Prairie Schooler Christmas Exchange

I just love it! It turns out Nancy got my name and I got hers. I came really close to stitching her initials too, but decided on a mitten instead.


Check out the message board dedicated to Prairie Schooler designs.

Mr. Christmas arrives!

LOL.. I didn't intend for this to be it's own post but I forgot to add it on to the previous one. I am married to Mr. Christmas. My husband is really into Christmas and he loves to decorate. Christmas has started at our house the day after Thanksgiving for most of our married lives. When we owned our house we had one of the most decorated houses on the street and my husband was in unspoken competition with the fireman neighbor across the street. One year, he swore the neighbor kid sabatoged a string of our lights on purpose. LOL... When we moved away we seriously had neighbors telling us they would miss our Christmas house. Well, where we are at now, he just doesn't feel like decorating the outside because it's sort of hidden back from what passers by would see and we don't have a lawn or anything. He even gave away our lawn decorations because the garage is overfull. We seriously have Christmas wall in our garage. That is how much stuff we have. But, there's always inside! LOL..
I was out today with my mom and family, and when I got home and walked toward the condo and saw our lit up wreath on the door, I knew it. Mr. Christmas had arrived. When I opened the door, I found the living room all decked out and ready. The tree is up. The nativity is set up. The mantle is decorated and stockings hung. The stairail is decorated. The table linens have been changed to the everyday Christmas cover and the snowman placemats are out as well as the centerpiece that will grace our table everyday. We'll leave the tree undecorated until our younger daughter comes home from college for Christmas break. We are on countdown.. just 15 more days. He even changed the bathroom towels to red/green and put a Christmas candle in there and a couple of snowmen on the counter. This is one of the many things that I love about my husband, the one and only, Mr. Christmas.

REDWORK ornament arrives. Mine. All mine.

I am thrilled with my new ornament from Heather. This brilliant lady did a splendid job at figuring out what I would like. Is this not gorgeous?! I recognized it as being one I had wanted to stitch myself, it's by the Workbasket from JCS 2005 issue. And just look at this cache of goodies she sent with it! Two candles (I am a big candle lover), Needle Necessities, two charts, a Christmas list pad, Mary Engelbreit stickers and THE most adorable mini note cards. I'm blown away by such generosity. I will definitely stitch both these charts and everything will be used.
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Family. Food. Stitching. What more could you want?

Thanksgiving was wonderful. When you have a large family, holiday's can get rather, shall we say, "eventful", even before the day arrives. This year, the location of our gathering changed back and forth three times, who was cooking, where/who was cooking the turkey, who was driving who, oh all sort of details being commented on by some who weren't even going to be there but had to enter their 2c. Ah, the joys of a large family full of strong personalities desperately trying to stay in check :) LOL.. The food was amazing. The new baby in the family put smiles on everyone's face. Tough guy brother-in-law sobbed while retelling his grandmother's story of being a genocide survivor. There was a huge family photo taken, less one stubborn nephew who refused to join in. He is 31... not 3! LOL...

My Thanksgiving Day New Project Start ended up being the Scarlet Letter's Heaven is My Hope. I barely made even a start! LOL.. I tried to stitch while visiting and chatting and I just didn't get very far.
Here it is, such as it is....
I dislike the greek key border, but I love the rest of it and I am wondering if I will ever complete this enormous sampler. Alas, away she goes for now. I won't be working on this for at least another two weeks. I have two ornaments that need finishing and a quaker round robin to work on. Besides that, I am going to start Sarah Moon December 1. hahaha. I discovered an SAL on one of my groups that is getting ready to start. Since I was already considering her for Christmas, I will just move her up a couple weeks. Then I can start something different on Christmas. LOL... If I do it, I will have four starts within 2 months time, not including some more ornaments I am going to do. hehehe. I just had the silly idea of trying to see how many new projects I can start between now and New Years. Crazy. Maybe I'll just see how many projects I can kit up between now and New Years. Maybe I'll kit up a bunch of ornaments! Ooohh I like that idea. Generally, I don't make up kits until I'm ready to stitch the project, so this actually sounds like something that might help me get more things worked into my rotation.

Oh, yes! I received my first ornament exchange of the four I'm signed up for. It's awesome! I'll do a post later to show you that. Gotta take a photo of it first. Plus, I have to show off what my dear husband busied himself with today while I was out.

Holiday Starts

I'm not quite ready to take the plunge into the 10/25/50 world. I am, however, trying to decide which projects I want to start next. Yeah, yeah, nevermind how many I already have going, that's not the point. I am going to start a new project on each of the upcoming holidays- Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Now, that sounds fun!

1. Catherine Agnes (Indigo Rose) - I'd love to start her on Thanksgiving. I have the chart but I am lacking in the Waterlilies department. A very kind soul is sending me the remainder of her fibers but I will still need to come up with the rest. Anyone interested in splitting fibers with me on the rest? It's all done in Waterlilies.

2. Sarah Moon (Needleprints) - Also a possible Thanksgiving or maybe Christmas start. I have the chart and probably a fabric I can use. I'm planning on using Vicki Clayton for this one and I have a large gift credit I can use for it. :)

3. Heaven is My Hope - I got a screaming deal on this Scarlet Letter kit. If I stitch it I will just use the DMC and linen that came with it.

4. Any With My Needle design. I have so many I want to do but I'll have to see which can be kitted from stash on hand. Ellen is one of my favorite designers. (I put a bunch of them here but I have several others too.)

5. A Spanish sampler - Again, I have several collected but I've yet to even begin one! I've started working on a special blog I will be dedicating to it when I do start. I'm thinking New Years for this one. Anyone want to SAL with me? (Many pictured here...I do have more!)

6. American Sampler - featured in Treasures Magazine. Doesn't this sound like a good Thanksgiving start? I've been collecting the AVS for it for a long time. I may go with this one if I don't get a fiber pal for Catherine Agnes.

So, here I am testing out AOL's version of picture hosting. Eh. Might as well. I've tried at least half a dozen other photo hosting places. It's fun how they're all coming up with fun little slide show tricks.

Two down, two to go

The hard part about stitching for exchanges is when you like the item so much you don't want to send it! Then there's this part when you want to show a picture but want to keep it a secret still.
One I stitched based on the persons love for animals. Not being much of an animal lover myself I wouldn't usually chose this design. I really like it though! The other one had to be a Prairie Schooler design. I have a lot of PS books so the hard part was choosing the design. Someone is going to get a really darling m _ _ _ _ n. I goofed on the finishing but it's hidden on the back.
The next one I need to get some supplies for. I'm really looking forward to this one and I have a real bad feeling I'm not going to want to let it go either. LOL... I haven't made up my mind what to stitch for the fourth one yet.

Fruity

Oh... no big deal. Just further evidence of my fruit obsession, I guess. I finished stitching this last month I think. It just had a little bit left to do. I seem to leave a lot of things like that. I guess I get bored at the end? Who knows! LOL...
I don't know what I'll do with it. I'm considering making it into a pot holder and gifting it.

So. I am diabetic. Even if I do everything to control my blood glucose (diet, excercise) I could still develop complications anyway. That's fun to think about. Not. So, do I eat fruit or not? Today, I eat it.

I have some finishing to do

I completed the stitching earlier this year and I really would like to do the finishing this year as well. I'd like to have at least one item completely finished that I actually keep for myself.

From Needlework Sm...

From Needlework Sm...

Seven Songs!

Laura tagged me on this one. Laura, dear, while you can't come up with seven songs, I am having a tough time keeping it to seven.

Here are the rules: List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre. Whether or not they have words or even if they are any good but they must be songs you’re really enjoying right now! Post these instructions in your blog along with with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.


ONLY seven songs I'm into now. Only seven, you say? I am really into music. My whole family is. Consequently I get introduced to a lot of different stuff.

1. Speed of Sound - Coldplay. replay, replay, replay
2. Come on Feel the Illinoise - Sufjan Stevens. OK, the WHOLE CD.
3. Walk in Paris - Estas Tonne'/Michael Shulman. Incredible stuff.
4. Yellow Taxi - Matt Costa. Nice stuff
5. Photobooth/ Your Heart is an Empty Room, etc etc - Death Cab for Cutie. I'm totally into this indie emo stuff. Credit two daughters.
6. Django - Benny Goodman :)
7. Martirio - Flamenco, jazz, latin. This is music of my soul...

Other fun cultural picks... Gloria Estefan's Mi Tiera. Classic. Gipsy Kings!

Ok. Well there's my seven (plus). I'll have to figure out who to tag.

OK now for the tagees:
Anita
Danielle
Joanie
Juanita
Darla
Anne
Susan

Ornament-a-thon

This month I will finish FOUR ornaments for exchanges.
One is for a contest no less.
C
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Quaker Update x2

Now that I'm ready to post a pic of the current round I realize I never posted a pic for that last round. So here's both :)

This is the part I stitched on Nancy's piece. She chose hers to be a monochromatic of Vicky Clayton's Wenge on sand linen. What a beautiful color combination! Sorry the color is not right on this photo. Nancy had us add our own initials and the initials of someone who inspired us in our needlework. I added my mothers initials. I stitched the crown and the wheat motifs. (Eternal life and the bread of life.)


This is the part I added to Terri's piece. Terri has provided a beautiful pallet of Vicky Clayton silks for us to choose from and we are stitching on Vintage Lakeside Linen, Examplar, I think. She asked us to add something that signified something about ourselves if we could. The best I could come up with was a tree. Yes, I am a tree. LOL.. no, no. We do have swans in the lake nearby and I wanted to stitch a swan, but I wanted to use white or ecru which weren't in the pallet. Since my city is something like the "Tree City of America", or something like that, a tree was called to the occasion. I also added the smaller half medallion of roses in the marvelous color Rufous. I think this is turning out nicely. (What is "rufous" anyway? )

Two Years Ago...

I am so happy to have finally completed the stitching for This Too Shall Pass Scissors Keep. Every year Lois Mouriski Bear (Elegant Stitch) makes another part of this series available. I decided I would not let myself purchase the other pieces until I completed this one. This piece was released two years ago so I am a little behind the times. I know I got one of the last kits available for the scissors keep so I am glad to see the next piece, a pinkeep, is still available. The sales of this series goes to benefit breast cancer organizations. The chart calls for personalizing with your monogram and two significate dates. I chose the year 2004 which was the year I had surgery for cancer, and 2006 because I've made it to the two year marker this year without any recurrence. How thankful I am every time I think about it (very often). Mine was not breast cancer but it was a cancer particular to women. Ladies, I implore you, if you have not had a gynecological visit in the past year, please make an appointment today. It's a mistake to avoid it.
So anyway... on with the finishing so I can celebrate and treat myself to the next kit!

OCSG Sampler Treating Time

Orange Coast Sampler Guild closed out another year with the annual year end party. This year we had a rousing game of bingo. I lost. And lost again and again and again. Not my game. Give me some strategy at least! I forgot to take a picture of the prize table. There's always cool tote bags, nested boxes etc. The big ticket again this year was a scholarship for the Merry Cox class in July. I crossed my fingers. And lost again. Dang. Oh well. Since it's October, every member is given a bag and goes through the treat line where the cabinet members get to pass out the goodies. This year we received a set of various papercraft needlework items all with "2006" and our OCSG logo on them - pinkeep, ruler, threadwinder, thread palette, and a booklet of finest english needles. We also each received this years' Whitman Sampler tin which can house all the items once we empty it of the chocolates. This years' is oblong and can fit a pen in it. So that's nice. At least a loser doesn't leave empty handed. lol... I did indulge in some dessert which was a lovely ginger cake with homemade caramel sauce and ice cream. I also ate three mini dark Milky Way squares and ferreted away a handful more for dh. tsk tsk tsk.

Part of the guild activities each year is an ornament drive. The ornaments are all donated to The Attic for their annual silent auction fundraiser for breast cancer research. The goal is to have at least 50 donated from our guild. Last year we surpassed that. This year only 18 ornaments were turned in. I'm sure some members will still mail theirs in. I stitched the BOAF Christmas Angel a few years ago and never finished it. I finished it off hurriedly today and though I'm glad I got it done it certainly won't be fetching any high bids that's for sure!

Oh yeah! That envelope with the girl on it is the finishing kit for Good Little Girls Sewing Companion project from earlier this year. I missed the finishing class and I forgot all about the finish kit, so that was an unexpected treat to bring home. I suppose I better work on it, especially since we've got some great classes coming next year. Listen to this line-up! Trisha Nguyen of Thistle Threads, Amy Mitten of Fibers to Dye For, Judy Odell, and as mentioned before, Merry Cox. Depending on how it looks, I may also take the class with Gay Ann Rogers who is designing a special case to house our OCSG scrimshaw set. Since I only have 1 of the 5 pieces I'll wait and see what the piece looks like before I decide yea or nay. They said we'll have a course from Hillside Samplings too but it will just be a group project, not led by the designer. We have to wait until January before we will see any pictures of anything. This does try my patience.

Stash Clearance Time!

Hey there! This loop shows a fraction of the items I am parting company with. Email me at senoritastitches @gmail.

This will provide links to several photobucket folders
Senorita's Stash Reduction
And, here's a jump off place to my wish list.
Senorita's Wish List

WTC Quilt

WTC Quilt,
originally uploaded by SenoritaStitches.

I can't believe it's been five years.

Remember the quilt panel I did? Here's a photo of the completed WTC Quilt. This quilt contains the names of all those who worked in the buildings. They are trying to find somewhere to display the quilt.
For more information: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wtcquilt/

My Quaker Round Robin

Veronica's Quaker ,
originally uploaded by SenoritaStitches.

Here is the start of my Quaker Round Robin piece. I am using Amy Mitten's Fibers to Dye For. These silks are so nice to stitch with and the names are fun too. I wanted an alphabet on my sampler so I started it with that. The Crown motif in the center is from the Ackworth Pattern Book. I am looking forward to watching my sampler grow along the way.

On my way down the bunny trail

I got this finishing idea from a friend. It's a small photo album.

  

SB Exchange

 
  
Even though I have over-committed myself yet once again, I am glad did it. How could I regret it? You saw the awesome sampler and stash I got below.
Now here's another. This one is from the Shepherd's Bush Ezboard. We had our choice to stitch either a tape measure cover or a fob. I am still working on mine.
Here is the beautiful one I received from Rani. She also included some lovely stationary items with pink floral hearts and a mouth-watering recipe book called Chocolate Treats... simple, sumptuous recipes for every chocolate lover. YUM

My Spring Samplar from Rachel

 
  
Look what I received for my Easter exchange! It's been here a couple of days but I have been running ragged and forgot to open it last night. I could hardly wait to get home from work today so I could tear it open. I never expected such a generous gift. My goodness. Rachel stitched me the most wonderful sampler and even framed it. It's personalized with my initials on the top and she dated and initialed it also. I love every bit of it, I love the cute birds on the top, the strawberry border and the fuzzy squirrel and fluffy bunny. It is stitched on a fine count linen, perhaps 40ct. That's not all though! I also received a lovely Easter scarf. (Did you knit it Rachel?) And look! Something for a recent obsession of mine - a Lamb retractable tape measure. When you pull it's tale the tape measure is exposed. It is so cute. AND I got the chart for Attic Collection and the Finishing Instruction Pack signed by the designer Judy Odell, with a personal message to moi! She hopes I get a chance to stitch it :) I am really into trying to learn more about finishing techniques so this is just perfect for me. Rachel was the coordinator for the JAT Ornament exchange I was in. We have met again on another group and she is so smart, she knew what I would like. She accompanied it with a clever handstamped card. I am one spoiled bunny lover. My DH and I already shared the chocolate bunny.
I plan to wear the scarf to work on Monday.
Rachel, from the bottom of my heart, Thank you!!
(Please click on the sampler pic to display it more clearly.)

Stitching Friends Bonanza

I had the best time yesterday. Terri, hosted a get together in her home. I think this was the largest home gathering I have been to. Terri, me, Melissa, Jill, Laura, Debi, Nancy, Darla, Karen, Kathi, Laurel, Sandy and Sue. (I’ll add some hyperlinks in here later. I already did it but it got hung up and I had to start over.)
Anytime I’ve got to any sort of stitching gathering I get all revved up. It’s so inspiring seeing everyone’s stitched work. There were so many amazing pieces. Jill is a Chatelaine machine (gorgeous work!) but the christening gown she is working on really got my attention. As is happens, four of us are in a quaker round robin that is just starting. Terri had her silk palette and lots of fabrics to toss them on and she’s got a beautiful combination. It will be wonderful to stitch. Darla brought her framed The Sanctuary – it’s marvelous, of course. Well… on and on… went the show fest. It was so much fun! As a matter of fact, it was such a success that Terri has started a new yahoo group for us to organize our future meetings. I am so thrilled!
I’ve also had a little reuniting with quite a few of the old BB’s and that brought me a lot of smiles. I even got some chat time in. I love to chat. I wish more people liked it to.
So, anyway, I’ve been in a great mood today!

Since I don't have any current stitching to show right now, how about this..
This is the darling pinkeep I received from Jan for last year's Valentine's Exchange.

Back to stitching on my model project . . .