Blog description

A little blog about my big loves; family, friends, stitching and yep, chocolate!

Chocolate Loving Followers!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Ann Sandles & Rock & Roll

I am plugging away on Ann Sandles.  This is such a beautiful sampler and I have to tell you - Brenda did such a great job with the chart.  The cover is printed on heavy weight photo paper and the chart is also printed on heavy paper with color coded symbols.  
I love it.  
I hate when a designer charges a ton for a chart and then prints it all on really lightweight, cheap paper.  

I think I'm going to hold my giveaway till I'm done with this sampler and then give away the chart as part of the prize package.  

The colors in this sampler are so pretty, it's a joy to work on 
~ when you're not frogging borders, that is! ~
click to enlarge, if you'd like.

I wasn't working on Ann last night 'cause Rob and I went to see a DETROIT LEGEND:
Bob Seger!  He put on a great show - not much talk - lots of great songs.  He looked pretty good - getting older but he still rocked the house.  Not the best dancer either, but he sure can do a mean fist pump.

Ty took this pic of Rob and me before we left for the show - this is what 50+ year old rockers look like.... okay, Rob's only 48 but you know what I mean.


We have finally gotten some decent weather 'round here and everything is looking so pretty.  I went for a run today and the scent of the crabapple blossoms was so sweet - they have such a wonderful fragrance.  

Maybe nobody noticed how stinky and sweaty I was for the fragrance of the flowers.  
You think?

This is the flowering crab in my back yard.  I love it when the flowers start dropping off because it looks like snow in June.  Hmmm... that reminds me of a time I left a club when I lived in Southern Illinois, had a little too much to drink, came out of the club with my gal pals and thought it was snowing.  
It was June and the snow was the Cotton Easter floating thru the air.  
I remember saying something like "It's snowing, itty, bitty snowflakes."
I digress......
This is my Miss Kim Lilac - ooh, these have the best fragrance, too.
Don't ya love my kitchy gnome?  The one sleeping under the bush is a little faded so I had to get a new one this year.  The blue bottle on the spike is to catch evil spirits.  I have a few of them spread throughout the yard.

My rose bush is also looking very healthy this year.  
I hope the healthy growth is indicative of the healthy and beautiful blooms it will have.  Time will tell.  

I hope your spring is going well (unless you're from the land down under - in which case I hope your Fall is lovely), that you are stitching and enjoying all the sweet fragrances of the season.

Peace,
Terri

Sunday, May 15, 2011

They're Baaaa-ack!

I got two things back from the gals (Cathy and Cindy) at Joann's, this week.  
First up is the Farm Sampler.  
I've posted all the details on this one before so won't bore you with that again (if you have questions, feel free to email me).  When I was picking out the frame, Cindy was helping me, and I loved the red color of the frame but it just didn't have enough oomph, to suite me.  We began looking at fillets and we found a couple of them that were okay but again, nothing really wowing me.  So, Cindy says, "I think we may have some other fillets put away - let me see if I can find something."  So, she and another associate go digging around in the rafters of the back room and come out with a couple of options.   I thought the one we picked was perfect and there was just enough to work as long as Cindy, in her words, didn't screw it up!  
She didn't, and I love it.
Thanks for going that extra mile, Cindy!


 Once again, Cathy did a great job pinning - 
it couldn't be straighter or more perfectly centered.
Thanks, ladies!


See the pretty carved detail of the fillet?  You should be able to click on the pictures to enlarge them, if you'd like.  
I think it really adds to the piece while still maintaining the gentle simplicity of the sampler.

The next one I got back is Isabella Johnstone.

I loved this frame in the store, not quite as much when I picked it up.
The shop sample had a bit more green in it than this one does, but I still like it.



That'll be it for framing for a little while.  
I just love bringing home new framing.

I am currently working on Ann Sandles and have made only minimal progress.  I stitched the border at the top and down the right side and 4 flowers at the top when I realized I had a counting error (off by two, somehow or other).  
Had to frog a ton and start over.  
Blech!!!
I hate when that happens.  

Ann Sandles
With Thy Needle and Thread
32 count LL Vintage Butter Cream
Called for fibers

That's all today, friends.  It's a rainy, cold day here in SE Michigan.  
We had a couple of sunny days and I thought we were over the yucky weather but nope.....

Thank you all so much for stopping by!  
I'm in the process of putting my "thank you for following my blog" gift together and should have that ready to go in the next week or so.  
It will include some of my fun finds,  stitching related stuff (d'uh),
chocolate and not sure what else.
Stay tuned....

Peace!
Terri

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Count Your Blessings



The CYB pattern goes to Lynda at 
  I will email you shortly, Lynda.  
I'm sorry everyone that wants it couldn't get it but keep an eye on Lynda's blog; 
I'm sure she'll have it done soon and will be passing it on after that.  

I've started on Ann Sandles by With Thy Needle and Thread 
and have the WTN&T Soar pattern in the wings ;-0
Pitiful attempt at humor, I know.

Thank you all so much for stopping by and leaving me a note.  
If you have a blog and get a comment, you know how great it feels!  
If you don't have a blog, you should start one.  
They're great fun, not difficult to do (trust me on this)
AND
They're a great way to show and share (which we ALL love!).
I hope to show and share Isabella dressed in all her glory next week.

In the meantime, have a wonderful week 
and 
may nothing but blessings fall upon your head!

Peace,
Terri

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Fun Finishes, Fabulous Finds and Fantastic Friends!

I finished Isabella Johnstone last Thursday night!  I was a little late coming to the Isabella party; I think my invite got lost in the mail.  But, I am all for crashing a party every now and again and thought I should crash Isabella's, for sure!  
Since doing a crash is always easier with a partner, Yuko and I decided to do it together.
Truth is, Isabella didn't seem to mind a couple of late comers to her party.  Next time, I hope I get invited earlier.  Really, I'm pretty fun at a party ~
lampshades notwithstanding!

you may click to inspect :-)
Ignore the date - the camera got all screwed up.....

Isabella Johnstone
Stitching and Antique Needlework Quarterly
Vol 59
Summer 2010 
36 count fabric, DMC floss

I stitched her on 36 count fabric using one thread which created a bit of a dilemma.... it's hard to blend threads when you only use one.  I tried using one color for the bottom of the X and the other color for the top stitch but I didn't love how that looked so I just picked the dominate color and went for it.  I love how it turned out and I've already dropped her off to be framed.  Picked a fun frame and can't WAIT to get it back.  I hope it looks as good as I envision.    Here's another shot, just because...


Check out my newest collection:
Shoe Pincushions!!!

I found the boy's shoe at the Ann Arbor Antique Market last fall when Sheila and I hiked out there one day.  The little one in the middle I found at a little antique store, again, shopping with Sheila.  The "buckle" on the front says "U.S. Capital". 
 The other woman's shoe on the left, Sheila found at an estate sale last weekend.  The shoe is textured, and the buckle says "Statue of Liberty" and of course has the statue on it.  I just love these and now that I have three - I have a collection!





Aren't those heels cute?  High heels and pointed toe shoes - what's not to love?






                                                              Last weekend I visited Janice and Bob at their cute store in Marine City.  
They own a wonderful antique/prim shop AND she has a great blog!
She has great merchandise and tells great stories; top by and visit, sign up to follow her, too - she'll have a giveaway when she reaches 50 followers!!

Anyway, while I was there, I found two things I couldn't leave without.
The first is another flower frog.  This is a big one!   Here it is on my table being used in a most unusual way - it's holding flowers!  Flower frogs actually make a lovely flower arrangement and not just a place to hold your treasured scissors! 


I took this pic, with some of the flowers removed so you could see the inside of the vase with the frog. 

The other thing I found, that I didn't even know I was looking for, was this awesome lamb cake mold.  Thanks Bob!


It's made of cast iron, it's heavy and I think it's so cute.  Now my cast iron bunny bank (she was featured in my pic of Marianne Wenn a few posts back) has a friend.  So CUTE!
No - I won't be using it to make a cake.  I can barely handle a cake in a normal cake pan, much less something like this.  This little lamb is purely decorative!

My last pic of the day is this little piece I stitched but have yet to "finish" (a terrifying thought for me).  This is a pattern by Shakespeare's Peddler called 
"Count Your Blessings"
It is a traveling pattern and one which called to me.  

It's stitched on a scrap piece of 36 count (I think) mottled fabric (a story for another day....) with threads from stash.

This has been a trying year and this is a sweet way to remember that no matter how
difficult a time we may be having, there are still blessings to be found.  
Granted, sometimes you have to look really hard to find them, and sometimes they're hiding under a gigantic boulder, but they are there.

If you would like the opportunity to stitch this, please just let me know in a comment.    If you don't say anything about wanting to stitch it, I'll assume you're not interested.  All that's asked is that once you receive it, you stitch it in a reasonable amount of time, sign your name to the chart and then send the pattern on to the next person.

I'll pick a name next Friday.  Who knows, maybe I'll have something fun to show you after the first antique market of the season by then!

Thanks so much for stopping by and for all the comments you so graciously leave for me.  You are the best and I so appreciate your time!
Ooooh, and thanks and welcome to my new followers!  I can't believe I've got more than 400 chocolate loving, Fantastic Friends!  I think this calls for a follower giveaway, don't you?  I'll have to think about that a little bit (let's just hope the thinking doesn't hurt too much) but rest assured, the giveaway will involve chocolate from our local chocolatier.  
YUM!!!!

Peace,
Terri