Warning: lots of pictures!

This past weekend ( last weekend, not this one), a bunch of stitching friends and I got together for a stitching getaway in Cape May, NJ.  We had horrible weather -- 2 nor'easters with tons of wind that made the house groan -- but wonderful times in a pretty Cape May style house in the heart of the historic district in town.  Thanks to Kathy and Lorraine for the Cape May pictures -- I need a small camera to keep in my purse!  Here's the house we stayed in -- enough bedrooms for all!

It was quite luxurious, with a very long dining table where we could stitch and stitch and stitch!  While we were there, we celebrated my friend Kathy's birthday.  I gave her a little present, a needle roll made from a Blackbird Designs chart from their With Thy Needle book.  I hope she doesn't look too closely at the finishing work.  :D

I don't remember what fabric I used except that it was a 40ct fabric.  I used the called for fibers.  I put our initials down at the bottom.

I used a fabric from the BBD Beach House fabric collection for the inside lining.

Lorraine took a picture of the birds on the beach.  Aren't they cute?

If anyone can identify them, Lorraine and I would love to know what they are.

While at Cape May, I got to start a new project.  :D   Yes, I planned it that way. lol!   Anyway, I joined the bandwagon and started Paradise Lost by Plum Street Samplers.  It really is a fun stitch!  Except for that blasted tree on the left -- somehow that one was intimidating to me!  Here is where I am on it as of today.

I'm using 40ct vintage Light Examplar linen with the called for NPI and Gloriana silks.  The colors are just amazing!  The ladies from the weekend can attest to how I sorted my threads to start the project and discovered I was missing a color -- boy was I an unhappy camper!  But I figured out that I wouldn't be needing the color for a long long time, so I cheered up pretty quickly.  And now that I'm home I've found the color in my stash so I'm even more happy!

Here's a picture of the gang in the house's livingroom.

Thanks for a lovely time, ladies!  And a special thanks to Nancy for arranging the weekend for us!

In other news, my father sent me some pictures of his trip to mainland China.  He got to visit Olympic Park, which is pretty cool!

I hope you've enjoyed this picture intensive post.  Have a great weekend -- and thanks for stopping by!

Small stitching for a change

I'm very happy.  I actually picked something up to stitch and finished it in a few days!  lol!  It was a small piece, the exclusive market kit from Milady's Needle, In the Garden.  Here's the piece that goes on the top of the box that was included in the kit.

 

Isn't it cute?  And here are the front and back of the scissor fob.

Now all I have to do is to actually finish the pieces into a box top and a scissors fob!  :D  BTW, the kit came complete with box, box lining, 40ct fabric and fibers.  Great stuff!

In other news, I seem to have won an award.  Mary at Mary's Craft Nook has kindly given this award to me.  Thank you, Mary!

I'm supposed to pick 15 other blogs that I've recently discovered.  But I have so many blogs that I enjoy and read that it's hard to choose.  I hope you all consider yourselves to be recipients of this award -- I so enjoy reading all my favorite blogs!

I can definitely pass the award on to at least one new blog.  Laurie is one of my online friends -- she stitches models as well as stitching for herself, she quilts, and she has two adorable corgis.  I hope you go visit her new blog, Corgi Cottage.  I know you'll be drooling over her pictures as much as I have!  So I've passed the award on for real to one blog anyway!  lol!  Welcome to blogging, Laurie!

Thanks for stopping by!  I appreciate all your comments. 

The Freds are finished -- framed piece -- a present -- and etc

Finally got Fred done to go with his girlfriend.  Here he is in all his glory.

 He's Frederick, of course, by Carriage House Samplings.  Here's his mate, Fredrika.

Both are stitched on 40ct vintage Pearled Barley by Lakeside Linens with the called for NPI silks.  I love them!  Aren't they perfect for fall?

I also got my Fruit of the Spirit (Plum Street Samplers) back from my LNS.   I'm really happy with how it came out.  The owner's husband Don does the framing and he's always so helpful with picking out the perfect frame.

Here's a closeup of the frame.  Isn't it perfect?   I love it!

As you may know, I've been participating in the Sail Away SAL which is being lead by Loraine and Terri.   Terri sent all of us SALers a wonderful fob to get us all on our way.  Now that the SAL is ending, Loraine has sent a nice present, a stitching wallet.  I got mine in the mail today -- and I'm so tickled!  Here it is, along with Terri's fob that she made for us.

And here's the other side of the wallet.

She included a wonderful sheet with all of our names on it that also has a space for us to record when we started our stitching journey and when we finished.  Isn't it wonderful?   Thank you, Loraine!  And thank you to both you and Terri for such a great SAL!  

In other news, it seems to be homecoming weekend around the country, including here.  The boy child is in seventh heaven.  Two of his friends who left for college this fall are home for the weekend, so he's off having fun with all his friends.   I know I won't be seeing much of him till Monday night. 

The Father type had to go to a function last weekend up north a bit.  Turns out it had great views of the Hudson River.  Just look at it!

Pretty nice, huh?  They were apparently way up high on some mountain or other.  You can see the Hudson in the distance down there.

I hope you all have a great weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!

Testing, testing.....

I have to test out this supposed new editor in blogger.  Thanks to the help of expert bloggers like Nicole and Siobhan,  I've widened the posting area so as to get bigger pictures.  My dear Father Type has been trying to figure out how to make the lovely background conform to the new shape of things on the blog.  It's not perfect, but it will do for now.  I may end up removing it or just living with it.  :D  So anyway, now you all get to see more pictures of Frederick as part of my testing here.  I'm all set to start Freddie himself.

You can see the bird shape in the middle there.  I've stitched all the motifs around him except for the date (1831) and a tiny flower in the bottom right hand corner.  And of course I need to stitch Fred himself and the two borders that are left.

 Aren't you enjoying the testing?

Now all I have to do is take better pictures.  lol!

Well, here's hoping the larger picture thingie worked.  I guess I'll find out soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

ps -- I may try Flickr next time.  Hmmmmmm........

Frederika and her mate

Frederika is done. She's so pretty, especially for this time of year. I decided since I was already in the Fred mode to continue on to Frederika's mate Frederick.



For both, I'm using the recommended fabric and fibers, 40ct vintage Pearled Barley by Lakeside with NPI silks. I just love the colors!



It's interesting to me that Frederick does seem more masculine in his colors. I wonder if Kathy Barrick Dieter did that on purpose?

If you want a chance to win a nice Halloweenie prize, head on over to Jolene's blog. I love her giveaways!

We're settling into the school routine finally. Now that it's more than 3 weeks since school started. Weird that it took so long to get into the swing of things! Haven't heard a peep from the girl child since the first weekend when she said she was going to be much better about keeping in touch. Uh huh. lol! Well, she did email a couple of times when she had to buy more school books and wanted to make sure she had enough money. And she did email to apologize for not calling on the father type's birthday. I guess that's something. :D No news is good news, right? And I should give her credit for saying she would call the next night after the father type's birthday -- I told her not to since the father type was on a business trip that night. Ah well. I know she's happy and busy.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Thanks for stopping by -- I love to read your comments!

Rambling

I've been stitching away on a new project but have neglected to post any pictures. Here she is in all her unfinished glory, Frederika by Carriage House Samplings.




I love the fall colors! But boy, the border takes a lot longer than you would think! I'm using the recommended NPI fibers and linen (40ct Vintage Pearled Barley).

I also neglected to post the latest picture of my Sail Away. I desperately need to finish it up -- I have only the last lines at the bottom to do.


How many of you are excited about market this weekend? Do I hear a chorus of "me me me!" I know I'm excited! I can't wait to get my hands on so many things, which is not good news for my pocketbook! Ah well.

In other news, I have a few pictures from the father type's birthday. The boy child was good enough to take the pictures.



I should have bought those number candles for the cake to say 50, but I didn't, so I just put 5 candles on instead. Here's an action shot. :D



And then the boy child decided to see how bright the flash was by turning it directly on himself and his eye. Here's the result on camera.



The result for his eye was some blindness for a few minutes. lol! Silly boy!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend!

The bearded one

I've never seen the father type without a mustache and beard. He's always had at least some form of facial hair.


He's always had a character to match his appearance -- unusual, laid back, a stand out in a crowd. And he's usually bare foot. Even when he's climbing a wall.




He's always been a wonderful father.




He's been willing to do camping trips with the kids on his own so I could have a weekend to myself. (Don't ask me who the other kid is -- you'll have to ask the father type and the boy child.)



And he's been there through all the events of our lives. And enjoyed every minute.



He likes being the man of the house and doing the manly jobs, such as cutting down the Christmas tree.




And he's there for the others in his life as well. He served as best man for his widowed father at his father's second marriage.




And of course he was proud when our daughter graduated from high school and went on to attend our alma mater for college.




Now he's turning 50. He opted for a fancy gaming laptop to celebrate his birthday instead of a 50th birthday bash. That's his style. I think he's going to enjoy it.



We've been together over half our lives. Happy birthday, my knight in shining armor. I'm looking forward to growing old with you.