Thank you

First, I’d like to thank everyone for their expressions of sympathy on the loss of my furry friend.  It’s been hard adjusting to the change.  Callie’s illness came on so quickly and took me by complete surprise and left me deeply saddened in its wake.  Callie’s sister and littermate, Mojo doesn’t understand what has happened and still spends a portion of her day searching all her sister’s favourite hiding spots.  When she’s not looking for her sister, she’s glued to my side.  It’s going to take some time for us all to adjust to the change, I guess.

 

But, this is a blog about my needlework and it’s time I got back to it.  There’s just going to be a little less cat hair in my work from now on.

 

I’ve had a slight case of stitcher’s ADD recently and have been jumping around of project to project…  I seem to be unable to really focus on my large pieces right now, so small things have come out to play…..

 

I’ve fallen dreadfully behind on my monthly ornaments, but I have managed some super-duper catching up this past month – I actually completed 3 of them.  I’m still not caught up, but now I’m only 3 months behind instead of 6.  :-)

 

First up:

 

Got Snow? by Lizzie*Kate

From Tiny Tidings XIV

stitched on random 28-count pulled from stash

with recommended GAST & WDW

(pardon the wrinkles)

 

Next:

 

Jingle by Lizzie*Kate

From Tiny Tidings XIV

stitched on random 28-count pulled from stash

with recommended GAST & WDW

And last:

 

Halloween by Mill Hill (Autumn Harvest Collection)

Stitched on 14-count perforated paper with included beads and floss (kit)

 

I loved this little piece – the colours are even prettier in person.  And since I’ve finished this piece – does anyone want the chart, leftover beads and floss?  There are probably enough beads to stitch the piece again.  You’d just need to provide your own perforated paper and perhaps some additional floss (it’s all just DMC though – the numbers are on the chart!)….  If more than one person is interested, I’ll do a random draw for it.

 

And I finally clued into it being TUSAL time…  I’m a bit late this month.

 

The jar took a decent jump upwards, considering the amount of upheaval around here this month….

 

Anyway, back to my stitching corner with my remaining kitty.

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Rest in Peace

Callie

June 16, 1995 – August 12, 2011

I’ll love you and miss you forever.

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Winner, winner, chicken dinner….

We made it home from the camping trip, bug-bitten (I stopped counting bites after I got to 50) and tired (hard to sleep when the guy in the next campsite insisted on revving up his Harley at 7AM!), but home safe.  We had a really great time (Harley-revving aside) and the weather co-operated too (only rained once).

 

So, do you want to know who’s next to join the Stitcherhood?  Do you?  Do you?  I did too this morning, so I plugged everyone’s name (except Silverlotus – after all, I got to join the Stitcherhood because of her!) into random.org and here’s the name that came out the other side:

 

(drumroll, please)

 

Joy of My New Perspective

 

(and the crowd goes wild with applause!)

 

Congrats Joy and welcome to the Stitcherhood!  If you could please e-mail me at e k i l l i n s at r o g e r s dot c o m (remove spaces and replace the at and dot with the right things) with your snail-mail address, I’ll get your pattern off to you as soon as I can!

 

I’m sorry I couldn’t let everyone join the Stitcherhood.  But there’s just the one pattern to pass along!  I hope you’ll follow the pattern on its journey – maybe you will be next.  In the meantime, I’m going to have to update the blogroll – I’ve got some new blogs to read!

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Second TUSAL for July

Okay, so I’m a bit late.  This getting ready to go camping thing is consuming all my time!  We leave in just a couple of hours though (hopefully – still some packing to do!). 

 

Here’s my jar:

 

I was actually surprised when I reached into my bag-thingy to pull out my ORTs – I didn’t think I’d been stitching that much – particularly in the last week or so.  But my little ORT jar took a gratifying jump, so maybe I stitched more than I thought I did!

 

Don’t forget to enter in the post below if you want a chance to join the Stitcherhood of the Travelling Pattern!  I’ll be back next Monday to announce the winner.  Good luck!  (And to those that have entered so far, thanks so much – I’m enjoying having a look at some new-to-me blogs!)

 

Off to finish my breakfast (it’s dark o-thirty here) and then get packing!  Behave yourselves while I’m gone!  :-)

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L*K Travelling Pattern has its bags packed – who’s next?

I guess the title is pretty straightforward, right?  Finally, I have gotten my act together and taken a picture of my finish of ‘Life’s A Stitch’.  I’m embarrassed to admit that it’s actually been finished for over a week but I do have a good excuse!!!!!

 

You see, DH and I (and the boys too) have been avoiding a task for years.  Many years.  Yes, it’s the dreaded toy and crapola purge.  We’ve spent the last week digging through boxes, throwing out crap (I mean really – when am I likely to use my notes from my first year of Calculus in University???) and deciding what to keep, what to toss and what to sell.  A week of nose-to-the-grindstone work left me with an emptier house and a fuller garage.  Solution for *that* problem – the mother of all garage sales.  That was today’s adventure and we did really, really well.  Got rid of tons of stuff and my boys have got a nice-sized addition to their LCD TV quest (they want to buy an LCD TV for the basement to use with the PS/3).  There’s still a pile of trash to get rid of, but that’ll go soon enough.

 

So, I haven’t been stitching much for the last week – mostly because I’ve been too pooped and I couldn’t be bothered to turn on the computer either….

 

Anyway, excuses over – here’s my finish:

 

I really, really like how this turned out.  It’s so pretty (or at least it is to my eyes).  I’m leaning towards finishing it as a cube-it.  We’ll see if/when I get around to it.

 

So, I’ve packed the pattern’s little suitcase (okay, so it’s an envelope!), and it’s all ready for flight to a new home.  Here are the rules:

 

1.  Comment on this post (and only this post) saying that you’d like to be part of the Stitcherhood.

 

2.  You agree (if you are chosen) to stitch the design and send it along to the next person in a timely manner.  If this means dropping everything in your rotation to concentrate on this project, so be it.  If you can’t bring yourself to do this, DON’T SIGN UP!

 

3.  You must have an active blog to participate.  If you have a blog, but never post to it ~ you won’t be chosen to be the next stitcher.

 

4.  This is a giveaway-type Travelling Pattern.  That means you must follow it from blogger to blogger to enter each time it is ready to send along. Commenting on this post doesn’t make you a guaranteed part of the Stitcherhood.

 

To date, this pattern has been stitched by:

 

1.  Angela, Hooked on Stitches, Ontario, Canada

2.  Elisa, Old Ragged Threads, York, United Kingdom

3.  Loretta, Loretta’s Stitching Blog, Manitoba, Canada

4.  Silverlotus, Reflections in the Pond, Ontario, Canada

5.  Erica, Erica’s Places, Ontario, Canada

 

If you would like a chance to be the next stitcher please leave a comment on this post only. The next stitcher will be chosen on Monday, August 8.  I would choose someone sooner, but we’re leaving to go camping next week!

 

(and yes, I know it’s TUSAL day – I’ll post *that* tomorrow!)

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Progress and the mailman delivers!

Last week we went up to the cottage for a week of R&R.  The weather co-operated wonderfully – only the slightest bit of rain the entire week.  My ‘boys’ spent most of the time playing in the boats or the water or just hanging out doing next to nothing.

 

Naturally, I stitched, when I wasn’t fending off the mosquitoes.  They were bad this year!  DS#1 and I could both be nicknamed mosquito-bait.  But when they elected to leave us alone, I got to work on 3 different projects.

 

First up, CdC came out to play:

 

I’m almost up to the right hand corner.  It’s chugging along quite well.

 

Then for some variety (and no doubt because I was wishing for some slightly cooler weather – no a/c at the cottage!), Halloween Rules had some time spent on it:

 

Still enjoying this piece tremendously.

 

And then, because I was getting bored of all those little x’s, a canvaswork piece came out to play (thanks to my portable stand as well – I can’t do canvaswork without a stand):

 

This is a Carolyn Mitchell piece called ‘Golden Reminiscence’.  I took this as a class at the CreativFestival last fall.  I’m enjoying the variety of stitches, although the colour palette isn’t totally me.  I love how fast canvaswork comes together – I did most of this stitching in only a few hours of work.  Don’t even need to look at the pattern once I’ve got the stitch down.

 

The Canadian postal strike finally ended a couple of weeks ago, but mail is still very slow moving.  Slowly our mail is catching up and this week has had a few things starting to arrive.

 

A while ago, I won a giveaway from Barbara over at mainely stitching.  I had never seen this LHN chart before and I just had to enter.  Surprisingly, I won.  The mailman finally coughed it up today.  Barbara also included a lovely packet of spices & seasonings for a blueberry pie.  Can’t wait to try them out! (gotta get more blueberries – we ate all the last ones!  :-) )

 

 

And then Heather was looking for another stitcher to join the Lizzie*Kate Life’s a Stitch Travelling Pattern Stitcherhood…..  I threw my name in the hat, fully expecting not to be chosen because I was the first person to comment.  I was really hoping it might get others to comment in the long run since folks don’t want to be first as it seems the first commenter never wins….  :-)  You could have knocked me over with a feather when I discovered that I had won!  After strapping the pattern to a slow-moving turtle (inside joke), the pattern arrived yesterday:

 

Per the agreement of the Stitcherhood, I am officially dropping everything else I was stitching to focus on this charming little piece.  I pulled fabric and fibres:

 

I’m going to use a 28-count Opalescent (somewhat predictably – I like sparkly!) that was hand-dyed by Enchanting Lair (Ametrine, if you’re curious) and the above bunch of random fibres yanked from my stash.  There’s a good bit of Vikki Clayton silks in there.  I’ll start this evening (gotta feed the natives dinner first!)….

 

I took the kids to see the last Harry Potter movie this afternoon.  It was very well done and a fitting end to an epic saga.  I’m sad that it’s over, but so glad I’ve got the books to read again and again and the movies to watch as well.  Even better, I’ll get to watch my kids plow through the books again with me. 

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TUSAL Update

I’m a wee bit late on posting my July TUSAL, but yesterday was Canada Day (Happy 144th Birthday Canada!) and I spent the majority of the day running hither and yon.  DS#1 was attending a farewell party for a friend who is moving to Australia (!), DS#2 was going camping with his grandparents and DH was trying to get some work done….  Between laundry and packing and driving, TUSAL slipped my mind completely.

 

But, better late than never, right?  Here we go:

 

Not a ton of additions this month, I’m afraid.  I have been stitching, but mainly on CdC and since it’s all one colour, I’m not generating tons of ORTs….  I have made it round the corner now on Cirque, but my progress is little enough that I decided to skip a progress picture for now…..

 

I’m sure the coming week will be busy enough around here – DH will be trying to figure out how to re-attach the passenger side mirror on my van.  While I was working on Wednesday, it appears someone broke the mirror off, then carefully re-balanced it on the side of my van and left.  I know for a fact that when I went into work it was fine as I opened the door the mirror was attached to, yet when I returned to my van after finishing work, as I approached my van, the mirror looked as if it jumped off the side of my van as I didn’t touch it, yet it was suddenly dangling on the side.  Joy!  In the meantime, I’m driving around with my passenger window open and the mirror hanging on the inside.  A bit windy, but doing the job until DH figures out how to fix it.  Luckily for me, I married a handy guy.

 

Off to watch ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ with DS#1!  Do you know where your towel is?

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*gasp* Two posts in a month?

I know, don’t fall off your chair – it’s a second post in a month.  Amazing, isn’t it?  Things are finally starting to calm down a bit and I’m catching up on things like toilet scrubbing… And blogging….

 

I had thought that I would be completely finished with work for this school year – I had even gone so far as to scrub my equipment and run things like lab coats through the wash…..  Clearly that was a sign for the universe to rain on my parade…..I got a last booking for (get this) June 29th…..  Who’d a thunk it?  But on the up side, I’m going to a school that might take me 5 minutes to drive to if I hit all red lights, so it’s no hardship to go there.

 

But outside of this last workshop, I’ve gotten all my expenses submitted (yay!  Money!) and I went to the end-of-the-year party (a bit damp about the edges as it rained that day, but it was still fun!).  And for the first time since March, I’ve had time to sit around and do absolutely nothing.  I’ve done a fair bit of that lately.  Paige (my Kindle) and I have been curling up on various couches, beneath warm cats and enjoying some time together too.  I did rouse myself for long enough to plant some things in the garden (floral instead of vegetable this time).  Mostly I’ve been enjoying not needing to go somewhere or get something ready to go somewhere or go buy something to use to get ready to go somewhere….

 

Needle, fabric and fibre have been meeting up a wee bit too…..

 

Cirque des Cercles (from Ink Circles) has been out and played with.  I so love this piece and I enjoy every little stitch:

 

I’ve made it to the lower right-hand corner and can relax a little – it’s going to fit on the fabric.  Despite measuring, counting, checking and double-checking, until I know for sure that a piece will fit on my chosen fabric, I always harbour a little worry that I’ve messed up.  It’s always pleasant when I discover that everything is going to work out just the way I had hoped.

 

Here’s a little close-up of the areas I’m stitching now….

 

 

The blank area to the left is blank only because the chart for that section crosses over two pages….  Since I’m working with an overdyed, I want to stitch that section all at once, but it’s a pain to flip back and forth between two pages.  I’ll be photocopying those pages and sticking them together so I have one chart for that little oval.  I’m looking forward to working my way up the right side of this piece…. 

 

Halloween Rules has come out and been worked on a bit too:

 

(sorry for the wrinkles – I couldn’t be bothered to iron!)  I’m loving the colours in this piece.  It looks so much better IRL.

 

My purse project is nearing completion – so much so that I’ll probably sit and finish it off this weekend, if I get time to sit and stitch:

 

 

This is a close up of the square that is left to finish – just a little metallic in 3 more corners and it’ll be done!

 

  That’s both squares….  I’ll be finishing this as a biscornu.

 

I’ve also been spoiled by a good friend recently…..  I mentioned that I had a birthday last month and this past week had me meeting up with Heather from Reflections on the Pond…  We both had birthdays in May and we exchanged gifts.  I feel very lucky, because Heather showered me with the loveliest things:

 

First Heather sewed this beautiful Pyramid bag.  I love the colour and it’s just so neat.  I intended to try and sew one for myself, but now I don’t have to.  I did have to rescue it from the clutches of DS#2 though – he thought it would be great for storing Lego in.  I quickly made it clear that it was mine and he’d need to keep his paws off it.  I think I’ll put a knitting project in it – I really want to get back to some sock knitting – even if I am a rather pathetic knitter.

 

Then I discovered this charming pincushion:

 

(No, it’s not crooked – my camera and I are having ‘issues’)…  I’m totally in love with this.  It’s currently sitting on my cutting table, waiting for me to transfer my pins to it.  The colours are totally ‘me’ and I’m looking forward to using it.

 

And if that wasn’t enough (and holy cow was I feeling spoiled by this point), Heather also gave me all this:

 

Lizzie*Kate’s Abcs of aging artfully (something I’m not doing, but this piece offers some good advice on how I should do it!), some KnitPicks scissors (that I wanted to try out – and they’re purple!) and a lovely sachet full of fragrant lavender.

 

Aren’t I lucky?  I certainly think so.  Thanks again Heather!

 

I’m off to play with my new toys!

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*tap* *tap* Is this thing on???

Um, well, it’s been a while.  The merry month of May has been positively insane around here.  I’ve hardly managed the most basic of blog reading for the last month.  And commenting?  Um, no.

 

Work has been insane, but in a good way.  I’ve worked like mad and driven over what feels like 90% of the planet.  I work with schools in 5 different school boards, which has me driving as much as 100 kilometres in a day sometimes.  Thankfully, not every day, but I’ve had numerous opportunities to see if my van can drive long distances this past month (if you’re interested, yes the van can still do long distances, however there is no air conditioning and it needs a new muffler.  It also refuses to start if it’s really rainy.  And the windshield leaks water.  Bring an umbrella if you’re in the passenger seat.)

 

Usually by this time of the school year, I’m finishing up work until the fall.  This year seems to be an exception – I’ve still got two weeks of work to go and I found out yesterday that there’s another school that has just asked if we can squeeze in 9 more workshops for them before the end of June.  I can’t believe how late I’m presenting programs this year.  I can’t complain though – it’s hard to turn down money, especially since the hot water heater gave its last gasp a couple of weeks ago and we did an emergency replacement. 

 

I’m a little late (but I don’t think anyone will shoot me) for this month’s TUSAL post.  Here are my ORTs:

 

 

Most of the threads this month are from sewing rather than stitching, but the last bits of the model I had been working on are in there too.  The model has been returned to its owner and I’m free for a bit!  Stitching for myself is odd now – I don’t have to feel guilty for working on projects for myself since there isn’t a model that should be worked on….  In that vein, since I did finish my latest model, I started a new project for myself:

 

Halloween Rules by Lizzie*Kate.  I’m using the recommended fabric and threads – I bought it all kitted up as I’m just too tired to contemplate pulling all the bits together myself.  I’ve actually stitched a lot more since this picture was taken – I’ve completed the first two blocks and I’m almost done the third….  But I’m too lazy to haul it out and take pictures again – and the light is fading fast now that it’s evening.  The pictures would be horribly dark anyway.

 

As for the sewing that’s been going on around here – I’ve actually been sewing for work.  I needed a small container for an experiment that my Grade 3 students perform.  And I needed 15 of them.  I wanted something that would hold some shape, but could be squished for transport (I haul around a *lot* of equipment at any given point in time and anything that can compress and take up less room is a good thing!)…  So, I found this tutorial to make a hanging bag and knew I found a great little solution.  So, fabric and interfacing was purchased and much time spent at the sewing machine later, I made 15 different bags that look like this:

 

I used a variety of fabrics for these – this is just one of the bags I sewed.  I would take a picture of all of them, but they’re all packed up and ready for my next presentation and I’m not up to digging them out of their container.  I used them two weeks ago for my workshop and they were just perfect.  The kids liked them and they did just what I needed them to do.  I’ll try and take an action shot of them next time I get a chance.

 

In other news, one of the models I stitched has come home to roost.  The designer is finished with it, so I get to keep it.

 

This piece is called A Treasure Trove and it’s from Enchanting Lair.  I had so much fun picking out my own colours for this piece!  Laura always lets me do things in my own colours.  Her version of this has more green in it.  I’m rather fond of purple (in case you hadn’t noticed), so I’ve got lots of purple in this piece.  I also spent hours and hours and hours writing and re-writing and re-writing the chart for this – something I’ve never done before.  It’s not as easy as it seems!  But I’m very happy with the finished product.  Hopefully there aren’t too many errors in it.  I need my own proofreader…  It’s hard to proofread your own stuff!

 

And waaaaayyy back in April, I entered a draw over at feeling stitchy.  I wasn’t really thinking about the draw itself, but rather the question they had asked – they were asking about where and when you stitch.  So, I answered because after I read everyone else’s answers, I wanted to share my thoughts.  Then I promptly forgot about it.  So, imagine my surprise when I was catching up on blog-reading and I discovered that I had actually won the prize.  Me!  I was beyond surprised!  So, my prize arrived in the mail a few weeks ago and here’s what arrived:

 

 

I’ve only managed the most cursory glance at this book called ‘Sewn by Hand’, but it is beautiful!  There are tons of neat little projects in this book and I’m looking forward to having some time to really sit down and read it.  I may even attempt to make a few things from it.  I’m not a huge hand-sewer, but I am interested in learning better ways to do it.  This book may be just the thing to get me moving on it.

 

I unwrapped the little package that came with the book (wrapped in an old sewing pattern), to find these goodies inside:

 

 

What a nice surprise!  And even better – I found out I won this lovely prize on my birthday!  Couldn’t ask for more than that.

 

And because it was my birthday back in May (and I admit it was a big birthday – one of those numbers that divides evenly by both 0 and 5, but that’s all I’ll say!), DH and my boys asked what I wanted…..  I’ve been drooling admiring these for ages, so the mailman dropped this in my mailbox….  Paige, my Kindle, needed a better case than what she had and now she’s really travelling in style.  They bought me a bunch of new books for Paige as well.  I’m all set for summer reading.

 

Well, now that I’ve blathered on and on and on, I suppose I should go and get ready for tomorrow’s adventure – another day as Scientist Erica and more fun wrangling ankle biters.  At least this time I’m at a school that’s only a 15 minute drive from my home.  Next week I’m not quite so lucky as I’ll be driving much further afield, but I’m enjoying having a few days with short trips.

 

Maybe I’ll get to put needle to fabric too – but first I’ll have to convince one of my cats to stop using it as a pillow first….

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A quick run around blog-land had me noticing that it’s TUSAL day. You’ll have to forgive the dark pictures – the Scientist was working all day today and couldn’t take a picture until it was dark out. Of course, even if I had taken a picture in daylight, it wouldn’t have been much better – all it seems to do around here is rain, rain and rain some more.

Anyway, here’s the jar:

There’s lots of black thread in there this month because I’ve been sewing with a lot of black. I’m still working on a sewing project for work, so I can’t yet show the results. Wish I could get about 30 more hours in a day so I could get it all done. The bits of green are from my current model. If I put floss to fabric, I should finish it tonight.

The retreat this past weekend was great. Very, very busy and tiring, but things like that usually are….especially when you’re one of the folks running the thing. I met some new stitchers who were all very welcoming and I even got to renew some friendships with some other friends who I’ve met elsewhere. The weather was lovely in Gananoque too. The only thing that could have made it better would have been if my cold hadn’t turned into laryngitis. I croaked through the whole weekend. I must have looked worse than I thought though as on Saturday, I was forcibly put to bed for a nap. The nap did help. My voice isn’t quite back yet, but I’m hopeful for a quick return. A croaking Scientist is no fun!

Anyway, I’m off to finish that model. The Scientist is off tomorrow (yay!) but has lots and lots of things to do get ready for the next few weeks. I hope my voice will hold out!

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Howdy Stranger!

No, I have not departed the planet.  I’m still here – just up to my eyeballs in stuff – work mostly, but other things as well.

 

My job has been unbelievably busy this past month and I’ve been traveling hither and yon with my van full of stuff.  I’ve managed to drop my worms twice (causing them to hide and be invisible for *days* – I thought I’d killed them!).  However, the octopus, squid and flounder (named Freddie) have all managed to survive their journeys and are resting peacefully (if somewhat stink-ily) in the freezer. 

 

And naturally, after having spent the entire month surrounded by the 3-5 year old set, I got the requisite cold that is presently making me miserable.  I have discovered though that coughing makes a great ab workout.  I don’t recommend it as a regular form of exercise…..  I have a this week off and then all hell breaks loose again for May.  I’ve only managed 4 days off for the entire month.  I’m going to be tired!  Hopefully I won’t get sick again, but I’m not holding my breath.  I love playing with the Kindergarteners, I just wish they weren’t so germy sometimes! 

 

I haven’t stitched much lately as I’ve either been too exhausted after work or too busy getting things ready for the next day of work….  I miss my needle and thread and fabric!

 

But, my travel project has seen the light of day and I’ve made some good progress on it:

(sorry for the truly crappy pictures today – I’ve been waiting for a nice clear day to snap pics for the last 3 or 4 days – but all it does is rain, so I gave up!)

 

This will become a biscornu when I’m finished stitching the bottom.  It’s from Seba Designs ‘Biscornu Too’ pack.  The fibres are from the lovely gift package I got from Karin a bit ago.  Here’s a close up of the block that I finished:

 

I’m enjoying the ‘spring-y’ feel of this piece.  The colours always make me smile.

 

I did attend the Spring CreativFestival, although heaven only knows why – it was pretty bad as shows go.  By about 3 o’clock on the day I went, you could pretty much bowl in the aisles they were so empty.  The vendors didn’t seem too pleased either.  I did try to buy at least one thing at each of the needlework booths that were there….  First I picked up this:

 

This is a new design from Northern Pine called Earth Sprit.  The photography on the front is so washed out in comparison to the actual stitched piece!  The colours are rich and vivid IRL and I am simply in love with them.  It’s not my usual colour palette, but I love it anyway.

 

I then wandered over to Ruach Crafts and picked up some things that I wanted at the Fall CreativFestival but I didn’t have time to pick up:

 

I grabbed two of the Stitch & Zip cases – one eyeglass size and another change-purse size.  These are great little take-along projects since I don’t have to juggle a pattern while stitching.  Plus, they look neat when they’re done.  I got the Victorian Lavender tuffet (biscornu) too as I just really like the design.  Sadly, the kit contains Aida, so I’ll have to swap it out for linen.  The little Mill Hill kit was just too cute to leave behind….

 

Grantham Books was in attendance as they often are and I picked up some interesting books for my growing library:

 

I wandered over to Dove Stitch and actually felt a little sorry for them – they had a very large booth and very little traffic!  I keep picking up their fabrics and touching them but they still feel more like sandpaper than anything.  I decided to grab another one of their linen packs to try again as there were some interesting-ly dyed pieces in the pack.  I found a few other things too:

 

Not all of this is from Dove Stitch….  The fabric was from Sew Sisters.  I actually bought more fabric than what is pictured, but that fabric is already in use for a project for work.  The beads I picked up at another booth that I’ve forgotten the name of…  One pair of scissors (the gold-tone ones) I found at Dove Stitch – I have no idea who made them, but they’re very pretty.  The purple scissors are from Dinky-Dyes and I found those at Xs and Oh’s booth.  The trim-like things at the bottom of the picture are some braids and cords and trim pieces from Dove Stitch.  I think some of them will work well for finishing ornaments.  They’re quite pretty IRL.

 

I guess I did my bit to support the show!  I’ll be surprised though if the Spring Festival continues.  I think it’ll die again as it has now twice in my memory.

 

This past weekend I was rummaging in a drawer in my china cabinet as I was looking for a platter to put a dessert on that I was taking to my in-laws….  And look what I had forgotten about:

 

Flower frogs!  They’ve become quite the trend to use to store scissors in and seeing as my scissor collection seems to be growing exponentially, I think I may put these to use.  These frogs are quite special as they belonged to DH’s grandmother.  When she could no longer live on her own and had to move into a nursing home, my MIL gave these to me as she knows I often arrange flowers for fun.  I had put them in the drawer and forgotten their existence.  Now I can think of a really good way to get them out of the drawer and into the light!  I just need to find pieces for the frogs to sit in….  Another day!

 

This weekend will bring much excitement to my small little world – I’m heading to Gananoque for a stitching retreat!  It’s a working weekend for me as I’m helping out with the running of the retreat, but it’ll do wonders for me to hang out with other stitchers for 3 days!  Now that the brunt of work for it is finished, I can start looking forward to the actual event.  I leave on Thursday!

 

I’m off to my cutting table to cut some fabric and get back to work on my sewing project for work.  Once I get it all finished, I’ll share what I’ve been up to!

 

Stay warm & dry if you can.  Me?  I’m wondering if I’ll need to start building an ark…..

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April TUSAL

Well, times does fly when you’re having fun, doesn’t it?  I have been having fun lately – just not with my needles, floss and fabric…  Work has gone completely insane and outside of weekends, I haven’t had a day off in 3 weeks.  After having had the entire month of January off and only working a few days in February, this has been quite the adjustment!  It’s hard to mind though – it’s fun playing with kids all day.

 

The calendar has indicated that today is the New Moon, so it’s time for a picture of my TUSAL jar.  I realized I needed to tamp down the flosses a bit as my jar was looking fuller than it really is…..  I did add a bit to the jar this month – mostly greens as that’s what I’ve been stitching on the model I’ve got in hand.  I’m battling a case of startitis too – I found a stunning biscornu pattern on-line that is singing its siren song….  I’ve even gone so far as to kit it up….  I fear needle will hit fabric on it before long….  I’m hopeless.

 

Anyway, here’s my picture:

 

I had a school cancel 12 workshops so my April has gotten quieter than I originally thought – although I’ve already replaced 5 of those bookings at another school…..  I’m still out some $$$$ with those 12 cancellations, but what can you do?  I can’t *make* a school have me come and play with their kids and teach them about Science….

 

I need to get back to preparing for next week – lots of ankle-biters to play with again! 

 

And as a total aside – why do folks have to gossip?  I am *so* tired of being gossiped about by a certain faction of people.  Worse, no one has bothered to verify the truth of said gossip with me (I mean, really, I only chose to stop doing something because I was forced to it due to of the lies of another person…..my desire to be involved, or not, had nothing to do with it).  It’s driving me somewhat batty….  *sigh*  I guess there’s nothing to be done about it though – c’est la vie, partout!  (for the french-impaired it means that’s life, after all)

 

Back to work!

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TUSAL & Stuff…

Well, a glance at the calendar reveals that today is the New Moon which equates to TUSAL day….  My ORT jar didn’t take a huge jump this month, as I predicted.  Besides working a lot, I’ve been working hard at revising a *huge* chart for a designer I work with.  It’s been a slow and steady slog to the finish – but it’s almost done now.  I’m mostly double-checking and formatting to make it pretty now….

 

Here’s my jar:

 

I’ve added a lot of pink to the jar this past month, and here’s why:  you might remember the little giveaway I hosted in February?  Jessica won the giveaway and I noticed this morning that she received what I sent her.  Thankfully Canada Post didn’t eat/destroy the package as per usual, nor did Customs decide that it needed to be rummaged through.  Here’s some photos of what I sent her:

 

I’ve been on a real kick sewing these project bags as of late (it helps that I’ve got a sewing machine that has made sewing a joy instead of a pain!).  I found this pretty red fabric and thought it would make some cute bags.  And then because I had some leftovers of the fabric, I decided that I *had* to stitch something too….  So I remembered a pattern that I had for a while and put fabric, floss and pattern together.  Here’s a better picture of the final result:

 

This is a freebie pattern I found on Hoffman’s site.  IIRC, this pattern was supposed to be available for free from needlework shops – and it was supposed to come with fabric and floss as well, to encourage some new stitchers.  I just thought it was a pretty pattern, so I stitched it up.  I used GAST Simply Shaker ‘Berry Cobbler’ and stitched it on a random piece of 32-count linen of some persuasion – I’m not entirely sure where it came from, to tell you the truth.  It was just a little piece of linen that was floating around in the stash heap.

 

And because I can’t help myself, I included some other goodies too:

 

And I put everything in this cute little bag I found

 

Now I need to get back to the chart I’m editing and I think we’re just about out of TP and Kleenex, so I think there’s a grocery run in my future too!

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A Little of This and A Little of That…

I’ve been writing this post for the better part of two weeks now.  I’ve been working so much (at more than one of my jobs) that I’ve barely had time to do anything else.  This is a long, picture-heavy post – grab a cup of tea and a warm cat, it’ll take a while to get through it all!

 

A couple of weekends ago now, we packed up the kids and took them to Ottawa so they could experience Winterlude in our nation’s capital.  First we went skating down the Rideau Canal (we skated the entire length of it – almost 8 km (around 5 miles)!

 

My DH’s aunt and uncle live in Ottawa and kindly put us up for the weekend and took us *everywhere* we could have wanted to go!

 

Here we’re almost at the very end of the canal.  Behind us is Chateau Laurier (amazing hotel, but out of *my* price range!)

 

Now the Rideau Canal is usually a waterway.  In the winter, they lower the water level quite low and then allow it to freeze.  They drill holes in the ice nightly and draw water up from the canal to flood the ice.  The ice is really quite smooth, although there is the odd spot where you have to watch where you skate….

 

We noticed this sign when passing under a bridge:

 

Apparently, you can’t have a mustache while on the canal!  :-)  (I think the sign is really supposed to mean no wake (when you’re in a boat))… 

 

After we finished skating and had the obligatory Beaver Tail (we love the maple butter flavour) and Hot Chocolate, we went off to see the incredible ice sculptures:

 

There were tons of them made by people from all over the world.  They were stunning IRL.

 

The B had some fun playing with some ‘ice chairs’:

 

 

(a little hard to sit on, apparently)

 

One of the sponsors of Winterlude is one of Canada’s biggest Wireless providers.  As part of their display, they froze a bunch of cell phones and tablets into these:

 

I wonder if they’ll work once thawed…..

 

The next day, we went to Jacques Cartier Park and the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau (although when I grew up, we just called it Hull  :-) )….

 

We went down the ice slides:

 

Although shortly after this picture was taken, B slipped and fell down this ice slide, biting through his bottom lip and giving himself a nosebleed….  Needless to say B didn’t enjoy the ice slides much.  However, I have it on good authority that one Advil and one Beaver Tail (cinnamon & sugar variety) heal many wounds.  2 weeks later you wouldn’t know he’d been injured…..

 

There were some really awesome snow sculptures at the park as well:

 

 

Then we went and played at the Museum for a bit….  The kids found a giant domino set – so of course, they had to do this:

 

 

(Okay, I admit it – I started standing the dominoes up and the kids took it from there….)

 

We had an awesome weekend….

 

In other news:

 

I recently entered a giveaway over at Karin’s blog – The Sparklie Things Blog (which I think is the most awesome blog name!).  Besides being an awesome stitcher, Karin makes (yes that’s right, makes) some of the most gorgeous beads I have ever seen.  You should go look at her Bead Journal Project pieces from 2010 – what beautiful bead work!

 

But I digress – imagine my surprise when Karin e-mailed to say that since only 4 people entered her blog draw (really?  only 4 of us?), she was offering up 4 packages of goodies!  How’s that for a jaw-dropper!  My package arrived yesterday….  I was just expecting the skein of floss that I picked and the beautiful beads….

 

I got the package out of the envelope and found this pretty little package inside:

 

It felt oddly heavy in my hands….  So I unwrapped it and found *this* inside:

 

Besides the floss and *gorgeous* buttons and beads, I also received a stunning scissor fob (already adorning my favourite scissors), some Kreinik and some really pretty Mill Hill beads…  Aren’t I spoiled?  Here’s some close ups of the beads and scissor fob:

 

  

Now I need to uphold my end of the bargain – I need to stitch something and incorporate these beads…  I think there’s a Biscornu in my immediate future!

 

The mailman also left some more goodies in my mailbox – although I asked for these ones.  First up is my February Quilt Block…..

 

It took its own sweet time getting here – as it didn’t arrive until yesterday.  So, I’ll be doing February’s block in March.  I really hate Canada Post.

 

And then, because I have the willpower of a gnat, I caved and ordered this from Down Sunshine Lane:

 

Everything I need to stitch Lizzie*Kate’s Halloween Rules Double-Flips.  I fell in love with the border first and the rest is, well, history….  This will be my reward for finishing both of the models I have on the go.  One I’m re-writing the chart for now and the other needs just a little more stitching time to finish!

 

And I did finish something recently too:

 

Witch Shoes

by CherryWood Design Studios

Stitched on 28-count Pistachio Cashel from Enchanting Lair

with Vikki Clayton Silks (converted from DMC)

 

This is my February ornament.  Yes, it’s a little late.  But, it’s done.

 

And finally (yes, there is an end in sight!):

 

There are a couple of giveaway’s wandering around the ‘net!  Go wish Measi a happy 10th blogoversary!  And Staci at Snippets ‘n Stash is celebrating 3 years of blogging with a giveaway!  Go enter!  Maybe you’ll win!

 

Okay, I think I’m finally done now.  Thanks for staying with me if you’ve made it this far.  Work is nutso from now until the end of May, so postings may be few and far between until then.  For the first time ever, I actually asked for no more work to be assigned to me as I have no more available dates!  Yikes!

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