July and August Smalls and Stitching Friends

I really don't know how I managed to miss my July posting other than the fact that I've been on the go so much this summer. I was only home for about 10 days during the month of August as well so it's amazing to me that I got done any stitching at all! All of the following pillow finishes were completed in July.

Both of my granddaughters had requested a small stitched finish. You may recall from a post last year that I stitched a hamster for Oceanne at her request. Due to unfortunate cirmcumstances that pillow finish was lost and so I restitched the hamster and a sweet hedgehog for her sister, Summer. 

Here are the girls showing off their pillows along with Oceanne's real hamster.

After I finished stitching these and sending them off I realized that I had two remaining birthday stitches to be completed before I left for a visit to Sudbury with my stitching friends. I only had 2 weeks remaining to get both stitched and finished before I left! I don't know how I managed to do it with everything else that I had going on but when I left for Sudbury they were packed and in my suitcase. These two stitches are from the 2017 Fragments in Time series by Summer House Stitche Workes.

I like how these turned out so much that I've just finished purchasing a few more from this series and the 2018 Fragments in Time series so that I can do a few for myself and some other gifts.

As I mentioned, I spent part of my holidays in Sudbury, Ontario gathered together with my stitching buddies from Canada and the US. We were hosted by Cathy Tonelli and family and we had the most amazing time! It was a first visit to Canada for several of the ladies but it certainly won't be the last. During the day we went on several road trips throughout Sudbury and to Manitoulin Island. In the evenings we spent our time stitching and gabbing. On one of the afternoons our friend Theresa or Tee as we call her, gave us a tutorial on how to use our stitching to cover tape measures. Tee is a very talented stitcher and finisher and is the designer behind Dulaney Woods Treasures. We each chose a design to stitch which she provided and with her excellent guidance we took our finishes and wrapped and sewed them onto tape measures. 

I ended up finishing mine at home because as it turned out, the fabric I had chosen for the edging of my tape measure just wouldn't stick. We figured that there had to be too much sizing in the fabric. So I took it home, washed and dried it and tried it again. This time it worked like a charm! So my finish is not in the group photo but this is my small finish for August.

Here are a few more pictures from our trip. As I mentioned in the previous post, Cathy and her husband are also bee keepers and showed us their hives.

Cathy's hubby Wayne, with Nan and JoAnn

Cathy's sister-in-law Donna also joined us on several days. Donna cross stitches but much prefers punch needle. She does excellent work as evidenced in the next pic of her recent finish.

I was very fortunate to purchase one of Donna's finishes from her. She finished this on an antique brass candlestick holder.

He is just so cool and I love him!!

When we first arrived at Cathy's we presented the American girls with some Canadian visors to designate them as honourary Canadians for the week.

My friends Nan and Tee

Bev, Jo and Jenn

No trip is complete without a visit to Tim Horton's or Timmies as we refer to it.

Bev, Tee and yours truly

We also paid a visit to a lovely shop which sold soaps, candles, linens and lavender. I stocked up on the lavender which I use when stuffing my pillow finishes.

Pam, Donna, Cathy and Jenn

All in all it was a fabulous trip, one which we hope to repeat next summer. There's nothing better than spending time with good friends, unless it's family of course. Next post I'll have a few pics from my trip to Lake Muskoka and home for my mother's birthday celebration. 

So all in all, lots of small finishes over the last two months. Now I'm on the hunt for some smalls for the upcoming fall season. 

October WIPocalypse and Smalls SAL

So here we are with another month passed and once again I'm behind on my postings. I cannot believe how busy we've been. I've chosen to post both my Small and WIPocalypse pieces together in one post due to lack of time. Things have to slow down sooner or later, right?

For WIPocalypse I've continued to plug away on my Stacy Nash Blackwater Hollow. I'm getting there but had certainly planned on having this one finished a long time ago. I find I'm doing a lot of stitching and then re-stitching in this one. I wasn't happy with some of the striped effects from the overdyed floss.

Next up are my Smalls finishes. I managed to get two of them finished up this month. The first is by Nan Lewis of Threadwork Primitives and is called Ever So Grateful. I finished this just in time for our Canadian Thanksgiving.

The second small is by Theresa Meloon of Dulaney Woods Treasures and is called Midnight Jack.

The witch on the upper right is a lovely piece of scented, blackened beeswax that came in some Halloween potpourri which I purchased. I just love it! It normally resides in a bowl with a collection of my Halloween smalls.

It has been an extremely busy month! Besides celebrating Thanksgiving we've had a visit from my sister, I've taken a trip to Toronto and my son got engaged.

Here's a group shot of my sister at the head of the table sharing a meal with Bob and myself along with my son Chris and his girlfriend Violet. It was so great to have her here. I don't get to see her often enough.

As soon as Laurie left I was on the road to Toronto to visit up with some stitching friends, Pam and Cathy.

I missed seeing these lovely ladies at the Notforgotten Farm Open House in Virginia this past September. I was supposed to be joining them but ended up singing at a wedding on the same date. They brought back some goodies for me including my framed Tulips piece which Patti Nicolosi had finished framing for me.
Here it is and isn't it lovely?

Patti did an amazing job on this and I am so pleased with how it turned out. As you can see from the closeup this is a lovely mahogany frame which really complements this piece.

After returning from Toronto I met up with my son Chris who discussed his plans with me regarding proposing to his girlfriend Violet. I was so excited and here's a pic of the results.

  
She said yes and we will be celebrating a wedding in the fall of 2017. Yaaaay!!

In between all my running around this month I took some time to take in the beautiful fall colours in our region. They really were outstanding this year as can be seen in the pics following.

  
All good things must come to an end though and the next picture foretold of the strange weather to come.

Last evening we were greeted with several cms of wet snow when we left the church following choir practice. It's all melted at this point but I know it won't be long before it's here to stay for a spell!
 

September Smalls

Autumn..... my favourite time of the year! Pumpkin everything from pies, to lattes and teas, and muffins and breads! This time of year also means stitching up a few pumpkins. 
One of the lovely finishes I had over the past month was by The Scarlett House and is called Penny Pumpkin. I absolutely love this piece! It turned out much prettier than I expected and I'm so happy with it.

It looks even better in real life. I adore the colours and although this one was meant as a pinkeep by the designer, I'm seriously considering having this one framed. I might even keep it up all year long!

I also started two other new small starts for fall. The first is by friend Nan Lewis of Threadwork Primitives and is called Ever So Grateful.
Here's my progress so far. 

I just started this one this morning and I'd like to have it complete by Thanksgiving which for us Canadians takes place on Monday, Oct.10. Wish me luck!
The second new start is by Theresa Meloon of Dulaney Woods Treasures. Theresa is also a friend of mine and I'm so thrilled that she has started to publish her designs. This particular one is called Midnight Jack and can be found in the 2016 fall issue of Punch Needle & Primitive Stitchers magazine.

Sorry this one is in the Q snap a bit crookedly. Since this is a primitive piece I'm stitching it using only one strand of floss. Trust me it will look better once it's completely stitched and finished up as a pinkeep.

Now some of you may recall last year at this time I was stitching another Halloween piece by Stacy Nash called Thistle & Spells Pinkeep. I ran out of floss for that design just one leaf short. I was unable to find anyone locally who had a bit of the required floss that they could give me so I had to order another skein. I finally got around to that this summer and finished up the piece just last week. 

It's finished for Halloween. I just didn't say which year I'd finish, lol!

It's a beautiful, sunny day here today with the perfect fall temperature.....not too hot, just perfect. I went outdoors and snapped a pic of the mums I recently purchased which are opening now into full bloom.

Love the shades in this tricolour! I also planted some pink asters last year in our back garden. They have doubled in size and are also showing their full blooms now.

I can't seem to get a good shot of the colours of this since this garden is often in shade. In any case they are a bit darker pink than pictured and I love to see another splash of colour when other flowers are near spent.

I hope you all are enjoying a day which is as nice as ours is here. I'm off to hunt down a pattern for my next big start. See you soon.

A new year of small stitches

I've lost track now of how many years I have participated in the Smalls SAL but I believe this is my third year. It has done wonders in encouraging me to stitch all those small projects I kept meaning to get done but which always got put to the side. 

Following all of my Autumn and Christmas finishes I have been looking forward to starting off the new year with a change and hopefully a leaning towards spring.
My first small finish for this year is Country Rustic Primitives Grow Old With Me designed by Jenny Hoffman.

I love Jenny's sweet little stitches and they make such lovely pinkeeps. The finishing on this one is not complete but I am hoping to incorporate some sort of lace into the finish. I have a few more Valentine smalls that I want to finish up in the next week or so. Then I'll do the finishing on all of them at the same time. Jenny's sister, Shelly Auen, is also a designer and I've just started one of her Valentine smalls as a companion to this one. They will make a lovely addition to my bowl of smalls and I hope to have a pic of the latest one soon.

Here's some of my Valentine smalls that I have out on display.

The two at the back are designed by my friend Nan Lewis of Threadwork Primitives. 

 The above two are also designs of Jenny Hoffman which I stitched last year for the Smalls SAL.
The two below were designed, finished and gifted to me by my friend Theresa Meloon of Dulaney Woods Treasures who produces some awesome primitive finishes. 

 I hope all those of you who were impacted by the recent blizzard have managed to dig yourself out and weathered the storm without any damage of sorts. This one managed to bypass us and to date we have had only one significant snowfall which I think is a record on its own for our area. Happy stitching and I'll see you next month!