Only 21 days until Christmas???

Okay, it is bad enough that we just started  the last month of the year but seriously, only 21 days until Christmas????? I have been doing my best to get working on Christmas shopping and I can not imagine how people managed before the internet or even the old catalogs from Sears and Montgomery Wards, but I am the person who LOVES to go see the decorations in the mall, see the little kids all excited waiting to see Santa and here I am stuck on bumm with my leg in a cast and unable to do things which bring the holidays alive for me. Luckily I have a wonderful family who have been going out of their way to make their Momma feel better about the whole situation.

As if being in the hospital in October and November wasn't enough, I started December back in the hospital with a severe asthma attack, probably the worst one I have ever had. As many of you know, autumn leaves and cold snaps are my big triggers for bronchial spasms which means my asthma is only seasonal not annual. However, it can be a extremely quick onset and very hard to treat. This was the case on Thursday. I had seen my regular doctor at 2:30 and after listening to my lungs, assessing my symptoms (sinus drip, congestion, no fever) he diagnosed me with an upper respiratory infection. Asked me if I had plenty of inhalers and albuterol for my nebulizer and I assured him I was ready if needed, however I didn't seem to be wheezy or having any usual symptoms.

By 5:00 p.m. all that changed, the kiddos grabbed my nebulizer and medications very quickly and set me up with a treatment. The first 15-20 minutes after treatment I was feeling better and then another attack occured. A second treatment was taken and this one didn't seem to help at all. At this point, I realized a trip to the hospital was in order and so we went to the local hosptial for treatment. There I had another 5 nebulizer treatments from a respiratory therapist before my breathing started leveling out. Luckily the ER doctor was an old acquiantance from the EMT days and after listening to the history quickly gave me the necessary steroids to help maintain my respiratory track. Currently the kids and I have upper respiratory infections so we are just a bunch of diseased creatures. Hopefully all this gets out of the household this year so that when 2012 comes around, everyone can be starting school and work with clean bills of health.

Knitted dishcloths are in full swing to be little extras to be added to Christmas presents to friends and families. The one shown being worked in the last blog has been completed and while it is nice, I didn't like how much white was in the yarn. Then I completed the two toned blue dishcloth which really caught my eye. I'm really loving that blue one and am thinking some of these are in the future for my kitchen. Currently I am working on a tricolored dishcloth which is coming along nicely and may be moving up the list of the favorites. I am hoping to complete about 16 of these for Christmas and since it takes me about a day and half for each, I should be able to meet my goal. Currently I have 10 completed I am halfway there with another one in progress making 11 ~ 5 more to go after that.

Two more completed dishcloths.

 

I also have a last minute stitching gift in progress as well. A cousin of mine that actually grew up sharing a room with my Mom has a birthday in December. Since my Mom's death, she has went out of her way to make efforts to strengthen our family ties. My Mom loved being the matriach of our family so everything went through her no matter how old us kids became. With that being said, there was a lack of closeness with cousins and all since most of my 1st cousins are 30-35 years older than me. I was definitely a later in life child for my parents, especially since my Mom would have been 84 this year and my Dad would have been 92.

So I decided to make her a Festive Trees ornament, especially since I had all the required skeins pulled already and didn't have to work my way back into my craft corner to pull any necessary supplies. So far, I am stitching right along and hopefully can finish it up soon. Then I will need to have my sewing machine set up and work on finishing them, hopefully in time for the holidays.

Festive Trees ornaments. One completed; one in progress

Progress on 2nd Festive Trees ornament

So other than all this activity between hospital and doctor visits, I haven't managed to accomplish very much. Hopefully as the medications start taking affect, we all start feeling better and I can get back into the grove with things.

I do have one other update to provide before signing off for today. Mylene sent me a beautiful Christmas ornament the other day from the Netherlands and really made my day. She does beautiful stitching and I'm looking forward to placing it on my tree this year and every year and remembering the wonderful friend who sent it. :) Thank you so much Mylene, it turned out wonderful and your finishing is flawless!

Ornament received from Mylene

Until next time, keep your stitchin' and knittin' needles moving, spend time with family and friends and most of all, enjoy life.

End of the Month Report for November

Wow. We are already at the start of the last month of the year and Christmas is right around the corner. I am hoping to get my tree up sometime after my cast comes off which is December 13th. However, I have been working on Christmas ornaments to add to the menagerie of the ornaments created by the kids, myself and just favored ornaments which we have picked out over the years.

The last couple of days I have been working on a couple of projects and have quite a bit of progress has been made. I finished up the ornament which I had been working on and while I have not added beads to it, I am loving how it turned out. The ornament is from Turquoise Graphics & Designs and is called Festive Times. I am definitely going to be looking into some of her other work after the holidays. She has a gorgeous freebie design on her website, called Aegean Garden, which I am going to work on when I can get to the LNS to pick up the necessary Caron Waterlilies which is used in the design.

Festive Trees
Designer: Gunay F. Uyan
Turquoise Graphics & Designs
Fabric: 32 count White Jobelan
Threads: DMC

In addition, I worked on the Lizzie Kate UFO which I started working on in January 2009. As many stitchers can relate to, stitched pieces bring back memories of life events that were occurring to the stitcher. I started work on this piece when my Mom was in ICU after her quintuple bypass and subsequent recovery. Every time I see this piece, I remember my worries and fears for her recovery, our conversations and watching her fight to regain her strength. I have finished all the detail stitching for the month of June and will leave the mindless stitching to fill in around the lettering for later.

June Stamp-it
Designer: Lizzie Kate
Fabric: 32ct Mushroom Lugana
Threads: Weeks and Gentle Arts

I started the August stamp-it today. The reason??? Well, I would have had to move the material on the Q-Snaps and I just didn't feel like doing that today. Also the August and June pieces both had bees on them and I decided that I would sew all of them together at one time. Hopefully I can continue to make progress on this piece while I am recuperating. After all, I have another 13 days in my cast.

I finished up another knitted dishcloth and started another color which I am looking forward to see how it works up. The reason for so many dishcloths is I am hoping to put them in with gifts for extended family and friends as a little 'extra' gift. Plus I will be needing to make some more for myself since I love these for use in my kitchen. Also I need to make some for my camper so that when I can go camping again I can keep my camper shiny and bright.

Until next time, keep knittin' and stitchin', spend time with friends and family and most of all, enjoy life!

Finally an update.....

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated on this blog and I thank those loyal followers who have hung on. There has been so many things that has happened since August that I sometimes feel overwhelmed when I think of all that has happened since that time. Aunt Berns passed away 7 1/2 weeks after we discovered her cancer very peacefully on August 17th. While we miss her, we are very glad to know that her suffering is over and she is beside her beloved husband of 58 years. She passed the day before her 60th wedding anniversary and it seems to be a little poetic that it all occurred that way. Becky started 7th grade and Ray is a 5th grader this year. We had a major hurricane come up the East coast about a week later and wreaked havoc from North Carolina to Canada. We loss power at our house for over a week and luckily had the camper to stay in. Some water came into the basement, however we can not figure out how. Since that time, no water has been seen, even with days of rainy weather and so we are cautiously optimistic that it will not happen again. Girl scouts and Cub scouts kicked in full gear shortly after that life seemed to become a whirlwind.

At least until the weekend of Halloween. We had camping plans with my brother and his family up in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. The meteorologist called for a possible 1-3" of snow on grassy surfaces only and for Sunday to be sunny with a high near 60 degrees so we figured that everything would be fine. We woke up that Saturday to 6 inches of snow covering everything! Later that day, I went to leave the camper and slipped while stepping down on the first steel step. When I landed, I realized my lower leg was grotesquely twisted backwards and my sole of my shoe was touching the calf of my leg. Luckily, I can say that my EMT training kicked right in and very calmly I reached down and put the foot back in anatomical position. A very hazardous ride to the nearest hospital in Charlestown, I had a diagnosis of a triple fracture of the fibula and ankle joint. The injury would require surgery, however the doctor's there only reduced the severe dislocation and soft casted me until an orthopedic surgeon could take a look.

I was operated on November 2nd and had a 7" and 2" plate along with 13 screws put in to hold the bones together and allow the tendons which were destroyed to start knitting together. I will be having another surgery 4 months later to remove two long screws which run completely through the actual joint that is helping hold the tib/fib together and helps anchor the broken end of the tibia in place as well. The first couple of weeks were completely unbearable without the aid of pain medications but the last week or so I stopped the medications and am working on dealing with the discomfort of the injury. My cast is to be removed in mid-December and I will start placing partial weight on the joint again. I will be facing several months of physical therapy to learn to walk, gain movement in the joint and hopefully to run again.

Initially, nothing could keep my attention due to the pain levels and the medication. I felt like I had been wrapped in cotton batten and could not gain enjoyment from anything. Slowly I started reading and looking at stitching supplies which had been long neglected.One day I decided to pick up thread and needle and since then have managed a few small finishes and some knitting as well. I did take another knitting course the weekend before my accident to start a stocking cap or knitting in the round. Eventually I hope to get to get with the instructor and learn how to decrease and complete the project. The local shop, The Knitting Boutique, was very gracious upon hearing of my injury and has said they would work with me when I was able to come to the shop.

So without further ado, let me post some pictures of progress made and finishes since August or so. Hopefully this shows a little progress and I will be posting more regularly as well.

Knitted Dishcloths I have been working on for something little to add to Christmas presents this year. This is 4 of the ones I have completed so far and I'm hoping to knock out a few more in time for the family gatherings.

Completed bookmark I made for an exchange I participated in for September this year. I loved how this turned out but I can tell you cutting out the aida fabric so carefully after stitching was tedious!

Completed Prairie Schooler mini-ornament which I am planning on finishing off for the Christmas tree this year. Very fun stitch!

Lizzie Kate June Stamp-it. Still not done..... sigh..... but progress is progress. I think I'll be working on this piece this coming week.

Current WIP: Festive Times ornament by Turquoise Graphics and Designs from the 2011 Just Cross Stitch ornament magazine. Hoping to finish this over the weekend.

Completed stitching! Sam Sarah design named Yikes which was picked out by Ray. He loves bats and I am planning on finishing this into a Halloween ornament for him.

Starlight Sampler by Little House Needleworks. This is still in progress and I'm slowly seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully I can make some more progress on this this weekend as well.

Finally, The Musician by Joan Elliott. She hasn't been worked on since my injury because I didn't want to be messing her up while on medication. Hopefully soon. So far I have about 6,000 stitches in and about over 16,500 left to go......

Knitted stocking cap being worked in the round using Plymouth yarn.

Until next time, keep your stitchin' needles and knittin' needles moving, spend time with friends and family and most of all enjoy life!

Geez Louise...... I forgot my TUSAL Update! Oh.. and a UFO Sunday update too.

Of course, this little stitch a long is very important! Why you ask? Well, Daffycat is having a totally useless stitch a long and I've been participating in this little event for the year so I have to update this from time to time. How often you ask?? Well every new moon cycle of course! So a bunch of us crazy, fun loving stitchers gather all of our thread ends or frogged threads and make fill a container of some sort for our own little show and tell.

So without ado, here is my ORT jar so far this year. I did manage to make quite a bit of contribution to this jar and while it is in the same jar as before, I keep stuffing them a little tighter every time.

My other update for the week is the work on my Starlight Sampler by Little House Needleworks. I don't know what happened, what clicked or whatever, but I have been stitching on this for a couple of nights this week and made a good amount of progress. Of course, I have been tying off and starting a new thread for each set of letters and the leaves on the tree which I think is important in making a stitching piece neater and possibly help with preserving the piece for years to come. This is something I picked up on while viewing a sampler show for Maryland Schoolgirl Samplers from the 1600's a couple of years ago. The samplers which were in really wonderful shape did not have any threads dragging across the back of the designs and everything was very neatly secured. I am hoping to get to Williamsburg one day to view their extensive sampler collection there.

Front of Design

 Back of Design

Until next time, enjoy stitchin' and knittin', enjoy time with family and friends and as always, enjoy life.  ~ Carol

Stitching, Knitting, and Reading...... Monthly Wrap-up!

With the weather this past month being hot and humid here in Maryland, especially for us with asthma (one day soaring to 106.3 degrees), I found plenty of time to sit in my comfy chair and do lots of the titled activities. While I didn't stitch exclusively on the Musician, I did stitch on a Christmas in July exchange for my one Yahoo group, ILCS. This was so fun to work on and I had the hardest time finding just that "right" design to send to my partner along with some speciality threads. Since it has arrived safe and sound to it's new home, here is a picture of the completed project. I loved Santa's watering can and rake on his back; it just screamed summer and instantly caught my eye for this exchange. This is a 1994 Prairie Schooler design from the "A Christmas Visit Pamphlet" stitched in DMC floss on a piece of 32 count even weave. I am not sure what the color of the fabric is since it was a remenant piece I had from other smaller finishes but I loved how it came together. The fabric you see in the background is what the backing is and I used the deep red cording to complete the finishing. 

Christmas in July Exchange
Designer: Prairie Schooler
Floss: DMC threads
Material: 32 count evenweave

I did pull out a few of my UFO pieces as well. Starlight Sampler by LHN has been brought back into rotation to work on while running back and forth since the Musician is a larger piece and too much to be able to just pick up and work on in a pinch. I am working on a set of acorn trees which has lots of little leaves and acorns and since I like to keep my backs as neat as possible, this means a lot of starting and stopping. I am still liking this piece quite a bit and I think this was laid to the side when my Mom passed and I lost my stitching mojo for so long. Here is a picture from February 2011 this year and my progress from this week; every little bit counts right?

Little House Needlework
Starlight Sampler
Progress as of 31 July 2011

I also have been working on another UFO piece (aren't you proud of me????), Lizzie Kate's monthly "stamp-it" which has been sitting in the bottom of my stitching bag forever. Again this was one of those "Mom hospital" pieces, but I've decided it is time to complete it so I am trying to work on it at least once a week. I am stitching all 12 months as one design so this will be a UFO for a while but the colors in this project is so colorful and cheerful it will be a wonderful finish. Hopefully I can keep plugging away on them so wish me luck. I had to do a little searching for the "before" picture but this is from July 2010 (hanging my head in shame) and this week's progress.

Lizzie Kate June Monthly Stamp-it
Progress as of 31 July 2011

By no means should you interpret that the Musician has been moved into the bottom of one of my cavernous stitching bags! No, I am so in love with this piece (remember I am suffering from POO.... Point of Obsession) and plan on working on her quite a bit at home or when off in the camper but I need to be able to spread out threads, charts, stitching tools, colored pencils and that becomes a little too much when wanting to stitch for a few moments on a lunch break or while visiting Aunt Berns at the hospice house. Since I attended an all day 'Stitch and Bitch' this Saturday, the Musician traveled to Catonsville for a fun-filled day of stitching with some other enthusiasts. I have finished 5,750 stitches and can officially say that 1/4 of this project is completed. Woot, woot!

Joan Elliott
The Musician
Total stitches completed: 5,750 out of 22,524
DMC fibers on 32 count white evenweave

Speaking of Aunt Berns, she was moved two weeks ago to the Hospice of the Chesapeake Tate House in Linthicum. This is a gorgeous, tranquil place for the terminally ill as well as their family members to spend time together and provides top-notch palliative care for the patients. Family members are encouraged to spend as much time as possible with the patients and beautiful gardens, water ponds, and rock gardens are on the grounds along with very comfortable rooms and living/dining areas as well. The center encourages to bring in foods that are favorites of patients and family dining is even allowed. The kids are having a hard time understanding all that is happening with their great-aunt; and I feel so bad for them because these long goodbyes are the hardest in my opinion but we are trying to help them along as best as possible and be there when they need a hug or a shoulder to cry on.

I have been knitting on dish cloths and finished the one green heart design I had started in the previous post. Since I can make about 2 cloths per skein, I started another one to put away for presents. Again, this lends itself to something that I can just grab and go with to keep my hands busy while visiting or taking a break. Then when I was in AC Moore the other day shopping, I finally... FINALLY found a pale pink Sugar and Cream yarn for dish cloths which I have been saying to myself that it seemed so strange to find all the other colors of the rainbow except pink. I have a cousin who has an old 1950's black and white tiled kitchen with pink accents, so I picked up some to make a cloth or two for her. The scarf that I have been working on is over 2 foot in length now and I am so in love with this Dragonfly fiber. The picture doesn't even begin to do justice to the variations in this yarn, but it is fabulous.

Reading wise, I have finished 3 more books this month, bringing my total to over 21 books this year. I am working on catching up on all the Nora Robert titles and then I think I may start working on her other books under J.D. Robb. I just finished Angels Fall by Nora and this book was awesome, so anyone that is a Robert's fan, this is a must! Also this month I finished reading Don't Look Back by Amanda Quick which was the last in book in a trilogy. Very good as well if you enjoy period mysteries. I also read Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen and all I can say is if you haven't read her work yet, do so. She is a fabulous relatively new writer and her stories are wonderful!

I must mention that I received a wonderful surprise this week from a lady in my stitching group, Every Stitch Counts, that just made my day. CC sent me Heart in Hand's Fine Friends design with floss, fabric, chart and charm and I am planning on putting this in my stitching to do list as work is completed on some of these UFOs. Thanks so much for sending this to me CC, stitching friends really are the best!

Until next time, keep your stitchin' and knittin' needles going, spend time with friends and family and most of all... enjoy life!

Yay/Nay Meals.......

Broccoli-cheese Brunch Casserole - our dish from from the oven!

About a year ago I decided I was tired of feeling like I was serving the same things all the time to my family. I don't know about you, but there are times when it seemed like you had a "rotation" of familiar foods and it seemed like the pattern would only be broken when you went out to dinner. One day I decided that we would really start trying out new recipes from cook books, backs of packages, magazines, word of mouth and the only rule was we had to try it at least once. When the meal was done, the family would vote whether to add it to our book of favorites or to never again make such a horrible dish. The kids have affectionately named this process "Yay/Nay Meals".

This past weekend, I decided to change up our meal and made a breakfast brunch I found on the back of a package of Kraft Shredded Cheeses. The recipe was called Broccoli-cheese brunch casserole and we followed the recipe but added our own twist to it. We added Canadian Bacon and chopped onions to our version making it more like a Western omelet. Also I made a smaller casserole by splitting this recipe in half but this is the original recipe. I can tell you that it was VERY filling and would be perfect for a breakfast when guests are visiting. Of course, having 2 kids that enjoy cooking and preparing food, this is age friendly from tots to teens. Smaller fingers can help layer ingredients and bigger hands can help chop and prepare the veggies, or whatever you decide to add to your casserole and if you are a really adventurous Mom, the kids can even help crack and whisk the eggs! (Please note, this suggestion does not make me responsible for any kitchen disasters messes which may occur in your house!)

Broccoli-cheese Brunch Casserole
Prep: 20 min. Total: 1 hour Makes: 12 servings

What you need:
18 slices of white bread, cubed
1/2 cup chopped red peppers
3 cups KRAFT shredded mild cheddar & Monterrey Jack cheese
1 1/2 cups of small fresh broccoli florets (I used frozen; tasted great!)
8 eggs
3 cups milk

Make it:
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Layer 1/2 each of bread, peppers and cheese, in greased 13x9 baking dish, top with broccoli. Repeat layers of bread peppers and cheese.
3. Beat eggs and milk with whisk until blended; pour over ingredients in baking dish.
4. Bake 50 minutes to 1 hour or until center is set. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes before cutting to serve.

I think I'm going to be including some recipes on here from time to time. I think everyone enjoys something different and we really enjoyed this one. I'm thinking it may be pulled out for a camping trip with buddies sometime or a holiday breakfast meal.

In the words of Julia Childs......... Bon Appetite!

Slowly making progress........

 So summer is here but someone forgot to send a memo to the 'Hectic Life' fairy to inform her to let me slow down for a while and enjoy life. We have been dealing with a family member's declining health over the past few weeks (since Memorial Day) and having to make several hard decisions and long discussions in regards to their well-being. I just picked up the Musician the other night after a very long absence and I was ready to weep for joy by just sitting down and making little x's while letting my mind go blank. I don't know about you but stitching really is cheaper than therapy and more enjoyable too in my opinion! While I haven't made as much progress on her as I would have liked, progress is still progress.
 

I have had a few people ask me how I am keeping track of my stitches on this piece and the easiest way to explain is I have been using a colored pencil to 'color' in my progress on a working copy of the chart. When I started I wanted to make sure I kept my place on a design of this size and so as I colored along I just started keeping track of what I had accomplished and how much more to go. It helps keep me motivated to see how much I have completed and setting goals for myself to keep going. Of course, I can say I have reached POO (Point of Obsession) with this piece so I don't think that will be a problem. (Thanks Sue P. for providing me with such a cute acronym this past week. I still grin all over myself when I think of this one!)

I was pleasantly surprised the  last few weeks not once but thrice by ladies in my Every Stitch Counts group from Yahoo! Chris sent me an adorable froggie Q-Snap cover which she makes and also sells. If you are ever in need of a top quality Q-Snap cover, cruise over to her website and I can tell you that you won't be disappointed. I am looking forward to jabbing my needle in the little green guys when I am done stitching at the end of a day or when the little slimy guys keep causing me to frog, frog, frog! Also she sent me a chart that I have loved from Country Cottage called "Mary Mary Quite Contrary".

Pam sent me a little pick-me-up gift which included an adorable carved wooden pineapple, dried pineapple (kids destroyed these....), some Mary Kay cream, a Yankee Candle scent package, some DMC and a really nice card saying that she was thinking of me during all the craziness going on. This was such a sweet present and I have the Yankee scenter hanging in my RV where I can enjoy it on the long weekends.

Sue V. sent me a lovely package containing the cutest pillow (spring exchange) and two crocheted dishcloths. I don't know if she knew I was getting started on making a few dishcloths since mine were wore out but these are wonderfully made and really show me that Ms. Sue doesn't give herself enough credit for her crocheting/knitting skills. Thanks so much ladies for such wonderful gifts; it really made my day!!!

Of course, I mentioned I was working on some knitted dishcloths and I finished one over the weekend and started another. Last Christmas, I gave a few out with presents and I have gotten a few comments from friends and family that these were really well liked so I might have to get a few done before the holiday season.

Finally, it is time for a TUSAL (Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long) update. I would have liked to make more progress on this front but progress is progress.

Until next time, keep your stitching' and knitting' needles moving, enjoy time with friends and family and most of all have fun!

Soldier Kissing Pillows

I have began working on a wonderful little project that any stitcher can participate called the Solder Kissing Pillow. These small pillows are stitched by crafters all around the country and are being handed out to deploying soldiers and their families. The concept is that pillow is kissed and hugged by either the soldier or by his family members and serves as a little piece of "home comfort" for the period of seperation while serving our country. I have read stories where families who received the personal effects of soldiers that gave the ultimate sacrifice found these little pillows returned to them tattered and torn but carried by the soldier day by day providing comfort and solace to all.
This effort was began in 2005 by the Yellow Rose Embrodiery Guild of America in Houston, Texas. Since then, the requests for these little pillows has grown to a nationwide effort of EGA guilds and cross stitch enthusiasts who just want to share their craft with someone and knowing it can bring comfort as well as beauty into their lives.

I am hoping to create 25 of these pillow tops this year to help with this effort. The design is very simple and is stitched on 14 count aida with DMC floss. The pillow has the words "I LOVE YOU" along with two stars of patriotic colors. The stitcher only stitches the top part of the pillow and can send the completed tops to a participating EGA which will then make sure the pillows are finished and deployed. This seems to be wonderful way of giving something back by sharing a craft that I love and enjoy so much.

Here are some links that I found about the effort. Please feel free to google search "Soldier Kissing Pillow" and you will find abundant information on the web. The first link is to the Yellow Rose EGA chapter which started this effort. If you are  interested in helping out with this effort, please leave a comment stating so and I willl reply to your request with an email containing the pattern and where to send the finished stitched tops.Thanks!

http://www.yellowroseega.com/outreach.htm#soldier
http://www.the-signal.com/archives/13293/
 http://wcfcourier.com/lifestyles/article_cd3bd7c4-e670-11de-a931-001cc4c03286.html

School's Out for SUMMER!

Wow ~ another school year is over for my kiddos and life is starting to settle into the long, lazy days of summer around the household. Why would you ask? Both scouting programs for the kids follow the school year so we are no longer having weekly meetings twice a week, I don't have to rush home to try and check homework while cooking up dinner at the same time...... get the picture??? From the end of August until mid-June I fell like a hamster on a exercise wheel that can't take a break. While I start to miss all the activities and fun toward the end of summer, but the end April I am starting to count down to the end of the school year just like the kids. Granted it is for a different reason all together, but it is nice to just hang out at home or take a long bike ride or just go to the park without obligations looming in the background.

I recently had 3 pieces framed at the Stitching Post and I loved how they turned out! My local needlework shop, Stitching Post, offers 10% discount on all your framing during your birthday month so I had taken in these finishes in order to enjoy the savings. I have decided that I will be framing the rest of the Prairie Schooler Country Seasons in the same frame but with their own double matting to compliment the season.

The Lizzie Kate Santa Friends piece with the dreadful Wisper thread for his beard and fur trim also received a double matting since my family helped pick out the finishing and everyone just loved how the double matting made the pieces pop. Let's just say it was a good thing it was my birthday month...... :)

Of course the end of the school year meant recognizing teachers for their efforts throughout the year, at least for the elementary school level. Since Ray is my only one still in elementary school, I only had to complete one handmade present this year. I found these motifs in a 1001 Cross Stitch Motifs book and after putting them together, this was the final result. Of course, I always try to personalize these types of gifts and just finished it in a simple pillow form. The truly amazing story about this piece is that I started and finished it within 2 1/2 days! This is truly a record for me but it just show you what can be accomplished when you put a girl under pressure.

Becky and I am having our annual summertime reading challenge between each other to see who can read the most books. We enjoy weekly trips to the library and participating in the various summer reading programs our county libraries offer. Ray has decided to join us in reading this year and I am overjoyed that he is showing interest in picking up a book to read. So far I have read 15 books and currently am working on the Nora Robert's Circle Trilogy.

Now it is time for me to return to stitching on the Musician, picking up another UFO from the pile and hopefully completing before summer's end. Actually, I have something else up my sleeve but I am planning another posting on that soon so check back!


Until next time, keep your stitching and knitting needles movin', enjoy time with friends and family and most of all enjoy life!

Graduation, Colonial Day and Stitching (oh and a TUSAL too!)

 The beginning of June bought a big moment for this Aunt in her nephew's life. He graduated from high school this year and will be soon embarking on the next chapter of life and college. Moments like these make you realize that life is truly a blink of an eye and it seems like just yesterday I had this young man sitting in my lap while I read him a book. I was very honored to be present as he accepted his diploma and had a tear in my eye thinking of how proud his Grandma would be if she could have been there.

This past Friday, I spent the day with Ray's 4th grade class teaching needlework for Colonial Day. All the students were to dress up as a famous Marylander and report on his accomplishments. Ray chose Peter Cooper, the inventor of the Tom Thumb, which was the first steam locomotive in America. It was so fun seeing each of the student's outfits and hearing what they had learned. Even Mom got in on the fun dressing up as a proper colonial lady for the day complete with mob cap. I worked with about 80 students that day explaining the importanance of needlework in a household and talking about the history of samplers. Then each student worked on on following a stamped pattern of ABC on a piece of muslin. The other stations included colonial dancing, a food station where they tried traditional colonial foods, making colonial manner books, quill writing, also soap and candle making.

Stitching on the Musician is coming right along with over 4000 stitches completed so far. Hopefully I can keep this pace up through the month and before you know it she will be completed. I have started some of the backstitching and it really did make her pop ~ as they say the devil is in the details. The colors on this piece are really keeping me motivated on this stitching project and I am hoping to make lots of stitching progress this weekend during the monthly Red Hot Stitcher's meeting.

I have been making some progress on the lighthouse design for my sister-in-law's birthday present. Right now I am working on Cape Hatteras about once a week but I think I am going to add another night on stitching on this in order to ensure I can make it to the framers in time.

Of course, it is time for another totally useless stitch-a-long with a favorite blogging buddy, Daffycat! Here is my jar which I keep stuffing threads into and hopefully I can add lots more odds and ends by the next update and at the same time have lots more stitching accomplished!