Pay It Forward Update

Yeah!! Brenda, Cathy, and Erika are doing the PIF with me. Erika and I are actually exchanging stitching accessories together. She has a stampin up website but not a blog. This is right up her alley as well as mine so I wanted to be sure to include her. I can't wait to start shopping for stitching accessories.
In Stitches,
~Maureen~

Pay It Forward

My friend Maggee invited me to participate in a PIF and I accepted. How fun! Thank you to Karen for starting such a fun stitchy thing. I love stuff like this. Maggee is going to send me 5 stitching accessories and all I have to do is send 5 stitching accessories to 2 other stitchers within the year and post this on my blog which I am doing now.( Of course!) Simple right! I have asked 2 friends to participate with me. One has accepted. Thank you Brenda! This is going to be so much fun. I have not heard from the other so I will keep you posted. I have also asked another friend (who does not have a blog) if she would like to exchange stitching accessories with me.  This is extra fun to me since I just loooove stitching accessories! Thank You Maggee for thinking of me to ask.

In Stitches

~Maureen~

A Fabulous Birthday

 Well, I am now once again one year older. Since some of my birthday gifts were handmade and stitchy stuff, I wanted to share them. This first one is a cowl made by the hands of my mother. Isn't it just beautiful. She did such a great job on it and it keeps my neck nice and toasty on those cold winter days. Thanks Mom!

These next few were made by the hands of my sister in law, Kacey. The quilted table top for fourth of July. I admired hers one day and she must have heard me. The nice scarf and the pillow which turns into a blanket. Which is a wonderful thing for me since I am cold alot and Madison is going to take ice skating lessons and I am sure I will be cold in there while waiting for her. Love it!!!

This next gift was made by the hands of my good friend Erika. Is this not the sweetest little box ever. I just adore it. Thank you so much Erika!!

 This wonderfully knitted sweater was made by the hands of my Aunt Joanie. It is the sweetest sweater I have ever seen. I noticed it in a Virginia knit shop back in October. Since my Aunt is an avid knitter and has knit ever since I can remember she said she would knit it for my Birthday. Ta Da!!! It's here and so cute. it fits just over  the shoulder and the scalloped edge comes down to the middle of your back. For as small as it is, it is actually quite warm. Another adored gift by me!

Lastly, my mom had picked out a few stitchy things for me. A new pair of scissors for my collection called Tessa. Hazel's Hat pattern with the boot scissors to go with it. Also, the cute pin cushion made out of the Blackbird Designs fabric. My paretns also got me the pottery barn cubby that is on the LHN blog. Can't wait to see that. I am already thinking of small designs to put in there. I also received a few gift cards to Bath and Body and Joann's.

So what a wonderful birthday it was and feel so lucky to have so many caring people in my life!!

Have a Great Evening!!

Maureen

Something to share

Happy New Year Everyone!!
I hope everyone had a fun and happy holiday season. This will be a short post today as I don't have much to share. Just my 2nd LHN ornament. Isn't he adoreable! I am not going to finish them all the same. I may not even make them all ornaments. I do want to somehow display them all together at Christmas time. I know I am slow because most people have them all done. One of my goals this year is to stitch more of them and have at least one going at all times. Then by the end of the year we'll see how many are done. I will have to add 12 more to stitch seeing as I will be getting the new ones. I just love each and every one of them. A few other things I am going to be working on this year is the 6 Fat Men by Lizzie Kate which I am going to start today.(Erika, Have you started yours yet?) I will be working on Cast A Spell by Blackbird Designs. I just love this. What can  I say, I love everything! That is why I have a mountain of stitching that keeps getting higher and higher! I will be doing some small things here and there as well which will be posted on here whenever I finish anything. Some things are stitched in the moment and not planned. I think that's why some things that are planned don't always get done. Does anyone else have that problem? Is there a solution out there? Well I am off to start my 6 Fat Men. I will post my progress.

Happy Stitching My Friends!

~Maureen~

A gift

I just wanted to share this wonderful Christmas gift I received from my good friend, Erika. Lots of fabric which will really come in handy for my finishing. Lots of great colors to choose from. The ornament which I am going to stitch and add to my ornament collection for next year. I also wanted you to see her beautiful card. Erika, you do such a great job. I also loved Madison's. So cute. She loved her clothespin doll. I will post it here after we finish it this week. I am still working on my 2012 plan which I hope to post later this week. I am off from work until Friday so I am hoping to get that done and some stitching of course. I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I know I did!

~Maureen~

A few finishes and some fun

 A few more ornaments to share. I loved BeckySC's ornament challenge. I hope she does it again next year. I made ornaments this year that I wouldn't have done otherwise. I made 10 in all and have several new ornaments to add to my collection. This ornament I made up to remember this very sweet movie I saw for the first time this year. It actually came out in 2003. Where have I been? Well I loved it now and  I have ordered a copy of it so I am excited to be able to watch it whenever I want.  I just can't seem to get enough of it. Anyone else have movies like that. If not, I must need a life!
The Believe ornament is a freebie from the Sampler
Girl. I love red fabric at Christmastime!

The next few ornaments I did for the challenge. The Happy Holidays is from Woolen Thread, The little tree is from Bent Creek, and the last one is from an old magazine and I don't even remember who is the designer. I just liked it.

That's all my stitching for now. I am winding down my 2011 stitching and getting ready for 2012. I hope to post my plan next week. I am still working on it.


I am ending my post today with a little bit of fun.

Here is a picture of  my Madison and her Aunt (my sister) with their Birthday Crowns on. Their birthdays are 3 days apart so we celebrated them together.

The last picture is Madison with her good friend Abby, who came to sleep over for Madison's Birthday. They had a ball and it was funny because they didn't know they had the same PJ's until that night when they went to put them on. So of course I had to take a picture. Aren't they sweet!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and be safe if you are travelling!

~Maureen~

Some Christmas Finishes

 This cute snowman is my 8th ornament in the ornament challenge. It is Sam Sarah's Twinkle and was such a fun stitch. He will be added to my snowman ornament collection.

 Well, the Bills, what can I say about the Bills? They need major help! Well anyway I made this cute pillow for my hubby who, sadly yes, is a bills fan. He has been since he was a kid so he can't desert them now in their time of need.

 I loved how this turned out. I was reading Faye's blog http://www.carolinastitcher.blogspot.com/ and she had made 5 of these finished different ways. Just fabulous! It was a freebie bt The Primitive Hare which you can find here:http://www.theprimitivehare.blogspot.com/.

 So to end this post here is a picture of Perry in one of his favorite spots. On top of the blanket I made Madison last year for her birthday. So Santa is going to bring him one of his own. Madison is going to rub her scent all over it so he'll love it even more.

That's all I have today.  More shopping to do and cookies to bake so hopefully I'll something to show soon.
I don't want to scare anyone but there are 17 days left until Christmas. OMG!!!

Have a great weekend!!

Maureen