July

Hi friends! Here is my latest finish.Lizzie Kate Fip It Blocks With Charm July, stitched one over one on 25ct cream evenweave with DMC. It now hly resides in my cubby shelf.

This chart was given to me by our friend Robin I would now like to pass this chart on to YOU! To enter this giveaway you need to: be a sidebar follower of this blog, and you need to leave a comment on this post stating that you would like this chart. I will draw a name on Monday, July 8th.

I am now stitching another patriotic pattern. This one will go into the pedestal frame for July.💖💙

Do you like the author Jennifer Chiaverini? I certainly do. I even met her three years ago at our library on her book tour. She is such a nice lady. She lives here in Wisconsin.Her latest book is called Resistance Women. This book is about German people who resisted the Nazis. It is based on real people. Very interesting.

After Wisconsin graduate student Mildred Fish marries brilliant German economist Arvid Harnack, she accompanies him to his German homeland, where a promising future awaits. In the thriving intellectual culture of 1930s Berlin, the newlyweds create a rich new life filled with love, friendships, and rewarding work—but the rise of a malevolent new political faction inexorably changes their fate. As Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party wield violence and lies to seize power, Mildred, Arvid, and their friends resolve to resist. Mildred gathers intelligence for her American contacts, including Martha Dodd, the vivacious and very modern daughter of the US ambassador. Her German friends, aspiring author Greta Kuckoff and literature student Sara Weitz, risk their lives to collect information from journalists, military officers, and officials within the highest levels of the Nazi regime. For years, Mildred’s network stealthily fights to bring down the Third Reich from within. But when Nazi radio operatives detect an errant Russian signal, the Harnack resistance cell is exposed, with fatal consequences. Inspired by actual events, Resistance Women is an enthralling, unforgettable story of ordinary people determined to resist the rise of evil, sacrificing their own lives and liberty to fight injustice and defend the oppressed.

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Hebrews 12:1-2

I hope you have a wonderful week my friends! Stay cool! It has been hot here.😩 Is it hot by you too?

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

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Hi friends! I have a small finish for the cubby shelf to share with you. This is July-Liberty Bell from the 2005 Cross Stitcher's Surprise Series from Rainbow Gallery.

I chose my own colors of DMC and used VMSS 1795 Tarnished Gold. I stitched this one over one on 25ct cream evenweave. You can find this and so many more sweet free patterns on the Rainbow Gallery site HERE

I am now stitching another July pattern of the cubby shelf. This one is a LizzieKate.

I thought I would share a doll from my childhood with you.

This topsy-turvy Snow White doll was originally always at my Grandma's house. It was for my cousins and me to play with. The dwarfs are finger puppets that snap on her dress.My Aunt gave it to me years ago when Madeleine was a toddler. I have had it in storage for years. Madeleine was afraid of the witch! So was I as a girl to be honest. I always played with the Snow White side.😉 My Grandma did not make this. A local woman did and sold them. I think this is just priceless.

Our family recently watched an excellent movie together, it is called Silence. I highly recommend it. Have you seen it? It is very powerful and stays with you for days after it is over. It is impossible to watch this film and not realize how blessed we are to live where we are not persecuted for our Christian faith.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

Have a stitchtastic week my friends! Thank you for stopping by!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

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Hi friends! I would like to share with you two gifts that I received for my 50th birthday last week.

Our friend June sent me this sweet poodle pattern🐩, bookmark, and ribbon. Thank you once again June!💗

Our friend Donna sent me tea, a bookmark, and floss. Thank you once again Donna!💗

I would like to show you my latest finish.  This is 'June Square Dance' by Heart in Hand.

I plan to use this 3x3 mother of pearl frame for the whole monthly series. I stitched this two over two on 32ct evenweave using DMC and VMSS 1795 Sky Blue. I am loving this series❣️

I am now stitching this pattern.

I have had it in my stash for 4 years. I finally want it stitched! I found it at a thrift store for .49 cents!

We have a winner for the SamSarah charts.

The winner is:  LINDA!

Have any of you read The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom? Oh boy, is it ever good! I love historical fiction.
Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of the highly anticipated Glory Over Everything, established herself as a remarkable new talent with The Kitchen House, now a contemporary classic. In this gripping novel, a dark secret threatens to expose the best and worst in everyone tied to the estate at a thriving plantation in Virginia in the decades before the Civil War. Orphaned during her passage from Ireland, young, white Lavinia arrives on the steps of the kitchen house and is placed, as an indentured servant, under the care of Belle, the master’s illegitimate slave daughter. Lavinia learns to cook, clean, and serve food, while guided by the quiet strength and love of her new family. In time, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, caring for the master’s opium-addicted wife and befriending his dangerous yet protective son. She attempts to straddle the worlds of the kitchen and big house, but her skin color will forever set her apart from Belle and the other slaves. Through the unique eyes of Lavinia and Belle, Grissom’s debut novel unfolds in a heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story of class, race, dignity, deep-buried secrets, and familial bonds.

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  John 3:17

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you have a fantastic week my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

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Hi friends! Check this out❣️

This is the chocolate birthday cake Brian ordered for my fiftieth birthday party! Perfect or what?

The winner of Country Cottage Needlework's Main Street Gazebo pattern is: Jo!

I am now giving away these two patterns by SamSarah. I am giving them away together as one gift.

If you would like to enter this giveaway you need to: Be a sidebar follower of mine on this blog, and leave a comment on this post stating that you would like these patterns. I will draw a name on Monday, June 17th.

For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21

Thank you for all of your wonderful  Happy Birthday wishes my friends! I am so very glad you stopped by today see the cake we enjoyed at the party! Have a great week now!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

50!😲

Hi friends! Yes, that is right! I turned 50 years old yesterday! My mom is having us all over on Sunday for a birthday party. I will share a picture of my cake with you next time. Brian has ordered a special cake.😁 It will be pink with a poodle on top! No, I am not kidding you!

I have not had much opportunity to stitch this week. I did want to share the winner of 'Secret Flower Bed' by The Trilogy pattern.

I had thirteen ladies enter the giveaway. The winner is: our friend Vicki

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner was a very good book. I really did not realize German Americans were sent to internment camps, did you? Even Italians. And then forced to be sent back to Germany and Italy. I knew about the Japanese Americans. What a sad part of our history.
Elise Sontag is a typical Iowa fourteen-year-old in 1943—aware of the war but distanced from its reach. Then her father, a legal U.S. resident for nearly two decades, is suddenly arrested on suspicion of being a Nazi sympathizer. The family is sent to an internment camp in Texas, where, behind the armed guards and barbed wire, Elise feels stripped of everything beloved and familiar, including her own identity. The only thing that makes the camp bearable is meeting fellow internee Mariko Inoue, a Japanese-American teen from Los Angeles, whose friendship empowers Elise to believe the life she knew before the war will again be hers. Together in the desert wilderness, Elise and Mariko hold tight the dream of being young American women with a future beyond the fences. But when the Sontag family is exchanged for American prisoners behind enemy lines in Germany, Elise will face head-on the person the war desires to make of her. In that devastating crucible she must discover if she has the will to rise above prejudice and hatred and re-claim her own destiny, or disappear into the image others have cast upon her. The Last Year of the War tells a little-known story of World War II with great resonance for our own times and challenges the very notion of who we are when who we’ve always been is called into question.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."  Matthew 7:7-8

I hope you have a good weekend my friends! Thank you for stopping by!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

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Hi friends! I have a finish for the cubby shelf to share with you!

I had to stitch this tiny, little gazebo one over one on 32ct lambswool linen to make it fit. You probably will not recognize the pattern. I have changed it a LOT! Not sure if you can even see the rooster weather vane I created on top in weathered copper color? This is "Main Street Gazebo" by Country Cottage Needleworks.

 I think I may call it "Broad Street Gazebo" now.😁 I modeled this after the gazebo on Broad Street in Greendale, Wisconsin where we lived for 10 years and raised our kids. I love Greendale.💖Always will❣️

This is the "Greendale section"of my cubby shelf. The white house is our former home in downtown Greendale.💗 I stitched up Dorothy's famous quote many years ago, referring to Greendale.

 Thought I would show you the actual gazebo too.

So now I am going to give away the pattern! If you would like "Main Street Gazebo" by CCN you need to: be a sidebar follower of mine on this blog, and leave a comment on this post telling me you would like the pattern. I will draw a name on Monday, June 10th.

And now...

The winner of the Hinzeit Love Bits: Love America chart is:  ASTRID! 😁

“This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.” Psalm 118:24

Thank you for stopping by today! I am so glad you did! You brighten my day with your comments.😊

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Guess who has a VERY BIG Birthday this week?
ME!