Tusal, Polly wolly doodle all day, serial starter, etc.

I will start with my orts for you, Daffy Cat, I guess since this is the day for that ...look real close and you can see that not much happened in May. It seemed I had a book or needle in my hand every day, but it doesn't seem as though I was doing anything with them, lol. The little doily and the homemade flag thingie we found at a little roadside flea market.

We spent a day at the hospital last week; Herman is going through a lot more tests and I just wish they'd stop cause they find something different every time they look. DD Tami was with me and gdd Sarah and they ran over to the lns to get me some threads.  They also picked me up a Shepherd's Bush pin cushion, the next LHN ornament; and the Peaceful Garden by The Stitching Parlor which happens to be something I've wanted but couldn't remember the name or designer came in the mail cause Lizzy has it stitched on her blog and I FOUND it just blog hopping one day.

Remember Polly Wolly by La D Da? It's almost there and hope it will be a Friday finish this week. I LOVE this little piece...the song goes round and round and....It will be a challenge finish on the "new" side with Minna.

I've been putting a few stitches in Strawberry Garden, one of Blackbird's Loose Feathers designs. I saw it done on someone's blog and of course I had the chart and just had to start it. I'll remember who it was :)

Then I fell in love with the Funky Flower Gardners over at By the Bay with Donna and wanted to have my own gardens. I opted to split my flowers on two pieces of fabric and this first one is Victoria started on Queen Anne's lace and could Not get a realistic look but you got the idea.

And then, Brenda Gervais over at With Thy Needle and Thread went and started a mystery sampler that promises birds. No way could I pass this up, but got to get going on it before next installment.

There are so many stories of faith and good will toward man here. People from all over the country have come to help and then there are those who headed for Missouri. My heart cried when I saw that devastation. and then the flooding in Mississippi, my home state; the flooding in Louisiana where I moved from to come to Alabama. I know people in all these places, but they're all bouncing back.  I heard a man on local news yesterday who was working with men to build a church which was totally destroyed here...he said "Working with a bunch of Christian men is just different than your regular construction crew". 
Love you all....DJ, you need NOT to come to Alabama or anywhere else; You have worked so hard to recover and with the heat and mosquitos and other critters, and standing water, etc. etc. please don't take a chance with your health at this stage of recovery. You said you could "only pray", but prayer is job 1 and many forget that.
hugs,
Babs  Do you see why I said serial starter in title?

TUSAL and 1st 2011 New Challenge finish!

Happy dancing going on in Alabama today! The sun is shining; I wore capris and flip-flops out today, and I got the buttons sewed on my big finish. A word here first, though. When I signed up for both Minna's new challenge and Jayne's wip challenge I listed this one on the wip side. Truth is, I had to start over (why I never got past the few stitches in 2008 was because of the mistake in it) DJ invited me to join her in a Monday stitch-along on it so that's what I did. DJ has been sick as most of us know and my prayer time for her was always special on Mondays. Then this last week she had so much medical stuff facing her and decisions and fearful news and I couldn't seem to put it down. I just kept stitching and thinking of her and praying for her and waiting for her to share how the week went. Until this morning I found myself sewing the buttons on.

But, first, here is my TUSAL for tomorrow in case I forget since it's on Sunday. A lot of frogging going on in March.

And here it is! Little House Needleworks Heart of America complete with a few changes. America replaced one date. "1776" replaced another date, and 2011 is at the bottom. It is stitched on 30 ct. Creek Bed Brown, using Crescent Colors floss. Buttons are from Just Another Button company...lamb, acorn, blackbird and three stars at bottom.

I saw a wall hanging the other day that I'm thinking about doing, or I might take the easy way and let the framer do her magic.

Well, that's my big

finish!

Happy Stitching!

Babs

Something about Tuesdays and Rain

It used to be March winds; April Showers; May flowers...but not anymore.
Thank you for every little comment I get! I may not get that many yet, but they mean everything to me!
I pray that none of you have friends and loved ones in the area of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Many of us know missionaries over there and as of Sunday some were unaccounted for. My husband being a nuclear engineer for GE knows many of the people who are at the power plant as they were over there for an outage, a.k.a. regularly scheduled shut down.

When the news media runs with the "nuclear" scare, I call him to get the real story. I've woke him up the last two nights because I hadn't changed my clocks yet and he's an hour later than me anyway, he's been real patient with me though.

Where does time go? The older I get, the faster it flies and the less I can account for.

I did not check in last week with my Heart of America progress, but here it is today. Being in a hurry, the picture didn't turn out too good, but I'll really work on it when the piece is done :)

I am so sorry about the frogs that landed on DJ's HoA, but even with that she still manages to show off :)

DJ also started this little Easter sal going on over at http://novalee02.over-blog.com/g.com/ . She has closed it for new participants, but I'm thinking there will be others. This is part 1 & 2 and I have part 3 to finish by Saturday. Surprise DJ! No more enabling please!

I got a few stitches in my Apple Tree Sampler by Hawkins House, but only a few unless you count that I had to frog the first motif and have stitched it twice now.

A Joanne's opened in Huntsville and my dd and I had a fun time in there Saturday. I've only been in one and that was in St. Louis years ago. Also went in Michaels there. DD was doing the scrapbooking/cards thing and I was looking for fabric and trims for finishing things.

Well, I better see what's going on outside with the weather. We've had so much rain, trees are going to start falling if there's much more before the winds begin.

Bye for now,

Babs

No hearts for valentine!

But, if you look real close on my ornie you will see two little hearts at the bottom and one on the top. So! Those are my valentine hearts to all of you, my blogging friends.

This is Little House Needleworks first ornament for 2011. It's stitched on 30 ct. flax fields. I'm having a hard time finding the fabric I want to finish it. Hope to get out today...I know it's waiting for me somewhere, but definitely NOT in my stash. My first 2011 finish!

I stitched along with DJ on Heart of America by LHN, but not yet today. Wanted to post the pic so she can see my progress from last Monday.

I've worked on La-D-La's Polly Wolly Doodle All Day just a little.

I stitched hours on Long Dog's Scarlet Ribands and this is all I've got to show for it. I love stitching with Threadgatherers silk n' color, but this piece is slow.

And just look what I found in my lost and found UFO's! This is Moira Blackburn's Time and Seasons, started a long time and many seasons ago. The alphabet is complete and more stitching here and there but scanned what I could in one swipe.

I put it up to do a sal with my stitching buddies group on Moira's Three Things which I finished in 2007. What does that tell you?

Gotta' get ready to go find that fabric.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Babs

No Time for "Blah" days!

But that's what yesterday was, just plain old BLAH! The longer the day got, the more I wanted to go to bed and start over.

I did work on my Heart of America sal with DJ just a bit. I was giving her time to catch up and she did, waving at me as she went by, lol.

Here's what last week's looked like:

And here's what a few minutes rendered last night.

I got so burned out with the 15 day stitching thing I just sat and read for a few days finishing two books and starting a third.

Today is one of those dark rainy days, a prelude to snow tonight and we don't know exactly how much or serious it will be. Everyone I love drives quite a distance to their jobs with country roads, then big bridges and overpasses, and ya'll know how we are in the south.

Today is going to be a stitch day for sure...I can pray while I stitch.

Thanks for tagging along with me. Gillie, it was fun to see your comment :) and I agree with you; I think these challenges are just another great big way of enabling all of us. I've seen several in my stash that I've pulled so I won't forget about them again, and then there's those that are not in my stash. Oh woe is me!

Hugs,

Babs

Fun, Fabulous Fifteen!!!

Well, I did it....sort of. I changed my mind on a few. it seemed I had picked so much work. One thing is I wanted to devote more to patriotic ; I didn't have a whimsical piece so chose a Bent Creek.

The biggest change was to Scarlet Ribands by Long Dog Samplers. It came Thursday and I immediately picked thread and fabric.

So here goes, then I'm putting the needle up until about Monday or so...I want to read a book. I know it's not much stitching but I just wanted to get a stitch or two in all 15 pieces...ON TIME for a change.

#1 is Scarlet Ribands by Long Dog, stitching it with silk n color In the Burgundy on 36 ct. dove grey linen.

#2 is The Patriotic Branch by Bent Creek; on 32 ct. linen with Weeks and Gast.

#3 is Patriotic Patchwork by Blue Ribbon on 40 ct. sand with crescent color threads.

And last is Reading by Little House Needleworks using 32 ct. lambs wool and the crescents that came with it.


Bye for now. I'm just going to read a bit while the snow is still on the ground all around.

Hugs,

Babs

Playing catch-up/#11 on day 13

I am going to do this. I am! I am! I am!

Not going to talk cause I haven't even checked out the blogs and progress yet. Just going to jump in and show you these four pieces with very little done except for a favorite Polly Wolly Doodle all Day by La D Da. Yep, I did a little tweaking on the list; with only a few stitches done I decided I wanted to really stitch this little cutie. Done with GAST on some hand dyed fabric.


Next up is Anna's Prayer by Heartstring Samplery. I love this prayer and really love these funky flowers. It's with dmc on another hand dyed 30 ct. I got all 13 of those lines across the top but scanner didn't want to accommodate.

Next is Spring Quakers by Rosewood Manor (Karen Kluba). Froggie was my constant companion while I tried to start this, and this is not good since it's Valdani threads and don't need to waste any. The fabric is Valor from picture this plus.

Lastly is from The World of Cross Stitching issue 102. It's called The Sweetest Thing by Flora White. 32 ct Belfast & dmc. A sweet friend in my stitching buddies group knew I needed this old copy and found it on Ebay and surprised me with it. Thank you so much Isobel. It's one of two I'm stitching in that series.
That's it! I'm outta' here for now to eat some lunch then check groups and blogs.

Hugs

Babs (who now has 56!!!)

snowed in, January challenges, heads up on a blog

I have 52 blog readers! 52! I am humbled and amazed and am trying to check out anyone I don't follow so I can. Hello to all of you!
The picture at top is Herman and me Christmas at dd Karen's house. I show it off so you can see how healthy he is getting after the year of cancer, surgeries and chemo. It started off at the bottom, I hit the wrong button so now it's back on at top. Oh well. Blogger in training..that's me!

My daughter Tami started a new blog that any of you who want to renew yourself physically and spiritually during this new year should check out. She doesn't always have internet at this time and has to post sporadically, but catches all her days up when she does post.

Yes, North Alabama and even farther south is shut down. Because we don't experience this often, the expense of winter machinery (snow plows, etc.) is not cost effective so our streets and roads become impassable quickly. This causes chain reaction of school and business closings so here we are.

Here's the snowman my grandkids created yesterday. He's tall and 20; she's 16.

I am behind on challenges, but to be anything else would not be me :( A couple days found me not stitching at all except for what you're going to see in these pics coming up.

First up is Apple Tree Sampler by Hawkins House worked on 36 ct. with Belle Soie silks.

Second is Quaker Harmony by My Big Toe done on 32 ct with Weeks dye works.

Third is His Flowers by Rosewood Manor, a personal favorite and so little to show for it. It's on 32 ct. Autumn Blush using dmc.
I did put a few stitches in border of Heart of America but not enough to scan :( But, here is the work done on Battle Hymn of Republic; what it looked like when I picked it back up and what it looks like now. The skipping at the bottom was done in fear that I cut the fabric too short...false alarm.

hugs & happy stitching,

Babs

Day Three Challenge & first TUSAL of 2011

Forgot to mention the first new moon today and TUSAL jar, so here it is. Not much since I used it most of last year :(

DJ, this one is for you. I've wanted to finish this one a long time and stitching along with you is sure to make that happen. This is Heart of America by LHN being stitched with crescent colors on 30 ct. creek bed brown by R&R Reproductions.

Next up is Ann Pennsylvania Peacock by Little by Little stitched with dmc on 36 ct. lite cappuccino. Siobhan inspired me with this one...I think she stitched it 2010 and showed it on her blog. Not much of a start, but it is a start :)

Proud & True by Blue Ribbon Designs is on 36 ct. something with Belle Soie silks. I LOVE this piece and so hope to stick to it until it's done.

Last but not least is my Garden Cat by Birds of a Feather done on 30 ct. Barn Owl with Weeks threads. I can not tell a lie. I have not added any stitches to it yet, but plan to today. This is what it has looked like for some time now, hopefully that will change dramatically. She reminds me of my cat Kylie.

That's it for today.

bye for now,

babs

Old WIP and New Start

I won't be reporting every day, but did want to share with you my first day of stitching which was not very much but we had a busy day around here and no stitching until the evening.
on the left
Wip Paradise Lost
Plum Street Samplers
35 ct. lambswool & dmc

on the right
Quaker Virtues
ByGone Stitches
36 ct. flax & crescent colors


So much for day one! Moving on to day two :)
hugs,
babs

Crazy January 2011 Challenge list

I did something really crazy this year....crazier even than the years before when I sign up for the seemingly impossible. I will start 15 brand new projects from January 1st thru January 15th......BUT! That's not all!
I will also work on 15 wips or ufo's from the 1st thru the 15th. I've listed those on our Flip'n Crazy January 2011 Challenge (sidebar)
Is this possible....or what?
1. Quaker Virtues by ByGone Stitches (2nd start)
2. Ann Pennsylvania Peacock by Little by Little
3. Quaker Silence by Tree of Life Samplings
4. Mansfield Park by The Sampler Girl
5. Patriotic Branch by Bent Creek
6. A Patriot's Sampler by Midsummer Night Designs
7. His Flowers by Karen Kluba/Rosewood Manor
8. Spring Quaker by Rosewood Manor
9. Quaker Harmony by My Big Toe
10. Apple Tree Sampler by Hawkins House
11. Proud and True by Blue Ribbon Designs
12. Isaiah 40:11 by Erica Michaels
13. Tortoise and the Hare by Prairie Schooler
14.Anna's Prayer by Heartstring Samplery
15. The World of Cross Stitching Issues 101 and 102 count as one
Light Summer Breeze
The Sweetest Thing (both by Flora White)

Oh yes! The idea is to finish all 30 by the end of the year
maybe, just maybe, some of these will be done by the end of 2011....one can dream, can't one?
Hugs,
Babs