A New Start & a birthday gift!

First let me show you the adorable birthday gift from Vonna - isn't it too cute? It's laying on my stitching because I'm getting ready to put my floss on it in just a sec! For those that don't know, it's a JBW design & Vonna stitched on her own baked & basted fabric. It's adorable & I love it! :-)

My new start is Lizzie Kate's ABC Lesssons. OF COURSE I'm changing the colors, but still using all Crescent Colors & a couple of DMC, white & ??, can't recall at the moment. The brown is the new German Chocolate, the red is the new Red Ribbon, the blocks of color behind the letters is Peanut Brittle.... I can't remember what other colors I pulled out, but I didn't want to use pastels. I wanted just a neutral color behind the "alphabet blocks" & I tried about 6 colors before I decided on this one. The fabric is 32 ct Antique Ivory (my "standard" fabric I guess as I use it so much) & I'm SAL'ing with Vonna & Terry. I hope to get more done on it soon.

I'm going to be stitching with a few friends tomorrow... wish you could join us too! Have a great weekend & happy stitching!

Update to Sale/Trade Blog.... (MORE TODAY!)

I've added lots of items to my sale/trade blog this evening, with more to come! Please be sure to email me if you see something you're interested in.
Thanks,
Amy

http://amyssaletradeblog.blogspot.com/

**UPDATE Sunday, March 22nd - I have been very busy cleaning & going through my stash the past few days. LOTS more has been added to the sale/trade blog & I've barely made a dent so far. Check to see if there is anything you need.

I haven't stitched at all in almost a week, but it sure feels good to finally be trying to organize a bit after moving almost 2 years ago! ;-)

Have a great week ahead & happy stitching!!

A Couple Of Stitching Pics....

I have been stitching, here are a couple of pics...

First, an update on my Quaker Virtures - this is as of March 12th... Our SAL is here - CLICK! If you want to see details, they're on a post from last week... scroll down to read it & see another pic.

And this is my new start from Friday night - Serenity by Erica Michaels. The pattern comes with 40 ct Silk Guaze, but I am using Antique Ivory Belfast & yes, I changed the colors. Hope to stitch more on it this week, along with QV & also SB's "My Earth". Wish me luck!

Thanks for stopping by & happy stitching!

A Gift & an Exchange to share....

I just had to share these... I received a lovely birthday gift yesterday from my Pal Lisa. She made me a pretty pinkeep in my fav color and sent me a pair of Gingher Scissors. The pinkeep is pretty & one can never have too many scisors OR pinkeeps! ;-) Thank you Lisa, I appreciate it so much!

And you have to see this absolutely ADORABLE pinkeep from Melissa via the Make A Wish BB that arrived today! My wish was for a Valerie Pfeiffer bird finished in anyway the stitcher chose... well.... Melissa just went all out & stitched this over one & finished it in a sweet little pinkeep. It is just precious and I love it, thank you Melissa! I think Ray is quite happy with it too actually! :-)

We both just love watching the birds. They have been eating lbs of bird seed around here and we have seen several bluebirds lately... hopefully they will nest in the bluebird boxes he built last year. Here is a pic of some of the hungry little birdies that have been hanging around so much lately. Aren't they pretty? We have seen quite a few cardinals & doves lately too. Can't wait until the hummingbirds are back!

Ray suggested I take yesterday afternoon off since it was my birthday, and he didn't have to twist my arm too terribly much for me to say yes! I started yet ANOTHER new design. I'll hopefully have enough stitched on it by tomorrow to share a pic or two. By the time I got the threads pulled (and yes, changed) & the linen cut, it was time for dinner. My sister & niece came over for awhile to visit before that & we just sat & talked. Anyway, I started the newest release by Erica Michael, "Serenity", but I'm doing it on linen & not the silk guaze that comes with the pattern. I have been looking for THE perfect Serenity pattern for a very long time... this one is as close as any I've ever seen. Pics coming soon... ;-) I also stitched a bit on Quaker Vitures on Wed night & an hour or so on Thursday. I'll post an update of that as well. I have several more things I want to start NOW... why can't we all just stitch 8-10 hours a day? lol

Have a great weekend & thanks for stopping by. Happy stitching!

I've been stitching.....

Thought I'd post a couple of updates of what I've been working on. First is my start on ByGone Sitches Quaker Virtues. I haven't worked on it much, but this is my progress as of now. I haven't stitched on it since Saturday the 7th. It's stitched on 25 ct Vintage Country Mocha (over 1) with DMC 815. It will be pretty when finished I think... whenever that might be! ;-) I'm stitching on it along with Terry, Vonna, Nicole & several other gals. You can see the blog that Nicole started for us here.... ByGone Quakers SAL.


I have SO MANY pieces I want to stitch & decided on Sunday evening to pull one out, so I did. This is Shepherd's Bush "My Earth". I worked on it the past 3 nights & this is how far I've gotten so far. At least it's more than on QV & I promise I've worked on QV more hours! I guess that's the difference between over 1 & over 2 huh? This is a kit & it uses 32 ct Belfast & silk threads. Gotta love those silks. I want to get the mats from Jill Rensel for it one of these days! ;-)


The weather here has been GORGEOUS - in the low 80's & sunny. It's going to go back to cold (to me) and rainy though on Friday. What a wonderful birthday gift huh? I so dislike cold-dreary-rainy days. :-( Oh well.... maybe the weather will be better on Ray's birthday next week!

CindyMae, your pkg went out yesterday for being the winner of the drawing for my blogging anniversary. Hope you will enjoy what I sent you. Thanks again to all who commented.

I updated my Sale/Trade blog this afternooon in case anyone is interested. The link is on the left sidebar or you can find it here too!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great rest of the week & happy stitching!

And the WINNER is.....

True Random Number Generator Min:1 Max: 55
Result: 27

The 27th person to post was CindyMae, so congrats Cindy! Please send me your mailing address & I'll get a stash gift in the mail to you.

I started Shepherd's Bush "My Earth" late this afternoon, hope to stitch on it for a couple of days & then back to Quaker Virtues. Wish me luck!

Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend so far & that the coming week is just wonderful. My dad's birthday & mine are both this week, but my mom is not feeling well, so that won't make it very happy for either of us I'm afraid. Hopefully she will be better soon.

Thanks for stopping by & happy stitching!

OH, I have a question - has anyone ever heard of a "True Back" & if so, have you used one? If so, does it work?

My Blogging Anniversary!

***I'm changing the post date from the 4th to the 6th to keep this at the top for a few days. Please see most recent posts below!

Okay folks, today marks my 2 year anniversary in the blogging world! I can't believe it's been 2 years already, where does the time go? I'm going to have a giveaway of some stitching/stash items. If you want to be entered to win, just post a comment here and I'll draw a winner in a couple of days.

While I'm here, does anyone have any audio books (on CD) that they'd like to trade for stash? If you do, please email me!

Thanks for stopping by & happy stitching!

Exchanges Sent & Received and one finish framed!

I wanted to share a couple of exchanges with you & also my framed Plum Street's "Love Notes" - I'll show you that first!

The frame is from Eastside, called Old Roses in the "red" color. It's really very pretty. The piece is stitched on 32 ct Sand Belfast with GAST. I think it turned out pretty!



Next is the Spring Seasonal Exchange from Becky SC. She stitched Just Nan's new "Dewdrop" for me & left off the pink eggs & flowers, and I must say, it looks wonderful! We both had that idea as I had planned to stitch it that way for myself one of these days! lol Isn't it cute?


And these are the other goodies she included with it. The rabbit figures are cute as can be. I'm so ready for spring! Thanks again Becky!


This is the ornament I sent to Cathy last week in our ornament exchagne group. I was running way behind.... this is January's ornie! Oops! It's from one of the new Blackbird Designs stocking books, stitched over 1 on 25 ct. It came out small, but I think it's cute & I sure hope Cathy likes it! I hope to do more of these soon.



I haven't stitched at all since the weekend & it wasn't much then. I have been hurting again for almost a week now. I hope to get back to it soon. It's Wednesday so that means Quaker Vitures SAL day, but I'm not quite up to it I don't think. SOON.... very soon!

Our friend Terry is still in the hospital, but doing a bit better. Hopefully she will be back home & online soon & can tell you all about her experience. Please continue to keep her in your prayers or send good thoughts her way. We want her to be stitching with us for many, many years to come!

Thanks for stopping by & happy stitching!

Another Finish!

This is County Stitches "Hoppin' Along Sampler", isn't it cute? I started it Friday night & finished it today. I did, of course, change the colors. It uses DMC & I stitched it on Antique White Belfast. I think she is just as cute as can be! Now on to the next project.... whatever it will be....

Have a great week ahead, thanks for stopping by & happy stitching!


PS-Be sure to check back soon for my Blog Anniversary giveaway.... :-)