Fall

Recently, I attended a banquet in honor of employees celebrating 20, 25, 30 etc, years of service.  I was celebrating 20 years.  It certainly doesn't seem like 20 years. But then, my daughter was 9 and now she's almost 29.  We were served a wonderful meal, we each got a medal and corsage. The tables were all decorated with gorgeous flower arrangements celebrating Olympic sports. I won our arrangement, celebrating badminton.  It's beautiful.

I got my Lizzie Kate Halloween Mystery Sampler back from my LNS framer.  I love it.  The weather was dark and dreary when I took these pictures.  You can't see the sparkle threads in the linen but I think you get the idea.  I love it.

Part I

Part II

Part III

I substituted WDW Celedon for WDW Cadet under the house.  I just didn't like how the WDW Cadet looked.  Was it a moat? I don't know but the Celedon looks much better.


The leaves are falling thick and fast.  Goodnight trees.  See you next spring.

Here is Buddy waiting for me to come sit down with him.  He has recovered from an infected salivary gland and while being treated it was discovered that he has a heart murmur already.  No symptoms and no heart enlargement yet but it was still devastating to hear.  He's not even 2 yet and so feisty and active.  I will love him as much as I can and Lord knows he loves me like crazy.  :0)

Thanks for visiting and commenting!
Marsha

Fall Fun

I spent last weekend just over the border at the Tiara stitching retreat.  I was part of the team that helped organize it.  My friend Amanda (no blog), and I decided to make a little gift for every one.  Amanda put together these apple tree charts, with over dyed threads.  Very nicely done Amanda!

I made apple spiced soap swirled with red and green and put a bar in mason jars I made into pin cushions.

Some of our guests take their tiaras seriously.

 Here's part of the room, stitching the day/night away.

Three of us were stitching away on our Halloween piece by Lizzie Kate.  My goal was to finish mine by Friday night.  I did it!  Unfortunately you can't see the whole thing here.  My LNS was having a sale that weekend so on the way home I dropped it off to be framed.  Hopefully, I'll have it back soon.

Here is a stitched piece and the exchange that Jenny of  One Stitch Closer to Nirvana  displayed.

These are random photos of  things people were stitching on.
Santa,

Raven,

Birds,

A Mexican Sampler with not one cross stitch on the whole thing.  Amazing.

Needlepoint Charlie Harper,

Our good friend Pat was able to come for the weekend.  We were all so so happy to see her.  She is still recovering from her stroke and other illness.  This was the round robin that some of us participated in.  I don't know how give you that link but I blogged about stitching the angels that are in the middle.  I was so excited that she brought it and I could see it finished.  She loves it which is the best part.

Friday night we held a smalls stitching exchange.  I was happy to get this gorgeous fob with a pretty tassel and falling metal leaves. 

As an added little bonus to the weekend, I received a surprise from my secret stitcher.

Love my new design to stitch

the linen and fabric to go with

And Hello Kitty duct tape and pez dispenser for an unexpected emergency.

The linen is more yellow gray green than the blue green that is showing up here.

That's all for now.  Any free time I've had has been used stitching instead of blogging, but I am visiting blogs.
Thanks for your comments. They are truly appreciated.

Marsha

Suzy Q

While reading Terri's blog Chocolates for Breakfast; Stitching for Lunch  the other day, I was pleased and surprised to see that she was starting a 2 year SAL.  Very early this summer I treated myself to a sampler from The Scarlet Letter.  My plan is to buy silks while I am still working and get a nice stash going for when I eventually retire from the working world.  I went through the whole online catalog and marked down the samplers that really spoke to me.  I let them stew for a week or two and then went back through them to pick just one.  The colors just said 'You need to stitch ME.  Pick ME, pick Me'.  And so, Susan Singleton came to live with me.  And Susan Singleton is the 2 year SAL that she is stitching along with Debbie of Threadgatherer and  Sandra of  Sampler Lovers Blog. 

One of my mother's sayings that has always stuck with me is 'Marsha, just ask. The worst they can say is no.' (I was very shy)  So, I asked Terri if I may join.  She said Yes!  So, I will be starting Susan Singleton very soon. She'll have to fit into rotation with Lizzie Kate's Mystery SAL and I Sigh Not for Beauty and the various Christmas ornaments that will need stitching.  Her colors are gorgeous as you'll see below.

Her red's are soft like this flower cluster taken through the lens that had steamed up going from air conditioning to the humid hurricane Issac air.  (Now THAT's  a run on sentence!)




Here she is packaged up and ready to go.

Part of her attraction is the gorgeous blues in my favorite hues.

I opted for the silk and linen kit.  You should see the size of the linen cut.  It's a little intimidating.  2 years might not cover it as I know I'll want to stitch other things too but I'm excited to try.

The pinks are similar to this flower cluster.

So, I'm ready to start and want to thank Terri, Sandra and Debbie once again for letting me SAL with them.

Marsha

PS.  Get over to the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe for a fantastic giveaway.

Are you ready for Fall?

I'm getting there.  I found small baskets at The Flower Factory (I knew I would.), just right for making a pin cushion out of my retreat exchange stitching.  I weighted the bottom with a small bag of plastic beads, then topped it off with fiber fill.  I feel like I'm all thumbs making these kinds of things.  I used some of my chenille trim from Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe around the rim.

The little black bird is so cute.  What a cute idea to use a snap.

This is for an exchange in October and will be put in a gift bag. Everyone that wants to participate will bring a smalls exchange in a gift bag too.  Then you'll get to pick one when your number/ticket is pulled.  So it will be a surprise unless you figure out which bag is mine, and I'll try hard to keep that a secret.

I got out my fall table runner to take these pictures. 

My Mystery SAL is coming along very nicely.

The little trims will be sewn on at the end right after all that 'river rock' satin stitching is completed.  But first, part 3 must be stitched.

I didn't use the linen suggested in the chart.  This is 32 ct. Illusion from Silkweaver Cross Stitch Fabrics. I LOVE it.  The touch of sparkle is like a starry Halloween night.

 

I got a package in the mail yesterday.  I did a little on line stitching at Stitching Bits and Bobs' recent sale.  One day I'll stitch all PS's different bee skeps. 

This is a huge sampler but I really like the simplicity of it.  The picture is deceiving.

Diane of  Nan's Needlework Notions started this with blue thread when we got together for our mini stitch retreat.  I had never seen it before and it's really cute. 

Part 2 of the Mystery SAL gave me fits.  I ripped the left hand border, I ripped the third line of words and I ripped 4 of the 5 squares at the bottom.  So what better tool than a boo boo stick to get all those pesky loose threads.  Hopefully, this will give me good luck so I won't have to rip anything on part 3.

I would love to collect one of every color of this thread.  This one is Crown Jewels.

Are you tired of pictures yet?  One more.  I got my part 3 today of the Mystery SAL.  I had some purple Picture this Plus Fabric from their fabric of the month club. Just right for the extra small chart included with part 2.  It's 32 count.  My LNS had some Weeks lime green and orange that I'll use for the other two bonus charts.  It's 30 count and I wish you could see that green.  It's practically neon.

Aaaannnnnnddddd, that's it.  Hope you have a great Labor Day weekend if you're in the US.  I'm looking forward to some R and R.  Thanks for visiting and leaving me a comment.  I really appreciate the time you take to do that.

Marsha