ExchangesTag Archives

Summer Exchange & Team in Training Update

I am participating this year in a seasonal exchange with a few other stitching friends. It’s time for our summer exchange, and I received my package from Joan today. There are so many beautiful things that I hardly know where to begin, so I’ll just start with a photo.

For the stitched piece, she made me one of the gorgeous Blackbird Designs stockings. I love these little stockings so much, but the finishing on them completely intimidates me. Joan’s finishing is absolutely impeccable though! It’s stunning.

She also sent along several goodies for me, including another gorgeous project bag she made. The fabric strip is a country style sewing theme and is absolutely adorable. I love it! Given how many WIPs I have, new project bags are always a welcome sight.

She also included a beaded scissor fob kit. I’ve only attempted to make one fob in the past, so having a kit is great since I don’t have a lot of necessary supplies for fob making. It’s great having some written instructions, too! I can’t wait to give it a try.

Next was a beautiful little pincushion chart called “Ole Pincushion” from Theresa at Shakespeare’s Peddler. It’s designed to fit into an old zinc Ball jar lid, which Joan also included! I was over the moon when I saw the lid. It immediately took me back to wonderful childhood memories of my Gran doing her summer canning using old Ball jars.

Speaking of antiques, she also sent me some beautiful little mother of pearl buttons that she said she picked up in her antiquing adventures. Given how many biscornus I stitch, one can never have enough buttons, and antique ones are just that much more special.

As you can see, she spoiled me quite nicely with this exchange. Thanks again so very much for everything, Joan!

I want to close this post by thanking several of my readers who have donated to my fundraising efforts for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Way back in January, I signed up with Team in Training to do a half marathon. More importantly than the race though, I signed up to raise money for LLS as a way to honor my dad who is now a 20+ year lymphoma survivor. With your help, I’ve managed to raise over $2500 for blood cancer research & support. I can’t thank you all enough!!

The half marathon will be taking place this weekend on Sunday, June 6. As I’m out on the course, I’ll definitely be thinking of my supporters, my dad, and all those still living with cancer. Hopefully the day will come soon that no one has to go through the battle of fighting these cancers.

The importance of this battle was brought home in such a personal way to those of us in the OCIE training group. During the course of this training process, one of our coaches, who was also a lymphoma survivor of several years, was diagnosed with a recurrence of his cancer. He immediately started the whole chemo process, and we hope he will be cancer-free again as quickly as possible! Coach John won’t be out there with us on the course this weekend, but he will definitely be in all of our hearts & thoughts.

Until next time …

3 June 2010

Misc., Stitching

0 comments

Exchanges, Joan, Stitching Friends, Team in Training

Ornament Exchange

Since Corinna posted a comment letting me know that she received her ornament from our Fair & Square exchange, I am able to share a photo of it now. I combined the front & back views into a single pic.

Click to biggify

The design is by Shepherd’s Bush and is called “Joyful Night”. It’s from the 1998 edition of the Just Cross Stitch magazine annual ornament issue, but also appears in their 10th anniversary collection book.

Even though finishing is not included in a typical Fair & Square exchange, Corinna and I agreed between ourselves to do the finishing for this round. It worked out wonderfully because this way we were able to enjoy our ornaments this year. Otherwise, we would have needed to finish them ourselves after receiving the squares and then wait for next Christmas to roll around to enjoy them.

I did the finishing for the ornament while I was on vacation up in San Francisco with my friend Tracy. Even though she’s a scrapper at heart, she also stitches. She recently asked me to teach her how to do ornament finishing, so I took the opportunity of finishing this one to show her.

This was my first time making a two-color twisted cord. I was pleased with how it turned out. It’s not very easy to tell from the photo, but I used the same two colors for the cord what were the stripe colors in the hat in the design.

That’s it for now. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas yesterday. Until next time …

26 December 2009

Stitching

2 comments

Christmas, Exchanges, Fair & Square, Finishes, Ornaments, Shepherd's Bush

A Good Stitchy Day

Yep, yesterday was a good stitchy day. The morning started off on a very good note and the trend continued throughout most of the day. As I was getting ready to head out for the morning, I stopped by and picked up my mail and found a package from Corinna. She’s my partner in the Fair & Square Christmas round. Even though there is no finishing requirement for the Fair & Square exchanges, Corinna and I agreed privately to do the finishing on our exchange with one another. This way we can each enjoy them this year. Here is what she sent me:

Her finishing on this little stocking is simply exquisite! The design is “Winter Song” by Blackbird Designs. It is from the 2008 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue.

I’ve decided to take it to work and use it as my cubicle stocking this year. I figure since I spend more time at work than at home, I can enjoy it more that way. I’ll bring home to put on my little tree here when I get off on Christmas Eve. Thank you so much, Corinna!! I hope to have the finishing done on yours in the next few days and get it into the mail this week.

After that, I headed over to my LNS for the monthly all day stitch. OMG, we had sooooo much fun! Of course, the amount of fun we have is directly proportionate to a lack of actual stitching. Soooo, that means I didn’t come even remotely close to my goal of finishing my LHN ornament.

As you might expect, I sit at the troublemakers end of the table (nearest end of the table in the above photo). Of course, I’m in very good company there with Darla and Terri (right side of the table), and our non-blogging friends Karen and Dana (left side of the table). I sit in the empty chair in the middle between Dana and Terri.

The only other regular cohort we were missing today was our other non-blogging friend Lindsay. She was off on a quilting adventure instead. When you get us all together, it can definitely spell trouble with a capital T. I’m not sure some of the people at the other end of the room quite know what to think of us and some of our conversations.

Terri actually surprised me (and Darla, too!) with the chart Book of Spells from The Goode Huswife. It’s been on my wish list since I first saw it. In fact, I added it on as soon as I saw the first teaser pic before it was even officially released at market earlier this year. Not only did she give me the chart, but she also included the fabric and fibers, too! Thank you so much, Terri!!!

I didn’t actually do much shopping today. I figure with all the stash I’ve purchased recently, I didn’t really need anything. Of course, once I got to the shop, Diana (the shop owner) was having a big sale with 20% off all cross stitch charts, counted canvas needlepoint charts, and painted needlepoint canvases. I did look around a bit, but ultimately decided not to pick up any other charts.

She also has a Victoria Sampler trunk show going on right now. In honor of the trunk show, she is giving 20% off the VS thread/accessory packs, too! Given that I purchased the Christmas Village chart during my recent stash haul, I did take advantage of the sale to pick up the thread packs for it.

While we were there, Diana gave us all the info for the 2010 stitching cruise as well. Instead of heading down to Mexico again like we did earlier this year, the 2010 cruise will be heading northbound. It will be a 4-day Pacific Coast cruise on the Coral Princess leaving Los Angeles on Thursday, May 6. There will be two full days at sea before the first port of call on Sunday in Victoria, British Columbia. The stop in Victoria also includes Afternoon Tea at the beautiful Fairmont Empress Hotel. After leaving Victoria, there is an overnight sail to Vancouver, BC which is the final debarkation for the cruise. From there, we would fly back home to Los Angeles. I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to make it or not yet, but it sure sounds fun.

So, all in all, it was a very good stitchy day. Until next time …

6 December 2009

Stitching

13 comments

Cruise, Exchanges, Fair & Square, Friends, Good Huswife, LNS, RAK, Stash, Troublemakers, Victoria Sampler

Halloween Squares & A Finish

Jeanie in Singapore received the Halloween squares I stitched for her as part of the Fair & Square exchange, so I can share a picture of them now. The design is by Prairie Schooler from their Boo to You chart.

I received my squares from Jeanie last week. She choose a couple of small motifs from San-Man Originals. She did a great job. I think the squares are adorable. Thanks, Jeanie!

I also have another little finish to share. It’s actually a partial finish of an ultimate larger piece. It’s from the Sea to Shining Sea silk thread pack series from Little House Needleworks. The whole piece is made up of five regional squares and a border pack. Since they are each packaged separately, I’m counting each thread pack as a finish. So, here’s the West Coast:

I have one last picture to share before I finish this up. I’m a week late posting it, but here is my monthly photo of my orts jar for the Totally Useless SAL:

I also want to add a note for those of you who are following my weight loss journey. I registered a new domain name for that blog. The new URL is http://www.melgetsfit.com. ~~If you have the old URL bookmarked, it will still continue to work.~~ Edit: Turns out I was wrong, the old URL apparently doesn’t work any longer. It will get you to the site, but the blog entries are no longer displayed. I just ask that if you link that blog elsewhere that you please use the new URL. Thanks!

Ok, that’s it for now. Until next time …

23 October 2009

Stitching, Weight Loss/Fitness

4 comments

Blogging, Cross Stitch, Exchanges, Fair & Square, Halloween, Little House Needleworks, Totally Useless SAL, Weight Loss/Fitness

Exchange & TUSAL Updates

Wow, I can’t believe that I completely spaced on posting a photo of the replacement exchange squares I received from Corinna. She kindly stepped up and volunteered to stitch them for me as replacement for the earlier failed exchange. The design is “Tiny Sampler” from La-D-Da and I love it! She did such a fantastic job. Thanks, Corinna!!

It’s difficult to believe that another month has passed by already, but it has. The new moon was yesterday, so that means it’s time for another Totally Useless SAL photo update. Here ya’ go (the photo was taken a night, so please pardon how dark it is):

I don’t really feel like I made much progress in my ort collection since last month’s update. I was on vacation for about the first 10 days of this TUSAL month, so that definitely contributed to the lack of stitching this month. Hopefully I’ll have a lot more going into the jar this month.

I also wanted to post about another great stitchy giveaway. Jan is giving away a lovely chart, and everything needed to stitch it, in honor of the birth of her new granddaughter Alexandra. She has all the details for the giveaway on her blog. What a lovely way to honor her new grandbaby. Here’s a pic of everything she is providing:

Until next time …

23 July 2009

Cross Stitch

1 comment

Exchanges, Fair & Square, Giveaway, Totally Useless SAL

Cute Little Bunnies & More

I haven’t gotten around to uploading and posting pics of my vacation … yet. I will get to it eventually. I promise. In the meantime, until that actually happens, I wanted to share another vacation-related pic.

During the whole Michigan road trip extravaganza, one of the stops we made was in Holland, MI. There was a little fair trade store there called The Bridge that had the cutest stuff. As soon as I saw this little set of whitewashed terra cotta bunnies, I knew I had to have them. Aren’t they just adorable?!!

They are made in Bangladesh and are distributed by Ten Thousand Villages. They came in a little jute bag which I plan to put to use in the future in an exchange or as perhaps a little gift bag. I know it’s difficult to tell what size they are from the photo, so I took another photo which included a US quarter for scale. You can see that photo here if you are interested.

If any of the other bunny lovers out there are interested, the set is available via the TTV website. Here is the direct link to the bunny set.

I also picked up this Inspirational Paperweight they had in the store. These are made in India and are also distributed by Ten Thousand Villages. I got the word Strength as a reminder to myself that I AM a strong woman and can do anything to which I set my mind.

They sold them individually at the store, but they are available as a set via the TTV website at this direct link. The set includes stones with the following six words: joy, strength, hope, wisdom, love and peace.

In stitching news, I do have a finish but can’t share the photo yet. It’s for the summer round of the Fair & Square exchange. I still need to stitch the second square with my name before I can mail it off to April. Once that’s done and she receives it, I’ll post a pic.

Lastly, I’m doing pretty well getting myself back on track at Weight Watchers following my vacation. I went several weeks without going to a meeting and it definitely showed when I got back home. I picked myself up, dusted myself off, and got myself back on track though. At my weigh in on Sunday, I was down 4 pounds.

Lastly, as I know many of you are aware based on the emails I’ve received, I’m still having issues with my online photo albums. I did manage to get about 90+% of the photos restored, but there is still clearly some sort of corruption going on with the database. Rather than continuing to try and troubleshoot the problem, I decided this is definitely the time to take advantage of moving everything over to my thedailymel.com domain as I’d been planning to do anyway. It’s definitely going to take some time, so the old albums won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. From this point forward though, all the photos I upload in the future will be going into the new albums. Here is the link for that:

http://www.thedailymel.com/pics

Oh, and this would be the perfect time to remind others to do as I say and not as I do. Back up your files … OFTEN! My last backup of my photo albums was late February of this year. Accordingly, all of the photos I had uploaded since that time had to be recreated. Please don’t make my same mistake. kthx!

I guess that’s it for now. Until next time …