Flower frogs, flowers and Seasons

I seriously don't know how people can do weekly updates! Here it is, almost a month since the last update for me.

First up, I was the winner on Debra's blog of my first flower frog. Isn't is just packaged so pretty?

She is a Michigander too and actually lives in my old home town! We have never met, but I feel a certain connection with her and I've been trying to get her to come this direction to the "antique capital of the world" LOL that is just 15 minutes from my home. Maybe someday! Anyway she sent this lovely "frog" along with a new pair of scissors. She didn't believe me when I told her I only had 2 pair! The bottom was a tarnished silver and I didn't want to mess with polishing it frequently so Carl used his spray paint once more and now I have an oil rubbed bronze finish to it! It sits with pride in my craft room on my desk! Thanks so much Debra. I don't feel left out anymore!

I'm still plugging away on Seasonal Collide. I have 2 more pages done and just 2 more to go. The full album can be seen on Multiply (on blogger just click on the tab on my heading) This is over 100,000 stitches and I have less than 7000 to complete. I also finished the top to put on my box for my internet class. I'll share that when my box is completed. That's it for the stitching update. I haven't "finished" the April cottage and I haven't started May or June either. I do like the July cottage, so I think I will get that one done as soon as possible, once I get it! I did buy some new stash for myself  with the Mother's Day sales.

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Have you heard of THE STITCHERS VILLAGE? Are you a member? Do you participate? It's a shame that there are over 1500 members, but very few take advantage of the social forums. I have to admit, until a few months ago I was one of those. But now I have been visiting the village regularly and have figured out how to navigate the different groups, discussions, forums etc. If you are a member, go HERE and click on forums or groups and join in ANY discussion. If you aren't a member you should really think about joining. I like it because it's all in one place and has many groups for different interests, on and off topics and lots of caring people who all enjoy our same passion for stitching. If you are a member, put TSV logo on your blog like I have on my sidebar. Let's get more people involved! It's a great site where you can find your nitch, whatever that might be!
Since we're past the "freezing" stage in MI, I planted all my pots a couple weeks ago. Since we redid our deck and made it into a stamped patio, I didn't do as many hanging baskets and have them in pots on stands instead. This is just one pot of the 7 or so I did. The tree is called a Duranta, and I just fell in love with it when I saw it.




 

 
And the last photo I'll leave you with is our 4 generations on Mother's Day. Unfortunately I didn't get  one of me and my 2 kids!

Blog Hop, Stand or not?

 Do you use a stand when you stitch? If so, tell us about it and share pictures if you’ve got them. If not, would you like to try using a stand? Do you have any tips or tricks around using a stand versus not using a stand?

This is always a hot topic among stitchers. I haven't participated in this blog hop before, but I thought I would put in my 2 cents worth. Especially since this is easier to do than update my blog! :-)
I have had my stand for a couple years now. Mine is called the Needlework System 4. I purchased it because I wanted a more streamline frame than the bulkier wooden ones. I stitch at my loveseat and it had to be able to go completely under the bottom of the couch. I don't sit upright when I stitch.I either have my feet up on the coffee table, or I'm stretched out width wise on it! An optional feature is the curved piece you see at the top. This allows the frame to be closer and I can adjust the height from there also. I can see the TV over the top. It also is lightweight, (the stand is 2.5 lbs) so I can move it from my "normal" area to down in the basement when the husband wants to watch the "big" TV for a movie. The other thing I love about it is that I can flip the piece with ease to either start or finish my threads. No loosening  of nuts or wheels to do that. I rarely have to tightened the scrolls, they stay really tight. You can get either or both the Qsnap adaptor or scrolls. I only bought the scroll (which also comes in 2 widths) because I don't own any Qsnaps. I couldn't live without my stand for my large pieces. I don't use it for every piece I stitch though. Hope that enlightens a few people out there! I bought mine through this website Threadneedle street and it has much more info on it. Just click on Accessories.

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here.

It's all about Seasonal Collide!!! (well not quite)

Looking back on my posts, I haven't had an update on my Mystic Seasonal Collide since the end of the year. At that point I had finished 2 full rows or 14 pages. After the first of the year I got involved in the "no" pressure SAL of the CCN cottages. Seems that I don't understand what no pressure really means because each month that rolled around, I felt pressure to stitch and finish that month. I started slacking on my stitching time and became reacquainted with bejeweled on my phone! After I reassessed why I was doing the cottages, I stopped feeling the pressure and quit working on them (temporarily!) I got my floor stand out, that was feeling at home now in my new room, and as of today

I have 3 more pages done and just 4 left to do!



There is always controversy about how many strands to use on certain count fabric. I am using 2 strands, full x's and 22 ct. Here is a close up.  
I like that there is NO white showing through and it is not bunched up looking.

I did finally finish stitching on April (after stitching the whole house in a variegated that I ended up not liking) then frogging the whole house and redoing it. It's still not "finished" and on my calendar, but that's ok. I'm taking a box finishing class online with Meari so I need to pick out my top and get stitching on that!

I have a whole album of before and after photos of my craft room now. I finally got the hooks for my peg board and all the floss up on it. I am going to order another board since I have more floss to hang and I want room to grow, of course! If you'd like to browse them, they can be found HERE.
There are 40 photos, mainly for me to compare, but it shows my ironing center in the wall and my wall of floss! Plus how I put up all my finished pieces on the wall, so they could be displayed with pride!

On the home front, Carl has been helping both kids redo their bathrooms. We spent a whole weekend with Brett they got everything done except the floor. It went from this to this: and for Lauren her tub has tile around it and the floor is now finished, so she can start using her upstairs bath again. Hers went from this

To this:
And since we've had such a great spring I took some photos outside. I had a visitor or 2 around my pond.

I took this photo from inside, sorry it's blurry! But the male was feeling the female!

 

And this is our tree in the backyard that luckily has survived the several frosts after the blooms appeared!

 I have been trying to take photos of our granddaughter Amberlyn, but she is at the age where she won't look at you or smile when she knows you are taking her photo! Here are a few of my favorites. Of course Papa got her to smile for him! Thanks for dropping by and peeking at my small corner of the world!

1st day of Spring or Summer, is it June or March?

 

I know this is a stitching blog, but I have to start out with the fact that we are consistently having 80 degree days in March and everything is about 5-6 weeks ahead of schedule around here! That and the fact our furnace has been off for a week and we have been leaving the windows open at night too!

I've been missing lately because of work on my craft room and having a 9 day vacation to California. My room is coming along and right now I can only show my desk and wall unit, as the rest of the room isn't finished yet. It's all painted, but I need to get some more things installed and then rehang my photos. Now that the weather is so nice, it's being ignored again!  
This picture is right after painting the purple and green walls. This one is the desk I put together.






I took some ideas off the internet for material storage and ribbon storage. This is my wall unit and close ups of my finishing materials and the bottom is my cross stitch material. If you look closely you can see some of the stitching gifts I have received over the years.

Our vacation was great. Stayed with some old friends for a few days and then headed on to Palm Springs for 5 days. The weather was awesome, the mountains beautiful and we golfed twice at 2 very different courses. I did almost have a heart attack though while sitting by the pool the wind gusted very strongly and the plastic bag I used to carry all 3 projects I took with me ended up floating in the pool!!! Luckily the water didn't get inside the open bag and it blew across the pool to the other side where I could retrieve it!

I did finish my March cottage from CCN,

  
I used some satin stitches and french knots for the sheep.
 I finished Afraid of the Dark by Blue Ribbon Designs

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I know, not much of a stitching update, but really I have been busy with other things lately!

We had a St Pats party last weekend and here's a photo of me and my husband.
No Amberlyn update, I guess as she gets older I'm not taking as many photos....or the fact she doesn't sit still! She has been potty trained and that really makes her seem like a big girl now! Well that's it for now, hopefully I won't stay away so long next time and I hope to have more photos of my room and stitching, of course! Happy, happy Spring to all!!!!

Holidays collide!

Either that or I can't figure out what holiday I want stitch right now. I have finished a Christmas ornament, a Valentine piece and I started a Halloween piece!
First up is the tiny ornament from LHN 2011 series "snow in love" stitched over one on PTP 25 ct Earthen. I seem to be having trouble getting a fabric dark enough to really show the white nicely. I placed the quarter to get a feel for the size.

I finished the February cottage several weeks ago but I couldn't find the right color green felt anywhere. Little did I know there was a website that had EVERY color (thanks to Vonna for the tip) So today I did some finishing using her directions for a flat felt ornament. I did the snowmen ornie first and I like how the cottage felt looks with my 2nd try. There is a technique to get the cuts just right. I think I need to take my time on stitching these cottages up. I got so many good ideas AFTER mine was done from the SAL blog . Like using Rhodes Hearts to do the hearts instead of cross stitches. I already have an idea for March but I haven't gotten the pattern yet!! So I need to see if my idea will work or not.
More photos and angles of this finish can be seen here.

I was going through my material and found a nice piece of PTP Lava so I started Afraid of the Dark by Blue Ribbon Designs. I didn't have any of the recommended floss, so I just pulled threads from my stash and so far I think they look good. My tombstones look blue in this photo, but they are gray.

I have started my craft room remodel. The computer desk got moved, and today I finished removing all the wallpaper.(seen in the first photo and the border around the room) The next step is in my husbands hands, since he does the painting. We are repainting the ceiling then I need to pick out 2 colors. It's going to take more than a gallon so I'm going to do 2 colors. These are before pictures.....I wanted to show what a mess it was.





















When I start putting things back in there, I will be destashing....so stay tuned. I will probably just want enough money to cover the postage. I hope by the next blog update I will be putting things back in place and show some progress photos!!


It's been a weird winter here in MI, the Farmers Almanac said we were to have a record setting snowy winter and so far it's the end of January and I can see all of the grass and Sunday we even had a thunderstorm!!! For some reason the cold is easier to take if you're not dealing with snow all the time.

I finally figured out how to add links to other albums at the top of this blog, check them out!!!
Thanks for stopping by! I love to have you visit.

First finish of 2012

Now granted, it wasn't started just this year. So I don't want anyone getting their panties in a bunch and say how fast I was!!!! I started it in Dec and I just couldn't seem to put it down! These are so fun to stitch after working on a Mystic or something where you constantly have to be counting. I can outline these and fill in the colors! This is stitched on PTP Doubloon Belfast 32 ct. It measures about 10 X12. Do they make that size frame???

I have my CCN February cottage waiting to be started. I picked a rosey/pink material from PTP called Truffle to use for it. But it doesn't even seem like winter around here. Yesterday was 50 and I walked the dog in beautiful sun and a spring coat.

The Detroit Lions are in the playoffs for the first time since 1999 and they play tonight. So we are having friends over to watch the game. I'm not real confident that they will beat the Saints....but at least we are there! We always root for the home team, even when they went 0-16.


I have my shelves all bought and I've been looking up organizational ideas on Pinterest and have found several ideas. One of the easiest is to buy small tension rods to put all my rolls of trim on! I bought one unit that has several cubbies and I am going to put my material on mini bolts just like you see at the fabric stores too! I need to empty my computer desk and then remove the wallpaper and paint before anything gets put back into its new home. That is my winter project and it will take LOTS of time since I seem to have accumulated lots of stitchy stuff that needs a proper home.

And the year comes to an end

I have to say that 2011 hasn't been the best of years (losing my Dad) but I am looking forward to what 2012 brings!!! I'm not one of those that makes resolutions or even a list of things that I want to stitch. I will just update you with my resent WIP and finishes.And I'll just surprise you with what I can come up with in 2012.

I did one final ornament for Amberlyn. She loves horses so I did this one from the JCS 2009 ornament issue.

Next, I finished another page on my Mystic! 14 pages done and 7 left to do. This was started mid 2010.

I got a little bored with all the blue, so I picked out a material from my stash (I really don't like doing that part) and started the Lizzie Kate 6 Fat Men Series. I'm doing them all on one piece of fabric. It's on PTP Doubloon 32 ct Belfast linen. They are taking only 1-2 days to complete each pattern.

And I had Carl remove the painted apple tree off my wooden calendar my Dad made me and I finished my January cottage in the CCN Cottage SAL to put on my Calendar.I used a scrap piece of 40 ct opalescent material I had, and the snowflakes and snowman don't shop up real well in photos. It is slightly better in person, but it works for me. I am officially ready for January 1!!!

From my family to yours, I hope the New Year brings joy and peace to all my blogging friends!