Pulled Out an Old WIP!

Last year (about this time, I think) Jennifer and I decided to order the Mirabilia
Halloween Fairy kits and do a SAL on Friday nights. We did pretty well sticking with it, but neither of of got CLOSE to finishing it for Halloween. Last week we decided to start the SAL up again, and here's my progress after last night's session. I decided to substitute the kit fabric for a Sugar Maple fabric called Boo. I love how it looks so far, but I'm dreading the face - I just hate stitching faces - but I really want to just get it over with and move on, so that's what I'll try to do next Friday night. I also substituted the floss for the skin - the Bella Rosa that came with the kit was just way to pink - so I'm using Cobbled Peach. I would REALLY like to do all of these lovely Fairies - all on different colored hand-dyed fabric - but I've promised myself that I won't buy another one until I get this one finished. That should be pretty good motivation - LOL

Last year Jodi joined in the SAL, so maybe I can persuade her to start up with us again and I'll post her progress here.

A New Finish and More Great Mail

I finally finished my selection for the ornament RR! YEH!! I would have finished it last night, but when I went to stitch the red sections with the called for Rhubarb GAST, I found it to be WAY to pink - so I got disgusted and went to bed instead - LOL. SO, tonight I substituted Cranberry and I think it turned out very nice, if I do say so myself! I've stitched this over-one on some fabric from the old Blended Needle called Very Vintage with all the recommended threads with the above exception. So my package will be ready to mail tomorrow and I've actually made the deadline! Whew!



I also got some fun things in the mail today. I got a package from Jodi (thanks Jodi!!) with some beautiful batik fabric which is for backing fabric for her selection of the ornament RR - she has given us color choices, and I'll bet you can guess from the picture what my choice was :) Jodi is a fantastic fabric shopper (and a fantastic yarn shopper too - LOL) and we're all trying to convince her to take up sewing.



The ornie the fabric is for is this one from Sampler Hiver a la Montagne that Jodi stitched over-one in green (although I think she said my green will be a little different). Kathy stitched this one in blue as one of her monthly ornies last year. It looks like it'll be a fun stitch - I love stitching over-one!

The other stuff I got in the package I can't talk about, but it'll come out sooner or later ;)


I also wanted to show this wonderful bracelet that I got from Laura a while back. She's been busy doing beaded knitting (or is it bead knitting? LOL) and she thought I'd like this bracelet because of the great dragonfly clasp (I LOVE dragonflies!). Thanks again Laura for this lovely bracelet - I really need to learn how to do this!


I also received the latest issue of Bead & Button magazine today! Just thumbing through it I already want to make about half the projects - LOL I definately need more hours in the day!

A Closer Look at "A Valentine Message"

When I first framed A Valentine Message over Christmas break, I promised close-up pics so everyone could see all the goodies I added. Well, I finally took those pics yesterday after Jodi reminded me that showing such a small pic at the bottom of my blog was just a tease - LOL. Again, this is a piece that Jodi stitch for me for Valentine's Day 2006. It's by Black Bird Designs, but Jodi changed the colors - and I LOVE what she picked! I was lucky enough to find the perfect background fabric at JoAnn's and a lot of the buttons and lace pieces were sent to me by Jodi specifically for this piece.






Here's a close-up of the lower left-hand corner. The floss is the same as what Jodi used for the heart and the ribbons, I believe, were from my stash. The sticker is from my card-making stash.














And here's the lower right-hand corner with three flower-shaped buttons sewn on with beads and another sticker attached with a button.









The upper left...







and upper right. The fan is from Fancifuls Inc. - a great place to get charms - and has been in my stash for several years - I think it's perfect on the piece!

I have this hanging right next to my stitching chair and I love to look up at it! Thanks again Jodi for your lovely stitching and contributions to one of my most favorite pieces!! I hope this eliminates the "teasing" - LOL

Beadles Class and Gifts from Friends

Last night I went to a Memory Wire Cuff Bracelet class at my local bead shop, Beadles. Working with memory wire ended up being a lot tougher than I though it would be - I even cut myself with it twice - LOL. After fumbling and dropping beads for over an hour, I finally got the hang of it and created a beautiful bracelet (if I do say so myself). It's a little snug, and I can't wear it while typing on the computer, but it's pretty and that's all that really matters, isn't it? LOL When I finished last night, I had ten more minutes left of class time, so I made myself a quick pair of matching earrings!



I have another class scheduled on July 11th - this one is a Tennis Bracelet class. Isn't that pretty? Of course, mine won't be blue! ROFLOL







When I got home I found a present from my neighbor. I go to her for foot zoning and while she zones me, I knit. She was admiring a "Bubblegum" pink Lazy Daisy scarf I was making a few months ago, so I made another one for her. Then she told me that her daughter stole it from her, so I made her a second scarf, but in "Purple Rain". Anyway, she left me two beautiful skeins of wool - one to make a scarf for her, and one to make a scarf for me. So now I'm on the search for a fun, but not too difficult, scarf pattern for these. Any ideas would be much appreciated. I was actually thinking of this one that I found at the Crystal Palace Yarn site. It's an Elongated Brick pattern - or there's this Zig Zag scarf, but that looks a little trickier. Any opinions? Maybe I should do both - LOL.


I also got a surprise in the mail. Peg did some shopping over the weekend at Hobby Lobby and found me this Victorian Style Beaded Knit Purse pattern - it takes size 0000 needles and 9 hanks of beads! I think I'm going to have to be a much better knitter before I tackle this one, but it's a pretty pattern. Thanks for thinking of me Peg!

A Day at the Range

OK, so, one of DH's favorite hobbies is target shooting (it's one of HIS Meditations in Motion - LOL), so almost every Sunday we go to the county shooting range and shoot. I shoot with him for part of the time and then I sit in the shade and stitch - it's a win-win situation - LOL. I was really "on" today, and DH said "You have to post this target in your blog!" LOL So, here it is, my target for today. This is shooting from about twenty feet, with two different guns. DH buys me these colorful targets because he thinks it's pretty cute that I get so excited about hitting the pink in the middle - LOL.


So, what was I working on at the range? I'm in an ornament RR and the first mail date is the end of this week, so I'm currently working on my contribution. I'm stitching Blackbird Designs Christmas Ornament 2004 from the 2004 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue. So far I've got the bird and half the boarder done, so I should be able to make my deadline.

Then this evening, we watched Flushed Away, which I hadn't seen yet. I thought it was pretty funny, and I LOVED the slugs!

I'm going to see if I can get a little more done on my ornament before bedtime :)

Beads, Beautiful Beads!!

Today DH took me to The Bead Renaissance Show in Ogden!! It wasn't very big (about a dozen vendors), but BOY can you drop some money quickly there! LOL I was joking with DH that I wanted him to come with me because he could help curb my spending, but I'm sure I bought more with him there. He was such a sweetie and helped pick out a lot of pretty things for me.


Our first stop was a Bali silver booth where I bought 4 stands of spacers 1 strand of bead caps, 12 loose spacers, a pendant holder and three choker length strands that I can add beads to. It was a little overwhelming, right off the bat - LOL


Right next to that booth was one with a bunch of beautiful coral. I bought three strands of purple coral beads (two different sizes of faceted beads and one round) and a really cool fossilized coral pendent piece.


Luckily we got through the next booth without buying anything, LOL. But then I found freshwater pearls in a rainbow of glorious colors!! I limited myself to only 4 strands in different colors, then a little later on I found some smaller cream ones (the "classic" freshwater pearl) in another booth, and I just HAD to get two strands of those - LOL.


At the first place I bought pearls, the booth owner was doing bead crochet, which is something I really would like to learn. He told me that the booth next to him carried all the stuff, so I found a book and bought some beads, cord and a crochet hook - and I'm going to give it a try! I also bought a package of German craft wire in a gold tone - I recently took a wire wrapping class at my local bead store and they told me that German craft wire is really good to work with - I bought the silver there, but they didn't have it in gold.


By then we were both getting pretty "beaded out" - LOL - and I really couldn't make many more decisions, but DH found a really pretty string of green stone beads (which turned out to be azurite) and I found some black onyx which I thought would be good to have. ;)

On the way out I found some tools that I needed (OK, I really needed the flush cutters, the pliers were just a nice thing to have) LOL. I must admit, I was pretty wiped out after that - I think we were there for 2 1/2 hours, but that's a long time to stand around looking at thousands of beads, especially for poor DH - he was SUCH a good sport today!


I like to knit while DH drives (I have an issue with being still - LOL) and I finished a scarf for myself on the way home. The yarn is called Lazy Daisy by Moda Dea in the color Sea Grass. I've made seven or eight of these scarves in different colors - I just love the yarn!

So, now I'm going to see if I can do some beading - or maybe I'll stitch - or perhaps both! LOL

A Package Received!

Jennifer e-mailed me that she got the exchange package I sent her! We had each other's names in an exchange where we were to stitch a certain designer or theme. Jen picked a patriotic theme and I stitched her Bent Creek's "Flag 1998", only I changed the date to 1776. This was the first time I had to use magnification to stitch on 40-ct, and I was none to happy about that! LOL


I also made Jen a pair of beaded earrings - they were a lot of fun to make! This was from a pattern by Alice Korach from The Bead Bugle .



My choice for the exchange was a Black Bird Designs piece. Jen stitched me "A Present to my Friend" and made it into this lovely flat-fold. Thanks again Jen!!

Well, here we are!

I've been debating starting a blog for quite a while now, and I've finally decided to take the plunge, thanks to my friends at my Yahoo group - so if you don't like this, you can blame them - LOL.