Get me out of this subdivision already

Weekly check in on the gameboard progress (or lack thereof). I put in a couple more hours on the gameboard and now have less than 4 houses and 6 motifs. One of the houses has to be charted yet since it will be my house. I also want to put a flag in the signature square since this piece is already signed and dated in the border.
(28 houses-26 motifs)


Amazing what you'll find if you dig deep enough.

Come Let Us Adore Him (Lizzie*Kate) was finished in the final days of 2002. I started it early enough, but I suffered a broken elbow in San Diego in mid-November. I was off work for 8 weeks and considered this piece (and winding onto bobbins an entire collection of Anchor floss I won on ebay for like $78) my therapy. I have everything ready to frame this piece one of these weekends when I do the framing frenzy, then it can stop floating around my house like an illusive ghost.



The Mary Garry Christmas Heart Pincushion (2000 JCS orn) was stitched in 2003 and I was all ready to finish it when it was lost. I've thought about it from time to time, but never found it until this weekend. (You'll notice that with just two stitches I could have turned this into a 2008 ornament).

WMN 2003-2006

Here we have a rare non-Sunday post about something I've made progress on this week. Heaven knows that gameboard hasn't seen the light of day, even if my intentions were good.

The subject line above means With My Needle JCS issues 2003-2004-2005-2006. I've been stitching the designs that Ellen has in those issues and so far I have three of the five pieces in this series stitched. These are a really quick stitch and I'm doing mine on Belfast linen with Threadgatherers 'In The Reds'.

The pieces in the issues and that I've stitched are as follows:
2003 - A Needleworker's Pocket
2004 - Christmas Swan Needlebook (top left)
2005 - A Quaker Scissors Sheath (right side)
2006 - Quaker Pinkeep and Scissor Weight (scissor weight- bottom left)

March Ornament

Another Sunday, another finish. This is Christmas Basket by Catherine Theron (JCS orn99). I had barely started this in February and then promptly lost it in a sea of WIP baggies, and when found this morning, I worked about an hour and it was suddenly done.

Not a lot of stitching hours this past week, but I worked on Mermaid and the Sea (EFTH) when there was and tried to enjoy every stitch. I can actually see progress made on this one when I look at the picture in my album of where it was when I started. And yes I do realize that I am hands down the messiest stitcher on the face of the Earth. At work we all laugh about having A.D.D. because we can't seem to work on any one thing for very long and we're off to something else. I call it multi-tasking, my cohorts say otherwise. At least having those threads hanging there give me lots of jumping off places of where to go next without having to haul out the thread.

Here it is a week later. Not much progress this weekend. I have a few houses that just need a little polish and hope to do that this week. I have to chart out my own house and figure out how to sign this thing before I can call it done. 10 houses, 8 motifs and a border of letters and numbers and I'm there.

(24 houses-24 motifs)

Not feeling the gameboard love

As you can see below, I finished my February ornament.

In todays picture you can see the tiny progress I made in the couple hours of attention the gameboard got this weekend. I have totally hit the wall on this project. You can also see the way I organize my threads when I stitch something that has lots of fibers. I use a homemade palette and put the symbols on it so that I never have to look at the key on the chart again. This keeps me from having to wind floss back on the bobbin or from having a little rats nest of stray threads in my bag.

(24 houses-23 motifs)

This week I'm going to treat myself to something I've not touched in a long time and enjoy every stitch.

Winter's Eve, with color changes.

You guessed it. The trim on my house is this color. But only because my husband wouldn't go for dark purple. MEN!

Cherish with Buttons

The 11 buttons came in the mail Monday, and tonight I got around to attaching them. They are adorable and really do set the piece off. The last charm is a little oval that looks like a frame and inside it says "CHERISH". I'm so glad that I was a part of this program, it was a very fun year.

Cherish Sampler by Shepherd's Bush

February Ornament

I KNOW, I KNOW, it's March already. I did so little stitching in February that I never did get an ornament finished. I started this one this evening and made good progress on it. It's got a few changes (my moons are always blue and the trim on my house is raspberry). I enjoy stitching this so much that I may have to do one with the suggested colors. This should be finished tonight and then I can move on to a March Ornament.

DT Gameboard Progress

After not working on this piece for a month I gave it some attention this morning and can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Cherish the Finish

This is Cherish by Shepherd's Bush. It's been a year in the making as this was a year long special project that Shepherd's Bush put together. I heard the buttons and last charm are in the mail to us as I type this, so stay tuned.

Finishing Week

I didn't really feel that much better, but I did manage to stitch some and do the finish work on a couple of pieces this past week. I stitched the Essy scissor sheath by Indigo Rose and finished it, and finished The Heart's Content Spruce fob.

Valentines Day package over the pond

I'm still miserable with a sore throat and haven't stitched much the past three weeks, but I'll share the Valentines Day gift I sent to a friend over the pond that arrived a day or so late. I covered one of those boxes you get at Michael's with some darling pink ribbon fabric I found at JoAnn's. I included all things PINK in the box that I could find...beads, ribbons, threads (no pink thread rings, so those are purple). The sweet little wooden heart thread pallette was one that Merry Cox had for sale at the Shepherd's Bush retreat last fall. This was a fun project to do and I hope to do more of it in the future.