2nd finish in 2011 - Rubie Owl's Sampler

Last night, just before bedtime she got finished. Stitched in my favourite colours:

Plum Street Samplers - Rubie Owl's Sampler:

Belle Soie silks

on 36 ct. vintage sand dune by Lakeside Linens

started 2009-07-04

finished 2011-01-29

And the winner of my poll " What should I stitch next?" with 50% of all votes (12 votes LOL) is....... Shakespeare's Peddler - Jenny Bean's Halloween Sampler:

....talk to you soon - I am a little bit in a hurry to start this beauty right away. I hope for your understanding :)

It is snowing again!

Big snow flakes are falling from the sky...at least not too many at once ;) We already have lots and lots of snow.

Ice skating on the big oval in the park was a lot of fun yesterday. But it was pretty windy by the time we finally went. Snow was getting blown across the streets and it looked like waterfalls flowing off the roofs of the houses. It looked really weird.

Rubie Owl a little closer to be finished:


And please don't forget to vote what I should stitch next (pictures are in my previous post):

"Oh mommy....

...it is so pretty! Can I hold it and you take a picture of me?" LOL


Today Lisa's school has a personal development day, so I am taking the day off and we will go skating for a while. It is a very nice day and the temperatures are awesome! Only -4 degrees C and also beautiful sunshine.
I am not the fastest stitcher lately. But if I get to it, I enjoy stitching a lot. Getting closer to finishing Rubie Owl's Sampler:


Of course I already think about what to stitch next and would like you to help me...It is such a tough decision for me... ;) please vote for a project. Pictures are below the poll...



Dahlbeck - Crazy Christmas Trees


and this is how it will look like:


LHN - Quilting:


And Shakespeare's Peddler's - Jenny Bean's Halloween Sampler is one of the things I found in the mailbox this week:

1st finish in 2011

Finally done...it took me quite a bit longer than expected:

Autumn Arbor - Drawn Thread
NPS, Gloriana & SJ beads
on 40ct Zweigart summer khaki
started 2010-12-31
finished 2011-01-16

I guess I should go back to stitching on Rubie Owl's Sampler now!????

Some stash in the mailbox

I love coming home from work and finding an envelope from a cross stitch shop in my mailbox...This one read Casa Cenina in Italy.
I ordered some must haves :) just before Christmas.

There are from top left to bottom right:

Sorbo - Renato Parolin

Before Christmas - Renato Parolin

Halloween - Renato Parolin

Couleurs d'hiver - Renato Parolin

Messidor - Calendula (lots of yummy special stitches)

Halloween by Renato Parolin is calling my name very, very loud. But at this time I will be strong and stick with my WIP's.....maybe I will allow myself one of the smalls out the book Couleurs d'Hiver... LOL

It is growing slow...

but it grows. The leaves of the last tree I stitched were queen stitches. Time consuming, but I like stitching them very much.



I found some pictures to share on the camera...Snow fun from last weekend:

A "short" weekend

The weekend went by so fast and it seems like the week ahead is super long. I guess I got used to having long weekends and short work weeks during the holidays.
The weekend started with Tobogganing on Friday night. Even though it was pretty cold with the windchill we enjoyed it a lot and spent a little more than 2 hours on the hill. Saturday skating, ice hockey and baking cookies (they were all gone the same night LOL)....and grocery shopping at 10:30PM :( But at least it isn't crowded and shopping doesn't drag out too long.
Sunday ice hockey and skating again and for me finally some stitching time.

The pumpkin is frogged and re-stitched. It was not a lot, I was just a bit moody because I had to frog quite a few times on this little project already....

The little leaves on the 5th tree are smyrna crosses, a nice change from the regular x's.

And again......arrrgh

The pumpkin on the left side is 1 thread too high...and when I realized that I was so demotivated that I just put my stitching away. I will rip it out but I just couldn't make me do that last night. On Autumn Arbor I did nearly as much ripping as I did stitching and I can't really say that it is very demanding or difficult....it is just me screwing it up all the time. :(
I'll give it another shot tonight....

Not too much stitching yesterday. I made just a little progress on Autumn Arbor.
The day started pretty cold. In the morning time it was -24 degrees Celsius which felt with the wind like -37 degrees.....brrrrr. But during the day it got warmer and reached -11 in the late afternoon so we went tobogganing and had tons of fun. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures.


And now some grocery shopping, supper and then finally some stitching time :)

The frog visited with me...

It was a nice and quiet first Monday of the year filled with kids, grocery shopping and stitching....and frogging (arrrgh). I had to frog the complete second tree because my little bird was on stitch too short and I didn't want to start moving the trees.

Of course I made another mistake in the tree but I will leave that in there. I think every piece I stitch has one of my errors in it....That makes each one unique LOL

My Goals for 2011

maybe a little too optimistic....as always ;)

Did somebody say I have to pick 15 WIP's? I picked a few more and I am embarrassed having to admit that there are "a few" more....anyways, I spent a while taking pictures.

Finally all together there are 21 I picked out of my pile:


Here the ones I would like to make some progress on:


1. Carriage House Samplings - Black Horse Inn barely started, even had to frog most of what I stitched.

2. Cross Eyed Cricket, Inc. - Skeleton Crewstarted about 2 years ago

3. Heaven and Earth Designs - Real Snow Job, A not more than a start either. Not even 1 page out of...???...28 or so...

4. Rosewood Manor Designs - And A Forest Grewmaybe 1/4 to 1/3 done

5. Victoria Sampler - Heirloom Homecoming Sampler accessory pack rustic Don't know why I don't do any stitching on it. It is a lot of fun but needs some attention I sometimes don't have any more after work

And these are the ones I would love to finish:

1. Acufactum - Findus the Painter. I started this when Lisa was about 2 years old...I better hurry now otherwise she will be too old for it

2. Atalie - La Vie en Bleu. So many special stitches - so much fun. I just somehow didn't order enough of the silks. Should probably order some extra stuff to make it worth ordering in France. LOL

3. Blue Ribbon Designs - Peppermint Twist Started this as an SAL on a special Peppermint Twist SAL blog....

4. Dahlbeck - Crazy Christmas Tree Row. Not a big project. I think, I started this some time in 2006

5. DMC - Tulip. Started long, long time ago....

6. Drawn Thread - Autumn Arbor

7. Drawn Thread - The Birth Band Started this when I was in the hospital in June 2007, just before we came to Canada

8. Drawn Thread - Toccata Two So beautiful....

9. Haandarbejdets Fremme - Gerda Bengtsson - Thistle. I absolutely love thistles...

10. Jardin Prive - My Lady's Quaker. Started in 2009. I made color changes and did not write down what I am using - have to find the right brown now...

11. Jeannette Douglas Designs - Take Time To Quilt

12. Little House Needleworks - Quilting. Should be a quick finish.

13. Permin of Copenhagen - Sampler 1852 HH21168 If I rememeber right, I started it in 2001 or 2002. It is massive, stitched on 28ct linen...

14. Plum Street Samplers - Rubie Owl`s Sampler

15. Shepherds Bush - Into the Night. Started some time in 2010

16. Victoria Sampler - Christmas Treasures Sampler. Started in August 2007

Happy New Year 2011 to everyone!

We had a wonderful Christmas...a bit more busy than quiet :) And a nice relaxing New Years Eve which I, following my tradition, used to start something new, that has been in my stash for a long, long time... I just love the Drawn Thread designs! After work, with just lamplight I decided to stitch Autumn Arbour on 40ct Zweigart Summer Khaki


instead of on my all-time favourite 36ct Permin Shell


...I still wish they would sell this fabric in 40ct....

There's also some progress on PSS Ruby Owl's Sampler. Still far away from being finished - but coming along nicely. The big green spot on the bottom is not too exciting and takes quite a bit of patience....



Haven't decided yet if I will join the Up 4 A Challenge blog, but I should at least do something like that here on my own. Will check some of my many, many WIP's later.