Forest Snowfall - WIP Day 2

Here is my progress on "Forest Snowfall" from CCN. I had to change the colors to DMC, so I had to compare the colors, and Im quite happy with the results.

I began stitching on this design last night, so you can see its stitching up fast! I took advantage of the day off and sat and stitched. I would have gotten more accomplished but that darn internet kept me busy.. he he

It has rained quite a bit today, which at time was freezing rain, and now tonight it began snowing, and we are under a heavy snow warning till 10am tomorrow. Guess I better get to bed.. I have to work the next 3 days (will be gone from home for 12 hrs each day).. but you gotta be there when your in healthcare!

OMG I almost died LAUGHING!

I kid you NOT! My chest hurt from laughing so hard! LMAO If you know me, and heard me laugh, you can testify that I have a LOUD laugh!

Warning, make sure you empty your month before clicking on the link. Dont say I didnt warn ya!

I found this site.. well I put umm a face picture of Brian, and you will find the results here...
http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=0472b1d9b2e08c48c80574aG06122206 Might take a little bit to load, but I think its worth it!

When I first played it... Brian thought I was crying since I was laughing so hard. (Brian was still in bed).

Brian chuckled when he saw what I did to him.. His comment was "my legs arent that little.".. LMAO (Yes they are!)

Happy Holidays with Brian's little song and dance! :)

Quilt Time Sampler WIP

Thought I would post a picture of the Quilt Time Sampler that I have been working on (slowly it seems). I have finished the lower half, and wanted to take a picture of the progress before I took it off the Qsnap, and moved it so I can stitch on the top. Im going to be joining in a Winter SAL with the LHN group and stitch the CCN's "Forest Snowfall", and come January 1st, Im going to join the "Two Blue Houses" from LHN with the SAL also.

I did manage to stitch on "Nativity In The Globe" from Bent Creek, while we were waiting for my truck to get repairs on today. I had to call in to work today, as I didnt have a vehicle to get there with. The U joint on the rear drive shaft was shot! I couldnt drive it till I got it fixed. So things are back to normal, now.

Happy Birthday Kaylee!

Happy 1st Birthday to Kaylee Mae! Here she is pictured from Sunday, while still at the hotel. She loved the Christmas tree! Such a cutie!

We're HOME!

And I need a nap!! This past weekend, Brian and I went down to visit my parents. I have to work all Christmas weekend, and Christmas Day.

My sister planned to have my youngest niece's birthday party on Saturday at 12:30p. Well we got there about 1p (and everyone was waiting for us, so they could eat). We had a great time there, Kaylee really got into her own bday cake, and I will post a picture tomorrow of her cake. After we cleaned up, we went off to a hotel to celebrate my parents' 40th anniversary. When we got there, some of the family went swimming, while the others took a rest (Brian and I included.. LOL). Saturday night we went out for dinner. It was alot of fun being surrounded by the siblings and their kids! Saturday night, my niece Natalie was sick. It was so sad to see a 3 yr old hunched over the toilet waiting to vomit. But she did successfully manage to get sick about 2am. Woke up Sunday morning, went down for the continental breakfast. Some of the family went swimming again. Brian and I had to go to WalMart to get a gift card. Got back to my parents, and my mom announced that their was a house fire. Which meant the firefighters (Dad, 2 brothers and SIL) were going to be gone for awhile.

Finally they got home about 6pm. We made plans for opening presents and having pizza at the town hall. We had pizzas, chips, soda, and left over birthday cake (from Kaylee's 1st bday party the day before). And the kids had a place to run around!

This a picture of all the kids before they opened their presents! I think I got the best picture of all 5 cameras that were going.. LOL It was funny, as soon as I took the picture I knew it was going to be a good one, so in enjoyment I put my arm up, and my sister inlaw got my arm in her viewfinder of her camera, and took a picture.. OPPS!.. LOL Their Grandpa, Grandma, aunts, and uncles sure know how to spoil them!

I was able to get a few stitches in yesterday, but then someone took my needle. So that was the end of that!.. LOL

My first attempt at ..

Making a pinkeep! I had so much fun that I made a second one!.. LOL (Go Me!)

I had to do some finishing of a coworkers cross stitching that she wanted to give her grown children for Christmas (Which she finished about 20 yrs ago she said). I told her I would help her by getting the finishes on some mounting board, which I did tonight. And she now has to go to a frame shop and get some special sized frames. Since one was 16" X 10", and the other 2 were 9"square.








I used Brian's muscles (I knew he was good for something!.. LOL) to help me cut the mat board. I had a few odd sizes left, so we then cut them up in pieces to be used in the future. Well I guess the future was about 20 minutes after he got done cutting, I had to have him cut a few more.. LOL

So here is the results of the pinkeeps I made to night. I did them differently. I actually attached some twine to hang the pinkeep. I love both of them! Too bad I cant keep them. :( Coming to someone's mail box, soon!

Do you got a satellite dish on your... !?!

Ok, dont laugh! But this picture is TRUE! Reason I know its in my yard!.. LMAO!

Yesterday the technicians were here to hook up our satellite dish for our high speed Internet by satellite. Well I called home about noon yesterday to see how it was going. Brian preceded to tell me that they could not put the dish on the roof of the house cause of the willow trees blocking. Well right behind our house (which is like in a straight line) is the metal shed that you see in the right side of the picture.

You are looking at our OUTHOUSE!!!! Yep we got a dang huge bugger of a dish on the side of our outhouse!! LMAO! Brian claims no one has used it in several years. And I had visions of tearing the shack down in the future.

So I had to take a picture of the outhouse now housing the new dish.. LOL Gosh why do I feel all rednecky!?! LMAO! Going to have to devise a plan to keep the kids off the arm of the dish! Add that to my list of things to do!.. LOL

We got SPEED!

We have dealt with dial up for the past how many years.. well I had some really big files that needed to be downloaded, and dial up wasn't allowing it to happen (the emails would time out). Had a source to download from, well long story short. Brian and I decided to get satellite internet! (Well he agreed, and I'm paying for it.. LOL)

So here we are! No complaints yet!.. LOL Been visiting sites I haven't been able to visit do to dial up. So now I need to cancel dial up, and what goes with it, is I lose my newnorth.net emails. So I will be sending out emails to update people in my address book. If you would like to receive my new email address, please leave a comment, and I will send an email to you. :)

The funny part of it all. I really need to take a picture of where the satellite is installed. All I can say its not on the roof.. LMAO!

Can you guess where it was placed?!?!

Quilt Time Sampler WIP

Update: Thanks for the comments so far. I have changed the color mistake on the design - the motif and the hearts are now a different color. The block on the right is now finished, and a row below, is finished. I will take another pic when I have the bottom totally finished. :)


Here is a pic of the Quilt Time Sampler from Little House Needleworks, I have been working on. I have made some color changes, as I have realized I stitched the wrong color - the symbols look so much alike! Had to look really hard to see the difference.

I might just keep it this way. :)

On the first day of Christmas..

Ok... I wanna do something FUN!

We all know the song, "Twelve Days of Christmas" (for those that don't know the song - click here ) Ok, here is what I want you to do.. I want you to post a comment to this post of what the next line should be! You can be as goofy as you like! I will post the best line I find. So lets have some fun!

So, here we go..

On the first day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me..
an Ott lite all for free!

On the second day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me..
a full set of DMC!

On the third day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me..
a Mirabilia Deepest Love of the sea!

On the fourth day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me..
a housekeeper to make me free (to stitch)

On the fifth day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me..
5 golden needles

On the sixth day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me..
a floor stand stitching frame with all the accessories!

On the seventh day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me..
the winning lottery ticket, so I would have NO more worries!!!

On the eighth day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me..
All the stitching fabric I need!

On the ninth day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me..
a stashly decorated tree!!!

On the tenth day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me..
A retreat with all my stitching friends and me!

On the eleventh day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me...
a collector Ginghers scissors just for me!

On the twelvth day of Christmas, my stash love gave to me..
A blog where Im excited to find out about my stitcher friends - so I can go and see all what they have to show. :)

Iron River Christmas Parade

Tonight, Brian, myself, and BIL & SIL's kids went to the Iron River, MI Christmas parade. This was the first (of many I hope) Christmas parade they had. Mostly downtown businesses had floats in the parades. Of course they had the Wykon marching band. The parade started at 5:15, and strolled past us about 5:25 or so. We were back in the Explorer @ 6pm

What was best of it all is that you could vote for your favorite float. The kids said they liked #10 - Im not sure which float that one was, cause it I seemed to remember the one I liked by the business name than the number.. LOL The kids even got some candy canes. What was funny is there had to be about 5 floats with Santa's, and It was hard to tell if that was the last Santa or not.. LOL The people where everywhere! Good thing we claimed our curb soon enough.

We left home about 4:30, I had my layers! I was all bundled up. I had 3 pairs of socks on.. my snow boots.. a pair of sweat pants, my Levi's, a thermal long sleeve shirt, and a sweatshirt. Had snowmobile gloves for my hands, along with a scarf, knitted hat... and I was all bundled up well in my Columbia Double Whammy jacket!

I brought the camera along.... mostly got a few pictures before the parade stared. Its was cold that was for sure! 25 degrees! Burr! Brian did comment that he enjoyed himself.. he was undecided before we went if he could handle it being cold, and umm the people.

So the kids are now home, we stopped at McD's for some supper, but we went thru the drive thru since the place was packed. But we talked about the parade on the way home, and the kids enjoyed themselves! So did Brian and I! Brian is at his parents house - over there telling them about the parade.. so he must have really enjoyed himself, despite the look he gave in the pictures.. LOL

Now if this parade would only put me into the Christmas spirit, and maybe put up the tree for me.. LOL Shucks, wishful thinking!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

You can click on the picture to read what the article reads. :)

My parents are celebrating their 40th anniversary this Sunday! On Nov 18th (which was also my dad's bday), we sent them out for dinner and to a Christmas show in Oshkosh. They really enjoyed it, and Im sure when I get down there next, I will get to watch a DVD about the show they went too, as my dad had bought a DVD.

In our area local paper (well from my hometown - I love reading about what is going on... so I subscribe to it too), I did a write up for their anniversary. To my surprise the paper was in yesterdays mail! It always seems to take a week to get to me. I think it turned out great, just like my parents!

Anxious to hear from my parents about the article. :) In the future, we are going to be doing a hotel weekend! Where everyone can get together and have fun!

SFE from Michelle

I received a package in the mail from Michelle - it was my SFE (small finish exchange) from the ILCS group. And the note read, "if I didnt like it I should let her know, and she would make me something different."

So anyone want it?!?! Any takers?!?! Awww shucks... its already claimed by ME!

I LOVE IT! Its so adorable! Michelle - you are a great stitcher and finisher! Notice the scissor charm and needle stuck in the pillow?! Its so cute!

Thank you so much Michelle! This little pillow is going to join Mylene's by my stitching area.

SBQ - Nov 29

Today's SBQ is:

How do you secure your thread when you begin a new one? Specifically, do you or have you ever used a waste knot?

Mostly when I stitch, I just catch the thread in the stitches Im going to make. If Im only making one or two stitches, I will place a knot so that the thread catches under the previous stitches, and doesnt come out.

When I finish with a color, or even when there isnt enough thread left to stitch with, I run it under the few previous stitches, making sure that it is secure, then trim.

Model for Moonflower Designs

Patty from Moonflower posted the model I stitched for her to a Yahoo group I am in with her. So I thought I would post the finish to my blog.

On the left is the model that I model stitched for her. I believe that there was 7,900+ stitches in the model. I love how I was able to get the curving affect in the design! Turned out really cool!

On the right is the picture that Patty posted to the group, as you can see she added - this is what she posted in the email... "Just for fun, I will share a picture of a new design being released next year. The stitching on this picture was done by my wonderful model stitcher - KIM. I stitched the alphabet in the middle, and that is why I chose to share this, so that she may see what I added. " I really love what she has done with the model! This design is going to be released in 2007. If you would like you can check out Moonflower Designs for more charts available.



And once again, I thought I would post the other models that I stitched for Patty this year. I stitched the daffodils, both on the left and right. I stitched the orange one first. I really loved the experience of model stitching, and I hope to do more in the future!

Final SS in the mail!

I received my final Secret Sister goodies in the mail today! My Secret Sister was Vicky from CT. She was a wonderful SS! She sent me LOTS of goodies! "Home Of A Needlework", and "ABC 123" from Little House Needleworks from my wish list. And an adorable Christmas tree decoration finish! She knew me well! Thanks Vicky for the wonderful goodies!

I also received a few more bday cards in the mail too.. woohoo! Love having an extended bday. Now if only my Sassy mail would be arrive, I would be in heaven :)

Turning Twenty Quilt

Guess how many fat quarters it took to make this quilt?!?! There is a clue in the title of this post.. LOL If you guessed 20, you are correct! This quilt pattern was from a book called, "Turning Twenty". You use 20 fat quarters, cut them up into various indicated sizes and follow the directions and sew it all together!

For this quilt I used flannel material - which I got from the quilt shop. Im making this quilt as a display. I love the bright colors! This thing is huge! And I dont even have a border on it yet!

It calls for a pieced border, but I have to check with my quilting mentor, LJ to find out if I should stick to the pattern, or just do a simple border, cause man oh man, is this quilt BUSY!

I did have a few struggles with the quilt, but I got it all figured out. I had sewn a few of the blocks backwards... grr! So I had to rip a few of them apart, and sew them back together. And also when I cut the fabric the other day, I found that some of the material that was on the bolt wasnt 44".. rather it was only 40". So that makes a big difference. But it was a fun experience!

Also yesterday, I went back to the craft place in Eagle River that was closing yesterday. I picked up some more linen! And I got it all for 50% off! WOOHOO! Im happy!
When I was finished there, I drove up to Iron River, MI, and stopped at the St. Vinny's and got some cross stitch magazines that had some really cute Northwoodsy patterns in it. :) And I also went and visited LJ at the quilt shop, since she was working, and I told her my problem of being short on some of the fat quarters, and I cut some more material that I needed.(and I had to add to the kit that I made with the material I cut out for this quilt.) And then while I was there, I saw a quilt pattern that I would love to do. Its called "Spools", I got some homespun material, both plaid and stripes. I hope to start it on Wednesday, which is my next day off.

Cinderella - Round Robin

I signed up to do my first ever Round Robin! And I was the first to start out a project for someone else. I have decided to stitch for others, than have a Round Robin go out for myself.

This finish is from the kit called Disney Princesses. I chose to stitch the Cinderella in honor on Natalie, who loves Cinderella!. :)

Now its off to Pennsylvania to be stitched on some more, then its going to Indiana, and then back to the UK, where its from. I hope to post pictures as it progresses. :)

Friends Dont Let Friends Stitch Alone!

I agree! Friends shouldnt stitch alone! But when you have no one to stitch with... you blog about it right?!?! I had the chance to sit and stitch while I was in Omaha with 4 others, and I had so much fun!

I wanna (someday) organize a stitching group in the area. That is my goal. Just waiting for the right opportunity to come along.

This design is from a chart called Friends Stitch by Moonflower Designs. I stitched on 14ct white aida with the floss that Missy sent me for my bday present, called Sweet Memories from Six Strand Sweets.


I plan to finish this design off into a pillow.

THANK YOU MISSY!!!

Tonight I came home to find a package on the table from Missy. Missy had mentioned about me receiving a package this week, so was I ever surprised to find what was inside the package! She sent me a birthday present!

She sent me a scarf (I LOVE IT! You do a wonderful job!), which she made, and she also included a tuck pillow with stars, and linen inside to stitch on. Patriotic Santa Zipper from Bent Creek, a skein of Sweet Memories from Six Strand Sweets, a piece of 28ct Permin Linen Apple Blossom.

She also stitched a birthday card for me! I had seen it on her blog and assumed it was stitched for her DH, but nope it was for me :) *Notice how excited I was about the present.. I didn't even take my jacket off... LOL Thanks so much!
So thank you again Missy! This was so thoughtful of you! Thanks for making my day!





Its amazing what friends will do and give to you.. total strangers meeting from reading each others blog, then comments turn to emails, and then emails turn to gifts and surprises in the mail!

Blogging has really opened up a new world for me! I really enjoy reading other blogs, and leaving comments. I too enjoy blogging and reading comments of others that are left for me. Thanks to everyone that do leave comments, they mean alot to me! :)