Category Archives: cross stitch

Jan15

Stitchy stuff

Posted on Tuesday, January 15, 2008 by Dianne

I received this in the mail about last Thursday and this is what I’ve done on it so far. It’s one of two quilts a charity group I’m in is doing for twin brothers who aren’t well. There will be two zebras in this square. The fabric is blah, but it’s easy to work on. I want to try and finish a few more things by the end of the month. This is due March 15th, so I have tons of time to finish. It’s one of those designs you have to cross off as you go along because of the detail.

By the way, Barbara, Nancy and Gret, packages were mailed to you today. I thought I’d be stuck inside, but we had a snow squall go through that didn’t amount to much.

Dec22

A little sewing and finishing

Posted on Saturday, December 22, 2007 by Dianne

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Even though I haven’t slept well for a few nights, I decided to get a little sewing out of the way for projects that are due for a lottery (see side bar) and for a Christmas ornament. I never learn my lesson about climbing up and down off my step ladder or squatting too much, so I suffer with a groin pull. I thought sewing would be a quiet activity, though my concentration and mood were a bit off. So I finished a drawstring bag for the Cross stitcher’s lottery that is due for the 31st. I didn’t have too much trouble until I got to the casing stitching and fitting the safety pin through that to find the end. Oy! Anyway, it’s cute and I am glad that’s out of the way.

Snowbunnies by Little Needleworks-Just Cross stitch 2007 ornament issue

And this is The Prairie Schooler cardinal duo I stitched a few months back. It’s on my feather tree.

I have to turn the Amish children and apple tree into a square box top. I just need to find the box. I am sure I have one somewhere! And another piece is a gift I will turn into a flat fold. Hopefully I’ll make them within a few weeks.

My friend Zoey sent me a beautifully quilted piece that she made today. It’s a hot pad. I’ve admired her work for ages (as shown on her blog) and now I get to own something she made. Thanks so much for the lovely gift.

Off to church soon. I hope I don’t take a nap there. ; )

Nov25

Blue Sunday

Posted on Sunday, November 25, 2007 by Dianne

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Sean just left about 10:30 am. It’s his first solo trip up to PSU. He drove down with a friend, but the guy’s mom is driving him back. Tomorrow is the opening of hunting season and we think he should have gotten an earlier start. He said he didn’t get to sleep until 2 am as he was thinking about the trip. Wish him luck.

Barbara at Mainly Stitching sent me the sweetest birthday gifts that arrived yesterday. I love that the mattress style pin cushion was made as a stitch-along with her son (Brightneedles’ Mary Kirby series). I can see the two of them happily stitching away. And Barbara also sent a thougttful ‘Think Pink’ bookmark from Mosey n’ me. A few years ago I met the designer for Mosey n’ me, Frank Bielec as he’s a designer on the TLC cable show ‘Trading Spaces’. Thanks again Barbara!

I shamelessly hijacked her photo as I like how she had them set up on her blog. : )

So now I’m a little blue as all the ‘fun’ and ‘busy’ stuff is over until after this trying week ahead. I do go to church almost every week and last night the first hymn ‘O Jesus, Our Savior, Our King’ (or something close) had the word ‘benign’ in it. The lector also said ‘don’t just go by medical opinion, go by the word of the Lord’. Around the ceiling are smalls stained glass windows of saints and I ‘talk to’ St. Ruth as that was my grandmom’s name. So I’m feeling some good vibes in a spiritual way this weekend.

Nov21

Welcome to my seaside neighborhood!

Posted on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 by Dianne

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Sean took me to the post office and I picked up my gorgeous piece today. It was mailed in early March of 2006. I haven’t seen the houses by the different stitchers on the internet as I wanted to be surprised. I’m trying to guess who did what-I think I know. And thanks to Rachael for the gorgeous handmade socks she sent along. I’m taking them with me on Wednesday. : ) Thanks to everyone who stitched on this-Annemarie,Barbara, Carol, Rachael, Su and Veronica! You are my forever pals and so talented!

Mine is the first one in the top row.

Nov20

Some gifties

Posted on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 by Dianne

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Thanks for all your continued birthday wishes! I really appreciate them! I was gone all day today, so I finally got around to taking a few photos.

Thanks first to the two Carol/Caroles I know! The fairy bird feeder/ornament, the Canadian BC awareness angel pin, snowman ornament and teapot night light are from Carole/ Pea from Canada (plus some maple chocolates). I love them all. Carol from NH made me the sweet ‘Stick it here’ pincushion-perfect stitching Carol. Angela from NY made me the little book that holds art trading cards-great idea-I’ll definitely use it!

I got about 18 birthday cards!
Brian gave me this to help me draw on the computer.
Today I got a ‘on the house’ hair touch up and cut from my sister-n-law Colleen. I showed my niece Tori my big book of Art trading cards and gave her all of the Wizard of Oz ones I had made. She says she has 5 from me now. We dropped by to see my mom, but she was unable to go shopping with us. She gave me a cross stitch book, candy, a cute teddy bear, a heart pin and some other little things. I told her not to worry about going out in the damp cold, but she does anyway.
Sean and I did some power shopping at Value City and Old Navy. I got a little faux red alligator purse to use for my reunion on Friday. I got a few Liz Claiborne tops, gray and cream (I had birthday money), plus a pale teal color sweater at Old Navy.
Sean and I stopped for dinner at PF Chang’s, a Chinese Bistro. He had honey coated shrimp and I had lemon grass prawns on garlic noodles-really delicious.
When I got home, I found out I had forgotten to pay the mortgage (very unlike me, the bill lady-too much on my mind lately) and Bri and I ran it up to the post office and hit the less crowded grocery store. I so wanted to bake a pecan pie, but the pecans are about $10 a bag. I settled on some store bought pies as the store has a pretty good bakery.
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To my Neighborhood Round robin pals-my piece is sitting at the post office! No one was home (it figures) to sign for it, so I’ll run over to get it tomorrow. I thought for sure it would be here yesterday-darn. I’ll get a heap of photos to share. I can’t wait!

Nov7

A study in pale

Posted on Wednesday, November 7, 2007 by Dianne

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Ever make a dinner that eludes color? I made chicken from the Everyday Food book (which is a prize for fast and good recipes) in a wine and dijon sauce. Bri even cracked open a bottle of Chardonnay for me to use. When I dished out his dinner first (I wait on people this way as I like to arrange their food nicely), it was pale chicken, pale blanched asparagus (which we never had before and it was good), a baked potato and a biscuit with the only color, nicely browned on top. Hence the name of this post. My chicken wasn’t as brown as the photo and their sauce was browner too.

Earlier today, I was surveying the yard and a big hanging pot of pink begonias and raspberry colored nemesia is still blooming. I had planted it in July and it’s in the sun and likes it there. I haven’t watered anything outside for weeks and there was this gorgeous pot of summery flowers. Tonight it’s in the 30s, so I don’t know how this will fare. It was a pleasant surprise. (Below is the same pot in July and it’s prettier now).

I spent the better part of the evening working on my Stitching lottery piece. This one is a bit of a pain on the medium blue linen-rip, rip, rip! It’s a design from the latest JCS ornament issue-Little House Needleworks-Snow Bunnies. I picked it out a few weeks ago with the help of my mom. I usually pick out three designs and let someone else help me decide what other people may like. I think I’m on track again. The main part of the tree is snowflakes. It should be pretty.

Sean will be home in 10 days!

I’m hoping for a good night’s sleep. Keep me in your thoughts at 1:30 tomorrow.

Nov1

Finished!

Posted on Thursday, November 1, 2007 by Dianne

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The Amish II-Homespun Elegance

Apple Tree Boy & Girl 1985

beige linen

Started in about 1999-finished 11/1/07

I’m taking it easy today and decided I could surely finish the apples and their stems this afternoon. It’s not a perfect replica of the chart (some boo boos), but it’s cute. I see this as a topper for a square wooden box.

I haven’t had any comments for a few days, so waving at anyone who passes by. : )

Oct13

What’s wrong with this cover?

Posted on Saturday, October 13, 2007 by Dianne

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Bri asked me earlier, and I couldn’t see it right away. But a local University did and asked for a refund. Bri doesn’t do the cover layout, he gets the ads for this supplement. Now I would be a little peeved to see that mistake on an educational supplement! Bri is hoping no one else makes a stink as that’s his bread and butter-he did most of the ads for this.
Speaking of smelly-I can’t think of a Photo Hunt photo for smelly that would be nice or interesting, so I pass today.
I went back to the LNS shop and got a bigger piece of linen on Friday. I’m glad the place is still in business after all these years. I use to go there when I was in my early 20s, so it’s been around a while. I also went to Michael’s and hit a rubber stamp sale and got a few nice ones plus one you can make your own words with and stamp it. I’m still looking for a rubber stamp of wings. And I did hit Trader Joe’s and am putting together a box of birthday goodies for Sean. He’s had a few rough days, and was blue over a test he studied really hard for and didn’t do well with. He did get a curve and has a ‘C’ now, so that helped. It’s homecoming weekend and he went to a parade last night. I’m sure the game and festivities will lighten his mood. He said he’d like to come home for a bit, but that’s up to him, he’s gotta do the driving to and fro.

Oct9

Venturing and raining

Posted on Tuesday, October 9, 2007 by Dianne

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Today I got awake a little after 7 and got up right before 8 as I knew my sister-in-law Colleen wanted me down to her house around 10:30 so she could do my hair. I actually got out the door around 9:30 and even stopped at the post office in Chadds Ford to mail a package and the Love Quilts Thunderbird square. Colleen wasn’t home, but I went in and ate some yogurt and only had to wait about 10 minutes as she had been food shopping. So now I have brown hair again(!), almost like my real color. She was nice enough to trim my hair and blow it dry too. I was out of there by 12, got lunch for my mom and me and headed for mom’s house. After we ate, she wasn’t feeling chipper and I just started tidying up there. Two hours later she was ready to go out, but I was ready to go home. I left at 3 and headed down the road then decided to stop off at a cross stitch shop I hadn’t been to in years. I was looking around and saw the cute punch needlework samples. The shopkeeper showed me how to do it (she was a lefty too) and I decided to buy a kit and the needle. I also bought Little House’s ‘House of a Needleworker’; The Prairie Schooler’ Santa’s 1-4 days of Christmas; TPS 2005 and 2007 Santa cards and some mocha linen to make the Santas on. I stopped and got us some pizza (small ones-white for me and regular for Bri). When I went to look at my stash from the shop, I saw the linen said $8.50 on it and the receipt said $17.00! That’s a big difference. I’ll have to call to see about that and may have to make another trip there.

~Update-I was charged for the bigger piece of linen (one number difference in the item number on the receipt!), so I do have to go back to the store and either get my money back or another piece of fabric. I might as well get another piece of fabric. ; )

Needless to say, I’m bushed. We had some thunderstorms pass through tonight and it’s now in the 60s. Nice to have some rain!

And I got a new school photo of my darling niece Tori. She did good posing as it looks just like her, no silly or scared face just her sweet smile.

Oct5

Some shares

Posted on Friday, October 5, 2007 by Dianne

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Finally! The ’57 Thunderbird for Elijah at Love Quilts is finished. I think it looks cool. The variegated floss for the border and flames was one ‘x’ at a time.

And here is where I hung up my framed pieces.

The lighthouse is in the living room over a watercolor of the same lighthouse in Cape May!

Doesn’t this photo look like my cross stitched piece?

Walk in the Woods is hanging over the entertainment center on the only gold wall in the family room. I look at it every time I watch tv or am stitching. Great inspiration!

I have another ‘share’ but you can’t see it until I send it to the recipient.
Today I was decorating for fall and Halloween in the middle of an allergy attack. I am not careful when I vacuum (like behind the entertainment center) and am down in the basement digging for boxes. I do wear a dust mask when it’s a planned session-lol But it wasn’t funny today. Took a few doses of allergy nasal spray. I am far from finished. Maybe tomorrow!