Don't faint, yes, this is a new post...FINALLY

I have so many wonderful stitching friends, friends that laugh with me, friends that listen to me when needed, friends that stitch with me. And most importantly, friends that remind me that I haven't updated my blog in over 6 months. Well, I have just returned from hanging out with several of those wonderful friends. I have been in Myrtle Beach, SC, attending the 13th Annual Cross Stitch Pals Fall Fling. There were many familiar faces there and there were several new faces there this year. It was wonderful to see everyone and, for those that were attending for the first time, it was great to meet you and I hope to see you there again next year.

This year, the Fall Fling was at a new location, the Springmaid Beach Resort.

Here is a photo from the balcony of my room:


This was the view from the front door balcony side of my room:


And here is a view from the beach I took this morning before I left:


Stitchers from all over the place attend the Pals Fling. This is MichelleKS. Michelle was my roomie this trip:


Here's a photo of MicheleWA (no, I didn't spell her name incorrectly, she spells Michele with one "L"):


Here is a photo of DawnNC and her daughter Emily. Dawn and I have been best friends since 1st grade and have attended all 13 of the Pals Myrtle Beach trips. Her daughter Emily has attended all 7 of her years and has many "Aunts" from the Pals stitchers:


Here are KarenAZ (right), SharonPA (middle) and DianeIN (left). This was Diane's first trip to the Pals Fling:


Saturday night was the last night and many group shots were being taken. Here is a group photo of the crowd I was hanging out with. You see that DianeIN (up front) fit right in with the rest of us crazy, silly stitchers:


One of the most popular activities from the PALS Fling is the grab bag exchange. Grab bag containers can be anything. This year's containers were great. Here are photos of some of the containers:






The "penguin" container from the middle photo is the one I ended up getting and it was packed with wonderful goodies. I have a few more things to share, but need to take photos first. I'll do that and share in my next post.

Last photo to share for this post was this beautiful view of the moon coming up over the ocean's horizon. I was walking back to my room Saturday night and happened to look up and saw the moon starting to appear. I grabbed my camera and this is one of the photos that wasn't blurry:


I wasn't up early enough any morning to capture a photo of a sunrise over the ocean, maybe next year.

That's it for now. I'll take photos of a few other things to share and will post again in a day or so. To all those that attended the Pals Fling, I hope to see you all there again next year. And to those that couldn't attend this year, I hope to see you there next year too.

Hugs and Happy Stitching,
Chris

So long since my last post

Where does the time go? Oh wait, a bunch of that time is spent at work, and another bunch at various rehearsals, oh yea.

Today, I'm in Manning, SC, to spend a day of stitching with friends. I drove down late last night, checked into the Holiday Inn Express a little after 12:30am. Slept okay, but woke up a few times. The folks in the room next to mine had at least 2 small children and apparently were getting up very early, my guess to continue their adventures on the highway. Why do I say this? Because I woke up around 6am, and there was giggle-fest going on next door (at least 2 gigglers). It was probably 20 minutes before I fell back asleep and they were still giggling when I fell back asleep. I woke up again a little after 7am, heard the gigglers still giggling away before I rolled over and fell back asleep.

I've had my breakfast, the Holiday Inn Express had some yummy sausage gravy this morning, which I had over a split biscuit. I'm going to finish sipping the last of my cup of coffee and head over to the meeting place for the stitching today. I do have my camera with me, hopefully, I'll remember to take some pictures, and will share some photos tomorrow once I'm back home.

I hope everyone has a great day today.

Hugs and Happy Stitching,
Chris

Wear Red Day

This post is for all my blogging friends out there. For all women. But, let's not leave out the men. To the men out there, is there a special woman in your life - your Mother, GrandMother, Sister, Wife, Daughter? Then Wear Red Day is a day for you. On Friday, February 5th, 2010, wear RED to show support against the fight against heart disease in women. Heart disease is the number 1 killer of women in the U.S. How many of you can wear RED on Friday? Come on, wear RED for the women in your life, including yourself.

Click on the Wear Red Day link for more information. And please help pass the word. Mention this post on your blog. Or post your own Wear Red Day post on your blog.

Happy Tuesday

I hope 2010 is starting off great for everyone. The weather here has been great the last few days. Not that the eastern half of NC gets dreadful winter weather (compared to those that live to the north), but we were having a spell of temperatures in the upper teens to lower 20's at night and barely getting above freezing during the day. Last few days have been upper 50's to low 60's, which has been much better.

As for stitching, I am just about finished with an ornament for Ruth. It's the last ornament I had left to finish in the Ho, Ho, Ho Ornament exchange. I thought it would have been finished, mailed and received by now, but no, taking a little longer, mainly because life has been busy last few weeks and I haven't had much time to stitch during the week. The backstitching should be done tonight and it will be stuffed, finished, and mailed in the next few days. Sorry I can't share a picture yet, I'll post a picture once it has been received. The only other thing I've stitched a little on is Lizzie Kate's "Believe" (from the Double-Flip series), at Monday night stitch-night a couple of Mondays. I had threads for the Christmas ornament spread out on the sofa cushion and didn't want to gather it all into a bag. The Lizzie Kate Double-Flips were handy, so off they went with me to stitch-night.



I am stitching them all on one piece of fabric (as in photo to left). "Believe" is the 7th design out of 12, so I'm officially over 1/2 way finished (ok, ok ... barely 1/2 way finished). I'm sad to say they were last touched a year ago (end of December 2008, first of Jan 2009). They do stitch rather quickly, so they are staying in the WIP pile, as I want to get the rest of them done. I've been attaching the charms as I finish each design. I'm going to have to detach one of the charms and sew it on again. I apparently got a little tight with my stitches when attaching it and it's not laying flat / dangling on the fabric. Don't know why I attached it so tightly, oh well. Once the double-flips are finished, I'll start working another Lizzie Kate Flip-It series, also a UFO not touched since a year ago.

Sorry no pictures today. I'll post WIP pictures soon, plus have some quilting pictures I need to take and share. More on quilting, with pictures, later.

Final stitching projects from 2009

First a photo from Christmas. I took my camera with me to Daddy's for Christmas, but never did take pictures of the snow. I did take a couple of pictures of Daddy. Here is Daddy, relaxing in "his" chair (the recliner), with his dog "Buttermilk" in his lap.


Now on to stitching. I look back over my list of completed stitching projects for 2009 and can only say one thing regarding the number of projects finished for 2009 .... "pitiful". I was doing okay the first part of the year, but the second part of the year, I had a long spell of not hardly stitching. Oh well, I plan to stitch much, much more in 2010. Here are the last four stitching projects for 2009. These are 4 ornaments stitched for members of the Ho Ho Ho Ornament exchange. I was the total slacker of the group, rushing to finish ornaments in December and get them mailed before Christmas. They have been received so I can post photos. These are the last 4 finished stitching projects for 2009:

Karen's ornament:


Shelleen's ornament:


Michele's ornament:


Nicole's ornament:


There is one more ornament to get finished and mailed, the one for Ruth. Ruth's ornament will be my first "finish" for 2010 and hopefully will be in the mail by the end of this coming week.

Hope everyone has a great week.

Posting my list of finished projects from 2009. Posting here to have it documented before clearing it to start the new list for 2010.
1. LK 2007 FEB FlipIt - Jan.1
2. LK 2007 MAR FlipIt - Jan.2
3. Reindeer ornament - Jan.12
4. With My Needle - Quaker Pattern Book, Chart A - Jan.23
5. With My Needle - Quaker Pattern Book, Chart I - Feb.8
6. SGD Small Christmas bell in snowman tin - Feb.21
7. SGD Embroidery-Topped basket - Feb.21
8. Stitched surprise for my buddies - Mar.24
9. Flamingo nametag for me - Mar.26
10. F&S round 12 squares - Apr.20
11. BBD Petites Lettres Rouges - Apr.30
12. LHN Schoolgirl Lessons - May 11
13. Karen's HoHoHo exchange ornie - May 28
14. SGD Needle Roll - Jun 2
15. Quaker Flag freebie - Aug.10
16. Sarah needlepoint diamond ornament - Sep.3
17. Victoria Sampler 'Trust" freebie ornie - Sep.24
18. Shelleen's HoHoHo exchange ornie - Dec.16
19. Michele's HoHoHo exchange ornie - Dec.17
20. Karen's HoHoHo exchange ornie - Dec.20
21. Nicole's HoHoHo exchange ornie - Dec.21

Happy New Year

Welcome to the year 2010. Let's enjoy some fireworks....



I hope 2010 brings happiness and health to all.