Tagged

I got tagged by Raven/Missy

So here we go:
THE RULES:
Link to the person that tagged you
Post the rules on your blog
Share 6 non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself
Tag 6 people at the end of your post by linking to their blog
Let each person know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog
Let your tagger know when your entry is up

1. I bite my fingernails. I know, yuck!
2. I love doing laundry but I HATE folding it and putting it away.
3. I play music all the time either on my i-pod (need to charge it) or at home.
4. I an not a big TV watcher. I prefer movies or listening to music
5. I collect books. They make me feel good.
6. I am a huge Prince fan. I just adore him!

JUDGE AWAY…

the people I tag are: Anyone who wants to do this. You can even do it in my comments 🙂

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Now on to stitching. I have been working on a project suggested by Becky over at the Let’s Stitch blog. She suggested we dig out our longest standing UFO or WIP and work on it this week. I am making great progress on my project. The project I decided to work on was Mini Cottages by Michael Powell. I am doing all four of them on the same piece of fabric and have finished the first three and started the last one. I took a picture on Sunday before I sat down with it and will take another one soon to show my progress. I am quite hopefull that I will get it done this week. It is a nice break from my stocking since the stocking has a lot of details and the Mini Cottages are much more simple. When I am finished with the Cottages I will work on my stocking more.

Stitch-A-Thon Friday

Over at the ‘Let’s Stitch’ blog there was a Stitch-A-Thon Friday yesterday. I decided to join and work on my stocking. I didn’t get much stitching done. I was completely spent after the busy week I have had. I am going to work on it again tonight though. Here is a before & after picture:

Other than that there is not much else to blog about. I am having a really lousy Saturday. I am going to try to turn it around and cook a good meal and have a relaxing night.
Hope you are all having a good weekend.

A small stitching update

I have mostly been working on exchanges lately so I do not have much stitching to show. In between I have been working on Miss Mary Mack and my Stitcher’s Stocking. Here is how MMM looks as of today:

And the Stitchers Stocking. I have hight hopes to get it done in time for Christmas! I really hope that will come true!

Stitcher’s Studio Stocking from Cross Stitch and Country Crafts Magazine July/Aug ’89

I have decided to start bringing a small project with me to work and stitch in my lunch hour. A woman from work is going to join me! Woohoo! I am going through my JCS Ornament issues and finding the first small to bring to work project. I am hoping this will help me to get some of the small things stitched, especially some ornaments!

Karítas was sick on Monday and Tuesday so we spent the days at home. She had a fever and a cold but went back to play school yesterday and is doing a lot better. While we were at home she insisted that she wanted to stitch. And she did!

I found a piece of hardanger fabric that I knew I would never use and some perle cotton from Anchor in this orange/yellow variation and threaded a needle for her. She was all over the place and just loved it. I was so surprised that she had such good control over the small needle (size 20) and that she found it so much fun. She says it is not done, but that she is going to add more to it later. She is thinking about a green color. So cute!

Well. Off I go. Babies need feeding and I need to tackle Mount Washmore, yet again!

Trying to go through some stuff – Inspired by Becky

After seeing this post from Becky, I made a decision that I had been thinking about for a while. I went through some of my stash and pulled out some projects that I really love and would like to start working on and hopefully finish sooner than later. I have so much stash and I also decided that the year 2009 will be a ‘Stitch from your Stash year’ for me. At least the first 6 months or so. Then we will see how I am doing and continue from there. To me that means no purchasing new charts and projects. I will continue in my FOTM club and I will be allowed to buy threads or other things needed to finish a project that I already have. Thankfully I have a ton that is kitted up, or very close to being so. I pulled all of these projects out last night and put them in a box.

This box contains the following projects:
Folk Heart Needle Roll from Shepherds Bush – full kit – FINISHED October 19th 2008
Antique Heart Needle Roll from Shepherds Bush – full kit
Summer Days Needle Roll – a gift from Paula – full kit
Forget me not Needle Roll from The Sweetheart Tree – a gift from Paula – needs some beads (haven’t checked if I have them or not, but I am sure I can use some of the ones I already have)
Cherry Blossoms Biscornu from The Sweetheart Tree – full kit
Rhodes Butterfly Biscornu from The Sweetheart Tree – full kit
Necessities Sampler by Little House Needleworks – pattern and I have the threads and am sure I have some fabric *giggle*
Barnabee’s Bride from Just Nan – full kit
And Many More Needlebook from Just Nan – full kit and finishing kit
Wandering Shepherd from Shepherd’s Bush – full kit
Trousse aux Fleurs Bleues from C’mon Monde – pattern and I have the threads, buttons and fabric
Gilded Dragonfly Scissor Purse from Just Nan – full kit
Folding Cross Needlebook from Indigo Rose – I have everything for this
Christmas Workshop from Just Nan – I need 3 WDW threads for this. Straw, Cocoa and Collards
Victoria’s Quaker from A Mon Amie Pierre – I have VC silks for this. Just need to find the right fabric in my stash
Simply Romantic sampler by The Sweetheart Tree – full kit
The Peacock Stitching Chair from The Cat’s Whiskers – I have everything for this
Real Roses from The Drawn Thread – I have everything for this, silks included
The Little Woman Series from Little House Needleworks – I have the chartpacks, need to find the right fabric Quilting finished on October 27th 2008 Gardening finished on November 7th 2008 Reading Finished on November 19th. Baking finished on December 30th 2008
Flea Market Souvenir from Blackbird Designs – I have everything for this – Finished  February 20th 2009

Off course there are many many many (reads as endless) other projects that I want to get finished. I am quite happy with this selection of mine. It has a nice variety of patterns and finishing techniques so I should definitely not get bored! And then there are the WIP’s and UFO’s. I realized I don’t have many UFO’s, but I sure have a lot of WIP’s that I want to get done. My focus piece is my Stitcher’s Stocking because I really want to have it done for Christmas this year so that I can hang up my stocking with my girls stockings. Sumarrós even asked me the other day if I wasn’t going to ‘Hurry up and finish the thing’ LOL! Love that kid!

So, do you believe I can do it? Go on a stash diet and stitch from my stash? I really need your support in this. Only about 3 months to go! Eeeeek!

Kudos to Becky for the idea and for breaking the ice!

Mattress Pincushion Exchange – From Aisté

We are having a Mattress Pincushion Exchange in my Icelandic stitching group. Names were sent out on Thursday. Last night my friend Aisté came over and gave me this beautiful Mattress Pincushion for the exchange. She finished it in just one day! She is the fastest stitcher I know! Isn’t it just gorgeous?

Mattress Pincushion Exchange
From Aisté to Linda
Buzzzz by Bent Creek

I have wanted to stitch this design again for myself ever since I made the Pinkeep for a drawing I had here on my blog but now I don’t have to 🙂 Thank you so much Aisté! And for all the Reeses Peanutbutter Cups! They are my favorite!

Me, Aisté and Rósa went shopping today. I didn’t buy much. But I did find these glorious shell buttons that I have been searching for everywhere! I have a plan for those. So I know what my next project will be. It is going to be Trousse Fleurs Bleues By C Mon Monde. I have had the pattern in my stash for a long time, I just didn’t want to do all the stitching and then not be able to do the finishing. Yeah, I could have used whatever buttons, but I have always had a thing for the shell buttons. They are so beautiful!

Well. I have made great progress on the Mattress Pincushion I am making for my partner so I am going to try to get most of it finished today and this evening. Have a great stitchy weekend everyone!

Little House Neighborhood – Framed!

I was so happy when I got a text message from my framer this morning saying that my Little House Neighborhood was ready for me to pick it up. So, as soon as I finished work I drove there and got it. I love love love it! It is now hanging on my well, next to my stitching spot 🙂

I just love the look of this frame. The minute I saw it I just knew it would be right for the piece. I thought about some mats but when I tried them with the piece I just saw that the piece didn’t need any. It is just so pretty that it didn’t need any more ‘decoration’. I think it is perfect like this. Here is a closer look of the frame.

Well. Back to stitching I guess!

Birthday baby

It is hard to believe that my baby girl is 3 years old today. Seems like only yesterday when I had this little beautiful girl all wet and vulnerable in my arms, newborn. When I went to bed last night after cleaning and baking all day, I curled up against her and all the emotions came rushing back. She is such a special little girl, my blond little angel 🙂
So today has been spent celebrating her birthday and I will leave you with some snapshots of the day. I didn’t take as many pictures as I had hoped. You know how it is when you are having a birthday party, you run around like a headless chicken all day, lol!

Here is the birthday girl, fondling her hair like always.

I asked her to smile for me and this is the smile I got.

Blowing out the candles on her Barbapapa cake

The birthday girl with her father

The toys also celebrated with us

Birthday girl and her big sister ❤

Hope you all had a great weekend! I am off to get the girls to bed and then sit and rest. My back is KILLING me so I hope it will not get worse. I have had back problems for years and these last two days have really been tough. I also just have to show you this weird coffee stain that was on my livingroom table the other day. I was just having coffee and when I removed my cup, this weird face was just gazing me! Creepy isn’t it?

WIP updates – QC and MMM

Miss me? Thought so!
I have been stitching some. I finished a piece for a Halloween exchange but I am thinking about adding a little something extra for it. We will see. There is still some time until Halloween rolls around so I should be able to get it stitched, finished and mailed in time.

After I finished the exchange piece I decided to be a good girl and not start anything new, even though I was dying to! I started working on Miss Mary Mack again and also Quaker Christmas.

Miss Mary Mack by La-D-Da
32ct Belfast
Needlepoint silk

And here is Quaker Christmas. I have decided after much deliberation to stitch the words in english since translating them to Icelandic would be a really big job and I would have to change the design a lot for the Icelandic letters to fit in. Some words would work, like Peace – Friður in Icelandic, but some just don’t work, like Merry Christmas – Gleðileg Jól. Just doesn’t fit. So it is being stitched as charted.

Quaker Christmas – Bygone Stitches
40ct off white linen
Crescent Color threads

It is very hard to take a picture of this piece because the stitches are so tiny. I am going to try to take a better picture of it outside when it is not so cloudy. I got cought up with my blog reading today but didn’t leave a lot of comments because I ran out of time. I am really trying to limit my time on the computer as much as possible. But, I do read, and I do love all your pretty work. Thanks for understanding 🙂

Biscornu exchange from Carla

Yesterday I got a note from the PO that I had not one, but four packages waiting for me to pick them up. Off course I went up there as soon as I could, I used my lunch break at work to pick up my goodies.

1st package contained my SBEBB biscornu exchange from Carla. She made me this beautiful biscornu with Dark Chocolate Belfast Linen and hand dyed thread from Aniza with a freebie design from Tantes Zolder. It is so pretty! I love it! She also included two beautiful charts (Autumn Harvest from JBW and Snow Buddies from Homespun Elegance), Anchor floss, plastic bobbins, candy, ribbons etc. It was a great package! I am sorry I have put all the extra goodies away, so I only have a picture of the great biscornu that she made me.

Second package was a birthday gift from Colleen in NY. She gave me this beautiful 32ct Wichelt linen and floss rings and this little pattern book. Thank you Colleen!

Third package was my first FOTM club with Lakeside Linens and the fourth package was my second FOTM package (June and July). I love love love these fabrics! The colors are amazing!

Lakeside Linens Tarnished Silver

Lakeside Linens Lentil

So I had a pretty incredible mail day yesterday! I am off to fondle my goodies and stitch!

Ladybugs and Bumblebees – FINISHED!

It didn’t take me long to finish this at all! I didn’t have that much left to stitch on it. I did most of it last night, and then I added the two little bumblebees when I got home from work today and my little Karítas helped me iron it (she got to spray it with water). I love love love it!

Design by Nikki Leeman and Diane Williams, Country Cottage Needleworks.
Fabric: Vintage Country Mocha 32ct Belfast
Threads: DMC, CC and GAST

I also got another birthday gift in the mail today. This one is from my friend Brenda. Thanks Brenda! I hope you and yours are safe from Gustav. She and her family fled New Orleans and I just got word through a stitching friends that they are getting some wind and rain, but nothing serious. I hope it stays that way for them and everyone who is getting affected! Stay safe!

Thread rings and January, February and March Baubles by Sam Sarah Design Studio.

I took my Neighborhood to the framers today. I found a really beautiful rough wood frame for it. Just like I had imagined. I will get it back in about 2 weeks, maybe sooner. I will off course be posting pictures once I get it back! Now I am going to start stitching on an exchange with a Halloween theme. I have always wanted to do some Halloween stitching, but since it is not celebrated here in Iceland I don’t get much of a chance to do so. So I signed up for an exchange and will get a fall themed stitched item in return 🙂 Great deal if you ask me. I have decided on what to stitch and how to finish it. Now just to find the perfect fabric to go with the design!