Totally unexpected!

My choice for a new start that is. After considering some of the choices I'd pulled I was all set to start This is the Day. That was until I picked up my latest framed work, Gobble, yesterday. After seeing how gorgeous it looked I was all gung ho to get started on one of the others in the series, Ghoul.

Here's the reason for all my excitement.

I am in love with this frame!! I knew it would look good when I picked it out but I didn't realize just how good until it was finished. I love how the gold in the frame picks up on the gold in the piece. Now I'm anxious to finish all four in this series (Give, Gather, Gobble, Ghoul). The frame also comes in black which will be perfect for Ghoul. I got started on it late this morning and here's where I am up to this point.

I'm stitching it on Picture This Plus Mello. Mello and Legacy are two of my all time favourite fabrics. I've used them both on numerous occasions and Gobble is stitched on Legacy.

Speaking of Picture This Plus, my order arrived from their Christmas in July sale. It might sound rather late for an order to arrive but this is such a huge sale and they often have to dye more fabric to meet the demand. It's worth the wait! This year I ordered a few new colours to try along with my standards.

I briefly considered the one in the middle for Ghoul but there is quite a bit of the gray in it and I thought it might be too much since the design is stitched with so much black.

The other addition to my stash this week is a new scissor/flower frog. My friend Pam has long admired my green rosebowl frog seen below.

I been trying to find one like it for her but without any luck. However, several weeks ago an auction popped up on ebay for not one but two frogs. They weren't green but they were gorgeous nonetheless. They were both rosebowl frogs and the bowls were clear with a silver overlay on them. After checking with Pam, we watched the items which had a couple of bids on them already. Then, during the final minutes of the auction, we swooped down with a higher bid and won. After splitting on the cost, my frog ended up costing me only $12.50! 

Pretty, isn't it? Now I've got Pam hooked and she's looking for more. Oh, but I do love enabling others!
That's about it for this week. My hubby and I have a very busy weekend ahead of us including a 10 course Chinese banquet which is a fundraiser for our church. Not a good weekend to look at cutting back on eating!

Turkey talk

My favourite turkey for the past few months has been Plum Street Samplers Gobble. As of Sunday afternoon, he is finished and ready to strut his stuff.

Plum Street Samplers Gobble
stitched on 32 ct PTP Legacy
using DMC floss

I am certainly going to miss this fine fellow for he has accompanied me to various stitching locations in the last few months. I think he will look wonderful next Thanksgiving when he is framed and proudly displayed in my home. I do have another turkey stitch in the wings (pardon the pun!) by Bent Creek which I can always pull to fill the void.


Once more we were hit with a winter storm in our area on Tuesday only this time we received more freezing rain rather than snow. The surface of the snow now has a definite sheen to it and the snow crunches rather loudly underfoot. Last night it was so windy that I couldn't get to sleep for all the noise it was making! I could hear the cracking of the tree branches which are coated in ice. It reminded me of the ice storm we had here in the late '90s.
My Tuesday stitching group cancelled their get together because of the weather so I spent the day stuck indoors, stitching alone. It was just too miserable to go out.

I spent the time catching up on a few of my WIPocalypse goals. I managed to complete The Trilogy Secret Snowdrift which has been hanging around since 2009! This should have been a quick stitch but for some reason or another it has been sitting unfinished in my drawer. I only had a few things left to stitch on it - the last little penguin, the border, some long stitching on the snowmen's arms and attaching a couple of buttons. This will make an adorable pillow or wall hanging.


Now I figure I'm on a roll so next I dug out LHN Acorn Hill. If you remember, when I last stitched on this one in the fall I only had the inner border remaining but had run out of floss. Okay so I ordered the floss and I distinctly remember it arriving sometime before Halloween. I also remember cleaning up my stash room, having the floss in my hand and putting it away. It's the part about putting it away that I can't remember. For the life of me I don't know what the heck I did with that skein! I'll be darned if I was going to order another one so I took the opportunity to try out some of the floss I won during Victorian Motto's Christmas giveaway. One skein of that floss looked almost identical to the CC Brown Sugar that I had been using. I pulled it, started stitching and personally I don't think you can see much of a difference. If you look at the border stitched along the top of the house, that's the Crescent Colour floss and my inner border around the piece is the VM floss.

Little House Needleworks Acorn Hill
stitched on 28 ct Lakeside Linen Buttercream
using Crescent Colours floss and Victorian Motto

Paradis Perdu also received a little bit of attention yesterday. I finished stitching one of the alphabets and started on another. 

At the top of this design,beneath another alphabet, it is charted for you to put in your year of birth which coincidentally just happens to be my birth year. Then, under the small alphabet I've just finished, there is a spot for another year. This time though, the pattern calls for only two numerals. They have used 04 which I suspect is the year the design was stitched in. I haven't decided whether to put in all four numbers here or leave it just as 12. There is plenty of room for all four. I'm also thinking of somehow highlighting my initials in the main alphabet with a different coloured floss.


I haven't decided which will be my next new start yet. Anything that I've picked out I'm missing something, either fabric or floss. I'm expecting some orders to arrive within the next few days so I think I'll just stick to my BAP and some ornaments until then. I'm in the process of finishing off the Prairie
Schooler Winter ornament right now.


Time to get a move on! Today our Wednesday group meets and following that I'm heading out on a drive to pick up my son Daniel. He is going to spend a couple of days with us and then return home on the weekend. It's a beautiful, sunny day and the temperature has risen some so I'm actually looking forward to the drive. 

After The Storm

Our two days of freezing rain and snow has finally ended and the sun is out once more. Temperatures have dropped and it's a crispy one out there but I love a day like this where the sun glints off of the snow and ice-covered trees. Winter has definitely arrived now! Below are a couple of shots I took from inside the house during the storm.

 A true sign that the storm is past comes with the arrival of the birds again. I heard the Blue Jay first thing this morning. His friend, Mr. Starling, looks a little chilled with his feathers all puffed out! The bird feeder pic also gives you an idea as to how much snow was deposited.

Thanks to the big orange machine the driveway is clear and I can get out without revving the car before I tackle the mound of snow left by the plow. 


I spent my time well during the storm, with stitching in hand and a cuppa my new favourite tea, Mint Chocolate Rooibos, which I highly recommend. The latter was courtesy of my youngest son at Christmas. To complete the picture, I put on the Lady Gaga double CD that Chris also gave me and stitched the day away.
Here's my progress on my BAP, Paradis Perdu.

I am really enjoying this one, especially those silks! Don't you just love the sensation as they glide through the fabric?


Gobble would have been finished last night but as you can see from the picture below I ended up frogging a section of the last border. I'd stitched it up too high, by just one hole, but enough that you could see the difference. I thought frogs didn't like cold weather but it's obvious that they don't give a hoot. Of course, I was sitting in front of a warm fireplace so that must be the drawing card! I also changed the date on this to the current year. I got ahead of myself when I stitched in 2011, thinking I could finish it by year's end.

My stitching will now be put aside until tonight. I plan on cooking a couple of casseroles for our casserole ministry at church. Their freezer supplies are dwindling. Then I'm thinking a chili would be nice for supper to warm up our tums. I also plan on having a look see to decide which project will be next up after Gobble's finish. Any suggestions as to which you'd like to see first from my WIPocalypse list?


A very happy birthday to my eldest son Jeff! Jeff is 31 yrs old today and because he lives 3hrs away I won't be able to spend time with him on his special day. Earlier in the week we sent him a Toronto Maple Leafs hoodie which he was thrilled to wear on his visit to meet Felix Potvin, a former goalie for the Leafs. Apparently Felix is coaching some hockey up his way and a friend introduced them. Jeff was in his glory, especially in Habs territory!
I hope you have a wonderful day hon. Love you!
Enjoy your weekend and keep warm!

January WIPocalypse post

I'm happy to say that I have a finish, a new start and some progress to report for this first month of the WIPocalypse. I stated that I wanted to complete more Christmas ornaments for this year and my first one is done. My reindeer ornament is complete except for the final finishing.

Santa's Buddies
Designer: Angel Stitchin'
Fabric: 32 ct Silkweaver Sand
Floss: GAST and DMC

I know the tree is leaning in this design but it looks like I might have been leaning as well when I snapped the pic. One ornament done, several more to finish, I hope!

Next up is my progress on Plum Street Samplers Gobble. I've included a before pic so you can see exactly how much I've done. All of this has been done during the holidays, a lot of it while we were driving home to visit family. The border is repetitive so it's a good one to work on in the car.

BEFORE

TO DATE

I didn't think I'd made this much progress until I took the piece off of the Qsnap.
Mind you, I do think I will have to change the date on it. It seems I was a little too optimistic with this one!

As for my new start, this one will also be featured on Becky's BAP Challenge. I've been itching to start this for some time now. There's not much to show but here it is in all it's glory: A Mon Ami Pierre Paradis Perdu.

I'm using the called for count of fabric which is 28ct and I found the perfect piece of Queen Anne's Lace. Unfortunately you can't see the colour all that well in this pic. Hopefully I'll get a better one next time.
I'm stitching this one with Vicky Clayton silks and one NPI silk substitution. It's been ages since I've used silks and I forgot how much I enjoy stitching with them. Too bad I can't afford them all the time!

I've also started another winter ornament but don't have enough progress for a pic yet. I've managed to get in some quality stitching time the past couple of days but I have a busy week ahead so I'm sure there won't be as much to post next time.
I hope you have all had a great weekend and you are fully rested after the busyness of the holiday season.

Turkey Talk

Plum Street Samplers Gobble

As Canadian Thanksgiving approaches this coming weekend my thoughts seem to be centered on turkeys. This little fellow, or Tom as I like to call him, has occupied some of my time this week. I wish that I had time to complete this before our holiday but that's unlikely. I'm just not that quick of a stitcher. So should I tack him up somewhere as is for now and complete him after the holiday or should I just forge ahead and forget about displaying him this year? He's a pretty fine looking fellow if I do say so!

My other thoughts have been centered on whether or not to cook turkey this Thanksgiving. I always have in the past and then repeat the same meal again at Christmas. After all, turkey is a pretty easy meal to cook. It's the side dishes that take so much time. This is the first major holiday where I'm no longer working and have more time to prepare the meal. Should I alter the mix, or leave things as status quo?

 My oldest son is bringing home a young woman with him with whom he has been spending a lot of time lately. For those of you who may not know, he has been separated from his partner for almost a year now. We were not unhappy with the split since the relationship was never a great one from the start and we are thrilled that he has found someone to share things with. As parents we never stop worrying about our children no matter their age!

Jeff told me that she is a good cook so is that why I suddenly want to changes things up? In any case I'm ready for a change. I have found a recipe for cooking turkey breast in the crockpot with wine, apple, carrot, celery and a whole host of herbs. It sounds absolutely divine and works really well for me since we are at church for most of the morning which limits my preparation time. I can prepare most of this the night before and just plug in the pot before I leave the next morning. It's still turkey but not quite the same as our usual roast with stuffing. It also suits my needs since I recently started Weight Watchers and it's a much more healthy alternative to all that gravy and stuffing. As for the pumpkin pie, I'm replacing it with apple crisp and some pumpkin pie squares which are made with oats.

Lately I've spotted an increase in the amount of these wild turkeys showing up in our area fields.

I used to spot the odd one or two and maybe a small group of four but their numbers seem to be increasing . Yesterday I spotted a field with close to twenty of them. I'd watch out fellas if I were you! Has anyone ever tried cooking wild turkey? I'm sure the taste is far different from our store bought versions.

I also want to share with you the lovely exchange gift which I received from Lynn last week. I have long admired Lynn's work. Her finishes are superb and when she announced another giveaway I jumped at the chance to win some of her lovely work. I was thrilled to bits when she posted that I had won her Paris giveaway. Look at the lovelies that I received!!




Paris pillow(with crystal accents), cupcake needlebook, cupcake pin, strawberry fobs

 

Front view of the needlebook



Closure with a Swarovski crystal



Handmade pins



Isn't everything fantastic!! Seen in person, Lynn's finishing skills are even more impressive.  Both the pin and the fobs are accented with beading and the pillow and needlebook with crystals. I can only imagine the amount of time she put into this finishing. Thank you so very much Lynn for sharing some of your talent with me. I love it!!

It seems my dear stitching friend Kathy is also an admirer of Lynn's talents and has been entering her giveaways for some time with no success. She has been teasing me and threatening to spirit away my winnings the next time she visits. I may just have to hide these pretties, lol!

I'll leave you with a recent pic of my granddaughters enjoying one of my favourite fruits of the season,hand-picked! I hope all the recent cool temperatures spur you on to even more stitching.

TUSAL and The Tangled Skeins SAL

Is it really TUSAL time again? Seems like it was just yesterday that I posted the last pic. Is it just me or did September just fly by? So my two little ort jars filled rather quickly this month as I had 4 finishes, 2 which I haven't been able to share with you yet. My exchange gift is in the mail and I haven't completed the finishing on my other gift. The jars hold lots of lovely golden colours from Sunflower House, some black & white from Quaker Halloween and of course red & white from my LHN Canada finish. Then there are a few glimpses of browns from my new start Gobble.

Now these orts will be ceremoniously dumped into the giant ort jar! What colours will they hold next month?

I enjoyed the most fantastic day this past Saturday as 10 ladies from the Tuesday night group made the trek out to my little village for a day of food, fun and flying fingers! The rain held off and several of the group were able to sit outdoors in the gazebo. As the hostess I'm afraid I didn't put in too many x's. I was too busy jumping up to check on food and to make sure everyone was comfortable and had everything they needed. I also grabbed some pictures of the ladies as they stitched away. First off is the gazebo gang who were thoroughly enjoying their surroundings.

Roseanne



Barb



Sally



Jeannine



Nancy

Do they look like maybe they're just having too much fun?!  This was the first  visit for both Jeannine and Barb and we're glad they could join us.

Now for the indoor crew.



Leslie with her Silvercreek Sampler stitch




Karen, who is stitching a chart she ordered of her home!



Lianne with her La D Da



Diane with her LHN Cherries



Dani with her Enchantment of Winter

It didn't seem to matter whether they were outdoors or inside ,either way there was a heck of a lot of stitching progress going on.
Here's a pic of my stitch, Gobble, most of which had been completed prior to the ladies' arrival.

Isn't he a fine looking fella? This is a really fun stitch and I plan on continuing with this one over the next couple of days. Apparently there are 3 others in the series, Give, Gather and Ghoul. I'd love to do them al eventually.

Jeannine and Leslie were so sweet and brought me a lovely gift both for hosting our day and as a retirement gift. Look at this fabulous Dolly Mamas stitch called Big Deal.

They said that as soon as they saw it, they thought of me and my blog! It's just too cute!! Thanks ladies!

In addition, Sally has started a newsletter for our group who call themselves The Tangled Skeins. Her first issue features my blog and my LHN Canada finish.



The Tangled Skeins newsletter, volume 1



Besides being a weekly reminder for stitching, the newsletter has upcoming events and links to ONS and will also feature stitching blogs. I think it's a fabulous idea Sally. I love it!

I want to thank each and every one of you that took the time to stop in and comment on my recent LHN Canada finish. Your comments just about had me bursting at the seams with pride! It was the first time I ever had a go at redesigning something like this and your favourable comments encouraged me to give this a try again sometime. Thank you all!!

That pretty well wraps up everything for now. I did receive a wonderful giveaway win in the mail today but I haven't had time to take pictures of it yet so I'll save it for my next post.

Keep those fingers flying!