Rebecca Small Finish

Well, I have to tell you that this week has been one where I would rather stitch than blog. With two new projects and several older ones demanding my attention, it hard to pull myself away from the needle. I worked mainly on my two newest projects, the Dear Diary Sampler SAL and Sampler Saisons which I am doing with a sampler SAL on the HAED forum. I have found that SALs are a wonderful way to keep myself motivated, and blogging as well.

Here is the progress that I made on Dear Diary. I have finished the small sampler for Rebecca Small. I believe that I shall stitch one of the virtue squares above this one before moving on to another of the small samplers. This is so much fun to stitch, and it so cute IRL. Somehow I don't think the camera quite captures its essence.

My other main stitching project this last week has been Sampler Saisons 2007 by Anagram Diffusion. I am stitching this one over one on 28 count Sugared Coffee Lugana from Sassy's fabrics with Vikki Clayton silk in Woad Blue 2411. This is my first purchase of Sassy's Fabric which I decided to try after reading Vonna's glowing review on her blog. It totally lives up to her review. It has certainly become my favorite for evenweaves, and I am sure that I'll be trying her linen soon. The Sugared Coffee color is lovely, my ideal sampler color. This is also my first time to use Vikki's silks and I am extremely happy with them also.

Anyhow, here is my WIP on Saisons. I am eager to stitch some of the little design figures, but I am trying to get a good section of border completed first...borders are kind of a little obsessive compulsive thing with me.

I have also been stitching on Petite Maisons, but I have decided to wait until I finish the August square before I post a picture. The August square is very cute, and possibly my favorite so far, but I am finding it hard to pull myself off these other two to work on it. I am determined, however, to finish this one this year. And finally, like everyone else, I am eagerly awaiting the Nashville releases. I am particularly hoping to catch a glimpse of CHS Shores. I was surprised to see that Vikki Clayton silks already has a conversion pack for the threads available.

Well that is all, now I must rush back to my needle.

Dear Diary Progress

I really don't have much to write about, but I thought I would post a picture of the progress that I made on the Dear Diary sampler. I did not finish Rebecca Small's section, but I hope to next week. I really like the red that is used in this pattern, DMC 355.

This weekend I am participating in the HAED Sampler SAL. This is a year-long SAL where you just stitch on a sampler of your choosing every 3rd weekend of the month. Of course, the samplers aren't HAED designs, so you find the SAL organized in the HAEDless Stitching section. If you like samplers, you should go take a look at the SAL thread because there are a lot of beautiful ones being stitched.

I decided to go with Sampler Saisons 2007 by Anagram Diffusion, even though it is going to be enormous. I don't know what it is about me and big projects. I'll post a picture next week of my progress. This should be my last new start for a long time. I certainly have enough to work on now. Here is a picture of what it will look like when completed, except mine will be blue.

Fair and Square Exchange

On Monday, the postman brought these delightful Fair & Square exchange squares from Ruth. They are perfect and I just love these colorful birds. Isn't the signature square beautiful? She had read my blog and knew that I had been immersed into birdwatching lately. She also sent lots of lovely flosses...some Six Strands Sweet and GAST in soft spring colors. And to top it all off, a Mary Engelbreit card. I am a big fan of Mary Engelbreit. Thank you so much Ruth!


And here are the squares that I sent to Ruth. She said in her profile that she liked houses and sheep, so I found this pattern in one of my Point de Croix magazines. She said on the Fair & Square message board that they reminded her of the Alps...and so they are...the French Alps. I had a lot of fun participating in this round of Fair & Square, and I am eager to get stitching on the next.

Also, this past weekend was the HAED Challenge SAL. I got about 800 stitches done. Fairy Village is definitely a WISP, but I enjoy stitching on it for limited bursts of time.

Well that is all for now. I have been stitching on the LHN Dear Diary Sampler yesterday and today, but haven't got enough done to share a new picture yet.

Have a great week, everybody!

Google Images Search

I saw this on Melissa's blog and decided to join in the fun. You are supposed to answer the questions, type your answers into Google Images Search, and post a photo from the first results page. You will get some interesting choices...

If you decide to play along also, please leave a message so I can come and see yours.

So, without further ado, here are mine:

What age will you be on your next birthday?

Place you would like to visit?

One of your favorite places?

Your favorite object?

Your favorite food?

Your favorite animal?

Your favorite color?

Name of a past pet?

Where you live?

1st grade teacher's last name?

Your middle name?

A bad habit of yours?

Favorite flower?

Favorite holiday?

+

First Finish of 2008

I put the last stitches in Redbird Sampler by Bent Creek tonight. I really like the way it came out, and I think that Nutmeg Lakeside Linen was a good choice for fabric. It is more reddish in tone than the dirty linen that the model was stitched on, but I like that ruddyness. I would have finished it earlier, I had it all done except that snowflake next to the Z on the bottom row and the pine tree branch next to it on Sunday, but then I came down with a bad cold. I was too sick to stitch Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday. I felt better today, though, and finally got those last few stitches in.

I also stitched today on my Dear Diary sampler. This is supposed to be a Tuesday SAL, but since I was too sick then to get much done, I worked on it today. I have started with Rebecca Small's sampler because she is from Texas and so am I. This was so much fun...but then aren't all new starts fun. I almost didn't want to put it down so I could finish Redbird, but I did.

This weekend I'll be stitching on HAED Fairy Village as part of the HAED Challenge SAL on the HAED Forum. So I probably won't get back to Rebecca Small until next Tuesday, but I am enjoying this SAL so far!

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the week, and has plenty of time to stitch.

Dear Diary Sampler

I have been stitching away on Redbird sampler this week. I am now about two-thirds finished. Perhaps I can finish it over the weekend. Starting on Monday, however, I will have less stitching time, because it is back to school (well homeschool) for us here at the Bungalow. I shall have to return to Geometry theorems and Renaissance history and linking verbs and Spanish conjugations. Ah well, it makes the time I get to stitch all the more sweet.

I have also decided on another new start! I am going to join Cheryl and Vonna in a LHN Dear Diary sampler SAL. We were all inspired by seeing Lizzy's RR on the Heartfelt Friends Round Robin.

I have decided to stitch my sampler on Maple Sugar Lakeside Linen. Yesterday, I made paper cut outs roughly the size of the samplers. The small squares are the little virtue pillow designs that come with each sampler. On my 32 ct. linen, they should be three inches square. I am only going to stitch 4 of them on my sampler. The rectangles vary slightly, but will be roughly 6 1/2 inches by 4 1/2 inches. I played around with my cutouts on the fabric and finally decided on this layout. I still need to calculate how many stitches between the motifs, etc., but I should be ready to start stitching on Tuesday. I can't wait!

Happy stitching everyone!

New Year, New Start

We spent New Year's Eve at the home of some good friends and played board games all night. Some of the games we played were Taboo, Oodles, Apples to Apples and Cranium. It was a fun way to while the hours away until midnight. Funny, we have had the game Cranium for over a year and never played it, never realized what a fun game it was. Well, now I think I can guarantee that it will be played. We love to play games as a family, but when it is just us, we tend to play Clue or Ticket to Ride.


I have traditionally started something new on New Year's Eve, but since we were actually gone then, I didn't get to stitch until New Year's Day. I started Redbird Sampler by Bent Creek. I have seen many, many pictures of this finished on various blogs and webpages, and I have always wanted to stitch it. This was finally the year I found the pattern...on sale even...and got going on it. Here is my progress as of the end of today.




I first stitched the Redbird in the WDW thread listed on the chart, Lancaster Red. It is a darkish, rusty, reddish brown and I thought the bird needed to be more red (perhaps I was unlucky in the dyelot for this skein). The pattern also lists DMC threads, so I restitched him in DMC 815. I like it better than the Lancaster Red, but neither looks like the model, so I might stitch him yet again in some other over-dyed red. At least he is small and easy to frog. My husband and kids like him how he is, so perhaps I'll just leave him alone. My son told me that I was killing the bird when he saw me frogging out the Lancaster Red version. He even thought the bits of reddish-brown fuzz left behind looked like bird blood. Oh the joys of a life with boys ;-).

This is stitching up very fast, which is unusual for me, especially lately. I have been stitching so much on HAEDs and other BIG projects lately, that finishes are few and far between. This and the nature alphabet I did last year have reminded that it is fun to work on quicker, smaller, easier stuff now and then. So that is one goal for this year, stitch more of these smaller fun projects. I foresee some LHN and CCN and Elizabeth's Designs in my future.

Other goals will be:
1.) Participate in the HAED SAL Challenge every month 0f 2008.
2.) Get started on a sampler for the HAED Sampler SAL.
3.) Finish Petite Maisons de Campagne by Maryse.
4.) Complete two pages on each of my HAEDs.
5.) Finish Engelbreit's "To a Friend's House, the Road is Never Long"
6.) Learn how to make a pinkeep and make one.
7.) Stitch 4 Christmas ornaments and finish them.

Well, that's enough for now. I don't think I'll list specific starts because I am so fickle, I could change my mind by tomorrow. It should be amusing, anyway, to see what I can accomplish.