Autumn Song

This is the first ever Blackbird Design that I stitched. I bought everything to do the finishing myself and after putting it off for months realized that "I" would not be doing it and gave it to my finisher. I picked it up yesterday and I am quite pleased with how it looks.

I decided that it was time for a couple of small exchanges so I am doing three Halloween ornament exchanges. I have already stitched one, so two more to go! I pulled out all of my Halloween stitching and YIKES! I scared myself with how many patterns I have! Yes, I am still going to buy the BBD Halloween book and fabrics. I went though my threads and pulled what I already have and that will save some $. I also plan to get several of the new LK patterns. I have a few "must haves" every year. They are JCS Halloween and Ornament issues, LK Tiny Tidings, LK Santa, PS annual Santa and any Halloween or Christmas books if I like them, and this year I have purchased every Blackbird design and Loose Feathers project. And believe me, I don't think I saved any money with this plan but I have the things I want the most =)

What are your "must haves" each year?

Have a great day =)

It's About Time! - Long post

Yes, I do think it is about time that I pull out of my funk and let everyone know what has been going on the past couple of months.

In May, we flew to Oklahoma to see my baby boy marry his high school sweetheart. Soooo exciting and sooo happy to see them take this step. To make a long story short, I ended up in the hospital the night before the wedding for a stay of eight days. Back in February, I had been diagnosed with an ulcer. I finished the medication about a week before leaving for the wedding., and I still wasn't feeling "normal" (whatever that is, lol) but figured it was nerves about the impending nuptuals and if I still wasn't up to par after the wedding, then I would go to the doctor when we got home. Yeah right. Turns out it perforated and I had to have surgery. The yucky kind that leaves a six inch scar down the center of your belly =( Not that I would be wearing a bikini any time soon but I had hoped that someday.....LOL. Anyway, the wedding went on and the kids came to see me at the hospital afterwards. I tried like crazy to get myself together to go. The Doc even said that if I could, they would load me up with pain meds and let me out on a pass for two hours. I couldn't even dress myself which is funny now, but not then. I passed out during the attempt and had to be put back into the bed. See, the doc thought it was something else wrong that would "fix itself" so at that point I hadn't had the surgery. It wasn't until the day after the wedding that he decided to go in and have a look. Once I was cleared from the hospital we flew home and a few days later noticed something wasn't quite right. We went out to my favorite Vietnamese restraunt for soup and my husband asked if "that" was me or had I spilled soup on myself? By "that" he was refering to the stain on my shirt, right over my incision. I immediately went into denial and said it was soup of course. But it wasn't. We went to the hospital and had the build up of fluid around the incision, and the twenty one staples removed and I felt much better. I'm sorry, did I say I was trying to make this short? I lied. Even after that incident, I had another one before I was able to get on with the healing. And it was by far the grossest thing I have ever been through so I won't share any details. However, now I am doing much better. In two weeks I will have an EGD and then the docs will be able to see that everything is healing fine on the inside and I will feel better knowing that everything is okay too.

So, without further ado, I present a few things I have been doing. I will will share more photos later this week but decided to start with just a few for this post. I am learning to tat and this is my first doily:

Here are four more Blackbird stockings back from the finisher. I have a couple more stitched but really need to get my act together. I am supposed to lead a SAL for these with my local needlework guild and it won't be very inspiring if I can't keep up with it myself. I had already planned to stitch them all so this should really encourage me to keep up. Except that I have only wanted to tat lately.
A few weeks ago my inlaws came to visit and Sue brought me this bounty of goodies. This collection of tatting supplies came from her Aunt who passed away last year. No one else in the family tats so she asked if I could have the box of items that were now in storage. I feel so lucky to have them and will make lots of things. She saved some really neat patterns and I have already made one of them with some of the thread but it is a secret for now ;-)

The photo above shows the tatted flowers and doodles she had made and saved for note cards. The photo below shows the vast amount of tatting thread from the box and the patterns she had clipped from old Workbasket magazines. The thread was all in stationary boxes but I put it all into these plastic school boxes in hopes to keep it in really good condition so I can use it.
This photo shows all of the tatting shuttles and various tools she used. What an awesome collection!!!

Now, here is a link to the video my son made from the wedding pics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jrhgq1PNYQ
I think you will agree that they are just the cutest couple ever =)

Have a great day!

Another Dishtowel!

Here is my finished towel from the tea towel club meeting Thursday night. I love how it turned out and think I might make one or two for gifts eventually. We got a sneak peek at next months and it is an embroidered towel so I am very excited to make it, too!
I bought a kit with seven towels, floss, fabric strips and a pattern with tea cups and tea pots. I think I need to sew the fabric strips on before I do the embroidery so I might get those started this week while DH is at work. They will be a fun project take carry along with me and they aren't too involved to I think I might actually get them done. I think I want to try a set of pillow cases too and may look around for one of those pre-stamped sets.
Have a great day!

HAPPY EASTER!

Here is my first dishtowel. Just in time for Easter, sort of, lol! I can hardly wait to make another one! Hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter today =)

And the Winner is...

Hubby drew your name, Marie! Please email your address to me and I will mail you a goody box along with your pin cushion set that you won. Congratulations =)

A few of you asked questions so here are the answers:

• Hubby is home for good now. At least it will be a while before they would send him somewhere else, but he is done with the remote in Korea.
• Natasha - You can find directions for the dish scrubbers here.

• Patti - I purchased the Mary Arden Needles from Shakespeare's Peddler, and thank you for the compliments on my needle case. I hope you will share photos of yours when you get it made up =)

A very big THANK YOU to everyone who reads my blog!!!

I have been admiring Staci's beautiful embroidery project and even had the good fortune to win a drawing on her blog for this lovely piece. I have decided to expand my horizons and try more embroidery. I want to make some of those adorable old-fashioned Days-of-the-week dish towels and maybe a few other things. I have even signed up for two embroidery classes and I can hardly wait but they aren't until next month. I also joined the Tea Towel Club at the same shop and will share photos of those projects. I bought the project from last month and will show the photo later today, I hope. Once I get the ham into the oven I will sew the ric rac onto it and attach the bows and pompons and then I can take a photo. I want to have cutesy dish towels hanging in my kitchen! Maybe I will find some way to display my collection of vintage crochet pot holders too.

Have a great day!

Blogiversary Drawing

Here is a photo of the pin cushions sets that I stitched two of. One for me and one for you. Some lucky person will get this mailed to them along with some other goodies, which I am keeping a surprise until the package is received. Please enter the drawing by leaving a comment on this post only and I will have my dear hubby draw a name one week from today! Yep, he will be home from Korea the day after tomorrow!!!

I am off to my finishing class and should have photos of my projects tomorrow, maybe. I am likely to get a bit scatter brained (more than usual), as I have lots to do before Monday. I am even a little late to post my drawing since my blogiversary was yesterday, lol!

Have a great day!

More Finishes!

Here is a floss tag I stitched using patterns from Blackbirds newest book. I decided to use it as a bag tag for the floss I am using to stitch up their little stockings.
















Now, I don't know what came over me, but I actually did the finishing on this needle book all by myself! I usually avoid any machine sewing unless it is for an exchange and that is because I put it off until the last minute and end up having to do it myself, lol! This time I was blog surfing and saw this free pattern and thought, I might be able to do this one. And sew I did. I am sew pleased with how it turned out. Mind you, it isn't perfect, but then again, neither am I =)

Now, keep checking back. I will be having a give-away for my Blogaversary, which will be April 3rd, of something I stitched. No, not the needle book. It's mine too, lol. I will give a hint though. It's a little something from Blackbirds new book. I had to stitch two so I could keep one for myself. My goodness I am a greedy girl this year! And I love it...

Have a great day!