Fabulous exchange received!

I had the great fortune of being at the right place at the right time a few months ago when Vonna posted that she was looking to do a personal Christmas ornament exchange.  I didn't do any of my usual hemming and hawing and I dashed off an email telling her I'd be a willing participant if she still had an opening.  The ornament she stitched for me arrived yesterday and, boy, is it a beauty! 

Wanna see?  Ha ha!  Silly question!



JBW French Country Star
1/1 with Belle Soie Sister Scarlett on 32 ct



Even the back is gorgeous!

The ornament I stitched for Vonna arrived in her mailbox today.  Here's what I sent her.

LHN Joy
1/2 with called-for DMC on 40 ct Lakeside Linens Vintage Light Exemplar
Mill Hill beads in called-for color, petite-size





The back

Blogger is driving me crazy.  My pictures keep jumping around and the fonts keep changing.  I have to run to pick up my son from school, but I wanted to share before the day was over.

Happy holidays to all!

JCS Ornament Preview results - Quick post!

Sorry I'm late.  I got swamped at work on Friday and didn't get a chance to run the randomizer or post.  It's been busy today too, but I just caught a break and entered the names of everyone who said they wanted to be included in the list randomizer in the order that the comments were received, hit Randomize, and here are the results:

List Randomizer

There were 4 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1. Elaine
2. Blu
3. KarenV
4. Sherry

Timestamp: 2010-09-27 18:08:36 UTC

Congratulations to Elaine and Blu!  Please email me your snail mail addresses.  My email address is in my profile.  I will also post a comment on each of your blogs, in case you don't wander back through here and see this.

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments about the ornaments and mystery sampler and commiseration about my tremendous blunder.  The restitch is coming along.  I haven't have quite as much stitch time as usual because my son started back to school and the Homework Wars have resumed.  I think I'm on track to be ready for part three, though, when it's released at the end of the week.  Would you believe that I had to re-restich about 3/4 of the green inner border because I was out by one thread in each direction?  Believe it.  AAAARRRRGGGG!!!!

Further proof of my inability to follow a chart

Late last month I started working on the Cat's Whiskers mystery sampler that began in the August 2010 issue of The Gift of Stitching.  I started with the center section, first the verse and then its outline.  Then I started stitching the snowflakes.  Here's a picture I took a night or two in:

  

I only stitched a few of the snowflakes but I wasn't thrilled with  the placement as they were charted, so I decided not to stitch any more of them until the next installment was released a week or so later.  I wanted to see if there was a reason the partial large flakes on the sides weren't the same as the partial ones along the top.  (I won't be stitching the small ones until I do the beading at the end.)  So I moved on to the outer border and the words there.  Once the second installment came out, I stitched pretty much everything released to date, made some assumptions that the bottom will match the top and went to town with my stitching, saving the snowflakes and the center of the top right medallion for last.  This is where I am today:

 

Cat's Whiskers "On Christmas Day" mystery sampler

32 ct. Wichelt Permin Prairie Grain

(true color of the linen is somewhere between the first photo and this one, more green than grey or brown)

DMC in 3052 green, 3866 white, 3721 red, 221 dark red (for my initials) - 2 over 2



I love it!  Except for one small problem...  I miscounted when I started on the outer sections, and the entire outer section, including the bloody snowflakes, should have been one stitch to the right.  See?  No?  Here's a close up of the left side:







and the right:





See it now?  Yeah, I didn't either.  Until I was stitching the very last one of those blasted snowflakes that I decided had to be moved for my sanity's sake, and found that it didn't align to the inner section's corner the way that it should have.  I don't know how I missed it on the other side.  ????!!!!????  There are 7 stitches/14 threads between the green line and the center motif on the left side and only 5 stitches/10 threads on the right.  Trust me, I've recounted it about fiftyleven times since I discovered the screw up on Wednesday and, sadly, the elves didn't come in and fix it overnight, or the second night, or the night after that...  Do you think I could possibly leave it be?  We're talking me here, people.  Me, who had to move the stinking snowflakes down by a stitch.  Um, yeah.  Ain't gonna happen.  So what am I gonna do, you ask.  Based on the lack of love for the snowflakes (which you may have already noticed) I will be unpicking the entire red and green center section and CAREFULLY restitching it one stitch to the left.  I don't know what it is between me and those snowflakes, but I didn't enjoy stitching them the first time, or the second, and I refuse to do them a third!  Much as I hate the thought of restitching basically half of the sampler, I can't just let it go.  If I left it, it would bother me forever, so it's either redo it, trash it, or leave it as a UFO.  I like it too much for either of the last two options, so I'll be filling up my orts jar with curly threads this weekend...

Cool Christmas and extra JCS ornament preview issues

If you've taken a gander at the 2010 Finishes list in my sidebar lately, you've probably noticed that I fell hard for Fresh Threads Studio's contribution to this year's Just Cross Stitch ornament preview issue, with a few twists.  I stitched all of mine on 36 ct. antique white Edinburgh linen, and so far I have not purchased the crystal stars.  I started out by stitching it in the colors charted.  When I showed it to my daughter, she promptly snatched it and said, "Thanks!" 



Which led me to stitch #2.

While stitching #2, I got to wondering what it would look like in shades of orange.

Then I thought it would look great in shades of other colors, too, like blue.

While I was stitching blues, my son requested black and red.  Here is the result:

After that, I got back to my thoughts of pinks

and purples.

Then I decided to twist the black and red to red and black.

I had enough of the fat quarter left for one more, and I decided on darker blues with yummy DMC 995 as the main tree color. 

I love stitching ornaments.  They're so portable and they stitch up so quickly that it's almost instant gratification.  If I ever get my act together and make all the ones I've stitched into actual ornaments, there just might be enough to pretty well fill a small tree.  Or maybe the tree in Rockefeller Center.  The stack keeps growing...

Speaking of stacks, I suddenly find myself the proud owner of not one, not two, but three copies of the 2010 JCS Ornament Preview issue in which Cool Christmas is featured.  Since I only need one, I am putting the other two up for grabs.  If you haven't already acquired a copy, please leave a comment specifying that you would like to be added to the drawing, and I will leave it up to the fates randomizer on Friday September 24.  Entries will close at noon Pacific Daylight Savings Time.  (Open to all, domestic and international, and you do not have to be a follower to enter.)

Me + Electronics = Bad Things

So, the new computer?  Yeah.  Not working. 

The Blackberry?  The hourglass spins every time I look at it, much less touch it.  No call log, no texts, spotty on the emails, can't get on the 'net.

The computers at work?  We were on dial up from Friday to sometime Monday afternoon, and it took two tries just to get it to start this morning.  The printer wouldn't work either, I had to unplug it to reset it.

The DVR?  While watching "live" TV, it pauses until about the time I get from the couch to the kitchen, then jumps ahead to "real time" as if I had just changed to that station, so no rewinding to see what I missed.  Or, if it does actually pause, it has no sound when I restart, so I have to turn the durn thing off and lose what I wanted to see.  No better on recorded shows.  Won't fast forward, spotty sound, and tiling.

I don't know if I have some magnetic field thing going on around me, or there are sun spots happening,  or what, but I'm getting really sick of this.

Maybe it's best that I can't find my camera at the moment...  Updates soon, I hope. 

Has this ever happened to you?

Okay, so I started Joy Sampler by Lizzie*Kate a while back.  I had about half of the top border stitched when my ADD reared its ugly head and I moved on to something else.  I finally remembered it picked it up again yesterday and continued stitching the top border, then did a couple little areas with the same symbol on the chart - only it turns out it wasn't all the SAME symbol.  Some of it was the same symbol turned upside down.  GRRRR!!!  I didn't even pick up on it until I looked at the photo and noticed that the colors on the model didn't match what I'd already stitched.  My dyslexic little pea brain had only registered an open triangle on the chart, not its orientation.  So I have stitched the top border, one of the lights on the string, and the bow on the candy cane in WDW Sky instead of WDW Hunter.  And they're going to stay that way, and the bottom border will be stitched in Sky to match the top.

So here's the thing.  There are only 12 symbols on the whole design.  Do you mean to tell me that the designer couldn't have come up with 12 unique symbols to represent the colors?  C'mon!  She didn't use a filled in triangle, a heart, any numbers or letters (beyond the stylized LK), or any other typical keyboard symbols at all. And not an oval, circle, rectangle, hexagon, octagon, or other polygon except a solid square is to be found on the whole chart.  :(  Designers, take note: please use as many DISSIMILAR symbols as possible when you create your charts! I know I would appreciate it, and I don't think I'm alone in this.  Stitchers (and designers), please feel free to weigh in, whether you agree or disagree.  I'd love to hear your experiences and opinions.

On a side note, I already foresee a problem when I get to the Chestnut and Whiskey, because one is a forward slash and the other is a back slash.  *Sigh*

In other news, I hope to be able to update more.  I finally bit the bullet and bought MYSELF a laptop.  My son monopolizes the old one to play online games and has managed to break off one key, make others stick, and mess up all three USB ports.  It has been so frustrating to try to post from it, and I can't download pictures to it from my camera, so I just gave up.  I've been spending my lunch hours stitching, so no updates here except for the sidebar.  I'm sure there are probably things in the sidebar that are out of date, too, since I've only been changing the WIPs, UFOs, and Finishes.  I'm aiming for Sunday to bring things current, but I won't swear to it.  Thanks for hanging in there!

Results of the Birthday Giveaway

Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for the warm birthday wishes!  It was a very low-key day, just the way I like it!  My son had a showcase with his acting class* in the afternoon and my daughter's friend had her birthday party in the evening, so we didn't plan anything as a family on the day.  We went to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure the next day instead. That was a blast, as always!  Temps were in the high 70s to low 80s, so it was pretty crowded (though not NEARLY as bad as around Christmas when the kids have their birthdays), but we were able to ride a few favorite rides and had a yummy dinner at the Pacific Wharf Cafe.  Sadly, we left before the fireworks because it was a work and school night.  But enough about that, I know what you really came here for! :o)

I entered everyone's** names in the list randomizer at Random.org and the winner is...

Deb!

List Randomizer

There were 20 items in your list. Here they are in random order:

1.      Deb

2.      Sherry

3.      awikkidwomanswords

4.      Parsley

5.      Marjorie

6.      Pilar

7.      Catherine

8.      Janaina

9.      Robin

10.  Lorrie

11.  Sharlotte

12.  Blu

13.  Kathy

14.  Carol R

15.  Despina

16.  Terrie

17.  Kim R

18.  mimi'sdarlins

19.  Stef

20.  Ukka

Timestamp: 2010-03-31 17:00:53 UTC

Congratulations, Deb!  I will contact you via email for your snail mail address.

I have been stitching, but not on Summer Blessings.  I put a few more Xes into it, then moved on to some quick ornaments.  I was going to post pictures of the ones I've finished stitching, but the battery is drained on the camera and the charger is at home.  So I'm diving back into the archives for a few more pics from our New York trip.  These were taken at the Central Park Zoo.

Joi and Christian

Joi and Christian

Christian

Thanks again to all for visiting my blog and for entering the giveaway.  I have actually added a few more new-to-me blogs to my reader from those of you who have commented recently.  I'm begining to wonder how many subscriptions it will hold before it explodes.  Does anyone know if Google Reader has a limit?  I'm at 966 now, and can't resist adding new ones as I come across them!  Am I the only one with this obsession?

I'll be back soon with more stitchy pics!  Until then, keep on stitching and blogging!


*Christian is in the front row (I don't know why Jeff's blog post is postdated to October)
**I did not include Carol per her comment.

Birthday Giveaway!

ETA: GIVAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

48 years ago today, at 4:21 AM, my parents welcomed their first born, and both sets of grandparents had their first grandchild - ME!

This sweet card was sent by people I don't remember.

Here's the birth announcement my parents sent:

To commemorate, I am giving away this mattress pincushion, stitched by yours truly:

 

 Mausimom free design on 32 ct natural linen with NPI silk.

Entry deadline is 11:00 PM, Pacific Daylight Time, March 30.  I plan to announce the winner on March 31.  Good luck!

Poor little neglected blog :( **picture heavy**

I knew I hadn't posted for a while, but I hadn't realized quite how long it had been.  After I finished Mill HiIl's Winter Wonderland, I whipped up a freebie by Aury for the Bride's Tree SAL.  THEN I started stitching on Home of a Needleworker (Too!), and it was like starting a new relationship.  It was all I could think about, I didn't want to spend time doing anything else, and (of course) I had to change it (just like a man :p ), and I became a bit obsessed until I was done.  By then, I was on a stitchy roll and moved on to one thing after another.  I thought about blogging, but the needle and floss kept me hooked.  So, here we are a more than a month since my last post, and I have a lot of new stitchy finishes to show, as well as a couple more stragglers from 2009 that I have unearthed since last time.  Here we go!

Mill Hill Winter Wonderland

As charted with floss, beads, buttons, and perforated paper from kit, Shadowbox frame from Ikea

Aury's Be My Valentine Quaker Style

40 ct LL fawn, DMC 815

LHN Home of a Needleworker (Too!)

40 ct LL vintage light exemplar - substituted GAST Brandy for house and thread on spool, CC Weeping Willow for swirls at bottom, the rest as charted.

The wire broke on my first attempt at a beaded fob while I was stitching Home of a  Needleworker, so I broke out the graph paper and "designed" this fob to fit a scrap of leftover linen.

"My Snips" fob

40 ct LL vintage light exemplar, HDF, filled with rice

Photographed on top of my current WIP, Sandra Cozzolino's Summer Blessings, which had been lanquishing as a UFO since 2008.  I am determined that I will finish it, but it might not be this year.  I'm not loving it.  It is in serious danger of going back into exile, as the siren songs of new projects call to me.

Blackberry Jam was another UFO.  I got bored and frustrated with all the backstitching, so it was ignored and forgotten for well over a year.  I found it, while trying to locate something else, in a project bag that I had been carrying to work before I got the one I use now.  It didn't look like there was much left to stitch, so I got to work on it.  I quickly learned why I had given up on it - I can't seem to count backstitches worth a darn!  But I plugged away and got it done.  It took much longer than I thought it would, both times.  It's only 60x60.  Wouldn't you think it would stitch up fast?  I did - until I realized that it was one that you have to have one eye on the chart at all times.  There aren't any big areas of filling in, just a lot of detailed back stitch on an open field.  Blech!  I love how it turned out, though, especially the berries.

The Sweetheart Tree Blackberry Jam

As charted, with 28 ct Graziano linen, DMC threads, and Mill Hilll beads from kit 

I belatedly decided I'd try to stitch Bride's Tree ornaments for both kids this year, so I had to play a little  catch up with the next two.  The original plan was to do one set this year, and another next year, but the first ones stitched up so fast....   I may regret this later - or now, since I haven't even started on the first one for March yet! LOL

Chartmakers House on a Hill

32 ct MCG natural linen, DMC as charted, omitting initials and date

Passione Ricamo Be My Love

32 ct white Belfast linen, DMC conversion except used 3823 instead of 677, because the 677 clashed terribly.  Omitted lettering.  The picture doesn't do this justice.  It is so vibrant IRL.

Here are the aforementioned stragglers from 2009.  I'm not ruling out the possiblity that there may be more. :)

Bent Creek Signs of Winter

32 ct Permin natural light, as charted. I used DMC 741 for the candle flame.*

With My Needle's A Needleworker's Pocket

2003 JCS Ornament Issue

40 ct LL fawn, DMC 815

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed a "Birthday giveaway item" listed among the 2010 finishes in the sidebar.  My birthday is tomorrow, and I've stitched a little something to send to one lucky reader.  The giveaway post is scheduled for the same time that I was born.  (I sure don't plan to be awake at such an ungodly hour!)  So, come back soon, because that was the only time in my life that I was a morning person!  :)

Thank you for visiting and/or reading, and I appreciate your comments!  I may not respond, but I do read them all!  GOOD NIGHT!

*There was nothing in the key to correspond with the symbol in the chart, no correction on the website, and I got no response when I tried to email the designer(s).  One of the email addresses bounced, and I'm not confident the other was working either.  I guess I should have expected as much, since their website never seems to be up to date. :(

Most of the rest of the finishes for 2009 ~waiting for framing~

Lizzie*Kate Snippet

Housework Never Killed Anyone

stitched on 32 ct country mocha Belfast

leftover GAST colors from Housework Makes You Ugly

I plan to stitch a few more on this theme and hang them all together.  As you may have guessed, I'd much rather spend my time stitching than cleaning.  :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shepherd's Bush

Be Calm

stitched 2 or 3 over 4 on 40 ct vintage light exemplar

Crescent Colours as charted

Someday I'll get around to adding the embellishments (which I have) to this...

This was stitched for my son who has a great deal of trouble with self control.  He has had a horrible temper almost since birth.  I'm hoping that a gentle reminder will help.  We'll see. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Carriage House Samplings

Withering Tulips

stitched 1 over 2 on 36 ct white Edinburgh linen

NPI silks as charted

I love this one, but it has bittersweet memories for me.  I started stitching it while we were on vacation in New York last summer.  It was my favorite vacation so far.  I didn't get very much stitching done during our trip because we were on the go so much, and by the time we got back to the hotel I mostly wanted to sleep.  When we got back to L.A., my dad was hospitalized.  During visits, I would stitch on it while he napped.  He would drift off to sleep often, sometimes in the middle of a conversation.  Progress was gradually made on the stitching as Dad steadily declined.  I finished the stitching on the morning he peacefully passed away

~~ I miss you, Dad. ~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blackbird Designs

Happy Birthday

stitched 1 over 2 on 40 ct vintage light exemplar

Silk N Colors, my own conversion

I modified the houses by omitting the patchwork/checks and hearts.  I felt they were too busy with the patchwork.  I didn't even realize there were hearts charted until after I had stitched the bodies of the houses when I was referring back to the chart for the colors of the windows and doors.  I couldn't see them on the model because they're lost in the busy-ness.

I stitched this for my daughter's 21st birthday.  She received it in December, sans frame.  Something else to get around to someday, right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Little House Needleworks

Acorn Hill

on 32 ct country mocha

Belle Soie as charted

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Little House Needleworks

Snowflakes

stitched on 32 ct natural somethingorother (can't find the chart, my notes, or the tag from the fabric)

Crescent Colours as charted

I just noticed that 2/3 of these have birds in them, like the ones I showed a few posts ago.  I hadn't realized how much I was drawn to birds in designs.

So that about wraps up the 2009 finishes.  There are assorted fobs and floss tags that I haven't shown, but they're pretty insignificant.  There's also an item that I stitched for an RAK that I'm plugging away at getting made up into a finished item.  I'll show that one when it finally makes it into the hands of its recipient.

Next time I'll show you the finish that had me happy dancing last Saturday....  Stay tuned!

Thank you for visiting and/or reading, and I appreciate your comments

2009 stitches that will be ornaments ~someday~

Prairie Schooler

Herald Angels

JCS ornament issue 2003

stitched on 32 ct white Belfast linen

DMC and Kreinik as charted

Shepherd's Bush

In a Stable

JCS ornament issue 2004

stitched on 32 ct country mocha

overdyed flosses from stash (request conversion if interested)

Heidi

Sleigh Rides free design

stitched on 32 ct country mocha

combination of Weeks, GAST, and Belle Soie overdyeds from stash

4 My Boys

Rejoice freebie (no link)

stitched on 32 ct white Belfast and 32 ct natural Permin

my own conversion of overdyeds from stash

Mill Hill petite beads

SamSarah

All is Calm

JCS ornament issue 2003

Stitched on 32 ct country mocha

overdyed flosses from stash

Instead of a button, the little bird is stitched one over one and was from the Lizzie*Kate ornament in the same issue.  I will be adding a star button when I finish this, though not the one used by the designer.

Tiziana

Christmas SAL

stitched on 32 ct white Belfast

DMC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I just found another one last night on a piece of linen that I'm using for the February Bride's Tree SAL.  I'll post it when I finish the February ornie.

Thank you to everyone who has commented!  I love getting comments!

The End is Near

Progress is being made on the Mill Hill Winter Wonderland.  All the cross stitch is done as well as the majority of the beading on four of the five trees.  I'm hoping to find enough stitching time to add it to my short list of 2010 finishes this forecasted-to-be-rainy weekend. 

No stitchy pics, so I'll share a shot from our summer vacation.

Christian at the Flatiron Building, NYC

 July 2009

I'm working on getting details on the rest of my 2009 finishes.  I've been too lazy in the evenings to go through my various hidey-holes to find the charts, notes, and fabric info.  Hopefully that will be another weekend project.  Stay tuned.