Merry Christmas Everyone

The cookies are cutout

Baked

And iced

The packages are wrapped…

Holy families are displayed

My 1^st nativity set…bought at the dime store…

All for the reason we celebrate…

(Only pieces left from my father’s nativity set)

Merry Christmas Everyone! sue

Cookie time

If a picture is worth a thousand words, there are 4000 word here…

Hope I and everyone has time to stitch today and any day until Christmas!

ttfn…sue

Thank you

 to all of those who keep us free and have kept us free

Mother’s Day

 The Three reasons I get to celebrate today.

And no matter how old you are, you are still my baby(s) and I can remember each day these pictures were taken like it was yesterday. I love each of you more than you will ever know.

Scott, you are the oldest and every time you did something it was a first for Dad and I. You taught me how to be a mother. Thank you.

Hugh, you are the middle child…I heard middle children compared to the filling of a sandwich. And you are the filling of our family…never a hum drum filling either, something different every day. Thank you.

Edward, you are “my baby”, my last son or as your brothers referred to you, “The Chosen One”. We thought you were the easiest to raise…we’d done it all before. How wrong we were! You kept us on our toes and kept us young…Thank you!

No matter how old you are, you are still my baby(s) and…

I love each of you very much!

Happy Mother’s Day to All and…I hope everyone has time to stitch today! ttfn…sue

A Day in the life…

Overnight…

Guardedly Optimistic… 

 

 

 Today, my oldest son’s, oldest son left to join the Navy. He wants to be a Seal and has been accepted into the program. He knows the wash out rate is high but that has not deterred him.  I am so proud of Michael and I wish him the best of luck. I know he well be successful in whatever he does.

I love you Michael Kelly, be safe, be happy.

Hope everyone has time to stitch today!  ttfn…sue

Bunny Progress

Good thing our streets are clean and my DH could get out this morning, otherwise we might have had to put sleeping pills in his coffee. I think he was beginning suffering from Cabin Fever, Brain Freeze or Snow Stupor, and maybe a combination of all. Yesterday, out of the clear blue he asked me if I was stitching the bunny because it was the Chinese Year of the Rabbit. I simple answered that I obviously needed to do more shopping, since my 100 or so rabbits with blue coats and carrots collection was too small for him to notice. That sent him to his computer and I did not hear from him until lunch.  

The then news media announced the Punxsutawney Phil in Punxsutawney Pa didn’t see his shadow and they would have an early spring. Well congratulations to the Pennsylvania folks; I am very happy for them and envious too. Because here in the Midwest, the rodent would have to have been blind not to see his shadow and so I’m guessing with out -10 degree temperatures with a wind chill of -15 it will be at least 6 more weeks until we see crocus and jonquils popping up through this snow. 

And with this bone chilling weather I am so-o-o-o very happy that I can stitch, compute and read. With my blanket (camouflage army liner for sleeping bag supplied by 2^nd son from his army days, too warm) shared by Lucy and hot chocolate, I’m as snug as a bug in a rug! I can zone out and only have to face the harsh reality of the snow and cold when either Lucy needs to go out (and that is only when her eyes turn green and she’s walking with all four legs crossed) or I need more hot chocolate, nature or food calls me.  

The bunny is progressing nicely his coat and tail are completed and I have cut the felt for the tulips. Hopefully,  by the end of the today I should be finished with him and he should be heading to the finisher on Friday or Saturday. I do have a problem but it is not with the stitching, it is the materials I am planning on using. I decided the tulips should be appliqued and I am using felt. I had all but the one pink and so last week I headed out to find a pink that I could use. I was open to the possibility that my pink could be the lightest or the middle value. I went to two local national craft stores and then to the national fabric store. The felt is awful compared to what I bought just last year. I purchased one but it is almost paper-thin as you can see in the picture. Since I was at the fabric store I checked both in the craft area and the cut fabrics; most of the felts were thinner than ever, some were thicker but you could tell these colors were not the most popular colors and were probably older. When I got home I noticed that felt I purchased last year (yellow) was better than the felt I just purchased but was also a bit lighter than the stuff I’ve had for several years. I took a picture, hope you can see the differences…the top row are felts I have had, yellow is felt I purchased I last two years and pink is the newest. Since I seldom use felt and I have a nice stash of the older felt for my purposes I will have time to research and study other alternatives, but I sure feel sorry for those felt artists that love to work with this media, I thought the felt I saw was of poor quality. If you are a felt designer or artist out there, where do you get your felt and have you seen a difference in the quality of felt?

Okay, enough of the felt box stand, back to my stitching plan. I am planning to stitch the carrots with 2 colors of Epic wool (persimmon and sienna) in padded satin stitches. I’m going to pad the carrots with orange #3 DMC perle cotton. I will slant the stitches on three of the carrots to match the slant they are painted. I am planning on doing the leaves with a Radial Satin stitch using all 3 ply of the Emerald Watercolours as it comes out of the skein (I am NOT stripping this thread). I will then use #3 DMC perle cotton very dark green (890) to place the veins on the leaves in an Outline/Stem stitch when the leaves are completed. I’m going to stitch the center portion of the tulips in a Diagonal Mosaic with a dark value pink, medium value yellow and light value purple #3 DMC perle cotton to blend with my felts. Then I am going to stitch the petals of the tulips using felt and padding. I made one master petal pattern and then adjusted it according to the tulips on the canvas. I have also cut the appropriate padding from quilt batting that I keep for finishing ornaments and padding appliques. After all the flowers and carrots are complete I plan on stitching the carrot tops in a Fly stitch using 4mm overdyed green silk ribbon; and I will stitch the tulip stems in a Wrapped Chain Stitch using #3 DMC perle cotton very dark green. The basket will be stitched with #3 DMC perle cotton very dark brown (838) and Walnut Watercolours (NOT striped). I’m going to pad the very top with dark brown perle cotton 3 or 4 times and cover with an Overlapping Cross Stitch so it will look like a lip to the basket. Directly below this I am going to pad again with perle cotton 2-3 times and stitch a Diagonal Gobelin over this using the dark brown perle cotton very forth stitch and filling in with Watercolours. The body of the basket will be stitched in rows: #3 DMC perle cotton very dark brown (838) used for the Continental Stitch outlines filed with a giant rectangular Flat Stitch using the unstripped Watercolours.

Okay enough with the planning, off to get more hot chocolate, and then to some serious stitching today. Can’t believe I might have three posts in the same week…see there are some good things to come from cold and snow.

I hope everyone is staying warm and safe… AND I hope everyone will have time to stitch today!  ttfn…sue

Ort Box Memories

I went to clean out my ort box today and had to stop and look at all the orts. I have stitched… just not blogged about the stitching. Looking at these orts brought back a flood of memories I’ll share some with you as the year comes to an end.

This has been a year of us and downs; but something good always comes from something unpleasant… I lost a very dear friend, Bill E. (aka: WEE) this summer to Colon Cancer. He put up a valiant fight and dealt with his disease in his own dignified style. I will miss WEE forever, he is a good man. We have been friends since my second son brought him home to eat chip chocolate cookies (and yes Bill, it is chip chocolate…not chocolate chip). I will never eat another chip chocolate cookie that I don’t think of you, Bill.

Quick version of the story: Please note the following story took place in the 70’s when life was a bit safer than it is today…

One day I was baking cookies, kids were outside playing; Hugh, second son, was about four or five and had wandered down to the new neighbor’s front porch. They had a fish tank and Hugh was fascinated (a fascination that has lasted his whole life) and went in to look. I guess (I never asked) in the course of the conversation, it came up that I was home baking cookies. Anyway, Hugh came home and asked for a couple cookies for himself and his new friend, I gave them to him and off he went. He came back again and asked for more, I suggested that it might not be a good idea since it was almost dinner time and anyway, what did his new friend’s mother think about him having more cookies? Hugh left, only to return and tell me, “My friend doesn’t have a mother.” Opps, well what does his father think about him eating all these cookies? Off to new friend only to return with, “My friend doesn’t have a Dad either.” Now, Hugh has my full attention, he is playing with someone who has no adult supervision (not that Hugh was getting much adult supervision at the same time); maybe you should bring this new friend home to meet Mom. Off Hugh goes, and I, now ice tea in hand, go to front porch to watch. After a few minutes here comes Hugh holding the finger of this adult’s hand; I was sure Dad had come home and Hugh and his new friend were in serious trouble for being in the house with no adult supervision. But before I could apologize for my son’s behavior, Hugh introduced me to his new friend, Bill E. After I stopped being total embarrassed for my son bothering the new neighbor, I found out Bill was a hungry law student with a fish tank. I made a deal with Bill; I would feed him if he would to my legal work for life. Bill nicknamed Hugh, “Huge,” (another lifelong attachment) that proved to be prophetic…Hugh is 6 feet 4 inches, weighs a lot and is the largest of my children.  And that day over ice tea and chip chocolate cookies a family friendship was born which has lasted a lifetime.

But as the song says, “ For every time there is a season” and now the new season begins; Bill has a namesake, born this fall (fitting that it was the first day of fall too), Willow Emma (another WEE but more beautiful). I could hear him telling me how beautiful she is and that no other girl can compare, the new love of his life. She is his first grandchild, born to his oldest son Ron and his wife Nellie.

And that leads me to one of my finished project(s); I crocheted a baby blanket for the new baby this summer and fall. I tired early this summer to teach Bill to crochet, but to no avail…he said I went too fast. But I did show him the yarn and pattern and told him I would complete it for the new baby. Then Bill’s wife, Jessica, asked me to help complete the blanket she knitted for baby Willow; so I crocheted the edging and lined her blanket…It’s that the coolest knitting pattern, I can’t knit but I love this blanket.

If you would like to read more about Bill, Ron has written three wonderful articles about his dad. The last one was this Christmas Eve 2010.

1^st story, Dec 12, 2008: http://www.reporternews.com/news/2008/dec/12/kin-and-cancer/

2^nd story, November 20, 2009:  http://www.reporternews.com/news/2009/nov/20/farewell-to-family/

Dec 24, 2010: http://www.reporternews.com/news/2010/dec/24/a-year-for-family/

Hope everyone has time to stitch today!  ttfn…sue

While Strolling through the blogs one day…

In the very, very month of May…This should be a song. Oh it is an oldie before computers and it was strolling through a Park. They should re-write because while not getting much exercise beside finger exercises…strolling through blogs is such fun. Although I think this habit should come with a warning, “Strolling through blogs may be hazardous to your day. You can stroll from one blog to another and never return to the original blog again. Someday I am going to keep count of how deep into a blog I go, from one friend to another to another and so on.

But that is not what inspired me today…while strolling through my favorite blogs I came across a picture that inspired that, “oh I have a couple of these and I need to find them.” Emma’s blog at DMC May 24^th (http://dmc-threads.com/) feature an embroidered hat…I made a couple of these over 10 years ago …I know that’s older than dirt, but I only wear them one day a year. I am not a hat person, but I am even less a tick person and so at Boy Scout Camp on visitors Sunday I wear a hat!   I got the hats at local craft store (Michael’s, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn’s, etc) and used DMC embroidery floss on them. I didn’t even draw a pattern just free stitched the flowers. I’ve washed them several times but never put them in the dryer…Here they are not bad for almost antiques…I will wear in a couple weeks when I go to see the Grandsons…Have one grandson on staff for the summer and two going down for 10 days, one as a scout master and the other as a camper…oh and did I forget to mention, there fathers, uncles and grandfather are going too. There is something about those Hills of Osceola.

That’s all for today, hope everyone has time to stitch today.

ttfn…sue

Odds & Ends

I have mentioned several projects and never finished up on them. So today is my catch up day.

3^rd Eagle has already flown my coup and is happily perched at his new home with #3 Eagle Grandson  AJD. At his Eagle reception it was noted that the next one is possibly 10 years away…I may not live that long (no, there is nothing wrong with me today…but only The Big Guy knows when my time is up) so, I have decided to stitch the remaining three possible candidates and have them preserved like a wedding dress and then when the time comes, someone will add the year and have it framed. I’ll keep you posted on this progress.

Namesake Granddaughter piece also has gone to it’s new home. She is such a good girl (must take after her namesake), she slept through the entire baptism, nary a peep (not her namesake). 

And Lucy is finally hanging on the wall. I showed Lucy her picture and she growled at it…must mean she thinks it looks like her. I Love Lucy!

I took a class from Sue Reed the 3^rd weekend in April and have finished stitching the piece. I lent it to a friend that was unable to attend the class so she could get an idea of what the piece should resemble. I have not decided how to finish the project, but am leaning to a pillow.

AND I completed Eagle #4 and will take it to the cleaners to have packaged & preserved next week. I thought I would do #5 and #6 too but decided that I burn out when I repeat stitch and #6 might not look too good. So…

I need to take time off from projects that have to be completed, stitching eagles and do something else. So I am completing my Deborah Forney HO-HO-Ho Santa (http://www.deborahforney.com/) . Another class I took last year and haven’t stitched on since. I am following the instructions and stitching each section top to bottom. I think there are a couple of places I will do something differently but so far straight from her teaching guide to my canvas. Something for me unless I decide to give it away.

ttfn…sue

Feast or Famine

My life seems to be feast or famine; I either have no deadlines or too many; nothing to blog about or more than I can post in one day.

 I have been stitching, first I was working on St Patrick designs and had planned on starting on Easter eggs. But then Number 3 Grandson decided to finish his Eagle requirements and his troop included him in the April Court of Honor; so Grandma is working on Eagle #3. This is my stitching nest, close to the TV, I will be spending long hours here trying to meet a April 18^th deadline…notice the real Lucy is keeping my seat warm while I post this blog and there’s even the current Needlepoint News waiting to be read. I have thumbed through it and agree with the online posts that it is a great issue. But I must stitch!

 And a week later my namesake is being Baptized and I haven’t even begun to chart her “God gave us”, let alone take a stitch… I think I have my work cut out for me. I may not make the completely finished and framed deadlines but hoping to at least make the stitching finished deadline.

So bear with me, I will have to come up for a stitching break occasionally and I will try to post the new blog entries I have to tell you about…and keep you posted on the progress of the Eagle and God Gave us.

 ttfn…sue