Mirabilia Mania

I've been on a Mirabilia kick lately. Nora Adams has been a favorite designer since I bought The Dreamer at an LNS in the early '90s (which I still haven't stitched but definitely will at some point).

I finished Mermaids of the Deep a few years ago but recently got it framed. It is so hard to get a good picture of it without a glare.





This one is just covered in beads which I love!!

Getting this framed has once again jump started my "need" to stitch Mirabilia designs (and buy them, and kit them, and lovingly look at them lol).

I am currently working on Poppy. I started stitching with the Kreiniks today and hope to be beading later tonight.





I've had some happy mail days around here lately as well.




Little House Needleworks Family Sampler, ByGone Stitches One Nation with called for fabric and threads, Mirabilia Stargazer with beads, Mirabilia Elizabeth with beads.

So much to stitch, so little time!!

This is the Day

Hello everyone...

I haven't posted in a long time. No reason... Just enjoying summer and all the activities that the season brings.

I don't want to bore everyone with a long update of everything that has happened since I last posted. I will just suffice to say that May went by in a busy blur, and I spent June trying to catch my breath. Now it is July and almost time to return to school/work full time. I have stitched a lot, and I have knitted a lot.  I would like to be better about posting. Wondering if I set a specific day to post each week if I would stick to it?

Stitching.... I have spent a lot of time stitching this summer. But as per my usual MO, I have stitched a little on one project, put it down, picked up another project, stitched a little on it, put it down... well, you get the idea. And sometimes all in one day.

I decided last night that I was bored with every project that I have upstairs. (I keep current stitching stuff upstairs, and not so current WIPs in the basement.) Rather than start something new (as I usually have no qualms about doing), I went down to the basement, dragged out the WIPs of Doom supersize tote (a result of the "no qualms" thing), and drug out a dozen (or more) projects that caught my eye. I reunited them with their various threads, put them in a basket and hauled them back up the stairs. I decided (at least for awhile), that I will stitch on whichever is screaming the loudest (hopefully until it is finished) and then choose another from the basket until I either a.) tire of this routine and go back to my more current projects, or b.) finish everything in the basket and then refill it or c) start whatever latest and greatest that catches my eye (Beauty and Grace, anyone?).

The latest "screamer" is This is the Day by Hands to Work which I fell head over heels in love with when I first saw it in JCS in 2009. I promptly collected threads and fabric and set my hands to work and was loving stitching it until I discovered that either my house or tree was one stitch off (I don't remember which now). I just as promptly put it all away in disgust refusing to frog, start over, or finish it as is. Looking at it now, I don't think it is that glaring. I am calling it a "design feature" and moving on....

Here's where it is as I left it with the exception of the over one block that I stitched last night. I am stitching on Silkweaver's Days Gone By 28 count lugana (one of my favorite Silkweaver colorways).

I do actually have a stitching finish and a couple of knitting finishes from my summer of stitching fun that I will blog about next time.


This is one of my current knitting projects... a pair of Georgia on My Mind Socks. Yarn is by Gnome Acres in the Franklin colorway. This is a KAL with the Knitabulls podcast group on Ravelry. I like to have a pair of socks on the needles at all times. They are perfect for long car rides, waiting rooms, etc. I plan to haul them with me to a Louisville Bats game tomorrow night. :)

I have been the lucky recipient of some of my Mom's cute project bags that she has been sewing lately. The cupcake bag will hold a large chart with fabric and threads easily. This is where This is the Day is currently residing. Check out the cute sprinkle lining. :)

This cute bag is a perfect for either a purse or a knitting project (or both!). It is fully lined with a lot of pockets on the inside. Probably my favorite bag that I currently have. I think she did such a great job on it. It combines a lot of things I love... Lots of color, paisley, polkadots, stripes. Perfect!

That's it for me for this time. Sorry for the long hiatus. I will try to be back sooner rather than later next time. DH and DS just left to spend what's left of the afternoon fishing, so I think a tall glass of sweet tea, an episode of Smash, and stitching are in order.

Happy Stitching!!

Kellie

The stitching voices in my head

Do you ever have times when almost everything in your stitching stash is screaming to be stitched at once? And more stash is beckoning you to be purchased? Usually in the form of the blogs you read and the stitchers you admire... You all are stitching some amazing things out there in blogland. Which when I see these amazing things, I either want to start them immediately if I have them in my stash or I want to purchase them immediately if I don't. For the most part, I have refrained with one exception.... When I saw Terri's drop dead gorgeous finish of Mary Gibson, I took myself right on over to the Haslemere Muesum via the Internet and ordered it straight away. And I soooo want to start it immediately. But I also want to stitch it using Terri's fabulous conversion, for which I need to order some threads, so that has kept me in check for now.


I have managed a quick finish Here's Bloom Sampler by Threadwork Primitives.




I've progressed a little more on Christmas Garden. I'm trying to focus on it solely until it's finished. For someone who used to be a devoted one-at-a-time stitcher, it has become hard for me to just stitch on one thing until completion in recent years.




This past week has been spring break. We would normally travel at this time of the year, but we decided to stay home this week and get some stuff done around the house. The living room and hallway got a much needed coat of paint, and the carpets got a much needed cleaning. I'm sad to see my break end, but I only have a few short weeks until summer break. We only missed two days this year, and we've already made up both of those, so we are scheduled to get out of school on May 16 with the teachers' last day being May 17. We will have almost three full months off this summer. I'm ecstatic!!! I have a lot of things I want to accomplish around my house, some places to go, and my mom is going to teach me a little basic sewing. I'm looking so forward to all of it. I will have to work some too, but a lot of it is computer based that I can do from my home.

That's it for now. Getting ready to settle in with Christmas Garden and enjoy some stitching in front of the TV this evening.

Have a happy stitchy week!

Kellie

Some framed finishes

I recently took a couple of pieces to Michael's to have them framed. I decided it was time to get my finishes out of the drawer and on my wall. So hopefully, I will have a lot of these posts to show you this year. As much as I stitch, I have very few stitched pieces displayed in my home. However one of my goals this year is to decorate my home with things we love, and my handwork fits into that overall goal. :)

Here's Paradise Lost by Plum Street Samplers.




And Home is Where My Heart Blooms by Blackbird Designs.





I'm enjoying a blissful week of spring break, at home stitching and knitting with an occasional outing during the day here and there.

Hope your week is a happy one!
Kellie

A finish and a start

I finished knitting a quick little project tonight. It's called a Monster Chunk. It's a free pattern by Rebecca Danger on Ravelry. He's stitched out of Knitcol Adifil and Cascade 220 (feet) on size 5 circulars.




I also started Christmas Garden by BBD a few days ago. I haven't made a huge amount of progress but I am enjoying every stitch. I'm thinking I will probably stitch an alphabet at the bottom like Katrina, rather than the words Christmas Garden. This is a sampler I would like to leave out all year as it doesn't "scream" Christmas, especially without the charted words. Katrina was very kind to offer to share how she stitched hers, so I hope she won't mind if I borrow her idea.




Please pardon my crappy iPhone photos. I'm too lazy to grab the real camera and in a hurry to get back to stitching CG.
Have a good week!
Happy Stitching!

Lately

Spring has sprung here in my little KY town. The flowers are blooming.






We have a new little fellow that has found us. I think he belongs to someone. He's very tame and becoming territorial which doesn't set well with the other cat members of our family. We are hoping to find his family and return him. And if not, maybe a new family that will love him. And this needs to be happening soon before I get attached to him and name him Zebulon (Zeb for short; anyone else a child of the 70s who grew up watching The Waltons? You will know where I came up with Zeb. Lol!)


On the stitching front, I've been very unfocused. I can't seem to stick to one thing lately and therefore the only thing I'm accomplishing is making a mess pulling out multiple projects and making a couple of new starts that I quickly abandoned.

I finished Small Token by Blackbird Designs for the 2012 Year of Smalls.



I started March Wordplay by With Thy Needle and Thread.



Also started Spring by Cross eyed Cricket.




I think part of my focusing problem has been because I had been working on Sarah Woodham. Somehow I lost the part of the pattern that is the over one verse. I'm sure it's around here somewhere, and it will turn up,but it is driving me insane trying to figure out where it is.

As for knitting, I don't have much to show there but I did aquire a few cute new project bags and a set of stitch markers that I love.


Sock bag from Slipped Stitch Studios on Etsy. LOVE this! Very well made and how can you resist a sick project bag with well, socks! on the fabric. :)




A couple of just as awesomely made bags from Tangerine Designs on Etsy.




Hunger Games stitch markers also by Tangerine Designs. Love this series of books, love these stitch markers, can't wait to see this movie.

I think that's all of my ramblings for today, folks!

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Happy Stitching!

Somber

My heart is breaking for all the families that lost loved ones and their homes in this week's storms.

Our little town fared better than some but did not remain unscathed.

We were hit on Wednesday by two EF-2 tornados. No lives were lost here thankfully. One of the tornados ripped through the neighborhood right next to my middle school and leveled it. We were at school when all of this moved through. We had kids in the hallways from 9:00 a.m. until after 1:00 p.m. with a couple of 15 minute reprieves. We lost power by 10:00 am. Our students were AMAZING. I am still so proud of them! They listened so well and were so patient. We are so blessed that this tornado literally "jumped" over our school. My husband and son were experiencing the same things at their respective schools. DH works at the high school; DS attends one of the elementary schools. I am very thankful for the staff at my son's school who kept him safe and tried to keep him calm. He suffers terribly from storm phobia (almost debilitatingly); it was a very long emotional day for him and I could not be there to comfort him. I was needed at my school and it was too dangerous to leave to go get him.

Had we been home, this would have been the view from our front door. This picture was taken from within our neighborhood.




But we are blessed. We have not had the destruction that others received on Friday.

We were very nervous about the storms on Friday after the events of Thursday. We knew Fridays storms were on the same path as Wednesday's but were predicted to be a lot worse. We were home this time when they hit. Thankfully it was just high winds, thunderstorms, and hail for us this time around.

I'm so thankful that my family is safe and sound... All of my family, extended family too.

My thoughts and prayers are with those who were not as fortunate.