I Love a Parade

Santa Parade

Hi everyone,

Here is my Santa Parade finished into a beautiful pillow.  I just now told Emily that she will never never ever even SNIFF the pillow.  Sometimes you can say never.

Here is a picture of the edge with the great custom fringe.  Marlene did a great job and I am so glad I finished before Emily came home.

I am now working on projects that I can move to the center of the table and pick up at a moments notice.  I have watched her chew on a bully stick and NO needlepoint can stand up to those teeth!

Here are some photos of my baby (you can skip to the end)

Emily in the peperomia

Waiting for the treats

Practicing swimming in the birdbath

Have to go - just caught her chewing on the side of the house  (I am not making that up).  How many times a day can I say "get that our of your mouth!"?

Have a wonderful Memorial Day,

Linda

The Little Snowman

The Pink Snowman

Hi everyone,

Here is a photo of the little pink snowman.  I finished it myself!  Usually I don't even attempt to self-finish but this was SUPER easy.  As Geico would say "even a caveman could do it".  And so I did!

This was 2 evenings work tops.  I must get another one for my ornament stash.  Never know when you need one and you have passed the finishing deadline.

Right now I am watching the second half of the Heat game from last night.  We are so tired here - even Emily picked up her toy and went in her crate to bed last night.  So we bagged the game at half time.  Naturally they are blowing away the competition.  I must say Emily doesn't seem to care yet.

 Every day brings a new adventure here - today was trying on her mutt muff head set for the helicopter with her trainer.  Emily weighs 12 pounds and has a staff of five already...her parents, the housekeeper, the babysitter and the trainer.  No wonder she's exhausted.  I'm looking for a caffeine iv drip.

Keep on stitching,

Linda

Stitching with Emily

Emily in her "suitcase" at the Houston airport

Hi everyone,

Yes, she is that cute and a good girl!

We are home and our kitchen/laundry room has been turned into puppyland!  We have already had two training sessions and Emily is constantly doing homework.  Amazing progress has been happening but I think I am still wearing the same thing as I was two days ago.  BUT, she sleeps through the night, goes to the bathroom outside and is able to stay in her playpen alone for 2 and 1/2 minutes without crying.  We take what we can get.

Before I left home I bought this great kit from Renaissance Designs.  It's called Kit and Kaboodle.  It comes with the canvas, threads, stitch guide and a little frame for self finishing.  It is absolutely the most perfect ornament to have on hand because it can be stitched AND finished probably overnight.  OK, with Emily maybe not that fast...

Kit and Kaboodle Pink Snowman

Renaissance Snowman

Since I'm babysitting...I think I'll stitch!

Linda

Meet Emily

Emily

Hi everyone,

Meet Emily.  My Mother's Day gift to myself.  She is a Boykin Spaniel with a face ANY mother would love.   Right now she lives in Houston, Texas so when she gets to Miami next week the weather certainly won't be a shock.  Living with 5 cats might be though.  And of course she will have to become a Miami Heat fan.

Not sure I am going to trust her with needlepoint just yet.

Keep stitching,

Linda

Mistakes, I've Made a Few

Progress on Rebekka's Garland

Hi everybody,

You're familiar with "My Way" by Frank Sinatra of course.  My mistakes are only glaring under bright lights and magnification, but they're there.  I'm pretty sure that by the time I get to the third or fourth character in this series I will have perfected the art of cutting extremely small leaves and tacking them down.  Or, I might possibly have been "placed" somewhere safe...

The past few nights have been spent on the oak leaves.  First, I watched Amy do it on her DVD - sort of like watching Annika Sorenstam play golf.  Then I practiced of course - didn't like what I saw and plunged right in.

My practice oak leaf - pretty sad- thought about glue briefly

Looks a little better on the real canvas

Then I outfitted the leaf with some veins which helped

So, I moved right on over to the other side and tacked down another oak leaf and started tacking down the pressed rayon leaves.  Guess what?  There is a front and a back to the rayon leaves.  YOU KNOW which way I tacked them down first.

Finally, to reward myself I decided to make the ribbon mums.  Guess who didn't read the stitch guide carefully?  Frank!  Instead of leaving little openings for the beads, I covered the whole area with the ribbon. And I used the wrong needle.  Although I must say a chenille needle worked quite well.  Needs a little ribbon clean up work on that lower left side.

If you take it all in from a distance it looks quite acceptable.  And those acorns are perfect!

As Frank says,  I did it MY WAY!

Happy stitching,

Linda