Little Happy Dance!





With our electricity being so flaky yesterday I really hesitated to pick up my model as I was sure I'd just mess it up - who knows what I'd accidentally do when the lights went out! :-)





So instead I picked up another ornament that was just about finished and decided I'd polish it off. It's from the 1997 (?) JCS ornament issue. It's from JBW Designs and it's entitled "Hearts of Joy". I'm not sure what fabric I used - I've had this sitting in my project pile waiting to be stitched for at least a year. I used the recommended fibres (it was all DMC) and beads. It's such a pretty little ornament. IIRC it's at least the 3rd time I've stitched it.... Anyway, here it is:

I really need to spend some time ornament-ifying some of the ornaments I've finished so far this year. Maybe I'll get some time soon, but who knows?

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Of Snowy Days, Pizza Days and Power Cuts!

Woke up this morning with my children informing me that the power was out. Sadly it was still a good hour before I needed to be conscious.... Luckily for them they're so gosh darned cute! :-)

The power flicked off and on all morning. DH managed his shower but the power shut off before he could shave. It came on again just after he'd managed to get dressed (in the dark) so he jumped in the loo to shave quickly. It went out again not long after he finished that. He had to have a breakfast of cold cereal poor guy.... I managed a shower and got my hair dry before the power went out again. It came back on in time to make breakfast for the boys and myself (I got a cup of coffee! Yipee!) and went out again just as we sat down to eat. I feel like a human yo-yo.

As we were eating our breakfast (in the semi-darkness - sun was coming up by then), it started to snow these great big fluffy flakes. It was so pretty - all the trees and branches were covered in this pretty, pretty snow. The boys made snowballs the whole way to school.

And I spent my late morning helping out with pizza day - I guess the hydro stayed on for long enough for the pizza guy to bake 61 cheese pizzas and 35 pepperoni pizzas for us. We divided, conquered and served the entire school population in record time. I *so* don't want to see pizza again anytime soon. :-P

And just to finish off (just so that there's something needlework related here!), here's this weeks SBQ:

Suggested by Kathryn(http://threadsofdesire.blogspot.com/) :

What is the smallest count fabric you have ever used? Did you stitchover one? Conversely, what is the largest count fabric you have ever used?

The permalink to this post is:http://blondelibrarian.net/stitching/archives/2007/02/fabric-count/

Hmmmmmm - let's see the smallest would have to be a 40ct. over-one piece I did. Not sure where the heck that piece ended up come to think of it. I may need to have a stash rummage. Largest is probably a 10-ct waste canvas used to stitch some motifs on some onesies when all my friends were having babies. I'll stitch on just about any size, any count, over one, over two, whatever - just give me a needle and floss! ;-)

Back to working on my models - although one is just sitting as I've run out of fibres and am (im)patiently waiting for more to arrive. Canada Post hates me. :-P

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Time for change and this weeks SBQ!

Well, it seems to be going around blogger-land - folks all seem to be changing their templates and I had a sudden inspiration to change mine. I kinda like the blue but I'm not sure about the rose - it seems a bit, well, big, doesn't it? Anyway, I'll try it for a wee bit - maybe it'll revert back to old faithful! :-)

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Today's SBQ is:

Do you like to buy "chartpacks" that include charms, buttons, and/orbeads or do you prefer to gather all materials yourself?

The permalink to this post is: http://blondelibrarian.net/stitching/archives/2007/02/sbq-and-psn/

Well, the short answer to that is it depends. If I really like the design then I would buy a quality chartpack that includes charms/buttons/beads, etc. Certainly makes it easier. However, if I think I can find a substitute more easily/inexpensively then I prefer to do that. I have difficulty justifying paying $10 - $15 extra for a charm when I could likely find a perfectly reasonable substitute for under $5.

However, I do like buying thread packs for designs as often there isn't enough of a specialty fibre used in the design to justify the cost of a full skein. If I'm doubtful I would use more of that particular fibre on other projects, I much prefer being able to just buy the amount needed for the design I'm working on.

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I have been trying hard to work on my models but time has been squished this week. I spent yesterday in the dentist office with my youngest DS as he was getting some cavities filled. He has a complicated medical history (that I won't bore you with) and one of the 'results' of all the trouble he's had in his little life is bad teeth. Most of his adult molars have erupted with cavities in them! Anyway, he was a real champ at the dentist's office and I was really proud of him.

Hopefully there'll be some stitching time this weekend, but it's not looking too promising. DH has to work this weekend so I'll be pretty busy with my boys. We'll see.

*And* I did get my smilies back! I think Meari was asking how to make smilies work - check out the instructions at this website:

http://freeblogspottemplates.blogspot.com/2006/03/blogger-emoticons.html

Follow the directions and it should work. The only thing that isn't in the instructions is to make sure your template doesn't have more than one < body > tag in it.... If you're still having trouble, e-mail me and I'll try to help! Good luck!

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Am I here yet?


Well, I've been dragged, unhappily to the new version of blogger. So far I'm unimpressed. The new version turfed all my cute little emoticons. Now I'll need to muck with some Java script to make them work again. Phooey!


On a happier note, I do have a finish to share. During my endless days of waiting last week, I managed to put in a good amount of time on TW's Needle Guardian (from this past October's Creativ Festival). I haven't made it into a needlebook just yet as I want to line the backside first (it's quite unsightly!)... Still, the stitching is all done. How do you like Stormy (as I've named him)?

He turned out even better than I had imagined. Thanks to Teresa for such a wonderful design and it was a fun stitch too!

Outside of my friend above, I've been plugging away at the models. They're both moving along much better now that I've scared off the frogs. I've managed to run out of fibres for one of the models, but I know replacements will likely be here in the next day or two. The other model can get some serious needle time in the interim.

There's supposed to be a major snowstorm coming this way late today or tomorrow. Good thing I've already got DH's Valentine's gift ready (shhh! Don't tell!).... I'm going to hunker down and curl up under a warm cat (or two) for the duration!

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SBQ

Well, it's that time of the week again:

Today's SBQ was suggested by Danielle (http://scopist.blogspot.com/)and is:

Have you ever been to a stitching retreat?

The permalink to this post is: http://blondelibrarian.net/stitching/archives/2007/02/stitching-retreats/

Well, I'm not sure if what I do could be called a retreat per se, but every October I do attend the CreativFestival in Toronto. I've been a student at the show for a good 10 - 12 years now I think. I've taken classes from Charland Garvin, Shay Pendray, Jennifer Aikman-Smith (Dragon Dreams), Teresa Wentzler (TW Designworks) and many other fine instructors. It's a great show and luckily for me it's local. What's nice now is that I'm no longer the youngest person in the room. When I first started attending the festival, I was the only one in the room whose hair wasn't grey! It's nice to see more young people attending the show - now I'm the one with the grey-ing hair! :-)

There is also a CreativFestival in April, but I generally only attend for one day. There just isn't enough stuff there in the Spring to keep me entertained for more than one day. Still, I'll generally go and poke around and inevitably I can find something to buy! I'll be going this April in hopes of finding a new sewing machine.

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I noticed when I logged onto Blogger today that it's going to force me to the new Blogger next time I log on. I am so NOT looking forward to 'upgrading'. Their idea of upgrading is no doubt going to cause me hours of work to fix all the stuff they'll break. *bleah*

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Baby it's cold outside!

All I can say is brrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It's gotten frightfully cold here - so cold in fact that the kids don't get to go outside for recess. With the windchill lowering temperatures to -30 C or lower I can't say I disagree with keeping them indoors. Frostbite is a legitimate concern! I do feel sorry for the teachers though - cooped up inside with all those kids - they'll be ready for the looney bin if this keeps up for too much longer!

I'm still plugging away on my models as always. But, I did manage to squeeze out another little ornament during my times of waiting - waiting to pick the boys up from school, waiting to pick them up from Beavers or Cubs, watching/waiting during skating lessons, etc.... I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time waiting, don't I??? :-)

Anyway, here's another little ornament that I've finished stitching - It's from Glory Bee entitled "Merry Christmas". It's from the 2003 JCS Ornament Issue. It will get made into an ornament at some point - but I really can't spare the time just now as those models need more attention!

I used all the recommended threads on this one as I had all of them in my stash (a bit of an odd occurrence for me as it was all GAST threads).... Although I did substitute the Porcelain called for in the pattern for the smyrna crosses with plain old DMC White. This was a *very* quick stitch. I can't remember what fabric it's on - I did some tidying of my fabrics and unearthed this from the bottom of the fabric pile. I thought it looked good with the fibres... *shrug*

And I think I've managed to get blogger to give me emoticons! Yay! ;-)

I'm off to try and defrost my toes.

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