The Stitchin' Post

Moving to Blogger

kellieps3 — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 02:02:33 +0000

I have decided to switch to Blogger. Please visit me at The Stitching Post. I really, really hope that those of you that have been visiting me and commenting will continue to do so at the new blog. Please update your link. See you there.

Kellie

Trying a rotation

kellieps3 — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:54:58 +0000

I have decided to try a stitching rotation. I have never stitched on a rotation before so I am not sure if it will work for me or not. I am hoping that it does. Inspired by Nicole at Nicole’s Needlework, I have decided to set my rotation up by the day of the week like hers. That seems much easier for me than trying to track hours. I picked out seven of the projects that I am most interested in right now, stuck the names in a cup, and drew out for each daily slot. Silly, I know….

My rotation is going to be:

Monday-June Morning

Tuesday-Kindness Sampler

Wednesday-Simple Gifts-Love

Thursday-Shimmering Mermaid

Friday-Simply Live

Saturday-Blessings and Kind Wishes

Sunday-This is the Day (yes, I caved)

My hope is that this rotation will help me to get a lot of WIPs (and a few new starts) finished. I am hoping that by having several projects that I am consistently stitching, I won’t feel like I am neglecting as many.

I started last night with June Morning. I didn’t get to stitch as I much as I would have liked (do we really ever?), but I did get a little accomplished.

Mary R.-I found the purse at Sears.

Well, I am off to stitch on Kindness and to watch American Idol.

Happy Stitching,

Kellie

Mama’s Got a Brand New Bag

kellieps3 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:50:07 +0000

And Baby’s got a new pair of shoes. We went shoe shopping for DS for basketball shoes today, and while we were out, I spotted this…

I loved the bright colors and the funky pattern.

Now on to stitching…I stitched on June Morning for what seemed like forever last night, and I don’t even have a completed square to show for it. But I plan to stitch on it more tonight while watching American Idol, Lost, and Life on Mars.

June Morning WIP

School is back in session tomorrow, so it is back to work and school for our household. My personal ice storm stitch a thon will end tonight, which is probably a good thing as my husband thinks we are growing roots from sitting so much. LOL!

Thank you so much for all the lovely comments that I have been receiving on my blog lately. I love them all and read them more than once. Thank you for helping me to decide to try This is the Day on the Silkweaver Days Gone By fabric. It is beckoning me from the box of kits I have waiting, and it is getting louder, but so far I have been able to ignore it.

Happy Stitching!

Kellie

Tea anyone?

kellieps3 — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:04:30 +0000

I finished CCN’s Tea Room today. I started this last July and quickly put it away. I had most of the house and some of the border finished when I picked it up yesterday. I stitched until almost 3 am last night (… or this morning?) and I have stitched quite a bit today. I put the last stitch in around 7 pm.

CCN Tea Room

I worked a little more on Shimmy since my last post. Here she is…

Shimmering Mermaid WIP

What to work on next? I am thinking of picking up June Morning by Goode Huswife for tonight’s stitching and TV viewing pleasure…

June Morning WIP

This one has a long way to go.

I kitted “This is the Day” by Hands to Work in the Jan/Feb issue of JCS. I am not sure about my fabric choice though. I am thinking of using 28ct. lugana called Days Gone By by Silkweaver. I am trying to decide if it is too splotchy looking….let me know what you think.

I fell in love with this sampler seeing it in progress and finished on Siobhan’s beautiful blog. I am trying to resist starting it this week. I really need to finish a few more WIPs before I start another new project.

Well, I am off to catch up on a few blogs and then stitch.

Kellie

Shimmering Mermaid

kellieps3 — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 02:25:29 +0000

I am working on another Mirabilia mermaid. I love them. Spurred on by the satisfaction of finishing MOTDB, I have been diligently working on Shimmering Mermaid. I started her earlier in January, but quickly put her aside after a few stitches to work on other things. In the last few days, I have worked on her exclusively.

I am stitching her on 32ct. “Blueberry” lugana by Silkweaver which looks more purple than gray in real life. This is what she will look like finished…(as I sit here wondering how many months/years that will be…one stitch at a time, right?)

One more ice/snow picture…

My mom took this one at their house. With the tree branches drooping and brushing the ground, it looks like the park bench has its own little hideaway. Normally, the branches are a good distance above the bench. They had a lot more snow than we did. They still do not have power. I really hope for their sake that it is restored soon. I am starting to wonder about school on Monday. There is still significant power outage in our county and a shelter is still going strong at one of our elementary schools. Who knows when we will be back… As much as I like being home, I will not like making all of this up at the end of the year.

DH is starting a movie, a mini series on DVD–James Michener’s Centennial. I guess I will go watch and stitch. I am trying hard to avoid the online needlework super bowl sales, but I am feeling my resistance weakening.

More later,

Kellie

Ice + snow

kellieps3 — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 01:27:03 +0000

WARNING–LOTS OF PHOTOS IN THIS POST…

(I always think this is a good thing, but I see these kind of warnings in blogs sometimes and there must be a reason…those on dial up, maybe?)

Day 2 of the winter storm happened today. It rained last night and eventually turned into freezing rain. The temperatures dropped causing more ice accumulation. Then it snowed. We are more fortunate than most. We still have electricity, and there are no trees laying on our house or in our vehicles. There are so many here without power and the electric companies are telling people that it could be one to two weeks before their power is restored because the damage is so massive. Red Cross has set up a shelter in one of the local elementary schools to help those that need it. Lots of people bunking in with friends and relatives that have power to stay warm. The local grocery store has a lot of empty shelves–no bread whatsoever! We went out and about today to see some of the area. The pictures below are from that outing.

Our family is truly blessed and fortunate. I am not complaining at all. My in laws have their power restored. My parents are without power, but are fine. They heat with a wood stove insert and have a gas fireplace in the basement should they need it. Both my brother and myself have encouraged them to come to our homes, but they insist they are warm and well taken care of. I know they are. When we were kids, the power would sometimes go out for more than a week at a time during winter storms like this one. We not only survived, but were warm and had plenty to eat. My parents know what to do in these situations and also have the equipment to do so. We never camped out as children, but we had camping equipment for just such occasions.

Now on to stitchy news…I finished Mermaids of the Deep Blue last night. WhooHoo!! This was one of my main stitching goals to start the new year. I put the final bead on around midnight last night.

Mermaids of the Deep Blue-Mirabilia

MOTDB is stitched on 32 ct. Amsterdam Blue linen with recommended DMC, Kreinik threads, and Mill Hill beads and treasures. It was fun to stitch, and I am glad it is finished.

I am now working on Mirabilia’s Shimmering Mermaid on a beautiful piece of Silkweaver fabric that my parents gave me for Christmas (have I mentioned lately how much I love Silkweaver fabric? ). As soon as I have enough progress to show (I am hoping tomorrow) I will upload a photo.

I am off to do a Wii fit workout, watch Lost (any Lost fans out there?) and Life On Mars (yeah! It’s back on tonight!!), and stitch on Shimmy.

I want to say a big thank you to all who have been reading and commenting on my blog lately. I TRULY appreciate it.

More later…

Kellie

Ice

kellieps3 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:38:01 +0000

A significant ice storm occurred last night while we slept. As of last night’s forecast, we were on the edge between snow and ice but falling in the snow area. We awoke to no snow, but plenty of ice. The phone rang at 5:15 am announcing that school was out. I peeked out the window then and could see the ice sparkling in the lamplight in our front yard and could hear it tinkling on my son’s window when I checked on him and covered him up. Beautiful to look at this morning, but destructive. My in-laws are without power. We have been fortunate that our power has remained on (for now). However, we lost one of our beautiful Bradford pear trees in our front yard. My father-in-law called a couple of hours ago to say that they lost most of the tall pecan tree in their front yard as well as a huge branch on one of the trees in their back yard. We were able to get out this afternoon and drive around for awhile. It looks like a winter wonderland, but there were a lot of trees, branches, and power lines down. We are fortunate that our house has not been affected. Our governor has declared a state of emergency. I think out of 120 school districts, 105 were closed today. School is out tomorrow as well. I don’t know if we will return this week as there is more weather expected this evening. When I had hoped for snow in my previous post, this wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.

However, I have enjoyed the day stitching. My mom, who reads my blog (Hi Mom!), commented to me on the phone yesterday about Mermaids of the Deep Blue and inspired me to pick it up today and try to finish it. I am very close. I plan on stitching late into the night, and I am hoping to have a finish to show you tomorrow. I am finishing up the beading and catching a few missed stitches here and there. They are almost done. I can’t wait to have them framed.

Husband just came in to say more of the tree in the front has fallen and he can hear branches and breaking all around the neighborhood. We will all be outside cleaning up this week, I guess.

Since I don’t have stitching pictures to show, I will post a few of the ice in our backyard. I stepped out the back door onto the deck and took a few of a small tree in our backyard as well as our swingset.

I am off to read a couple of blogs, download a couple of disks of an audiobook onto my iPod, and then to stitch and watch American Idol. Hope all of you have great night.

Kellie

Tagged, Happy Dance, and Progress

kellieps3 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:10:17 +0000

I finished Americana Sampling last night. I am so tickled to have a finish for 2009.

LHN Americana Sampling

I have worked on several other projects over the weekend as well….

BOAF Kindness WIP

PS Simple Gifts-Love WIP

IC Cirque Des Carreaux WIP

Just a little bit of stitching in several…not a lot in any. Please excuse my dark photos and wrinkly fabric. I took the pictures fast tonight with no natural light whatsoever.

We are projected to get a significant winter storm starting tomorrow evening. I like snow. I like wintry weather. There is something about being warm and cozy and stuck in the house for a few days that I really enjoy. I think it is the reprieve and the downtime, as well as the scenery that I love.I am really hoping that this time we get what the meteorologists are forecasting. I would love to have a significant stretch of time to stitch and watch movies.

I’ve been tagged by Melissa! This is my first ever tag. I am supposed to list five “addictions” and then tag five others.

In no particular order:

1. Cross-stitch: that’s a given. I love to stitch. I have been stitching since I was 18 and a freshman in college. One of my dearest friends that I met in college taught me how, and I have loved it since.

2. Scrapbooking: I love scrapbook as much as I love to cross-stitch. I love to put photos, memories, and paper together. I attibute this love of photos + memories to my father, who documented our lives extensively through photos and home movies as my brother and I were growing up (and still does).

3. Reading: I love to read. Books, magazines, websites, pretty much anything. I can be perfectly content pretty much anywhere as long as I have something to read.

4. my iPod: this provides me endless hours of entertainment. Everything from music, to games, to audiobooks–I can even surf the net on it in a pinch.

5. Chocolate: I love it. I have a huge sweet tooth.

Since I really don’t know five people to tag, I am going to say that if you read my blog, consider yourself tagged. (and post me a comment, I love to read them! ).

Melissa, thank you for tagging me. (and thanks for the other new release suggestions! I am going to check those out.).

It is time to put my son to bed and he can’t find his Lambie that he sleeps with. I guess I better try to hunt it down. Then I am going to get my stitching back out while I watch a movie on TV with hubby. Hope everyone has a good start to the week.

Until next time,

Kellie

WOW!

kellieps3 — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 14:15:00 +0000

I have been checking out the Nashville releases at ABC Stitch Therapy this morning. All I can say is WOW! There are tons of great designs coming out. Here are some of my particular favorites:

Love Blue Ribbon Designs! This is It’s Cold Outside. I will definately be ordering this.

Another Blue Ribbon Designs–called Read Between the Lines. Lovely!

Sarah Moon Ackworth Wooden Box–Sarah Moon is in my WIP pile. This would be a good incentive to get her back out and finished.

Victorian Memories Chaise Lounge by Cat’s Whiskers–I have never stitched one of these because I don’t think I could do the finishing, but they always fascinate me. I think they are beautiful.

Just a few things that caught my eye this morning…

Have a great weekend!

Kellie

Thursday

kellieps3 — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:24:06 +0000

No stitching to show today. I was out of town at a work conference yesterday rooming with some other people. I felt funny about getting my stitching out to work on it, even though I brought it with me. I am not sure why, but whatever the reason, I didn’ t stitch any yesterday. I plan to make up for it tonight while I watch Grey’s Anatomy and The Office (and possibly Private Practice if I can squeeze it in). I think I will pull Americana Sampling back out to work on as I really enjoyed stitching on it the other night. Or maybe Simple Gifts-Love that I have been enjoying as well. I would have more finishes if I would stick with one thing, but I so enjoy variety.

I ordered some fabrics from Silkweaver this week. They are having a great 40% off sale on some selected colors. I got two cuts of Days Gone By. The week before Purely Primitive was the color of the week (one of my favorites!) and I ordered a cut of it as well. I love Silkweaver fabrics. I recently joined their fabric of the month club, and I have been very pleased with the fabrics that I am receiving. At the rate of their sales lately, I am going to go bankrupt.

No stitchy pictures to show today…