Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Time flies, where has April gone?

It's hard to believe April is almost over. Wasn't January just a few weeks ago?

Here are a couple of recent finishes. First is a star designed by my LNS owner Sarah. This was from a class at my LNS this past Saturday. It was stitcher's choice whether to just stitch the inner square or to include the star points. I included the star points and plan to finish it into a biscournu.



Next is snowman I finished tonight for The Society RR. I hope you like him Shelleen.



Update on Mirabilia "The Lady of the Flag". I ordered fabric today from Silkweavers. I'm guessing I'll have the fabric within a couple of weeks. I have other things to work on while I wait for the fabric. I'm working on another biscournu I'm working on for PALS Biscournu exchange. Then I'll get to work on my square for the Fair&Square 4th of July holiday round.

I hope everyone's week has gotten off to a great start. For me, I'm off to bed, as the alarm clock will be waking me up in 6 hours.

Monday, April 21, 2008

GIVE is finished

I finished LK DoubleFlip GIVE tonight (well, really "morning" since its a little after 1:30am Monday morning).



Planning 1 per month, this catches me up through April. Now to get caught up on the LK 2007 FlipIts.

While at LNS yesterday, I did purchase the Kreiniks and all but 1 package of beads for "The Lady of the Flag" (see picture in post below this one). I want to stitch her on an overdyed fabric, still trying to decide on which fabric.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Happy Friday

I have no new finishes. Since finishing Christmas Elf Fairy, I have stitched very little. I've stitched a little more on LK GIVE DoubleFlip, and have stitched a little more on the large project from my recent Myrtle Beach retreat.

Tonight I will stitch my signature on Christmas Elf Fairy and give her a good pressing, for tomorrow morning she gets dropped off at LNS for framing. I also will leave for framing Shepherd's Bush "Christmas Is Love" that I stitched back in December.

While eating a late lunch at my desk (at work) an hour of so ago, I was surfing around the web. Browsing through the various websites, I realized something, and with this realization, have concluded that I have LOST MY MIND. Since finishing Christmas Elf Fairy (my first Mirabilia), I find myself wanting to stitch other Mirabilia's. I have already purchased 3 additional limited addition "Fairy" kits and have the "Christmas Tree 2007" kit. These are relatively small in size (compared to most other Mirabilia designs - like the "mermaids"). And, what, do you ask, what do I want to stitch? All of a sudden, I want to tackle a LARGE Mirabilia project. And which Mirabilia project have I decided upon? One that I purchased several years ago .....



The Lady of the Flag
- Design Size: 340 x 170 stitches (21 1/4" x 10 3/4" on 32 ct)
- 8 packages of beads

I have other large projects that I'd like to work on. I have 1 large project that is currently a UFO (that I want to get back to working on sometime soon). Why oh why do I suddenly want to start a really large Mirabilia project? As I mentioned earlier, I think I've lost my mind. For those that know me, you'll proabably agree.

I'm actually going to pull the pattern out tonight, pull the DMC colors needed so I can decide what kind of fabric to use.

Hugs to all. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I have a concert later tonight and a dixieland gig tomorrow afternoon. In between playing music, I'll hopefully get a little stitching done this weekend.

Monday, April 7, 2008

WOOHOO!!!!! She's finished.....



Took longer than I thought, but I was determined to finish her before going to bed. I put the last bead in a couple minutes past 2am. Only thing left is to add my signature (I can do that after I've had some sleep).

This is officially more beads than I have ever added to a project. I did a rough count, there are approximately 480-490 beads. The photo is a little fuzzy and you can't see all the beads, but believe me, they are all there.

I hope everyone likes her. This was my first Mirabilia .... now I can say "I have stitched a Mirabilia". :-)

Thursday, April 3, 2008

I have pictures to share...

First, here is the small project from Susan Greening Davis from my Stitching Retreat in Myrtle Beach March 14-15:



The zipper bag is a small mesh bag, covered in fabric. The class project has all specialty stitches except for the backstitched words. The words didn't come out too clearly in the photo... the words are "A threads tail is never long enough". I added some buttons and attached it to the zipper bag. It turned out so cute.

Next is Bent Creek February Snapper:



I'm stitching them in 4 rows of 3. I stitched February first since it was center of the top row. I still need to attach the snaps.

Then I switched gears to Lizzie Kate. In the last week, I've stitched LOVE and REMEMBER from the 2008 Lizzie Kate DoubleFlips. Here they are:



I've started GIVE below those two. But then I decided to rotate back to Mirabilia Christmas Elf Fairy. I haven't shared a picture of her in a while. I have a discount coupon from my LNS that expires the end of April and want to use the discount on getting this and a couple of other pieces framed. Last night I finished the whisper thread stitching (yipee!!!). Only thing left is the beading and the backstitching. Here's what she looks like tonight:



My goal is to have her finished by this coming Sunday.

What's going on other than stitching? Work has been busy, busy, busy. The dixieland band has a gig coming up on April 19. I'll be making my "singing with a band" debut that day. I've sang with various chorus groups from grade school through college, but until now, have never sang with a band. I'm the banjo player with the dixieland group, but recently started singing a few vocals. I'm having so much fun performing with this group.

North Carolina weather has been all over the place lately. This week has been the roller coaster the weatherman predicted this past weekend, nice one day, chilly and rainy the next. It's been rainy today. Tomorrow (Friday) is supposed to be beautiful and around 78 degrees. The great news is that this area of NC has gotten several batches of rain during the last month or so. We're not out of the drought yet and water restrictions have not been relaxed, but the local water source (lake) has risen quite a bit over the last month or so. Yipee!!!

I hope everyone has had a great week this week. And hope everyone has a wonderful weekend planned.