THE SMELL OF PINE

AWWWW Christmastime - How I love it - the music - the lights - the decorations - the festive occasions - seasonal stitching.

Here is something I have been working on for the past couple of weeks and am really loving how it is coming out. It is Poinsettias and Pines by Blue Ribbon Designs. I changed my fabric to the lovely Sugar and Spice linen from Australia - I ordered it several years ago and I think it is called Marble Crunch. I love how Naomi does her sparkly linen. The threads are Belle Soie as charted except I had to change the white to a pale silvery gray on the snowflakes so they would show up better on this linen.  In the new year I hope to get a real camera so I can take better photos - I am using my IPhone and think they should be better but alas they still look fuzzy and crummy.  My nice Canon digital got stolen when our house got broken into a couple of years ago and I did not ever replace it.  Anyway you get the idea - I am missing one tree there but I will finish it up today.

The other piece I worked on earlier in December was Merry Christmas by BBD from the Joyeaux Noel book.  I am shortening it up a bit from what was charted but I know the wording will fit.  It is on a leftover piece of R&R fabric with the called for Crescent Colors cotton.  It will be a cute pin pillow one day.

I am starting a new project tomorrow on Christmas Day - It will be a fun one instead of a serious repro sampler.  I am starting 6 Fat Men by Lizzie Kate.  I loved the bright colors she used - all overdyes and I am using some long stashed 28ct Antique Cotton linen by R&R - I thought using a larger count linen might make it more whimsical - of course for those who do beautiful over one stitching or on a very fine count - that also has the same wonderful effect to make some things very whimsical.

I'd love to hear what from you if you are starting a new project for Christmas Day or New Years.  Our sampler guild (Azalea) is starting Ann Dale as an SAL for 2012 (and maybe the rest of our lives LOL).  I hope my supplies will be here for a NYE/NYD start but most of our group has been wait listed along with the rest of the country for the vintage pear linen.  I managed to find a piece from Traditional Stitches - Janice is great to deal with - I had ordered the Mystery Sampler and several other things from her in 2011 and was extremely pleased with her customer care.

Well - I thank each and every one of you for visiting my blog this year.  I have new followers but it still vexes me as to why those followers don't show up on my side bar any more.  I see this same thing on others blogs so I know it's not just mine.  Anyway if you are new to my blog - welcome!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas spent with family and friends and that you find time in the hustle and bustle of the holiday weekend to spend time with your needle.

Merry Christmas ~ ~ ~ 

MAGICAL SANTA

Having a new Santa come to live at my house can be a magical thing.  Especially this Santa.

My dad is a very prolific stitcher - I have shown his beautiful work many times before.  Sadly he does not really care for stitching samplers but he did do the lovely Rachel Hyde for me and I'm hoping he may be interested in stitching the Solomons Temple sampler on the cover of the new SANQ.

This is the Winter White Santa - design number 100 for Mirabilia.  He prefers Mirabilia designs and has stitched many of them over the years.

This was our first experience using Michaels and while they were not inexpensive like I was hoping - they did do a wonderful job.  My mom picked out the gorgeous moulding all by herself and I must say it is absolutely perfect for this piece  - she also picked the silver gray velour mat used on the top.  When I arrived at Michaels that day - she was struggling for an inner mat and I picked the midnight blue.  So this beautiful Santa is already hanging on my wall - I went out in wind and ugly weather to pick him up today.

With no further ado - here he is

apparently I can't take straight photo to save my life - sorry about the crack on my couch cushions.

Between the horrible lighting and my crummy IPhone photo - you really can't see any of the beauty and details in all the beading.

A close up shot of the frame moulding and a bit of the beading around the tree.  Take my word for it - it is just a lovely piece - I can brag because it is my dad's work and my mom's framing choices - so I'm allowed to gush over this piece.  EXQUISITE !  So magical - that is all I can say.

THE SURPRISE IS REVEALED

Last week I showed a few sneak peek shots of a needlepoint ornament I completed in a finishing class I took in Savannah at the French Knot.

Since the ornament is christmas related - I wanted to make sure the recipient was able to enjoy it during the holiday season.

With no further delay here is Kris' Kats

I am SOOOOO proud of the finishing on this ornament.  I wish I was a better photographer and if I used a real camera instead of my handy IPhone I would probably get better results.  Anyway - you can see the previous post if you missed it for details close up on the details of the ornament.

Two of these sweet kitties appear in Kris' current avatar - the little tortie Maize placing the star on top of the tree and the silver striped all male Curtis Willis.  The black one on the bottom and the Siamese have gone on to the rainbow bridge but I knew them both.  This ornament just jumped into my hands last year when I attended the finishing class at French Knot.  I knew DF Kris would love it and I was not disappointed in her reaction.  I do think she loves seeing the kids in this whimsical colorful ornament.

Thanks for all your kind comments in the previous post - I'm glad I could do the reveal sooner rather than later.

Hope you are all enjoying sights and sounds of the season.  Cheers !

GIVEAWAY AND A SURPRISE

I am terribly remiss in doing a blog post to show photos and thank Lauren from the awesome Rugs and Pugs  blog for the wonderful giveaway gifts she sent to me.  I think everyone knows I LOVE WOOL - hence the name Woolwoman and Wooley thoughts - I knit with wool (well mostly) and I hook with wool and sometimes I stitch with wool too.

When I signed up for Lauren's giveaway - I never dreamed I would win.  NEVER - however I did WIN and WOWWEEEEE did I win.

Lauren send a lovely box of textured wool already washed and dried and ready to hook. Lots of lovely wools - I was in shock - first that I even won and then how lovely the gift was.

Then buried inside the box was this darling scrabble stand and blocks spelling wool - now I just need to find the woman blocks and I'll be happy as a clam.  This is right up on the shelf with my favorite wooden trinkets.

Buried in the box was this awesome silver pendant - I had seen these on Lauren's blog but had no idea that was part of the giveaway - It looks great on one of my favorite silver chains and Lauren did not know this about me but I wear a lot of silver jewelry and am never without a silver pendant around  my neck.  The first rug guild meeting I wore this to - our local teacher and director of Off the Ocean rug camp just had a fit over it.  A crummy photo but you can see the w o o l engraved into the silverware handle.

Many thanks Lauren - you rock !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was in Savannah again recently and took another awesome ornament finishing class from the French Knot

I took this same class from Audrey last year and finished my seahorse into an ornament.  It hangs year round keeping miss mermaid company in our sun room.  Last year - the finishing was very different - everything was done either on a machine or stitched by hand.  This year the glue gun was my new best friend.

I was very apprehensive about gluing - Oh My I thought - GLUE - egads - not sure I can put glue on my beautiful ornament but Audrey assured me that unless it was an heirloom piece that she would not hesitate to finish with glue and that many finishers use glue.  OK - so let's jump into the gooey glue.  I had never in my life handled a glue gun - I guess that is why they call it "hot glue gun"  DUH - it does get very hot.  Anyway - here are just a few sneak peeks of my ornament - it is going to go to a DF of mine and just in case she sees the blog - I don't want to spoil her surprise but I could not resist telling you about my great class and showing a few sneak shots.

Audrey has an extensive collection of trims, baubles, fabrics and treasures.  If you love needlepoint, fibers or accessories and you are in Savannah - do pay her a visit .  She also does lovely and unusual finishing and has a website to purchase from if you can't pay a visit in person.  Her wall of fibers is not to be believed. 

Look at the darling tassle that hangs on one side

I adore the christmas lights that are on the bottom of the ornament.  I did sew all these on by hand.  They were the finishing touch on my ornament and I think they are perfect to set it off and give it some whimsy.

I will show a photo of the finished ornament once it is gifted.

I have been working on nothing but this ornament - I knew I had a deadline and simply had to finish before this class.  So I have no other stitching progress to show and I did not allow myself to do much knitting either.  Nose to the grindstone and I did get it done.

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday.  Can't believe today is December 1st - Christmas in 24 days and counting. only 30 days till 2012 -  I hope each and every one of you has a wonderful holiday season - turn on your favorite christmas songs and enjoy the season !

WHAT !!!!!! LOOK WHO'S 50 TODAY

Jody or JD as he sometimes calls himself is 50 years young today.  I can't believe how the years have flown by.  Ours is an interesting story - I have known Jody since he was just a kid riding his bike around our neighborhood.  He was and still is best friends with my only cousin - they are only 4 days apart and grew up in the 'hood together.  While they have somewhat drifted apart - they still keep in touch by phone but since we have all moved away from the area we grew up - the boys are now seperated by about 25 miles.  So in essence - I have known Jody for probably 40+ years and we have been together as a couple since 1980 when I finally saw him one day with my cousin and thought 'HUMMM' - is that Jody??? Wow he has grown up and is pretty cute.  I was in between boyfriends at the time and since he is almost 5 years younger than I am I had never viewed him as anything other than "my cousins BFF".

Jody is a very talented musician - he has played in various bands over the years and has been really missing not having any equipment to not only fill some void in his life but also just to keep limber and stay involved with making music. So for his 50th - I bought him a new Ibanez bass (don't ask me the model - there were dozens of them and I get confused) it is a beautiful very deep navy blue metallic and I think the color was called metallic thunderstorm. He also got a "combo" amp - it pales in comparison to the giant stacks of towering equipment he used to have when he was playing in local bands and doing gigs. I'm really glad he moved out of that phase but I have no doubt he was good enough to be in a professional touring band - I'm just selfish and glad he did not go down that rock and roll highway.

I wanted to get a photo of him holding the guitar but he was too shy.

Here are just a few shots of my best friend Jody.  My soulmate - my buddy.

 This one taken on the porch at my parents house at the lake is one of my faves.  I think he is still a very handome dude and has lots of beautiful thick hair - I'm always trying to get him to let it grow long again but that is selfish of me.  Who wants all that long  hot hair to deal with down here in sweltering NE FL.

 Having fun on the lake - that must have been summer before last because the lake was so low this past summer from no rain that my folks could not even get their boat out of the boathouse.

Happy Birthday my love - may you have many happy healthy returns.

THE PARTRIDGE on PEAR

I always struggle with blog titles - pardon me for being silly.  There is a partridge - I tried to think about finding a pear to take a photo of but I could not.  Thereby - my silly blog title.  There is a partridge and it is "on" pear - vintage pear linen that is .  har har

Too bad I am such a poor photographer - however here is a photo of my finish of the BBD partridge bonus chart. It was stitched with the called for Belle Soie silks - two strands so the color is vivid and rich.

I used a wonderful pre-made box I found on vacation at 3 Sisters Antiques and Needlework in Knoxville Tenn.  It has stenciled colonial type designs on all 4 sides and the top which is now covered.  I thought it was just perfect.

Looks like I had too much light on the subject but I could not get the designs on the box itself to show up.  It has ball feet and it was a gift for DF Carol for her October birthday.  I gave this to Carol when she came up for our EGA guilds workshop with Ellen Chester (more on that event in another post) and I just did not get a photo of Carol with the box.  I'm sorry that opportunity slipped by me.  Anyway I am "finishing" challenged so I was pretty proud of my accomplishment.  I ended up pinning the piece to the mat board instead of lacing like the BBD instructions said - I just could not get that to work - of course I have zero experience in that realm so I was quick to get exasperated with it.  Once I pinned it - then gluing the chenille to the box did not work for my project either - so I had to couch the chenille in place to cover the pin heads.  All in all - I was very pleased with the finish.

Here is the darling little Liberty Hill Scissor Box set.  It was SO wonderful and really came in handy with the partridge finishing and using all those nasty pins which needed to be corralled and contained but yet within reach.  It is always fun to add to my LH collection.

Two blog posts in one week - WOW - amazing.  I still can't figure out why my "followers" dont' show up on my blog any more - if anyone knows how to correct that problem - please enlighten me.  Next post I hope to show a few photos from the wonderful workshop we had with Ellen Chester.  Until then - happy stitching/knitting and hooking.

IT'S A WOOL THING

While in Auburn AL a couple of weeks ago - I went to a favorite quirky cafe.  This place takes up about 3 acres - it is a nursery, garden accessory and now fresh market with a cafe.  I think it is called the Crepe Myrtle Cafe.  Anyway - how fun to see all these beautiful fall flowers and pumpkins.  So festive!

Sure would have loved to take some of this stuff back home with me but I did bring back some great stuff this time.  Do you know about Wickles - they are based out of Alabama and they make the best condiments and pickles.  We can get some basic stuff here in NE FL like their Hellish relish - awesome!  your tuna salad will never be the same.  Anyway - they have a whole case of Wickles products at this market and I love their pickled okra as well.

The other awesome thing I did was visit this great new yarn shop in Auburns sister city of Opelika.

The Yarnhouse Studio is AWESOME!  It looks tiny from the outside but once inside - WOW - did I say WOW - the shop is gorgeous. 

Owner Cary said it was a jewelry store and they had beautiful built in shelves made of lovely wood. 

 

There was a knit night going on so I was able to visit after I got off work.  I was so pleasantly surprised at how welcoming Cary and her Mom were. 

Not only do they have gorgeous yarns but they also have some yummy fabrics.  You might say this was a one stop shop for anything creative you might have in mind.

they also teach weaving and spinning -  

Found some beautiful Malabrigo Rios there.  I had one skein on hand from Savannah but it did not match too well so I will definitely have to blend the two skeins.

The gorgeous Madeline Tosh Vintage which I had never tried before in Cove - A really dreamy colorway - the new Knitscene Winter issue has a shawl done in Vintage so i am NOT-SO-PATIENTLY waiting on that to arrive at the LYS - I was going to make something else with it so I already know the yarn is beyond wonderland to knit with.

Another absolutely gorgeous yarn I found at Yarnhouse was Fiberphile MCN - OMG - Too bad there was only one skein  in this colorway - which is Fortress and it is a fingering weight - will make a nice shawlette - do  you see a Trend here with yarn buying.  Yep Fall is here and I am in the wool fever.

This beautiful beginning is a baby afghan I am making for a friend who is having her first grandbaby in the spring.  This is Spud & Chloe Sweater in Ice Cream.  I had a lot of trouble choosing a pattern - I wanted something that would move along that I could finish in a few months but I also wanted something delicate and elegant.  I settled on Heirloom a pattern by Madeline Tosh.

Well - Happy Friday - I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and if you are like me - Loving and living the wool life - ENJOY!

CLOUD HOPPING AND A FALL FINISH !

Oh my goodness - time just flies on by - I can't believe it's been so long since I have made a blog post.

It is officially fall here - not according to the temperature - it was 85 just now when I made a Starbucks run.  EGADS - had to run the A/C on full blast and I got an iced pumpkin spice latte instead of a seasonal hot one.

I wanted to introduce you to Petunia the Pig -   She looks kinda like a pony - I tried getting a side shot but looked like a baby donkey so this is it.  This is by the same folk artisan that did my Harriet the hare and the bunny baby on the giant carrot.  The Jack is distressed wool and I love his face.  Actually this was a birthday gift from my mom and it has been put away until it was time to come out and play.

I have been busy with work and when I'm real busy with work that usually means lots of travel. Have been taking more trips on the company plane lately.   Here is a shot of the beautiful clouds on a recent trip home on the plane - it looks so surreal when you are up in the air.

 

and the finish - WHOOOOOOO - I finally finished - well finished the stitching part on the BBD Partridge from the Loose Feathers Part 1 booklet  - I can't wait to show you what I have planned for this piece.  I just need to get to the finishing part - yep - don't faint - I am going to do that myself and hopefully next post I will have the real finish to show you.  I used the called for Vintage Pear by LL and the called for Belle Soie silks - 2 strands made the coloring very vivid.  This was my first time using Dinky Dye silks and I must say I was very impressed.

For a long time I was stumped on what to do with those wheat sheaves/sheaths or whatever they are and I apologize to anyone who knows way more than I do about farms and so forth.  I put this close up so you could see how they were drawn on the far right and how the stitched ones looked on the far left.  I think this stitch is working out well.  The orangey ones are a mix of Vineyard silk and Planet Earth stranded silk and the golden ones are 2 colors of Planet Earth - I actually love that fiber too - my first time using it as well.  I'm not a big fan of the vineyard - it gets easily distressed and to me looks just like perle cotton.  I asked a fellow ega member about it and she said maybe I was using too long a strand - well not in my opinion and then she said I should pay careful attention to make sure I was stitching with the correct grain - EGADS - if I have to be so particular about all that - I would just avoid using it.  I'm not knocking their product - just sharing my observations - I don't want negative comments because I am ditzing someone's favorite silk.  We all have our preferred products to stitch with and I'm just sharing my opinions.

Here is the full shot - not much left to go now - I wish I had picked it up earlier this summer so it would be done for the fall season but alas I am always a day late and a dollar short.  I'll enjoy stitching it in the season and when it is done - it is done !  I am not sure what to do with the sky - I definitely want black but I might experiment with Gloriana Florimell in Antique Black - I adore this fiber - but then I adore Soie D'Alger the base for this thread.  I don't know what fiber to use for the stars - I do want them sparkly so I am thinking Krenik probably but I'll try several things until I find the perfect solution.

I never could understand what those black things below the fence were meant to be - rocks?  Buckets - oh well whatever they were - they are going to be dirt in my field and I will put in those grassy shoots last on top of all the stitching.  I have really enjoyed this piece.  Just a reminder it is Autumn House by Melissa Shirley Designs and I just went wild with stashed fibers using many different things.  I did buy a few new things but at least half or more of it was from my vast stash of threads.

Haven't shown my Spanish sampler in a long time.  This is only 1/2 of the sampler - the right side is stitched.  Sad to say this piece has not gotten much attention this summer - it is is fondly referred to by Jody as the "lap robe" (inside joke) and therefore if you get the hint - this is a 1/2 yard piece of linen and during the dreadfully hot summer months - it was just too hot to work on especially under my bright Daylight lamp.  I need to make a point of working on it at least one night a week so that some forward progress is being made.

This is a SAL with the Attic and I saw the first finished Spanish in Jean's recent newsletter.  I think the SAL leader has changed a few of the colors in the bands more to her liking - not sure I will make changes - I typically like to be in the ball park of what the original sampler looked like.

So - that concludes a brief tour of what's been going on around my house.  I have not been hooking much but hooking always ramps up in the fall and winter.  Hopefully I will have enough progress on my scarecrow to show a new photo next time.

Hope you are all enjoying lots of stitching, knitting, hooking, pumpkin pickin' apple eatin' and fall festivals in your neck of the woods.  Thanks for stopping by my blog and please leave a comment - I love to hear from ya'll !

A TASTE OF FALL

Well friends - I am just back from 10 days off work  - it was a great vacation.  We spent 8 days in the Smokie Mountains in Tenn.  We we first arrived Labor Day weekend it was sweltering there - I think it was 98 even hotter than when we left FL.  I have loads of family type photos so if you want to skip to the stitchy stuff - feel free to do so.

My folks went up a few days earlier than we did but we have shared a condo space for the past couple of years at this same complex and that worked out well. We both have our own vehicle in case too much togetherness begins to creep into our space. We all get along very well and we have our own bedroom and bath so it works for us.

Here is a shot from the balcony and down below is the cottage we stayed in last year.  they were nice but NO view at all so we preferred to be in the tower.

If you have been to Pigeon Forge Tenn - you are familar with the Christmas Store and maybe the Christmas Inn owned by the same folks.  Well now they have the Partrige and Pear restaurant.  We went there for dinner last year but Mom found they were open for lunch so that was our first stop on Saturday.  Here is a shot of their beautiful mantel.  The entire restaurant is decorated for Christmas year round.  there is a neat photo of my folks and Jody with Santa but it got out of order and I can't seem to fix it.

 This is a shot of the haul from the farm stand in the No Ga mountains on the way home.  This Longaberger gathering basket is running over with 3 kinds of beans and peas and bell peppers - Have you ever seen a purple bell pepper - I haven't - so there is one in there that is purple.  Fresh apples and see the huge heads of cabbage just cut from the field.  One variety of peas was so fresh - it still had the morning dew on it when the box was dumped into the bin - oh and the fresh corn too that did not get into the shot. 

I love pottery.  These 2 soup bowls and a little container for sweetner packets are from the Pigeon River Pottery.  They have so many gorgeous pieces both decorative and utilitarian.

Here is a shot of Jody on our favorite perch.  We did not get to enjoy the balcony as much as we had hoped to. The view of the Smokie mountain range is incredible. We had 3 days of rain and dreary weather when the effects of Lee headed up our way.  Thankfully we did not get any of the horrible flooding issues that folks up north got.  How sad they got both Irene and Lee - it has been a dramatic and odd storm season and not to minimize the pain and suffering and loss of property and disruption to their lives but I surely hope we don't get any storms in NE FL this year.

 We enjoy collecting BBQ sauce too - not just collecting - we use it - See that 1/2 gallon jug of Applewood Farm BBQ sauce YEEHAW - we were thrilled to see it put up in this quantity - we usually have to buy 16oz bottles and hope they last thru the year.  We got Tomlinson's mustard last year and it is unique.  The no name bottle came from a backwoods BBQ Shack (yes that's the name) in Toccoa GA - on the edge of the mountains - the food was great and their sauce was interesting.

This is just outside the Pigeon Forge Pottery - every where you look in the Old Mill complex the flowers and beds are gorgeous.

Here's the Santa shot outside the Partridge and Pear.

The highlight of the trip for me was visiting 3 Sisters Antiques and Needlework in Knoxville Tenn.  I was excited to finally be able to visit the shop - it definitely did not disappoint.  Deb the owner said they had a webpage but I have never been able to find it so I can't provide a link to it.  They have some awesome antique pieces and while the stitching stuff is contained to one room - it is nicely interspersed with the antiques and collectibles. 

I consider myself to be a pretty savvy sampler shopper but Deb had a few things on her walls I have never seen.  I did not get any photos of my mom perusing around but believe me she was busy collecting her own stash haul. Mom got the new Needlework Press chart called How does your Garden Grow and made her first foray into Belle Soie silks.

Here are the 3 charts and linen I got.  I knew I wanted the BBD Halloween Eve and was delighted it was in stock along with the called for confederate gray linen.  Apparently I missed Eve by La D Da when it came out in 2004 or maybe that was before the A&E craze hit.  Anyway she had a shop model and it is too cute and I found a great Silkweaver linen called Rock Quarry that seemed to go nicely with the silk colors.

Heartstring Samplery was new to me.  They had this model on the wall too and stitched on this gorgeous Silkweaver linen called cinnamon ? something I can't remember but it was just too beautiful not to get some and I love the sampler.

Mom and I were supposed to be stitching Halloween pieces on this trip and I did bring along All Hallows Eve by Chessie & Me but the over 1 alphabet got to me right away.  I did not have anything but my tabletop OTT light and no extra magnification other than my prescription glasses - so I just could not work the over one when not at home so fortunately I brought along my BBD Partridge.  I got tons done on him.

 The other project that captured my attention was this shawlette pattern which I downloaded off RAV - it is called Tanta and it is by Emily Ross - it has a very cool sawtooth border on each edge of the shawl.  For any knitters out there - it is done in Malabrigo Sock and the Arbol colorway.  That is my "taste of fall".  I figure I am about 1/2 way done.

Here is a close up shot that shows the beautiful fallish colors of this colorway and better detail of the sawtooth border.  I could see myself doing this same pattern again - it is an 8 row repeat and has just enough variety to be interesting but not enough to require your full attention.

That about concludes my "taste of fall" tour.  We were delighted that Lee did bring much cooler weather to our vacation spot.  All week last week it was in the 50's at night and in the 70's during the day - it was glorious to be cool again after such a long hot summer.  The minute we left the mountains on our way home on Saturday - it was roll up the windows - close the sun roof and turn on the A/C - oh well - at least we had a preview of what's coming to us within the next few weeks.