It's a Marshmallow World

Woke up to find Jack Frost had visited us during the night!

Here's the view off the back deck... baby, it's cold outside!

Winter has come to Paw Paw Lake!

Wee Seasons

A good 15 years ago I started stitching Heart in Hand's Wee Seasons. I'd decided to stitch all four charts lengthwise and make the finished piece into a bellpull. And naturally I would stitch along with the changing seasons. I got off to a great start, stitching Wee Winter at the top of my bellpull-to-be.

Come spring I began stitching the next season. But that tree... all that brown... for some reason it just killed my desire to finish before summer arrived. Of course this meant I'd have to wait a whole year to work on Wee Spring again. No biggie! I'd get it done the following year! Which I did! Hooray! Back on track!

Wee Summer was easy... with all those red apples and pretty flowers, I couldn't put it down!

Then came a verrrrry long break in my stitching. This poor 3/4 finished project hung over a hanger in my closet for probably six years! Then it got folded up in a box and forgotten for several more! Somehow it resurfaced and I added it to my WIPocolypse list in the hopes of finally finishing it. The last season was fall and I was determined to get it stitched before the end of November. I almost didn't make it, but with tons of encouragement from Phil I put the last stitch in Wee Fall on the 30th!

Here's a look at the whole (slightly slanty) project:

I'd still like to finish it into a bellpull but for now I'm just basking in the joy of finishing one of my oldest WIPs!

Two More

I picked up two more Starbucks mugs to add to my collection while Phil and I were visiting family and friends down in Texas over Thanksgiving. We packed a lot into the week and put over 3000 miles on his car in the process! The weather was fabulous the entire trip and I'm hoping I was able to convince Phil that Texas would be a grrrrreat place to retire!

Yesterday I went through my WIPs looking for something Christmas-y to work on and came up with Better Not Pout from Shepherd's Bush. I'll share my progress soon! I also have a finish to share, plus I had Winter Wonderland framed! Woohoo!

5/12

I finished Block 5 of my Village of Hawk Run Hollow last week. I wish they all went this fast!

Here's what the whole thing looks like so far:

Obviously I won't be finishing it before the end of the year like I'd hoped but it feels good to be almost halfway done!

Flanges My Foot

I decided to get creative and put together this little pillow today. The cross stitch is tres tres old (a Heart in Hand Wee One? Wee Witch?) and I've had the fabric long enough that some might consider it 'vintage'! I was wanting to make it a flanged pillow but after much measuring and cutting and re-measuring I just couldn't wrap my gray cells around it. May as well have been trying to solve a calculus problem! In the end I just made a regular square pillow and called it good. I'm super happy with how it came out to be honest! (Let's just keep it a secret that I actually managed to sew my measuring tape to the pillow at one point!)

Friday's Village

I set up my floor stand earlier this week so I could get back to work on my Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I was a little cross-eyed working on the 40 count linen at first but now I'm lovin' it! There's not much to this block so barring a disaster I should be able to get it done soon.

Joyful Summer Fini!

Including the dreaded french knots!

Let the fall stitching begin! Woohoo!

Fall Stitching Basket

Instead of pulling out every single fall project I'd like to work on, I decided I'd excercise some restraint and stick with what is on my WIPocolypse list for now. The idea is to finish these four projects and then I can choose something new to start. Sounds reasonable, right?

Top left we have The Village of Hawk Run Hollow from Carriage House Samplings which technically isn't a fall project but to me those colors couldn't get more fall-ish. So into the basket it goes!

Top right is Wee Autumn from Heart in Hand. I started this back in the 90s thinking I'd stitch all four seasons on a long piece of fabric and make it into a bellpull. I have Winter, Spring, and Summer already stitched so fingers crossed Autumn gets done soon!

Bottom left is Acorn Hill from LHN. I believe I started this one during last year's Crazy January Challenge so this will be my second chance to get 'er done!

Bottom right is Into the Night from Shepherd's Bush which I started in 2008. I love the sheep in his cape and hat! There's only a few more rows left to stitch but the big challenge will be finding the threads that came with the kit. They seem to have gotten separated from everything else. Quelle surprise. Some day soon I need to do some serious stash organizing!

 

Harry seems to think he belongs in the Fall Stitching Basket too. Afterall, he is a nice fall colored kitty.

Signs

First there was was the smell of burning leaves while I was walking the dogs yesterday.

Next I had to light the fire because it was too chilly in the living room last night.

Then today I see this on the floor where I'm sorting through my stitchy stash...

I'm beginning to think it's time to put together my fall stitching basket!

Oh Joy

Don't you love it when you take a nice picture to post on your blog and discover later there's a stray thread hanging across it?

Kinda like when you have someone take a photo of you and your kids and you end up with this...

(In my defense I had taken Vicodin for a migraine that day!)

Happiness is...

A comfy new stitching chair!!

If you need me you'll know where to find me!! :-)

Happy Labor Daybor!

August WIPocolypse Update

It's time for another WIPocolypse update! I can't say that my needles have been flying but I do have a finish to report!

The stitching on Summer Snapperland is complete! I still need to attach the snaps and buttons but I don't like to do that until I'm ready for the final finish finishing. I really love the beachy feel to this one, and I'm super happy to have it done! I have other Snapperlands in my stash so this should encourage me to get started on them.

Next up is Joyful Summer from CCN...

I was really hoping to get the blue flower at the top finished but last night I decided I didn't like the looks of the top petal and decided to rip part of it out and restitch it. I ended up with a huge mess when the eye of my needle broke and got stuck under some stitches. After a glass of wine and some Jane Austen I was able to set things to right. I thought all was well and I'd get that last petal done today but now I notice there's a counting error somewhere and I'm going to have to do some fancy fudging. Autumn is just around the corner so this one might get tossed back in the WIP box if it doesn't start behaving!

I am woefully behind on my blog reading and commenting but hopefully over the long holiday weekend I will find some time to play catch up.

Thanks for stopping by!

A Big Finish

After four botched attempts our glass shower enclosure has been installed! It's practically a work of art and I'm so happy it finally came together as planned. I might get a little Joan Crawford-ish about water spots but with regular squeegeeing I should be able to keep my sanity intact!

Still no stitchy news as I haven't picked up a needle in ages. Hoping to rectify that situation soon.

Have a great weekend!

As Seen On TV

I've always wanted a spot where I could sit outside and have my morning yogurt just like they do in the television commercials. Simple pleasures are definitely the best!

Summer Stitching Continues

I managed to get a good portion of the verse stitched on Summer Snapperland over the last couple of days. Last night I noticed I was off by two threads which I'm not particularly worried about (nor particularly surprised about, haha!) since nothing looks too goofy. Still, the perfectionist in me is going to want to know where the mistake is! Normally I hate stitching letter after letter after letter but whether it's the thread or the linen or a combination of both this has been smoothy smooth. (We just have to ignore the fact that I got lulled into missing a stitch somewhere!)

I ordered the threads I need for Joyful Summer so I'll get super busy on that one as soon as they arrive. In the meantime I've been plugging along with what I have which translates to "I stitched a leaf". It's all progress though, right? And it's such a lovely leaf I just had to show everyone!

Tonight we are making stuffed bread for dinner (stuffings to be determined!) which is one of my favorites. We've been making them for years as a way to creatively use up all the bits of this and that in the fridge. There's no right or wrong when it comes to wrapping up a bunch of leftovers in bread dough! Teriyaki chicken with bacon and smoked mozzarella? Delicious!

Hope everyone is enjoying their Wednesday and finding time to do something fun! Thanks for stopping by!

Weekend Recap

I'm sure the burning question on everyone's mind is whether or not I got my strawberry daiquiri on Friday! The answer is YES!

Phil's sister gave us these fun glasses. They're meant for wine but we like using them for frozen drinks too.

Saturday was spent running errands and by the time we thought we'd go out and enjoy the water we had a BIG storm move in.

My bunting bloweth over!

Sunday was clear, so after church and a delicious "big salad" at Martin's (I love a good salad bar!) I went out on the deck to relax and soak up some vitamin D.

That's my "Mike Olt striking out with the bases loaded" face.

Sunday evening we made chicken alfredo for dinner and settled in for our nightly Olympic overload.

No, it's not so cold in Michigan that we need a fire but when all it takes is a press of a button it's really hard not to press that button!

Now let's check how much stitching I managed to accomplish...

Is that all?? One blue swirly thing?? Well, I obviously won't be winning any medals for stitching speed!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I'm off to see if I can't actually make enough progress on Summer Snapperland to justify posting another picture!

More Summer Stitching

Back in June I pulled a couple of summery projects from my WIPocolypse list to work on. One of them was Bent Creek's Summer Snapperland. I had started this one waaaay back in the summer of "aught seven". Here's where I left off:

And here's how it looks today:

Nuthin' left but the border and a french knot or two! It's taking me forever to do those blue swirlies so it might be a while before I get to happy dance this one into my fuppie box.

The other piece I pulled out was Joyful Summer. It was one of my Crazy January Challenge projects from 2011. Number 14 to be exact. This is all I managed to complete on it:

(Isn't it nice to be able to go back in your blog and grab pictures from previous posts??)

So yeah, I have a looong way to go on that one and I don't have most of the Crescent Colours it calls for so I might have to get creative. Me choosing my own thread colors? Now there's a scary thought!

We're heading into the weekend! I sure hope there's a strawberry daiquiri somewhere with my name on it!

Y'all have a good one!

July in August

Thought I better stop in for a quick hello and show you all my progress on Prairie Schooler's July sampler. I finished the verse so now it's on to the fun part! Woohoo!

We've been super busy here but I'm hoping to get back into the blogging habit this month. I have a lot of catching up to do, but we'll get 'er done!

I hope everyone is doing grrrrrreat and having a blast this summer!

Disaster Averted!

Well, for once I got lucky! Leaving the LK piece soaking in a vat of cold water while I fretted over what I could do to stop the fibers from hemorrhaging turned out to be exactly what I needed to do! I expected to get up this morning to find it was a tie-dyed mess, but instead it looked perfectly fine. No shrinking, stretching, or fading. Unbelievable!

So here we have it... Part One...

Part Two...

And the whole sha-bang...

(Yes, I have it hanging on the refrigerator door! I couldn't think of a better way to get a picture of the whole thing!)

So that concludes the saga of the LK Double Flips, begun way back in 2008. Now it's off to the Fuppie Box where it will reside until I figure out what I want to do with it.

Progress continues on July...

... but it's probably time to pull another project from my WIP pile. After all, what's a WIPocolypse without any WIPs??

It's getting time to pack up my stitching bag and head over to the lake for the weekend, so I will bid you all a fond farewell, until we meet again!

Have a great weekend!

The WIPocolypse Post That Wasn't

I suppose this post should begin with a "where've ya been?" explanation. Phil and I took another trip down to Florida last week to help his oldest son move. We also visited my dad, his sister and her husband, and spent a couple of days at the beach. Here I am at Sanibel, pre-lobster:

We had a great time down south where it was actually cooler than it was up here in Michigan. And we came home with enough funny vacation stories to last us until our next trip!

But on to my WIPocolypse update, or what would have been my WIPocolypse update if disaster hadn't struck. See, I had my Lizzie Kate Flip-It piece completed and all ready for it's photo shoot when I noticed that about halfway down the list some of the colors in a few words had bled. I don't remember ever having gotten the piece wet, but then it's been stored away for several years and who knows what might have happened in that ziploc. My first thought was maybe I could rinse out the spots where the colors had bled. Big mistake! Not only did I have browns and reds bleeding, but now the greens and blues were too! I ended up dunking the whole thing and it's just a huge mess now. I've left it soaking in the sink, which is probably an epic mistake but I don't know what else to do at this point.

The sad evidence:

All I can say is merde, merde, and triple merde! I am so frustrated with myself! I really should have known better! Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do to save this piece?? Is it time to get adventurous with some RIT dye??

The only other stitching I've done this past month is on Prairie Schooler's July which isn't even one of my WIPocolypse projects but here ya go:

I think I managed to stitch a grand total of three letters on it last night while watching the American League get shut out in the All Star Game. It was great to see so many Rangers chosen for the team but the game itself was not fun to watch. At all.

That's about it for now. I'm heading back out to the lake tomorrow. Our shower door is supposed to be installed Friday. I know it's the 13th but I remain optimistic that it will go smoothly and we will finally be able to shower without creating a puddle in the middle of the bathroom floor.

I hope everyone survived the heat wave last week and found some way to keep cool! I honestly love summer so I say, "bring it on!"

And the Livin' Is Easy

Hooray! It's officially summer today! We've been having quite a heat wave here in southwest Michigan with temperatures in the 90s! Folks have been enjoying the lake from dawn 'til dusk!

I'm making Prairie Schooler's July my official Summer Project of 2012! It's proven to be the perfect project to pull out when I'm watching a ball game. And since the Rangers seem to be winning more since I've started stitching this, I'm not planning to work on anything else for a while! My team needs me! And it beats not changing my socks!

Isn't it the summer-est?! I could spill ketchup and mustard on it and not mind a bit!

Hope everyone is enjoying their first day of summer!  Thanks for visiting!

BBD Happy Dance

I finished up Winter by Blackbird Designs last Friday except for the date at the bottom and my initials. Maybe I got a little over-confident stitching the 1 there, but I figure I have a good eight years to stitch Autumn and Summer before I'd have to change it to a 2. Just promise not to laugh too hard in 2020 when I have to frog it! (I left my initials off because, hey, I could get married, right?) (Hi Phil!)

We had a super nice Father's Day here at the lake. Phil's daughter came out and we made fettucini alfredo for dinner. The weather was mild and it wasn't too buggy so we sat out on the deck and enjoyed the view while we ate. We're slowly outfitting the kitchen with pots and pans and utensils so hopefully we'll soon be able to make Sunday dinner here at the lake a weekly event.

Today was supposed to be the long awaited installation of the glass enclosure and door for our shower. This is our second attempt at finding someone to design and install it and my hopes were high as I watched them carry in the glass panels. About an hour later they started carrying them back out again. Looks like it's back to the drawing board.

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend! I'm off to work on Prairie Schooler's July. I had to put it down yesterday because I'd made a mistake but I think I've figured out a way to fudge it. Mums the word!

Celebrating Dads today!

June WIPocolypse Update

Another month has gone by and it's time for June's WIPocolypse update! (I hope I'm not the only person who has to look back at their own blog to see what they've been doing all month!)

It looks like the only finish I had was Lizzie Kate's Create which is number 11 of the 12 Double Flips I'm stitching together as one long piece. You can check out yesterday's blog entry if you'd like to see a picture of that project. The majority of my stitching time has been spent working on Winter by Blackbird Designs which wasn't even on my WIP list! Shame on me! Here's a photo of where I am on that one...

Have you seen the Olympic Stitching challenge on Measi's blog? I'll have to pick at least one event to compete in! I have a big box of unfinished finishes so maybe I'll go for the gold in the Finish Line event!

I'm back in Three Rivers for the next couple of days. It's not my favorite place to be but the house does need looking after. I need a Stepford Wife version of myself to leave here so I can stay at the lake and relax!

Thanks for visiting, y'all! Have a great day!

Create Happy Dance

I put the last stitches in my Lizzie Kate Create yesterday afternoon. Only one more Double Flip to go (Live), plus finishing the border and this project will finally be done. If I was smart I'd get right down to it but I hear my BBD Winter calling, plus I have Prairie Schooler's July all kitted up and ready to go. I have yet to put the first stitch in that one, so I may just do that today before heading back to Three Rivers.

Here's what the whole project looks like thus far, in all it's wrinkle-osity...

I've been busy setting up a sewing room here at the lake house. It's such an amazing feeling, having some space to call my own again. I think only another crafter can understand what a gift a room, or a closet, or even just a small table can be. Phil gave me that gift, and I can't thank him enough for it. I am blessed beyond measure!

(Of course, after carrying 16 boxes of "stuff" upstairs, Phil has told me I shouldn't have to buy another pattern, piece of fabric, or skein of thread until I'm at least 100!)