Show and Tell

I finished Valentine Rose last weekend. These are small designs, but detailed with quite a few colors. They are taking me awhile to stitch. I read on the Blackbird Designs blog that they are thinking about releasing the bonus design that is placed between #2 and #3 early so that those of us stitching this series on one piece of fabric would not have that empty space hanging out until October. I am really hoping that they decide in favor of this idea. I am putting this piece on hold for awhile in hopes that this happens. I was dreading trying to get the space between #2 and #3 counted correctly. Knowing me, I would have counted it ten times and still messed up.

Now I am back to working on CaHRH block 4. At the beginning of the year, my goal was to stitch one block a month and finish this in December. I am behind, of course. I am thinking that I might work on this one pretty steadily and just get it done. I love it. I would love to have it hanging in time for Christmas this year.

Found this cute little fella last weekend. There is a quaint little town called Glendale that is very close to where we live. They were having a spring festival there this past weekend, which we went to. It was fun. I got a few odds and ends from the booths, but found this little guy in The Village Shop. He is supposed to go in a garden, I think, but he is going to hang out in my sitting room/stitching room for awhile. They had several styles to choose from, but this one on the skateboard caught my eye. Isn’t he cute! Hopefully he will have fun on that skateboard and not find his way to my current project. LOL!

I have been doing some major stashing. I am still trying to complete my collection of Carriage House Samplings designs that I "have" to have before they are no longer available.

Miss Lila's House, Hearts and Flowers, My Hometown, Quaker Stocking, Primitive Stocking, Quaker Study, Black Willow Farm, Fredericka, A Haunting Mermaid, A Weeping and A Blessing, Folk Art Pincushions, and BBD Anniversaries of the Heart #4 Pink Hill Manor

If you like CHS, what are your favorites? (In another words, enable me so that I can make sure I am not missing something fantastic that I will later regret not buying and end up paying way too much for on the Bay of Evil. LOL!)

I also lucked into some Birds of a Feather designs that I have been wanting from the Stitchin' Post (gotta love that name!) in Nashville. I enjoy shopping there when I am in that area. They are also online and do call in/mail order. These are Memories of Christmas, Christmas Angel Ornaments, French Lesson, and Halloween Icons. Somehow this particular shop lucked into several OOP charts including these BOAF. I called the shop hoping that they would also have Joyous Christmas as I have been searching for that one forever, but no luck. I am not complaining... I am thrilled about these!

Five days of school left!!!! This time next week, I will be telling all my little people to have a great summer, and getting ready to enjoy a great summer myself. :)

Hope you have a great weekend!

Snow Garden finished!

I finished Snow Garden this past weekend and started Valentine Rose. I am loving this series. I am glad I decided to stitch it all on one piece of fabric. I am saving the personalization until the end. I have ideas that I am jotting down as I go along, but I want to see all of the series before I make my final choices.

I am trying to play "catch up" in May and stitch on all of the monthly projects I decided to stitch throughout this year. Specifically Anniversaries of the Heart, Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow, and the LHN ornaments. I would like to get Anniversaries caught up through the third house. I owe CaHRH blocks 4 and 5. I have a pile of LHN ornaments to work on. I think I have stitched two of the six so far. I probably won't accomplish all of this in May, but I hope to make progress toward all of them.

Thank you all for your kind words regarding the flood. Thankfully, my family was not in any danger at any time during the flood and did not have any damage at all. Things are back to normal in our area.

I hope all of you here in the States had a lovely Mother's Day this past weekend. My little one surprised me with a card and some stitching stash cash with the help of his dad. I was fortunate to get to spend the day the way I wanted with the three of us traveling to my parents' house to spend the afternoon with them and with my brother (whose birthday was on Mother's Day this year). It was a fun day!

My husband also surprised me this weekend with the news that he has decided to resign from coaching football. He has been a varsity football coach for 18 years (as long as I have known him). I have always tried to be supportive (I have been better at it some seasons than others), but I am really glad he has made this decision. It will be a really positive thing for him and for us as a family. I have always dreaded July 15 (the official start date of football season and the day I feel like I become a football widow) and looked forward to the final playoff weekend (because the Monday following we feel like we get our huband/father back). It takes a lot of time and energy to be a coach. Coaches, at least the ones I know, are a very dedicated bunch of people. Because at the high school level, it sure isn't for the money. He made the comment to me today that he has not had a free fall season since he was seven years old. He started playing little league football then, played high school and college football, and then immediately started coaching after graduating from college. 33 years of football. That is unbelievable. But he seems very happy and at peace with his decision. I couldn't be happier or more proud of him. He is an extraordinary man, and I am lucky to call him mine.

I have been seeing Lake Stitcher's SBQ and people's responses posted on various blogs. I was not blogging the last time she was doing this, but I was reading blogs and loved reading people's responses to the SBQ. I thought this time I would join in on the fun. Here's the question:

Suppose we say that there are two types of stitchers.

There are those who enjoy the “process” of stitching. They stitch for stitching’s sake and if something gets finished, so much the better, but it’s not necessarily the end goal. Primarily, it’s the application of needle and thread to cloth that makes them happiest.

Then there are those who are “project” stitchers. They move steadily through their projects, certainly enjoying their stitching time, but finding their greatest joy in the completed stitching.

If you had to pick one to describe yourself, which type of stitcher would you be? I imagine that we could all say that we fall somewhere in between, but really think hard about this and try to pick just one. And once you’ve decided whether you’re a Process or Project stitcher, tell us if your recognize that approach in other parts of your life.

I think I lean more toward the process stitcher side. I enjoy all the different phases of stitching--stash acquiring (who doesn't enjoy that!), kitting projects, organizing, making the first stitch, etc. I have no qualms about making new starts. The large number of WIPs I have doesn't bother me or cause me to lose sleep at night (I don't call them UFOs because I do plan to eventually finish them all. LOL!). I will work on a project until I get bored with it and then I will put it down and move to something else. I feel restless on days that I do not get to put needle, thread, and fabric together. It relaxes me. I love the rhythm of it. I love painting on fabric with thread. It makes me feel artistic and creative, regardless that is someone else who created the design. Not that I don't love finished projects, but I definitely favor the process more.

That's it for me today. Have a great week! Make lots of x's.

Kellie

It's a Beautiful Morning!

In my 17 years working in education, I have experienced school being called off for a variety of things besides your garden variety snow... For example, I have witnessed ice storm days, flu days, tornado days, mercury spill days, and train wreck days.... I am not kidding. Today I am experiencing a flood day. And believe it or not, this is not the first one in my educational career. Which I find odd because we do not live in a flood plain. We had school on Monday, which I wondered if we would, so I was a little shocked when the phone rang around 9 pm last night announcing that there would be no school today. One section of our district that has a smallish river running through it, has been hit extremely hard with flooding. Roads are closed there and no vehicles can get in or out, which includes busses, so no school today. I think everyone there is okay, thankfully. They just have a big mess to clean up.

So this leaves me with the question of what to do with this time I have been given that was unexpected on this beautiful sun-shiny day....

Do I stitch?

Do I read?

Do I shop?

Do I clean? (nah, that's no fun!)

Not sure what I will do with this gift of a day. Maybe a little of all of the above.

I thought I would share a few stash acquisitions that I have acquired recently.

A little birthday stash: CHS Houses of HRH, CHS Village of HRH, Spot the Horse, BBD Anniversaries of the Heart #3 A Wish for You

A few something somethings from the Bay of Evil: SANQ Fall 2002 and JCS April 2002 which may or may not seem impressive from the covers, but look at the treats that await inside....

Heavenly Paradise from the SANQ issue.... love this little A&E design

And a Bent Creek design from the JCS issue

As well as a cute Brightneedle design that I have stitched here and there in Blogville and have always liked.

I have read a couple of books recently that I wanted to share.

Voyager by Diana Gabaldon.... an oldie but a goodie. I read this series more than a few years ago after she had written Fiery Cross. I fell in love with Jamie and Claire and their adventures in Scotland and America and through the portals of time. Now that she has come out with the seventh book in the series, I am trying to re-read them all from the start of the series before diving into the newest one. It is amazing to me how much I have forgotten of these stories. It is almost like reading them for the first time all over again. I am enjoying them very much. If you like historical fiction/drama/romance/time travel.... I highly recommend them, but as I say to all my friends especially if they are easily offended, these books read like an R rated movie. Nuff said.

I also finished listening to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I love young adult literature. I taught 8th grade language arts prior to becoming a school counselor, and I LOVED teaching literature units. Everything from The Giver to Animal Farm with a few others thrown in for good measure. This is a book I would have loved to have had when I was teaching. It is futuristic with a lot of moral dilemmas that makes it a great book for discussion. My middle school librarian friend has not been able to read it yet because she can't keep it in the library. It is always checked out. Any book that makes a typical middle school kid want to read...well, I just have to read those myself! :) I have started listening to the second book in the series called Catching Fire this week. So far, I am enjoying it too. I think there is a third book coming out this fall.

I will leave you with a picture of Petey, my other boy "child"

Good grief, Mom... The Derby is over... Super Saver won.... Don't you think it is time to lose the dorky bandana?

Thanks for reading and for your comments. I have a few people yet to email some responses to some questions to, and I will get to that shortly. :)

Hope the sun is shining where ever you are today. I am out of here to make some fun!! :)

Rain, Rain, Go AWAY

It has rained all weekend long. We have had a lot of flash flooding. This was the scene across from our church this morning. This is normally a very grassy pretty park and sod farm. I am starting to wonder about the status of school tomorrow. I am sure we will make every attempt to get there because our state testing starts tomorrow, but there are a lot of people locally whose roads are impassable and are closed.

The rain has given me a lot of time to stitch. While I haven't done all of this over the rainy weekend, this is what I have been up to since the last time I posted....

Love, love, love the colors on Sarah Woodham. This is a fun one to stitch. I think this is probably the first reproduction that I have attempted. I can see why people like to stitch them. :) I am debating though if I want to stitch mine exactly as charted. I am not too crazy about those s's that look like f's, even though I know that is true of the time period. We'll see. I haven't decided for sure what I will do yet. (Please pardon the very crooked photo and wrinkly fabric... I am taking pictures in a hurry tonight).

Rather than banishing Snow Garden to the bottom of the WIP pile as I threatened, I did frog out the border and have recently picked it back up and have started working on it again. The release of #3 has prompted me on as well.

A little more on Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow...

I did not make my self-imposed goal of block 4 being finished by the end of April, but I did work on it some. I will try to double up in May and finish this block and block 5.

I want to thank sweet Jolene for a couple of reasons. She recently nominated me for an award that I have not mentioned here yet. Thank you, Jolene, for the Sweet Friends award.

I am supposed to list 10 things that make me happy. I love making lists like this, so that in itself makes me happy. LOL!!

1. My salvation and faith in Jesus Christ

2. My family... I have the best husband and best son that a girl could ever hope to have.

3. My extended family... my parents, my brother and SIL, and hubby's parents and brother and family

4. Friendships, both in real life and the friends that I have made through blogging

5. Stitching, especially starting and stashing :)

6. Music

7. Reading good books

8. Traveling

9. My home

10. Chocolate

I am supposed to nominate others, but I am going to nominate everyone who takes the time to stop by here and read my drivel. Consider yourself doubly nominated if you take the time to comment. LOL!

I also want to thank Jolene for the sweet gift that I received in the mail on the day before my birthday. She sent me a very sweet card with the BBD Bluebird chart enclosed. I was so surprised. It was so unexpected and undeserved, and she totally made my week. Jolene, you are so sweet and kind, and I appreciate more than you know, that you thought of me. :) I did not have this design, and can't wait to stitch it!! (See #5 on my happiness list and expect a new start pic soon. LOL!)

My blog has been sadly neglected lately. School is wrapping up for the year (19 days left, not that I am counting or anything...). This is one of my busiest times of the school year. Between state testing, end of year grade reporting and wrap up, and scheduling for next year for two elementary schools, I am wiped out by the end of the day. Not that I am complaining... I am grateful for the job that I have, the kids whose lives I get to be a part of... But I am looking forward to those two most blissful words in the English language... "Summer Break."

Have a good one. Hope you are staying dry wherever you may be.

Kellie