weekend finishes

I finished a quilt square for a little girl with a foot injury. Mary, I’ll mail this out within the next few days:

Front & back of a new design:

Another square for my LHN project:

I found these at a garage sale! They were glued into awful frames so I pried them loose and washed them… no clue what I’ll do with them yet, but I can vaguely imagine them being sewn into tote bags or something useful:

Just a few days until my anniversary… I’ve was so worried I’d forget again that I’ve been thinking about it every day for the past two weeks! Last night I asked my husband if he could believe we’ve been married for 10 years and he corrected me; it will only be 9 years on July 2nd. Well, at least I got the date right.

 

Winfield Flood pets fundraising continues

I was in the hospital’s surgery waiting room for the better part of a day and stitched up this Jane Austen design from The Sampler Girl. (you can find the chart here) Hubby has forbidden my mentioning his surgery on my blog (although I guess I just did, huh?) but I will say that he is home and resting now. You’ll have to please excuse the un-ironed state of this little finish :)

I just added a few more counting heart sets to my Etsy shop along with a few more threadholders, including the Jane Austen style. Don’t forget that all sales are still going towards helping the pets who are victims of the flood here in Winfield. So far we have raised $84.00 together! Thank you so much for your help! Later this week, I will make the payment to the Missouri Humane Society and post the final total.

• AP News blurb
• ST. Louis Today article about the MOHS
• NY Times article about levee strength

I’m hoping to take a day of leisure tomorrow and attend a stitching get together at a friend’s house. Have a lovely day, everyone… stay safe and dry!

 

friday afternoon

This afternoon I finished the Freedom section of my Heart of America project, planted the bushes (mulching and beautifying to come after this next round of storms pass through), and spoiled myself with new Gingher Dressmaker shears and some glitzy Kreinik… nice day.

 

Fran and Tina Sparkle show us a finish

Was it really March when I started this?! Not the quickest progress, eh? Last night I completed the stitching on the “Liberty” section of LHN’s Heart of America, and this afternoon I started the “Freedom” section. (I’m doing each section on a different fabric and plan to reassemble them later- details here) I’m skipping the borders on each piece as well, largely because I don’t care to stitch borders but also because I’m not quite sure how these will be fitting back together yet.

My Webkinz volunteered to help with the picture (I think they’re a bit jealous of little Cheese) so I need to introduce them as well. Fran is the lovely pink & white kitty and Tina Sparkle is the very sweet bear cub. I named them after characters in one of my favorite quirky little films, Strictly Ballroom. (I figure I’ll get a boy Webkinz next and name him Scott) I’ve actually only spent a tiny bit of time on the Webkinz website, but what I have seen is really cute. My daughter is really into it, but then again she’s nine. Soooo…. any other big people out there care to admit they have a Webkinz?

I’m still struggling along with the second book in the Outlander series. I don’t know what the trouble is, but Dragonfly in Amber is nowhere near as interesting to me as the first book was… I have to push myself to read it. I figure it HAS to get better, though, because it sure can’t get any worse there’s a good story line in there somewhere.

“Sunday is the golden clasp that binds together the rest of the week” -Longfellow

 

one teensy finish and a pretty start

I just finished this little tea design from Mary Garry… I like these pale colors but I want to do it over again in brighter colors, too. BTW, I recently found a new tea that Iike: Bencheley Blackberry. I used to hate tea. But after developing a few health issues that green tea was purported to relieve, I started making myself drink a cup every evening. One thing led to another–tea experimentation–and now I’m hooked on several types of tea. I guess you could say Green Tea was my gateway drug.

Last night I started Olive’s Peace Band Sampler with the Vikki Clayton silk I ordered last week; I love (love!) how this is stitching up. The color is “Yawning Mountain” (it looks slightly more pastel here in the picture than it does in real life) and I think this will become one of my new favorites.

“There is no trouble so great or grave that cannot be much diminished by a nice cup of tea.” -Bernard Paul Heroux

 

Se habla Espanol? Not today.

Here’s a close up of a square I stitched for Paula for the last round of the F&S Exchange. I started with Donna’s “Frosty Tree Trimmers” pattern (pictured below), changed the colors and added a scene in the middle.

Pretty cute, aren’t they? I’m hoping I can make time to stitch these (as originally designed) for Christmas this year.

I just finished up Outlander and I have Dragonfly on standby. I don’t know why it took me so long to read this book… I guess it’s because I don’t generally care for science fiction (time travel especially), steamy romance, or foreign history in novels. Since this has all three–centers around all 3 in fact– I just gave it a pass. But recently I saw it on Barbara’s blog and like a lemming I decided to read it as well. I’m glad I did; it’s a good story.

This school year I had a big plan–we would begin Spanish lessons in September and by the time Cinco de Mayo rolled around, we’d be able to speak only in Spanish all day. Only it didn’t happen that way… maybe next year. We’re still having the taco salad for dinner though.

 

my daughter joins the biz ;)

AAAACK!  WordPress is eating the comments I am leaving on your blogs… shuffling them over to the spam file.  And I have found comments that you’ve left me in my spam file.  Something fishy is going on!

I finished Peep! Not sure about my choice of green for the “peep”… sort of gets lost against the strong background. I may take it out and restitch in another color, but I probably won’t. I’ll probably add it to my stitching scrapbook as is.

If I did want to frog it though, I’d be able to use my new frogging needle. (how’s that for a lead-in to a new product? LOL) Yes, I’ve come up with another gadget… I can’t tell you how much fun I’m having with my Etsy shop! It took me about a week of trial & error to get a frogging needle that I’m happy with.

One of the problems was the frog image. I just didn’t like any of my frog drawings, so I asked my 9-yo daughter to help. After a few attempts she came up with a little frog that was perfect, and I entered into a licensing agreement with her. She will be receiving a percentage of sales from my frogging needles and is very excited by it all.

Speaking of Etsy, I ran across a lady (California Seaming) who makes cool little felt flowers for decorating Crocs… of course I had to get some. I can totally see myself getting these in all different colors and changing them to suit whatever I’m wearing… aren’t they cute?