9.28.2008

Quilt Alphabet Sampler - WIP


Ok, you can pick that jaw up. Yep, I have another start. It was something that when I saw it.. I had to stitch it .. right away.

I was shown this pattern, and I had to get my hands on it. Its from the mag - Country Cross Stitching, and its called Quilt Alphabet Sampler.

Its got TONS of backstitching, but it sure makes the design pop. Im going to stitch in sections (lines), and then backstitch as I go. I stitched alot on this design today.

9.27.2008

Pink Snips


Today in the mail I had a package waiting for me.

Alittle while back, I had Paula from Kelmscott Designs email me about posting something on Stitch Pink. I was able to post for her.. and for my help, she allowed me to pick something from her site.

And I chose the Pink Snips. I LOVE them! They are soo cute!!

Thanks Paula!! These are my new scissors!!

9.26.2008

Natalie and her Oz Friends!

Natalie and her Oz Friends was the name of the email I received today in my email account.

I had mailed out Nat's remaining Wizard of Oz friends yesterday. She is one happy girl! Guess which movie she was watching tonight... again!?!

Now we are working on getting her a Dorothy dress for her birthday in 2 weeks! Wish us luck!

9.24.2008

My first Round Robin



This will be my first Round Robin (RR) that I will send out. I have done like 4 in the past, but never took the courage to send out for myself. Well that time has come. Before I had decided on this theme - I had 3 others picked out.. but they seemed like they weren't screaming .. stitch me!

I'm really excited about my selection of theme for the RR. If you are familiar with the Dear Diary charts from Little House Needleworks - they include a little scripture pillow. Well at the very bottom on that site's page - it shows them all grouped together. And that gave me the idea to do a RR with the pillow designs.

I have selected 28ct Monaco in Tea. Each stitcher will have to stitch over two. I have all the DMC floss all ready to go for it. All the patterns still need to be prepped, and I need to work on the direction sheet to be passed on when its stitched.

I took the opportunity (well I needed something to do, as I had to keep my throbbing foot elevated today - long story) to get it started, as I stitched the middle square of the design. There are 8 other blocks that will be stitched on.


There are 5 of us involved in this RR. We each get a month to stitch on each others RR, and pass it on to the next person. So maybe in the future I might need a couple more to help me finish - but I will have to make sure it returns back to me in March.

In the side bar - I'm going to keep an update as the RR grows. I'm really excited about all of this!!

No More Happy Meals!!

Phone rang... the conversation went something like this..

Sis: GUESS WHAT!
Me: What?!
Sis: We got them all!
Me: NO WAY, how did you do that.
Sis: We were at the McDonalds in Neenah, and I asked which ones they had available and she said we have them all. I said.. can I buy the rest I need. (which we already had 7 of the 12 - and this is since last Wednesday)
Me: No way.. really!
Sis: Yep, I told her which ones I needed, and she was gone for about 3 minutes - its good no one was behind us as we were in the drive up.
Me: This is cool!
Sis: The girl came out with all the ones I needed, so I bought two in the Happy Meals and then just bought the rest separate.
......

Sis: Nat is going to crap her pants when she sees them.

~~~~~

You are probably wondered.. what the heck.. what in the world is she talking about..

Back track alittle - my almost 5 year old (in 16 days) niece Natalie - saw the Wizard of Oz back in July on tv, and has been HOOKED on it since. She probably watches the movie about 5 times a week- thanks to her Aunt Kim, who has lent her the DVD. Heck she has probably watched it more than I have in my life time, and Im 32..LOL

Well last week Wednesday I was at McDonalds and I called my sister to let her know that they had the Wizard of Oz dolls as the girls toy in the Happy Meal. Well the frenzy took off from there. We (my sister and I) have been hyped up on which one we can get next. I had the fortunate chance to pick up Dorothy, and today I was lucky to get the Lullaby Muchkin and the Lollipop Munchkin. So our collection includes, Dorothy and Toto in his basket, Glinda The Good Witch, Winged Monkey, Cowardly Lion, Wicked Witch of the West, Winkie Guard, Tin Man (which Nat calls Oil Can), Scarecrow, Flowerpot, Lullaby, Lollipop, & The Wizard... the collection is complete!

My sis says that Nat carries the dolls and her imagination is just so wild. She even carries them in a little purse.. and my sister is going to continue to pick up the extra dolls in Happy Meals just in case. My sister did say that Nat almost messed her pant when she saw them all - and the first thing she did when she got home was... watched Wizard of Oz.

My plan is to make a little bag for her to carry her dolls in.. and I have found the perfect fabric to make the basket... reminds me of the basket..;)

9.23.2008

It CAME, it CAME!

Mail was delivered, and Brian went out to the box to retrieve the mail before I. I knew I was expecting something from Vickie, but I wasn't sure if it was going to be here today or not.

Well I'm like.. "did I get something from Vickie!?" Brian said, yeah there is something from Vickie. He proceeds to hand all the mail. I just took what I wanted and I handed the rest back. LOL

A couple weeks ago, Vickie had said that she had ordered something for me.. and said it was a prize. I hadn't won anything... so I didn't know what to expect. Well if you don't know Vickie - she is the BAP lady.. she has about 4 or 5 of them going on at a time, which she puts into a rotation and works on them. So she always has me looking at the BAPs that she is interested and asks me what I like. Well, way back ... earlier this year.. I found my all time favorite chart from Mystic Stitch. I just kinda put in the back of my head that someday I would purchase it.

Well, I opened up the package to find this... The Flag from Mystic Stitch.... MINE ALL MINE!! I LOVE IT!! I was so excited when I had seen it that I (and I cant lie) had tears in my eyes! I'm going to start this pattern soon! (But then that puts the Cabin on the back burner.. oh and wait, there is Inspirations, that just went back further..LOL)






THANK YOU SO MUCH VICKIE!! You sure know how to surprise the heck out of me! And I TRULY do value our friendship!

The other two items in the package where things I knew of.

Vickie said that she had an extra copy of the JCS Halloween Edition.. so she included a copy for me.


AND.... DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

I got the SWIMSUIT (something that was said last year.. read it here) edition of cross stitching!! I see several that I'm interested in stitching already.. and tonight I will go to bed with it and read all the stories and recipes.

Thanks again Vickie! You really made my day, heck my week!!

9.22.2008

Its pictured backwards for a reason...

A week ago while at the benefit, I had a cousin find out that I cross stitched. She has been looking for someone to help her out with a project that she would need done by Oct 4th.

She described to me that her aunt had stitched a 50th wedding sampler for all the couples in the family on their 50th. Well it was now her turn to celebrate the milestone. So my cousin thought it would be neat if a the same wedding sampler that her aunt had stitched several times - would be gifted to her.

This whole time she is telling me this.. I'm thinking pattern... pattern. I asked her if there was more than one color..LOL I didn't know what to ask. So we made arrangements a week ago Sunday to meet before we came back home.

We met on Sunday afternoon, and she showed me the sampler. I was like... oh wow, I can do this.. easy! So, she had to get me some more details, as I had to change all the info on it to be correct. I came home with the framed finished that was gifted to her parents on their 50th.

So we got home, and I printed out some graph paper, and when I got the email that night with the info.. I started out graphing names of everyone. I got the fabric prepped and waited till Monday night to start stitching.

So, a week later, here it is all finished! I finally received the last of the info today. And was able to finish it.

I had no pattern to use - only was able to go off the framed finish. Its stiched on 14ct Aida, with DMC Floss.

The reason its pictured backwards as I didnt want to share the family history, and I wanted to respect the families privacy. But I still wanted to share, so I thought... turn it around and take a picture.... WAH LA!

9.21.2008

There..

I just wasted a couple hours of my life - guess what I was doing?! Come on, just guess. For you cross stitchers out there, this ones for you!

Frogging, yep, I was ripping out stitches. Stitch them back to where they were to be, and only to have to frog it out again. I could have literally screamed - I didn't for the sake of Brian was sleeping, and I didn't want competitions with the wolves that are just off our acre.

Yep... I had stitched a backstitched heart. Then I just went on to stitch the other two as they lay right under each other. So inside the heart is a name and a birthdate. Got it all stitched. As I was rounding the bottom of the heart on the bottom, I thought I would match it up with the heart that I had already stitched. CRAP, I had missed one row of vertical backstitching on each side of each heart! So I had to rip 2 1/2 hearts, and 2 names/birthdates out. Cause I figured that where I had the name and birthdate stitched on the top one I was safe... Hold on.. there is going to be a WRONG coming up.

I spent about 20 minutes ripping out the RED floss.

So, I proceeded to correct my missed extra row of back stitching.. kept stitching away.. back stitched my hearts again 2 1/2 of them.. but this time I didn't stitch the names and birthdays. (Except for the one that was already stitched.).. Ok, here is the WRONG gets inserted.

Then I went to go and line up my hearts with the hearts across on the left side. BIG MISTAKE.

I was ONE row off again. So I counted my spaces in between the hearts from bottom of one to middle of the top of the other. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8... umm ok.. all seemed ok. And then I found it. I thought humm, let me measure the top of the left side hearts to the hearts on the right which I had just stitched over for the 2nd time. Followed the ditch of the fabric....

Excuse me (and this is my blog) CRAP!! The very top heart on the right was one row UP. So I had to rip out each heart again on the right, including the name and birthdate of the first one.

And I stitched them all over again.... well except for the names and birthdates..LOL Tomorrow night I will go back and stitch the names and birthdates again.

There, now I just wasted another 10 minutes typing this all out. Off to bed!

9.20.2008

Dad's Benefit

The benefit is almost a week ago (cant believe it!)... and it was one amazing day!

Everyone asks how the benefit went, and I say - "It was great, despite the rain."

Yep, it rained on the benefit.. out of the 11 hrs we had the benefit - it probably rained about 5 of those hours - not including the rain during the set up. Luckily we were able to get ahold of a tent to help cover our heads, along with the pavilion to give shelter. And of course the town hall, that housed the silent auction items, and bake goods.

The people, oh my goodness, the people! I would say we had 1,000+ easy of people who attended. I had people coming up to me that I haven't seen in years, and I had hard time placing who they were. And I was thrilled when I seen some friends of my parents there to partake in the day.. they came from over 2 hrs away to join us.

Every time we were looking for Dad he was surrounded by people. He did mention to us that he never thought that people would care so much for him. It came to a point where I had to go and get Dad something to eat, as he has been standing, chatting with people for hours.

We had - the silent auction, bake sale, kids games - including the trout pond, food, beverages, tractor/train ride, 50/50 cash raffle, paddle wheel, demonstrations (Theda Star wasn't able to make it because of the weather), music - polka band, and 2 djs - fun, fun, fun.

We had a little presentation that we gave our Dad - it was a fire helmet that was painted white (for fire chief), and on the front of the visor it had the "Fireman's Creed", above it, had the Clayton-Winchester Fire Dept patch, on the left side it had an American Flag, on the other side it had a ax, and pick. On the back of the helmet has a picture replica of my Dad's 1956 fire truck that he owns, and on the back of the helmet, it has Clayton 100 (my dad's handle name), and Mathison (our last name). It was pretty emotional during that time. We hope to get pictures of the presentation.. but with us kids standing up doing the presentation, it was hard.

Right after the presentation - we had 2 area fire dept representatives present checks totalling $1,100! That really got me teary eyed!

Actually most of the pictures that we have are from someone - THANKS JENNIFER! We still have more to get from people.

And we had a surprise - FOX 11 was there to do an interview.. but we didn't even get the chance to see it as we were there working. But I put in an email requesting to see the news story from that night in regards to the benefit.

For the bake sale - there was a table that had to be about 30 feet long, with lots of bake goods on it. There was a guy there that asked about how much would it be for all the goods on one of the tables, and the lady said - $28. And he asked how much for the other table - it came to $63. The guy said - "Ok, I will take it all - but you have to take it outside and pass it around." I was outside selling 50/50 tickets, and all of a sudden I see the Lioness ladies coming out carrying all the bake goods. Its just amazing what people will do!

I have to share this.. we had 101 items for the silent auction - it was just amazing the things that were donated. There was a set of 4 Fire fighter pictures which auctioned separately, and the one with the cow sold for $260 (the guy was willing to go up to $300)

For the benefit, I had requested from the Green Bay Packers a donation.. not really expecting anything.. and to our surprise they sent us a football, with all the 2007 players and coaching staff autographs, that were lazered into the ball. We were all in shock when we found out at 8pm what the football went for... I hope you are sitting down for this amount.... $800.00! We were in shock! And while we were taking the money for the silent auction, we had a offer to outbid that person $200!

All in all, it was a GREAT day! We got home about 2:30am, and we were back on Sunday for the people that didn't stay till after the silent auction was over to purchase their items.

We raised just over $20,000 on Saturday.

Below is a slide show of some of the pictures from last Saturday - I will let you know when more are posted. Most of them are from before the benefit started.

9.11.2008

Just checking in...

WOW, busy is a mild word of what has been going on. We arrived here on Tuesday - and we have been on the go since.

Last night we were at Sam's Club doing some shopping - and we still have a few more things to get for the benefit on Saturday. We did get the silent auction set up today - but we still have more items coming.

Tonight we got together and had a picture with the kids with Grandpa. They are wearing their shirts that I made for them.

I hope this doesn't jinx it .. but right now, they are calling for 50% chance of rain.. so it can go either way. So, send us some good thoughts/prayers our way.. we could use them!

Talk with you probably after Sunday - unless I muster up some energy to post an update.

9.04.2008

Sometimes its cheaper to buy online

Today, I had to get G.G.'s (short for Gas Guzzler, a.k.a my Ford Explorer) oil changed. I didn't feel like going up to Iron River to get it where I normally get it changed, so I decided to take it to Iron Mountain - where I also needed to take our deposit cans back.

Well, we were wasting time inside of WalMart. The other day - Tuesday to be in fact. My favorite tv series released its 4th season. Well, Tuesday I was already to order it online, and Brian said. "Wont it be cheaper just to go to the store and pick it up off the shelf - and I can buy it for you with cash." So I said "Probably".

So I just headed over to WalMart.com to check out the price - $30.88.

Today while making my way thru the DVD section - I went down the aisle that has the TV series. They had season - 1 - 3, but no space for season 4. So we headed up to the counter in the electronics and I asked if they had The Office Season 4. She took me to where it was (which was in a different area than we were looking). It was completely empty!

I thought dang it. I wanted to be watching it tonight! I looked at the price. $39.96! I said "wait a minute... at WalMart.com - it said it was $30.88 (and I double checked when I got home too). The associate said that it happens some times, where the items are cheaper on online than in the store. It was $9 more to go to the store to purchase it. I couldn't believe it. I understand that it would have that same affect if you have to pay shipping and handling.

I guess Im off to Amazon.com to purchase! And they have it for $30.99 with free shipping!

9.03.2008

Stars & Stripes....Forever Take 2!



I have been wanting to do one more table runner to have for a silent auction item for Dad's benefit on the 13th. Well, I knew the perfect one to do.

Since the days are going by fast, and the benefit is getting closer. I finished up - well not totally finished, as I just have the binding to hand stitch - the Stars & Stripes .... Forever table runner that I designed for the Shop Hop that happen last May. You can find the pattern here - Stars & Stripes Forever

So, that is what I have been doing today.

9.01.2008

Couple of Finishes




Yesterday I took advantage of a finishing burst of energy. So I got out a couple of recent finish - well one wasnt so recent. And I finished them off into hanging finishes




The first is "Housework" (never killed anyone, but why take the chance). I had a hard time figuring out what to do around the edges, but Im happy I went with the pins. Really brings it out (I think).


The second one was the "Ask Me About My Grandkids" also from L*K. The little bow that is on the hanger is the same material on the back.

Back to stitching! Just thought I had forgotten to post this yesteray.. and wanted to do it before I erased the pictures off the camera.

Hope all is having a nice Labor Day! Im here, just doing the lazy stitcher routine - sitting in my stitching chair, watching tv, and stitching the day away, while I make holiday pay.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails