Christmas

Thanks to everyone on my finish of His Eye is on the Sparrow.  I emailed Beth Twist, the designer, and she said I'm only the third person to finish the piece -- besides her and another stitcher.  Pretty good, huh?

Oh, that reminds me.  The person who finished before me used 28ct linen, and she also ran out of WDW Havana and GAST Caramel Corn.  So you should get 2 skeins of those in addition to the ones mentioned on the chart.  And I think she said she needed 3 skeins of the green -- WDW Oscar? -- that is listed as needing 2 skeins.

Enough of that though.  As a reward for finishing, His Eye, I finally started this fair isle scarf I've been dying to start knitting.  It's called the Walking Tour Scarf, designed by Dolly Donhauser.  I got the kit for the scarf from the Feral Knitter website -- it uses Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift wool, lots of pretty colors.  Here is my progress so far.

This picture doesn't show the ribbed edging -- it came out a bit too loose, but I'm not about to redo it.  I'm enjoying knitting this one up.  Part of why I like fair isle in particular is it gives you breaks once in a while with a row of plain knitting.  Always nice to have a break once in a while!

Here is my last Fussy Cut Friday with two star halves, both mystery fabrics.

Next year, I will start making the white diamonds to go between the stars.  I don't know if I will stick to Fridays or one a week or anything.  We shall see!

The girl child arrived home Christmas Eve in the evening.  So we were all set for Christmas morning!

If you're wondering what the Father type's new toy is, go to this website.   The Father type and the boy child had a great time together playing with it.  The boy child learned a lot about the audio type things that the Father type's toy involves, so the boy child could give his dad pointers on how to get the most out of his new toy.

And I was made a very happy mom when the girl child asked me to teach her to knit.  Yay!!!!!

I got her started right away on a garter stitch scarf.  She's gotten a lot done this Christmas break.

It's even longer than what's shown in the last picture!

I'm hoping the girl child sticks with it and becomes a fellow knitter.  I would be thrilled if she does!

We had to go out for dinner for Christmas this year -- our stove broke at the beginning of the week and the replacement will be arriving today.   So we went to our favorite diner for Christmas dinner, quite a change for us for Christmas.

(If I'm looking tired out, it's because I was still feeling the after-effects of that vertigo episode I had mentioned a couple of blog posts ago.  We were having a good time!)

Then we went home and settled in to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, both classics from us old folks's childhoods.  It was a wonderful, family Christmas with lots of bonding time.

Mia got a toy for Christmas too.  I'm not sure how much she likes it.

If you look closely, you can see the toy up in the air.

Mia was not best pleased by all the hubbub of Christmas morning.

Father type got this picture -- isn't it hysterical?  She's got this look on her face that says "I hate this! Leave me alone!"  lolol!

This will be my last post of 2014.  What a weird thought -- a New Year is just a few days away!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week -- and a happy, healthy, wonderful 2015!

Stop the presses!!!!

Ok, I know I just posted last night, but this calls for another blog post.  I'm feeling more or less normal today, just a bit weird from the effects of the vertigo.  But I'm feeling well enough to stitch again.  And guess what?

Ta da!!!!!

His Eye is on the Sparrow by Heartstring Samplery

40ct Doubloon linen by Picture this Plus

using the called for WDW and GAST fibers

started mid-September, 2014

finished December 22, 2014

Yup!!!  It's done!  Finis!

I am happy.  :D

ETA: someone asked what size the linen has to be with 40ct.  I bought a stitcher's half and it worked great.

Vertigo

This morning I suffered a bad bout of vertigo.  Ugh.  I did the Epley maneuver several times and that helped, but all day I've still been feeling weird.   A blogging friend  (thank you!!!!) sent me an email telling me to Google "Colorado doctor half somersault."  It turns out to be a new technique to treat vertigo.  If you ever experience vertigo, these exercises work!  Not perfectly -- I'm still not back to normal yet -- but they work well enough that you don't suffer anymore in comparison.  There are videos on Youtube for both.

Anyway, since I can't stitch or do much else (even reading seems to make me motion sick), I decided to write my blog post.

Here is His Eye.  I'm actually down to the last motif, the big flower next to the deer that goes in the corner.  The deer and the big bird are done. But with my vertigo I haven't taken a picture of that.  So you'll have to be satisfied with this picture, the last one I took.

Here are my fussy cut star halves (I'm doing half stars to fill in the sides of the quilt) for the week.  One is a mystery fabric and the other I forget.  lol!  It's by Me and My Sister Designs though.

We got our boy child back home for Christmas break on Friday night.  Hooray!  (Father type was being silly....)

And Saturday evening, the girl child came home for a few hours in between events on her busy social calendar.  So we got to decorate the tree as a family for the first time in  years.  Yay!

(decorating the tree stump for this year)

If you want to read about our tree stump collection, go here.

We had a good time, and it was so nice to get the kids to pose in front of the tree like old times.  Although they are a lot bigger than in the old days.  lol!  

Mia was not very contented with the goings on.  She even attacked the man bun.

Silly cat!

I made it through this post!  Hopefully I will feel normal tomorrow.  Fingers crossed!  Seriously, I'm a lot better now than before, so it's not bad.  Thank goodness for those techniques!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week.  Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Christmas!

So close, yet so far

Here is His Eye.

I'm so close, yet so far from being finished.  So many more motifs to go.  See?

Yup, lots more motifs to repeat!  Including another big bird.  Ugh.

Here are my fussy cut star halves, both mystery fabrics.  (Only two more Fridays to go!)

I thought the numbers were fun, and everyone needs at least one polka dot star, right?

I never do exchanges, as you may have noticed.  But Paula of Kelmscott Designs persuaded me earlier this year that we should do an ornament exchange that is sampler based.  So we did.  This is what I sent to Paula.  It's a design from the 2014 JCS ornament issue by Cherished Stitches.  The fabric it's on is the backing.  (I think it's a Minick and Simpson fabric from the Wiscassett collection.)

And look at what Paula sent me!

Paula said the design was a French freebie.  I just love her finishing and the hornbook too!  Thanks again Paula!  It was so much fun to do this with you!  I hadn't finished finished anything in so long -- I'm so glad I could find my cording tool!  lol!

The father type and I went out to our local charity Christmas tree lot yesterday to get a tree.  I'm not sure Mia was quite happy about it.

But she grudgingly watched the activities.

We are going to wait to decorate the tree until the boy child is home.  Hopefully the girl child will come and help too.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week.  Less than two weeks till Christmas!!!

Um, yeah

Here is my progress on His Eye.  I finished Adam and Eve and the tree!

Now before you all start saying -- oh wow, you're almost done, let me remind you that I'm not almost done.  See all those motifs below the words but to the left and top left of the tree?  I need to stitch them all again on the other side of the tree.  Every single motif.  The berry basket on top of the tree also is a middle line.  So yeah.  Still tons to stitch.  I finished the flowers on the border though, so the border is finished.

But I am pleased with my progress, and glad to have that blasted tree of knowledge stitched.  I dislike stitching trees, especially this kind of tree.  Ironic, huh?  (I love Adam and Eve samplers, as you might have noticed.)

We have reached week 49 of Fussy Cut Fridays as of this past Friday.  So I laid out all my 48 stars once again.

See those white diamonds at the bottom between the stars?  I will be making white and off white diamonds to sew in between the stars just like that.  That is what will hold the stars together.  With this layout, I figured I need 8 more half stars, not full stars.  So from this point on, I'm making half fussy cut stars.

I made the top half star from the Moonlit collection (Cotton and Steel) by Rashida Coleman.  The bottom half star is from the Fancy collection by Lily Ashbury.

I'm wondering if I will be cutting out and sewing the diamonds between the stars all next year.  lol!

Last Sunday evening, something very unpleasant happened.  My laptop crashed yet again.  In exactly the same way.  It's an Apple Macbook Pro from 2011.  If one searches on this year, one finds that a bunch of the Macbook Pros made during 2011 were produced and are faulty.  They break down in exactly the way mine has broken down 3 times.  The first time was in spring of 2013,  when it was still barely under warranty.  The second time was this past October, mid October.  Not that long ago.  And now as of November 30 (a month and half later), it broke down again.  There is a petition that I have signed along with other Macbook Pro owners affected by this flaw, asking Apple to address the issue and give us a new Macbook Pro as a replacement.  I seriously doubt that will happen.

If anyone is interested in this matter of the faulty Macbook Pros, here is an article about it.  I have to say that in general, I love Apple products.  This is the one time I've found Apple to be at fault with something I've purchased.

Anyway, my sweet Father type took matters in charge instantaneously.  He ordered me a Macbook Air Sunday night.  It arrived Tuesday.

It's smaller and much lighter than my old laptop.  I'm still in the process of checking to see what files I'm missing.  I did keep a backup, but it was from October.  But I'm very happy with my early Christmas present!  Thank you, my Father type!  I'm so lucky Santa was able to give me such a present!

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Busy!

Here is my progress on His Eye for this week.  I'm not showing the border where I did manage to stitch a few flowers as well.

I love that tiny owl, don't you?

I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but for those of you stitching this piece, there are corrections on Beth Twist's blog.  Also, I ran out of WDW Havana and am getting low on GAST Caramel Corn.  And I'm using 40ct too, so if you are using a lower count, you definitely need more than one skein of those.  And you probably need more than one skein on 40ct too!  I'm pretty economical with my floss.

Here is my fussy cut star for the week, number 48 I believe.  I used a fabric from Horizon by Kate Spain.

Now for some catch up.  I neglected to tell you about my trip into NYC a couple of weeks ago.  I went in to have lunch with a very special lady, who I was so so happy to meet!  Ellen Chester!

I'm sure you all know that Ellen is the talented lady behind With My Needle.  She and I have been corresponding by email for quite a while, and now we have finally met in person!  My only regret is that I didn't get to meet Ellen's husband Tom.  One of these days I will make it to one of Ellen's classes.  I'm bound and determined!

I couldn't waste a day in NYC, so after our lovely lunch, I hopped on the subway to go to Soho for some Christmas shopping.  And a little shopping for myself too!

Yup!  I went to Purl Soho!  My second visit.  I really need to go more often.  lol!  Here is my stash.

I got some Purl Soho Line Weight yarn, the great Fringe Supply tote (It says, "Wool is an essential part of any high-fiber diet."), Some Fringe Supply removable stitch markers, and some ribbon embroidered with my initials (one with an M and one with a C).  I also picked up some of these from LaDuree.

Met the father type for dinner at Bareburger when he got out of work.

And then we went home together.  A lovely day!

This past weekend was, of course, Thanksgiving weekend!  Hooray!  Which meant this.

And this!

Ack!  Please ignore the mess behind the girl child.  lolol!

Yes, my two kid-lings came home!  So nice!  We had a lovely Thanksgiving together.

(Note the man bun on the boy child.  Loooong hair!)

The cook 

The spread

But all too soon it was time to say goodbye again.

(Yes, that's the Sockhead hat I knitted for the boy child!)

So sad, but it will be Christmas break for the boy child in a few weeks, and the girl child will hopefully visit between now and Christmas too.  We hope!

Mia got a bit stressed by the kids being around.  She's gotten used to us old folks and our quiet ways.  She used my lap as a safe haven quite a bit.

Silly kitty.  

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week!