A few finishes

 Hello all,
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and spent some time with family. I thought this was going to be a super quick post but I uploaded more pictures than I thought. First I have this little princess pillow which I made for my little princess who will be turning 8 years old on Friday. This pattern was inspired by her.

 The next two are are some ornament finishes. My last post are the ornaments unfinished.  the tree and Jolly are the two finshed ones. I still have a few more to finish which I will probably post next week.(hopefully!) These will both look nice in my Christmas decorated home.

This last photo is not very stitchy but I wanted to show it anyway. I follow this blog called sew many ways. Maybe some of you follow it too. Karen has such great ideas and uses for everything. I made this little wreath for my table. The base of it is the plastic part of the top of a candle jar. I added the bow and the little votive and now I have a cute mini wreath. The glass part of the top I use for a tea light. She is so clever. You can check out her ideas at: http://www.sewmanyways.blogspot.com/.

I will be back next week with some stitchy goodness! Have a stitch filled week!

Maureen

Ornaments

 Hello all,
I am doing Beckysc's ornament challenge and so far I have 5 ornaments stitched but only 1 finished. This is an ornament from the 2011 Just Cross Stitch ornament issue. It is called  the Half Hour ornament by Lizzie Kate. If you need a quick gift for someone this is your ornament. I think it took less than a half hour. There are white beads scattered around the top which are not visible from the picture. It turned out alot cuter than I thought it would.

These 4 ornaments I still need to figure out how I want to finish them. Jolly is also from the 2011 ornie issue and HoHoHo is a Lizzie Kate. The Happy Holidays and the Christmas tree are old patterns I had in my stash. Isn't stash great. I usually can always find what I need but I still am always thirsting for more. The more the better I always say!
When I finish these ornies I will post them. What kind of Christmas stitching is everyone doing this season?
Welcome to all my new followers!  I am glad you're here. Early next year will be one year in Blogland so I hope to get a giveaway together. Any suggestions on what you want!

Have a great week!

~Maureen~

Retreat and Stash

 Hello friends,

I am back from the Dyeing to Stitch Retreat and what a fabulous time it was. Here is the group we stitched with all weekend. They were so fun! Kim and Brenda (the 2 ladies to the left in the front) joined us on the night of the banquet. It was so much fun I hated for it to end.  I can't wait to see how much of the projects everyone gets done before the next one in 2 years. I love stitching at the beach!
They gave us projects galore. The theme this year was Seaside Seasons. We had our opening project which was a bag with a design of the 4 seasons representing each designer. Thursday was a collaboration piece in which each designer did an accessory. There is a pincushion, scissor keep, scissor fob, and needle book. I can't wait to get started on these. I need to do my Christmas stitching first though. Friday night we made a nice liner for a basket with Pam from Olde Colonial Designs. So the basket you see in the photo with a close up below was our farewell gift. Is that not fabulous or what!! I was beyond words! The liner fits right in the bottom. The little acorn on the basket we also received at the retreat and is adorable. It is tiny and was made by the hands of Pat, Patty, and Wendy of Dyeing to Stitch.
This is a picture of all my stash. Do you think it's enough to keep me busy?                                                   This is a combination of gifts 

 from the retreat, the boutique there, and a visit to the Dyeing to Stitch shop. I love my basket! I just had to say that. I met alot of very nice stitchers whom I hope to keep in touch with and talk stitching. I didn't post pictures because I don't usually like to post pictures of people unless I ask permission. I didn't get a chance to do that with everyone so you'll have to take my word for it that they are wonderful people.





To close things up I just wanted to include this picture of  Perry. My Aunt gave me the little scarf for him on our recent visit. So I put it on and I think he got a little mad at me because he wouldn't look at me.He would look out of the corner of his eye and at one point he totally turned his head away from me. He is such a little stinker but I had to laugh. He got used to the scarf.
I am working on ornaments for the next few weeks for Becky's ornament challenge. I will show as soon as I get a few done.


Have a good rest of the week and Happy Stitching!!

Maureen

Goodies and a Finish

 Hello friends,

This will be short and sweet. I just have to share the wonderful goodies I received from Myra(Gr8dame's Place) yesterday from winning her recent giveaway. I just adore them. I usually never win anything so it was extra exciting for me.

I also have a quick finish to show. This Lizzie Kate snowman has also been stitched for several years and now is finally finished. Honestly, I usually don;t wait  that long to finish things but I had a few things stitched for a different purpose. Now that that purpose is non-existent, I did something else with them. This I will put on my L & K wall in my stitching room. Even though it is a snowman, I would like to enjoy him all year long.

6 more days for the fabulous retreat. Ahhh! Stitching bliss!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Maureen

A few finishes and countdown

 Hello all,

Here is my finished  Hocus Pocus by Lizzie Kate. isn't it so cute. Silly me put it away with just the border to do. Maybe about 2 years ago. I just pulled it out and thought I must finish this and so I did. The little bat I got from my mom's stash which is very fitting since there are bat's on the backing fabric. I love how it turned out.

 This next group of stitching is a head start on some holiday stitching. One is a birthday gift, one is a Christmas gift and one is just because I wanted to stitch it. The I love stitching was a freebie from The Sampler Girl. The other 2 designs are my own.

Two weeks from tomorrow my mom and I are headed to Virginia Beach for the Dyeing to Stitch stitchers retreat. I cannot wait! Not only to see some friends but also to have fun stitching with fellow stitchers and designers and coming home with so many goodies I won't know what to do with. I designed this pincushion especially for the retreat. I made 3 of them. One for me, my mom, and a good friend that I met at the retreat 2 years ago. She will also be attending and can't wait to see her. I also had a few other goodies to put in the bag. It's so much fun! That's it for now.

Happy Stitching Y'all!!

Maureen

Lots to show

 It's been a little while, and I finally have finishing to show. The rest of summer got away  from me but now that school is back in session and the weather is getting cooler, it's time to get serious. First, I've got Roly Poly Snowman. It is from one of the ornament  issues of Just Cross stitch but I am not sure which one. I am ashamed to say that I have had him stitched for  a few years but just didn't get around to finishing him until now.I am quite the amateur when it comes to sewing but I had so much fun finishing these that I just want to do it all the time now. Next, I have these 3 beauties. The pumpkin is Twisted Threads, Liberty is Heart in Hand, and the cute pink one I designed for breast cancer. When we went to the New York State Fair, Madison

picked out a braclet with that saying on it and I wanted to stitch it, so I did. This is the final result and I think it turned out really good. There is a little breast cancer charm on the end also. It is a little hard to see in the picture.









Moving on, I also have these beauties as well.
Bluebird from Blackbird Designs. You may recognize that from my previous post not finished yet. Well now it is finished and I just love it! The three on the right are also from Blackbird from the Stitchers Journey Book. Aren't they so cute! That is my favorite book. I made a sachet with a B on it also which is not in the picture b/c I already gave it to my mom. Pins and Needles is Littlehouse Needleworks. This goes with the Travelling Stitcher which I can't wait to finish also. Again, it is stitched but just needs to be finished. I need to step that up a bit.

Lastly, this turned into more of an experiment. With the lace anyway. I love this design by Lizzie Kate 

 and love the saying. I made it into a little pillow for my stitching room. Since I said I was such an amateur at sewing, I have never sewn lace on before. If the picture looks good then I am satisfied with it. If anyone were to examine it up close. Not so good! For my first try though it's not bad. Practice Makes Perfect!!





I'll leave you with a picture of my little Perry boy. I finally got him to look at me when I took this picture. He usually looks away before it takes the picture.

Even though he is a trouble maker, he's a keeper. He's lucky he's cute!

Happy Stitching! Fall is wonderful!

Maureen

Stitch Heaven and a few things to show

 Hello all,

I can't believe that summer is winding down already. It seems like it just started. This is a picture of my stitching haven. I would like to make it up a few times a year. However this year I only made up once which is very depressing to me. Alas, I had a few days of relaxation, stitching, jetskiing, fishing, and watching the ships go by. I just love the water. I wish I could live on the water so I could stare it all day long out my window.

 Madison caught herself a couple of fish. She missed her cousin coming up to fish her though. She did OK on her own though.




The next picture is just to show you the ships that go by our cottage.  Madison likes to watch them. My brother has kept track of them ever since he was a kid. He used to write the name of them and where they were from in a notebook. Now that technology has come so far, he can now track them on the computer and find out where they came from and where they are going. Interesting!

 This is a little bookmark I finished when I returned. I want to say this is #9 for the 2012 Bookmark Challenge.

This is Bluebird from Blackbird Designs. I just love it. I started this at the cottage and had almost finished it. I finished the last few stitches when I returned. It was such a fast stitch and I can't wait to sew it up.


This last stitch was from Heart in Hand and I think it is an old pattern. I found it in my stash and thought it would make a cute pillow for my collection. I think it turned out really cute especially when I added the multi colored star. These will be so cute when I finish them. I better get to work with that because I have  several other things to finish before these.

That's all for now! Enjoy the rest of summer!!

Maureen