Once More Across The Finish Line

I pulled out this ornament kit from the exchange in July and started it last night. It's so small I was able to finish it already!

This is Tipsy Tree by Charland Designs from the 2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue.

Stitch Weekend (Part 2)

Rejoining the Stitch Weekend Recap...

After a yummy lunch of chicken salad, I continued with the beading trend and worked on Tomorrow's Antiques A Pansy For Lynn. I had quite a bit of the beading done and my goal was to finish the remaining beading before dinner. I'm happy to report that I did meet that goal.
I was feeling very productive at this point. But I had surprise ornament kits hanging over my head - I was successfully batting the thoughts away, but Andy suggested that 4 of us just sit and do them and "knock them out". That was the motivation I was looking for.... So after dinner, Andy, Heather, Debbie, Judy and I cut fabric, cut fiber lengths, wrote out the cards and packaged everything up. Just in time for the ornament exchange.

The tree was decorated with ornaments - some finished into actual ornaments, some just stitched (and of course there were others that were not finished being stitched).












Vicky finished mine into a beautiful piece:
And then it was "Christmas morning" and there were packages kits to be handed out.
These are not all mine - I also collected ornaments kits for Teresa since she couldn't join us. What fun it is to see everyone's packaging and especially the surprise ornaments. Some people (Carol) are very creative with their packaging
And then there's me...with the ziploc bags. They aren't as glamorous and couldn't be described as adorable, but they don't take up much room (which is a priority for me).

































You can see how beautiful they all look, and that is definitely the main reason that we keep doing the exchange, because most of us certainly don't need more kits to stitch. Did that actually come from MY fingertips?!

Sunday morning started with brunch and caffeine. After completing the beading on A Pansy For Lynn, Heather reminded me that she also had the beading completed and maybe we should work together to actually finish into fobs. So we diligently set out to do just that. I won't say that it was easy, but the finished products are beautiful!













Heather's is on the right, mine is on the left. Heather used the supplied sheer ribbon to trim around the pansy, I used more green cording.

Two happy pansies and two happy owners!

I ended the afternoon by completing the stitching on my surprise ornament. Which I can show now, since the surprise part of it is over...
What a great weekend, and I accomplished so much - besides being with friends and enjoying myself.

Stitch Weekend (Part 1)

The weekend started out promising. (To reduce the typing requirements, I will eliminate DF from people's names but know that each of them is a DF to me.) Heather and I met Jean, Judy and Ann at Bead's By Design in Marietta for some bead shopping. Everyone scored some beads, except me. I refrained due to my current bead stash and moving anticipation. From the bead shop we went to the Marietta Diner to start the gluttony of food consumption. I had a tasty Caribbean Monte Cristo sandwich and fries.

We had a bit of time to kill after lunch - before we were expected at Vicky's. What to do, what to do? We could get a pedicure....hmmm, yes....let's get pedicures. Heather, Judy and I found Fantasy Nails while driving down Barrett Parkway. Judy and Heather enjoyed pedicures while I settled for a manicure. All were very lovely and at a good price. Then it was straight to Vicky's.

Several of us started out making knitting stitch markers. Mine are for my Mmmmalabrigo Magic Yarn Ball swap - pictures will be later as this is a surprise. The stitch markers were followed up by knitting, stitching, show and tell, general talking, some bitching, and a lot of laughing.

We kept the evening reasonable and those of us not staying at Vicky's left by 9:30. I had high hopes of getting sleep over the weekend but even though I arrived home at a reasonable hour there were several things that I "needed" to find/gather/organize - including one set of ornament kits for my Hands To Work ornament. Here it is after finishing by the talented Vicky.
1:00am - to bed with me.

Saturday morning (I'm already dragging) but breakfast included Cathy's fabulous homemade cinnamon and praline rolls. Fresh from the oven and dripping with icing, they were such a treat!

If only this was a scratch-n-sniff blog...

After getting good and sugared up Andy, Heather, Jean, Judy, Ann and I headed to Hancock to check out beads - Andy and Jean wanted to learn how to make a right angle weave bracelet. It just so happened that I was wearing a solid black shirt and decided that I "needed" some black beads to make a necklace for future wearing of this black shirt - plus the beads were all 30% off. I managed to find some. I also scored some nice Christmas fabric (also on sale) to use to finish my surprise ornament. Hancock had a decent selection, but we needed czech fire polish for the right angle weave bracelets - so off to Joann's we go. I was doing good until this point. Then I just went crazy. Here's an overview of everything I came home with.
Necklace, 2 bracelets, and anklet. I have some items already that I'll add to these to complete.

We inhaled feasted on enjoyed some wonderful chicken salad for lunch and forged ahead with projects.

Andy and Jean (instructed by Heather) started their right angle weave bracelets - and I decided to add the beads to my Three Penny Fob by Indigo Rose. I stitched this 4 years ago...and finally added the beads and finished it into a fob - weighted with 3 shiny 2008 pennies!
Andy and Jean completed their right angle weave bracelets in record time - this is such a fun, quick pattern!












...to be continued...

This week's SBQ

This week's SBQ is:

Did you receive any stitching-related gifts for the holidays?

I did! I did! I received a plethora of DMC, some needles, and a tape measure from Vicky during the annual stitch group holiday gathering. Speaking of - here is a quick pic:



And I received a needle felting snowman(!) kit. And The Embroidery Stitch Bible.

I must get busy!