Away for a while

I just wanted to drop a quick note and let everyone know that I will be away for the next week. My DH's aunt passed away and we are going to attend the funeral.

If I can manage to get online while we are in Indiana, I will try to post a quick hello, but I can't promise.

I did do some more of the frog yesterday, but just 2 more rows of the green before I was distracted by preparations for going to Indiana.

YAY New Stitching Pics!

I sat down and did some stitching on Christmas Dreams on Sunday April 25, 2010. I didn't get much done because my brain kept going back to the very cute (and very small) frog designs I had found on my hard drive. Finally I gave up on Santa and switched to the frogs. But here is the newest WIP picture of Christmas Dreams by Joan Elliott.

Christmas Dreams by Joan Elliott
Stitched by: M. Hull
Silver Dusted Aida by Charlescraft
DMC Floss

I was looking through my copies of The Gift Of Stitching Magazine 2 weeks ago. In the July 2006 Issue (issue #6) I found these two small charts that just made laugh out loud. I found myself really wanting to stitch both of them and make a pillow out of them to hang near my stitching chair. They are called Frogging Around by Jessica Willis Burr from Six Strand Sweets. The first chart has a green frog on the right side and he is looking up at a small bee buzzing above him. The words to the left of the frog say "Frog, Frog Go Away",
"(Go ruin someone else's day!). 


I spent a while trying to find a light green fabric that I thought would go with this chart and not overwhelm the frog. I ordered Irish Fields 28ct Jazlyn from Enchanting Lair, but it is a bit darker than I was expecting. It is still beautiful and I decided to use it. As I said above I just couldn't get into Christmas Dreams earlier, my mind kept wanting to stitch the frog. So I finally gave in and got the fabric and floss and started it. I am using DMC threads not the Six Strand Sweets it was charted for. I am using the DMC variations 4060 for the letters, 910 for the frog and 3799 for the eye, bee, backstitch (as recommended on the chart).

Frogging Around by Jessica Willis Burr
28ct Jazlyn Irish Fields by Enchanting Lair
Stitched by: M. Hull with DMC Floss

The above picture shows the fabric color pretty well, not perfectly as it is a bit darker than this pic shows but it is close. The green on the frog is a bit darker and brighter than this pic shows also.

Frogging Around by Jessica Willis Burr
28ct Jazlyn Irish Fields by Enchanting Lair
Stitched by: M. Hull with DMC Floss

This second picture shows the color of the flosses a bit better. The second chart has the same frog and bee but the wording says "Count Thrice" on first line "Never Frog" on second line. I think the two together will make a cute hanging pillow. They aren't very big. They will be 8inches wide by 3 inches high, so it should be a perfect size for hanging from my lamp near my stitching chair.

Thank you for your wonderful comments. I really appreciate them!

Have a good night!

YAY I stitched today

I did some more stitching on Christmas Dreams by Joan Elliott today. I'm really wanting a finish now and am not really in the mood to stitch either of my two wips. So I decided I'd go ahead and start this small chart that I printed out of my The Gift Of Stitching Magazine. I don't remember what issue, but its a small piece. On the right side is a frog and the words "Frog Frog Go Away, Go Ruin Someone Else's Day" or something like that. It shouldn't take long to do and this is the reason I ordered the green fabric, though it is a tad darker than I was wanting. I was thinking it would be a cute pillow to hang near where I stitch. So I think I'll stitch on white or the blue fabric I got the other day, just so I can do it because that is the piece I've been wanting to stitch since I found it a couple weeks ago when I went through all my issues.

I will try to get a picture up of Christmas Dreams and the Frog one either later tonight or tomorrow!

New Stash! (Picture Heavy Post) & Mean Guy

Over the past 4 weeks I've been able to order some new stash with some of the tax refund. So here is my new stash!

The Curse Of The Raven by Carriage House Samplings
Tuscan Rose by Sampler Cove

To Trim A Tree: Dragon Dreams
Summer's Magic: Dragon Dreams
Grace Quaker Sampler: Sampler Cove

A Quaker Christmas by ByGone Stitches
A Quaker Halloween Sampler by Cherished Stitches
Quaker Seasons Of Friendship by R&R Productions
Santa's Dragon by Dragon Dreams
Christmas Peace by Just Nan

 

My Needle and My Floss by Waxing Moon Designs
Stitching Mends The Soul by Waxing Moon Designs
Wings Of Courage by Dragon Dreams

Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issues 2004, 2005 and 2006

 

Murphy's Laws by Annette Bradshaw and Gwyn Franson
Subversive Cross Stitch by Julie Jackson

M Designs Trees: Family, Hope, Imagine, Dream & Cherish

Enchanted Lair: Firedance, Be A Dragon, Cookie Dragon, Teatime and Lans The Guardian

and last but not least:

Enchanted Lair fabrics: 28 count Jobelen or Jazzlyn
Meadow, Fairy Mist, and Irish Fields

I am so excited! I've been going through my stash and just enjoying looking at the charts, magazines, books, fibers, beads and everything else. I'm finally starting to build up a fabric stash as I didn't have any. I would order fabric when I chose a new piece to start rather than keep some on hand. Well a few years ago I ordered a 3 yard piece of 28 count evenweave to do the Sistene Chapel on but I decided to hold off on stitching such a huge project! So I've been using that large piece of evenweave for other projects and just cutting off pieces the size I need. In the meantime I have been ordering a few hand dyed fabrics here and there to help build up my fabric stash.

I was talking with a friend of mine yesterday and found out that she had broken up with her boyfriend. He turned around and threw out 95% of her stash! I couldn't believe it! She didn't have a huge stash, but she did have a decent sized one that was worth some pretty good money. She had a lot of silks, hand dyed fibers, over dyed fibers, fabrics, charts, magazines etc. And this asshole just threw it all away! She managed to save some of her silks, the design she had been working on at the time, and some of her linens and evenweaves. The rest, is all gone. So I am putting together a box for her that contains lots of DMC floss, needles, aida fabric, a stitch ripper, dmc plastic bobbins and color number stickers and anything else I can think of to help replace some of her stash. We have similar taste in charts (she loves fairies, dragons etc) so I probably have quite a few that she would like. I'm really pissed at her ex-boyfriend and I have never met the guy! What a horrible, spiteful, childish and mean thing to do! While I was talking to her she mentioned that she had been looking at stitching stores online and just couldn't decide where to start to replace her stash. I can understand that. If it were me I would feel so overwhelmed and depressed that the items that I spent years collecting and that I greatly enjoy were all gone because some asshole wanted to be mean. I do hope that the box I am going to send her cheers her up a little and helps her find a starting point from which she can begin to rebuild her stash.

Well that is pretty much it for me. I haven't stitched in a couple weeks because I've been sick off and on. I've done quite a bit today and my back is really hurting so I'm going to go ahead and go to bed.

Thank you all for reading my ramblings and your wonderful comments. They mean a great deal to me and always bring a smile to my face. Thank you for brightening my life.

Good night all!

Blacksheep's Blogoversary Giveaway! & Stitching Finally!

One of the many blogs I read belongs to Edgar and is called Blacksheep's Bit Of The Web. It is a wonderful blog full of beautiful stitching, pictures of his local area and information about movies. His blog will soon be 3 years old and he is holding a giveaway where there will be three winners. To be entered all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (click the word post to go to the specific post on his blog).

Good luck!

Whatever the illness was that I had last week, it has come back. UGH! I feel so tired and out of it. But I finally did some stitching! I have added the C, D and E on the Quaker and plan on stitching some more after I eat. My pain is not real good today, woke up with my back screaming. It took me 15 minutes to get out of bed, but I decided that I was going to stitch anyway and use it to distract from the pain today. For the little bit of time I stitched, it did distract me from some of the pain, but not as much as I was hoping.

Ok time to go eat dinner which DH cooked (it smells fantastic), then back to stitching. I will try to get a picture and put it up later tonight or tomorrow. As well as pictures of the wonderful stash I got this week in the mail! I am so excited!

***Edited April 10, 2010 at 8:49PM (Central US Time)

I did some more stitching this evening. I didn't get as much done as I wanted to, but I got the top row of alphabet done (A-G). As promised here is a picture:

As soon as my niece lets me go to bed, I will get some more stitching done. My niece likes to have me in the living room and for a while she was helping me stitch. She helped me with the lowercase "f", then she wanted to play with my stuff so I had to put it away. We played "duck duck goose" and "London Bridge" and showed her how to do the Hokey Pokey. She had a blast! Me, Stephanie, Kyle and Bridgette were all laughing and having fun. I stopped when my back started to scream at me, but it was worth the increased pain to just play like that. Hopefully I can go to bed soon and then I can stitch some more. The first page of this piece is so close to being finished! I am anxious to get it done. I am still really enjoying stitching this piece. I love how crisp the floss colors look against the white background. It just looks very crisp, clean, and so very pretty!

Well that's it for me! See you all later :)

By Request (sort of)

Still no stitching. I can't find a comfortable position to sit and stitch. Today is the first day my back hasn't been screaming all day long, though the pain is still high just not at agony levels.

My daughter (Yoshimara-Muse as she shows up on blogger) commented on my last post that her favorite piece of mine is the teddy bear on the china cabinet that I stitched for my biological mother. So I figured I would pop a pic up, since I still have no new progress.

This was my first ever cross stitch. Aurie (my birth-mother) had chosen it and I agreed to stitch it for her. I finished is a couple months before she passed away but was unable to go visit her due to a high risk pregnancy (my son in 1996) that wouldn't let me travel. I had to restart this piece 2 oir 3 times because I kept messing up the bear and there were just too many stitches to pull it all out. It was easier to just get new fabric and start over. On the third try I did the bear first and when I got it right I did the rest. This pic was taken with a polariod instant camera and then scanned in, so it is a horrible picture. The piece was buried with my mother, layed accross her chest with her hands folded atop it. I am sure she saw it and loved it.