Peppermint Ornament

Merry Christmas, everyone, I hope you are having a good one!  I don't have any of my own projects to show you today, but I wanted to show you a beautiful little ornament that found its way to our mailbox all the way from Spain.

It was made and sent to me by Margaret as a sweet thank you for my sending her an embroidery pattern.  It's perfectly stitched and beautifully finished and I absolutely love it!  It completely made my day finding that little unexpected package when I went out to check the mailbox, thank you, Margaret, I will treasure it always!

We had our Christmas celebration yesterday, it was the best day for everyone to get together.  Here's our daughter Jessie and her husband Joe having a bite to eat.  I wanted to show how Joe is no longer in his wheelchair all the time, he's mostly using crutches to get around.  It's been a long recovery since his accident last summer, I want to say thank you again for your good vibes and prayers, I truly believe they have helped.

I will end this post with a couple of kitty pictures:

Cricket, helping me make up the bed a few mornings ago.

Harley, doing his silly, flipping upside down flirtiness.  He's adorable and he knows it!

Thank you for the comments left on my last post.  I appreciate the compliments on my stitching and my new tattoo.   It was mentioned that it must have taken a while to get it done, it did take 3 hours; it is fairly intricate, but it was worth it, and I'm really enjoying having it.  I seem to have been bitten by the tattoo bug, I have more planned and can hardly wait to get them, I will show them to you when I do!  Thanks again for taking the time to look at my blog!

A Harvest of Blessings

 

Hello everyone, I'm glad I finally have something done to show you!  This is a Brightneedle design from the 2002 Keepsake Cross Stitch Calendar.  I used my own selection of Gentle Art Sampler threads and finished it up like a giant pinkeep for hanging on the wall.  Here it is in our kitchen.  I changed the  little dog figure at the top to a cat, not that I don't like dogs, but it just seems more appropriate in a house full of cats.

Brown ric-rack finishes off the edges.

I also did an embroidery for another wall hanging, this one will go in my sewing room.  It was a free design that was shown done all in variegated pink but I decided I wanted to do it in different colors.  You can find this lovely free design at the wonderful blog We Love French Knots.  Click on free patterns, then scroll until you get to the August 29, 2011 post where there is a feature on the artist Verna Mosquera of The Vintage Spool.  At the bottom of that post there is a link for downloading the pattern.

Do you remember in my last post where I had shown a picture of a morning glory growing in our house and mentioned that I was thinking of getting a morning glory tattoo?  Well, about a week and a half ago I went to Lakeview Tattoo and here is the result.

It's not the best picture, I had to take it in the bathroom mirror, which isn't very easy to do, it was hard to hold the camera still with one hand, but you can get an idea of how it looks.  It was done by Erik, the artist who also did my cat tattoo last summer.  I love morning glories and I think he did a great job on it.  Thank you for all the very kind comments on my last post, it's always so nice to hear from you and I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

A Bag, a Bird and Kitties

Hi everyone, I'm glad you stopped in to visit!  It's a beautiful October day here and I wanted to show you what I've been up to.  The lovely design on this bag is from the most recent Blackbird Designs book, "A Schoolgirl's Work."  It's "Polly's Sewing Box", but I decided to put it on a bag instead.

I used mostly the recommended floss colors but chose Antique Rose to replace Woodrose, I knew I would like it better with a more pink look.  I also did the door on the house in pink instead of the off white and stitched the little beehive with satin stitches.  Here's the back view with a lace trimmed pocket:

I also did some embroidery and made it into an ornament.

This is from a wonderful book called, "Simple Pleasures in Redwork".  It's full of gorgeous embroidery designs, most of which have a bird theme.  I used Carrie's Creation Silk floss in the color Lumiere de Cheryl and trimmed it with a tiny purple pom-pom trim around the edge.  This was a super fun project to stitch!  Here's a closer look at the stitches:

I've also been taking some kitty pictures:

Sweetpea, our little old lady kitty trying to beg a drink of water from the kitchen sink.

Harley, who's never too shy to have his picture taken.

Trixie, enjoying a little bit of sunshine.

Nap time for Maggie, Cricket, Trixie and Harley.

The last picture is of a morning glory that I found as a seedling in the yard and dug it up so it wouldn't get mowed down.  I potted it and put it in an upstairs window where it's been blooming very nicely.

These are one of my most favorite flowers, isn't it a beautiful blue?  I think I just might get a tattoo of one some day!  Thanks for  visiting, it's very much appreciated!

Summer Breeze

 

Hello, everyone, it's been a few weeks since I have posted but I have gotten some stitching done!  This is an old chart from Sheepish Designs that I finally decided to do.  I didn't use the suggested DMC colors, instead, I stitched it with Belle Soie silk floss except for the peachy color, that's Branch Coral from Gloriana.  I've put some of my vintage doilies to use for hiding the raw edges around the sides.  I don't make doilies, but I love to collect them and use them around the house.

Oh, by the way, Summer Breeze is the name of the design which explains the title of the post.  And of course, I also made another purse:

I stitched this design so long ago I'm not even sure where it came from, possibly an old Just Cross Stitch magazine.  It's done with good old DMC threads, back then I wasn't yet into the wonderful world of overdyed threads, things have sure changed in recent years, haven't they?

I was given some bits and pieces of some fabric with nice sampler designs recently, so one of the pieces was perfect for a pocket on the back.

And another bit of the fabric worked nicely for an inside pocket, too.

That's just about it for now, I've been back to work this week, school starts up again next week, so my nice, long wonderful summer vacation is just about over.  I'm not complaining, though, I've had more time off than anyone that I know and the weather for us has been fantastic this year.  I'm sorry for anyone of you that has had to deal with terrible weather from the hurricane.  Thank you to everyone who left comments on recent posts and thanks so much for your kind thoughts for our son-in-law Joe, he is doing much better now.  He has been able to get into a motorized wheelchair and go for rides outside which helps his morale quite a bit.  Thanks for visiting again, I will leave you with a kitty picture, Tigger and Harley having a naptime together.

I hope you will have a super nice Labor Day weekend!