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

Gandalf or Voldemort?

Good morning everyone,

This is  a photo of my last finished canvas which is now in the very capable hands of Ruth to be finished as a companion to Wolfman.  I went through the wizards names and the most popular are Gandalf and Voldemort.  Since he looks so friendly I've decided he must be the friend of Middle Earth, Gandalf, not the evil Voldemort from Harry Potter.

He was started LONG ago while we were on a trip to Syria.  I did get a few funny looks from the tour guide since it was a little hard to explain Halloween to the Syrians.  But he is finally finished!

I've been working diligently on Rebekka and thought about starting to keep a list of my hours but that was a little daunting.  I probably have about 50 hours invested on that one project, but it keeps getting better with every section completed.  This week I will take some photos of my finished sections.

Have a great week,

Linda

Dressmaking 101

Hi everyone,

Before I start with my post let me express my condolences to Kelly Clark on the loss of her father.  My father died in 1996 and he was the most influential person in my life.  He taught me all the important lessons about love and family.  Kelly's Dad will surely be missed by her family.

When I got the email from Colleen about an extra lesson being added for Scout, I thought...WOW I haven't even finished Rebekkah!  I went on to think...I'll just get her dress done and then finish up so I can move on to Scout.  HAH!!  I have worked the past three nights on the first part of the dress.  It's a composite stitch which immediately brings to mind David and Amy.  The important thing is to "understand" the different parts of the stitch and find the easiest way to start.  I have to admit I did it in a different order than the stitch guide, but that is just because I SAW it that way and Kelly saw it another way.  The end result is the same.  So if you are stumped (pun intended) maybe this will help.

Here is my order of stitching the dress.

1.  First, I stitched the over two diagonal stitches and then put in the mosaics.  I just started doing it without trying to figure out the end result.

2.  Then I put in the line of stitching that goes in between- easy

 

3.  Then I put in the long diagonals on top and the cross stitch tie down- the diagonals lay right over the long lines of stitching above - no need to worry about being off on the diagonal

4.  Last step... I put in the tent stitches that go in each diagonal block.

Done with that part.  Then I rewarded myself by putting in the necklace and the choker!

I have also decided to finish the garland last because I keep turning the canvas over and over when beginning and ending threads and I don't want to damage the garland.  So that has now become the last part of the canvas for me.

This weekend it is supposed to rain...we need it and I need time to stitch.


Linda