Finished!!

I put the last stitch in Midnight Watch Thursday night. I am so pleased with how it turned out. Now to get it framed and ready to display next Halloween...

Midnight Watch

Blackbird Designs

30 ct. 18th Century Brown by R & R Reproductions

recommended Crescent Colors, Gentle Arts, and Weeks Dye Works threads

Started Thursday, October 8 , 2009

Finished Thursday, October 29, 2009

As soon as I placed the final stitch, I promptly started Paradise Lost. I have been wanting to stitch this since I saw the first sneak peeks on Paulette's blog months ago. I don't have much to show yet, but I have a four day weekend this weekend, and this baby is going to get lots of face time. :)

Paradise Lost

Plum Street Samplers

Started Thursday, October 29, 2009

Recommended fabric and fibers

Thank you all for your kind comments regarding my mom's and Jake's birthday. Both enjoyed their days.

Have you seen the LHN monthly ornament series? I am excited about these. Vonna is hosting a stitch a long blog for these here if you are interested. I am signed up for a monthly auto and looking forward to participating in the blog. I am hoping this will keep me motivated to work on these all year. I enjoy quick stitches in between bigger projects.

Today is Halloween here (not sure if this is just a US holiday or not...). Michael will take Jake trick or treating around our neighborhood later this evening while I stay home to pass out candy. Where we live, we get slammed with trick or treaters. It seems like people drop them off by the van-loads. It is a lot of fun but it's hectic. Jake is going to be a skeleton this year that has blood pumping through it's chest. Ick. Usually he is some character from Star Wars, but he wanted to be something "scary" this year. After trick or treating, my next door neighbors a.k. a. my brother-in-law and sister-in-law have an annual Halloween party where a bunch of our friends and their families gather to eat chili. We always have a great time. It is definitely chili weather. It has been cold and rainy here most of October, and today is no exception, although I think maybe the rain is over for the rest of today at least.

School is out until next Wednesday!!! Yippee!!! Monday is technically a "work day" for parent teacher conferences, but since most parents work during the day, we have two evenings where we stay late to meet with parents which allows us to have Monday off. Tuesday is an election day, so we have that day off as well. Love these kind of weekends. :) I plan to stitch as much as I can in between Halloween festivities, church, and football. Sounds like a great weekend. Hope you have a great one wherever you are! :)

Happy Stitching,

Kellie

Happy Birthday Mom!

Just wanted to wish my sweet Mama a very happy birthday! :) She reads my blog from time to time. I have the sweetest mother in the world. So kind and so loving. She has always been and continues to be the best mom ever (yes, I know I am biased). While I don't post a lot of personal pictures here on my blog, I thought I would honor her in another way. I have shown you things that my dad has made for me. Tonight is Mom's turn. She has learned to quilt (self taught) in the last year or so and makes some gorgeous quilts. I have been lucky to be a recipient of one of her quilts as well as a tabletop ort bag. However, I don't use it for orts. I use the pincushion for needles occasionally and the bag part to hold my scissors (in the cute inside pocket) and my ring of threads for whichever project I am working on at the moment. This has been quite a useful little addition as it keeps me and the husband from fighting over the limited table space between our two recliners. LOL!

(Actually I guess Dad gets a little credit on this post after all...he made the quilt rack that it is hanging on in the foyer. :) The wall looks pink but it is more of a rose-ish brown and I don't know why my husband's foot is in the bottom corner. LOL!)

No stitching pictures to show today. I am on a little hiatus from Midnight Watch as I am waiting for threads (maybe tomorrow, I hope). I have been stitching on some random projects--Shores, Quakers and Quilts, My Lady's Quaker, etc. but not really enough progress on any one thing to show.

Jake's 8th birthday is this weekend. He is looking so forward to his party and counting down the days.

Right now the dog is begging to go outside and Jake is wanting me to look up his reading log online and help him with his math homework, so I guess that is it for this post.

Have a happy Friday!

Awesome giveaway

Here's an awesome giveaway...

http://pumpkinpatchprimitivequiltshoppe.blogspot.com/

27 very cute fat quarters that would be awesome for finishing needlework or making a quilt. :)

Enjoy!

New Trinkets

I have been diligently stitching on Midnight Watch. I love this project, but I am ready to finish it and move on to something else. I love the color of the fabric and I really think this design looks fabulous on it, but it is rough textured. I stitch in hand most of the time using the sewing method, and my finger is starting to get a sore spot from pushing the needle through the fabric. I have never found a thimble that I like, but a bandaid seems to do the trick. :)

I don't know if I am going to have this one finished by my self-imposed Halloween deadline or not. I kind of doubt it. I have run out of a couple of threads that I have ordered. I plan to stitch as much as I can with the threads that I have. This design is taking a lot more of threads of certain colors than I thought it would. But I didn't start out with full skeins of some threads.

I have a few new trinkets to show...

My dad made me this beautiful needle holder out of ebony. I know I am biased, but I think it is absolutely fabulous. My dad is a woodworker. His particular passion is wood turning. I think he does beautiful work. I love how this one stands on a table top. I immediately filled it with my favorite needles--Bohin #26. Love those!!

And speaking of Bohin, they also make scissors! I had no idea until I saw these on Anita's Little Stitches site...

Fabulous!! They snip threads perfectly and have a great feel. Two thumbs up for Anita's customer service and super fast shipping! :)

Hoping to stitch some tonight. I would love to get the house almost finished while watching all my Sunday night shows. :)

I am also listening to Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. I have read all of the books before, but I am trying to re-read/listen to them again before delving into Echo in the Bone. It has been so long since I read the last one that I feel compelled to read again and remember the details. This is one of my absolute favorite series ever... I also recently downloaded Audrey Niffenegger's new one "Her Fearful Symmetry." I loved Time Traveler's Wife, so I am hoping that this one will be a big hit with me as well. It will be awhile before I get to it though.

Hope you are have had a great weekend!

Kellie

Midnight Watch progress...

I have made a good start on this particular piece, I think. I am hoping I can keep my stitching ADD under control long enough to finish this one by Halloween. I would love to get it framed and sitting on my foyer table before the end of October.

I ran out of GAST Gingersnap used in the border. The design calls for two skeins. I had one full skein and a part of one. It definitely takes almost two skeins. And it will probably take two skeins of WDW Charcoal although the design only calls for one. (edited to add...it's Crescent Colors Blackbird in the border that I think I will need another skein...not Weeks Charcoal...I got mixed up...sorry). So I have quit stitching the border and will work on the vine and house while I wait for a thread order. So far, this has been a really fun stitch, and I am enjoying working on it. Usually borders do me in with boredom, but so far, so good.

A few people asked on my last post if the neighbor's cat's name is really Midnight or if I just referred to her as that because of the black cat in the design, but her name really is Midnight. :) The neighbors adopted three cats from a shelter all at the same time. Apparently the other two cats weren't very nice to Midnight, so she takes up residence at our house. She loves hubby's lawnmower and we find her sitting in the seat almost every time we walk outside. The neighbors behind us (Midnight's original owners), our next door neighbors/inlaws, and our family all love cats (and dogs). Between the three homes, we have eight cats. They all visit the three houses and eat from each other's food bowls. I have always loved cats. I would adopt every stray I saw if my husband would let me. Of course, I don't really want to be known in town as the crazy cat lady either, but I do think they are just the sweetest pets.

It is a sunny, chilly, peaceful Sunday here. The perfect day to stitch. And the last day of my fall break. {Sob...} It is back to the grindstone tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Kellie

Midnight Watch

Three posts in three days...you can tell I am on fall break. LOL! I think this is a new personal record for me.

I have decided to shelve "Home" for awhile. I am too disgruntled with it to make a decision or to want to work on it. I think it is Siobhan who refers to the "WIP dungeon." I like that...that is where Home is going for now.

I got happy mail today...

I had ordered Blackbird Designs Midnight Watch and fabric a couple of days ago from Needlecraft-Corner. Their shipping is so fast! I loved this design when I first saw it. I am now happily stitching on this piece this afternoon and trying to catch up online with the show Mercy. A terrific afternoon. If my husband would call and insist on takeout for supper, it would be perfect. LOL!

Here's our own little Midnight. Actually she belongs to the neighbors behind us, but she adopted us long ago and stays at our house, sleeps in our garage, and eats our cat food. :) And we love her, so all is well.

Have a great afternoon!

Kellie

Agitated

This word pretty much sums up my whole day....

Some extended family issues cropped up earlier today. Nothing serious, just enough to be aggravating and to make my day off kilter.

And then, just when I got my attitude somewhat adjusted, I discover that I made a counting error between the H and the O on Bent Creek's Home, and it has thrown a good chunk of the sampler off kilter. I wish I had discovered it earlier, but it did not occur to me until I started the house and figured out that it was not perfectly centered between the trees.

Not sure what I am going to do... I don't know if I will work around it and adjust the border or if I will frog out about a fourth of the piece and stitch it again. I "think" I would have to frog the H, and the smaller letters (a, b, f, g), the star, the two trees on the left, and what there is of the house. I HATE this kind of thing. It makes me fall out of love with whatever I am stitching really quickly. If I frog and restitch, I am afraid I will have those little needle holes and clingy thread fibers. If I don't frog, my eyes will go to that mistake every time I look at the piece. I have decided to work on something else tonight, sleep on it, and see how I feel tomorrow. Not a wise idea to work on it tonight when I am tired and cranky.

I am going to take my cranky pants to the recliner, pick up a fun, easy project (I started My Lady's Quaker right before we left for vacation...this might fit the bill), turn on the TV, and duck for cover until tomorrow.

Hope your stitching is frog-free tonight...

Kellie

All good things must come to an end...

And so it was with our little mini vacation. We returned home today. We had such a fabulous time. I did not want to come home. My parents went with us, and we really had such a great trip. I would have liked to have stayed for one more day, but with my husband's football practice schedule, it wasn't feasible.

I spent a lot of time browsing around a nice little needlework shop called "Dixie Darlin'." I came home with quite a bit of stash from there....

a design from the Knoxville EGA called Swan Pond Sampler (I have been admiring this model on their wall for years), Rosewood Manor's Quaker Diamonds, Midsummer Night Designs' Liberty, Blackbird Designs Bittersweet Moon

Notforgotten Farms' My Samplar House, With Thy Needle and Thread's Flag Day, Little House Needleworks' The Library, Bent Creek's Home

Lots of fabric and threads....some for the designs I purchased, mostly for designs I already have.

I went back and forth to this shop several times. They are so nice there. They were very helpful with all of my questions and even ordered a chart to mail me that they did not have in stock. It is so nice to get to shop in an actual needlework shop sometimes. I order a lot online because there are no shops remotely close to me anymore.

While on vacation, I started Bent Creek's Home. It is a cute little sampler that is stitching up so fast. I expect I will have this finished either tonight or tomorrow.

I have a little mini finish to show...

Before the end of September, I actually managed to finish block 2 of SoHRH. I was quite excited to finish it before the month's end. However, I haven't started block 3 yet, and with so many new things (and more coming in the mail), I don't know if I will get to it. I don't tend to stress over this kind of thing though. That would completely sap the fun out of it for me. If I get to it, I do... If I don't, that's okay too.

While we were in Pigeon Forge, my mom and I found this little shop called The Pattern Mart. We could have spent all day in there. She had very little cross-stitch, but she had tons of other things... all kinds of quilting, applique, wood, embroidery, etc. I really loved the punchneedle designs. The owner was so nice. She gave Mom and I a lesson in punchneedle and we enjoyed watching her work on a design there in the shop. We resisted temptation (for now), but I know it is only a matter of time before I get into that as well. It was so pretty, and after talking with the shop owner and seeing her demonstration, I think I could pick it up pretty quickly. She had a lot of neat gadgets (like this double hoop stand) that made it seem like it would be a breeze. Mom and I agreed that had we stayed another day, we would both have been back at that shop buying all the necessary supplies and setting up shop in the hotel room, punching the day away. :) Have any of you tried punchneedle? Do you enjoy it?

The one positive about being home is that I have the rest of the week off and no specific plans, other than to stitch as much as humanly possible. It is a cold rainy afternoon here (perfect stitching weather for me). Michael (hubby) is at football practice, Jake is visiting with his other set of grandparents... so I plan to spend the next couple of hours with my DVR and Bent Creek.

Have a good one!!

Kellie