Stockings and This is the Day!!!

Woohoo, finally some finishes and a long overdue post! I had good intentions of posting more often this year but then time gets away from me. I also have the angst of "if I stitch for another night or two, I will have a picture with more progress", LOL. I definitely don't want to bore anyone :-). I would promise to post every week or two, but who wants to make a liar out of themselves. So I will leave it at "I really do want to post more often" and we will see how it goes.

I do actually have a few finishes to show off. I finally sat myself down and finished the filling in on This is the Day so it is ready to be framed :-). For those of you who have asked, TitD is in the January/February 2009 issue of Just Cross Stitch and the designer is Hands to Work. I should also say I used Jan's conversion with a tiny bit of tweaking to suit myself. If you want to see the piece in the colors it was charted for, which BTW are gorgeous too, have a look at Siobhan's blog.

This picture is actually truer to the colors I used and the linen, R&R 40 count American Chestnut, GAST Pumpkin Pie ~ GAST Cidermill Brown, except for the sun, I used CC Finley Gold and Schneckey. GAST Roasted Marshmallow ~ Bamboo , GAST Picnic Basket ~ Crescent Colours Cocoa Bean, GAST Tomato ~ Crescent Colours Wild Berry, GAST Old Brick ~ WDW Red Pear CC Just Rust ~ Crescent Colours Red Currant, CC Colonial Copper ~ Weeks Whiskey, CC Camouflage ~ WDW Kudzu, CC Black Coffee ~ CC Blackbird, Weeks Conch ~ WDW Fawn.

I also finished the 2010 Shepherd's Bush scissor fob. I ended up finishing it by whipstitching the backstitched edges. Chloe and Sophie are tiny little four legged thieves who love skeins of thread, scissor fobs and coasters. I think the ribbon edging while gorgeous, would not stand up to the wear and tear of the occasional trip to the backyard :-).

I've also been having lots of fun with the Blackbird Designs Stockings. They are such quick stitches and the colors are gorgeous. I've made a couple of substitutions in the linen colors, I was trying to use what I had on hand :-). I am stitching all of them on 30 count linen and I've ordered several cuts of Blackbird Design fabric for backing. Of course, there's no way I am doing the finishing myself. They will be winging their way to Deb shortly :-).

Deer in the Meadow Stocking, December

Be Mine Stocking, February

Happy Birthday Stocking, with my Dad's initials and birthday, January

Winter Carnations, January

On the home front, my happy news is I've quit my part time job at the church. It was time, things have changed a lot for us over the last couple years, my parents moved out here, my DH retired from the military and took a position as a contractor, and we are on the verge of being empty nesters :-). I'd like more time for my parents and I want to do some projects around the house. I've been wanting to make this change for a while so I am very excited. So I have a huge list of things I want to do around the house and lots of stitching projects.

I've committed myself to finishing a few pieces over the next month or so before I start anything new. Paradise Lost has been loudly calling my name, I've been working on BBD Willow House for my parents and I want to finish my Blackbird project from the Dyeing to Stitch Retreat before the Shepherd's Bush Retreat in September. I thought it would be good to have at least one project done before I go to another retreat, LOL.

It's a gorgeous needlecase and pin cushion and I am going to try and figure out a cute motif from the design for a scissor fob. Maybe the vase with the flowers over one? There's also a place for initials and I am going to use my mom's for this piece.

I hope this post finds everyone happy, with lots of stitching time :-). Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment on my blog!