Monday's Mail

I've been rather fortunate lately to be the winning recipient of not one but two giveaways! They both arrived in Monday's mail.
First up is my winning chart from Sherry. She has been cleaning up her stash and giving away some gently used charts. This one has been on my list and I was thrilled to receive it! Thank you so much Sherry!

Next are my winning charts from Kaye. Kaye and I are members of the Random Acts of Stitching Kindness blog. I was gifted by this RAK. Being a cat lover it was absolutely perfect! Look at the pretty card she tucked in the package. Love it! Thank you Kaye!

I can't seem to make up my mind as to a new start so I've continued to work on A Wicked Plant. It's really coming along and I'm enjoying it a lot. I'm stitching this on PTP Ancient linen and it's perfect for a Halloween stitch. The grays do show up much better in person. Pictures never seem to get the colours right.

I have some questions regarding the starting point for my Torah stitch so it has been put on hold for now. The contact person in our area for this project  will be joining our Tuesday group in a week so I will wait to start this until after I've checked some things with her.

I really need to get moving on another project though. A Wicked Plant won't take me all that long to finish. In fact it could be done before I leave for my holidays. I need to have another project or two waiting in the wings to pack for my dockside stitching in Muskoka. I should be starting some of the other projects on my WIPocalypse list but none of them is calling to me right now. After all, that list is just a guideline. I tend to stitch whatever and wherever my mood takes me.  After completing Wicked I only have Paradis Perdu remaining on my list of incompletes and I've stitched many other projects up until now. I'm pretty pleased with what I've accomplished. I'll have another quick post tomorrow with my Ornament SAL photo too.

I hope you all have found a few quiet moments for stitching. We all need some time to ourselves and what better way to occupy that time than with needle in hand?

A little of this and that

I've managed to come down with my first cold of the season and I'm feeling pretty miserable. Just your typical stuff, nothing exciting but you all know how it feels when your throat is raw and your nose is stuffed. I was already feeling housebound somewhat after we were hit with another winter storm. Look, the poor birds won't even be able to get in their house after this storm! They'll have to shovel too!

Now, after another 10 inches or so of the miserable white stuff and then this cold, I needed a taste of spring. So here's what I whipped up yesterday.

Stone & Thread Hoppity

This little stitched piece has been hanging around for three years and it was time I finally did something with it. Besides this I sewed up another small pillow finish for my Random Acts of Stitching Kindness group. It will be mailed out today to surprise one of the members. 

A check of the mail brought a couple more items to brighten my day. First off was a RAK from Melanie who is a new member of the above blog. Melanie gifted me with a chart from my wishlist.

  
In addition to this, Patty C RAK'd me with a copy of one of her new designs called Let's Stitch.
A big thank you to both ladies for making my day and bringing a smile to my face!

The mailman also brought me a package containing these lovelies.

I won these fabrics from Needleworker's Delight (aka Silkweaver). It seems they have a draw on the first of each month from all their email newsletter subscribers and I was the lucky winner for February. These fabrics are 32 ct overdyed Wexford linen. They're huge cuts too. I think the one piece is 18 x 35! It's hard to see in this pic but the latter fabric is a light shade of the colour of thread used for the serging. Gorgeous!!

You may recall that Anne was the winner of my Grown Your Own Blog party giveaway. I had stitched for her one of Patty C designs called Heartfelt Stitches which is currently my blog header. I finally got it sewed up into a little pillow for Anne and it has now reached its destination in BC. I'm sorry Anne but I've had to borrow one of your pics here because I forgot to take a picture of the finished pillow.

I spent most of the day of the storm indoors, stitching on Baby It's Cold Outside. It's almost complete and I should have a picture for you on the next post. Now I'm hunting down some spring and Easter stitches. I'll leave you with some pics of the visitors to my bird feeder this morning.

February TUSAL and a Lovebird

Lots of reds, pinks and whites for this month's Valentine TUSAL.  The reds have actually originated from my Maple Leaf stitch this past month and the pinks are from a little freebie I'm stitching called Lovely You. This one was offered by Plum Street Samplers last year.

I'm moving very slowly on all my stitching this past week. There has been virtually no time for stitching of any kind. This Thursday will be the first time I actually have to sit down and stitch in almost 2 weeks.

I received a lovely Valentine package in the mail yesterday from Bekca. This is actually from a birthday giveaway that I won in November but Bekca has been busy with her studies which is far more important as far as I'm concerned. I told her she needn't worry about the giveaway but a little email I received from her informed me of a Valentine parcel winging its way to me.
The Valentine heart pictured with my TUSAL contained a sweet little note and here is what accompanied it.

Beautiful trims, variegated floss, buttons, an adorable button heart ornament and the vibrant red felt on which the items lay. 
Thank you sooo much Bekca!! It was such a cheery package to receive especially after a rather stressful week around here. I tried hanging the heart ornament this morning but Clarisse found it rather fun to bat back and forth! I'll have to find another location to hang it where she can't reach it.
I hope to be back very shortly with some new updates for you. Until then I hope you all enjoy a very sweet Valentine's Day.

The winner is......!

Now for the winner of the GYOB party giveaway! I numbered all my comments in the order they arrived, then used the number generator and the winner is......

Anne, you're number 20 and the lucky winner! I've finished the stitching on your win and just have to sew it up into a pillow.

I'll be working on that this weekend and will notify you next week whenever I've posted it off to you. I'll fire off an email to you to get your mailing address.
Thanks to everyone for participating and for all your lovely comments. Welcome to all my new followers and I hope you enjoy visiting my blog!

Finally, a very big Thank You to Vicki for hosting this wonderful event. You've made it possible for many more people to reach out to each other with the possibility of endless friendships. It means so much to so many.

Of Gardens, Giveaways and Samplers

On the return from my recent visit to Windsor I stopped off to visit my cousin Sheryl. She is also an avid cross stitcher and had been telling me of a family sampler on her mum's side of the family dating back to the 1800s. This sampler now resides with Sheryl's older sister and she promised to email me some pics of the sampler. This week I received the pictures and what a beauty it is!

Very little is known about the sampler other than it is a direct relative who stitched it and the first of a long line of females named Jane. The sampler appears to be in fairly good shape although it looks like some of the stitches are deteriorating on the second basket and around some of the flowers. The reds are still pretty vibrant  and I just love the border!  The verse is interesting too. I'm not sure what's responsible for the silhouettes or outlines around the lettering. It's almost as if the dark floss was carried over between letters. At some point in time the sampler was framed beneath glass. I could be wrong but I don't think that was done originally.
Did you notice my cousin's kitty Cleo admiring the sampler too?
Once again I'm struck by what lovely stitching was done by these young girls. The sampler was stitched by a relative on my cousin's maternal side and I'm related on the paternal side so this young stitcher is in no way related to me.


The mailman also brought the last of my giveaway wins. I know, I know. It takes forever for anything to get to us here in Canada! Canada Post is not known for its speed!
You will recall that a couple of weeks ago I received BBD For My Friend from Melissa. 

This was followed on Tuesday by the arrival of my DVD win from Edgar.

I can hardly wait until I get some time to myself and can sit for a spell to watch these. Besides the DVDs, Edgar threw in a package of sweets which are one of my absolute favourites -  SweetTart chews. I have always loved the original SweetTarts but have not seen this version yet here in Canada. How did you ever know Edgar that I'm hooked on these candies? Thank you so much for the wonderful giveaway. What a great idea it was!


Finally, today's mail brought the arrival of 2 new designs from By The Bay Needleart which I won from Donna upon their release.

I adore both of these new designs and don't know which one I want to stitch first! The Funky Bird is the first in a new series of Donna's and I just know I'm going to want more of them!


A big thank you to all of you for these fabulous givings!! I know I'll pass many pleasant hours as a result of all of them.


My Magic Garden Sampler continues to progress although my stitching time has been somewhat limited. I forgot just how many appointments I had scheduled this week!

I don't know if you can tell from the picture or not but I've already had a small visit from the frogs. I stitched the interior of the butterfly on the left in the wrong colour. Don't know what I was thinking! In any case, the frogging is complete and I can continue on my merry way now. I'm having a lot of fun with this stitch and haven't picked up anything else this week.


Speaking of gardens, here are some pics from mine. Due to my difficulties in gardening lately, I'm putting in more and more perennials. 
I love columbine and this one is a favourite.

My irises were a gift from a co-worker who was thinning out her own garden.

My latest addition is called Jethro Tull Tickseed, so named because of its fluted petals. I thought it only fitting since I'm a flute player myself.

I've added lots of hanging baskets to the yard to make up for my lack of annuals in the yard this year. Here is one of my favourites of the bunch. It's made up of double million bells in a gorgeous shade of red complimented with white bacopa. I love the blooms on this one!

On a final note, Happy Birthday wishes go out to my youngest son Chris who turns 24 today! We are heading to Toronto on Friday morning to move him back to Ottawa. It will be so great to have him back in the area again. Hope you had a great day Chris!