UFO is back!

I decided to pick up an UFO (UnFinished Object) to work on once a week. I am working on Dragon Dreams Summer Magic, again. To refresh your memories, I started working on DD in 2007 and I put aside for some reason, probably exchanges got in the way. One of my groups brought back UFO Tuesday in late 2009 and I put more stitches into it. When I went to Texas for a month last year, I brought DD with me, with intentions to work on it, and I did put in a few stitches on my first night there. The lighting was not great, so I put away and I didnt touch it for a year. This Tuesday I worked on it and put in 160 stitches, not much, but it is a little closer to the finish. I did work on it on Wednesday, but I end up unstitching the stitches. I used the wrong color for the symbol I was using. So I frogged it and put back in my basket for next week. Here it is before I added more stitches:

Here it looks now:

I joined the TUSAL for this year. Now I am collecting my end pieces of my threads, or orts. Now, maybe, I wont have them on my clothes or all over my desk. It is amazing where I find these small pieces of threads. Here is my first picture and jar.

Jan TUSAL

Here is an update of Country Cottages Needleworks The Book Store. It has a roof now.

Earlier this week, I got a wonderful package from my friend Vickie H in AR. Vickie has been stitching a huge model called Historical fashion Figures. It took her over two years to complete it. I fell in love with her pattern and told her I would love to stitch this piece too. Vickie send me the pattern as a gift and you can see it here. I have to start this piece as soon as I get a yard of evenweave. Yup, the project goes on a yard of material. Thank you so much Vickie!

I want to thank Sandy R for my gifts for 12 Days of Christmas exchange. On the 11th Day, I got a piece of blue 14 count aida and on the 12th Day was a piece of beige linen, I think it is 32 count but not sure. Thank you Sandy and I love every single gift.

I will end this post until next time.
Take care, Vicky

A New Year, A New Start

Isn't this baby a cutie? My cousin from Las Vegas came for a visit around Christmas time, and this is her son, Tristan. My aunt had adopted my cousin from Korea when I was 13. My sister, Amy, and Jenn became insparable since the day they met. Even though Jenn didnt speak English, they communicate to each other. I believe because they are near the same age, Amy was the first person Jenn met at her own age when Jenn came to America. Now Jenn has this cute, happy baby. It was so nice to her again and to meet Tristan.


On my 12 Days of Christmas, here are Days 8, 9 and 10. On Day 8, was the lamp card kit, Day 9 was the cute gingerbread man ornament, and on Day 10. was Little House Needleworks Chocolate Shoppe. On Day 11 (no pic yet)
I got some blue 14 count aida. Tomorrow is Day 12 and the last day of the exchange. I am going to miss opening up a present everyday.

See this basket? It has about 20 or so of patterns I got in the last year. I am determined to work from this basket. I am not doing the 15 Wips that my other stitchers, friends are doing. I will cheer them on. I just couldnot see myself starting a new project every day for 15 days. My other goals is to work on a couple of UFOs, LK ABC Lessons, and LHN The Library.




With a new year, I always have to do a new start. I was going start on Mirabilia's The Seaside Kingdom, but I decided to stick with something from the basket. I picked out Country Cottage The Book Store. The fabric is hand dyed by me in the color of purple. The picture is not the greatest
I am stitching the model one over one, another tiny stitching project. I cant wait to get more colors on there to make that blue to pop.

Today is Tuesday, and the first Tuesday of the year, so I am going to work on my UFOs. I am picking up Dragon Dreams Summer Magic again. Sigh. I will be posting it by Thursday my update. I just discover I have over 100 followers. I will be doing a giveaway soon, so be on a look out for it.

many hugs,
Vicky

Goodbye 2010!

Today is the last day of 2010! I started the year in Killeen, Texas. I had a wonderful month visiting my friends. When I got back, I had to finish the preparations of my parent's 40th anniversary. We celebrated my sister's 30th birthday at the same time, since her birthday is the next day. In April I turned 40 and got a laptop. I spend the summer relaxing and letting my leg heal, which completely healed in September. The week before Thanksgiving, my mom passed away. I know grieving effects everyone differently. When I do everyday things or stitch, I feel normal,like she is still alive. However, I think of the future, I get so teary, because I wont be able share those moments with her anymore. This being the last day of the year, I am always blue. I usually don't mind of being alone. At this time of the year, I just feel the loneliness, and I just cry alot or get very moody. Okay, enough of my self-pity party.

I have some pictures of exchanges I had received in the last couple weeks. I had showed my work, now its time for the gifts. I got some lovely gifts. The last exchange came in last night.

This gift was from Jennifer of Tucson AZ. The exchange was a Wishlist exchange in Krafterskorner (KK) group. You list 5 items youwish for and your partner sends you 3 out of 5 items. Jenn gave me a piece of light blue material, size 28 needles , Cresent Colors Apple Fritters and Really Teally, and Mill Hill Kitty Stocking. Thank you Jennifer!
The next exchange was from Mary at KK group. This was a Stuffed Christmas Stocking exchange. She send me some stamps, an alphabet and holiday setts, ink pads, needles size 26, 6x6 q-snaps, marblized scissors, and Threadworx threads in Christmas colors. The picture below are the patterns and stocking from Mary. The patterns are Whispered by the Wind Recipe for a Snowman, Little House Needleworks The Chocolate Shoppe, Hinzeit Stitch Time and Lizzie Kate Where is the Party? Thank you Mary!

This beautiful dishcloth was crocheted from Ethel of KK. This is the second one she send, because the first one never made it here. I dont know what happen to the first one. It just disappeared. It was very nice for Ethel to send another, cause she didnt have too. Thank you Ethel!



The First Day of Winter exchange is from Judith of Germany of ILCSing group. She stitched an beautiful ornament, with a spool of gold thread thread, nativity ornament, a Christmas bell cross stitch kit, and a set of cards, which are precut to a window design. Thank you Judith!


Tiinna from Finland send me this wonderful package. This was for an ornament exchange from the ILCSing group. Tiina stitched a gingerbread man and added lots of beads to it and sew cording on the edge of the ornament. She, also. included a Moomin glass ornament and a chocolate bar filled with almond filling.
In the ILCSing group, I organize a 12 Days of Christmas Exchange, which consist of 12 gifts to be open for each day of Christmas from Dec 25 to Jan 5. Sandy R. was my partner and the following pictures are from the 7 of 12 days of Christmas.

On the 1st day, some floss and chocolate covered peppermint sticks.

2nd day, a mini Snowman kit
3rd day, Friends card kit

On 4th day, Needle threader and needles

On 5th day, Lizzie Kate A Bit of May Flip Its Bits
On 6th day, a mini hedgehog kit

on 7th day, Forget Me Not Mini kit

I love everything I am getting, and I cant wait for the next 5 days.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I will try to post my goals for 2011 and welcome in the new year. If I dont, I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year.

Many hugs,
Vicky

More Pictures and Blizzard 2010

Stitched by Berly
Shephard's Bush

Like I promise, I have pictures from my Ornament Round Robin. I sew them into mini pillows. The stitching is beautiful. All of them were stitch on 14 ct aida with silver metallics. I asked my friends to add pearl blending filament to the white. I thought it might be too much with the silver, but it came out good.

Stitched by Sandy R.
Prairie Schooler

Stitched by Karin H.
Brittercup Designs

Stitched by Shari B.
Country Cottage Designs

Stitched by Vickie H.
Country Cottage Designs

The next set of pictures are from the blizzard. Since I had a cold, I slept through most of it, lol. The first one was taken from my back door around 2 pm.



The second picture is from the front door around 11:30 pm. I was sleeping weird due to the cold. The last three pictures was taken at 730 am, Monday morning.This one I wanted to the view of the amount of snow piled against the door. I guess I didnt angled the camera right, but than I had just got up.



This picture I caught the wind giving me a show, and I captured it. It is one of my favorites. You will think it is a blurry picture, but it is the wind.The last picture is from the front door. As you notice, the car in front is bury in the snow. The car by the yellow sign is not covered. It is very weird but the second was in the open and the other was closer to the building. I had went back to bed and I woke up, the sun was shining and the sky was a beautiful blue.
I want to thank you all for your comments. I appreciated all of them and very touch. You are all great and understanding bunch of friends from all over the world. I am honor to know you and to continue our friendship in the coming year.
I am including the website address for the Silly Snowquake just press on Silly Snowquake. I had to research the pattern again because I forgot how I found it.
My next post will be in a couple more days, with pictures of exchanges I received in the last couple of weeks.

Many hugs,
Vicky

Merry Christmas and Back to my blog

Karin's Ornament RR
By Drawn Thread in 1997 JCS Ornament issue
stitched 0n Pewter grey 28count
DMC threads one over one

Wow! Its been over 2 months since I last post about my stitching and I was in middle of a ornament RR. I had started on Karin's ornament. The instructions said one over one on the ornament I liked. Since I only did one over one for the first time at the beginning of Oct, I figured what the heck, I will do it one over one. At first I thought I was doing good and than I realize I missed a stitch somewhere. I couldnt find it and end up frogging most of I had stitched. OMG!!! It was awful to get the stitches out. I was almost pulling my hair out. I was afraid of cutting the material. I finished the ornament at the beginning of December.

On November 18, my world went upside down. My Mom passed away that morning. She has been a nursing home the last 5 years and had some serious health problems that we could not care for her at home. We always made sure she came home on the holidays or we went to her, but Christmas she was home unless she was in the hospital. The morning before, the nurse couldnt wake Mom up so they send her to the hospital. Around noon, she was stable and sleeping. They were waiting for a room. That evening when I was talking to my aunt, I was told Mom was in ICU. Than I got that gut feeling something was terrible wrong. I was so worried I didnt get to sleep until 3 in the morning. My brother woke me up at 9:40 to tell me about Mom passing away. She died from cardiopulmory arrest with septic shock and pneunomia. I called my sisters immediately. I got hold of Dawne immediately but with Amy, she was in classes and didnt call back until 4:30. By that time when I told her, I was choking on to the words, cause the shock had wore off. Mom's calling hours were on Sunday and the funeral was on Monday. I had volunteer to do an eulogy. My sisters and brother were too emotional. My melt down came at the gravesite, after the last prayer was said. I did no stitching until the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I just wanted play Mahjong Dimensions,lol.

When I started to stitch, I just did not want to stop. I end up doing a total 6 ornaments, finishing 4 of the 6 into ornaments, plus put 2 pillows together , all before Christmas. Below are the pictures of the ornaments.

Vickie's ornament rr
Gourmet Shop by The Twisted Thread
14 ct aida, DMC threads

For Genia and Steve
Season of Love by CCN designs
from JCS Preview ornament issue 2010
Weddgewood blue 28ct lugana,DMC threads

For Teresa in KraftersKorners
Christmas Homemade Gift
Kitty Klaus by Val's Stuff
1997 JCS Ornament issue
Ivory 28ct evenweave, DMC threads

For Berly in ILCSing
Christmas Ornament exchange
Silly Snowquake by Ertnne Chard
Wedgewood blue 28 ct lugana, DMC 769

For Anthony, my nephew
Silly Snowquake by Erynne Chard
Wedgewood Blue 28 ct lugana, DMC 796

As you can see, I made the Silly Snowquake twice. I loved how Berly's was coming out so I had to make another, it was a quick design. I, also, finished my RR ornaments and had them on my tree this year. I will show pics later when I show off my gifts on Days 1,2, and 3 on the 12 Days of Christmas and a couple of other exchanges.

I have a lot to show and I dont want to overwhelm everyone. I will post later with news of the blizzard in Connecticut.

Two Giveaways

Dixie Sampler Designs is having a Halloween giveaway. It is very spooktacular! Go over and check it out. You wont be disappointed.

Teresa of At Willow Tree Pond has reached her 100th post and having a giveaway! It has a little of everything.

Autumn and Halloween Stitching

I was very busy stitching my exchanges I had to do to make my deadline on October 15. I made it with a couple days to spare plus I added one more exchange. Now on to a couple SALs. But I want to show you what I got and did for my partners.

The picture above the blog post is the Autumn ornament I did for Debbie Jo. The pattern is from Stoney Creek. Debbie Jo was the same partner I had in the Summer exchange, so I decided to use the same type of pattern. I did use Carrie Creations Autumn for the border, but the rest was done with DMC. Here is the ornament I got from Debbie. It is very beautiful and in my basket with my other goodies.


The next exchange was Christmas in September from the KraftersKorners yahoo group. I stitched a snowman from JCS Christmas 2009 magazine. I just got my 2010 issue about a week ago. The pattern is from Val's Stuff and I stitched him on Sassy's Fabbys Snowflake 14 count aida. I added a blue bead hanger and the fabric in the background in the picture, is the same one I used for the back of the ornament. Mary sent me this cute little angel. She is adorable.


This Halloween card was another exchange. I have not heard from the person if she received it yet. But I thought I would show it off. It is design by Ursula Michaels. The pumpkins glow-in-the-dark and looks so awesome in the dark. My brother wants me to make one with a skull with the neon threads.
This Santa ornament was for a Blind Swap Exchange. An ornament of your choice is stitched and finished. All of ornaments are send to the modator, Rene, with a S.A.S.E. and she will swap an ornament from another stitcher. So you wont know what you will get, plus you dont have to worry if your partner goes awol. This Santa is design from Praire Schooler on 28 count evenweave.



This was the Halloween pin I stitched for Katie from KraftersKorner. The pattern was a freebie from CyberStitchers. The designer is Angelic Stitches by Velda. It was orginally an ornament but I stitched it one over one on 25count evenweave. This is the first time I did one over one and it was very easy and fun. It took about 4 hours to make, including making it into the pin.

This roly-poly Santa is Sandy's ornament RR. He was easy to stitch. The backstitch really makes him come to life on the fabric. I sure hope she likes it. I am done with all my exchanges except for the Ornament RR. But the pressure isnt there to stitch to make the deadlines. My next project is Little House Pumpkin Hollow Farm. It is one of the new ones from Little House and I had to do it this year. I will have an update in a few days.

Thank you so much for stopping by and for making it this far.
Enjoy the fall before the snow gets here.