Birthday Present

Hi friends! We have been busy around here. Emerson's graduation was a wonderful celebration on a beautiful, sunny day. He got registered for fall classes this week. He likes his schedule too. He will be commuting to Concordia University in Mequon. It will take him about 25 minutes to drive. Not a bad drive. No expressway driving. A little city driving. Mostly country roads. Lovely scenery. When we drove there on Tuesday, we saw deer, cows, horses, and Sandhill Cranes.

I received my first birthday present this year in the mail this week. I do not usually open presents early. We are busy preparing for Emerson's upcoming graduation party, and I decided to go ahead and open my package from our dear friend June, as a little reward for my hard work. ;)

Beautifully and perfectly packaged in pink! I agree! That card IS just for me! =) Madeleine and I enjoyed looking through the Vintage Teatime Recipes book. It is filled with beautiful photographs.

Look at these most perfect poodle patterns June has given me from her British cross stitch magazines! I had no idea. I love them and will DEFINITELY be stitching these sweeties up!

Isn't this nativity pattern lovely? Thank you June. What a precious friend you are! Always so caring and thoughtful of others. God bless you my friend.♥

I did finish up 'Rendevous In The Park' by Kissy Cross. I just have to do the finishing on it. No pictures of that today. I have begun another small stitch. It is to be a gift, so no pictures of that one either.

I have been getting into the garden every day that it is not raining. Not for long mind you, but I want the flower beds to be looking perfect for the upcoming party.

"Cocoa" in the Chocolate Garden ;)

I have thanked God for you today! Thank you for your kind words. I love to hear from you. And if you are interested in my giveaway, there is still time. See my prior post.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

The Scarlet Letter

Hi friends! I am still stitching 'Rendevous in the Park' by Kissy Cross. :) Busy week right now. Emerson graduates high school on Saturday! I am bringing tissues. ;) We will have a party for him with family and friends in two weeks. Lots of cleaning and preparing to do. I still keep plugging away at the flower beds. Thirty minutes a day. That is all I can do or I will be in bad pain. What gets done, gets done. You don't know how hard it is for me to say that. I like things "just so".

I was recently going through my patterns. I found this 1988 Just Cross Stitch magazine. It features Marsha from The Scarlet Letter.

The Scarlet Letter pattern included is the one pictured above. Interesting to note that Marsha is located 45 minutes from me. :) I have never been there. So very many of you my friends are into reproduction samplers. I am not.

Would you like this magazine? Leave me a comment here telling me so. You need to be a follower of mine. I will draw a name on Friday, June 6th.

Have a beautiful day in the Lord my friends.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

The Most Awesome Kissy-Cross Freebie EVER!!!!!! :) ♥♥♥

Hi friends! I am ÜBER excited!! Our friend Annie alerted me to the brand new freebie released just today from Kirsten Schmidt , the designer of Kissy-Cross cross stitch. When I saw it, I squealed! WE ARE TALKING POODLES PEOPLE! NOT JUST ANY POODLES. NOPE. IT IS MABEL AND HENRY! UH HUH. FOR REAL! TAKE A LOOK HERE.  Click this link here to see it and get it!
 

So very, very cool! Can ya tell I am excited?! I am stitching this puppy up. HA! Get the pun?! Sorry, I need to calm down a bit. ;) Kirsten told me this pattern is available as a freebie for a limited time. She told me to print it quick. You bet I did! So much fun.

Thank you ever so much Kirsten! My teenage daughter and I are thrilled. My husband was amazed you did this. REALLY! My teenage sons think this is "nice and cool". :)

The Henry French Knot Poodle is coming along slowly. I can put in 10 minutes at a time I have realized, before the wrist pain comes back. I will work on it maybe twice daily then. I should have used more than two strands of floss at a time to make bigger knots. Too late now. I have over one thousand knots done already, and a long way to go.

I finished reading City of Darkness and Light by Rhys Bowen. I kinda had the mystery figured out about half way through, but it was an enjoyable read. This is the latest Molly Murphy Mystery.

Woo hoo! I am off to pull linen and floss for Rendezvous in the Park.

Have a super night everyone!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

How About Some More Poodles?! tee hee!

Hi friends! I have had two Charles Craft cross stitch towels in my stash for ages. I decided to stitch up the ivory one. Our kitchen is pale yellow, so why not apricot poodles with yellow neckerchiefs? tee hee!

I searched through my inventory (yes! inventory) of poodle patterns. I love these Swedish Antique poodles from the antique pattern library. This pattern is from 1915. Do you recall me stitching this poodle a few months ago? See this post here to see a mini version of the poodle.

So sweet! And yes, we will be using the towel in the kitchen. I don't want to stash it away, never to be used. I don't wanna wreck it either! ;)

I went searching through my poodle patterns yet again. This time for an embroidery pattern. I needed the shape of a poodle to match our little Henry. :) Do you recall me sharing with you THE french knot poodle? Well it is time for me to knot up a certain little, apricot mister too. :) I found a poodle close in looks to our little boy. I made a few necessary changes, and got out the light box to transfer him onto some white material. I am now happily working on Henry. I have made well over one thousand french knots already. I had hoped to have him finished this week, but that will not be happening. My right hand, wrist and forearm are painful now from so much repetitive work for hours. I must take breaks.

I hope you have a beautiful day today my friends. Thank you for your kind words. I am still trying to fix my yahoo email mess. Just know that I am still commenting, even if the comments are NOT popping up in your email.

It is going to be a sunny, warm day today! I am off to worship shortly. Have a great day in the Lord.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Book Cover

Hi friends! How are you today? I hope all is well in your world. If it is not, and I know about that, well then I am praying for you.♥

I made a book cover. Never made one of those before. Well, the sewn variety. ;) I made dozens and dozens of the paper bag/grocery sack (Do you say that where you live?) book covers for the kids school books over the years. I wanted a book cover for my prayer book. I found this tutorial to help me. It was okay, but very specific to the journal size that they were using. I had a little trial and error while sizing mine up.

But you can see I kept at it. And I am very happy with it! :)

I had all the supplies in my stash. Hooray! I found pink thread that was a perfect match. And once again, this was some of Brian's Great Aunt's thread passed on to me.

Now I am back to cross stitching. My favorite subject again! tee hee! ♥

Well, I am off to get another 30 minutes of garden work done. It sure goes slow this way, but it is all I can manage anymore.

Have a fantastic day my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Magnet Gifts

Hi friends! I want to firstly tell you that if I normally comment on your blog, I haven't stopped! My yahoo email is not going through right to your email accounts letting you know I left a comment. I get a message back telling me there was a delivery failure. If you take a look at your own blog, you will see all my comments! I cannot figure out what to do about this problem. Maggee is also having the problem. She is trying to figure it out also. If you know how to fix this trouble, by all means please share your knowledge with me!

I made up two magnets to give as gifts. They are for our Deacon and our Priest. They both have birthdays this month. I just wanted to make up something small. I thought a magnet was useful enough for men. ;)

This is for our Deacon. I used DMC, one over one on 32ct ivory linen.

This one is for Father. It is a little bigger due to the border change. This border is from a free pattern you can find here. Awesome free patterns to be found! ;) Again I used DMC, one over one on 32ct ivory linen. I used a layer of cotton batting underneath each piece of linen, and then glued that to the magnet on the back. I also used Fray Check on all the edges.

I am sewing currently. A neat pink project. Something new for me to try.

Thank you for stopping in. I love to hear from you. :) Have a beautiful day my friends!

Sewing and praying,
Vickie

Mabel Christmas Ornament

Hi friends! Happy Mother's Day to you moms out there. :) I spent the afternoon with my mom yesterday. We got the whole family together for cake and happy times. Today we head to the in-laws for a BBQ.

Here are the first flowers to appear in my garden.

I have begun planting pots and urns with annuals. They are still waiting in the garage. Not all that warm yet at night.

I had this freebie for a few years. I am sorry, I do not have the link. After Miss Mabel's latest episode of back pain, I realized I did not want to put off stitching this any longer.

Totally adorable right?! Looks so much like our girl. :) I stitched this on 32ct white linen, two over two. I chose my own DMC colors.

I found this sweet fabric for the back in my stash. I used bordeaux velvet ribbon for the trim.

Mabel is off all meds and is doing alright. She is a tiny bit slower than she was before. Much more reserved in play than hyper Henry! ;) We have decided to lift her down out of the house and our one porch step every time now. Why risk flaring up her back pain again.(She has not used the stairs or jumped on/off furniture for a long time.) She is smart and will wait for us to lift her up and down. :) She is definitely the smartest dog we have ever owned. Henry is smart too. Kinda. Well... He is adorable, sweet and oh so loving.

Started stitching on yet another small. :)

I hope your day is a beautiful one my friends! Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate you!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Jura Point de Croix

Hi friends! Sunny and warm here. :) I want to thank you for all of your heartwarming comments on Theotokos. I took it to church on Sunday. Father sanctified and blessed it. We will have it framed soon and hang it in our home. :)

Last month Annette posted her wonderful stitching and finishing. She also posted a link to Jura Point de Croix blog site, for this lovely freebie. I knew right away that I needed to stitch this up. And I knew exactly how I wanted to finish it too. ;)

I received some spools of thread and a few sewing supplies a few months ago from my FIL. His Aunt, Brian's Great Aunt, died. She sewed a bit, and he wanted to pass along a few things to me. I used the thread from this spool to make the valances and foot stool in the front room. :) And the spool to make this little cutie for me.

I used 25ct unknown color linen, and stitched two over one. The heart I did stitch one over one though. I chose my own DMC colors.

I am sorry I do not have a link for the "V". I collect V's for future use, and I have had this one a while. I do remember it is from an antique alphabet pattern. I do not even have the whole alphabet printed.

I have begun stitching another small. It will be a Christmas ornament. I have put this one off tooooo long. Now is the time! It is my favorite stitching subject. Guesses?!

I have been reading The Burgess Bird Book For Children by Thornton W. Burgess. This was written in 1919. It is a very sweet book in which Peter Rabbit and many, many birds and critters converse. It really is to teach children all about many bird varieties. I got over a third of the way, and I just don't think I can read on. It is too sweet. It is a book for children. I just thought since we own the book (Jacob read it as a youngster) why not read it. Oh well.

Mabel is doing okay. She is still on her meds. We have had to begin backing off with the prednisolone.  It is a steroid. She was doing just a little bit better with the higher dose of the prednisolone. We will continue on with all her meds and hope she pulls through alright. She may just end up more like a geriatric poodle. She just can't run. She walks alright, just slow and steady. We have to play with Henry a bit more, since he misses playing with Mabel. We also try to stop this.

We have three  dog beds for them. He just loves to cuddle with her. You can see she is thrilled. ;)

I hope you have a splendid day my friends! Thank you for stopping by.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

May The Fourth Be With You :)

Hi friends!




Finishing and praying,
Vickie

Wahoo!

Hi friends! Take a guess what I finished beading yesterday?!? YUP! Theotokos!

 Whoo HOO! 30,178 stitches! Well, I never counted all the beads. ;) A lot of those stitches are beads with a full cross. But you get the point.

I am pretending to Happy Dance. Can't do the real thing or I will be in BIG pain. ;)

I have learned a few things while stitching this over the last few months.
1.  I am a smalls girl. I missed stitching my smalls very, very much. I stopped Theotokos a few times so I could stitch smalls.
2.  I really don't care for beading! Dani had suggested Nymo thread for beading. She told me one spool would go a long way. I used almost the entire thing! Beading sure takes a loooong time.
3. I prayed a lot while stitching this. This piece in particular really kept my focus on God.

Brian is very happy with it! He has thanked me many times. We will take it with us to church and have Father bless it. Then we will get it framed. In a bit. Need to scrape up a little cash for that.

I started stitching a tiny small last night. Feels great! :)

Mabel is improving! Thank you for all of your loving wishes and prayers. She will continue on with her meds and hopefully continue to improve and pull through this.

Have a super day my friends! I thanked God for you today!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie