A Finish, A Gift, and a Sign of Spring

It sure took longer than I expected, but I finished my January sampler this morning. How many of you find that when you THINK you will finish a piece by a certain time, there are always 'life situations' that come up & cause a delay? I was sure this would be done on Wed., but alas, it was Friday am.
I am really happy with the finish. I used the called for flosses on it. It is stitched on 32 ct. Heritage Lugana from Picture this Plus. I really like the fabric.
Next, I am going to finish the LK summer piece before I start the kit that I am reviewing. I MUST finish some of the WIPS this year.
I was so happy to get the mail yesterday. I have been reading Becky's blog http://beckysc.blogspot.com/ for a long time... I have always admired the gifts she sends, along with the great pieces she does for herself. Imagine my surprise, to find a gift in my mailbox...
And, it is perfect. It is a needleminder with a bluebird on it. First, I have never had a needle minder & second, bluebirds are one of my favorite birds. Thank you so much Becky for the sweet gift, but most of all for your friendship!
Yesterday, I was shown that spring is just around the corner. How many of you have heard that seeing a redwinged blackbird is a sign of spring? Well, I saw HUNDREDS of them yesterday. They sounded so cheerful in my back yard. I wanted to leave the sliding glass door open to enjoy them, but something about 32 degrees out made me say no thanks!
They were simply gorgeous when they flew. I hope you can see in the picture how pretty they are.
I am wishing each of you a great weekend. We have a busy one ahead of us, but there will be stitching involved, regardless!!!!
Thank you for your visits & your kind comments. They are truly appreciated.

Waxing Moon January Sampler

Gift from Becky

Red Winged Blackbirds

Exciting Mail Day!

Today's mail was exciting!!!!!
A while back, I started seeing on other blogs with  a new to me shop which sells all sorts of  kits..I had to look of course, because we stitchers know how it is....someone 'new' selling stash.
Well, let me tell you, I was impressed by what I saw.
The cross stitch kits that she sells are amazing!!! I contacted her about stitching for her & after several emails back& forth & many times of looking thru her website, I came up with the pattern I would like to do.
I chose Winter Sunset Cottage. She asked if I preferred aida or evenweave. I told her evenweave...I can stitch on both & do stitch on both, but mainly evenweave.
Well, back to the mail! The kit arrived today & wow!! She packages it so nicely. You can see that the envelope came from overseas, but is in great shape.
The chart, floss, fabric & needle are all packaged nicely. You can see from my pictures how it came to me today.
I am anxious to start this chart for several reasons. The first being, the picture reminded me of the cabin we stayed in last summer when we took our little 3 day getaway. (just picture it in winter of course, since there was no snow in July!!!!)
The next reason I am anxious to start it is the pattern itself. Most BIG projects like this have nearly 100 different colors in them & you are changing colors after every XXXX it seems. This chart has lots of large blocks of color.
So, now I just need to find someone who will let a stitcher have 'time' to promote their products...

Winter Sunset Cottage

how the package arrived

floss & fabric colors

I look forward to showing you my progress on this piece!
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

January in February

This past week, I have focused my stitching on the Waxing Moon January sampler. I was determined to finish the snow on the bottom half. I knew once that was finished, the rest would go much quicker. I didn't get a lot of stitching time last week for some reason, so it is taking longer than I expected, but I DID finish the snow on Friday of last week.
Sat. I didn't get many X's in at all. We had a real fun day. For over a year now, a friend of my husbands has wanted to go up to my parents house to see my dad's woodworking area. It just didn't work out until this weekend! We got up to a ground cover of snow. We called my parents & they had about 6 inches....but...away we went anyway! We ran into whiteout conditions a few times, but made it safely in just a little more time than normal.
What I haven't told you yet thou.....this man's wife used to cross stitch & wanted to try to get back into cross stitching!!!! So....while the guys went down into the workshop, us girls headed to House of Stitches.....
This shop is my very favorite shop to go to. The girls who work there are always so friendly & helpful. Since the weather was so bad that day, only one was working, but that was fine! She was able to help each of us with no problem.
I immediately went over to the WHAT'S NEW bins....that is always my first stop. I found a pattern & showed it to my friend..I knew it would be something of interest to her. She loved it & asked how hard it would be. I told her it shouldn't be too hard at all....She decided that was what she would get, so over to the specialty flosses we headed. As I was picking the colors for her, I grabbed a second set of each as well. I had decided I would do the pattern also....it is part of one of my favorite hymns. I will work with her on getting her back into stitching, once she gets to Hobby Lobby to get the other supplies she will need.
I also got 3 of the 4 LK Sweet Tooth Boxer Jrs. ( an online friend is sending me the 4th one!!) These were on the clearance table..I got them for half price.  I am anxious to start these.....maybe today!!!!! I must do some housework first thou...
Also, while we were at House of Stitches, my aunt came into the shop. I had made arrangements with her to meet us there. We had a piece that she stitched & we framed for her. We were excited for her to see this one, because we were real pleased with the frame that my husband made for this one. We felt it really made the picture pop.
Ok, I must get onto that house work that I mentioned, but boy, would I rather stitch!!!!

My aunts stitched piece..frame made by my husband

Waxing Moon January Sampler, in progress!

New Project to do with Carol H.

The 3 LK I got!!

have a great week & thanks so much for stopping by & for sharing your kind comments. They really do make my day.

Two WIP's & a 'small' new start!!!!!

ok, if you have peeked at the pictures BEFORE reading this, you see my new start is not so small after all!!!! It is actually 250w by 252 high. I decided to use fabric I had on hand for this. I was hoping I had a piece of 18 ct. big enough, but I didn't. So, I am using 14 ct. & so far, so good.
I am curious!!!! I would love to hear your guesses.......I kept track of how many colors were used in the first 10 by 10 square. Does anyone want to take a guess at how many they think?!?! this is just for fun!
The pattern is called Spring Robins, but to me, they do not look like robins, but more like baby bluebirds, & THAT is what drew me to the pattern.
You see, I have a story about baby bluebirds. While we were building our home, we had several nests of bluebirds in our backyard. The poor babies thou.....I guess they couldn't see our new windows & they kept running into them or even better for picture taking, landing on our screens. Of course, my husband wasn't too happy about little holes in our new screens before we even moved in, but he realized it was the baby birds doing it!
Next, you see I worked more on the Waxing Moon January piece. I am still loving each X of this one...I took it with me to the library this morning. It will be what I work on for a few days now.
Lastly, I am still working on the LK Summer Alphabet too...Three rows left to stitch.
We woke up to snow again on Sat. morning. I think this was the 3rd Sat. in a row. The cardinals seem to love the snow...or the sunflower seeds that I put out when it snows!!!
have a great week everyone & thanks for stopping by...

what I have stitched & what it looks like!

close up!

January sampler

LK Summer Sampler

A few of our Cardinals

Oh! Is anyone else having trouble adding blogs to their list? (like the list I have on the right hand side) I can't add any!!!!!