Sheba and the March ORT Report

TUSALers leave a comment on this post with a link to your ORT report for an extra entry in the totally useless giveaway!

Another New Moon ~ another ORT report! I had a wide variety of thread colors this time. Dark ones, light ones and in-between ones:

Had the odd idea earlier this year to save each months ORTs in it's own jar. I'm cheap so I recycled pimento cheese jars. They actually look really cool as you can see the different colors being used each month. Not sure how long I can keep up eating a jar of pimento cheese a month. It's a good thing the stuff is fairly low-carb. I guess it's okay as long as the celery holds out =)

Still looking for a nice shelf or somewhat to put 12 pimento cheese jar ORT containers on display. If you would like to join this Totally Useless Stitch A Long, click here. All you do is save your ORTs and snap a photo to post on your blog on the new moon!

***

Had a bit of a scare today with Sheba. She began groaning yesterday, which I noticed while watching TV. It bugged the crap out of me ~ not that she was making noises but that I worry about her. Then, Dash slept on the couch last night (he has a cold) and said she groaned all night long. A dog who has terminal cancer suddenly doesn't stop groaning? OMG Of course, we are thinking this is THE END. In a panic all morning until I can call the veterinarian who said she needed to come out and see her as soon as possible. The exam revealed no sore spots, no flinching when somewhere is touched, no swollen lymph glands. No signs at all of cancer type pain. Just a typical old dog with aches and pains and who is slowing down. The vet said old dogs sometimes get flaky and moan & groan for no good reason. She is getting some mild pain relief and a round of steroids. This is much better news than I was expecting and I can't express how relieved we are!

A very nice photo of Sheba above.

How pictures of Sheba usually turn out below. 

I keep laughing at that one.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Successful Hermitage

This past weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend or IHSW. I am pleased to say I had a great one! Now, I will admit to snooping blogs a bit (but one has to keep up on their reader or it gets out of hand so fast) but for the most part I stitched and it was glorious. Lots of progress has been made on La D Da's A Bird in Hand:

Nina's threads are very pretty, with subtle variation in color. You can see more of them on her site ~ click here. Oh, and she is making pretty jewelry too ~ must see!

If you'd like to join us during the next IHSW it will be the 3rd full weekend in April. Click the link above for more information.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

The Ides of March Madness

It's Theme-a-licious and this is March Madness and here I sit at mid-month with only one project finished. What happened to half of March? I had plans for this. I was stitching. I was going like gangbusters ~ I stitched and finished an entire project and...got sidetracked. First, I was chosen by Nina to stitch A Bird in Hand using her hand dyed threads and then I was drawn on Anne's blog to stitch a traveling pattern. Whew, when it rains it pours. This wasn't what I had planned but it IS madness and it's fun and I will have a blast doing it.

A quick recap:

I stitched and finished this scissor pocket using Bent Creek's Red Winged Blackbird. Surprise! This was sent out as an RAK to someone that reads this blog. If I have your mailing address it might be you. If I don't have your address you might miss out so email it to me along with your blog address so I am reminded who you are ~ lol.

Here is my progress on A Bird in Hand:

Seriously weird tint to the colors here but you get the idea. So far this is a great stitch. Nina's threads are very nice! This is my first La D Da stitch and I think I'm hooked.

This next picture is Anne's Traveling Pattern finish not mine:

Isn't that a cutie? I'm looking forward to stitching this. I've been trying to decide on my colors and that can take me forever! Be sure to stay tuned to this blog if you'd like to stitch this one after me. I'll be hosting the drawing for it as soon as I can get it stitched.

It's madness at my stitching desk! It's a good thing this weekend is International Hermit and Stitch Weekend or IHSW as you may have seen on blogs. I have plans to let everything else go hang while I catch up on my stitching.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Ready, Set, Stitch!

When I got home from work yesterday the first thing I did was choose a fabric to tea stain. I knew the threads I was waiting on were coming soon and I wanted to be ready. This 32 count Lugana fit the bill. I guess I didn't have to choose such a large piece of fabric...but I wanted extra!

I snapped this quick photo with my phone in the big middle of flinging tea. Yes, the fabric covers my dining table. It took me all afternoon to get this thing dyed, it was so big. Then, I only gave it a quick ironing and laid it out over the sewing machine desk to finish drying. I usually iron my fabric completely dry but I'd had enough of wrestling fabric for the day! It got a good ironing after work today.

The fabric was ready just in time because look what was in my mailbox:

These are the threads Nina chose for me to stitch La D Da's A Bird in Hand with. Aren't Nina's threads pretty? That is my finished fabric underneath.

I'm very excited to start! Everything is kitted up and I am ready to stitch.

Nina sells her lovely hand-dyed threads and trims ~ go look here! 

To see how I dye fabric ~ go look here!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Blackbirds and Cherries

When I was half-way through stitching this blackbird I kept seeing red cherries on black fabric in my mind. I knew I'd seen that fabric before but I didn't own any of it. I couldn't tell if this wanted to be a little pillow or a pocket or what but I was sure it needed black fabric with red cherries so I stopped by Hobby Lobby on my way home from work and bought a yard. Yes, Lynda and Kathy (you smarties) it is a Mary Engelbreit print. The very minute I was done stitching I was ready to finish and had decided this wanted to be a stitcher's pocket. Now, even though I had never made one before...it turned out very well!

Design ~ Red Winged Blackbird

Designer ~ Bent Creek

Fabric ~ 28 count Khaki Monaco

 Fiber ~ DMC

This finish was sent to Barbi of Blissfully Stitching as an RAK. You can read about it here.

The next time I make one of these, I think I might try to make the backing piece a tiny bit larger and see if I can't reduce the part where the pocket goes on. Kinda even things up? I forgot to put something IN the pocket part when I took the pictures ~ whoops! The ric rac was so easy and big thanks go to Karen for her  recent tips about it!

Since Thursday was the full moon ~ that means it's WIPocalypse time and that means ~ I'm late! I was too busy finishing to bother posting and I'm sticking to that story. At least I had an actual finish to post and that is the whole point of WIPocalypse anyway! Thank you, Measi...for hosting this...I can chalk up another finish out of that over-full bin!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

WIP Wednesday

A rare view of my desktop. This includes a sneak peek of my current project in mid-assembly. Who here likes cherries on black fabric? Isn't that cute? No, I deliberately didn't show the stitched part. That's why it is called a sneak peek!

Part of my March Madness goal is to finish-finish some things. I'm getting there. Now, if glue would dry faster! Of course...this could turn out as complete rubbish and get tossed in the bin.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Hugs to All

A big thank you for all the happy birthday wishes on my last post. You sure know how to make a girl feel special! Dash does too ~ look at the gifts he got me:

Both seasons of Downton Abbey and a companion book...plus the first season of The Walking Dead and a book about it as well. I'm half way through The Walking Dead Chronicles already ~ very interesting!

I had a lovely day out on Friday. We had a lovely lunch at a brick oven pizza place in downtown Tulsa called Joe Momma's. I won't bore you with the craptastic pictures I took there. We had a basket of fried button mushrooms, a fat calzone and each had a couple of beers. It was lovely! Then we went shopping:

I bought some finishing fabrics. I especially like the red striped mattress ticking. I found loads of new charts. Absolutely had to get La D Da's A Bird in Hand because I was chosen by Nina to stitch this using her over-dyed threads. I could have borrowed Nina's but I wanted my own copy anyway. The Prairie Schooler ones both had partridge-in-a-pear-tree designs and I could not resist. Yes, I was able to control myself during stash shopping...I only had two beers!

A little close-up of the Just Nan pin I bought:

I can't resist ladybugs either! Counting pins are too handy. One can never have enough. Here are the ones on my desk:

Forgive the stray thread clippings...this IS a work area, after all! 

What are counting pins and how do you use them? Easy...say you have a long border to stitch and you want to be SURE you have it counted correctly. Or you are counting for center placement on a new start. Use your counting pins to mark every 10 or 20 stitches so save the place. No more mis-counting! You don't need fancy pins of course but they make it fun. 

I am still having a great time for my birthday weekend. I've been catching up on my blog list, doing some stitching on  projects for Theme-a-licious and WIPocalypse and even a bit of housework. *gasp* I can't believe I just said the h-word!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Spring Fever

Spring is in the air. It is coming ~ you can just feel it! Of course it doesn't hurt that it is so warm outside today it feel like late spring already! The trees are budding out and the pollen counts have skyrocketed and the Border Collie is shedding her winter coat all over the house. I can sit and brush and after 45 minutes the house is full of loose hair, I have a dog that won't let me touch her any more and she is still shedding. Yup, it's almost spring.

Do you have that friend? You know...the one that hides or makes horrible faces when you go to take her picture? That's my Sheba. If you are pointing a camera in her direction she will look away. Every. Single. Time. Goofy dog. Look how silvered she is getting around the eyes? Such a pretty old lady! She is recovered from her thyroid surgery but she moves slower and rests more.

In honor of the coming spring I have treated my blog to a bit of a spring cleaning. I have deleted some outdated elements, trying to give everything a bit of shine. (Now if I could just get that freakin' header photo to center I will be satisfied! Edit: Thank you Joyce! You are pretty awesome.) Another thing I did was go through my blog list link by link. Yes, it took me two entire days but I visited every single link and removed those blogs that appear to have been abandoned. To accomplish this great feat I had to create a new link list and manually transfer the addresses. This means there might be *gasp* mistakes! If you find a broken link or a blog title that links to the wrong blog or an incorrect spelling please email me and let me know: daffy-cat AT hotmail DOT com

By the way, emailing me saying only, "Hi Sharon, my link doesn't work. Love, Winkie"...won't work! Do you see how many blogs I read??? Please tell me the name of the link that is wrong (as it appears on my list) AND tell me the address it is supposed to link to. Feel free to correct any of my links, not just the one you own.

The best thing about spring is my birthday comes right before...tomorrow in fact! To celebrate my day of arrival I have taken the next three days off work, telling those that work for me not to call or text me with problems unless they have just burnt down my store. Tomorrow, Dash is taking me to Tulsa for a bit of stash enhancement and such. We are going to cheat on our diet. I'm having a dessert. I might even have a little too much to drink! Can you see it? "I'm sorry, honey. I didn't mean to spend $1500 at The Silver Needle. I was drunk!"

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox