march 28 - spring? really????

Well...after a nasty cold week, and two beautiful spring days, we are now back to cold and rain...and my old bones are feeling it! I want spring, and I want it now! No patience left for this nasty weather!

Stitching has really been hit and miss lately. I finished up stitching an Easter exchange, but I haven't heard if it has been received yet, so photos will have to wait. I'm also still working on stitching up three PIFs that are supposed to go out by the end of the month...hmmmm...I'm afraid they might be a tad late! But no photos there either.

I stitched up my ornament for March. Two groups that I belong to are having a year long ornament SAL and I'm trying hard to stay on track. This is another small design from the Folk Art Samplings leaflet from The Cricket Collection. I guess it is called Noel...at least that's what I am calling it! The fabric on the bottom is the backing fabric.

Mouse has graciously been designing a band sampler for us over at Friendly Stitchers, and I finally picked some thread and fabric to stitch up part one this week. The sampler is called Dawn of Spring. I chose a Jazlyn 32 ct. fabric from Silkweavers. The color is called Debutante which is a very pale lavender. The threads I chose are Gast...Highland Heather. The funny thing is that both my original and contrast color are the same. The difference though is in the dye lots. One is much much darker that the other! It's hard to see the difference in this picture but it is pretty obvious in real life! I also changed the bottom section a bit by omitting the cushion stitches. It is probably me, but they just didn't lay correctly when I tried them. Maybe I will go back and add them later on. Anyway, this was really fun to stitch and I am looking forward to the next part.

Has anyone else tried the new blogger interface? I thought I liked it until I tried to post. Once I added a photo, I couldn't get my curser to let me get to the next row. It kept wanting me to type right through the photo! Anyway, I have never claimed to be technologically savvy, so I am sure that the problem is with me. I just hope I can figure it out before this becomes the default for posting!

I guess that's all for now. Time for a nice hot drink and then back to work!
Thanks so much for taking the time to visit!

march 23 - a day late TUSAL

Just a fly-by post to show my TUSAL for this month. Baseball season is upon us - yay! - so I have my baseball player standing guard!


After a week of cold winter weather, and even snow...today was a gorgeous spring day...hope it lasts all weekend!

Thanks for stopping by to visit!

march 19 - IHSW update...& we have a winner!

No pictures to show today...and very little stitching done this weekend either! We ended up having our grandson stay over from Friday night until after dinner on Sunday, so that left very little stitching time. No naps = no stitching for gramma! But I didn't mind one little bit. We all had so much fun together. The sun even peeked out for a bit so we could go outside and play.
I did finish up my stitching for an Easter exchange, but can't show any photos yet.

There were 27 entries for the Easter patterns. I don't know how to do the random number thing, so I just wrote everyone's name on a little ticket and put them all in a basket and had one of my co-workers pull out a name. And the winner is.....Natasha! I am sending you an email for your address, or if you see this first, please just send it along to me. Thanks to everyone who took the time to enter!

And thanks for taking the time to visit today!

Thank

march 16 - another pattern will be traveling soon

So, while most everyone around the country has been enjoying summer-like weather, here in the Pacific Northwest it has been raining like crazy. The last two days were just non-stop downpours, but it seems to have let up today, so I have high hopes for at least a partially clear weekend (maybe...).

I've had these photos sitting in my blogger for days now...just no time to post anything! But now I have a few things...

About the only stitching I managed last weekend...an update on my Traditional Sampler. Only one more band to go!


An idea for those of you who love Vikki's silks...now that they mostly (always?) come on bobbins, I was looking for a way to store them. While shopping for something else, I came across these cute little bobbin boxes....


They store 21 bobbins and were only $3.99. I thought that was a pretty good deal...and they can stack and take up very little space too.

Lately, I have noticed several bloggers being awarded the Liebster Award. It is for great blogs that are starting out and have fewer than 200 followers. What a wonderful way to be introduced to new bloggers! I have been having so much fun reading fun facts about bloggers I already know, and discovering lots of new blogs to follow. I'm not sure who got this one started, but thank you! It's a wonderful idea!

And, finally, I finished the stitching on Busy Needle from LHN. This was beautifully stitched and finished by Becky a few weeks ago (I still haven't decided how I'm going to finish mine) and when people started looking for the design (which was a special edition and no longer available), I realized I had it in my stash. So I stitched it up and am now offering it as a traveling pattern.


If you would be interested in a chance to stitch this adorable design, please leave me a comment on this post, and please make sure to leave an email address so I can contact you.

This is our IHSW weekend and I am hoping to finish an exchange piece and stitch up three PIFs that need to be sent out very soon. I'd love to also maybe stitch something that I can show on Monday too, but we'll see what happens. We're having a sleep-over with our grandson on Saturday night which usually means no stitching time for gramma, but that's ok by me as long as he is around!

Thanks for visiting and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

march 16 - quickie giveaway

I'd like to share these few Easter themed patterns ...so if you would like a chance to win, please leave a comment on this post telling me that you are interested. Don't forget to add your email address so I can contact you!

There will be a quick turn around on this one because I have a trip to the post office planned for next Wednesday, so the deadline for comments will be Monday at noon Pacific time. That should give me time to get an address from the winner and give you a chance to maybe stitch one of these up before the holiday!

Thanks for visiting!

march 8 - another full moon

The full moon is upon us again. Today has been a very crazy day...everything is upside down...between the full moon and the solar flare...I guess anything is possible today!

But one thing I know for sure is that it is WIPocalypse time again. This has been a rather barren stitching month for me, but I do have some progress to show on my Traditional Sampler. Sorry...the photo is a little bit wonky...it really isn't narrower at the top that at the bottom! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's progress this month. I hope my needles will be more active before the next full moon!

If anyone has any prayers to spare, my daughter could really use them this week. She is having a really rough time, and it is so frustrating to watch and not be able to do anything constructive to help. But I do believe in the power of prayer, so I know there is hope.

Thanks for taking the time to visit today. And also for your lovely comments. I do appreciate them.

march 4 - another week gone by

I had very good intentions this week, but they kind of all went up in smoke! Work was super busy...our director left for Paris on Friday and we had a zillion loose ends to take care of before she left. This leaves me in charge, but our circulation supervisor is also gone this week, so we are really short staffed. If anyone calls in sick, we're in trouble! Add to this the fact that my work email has been less than reliable for the last few weeks and I am slightly stressed! I rearranged my tiny space on Friday to set up for a new (finally) computer which (hopefully) should be here in a couple of weeks. My current computer is older than dirt and really really slow.

Very little stitching has been done this week...I've been too tired to concentrate...but I have been reading which has been nice. I managed to get my February ornament done...just under the wire again! This is a little design that I found in an old CEC leaflet, called Folk Art Samplings. There are lots of cute tiny blocks to stitch. I think that two more (at least) will make cute ornies. The fabric is what I used for the backing.

I had all my needles ready to SAL on Friday night, but didn't get any stitches done. Maybe before the day is done, I may still make some progress today! Right now, I am watching Bruins hockey. I have a book to finish, and then am planning on a trip to my LNS this afternoon to see what market goodies she has. Hubby has a meeting and this is the one Sunday a month that A& T is open. I also have to see about getting some new pants for work. I've lost some weight and my old pants are way too big. This is a good thing, but I hate to shop, especially for pants because they are always too long. We'll see what I can find.

I was lucky enough to win a giveaway from Patti and wanted to share it. She does beautiful work and I am so pleased that she sent this lovely heart. I have it close to my chair where I stitch and read, so I get to see it all the time.

Thanks so much for visiting...I hope everyone is having a great weekend!