Okay one more...

Had a bit of nervous energy last night thinking of my travel plans so I decided to find something to do. I grabbed my little Prairie Schooler Santa and finished him into a pinkeep. Quite happy with the way he turned out.

Ain't she pretty?!

Christmas Past, Book #51

by Prairie Schooler

I managed to squeeze off one more finish before I  head out on vacation. This is from one of  the charts I purchased last weekend. Think I'll kit one or two more and take them along with me. Not sure I will have much time for stitching while visiting with my family but there is bound to be some down time or at least some long chats around the kitchen table so I can do something then.

Weekend Update

No week is complete without a little stash enhancement. Thanks to Brenda I was enabled when she gave us a link to Cross-Stitch-Art and I just had to get these two. I plan to stitch Scorpio Mandala for my daughter.

Cross-Stitch Art

I finished the first snowman from the new Prairie Schooler leaflet, Santas & Snowmen, Book #151 which I purchased at my LNS last weekend. Love how he turned out. Hope to get to the others while I'm on vacation.

We recently had a discussion in one of my groups about scissors so I decided to gather mine up and take a picture of them. I think I have a long ways to go before my collection is deemed as "obscene" (as the hubby of one friend put it). LOL!

I also added the latest installment to my Book of Ink Circles. 

Book of Ink Circles

I'm official!

I am now officially a member of the Santa Clara Valley Chapter of The Embroiderers' Guild of America, Inc., aka SCVC-EGA. My friend Val has been after me for close to two years and I finally attended my first meeting in July and was hooked (guess that was her evil plot all along). I'm looking forward to learning new ways and techniques to enhancing my cross stitching experience.

The EGA exists to foster the highest standards of excellence in the practice of the art of embroidery through an active program of education and study, and to preserve the heritage of the art of embroidery.

Happy Birthday Honey

My husband, honey, and bestfriend is celebrating his 47th birthday today. Patrick took the day off from work and we had a great pancake breakfast together early this morning before he set out to explore the roads/paths of Cupertino on his Cannondale bicycle. Love you sweetie.

New from LHN

I see my latest model, Autumn Harvest for Little House Needleworks is now on Diane's site and will be released this month. This was a fun piece to stitch.

An award!

Yes, another post from me on the same day! LOL! Guess it was bound to happen especially since I was away from my computer for three days attending a stitching retreat (see below).

Over the weekend I was awarded a blog award by Shari -- Shari's sharings

Here are the rules I received with my awards:

1. The winner can put the logo on her blog.

2. Link the person you received your award from.

3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.

4. Put links of those blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on the blogs of those you've nominated.

I'm nominating the following for an "I Love Your Blog" award:

Anita - Anita's Stitching

Hannah - Totally In Stitches

Sue - Stitching and Life in the Company of Pets

Christina - xstitch-christina

Nicole - Carolina Dreams

Sherry - Blog It

Staci - snippets and stash

Weekend finishes & stashing...

Quaker Tree

by The Workbasket

Trick or Treat Kitty

by Brittercup Designs

JCS 2008 October issue

I was  determined to make a dent in my ornaments so I worked on a couple of small projects during the retreat this weekend and finished the two shown above.

I did a bit of stashing too and I am now the proud owner of a pair of Gingher "Emma" scissors which I purchased at JoAnn's for just $9.97. They only had two pairs left and I was lucky enough to get one while Val got the other pair.

2008 Designer Series 4" Emma Embroidery Scissors

For charts I got all 3 leaflets of Santa's 12 Days of Christmas, Christmas Past and Santas & Snowman all by Prairie Schooler. I also got Sally Spencer Sampler by Birds of a Feather.

Santa's 12 Days 1 - 4

Santa's 12 Days 5 - 8

Santa's 12 Days 9 - 12

Christmas Past

Santas & Snowmen

Sally Spencer Sampler

While at Michael's and JoAnn's I picked up some new ribbons for finishing a few pinkeeps. Overall I did really well and I'm quite happy with my stash enhancement.

What an awesome weekend!

My friends and I attended a stitching retreat in Pacific Grove, CA this weekend and we had a fabulous time. We left San Jose on Friday morning, had breakfast, made stops at Michael's, Joann's and Madonna's Needleworks in Morgan Hill before arriving at Asilomar State Beach and Conference Grounds.

Asilomar State Beach & State Park - Julia Morgan Architecture | Visit Asilomar

We had two days of stitching, good meals, and the company of some great stitchers and new friends. I did a bit of stashing and finished two projects. More to follow soon.

Little Finish

Nothing better than a little finish to feel like I'm getting something accomplished in the midst of all the larger WIPs that I have in rotation. This was my carry-a-long piece last week. The design is from leaflet #36, St. Nicholas II by Prairie Schooler.

I love to stash!

Been awhile since I'd been up on eBay so I was pleasantly surprised to find an OOP chart by Goode Huswife that I've had on my list for awhile. I'm now the proud owner of Elizabeth Easton and Deer in the Woods Sampler by Hester's Needle.

Weekend Update

Well it has gone by too quickly that's for sure.

I had a few of the gals from my stitching group over to my house on Friday evening and we had fun chatting and stitching to almost midnight. I took advantage of that time to work on my Book of Ink Circles (BoINK) and I made a bit of progress.

Book of Ink Circles

On Saturday hubby and I watched the Summer Olympics opening ceremony which we had taped. We then spent the afternoon working in the yard trimming the roses and bougainvillea. We finally planted the lantana in the planter box in front of our new window. Who knew one crack in the glass would lead to all this work! LOL!

My weekend stitching included not only BoInk but my Carnation Quaker Sampler.

Works in progress 

I love a good sale!

I've used Sassy's fabrics on many of my projects and I love them! So when my favorite fabric lady said she was having a sale on her new over-dyed fabrics I just had to check them out. Wooohooooo, what beauties. Not sure which I liked most...the Berry Burst, the Berry Compote or the Boysenberry. Easily resolved I order a piece of each in 28 ct. lugana. Check them out for yourself!

NEW Hand dyeds

Progress on WIPs

I spent my stitching time this weekend working on two of my WIPs. I made a bit of progress on Needle Mania and started the Carnation Quaker Sampler by Martina Dey (of Stickideen von der Wiehenburg).

Trying something new...

In one of the groups I belong to the question was asked if we had tried floss from any another country. My response was a simple, "No, but I'd be willing to try some". Well that answer won me 2  skeins of Thai rayon floss. Along with that came the challenge of stitching a card using the floss and this is what I came up with. Some one in the group will be the lucky recipient of this card.

The motif came from "Ecouffles" a design by Marc Davis of Needlemania and available on his site at:

Needlemania by Marc Davis, A gallery of cross stitch designs