December WIPocalypse

I can't believe it but the year is almost over. This is the last WIPocalypse report for 2014. December is in full swing now with very little time for stitching.The above picture was taken less than an hour ago and signals the end of daylight for today. The day was mild although overcast and I'm not sure that we're going to see that full moon tonight. 

I don't have a lot of stitching to report since last month. I've completed a couple of smalls and started a larger project. My small finishes include Teresa Murgida's Keep Christ in Christmas and Jenny Hoffman's Ornaments for Christmas. Neither has its final finishing complete yet.

My new start and larger project is Plum Street Samplers Promised Lamb. I'm stitching this one on 35 ct WDW Confederate Grey. Not much to show yet but hopefully I'll have made much more progress by the new year.

I have a couple of other smalls that I want to start before Christmas but I'm not sure how much time I'll have.

This week my local village craft group got together as usual but we gathered for a potluck first. It's a Christmas lunch but our hearts were heavy this year since just days before one of the group passed away.

 Joyce was a breast cancer survivor of 13 years but just one month ago her cancer returned. I was shocked when I heard she was gone so fast. She was an amazing woman who loved crafting and loved sharing and teaching it to others. She had cross stitched many years ago but she loved quilting and knitting. She shared this love with so many children both at the campsite in summer and at her winter home in the south. When once asked how many children she had she replied, "As many as 100!". Rest in peace Joyce. We'll miss your ruddy cheeks and that precious smile.

We decided that our lunch would be a tribute to Joyce so we had a toast in her honour and then continued with our regular get together. I'm the only cross stitcher in the group. A lot of the ladies love to quilt, crochet and knit. Here's a small sampling of their current projects.

Beate with her crocheted German Christmas curtain

Lois' beautiful afghan

Monique putting together her sweater

Andrée's lacy ribbon scarf

Helen modelling her mitten

Virly's baby sweater

Virly is the lady on the left in the above picture. She's the oldest member of our group. I don't remember her exact age but I do know that she is over 90. She is not sewing and quilting as much now that she's moved into a retirement residence but here is a pic of the bag she completed last summer. Love those purples!

 So our lunch on Wednesday was the second of three potlucks I'm participating in this week. The final one will take place tomorrow night following my husband's choir concert. For each of these I've taken the same thing - pumpkin butterscotch gingerbread trifle. 

  It's been a big hit and I'm sure it will go over well tomorrow as well. Yummy!!

Enjoy your weekend and I'll be back with another post soon.

Framed Finishes

As promised I have some pics for you of some previous finishes which I dropped off at the framer recently. When I went to pick them up they informed me that one of the frames I had chosen, which was for LHN Autumn Hill, was no longer available. That meant I had to pick another frame. You have no idea how long it took me to pick out the first one! I have never had as much trouble picking out a frame as I did for that piece. However as luck would have it, I found another frame within 5 minutes and made arrangements to pick it up at a later date. I can't believe we found one so easily!

In any case, they did have my Magic Garden ready and my friend's BBD Awake the Dawning Day. Pam had picked a frame out for this one which I'd stitched for her as a housewarming gift. Here's how her piece turned out.

Pam prefers glass on her framing so I had a bit of trouble getting a good photo. Finally I turned off my flash and set the camera for low light. That did the trick! She is very pleased with the results and I'm so happy she likes it.

Next up is my finish of Magic Garden. 

I love, love, love it!!! The frame works so well with this one. Here's a closeup so you can see it a little better.

The pictures really don't do it justice. I originally picked a black frame for this and then at the last minute we found this frame by accident when we were searching for one for Autumn Hill. As soon as Kelly put it next to the piece I knew that that was the one. On the edge of that first pic you can see a bit of my first peony blooms from the garden. Here they are in all their glory. They smell heavenly! In fact the whole gazebo smells of them.

This afternoon I headed out to my local Wednesday craft group and  I'm so glad I had my camera with me. Here's a taste of what some of the group accomplished recently.

Thea's table runner

Lois' afghan

Shirley's Canada tote bag

What could be more Canadian than beavers,
maple leaves and a Mountie?

Fabulous work ladies!! I mentioned how much I admired that tote bag and Thea is determined to get me doing one myself. I told her I didn't enjoy sewing but she is determined. We shall see!

While in Ottawa yesterday I dropped by my favourite store, Homesense . I believe the American equivalent is HomeGoods. I could spend eternity in that store, lol!

Lookie what I found waiting for a home.

This little fellow will make a fabulous companion to the bird planter I posted earlier. Now I just have to find something to plant in him.

Any suggestions?

A progress update

It's been a little while since I've posted a pic for you of my BBD Awake the Dawning Day. This piece got put aside for a bit but now I'm back on track and making an effort to make a serious dent in this one.

 This is a housewarming gift for my friend Pam so I'd like to get it completed fairly soon.

This is the only thing that I've stitched on during the past week. The springlike weather earlier in the week got me on to some spring cleaning especially since I knew we were having a house full of guests this past weekend. We hosted a potluck dinner for one of Bob's choirs and about 25-30 attended. Clarisse loves it when we have people over! She acts as hostess and greets everyone at the door. Mind you, she got a bit lazy at one point and in typical Ragdoll fashion flopped down at the top of the stairs to watch the proceedings from there.

She was a big hit and there were many who would have liked to take her home with them!

My Wednesday afternoon craft group are really getting into preparing for spring and Easter's arrival. These are some of the projects they're currently working on.

Thea's Welcome

Another of Thea's lovely applique

Shirley's Easter Chick

Thea is our master of applique and I swear she churns out 1-2 new pieces each week. 

I allowed myself to place a small order following the Needlework Market to purchase a couple of the new releases. I also included a couple of recently released charts. 

I'm a huge fan of both of these designers and can hardly wait to get started on one of these new additions. Aren't they lovely?

The school winter breaks in our area have come to an end and the kids returned to school just in time for our latest snowstorm. We are supposed to receive 15-20 cm of snow today but it's currently stopped and we only have about 8 cm on the ground. I'm not disappointed though. I've had my fill of winter and can hardly wait to see green grass once more. I'll leave you with a pic of my grandchildren celebrating their school break. They thought perhaps a swim at the local pool would be a great change of pace from toboganning.

Canada Day finishes

Just in time to celebrate the holiday are two finishes especially for Canada Day. Okay, so the stitching is finished. I didn't say anything about the final finishing! That will take place at a later date.

First up is Patriotic Heart by San-Man Originals.

I found a scrap of 18ct linen in my stash and because I wanted this a little larger I stitched it over two. I know it probably would have looked better stitched over one but it was far too small then. Even over two on 28ct or 32ct made it smaller than I wanted. Coverage wasn't the greatest even though I used three strands.
I'm hoping to turn this one into an ornament. 

This morning I finished up my second patriotic finish. This one is Lizzie Kate Land That I Love.

The original calls for the maple leaves to be stitched in white on a blue background but I felt that this should resemble the Canadian flag more so I substituted the white with red maples. I have a maple leaf charm that I was going to stitch on the house but it turned out to be bigger than I realized and kind of took over the whole piece. What do you think about this little heart instead? I haven't stitched it on yet. I could find a smaller maple leaf but I think there are enough leaves in the design. I'm hoping to turn this one into a pinkeep or perhaps a pillow.

Although I'm almost finished the stitching on Magic Garden Sampler, I'm getting my fabric and floss all picked for another stitch. I'm now a member of The Sisterhood! Ariadne from Greece picked my name to be the next recipient of the Travelling Pattern. It should be here any day now. I didn't get to the post office on Friday so now I'll have to wait until after the holiday to check.  I'm also getting some projects kitted up to take with me on my holidays.

I thought you might be interested in seeing some of the lovely work that is done during my Wednesday afternoon craft group. The ladies do everything from knitting, quilting, stitching to spinning. As you can see from these pics, they are a very talented bunch!

Beate is currently working on this needlepoint. In the pics that follow, her sister, Thea, is showing off some of her applique work.

Thea hasn't been quilting all that long and I'm always amazed by her work! I'd love to give it a try but I could end up spending big bucks on quilting supplies and I think I already spend enough on my stitching! 

 Our little group is growing by leaps and bounds. I think we're up to 11 or 12 now. 

Our Canada Day will be spent quietly with friends this year. We've been invited to a BBQ at our neighbour's home. If time permits, we'll head up to Morrisburg afterwards to take in the fireworks on the water. I'll leave you with a pic of my son and granddaughters (both in pink) and his girlfriend with her two children celebrating St. Jean Baptiste Day in Quebec last weekend. The giant bonfire was lit at a park where the firework display took place.