A Happy Pillow

This little singing bluebird is from a chart by SamSarah called Sing to Me. I stitched it waaaay back in 2007 on a bit of stitch band that I had gobs and gobs of. I'd always planned to make it into a sort of wrap-around pillow thingy, and finally got around to it today.

I think it's pretty cute in all it's un-perfect-ness. It makes me happy to look at it, too. :-)

I really am thrilled to have my sewing machine up and running. :-)

At Last! Some Stitching!

And a finish, no less!

God Bless Those
by Shakespeare's Peddler
stitched on 32 count Vintage Exemplar linen
with Gentle Arts Sampler Threads
This was designed by Theresa to commemorate Egypt's recent struggle for freedom, and sold at the Nashville Market as a limited edition kit. My photo does not do the thread colors justice. They are truly gorgeous.

Theresa finished her's into a small pillow with a chenille trim that suits it to a tee. I'll need to make a trip into town for the trim and some stuffing but I'm hoping to duplicate her finish. I did finally find my sewing machine yesterday, but for some crazy reason I didn't pack the foot pedal in the same box. After spending half the day yesterday digging through boxes and cussing whoever did the packing (that would be me...), I finally gave up and tried to find a replacement online. The only one I found was going to cost me $56! I think of purchases like this in terms of how much stash I could buy with the money, so that just wasn't going to cut it!

This morning I remembered how my Mom used to recite "Baby Jesus, lost and found" when she was looking for something. So I sat down and concentrated on where I thought the foot pedal could be. Baby Jesus, lost and found... Baby Jesus, lost and found... and POOF! it came to me! I knew exactly where it was! I'd stored it in a plastic bin which is why it wasn't in the box with the machine! It didn't take me long to find the bin, and sure enough, inside was the foot pedal! Of course, I'm totally on the hook to actually use the machine now!

No word on the job still. Do you think they found out about the sit-in I staged at my high school back in 1977? Those were good times!

That's about all I have to report today from the hovel. Hope this week has been treating you well!

Treasures from Staci

I recently won Staci's (of Snippets and Stash fame) blogoversary giveaway and was tickled pink to receive these gorgeous stitching accessories, beautifully stitched on what must be Staci-dyed linen. Thanks to Staci, I am no longer a pin cushion-less, floss tag-less stitcher! I will treasure them always! She also sent a collection of 360 DMC flosses, so I am now the best outfitted stitcher in MI! Thank you so much, Staci! You made my week!

There hasn't been much stitching to speak of here. The days have been grey and dreary and positively dull. Spring is taking it's dear sweet time on getting here and I am in the stitching doldrums. Help!

In other news, I took it upon myself to interview for a part-time job earlier this week and, barring them digging up something nasty in my past, I should be gainfully employed soon.

[Incidentally, the illustration in the background of my photo is from a book by Kit Williams, Masquerade, which contained elaborate clues to a real live treasure (a golden filagree hare pendant) which he had buried somewhere in England. It unfortunately ended in a bit of a scandal when the treasure finder was discovered to have cheated.]

The Cake

I admit it's more of a 'cake wreck' but we did have fun making this traditional King Cake for Mardi Gras.

And it tasted so much better than it looked!

Les bons moments, mes amis!

It's Fat Tuesday!

Time to sing and dance and eat cake!

Tree Frog

Block 2 of my Village is now complete! As the title of this post suggests, I did end up frogging the willow trees. (See the little pile of gold fuzz?) It wasn't because of a stitching mistake but because I still haven't learned to read and follow directions. I was perfectly happy to leave the trees 'as stitched' and carry on with the remainder of the backstitching. So I'm reading, "Backstitch the tree branches in 315/830." Check! Then I read, "Backstitch the tree leaves in 156/500." Tree leaves? What tree leaves?? I'd just backstitched every tree part in 315! I didn't realize those little diagonal stitches were actually supposed to be leaves and should be stitched in a different color! Oh, the words that flew out of my mouth! They too were of a different color!

Anyhoosie, the story ends well because I do like the trees sooo much better with green leaves and not the monotone gold they were. I also stitched the forgotten 'a' in Isaiah. St. Peter's Church is complete and I can't wait to get started on the next block!

We are going to be heading up to Portage today to run some errands and, as luck would have it, today is also National Pancake Day so we'll be stopping in at IHOP for their annual Children's Miracle Network fundraiser. Short stacks for everyone!