HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE !

So many people did their "year in review" and they are all so wonderful. 

I felt like a had a very good year for finishing projects, I was positive I was going to finish my oldest hooked rug WIP but alas I just did NOT work on it hardly at all in the 4th quarter so I'm dragging that into 2014 with the million other WIP/s UFO/s that I have.  Another big disappointment was not finishing Autumn House - so close yet so far.  The black sky using black silk just got me down and I was unable to work on it except for short periods of time.

In looking thru my photos - I feel some of them must be on my Ipad devices but oh well.  This will be a much shorter trip thru the finishes than some of my friends have but oh well here goes.

my wedding sampler completion is not here - just some WIP photos which I didn't include.  Hopefully I will get around to getting it framed in the near future and can show that photo.

How many of you have the tradition of starting a new project on NYE or New Years Day?  I used to always start a project on Christmas Eve too but this year I just didn't get to start my Drawn Thread Christmas Thoughts.  However I am participating in the huge worldwide Facebook Sampler World group Snooty Parrots SAL and will be starting that around midnight tonight.  I will be starting a wonderful new crewel rug in mid January when I attend my 15th Off the Ocean rug camp !  I am one of only a very few people who have attended every one of these rug camps.  I'm sure there will be a celebration for their 15th anniversary and I'm happy to be part of it.

I wish for you a wonderful new year full of many happy times to remember with family and friends.
With warm and wooley thoughts - I thank you for supporting my blog all year and hope you will come back often and share your comments with me.  Cheers !

AND THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS . . . .

Those are words in a favorite Christmas song. 

Greetings everyone - I hope you are all prepared for Christmas - I am not of course, still have wrapping to do but not much because we are not doing much this year and I have a very small family so . . . .

I hope everyone has been having a great holiday season - I had not had much to post about so I've been absent from blogland in December - just popping in here and there checking blogs I read.

I have a few finishes to show you and a few WIP's that I have been working on this month.

 

I am very disappointed - I don't know how to fix the photo being upside down.  I saved it on my PC right side up.  It shows in my photos folder correctly but when I download it to my blog it reverts back to being upside down.  I am getting so discouraged with blogging lately.

You can still see the beautiful color of the Butterfly Shawl .  It was an Art Yarns KAL earlier this fall.  Don't ask me why I didn't complete it, I just didn't till the other night and I thought - get this thing done before the end of the year.  The close up might show the butterfly-like edging.  The yarn is Zara Hand Dyed by Art Yarns for any knitters who might be interested.

This is a cute little box top pin cushion I made for DF Starr.  Her husband makes these beautiful boxes and she wanted something to go on the box top.  It was quite a challenge to find something that small.  I chose the SB freebie sheep pattern.  I have some decorative JABC pins to add to the box but they have not come in yet.

 

Here is a closer photo of the box - I did the finishing myself and I am quite proud of how it came out.  I used purple chenille for the finishing of the edge.  I am not much of a finisher but I think if it doesn't require a sewing machine, with persistence and time - I can probably make it work out.

 

There are more things I wanted to show you - some pretty WIP's but if they are upside down - it would just be stupid to post the photos.  I am going to try and maybe download the app for IPads and start trying to use that.  Keep the photos and everything all on my ipad instead of trying to transfer the photos from my phone to my PC and then having all these issues with formatting.  This never occurred until I upgraded from XP to Windows 7.  If anyone has any helpful hints please do share them with me. 

 

Well - I am going to let this be it - I mainly wanted to wish all my friends in blogland a very Merry Christmas.  I hope you all get lots of pretty things for Christmas and have fun and don't forget some quiet time with your needles and hooks.

 

 

NAUGHTY NOVEMBER

Well friends it's Thanksgiving Eve here in the US.  I am still sitting here at the office, it's quiet and I wanted to get this blog post done.  I figured if I didn't get it done today there wouldn't be a post for November.

Naughty November - what's that about ????  Well - it seems all I have been doing is buying stuff this month, yarn, new stitching projects, clothes.  I have to put the brakes on all this frivolous spending now that December is looming.

Well - I also refreshed my blog and got it ready for Christmas.  I have been working a lot on the Santa and Ewe rug that is pictured in the blog header.  All the backround around them is filled in now.  I will get an updated photo in December and show you the progress.

One of the things I am really excited about getting is the new DT Christmas Thoughts, my feeling is that it is like Random Thoughts only for Christmas.  I changed the linen and ordered a Lakeside color - vintage butter pecan and there are two of the Dinky Dyes and two of the NPI colors.  I am thinking I might change out some of the NPI to overdyed silks.  Can't wait to start this but I am resisting so far.
The silks just arrived yesterday so I might just treat myself and start it this weekend.

Yarn is such a weakness for me, especially when it starts getting the least bit cool.  I saw a great new scarf - one of those wide ones made out of bulky weight yarn so I ordered up this beautiful Blue Sky Alpaca bulky in GRAY.  I don't think I have ever bought gray yarn before but they say gray is the new black so we'll see.  I have the mag on order as I could not find it locally in 3 different places so I started to panic and ordered from an on-line yarn shop. 

 OK - I have NO idea why my Harvest Moon shawl is upside down - it was not when I imported the photo from my PC to blogger.  SHOOT - anyway - I think it looked a lot like angel wings.  For any knitters out there - it is made out of Lornas Laces Worsted in the Louisville colorway.  It is a gorgeous fall color but of course I'll wear it all winter long.  It was my 4th Quarter Challenge project with The Loopy Ewe.  So I finished well under the deadline - YEAH !!!!!!

Another new toy came yesterday - the new Liberty Hill Christmas carrier I think they are calling it.  Darling isn't it - I put those pretty read scissors in the box - a gift from Cathy at Inspired Needle for participating all year in the Santa's Village monthly.  Don't ask me where those are hehe - they are neatly tucked away waiting to be stitched but hey - I did finish one !  Speaking of Christmas stitching - I am having fun with the Lizzie Kate Christmas mystery however I am still on part 1.  I seem to have too much "obligation" knitting and stitching this time of the year not to mention all the SAL's, Challenges and so forth I have been participating in.  It really does seem to keep me focused and motivated which is a miracle in itself.  So I intend to do more of those in 2014.

Now this purchase was a complete impulse purchase.  This is a project from the Primitive Quilts and Projects mag.  I think it comes out quarterly - it is a great mag and I actually bought it to get the pattern for one of Polly Minick's rugs.  A gorgeous Christmas rug and then when I was paging thru the mag - OMGosh - I saw this afghan, it is like a cross between a patchwork quilt and a granny square afghan.  The pattern used Minick & Simpson wool from the Independence Trail line and boy was that hard to find.  However I did locate it way out in Utah and then I was on a mission to find the Ella Rae Worsted to crochet around the wool squares.  Found that in NM, so I am set to do some wooly projects this winter.  I am very excited about this one - so different.  Can't start just yet - the wool has to be washed and felted so it won't ravel when you cut it.

 

I also found another great project in that same mag that I want to start right away.  A wool applique mat with snowmen on it.  I plundered thru my rug wool stash and found something perfect.  I hope I can show you some progress on that next time.

 

Well friends - it's time to go.  There is cooking to do and maybe a little stitching too.  I hope that you are all spending time with family and friends.  I also hope you will take a little time for you on this holiday weekend and do something you really want to do, whether it's shopping till you drop or just relaxing at home with a big cuppa and some hand work - I wish you a great turkey day!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I hope all my blog friends are having a great Halloween doing whatever it is that makes you happy.

Today I thought I'd treat myself to a Starbucks and Happy Halloween to me - the Christmas favorites are already out so I had a Crème Brulee Frappuccino - SO BAD and SOOOOO good !

Here is a shot of my Harvest Moon shawl - for the knitters - it is in Lornas Laces Shepherds Worsted in the Louisville colorway.  It is for the Loopy Ewe online shop's 4th Quarter Challenge.  I have done more - finished the lacy border you see here and advanced to the body shaping.  I am enjoying this one and what a great fall color to be working on in October.

A couple of weeks ago - we had a wonderful week in Gatlinburg - one of our favorite places to be.  It was a belated first anniversary trip for us.  We hunted for our wedding chapel to have a photo made 1 year later but dang - we couldn't find the little back road where the chapel was located.  Anyway - here is my DH standing in front of  a fall display.  It was funny to us but every business and lots of homes had these types of displays all thru GA, NC and Tenn.  We don't see them our NE FL - oh maybe a few fall things go out but not these scarecrow things with the mums galore and the pumpkins and hay bales - It was so "fall" and I loved it.

Unfortunately it was not that cool there - the fall leaves were just starting to turn and we went in the midst of the government shut down so the Smoky Mountain National Park was closed.  It took us 3 hours to do 30 miles because of dead stop traffic from picketers and traffic problems and no park rangers to resolve them.  Nevertheless - what a beautiful fall photo taken on the north side of the park not too far from Gatlinburg.  Yes it opened up the day before we left.

 Here is Jody taking photos on our way home.  I believe this was on the NC side of the parkway.

Look what wondered by our condo balcony - we were just up the hill from the main drag in downtown Gatlinburg.  I was sitting on the balcony stitching and almost fell out of the chair trying to get my ipad open and snap a few photos of this poor bear.  It looked gaunt to me or maybe it was just a teenager.  As you can see - he was meandering along by the pool area - our car is parked about 50 ft away from where he is walking.  Needless to say - after that - we always hurried from our car to the condo.

 

 

In my blog header is Miss Merrie Halloween - one of my most favorite hooked rug finishes.  Miss Merrie was designed by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm.  Miss Merrie and I wish you the spookiest of Halloweens, don't eat too much chocolate !

OPTIMISTIC OCTOBER

Happy Fall Ya'll !!!!!!

I am optimistic in October for many reasons.

For one - I have all new electronic devices in my little world.  A new Ipad, a new IPad mini, a new IPhone and a new PC on my desk at work.  SURELY to goodness - I can do a blog post now when and how I want to do it without having a bunch of trouble with blogger.  As you can see my blog posts  have been very sparse this summer.  I have almost given up because it has been so frustrating.

Anyway - enough lamenting about that subject.

I am also optimistic in October because I am coming very close to finishing 3 more projects, one of which is my BBD wedding sampler.  I have abstained from showing a photo until it is complete which will be very soon, hopefully this month.  Then I have another BIG and very old WIP - a 3ft X 5ft rug which I am getting very close to finishing and will be finished this year for sure.  Just depends on how much hooking time I have as to when it gets completed.

I have a beautiful butterfly shawl that will be finished this month.  It is an Artyarns KAL on the Ravelry board.  The yarn is Zara - TSC hand dyed by Art Yarns - lovely stuff - color is Z3 - Iris doesn't name her colorways.

 

 Next up is a beautiful gift from DF Starr.  Starr surprised me when she returned from a very long trip to Michigan with this gorgeous and very special quilt.  You can't imagine how well it fits in my house  This was a very special wedding gift from  a very special and dear friend.  Starr - I can't tell you how much I adore this quilt.  I'm sorry but I don't know anything about the pattern designer or the fabrics but all I can say it is everything I would pick if I was a quilter myself.

Look how sweet it looks on my little primitive red bench - it is happy with my wedding pillow from DF Dianne

Here is Mr Scarecrow in his temporary home on a glass top table.  He look nice in this little fall display with my pottery pumpkin and pewter tray. 

Here is my Autumn House - I've had it out a little in the past month.  I was agonizing over the sky - that is all that is left except the border and I already know what I'm doing with the border.  I tried various things for the stars and ended up liking tiny pearl seed beads.  If you look closely you can see I went with a bargello stitch for the sky.  I think it is going to be just what I wanted and I settled on Gloriana Florimell in Antique Black.  Perfect for the effect I wanted.  I am very proud of this needlepoint piece because I did the entire stitch guide myself.  I figured I had taken enough classes in my life to figure this out myself and so I did !!!!!!  I am very pleased with the effect, I used almost entirely threads from stash, silks, cottons, wools and there will even be some metallic in the border and beads also.

 

I wonder how many of you are doing Paulette's Mary or Mary II Sunday SAL?  I 'd love to hear if you are.  I am and I have started, just waiting for a couple of threads I didn't have so I can finish up Part I.  I also started the Plum Street Yuletide Welcome - not enough progress to show on that one.

 

Well my friends - I hope you have all been having a great fall season so far.

 

Hope October is very optimistic for you as well.  BTW - I had a effortless time with this post and with downloading my photos. 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY BABY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Dna8dffc4

Can it be a year since we were married on a mountaintop in Tennessee.  This is a rather sad ending on this Little River Band song but it epitomizes the era Jody and I grew up in - we love 70's & 80's music.  Take a listen if you have time.

I still love looking at the beautiful bouquet I had at my wedding reception.

I'm going to show you some of fun new projects and plans for the fall knitting season.  Meet Belladonna Took which is a beautiful new shawl I started with this awesome green wool by Shibui color Kiwi.

 Next up is more lovely GREEN yarn I found at Yarnhouse Studio last week on a business trip to AL.  Is Madeline Tosh Pashmina - color Jade - as you can see the pull of the wool is very strong once fall hits.

I'm still in love with Rowan - I could NOT wait to get the new bi-annual Rowan 54 Magazine.  I had not purchased the big mags for several years.  I thought the designs were getting too trendy for me but their photography makes their books worth getting even if there are only a few designs which would work for me.  I am starting a Rowan KAL as soon as I have time to cast on something wonderful with this lovely fine tweed yarn.

 Speaking of fine - Here is a skein of Rowan Fine Art sock yarn - quite new to Rowan - they have never released a specific sock yarn before but of course I don't knit socks and plan to use this for another shawl or scarf.  the color is Kingfisher and is quite out of the box for me color wise but I think that bright blue will be toned down by the black and green which isn't real obvious in this crummy photo.

Last but not least is my Camp Loopy #3 project - FINISHED - the curse is broken and the 3rd time was a charm for me.  I finished all 3 of my CL projects this year.  This is Greta - a vest and while it isn't exactly what I envisioned it would be it will be wearable for me by pinning up the fly-away fronts.  This yarn is quite heavy and the weight of the fly-away fronts drag the whole front of the vest almost down to my knees - EGADS - that just didn't work but by pinning the fronts up and stablizing them - I think it will work for me.  I am still having tons of trouble with posting to my blog.  most of the time I just give up really frustrated that it is not working with ease the way it used to and I can't quite figure out why.

NO I have not quit stitching - I have just been tied up for 3 mos doing those camp loopy projects.  I am itching to stitch and I hope to have some stitchy things to show you next post.

I hope you are all enjoying the "call of fall" in your own special way.  Thanks for visiting my blog and thanks for leaving your comments for me. 

AGGRAVATED IN AUGUST !

Well - I have been having trouble with making a blog post for about 2 weeks now - I just get no cursor and "error on page" - I have tried everything I knew to make this work - so here I am - end of another week and STILL trying to show my exciting rug finish !

I have written this post and deleted it so many times - I forgot my original train of thought - however before I get side tracked - I wanted to announce my BIG rug finish.  My scarecrow is finished.  My trouble with getting this post done previously was when I downloaded my photos and then tried to add my notes to each photo - I was unable to do so - so an apology now in case my photos are just all in a row with no remarks on each as is my particular preference when posting.

The other big finish I had the end of July was the Camp Loopy 2 project for July.  And So Are You a beautiful green shawlette using Swan Lake 100% organic merino fingering yarn.  It was fun to knit and I finished just under the wire on 7/30

I am already embroiled in my final camp project for this year.  Greta a vest - the challenge for August was to use any yarn any pattern but it had to be 800 yards or more - whew !  what a challenge for me to do an 800+ yard project in a month but I'm giving my all.  I am using a new to me yarn - Lornas Laces Haymarket which is a lovely 100% Blue Faced Leiceister yarn in a very dark navy,hunter green with tinges of deep burgandy/purple. 

I also wanted to give a plug for my EGA chapter's blog - http://duclayega.blogspot.com/    Please pop by and take a look at our lovely exhibit that is mounted now at the Orange Park library.  Member and friend Jackie did a great blog post on the exhibit and she also documented our recent "taste of " workshop which focused on wool applique.  I finished my project in this mini workshop and I will show a photo of that also.

Wish me luck on getting this thing posted - I would love to hear if any of you have had similiar issues with posting and can tell me how you resolved things.  Thanks as always for dropping by my blog and for leaving your comments. 

 WOW  - looks like I am actually successful this time in posting and going back and editing and commenting on my photos - YIPPEE !!!!!!!!!!  - so a word about my scarecrow - he has been a WIP and sometimes a UFO since 2007 - Now wait - I have to mention that with seasonal designs like this scarecrow - most years - he was only worked on for a month or two during the fall/pumpkin season and he was always taking a back seat to my beloved Merrie Halloween.  Once Merrie was finished - I started bringing him out more often.

 This rug is a commerical canvas by Bev Conway - 90% of the wool was dyed by Bev.  purchased during a weekend color workshop she did in St Augustine FL in 2007.  The brown in the fence is from my stash but I'm pretty positive it was dyed by Diane Stoffel. 

 I really really love how this rug came out - now the actual binding of the edges needs to occur.  That is definitely NOT the fun part.  I'm just happy to have a rug finish - YIPPEE!!!!!!!!  This is a fairly large rug - probably 30 x 24 and is hooked primarly in a 6 cut for any interested rug hookers out there.

 Here is my Camp Loopy 2 finish - I loved working with the Swan Lake merino fingering.  They use all natural dyes which is interesting and gives the yarn a subtle coloring.  this was a well written fun and easy but interesting pattern.  I would definitely make this one again.


Here is my first attempt at wool applique using a blanket stitch and Valdani perle - it's not perfect but it was SO much fun to do.  It fits my Dovo 6" scissors very nicely.  Everything was provided by our duClay EGA chapter to finish the project and for only $5 - what a deal !!!!!!  We are very proud of the "mini taste of " workshops our chapter has been able to provide to members and guests to introduce them to new techniques and adventures in needlework.     So friends - I am going to let this post stand as it and quit trying to clean things up - I am so scared I am going to lose what I have done and be back to square one.  I've been trying to make this happy post since July - it's not often that I have a rug finish and I have been anxious to share that news with my blog friends.  Hope you all have a great coming weekend ~ ~ ~

JOVIAL JULY

July is flashing by.  We had our annual vacation in the Smokie mountains early this year.  We usually go in September but this year we left the end of June and had about 10 days in the cool but WET Tenn. mountains.  Here is the view from our condo balcony where we spent a lot of time this year watching the rain clouds by pass.

Here is a photo of my sweet folks - standing amidst some beautiful flowers outside a cafe in the Old Mill area of Pigeon Forge.

Jody and I ate several time at Bullfish - it's a chain but still a nice restaurant and they had an outside patio which was nice when it wasn't raining.  That bull is huge.

My dad and Jody outside JT Hannah - apparently a chain that started in Knoxville - it was a fun place with lots of old signs and old things on display.

 Wiley (my dad) is a very prolific stitcher - much more so than I am.  Here is his almost completed Long Dog Sonne Spotte.  It is being worked on the sparkly belfast linen with the called for DMC.  It is just stunning in person.  I'm calling dibs on this one but we'll see if my mom wins out LOL.

 Here is a yarn shop I visited in Gatlinburg - it is called Smokey Mountain Spinnery and I didn't take any pictures inside the shop.  It was very crowded and the shop owner was a bit hovery.  She is mainly into spinning and weaving and I didn't buy much in her shop.  It's worth a visit if you ever go there.

 What I did get was this lovely yarn bowl which was made locally by the Smokey Mountain Pottery which is also in Gatlinburg.  Below it is my Camp Loopy 2 project which I was able to start on July 1st.  I'm sure I will be showing a better photo of it later this month since it has to be completed before July 31st.  WHEW - I better keep those needles clicking.

 As vacation tradition would have it - I almost always start a new stitching project on vacation.  This is Land of the Free.  It was a Sampler of the Month from the Attic Needlework last summer but I never was in the mood to start it.  See my cute little colonial people - I was happy to get this far along with it.  It's a fun design.

 It is always fun to visit a real cross stitch shop and there is a good shop about 10 min from our condo - Dixie Darlin has been around for a good many years.  Cindy the owner is now doing some designing.  Sadly she doesn't carry any silk threads or any repro samplers but she does carry a few things I like and a full collection of all 3 overdyers of cotton , WDW, GAST, CC so I was able to buy some threads.  She also has a nice selection of lower count linens and of course aida which pleases my mom.  Here is the newest PS Halloween chart and a piece of PTP mello linen.

 Here is a neat wooden piece that someone local makes for the shop.  It was a great price compared to other treenware I've seen online.  Hopefully this smaller PS chart will look good on this wooden piece.  She also has a ton of hand made by Betty things in her shop.  I think Betty's stuff has been expanded since I was there in September last year.  I did a good job restraining myself and only bought this little patriotic flag pin.  My mom bought a beautiful patriotic quilted table runner.  Too bad I didn't get a snap.

Well my friends - I hope July is really good for you.  I know there has been a ton of rain in a lot of areas.  Here too but it keeps us from having to run the sprinkler system and our yard looks the best it has looked in 5 years.  Hope you all have a jovial july !