Happy Spring Part 2

The Spring /Easter Exchange 2019 is now over and my partner and I have received our gifts. Here is what I sent Lisa:

She likes the same designers as I do, BBD, PSS and so on. I stitched the BBD

piece which I show somewhere in my last posts. I bought the wooden box, 

painted it to match the greys in the design. I inserted the polka dot scrapbook

paper in the top and in the inside. Then finished the stitched piece on 

sticky board as Priscilla and Chelsea call it and glued it to the top. I sure hope

it holds. Then I bought her the other bits and pieces. Here's another look

at the box

It turned out nice.

This is what I received from Sandy..

I can't wait to start the design on the purple fabric. See the adorable Shepherd's 

Bush piece in the frame? Here's a closer look..

So cute. I have it on the wall with my other mini's, what I call my small

framed stitches.

FFOs. One was the exchange box and the other is this LK small..

This is Nevermore. I've really been into sewing those borders onto the 

sides of the stitched piece. Funny how I have favorites of finishing styles like

a cube finish or pin pillows, or flat ornaments. Right now it's the finish above!

I believe this is it. It's Saturday, so it's back to old WIP stitching. As mentioned

before, I plan on 19 new starts/WIPS for Maynia this year. Ten new starts

and 9 WIPs. Christmas Garden will be amongst those plus a few others that

are close to a finish. 

The weather has been flirting with the low 70s which I'm happy about.

Oh, I had to leave that 2nd job I had for health reasons. I have bad knees

and sciatica which after my work accident, is so much worse than

it was. It's been a relief to let it go. That also means more stitching time! Yay!

Take care everyone. Thanks for stopping by! I'll see you in April!

Happy Spring!

Hi all! I thought I would get in one last post for March. Spring has definitely sprung here. My header photo is my back yard which is covered in those little purple flowers. It's really pretty.

This post may run into Part 2, so let's get a move on.

First up are my old WIP progress: Winter at Beacon House..

I filled in the sand/snow between the brown dog and the boy with the light blue hat 

and installed 1 over 1 bird at the lower left tree. 

Promise Me by LK, before:

After:

Pretty good progress I would say

Next is Christmas Garden by BBD:

No before picture because all I stitched was the beginnings of the red flowers at the left.

I have 2 finishes. First is Do You See What I See by Shelly Auen:

I love it! I believe I started this for last year's Maynia.

Next one is Snow Day by Sisters & Best Friends:

On a piece of Babbling Brook jobelan, I believe. I saw this stitched up at another blog called 

Black flies and Snow flies and commented on how cute he was. The blogger Lisa

offered to send me the pattern! So I took up her offer and here he is. I searched for this pattern

which is a freebie but I still could not find it. If anyone would like to stitch him, let me know, I'll send

this freebie to you. Go check out Lisa's blog. Thanks again, Lisa!

Ok, 1 more picture before Blogger goes nuts! On Stitch Maynia there's a SAL I'm

taking part in, new starts in 2019 on the 19th of each month. Here's 

my new start-Night Moves Trumpeter Swans..

I have the lower swan going in. The swans themselves are 5 different DMC greys

plus white! That is several hours of stitching! Whew. Swans will be a WIP for Maynia 

because I'm joining this year again!

Onto Part 2. Over there are FFOs and exchange goodies. See you there!

Part 2 Happy March!

If you haven't already, see Part 1 below this post.

So I've been stitching more these past couple of weeks. On Feb. 19 I started a Christmas ornament from the 2015 JCS ornament mag..

This is the PS ornament that is directly above in the picture called Winter's Eve. I can't remember the name of the fabric I'm using but it's 32ct. I'm taking part of A Year of New Starts SAL at Stitch Maynia and this was my start. Every month on the 19th we start something new.

I also have a couple FFOs. First, I finally did the ribbon ruching for All Hallows Eve by Dulaney Woods designs..

I ruched as I sewed it on instead of sewing a running stitch in the ribbon. It still took awhile and I was worried I was going to run out of ribbon! I'll tell you, it's best to have a drink nearby, preferably of the alcoholic kind! It took me about 2 and a half hours to get the ribbon on! So worth it though. Here's the back..

Love the fabric.

I'm still doing my WIP stitching once a week on older WIPs and I just stopped on Early Witches by the Primitive Hare..before..

and now..

Tituba is now done. I just have the town to stitch in below her name. Her skin color was charted for dmc black but I decided on a warm brown for her skin. I like it much better.

I am now moving onto Winter at Beacon House..

I'll stitch on this today. I have 1 over 1 birds to stitch there in the bottom left corner and a few specialty stitches in the sky around the house. I have not touched this in about 4 years! Time to get back at it.

Oh I forgot to show the other FFO!

By Notforgotten Farm. It could've been stuffed and closed up better but I like it. Here's the back..

The fabric looks like moss. Just like moss on an old headstone.

Okay, Blogger is doing its crazy thing, one more picture..

Market is upon us and while I have seen lots of charts that I want, I really do want this sampler. It has the house and fruit baskets/vases that I like in a sampler. What are you all liking from Nashville Market?

Alright, I better skedaddle! Thanks for stopping by and visiting and leaving comments. Also Welcome to new followers through Bloglovin! Stay awhile! 

Take care!

Happy March! Part 1

March is certainly roaring in like a lion! Very windy outside, think I'll stay in.

Hope you are all doing fine. I haven't paid much attention to the news lately so I don't know how the weather is where you're at. I am dealing with a headcold which started yesterday, stuffed and running nose, sneezing and head feeling thick. I never get sick so I'm a bit surprised. Maybe this is just allergies, who knows. Well, the last part of February was crazy! My stove quit working the 3rd week of February and I was able to buy a used one in very good condition last week. So I had a few weeks of microwaveable meals, soups, and anything else I could eat cold and heat up in the microwave. So this weekend I'm making soup on the stove! Two Thursday's ago we got hit one of those snowstorms of the century. Take a look..

That is my car, surrounded by 2 feet of snow. It was windy so there was drifted snow behind my car at a half of foot more. The last time we had snow like this was 32 years ago. Then, it was 2 1/2 feet of snow. Lucky me, my shovels, plain old dirt turning shovels, were buried under the snow in the back. 

The snow started Thursday night, all Friday and finally stopped Saturday night. I was never so glad to see it stop! I had to hire a guy to come and dig out my driveway so I could get out of the house. No work for two days. Crazy stuff! If it never snowed again the rest of this winter, no problem here! In 1 week, all the snow is gone except for shady spots, and up in the mountains. That's Arizona for you, the temps made it to 60 for a couple days ago.

Time for stitching news! This post may be in 2 parts, maybe.

I spoke about happy news in the last post. Happy for me because it closed a 4 year wait. The designer who had a Kickstarter event has had her antique sampler stitched up and should be marketing that soon. Here are my campaign goodies..

Now I hemmed and hawed on whether I should reveal the designer and since she had made it known on her FB page, which is now gone, that after the funding came through, she fell into a deep depression. Having some experience with depression, I can certainly understand how she was unable to get that humongous sampler started and all the other things going promised on her campaign. To 

those who don't know what's going on, Shakespeares Peddler or KittenStitcher on Flosstube, Theresa had started a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to purchase an antique sampler and had all these extras offered depending on the size of your donation. I love the sampler she chose for me.

Anyway, she has finished the repro sampler. It's a beauty and big with about 500 stitches on the long side. I decided to reveal her because it's a good thing to put a face on depression. The more we hide from it, the more it becomes an illness to be scared of and not understand. 

I have a finish!

This is Floral Sewing Box by BBD in the Vintage Inspirations booklet. It's the exchange piece for my partner. Above it is the box I'm staining for it and the polka dot paper that will go inside the top and inside the box. The exchange is due on the 20th, heading to Virginia. I'm still gathering more things to add to the exchange.

Okay, I'll end this here. Please check out Part 2 above this post.