LNSTag Archives

The Face of Alex

Woo Hoo! Lady Alexandra finally has a face & hair. Her headless body was starting to creep me out just a bit. What do you think? Does she look significantly snooty to live up to the Mirabilia name? As always, click to biggify.

Her hair is mostly done at this point with the exception of a few confetti stitches. The open spots you see will eventually be filled in with beads for her tiara and such, but I won’t be doing that until all of the stitching is done.

I’ll be heading off tomorrow for the monthly Saturday Stitch at my LNS. After that I’m heading over to spend the evening with another friend who is a backsliding stitcher that I’m trying to bring back into the fold. Our plan for the evening is Mexican food for dinner followed by stitching and a couple of chick flicks. Can’t wait!

With all that stitching time tomorrow, I’m hoping to get quite a bit more done on Alex. I’ll post another update the first of next week.

Until next time …

9 September 2011

Cross Stitch

2 comments

Lady Alexandra, LNS, Mirabilia, Nancy

Planning for a REALLY long life

I’ve always made the joke that I won’t die as long as I have unfinished/unstitched projects in my stash. Well, I’m clearly planning to give Methuselah a run for his money. I’ve not had a lot of time for stitching lately due to my work schedule and training for my upcoming half marathon, but that hasn’t seemed to stop me from acquiring more stash.

First of all, I do want to thank all of you for your input about my fabric choice for Garden of Eerie in my previous post. Between my own preference, your votes, and votes of the women at the monthly Saturday Stitch group at my LNS, I’ve opted to go with the Lentil.

Lakeside Linen: Lentil:

I have decided to use the Sand Dune on another project — Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow from Carriage House Samplings. Yes, I bought it!

Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow

As soon as I saw those Halloween squares, I just knew I wanted to stitch it. I love the entire design, but it was really the Halloween squares that spoke to me the most. So, I have decided to adapt the design a bit and make a smaller piece using four of the Halloween squares that didn’t include any of the verse. Here is my own mock-up of what my planned piece will look like when finished … some day.

My version of Autumn at Hawk Run Hollow

By the way, for those who may not have heard yet, if there are any Carriage House Samplings charts you have on your wish list, you might want to go on and purchase them. Kathy has decided to hang up her designing hat. You can read all the details on her blog in this post. The quick overview though is that she will continue to sell and ship to shops until July 1, 2010. After that, any remaining inventory she has left will be listed at her Etsy shop and will be sold there until December 31, 2010. Her charts will no longer be available as of January 1, 2011.

I had the day off yesterday, so I took the opportunity to drop by my LNS to pick up a new Prairie Schooler chart she ordered for me. While I was there, a few other things managed to find their way into my basket.

In addition to the Prairie Schooler The Tortoise & The Hare chart, I also picked up the SYHO design from Belinda at Blue Ribbon Designs called Established With Love. It’s such a sweet little design, and I’m a sucker for houses. Since I’m also an avid reader, I picked up The Book Store from Nikki over at Country Cottage Needleworks. Although, I do most of my reading on my Kindle these days, so it’s pretty rare for me to make it to a book store any longer. When I do though, I try to find an independent bookseller instead of one of the major chain stores.

You may also notice there was a floss toss in my new stash photo. I can’t share what the project is yet since it’s for a gift, but let me just say, I am IN LOVE with the color palette! I thought the design I selected was so pretty when I chose it, but once I pulled the fibers, I loved it all the more! I absolutely can’t wait to see how this design comes together. Here’s a closer view of just the toss:

The photo is a little dark because I took it around 9pm last night. I decided I couldn’t wait until it was daylight because I wanted to start stitching.

Ok, this post is starting to get really long, but I still have more to share. Perhaps this means I should get back to posting more often. Anyway, I’m sure most everyone is already familiar with these other items, and I don’t really have anything to say about them other than the fact that I purchased them. That being the case, I’m just going to share the photos and call it good.

Honeysuckle Manor book from Blackbird Designs

Needle and Thread (with bed) from Little House Needleworks

Winter Sheep – ornament #5 in LHN Ornament of the Month series

Ok, so I do have something else to say, imagine that?! This last piece is actually an OOP design that I purchased from Nicole. I had the pleasure of taking a class from Liz & Ann from Brightneedle Designs a few years back and fell in love with their designs. Subsequently, they have retired all of their old designs and are now only doing teaching pieces. This is one of their retired designs that had been looking to find for quite a while. When I saw Nicole was offering it fully kitted on her trade/purchase blog, I swooped it up. I’m so excited to finally have it in my stash.

The Sampler Sampler by Brightneedle Designs

Ok, now I’m done. Until next time …

24 April 2010

Cross Stitch

9 comments

BBD, BRD, Brightneedle, CHS, Floss Toss, HRH, Kindle, Lakeside Linen, LHN/CCN, LNS, Plum Street Samplers, Prairie Schooler

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 …