A Happy Anniversary

Good morning everybody! I am so glad you are here. =) Thank you for all your kind words and well wishes for our 20th anniversary.♥

I am glad to say the yarn bombing went well.♥

I began this when the kids left for school and Brian had yet to arrive home from working all night. It was dark and 44º. By the time I had finished, my nose, fingers and toes were almost frozen. I decided to just do one heart for each of us. =)

Here we have the Pixel People made up into a framed flatfold. I love the petite cluny lace.

These are my gifts from Brian. He wanted to give me the traditional gift of china for our 20th. So he chose a beautiful china tea cup for me with my favorite flowers, pansies. The pansies are also on the wonderful Polish pottery candy dish.

Well, embarrassing dust is in this picture, but I thought that was really neat the way the sun shone right through it.♥

So here is the "To Thee My Heart" from Erica Michaels I worked so hard at. I found this frame at Kohl's Department Store. I found the perfect color paper to back it with at Michael's. I like the way it really lights up the silk gauze.

These pictures are not very good. I tried and tried. I have to tell you, there were real sweat and tears put into this piece. If you should decide to stitch an Erica Michael's Petite, DO NOT follow this part.

I must be real naive. I never stitched on silk gauze, so I followed the directions exactly!! Duh. In hind sight, I can see it was a bad, bad, bad decision to mark from corner to corner with pencil. Guess what would not come out when I finished stitching and was ready to frame?! I called my LNS. Cheryl did not know how to get it out. She suggested I call Linda Stolz, the designer of Erica Michaels. I did. I told her I was reduced to tears because it would not come out. "She said we have all been there at some point." What?! She asked if I marked the pencil lines from corner to corner? "Yes, that is what the instructions told me to do." She said, "Yes, I found out the hard way the first time too. You only need to mark small lines at the center." So I told her, "Yes, I did not know that. I only followed the directions." So Linda offfered to send me a new piece of silk gauze!! What?!? To which I told her, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NO WAY! This was a labor of love. It took many hours." She told me she never found anything to take the pencil out.

So yes, I could have matted it right up to the stitching. That is not how I envisioned it. I want the silk gauze showing. I tried 4 different erasers (artsy things). I washed it with a tiny amount of dish soap. I talked with another LNS and a framer. I finally thought of something after many tears. I have an at-home dry cleaning kit. It has a fine fabric stain remover in it. It says it is safe for silks. I used it. The pencil is gone. Happy story at the end. THANK YOU GOD!

Well then! Now you know! Whew! I am currently stitching a gift for my friend. It is looking very cute thus far. It is actually embroidery I am doing.So no pictures of that yet. But we need a poodle right? ;) Ha! At least I do!

My sweet baby girl Mabel.

Have a fabulous day in the Lord my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

A Giveaway Win!

Good morning everybody! It is another cool, sunny morning here. =) Brian called and pushed the woman at the doctor's office yesterday. She was on vacation for one week, last week. She is the only one who takes care of insurance and MRIs. What?!? So amazingly coincidental that she calls a few hours later and the insurance went through for it. We just have to wait until today to set it up with the hospital by our home. She needed time to get it to them.ROAR!! Man, I am trying to control my rage here. It's just that health care things can be so DUMB! I am waiting 2 weeks just to make the appointment for  the MRI the doctor ordered. I am living in pain every stinkin'day. Sorry, sorry. Ugly bitterness tries to budge back in there. Forgive me. Moving on.......

Maggee sent me this.

AND this! A surprise she added. Isn't she sweet? Thank you Maggee. I made you a little something to show my appreciation of you. =) It is in the mail, on it's way to you way down there.

I am stitching on this.














I made an assumption that this was cross stitch. Surprise!! When it arrived and I opened up the package, I started reading it. Holy Toledo! This is needlepoint over one on 40ct silk gauze! Oh my goodness! Now what?! I made a start the other day. Then I frogged the other day. :(  When, when this ever gets done, it will be really cool. I hope. I think. At least it should be. This is to be for Brian for our 20th anniversary along with the Pixel People I have yet to finish "finish".

Mabel say "Hi"! She is sporting her haircut I gave her on Saturday. Isn't she lightening up? Hard to believe she was jet black as a 2lb, 7 week old puppy I received on Mother's Day 3 years ago.

Have a great day my friends. Thank you for visiting me. I do so appreciate you.♥

Slowly stitching and reading,
Vickie