My Monthly Small Stitching

Where did the month go? It is the last Wednesday of the month and time to post a picture of my March 2015 Smalls SAL…

2015 HOE Year Of The Sheep

Designer: Carousel Charts

Design: Winter Sheep Star Crow (partial)

Stitched for: Stephanie S.

I participated in the HOE Year Of The Sheep exchange and stitched this sheep for Stephanie S. It also qualifies for the monthly Smalls SAL for March.

This was a cute/quick finish ~ a floss holder.  There is something about "round finishes" that I enjoy, probably how easy they are to complete!

The graduation quilt top is now complete and the backing fabric arrived in the mail today.  Hopefully, it will be in the hands of the longarm quilter sometime this week. 

Today was my last physical therapy session for my broken ankle.  It is amazing how much progress I made over the past 8 weeks.  No longer do I limp, hobble slowly up and down the stairs, or experience pain after standing too long.  Phew, that nightmare is over! Unfortunately, I missed an amazing ski season.  

Thank you for stopping by…

Until next time…

Making Progress

I am a day late in posting my progress on the 2015 Gifted Gorgeousness SAL.  It was a busy month, which did not leave me a lot of free stitching time, but I was able to add a few stitches…

2015 Gifted Gorgeousness SAL ~ March progress

Designer: Little House Needlework

Design: Lantern Lane

Much of my time was spent working on this graduation quilt. Just three more rows before I can bring it to the longarm quilter and have it machine quilted.

Thank you for stopping by…

Until next time…

Year Of The Sheep

Why are there not more exchanges out there in blogland?  I remember the days when I was participating in 40+ exchanges each year.  Yes, that was probably too many.  Thanks to Carol S. I am able to exchange at least 10-12 times a year.  She continues to manage the HOE exchange board, organize exchanges, and ensure that all goes smoothly.  I am hugely grateful for all she does to keep that exchange board up and running.  Thanks, Carol!

Edgar organized the latest HOE Exchange (Thanks, Edgar).  He came up with a clever theme in celebration of the 8th Chinese Zodiac sign: The Sheep.  Today I received a package sent from Singapore by Angela N.  She stitched this wonderful pillow ornament that now adorns my year round needlework tree…

2015 HOE Year of the Sheep

Designer: Primitive Hare

Design: Imbolc* (Freebie)

Stitched by: Angela N.

Did you know that Imbolc is a Gaelic festival, held in February 1st, marking the beginning of spring? 

This is such a lovely Primitive Hare design, which is perfectly stitched and finished! 

Angela also treated me to a pretty sheep ornament that she purchased in Chinatown, a colorful Ram cut out, a fat quarter of fabric, and a small sac filled with buttons and charms. These will be perfect for my future finishing projects. Thank you so much, Angela.  Your thoughtfulness and generosity are deeply appreciated.

For those of you born in 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015 you were born under the most creative sign on the Chinese Zodiac, the sheep. If you're interested in reading more about the meaning, traits, and predictions for this zodiac sign click HERE.

In the Northeast it may look and feel like winter, but I know that spring is on its way.  Why? Because Easter Peeps are out in the stores.  Thanks to Edgar, who posted about this years limited edition peeps, I rushed out, but failed to locate the ones he posted about.  Rather than walk away empty handed I allowed my lack of willpower to take over and I purchased a 3 pack of the chocolate bottom peeps.  Much like Edgar, I love peeps! I almost forgot to snap a picture before devouring all three. 

My DS is here with a friend for a ski weekend and I expect that they will be rolling in anytime so I am off to prepare something for them to snack on before  we head to dinner tonight. 

Thank you for stopping by.

Until next time…

Two for Two

Success! I managed to complete another project for the 2015 Smalls SAL.  That's two for two!

2015 Smalls SAL ~ February

Designer: Shepherd's Bush

Design: Happy Pumpkin Roll Kit

This little kit has been hanging out in my rather HUGE stash basket for a long time.  It was the perfect "quick stitch" for the monthly smalls SAL. 

Quilting has been taking up much of my free time.  I finally had this quilt top machine quilted and am stitching the binding on…

It's a king size quilt so there is quite a large bundle of binding. Being a Gadget Goddess I had a handy Winding Buddy, which was very helpful in keeping the binding under control as I applied it to the quilt.

I am happy to say the quilt is finished.  I will share a picture of it in a later post.

Now a little something from:

                Here is cute little Emma:

                                                  Here is sweet little Lily:

Here we see both Emma and Lily:

And now we see Emma lunge at poor little Lily's face:

Such a NAUGHTY LITTLE PUPPY!

Thank you for stopping by.

Until next time…

Gifted Gorgeousness

An abundance of gorgeousness delivered to my door.  A beautiful bouquet of red/pink Valentine roses from my sweet sons, G & D…

Beautiful

They are so very thoughtful, amazingly generous, and sweeter than sweet.  These guys are, without a doubt, what makes my heart happy.

My DH surprised me with this very pretty, and oh so DELICIOUS, heart shaped Valentines cake.  He ordered it from my favorite local bakery.  I meant to take a picture of it before we cut a slice (or two), oops!

Dark chocolate cake, strawberry filling, and a simply delicious frosting, does it get any better than that? Very sweet…cake and DH!

Now, time for some stitchy Gifted Gorgeousness.  It's the 15th of February, already!  Here's my progress…

2015 Gifted Gorgeousness SAL
Designer: Little House Needlework

Design: Lantern Lane

My dear friend, Vonna gifted me this kitted up LHN project for my birthday and I have decided to stitch it as part of the SAL.  This will be such a nice addition to my sampler wall. Thank you again, Vonna!

I recently started working on Cubby Hole Quilt. It needs to be complete by early May.  

Cubby Hole Quilt 

There are a total of 221 five inch blocks in this quilt. 

The snow continues to fall, as do the temperatures. It's freezing, only 5 degrees outside and the snow continues to pile up ~ everywhere…

Little Emma is changing daily.  She is turning gray, as Yorkshire Terriers do, and continues to be cute as ever…

Thank you for stopping by.

Until next time…

Something Stitchy

Here are some overdue stitching pictures…

1) Beautiful Ornament from my dear friend, Carol S.

A sweet ornament from a sweet friend. Thank you, Carol for the ornament and for your friendship.  You are such a special friend!

2) Beautiful Ornament from my dear friend, Vonna.

Designer: With Thy Needle and Thread

Design: A Winter's Skate

It's a skate! How cute is that? Vonna's creativity always impresses me, as does her beautiful work. 

Love, love, love this!

3) Perfect Project Bags and LHN Project Kit from Vonna

Not just one but FIVE of these very handy project bags. You see Vonna knows me quite well and knows I have way too many WIPs…haha. Now I have a home for some of them!

I'm all set to start another wonderful project thanks to my dear friend who sent this as well…

This project is perfect for the Gifted Gorgeousness SAL …

Thank you so much Vonna. You are beyond generous and a truly treasured friend!

4) Wonderful HOE Ornament from Stephanie

Designer: Lizzie and Kate

Design: Flora McSampler 2013 Stockings

Ohhhh, how exciting a beautiful stocking ornament.  Thank you, Stephanie!

5) Some 2014 Christmas ornaments stitched for friends

Designer: Prairie Schooler

Designer: Country Cottage Needlework

Design: Snowmen Trio

Designer: Lizzie and Kate

Design: Flora McSampler 2011 Ornaments

Designer: Prairie Schooler

2009 Gift of Stitching Ornament Issue

Design from: Christkindl Book #136 by Rico Design

Fabric: 25 count white Lugana 

Floss: DMC

This angel was selected as my 2014 ornament ~ 10 of them stitched for friends. 

It goes with the  ornament that I stitched in 2013…

I enjoyed stitching ornaments but am happy to take a break and work on non holiday stitching, like this one for the monthly 2015 Smalls SAL…

Smalls SAL - January

Designer: Carousel Charts

Design: Winter Sheep Star and Crow

Here is what I will be stitching on next…

Design: Cubby Hole Quilt

I must get started on a High School graduation quilt for my cousin's son. This is a greg quilt for a guy and it can be completed relatively quickly.  The digital pattern can be purchased through Fons and Porter HERE.

Lastly, I got my cast off…

Thank you very much for all of the well wishes!

Thanks for stopping by...

Until next time ~ 

No Skiing In Colorado

No skiing in Colorado for me that is…not this year.

And this ^^^ is why! 

Yes, the night before we were scheduled to leave for Colorado, on December 18th, I managed to break my ankle.  At 10PM I stepped outside to let little Emma out and when I stepped off of my front porch, onto the huge rock step, I quickly found out that it was a sheet of ice.  As I went airborne, so did Emma.  She flew from my hand but thankfully did not get hurt.  Unfortunately, I was not as lucky. The pain was excruciating!!!  After 30 minutes of agony we decided to head to the emergency room. To my horror I was told that my left ankle was broken and I would need to see an orthopedic the next day. Whaaaat?????  What about our plans to head to Colorado the next day?

On Friday the orthopedic doctor looked at the X-rays and determined that I did not require surgery ~ PHEW. They did put me in a cast, Christmas red I might add, and sent us on our way.  My DH and I set out to pick my older DS up in NYC and at 8PM we began our 1900 mile drive to Colorado (yes, I did say drive).  My DS did most of the driving…

with DH doing his fair share.  Thankfully, I did not break my right ankle so I was able to drive the last 4 hours of the 28 hour ride.  

Lily and Emma were great little travelers.  Emma was in charge of the Starbucks cards for all of our coffee breaks.

DS "D" met little Miss Emma for the first time and they became fast friends…

Emma thought she might like to Ski with the boys but realized that they do not make ski boots small enough to fit her.

Although I was not able to ski, I was very thankful that we had a chance to spend Christmas with "D" at his new apartment in Colorado.  Last summer he left his job in NJ and took a new position with a company in the Denver area.  We were happy for him but we hated to see him go. 

Both "D" and "G" did get to ski multiple times. They had a great time at Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge, and Steamboat:

"D" night skiing at Keystone

"D" with GF "C" Skiing at Steamboat

We did get the opportunity to meet "D's" GF family.  They vacationed in CO over the holiday as well so we joined them for dinner at The Nickel in Denver and had a great time.

DH and I spent much time shopping.  We traveled around northern Colorado where I purchased a boatload of fabric, some yarns, and some cross stitch stash from:

 The Fig Leaf Quilt Store

Mama Said Sew

The Loopy Ewe

My Sister Knits

We also ventured to Cheyenne, WY.  This was an interesting view from the highway…

No, it is not real

In WY we stopped at:

 Ewe Count 

Quilted Corner 

Around the Block

It is always fun to visit quilt, yarn, and cross stitch shops in different states. 

Here are two knit finishes from when I was just hanging out in "D's" apartment…

Gift for "D" GF

Gift for "G" GF

This Texture Knit Cowl pattern is a Freebie by Yarn + Co found HERE. 

We arrived home, from our month long vacation, at 4:30 this morning.  I have an appointment with the orthopedic doctor on Tuesday and am keeping my fingers crossed I am able to get out of this cast!

I hope that you enjoyed the holiday and wish you much free time for a lot of stitching in 2015.

Thanks for stopping by...

Until next time ~