Valentine's Day Exchange from Katrien

I received a beautiful Valentine's Day Exchange from Katrien in Belgium today. This exchange was run in the Crazy Exchange group. I just love it! This is my second exchange from Katrien, and I must say, her sewing is perfect. She made me a Crazy Quilt Heart Pillow, and also sent two different bath products (I really love bath products!) and a beautiful box of chocolates! Thank you so much Katrien - the entire exchange is awesome!
I dug Serenity back out tonight. It has been a while since I have worked on this one too. I am really enjoying this motif quite a lot (the blue and brown one on the right).
Beau spent the evening sleeping beside me on a blanket atop my stash drawers... I can't believe I took a photo of him sleeping, and he didn't peek at me! Cats usually are so hard to photograph asleep - they know what is happening and crack their eyes open just a bit. Beau didn't catch on tonight - quite rare.

Jenn, I figure you already found this on the internet today, but in case you didn't, here is Ryan's interview with David Letterman from last night...


...Letterman really doesn't let his guests get much of a word in, does he? LOL I bet Ryan wasn't expecting the interview to go in quite this direction.

Stitched on today: Stitched on a gift, and Serenity **Mailed out a gift today

Kept Going

I chose to just keep on going with A Quaker Christmas again tonight... just a bit more to share :-)

And, for my dear friend in Europe who is wondering about this Ryan Newman/NASCAR/Daytona 500 thing... here you go, this is how it all unfolded last night..

Now Ryan is about to be on Late Night with David Letterman, so I am off to settle in and watch!

Stitched on today: Stitched on a gift, and A Quaker Christmas

I am so excited!

OK, this is a stitching blog, so I will start with today's stitching (some of it, as I was mostly stitching on a gift today) - I set myself back to work on A Quaker Christmas tonight... I did not accomplish as much as I would have liked to because I had no focus... I kept getting up and down, dancing around the den, totally unfocused and jubilant... because....

Let the photos say it for me...



RYAN NEWMAN WON THE DAYTONA 500 TONIGHT!! Most of my dearest friends know that I am 1) a huge sports fan, and 2) a HUGE fan of the Red Sox, the Patriots and Ryan Newman. I can say I love the MLB and the NFL... but I do not love NASCAR, per se (lately it is all Hendrick Motorsports/The Jimmie Johnson Show - no thank you) - I am just a Ryan Newman fan. And... after 81 races without a win (last was in September of 2005, right here in New Hampshire)... lots of patience and lots of worrying... well, I was just hoping for a win from Ryan - but he had bigger plans!! Ryan won the biggest of all of NASCAR's races tonight! Certainly, his teammate (seen in the top photo, car #2) is the reason he won - thank you, Kurt Busch, for pushing Ryan past Tony Stewart (#20) and breaking this amazing drought! Way to go Team Penske! I need to pinch myself - did this really happen??? I wonder if I will even sleep tonight! LOL

Stitched on today: Stitched on a gift, and A Quaker Christmas

(Photos are from Nascar's and Sports Illustrated's websites)

Starting to look like something...

OK... Barbara's Neighborhood Round Robin is starting to look like something now... but still no house! Barbara guessed it right - this is from Hopeful by Carriage House Samplings. It is the right side of the chart, but I am omitting the words "two sheep farm" from the hill to be consistent with the rest of her round robin. Glad you like it, Barbara!! This is really some dense stitching, so it will actually take a little while longer to get to the house. While doing this tonight, I got to thinking that I might want to go with a Carriage House Samplings/Barrick Samplers theme for the Hello Neighbor Round Robin Group Three that starts next month... I had been toying with the idea of doing an all Blackbird Designs theme, but now this idea is starting to stand out more.... hmmm.... I think it would be pretty neat! This will be put away now until at least Thursday....

Well.... although he was on the pole again for today's race, this is as far as Ryan Newman's #12 Alltel Dodge got today - under wraps on pit road, rained out! I guess they will try to race tomorrow. The remnants of Tropical Storm Barry are all over the east coast right now. Good luck Ryan!!

Stitched on today: Barbara's Neighborhood Round Robin

Ready to go...

Hello Neighbor Round Robin, Group One
The Stitching House
The Goode Huswife
Silkweaver 40 ct Sandcastle linen
Weeks Dye Works and DMC floss

I finished up my square for the Hello Neighbor RR (Group One) tonight. The green in this one really makes all the difference. This is one of my favorite house designs, and I am so happy I got to use it for this RR. I had it aside for a while for the other Neighborhood RR I have been in for the past year and a half, but this design was too small to use for that one. So, now I am just waiting for Nicole's new address (she is moving to NH this weekend), and I will post it off to her quite soon.

It was 95F here today, so Mike and I decided to go for a ride to the beach... this included a trip to Yankee Cross Stitch for me :-) I didn't take a photo of what I bought as one item is a gift and the majority of the rest is items for upcoming exchanges and birthdays...

And.......... congratulations to the surging Ryan Newman! Ryan won the pole position today for Sunday night's race at Lowe's Motor Speedway!! Yay! Things have been looking up a little for him lately... Good Luck Ryan!!!

Oh... and my exchange package for the "A Trip Around the World" exchange on the SBEBB officially was posted off today - I hope my exchange partner enjoys her package!

Stitched on today: Started Garden Theme Exchange, and finished my block for the Hello Neighbor Round Robin (Group One)

Little Ducks & Big News for Newman

Ryan Newman is on the pole for the race in Atlanta on Sunday!!! First time in 21 tries - is my driver finally making a comeback? I can hope! (As a big Red Sox fan, one might think I would be a big Roush-Fenway fan, but no - it is all Newman for me!)

Barnabee's Quest has now outgrown my scanner. I worked away on it for quite a bit tonight. I made a mistake though. When I put this down last Friday, I had stitched up through the first caterpillar and left a needle threaded with DMC 520 in the fabric. Tonight, I started with caterpillar two, a bit distracted by watching NASCAR Qualifying, and I forgot that the middle caterpillar is supposed to be stitched in DMC 522. I am not going to fix this mistake. I don't think it makes any consequence to the finished effect, and it makes it my own, right? Also, an uh-oh. I started further down on my linen than I should have. I think the whole sampler will fit, but not with the allowance at the bottom that I had wanted. Can't say this is the first time I have ever done that!

I heard from Julie today that she received my birthday gift for her. Julie has been so good to me, and is such a lovely woman. Her birthday is early next week, and I am so happy she likes this wee tiny little fob - which counts as freebie #3 for the Freebie Challenge on the FGBB as well:

A Bee C Fob

Glory Bee

40 ct Lambswool Linen

Gentle Art Sampler Threads

Stitched 3/12/07

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It's snowing, as was forecasted. Plenty of it, sigh... where is spring??....I hope to finish up Rachael's Neighborhood RR tomorrow and get it off to Annemarie in Monday's mail - I am never late mailing RR's, but I miscalculated with this one - I had no idea the blocks were so big and would take so long to fill.

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Stitched on today: Finished a gift, and Barnabee's Quest