Easter wishes

Here's wishing all of my blogging friends a very Blessed and Happy Easter! It was sooo cold here on Easter that it's a wonder the Easter Bunny didn't freeze his tush off. We had a very quiet weekend here. My boys all had other plans, either with their girlfriends or their Dad, and the guests we had invited cancelled due to illness. So the leg of lamb stayed in the freezer and Bob and I roasted a small turkey breast for ourselves. The sun made an appearance all weekend but the temperatures remained cold so we stayed indoors except for church on Sunday.

I'm busy preparing for my trip on Wednesday so not much stitching is getting done. I tried my darndest to have this little Checkerboard Bunny finished in time for Easter but ran short on time. As you can see there's not much left now... just the border and french knots for the eyes (I saved the best for last!). I'd like to try finishing him as a pinkeep.

My other stitching is on hold until I'm sitting on the beach or by the pool in Florida. I spoke with my sister last night and we are both just so anxious to escape the snow and get away. She received another 6 inches of snow on Good Friday at her place in Michigan. Some sun will do us both a lot of good along with some quality stitching time, I'm hoping!

I do have some pictures to share of some fairly recent finishes which I picked up from the framer's this past week. I was a little disappointed with these two . Faith wasn't stretched all that well and is not quite straight and BB Country Gardens has too much fabric showing around the piece. The girl who took my order was new at the job and recorded the measurements incorrectly but really I can't complain too much because the price was right. There was a sale on framing and each one cost me considerably less than usual. I may have Faith redone at some point but for now I've let it be. I love the colour of the frame on this one.

That's about all the news from here for now. I don't expect I'll have access to a computer while I'm away unless I can make a trip to the library. So I'll see you all in April. Can you believe it's only about a week away? Until then, happy stitching!!

Welcome Spring!

From the view out my window it sure doesn't look much like Spring is arriving tomorrow but I'm definitely starting to get that spring feeling. You know the one where you start to feel like ditching the winter coat, the boots are getting left at home more often and there is a sudden urge to clean house. Okay so maybe we can put the house cleaning on hold for now, lol! In any case after having a particularily "blue" weekend I decided to bring a little spring into the house. I retired all my snowman until next year and brought up some of my Easter decor. It seems that some of this is sorely in need of replacement but I did find all of my Easter cookie stamps, my bluebird stacking boxes, a spring wreath and my egg basket. The basket is really a wooden rectangular box which my dear friend Pam tole painted for me and filled with wooden eggs. It has a lovely handle with a bunny on it. When I decided to give up on tole painting I gave her all my patterns I'd accumulated so she used one of them and did this for me as a thanks.

I also found a small project with a spring feel to it to use as my takealong piece. It's Waxing Moon's Checkerboard Bunny which is available as one of their freebies. Just click on the link to download it. I've only just started it and probably won't have it ready for Easter but I love doing something spring related.

I've been doing a lot of stitching on The Wedding this past week and hope to have it finished off by the beginning of next month. I could finish it earlier but I'm heading to Florida for a vacation next week and don't know how much stitching I'll get done while I'm away. My Mom rents a home in Fort Myers and I'm leaving next Wednesday to join her and my Step-Dad for a week. My sister is also flying in on the same day so it will be a girl's vacation week since my step-dad is usually off golfing. When I mentioned this earlier in the month, Deb contacted me to tell me that she's not all that far from Fort Myers which is where I'll be. We are hoping to get together for a visit and she plans on taking me to her favourite stitching shop. I can hardly wait!

I've picked out my next start. I have all the floss and I'm just waiting for the fabric to arrive. I've decided on PS Weather Wise. There are two sampler charts in this leaflet and I'm going ahead with Red Sky at Night. It reminds me of our visit to Nova Scotia a few summers ago. I had also ordered PS Daffodils because I couldn't make up my mind between the two. Today the mail brought me some stash which I'd ordered awhile ago and had forgotten about. There was a Plum Pudding Needleworks Welcome chart which I won on ebay as well as a Silkweaver Solo linen and some of Sassy's fabrics. I heard about these from Vonna who raved about them so I thought I'd give them a try. I love the colours! I just ordered a couple of smalls to try them out but I already know I'll be putting in another order in the near future for some upcoming projects. The little Peep card is a freebie that comes when you order one of the new Prairie Schooler charts.

I'll try and post once more before I leave with some more updates. Until then, Happy Spring Stitching!

CdC update

Finally I have a CdC update to share! When I got snowed in on Sunday I found time to pick this one up again and realized just how much I missed working on it. I've completed the second page now and just starting in on the third. There are 6 pages in total for those of you who haven't seen the pattern. I'm working on Wedding tonight but hope to be able to pick up CdC again for a few hours on Wednesday. For some reason I find it really soothes me when I work on this one. I'd love to try some of the other Ink Circles pieces in the future.

I spent the afternoon in Ottawa today. The purpose of the trip was to pick up some DMC that is needed for future projects but I also paid a visit to my local needlework shop. They're having a moving sale and this week everything was 40% off. Next week things are marked down to 50% but I haven't got any days off next week so today was the day. I had hoped to find one of Clover's thread cutters but they were all sold out. Instead I found Lynne Nicoletti's Maple Leaf Montage. This is one that I've wanted for awhile now. There are so many charts on the market geared to American patriotism but very few Canadian ones. I love the way this one has so many different hidden pictures in the flag, all of which are a part of Canadian heritage. One of my coworkers is doing this pattern over one and it looks absolutely fantastic!

During my stop I also picked up a couple of smalls, LK Good Things and Sam Sarah's Happy Birthday, the cutest cat bellpull, as well as a lovely piece of hand dyed fabric. Not sure which company this is from but it's a lovely 28ct Lugana in a shade called Pink Sandy Beaches. I also had the opportunity to chat with another fellow blogger, Manon who is also stitching CdC. We're hoping for a stitching get together in the near future.

A trip to Michael's for floss netted another purchase. They had a sale on some great craft boxes. I picked one up and have just finished filling it with my ribbons. The photo on the box reminds me of our summer visits to the cottage. If I keep looking at this long enough do you think I can wish all the snow away? Maybe not but it's a nice thought!

Snowed in, stitching and lovin' it!

Today I was supposed to work however Mother Nature had other ideas. Most of southern and eastern Ontario has been hit with a major winter storm which my local radion station has dubbed as "The Big Juicy One". It lived up to its name! Since Friday night we've received close to 50 cm of snow which for those who don't do metric translates into 20 inches. When I headed out yesterday for work things weren't too bad. There was a lull in the storm, the roads had been plowed and it was pretty smooth sailing. Coming home was a different story! Cornwall had sleet falling which changed over into snow the closer I got to home. My little village is midway between Cornwall and Ottawa. We seem to be sitting on a boundary of some sort because sometimes we get Ottawa weather and sometimes we get what Cornwall gets.

This morning however it was clear I wasn't going anywhere. The snow in my drive was even with the snow banks at some points and the roads weren't plowed yet. Because of the time change it was still dark and the winds were causing whiteout conditions. I called in to work to notify them I wasn't coming and found out that even my coworkers who lived in town were having difficulties. A couple were stuck in their drives and there was a 2 hr wait for a cab. One girl managed to get in by snowmobile! The photos below show the view outside my home. In the one picture you can see the mound of snow outside of my back door. The level of the snow in the back yard is even with the top of the hedge in some spots and is almost halfway up the gazebo.

Awww, stuck inside and no place to go....guess that means I'll have to stay home and stitch!
I'm going to have to switch stitching chairs though. My usual spot is in the rec room by the gas stove but it won't come on this morning . I suspect that the pipe outside the house is blocked with snow because the pilot light is out as well. It's too cold to stitch down there now so I've moved everything upstairs. I managed to finish off most of the stitching on my Angel Stitchin ornie. All that remains is some straight line stitching. I plan on spending most of today catching up on CdC. I've neglected it lately and it needs some quality time. I should have a picture of it to post in the next day or so. The hunt begins now for a new stitch. After I finish here I'm heading up to check out my stash. I may start another ornament. These are perfect for my takealong pieces.

Can any of you tell me if there is anywhere I can pick up ornament size cuts of fabric online? If not then I'll just order a larger piece and cut it into the sizes I need. My LNS carries some but I find they are so expensive.

Yeah! I hear the sound of a snowblower approaching my place! My neighbours have been so good and in return we supply them with gas vouchers or in some cases wine. Pays to make your own. Hope you are all safe and tucked in nice and cozy this weekend. Happy stitching!

Will this winter never stop?!

This was my view coming home from Ottawa late this afternoon. No indication of the poor weather yet to come. Following the snow that arrived on Friday night we're now expected to receive freezing rain tonight starting at midnight. It's supposed to warm up enough Monday morning that it will turn to rain but I leave for work early enough that the temp will not have risen that high yet. Oh joy! With any luck it will be bad enough that I can use a snow day and stay put.

Next week the time jumps ahead and with longer days we should all feel a little closer to spring.

What free time I've had this week I've spent working on The Wedding. Sorry if the pictures I've taken seem a little blurred. The battery in the camera is getting low and I find this happens when I zoom in on something.

I'm enjoying stitching this piece. It's going a lot faster than I expected so I'm going to take a break from it this week and concentrate on my much neglected CdC. I've also just placed an order for some floss I need for some future projects. My Christmas Joy ornament is nearing completion and I'll need a small project to be my take along.

I've been looking at all the wonderful new releases from Nashville and decided on the Saltbox Seasonals from LHN. I don't know yet if I want to stitch these individually or as a group. Yet to be decided! I also broke down and purchased some of the new PS releases including Daffodils. I'd love to stitch this one next.

Nothing else new for now. My DH is working this evening so I'm going to spend the evening quietly with stitching in hand. Hopefully it will relax me enough for the drive tomorrow!