“The Gift of a Friend”

It’s been a very long time since I’ve worked on this piece. I’m not sure when I started it, but I believe it was in 2003. I haven’t worked on it much since then, but every year, this piece makes my list of New Year resolutions.

I know there is no way that I’m going to get this piece finished this year, but if I don’t at least work on it, it’s never going to get finished!

Tonight, as part of my Stitching Olympics Challenge, I brought this out of my UFO pile, and worked on it. I started to work on the fence in the bottom left hand corned, but got frustrated, so I switched to the lettering at the top - much easier to do in the evening!

“The Gift of a Friend” by Maureen Appleton of “The Heart’s Content”. Stitched on 28ct. linen, “over one”. It measures 418 stitches high x 306 stitches wide.

Close up of the fence detail.

The border is stitched entirely in a Needle Necessities overdyed floss, in shades of plums and browns.

Stitching Olympics progress

Well, the Olympics are past the half way point, and now that the swimming is over, I’ve pretty much lost interest in them (until the Closing Ceremony – I like the Closing Ceremony – not as much as the Opening Ceremony, but it is one of the highlights of the games for me.)

Obviously, I was being too ambitious by entering myself into the Decathlon. Clearly, I should have entered the Pentathlon , or perhaps the Biathlon (yes, I know that’s a Winter Olympics event…

I’m probably not going to be on the medal podium, but let’s review where I’m at my challenge:

1. Finish the SBEBB biscornu exchange 
Done. I’m not going to post a full picture of the piece, since it hasn’t been received, but I will post a “teaser”, because in my challenge, I said I would post a picture of each of the pieces I worked on as part of the challenge:

2. Start the SBEBB Autumn House exchange piece.
I haven’t started this as yet.

3. Start & finish stitching the middle section of “Little House Neighborhood”
I have started the middle section, but am not close to finishing.  Here’s where I’m at as of this evening:

4. Finish stitching 2nd square of “Shores of Hawk Run Hollow”.
Moving right along – I haven’t even started this square.

5. Start CCN’s “Needlework Shop”
I’ve made a start, and here’s a picture:

“Needlework Shop” © Country Cottage Needleworks
Stitched with DMC on 28 ct. Natural Pearl Linen.

I can’t take credit for all of this.  Nicole stitched the border, and then decided that she didn’t like the fabric, so I offered to take it off her hands.

6. Finish stitching “Quilting” 
Done. Here’s my second stitching of this piece. I used the same fabric & fibers as the first time I stitched this piece:

 

“Quilting” from the “Little Women” series © Little House Needleworks
Stitched with Crescent Colours on 28 ct. Antique White Jobelan.

7. Finish LHN’s “Always & Forever”
Also done. I posted a picture last week. I finished stitching it, but haven’t actually “finished” it, so I haven’t sent it to my mum & dad. Maybe next week?

8. Spend at least an evening (minimum 3 hours) working on “Roses”.
Not as yet.  I’m planning on doing that tomorrow night.

9. Spend at least an evening (minimum 3 hours) working on “The Gift of a Friend”.
Maybe Wednesday night?

10. Post a picture to my blog of each of the pieces that I worked on during the Decathlon.
I’ll add updated pictures as I have more progress to show.

So, at this stage of the Games, I have an outside chance to take the bronze. Barring a miracle of some sort, there’s no way I’m taking the gold – with only 6 days of competition left, there’s no way that I can complete #4. Silver’s looking doubtful, too – that would require that I put a lot more hours into #3.

Still, as I’m always telling my son, it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. That counts for something, right?

Happy Anniversary, Mum & Dad

“Always & Forever” Little House Needleworks
Stitched on 28ct. Lambswool Jobelan with DMC

Today is my mum & dad’s 4th wedding anniversary. And they said it would never last! Happy Anniversary to the best parents in the world. I love you!

(This piece was #7 on my “Stitching Olympics” challenge.)

Here’s a feel good video…

Whenever I try to embed a video, it doesn’t seem to want to work, so just click this link…
Make sure you chose “Watch in High Quality” under the video - the picture is *much* better!

Crazy week so far…

It’s been a crazy week around here. On Monday night, it was confirmed that the Chicago area was hit with 3 tornadoes, and the tornado warnings were sounded in the city itself, an almost unheard of occurrence. We lost our power during the storms, and didn’t get it back on until almost midnight last night.

Needless to say, I haven’t gotten any stitching done.

Yesterday, I spent all day at the hospital with my husband and his family. My MIL had knee reconstruction a few months back, and she never fully recovered, and continued to experience pain which became unbearable in the last couple of weeks. A visit to the doctor last week suggested that she had an infection, and she was told that they needed to open up her knee again to see what the issue was.

It was confirmed yesterday that she had a bacterial infection in her knee, and the doctor, who apparently missed the classes in bedside manners in medical school gave her some bad news yesterday morning, hence the reason we all rushed to the hospital.

She’s doing much better, but will be on some heavy duty medication for the next month or so.

Maybe I can get some stitching done tonight?

Stitching Olympics

This Friday marks the opening day of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I’ve loved the Olympic Games, and particularly the Opening Ceremony, ever since I watched the opening ceremony of the 1972 Munich Olympics on television. I was 10 at the time, and it was my dream to one day attend the Opening Ceremony.

I finally realized my dream in 1996, when I attended the Opening Ceremony in Atlanta. It was a fairly last minute decision to go – I couldn’t justify the expense of the tickets when they first went on sale, but when a second batch of tickets became available just a few weeks before the opening day, I bought one. My husband and I couldn’t afford two tickets, and since it was my dream and not his to attend, I decided to go by myself. I bought an airline ticket which left Chicago the early morning of the day of the opening ceremony, and a return ticket for the following morning. A night’s stay at an overpriced hotel was not in the budget, so I decided that after the event, I would make my way to the airport and just hang out there until my flight left in the morning. It was crazy, but fun – I stayed awake for something like 30 hours.

It was worth every penny, and will be something that I will remember the rest of my life!

I’ve been looking forward to the announcement of who will host the 2016 Olympics, as Chicago is one of the finalist cities.

But, for some reason, I’m not all that excited about these Olympics. I imagine that I’ll watch the Opening Ceremony – I missed them last time around, because my parents were getting married that day (they got married on the day after the Opening Ceremony, but because of the time difference between Greece and Australia, it was their wedding day). That’s the first time I’ve missed seeing the Opening Ceremony since 1972.

I don’t watch too many of the actual sporting events – to me, it’s more about the pageantry of the event than the athletics! I do enjoy watching the swimming, though, particularly the rivalry between Australia and the United States, so I’m sure I’ll be watching some of that, but other than that, I’m not planning on being glued to the TV set.

In honor of the Olympics, I’ve been reading about some “Stitching Olympics”. I’m not too sure how they work, but I suspect that there is some goal setting, so in the spirit of competition, I’m going to set some stitching goals for myself for the duration of the Olympics. If I manage to accomplish all of my goals, I’ll award myself a “gold” medal; a silver will be awarded if I miss my goal by one, and a bronze will be given if I miss my goal by two.

I’ve decided to use the decathlon as my event – I’m going to have 10 goals for these stitching Olympics. They are:
1. Finish the SBEBB biscornu exchange (which has a mailing date of August 23, the day before the Closing Ceremony.
2. Start the SBEBB Autumn House exchange piece.
3. Start & finish stitching middle section of “Little House Neighborhood”
4. Finish stitching 2nd square of “Shores of Hawk Run Hollow”.
5. Start CCN’s “Needlework Shop”
6. Finish stitching “Quilting” (I’ve already stitched it once – this one’s for me.)
7. Finish LHN’s “Always & Forever”
8. Spend at least an evening (minimum 3 hours) working on “Roses”.
9. Spend at least an evening (minimum 3 hours) working on “The Gift of a Friend”.
10. Post a picture to my blog of each of the pieces that I worked on during the Decathlon.

Have I bitten off more than I can chew? Quite possibly! We’ll see!

If you are participating in a Stitching Olympics, let me know – I’d like to see what you’ve got planned.

Summer House Exchange Received

I received a package from Ulla today for the SBEBB “Summer House” exchange. Ulla stitched Lizzie Kate’s “Summer Sampler” on 28 ct. Natural Light Linen, and finished it as a pinkeep.

She also included in the package JBW Design’s “French Country~Cat”, and the linen and overdyed thread in a yummy red color to stitch it up; a cute notepad, and a postard from Finland.

Thanks, Ulla for a wonderful exchange!

Clean House

My mother sent me this in an e-mail.

Summer House

I was honored to receive Carol’s name in the SBEBB “Summer House” exchange. My immediate thought was to stitched a Little House Needlework’s House for Carol (gee, big surprise, there, right?), but I thought that was so predictable (coming from the woman who has stitched almost nothing but LHN designs in the past year!). So, when I saw this Prairie Schooler chart at my LNS, I knew it would be a nice change of pace. Carol is always stitching those gorgeous little PS scissor fobs, so I thought she might be a fan of PS.

This is “Summer” from “Country Seasons”. I stitched it on 28 ct. Natural Pearl linen, using the recommended DMC threads. I finished it as a pinkeep (who knew?). It’s backed with a pale blue & green checked silk fabric.

In the package, I included some GAST threads in pretty, pale colors; a box of note cards, and some overdyed linen from New Zealand.

I just love this kind of trim! It’s the perfect size for the depth of the pinkeep.

Going a little nutty…

“Acorns” © Little House Needleworks
Stitched with Crescent Colours on 28 ct. Natural Pearl Linen.

This was a really fast stitch. I started it on the train ride on Friday night out to my MIL’s place, and finished it up on Saturday morning.