A Day Late

I know, I know.  Easter was Yesterday!

I made these bunnies years ago out of clothespins.  I believe the pattern was probably in 'Family Circle' or 'Women's Day'.  I used to pick those magazines up at the supermarket checkout counter all the time when the children were small.  They were easy to read in quick spurts when I had a moment and their craft ideas were usually cute and pretty easy.

Every member of the family had a bunny to sit on the edge of their basket.  Dana's was pink and mine was purple and then the boys were mixed up.  I don't know that the boys really liked them but they made me happy sitting there all cute.

I've had these made for years.  Prairie Schooler Year.  They used to hang in a LNS for quite a few years.  When that shop went out of business, they were kind enough to let me have them back.  This one is the month of April.  I used 18 ct. Davos over one with DMC.

My friend Patti had completed this SB scissor fob and I thought it was adorable.  Right before we got Buddy I decided to stitch it up.  It went pretty quick and was a fun stitch kit.  Be the first, by comment, to let me know you'd like the left over chart and I'll mail it to you. 

And here's the reason I'm late getting this blogged (besides working all weekend):

Yep, Buddy's keeping me pretty busy and very little stitching is going on but it's all good.

Marsha

Buddy!

Meet Buddy!

Friday afternoon, after my trip to the International Quilt Show, DH and I took a trip to Columbus.  We visited Karen and the last of her December litter 'Winzer Days of Our Lives'.  Otherwise known as Ricky.  What can one say after visiting puppies?  No?  Of course not.  So, we told we told her we definitely wanted him and would be back on Sunday to pick him up.  Here's DH meeting him.  He was very wiggly and was really more interested in playing with his sister, but that's ok.  He was just being a puppy.

Doesn't he look tiny here?  Goodbye, we'll see you Sunday.

DH and I talked about Ricky's name and decided it needed to be something different.  We ran through a bunch and ended on Buddy.  We knew Evan would like that name.  Here's Evan meeting Buddy for the first time.  Evan was a little wary at first but very excited to meet Buddy.  We took him for a walk around the backyard.  I think Evan was shocked that puppies poop - he handed the leash over to me after that.  I think they'll get along great.

It was and still is exciting to have a new puppy in the family.  He's doing well.  There's just nothing like puppy wiggles and kisses.

Before Evan left on Sunday he decided that Buddy needed to be covered up in his bed.  Buddy complied very nicely.

Marsha

If you follow Ellen's With My Needle blog you know that she has finished 'I Sigh Not for Beauty'.  She's an incredibly quick stitcher.  We had a guild stitch in, in late March and four of us were stitching on it.  Starting at the top right is Ellen's.  Under hers is Marsha G.'s and to the left is Lisa P.'s and on the top left is mine.  They all have a slightly different look on the different linens and with the different threads.  I like them all and hope we get to see them all completed by the end of the year.  I am going to try and get mine done but I have a big surprise in my next blog post which will explain why I may not finish it.

I didn't want my secret stitcher to think I didn't appreciate what she sent to me in March.  I LOVE everything.  The magazine has the American Sampler in it.  After seeing Christy Y. stitching on it, it may have a future in my stash - in a few year's time.  I haven't stitched a queen stitch yet and that is loaded with them so it'll have to wait until I get comfortable with them.  But the magazine has all kinds of friendly charts.  The silk is a beautiful shade of green and the St. Patrick's bird will be a nice fast stitch.  The package of floss bags were immediately opened and put to use and the card is adorable.  I have a wonderful secret stitcher.

This past week has been incredibly busy, in a good way.  I started Wed. by going to see the play 'Gee's Bend' at the Playhouse in the Park.  It was a very good production and had to do with a small town in Alabama, civil rights, changing of women's roles and quilts.  I went with a couple of friends which made it even better.  Friday I went to the International Quilt Show downtown also.  It was incredible.  I met two of the friends that went to the play and we perused a couple of the actual quilt displays and then started in on the vendors.  We didn't get far and broke for lunch.  Then it was back to vendors for me and my friends started another display.  They are awesome quilters and have made quite a few.  I had little time to spare 'cause I had an appointment in Columbus to see somebody very important.  If the show is here again next year I will get a couple day pass.  I only got to see about a third of it.  As another friend said - sensory overload - in a good way.

One of the vendors was my friend Barb Hils from Keepsakes Framing and Stitching my local LNS.  I hope she did well and survived the show and tour groups to her store.  It was a long weekend for her.  This is Barb and a couple of pictures from her store - the 1st floor.  She holds a stitch in the first Friday of the month.

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Saturday I drove to Cedarville, Ohio for the annual Ohio Soapmakers and Candlemakers gathering.  This was its 13th year.  It's fun to get together with old friends and catch up with each other.  I only soap now for myself and friends and family but every year I learn new tricks and something interesting.  I entered a swap and that's always fun to get new products, soaps and fun things to try.

Sunday started early with another drive to Columbus to pick up someone.  I'll reveal that in my next post.  They are sleeping next to me now but all bets are off when they wake up.  Are you curios yet?



Marsha

Miss you

Marsha

Arizona Dreaming

I'm back from a trip to Scottsdale, Arizona, one of my favorite places to visit.  Why?  It's warm and SUNNY!  After months of cold, snow and dreariness it's wonderful to sit by a pool and soak in sun.  Lots of it.  They had unusually warm temperatures while we were there which was just fine with me.  85 - 91 degrees.  Sweet. 

One of my side trips was to Taliesin West.  It was the winter camp of Frank Lloyd Wright.  An artist community designed by him.  I had taken the tour a few years ago and it was crazy busy this year so I only took a few pictures of the property.  If you get a chance, it's worth your while to visit.

My DH, Rich, was in Scottsdale for a business conference and I was his tag-a-long.  It was a wonderful Westin resort property.  This was the view from our little balcony.  On the left is a walkway (you can't see it) and it is lined in orange trees.  They were just starting to bloom.  Oh my goodness!  It was a little bit of heaven to walk that a couple of times a day.

One of my favorite stitching store newsletters comes from The Attic.  Stitching enticement.  I map quested their store from our hotel and learned they were only 20 minutes away.  No brainer.  The highlight of the trip for me! (besides the sun)  Imagine my dismay when I reached for the door handle to pull, pull again - WHAT!   IT'S LOCKED!  No WAY!  Yes, it was.  But, slowly the door opened and they let me in!  I found out they restock on Mondays but there was a group in from Canada that had made special plans to shop that day.  When they found out I was from Ohio, they took pity on me. 

Here is a very short tour.  This is the main display area.  Notice the two versions of their sampler of the month 'American Sampler'.  There's so much to see here.  I could have spent a few hours but it was probably better that I didn't.  I did enough damage.

That's the silk fiber wall in the back.  This side of the store's models were not samplers.  Lots and lots of linen to go through and more and more racks of charts.

These two walls are filled with samplers.  So much to see and lots and lots of variety in charts and designers.

This is one of the charts I got.

Here are two more that I couldn't resist.  I love the colors in them.  I got the linen for all of them.

Here's the linen and most of the silks for the Margaret W. Brown #28.  It was their sampler of the month a couple of months ago.  I took pictures of my charts with their linen but can you believe, the pictures were horrible because it was too bright?

This is where I stitched on my last day of vacation.  There were very comfy chairs and sofas under the trees around the fountain.  So relaxing, and warm, and sunny.  ahhhh

There were lots of these little critters hopping around the property.  Cute little Easter bunnies. 

Well, back to reality.  It sure was fun, and warm and sunny.  Thanks Rich.

Marsha

So we went from a cool spring with all the bulbs jumping out of the ground, the promise of warmer weather,

to this scene, this morning. Sheesh. Very happy to say it's all gone now but what a jolt to the senses.

'I Sigh Not for Beauty' is going to be a fairly big sampler and I am really enjoying stitching on it. I started on the alphabet and intend to do some real damage on it this week.

And here is 'Peony Hill' using the DMC colors that were called for. The middle of the big pink flowers are a specialty stitch (not hard) but I'm saving them until later when most of the stitching is done. This has been a fun stitch too. See that shiny thread running through the middle and cross wise? That's a sulky thread on a spool. I have blue and silver and it's impervious to the needle so it slides right out when I'm ready to remove it. I took a chance and started 'Sarah Owens' in the upper left. I've never started that way. It doesn't have a square corner but I figured out where it should be and began. Yeah, that's the last time I do that. Now I'm back to starting in the middle, where it's safe.

I've listened to 'A Fair Maiden' by Joyce Carol Oates, 'The Red Queen' by Phillpa Gregory and I'm almost through 'Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince'. I love to stitch while listening to an audio book. I don't know what I'm going to do when Harry Potter is over. I didn't like 'The Order of the Phoenix' as much as the others and this one is really good. I started listening to books on tape with Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. I just listened to her 16th and now will have to wait until she writes another and then the library gets the audio book. My DH got me a Kindle for Christmas and I love it. How nice to read a book on a thin light weight device. I really enjoy it. I also downloaded Scrabble so that keeps me interested when I don't feel like reading. Have to keep that mind sharp!



And here are the completed Christmas ornaments. I just happened to pick up a bag of small jingle bells recently and thought it would look just right on the candy cane. I'll finish, finish these in the fall or maybe with Rita's help this summer.

Hopefully I'll get my pictures taken in the daylight from now on.  (Providing we get some sunny days)  These were taken at night so they are really poor quality. Sorry.


Marsha

New Stuff

I wanted to show what my secret stitcher sent to me for Valentine's Day.  New socks are always a treat and as you can see the chocolate was broken into immediately.  Some new threads are always welcome.  A pretty chart for my first initial and a quilt wall hanging pattern of hearts.  What a nice package.  Thank you secret stitcher.

Monday it was raining cats and dogs (yes, Jenny, I do use that term) and since I had to go to work at 2:30 I didn't feel like beating the crowds for new stash.  I was sure what I really wanted would still be there Tuesday.  Whew, I was right.   Peony Hill was tops on my list with BBD's new book up there also.  La-D-Da's yellow bird struck my fancy along with BBD's pin cushion.  I LOVE Impie, Hattie and Bea things and the tomato cushion and needle book did not disappoint.  So that needed LHD's chart to go with.  Some straw linen 30 ct. for the LHD and French Vanilla and Sand Castle 40 ct. linen to round things out.  Oh yeah, and Crescent Thread's new colors too.  What a fun bag to bring home.

I've been stitching a couple of Christmas ornaments because they are nice and quick and easy, not much thinking.  I'll be going back to 'I Sigh not for Beauty' soon so this is a nice break.

But......, I couldn't resist Peony Hill.  She's so pretty.  Like I said before, I'm not a big fan of pink but I think that's changing.  I'm liking it more and more.  So, this is Belfast linen and the DMC called for.

 Soon I will be getting my LHD 12 months sewn into little pillows.  I took them to Joann's to find a fabric to back them all.  Every two months used a different grouping of Crescent Threads so it was harder than it would be normally.  Wish me luck sewing them up.

Hope you got to increase your stash this week.

Marsha