Monday Late Update.

Much to my dismay I have had to scrap my scissor pocket project. I may try to revive it when I get home, but right now it is a dismal failure. It just looks like a five year old put it together. I am even too embarassed to post a picture of it.

On a good note, I got a sweet comment from Mylene regarding adding her to my blog lists, Jeannie in Ohio has joined Cross Stitch Forever today and the best of all my son was released from the hospital. Woohoo.

See ya!!

CJ

Random Monday Update

Scissor Pocket.
Well what can I say, I have started to put together my scissor pocket, totally by hand since I am not home and have no access to a sewing machine. I am not sure I like it very much, but it was a good start and I plan to make more but in a different style. This one "my prototype" will be used to house my children's little craft scissor since is it wide enough to hold at least three small scissors.

JABC ABC Apple.
I can report that 40% of the stitching is completed. I will wait to assemble it at home with my sewing machine, ruler, etc... Since this a specific request from #1 daughter I need to make sure the final product is perfect -- at least near perfect.

Stash Purchase.
I have been really good while here in Ohio, the only stash purchases I have made have been on-line. Fortunately, I have had not time to look for a LNS or do any kind of fun shopping at all on this "trip". So what did I buy on-line??? I bought a few necessities from 123Stitch to finish a project as well as a few new patterns and I can't remember what they are. I also purchased "Name Flakes" from Vee and Co. Someone on one of the groups had one of their patterns, not a Name Flake, but something else so I decided to check out their site. Cruising around I found Name Flakes and knew I had to have one for each of my kids. The web page had great examples of how to finish them and I am so excited. It is their stitched name with beaded snow flakes, what a great item to display at Christmas. Vee designs each one and sends the pattern in a PDF file via e-mail. How great is that? Now I have to add the name flakes to my ToDo List--which I also need to add to this BLOG.

Speaking of Blogs (nice transition).
Today I added Mylene from the Netherlands to my list of blogs. She is a very crafty and talented lady and I read her posts very often so I decided to add her to the list. I have also noticed that my blog is showing up in a few more places--how cool. Other than that not much more going on in the blog world or at least my little piece of it.

Card Making
It used to say in my profile that I make cards on occasion, that was before my husband decided to help me with the private blog we set up for our son during his hospital stay. After I set-up DS blog and showed it to DH, he decided to try his had at it and one morning I woke up to find out that I was five years old, loved race cars, coloring and riding a big wheel. Anyway, I do enjoy making cards and the odd little paper project. This came out of my attempt at scrapbooking, tried it, don't really like it so I switched to cards. Now that school is getting ready to start back up I like to have a stash of cards for the teachers. Last year I made the kids teachers and aides a box of six Thank-you cards, it was a big hit. So I plan to do the same this year, except get an earlier start -- ha, ha like that will really happen but at least I am thinking about it.

Well, I need to get ready to visit DS in the hospital, today he gets to eat real food which means he may be getting out of their really soon, hopefully today.

See ya!!

Thanks!!

Yesterday in my post I neglected to thank everyone for the nice comments and suggestions regarding my 14 Jul post and my "almost" finishes. After giving it some thought I am going to do as Meari and "BrokenFairy" have suggested I will frog the alphabet on the BRD Alphabet Tree and stitch them with a complimentary color. I am just afraid if I found more Indian Paint Brush floss that I may have a similar experience as Julie had with the colors not quite matching when she ran out of thread and had to re-order. That has happened to me before when I have purchased overdyed threads of the same color scheme, one skein is brighter or darker than the other which can really be aggrevating.

As for the Welcome, I did order more thread from 123Stitch. I am not to worried about color variation with this one since it is one color with subtle fading, so it should not be to dramatic a difference.

Jeannie in Ohio, thanks so much for looking through your stash to see if you had any thread for me, you are too sweet. BTW, I have not heard from you. Hope you are getting my e-mails.

Meari, thanks for being there to help with all my blog questions and inspiring me to blog. Thoroughly enjoy your updates and I look forward to them. Do you think you will ever hold a flatfold lesson like you did with the needlebooks? I would love to learn how to make one and I loved the way you guided us through the needlebook process. Just let me know and I will be there.

Thanks again for all the great comments. See ya!!

How About a Thursday Stitching Update

Whew, it has been a long 10 days since I have posted any updates. We were very busy last week completing a clinic for my son at Cincinnati Children's Medical Center and visiting with my lifelong friend/CSF member Nora. She and I have been friends since we were kids, but rarely see each other, the last time we saw each other was 14 years ago. We do manage to visit on the phone at least once a week. It was so good to see her at last, wish it would have been longer. I am trying to talk her into going with me to a stitching retreat in Tulsa.

Managed to complete a piece of stitching, it is a Fan designed by Miriam. It took me about six hours to stitch while sitting with my son in his hospital room. He has about six more days to stay in the hospital so I may get a few more projects done. I will be finishing this into a Scissor Pocket for the MFC. Need to get it finished off by the end of the month.

Enchanted Fabrics Light Green 16ct Aida

Cross Stitched with Six Strand Sweets Floss Wildberry Cobbler

Back Stitching and Blackwork with Carrie's Creation Eggplant

Started working on JABC ABC Apple for my daughter yesterday. It will be a very quick stitch, I am using 14ct fiddlers I can move pretty fast on that fabric. I also joined a new Yahoo Group today for people who like quick stitches. Just waiting on final approval, once I get it I will add their link to this page.

Regarding the PS Fans group, Lynne received the Pinkeep I made for her. Thought I had a picture of it with me on my flash drive but no go. I will post a picture of it once I get home. I signed up for the Small Santa exchange, now I just have to pick pattern, that is always the hard part for me. I have it narrowed down to a few designs now I just need to commit.

Well that is it for today. If you have not read Meari's blog lately you need to check out her latest entry makes you want to say "DUH".

Monday Stitching Update...

Today, I received some nice comments on my blog from Jeannie, the lady I mentioned in my last post. She is truly a generous soul and I am very lucky to have met her. I hope we keep in touch.

I started this journey to Ohio with five projects to stitch. I have gone as far as I can on two of them, I had to stop them because I ran out of floss. The Blue Ribbon Design "Alphabet Tree" is stitched with "Indian Paint Brush" from Ozark Sampler. Well, I contacted them for more floss and was sadly informed that it was a speciality floss that was made in limited quantity and the well is dry. Not sure what to do about this one. Perhaps I will jsut scrap it and start over with a different color.

I am afraid I have run into the same problem with "Welcome" designed by Aury. Fortunately, I was able to order more floss from 123stitch today, unfortunately I won't be able to finish it until I get home. This is stitched on 16ct Fairy Blush from Enchanted Fabrics using The Gentle Art "Old Red Paint" floss. You will notice I changed the orientation so the word "Welcome" will be read top to bottom. There is a little frogging to be done in the future, once I ran out of thread I realized I made a few boo-boo's that while not major I feel compelled to fix. The picture did not come out so good, but it really looks pretty so please disregard my poor photograhy skills. My son wants me to buy more material like this because he just loves the color. One day he wants to learn how to stitch.

Tomorrow I will start a new project, a scissor pocket, for the Monthly Finishing Challenge. I will have lots of time to stitch the next two weeks while my son is in the hospital so should be no problem getting it done. I have enough floss to complete it and if I should happen to run out, which seems to be my luck these days, I am using DMC and there is a Michael's and Hobby Lobby in the local area.


Have a great day.

CJ

Good Saturday Morning!!!

Hello Everyone -

Well, I have been working only on the Aury "Welcome" in the evening and during my waits in the Hospital. I am hoping to finish it this weekend. Something good happened yesterday that I must share with all of you. While sitting in the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Radiology waiting area for my son to complete a procedure I met a fellow stitcher who happened to be there with her daughter. Her name is Jeannie, she lives here in Ohio near Cincinnati. She was working on a piece for a Breast Cancer quilt. She saw me stitching away and introduced herself. She is not a member of any of my ,but she is on the 123Stitch Message Board and a few other things that I can't recall. She told me about all the great things that the girls do on the 123Stitch board like sending kits and supplies to the gals in Iowa that lost everything after the floods or helping somebody out with a gift certificate when they are feeling down or a little strapped for "stash cash". What a great group, I may have to join this board. I invited her to checkout my blog and CSF, maybe she will join us.

Not much else going on I am just glad we don't have to go to the hospital today. But we will be back there bright and early Monday morning for x-rays. Yoohoo!! Oh, we are going to a Sprint Car Race at Eldora Speedway today, another Yoohoo!!


Have a great day....
CJ

Prairie Schooler Pinkeep

Last month I participated in a pinkeep exchange on the PS Yahoo Group. This was my first exchange with this group as well as my very first pinkeep to make or receive. I stitch a pinkeep for Lynne and sent it off in late June. I received a pinkeep from Janet, it is beautiful and stitched on my favorite color of blue. She also sent me a pattern and two skeins of DMC floss. I really enjoyed this exchange with the PS group and I look forward to doing many more. Thanks Janet for a lovely pinkeep.

We are traveling.

Good Morning from St Louis. We have been traveling for two days and I managed to do a little stitching. Ran out of thread for the BRD ABC, so I started Aury's Welcome sign, decided to change the orientation a bit. I will post more once we get settled in Cincinnati.


Have a great stitching day.

CJ

PIF is closed!!

I had great response to my PIF post despite the holiday weekend. I closed the it this morning and I have decided to include all four ladies that left a comment. In the next 365 days I will be stitching up something for Meari, Angela, Diane and Lynda. I am so excited to do this for these ladies they are very accomplished and dedicated cross stitchers so I hope I can impress them as much as they impress me.

Now it is time for them to do the same for three others. Be looking for their PIF requests on their blogs.

Have a great Sunday.

CJ

PIF!!!

Good morning!!

A few days ago I put my name on a blog comment to participate in a PIF from Staci. This morning I was very happy to find out that I was chosen. I am so excited, Staci's work is beautiful and I feel so lucky.

Now I must do the same for some other stitchers, this PIF is a great way to do something for someone and the only expectation is they do the same for others.

It works like this:
If you would like to receive something made by me within the next 365 days, please comment on this post to say that you are interested.

I will take names until Saturday, July 5th. I will take the first 3 people...or if there are more than 3, then I will do a drawing. In return, you must offer to do the same :).

Thanks for signing up!!! I look forward to stitching something for you.

Have a great day.

CJ