dancing away....

I've been very busy these last couple of weeks, both stitching wise and other... however the interesting part is the stitching!!!

I have 3 - yes you read that right, 3 happy dances to share!

The first one up is Sabrina by Mirabilia...

She is stitched on 28ct lavender swirl jobelan by Silkweaver, with all the reccomended threads and beads.  I will say if you are stitching this... the tiny little black beads - it says 3 packages on the the pattern I highy reccomend 4. I used about 3 1/2 and only about 15 beads of those 3 1/2 packages didn't fit on my needle as they were too tight.  I also recommend 2 packs of the bigger black beads as I used 1 full pack and about 20 from a second one - good thing I had some at home otherwise I would be waiting for beads to arrive!

She still needs her final press and freshening up, but that won't happen till she is ready to frame. In other words not for a little while yet.

Next up... Suzannah by Carriage House Samplings

Suzannah - just like all the other girls, is stitched with DMC on 32ct Goldspinner lugana. A very nice fabric to work on.  I looked back and we started the 4 girls on Sunday June 13, 2010, so a little over 2 years to do all 4 girls.

She is the final instalment of the four girls that Barbi and I stitched on our Sunday SAL.  I am so happy that we stitched these 4 girls, I loved every single stitch, even though they did seem tedious at times!  I'll have to take a picture of all four together sometime soon.

We have already decided on our next Sunday SAL, we will be starting on Humbolt Coast by Silver Lining, but not until the new year. Till then its just "personal" stitching, as I know Barbi wants to make some ornaments and maybe I will too....

My third happy dance is.... Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Snowmen

I finished it up last night!  They are stitched on 28ct Tumult Jazlynn by Sugar Maple Fabrics (sadly no longer in business) using dmc threads.  I didn't put any of the snowflake buttons on, not sure why but I kinda like it without them.

Thank you for everyone who participated in the SAL, it was fun! We will have to do it again with a different set of patterns soon!

I have my 6 Snow Belle's all here but not quite ready to go, but soon. Not sure if I will do them as a SAL but who knows... I tend to change my mind a lot! Eva is already working on her 6 Snow Belle's on pink!  It looks lovely!!

If you are planning on stitching them soon, here is the link to the free border: Click Here

Before I finish, I would like to leave you with a freebie... especially if you like black cats... not quiet a halloween design, but nice nonetheless!  Click here for the design.

Till next time happy stitching!!!

the ort report and other updates

Today is tusal day and here is my ort jar. I'm happy to say it's much fuller than it has been the last few months!!

I haven't been stitching much since my last post, as I was getting ready for a holiday! Can you guess where we were???

Yes, you guessed it, we were in San Francisco for 5 nights and 6 days.  It was fantastic! While we were there we also went to see the Madonna concert in San Jose, and it was great!  We loved it!!! If you are facebook friends with me, you more than likely have seen some of the many pictures we took.  If I could I would go again in a heart beat, I really like going there and haven't been for many years, and have missed it!

On to stitching... since I was away, I didn't do much stitching but I did manage to do some more beading on Sabrina last night... here are a couple of picutres of where I am... lots done, but still lots to go!

It is also my birthday month, the actual day was last week, and we celebrated in San Francisco.  However I did treat myself to some birthday stash and part of it arrived today!  I got four beautiful pieces of fabric from the Crafty Kitty!

All are 28ct jazlyn, and the colours from left to right are: lavender mist, foggy morning, jurrasic sands, and blueberry sorbet.

That's it for now, till next time, happy stitching!

beads, beads and more beads...

Not much stitching has been going on since my last post, however I did decide to start beading on Sabrina...

As you can see I've got some done but still a lot to do! I'm already on my second package of those tiny little black beads and I got 4 (when the pattern calls for 3) so I hope I have enough!

I am enjoying it though, as I think I finally found my perfect beading needle!  I got one I really liked a few years ago (read that as many) but it was with a class, so we only got one, and I never knew what brand or kind it was. Since then I've been on the search... I finally broke down about a month ago, and ordered 4 different types of what looked like the one I had from 123... and I found a winner!!

The one that is almost exactly like the one from many years ago, is the Bohin tapestry needle in size 28.  They are very thin, so they bend easily but I love it! I will definitely be ordering more in the future!

I also have a favourite needle that I stitch with, but I've only been able to find them in Budapest, Hungary, so needless to say I've stocked up on those as well.  They are the perfect length for me, and they have a small little ball on the end.  I just love them and have been using them for years. I've never had one break, and they just glide through the fabric. I'll try and take a picture of one later to show you but like I said I just love them!

How about you dear readers, what are your favourite needles for stitching and beading???

a stitching we will go...

Here we go with some updated pictures....

Sabrina is getting closer to a finish... 99% of the stitching is done, all I have left to stitch is the parts using kreinik and then all the beading...

She is stitched over 2 on 28ct lavender swirl jobelan by Silkweaver...

Next up is our Sunday SAL with Barbi...

Barbi had a happy dance this past weekend, and finished up her Suzannah, and she looks fantastic... you can check out Barbi's blog here:  Click

We are discussing what we will do next to continue our Sunday SAL... and so far it looks like our next project will be Humbolt Coast by Silver Lining (click here) which we will start in the new year.  Till then I will keep plugging along on my Suzannah, though I may pull her to stitch on weekdays now so I get her done and then Barbi and I will figure out what we will do for the rest of this year for our Sunday SAL... more than likely small stuff like ornaments as we both like to stitch some each year for Christmas.

Last but not least is my Monday night SAL - Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Snowmen...

That is it for now... till next time happy stitching!!!

a little bit of everything...

Well it seems I was having computer problems again, right after I posted on Friday.  Don't ask me what as the darn thing didn't want to work for me other than giving me a completely black screen with just the mouse movement visable, so I turned the thing off, and let it sit till my hubby came home yesterday.

Needless to say, he turned it on and all worked fine... and its still working... so I'm guessing this new computer doesn't like me yet....

Anyways, on to more happy things, like stitching!!! It was a busy weekend in the stitching cyber world!  Tusal, IHSW, not to mention our Sunday SAL with Barbi, and yesterday was the L*K SAL so I have lots to show!

First off here is my tusal for this month... much better showing than the last two months! I got lots of stitching done in the last couple of weeks!

Next up is part of my progress for the IHSW... on Friday and a little on Saturday I worked on Sabrina  (by Mirabilia) and I'm close to getting the stitching done.  As you can see I have a little of her hair left to do and then the flowers in her hair and on her dress, then its on to the ton of beads!

I also worked on Suzannah on Sunday for our SAL with Barbi as well as part of the IHSW, I didn't give her a head yet, but instead started working on that huge flower. Not sure how Barbi is doing but she was way ahead of me on this so I'm just playing catch up.

Then yesterday was our Monday SAL for L*K's 6 Fat Snowmen, and I made a little progress on that as well.

And last but not least a picture of my cutie pie kitty... Princess...

Till next time happy stitching!

catching up with some stitching....

I haven't been blogging much or stitching much for that matter... but I did get a little bit in on my 3 projects that I have on the go these last couple of days...

First up is Suzannah by Carriage House Samplings... excuse the photo quality I took it with my phone...  As you can see I haven't got much done compared to the last time... truth is... I could swear that those two leafs on the vine that is touching her arm - right next to Suzannah's skirt were in the wrong place, so I frogged them to find they were off buy only by I think 2 stitches...so truthfully I could have fudged it, but instead I took them out and re-stitched them... hence I only got a little bit of Suzannah's arm done this time round.  Barbi is very close to finishing and it looks wonderful! I can hardly wait to get mine to that point or more specifically get mine finished now! Click on the link to our SAL on my sidebar to check out Barbi's blog!

Next up is our Monday night SAL of Lizzie Kate's 6 fat men...a very fun stitch, so much so that it is really difficult to put it down after a Monday night stitching session!  I have a mini happy dance to report in that my Snow Friends block is done! (except for the owl's eyes... my french knots were not cooperating) I just love that little bunny and like Barbi, I just adore the Snowman's coat, I love that colour!  I also managed to start on my next block and went over to the other side and started working on Snow Fun! Hopefully next Monday I will be able to get some good progress in!

And of course last, but definitely not least... Sabrina! She now has arms and hands and some of her frame/chair thingy that she is sitting on!  It's so nice to work with other colours on this, it makes the stitching seem to go faster!  Still loving her... once she is done it will be very difficult to let her go, but a promise is a promise... I'll just have to somehow get the energy to stitch her again for myself!

Anyways, the long weekend is coming up as is the start of the Stampede here in our fair city... it starts a weeks from Friday. We are celebrating our 100th Stampede this year and in honour of that I found a nice cowboy themed freebie to share... if you click on the picture it should take you to the site where you can download the pdf... I am planning on stitching this... hopefully I can start it while the Stampede is actually still going! 

Speaking of Stamepede, I also entered one of my stitched pieces into the arts and crafts exhibition part of it.  Its the first time since 2008 that I've entered... I put in my Lanarte Black Tulips, I'm a bit nervous, as to how I will do... I'll let you know next week, as we plan on going to the Sneak a Peek next Thursday night!

Till next time happy stitching!

ort report and a wip...

I'm a day late... but here is my ort jar for this month's TUSAL! I've got pictures of both my montly clippings as well as my big jar of my year to date...

I haven't touched a needle since last Friday, so no progress pictures to report for either Suzannah - our Sunday SAL with Barbi, or 6 Fat Men - our Monday SAL, or the IHSW. I haven't even really been  reading any blogs... more just sneaking peeks at some pictures - like window shopping!

I promise to catch up on both reading and stitching soon!  I have Monday off so if things work, I may have some extra stitching time... it will all depend on the weather.

I do have a little stitching to show... here is my latest progress on Sabrina. This is as of last Friday.  I only started stitching on her again a little tonight.

As you can see we finally have some body parts and colours other than white, shades of green, and brown, grey and black.

till next time... happy stitching!

drive by posting

just a quick post to show some progress pictures... sorry but I really haven't felt like blogging lately...but I wanted so show that I am stitching away, slowly but surely...
Here is a picture of Suzannah from Sunday's SAL with Barbi, not a lot done, but at least there was some progress...

Then from Monday night's SAL of 6 Fat Men... again not a lot of progress, but I did manage to get a little stitching in on it...

And last but not least, Sabrina... I finally finished off her skirt!  Seems like it took forever. I still have beads and kreinik to add, but that will be done at the end once all the rest of the stitching is done.

Not sure what I'm going to work on next, most likely Suzannah on Sunday as I believe we are busy both Friday and Saturday so no really stitching time there...

tusal, sal, ihsw...

Hmmm where to start... I again forgot yesterday was TUSAL day, so here is my ort jar one day late...



Also here is my year to date in the big jar, with this month's orts added in too... Considering I didn't feel like I stitched that much this month, my jar got pretty full...

I will admit, I forgot to post yesterday becuase we weren't even home for most of the day...and with that thought, I will also admit that I stitched on Suzannah on Saturday night instead our regular Sunday SAL becuase I knew Iwouldn't be home and didn't want the poor girl to be neglected for 3 weeks in a row...  anyways, here is her progress... still way behind Barbi!

So as you can see I worked on Suzannah as part of my IHSW weekend, as well as I did some more on Sabrina.  Since I haven't posted a progress picture of her in a while, here she is too....  I'm getting closer to finishing up her skirt... not quite there yet, but I see a light at the end of the tunnel!

Today is the 6 Fat Men SAL, and I am hoping to get some nice stitching time in today, since it is a holdiay for us... we do have a dinner to go to, but I have a little time before that and will hopefully have some afterwards too that I can work on it before heading off to bed tonight.

Happy stitching everyone!

ihws, tusal, sal...

It was a busy weekend in the stitching world! IHSW, and TUSAL! I will admit, I was off by one day on my TUSAL in that I even had it listed as April 22, when it was the 21st. But no matter, I was away anyways! :D

Here are my progress pictures:

For the IHSW, I worked on Sabrina Friday night and here are my before and after pictures.

I would have had more done, that small little bit of green that is hanging down on the right side there, I had a bunch more stitched around there but had to frog as I grabbed the wrong colour! But I'm getting closer and closer to the end of her dress!

I didn't stitch at all on Saturday as we weren't home, but it was tusal time so here are my orts for the month, as well as year to date...  The first picture is my month's orts in the smaller jar and my year to date squished in the big jar.

The second picture is the year so far all together!

Next up on the list, Sunday's SAL with Barbi!  Since we were away for most of the weekend, I didn't get too much stitching time in, but I did get enough to finish off her darn skirt!  Whoo hoo, I thought that thing was never going to end! I can finally move onto other fun parts of this project!

I have one last photo to show you, my new stitching buddy, Princess! So far she has been good in not going after my threads, but she does like to sit with me, sometimes on me while I'm stitching.

Don't forget tonight is 6 Fat Snowmen night! I'll be getting mine all ready shortly!

Sabrina and snowmen...

As promised, here is my progress picture of Sabrina...

Still working on her skirt and still enjoying each stitch, so this will continue to be my focus piece for now. I have just about a month still to get her done!

Yesterday was the start of our 6 Fat Men SAL, and I know a couple of you couldn't start for various reasons, and that is no problem! We'll just have to try and be patient and wait for your updates next week, or whenever it is you can start in on the fun! Here is my progress so far...

What a fun stitch. I was hoping to finish up at least the border of the pink square, but I wasn't feeling well so I went to bed early... I'll admit, just like the a couple of others, it is a very fun stitch and was hard not to pick it up again tonight!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's projects and how they will grow. Remember if you haven't join us yet, there is always time! You can find more information by clicking on the tab at the top of my blog!!

Suzannah, Sabrina, stash and snowmen...

Yesterday was our SAL with Barbi, and I did manage to get quite a bit of stitching in, however it seems that Suzannah has a never ending apron...

It feels like I'm not making any progress, and that I'll never finish that darn thing so I can finally move onto other parts of the pattern... the more fun parts! But I'll get there I'll just need to keep trying to be patient! (definitley not one of my strong points - I'll have to work on that!)

In other stitching progress, Sabrina seems to be the exact opposite... I don't feel like I'm working on her all that much, yet I feel like I'm making lots of progress with her...

Here she is so far...

I'm still working on her skirt, but its coming along... I was tempted to start the roses on her back, since I'm there with the dress, but I was good and kept going on the skirt. I'm saving the roses for later once I'm bored/finished with all the whites/greens etc in her skirt.

Now on to the most important part of my post - new stash!!! I got some stitchy mail Friday and today and thought I would show it off...

I got a small order from Traditional Stitches... from there I got the Spot the Cat chart by La D Da, and that small package of brown/tan looking fabric. This is supposedly something new in that it is 36ct evenweave... no not linen, but actual evenweave like joblean. It is subtley hand dyed, as its not just a plain brown/tan colour but it has some darker splotches throughout. The funny thing is that the back of the fabric is all white! It's very soft to the touch and I'm looking forward to trying it out.

I also got a small order from 123 stitch... I got a piece of 28ct bay leaf jobelan and Mirabila's Stargazer (which looks beautiful stitched on the bay leaf - hence why I got that particular fabric) and Lady Alexandra also by Mirabilia. Also while sitting here typing, I just realized that I didn't show my other stash aquistions... also from 123 but I got those a good week or so ago... I got more Mirabilia's... this time it was Lady of the Mist, Cindrella and Waterlily. I seem to be on a huge Mirabilia kick at the moment thanks to the Mirabilia facebook page, they are very good enablers, so I'd better get stitching or figure out a way to either stitch faster or go with no sleep!

OH! Don't forget our Lizzie Kate Monday SAL for the 6 Fat Men starts next Monday! One week to go!! I hope everyone is ready, I think I'm going to go with the Tumult for mine and I'm using DMC threads. I'm looking forward to starting as well as seeing everyone else's progress!

Anyways, that is it for now... I'm going to continue working on Sabrina this week...

Sabrina...

Absolutely no stitching again this weekend, poor poor Suzannah is feeling very left out! Hopefully this coming weekend will be better.

I knew I wasn't going to be able to stitch at all this past weekend, so I didn't even sign up for the IHSW, which I normally do! I am however, looking forward to checking out everyone else's progress!

I have though been stitching here and there again during the week, and it was Sabrina's turn for the limelight! So here is my latest progress picture of her dress...

I'm going to continue working on her for a bit, as I am enjoying seeing her dress come to life, and I'm not bored with the big blocks of colour yet.

ihsw...

This weekend was the ihsw - international hermit and stitch weekend and I managed to do some of both!

Its also a long weekend here where I live, so I managed to stitch a little more today too.

I worked on two projects this weekend, I worked on Sabrina by Mirabilia and I put a few stitches into my Birds of a Feather Mystery by With My Needle and Thread.

Here are my progress pictures of them:

Sabrina

and Birds of a Feather

Sadly I don't have a before picture of Sabrina, before working on her this weekend other than my previous post from last Wednesday... I did have a wonderful stitching afternoon with Edith on Saturday where I worked on Sabrina and made some good progress. I continued working on her for the rest of Saturday as well as yesterday.

Birds of a Feather, I only pulled out this morning, I needed a bit of a change after all those whites and greens in Sabrina. I've managed to stitch up the second tree and bird so far today. This one is still in my qsnaps and lapstand as I plan on continuing stitching on it tonight and maybe even this week. We'll see what happens!

Sabrina...

Haven't been on the computer too much, though through my phone I have been on facebook etc, and of course reading blogs... I just don't like to post from there - especially pictures so I'm a bit behind in posting!

Here is my progress of Sabrina so far. This is my progress as of both Sunday night, that I orginally wanted to post on Monday...

and as of last night...

I'm still going to be plugging along on her, as I'm not bored with her and her big blocks of one colour just yet.

Barbi and I decided that we will wait till March to start Suzannah, our next and final girl of the Carriage House Sampling series. Also sometime in March we will be starting another SAL for the 6 Fat Snowmen by Lizzie Kate, but I think that will be in the second half of the month. I still need to figure out things with Veronica. So if you would like to join us in stitching this keep your eyes open for more information shortly!

Also don't forget that this weekend is IHSW - you can see what this is and sign up using the button in my side bar! This weekend is also a long weekend here for us, and I foresee a lot of stitching in my future! I already have a stitchy date set for Saturday afternoon!

and we're off...

Well I did it... I started a new project on Sunday. I pulled the threads and fabric and started Sabrina. I know I said I was going to wait until today to start but I just couldn't resist!

Here is what she will look like once finished...

and here is how far I got yesterday...

I'm stitching her on 28ct lavender swirl jobelan by Silkweaver with the recommended threads. Not much, but so far so good! She is quite big - the stitch count is 198 wide by 260 tall... I'm going to keep working on her this week and see how far I get.

Last week was my week for working on The Last Supper here is a close up of my progress as well as picture of the whole thing so far...

As you can see the table cloth is done... well okay not quite, but the major part of filling it in is... now to just work on the top of the table with all those fractionals and colour changes!