Birdhouse Sampler by Prairie Schooler

This is the top part of the Birdhouse Sampler by Prairie Schooler. I always liked this one, but had no place to put it, so I decided to make it into a book cover for my Kindle. I didn't have room for the whole sampler so I cut out about a third of it and changed the bottom a bit to fit the area I had available.

Stash!

I decided a wonderful way to spend a steamy hot vacation day was to take a trip to ABC Stitch Therapy. What a beautiful shop! I can't believe the thread selection they have. You probably won't be surprised to hear that I bought a few things I hadn't planned, in addition to the things I was hoping to get there. Only 4 though :-) Frosty Flakes, Red House in Winter and Singing the Blues by Little House Needleworks and Hedgerow Birds Project Bag by Blackbird Designs (with the floss and fabric). Also bought some 36 count Iced Cappucino fabric for my Petit Sampling Etui. This is not the fabric it called for, but they didn't have 36 count pearled barley and I thought the Iced Cappucino was better anyway. Picked up several more Crescent Colors for the new projects and asked them not to tell me the total, so I still don't know how much I spent :-) Best vacation day so far!

Finally!

After almost 14 months, and more that 50 hours, I finally finished Mosaic Muse :-) Now I only need to quickly stitch 3 more samplers so I can catch up to Nataly! It took me almost 40 hours of griping and complaining before I finally bonded with the Mosaic stitch, but I'm now looking forward to starting the next chapter, which Nataly assures me is much easier. But before that, I'm going to indulge myself in one of the new projects that have been sitting on the back burner for awhile. I'm thinking about a few Olde Colonial Designs projects, specifically the Mending Box or Waste Knot, Want Knot.

Here is my latest finish.  I did the stitching pretty quickly but the ribbon rousching took awhile.  I think the more you do it the better you get at it.  This was a limited edition kit I got from lizzie kate.  It came with fabric and scissors but the scissors were so tiny I decided to stitch it over 1.  The end result is, as Carol would say, stinking cute!!

Hi Carol and Cathy,

How was stitching day?  What did you guys work on?  All I could think about was the fact that I was missing out!  I was quite a stinker about it too!!

This is another finish which I got back from the framer last week. It is La D Da's Lazy Alphabet. I did it on 36 count Flax linen with DMC floss. I loved the colors and the easy flow of the design. I thoroughly enjoyed stitching this.

Posting this one kind of late being that this is the last weekend in May. I received this in the mail after Celebrations so it took me a few days to stitch and then frame it. It is Little House Needleworks Monthly Sampler. I change the green to English Ivy because the other green was too light.

This is a journal cover that I stitched from a kit I found in my stash. I will now have a journal to write all of the things I "must" have for my stash. That is all I have finished for now. I have lots of WIPs to work on but won't get to any of them until after Celebrations. Boys are on vacation and I have my niece and nephew next week.

Here is the Indigo Rose needlecase that I took with Cathy and Carol. I have had the stitching portion done for a long time but I was afraid of the finishing work. Guess what, easy peasey!! I strongly recommend Catherine Strickler classes. The stitching was enjoyable and the finishing completely manageable.

Well, I was feeling guilty about taking classes again this year so I spent the rainy weekend finishing the 2 classes I took. This is pilgrim etui which came out really cute. Hard to take pictures of it so you will have to see it in person. I substituted thread rings where she had a scrim ruler because I didn't have a ruler that fit.

Hi Everyone! I know this isn't stitching related but I thought I would share this picture of Maycee with you. It was taken after we got days and days of rain. The sun was shining bright and it was a warm beautiful day. Miss Kitty jumped into the open window and gave her belly to the sun. She sat in that window all day. Ahhh!!! THE SUN oh how I love the sun.

Here is April Monthly Sampler from Little House Needlework. I finished it awhile ago but only recently got the picture out of the camera. I hope you are all happily stitching. I am looking forward to the end of the month. Celebrations here we come!

Celebrations Confirmation!!

I got my confirmation for Celebrations in yesterday's mail. Less than 3 weeks away!

LHN-Sampler of the Month-March

Well, we survived the Bar Mitzvah. The weather wasn't great but we had a great time anyways.

This is the only thing I have finished since our last stitching day but I thought I would post it since we are in March. These designs are so easy and quick to stitch it motivates me to keep on stitching.

I know this has nothing to do with stitching except this is what has been keeping me very busy. I saw these clear plastic pails and thought what a great favor they would make. I designed a label on the computer, added bling (hard to see in the photo) which are scrap book embellishments, some ribbon, tons of candy and VOILA! Austin's Bar Mitzvah party favors. Only problem I had to make 65 of them for all the friends he has invited. YIKES! Thank god my mom is coming to help.

Carol and I both completed this project together. The stitching was quick but I have been lazy with my finishing. I decided to make a matching scissor fob. I stitched part of the pattern over 1 and on the back I wanted it to look like fabric so I did a plaid pattern to match the design colors. I then finished if off with some bling(beads of course). I will bring it to stitching day so you can see it close up.

Well, I've started a series by Little House Needleworks called Monthly Samplers. Here is a close up view of January and One of February framed.. I Had them framed in an interchangeable frame so that I can change them as the months change. These are easy stitches and I am looking forward to stitching next month.

Oh what a fun project this was. Denise, Carol, and I couldn't resist this debut kit from Olde Colonial Designs when we were at Celebrations in the fall. It stitched up really quick and I decided enough, get to it and finish the silly thing. Well, it was far easier than I thought and it actually came out really, really cute. Love it!

Winter Wingding by Blue Ribbon Designs. Really tough to photograph because the alphabet doesn't show up.. One of the problems with overdyed thread, some areas get too light. In hind sight I probably should have done something different for the letters.

Cranberry Sampler with lots of modifications. I took out the alphabet because I didn't like the size of the sampler--too big! I then substituted some overdyed threads and changed the bog color.

I have a few finishes to post. I haven't been to the framer yet but decided that I better post them because I will probably never get to the framer. This is Bent Creek's Branch Series. Hard to photograph but really cute.

Merry Little Christmas by Elizabeth's Designs

This was a kit that I bought many years ago. It finished up in only a couple of hours. Even though the leaves look interesting the whole thing is basically backstitch using overdyed flosses. Denise, I thought you'd be interested in that part! ;-)

Christmas Ornaments

These are some ornaments I stitched up in the last 2-3 weeks. Ornaments are awesome for instant gratification! Each of these took only a few hours or less to stitch up and 4 of them were basically free. I got the patterns from old JCS Ornament issues and used up old scraps of linen and left over thread from other projects. The 2 in the middle were kits that I bought years ago.

Quaker Pincushions by Milady's Needle

Easy, easy, easy stitch. Only took a couple of hours each. Got to use up scraps of linen and Gentle Arts sampler threads, which didn't variegate as much as I was hoping. Now I just need to figure out what to do with them. I don't need 2 more pincushions. I was thinking about ornaments for the tree, or maybe the blue/green one as a needle book, although I don't really need any more needlebooks either! Obviously I don't NEED anything else, I just felt like a little bit of easy stitching.

Turtle Needlebook by Olde Colonial Designs

This stitched up pretty quickly. How cute is that baby turtle?? As usual, I'm not looking forward to the finishing work, but the instructions seem pretty clear so I'm hoping to get that done this weekend. I'm putting that in writing to try to make me do it! Nataly and Denise, did you get your's stitched up yet