victoria Sampler. It's the squirrel one.  Pause for a squirrel story:

Me and Squirrels

Ever since I was a young girl, I have been know as the squirrel whisperer.  It takes time and patience to become one and only a few are called to this. (Insert sarcasm here).  Anyways, one day, as I was traipsing around the woods behind our home in Prince George, I heard a squirrel chatter nearby.  The squirrel seemed to be trying to tell me something.  Perhaps a secret he wanted to share with a 10 year old girl? As I strolled back to the house, the chattering followed me from behind.  I slowly walked up the stairs,  grabbed some of the chickadees seeds and held it in my hand and crouched down low. The chattering stopped.  There he was, Chippy.  Me: waiting quietly, patiently. Him: unsure, skittish.  Slowly he climbed the stairs to check me out.  I flinched! He skedaddled!!  Sigh...I suppose I'll try again.  For the next few weeks, we played this game...but with each day, he approached closer, and closer, until one day, he ran up to me, grabbed a seed and took off!! Serious patience here for a young girl of 10!! It wasn't until the second week that Chippy found his courage and managed to take seeds from me and NOT run away!! I was ecstatic! After a few more days of building trust, Chippy let me pet him! Then, after more days of gently petting, he let me pick him up!! We became good friends, Chippy and me.  When I would walk around the house, I could see him following me around.  Of course it was just for the seeds I was giving him, but as a young girl I thought he just really wanted to be my friend.  Ever since then, I have been able to feed and pet wild squirrels, not the city squirrels that we have here in Vancouver.  Those squirrels are a different breed altogether.  Like they are part of a squirrel gang called the Tuff Nut Gang.  Those squirrels I wouldn't mess with!!

So with that, I leave you with a picture of The Victorian Sampler's squirrel, which I started yesterday and made me think fondly of Chippy and the other cute squirrels I have fed and petted.

Finally, here are my photos of the pin cushion I stitched for Valerie.  She posted pictures of her package on her blog, so now I can post mine!!

Stitched on unknown 40ct linen with Waterlilies thread Amethyst

I kind of went NUTS with pictures since I LOVE purple and have a lot of purple things to take photos with!!

Take care and happy stitching!!

Anne