More Knitting!

Aren't these yarns gorgeous?! At sock club Wednesday night we got to purchase the featured yarn for 15% off. I bought two skeins. The blues/greens will be for the sock pattern we received that night. The peach and variegated sock yarn next to it are for a scarf, and the pink cascade 220 is for another pair of wrist warmers for me! I love pink and really like the pair of wrist warmers that I made myself a couple of years ago.

This was knit for the "Knit One, Give One" charity that my LYS is currently doing. From one skein of Encore worsted yarn you can make one hat and a small scarf. I enjoyed knitting them so much that I am making another set for them. The patterns were given with the yarn from the shop and all you do is knit them. I think that is very nice of them to provide everything.

I am currently working on another baby gift and loads of Christmas goodies so not everything will be pictured here right away. I plan to keep knitting as long as I am inspired to do so. I do have one Christmas present that I need to get stitched so I will do that this week so I can mail it by the deadline.

Have a great day!

Ornaments, Exchanges, & "Let's Stitch"

I am finally getting around to making myself do some finishing work. I think the exchanges really help because it forces me to try new techniques and to get things done because I HAVE to get them into the mail. Now, above you see one Halloween ornament and one Christmas ornament. There is one more Christmas ornament that I finished but it is in the mail ;)

I heard from Joan that she received the HOE Prairie Schooler exchange from me. I stitched the "stick it here" freebie and made it into a pin keep for her. It was a fun stitch and I am sure that I will stitch it again!

Now, for the goal setting part of this message. I have joined up with Becky at her "Let's Stitch" blog and am looking forward to being motivated to work on my UFO's and stash collection. I am just getting started on the organization of the kitted up projects. Here is my pink plastic tote filled with my needlework smalls projects (the ones I have found so far, that is).

• A Secret Garden Needlework Necessary (from a class I took long ago)
• Just Nan - Common Ground Accessories
• Just Nan - Miss Kitty's Dragons Needle case
• Just Nan - Octagonal Peacock Pocket
• Just Nan - Dragonfly Scissor Purse
• Ewe & Eye & Friends - Big Heart Paperweight (mine will be a pin cushion)
• Ewe & Eye & Friends - St. Nick Scissor Companion
• Ewe & Eye & Friends - Polka Dot Scissor Companion
• Heartland Needleworks - Rosey Tote, scissor sheath, needle case & biscornu set
• From the Heart - Sewing Pocket and Pocket Smalls
• Periwinkle Promises - "United We Stand" Sampler Accent
• Periwinkle Promises - "Hope" Sampler Accent
• Shepherd's Bush - Tiny Flag
• Shepherd's Bush - Shepherd's Scissor Fob
• Shepherd's Bush - Shepherd's Roll
• Shepherd's Bush - Shepherd's Purse
• Shepherd's Bush - Stitcher's Roll
• Shepherd's Bush - Snow Fall Roll
• Shepherd's Bush - Millennium Roll (yep, I'm embarrassed that this is not done)
• Shepherd's Bush - Glory Fob
• Shepherd's Bush - Christmas Treat Bag
• LHN - Wool Needlebook and Scissor Fob
• LHN - Schoolgirl Samplings - make a fob from pattern
• With My Needle - smalls from JCS Ornament Issues 2003-06
  

Next week I will purchase a couple more containers for organizing more of the stash. I plan to have one container for samplers, one (I hope just one) of the miscellaneous kits I have, one for UFO's, and we'll see what other categories I think of. I am really excited about this!!!

I mailed out a few more exchanges today and when they arrive, I will post their photos. I think I am comfortably caught up with this now. Just need to do one more finishing on something so I can mail it out this week.

Have a great day!

It's time to get your SPOOKY on!

As you can see, I have been doing a little shopping. I have loads of ideas for goodies to make, and have gathered all of my Halloween patterns, ordered fabrics, pulled threads from my stash and purchased a couple of really neat ones to add to my collection. This is the first year that I have really been bitten by the Halloween bug. I have my feather tree out and want to fill it with ornaments so I need to get busy stitching. I think the colors are so much fun and there are lots of great patterns available for spooky stitching!

What's this? Peter piper picked a peck of pickled pumpkins????? As you can see, I have two. One for me, and one for whoooooooo? You? Maybe. Leave a comment on THIS post and tell me what you are stitching for Halloween. I will draw a name and announce a winner next Friday before I leave for the weekend retreat I am going on. The lucky winner will receive the pattern, a piece of the 10 count Sweet Potato Heatherfield fabric, and the two skeins of DMC size 5 perle cotton required to stitch this Halloween quicky! And maybe I will even post another giveaway...... That is, if I don't scare everyone away with this one!

Have a great day!

I'm Just Trying To Do My Part, President Bush!

Will you just look at this? Do I have any will power at all? Evidently not. I just had to have these. I hadn't purchased the fabric for "Where My Heart Blooms" so, it's here. I bought fabric and threads for a couple of small projects from "With Needle & Thread". One will be a birthday gift for a dear friend so I had to have that, right? The cool purple scissors are for another gift. The additional Blackbird charts - I looked through the album at the yahoo group site. Need I say more? Oh, and the blue fabric. It is for a major do-over on my Ultimate Needlebook. I will show pictures of that next time. The only mistake I made was in trying to "use what I have" the first time. The fabric was just too loosely woven and I hated how my stitching looked on it. So today I found the perfect fabric and am happily stitching away....

Have a great day!

Resistance is futile!

I was at my LNS for the stitch-in Friday night and there was talk of a "mystery" sampler. Blackbird is doing a mystery? Yes, you have to have all the charts from this years Loose Feathers program and at the end there will be a diagram for a seventh sampler using parts from the six charts in this years program. Key words, "mystery", "must have all the charts".....I was thinking, I don't have those yet, and I sure as heck don't want to miss anything. So, here are the first two charts, AND I decided I had to have this book. I have seen way to many cool things made from the charts in this book so I had to have it too! Can I please buy more time to stitch? PLEASE? I am supposed to be doing the yard work since dear hubby is gone for a year. I keep thinking, I wonder if it would be worth the money to pay someone to do it for me so I can stitch. How much stash money would I be giving up? It's just not fair to have to make that kind of decision, I tell you! I mean, check out the additional stash that came in the mail this week! I love clearance sales.

I did manage to get some stitching done this week, too. Three small projects. The "Grow Old With Me" design will go on the cover of a small scrapbook and become a gift to my hubby for our anniversary next month. The other two are LK freebies that I just felt like stitching. I have tons of small pieces of linen and I thought it would be fun to match them up with some small freebies and see how many I can get used up and stitched this year. I am also challenging myself to do the finishing work. I have been reading BeckyBee's blog and WOW!!! What an inspiration she is!

There is also a contest for you to check out on the Stitch Pink blog. All you have to do is leave a comment, but please take a minute to read about all of the great pink things you can stitch and support Breast Cancer Awareness.

Have a great day!

Stashy Goodness & A Finish

Yesterday I received my order from Handcrafts Online and not a moment too soon because the pattern for my next project was in there! That next project will be the Rose Sampler which I have already kitted it up.



I finished stitching the Cottage Garden thread pack yesterday! I love those thread packs and order one or two whenever I get the chance (have the money). They are a great way to collect the Crescent Colours threads and one of the thread packs in this latest order has the silks in it which I have not yet had the chance to try. I am looking forward to that! If only there were more hours in the day...

The wool fabric behind the Cottage Garden is what I think I will use for the Wool Needlecase and fob pattern. I still need to pull the threads and have a better look. Tomorrow I plan to spend the day at my LNS and get lots of stitching done before going to the guild meeting in the evening. It is going to be a fun day and if I want to be out of bed before noon, I had better get to sleep! Have a great day!