My Little Hearts - April

I finished the April installment this past weekend. Here it is so far.

Cubs Season Opener

Even Murphy is sad that the Cubs lost their opening game......

March Progress and April Goals

March Progress
Bavarian Table Topper yes
Pin cushion for exchange yes
10 hours on Rocky Mountain Christmas no
10 hours on Logan’s stocking yes
October cup ‘o Tea yes
7th day of Texas Christmas ornament yes
Quilt square for Loves Quilts yes
March Handblessings project yes
afghan square #8 yes
Mystery sampler part 8 no
Work on Cloister garden no
Meine Herzchen January yes
Meine Herzchen February yes
Meine Herzchen March yes
EMS Rose Sampler Part 1 yes
Start a Counted Canvas project yes started Crystal Iris
Start Bent Creek photo booth no
Start a LHN Ornament no


April Goals
Bavarian Table Topper
10 hours on Rocky Mountain Christmas
10 hours on Logan’s stocking
November cup ‘o Tea
8th day of Texas Christmas ornament
Quilt square for Loves Quilts
April Handblessings project
afghan square #9
Mystery sampler part 8
Work on Cloister garden
Meine Herzchen April
EMS Rose Sampler Part 2
Work on Crystal Iris
Bent Creek photo booth
LHN Ornament

Love Quilts finish

I finally finished a square for Love Quilts. I had resolved to stitch at least 1 square each for this worthwhile cause, but it has to be stitched on aida, and I hate stitching on aida. The design is from Stoney Creek's Jungle Babies.

Last year, I didn't stitch a square because every chart I picked up had tons of fractional stitches and since it has to be stitched on aida (did I mention I hate stitching aida?) I just couldn't bring myself to stitch. This year I found a design without fractional stitches, but it had large color blocks.....can you say boring? I am just glad it is done!

Off to stitch something else on my list, on evenweave....did I mention that I hate stitching on aida?

A Year of Favor from the Lord Quilt project

At our guild meeting on Tuesday, we received the March chart for this project.

I stitched it up right away, so here you can see the first three months of the project.

Eileen Gurak, of Handblessings Designs told us that this is a promotal chart, and we could pass on copies of the design to anyone that wanted it. So....if any of you in blogger land are interested in stitching this piece, let me know and I can mail you the first three charts, and then send you three more charts every three months.

Spring!

Last spring I was part of an exchange with the Divas, but my part of the exchange never arrived. It is floating out there somewhere, or was misdirected by the USPS. Although I told Nancy not to, she stitched another piece for me and I just love it! It is so perfect for this time of year. I just love bunnies and Easter and spring and flowers and baskets....so I don't have to tell you that I just love this cube!

Thank you Nancy, you didn't have to, but I am glad you did!

October Cup 'O Tea

10 down and 2 to go!

I finished up the October Tea Cup chart the other day. I am really fond of Halloween, so I wasn't sure I was going to like this design, but I just couldn't skip a month so I just bit the bullet and stitched it. I suprised myself and found it really enjoyable to stitch.

Only two more tea cups left to do!

The Sending of the Green

I recently participated in a "Green" exchange on the Threads of Life message board. I received this wonderful package from Elaine. So many lovely green things. I especially love the Ladybug socks!

Below you can see what I sent Suzie for this exchange. It was fun hunting for green things to include.

7th Day of Texas Christmas

Since I am back to my rotation, I was able to stitch up the 7th in this series of Texas ornaments. Only 5 more to go!

Northwood Afghan progress

I finally got back to the Northwoods afghan and stitched another pine tree block. I have 8 blocks stitched to date. Hopefully I can stay back on track and get this finished in 2010.

EMS Rose Sampler, Take Two

I stitched Ellen Maurer-Stoh's Rose Sampler in 2008. I loved stitching it, but the end result was a rather large piece even though it was stitched on 32 count fabric. I had no place to hang such a large piece, so I gave it to Sue who loves it! She has it hanging in her home office.

I still love the piece. The cabbage roses and the scalloped part near the top remind me very much of a piece of embroidery that hung in my Oma's kitchen as I was growing up. The roses and scallops are traditional Austro-Hungarian themes and are close to my heart. I knew I had to stitch the piece again for myself.

This time I am stitching it on 25 count antique white Lugana over 1 thread with 1 strand of DMC Variations floss. Part 1 is now finished, and I am please with the way it looks. Perhaps next month I can stitch part 2.

My Little Heart SAL

Sylvia is hosting a Stitch-a-long on her blog! My Little Hearts is her own design, and she is releasing 1 square per month. I have finished the first 3 months to date. I did adjustments to the colors in the border and the hearts in each square, and I am quite happy with the results. I look forward to stitching these sweet little charts each month.

A 12 Part Stitch-a-Long

The EGA Chapter that I belong to has a 12-part project that many of us are doing. The vice president of our chapter is Eileen Gurak of Handblessings Designs and she is sharing her designs with us.








I had a great deal of trouble tracking down the fabric and one of the fibres, but I finally got it all together and was able to get the January and
February installments stitched. We will be receiving the next chart at our March meeting and I look forward to stitching it.

February Progress and March Goals

After a bunch of model stitching (most of it on short notice) both last year and the past two months, I finally feel like I can get my rotation back on track. I am much more productive in my stitching if I set goals for myself, so here we are!

February Progress
Start Bavarian Table Topper yes
Finish Thank Heaven for Little Girls Model yes
Valentine Ornament yes
September Cup ‘O Tea yes
January Handblessings project yes
February Handblessings project yes


March Goals
Bavarian Table Topper
Pin cushion for exchange
10 hours on Rocky Mountain Christmas
10 hours on Logan’s stocking
October cup ‘o Tea
7th day of Texas Christmas ornament
Quilt square for Loves Quilts
March Handblessings project
afghan square #8
Mystery sampler part 8
Work on Cloister garden

Back to the Tea Cups

Now that the emergency model stitching is done, I can get back to my regularly scheduled stitchine. I am quite behind on my rotation, and all my goals have just flown out the window.

I stitched the September Cup 'O Tea chart from Just Another Button Company this past week. It was a bit frustrating as I ran out of the main color and had to hunt down more so that I could continue stitching. Then there was the visit from the frog, causing me to restitch the outside border 4 (yes, count 'em, 4) times! But I finally got it right!

A New to Me Shop

I am still short some floss for an upcoming project, and I didn't want to drive all the way out to Welcome Stitchery for just a little bit. I remembered this needlepoint shop in Northbrook, not to far from my office, so that's where I went on Tuesday's lunch hour.

North Shore Needleworks is great shop, even if you don't do Needlepoint! It has lots and lots of fibres! I was able to pick up the few skeins of Weeks that I needed, and was able to check out the Caron Wildflowers colors so that I can make some color changes to a future project. I wouldn't go there for lots of overdyed cotton, because they are a bit more expensive than Welcome Stitchery, but when you need one or two skeins, it is a handy option.

I found out that they also do framing and finishing, so I will keep them in mind for those services, too.

A Monday Trip

Monday morning found me driving to Rockford, Illinois. The trip was not for pleasure, we were saying our final farewells to Paul Dawson, brother of dear friend Nancy, who left us much too soon. It was a tearful yet joyful celebration of his life.




But, what does a sad cross stitcher do to lift her spirits? She engages in some retail therapy, of course! Some stash enhancement! Luckily, the Needle and I was just up the road! The shop is rather small, but had a good selection of fibres. Cross stitch isn't really their priority, as the owner is also the designer of From Nancy's Needle, a design company specializing in counted canvas work. The designs are lovely, I have completed one and have a number if them patiently waiting in the wings.





Luckily, the shop had the two skeins of floss that I so desperately needed and couldn't get anywhere locally. I browsed around the shop for awhile, but there was nothing that caught my eye, so I left with my meager purchase and started the drive home.




I stopped at the Huntley Outlet Mall because I had never been there and didn't have to be anywhere for the rest of the day. I wasn't really in the mood to shop, but stopped in a few shops anyway. Lucky for me, the Kitchen Collection had the crock pot I have been looking for! It's a three-in-one crock pot, with three different size crocks. Two years ago, I received this crock pot from my children for Mother's Day but it arrived broken. I took it back to the store, and haven't been able to replace until today! Yeah! I can't wait to use it!


After the outlet mall, I stopped in Elgin to hug Logan. It made a sad day so much better!

Model Stitching Finish

I have been stitching away at this Sue Hillis Model for the last few weeks, and finished it tonight. It was stitched on 28 count antique white Lugana with DMC floss.

Sue will be releasing this and the companion piece at the Nashville Market coming up. My sister, Trudi, stitched the model of the companion piece.

Sue's charts are always a pleasant stitch, but this one had a lot of color changes, and fussy backstitching. I was happy to help her out, but I am glad to get back to my regularly scheduled stitching.

Happy Valentine's Day

Here is my Valentine finish which was sent to Sara.

Sara was my partner in the Divas' Valentine exchange, and I originally wanted to stitch a hardanger heart for her, but then I was asked to stitch a model for Nashville, I knew I wouldn't have the time to devote to the hardanger piece.

Plan B was a biscornu with hearts on it. Seemed like a good idea at the time, except that when I was almost finished I remembered

that I had already sent that same biscornu to Sara for a previous exchange. Plan C was the ornament that you see pictured here. It is a free chart that I found on a blog. Seemed like a good idea. It stitched up quite quickly, and then I took a peek at Sara's blog, and saw that she had also stitched this freebie! Now what? It was too late to go to plan D, so I sent it to her along with some other goodies. Now she has two of the same ornament. I hope she can forgive my lack of originality.

Valentine Stitching from the Frozen North

I received this lovely Valentine ornament in the mail from Viv this week. I love the ornament!

Sent along some lovely overdyed floss to remind me that spring is on the way, as well as a card with a picture of where she lives, and shere she drives to work every day. What beautiful scenery in the Yukon!

Thanks Viv, I love it!