Ahhh, Saturday!

Hi everyone! As always, thanks so much for all your comments. A lot of you signed up for the give-away and I got a bunch of new followers from all over the world, which is always a thrill. The give-away drawing is scheduled for today, but I will get to that that later tonight. I have popped down to the basement to give a quick summary of the week, both in stitching and in general.

I would also like to thank you so much for all the sweet and interesting comments in regards to the "mixed mess" post. Thanks, I really appreciate it! Please keep in mind that I am still not real savvy when it comes to responding to comments. I am trying, but generally I just pop by your blogs and leave comments there. I hope that works!

We do now have two more contributors (and one in process) and 8 followers at the Brightneedle Blog, so that is really cool. One contributor, Maggee, even posted a picture of her stash a couple of days ago, so we are officially up and running now!
This will be my latest post on that blog; Brightneedle's Button Satchel:

Let me assure you, my hands are not of an abnormally large size, this pouch is just very, very small. The kit came without a photo or dimensions on the front cover, so as usual, I had no clue what I was buying... LOL
As you can imagine, I was a bit surprised (= long nose) when I opened up the package to find a piece of linen that was smaller than my hand to work with! Oh well, at least it meant that it was a quick stitch... A very small project for quite a bit of money, so I would probably not recommend this kit, if that is all right to say out loud - even though I do admit that it is very cute!!! Anyway, how much stuff can I really store in this pouch? Not even a lip-gloss... :-o
If you do decide to invest in the kit, be aware of the fact that the size is pretty much exactly as large as it needs to be, so take care when placing your stitch area. It has to be placed pretty much in the exact position that was intended for it, or you won't have any extra linen to work with in the assembly step.

BTW, the French manicure in the photo above is that "gel stuff" that I wrote about months ago. Still love it; the photo shows how it looks more than 2 weeks after having it done - impressive huh!?

Since we are on the subject of collaboration boards; I have finally gotten around to posting my first Christmas project over at the All Year Christmas SAL blog. I'll post the pics here too, but don't be shy - feel free to hop over the the Xmas SAL blog and check it out! :-)
Here it is; the Noel Quadrielle:

I decided to do the assembly a little bit different than how the instructions are written. Instead of using just one piece of interfacing, I opted to go for 4 separate pieces. I figured that it would be easier to get four crisp corners that way and I do believe that it did make the assembly a bit easier.
I am sure that most of you are well aware of this trick, but I do recall the mixed duh-and aha-moment when I first learned it; using a scanner to get perfect templates.
Scan back of stitched piece:

Pin cut-out scans to interface, card-board or any iece needed for assembly:

Iron corresponding piece of interfacing to back of stitched piece (remove scanned cut-out before ironing):

Finish as usual:

I have been on a finishing kick lately and I finally framed a Brightneedle piece that I stitched back in 2008. Oddly enough, I get more stressed out by all the stitched-but-not-finished projects that I have lying around than all the kits, charts and materials that are waiting for some TLC. The story about the frame is pretty neat, but I already wrote about that on the Brightneedle blog...

Four years after stitching the Sweetheart Tree Happy Birthday Knob Knocker, I finally finished it into an actual knob knocker using my newly arrived Far Far Away 3 fabric stash (yay!). I was lazy and used an elastic type lace-trim to finish the edges. I am not so sure that I like the hanger made with the lace, so I may have to rip out and modify a bit once I get a better idea.

Just a quick note about the fabrics. If you like me love the larger Snow-white prints, do not buy the fat quarters but do invest in the 1/2 or, even better, full yards. The reason why is that all my three Snow-white FQs were cut so that the main motifs ended up on the edges and the majority were snipped in half. I still love this fabbie, but I can't really do as much with it as I had envisioned. At least now I do have a better idea about color and size, so that will help for future orders. Let me know if you would like to see an example and I'll post or shoot an e-mail with a pic of my FQs.

Another finish; a small harvest bouquet kit from Fremme mounted on a Clara Weaver phone book that I found on e-bay for cheap a while back. I don't really need two phone books, so I have to figure out who to give one of them to (interested anyone?). I am pretty pleased with the way that it turned out, even though I went with a fairly bold printed paper for the back.

Not a whole lot going on here on the stitching front. I have pulled back out a sampler form the Scarlet Letter, the EH 1669 Reproduction Sampler, that I will try to spend some quality time with for a while. I am estimating that I am about 1/6 of the way there... (I love (not so much) how I always manage to get bird-seeds in all my pics, btw...)

My grand new beginning looks incredibly pathetic with maybe a total of max 30 stitches, so no use posting that sad story here...
However, I did bite the bullet and got the over-one stitching done for my Lucet class in October. Now I have a bunch of pre-finishing steps that I really should hop on board with, but it looks so complicated that I am a little turned off... ever felt that way?

Last, but not least - introducing our latest family member (as always, excuse the state of the floor. Believe it or not, DH vacuumed it less than 24 hrs ago...):

I am so excited - I have never had a bunny before, so if anyone has any special tricks and tips to share, I would be all ears! I am not sure what to name him yet. I have been thinking either Bobby, Chocolate or Kanin (the latter means rabbit in Swedish). All my name ideas are pretty lame, so if you have a suggestion for a name, don't hesitate to leave me a comment. That poor bunny needs a name!
He is a real snuggle-bun and the people at the pet-store says that he is really social with people but he does not like other bunnies. I have been cuddling with him like crazy and he doesn't seem to mind in the least. He is also pretty curious and hops around and sniffs at everything, so we will have to bunny-safe the living-room now (I hear that they like to gnaw on electrical cords and such, so we have our work cut out for us in that department). The birds are not real interested, which is pretty much ideal.
I love him more than I love my new shoes and that says something, 'cuz my new kicks are pretty cool!

Can you believe that I got even more spoiled than shoes and bunnies this week!? Hip*Hip gave me a couple of charts as a thanks for having fun last weekend. So sweet of her and absolutely not necessary! I love both of the charts, but the favorite is the May I chart from All Through the Night (which I have been admiring on-line with my hand hovering over the Buy Now icon...)

Thanks for spoiling me, Hip*Hip!!!! :-)

Well, time to run off. There are drawings to prepare and bunnies to cuddle with. I am planning on making some Patera jewelry tonight too - if i can get my printer to work, that is...

Thanks so much for swinging by! Have a great weekend and Happy Stitching,

Spring is Coming - Everything is Growing!

So, it was raining like crazy here last weekend and it doesn't look a whole lot better for the upcoming one.  That is all right with me - we usually get into a drough sitiation here before half the summer is gone, so the more "cats and dogs" in spring, the better I'd say!  

I was pretty bad at stitching this past weekend as I ended up with a pretty fabulous tear duct infection in my right eye on Sunday.  It is still healing and now it just looks bad, but I don't really feel it anymore.  No wonder I was cranky on Friday!  ;-)  Anyway, when I finally started to stitch, I got about one half of one of the Richmond horse riders done before I jumped into something completely different - the Pumpkin Pocket kit by Drawn Thread.  I love it!  It is the first time I have worked with Valdani over-dyed floss.  It is beautiful and feels so soft.  I also really like the lining fabric that comes with the kit; a really pretty polka-dot on a soft orange background.  This baby will get finished up this weekend! 

 

My garden is running amok right now.  The rain and the warmer days makes all the spring bulbs grow so that it almost is a visible difference from morning to evening.  I am thrilled - I sat all of these bulbs in October last year, so I can't wait to see what'll happen...  I am also "lucky" enough to have a memory like a gold-fish, so I am extra excited a to discover what I planted... :-)  I do recall spending days on getting all of them down in the ground.  

I think that it does look like some Hyacinths here below, but we'll have to wait and see. 

Here is visual proof that I may have bought more bulbs than I probably have space for.  (At least I am hoping that these were planted by me.)  I do recall that I bought a lot of bulbs that are supposedly early, middle and late spring bloomers, but it seems to me that they are all coming up at the same time.   

I have some fun stuff going on in my indoor pots too.  This plant is a Hoya Carnosa that has been taken from a parent plant that I have.  The parent plant never bloomed, but if you look closely, you can see 3 or maybe even 4 flower clusters.  I think that maybe this plant is sitting at a better location.  Plus my parrots have not tortured the will to bloom out of this one.  Yet.  Anyway, these white flowers give off a lot of honey and the fragrance is wonderful.  I did not perceive the Hoya as an uncommon houseplant back in Sweden, but I have not really seen any here in the US.  Can they be found around here?.

It is an interesting plant in that it prefers to have the roots pretty cramped up, so it does not want to be repotted often.  After re-potted it usually refuses to grow and bloom until the pot has been packed with roots again.  The flowers sprout out from the same tiny "knots" on the vines season after season, so it is important not to damage or cut the "knots" off, or the future flowers in that location are lost.  I am so happy - this is the second time this plant is on its way to flower and there are so may more locations this time around.  I promise to post pics as soon as it starts to bloom!

And now to something completely different.  Here is something  that grew in my mail-box the other day.  This is the tomato pin-cushion from the newest Little house Needlework and Impie, Hattie & Bea collaboration.  I am holding it up so that you can see how huge it is!

Scrappy, below, is our tiny parrot model for today.  He (or she?) is showing off the needle-book that comes together with the tomato in the "Fresh from the From the Garden" set.  

About the garden set: I am very pleased with colors, craftsmanship and so on.  I can add this kit to my (unstitched) Traveling Stitcher and the Scissor Bed & Pin Pillow....

About our model: Scrappy is Henny's (model from last time) cage-mate.  He can say "Hi Scrappy" and "Come here" in a really high-pitched and squeaky voice.  He doesn't mind being held and kissed and he is pretty skinny, so he freezes easily.  One of his favorite hang-outs is on top of the microwave in the kitchen or under a blanket on DH's or my lap.  He will cozy up in a blanket cave like that for hours and his feet are all nice & toasty once he finally decides to come back out.  Henny, on the other hand, will run around under the blanket and nip at anything she can get her little beak arund.  Seriously annoying if you are trying to grab a quick nap!   Scrappy is a little sweetheart and never picks figts with the other birds.  He doesn't chew on stuff either, but he does like to help me stitch by nibbling on the linen.  Sometimes I give him a small cut of linen and he goes to town with that - chewing and pulling and nipping.  Heaven for a little piece of Scrap!

A pile of other stuff landed in the mail box too.  I ordered a bunch of stuff from three different stores at very different times, but all the packages arrive on the same day.  Since it was on Friday and I was in a dark hole that day, I didn't even have the energy to get excited, but let me tell you that I am getting there now!
The only problem is that it will be a challenge to be good and stick to the projects I need to finish before digging into all these goodies!

I ordered these French books from the fabulous on-line stitch store Violarium in Finland (product selection is great and shipping is very reasonable - check it out, if you haven't had a chance before!).  My favorite purchase is the book lying in the bottom - absolutely gorgeous projects and definitely a great motivation to learn French.  ;-)  DH and I had some fun trying to make out what the first couple of sentences mean.  They did not make sense at all...  :-b

And finally - this is a large part of the reason why I am excited about spring!  Shoes!!!!  I love shoes.  Almost all of them have very high heals and "character".  I got the pairs below from Off Broadway Shoes.  I am aware that the polka-dot and gingham shoes are *possibly* over the top, but I believe that I get away with wearing shoes like these by balancing the outfit with very strict and classic clothes (and balancing period, of course...).  Long black pants, shirts that cover shoulders and no deep cuts up front.  You have to admit that they are serious eye-candy, right!?  Love'em - can't wait to click-click-click around in them!!!  (My colleague The barbarian always says that she can "hear the clippeticlop of tiny Swedish hoofs" when I am marching down the corridors at work....)
I got these babies when P.Snickety and I went to the Off Broadway the day before her "BIG" B-day party (she says "BIG" - she turned 30.... sigh!).  She got a pair of cool pumps with zebra print and was adventurous enough to ask her husband for his opinion.  The judgment came in as "80's hooker".  No worries - she didn't care and wore them to the party.  She was very happy!
Luckily, my DH doesn't say much, since he assumes that he "just doesn't get it".  ;-) 

Well, enough aimless babble from me today.  Time to get myself into bed!

Take care and Happy Spring-Stitching to all!