New Beginnings and An Old Friend....

Hello, hello! I certainly wanted to get a post in sooner, but alas the month of February has flown by, like it usually does, I might add! It is my birthday month, and with the few days short that it boasts, it is almost always quick and over, with the blink of an eye! I hope that all of you have had decent weather, although we have had some weirdness going on at times and with the creeks and rivers being at flood stage, that is always a concern! But all is good for now, supposed to dry up and warm up (a bit) for a few days, before the weekend and the forecast of more precipitation!

With today being the last day of the month, I am determined to get this post, posted! I have been working on several things, so it doesn't appear that I have made much progress on anything, but I have had a blast doing what I am doing, so that is what counts!! Progress will come, I just need to stay at it!

I actually have Three "New" Beginnings this month, which is a great deal for me! Many of you, might think that is silly, especially those of you that joined in the January Crazy Challenge of starting how-many-new-starts-was-that-again???? Anyway, I love and have loved looking at all of the wonderful new starts out there, but to be honest if I had started that many, I would have been definitely found certifiable!!!


First off is Blackbird Designs Anniversaries of the Heart, A Wish For You:

I am doing this all on one piece of fabric, 40 ct Silkweaver's Purely Primitive, one thread of recommended over dyeds over two threads (with a couple of substitutions). I am doing them in NOT the same order as the talented ladies of Blackbird Designs is releasing them. I just felt that this one would look better first, and I will be doing this particular square to celebrate my youngest daughter, Ashley. Hope to finish it up in the next week, we shall see!

Secondly is Mary Glover:

Very little done on this project, but it is started! Thanks to Siobhan and her wonderful enabling, when I saw this sampler and the details on her blog, I just had to do it myself! Please visit Siobhan's blog, if you have not already been there, her projects and pictures are a true feast for the eyes and will definitely not disappoint! Also she has the details on how to sign up, obtain and take part in this SAL. She also has a recent picture of her progress and she has quite a bit more done on it! I did convert the DMC to NPI's, if you would like to have that list, please let me know, and I will edit this post later, with my conversions! I am such a silk snob when it comes to sampler stitching these days! I am stitching it over two threads, with two threads on 32 ct...I forget the name of the color now, although I do know it is an R&R!

Thirdly, here is my birthday start, Needleprint's Marianne Wenn Sampler:

Again, very little accomplished, but it is a start and I am so loving this one! I shared with you all, in a previous post, my conversions from the DMC to NPI silks and I chose 36 ct R&R Flax Fields, stitched with one thread over two threads. I WILL finish this sampler, someday!

NEXTLY (oh my goodness, I am going to have some friends all over that form of english usage, but I don't care,  I like the sound of it!) a re-introduction of a very old friend, Plum Street Samplers Seven Days of Creation:

I am not sure what YEAR I started this, Paulette, do you? Sorry, dear friend, I am not putting you on the spot! I do know though, it has been several years, and when I got it out of the wip bag, I thought to myself, self, you have that almost half done, it needs to be finished and on the wall! So, I vowed, once I got it in the scroll rods to work on it as often as I can and get more progress done on it. Because it is so very pretty!! I am stitching it on 36 ct R&R Creme Brulee with my conversion of DMC to Crescent Colours cottons.

BTW, Paulette is a very dear and old friend too, and if you haven't yet purchased or stitched any of her designs, you are missing out! Her creativeness is so heartfelt and she puts so much of herself in to each and every design! I have them all, and hope to live long enough to stitch many more of them!

Well, I guess that is it for this month! Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read my posts; everytime you leave a comment, I am blessed immeasurably! Today, I am thankful to the Living God for friends such as yourself, whom I have learned from and developed many, many happy memories!!

I hope this video works....it is of my 20 month old Allie Bug, going on 30 years, reading the daily paper!

Love, Jan

New Stash Keep-Her Sampler-Addison Rose/Belle Pepper

Hello to my dear blogging friends! Yes, it has been awhile, have been contemplating a new blog post for weeks now...good grief, am I slow or what? Also have been trying my best to keep up with your blogs, love seeing what you are all doing, but I am a day or two behind now, so hope to get caught up with that this weekend.Must be this age thing...brings on confusion, indecision,laziness, interruptions, every excuse known to man, one can use when they reach that 'senior citizen' title! Anyway, I am here now and without any more excuses...first of all I want to announce that I do have a second blogoversary coming up in a scant four days, so please be sure and come back on the 25th, when I will announce the giveaway, so that you can be sure to sign up! If you not yet a follower, I would love it if you would do that now, because this giveaway is truly just for my followers! You will have time to sign up later, but for the sake of something coming up to make you forget, you might as well get it out of the way, right?

Boy, I feel this is indeed going to be one of those rambling and I hope not boring posts! Please bear with me a bit longer.

I have so enjoyed seeing everyone's works this month, so many yummy designs that have oodles of progress to drool over! Wow, I am duly impressed by everything I have seen! I did decide at year end, that I would at the very least join the Up for a Challenge challenge, by listing and working on 15 (think I have a few more) wips, that I have vowed to work on this year and hoping to finish at least some of them! For me, it would be too hard to work on them one at a time, I am a very slow stitcher and the progress to be made in a day, is minimal for me at best. So I decided to pick two from my list, and work on them for the month (hoping to finish some of them, although I know that there are some baps that are going to take more then one 'swipe'!) and the two I chose for the month of January are CHS Her Sampler:

This is what I managed to get done further on this piece. Although I hope to work more on her this weekend, and possibly get her finished! And let me tell you, I know she isn't large, not at all, not even for me, but the mistakes and subsequent frogging periods I have with this little sweet ditty has about thrown me over the edge! So when I do get her done, you will likely 'hear' my happy dance! I am stitching Her Sampler on 32 ct R&R something or other with the recommended DMC threads. Fun stitch!

....and LHN's Belle Pepper: 

I am halfway pleased with my progress on this sweety of a design, made even sweeter, by my personalization. This will be to honor my youngest granddaughter, Addison Rose. I will also put the year she was born (2010) in the area for a date. I am using 32 ct Pearled Barley (I think, one of my memory lapses of late, seems to be remembering the names of fabrics I have used. I used to be so on target with it, what is up with that?), with the recommended Crescent Colours and Gentle Art fibers, with the exception of two..I changed out the Straw Bonnet to Oatmeal GAST, so it would show up more and also changed the Mulberry GAST to Lancaster Red Weeks, since it is one of my favorite reds.

The rest of the time, I have been stash and stitch dreaming...thinking about all of the lovely projects that I really, really want to finish...some of the larger ones I have started, like Time and Season Sampler by MB, Mary Allen Sampler and Seven Days of Creation by Plum Street Samplers. Then the list that is ever-growing...might as well think about putting it in my sidebar of the blog, right...Ann Raynor, Mary Ann Hutton, Marianne Wenn (destined to be a birthday start next month), Chilvers, Hannah Lancaster (I must be out of my mind!), Villages of Hawk Run, Adam & Eve Sampler by the City Stitcher, Country House Sampler by the Sampler Company, etc. And the list goes on, these are just the BAPS on my mind! LOL

During all of that dreaming, I have been doing a bit of reorganization of stash, and started thinking of how much I have always wanted an antique drysink. There was/is room for one in my family room. I have had for some time two large Longaberger baskets in my family room full of wips, etc. The rest of my stash is all upstairs, in a couple closets and bins. Crazy, I know, but I thought if I could find a nice dry sink, that has at least a couple of drawers, and a cabinet, then I could switch out the storage downstairs! Novel idea, don't you think...well...this is what I came home with the other day:

Yep, an antique dry sink, in really great pristine condition, drawers intact and working and beautiful walnut finish in great shape! I love it!!!!! And I can't wait to fill it!!! I have put off doing that until tomorrow...Saturday is my one day, that I do spend the day stitching, stash diving-organizing and I do it guilt-free!!! My new Stash Keep is waiting....

I appreciate you getting to this point reading my ramblings...things are going great here and I hope they are in your neck of the woods as well! Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to leave some sweet words for me to read, mean the world to me, they do!

Until my blogoversary in four days, stay warm and have some fun with those needles and projects!!!

Love, Jan

A little stitching and lots of bragging Nana pics!!

Once again, I have been longer at posting, then I wanted to be, but I know that you all understand, at the fleetingness of time!! If we could just grab ahold of it, and help it to slow down.Like today, being hump day (midweek), wouldn't that be grand? Although I know those of you that work through the week, are wanting to hurry it along to get to friday, and I totally understand that, I also know that time would be grand if it slowed down a bit!

I went and spent last weekend with Allie Bug and her family! What a joy she is, well, her mother was as a child, so I am not surprised! I am sharing a few pics of my time with her, hope I am not overdoing it, but she is so cute, I can't help but share several!

Morning play time! Now which block should I remove first?

Who is having more fun then me? Daddy is a great daddy to lift me up in this pine tree, don't you think?

Oh boy, what fun Nana and I will have, going for a walk in the neighborhood! Care to join us next time?

                                                                               








                                                                                                

 Oh such a long and fun day, and Nana's arms are pretty neat to fall asleep in! Nana thinks that I look pretty sweet when I am asleep, so she had Mommy take this picture of us! Aww...such a great nap!

  Okay, this is the next day...Mommy's birthday, and we are headed for a day of fun! I love it, that Nana is along with us, since that gives me someone else to talk to and look at in the back seat of Mommy's suv! See you all next time!

Alexandra is now almost 10 months old! Where does the time go? Her baby brother/sister is due to join us in September and the whole family is eagerly looking forward to that blessed arrival!

I have been stitching some, I decided for as long as I have had my Time and Season Sampler by the talented Moira Blackburn in progress, that I needed to really work hard at getting it finished! Oh what a glorious day that will be, I will be so thrilled to go and pick out a frame for her, so I can display her in the living room! Anyway here is a shot of her, the last time I took a picture, I do have a bit more done since then, so a bit further along. Not a really good picture, but just one showing where I am on her. Don't know why I am calling her 'her' either! lol I feel like I am roughly 2/3rds done, with all of the jumping around I have done, it is hard to tell:

I also stitched up a small piece, by Shakespeare's Peddler, and called Count Your Blessings, but shoot, I forgot to take a picture, oh well, there is next time!

Also, I have gotten back from my model stitcher the next design to be released from Tree of Life Samplings! It is now at the framer's, but I did take a few sneak peek pics of The Sparrow, if you would like to see, here is one:

AND, there are a couple of others on the Tree of Life Samplings blog, if you would be interested in seeing! At least until I get the piece back from the framer and I get a photo shoot date with it all framed! I am hoping to have it ready for release by the end of next week! We shall see!

That is about all for now, other then I want to thank you all for stopping by and taking the time to comment! It makes my day to read all of your comments, thanks for being out there!

Have some fun with your stitching today!

Love, Jan

                                                     

A Lil' Eve and Some Found Treasures!

It is almost mid-June already, unbelievable the way time just zooms by! Trying to take each day as a new one and be as productive as possible, while still getting in some stitching. Although other then working on an RR and working on a model, Eve has had very little attention. But here to share, her progress:



I am hoping to get some more stitching in on her this weekend. Unless something else grabs my attention, and that probably will happen! It has been a busy one around here, ever since Memorial Day. Lots of company, and the good kind, my youngest daughter and her husband came down for a few nights, always wonderful having them here! Here is a photo of Ashley and me, taken on my backyard deck:

Isn't she just glowing? I love you muchly, my Princess!
And another of her and Joshua, they are so sweet together:

Josh and Ashley's sil, is an amateur photographer and took these pics at their home, last Sunday.

That is the other (so far) member of their family, Brodie. He is a wonderful companion and friend to them.
And my personal favorite:

It won't be long now, they went to the doctor yesterday, and the baby has dropped. They are both hoping it is soon, rather then later, of course. Due date is July 7th!

On another note, my other daughter Megan and her significant other, JR, and I went to a downtown antique mall last week, and I found this wonderful wood plaque to give to Ashley, Joshua and the new arrival:

Don't you just love these shoes? The words say The Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step.

OK, that is about it for now, I hope that all of you have a most wonderful weekend! I have some blog reading and posting to catch up on, but other then that, I hope to get some yardwork done, that is IF the weatherman is wrong and it will NOT be raining. If it does you will find me either in the kitchen cooking and baking for family, or in my stitching haven, working at doing what I love! Thanks for reading and posting, your posts are always so uplifting and enjoyable to read. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Leaving you with one last pic...of course, I can't go anywhere without bringing home a good smelling candle, this one will be lit while I am doing whatever this weekend.


Love, Jan

A little more Eve and a bit of absence

Greetings dear blogging friends!

I have been working on Eve, since my last post, and since I am a very slow stitcher, not much progress has been made, but each stitch will be a step to the finish line! I am not sure about the flesh color for Eve, I do hope she is not going to look like she needs a Vitamin B-12 shot or anything, after all she is fresh from God's creation! But I had to switch out the NPI called for, because of my choice of fabric.



'Scuse the wrinkles and the not so great pic!

I will be leaving for my daughter's tomorrow morning. Need to pack up the SUV tonight, with everything for the baby shower. Course most of the food I will just buy when I get up there and prepare. Hope that many come, haven't gotten that many RSVP's, but you know everyone is busy, and especially if they do plan to attend, they usually just come.

I will be returning late Sunday evening, hope that you all have a wonderful weekend, and I will be 'seeing' you when I get home the first of the week!

Thanks for your visits and wonderful comments!;)

Love, Jan

Sarah, Eve and FREEDOM!!!

Hello dear blogging friends! It has been awhile since I posted, and I still need to get caught up on what you have been doing the last few weeks. Weather here is so dreary, rain, rain and more rain! I know that many of you are experiencing much the same thing, those that aren't are in need of rain. That is so how it goes!

I have been getting a little stitching done, but not as much as I would like. First picture share is of Sarah Salter by Sheepish Designs and I did change the color palette quite alot in this piece, I converted the DMC to Belle Soie Silks and so far I am loving it! Of course I love Red! I took out all of the blues and pinks in the design (sure hope that Sarah forgives me for that, but I think she would understand!)
Not the greatest of pictures, since I have no natural light, but you can get the idea:

Sarah Salter by Sheepish Designs
36 ct R&R Liberty Gathering Gray
Belle Soie Silks, Conversion

Next is a new start! Since I saw this stitched, I have wanted to do it, just now deciding to bring it out to start! I did change a couple of the NPI silks, since my fabric choice is darker then what was recommended. Not much done, but a start:


Eve by La-D-Da
40 Ct Lakeside Vintage Basketweave
NPI Silks, as charted, with two changes

Now on to the last part of my title, FREEDOM!! I made a decision this month, that I would forego making goals for the month, with my stitching. I have set goals every month for at least the last four years, and I don't know whether it is me, or just the time goes so quickly...anyway, by the time the first of May came, I said to myself "Self, oh drudgery, time to set those goals AGAIN!" I then decided no more, I would just stitch on what I wanted to, and probably get just as much done, and not have that proverbial goal-listing monkey on my back! After all, I have enough to do lists around here, and at my age, they are getting a bit cumbersome!! So I am FREE...FREE...FREE!!!! And it feels so good!! I am enjoying my stitching lots more!! OH yes, there will be some obligation stitching, gifts, an RR I am currently in, but that isn't near so overwhelming as those goal lists!!!:) Do any of you set goals for yourself? If so, it is a good thing, don't mean that, it is just time for me to do something different!!

I will leave you with a couple of pics, here is my Andy Boo, stitching buddy, he is a male calico and just as sweet as he can be! Course now, I caught him napping and he did not appreciate that flash on the camera, hence the half-closed eyes and his mouth is open yelling at me! LOL He does a lot of talking to me...and I am not sure what that black-looking thing in his mouth is! LOL LOL



And lastly here is a pic of my lilac bush in the front, wish I had snapped the pic a few days earlier, it was much prettier then, but oh my the smell is wonderful!



Till next time, enjoy your neck of of the woods, and I hope you get plenty of time to cross those stitches!! Thanks so much for visiting and your so kind and warm comments! I love reading them!!

Love, Jan

7 Days Progress Update & Small Finish

I didn't get alot more done, but I did manage some on Plum Street Samplers Seven Days of Creation. Wanted to share anyway, showing the previous pic, as it shows more the color of linen more accurately. This is before:

And this is after a bit more stitching, this is a horrible pic, no sunlight and lots of wrinkles! I won't be returning to this one for awhile, have too many screaming my name! And.I.know.you.all.know.how.that.is.

And a small finish from last week, this is LHN's Seasonal Saltbox Series, the Summer Square, three done, one more to go. Stitched on 40 ct Vintage Lentil:



Thanks bunches for your wonderful comments and I hope you have a blessed week!

Jan

Meanderings Continued...

Just stopping by to say hello to all of my fellow bloggers! Life here has been humdrum at best, but know it will improve. Appreciate your comments and lovely words of encouragement, please know that!

I have done some stitching, working on an ornament, but not finished with it yet. Also stitching on Mary Allen Sampler, but will wait till the end of the week, to share a picture of my progress on that. Also spent some time with This Is the Day, from Hands To Work. Both of these, I am really enjoying the journey of stitching, each stitch is a joy. I would love to have them both done and framed and hanging in my home, but I do know that I must cherish each day that I stitch on each of them. So I will bide my time! I pretty much completed the tree on Hands To Work, have I told you I love trees? And this one is extra special with it's details! Here is an updated pic.

Once again, thanks for visiting and for all of your comments! I appreciate them!

Jan