Thursday, August 30, 2012

Finishing!

*** Picture Heavy ***

Today was a scheduled finishing day. Doing well until I tried a different edging on one pillow. Didn't work and I left for DD's house to get away from it! 

First up - my latest completion -

Lovebird
by Just Another Button Co.
unknown scrap of linen
DMC floss
Then I made pillows and pin cushions of the rest -

left- Yellow Bird by La-D-da
right - Bird in Hand by Blackbird Designs
Finished as pin cushions

Their Edges

And the pillows -

My Pretties
Welcome and Nevermore
by Plum Street Samplers

Their Edges

Thought you might like to see part of my flock. Mind you this isn't all of them! 



The frames containing the Long Legged Birds is a pop in/out and that adds 12 more to the flock. The smaller frame contains the Birds on a Egg series that adds another 6. 

The sampler on the top shelf was made by Jayne (an eye for threads @ Henley's Landing) and the Crow picture under the shelf in the bottom picture was made by Mary Jane (no blog). 

Hard to believe the long weekend is upon us. Just found out I have the kids Saturday. Hope they understand it the first football game of the season for OSU. Time to cheer and hop up and down. Now Sunday, oh Sunday, my MIL has planned a family reunion. Outside...in a picnic shelter...while Isaac comes through Ohio. Predicted up to 4" of rain and we are sitting in a picnic shelter. Hmmm, wonder if we should move it. I asked. Was told, "We're doing this rain or shine! And not moving it!" Really?!? I'll let you know how that goes. 

Just noticed the time - and I haven't started dinner. Oops! Better get moving before the hoard comes home and is hungry! 

Have a great weekend and stay dry. (wow, after this drought, it's hard to believe I had to say that.)

Denise


Sunday, August 26, 2012

Two More ~

Here are the latest birds in my flock  ~

Top - Nevermore - 28ct Fossil linen
Bottom - Welcome - unknown linen
Plum Street Samplers
DMC floss
Both will become pillows...at some point. Think I have 4 or 5 to finish.

Well, off to start the Lovebird that I got yesterday! lol - yeah, that latest less than 24 hours in my stash!

DH just pulled in - time to see him for a bit!
Denise

Saturday, August 25, 2012

My Turn...

Last weekend DH got to go to his type of store -- and he bought. So, this weekend we went to my kind of store.

Stash!


There are 10 patterns - L*K's 3 Snow Belles, and 5 of the 6 Fat Men, Button Up Birdies 5, and Love Bird by Just Another Button Co.

Fabric - 28ct Prank by PTP and 28ct Milk Chocolate by Wichelt

Floss - DMC 154

The Prank fabric is for DD. She tried to do Thine is the Trick or Treat on 40ct and her youthful eyes can't see the holes. The floss is for an upcoming SAL with April. The Milk Chocolate fabric is for another upcoming SAL with CalamityJr. (still no blog). The other two patterns are just because. :)

Nothing much happening around here -- Cleveland was wonderful! DH took us to Outback Steak House - oh, yum! I had a cheesburger with onion blossom. DH had a steak and potato. You'd be proud - I ate a salad and had no potato and only ate half the cheeseburger!

To all of those in Florida - hold on to your hat! Keeping you in my prayers.
Denise

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

I Now Have a Complete Collection!

I finished the last of my long legged birds the other day.

Easter Bird
Heart in Hand
unknown 14ct aida
DMC and GAST floss

Here's the whole set plus one. I didn't realize until I was mounting them on stitcky board that my birthday bird is shorter than the rest. Oh well - not changing it now! 


St Patrick bird really is too light. But, I'm thrilled to have them done. 

Working on a Plum Street Sampler - My Pretties. Doing both the Raven quote and Welcome.Thinking pillows to match my other to crows. Still haven't finish finished the Yellow Bird and Bird in Hand. Maybe tomorrow. 

Hope that today finds you with needle in hand!
Denise

Saturday, August 18, 2012

What a Weekend and It's Only Half Done!

I can't stitch much now....my OTT light bulb went kaput! :(

It had been buzzing - should have known - turned it on yesterday morning and nothing. Darkness. I wanted to cry. My plans immediately changed from staying at home and doing laundry to heading to Jo-Ann's for a replacement bulb. Oh, they had replacement bulbs and they were half off - all screw ins. Mine is a plug-in. They couldn't/wouldn't order one for me from Jo-Ann.com. Headed to Lowe's - nothing - the lady behind the counter looked frightened at the thought of looking up a part number and ordering one. (Mind you, I've now been to the OTT website and Lowe's is supposed to carry these bulbs.) Headed to the local lighting store - we're not an OTT dealer - call this number and order one.

Came home and stewed - went to Jo-Ann.com and they showed my bulb. Went to order today and the bulbs are out of stock. OTT.com was out of stock. Finally, Amazon came through and I should have 2 sometime between Sept 6 and 12th!!! That's 3 WEEKS.

Today found us at an auction. Didn't get a thing and only stayed for 15 minutes. Came home and headed to Zanesville. DH came home with a new-to-him Harley Davidson.


Told the one salesman who asked if he could help me - "This is all him. This is a midlife crisis. It's this or a 22 year-old blonde." The salesman said, "Well, at least with this - you can take the keys."

Haven't stitched much but did manage to finish these ~

Thanksgiving Bird
Heart in Hand
unknown 14ct aida
DMC floss

St Patrick Bird
Heart in Hand
unknown 14ct aida
DMC and GAST floss
Not pleased with this picture - the floss is light on the fabric but the picture washed out things even worse. One more LL bird to go - Easter. It's kitted up and waiting on me. Now to find a bright spot to sit. Sigh.

Wishing you many happy stitches for the rest of the weekend.
Denise

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

A New Bird ~

This is a redesigned Heart in Hand long legged bird ~

Birthday Bird
by Heart in Hand
14ct aida
DMC Floss
The bird and outline are original HIH. Took package and enlarged an ornament from the Christmas Bird. The string idea came from Halloween Bird. Added my own version of a cake. And used HIH's font. The colors are all me. Sorry, the fabric is so washed out - too much sun this morning.

Starting another HIH tonight. Three more long legged birds to go!
Denise

Monday, August 13, 2012

Most of My Bird Patterns!

Well, after talking about how many birds are in my flock for ages and because I keep threatening to count how many more patterns I have left...may I introduce the rest of the flock!

Plum Street Samplers
Christmas tea and My Pretties
Heart in Hand
St Patrick's Bird and Easter Bird
Button Up Birdies and All Through the Night
HomeSpun Elegance and Erica Michaels
I have a couple more patterns that I can't find. And I just discovered I need Button Up Birdies #5! More stash to get :) That makes about 15 more to add. I better get busy! 

Got my camera from Mom's. Here's an updated picture of the birthday girls ~


The light looks funny in Alivia's eye - both the kids get horrible red eye in pictures. Here's a better one of the baby.


My aunt and uncle are just back from Alaska and brought her a new shirt! Doesn't she just look ornery??

Took Mom to lunch and now I need to take her gift over. UPS just delivered. 

Have a wonderful day!
Denise

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Just Because I Could!

What it comes down to is - I lied. I didn't go back to the lighthouse. No, I started yet another bird pattern. Was gonna post this morning but was too close to a finish. I waited.

Blackbird Sampler
by Blackbird Designs
28 ct Lugana Platinum
Recommended Floss
As you can see I changed it a bit. Sorry, I use flickr now for my photos and these are not clickable to enlarge. Changed it to my name, the correct year, and the bird's wing.

Rob and I were not fond of the abc, 123, wxyz on the wing. So, I added more flowers. And I am weird about having someone else's name on my projects. Whether it's ego or some ocd - not sure.

The Olympics are now over. Best television in 2 yrs! Now to wait another 2 years. As much as I enjoyed each and every hour watching - it's time to get back to real life. My butt can't take this much tv. I swear I gained 4 pounds. England, you did a fantastic job hosting - thanks for having us over!

Another week is about to start and in less than 2 hours my Mom will be 62 and my niece will be 2. Left my camera at Mom's or I would show you how much Alivia has grown. (Used Rob's birthday camera for this photo.)

In case you don't remember - my Mom was born Aug 13th at 12:27am in Canton, Oh. My sister had preeclampsia and had to have Alivia about 8 weeks early. Alivia was born Aug 13th at 12:30am in Canton, Oh - same hospital! Alivia was 2 pounds and 9 oz. She is now a perfectly healthy normal little girl. Small but when your parents aren't over 5'6" you don't expect the baby to be big. :)

Needless to say - Keri won the best present for Mom's birthday that year!

Well, time for bed - hope your week is fabulous!
Denise

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Another Birdie Joins My Flock!

Seriously, are there a ton of bird patterns out on the market or have I just bought every one published??

My latest bird ~

Bird in Hand
Blackbird Designs
unknown 28ct linen
GAST Peacock
Didn't give it any thought beyond I want to finish it into a pin cushion, and I didn't pick out my backing fabric until after I finished. Then I took this picture without the backing fabric - so, here's my choice.


Since I was digging in my fabric drawer thought I would get the fabric for Yellow Bird. Then I came up against a decision - which one?


These two little finishes allow my mind to settle and return to my lighthouse. Never told you the details about the lighthouse - there are 65 pages to the pattern. Ten pages have about 500 stitches and 10 other pages have about 3000. But, the other 46 pages have 6319 stitches per page!

Here's my results on page 4 so far since the Olympics started ~


And here's the overall look (please excuse the wrinkles) ~


I get so warm while stitching this. The weight of the aida and then the stitching - it's like a blanket!

Today finds me still at home unable to go anywhere. My car needed new brakes and things kind of went downhill from there. So, it sits in the garage in pieces and I'm grounded. But, don't fret for me - if I can't go buy groceries - I don't have to make dinner! Yippee! See, there is always an upside!

Hope today finds you stitching!
Denise

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Small Finish!

I had to take a break from my lighthouse - too many stitches in DMC 798 and 3838! I like blue but after more than a thousand stitches - I needed something else! 

So, of course, I pick up a pattern that calls for one color of floss! lol I played with the placement of the variegation though. Not a fan of stripey stitching so I purposely made the wings and leaves the purple. And I left my initials off. 

May I introduce my latest feathered friend ~

Yellow Bird
La-D-Da
Unknown fabric
GAST Purple Iris

A future pin cushion

When I finished this one I started Bird in Hand by BBD. I have been calling it In the Garden for some reason! And it's not red...going with GAST Peacock.

We are getting rain now and a bit of thunder - time to get off the computer!
Denise

Friday, August 3, 2012

CalamityJr Needs Help!

I got an urgent text this morning from CalamityJr (Mary Jane) - she needs your help! Seems her computer has caught a bug and is sending everyone in her address book mass emails. She has run a virus scan and wonders what else she may need to do to get rid of the bug. If anyone has an answer - could you email her?? If you don't have her email address - send me your directions and I'll forward them to her.

**********************************************************

This post almost started with the title of  "Had S.E.X." But I thought someone might misunderstand and get upset. My mailman brought me a little package this morning. The other day I happened to be looking for some fabric for Mary Jane's 272 Words project and hoped 123Stitch might have it on sale. They didn't, but they did have some grab bags of 28/32 ct even weave. I grabbed two! And shoot while I was there - I thought why not get a pattern too. 



Got several white pieces and a few black. But, the other colors more than made up for those. Finally, I buckled under and bought the last Button Up Birdies. I have the others. Geez...what I need to stitch...more birds! lol

Have gotten to stitch a few days and page 4 is about half done. Not going at the speed I would like but I can't  watch the Olympics and stitch. Multi-tasking is not working. 

Can't believe it's the weekend already. Where did this week go? Sounds like Ohio might be getting rain this weekend. Yippee! 

Hope today finds you with a needle in hand and stitches in your linen! 
Denise