I Won A Blogoversary!

What a lovely surprise to find my parcel in the mailbox today! I had commented on Bekca's blog, The Stitching Lion and had no intention of winning anything. I just loved her Nature's Beauty WIP by Little House Needleworks. I have that one in my own stash and love the design. She commented on my blog that I should pay her blog a visit; that I would be glad I did. I was astonished that I had won anything! The parcel got here in just a few days all the way from the UK! Bekca's stitching is beautiful, and I'm going to enjoy every bit of the contents. She even wrapped it all in cupcake paper. Just a really beautiful little package that thrilled me so much! Thank you, Bekca!

Isn't this the sweetest little ducky Bekca stitched on a bookmark? The back looks as good as the front!

Here is the wrapping paper, a very sweet card to me, a new pair of scissors, a skein of Duchess floss, some springy finishing fabric, and some lovely 32ct hand-dyed Belfast linen. Isn't it all just a lovely package for a very sweet teenager to put together?

Happy Easter!

To all my stitching friends who celebrate the Christ Who Is Risen!

Blogoversary Alert

Tangerinedream of Cross Stitch and Cupcakes is doing a huge anniversary giveaway! Check it out!

A Big Update, Long Overdue

I'm really trying to keep it together after the loss of Bear, so I've kept busy stitching. Though I'm a very slow stitcher, I have managed to have a few things come together at approximately the same time. I'm finally doing a rotation that I worked out with the help of several girls who offered suggestions. I really think it was actually Shelleen who helped me the most. I work on two UFO's a month and two WIP's a month, then just on Sundays, I work on a Halloween/Autumn/Thanksgiving project, and on the 25th of each month, I start on a Christmas ornament. The latter two are done as SAL's with a Yahoo group I'm on, Stitching Sisters. I'm thinking because of being so slow that I should start one on the 20th of each month to insure a finished ornament before the end of each month and still allow for my other rotation stitching.

Also, as I finish things, they go into an increasingly larger pile to be either framed or sewn into their respective finished forms. I need to gather small print fabrics and other notions to take a week or two and put everything together. I haven't had many pieces framed lately because of the expense, but I need to begin having things framed, even if it's only one a month. If not, I'm afraid that all the things I've stitched will end up in hands that know nothing of the work involved and get tossed eventually.

These are shots of one of my UFO's: "Winter Sampler" by Little House Needleworks.

This is my ornament for the month of March, "Snowy Pines" by Little House Needleworks.

The results of my Sunday SAL, "Haunted House" stocking by Blackbird Designs. D'ya think I'll find Halloween fabric to make this into a stocking? Don't think so this time of year. I've started on the 2nd stocking from the same book:

This stocking is named "Whooo's Knocking At My Door."





Here are some things I've also been working on:

Another UFO, a kit, "Goldfinch Gathering." This is what I pulled out of hiding in the abyss under the basement stairs. This has now been put back out of sheer frustration. I did finish the bird, but any pitiful progress on starting the fence post has to be frogged (one stitch off).

I found that one of my problems is that I don't really like stitching on 18ct aida any longer, so who knows what will become of this piece. I really love the colors in it! And to top it off, there is not enough thread to finish it all. No great loss, though, as I bought is for about $4 quite a few years ago.

Another UFO I've had for a couple of years, "The Library" by Little House Needleworks. I am not pleased with the stitching that is shown in this photo, as I was half blind because of  Sjogren's Syndrome, which is secondary to my lupus. Thank goodness you can't really see how bad the stitches are, but they are very distasteful to me. Though I use artificial tears, they weren't helping at the time that this part was stitched because my large tear ducts were opening back up after having had them cauterized so that they healed over (closed) to preserve moistness in the eyes. I had them re-cauterized in late December 2010, and my eyesight is much improved so that this part of the design is going to be frogged after I finish the rest of this piece. I really like this design, so I'm sticking with it if it takes me a couple of years!

And here is the same with a bit of progress stitching that is acceptable to me.

This will be the second time I've stitched this one. The first one went to my daughter after having it framed for her. Here is the first one:

And yet another WIP, just recently started:

This is the cutest lil' thing - Country Cottage Needleworks' "Bunny Hop."
My next post will be a "catch up" as well, with the S.A.B.L.E that I've hauled since my LNS's Super Bowl Sale till now.

Signing off with a photo of my oldest kitty, Pib (Pain In the Butt), whom we call Pibbie. She's a pitiful little 15-year-old tortoise-shell kitty that no one but a mother could love.

A Tribute to Bear

Born March 26, 1999, passed over the Rainbow Bridge March 18, 2011. Because of his story, he was a very special kitty - a beloved kitty.
On Monday, March 14, he was fine early in the morning. By about 10:00, he was sick, not himself at all.I called my husband, who is out of town Monday through Wednesday and told him. He said to make him a vet's appointment for Thursday when he was home to help me. I watched him throughout the day, and he was very droopy. I made an appt. for him. The next day, he couldn't hold up his head. I knew something was terribly wrong. I called the vet's office and asked if I could bring him in on an emergency basis. Of course. I put him in his carrier, and he was too weak to object - just a pitiful little mewling. I was desperate. I got him there as quickly as I could, and they took him right in. After telling me this could cost some big money, I told the lady vet that as long as there was hope, I would pay whatever it took. I was in love with this gentle giant. After taking him away for blood tests, I was informed of what the vet expected. He was in ketoacidosis from diabetes. I had no idea... had only had him for a bit over a year and had nothing to compare his behavior to. I was told that kitties can be sick for a very long time before they let you know it, so that possibly he was diabetic when my sister-in-law had him. He was dehydrated and his blood glucose was 651, with normal being in the human range - 80-120. I nearly fainted on the spot. They admitted him right away and started treatment of IV fluids and insulin. His blood glucose dropped to 321 that evening. I thought he was on the way to recovery.

The next day I called and was told that he had vomited and couldn't be given his insulin. I went with my mom & dad to see him and was shocked to see how bad he looked. I was literally sick myself. My mother said, "I hope he makes it," and I realized how grave it was. I told them I didn't want him to suffer, but was told it would be a couple of days before he came out of his "funk." I called later, and they told me his sugar had gone back up but was down from very high back down to 321 which was better. My husband came home Wednesday night in disbelief at how sick he was. We went together Thursday to see him, and I said I didn't want him to suffer. Jackie (one of the office girls who we hire to take care of our cats when we're gone) told me that the doctor would discuss it with us if she thought there was no hope. We both sobbed when we visited him. He opened his eyes in recognition once but was otherwise lifeless. That evening we went out to eat. We had recently had our land line terminated but had a safety line for call 800 numbers, 911, and we could receive any calls, just not call out. We had also lost our caller ID and voice mail but had hooked up an answering machine for incoming calls. We weren't good at checking the machine though. At 8:00 the next morning, the phone rang. I knew it was the doctor, and I knew what had happened. She said she had left two messages for us the night before telling us that Bear's kidneys were not handling fluids. She found him in the morning, and he had passed in the night.

We're devastated and heart-broken. There is no replacing my "Baby Bear" as I called him. Nothing can replace this terrible void in my heart. I'm eaten up with guilt that I wasn't there to answer the call; that I wasn't there to end his misery; that I wasn't there to be with him as he died. I've posted to my Yahoo groups about Bear, and I've been overwhelmed with the outpouring of stories of their own animals, well wishes and heartfelt sympathy. I was embarrassed, with all the disaster in the world, the catastrophic illnesses, and the loss of human beings, to post this crisis when I put him in the hospital and asked for prayers. I was desperate though and needed help to get through it. I have always thought that stitchers were great people, and now I know for certain that there are no better people in the world to lean on for support - so selfless, caring, and giving.

One lady (who never posts) contacted her daughter who has a diabetic kitty. She wrote to me and got me in contact with a website and message board, all about feline diabetes. I had registered and was ready to take on the challenge of caring for Bear when he died. I had to write her and tell her how grateful I was for her support but that it was too late for my Baby Bear. She wrote to me telling me how sorry she was for me, then said: "Fly away, sweet Bear... fly high, and fly wide, and may you have a soft landing."

An Ornament Stitched

Though I have a pile of things to either get framed or finish into various items, such as ornaments, including this one, I thought I'd show a shot of my ornament stitching for February. I'm trying to do an ornament a month. Though the fabric appears muddy in the photo, it's a beautiful green that the pattern calls for - Dove 30ct linen by Weeks Dye Works. It looks great with the Crescent Colour hand-dyed thread, Spinach, which is used for the tree in the ornament.

I have other WIP's I've been working on but haven't yet taken pix of them. I've acquired stash from my LNS' Super Bowl sale that I have yet to get on this blog, though I'm such a slow stitcher I'm not sure why I buy more. It's already been determined that my stash will outlive me by many, many years! I guess by buying more, I think it will extend my good stitching years, LOL!

My Sunday SAL

I started a new SAL on Sundays only with my oldest Yahoo group: Stitching_Sisters. Here is my first progress pic. It's "Haunted House" from the book 'Tis Halloween' by Blackbird Designs. This SAL is for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or autumn designs.

I spent Sunday watching 3 Lifetime movies as I stitched and did other things, like joining a new Yahoo Group for fans of Diana Gabaldon, the PhD author of the Outlander series and other books. The group is called OutlanderGathering, and it's fascinating, but you definitely have to love the books that are so involved they take 2.5 years for her to write. I just recently acquired the last of her books.

Last week was a stitching bust, as I'd taken out a UFO to work on, and a couple of days I didn'r get to stitch at all, but any progress I made except finishing a goldfinch has to be frogged because of being one stitch off, and there's no way I can make up for it. So much for a week's time. I've discovered I can no longer count!

Stitching Group

On the 2nd Tuesday of every month, a group of 12 stitchers meet at our LNS and eat dinner together at different local restaurants, then we go to the shop and stitch and share local newspaper stories, TV programs, movies, books, etc., with a little gossip thrown in for good measure, LOL! It has been a rough winter here, so the group these last couple of months has been smaller. At Christmas, we don't go to dinner away, but bring in finger foods made at home and a wrapped handmade ornament. The girls who own the shop put numbers on the packages, and we draw numbers that match the ornaments. It's a really nice time each and every month. Here are a couple of pix of the last stitching meeting in February. I should have taken more pix of the actual shop. It's a large, really nice shop, full of goodies for every stitcher!

A Finish

This one was fought for! I don't know what it was about this little design, but I started it before Christmas and it would have gone by the way of my other UFO's if I hadn't persevered and finished it. I simply couldn't count on this one and kept making the same silly mistakes over and over. It was like I could not count. It's Little House Needlework's "Winter Wonderland." The smaller design is just a smaller portion of the same. They're each sewn to Mary Kathryn's Impie, Hattie, and Bea products.

This last picture is on the inside of the pin notebook. I just love how this set looks finished togeher! Too bad it's not going to be in season much longer, or is it? I've had enough winter to last the rest of my life!

I'm currently working on another Little House Needleworks design, "Winter Sampler." It's a UFO of mine, put away a year ago, and not knowing why, I soon found out. All you see in the link has had to be frogged and done over. Yes, I was heavily drugged when I started this one, so I have had to forgive myself for stitching what I did with one stitch off. I also stitched it with the Belle Soie Crescent Colours overdyed silks with one strand, and I saw it in my LNS with two strands and liked it better, so I'm using two strands now.

I'm thinking of using a rotation and have been asking a small Yahoo Group for their suggestions on how to rotate five projects---2 UFO's, an ornament a month, and two new projects. I'm up for suggestions. Two suggested a project each day, a couple of others suggested I'd get more progress done on a project for a week, then onto the 2nd, etc. Any ideas of yours? Please? If you have your own rotaion that works for you, would you kindly email me with ideas?

Winter Storm of 2011

There is a definite beauty to a severe winter storm, especially when there's been ice. Last night, before the snow, which is not nearly what was forecast for this East Central IL area, it was so beautiful, as I looked out into the darkness, it nearly took my breath away. The little light there was shone on the crusty snow from all the sleet and freezing rain, and the driveway was a glare of ice. Treacherous, yes, but I didn't have to go out because I had planned well in advance of the storm. It was worthy of beautiful photography, but I just don't have the knack, so I did my best with these shots:

This is looking out my back screened porch to the east. The screens were covered with ice. Only the youngest kitty, Annie, ventured onto the porch this morning. They're all indoor kitties, but she's unafraid of the elements. Normally, one can see the eighth green of the golf course from these windows.

In warmer weather, this is the eighth green, just east of our house. It's the raised part in the upper right of the picture.

Our house from the road in front across from the ninth fairway. Too bad I didn't capture the beautiful ice on the trees. There is a Japanese Maple near the front door that's just gorgeous with the ice.

A shot from the garage yesterday before the snow, just after the ice and sleet.

Standing outside of the vehicle, I got this crappy shot of the near end of fairway 9. There are houses along both sides and one of the many ponds up the left behind the houses. It's hard to see anything with my photography.

This is (in warmer weather) the number nine tee box with the backs of houses (our closest neighbors across the street) along the ninth fairway.

This is the top of a hill going along number 14. My best friend lives at the bottom of the hill. She's also a cross stitcher. Notice how the evergreens are drooping with the weight of the ice. but aren't they pretty?

This is the ninth green looking back down the fairway to the tee, a dog leg to the left. It was fun driving around the neighborhood to see the beauty of our winter storm. We built the house 21 years ago and have lived amidst the beauty of the changing seasons all that time, encountering many forms of wildlife (snakes and mice in the house - we have farmland behind our house) such as foxes, turtles, geese, beavers (a creek runs throughout the course), coyotes, tons of different birds, etc. I'll miss all that, but I'm ready to leave it all and live in a smaller house, all on one floor. Our basement is mostly finished, with an unfinished portion for storage, but there are 14 steps to our computers, my sewing room, a big family room, and a 3rd full bathroom. It's a lot to clean and is getting to the age that things need to be either done over or replaced. DH has a bad back and his golfing has seen better days and we both have osteoarthritis. I just recently had to have a knee replacement, and I'm so afraid of banging up my new knee. Besides all that, we're retired and on a fixed income, and property taxes are very high here. What we'd both like to do is to move into a certain neighborhood in town and buy a smaller, all brick (little maintenance) home on one level. We'd have to sell our golf cart and a whole lot of my stuff too, and I love it all. I can't bear to think of getting rid of any of my stuff! Maybe we'll hold out till we're ready for assisted living and sell the whole household of stuff. I can't even stand to think about it! I've bought a load of space bags to store all my Boyds Bears (and cats, and a multitude of other critters) because they're not in style any more, but I love 'em all so much, I can't stand to think of them stored in airtight plastic bags. So I keep them out, decorating my house. No one understands me, but they don't need to. I'm harmless..... and my house is a home.