Welcome 2013

Welcome 2013! I know I have been MIA the last couple months and am not sure where the time has gone, but I have been busy with life...and stitching! I have been dealing with a bad cold/cough...or possibly the flu according to some reports....that has been dragging on almost 3 weeks. I am SO ready to get rid of this and move on!!! I even went to a Minute Clinic at CVS on Christmas morning to get prescription meds---didn't help so I'm guessing it's viral!

Anyways, I wanted to share what I have been up to stitching-wise. I apologize for the photos, but just wasn't feel up to pressing the linens and they seem to look a little "wavy" in the photos.

First up is a Half-Pinball class I took from Sharlotte DeVere at the Loudoun sampler Guild back in September. I made this for a friend of mines birthday. Green is her favorite color so I focused on that color. I added little tea related charms to the tassel to complement the brass beads in the stitching.

Initials on Back

Front

Next up is the finished stitched for the Tea Time Basket class from Barbara Jackson. This was a really fun stitch and combines two of my favorite things--stitching and tea. How could I go wrong?

left side of bands

right side of bands

                     

                                                                                       

Scissor Fob

                                                         

Scissor Holder

                                                                                                       Pincushion

Next is the 2000 Limited Edition Ewe and Eye Santa. This was a travel project since it was on big count. I've been working on it the last couple years. Isn't he the cutest? He's 15 inches from the bottom of his boots to the tips of his mittens. His snowman buddy has been waiting for him ...oh so patiently!

Now we have two classes I took through my local EGA. The first one on Blackwork was wonderful as it FINALLY sunk in how to do this. I would always "chicken" out and do a back stitch in place of the double running. This time I accomplished the stitch correctly and it is completely reversible--except for the section I did in an overdyed floss (diagonal section). I did manage a "mirror" image on that, but due to the nature of the color changes, it isn't reversible.

The second class piece is Hapsburg Lace, which is my new travel piece. It will be a scissor case when completed.

Next up is Hare Pyns by Sherri Jones of Patricks Woods. I had already taken this class from a Guild but never got very far (just the bunny head) so I am going to "audit" the class again in April down at Salty Yarns. I will also be taking her Blue Ribbon box class, so I have lots of pre-stitching to accomplish in the next few months. The colors are lovely and I did choose to fill in the background (you can see in the upper right hand corner).

 My New Years Day project was Under the Deep Blue Sea by Sue Hillis. I've chosen a much more subdued hadn dyed fabric, though it does have sparkles in it, but am sticking with the bright and colorful floss colors as called for. Should be a fun piece and remind me of happy times at the beach!

Biscornu at top and floss holder at bottom

Now here are the 2012 ornaments I made for the grandkids. I'm trying to make them each one every year. I had tried this with my daughters and got behind rather quickly, so they each do have a few, but definitely not one every year.

Elmo for Cora

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Asher
Asher actually helped with some stitches on this. He called it "threading" and kept asking if he could help do some threading while we were together.

So, you can see I have been a very busy bee! Now I just need to get my butt in gear for a major finishing marathon. I also have a lot of pre-stitching to work on--Sherri's classes and then two Betsy Morgans in June. But this is what I love to do....and thankfully I am at a point in my life where I have the time to do it!

Last, but not least, I wanted to share a gift our daughters arranged for my husband and I. We both celebrated our 60th birthdays in the last few months and our daughters

came up with a lovely and memorable gift idea--a bottle tree! They asked our family and friends to send a bottle with a "message" in it for us with birthday greetings. They collected these and presented them to us Thanksgiving weekend in a wooden crate along with a welded metal tree. I made copies of the notes, put the originals back in the bottles and then we "planted" our tree. This is evidently a "protective" tradition in the South where people believe bad spirits are captured in the bottles at night and then burned in the sunlight the following day. My daughters put a different spin on it and we just loved the idea. So here is a photo of our tree, bright and colorful and ever so special to us!

A Happy New Year to all and hopefully we'll be visiting more this year via my blog. Thanks for your 'twisted threads' of friendship!

Stasi