Just A Few Exchanges

I received a beautiful exchange from Nancy K.  who stitched for me in the HOE Prairie Schooler Ornament exchange.  Like so many others I am a huge fan of all of the PS designs, this one tops my list of favorites. 

2012 HOE PS Ornament

Stitched by: Nancy K.

Nancy's work is always so perfect. I am very thankful for the time she spent stitching and finishing this for me. Thank you Nancy, I have your ornament hanging on the tree in my family room so I will enjoy it all year!

I participated in the FTT Birthday Exchange and was partnered with Melissa E., who has an April birthday.  Here is what I stitched for her:

2012 FTT Birthday Exchange
Designer: Eventide Designs
Design: Grandma's Pin Poke

Stitched for: Melissa E.

I wanted to do something different with the finishing so I purchased a small hand mirror and mounted the stitched piece on it.  Happy Birthday Melissa E.!

My family spent Easter with my relatives, it is always so fun to get together with them.  I stitched an Easter design to gave it to my cousin, who hosted the event at her house. Once again I managed to find a cute Annalee doll to display the design.

2012 Easter Gift for Tricia

I have been busy stitching an 50th Wedding Anniversary gift that needed to be complete by early May.  Thankfully I finished it and it is being framed....Phew!  Here is a picture of the mounted, but not yet framed piece:

Designer: Historical Sampler Company

Design: Family Tree Sampler

Stitched for: 50th Wedding Anniversary

My DS will be graduating from college next month and I can hardly believe it.  Those college years go by so quickly.  I will be starting a small sampler type cross stitch design to mark the event.  Once done I will hang it on the sampler wall in my new house:

That's about it for today.  Thanks for stopping by ~

Until next time...

Stitchy Pictures To Share

It is hard to believe that there was a time when I would participate in 30+ exchanges per year.  Today, that number has dropped significantly but I wish that I could say that my personal stitching has increased, it has not! What is wrong with me?


I do miss the excitement of meeting all the exchange deadlines and the joy of opening packages with great anticipation. I had the opportunity to do this when Joan's package was pulled from my mailbox.  Here is what I gently unwrapped:

2012 FTT Red Exchange

Designer: Blackbird Design

Stitched by: Joan S.

How gorgeous is that??? Really beautiful.  From the design… to the stitching… to the finishing… to the hand dyed chenille trim… Even the note card is perfect. Yes, I am impressed and extremely grateful for the time and effort that Joan put into stitching the beautiful exchange piece. Thank you so very much Joan, I will display it proudly and view it often.


I stitched for Jill in this same exchange and here is what I sent:

2012 FTT Red Exchange

Designer: Casa Mia

Stitched for: Jill F.

I was initially going to finish this as an ornament but I did a lot of ornament finishing just before Christmas so I decided to do something different.  I decided to make a Scissor Pocket and am happy with how it turned out.  It was also nice to change things up a bit, I hope to do more of that in the future.


Today I received my HOE Santa Ornament from Ellen.  She selected a design from one of my all time favorite designers, Mary Garry. What a beautiful ornament:

2012 HOE Santa Exchange

Designer: Mary Garry Sewing Studio

Stitched by: Ellen

Thank you Ellen!!! I love this design, it put a huge smile on my face the very minute I laid eyes on it.  Thanks for the great trim as well.


My HOE Santa Ornament arrived in Edgar's mailbox so i am free to share a picture of it with you:

2012 HOE Santa Exchange

Designer: Heart In Hand

Design: Wee Santa 2004

Stitched for: Edgar

The Santa face fabric was perfect for the finishing on this ornament. I must say this is a favorite design of mine; I love the small Merry Christmas tin stencil.  I keep saying I will stitch this for my tree so I have added it to my 2012 "To Stitch" list.  I must place an order for more of those adorable tin stencils because I used the last one in my stash.


Let me share some pictures of some of the Ornaments that I rushed to complete before Christmas:

Yesterday these beautiful flowers were delivered to my house from my DS's:

What a wonderful Valentine's Day surprise and so very sweet of both of them.  Thanks you so much G/D, you made Valentine's Day VERY special.


I also received these beautiful flowers from my DH:

As well as this delicious chocolate/raspberry cake:

Great big thank you to all three of you!


I can hardly believe it, I moved back to the northeast from Texas with great anticipation of a snow filled winter where I would spend much time skiing on the beautiful mountains in Vermont only to find that THERE IS NO SNOW… yet (there is still a little time left and I have hope). 

Until next time...

Another One For The Tree

I am so excited; I just received the most beautiful ornament from Hazel H.  who stitched for me in the HOE Stitcher’s Choice Ornament Exchange. 

HOE Stitcher's Choice Ornament Exchange

Design from: JCS Ornament Issue

Stitched by: Hazel H.

I love everything about this ornament: the design, the perfect stitching and the fabulous ruched trim.  I love ruched trim but find it extremely time consuming and appreciate the extra time and effort on this one.  Many thanks Hazel for adding to my growing collection of holiday ornaments, it looks wonderful on my tree!

Want to know more about ruching? Here is a link that you might find helpful.

This year I have two Christmas trees, the first is in our family room and it is where Santa will leave the family gifts.

The second is my latest purchase and it sits in the kitchen, where it will remain throughout the year.  This tree has a more rustic look and is perfect for displaying my needlework ornament.

After the holiday I will decorate the tree based on the yearly holiday or season.  I need to spend some time in 2012 stitching up seasonal designs for the tree; my favorite by far will be when I decorate it for Halloween.

This past summer I found a wonderful Needlework store in southern VT called In Stitches Fine Needlepoint.  Although it is a Needlepoint store vs. Cross Stitch Shop I entered hoping they may also carry cross stitch but she did not.  Instead I found an array of gorgeous fibers bursting with color and many beautiful hand painted needlepoint canvases, including Prairie Schooler. I instantly fell in love with the shop and I found the owner (Maria) to be beyond friendly and extremely helpful.  I entered hoping to walk out with some cross stitch but departed with some great Needlepoint projects.  Needlepoint is not new to me, I had done it many years ago and, although I did not want to add yet another “hobby” to my list I could not resist. After a quick refresher from Maria I managed to complete these two projects:

Mini Needlepoint Stocking

Lehigh University

Mini Needlepoint Stocking

Villanova University

The minute I saw the “University” themed stockings I immediately knew that I needed to order the designs and stitch them for my two sons.

My latest needlepoint project is The Wizard of Oz characters, they are adorable. I will share pictures of that in a later post.

Well, I keep saying that I will do some finishing work on a number of ornaments but I have yet to find my way up to my sewing room…maybe today and then again maybe not!

As always thank you for stopping by.

Until next time...

Tis The Season

The December rush is upon us and like so many others I have been busy preparing for the holiday season. At our house part of the holiday season includes my birthday, which is celebrated just days after Christmas.  Last week a package arrived from my dear friend Vonna and when I opened it I found a beautiful Birthday surprise...

A wonderful Yankee Candle Tart Warmer.  This is so pretty and the Holiday Pine scented tart serves to put Christmas in the air; the scent is perfect and oh so nice.  

I also found a very special item tucked inside, this handmade birds nest...

I saw Vonna's post on these cleverly crafted little birds nest ornaments and loved them.  I especially loved the German Legend behind the nest:

An Old German Legend tells of the magic of all the world's birds bursting into song, as if with one voice, the night the Christ child was born. If a family's Christmas tree contained a birds nest, they would be granted the gift of health, wealth and happiness throughout the year. It is our hope that this little nest adorns your tree and the legend may come true for you.

Vonna's gift arrived the very day that I was planning to decorate the tree so it became the 1st one placed onto our tree. My hope is that the German Legend holds true and we are granted the gift of health, wealth, and happiness in 2012; I am a believer.

Thank you dear Vonna for the birthday gifts and for always being such a shining light in my world! 

Have you seen the fabulous pincushions on Cathy's Blog? Oh my word, I just love these and I let her know it.  I immediately emailed to order one and was lucky enough to receive this beauty...

Cathy's Mom does the gorgeous tatting and Cathy constructs the pincushion, what a talented team! I am such a huge fan of "Mom's" tatting and am so excited to have yet another piece of her handwork. Thanks Cathy/Mom for filling my order and selecting a beautiful Pincushion for me, I love it.

The HOE blog had a Christmas Box Exchange that I signed up for.  I was a bit reluctant to sign up given the mail date was December 1st, oh such a busy time of the year!  Well, I bit the bullet and committed (not too difficult to talk myself into an exchange on the HOE blog, I love them) then I set out to complete this exchange in a timely fashion.  Here is what I sent to Lucy:

HOE Christmas Box Exchange

Designer: Plum Street Sampler

Design: Yuletide

Design From: 2011 JCS Ornament Issue

Stitched For: Lucy H.

Here is a picture of the inside:

I received my Christmas Box Exchange from Jayne P...

HOE Christmas Box Exchange

From: Jayne P.

Thank you Jayne, I appreciate it.

Head over to Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe and sign up for her fabulous Floss Give-Away.  Nancy's floss is truly eye candy!

The day has passed all to quickly as I spent much of it uploading pictures and updating my blog so I shall end now and get some "gift" stitching done.  Why do I always manage to spend December rushing to complete these stitching gifts??? Yes, yes I shall try harder next year to get a jump start on my holiday stitching.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday.

Until next time...

Exchanges Keep Rolling In...

I am playing “catch up” so I have lots to share…

I participated in a Personal Exchange with Yuko and recently received a rather large box filled to the brim with some amazing items. There was so much in the box that it was difficult to photograph everything. When I opened the box this is what I saw…

I could barely believe my eyes and was not sure if there was a bottom to this box.  The items just poured out: hand dyed fabric, three fat quarters, two wonderful scissors, lace trim, covered buttons, jumbo clips, rose petal bath soap, two fantastic patterns, and so much more!

In amongst all of this treasure was this beautifully stitched exchange piece...

How pretty is that?  Yuko is an amazing stitcher/finisher, her work is absolutely perfect.  I have longed for a piece of her needlework and I am honored to display this in my new home.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart Yuko for this extra special exchange I shall treasure it.

The next exchange piece arrived from Jenn F. I must say that it is the perfect design to display in my Vermont house...

Now that winter is upon us I feel as if I should delve right in and finish this beauty.  Jenn and I were partnered in the Fair & Square round #27 exchange.  I have been collecting F&S blocks for quite some time but have yet to decide what to do with them.  Should I put them all in one Friendship quilt or should I finish each one separately? Hmm, still can’t decide.

Do you see the beautiful beaded scissor FOB? Jenn gifted me with that gorgeous gift as well, how lucky can one person get.  Thanks again Jenn you are a very special blogging friend.

Stitching for Jenn is relatively easy, she loves nautical designs.  Here is what I selected for her…

Designer: Of Generations Past

Design: Christmas Lighthouse

The third exchange piece rolled in just a few days ago.  This one is from the HOE Words of Christmas exchange and was stitched by Sadie…

Thank you Sadie, this ornament will look beautiful on my Christmas tree.

Here is what I stitched and sent to Gabi...

Designer: Birds of a Feather

Design: Peace Angel

The last project that I will share is the gift that I stitched for my cousin for Thanksgiving.  I love this design and hope to stitch it again for myself.  This probably will not happen until later next year since I have lots of stitching do before Christmas.

Designer: AuryTM

Design: A Gobble Couple

Well, the boys were here for Thanksgiving but have left.  One headed back to NYC and the other back to college.  It is so nice to be within driving distance of them…Texas was just too far away! As always we had a great Thanksgiving holiday with our relatives.  This year we had another reason to be truly thankful: On Monday my youngest son (who graduates May 2012) had a 2^nd interview for an Engineering position in a large company here in the Northeast, and the day before Thanksgiving the company extended an offer to him which he intends to accept.  I am so happy and proud of him, he returned to school to begin his final semester knowing that he will graduate with a job...that is certainly a reason to be thankful!

Thank you to VP, LR, KC, MK, CD, MC, RT, and Garrett :) for all of those PRs.

Thanks for taking the time to stop by.



Another Move And Finally Settled

I have decided that I will not move again, it is too much work.  We finally returned to the Northeast where we purchased a home in Vermont, exactly where I have always wanted to be.  We had one month to get the interior painted before all of our belongings arrived on a truck from Texas.  The past three months were spent unpacking hundreds of boxes, a task that I have done a number of times before and one that I refuse to do again.  As the cold weather approached we rushed to get the exterior of the house painted and despite a number of obstacles our mission was accomplished.  I do love the new color of the house that we now call home:

I never get tired of looking out at this view...

This past weekend these mountains were snow-capped. Yes, it is hard to believe but the first snowfall of the season arrived prior to Halloween.

I longed for the day when I could wake up in a house free of workers, enter my new sewing room, sit at my Koala sewing center and quilt. In January this new table was delivered to my house in Texas but I left Texas (and my table) in mid April.

Koala Sewing Center - in Texas

Well, the workers are gone, my sewing room is somewhat in order, and when I sat at the sewing center I discovered it had been damaged during the move. YIKES! The electronic sewing machine lift is non operational, there are scratches and a few dings. I am stressing over how the insurance company will resolve this. The sewing center was in my Texas house for only 16 weeks before we left for Vermont.  It remained untouched until the movers arrived in August to pack/move our belongings.  By October I managed to find my way to the sewing room and unpack all of the boxes (yes, I avoided this room...way too many boxes). I was shocked when I used the remote to activate the lift and heard the horrendous noise while watching the lift struggle to move!  I just want the insurance people to take it away and get me a brand new one.  I did not purchase a "reconditioned" one thus I do not want them to attempt to fix it...we will see what happens.

.

Moving was certainly one reason why I have been quiet in blog land but another reason is because my 5 year old Dell computer has become problematic.  What should take 15 minutes to do now takes hours; so very frustrating.  I started using my iPhone for EVERYTHING except blogging.  A week ago I purchased a MacBook Pro which I know nothing about, as a result I had to wait until my sons came for a visit to get me up and running.  I am still in the dark so today I purchased the book, "MacBook For Dummies" and if that doesn't enlighten me I will enroll in a class.

I wish that I had more stitching to share with you but the move kept me far from my stitching basket. I managed to complete "Angel of Hope".  I changed the hair color because I wanted the Angel to look more like the person I am giving it to

Designer: M Design

Design: Angel of Hope

My stitching basket is calling so I must end now.  Thanks for taking the time to stop by~

Until next time...