Mar 13/18

The head cold is finally letting up so the stitching, reading, walking the dogs and general getting back to normal is in full force. Here is what is rolling off my needle these days:

I found the geometric pattern on pinterest, but once I was done stitching, I felt that it was missing something. I played with colour combinations until I found a handful of threads that were pleasing to my eye. Then, I started stitching. Initially, I had an idea of doing a vertical pattern of colour where I would fill in three little blocks with the same colour and then switch to another colour until the end of the row. The next row would have been staggered to prevent a block/square effect. Once, I started stitching, I decided that I preferred to do three down and then three across as a "row". After seeing the top right corner left uncoloured, I decided to break up the shading after the blue rows and the bit of purple is where I stopped this evening because my eyes were starting to droop. The movement and the colours are really pleasing to my eye and they should work well with the next pattern that I want to play with as part of my triptych.

Jan 28/18

The weekend was kind of quiet here as the fella' has come down with what I have diagnosed as the flu. He does not have a fever, but he has the muscle aches, headache and sick feeling. He spent the weekend camped out in bed or in the over-sized living room chair so I spent the weekend stitching and looking after the four critters. Here are two bookmarks that I stitched in between nursing him,  letting the dogs in and out and in and out and feeding the cats. I stitched the one on the right on Saturday night and the one on the left on Sunday (today). They are both adaptations of patterns for beaded bracelets, done on a scrap piece of ivory 14 count Aida and stitched with threads from the scrap bag of threads.

I am not sure just yet how I will finish them. The current idea is to cut a piece of cardboard that is slightly smaller than the stitched area, iron the corners and baste the stitched piece so that it forms around the cardboard before attaching a piece of felt to the back either with glue or sewing. I should finish them sooner rather than later as I am using a scratch pad as a bookmark in the book "The Bronze Horseman" that I am reading for my Friday night book club.

The other bit of sewing I did this weekend was the repair on the comforter that the puppy has been pulling apart. She had pulled open a seam and was pulling out the stuffing every time that she could get into the spare room. I mended a hole along the seam that was almost 2 feet long!! Good thing that the puppy is cute!!

Happy stitching!

Jan 22/18

I just put the last stitches into this book mark! It was one of those things where I was determined to finish before I go to bed tonight which was a challenge because I did not pick it up until 10:30pm. My day was spent resting because last night I strained the muscles that I tore in my back on Boxing Day and then we had supper with friends. The pattern on pinterest was designed for some kind of bracelet, according to the link when I clicked through on the link. I loved the colours when I saw the pattern and decided that I had to do the pattern as a cross stitch. The piece is stitched on a cream 14ct Aida with threads from my scrap bag. My scrap thread bag is finally starting to look a little smaller with all of these projects that have been stitched using those threads. Is it weird that I was a little excited by how much thread this project used and that my scrap thread bag was just that much emptier? The piece is stitched 2 threads over 1 with a full cross and I guesstimate it to be 2 inches by 6 inches. 

As a volunteer, I do a shift or two per month at the opportunity shop run by the local health auxiliary. I usually go in at least half an hour early to tidy up and to put up any donations that have come in. I had a few minutes before I opened the doors the other day so I dug around in the craft supply bin and found these kilt pins. Who knows how I will end up using them, but they are kind of interesting and I am certain that I can find a way to use them.

Edited to add: TUSAL time! My apologies for being a few days late on this month's effort. My TUSAL includes thread, some perforated paper and a few other odds and ends chucked in as I worked away on my book marks and ornament this month. What's a TUSAL? Please click the link on my side board.

Time for bed. Happy stitching!

Jan 14/18

Reading is something that I have taken up again. Last summer, I started to make an effort to first read Canadian authors and then, I joined a book club formed by another military spouse so that has opened my brain up to some books that I may have never otherwise read. All of my book marks have either disappeared or were donated when I was packing to move to Nova Scotia. This pattern was found on pinterest and stitched on a 14 count Aida with threads from my scrap bag. The Aida is a yellowy beige colour that is not showing well in this photo. This book mark reflects my love for the felines who live here and my love of reading.

My eyes were getting tired as I was putting in the last stitches. Today has been a productive day even though I have been in relaxed mode all day. Two continuing education lessons were completed this morning, a letter was handwritten to be included in a parcel that should have been mailed before Christmas, two loads of laundry were done, the puppy had a play date with the puppy of a friend from the book club, I walked the Lab before supper and this book mark was stitched. Whew! Off to bed I go now.

Happy stitching!

Jan 13/18

A quick little project on this wintry night.

I started this late this afternoon and just put the last stitch into the fabric a few moments ago. I used this font again and threads from my scrap bag on a scrap piece of opalescent Lugana. I quite like how the different colours have come together in the lettering on this fabric. Now to decide how to finish these two pieces that I have stitched.

The weather was kind of crazy today with a high of 18C (in January in Canada???) so I spent my afternoon shopping at this amazing yarn shop in the Gaspereau Valley and shampooing dog barf out of the back seat of my car. The yarn shop, Gaspereau Valley Fibres, is a must-see for any one who loves yarn and colour and cool experiences. The shop is in one of the old out buildings of the family farm and is so interesting to visit. There are yarns and finished products displayed all around the main room. Looms are set up to show you how weaving is done on the looms they sell. The woman I spoke with was so keen to share her love of weaving with me and passed on so many helpful ideas on how to get started with the table top loom that I am going to borrow from my mother. If you ever happen to find yourself in Nova Scotia, a trip to Gaspereau Valley Fibres should be on your list of things to do if you have any interest in knitting, weaving, yarn or interesting country road drives. 

The temperatures have been dropping rapidly this evening so we should see the return of winter tomorrow. I think that I would rather have had the precipitation come as snow because the flooding that is going on is scary. Tomorrow will be an icy mess in this part of the country. Fortunately, it is Sunday so we can be lazy and stay home!

Happy stitching!

Jan 7/18

So, what to do when a surprise snow storm hits and the temperatures have been -20C or so with the windchill? Well, curl up on the couch and stitch, of course! Our weather has been frigid since Christmas with a constant flurry of snow that is amounting to a decent amount of snow. Yesterday, a dumping of 15cm of snow fell and there was nothing in the forecast. This picture is of our way of embracing winter. The temperature last night may have been -26C with the windchill and we stood as close as we could to the firepit to gain any warmth, but we were having FUN!

I just put the last few stitches in to this cute design that I started yesterday on a scrap piece of 28 count linen. You can find the pattern here on pinterest. I used threads from my scrap bag with a little supplementation from my DMC stash of skeins. The stitching is probably 4" by 4" if I remember correctly from my measuring of the cloth when I pulled it out of the fabric stash. Heart shaped ornaments are really catching my eye these days. Not sure why the affinity for hearts, perhaps because there has been a fair bit of emotional and physical healing in this house these past few months. There is something soothing to me about hearts.

Stay warm and happy stitching!

Dec 4/17

Three weeks and two antibiotics later, my life is slowly starting to come back together. I had finished a 10 day course of antibiotics on Thursday and went back to work that same day. I was exhausted, but glad to have a bit of normalcy after being in bed for 2.5 weeks. The next day, the phlegm changed colour so my doctor saw me on an emergency visit. He heard some stuff in my lungs so he prescribed me an antibiotic to take if my symptoms worsened. I started it that evening after hacking and coughing all day at work. I am resting lots in between things like the Christmas party that I went to last night for my Rotary club and only doing what is absolutely necessary around the house like letting the dogs out.

Now that I am no longer bedridden, I am resting in the living room with a needle in my hand. Here are two ornaments that I have stitched this week for friends and family. I found the pattern on pinterest and added the heart in because pets have a big piece of my heart!

The first one is for one of the fella's sisters as her family has a chocolate Lab.

The second one is for a friend of mine who has five dogs and a puppy. The colours represent the different colours of the dogs. I am going to stitch one in all black for another one of the fella's sisters who has a black Lab mix.

Happy stitching!

Nov 29/17

Well, it is back to work tomorrow for me, fingers crossed. Today is the best that I have felt in weeks.

I had felt great on Monday so I started my Christmas stitching for my co-workers. My tradition for many years now has been to give my co-workers a stitched ornament. There are several stitched ornaments in a bag upstairs in the craft room, but finishing may not be happening before Christmas this year. Fortunately, I found these cute little Charlescraft stockings that I bought several years ago while visiting New England where I stop into every Joann's that I can find to check out their sales. I used this pattern from pinterest to do the lettering which looks super cute on these stockings. To finish off the gift, I will add miniature candy canes so that the stockings will have a little gift in them.

Front:

Back:

Happy stitching!

April 2, 2017

This pattern was a pain in the butt thanks to the pain in my head. I feel like I stitched this twice with all of the stitches that I ripped out because I miscounted all over the place! Seasonal allergies suck! Every time I made a mistake, I became more determined to get this friggin' piece done tonight so that I would be done with it. The pattern comes from pinterest and will be going to the grandchild of a dear friend of mine. By morning, my feelings of frustration should have dissipated and the love for my friend will restore this bib to being gift-worthy.

My plan for tomorrow is to match the colours in the scrap piece of CADPAT (the camouflage pattern used on the Canadian military uniforms) that I have and to start a bib in that pattern. There are a few military families around me who are having babies this year. I am considering selling the bibs if I can get the pattern designs and colours just right. My other plan for tomorrow is to get my tomato seeds planted and set up on the window sills so that we will have something to plant once the warm weather arrives in a few months.

Happy stitching!

April 1, 2017

The fingers were smoking tonight! I started this one around supper time and stitched the back shut just now at 10pm. The pattern comes from pinterest and the pattern was chosen by a friend of mine who used to sing this all the time to her daughter when she was an infant. The bib is now going to a baby about to arrive in their family. When I was looking through my stash, I found 8 other bibs that I had purchased. The inner workings of the brain of a cross stitch addict are a funny little cogs and wheels. Yes! Let's order 12 bibs to stitch! It is a deal and baby bibs are cute! Order more stuff for the stash! 

Now, this tired stitcher is going to drag herself to bed. I have had a busy week between work, Rotary club stuff and being out most evenings. This tiredness is a good tired from making memories with friends and giving out bike helmets to elementary students from our Rotary club. Happy stitching!

March 30, 2017 the second time around

Since I posted the TUSAL post, we have acquired a new to us kitty named Pebbles and I finished the two bibs that were in the works. Pebbles is currently hiding out behind the bed in our spare room so no photos of her at the moment. For your viewing pleasure and my stitching record, I bring you my most recent finishes:

The bibs are Janlynn bibs that have a fleecy backing. I sewed down the backing to avoid a weird, food catching, baby ripping pocket that had been open at the top to allow stitching. I bought 6 or 8 of them from eBay over a year ago and were inspired to stitch them when I started my decluttering campaign. The campaign continues even though it does not look like we are moving this posting season. Two bibs and several skeins of threads depleted. Bam! That's how I git'er done!

March 19, 2017

So, this was one of my views this past week. Not much stitching occurred while we sunbathed on the beach and thoroughly enjoyed being far away from snow and any temperatures below 25C. Actually, no stitching occurred despite my best intentions of at least stitching on the flights to and from the Dominican Republic. We spent a fabulous week at the Gran Bahia Principe resort in Punta Cana, DR, celebrating our friends' wedding and loving the resort life.

A few minutes after we said hello to the dog and dropped our bags on the floor, I started stitching this piece. The pattern comes from pinterest and will be given as a baby shower gift. One of my coworkers has commissioned me to stitch this for her.

Now to return to stitching on this little bib so that I can keep my focus away from the many mosquito bites on my legs that are driving me crazy!

Happy stitching!

March 7, 2017

Here is a sneak peek at the bib I am working on. The pattern comes from pinterest.

I think that the piece is adorable and for once, there is no end goal in sight. A friend of mine is due in May, but they do not know the sex of the baby and this one is rather pink although I am sick of the whole "pink for girls, blue for boys" thing. Who cares?? Is the item clean and good repair? That is all that should count. Gender colour social conditioning be damned! That being said, I have some other patterns that are not pink or blue so I may stitch that up for the little one after I stitch up the one I have promised to a co-worker. There are 6 or 8 bibs in my stash pile so this line of decluttering will keep me busy for a bit.

The decluttering of the craft supplies has been successful enough that some of the shelves now see daylight. No more boxes on the floor in front of the shelving unit and fewer random stuff like a note that I found that only had "wasted" on it. Slow and steady is winning the battle against clutter.

Happy stitching!

February 27, 2017

Here it is! The thirteenth mitten. (pinterest) Who knew that I could squeeze so many cute designs onto a piece of fabric that I detest using usually. My next step will be to figure out how to finish them all before washing the pieces and finishing them. Finishing is not my favourite thing to do so I usually drag my feet about doing it, but in the interest of downsizing the mess in the spare room, I have promised myself that finishing will be a priority.  Plus, we are still in limbo as we wait for the posting (transfer) notices to come out so I am both killing time by doing this stitching and trying to get ahead for Christmas stitching.

Since I have bought up enough fabric for quite a while, I am going to share a great source for cross stitch fabric that I stumbled across on ebay recently. The seller is named Jennifer and she has a large array of fabrics and colours for sale. Her prices are quite reasonable and her shipping rates to Canada are amazing. Usually between the US to Canadian dollar exchange rate and the shipping rates to Canada, it is very expensive for me to buy fabrics from American sellers so it was a joy to find this seller and to have such great fabrics arrive in my mail box. I was so thrilled that I recently placed a second order to bulk up my fabric stash which was seriously depleted because there are no decent places around here to buy cross stitch fabric. Check her out! I highly recommend this seller.

February 20, 2017

Here is today's finish, another mitten! You can find the pattern here on pinterest.  I am surprised that I could finish this piece this evening as my hands were so cold and I had such a chill from walking the dog along our favourite beach on the Bay of Fundy. The wind was cold coming off the water and I was chilled to the bone when we got home. The dog had a blast running on the rocks and smelling all of the smells that comes with the ocean. Happy stitching!

February 12, 2017

This mitten was started yesterday as we hunkered down at home for the evening. The design comes from pinterest with a loose following of the colour key, using threads from my scrap thread bag. I love the colours and may play with some other colour combinations in a variation or two.

Winter was late arriving to the East Coast of Canada, but it has arrived with a vengeance with snow and cold. We had a snowstorm early Friday morning and we are expecting a blizzard any moment with anticipated snowfall of anywhere up to 50cm over the next 24 hours. The temperature was -14C when I left for work yesterday morning. I went snowshoeing this morning with the dog to get her well exercised before we hibernate again for a day or so. One of the cool things about living by an airbase is seeing all of the planes. The crews were getting in their flying time today, a normally quiet day here, in ahead of the storm so there were several planes taking off and landing as we walked the base golf course. Maggie is so used to the planes that she does not even wake from her naps while my friend's dogs were stopping to look every time a plane went over.

Tomorrow will be a day of stitching, shovelling and eating storm chips! Happy stitching every one.

February 1, 2017

Does any one else find the first day of the month impossible? I think that I wrote January on every thing I dated today at work before remembering that we are now in February. 

I managed to wear out Maggie, and by extension me, yesterday. Doesn't she look adorable when she is passed out on the couch between my fella' and me. Her head was resting on my leg when I took this photo last night.

No stitching was accomplished yesterday as the day was full of continuing education, walks with the dog and curling. I had a harrowing drive home after work in a snow storm which added a half hour to my commute. The road conditions were quite slippery so it was a great relief to chill out and make some headway on the fourth mitten of my series. I would stay up late to finish this piece from pinterest, but I need to be up early tomorrow to run an errand before work. Happy stitching!

January 29, 2017

I had hoped to finish stitching this mitten today on what has been a most lazy Sunday. Some of my fingers are starting to hurt so it is time to put down the needle and thread. The pattern is from pinterest and is the third in my series of six. There are two things that I love about these mittens: they are adorable to stitch and they are using up so much of my scrap thread collection. Operation De-clutter continues on all levels in this house.

While I was in the spare room getting dressed today, I dragged out this tote of frames that I had purchased shortly after we moved into this house. A handful of the frames did get used for some projects that I had done for my fella's kids, but I did not use up near as many as I had thought would get used. There are easily 20-25 frames in that tote so I pulled out a few that I could see me using, gave a few to a friend who has recently rebuilt her home after a fire and the remainder are listed on a local yard sale site. The tote is just taking up room on my shelving and perhaps someone else will have a more immediate need for them.

January 28, 2017

And done. Nothing like a cold and wintry day to finish some stitching.

January 27, 2017

Thanks to a bug of some sort, the stitching has been slow going this week. I have been feeling crappy on a low grade scale for the past week, dragging my butt home at the end of the day and having little or no energy to stitch. Trying to focus or concentrate has been next to impossible so the stitching has suffered. This mitten has taken me 3 evenings to get this far and yet, still incomplete! The pattern can be found here on pinterest. Here is hoping that my immune system will clear this bug by tomorrow so that I can enjoy the weekend. Happy stitching!