Friday finishes

Can you believe that it's Friday again, already?  The Summer is flying by at record speed, I hope that you are enjoying some sort of Summer fun where you are.  We made it through dance camp and boy scout camp (different kids, same week, same town, fifty miles from home, one day camp, one overnight).  Dale took boy scout camp duty and I took dance camp taxi duties and fun was had by all.  Tennessee USA is still running at the Playhouse and the kids do several shows a week, they love seeing the reactions from the various audiences.  And, since sleep and I have been strangers lately, I have some finishes to show you. 

First, I stitched up Blackbird Design's quick little monchromatic design.  I finished it as pin pillow, with a bit of antique lace and a few antique bakelite buttons.   

Next, another Blackbird Designs piece, this one their little Souvenir freebie.  I used two Crescent Colours silks on a hand dyed piece of 40 count and it stitched up quickly.  I finished it as a pillow with a bit of hand crocheted lace and a seed bead trim.  I'll stitch this again, someday, for Di, in a bright turquoise, and finish it with a great piece of turquoise eiffel tower fabric that I have in my stash.  She loves all things French, but this isn't bright enough for her room.

And, finally, my favorite pillow finish, a Carriage House Samplings design, stitched in silk on a 40 count handdyed linen.  I finished it with a couple antique buttons and added a jute rick rack trim which I beaded with seed beads to add a little color to the trim.  It may end up on my dresser as a place to display my antique pins. 

I also did a little stitching this week.  I was feeling nostalgic and did a little poking around in my stash, mainly my old magazines, and I found this little design from Birds of a Feather.  It's just so cute that I had to stitch it.  I will probably finish it into a little patchwork tote for my niece Vivian, the design suits her.

I also finished another piece for Just CrossStitch but I can't show you that yet.  I have to say that I really enjoy reading the stitching blogs and am in awe of the true talent of the many needleartists out there.  I don't comment all that often, but do know that I always feel rewarded when I take a moment to see what my fellow stitchers are creating.  Thank you for sharing! 

A new tree

Just a quick post to show you my latest tree.  The Liberty tree is featured in the July/August issue of Just Crossstitch magazine.  I finished this one as a button on pillow using one of Trail Creek Farms pillows, a quick and easy finish.  This magazine issue is also the ornament preview issue and there are several must stitch (for me) ornaments.  I hope to have a nice batch of new ornaments for the Christmas tree this year.  I've been collecting and designing ornament charts all year, now to get to stitching them.  My kids enjoy adding the new ones to the tree each year, and the handmade ones are always the favorites.  Thanks for stopping by, I hope that you are all enjoying your Summer.

Angels on Blue

I haven't been getting any stitching done lately but Susan A. has.  Susan kindly sent me this pic of all five of my angels stitched on 30 ct. Sky fabric.  My first reaction was Wow!!!  I love how the blue fabric sets the angels off so nicely.  Plus, her finishing is lovely.  Hers is the first set, other than my own, that I've seen completed and they just made my day. 
As a designer, I design what is inside of me, never knowing if it will be something that others will want to stitch, so it always makes me smile when I see someone else taking the time to stitch my designs.  Thanks for sharing these with me, Susan!!!  And thanks, everyone for visiting my blog. 

A Few Finishes

It has been busy, busy here. We are well into March and the days are just flying by. Been busy doing kids stuff, helping with the cross country team, trap practice, boy scouts and dance, dance, dance. Spring recital is coming up so it's time for me to help with costume details, which involves checking the costumes, doing any quicky finishing work that needs done on them, making any extra items needed, handing them out to the students and explaining the stage makeup and costumes how to's. The costumes are beautiful this year and really well made, I can't wait to see them on the dancers.

As for stitching, my finishing pile is growing. I have over a dozen things needing my attention. Little pieces and big. I will schedule a finishing day soon, I will, I will.......

Here are a couple of recent finishes, excuse the wrinkles. The first is a sweet little design from Carriage House Samplings. I have so many of her designs in my stash and am trying to work a few of them into my rotation. I love the pink, red, olive color combo in this design and have plans to make it into a thread keep.

This is Shakespeare's Peddler's Jenny Bean's Christmas Sampler. It was a fun design to stitch, enough color changes to keep me interested, and pretty shades of red and green. I changed a few colors here and there but nothing extreme. I have two great rustic frames that would work for this piece and I cannot decide between them yet.

The last piece is Cape Cod Girls, by the Primitive Needle. Really quick stitch. I used a beautiful piece of linen from my "special" stash. Sharon Crescent, creator of the lovely Crescent Colours threads used to dye linens when she first started out in the needlework biz. The colors were soft and amazing and I bought a fat quarter of every shade that she had. I keep them in my "special" box and use them sparingly. This is a soft blue green and worked perfectly with the Weeks threads that were called for. I did pick up the new Cape Cod Boys companion design so it will get a "special" linen from the box as well.

Enough from me for today. I have orders to fill and a couple of magazine pieces to get ready. Thank you for your comments on my stitching and on my new little Lucy Lu. My daughter discovered that Lucy likes to play dress up so there will be some silly dog pics in the future. She is also reading up on agility competitions for pugs and plans to make Lucy a star. Have a great afternoon!!!

Lucy Lu

Here is my little Lucy Lu! She finally sat still long enough for a couple of shots. I LOVE her buggy eyes. Such a sweet little girl.

LHN Needle and Thread

I started this Saturday night and finished this cute little piece last night. It's Little House Needlework's Hoffman exclusive, Needle and Thread. It was fun to stitch and easy to finish. My first "market release" finish. It will sit near my stitching spot, perfect for my scissors and spare needles.

It's been busy since my last post. Everyday life keeps me on my toes lately. We have a new fur baby addition to our household, a pretty 4 month old black pug. Daughter Di named her Lucy Lu and she is such a liitle bundle of fun. The rest of my fur family is adjusting well to their hyper little sister.

I've been sneaking my stitching in wherever I can and will post more pics when I get some time. I really need to have a little finishing marathon, I have a dozen stitched pieces waiting for their finishes.

Until next time, enjoy yourselves!

And the winner is......

Before I announce the winner, I want to thank everyone that commented and posted about my giveaway. I'm a relatively new blogger and I appreciate your participation and comments. Thanks to you, I have "discovered" many new and interesting blogs and have added them to my list of favorites. This was fun so I'll be doing lots more giveaways in the future.

Okay, drum roll please..................... the winner of the JSC Ornie issue and the Angels charts is Deb, creator of the wonderful blog, The Thread Gatherer http://threadgatherer.blogspot.com Deb, if you would email me your snail mail addy, I'll send this out to you right away.

Thanks again to everyone for participating! Enjoy your day!