Been A While

I realize it has been quite some time since I posted on my blogs so I wanted to post a quick message to let people know that I am okay. I've been struggling with the decreased mobility, increased pain, and depression issues as I've mentioned on my other blog. I am fighting back but not getting very far since my ability to stand or walk has not improved at all. I still can't stand or walk for more than 5 to 7 minutes at a time, which makes doing things rather difficult. I did get a power chair from the Scooter Store (Great people to deal with by the way!) and it has helped me to get around the house easier (moving baskets of laundry and such) but without a ramp attached to the house, I can't get it out of the house. Without the lift attached to the back of our van, I can't take the chair to the store or anything. So until I can figure out how to get a ramp installed or built on my house, and figure out how to pay for the part of the lift my insurance won't cover, the chair isn't going to help with me getting out of the house as much as I want it to.

I haven't been stitching either, hence no pictures of progress. I'm hoping to get some stitching done today. The Sentimental Sampler has been calling to me fairly strongly the last few days.

Anyway, just wanted to pop in and say hello! I hope everyone is doing well!

Stylish Blogger Award & Charity Square Used

Lorraine (AKA K1nS) from Cross Stitch Forum presented me with the Stylish Blogger Award! Thank you very much Lorraine, I appreciate it! :)

The rules for this award are:
1: Thank the person who gave it to you
2: List 7 things about yourself
3: Pass it along to 15 other bloggers

7 things about myself, hmm, that's going to be a tough one but I will try.

1. I am a giver whenever I can be and will push myself to do more than I should
2. I like to write
3. I like to read
4. I don't watch much television
5. I home school my son
6. I love my yellow Mustang
7. I love collecting cross stitch stash

You'd think listing 7 things about myself would be easy, but for some reason I'm never good at stuff like that and end up having to seriously think to find stuff to write. LOL

Pass it on to 15 other bloggers. This isn't going to be easy because I read many many stitching blogs as well as chronic pain blogs and many of them are favorites! I don't comment as much as I want to but I do read all the blogs that are listed on the right side of this page (you have to hit the more link to see them all). I will try to pick 15 though and they may not all be stitching blogs.

1. The Spinster Stitcher
2. Craftgirl78
3. Living With Bob
4. Boo's Mummy
5. X Marks My Spot
6. Two Handed Stitcher
7. Tickled Pink In Stitches
8. Tales of A Stitching Mouse
9. Tales From A Stitching Witch
10. Purple Peacock
11. Of Needles Pins and Stitching Things
12. Dani, Black Belt Stitching Wizard
13. Glitter, Vinyl, and Thread
14. Hockey Mom Stitching Hobby
15. It's Daffycat!

Yay I came up with all 15! I enjoy every blog I read, so I just randomly picked 15 and gave them in no particular order.

A while back I did a square for WOCS (a charity stitching group) and until today I did not know what it had been used on. Through another blog I was able to see a photo album of some of this groups' finished items and this is one of them. This is the Precious Moments square I stitched back in 2008 or 2009 I think it was. It has been finished into a tote bag. I hope the recipient liked it!

Update and Request

Here is where I am at on Quaker Welcome. I am enjoying this piece. I love contrast between the dark blue floss and the light sparkley fabric.

Quaker Welcome by The Stitcherhood

Here is a nice closeup of the stitching. I am proud of this pIece even though it is taking me a lot longer than I thought it would.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
With the economy being the way it is I know that giving a monetary donation may be very hard to do, so I had another idea for fundraising for Kyle's best friend Matt. In my area we have a weekly flea market where people can rent a table and sell items. A while back I stitched a card of a flower in the blue Delft type colors. I sent it to the UK to be sold to raise money for cancer research. My friends Sammy and Serinde asked me if doing something like that would be a good idea for raising money for Matt. It sounds good to me. So I have decided to do that. A few of my friends on the Cross Stitch Forum are going to stitch cards or bookmarks. Would anyone out in blog land be willing to stitch a card, baby bib, baby t-shirts, ornaments, pin cushions, bookmarks or any other small item that I could sell at the flea market? I am thinking of renting the table near the end of July or early August, so items would have to be mailed to me by the first week of July (20th of July if I go for early August).

Other crafts can be included as well such as jewelry, beaded items, small quilted items (table runners, place mats), paper crafted greeting cards, etc. I will take pictures of all items made and give these pictures as well as the crafter's name and contact information to Matt's parents so that they know who did what. If you would prefer to remain anonymous just tell me so and I won't give your name to Matt's parents. If you would like to do this please e-mail me. If you know someone who would like to do this please feel free to pass on the information and my email address to them. If you would like to join in or have any questions, please feel free to email me.

I would really appreciate any assistance people could give me. For more information on Matt, in case you haven't read it yet, please visit Matt's Hope. The page titled "What is Matt's Hope?" has the story.

I could really use the help!

Thank you!

2 finishes in 1 week, WOW

I guess being nervous increases stitching time because I finished Frogging Around this week also (on Tuesday). Here are the pics. The one I took in morning sunlight has a yellowish cast to it, but between the two you can get a decent idea of fabric colors and floss colors.

OMG It's Done!

I did it! I did it! It's DONE! D-O-N-E...done! WOW

Thank you Ron, Angi, and Dan for egging me on and not letting me quit despite my asking multiple times if I could stop stitching. IT IS DONE! IT IS DONE! I did it!! My first finish since Crescent Dreams in Sept. 2009. When I first finished I was shocked and shaking, couldn't believe that I had actually finished it. But now the pure joy of having finished it has over taken me and I feel great! I did it! I can still stitch! I can still stitch well! WOW!!

Michelle, Elaine, Lee and Angi: Thank you for your supportive comments and encouragement, it really means a lot to me! I wasn't going to blog about this because it didn't make much sense and seemed so silly ("afraid to finish a piece? oh please how dumb!" kept going through my head), but I figured if I couldn't be honest in my blog then why bother blogging in the first place and maybe someone may have gone through something similar and had some advice to help me, so I went ahead and blogged about it. I am so glad I did!

I really appreciate the warmth and support you have all shown me since I started talking about the severe depression I suffered with and its many affects on me and my life. THANK YOU!

Without further ado:

Here is the back of it. The corners are a bit messy because they had 4 colors in a small space, but otherwise it doesn't look too bad.

Card Progress

Here is my progress on the Delft card I am stitching for Carolyn's cancer fund raiser. The flower is done except for backstitch. All that is left is three more "stems", the border, and the backstitch on the flower. I am hoping to finish this tomorrow. I would keep stitching tonight but my back is real sore due to thunderstorms moving through the area and I am tired, so I had to stop.

I really like the way it looks and I think it will make a beautiful card. The flash on the camera washed the colors out a bit, but it still looks pretty good.

Thank you for all your wonderful comments, I really appreciate every single one! :)

Stitching On A Wednesday

I have been stitching. On the Cross Stitch Forum I volunteered to make at least 1 stitched greeting card. One of the members has joined Relay For Life and would also like some stitched greeting cards to sell to raise additional funds for cancer research. Since I will have to send the card overseas (to the UK) I have to finish the 1 I said I would make (and hopefully a second one to go with it) by June 21st at the latest, to ensure she will receive it by the date needed. So I put Frogging Around on hold, went through all my UK stitching magazines because they contain the only greeting card charts that I have, and found a chart I liked. It is one of 4 from a series called Delft Cards". They were published in Cross Stitch Collection, March 2010 issue. I love this magazine as it always has at least 3 charts (or more!) that I want to stitch in every issue! I am hoping to get 2 of these cards done on time. Here is a picture of the one I've started already. I would say it is just a tiny bit away from half-way done already, and I've only stitched for 4 hours on it, so it shouldn't take much longer.

Delft Cards
14ct Aida using DMC Floss

My sister-in-law also wished to stitch a card. So she picked a chart from Jean Greenoff's "New Cross Stitcher's Bible" and started stitching. This is only her third stitching piece and I have to say she is doing a fantastic job! Her stitches are nice and even, well shaped, and great tension. Here is a picture of the front of her card so far. This is only about a few hours stitching time so far, she stitches quickly too!

 


Tudor Rose
by: Jane Greenoff
DMC on 14ct Aida
Stitched by: Stephanie C.

I am very impressed with how neat her back is already! The rose has 3 colors in it and the leaves have 2, but even with those color changes in such a small area, her stitching is still nice and neat! There are no knots, tangles, or hanging threads. Everything is nice and neatly tied off underneath stitches already placed. The back of my 3rd ever piece of cross stitch was never this neat! Stephanie is a great stitcher already! I am so very proud of her and how quickly she learned.

Tudor Rose stitched by Stephanie; back side.

Here is the promised update picture on Frogging Around. I love the way the variegated corals look on the words. As I said earlier, I set it aside to do the card so I haven't gotten anything else done since my last entry, but I did promise a picture. This picture is also the first one that shows the fabric color so well.

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

Again, thank you all for your help on finding a thread that would work for the words. I love the look of this thread even though the flash washed it out a bit in this picture. The words show up real well and the variations of the corals and pinks add a delicate flowery touch to the piece that I really like.

When rearranging my stash I found out that I have 2 of the same Dimensions Gold kit so I decided that it may be time to make a list of what I have so I won't duplicate them and thus waste money. So I made a list of all my charts, kits, and leaflets (not counting hard cover books, digital freebies, or magazines) so that I won't accidentally buy a chart I already have. It was a lot of fun to pull out all my charts. I rediscovered a bunch that I really want to stitch, and some I didn't realize I had because they were given to me as a gift from my mother-in-law a few years ago. I have 249 charts, leaflets, and/or kits. I haven't included my freebies because I haven't printed them all out. According to my computer there are 599 files in my cross stitch folder (not counting my folder for finishes). This, however, counts each folder name as a file and I give every designer their own folder so I always know who designed the freebie. There are 162 folders. I am quite surprised at how many freebies I have! Many of them are small charts. There are also 2 folders for digital magazines (The Gift Of Stitching and Blackwork Digital Magazine). Maybe it is silly of me to create an inventory of my patterns, I don't know. I am not meaning to brag or anything, I'm only babbling about it because of how surprised I was to find out how many I actually have. I wasn't expecting it to be that much! Now I will feel guilty every time I purchase a new chart because of how many I have already and I know I can't possibly stitch them all in my lifetime. But oh man they are so much fun to look through. While doing this I found a few charts and kits that I know I will not stitch. They are all in excellent condition, the kits have not even been opened. I will post a new page on this site listing those items for sale or trade. Hopefully I can get that done tomorrow. Maybe one of the items I list will be something you would like to have. 

Well that's it for me on the stitching front. Thank you all for coming by and leaving comments, I really do appreciate every single one. They always make me smile :)

Update on Winter Blackwork, final finish of 2008 and goal review 2008, new goals 2009!

I managed to finish Exciting doilyby Mary Werst and I gave it to my mother-in-law while I was in Indiana over the holidays visiting her. She was really excited to get it! Here it is:





Here is a closeup:




In my last post I promised a picture of my progress on Tam's Creations Winter Blackwork. So here it is as of December 2008.




Since it is now 2009 I figure I should go over the goals I made for 2008 and see if I met them at all. The original post is here and my goals were:

1. Have at least 10 finishes. I seem to have confused my goals. Here I wrote I want 10, but on webshots I wrote that I wanted more than 2007. I did not meet my blog goal but I did meet my webshots goal. I have 5 finishes in cross stitch for 2008.
   
2. complete stitched ornaments into completed ready to hang up ornaments I got a couple done, but not all of them.
   
3. Finish either Stroke of Midnight or Woodland Fairy by TW (preferably finish both) nope
   
4. Participate in at least 2 swaps/exchanges (I was so happy to get my 2008 re-approval from CSC!) DONE
   
5. Continue to encourage Curtis and now Stephanie (My sister-in-law who has moved into the house) to stitch as well. DONE
   
6. complete at least one (preferably more) of the harder thread crochet doilies that are at the half way point (I am afraid I'll mess them up even though I have done them well so far LOL) DONE both of them!
   
7. Organize my stash and threads better DONE
   
8. Continue to make thread crochet items as practice and maybe try to do an afghan or something larger than a 16 inch doily DONE by working on doilies but no afghan yet.
   
9. complete at least 2 more charity squares DONE, did 3!

Not as good as I wanted, but not bad considering I didn't stitch at all in 2007! Now goals for 2009, lets see:

1. Finish at least 10 pieces
2. Finish one of the 2 TW's I have as WIPS
3. Do at least 2 charity squares
4. Participate in at least 2 exchanges
5. Complete my excel sheet of magazines
6. Create excel sheet of freebies
7. Get Bridgette's birth sampler done
8. Get parent's 50th anniversary sampler done
9. Get Tinkerbell done for father in law
10. continue thread crochet

That seems like a good list of goals. Hopefully I can do a good job with it through out 2009! So what are your goals for the New Year?

It has been too long!

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted in this blog. Things got pretty bad with my back. For 6 weeks I was living with extreme pain every single day and it kept me from wanting to do anything at all. I couldn't do much at all either, because I hurt so bad. Living with chronic pain sucks!

I did finish the Giesha Cow for WOCS. Here it is:

I am quite pleased with how it came out, I just wish it had not taken so long.

I joined a Christmas Ornament exchange on WOCS. This is the lovely ornament Cathy sent me. I think it is adorable and took a picture of it hanging on my tree:

My partner was Cindy. I also included some floss (DMC and Kreinik metallics) and a book that Cindy had wanted for a long time. I mailed a bit late, so I included a second ornament for being late. She really liked everything.

I joined a secret stashmas exchange on the Cross Stitch Forum. I received a package from Kerri. It contained two charts I have wanted for a long time and all the DMC floss to stitch them! I am so excited! Thank you Kerri!

I managed to finish the entire upper right hand corner of the Tam's Creation backwork chart. I will post a picture soon!

May everyone have a wonderful holiday season! Happy Holidays!

Update on Contest

On my post "Breast Cancer Awareness" I put a link that you can click on to help provide mammograms to women in need, as well I included information on a contest. As of right now I have no comments on that entry so I'm going to let it run another week and will draw a name on the 17th instead.

I have had to put aside my rotation in order to stitch another cow chart for WOCS. I'm working on Geisha cow. I'll put a progress pic up of it tomorrow.

With all the people from Cross Stitch Forum we have enough sign ups of cows to not only replace the stolen squares, but to make a second quilt! Agi, Barb, Dawn, Es, Jilly, KellyAnn, Kim, Lisa, and Sammy_V I can not thank you all enough for stepping up and helping replace the stolen squares and to be so willing to stitch these cows that we have enough for a second quilt! I really appreciate every single one of you for what you are doing! HUGS to you all!

The Good In People

I am so very touched by the ladies and gentlemen of the Cross Stitch Forum board. I joined a couple weeks ago after coming across the forum by accident. The members of this board have just been wonderfully open to new members, supportive of each other, chatty, and just great! I have really loved this board since I joined it.

Well I had posted progress pictures to this board of the Silly Cow I finished on September 29, 2008. The members were very supportive of my attempt to pull myself out of depression and encouraged me a great deal to get the cow done. Upon completion I posted the picture and was asked to post a picture of the quilt when it was finished so they could see it. They loved the idea of a quilt made with a bunch of different silly cow stitched pieces. Because of the incident I posted earlier today on this blog, I posted to the forum to let them know that the quilt with my cows in it (the one I just finished was my second, I also did a Tutankamen cow) may take a while to get completed and linked to my blog entry that rants about why.

In response 3 people have signed on to stitch one of the cows to help replace the ones that were lost/stolen due to the earlier incident. One of the members has also offered to donate a bunch of stitched pieces that she has completed as they would work well on a quilt. Many others posted their support for the charity group and their thoughts/feelings about what that woman chose to do.

I am flabbergasted but this time with surprise and joy! I am so very touched by their desire to help repair the damage. I'm actually sitting here with tears rolling down my cheek. These are not sad tears though, they are tears of happiness and warmth.

Thank you Serinde, Genevieve, Mabel, Kute Kitty, Agi, Jilly, Lisa and BusyB for your wonderful support. Jilly thank you so much for the donation of stitches pieces you have completed. Thank you Jilly, Lisa, KellyAnn, Agi, and BusyB for signing up to stitch more cows to assist in replacing the missing squares. I can't tell you how grateful and happy I am that you have all shown such warmth, support, and willingness to help out! You are all very special ladies!