Happy Mother's Day!

It's a Happy Bunny Day!

Happy Bunny Bunny Day
by The Trilogy
stitched on 32-count Dirty Belfast Linen with DMC
Long time, no post, right? Can you tell I got the job I applied for? My days of leisure are over! I did find a little free time and managed to finish up this cute little bunny. It's one of my Crazy January Challenge projects so I can cross another one off my list. I think that's three now, so twelve more to go.

In other bunny news, I saw one hopping through our yard today. He made a bee-line for a couple of mourning doves and sent them fluttering up in the air. It was pretty funny! A very playful bunny and two annoyed birds! Our inside bunny is a picky eater and what she leaves in her food bowl we empty out in the yard for the outside critters. I'd like to think this bun found some tasty bits to nibble on.

With all the birds and critters running around the yard, I guess spring has finally arrived. We're still not seeing any leaves popping out on the trees, but the grass is starting to green up and there are a few things sprouting out of the ground. I might actually take a stab at a garden this year. I'd love some fresh peppers and herbs to cook with!

Hope you all are enjoying your weekend and don't have to work like me, haha!

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!

Happy Dancing to Their Song

Their Song
by Blackbird Designs
stitched on 28 ct. Apple Brown Bindy by R&R Reproductions
with WDW fibers
Yes! It is finally done! I had to look back through my blog archives to see when I started this one and I discovered it was my first new start of 2009. Now it gets to be my third finish for 2011. I'd have to do some more checking but I believe this is also my third Blackbird Designs finish. I only wish I'd discovered them sooner as the prices for some of the out of print charts are more than I can afford. I'll keep hoping to find a deal on Ebay!

Next in the Q-Snaps will be my Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I got the first willow tree done on Block 2 easy peasy, but for some reason I'm going cross eyed with the second one. I'm having so much trouble I'm starting to doubt I stitched the first one correctly! But if it is wrong I'm not about to restitch that thing! So why do I keep looking for a mistake? It's like some sort of stitchy psychosis!

Still no sign of spring here. We're stuck in an infinite loop of snow, melt, refreeze, snow, melt, refreeze. My daughter took this picture of a cedar waxwing in a tree near her apartment trying to eat the frozen berries.


We've been refilling our feeder daily, trying to keep up with the appetites of our local sparrows and cardinals. It was getting a little expensive so we started feeding them the bulk sunflower seeds from the grocery store instead of the fancy cherry-flavored blend. Luckily our guys are not picky eaters. In fact, I've noticed quite a few more finches than we had before and they are some of my favorites, along with the little chickadees.

Today is Thursday and that means it's spaghetti night! (Missy, if you read this, I still use the sauce recipe you sent me so many years ago!) I must be getting ready for a second hiberation or something because my appetite has been out of control this last week. A sure sign that winter isn't over yet... darn!

Thank you all for stopping by! Here's hoping you have your own finish to report soon!

For Lack of Some Moss

I worked on Their Song over the weekend but it remains unfinished for the time being. That single length of WDW Moss is all I have left and it isn't going to be enough. When I bought the fibers for this chart I didn't realize I would need two skeins of Moss and Havana. Luckily I had the Havana in my stash so I was able to finish up all of those bits. And I could swear I'd bought some Moss knowing I was going to need it, but I couldn't find it in any of the usual places. Today might be the day I actually do some organizing around here!

We've been thrown face first back into winter here in SW Michigan. Yesterday started with snow, which then turned to snow and sleet, which then turned to rain and ice. We're back to snow today and it's a mess out there. There are reportedly 85,000 homes in the area without power. I know ours went out at some point during the night because all the digital clocks were flashing this morning. I am counting my blessings because this old house gets pretty darn cold when the furnace isn't running.

Have y'all checked out the new releases from the Nashville market? ABC Stitch has a nice list of them here. My wishy-wanty list has been growing over the last couple of days!

Hope everyone is staying warm, especially if you're in the midst of this latest wintry mess! Thanks for stopping by!

The Great Backyard Bird Count

I know how much we stitchers love to count, so if you have a spare 15 minutes this weekend, consider participating in the annual Great Backyard Bird Count.

Black-capped Chickadee
(Photo from the GBBC website)

Their Song Progress

I pulled Their Song out of my UFO basket on Friday and immediately discovered why I stopped working on it. Somewhere among the leaves and cherries was a mistake. It turned out to be one of those things that fudging would only make worse, so I did some frogging and restitching and now everything is as right as rain. My goal over the weekend was to get the tree and blackbird finished which I happlily accomplished except for the cherry stems which are backstitched. I don't know about you guys but backstitching? I need to be in the right mood for it!

Since Monday was Valentine's Day I celebrated by stitching some of the red bits. I am officially on the second page now and was thinking I'd finish this up by the end of the week. I know that sounds crazy for slow stitchin' me but anything's possible!

We've had temps above freezing this week and the snow is melting everywhere. We can finally see over the mountains of snow at the foot of the driveway when we're backing out! Is spring arriving early this year?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happily Dancing!

Green Snowman
by Shepherd's Bush
stitched on 30-count Weeks Guacamole Linen
with Au Ver a Soie and Overdyed Silk Threads
This is my second finish for the Crazy January Challenge and, I must say, it almost stitched itself! Gotta love those silk threads!

I haven't decided what to work on next but I'm thinking I might dig out Their Song from Blackbird Designs and try to get that one finished. It's been buried at the bottom of my basket for too long!

Snow Day!

This winter we have had snow showers, steady snow, lingering snow, blowing snow, on and off snow, light snow, occaisional snow, and drifting snow. Meh. Then we get news of The Blizzard! The Storm of the Century! Let me tell you, I was glued to the Weather Channel yesterday for hours! (And no, Jim Cantore had absolutely nothing to do with it even though I had the strongest urge to hop in the car and drive to Chicago with a Thermos full of coffee for my favorite hunka hunka burnin' weatherman.) I had big plans to stay up through the night and watch the storm's progress but by 10:00 I was sawing toothpicks. I fully expected to wake up this morning and find two feet of snow on my porch but it doesn't look like we got more than 8-10 inches. That doesn't sound like much until you have to shovel it off your front steps! I have reached the conclusion there is no such thing as 'light snow'!

In stitchy news, here is my progress on Green Snowman.


Can you see the big holes on the top half of the snowman? I switched from completing my stitches one at a time to doing a whole row one way and then back for the bottom half and it seems to have made a difference. If I have enough of the white thread leftover after stitching the hill, I'll rip out the top half and try to wiggle the fabric threads back into place and re-stitch it. I think it'll be worth it in the long run. Those holes are too much of a distraction the way it is.

I hope everyone survived the storm! And if you're having a Snow Day off from work, I hope you get to spend it inside with your stitching!

First Finish of 2011

Woodland Sampling
Little House Needleworks
stitched on 32-count Antique Tan linen with DMC

Woohoo! My first finish for 2011 and my first Crazy January Challenge finish! I've actually had it done for a few days now, but for some reason getting the iron out and de-wrinkling this thing and then taking a picture of it ended up at the bottom of my to do list. Must remember to make that type of thing a priority in the future!

I've been working on Green Snowman from Shepherd's Bush the last couple of nights. I'm filling in the snowman and feel like I've crossed a few thousand white stitches. Not 100% thrilled with the way it's looking. I don't know if it's the fabric (30-count Weeks) or my crappy stitching but my poor snowman is looking like Swiss cheese. I'm being careful not to pull my thread too tight but I'm still ending up with huge holes between all my stitches. Really hoping it will relax a little once I'm done.

Looks like we have a big winter storm heading this way so I'll be making a run to the grocery store to stock up on provisions. We were treated to a little sun yesterday, the first in what seems like forever. It's a wonder we don't all have rickets!

Here's a shot of Spitz helping me try to get an un-blurry shot of my Woodland Sampling...

"Am I in your light?"

Crazy January Challenge Start #15

I couldn't seem to take an unblurry picture to save my soul, but this is my 15th start for the CJC, Woodland Sampling by Little House Needleworks. I'm totally in love with this design, it's so very "me"! I keep telling myself the house looks just like mine (if you rearrange the windows and add a porch, that is). But we do have pine trees and cardinals and squirrels and bunnies and (unfortunately) snow, so that part is completely accurate.

The weather today is positively dreary, wet and cold and the sky is a gloomy shade of grey. But the house is clean, the shopping's done, and my darling daughter is coming for dinner tonight so I'm just as chipper and a... um... chipper thing!

Have a happy Tuesday, y'all, and thanks for visiting!

Crazy January Challenge Start #14

Had a slight change of plans last night and decided to start Joyful Summer from Country Cottage Needleworks instead of LHN's Woodland Sampling. I know I'll want to keep working on WS so may as well leave it to last and just keep it out. Not that I've been putting any of these projects away as I go. I have a nice pile of starts on the sofa table next to where I've been taking my pictures, along with fibers and patterns scattered here, there, and everywhere. I do need to work on my organizational skills! (My next challenge? Maybe...)

So here we are on the last day of the Crazy January Challenge! It has gone by a lot faster than I thought it would, and amazingly, I've managed to keep up with my starts. I say last day but that's not quite true. There's more fun to come as we all attempt to finish our 15 projects! No problem! Right?

Crazy January Challenge Start #13

Saving the best for almost last, my next start is Season of Growth from Little House Needleworks. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels that they could stitch LHN designs all day, every day! Love love love them all! In fact, tonight's start will be another LHN, Woodland Sampling. Can't wait!

Crazy January Challenge Starts 11 & 12

The crazinesss continues with more Sweet Treats! Here we have Pie (start #11) and Cake (start #12). Harmien will be happy that these are the last two! And my chocolate cravings should finally subside!

Only three more starts to go for the CJC! Then it's on to completing them! Woohoo!