TUSAL Quickie

Just a quick Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long post to show off my ORTs this New Moon. I did a lot more stitching than I thought. 

If you'd like to join us in this Totally Useless Endeavor click here and start saving your ORTs!

TUSALers leaving a comment on this post receive an extra entry in the giveaway!

***

"Do you want me to make you a pitcher of sangria?" asked Dash.  

I heard, "Are you going to make a pitcher of sangria?" 

"Yes," I said, "but I want to take a shower first."

So when I got out of the shower I made a pitcher of sangria and opened the fridge to see one already made.

Whoops!

I'm just a little tipsy. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox 

The Busy Needle

This was the second of the three Traveling Patterns I'm stitching. Whew ~ this means I've only got one more to go! This Traveling Pattern was started by Lynda of A Cozy Little Place for Stitching. A change up from the others ~ this one travels a set schedule ~ so now that my turn is over it has been sent on to the next in line.

Design ~ The Busy Needle

Designer ~ Little House Needleworks

Fabric ~ 32 count tea-stained Lugana

Fiber ~ DMC

Many thanks to Lynda for including me in the travels of this design. Thanks go to Shar as well, for loaning me her copy when I asked. Blog friends are the best!

Okay, one more traveling pattern to go. Stitch, girl, stitch!

Before I forget...I drew a winner for the Bird in Hand pillow ~ Deborah of Cranberry Samplings. Thank you all for playing along and I will try to have another giveaway soon!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Pears

I adore pears. Aren't they just beautiful? I think so anyway! Green ones, yellow or red ones. I find myself very attracted to designs with pears in them. A lot of these are Christmas designs ~ which I cannot resist buying! But I like them all.  Do you like pears?  I hope so... 

...because I have a freebie for you:

In case you like it better on a lighter colored fabric:

To receive a copy of the design email me at daffy-cat AT hotmail DOT com. Tell me the name of the design you are requesting. This one is "Pears." I appreciate comments left here for encouragement too!

Please respect my copyright and do not upload my designs to any website or share with other people. Yes, they are free but I still retain copyright.

My designs are published as PDF. You must have the free Adobe Reader installed on your computer to view/print my patterns ~ or a similar PDF viewer.

As always, you can click the cat in my sidebar to see my other free cross stitch designs. They are all still available for the asking.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

A Bird in Hand

Last weekend I finished my Nina's Threads Project into a pillow. I waited until now to share with you so to give Nina a chance to post on her blog first, since it was all her idea! She has had it up for several days and now it's my turn:

Design ~ A Bird in Hand

Designer ~ La-D-Da

Fabric ~ 32 count tea-stained Lugana

Fiber ~ Nina's Threads 

This was such a fun project. I really enjoyed working with Nina and getting a chance to try her lovely hand dyed threads. I am very pleased to learn you can buy Nina's Threads in the US at The Thread Basket. It was nice to see there are two sizes of skeins so if you only need a little you can buy a half size at a reduced price.

I found the finishing fabric at Hobby Lobby, taking my stitched piece with me to color match. I couldn't believe I was able to find fabric that went so well. It's like Nina had that fabric in mind when choosing the thread colors for the design. My pillow is lightly stuffed with fiberfill. Big thanks to Nina for letting me try her threads!

This pillow could be yours! If you would like to own it, leave me a comment on this post and I will choose a winner in a few days.

And the winner of the drawing for the Traveling Pattern, Thankful, is geeky Heather of It's Geek to Me. Thanks to everyone that entered and don't be too disappointed if you weren't drawn since you can follow it to Heather's blog and try again after she has stitched it!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Thankful

Or maybe that title should be one down, two to go? I completed the first of the three Traveling Patterns. I will probably get thrown out of the stitcherhood on my ear but I cheated on this one! I edited it severely:

Was that too much creative license? I loved the sheep. Loved the flowers. Thought the tree was great and the lacy border superb. Hated the verse. Don't know why! So I edited. Forgive me! I stitched this on a scrap of linen I dyed yellow...worrying the entire time that sheep was going to fade away!

Details: 

Design ~ Thankful, a complimentary pattern

Designers ~ Little House Needleworks and Crescent Colors

Fabric ~ 32 count "Daffycat Dyed" Belfast Linen "Sunshine"

Fiber ~ DMC 3799, 3865, 3346, 434, 3832

I've not seen the full history published anywhere but you can see some Thankful stitcherhood finishes here:

Anne of Doll's Musings (sorry Anne! lol)

Mouse of Tales of a Stitching Mouse

Gracie of Needles Pins and Dragonflies

Tricia of The Stamper's Stitches

If you know of other finishes let me know and I will add them in!

Now for the good part! If you'd like to be the next member of the stitcherhood leave a comment saying so. I will not put your name into the hat unless you ask to be added. If you ask to be added and your name is drawn you will be expected to stitch the design as quickly as possible so the pattern can go on to the next stitcher. Don't ask to join if you aren't going to be reliable!

Hurry now, I will draw a winner very soon...probably this weekend!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Sheba

Sheba 2001-2012

My heart is broken.

xox

March Madness Failure

I am perfectly aware how atrociously late I am at updating for Theme-a-licious. I have been dawdling because I totally failed my plans for March Madness. I only completed two projects and of those, only one got finish-finished. I meant to stitch and finish one a week. Yes, me...the Queen of Slow Stitching. Stop laughing! I really meant to do it!

My first finish was the Bent Creek Red Winged Blackbird stitcher's pocket:

This was sent as a secret RAK to Barbi! She received it earlier this week and you can read about it here.

My next project was La D Da's A Bird in Hand:

Horrible wrinkles and lighting here. This was stitched using Nina's Threads as part of Nina's Threads project. Nina chose the colors...I just stitched! This still needs finishing but I should get to that soon!

For April our theme reads:

Amazon April

Dip your needle into the vast swath of fabric dedicated to your BIGGEST projects!

I kinda have a problem with that...and it's called "obligation stitching." I  was chosen to be the next stitcher on three different traveling patterns. Oh holy crows! How did that happen? No one enters giveaways expecting to be drawn! 

My first project is underway and two more are being mailed to me. Instead of working on Finery of Nature as I planned, my Amazon April will be filled with these three projects. My Amazon task, lol. Be ready for drawings! Two of these Traveling Patterns will be drawn by lottery. As I complete each one, I will put it up for grabs to the next lucky stitcher!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

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