Sea to Shining Sea

I had a great time stitching on Friday night for the Let’s Stitch blog’s weekly stitch-a-thon (SAT). My piece of choice this week was the new Sea to Shining Sea silk thread pack series from Diane Williams of Little House Needleworks.

I actually started this piece earlier in the week on Tuesday after getting home from the polls. I volunteered as a poll worker at my local voting precinct that day and felt like working on something a bit patriotic to unwind when I got home that night. Since this series is called Sea to Shining Sea, it seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

Here are my before & after pics for the SAT:

For some reason, must be the difference between taking the photos in daylight vs. night time, the fabric looks different in each picture. It’s 32-count Natural Raw linen as called for in the chart. The fibers are Belle Soie silks from Crescent Colors which are included in the thread packs.

Yesterday I went an all-day stitch tomorrow at my LNS. As usual, we had a great time and lots of good food. We always have a potluck and it seemed like this month everyone went for either hors d’oeuvres or desserts. There’s wasn’t too much in the way of “real” food, but we all enjoyed it none the less. I stitched a bit more on Sea to Shining Sea and also stitched on an ornament. I won’t be posting a picture of it though since it’s for an exchange coming up in a couple of weeks.

I know I’ve been remiss the past few weeks since vacation of getting my weekly walking schedule posted. I’ll try and get that posted tomorrow to help hold myself accountable. I really need to focus on it all the more now because not only is it training for my half marathon in June, but it will help me earn Activity Points for Weight Watchers. I realized this weekend that I really need the accountability of the meetings, so I went back on Saturday morning and rejoined. Even if it was cheaper, trying to lose weight on my own just wasn’t working. I’ll just have to find some other places to cut back a bit to help offset the cost of the $40 monthly pass to WW.

I do have a couple of areas in mind already on how to cut back a bit on my expenses. I’m planning to help accomplish that goal is starting to take my lunch again which will save me not only money, but calories as well since I’ll have more control over what I’m eating. The other plan is to start making my own iced coffee at home rather than stopping at Starbucks or McDonalds. That should actually save me quite a bit as well since I would normally stop a couple of times per week for coffee.

Well, I guess that’s it for now. I hope everyone had a great weekend!

I’m a Winner!!

I can’t believe it! I rarely win anything, but I made out like a bandit last week! I actually won TWO things.

The first item I won came through purchasing a fundraiser raffle ticket from Soup of Success. I ended up winning a Vera Bradley Linsday purse in the soon to be retired Pink Elephant print! I just received it today and I’m already loving it! The inner compartment is large enough to hold all my necessities, including my Kindle. There are also 2 nicely sized pockets on the front (under the flap) that are large enough to hold both my personal iPhone and work BlackBerry. I just want to give a big “THANKS” to West View Florist of Elkhart, IN for generously donating this wonderful bag to the fundraiser, especially since I won it. The ironic part is that I actually looked at some Vera Bradley bags a few days ago, but decided to hold off until my wallet recovers a bit from my vacation last week.

Here are some pics:

In addition to the VB bag, I also won a free chart in a trivia contest on the Little House & County Cottage Stitchers Yahoo group. Diane graciously offered up a list of her designs from which to choose. I opted to go with one of her latest designs and selected Holly & Berries. Here’s a photo of the design from her website:

Speaking of Little House Needleworks, I also received my kit for From Sea to Shining Sea from Drema at Needlecraft Corner. After volunteering at the election polls today, I was feeling particularly patriotic and decided to start it tonight while I have been unwinding before heading off to bed. Here’s a pic of the fabric and fibers right before I started:

Also, for those out there who, like me, are LHN fans, Diane has a new release coming out later this month that I’m very much looking forward to getting. It’s called “Something Old, Something New” and is a collection of eight previously released complimentary designs as well as two new designs. Here’s a computer generated image of the designs included in this release:

Well, that’s it from me for now. In closing though, I would like to offer my sincere congratulations to President Elect Obama. I know this had to be a very bittersweet day for him after losing his grandmother yesterday. I also want to commend Senator McCain for his very gracious concession speech.

This election has been a very long battle. I’m sure everyone, myself included, is glad that it’s finally over so we don’t have to see any more political ads, hear any more debates, get any more robocalls, etc. Well, at least, not for two more years until they start all this madness again. There really does need to be a limit set on how long these campaigns can run!

New Toy & Stitching Update

I got a new toy last week and realized today that I’ve not posted about it here on my blog yet. I got an Amazon Kindle. I.LOVE.IT!!! It’s so awesome to have so many books just a click away in something that weighs just over 10 ounces (.28 kg). Here’s a pic of my new baby:

On a lighter note, I’m sure by now many of you have heard the Oprah declared the Kindle her “favorite new gadget“. As a result of her announcement, Kindles are currently on backorder through Amazon (at least, they are according to the Amazon rep with whom I spoke today). I actually received mine two days prior to her big announcement, so I actually had something BEFORE Oprah declared it to be the latest thing. I guess that makes me one of the cool kids.

In stitching news, I’ve mostly been working on Hannah Beeby and Where There is Life lately. They are the two projects that I took with me to Hawai’i on vacation. Here are my latest progress photos:

Where There is Life (Little House Needleworks):

Hannah Beeby 1816 (Gitta’s Timeless Designs):

The little pin cushion in the Hannah Beeby photo is one that I picked up in a local Hawaiian quilt shop in Honolulu. They had some GORGEOUS quilts in there and it was really tempting to bring one home with me, but I managed to settle for just getting the pin cushion instead. :-)

We did manage to make our way to a local stitching shop while in Honolulu. It was called Fiddlesticks and they were so nice to us during our visit! I did pick up a couple of charts while there. I was mostly wanting to get some sort of Hawaiian-inspired design to stitch as a keepsake, but a couple of other charts somehow found their way into my stack, too.

Well, I guess that’s enough for now. I’ll post again later this weekend. I saw on the Fair & Square blog that my partner received her Autumn exchange that I sent, so I’ll post some pics of it then.

Where There is Life

I thought I would take a minute to post a bit of a stitching update as well. I decided in honor of breast cancer awareness month that I would work on “Where There is Hope” from Little House Needleworks. This was a collaboration kit between Diane Williams of LHN, Sharon Crescent of Crescent Colors, and Lois Mouriski of Elegant Stitch. All of the kit proceeds are being donated to breast cancer education and awareness programs.

Here is my progress thus far (click image for a larger view):

Here is what the piece will look like when finished. This particular piece (done by Lois) was stitched over 1, but I’m stitching mine over 2.

If you are interested in this kit, or any of the other breast cancer fund raisers offered by Lois, please check out her website. Lois is a survivor herself, so this cause is very near and dear to her heart.

Halloween Fairy Update

I won’t be working on my fairy today, so I thought I would post my latest update on her. I did work on her for about half the day yesterday at the all day stitch at my LNS. I spent the better part of an hour fighting with the Kreinik braid for the moon. It kept knotting and twisting and just wouldn’t seem to lay properly. I finally got so frustrated with it (after frogging it for the third time!), that I substituted and used two strands of a similar color (032) of Accentuate instead. As always, you can click the image for a larger view, if you like.

I hope everyone has/had a wonderful Sunday!!

Autumn Exchange from Sue W.

I received my beautiful squares yesterday from Sue W. for the Autumn exchange on the Fair and Square blog. I love it!! I’m definitely thinking this should become a pinkeep. Thanks so much, Sue!

I hope to have the squares for Sue in the mail on Monday. All I have left to do is finish my name square and it will be ready to go. Of course, I won’t be posting any photos of that until after Sue receives it so as not to spoil the surprise.

Last night was also the weekly Stitch-a-Thon for the Let’s Stitch blog. I decided to put in some more time on my Halloween Fairy. I only stitched for around 2.5 of the 6 hours allocated for the SAT, but still felt like I made some good progress. I got her left arm done as well as pretty much all of the owl sitting on it. Here are my before and after pictures to show what I accomplished:

Before:

After:

Well, I’m off for another all day Stitch & Bitch at the LNS. I can’t wait to hear what everything thinks of the O.J. Simpson verdict! I’ll bet good money he was shocked that a criminal jury actually found him guilty!

UFO sighting!

BeckySC over on the Let’s Stitch blog challenged all of us to pull out our oldest UFO this week and work on it. I actually have two UFO’s about the same age (both started within a two week period of Sept. 2005) that I’m hoping to work on this week.

The first is Celtic Christmas by Lavender & Lace. I pulled her out yesterday and worked on her for a couple of hours. Even though it’s a bit difficult to see, I feel like I made good progress on her since I got some of the missing portions of her skirt filled. Here’s a couple of photos.

Before (as of January 2007):

After (as of yesterday:

I have to say, after seeing these comparison photos, it makes me really glad I recently purchased a new digital camera. LOL It shows the colors much more accurately than the first photo since I am stitching this on a cream linen.

My other UFO project that I’m hoping to work on some this week is Rosemarkie by Long Dog Designs. I love this project so much, but about all I have left is the backstitching. Have I mentioned just HOW much I detest backstitching? I.hate.it. Here is my most recent progress photo of Rosemarkie. I’ll post an updated one later in the week after I work on it as well.

Before (as of February 2007):

Friday SAT Progress

I actually managed to stitch the 4 of the 6 hours for the Let’s Stitch Friday night Stitch-a-Thon (SAT). Woo Hoo! I don’t remember the last time I’ve done that much consecutive stitching at home. About the only time I sit & stitch for that long in a single sitting is when I’m in a class.

As planned, I spent the time working on my Halloween Fairy by Nora Corbett. I really feel like I made some great progress on her. Here’s my SAT before & after pictures (click image for larger version):

I’m hoping to get in some more stitching time tonight. I’ll be working on my Hannah Beeby 1816 SAL piece. It’s been sitting idle for far too long.

Friday night Stitch-A-Thon

I’ve decided to work on my Trick or Treat fairy tonight for the Friday night Stitch-a-Thon with the Let’s Stitch blog group. I’m also probably going to work some on my exchange piece for the Autumn Fair & Square exchange, but I won’t be able to post photos of it.

Here’s my before pic of my ToT fairy:

You can click on the image for an even larger view, if you like. She’s a little bit different from the original chart. I decided to rechart and stitch her face and arms 1-over-1 for a little finer detail.

The SAT run from 6pm until midnight local time. I’ll post another photo tomorrow to show how much progress I made. I’ll have to be really careful with my stitching during the first part of the SAT as I’ll be watching the presidential debate at the same time. I’ll have to be careful to make sure I don’t pull my stitches too tightly if I start getting annoyed by what I’m hearing.

WIP Update

I was putting together a list of my WIPs for an intro post on the new Let’s Stitch blog. I figured since I went to all of the work to put it together that I would share it here as well.

I actually have 19 WIP’s right now, but really hope to reduce that number by three or four by year’s end. Here’s a list of my current projects along with the date on which they were started. I’ve also linked them to my most current WIP photo when available. Linking them has made me realize I need to update my WIP photos. LOL Anyway, the pieces I’ve marked with ** are my current focus pieces.

• Rosemarkie — Long Dog Samplers — 1-Sep-05

• Celtic Christmas — Lavendar & Lace — 25-Sep-05
• Diminutive Sewing Set (class piece) — Merry Cox — 3-Jun-06
• Taj Mahal Mandala Garden — Chatelaine — 1-Jan-07
• Sampler Gameboard — Drawn Thread — 1-Jan-07
• Le Quaker a 6 Mains — Broder Ensemble/Le 498/AMAP — 5-Jan-07
• Moonlit Garden — Blackbird Designs — 19-Jan-07
• The Token — Long Dog Samplers — 23-Feb-07
• Bunny in a Box (canvas class piece) — Shelly Tribbey — 6-Apr-07
• Sakura (class piece) — Brightneedle — 29-Apr-07
• Just Peachy Santa (canvas class piece) — Just Libby Designs — 12-Jun-07
• Bewitching Banner — Ursula Michael — 26-Jul-07
• Chocolat (class piece) — Jackie du Plessis — 20-Oct-07
• Acorn Hill — Little House Needleworks — 1-Jan-08
• Hannah Beeby 1816 - Timeless Designs — 24-Mar-08**
• Nova (canvas) — Ginni Morrow Designs — 10-Aug-08**
• Halloween Fairy — Nora Corbett — 12-Aug-08**
• Sweet Biscornu — Periphaeria Designs — 31-Aug-08**
• Exchange piece — It’s a secret — 21-Sep-08**

The Let’s Stitch group will be doing a Stitch-A-Thon tonight from 6pm - midnight local time. I need to decide what I want to work on tonight and post my before picture. Everyone participating will be posting their before and after pictures for the Stitch-A-Thon so we can see each other’s progress. It should be fun.