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 :)

Contest Winners

I had 7 people total want to be entered 4 of whom posted comments and 3 of whom emailed me privately. So I put their names on 7 slips of paper and had Bridgette select 2 for me.


picking one!





and the winner is................



DONNA!!!

now for number two...



And the winner is..........



Firefly dreams!!

Ladies I will attempt to email you! Congratulations!!

(Sorry I drew late)

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!

Update on Blackwork Winter and Reminder of Breast Cancer Month Giveaway

I have done some more stitching on Blackwork Winter by Tam's Creations. Here is the latest WIP pic. I now know where the right hand edge will fall and am glad to say there is enough fabric. I also have the top edge situated as well, but I knew there would be enough fabric for that. The snowflake that is currently in the upper right hand corner, is the last motif at the top and the right of the project. I almost have the first "corner" page of the chart done! I am very pleased with this. Tomorrow continues a "small wip" so I will continue with Blackwork Winter. Then on Tuesday and Wednesday comes Stroke of Midnight provided my pain level allows me to concentrate on it.




I have started a competition that will end on Friday October 10, 2008. Please see this post for the specifics: http://raven-stitches.blogspot.com/2008/10/breast-cancer-awareness.html Join in everyone!

I am happy to report that the change in my medication continues to work well! Today has been my lowest pain level in at least 2 months and it stayed low even after I carried and put away groceries! Two weeks ago doing that put me in a pain crisis. I was ecstatic to be able to do it today with only a minor increase in pain and my breakthrough medications took care of that! WOOT! I even managed to do some dishes! This means that I can once again start increasing my physical tasks and try to rebuild the strength I have lost in my muscles. But most of all it means I won't have to suffer like I was! YAY!!!

Pic As Promised and Blackwork Winter

Here is a picture I took this morning of Blackwork Winter by Tam's Creations. I did some more stitching over night as my back was keeping me awake with pain. I added the border for the 3rd row in the upper right corner of chart, and started the final round of snowflakes and poinsettias. I am really enjoying working on this piece!

Today's stitching project is supposed to be Woodland Fairy by Teresa Wentzler, but it is a rainy day here and my back is just screaming. So I think I will stick with Blackwork Winter as it better fits my available concentration level.

Don't forget to check out my last post Breast Cancer Awareness for the contest!

Henny asked me a question in my comments so I'm going to go ahead and answer it. She asked why blackwork is called blackwork when it is often done in colors other than black. It is believed to originate with the Moors and Arabs, who brought it to England in the 13th century. It is also believed that the Spanish princess Katharine of Aragon brought blackwork to England with her in 1501. It was also called Spanish Work, but the term blackwork replaced it somewhere after Katharineand Henry the VIIIth's divorce. It was most often done with black silk, on white fabric so it would give the appearance of lace since actual lace was too expensive. It was also used to reinforce collars, cuffs and hems of clothing as well as to mark household items such as sheets, tablecloths, etc. As time went on people started using different colors, such as metallics on dresses, cloaks and other clothing. I hope that helps Henny. I just love the way blackwork looks. A design looks real complicated, but it truly wasn't. I just like the crisp lines of it as well and the geometric shapes.

Have a good day!

Breast Cancer Awareness

Breast cancer is a major concern for me as my family history is riddled with it. Every female in my family (both on mother's and father's sides) have died of breast cancer. My biological mother died at 44 and her mother (my maternal grandmother) died at 31. None of the women lived past 45. So I have a mammogram and an ultrasound every year and have been recommended for a prophylactic radical mastectomy (both breasts) that I have not consented to have done yet.

Please visit this site and click on the pink button that says "Click here to give- its free!". This helps to provide women with free mammograms! You can click daily. The sponsors give money based on the numbers of clicks, so please take a moment to click to help someone today! In case the link doesn't work here it is typed out to copy/paste into your browser:

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=2


Now to provide even more incentive to go click (hehe evil aren't I?) I will do a drawing at the end of a week. All you have to do is click at the breast cancer site then post a comment to this blog entry to let me know you have clicked. (Please do not cheat, this is too important!). On Friday Oct. 10th, I will draw a name and send the winner a package that includes some stitchy goodness or a chart of their choice! So what are you waiting for? Get clicking!

Now for health and stitching updates! I saw my doctor today and she adjusted my medication. I did not realize I had been on the same dose for just over 5 years! She was real surprised as many people need their doses adjusted much sooner than 5 years. By the time I got home I was in a great deal of pain, so I took my afternoon medication from the new dosage. I did not take breakthrough medication as I wanted to see if the new dose would be more effective than the old one. I am quite happy to report that it was! I went from an 8 to a 5 within an hour! I think this new dose is going to help me manage my pain more effectively and that causes so many feelings that I just can't express them correctly.

I did stitch while I sat in the doctor's office for 3 hours. I worked on Blackwork Winter by Tam's Creations again. (per my rotation it is a smaller project day) I got 1 mitten, snowball and hat in then moved to the 4th "round" (the pattern is pieced together by corners, so it is half of each side at a time) where I put in an ice skate and skis. I would have gotten more but I had to keep getting up and walking around. The chairs in that office just kill my back! I will post an update pic tomorrow.