Christmas stitching

Now that October and Halloween have flown by I'm turning my attention to some Christmas stitching. First off I have a small finish albeit a little late for fall this year. I know the US is yet to celebrate their Thanksgiving but for us Canadians our fall celebrations are complete and thoughts have turned to Christmas. My JBW Pumpkin will have to wait until next year to complete my autumn decor. In the picture you'll see the fabric that I've chosen for my backing on a pinkeep finish.

I've made a start on my November ornie which is a Partridge from Prairie Schooler. Not enough done yet though for a pic. I took it on the road to Toronto with me this past week. I travelled with a coworker to attend a chemistry conference. I'd hoped to get in some stitching during the evenings at the hotel. My coworker had other ideas however. We were only a short walk from the Eaton Centre which is a major shopping mall in downtown TO. So consequently our evenings were spent shopping (window shopping in my case). My stitching didn't even make it out of the bag! The car trip was my first experience with a GPS. I've never felt the need for one since I'm pretty good with directions but my coworker insists she can't go anywhere without hers. Honestly it drove me crazy! Recalculating, recalculating.... as you can see, my driver didn't neccesarily follow the directions given. The GPS was always right but my coworker didn't trust it since some of the street names it used didn't jive with the street signs. So why does she insist she needs it?!

When I got home I was really in the mood for a new start. What to do, what to do? I took a look through some of my freebies and found a lovely pattern by Gigi R found on her blog. I think she's retired her freebies at this point but check back later, they pop up from time to time. This one is a Christmas tree, a picture of which is currently posted on her blog on her Oct. 25th post. I've chosen to do this one as a redwork, using one of the DMC variations. Here's my progress so far:

Sorry, the picture isn't very clear. The battery on my camera is getting low. I love the look of this little tree. I've even got my fabric already chosen since I might try finishing it as a flatfold or if all else fails, a pinkeep. This one looks like it should stitch up pretty quickly. That's if I can sit still long enough to stitch!

The fall season has passed so quickly for me. We've had a full calendar here at our house and I feel like I've neglected blogging of late. I've managed to post a couple of times but there's not been much time for reading blogs and commenting. So please accept my apologies if I haven't stopped by your blogs lately. I'm slowly getting caught up but there is often little time for commenting. Trust that I am reading them and will get back to commenting in the very near future.

Once again, the approaching weekend will see me travelling. This time it's back home to Windsor where we will be celebrating my MIL's 90th birthday. It's a very quick trip since neither my DH nor myself can take much time off work at the moment. We'll head down on the Friday and return on Monday, spending Saturday with my family and Sunday with Bob's. I'm going to try and stitch in the car since there will be no time for it once we've arrived. It all depends how bumpy the road is or whether or not I can keep awake long enough! When I'm a passenger car rides tend to lull me to sleep. Here's hoping you all have a good week filled with lots of stitching.

Finally... a finish!

Well it's certainly taken me long enough but finally I have finished my M Designs Peace Tree. I managed to squeeze in some time for stitching last weekend and on Tuesday I put in the final beads. This one is to be a Christmas gift for my youngest sister. It's stitched on a 28ct Silkweaver Opalescent Solo using DMC variations.

Also managed a finish on a mitten ornament but my finishing didn't turn out quite the way I'd planned it . It's far easier to finish off a square or round ornament than it is to manage a mitten shape. My skills need some fine tuning to say the least!

Now I'm trying to decide what will be my new start. In the meantime I'm trying to finish up my JBW Pumpkin (hopefully this weekend) and I'm considering giving some long overdue time to my Cirques des Cercles. It would be nice to see this one again, wouldn't it?

Last night was the perfect evening for Halloween... no rain or wind and mild temperatures. We had 110 at our door this year with the best costume being a butterfly. There was one unusual sight this year. An adult dressed in a ghost costume and carrying orange glow sticks wandered through the neighbourhoods. He would stop at the foot of your drive, spread out his arms and bow to you! Honestly, he was quite large and rather creepy. At first I thought it was the parent of one of the kids, taking them around but no, this guy was on his own. My son thought it was a pretty cool idea and a neat way to take in all the sights around the village on Halloween.

I did my usual carving bit as you can see in the pics above. Chris and I found a new site this year online for obtaining carving patterns called Zombie Pumpkins. You pay a $20 dollar fee for access to over 150 different patterns with a portion of the sales being donated to charity. I guided Chris through his first carving, a Michael Myers pattern. Now he's hooked and anxious to try more!
The fact that we had such a great evening weatherwise was no small feat. Just days before we had a freak snowstorm which came out of the northeast, dumping us with 15cm of snow in our area which is about 6-7" for those of you who are not into metric measure. I couldn't believe it when I first heard the forecast. I thought I was dreaming and it was still January or February but unfortunately I was wide awake and it was definitely coming! I desperately tried to get my snow tires put on but all the garages were booked solid. It started snowing Tuesday night around supper and didn't quit until late Wednesday morning. I left for work at 5:30 instead of my usual 6:00am and this is the sight that greeted me. How depressing is that?!

Notice my poor scarecrow on the left. I actually have two , one on either end of my front garden and one of them keeled right over with the weight of the snow. Quite a few tree branches came down because the snow was heavy along with the fact that many had not lost all their leaves yet, adding extra weight. Our area lost power several times during the night, the first time just as I'd sat down in a hot bath. It's kind of weird bathing in the pitch dark!

I managed to make it to work with no problems although I did spot several cars in the ditches. On may way home I took a few more pictures now that I had light. If this is any indication of the winter that's coming then I'm moving!! I had more than my fill last year.

It's an absolutely beautiful sunny morning here now and I'm off to check out my stash and decide on my new starts. I don't promise I'll have much accomplished by my next post since I'm off to Toronto this coming week for a Chemistry symposium with a coworker. It's not all business though since we are planning to squeeze in a shopping trip to the Eaton Centre in downtown TO. Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend and keep those fingers stitching!

A new graduate!

I'm sorry but I don't have any stitchy updates to report this week. Life has been so incredibly full and busy lately! So busy that I'm desperately missing my stitching time and I'm wound pretty tight right now. Following our Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family (which btw was great!) I was out every evening after work until this past Monday.

The day following the holiday was a big one for us - my youngest son graduated college ! Chris is the first of my boys to receive a post-secondary diploma and we were all pretty exicited here. The graduation was held in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre. It's a fairly big venue but apparently the spring convocations are held at Scotia Bank Place which is home to the NHL Ottawa Senators and holds a significantly larger group than ours. However I thought the NAC was a much nicer spot for the graduation. Although my DH was unable to attend the convocation, he was pleased to hear that there was actually a pipe organ playing the processional and that it was a friend of ours who was playing. Chris' brother Dan and I went early since seats were general admission and managed to get one of the box seats which have a great view. My camera has a 15X optical zoom so I was able to great some great pictures. Chris' Dad was also able to attend so following the ceremony we were all able to meet up for drinks and a mini celebration of our own. So here he is... a graduate from the Algonquin College Class of 2008 receiving his diploma in Small and Medium Enterprise Management. Chris, we are all so very proud of you!!

Chris hopes to manage his own business some day but in the meantime is getting valuable experience in retail right now. He is working full time as a supervisor in a retail chain and hopes to work his way up to management at some point.

The next day I was back in Ottawa after work to take Chris for dental surgery. He had an evening appointment to have his wisdom teeth removed and needed a ride home after having been put out for the procedure. He came through very well and only one of the four areas is bothering him a bit. I stayed with him at his place until one of his roomates arrived home so he wasn't alone. Plus I needed to give instructions to his roomie regarding medication since Chris was still acting rather silly following the meds. Then it was another late return home.

Thursday saw me back in Ottawa again for choir practise and then it was out again Friday for a Partylite party at a friend's home. After pulling an overtime shift on Saturday , it was back into Ottawa this time with Dan who was attending a birthday celebration at a friend's home and of course Sunday again for our church service and a concert that evening.

By the time Monday rolled around, I just wanted to pull the covers over my head and stay in bed all day. We all know though that as responsible working adults we can't do that (Why Not?!). So I trudged back to the lab. Now my charge tech is away on union business for the next three weeks so I'm doing her job and my own. Murphy's Law being what it is, when I walked in the door on Monday they informed me that one of the chemistry instruments was down and they were unable to use it. Who gets to fix it?.... you guessed it- me! After troubleshooting for a couple of hours on the phone with technical service, we discovered the problem. One of the internal parts had been hit and was bent. The only way that could have happened was if someone had actually hit it. When I asked the other techs about it, it came out that yes, one of the new grads had knocked the part when she was doing maintenance but was afraid to tell anyone. With the part replaced we were back on track but had to work an hour overtime to catch up with everything.

Now I'm up to 9 hrs overtime with my shift the previous Saturday. Then I was foolish enough to return to work on Tuesday. Now what?.... the computer hard drive in Chemistry has crashed and we are without the computer which operates our analyzers.Back to manual procedures and reporting and another 4 hrs overtime working with IT to try and get the computer up and running. It was a temporary fix which we had to complete yesterday following work which led to another hour overtime. During all this time I had another instrument go down which resulted in service from Montreal having to come and repair! Could anything else possibly go wrong?! You know I should never have voiced that thought! So I'm up to 14 hrs overtime since last Saturday and I already know I have to put some in this coming Saturday after my shift to help train some of the nurses on some new point-of-care equipment. The government will love all the extra tax they can collect on my paycheck this week.

I'm off today and Friday and only just crawled out of bed an hour ago. With any luck I can actually pull out some stitching today! I've told my DH not to answer the phone if he sees the hospital number come up. I'm not paid to be on standby and the other techs can call service for help the same as I can. After all, when Louise and I retire in 2-3 yrs, they have to be able to do this on their own and they need the experience once in awhile.

I really want to get my Peace tree finished by next week so I can work on getting it finished for a Christmas gift. I'm fast losing interest in some of my Halloween projects and fear that some will join my UFO basket. My eyes are already wandering, looking for new projects to start. I've just received my first order form San-Man Originals Secret Shop. The items offered for sale in their shop are only available if you are on their newsletter list. They send out a newletter every few months which contains lots of goodies for purchase, along with a free chart. However there are limited quantities for a lot of the items. By the time I check my email and find the newsletter, a good portion of the items are already purchased. However last month I happened to be at home checking my mail when the newletter arrived. There were so many cute little Halloween goodies! I placed an order and hooray!... finally I was able to pick up some of these little designs. I don't know if you can still subscibe to the newsletter since their main webpage seems to be closed.

When the order arrived in my mail last week I was so surprised. Inside the envelope, the order had been placed in a lovely little fabric bag tied with ribbon. Inside the bag I also found a number of Halloween stickers. I was thrilled with my order and hope I happen to be home again when her Christmas newsletter arrives. All of the items are very reasonable in price and the charts and frames are really quite cute. I've posted a few pics below to show off some of what I received.

At this point I think it's time I got showered and dressed since we will be heading into Ottawa sometime this afternoon for choir practice. I hope you are all having a great week and are doing lots of the stitching that I don't have time for right now. I'll leave you with a lovely fall picture that my son Daniel snapped last week on a road tour we took of the Long Sault Parkway along the St Lawrence River.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A very Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadian stitching and blogging friends. We've just finished the carving of our bird after cooking it overnight. This allows me more oven space for cooking all the other dishes which accompany my meal. A few friends told me they wouldn't do it this way since the turkey gets dry after reheating but I've done this many times now with no problems. I think the fact that I'm cooking a fresh turkey, not frozen, makes a difference. I stuff the turkey just before bed, put it in the oven and set my alarm to check on it once during the night.

This way I can check its progress and gage just what time it will be done. When it's ready, my DH gets up early and does the carving. Shortly after, I take over and prepare the gravy. Everything is then refrigerated until later in the afternoon when it's reheated. It's a lot less hectic when it comes time to serve. I also like the fact that since the gravy is prepared early, I'm able to scrape and discard the fat off of it much easier after refrigerating.

My son Chris joined us last night and very soon I'm heading off to pick up Dan. Only Jeff and family are unable to join us. Just not enough time for them to travel here and return for work tomorrow. Some friends will also be joining us later.

I'm feeling much better now after being ill earlier in the week. I picked up strep throat from my son Dan after sharing a drink and popcorn with him at the movies last weekend. We didn't know at the time that he had strep throat but he did tell me he had a sore throat (after sharing our goodies of course!). Consequently I came down with a low grade fever and sore throat on the Wednesday. By this time Dan had already been checked out and started on antibiotics. My doctor didn't even bother doing a throat swab, he just started me on the antibiotics because of my contact with Dan. By Friday I was feeling much better and no more sore throat. However I was wiped out most of the week and only managed to complete a small amount of stitching. I finished one ornament and am just about finished a second one for my October commitment to the Christmas ornament SAL. I couldn't resist this little pumpkin by Prairie Schooler.

I picked up some felt yesterday from Michael's and will finish it off later in the week. I'll also have a pic of the other ornament by then since I hope to be finished it by tomorrow.

Tuesday I had the day off work and since I wasn't feeling quite so bad yet I followed my DH into Ottawa, dropped him off at work and then crossed over the river to Gatineau, Quebec. From there I headed to Gatineau Park to enjoy the fall colours and do a bit of walking through the park. This is an annual visit for us. Ususally we do this on a Sunday after church but this year either I was working or the weather wasn't cooperating so I decided to head over by myself this time. It was a gorgeous fall day and I spent 3 hours walking and driving through the park. It's an absolutely huge park containing many hiking trails and lakes throughout it. It also contains the residence of one of Canada's former Prime Ministers, William Lyon MacKenzie King. King was Canada's longest serving PM having served for 22 yrs during the years 1921- 1948. The home in Gatineau was part of his summer estate Kingsmere and is now open to the public. There is actually a lovely tea room which serves lunch in his former home. I took about 100 pics during my afternoon in the park of which I've posted a few. On the left is the estate followed by a summer guest cottage and the estate gardens. Below are some pictures of the various scenery seen throughout the park.

As you can see, the park is a photographer's delight. The autumn colours this year are spectacular and after spending the afternoon there I certainly felt rested and at peace. Following our drive home from Ottawa later in the day we were treated to even more of fall's beauty. Just look at the colours in this photo below. Absolutely beautiful!!



Now I'm off to pick up Dan and then finish preparing my Thanksgiving meal. We are truly blessed here and so fortunate to have so much when so many are struggling in today's economic times. Thanks be to God.

Welcome to my Witches Garden

Yup, her garden is now complete! I booked Monday off work since my DH was having some day surgery and while he was in the OR, I stitched. By the time we left the hospital I only had the stars and moon to finish off. That didn't take long to finish off on Tuesday night while I watched Dancing with the Stars.

I've really enjoyed working on this one. I can never seem to get a good pic of the fabric anymore though. By the time I'm home from work now and have finished supper it's already dark and I'm relying on the camera's flash rather than natural light.

I changed some of the floss colours since the original pattern was done on a much darker fabric. I like the way her robe turned out but I think I would have been better off using a darker floss for the sunflower's leaves. Oh well, live and learn. This one should be off to the framer's next week. On to the next project!

I wanted something small to cart to work with me so I've chosen JBW French Country Pumpkin. It's all done in one colour so it should move along fairly quickly.

I'm moving along slowly but surely on my Peace Tree. I can only work on this at home since I need my lamp and magnifying glass for it. The eyes sure aren't what they used to be!

I've managed to put in a few stitches on my October ornament but nothing worth showing yet. Last night on my way to choir practice I stopped in at my LNS to see if they had received the new JCS 2008 ornie issue. Yes, but they didn't receive their full order, at least not enough to cover all those of us who had reserved one. They assured me though that they should have all of them in within a few days. They weren't putting them on the shelves until the order was complete. So I was surprised when I returned home from work this evening to find a message for me that my issue was ready for pickup. I'm working the weekend so I'll just have to contain my excitement until Tuesday when I'm off next and can get back into town.

My DH is off on a solo trip to our home town of Windsor this weekend so I'm free to spend all my free time stitching. Too bad I'm working although if I hadn't been I would have joined him for the trip. It's not very often he takes time off so close to Thanksgiving with all the choir practices that involves but his one of his university music professors and friend is celebrating 40 yrs as organist at his home church with a banquet in his honour. This particular professor taught my DH how to play the pipe organ and has kept in touch with him. I'm sure Bob won't miss my presence at all, catching up with many long time friends and organists. I'll make the next trip home in November when we celebrate his mother's 90th birthday.

My renewed interest in reading is still with me so I'm off now to get started on a new book called The Shack. It was recommended to my by a friend. Although it's fiction, the reviews state that it will change the way you think about God. Piqued my interest... I'll let you know if it's worth picking up. Enjoy your weekend!

A First!

Up until now I've been stitching all these lovely ornaments but have yet to finish them up for displaying. So on Saturday I attempted my first pillow ornie. I used my just finished Stone & Thread Snowflake Mitten for the task. I don't have a sewing machine and don't do a lot of hand sewing so I was a bit nervous but it was a cinch! All I have to do now is practise my blind stitch. I really don't think mine was all that blind. However I was pleased with the results.

I'm afraid I really don't have much to show for the two weeks that have passed. I sort of lost my stitching mojo and it's only just returned. I spent most of my free time reading which has sort of taken a back seat to my stitching lately. Maybe it's all those cool nights we've had recently which have made me want to hunker down with a good book. In any case I've only got a small amount of progress on my Witches Garden and Peace Tree.

I've really got to get back to spending some time on Cirque. I've put Holey Sheet on the back burner for now. I ran into a small snag. Two of the DMC alternates listed on the chart do not exist. It obviously has to be a misprint. I've managed to figure out the one colour and for the other I've ordered the overdyed floss. In the meantime I've found a chart for my October ornie and got it all kitted up. It's a really cute design by Angie Williams from the JCS December 2007 issue and is called Jingle All The Way. With any luck I'll put in my first stitches tonight.

One of my favourite online shops which I use is 1-2-3 Stitch. I'll often enter their monthly draws for a free chart if I'm interested in the particular pattern. So in August I entered the draw and to my surprise my name was one of the 20 lucky winners which was drawn! I received my winning pattern last week. Follow the link to see Plum Pudding Needleart Stitched With Love.

I love it!

One of the main reasons I have less stitching time now is that choir rehearsals have resumed. Last year I only participated in one, choosing to sit out of the other for the year. This year though, I thought I'd give it another go, at least until Christmas so that means I'm out 2 evenings . This definitely cuts into my stitching time but I also find that singing is a release for me and I'm much happier for it.

I just came back from a short break during which I opened my mail and it looks like Holey Sheet is back in business. My threads were among the many pieces in today's mail. Much better than all those ad flyers!

An ornie finished

It's not much but I'm really pleased that I managed to finish it off this week with everything else that was going on. It was a quick stitch and all that remains is to finish it off as a small pillow. I've found some fabric in my stash that will work, now all I have to do is find the time! Easier said than done.

Although it was a short work week following the holiday, it marked the start of the new year for so many things. My boys are all gone and finished school now but the start of the school year marks another round of students for us in the lab. We are affiliated with the local community college and med lab students are placed with us for the third year of their training . They spend the entire school year working alongside us in the clinical setting, applying hands on what they've learned in theory. This year we have a small group of only three.

September marks a return to choir for both DH and myself. I'd bowed out of the community choir last year, only singing in our church choir. This year however I decided to return just until after the Christmas season. After all, I've got pull with the director! I don't fancy commuting in the winter weather for the second session. I think I'm all commuted ( I think I've invented a new word!) out.

The last two weeks around here have had some of the nicest and warmest days of the summer. Too bad I didn't book my holidays during that time. I've enjoyed sitting outside after work and stitching. The days though sure aren't lasting as long. It's already dark now by 8.

I put in some time on my Witches Garden but didn't get very far thanks to a short visit from the frogs. Of all things, I was trying to stitch the frog in the pattern! It's my own fault since I was trying to get things done without the use of my Ott lite which I'd left at home. The quarter stitches were my downfall.

My new start is Peace Tree, which I'm doing on an opalescent jazlyn. The picture doesn't do it justice. It's really quite a pretty colour. I'd hoped to be able to stitch on this one at work, etc. but I'm finding that with all the sparkles in it, it's difficult to see the holes. The fabric tends to be a bit fuzzy which isn't helping.

Following the finish of my ornament I got started on another small project. I get carried away when I see all the fall and Halloween decor hitting the stores. Since autumn is my favourite season, these tend to be some of my favourite stitches. I dug into my stash and pulled out one I've had for awhile. I wanted something fun and this one fits the bill. It's Poppy Kreations Holey Sheet.

The pattern calls for several overdyed floss but when doing something this small I prefer to stick with the DMC. I ran into a stumbling block though. My local shops don't carry 2 of the required colours. Then when I started looking elsewhere I ran into the same problem. I suspect that perhaps these 2 colours are no longer in use. Which means I have to seek out the overdyed after all or find some substitutions.

During my search I discovered a soon-to-be new release from Dinky Dyes called Ghosts and Goblins. I just love this funky cat!

Sunday after church, DH and I headed to one of my favourite haunts which is the local market. Ottawa is famous for its Byward Market but a much smaller version called the Parkdale Market is where we choose to shop. It too is full of local produce and flowers. Right now is one of the best times to go as far as I'm concerned. Loads of tomatoes, peppers, apples, and still some berries too. It won't be long before the pumpkins make an appearance. Since Bob is often in this area he's able to make a pit stop here whenever we need to stock up. Just as we arrived there were trucks unloading beautiful huge pots of mums. I couldn't resist, the colours were incredible and after all they were only $10! I'm back in Ottawa this Thursday so I'm thinking of picking up another one. I'd like to put them in the garden if possible before the frost.

Bob has headed into Ottawa for a meeting this evening so I'm parking myself in my comfy chair to put up my feet and stitch. Have a great week everyone!