Final UFO Finish For January

Well, I managed to make a liar out of myself. I managed to get another UFO finish in just under the wire for January. I have no idea as to why this one languished in the pile as long as it did, but it did. I deliberately removed the letters already stitched and left off the others as I did not think it added anything to the piece. I may stitch this one again in different colors, however, it's in the done pile as it is right now. 

Well, at any rate, here are the before and after pictures:

Design: Love Letters

Designer: Yvonne Horn for Papillon Creations

Fabric: 32 count raw natural Belfast linen

Fibers Used:  DMC in B5200 and 815

UFO as of Friday, January 30, 2015:

Stitching finished Saturday, January 31, 2015:

Well, I had best be off. I need to clean up the stitchy area and get another project out for my overnight shift tonight. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

Christmas in Paris Update

Howdy, folks! Hope everyone's new year started off great. I started a new job, and I haven't had much time to stitch. I've stuck with my Christmas In Paris  WIP and not started anything new. That's news at least, haha! :)



Well, here is what I have so far:

Design: Christmas In Paris


Designer: A Mon Ami Pierre


Fabric: Zweigart 40 count New Castle Linen in Dirty


Fibers Used: Access Commodities Soie d'Alger in F17, Noir, S3596, 942, 5112, 3426 and 542. 

Well, I must be off. I have to work tonight and I have a ton of stuff to do. Hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend! :)

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Respectfully submitted,

C. 

Christmas In Paris

I would absolutely love to spend Christmas abroad. I have watched WAY too many travel shows that feature Christmas in different countries and I think it would be a blast to have the kind of money where I could take the family to England, France, Switzerland, Germany or any number of places to celebrate Christmas and New Years. Alas, the good Lord did not see fit to grace me with more money than sense, so I am compensating by stitching a French made chart with French silks. One day I will get to while away a few hours in Restaurant Procope, which has been in continuous operation since 1686. 


At any rate, here is what little I have done since I started last night. I am love, love, LOVING the 40 count fabric and have more than a few projects in mind for this count of fabric. At any rate, here's what I'm up to:


Design: Christmas In Paris


Designer: A Mon Ami Pierre


Fabric: Zweigart 40 count New Castle Linen in Dirty


Fibers Used: Access Commodities Soie d'Alger in F17

Well, I best be off. I have a ton of stuff to do. Hope everyone is having a fantastic holiday! :)


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Respectfully submitted,


C. 

Another finish! Woohoo!

Woohoo! Managed to get a finish in before the end of the month. I am so excited, LOL! I had a LOT of fun stitching this up and look forward to stitching it again. I think the next time I am going to replicate it, I am going to change the flowers to a blue, perhaps Crescent Colours Blueberry Tart or one of my favorite blues, Grannie Annie. I may also stitch it in a darker red, such as Cupid. I haven't decided as of yet. For right now, however, it's going back into my stash pile until I decide to work on it again. :)


At any rate, here is my finish. I left off the black border going all the way around it because I think it looks better that way.



Design: The Busy Needle, created exclusively for The Busy Needle in Tuscon, AZ. (Sadly, this is now out of print and the shop has now closed due to the owner's illness as I have been told.)


Designer: Diane Williams for Little House Needleworks


Fabric: 28 count raw natural Cashel linen by Zweigart


Fibers: Crescent Colours cotton floss in Bamboo, Blackbird, Sassy Brass, Weeping Willow, and Wild Berries.

 Well, I best be off. I need to clean up my stitchy stuff here and get out another project to work on. This time, I think it will be a UFO. I so sorely lagging behind in the WIPocalypse goals that I had set for myself. Ah, well. Such is life, no?

Hope everyone is having a great week! :)


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Respectfully submitted,


C.

A Busy Needle Indeed & An Award For Me

It seems I have been blessed with an award, the Liebster Blog award.

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It was granted to me by Claudia over at Me, My BuBble and My Stitching . Thank you so much, Claudia! :)



Liebster is a German word, meaning favourite, dearest or beloved. The Liebster is awarded by bloggers to other, newer bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers, to spread the word and help the new(er)bies gain wider recognition..

The award comes with four conditions that each recipient must satisfy when accepting
1. Choose five up-and-coming blogs (with fewer than 200 followers) to award the Liebster too.
2. Show thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
3. Post the award on your blog. List the bloggers you are giving the award too with links to their sites.Leave comments on their blog so they know about the award.
4. Share five random facts about yourself that people don’t know



Here are the folks I'm nominating for the award:


1. Queen Stitcher

2. Peace, Love, and Stitching

3. The Crafty Basenji

4. Michelle's Stitchcraft Place

5. Social Sue


Now, for the 5 random facts about me:


1. I fly the New Jersey Devils colors, but I will watch pretty much anyone playing. With the exception of the Red Wings and the Rangers. I loathe both teams!


2. I have a habit where I get all of my running around, shopping and cleaning done by Thursday night. My time is too precious on the weekends to stand around a pharmacy or a Wal-Mart on a Saturday night.


3. I love to cook so much, I do it for stress release.


4. I have moved more times than most military families.


5. I have now reached critical mass in my stash and really only buy fabric and fibers when I need to. I purchase the occasional chart, but that is becoming increasingly rare now.


And now onto the stitching! :D


Managed to get some stitchy time in this weekend and have made progress on my Busy Needle project. I just love Little House Needleworks designs. They stitch up so quickly and they're always a ton of fun to do.


Designer: Diane Williams for Little House Needleworks


Fabric: 28 count raw natural Cashel linen by Zweigart


Fibers: Crescent Colours cotton floss in Bamboo, Blackbird, Sassy Brass, Weeping Willow, and Wild Berries.

Well, I best be off. Have a ton of stuff to do before work today. Hope everyone has a fantastic week! :)


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Respectfully submitted,


C.

Slán go fóill, Cara Dílis

In the Irish Celtic language, the title of this post means, "Goodbye, faithful friend". As today is St. Patrick's Day, I thought it was appropriate as I am retiring my favorite pair of scissors. They are a pair of Soligen DOVOs and I've had them for over 10 years now. A few years ago, I took them to be sharpened and the 'gentleman' who sharpened them stripped the screw that holds the blades together, and as consequence, they did not snip as well as they once did. I can't even get them repaired, because the screw is basically frozen in place. I know it's silly to be sad and upset about having to replace a pair of scissors, but they were the first really nice thing I purchased for my stitching back when Noah was drawing up plans for the Ark.


I never named them or anything, but they are very near and dear to my heart. They were wretchedly expensive at the time, 55 dollars US, if I recall correctly. I remember telling myself that if I purchased these, I was totally committed to stitching, because 55 dollars is a LOT of money to spend on a tiny pair of scissors. I waffled so much on the purchase, I thought I was going to have to put a Waffle House sign up in my stitching area. Eventually, I went into A Stitch In Time in Jacksonville, Florida and asked to see them outside of the case. As soon as I put my bourgeoisie mitts on these elegant and highly refined pair of scissors, I knew in my heart I was doomed. I immediately plunked down my VISA gift card that I got from my employer that year for Christmas, and I have never regretted the purchase. I loved the weight and heft to them and they cut threads oh, like a hot knife going through butter. They have served me for many, many years and have done so faithfully.

Here they are with the Royal Sealy China cup and saucer that was given to me by my grandmother upon her death. It was reputedly her mother's, but I have no provenance for that.

Here is a closeup where you can see the screw that holds the blades together is torn up:

I will probably create a design to stitch and display them on my wall near my desk. I have toyed off and on with using them occasionally, but honestly, the blades are getting very dull and since they cannot be repaired, I'd rather stitch up something nice in silk threads and perhaps some silk linen and give them the place of honor they deserve.


As consequence to all this, DH said that for my birthday, I could pick out another pair of scissors, even the same ones if I wanted those. I looked online and only found them Nordic Needle . Teh Hubmeister said he was ok with me getting them, but at almost 65 dollars, I balked at the cost (I don't even want to discuss what it was to ship them!). I thought I would go down to my LNS to see what DOVOs they had in stock. Nothing really grabbed me and the lady that owns the shop said that my best bet would be to just order them online as they did not have an order in for the company and it would cost at least twice the amount to order one lonely pair and take forever and three days to get here. She said she appreciated me coming in and trying to buy from her first, but she didn't have it in her to do that to me. I appreciated her honesty and thanked her for it. I found a nice lovely pair of French Bohin scissors instead. I purchased the 'Coeur' edition and I love them. The price was 18.00 and you can't beat that with a stick!

At any rate, here are my birthday goodies:


1 pair of the Bohin Ciseaux à broder 'Coeur'

2 packages of Bohin tapestry needles, size 26

JBW Designs 'La Fraise' chart

La Broderie's Crescent Moon Sampler

Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly Summer 2010 magazine


and Cross Stitch and Needlework July 2010 magazine. With all this, I still spent less than I would have buying just the DOVOs online. Go me, haha!


Stitchy stash!




And here is a closeup of the new Bohins, with my latest project, The Busy Needle. Haven't gotten a whole lot accomplished, but that's the way it goes, I suppose.


Design: The Busy Needle, created exclusively for The Busy Needle in Tuscon, AZ. (Sadly, this is now out of print and the shop has now closed due to the owner's illness as I have been told.)



Designer: Diane Williams for Little House Needleworks


Fabric: 28 count raw natural Cashel linen by Zweigart


Fibers: Crescent Colours cotton floss in Bamboo, Blackbird, Sassy Brass, Weeping Willow, and Wild Berries.

Well, I best be off. I need to put the kettle on again and get to stitching. Beannacht Dé leat! :)


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Respectfully submitted,


C.




PS: Perhaps I will name the DOVOs after the Duchesse de Polignac. She was best friend and favorite of one of my favorite Queens, Marie Antoinette. She was also a part of Marie Antoinette's Société Particulière de la Reine, or Particular Society of the Queen, that being the Queen's inner circle. Marie Antoinette had her domain and her faithful companions, just as we all do. Something to think about at any rate! :)

Birthday Pi Day

Hello out there in blogland. Hope everyone is having a great Pi Day. Pi Day is celebrated by math enthusiasts around the world on March 14th. Pi = 3.1415926535. It is also Albert Einstein's birthday. It is also my birthday as well, and I am celebrating by breaking my 'No New Starts' rule and I started a new project today because honestly, Honey Badger doesn't care.



At any rate, here is my new start:


Design: The Busy Needle, created exclusively for The Busy Needle in Tuscon, AZ. (Sadly, this is now out of print and the shop has now closed due to the owner's illness as I have been told.)



Designer: Diane Williams for Little House Needleworks


Fabric: 28 count raw natural Cashel linen by Zweigart


Fibers: Crescent Colours cotton floss in Bamboo, Blackbird, Sassy Brass, Weeping Willow, and Wild Berries.

Not much of a start, but I am enjoying it, as I do all of Little House Needleworks patterns. I am probably going to stitch this twice, so unfortunately, I am not parting with the pattern. I can see stitching this at least three more times. It's a charming piece and I am glad I purchased it as soon as I had the opportunity.


Well, I best be going. I need to sit some more in the fading afternoon sun and stitch. It will do this rapidly aging old woman some good. :)


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Respectfully submitted,


C.

A Very Merry Spring!

Just a quick post before I have to bolt for the door to go into work. I wanted something quick and springy to stitch on so I pulled this out of my stash. I think the floss goes perfect with it!



Design: A Very Merry Spring



Designer: JBW Designs



Fabric: 28 count raw linen by Zweigart


Fibers: Kara's Quilt by SanMan Strands (discontinued floss line)

Well, I hate to post and run, but I gotta go. Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend! :)


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Respectfully submitted,


C.

Now I Know My ABC's Redux

Here is my latest finish. It was a three day start and finish. I was feeling strung out from working so much over the weekend and I wanted something soothing and nothing overly complicated. I wanted to just zone out and enjoy the process of stitching and this fit the bill. In keeping with my edicts for using what is on hand, I re-used the chart that I had printed out before and used what fabric, floss and accouterments I had on hand. It was a fun, fast finish and I am even writing down the versions I am stitching on the back of the chart. :)


As always, stitchy notes first!



Design: Now I Know My ABC's



Designer: Blackbird Designs


Fabric: 28 count natural raw linen from Zweigart


Floss: Access Commodities Soie d'Alger #17 cream


Accouterments: cream button and angel charm from personal stash







Well, I must be off. Today is the start of my work week and I need to go do some chores before I go into work tonight. Hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! :)


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Respectfully submitted,

C.