The Final MMMM SAL update

Hi friends! It is hard to believe that today our oldest, Jacob, is 20 years old! We will have family over for cake tomorrow. I'll share a picture of the cake with you soon. ;)

I did it! I stitched up 5 small pieces for the Mega Mini Month Madness SAL I am in. =) The fifth finish is for my friend who  is in her first year of being a teacher.

Isn't this sweet?! I found this pattern at the library in the September issue of Cross-Stitch & Needlework magazine. I used to subscribe, but rarely find a pattern I want to stitch. So I let the library pay the subscription. ;) We live a 3 minute walk from the public library.

This pattern is by Joan Elliott and is one of three charts simply listed as "Back-to-School Trio".

I stitched mine one over one on 28ct evenweave, using all the DMC charted. I am thinking I may make this darling, little sampler into a magnet for my friend. Not sure yet. I did change what was to be stitched on the blackboard. I thought putting her name there was a neat idea for a first grade teacher.

I found this really cool, old looking (but brand new) terrarium many months ago at Kohl's on clearance. I forgot the exact price I paid. It was about $15.00, that is it!! I knew I needed it for displaying cross stitch when I saw it.

So fun! And different. (Yes, there are two poodles tucked in there with the fall stitchery.)

It snowed a little last night. It will disappear with the sun. Fine with me. ;)

Busy day today. I am going to give Mabel a haircut and bake a birthday cake. =)

I hope you have a wonderful day! Thank you for stopping by.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

MMMM SAL Finish #4

Hi friends! I got a little bit more garden work done. The key is to keep it "little", then I do not experience spiked pain. Mild days and nights for this weekend. Very nice.

I finished the stitching on my fourth finish for the MMMM SAL I am in. This is 'Just One More Stitch' by Victoria Sampler.

I changed every single color but one. I used all DMC. I stitched this two over two on mystery/almond 30ct linen.

I also simplified the borders on the tops. Did not want/have the buttons. I like it. =)

Instead of a red heart button beneath my name on the back, I added a poodle charm. ;)

Gave Brian a haircut (a lot easier than Henry). Next up for a shampoo, blow dry and cut is Miss Mabel.

I am now working on a Christmas gift for a long time friend of mine. She is not a stitcher. We went to college together to become Veterinary Nurses. She now earned a second degree and has changed direction in her life. She is a first grade teacher now. =) We very rarely see each other. But this small school themed gift will be mailed to her.

Have a beautiful day in the Lord my friends,
Vickie

A Snippet

Hi friends! I have finish number 4 for this month to share with you, for the MMMM SAL I am in. ( The link is in my sidebar.) Unfortunately I can only share a snippet. ;) This is a gift for a fellow stitcher and follower.

Yes, I know, sorry. I must post my finishes every week for my SAL, and this is all I am showing! Just trust me that it is done and it is sweet.

I am now stitching Victoria Sampler's 'Just One More Stitch'. For me. :)

My pain is, um, let's just say bad. It has been awful for 6 days. I scheduled another cortisone shot in my hip bursa(s). It has shifted to being worse on my right. That is my "good" side. :(

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Mega Mini Month Madness

Hi friends! I, along with 21 other stitchers, have signed up for a SAL, called Mega Mini Month Madness. It is hosted by Pull The Other Thread. You can click on that link if you like. I do have to tell you the final date for sign up has come and gone though.

All 22 of us stitchers are going to work on only mini projects for the month of October and see what we can accomplish. :) We each need to post once a week, 5 times in October, to show you all our mini progress. There will be a drawing for us at the beginning of November for a €25 voucher (or equivalent in your local currency) for an online store of your choice so long as they do e-vouchers. whoo hoo! How fun!

So here we go. I thought I would show you what I have kitted up to work on this month. As you know, I just finished Madeleine's  "Winky" Christmas ornament. I will now do one ornament for each of our sons.
I am going with MU for Jacob and CUW for Emerson. Yes, their universities. I am using my 365 Alphabets  book by Donna Kooler  to stitch them up.

I plan to frame them in the 2 inch frame charm squares you see above.

Since I can only stitch on the guys' ornaments during the day while they are at school, I will start on this sweet chart recently given to me by Tricia. I will begin the Thankful String for night time stitching. ;)

I usually make my mother an angel ornament for Christmas. I won't be doing that this year. Their dog died several months ago, and my mom got a kitten. She has now become "crazy for cats". I spied this freebie a while back and knew I had to stitch this for her. I plan to make a flatfold. My mom' favorite color is blue. Not sure what color flosses I will be using yet.

When I received my JCS Ornament Issue last month, I  knew I wanted to stitch up "Just One More Stitch" by Victoria Sampler.

Yes, the fabric is a bit lighter and the colors.... Well, I changed those up quite a bit. I took a long time deciding over the colors. I admire the finish the way it is, but the colorway is just not me. I imagine that little stitcher being me. I would just never make a quilt in those colors. Silly? Maybe. But that's how my brain thinks about things like this. ;)

I am thinking these will keep me plenty busy for October! Besides stitching I want to get some much needed work done in the garden. We will see what I can do. I am not going to get myself injured and in pain for days.

With the cooler weather I seem to be baking a lot more often. Lots of breads. We love bread around here. :) Here is a loaf of challah. I think it is my favorite kind of bread I bake.

Well enjoy the day my friends! I plan to. Even when I am stitching, I enjoy looking out the window and watching the daily color changes of the beautiful leaves in the trees.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Finally Framed

Hi friends! Things have started warming up. Problem is that it rained and froze, so everything is very slick out there. Is anyone enjoying good weather? Tell me.

I finished Mary's Sampler over a month ago. I have been searching for a 5x5 frame ever since. Let me tell you, those are not readily available around here. Unless you want black. Michael's had two different wood ones. I bought one and tried it out. It wouldn't fit! I measured the frame, and guess what? It was 4 1/2 inchesx4 1/2 inches!!! C'mon! Ridiculous. I returned that and guess what? We finally made the trip to Hobby Lobby. Yay! It is not near us. I have been wanting to get back to that store FOR YEARS. Finally went. So glad I did. =) Found a frame. For only $5 too! =)

I found a sweet, little, vintage poodle pincushion with the original thimble on ebay. =)

This is the progress I have made on Theotokos this week.

I decided, why wait for one more week in this elevated pain? I have done some hunting down of this pain PA.She returned to work this last week at the main pain clinic she works out of. She returns this week to the clinic I visit. I have discovered the true problem is that I see her and the pain doctor at the location closer to me. The main clinic they work out of is far away and NOT affiliated with mine. The nurses and people don't seem to work together. So I called my place and had them fax over the message as usual. But then I called that clinic and asked if they received the fax. The receptionist assured me they did and she was delivering it to the PA herself. I called back 90 minutes after I knew she had the fax delivered to her desk and asked if she actually saw it. The receptionist told me she knew the PA saw it because she personally delivered it to her. She put me on hold for less than 2 minutes and then said she personally asked the PA. The PA said she had the fax sent back over with the directions, but you can tell Vickie to increase her meds to 4 times daily beginning now and I will see her in one week as planned. Do you know the nurse from the facility I deal with called me the next morning, 18 hours later? She said they received the message from the PA and the prescription is being called in for you to your pharmacy now. That was it. I didn't even discuss it with her. I will with the office manager at my appointment in two days.Being on the Neurontin 4 times daily has brought the pain level down lower. It has been better.

Off to have lunch with family in a few hours. Hoping the ice melts a lot today. I do NOT need to slip! Who does?!

Have a stitchtatic day my friends. =)

Stitching and reading and praying,
Vickie

Gifties

Hi friends! Hope all is well with you? It is VERY cold and very white here.  I did finish my Mary's Sampler last week. I have been searching for a 5x5 frame for weeks. =( Cannot find one suitable. I will keep searching.

One over two on 40ct Sandstone linen

I received this lovely package from Annette quite a while ago.

I finally opened it last night. Just look at the lovely pattern with flosses Annette got me. I have never had a pattern by Ellen Chester. So nice! And that adorable, little needlebook. Oh my! Such attention to detail. Fantastic! Thank you Annette. I love my gifts. ♥

 

I also received these gifts from June.

I have been so very fortunate enough to receive one of these sweet bookmark calenders from June before. Love them! Thank you June!

Here is another gift that I received from Chris. I had admired this pattern on her blog many times. She gifted me not only with the pattern, but also the linen. Thanks Chris!

Take a look at the surprises I received from sweet Maggee.

Wonderful linen and pink fabrics that I am absolutely going to use up! I am loving the sweet card she sent. See the precious pup looking in on Jesus too? =)

Not ready for Christmas yet. Working on it still. I decided to make things a little simpler this year. We used our 4 foot white Christmas tree this year as our primary tree. I told the kids to put just their dog ornaments on it. That's it! A Dog Christmas Tree. Why not? Easy, simple and fun. =)

All of the above have been made by me in previous years. This one below was stitched by Madeleine about 4 years ago. It was finished by me.

That's it for today friends. I am off to finish two more gifts. Gotta bake cookies soon. =)

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

A Forgotten Treasure

Hi friends!  I hope all is well with you? Did ya have a stitchy weekend? I did. I got up to date on Mary's Sampler.

It is too bad I forgot about this great children's book we received from a wonderful, elderly neighbor many years ago, back in Greendale. I would like to have shown you this at the start of Mary's Sampler.

This sweet book was published in 1947. I will just have to show you the picture pertaining to this week's stitching on the sampler.

And these are the Bible passages Paulette gave to us this week:
Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told them.
And when eight days were completed for the circumcision of the Child, His name was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb. Luke 2:20-21

 I also finished another small piece I was stitching on. I did the finishing on it last night before bed. I will show you next time. I need to shove off now. Have to stitch like crazy on the Henry pieces during the days, while the kids are in school.

I will leave you with these words from Mother Teresa to ponder.


"Spread love everywhere you go: First of all in your own house… let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God's kindness; kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in your warm greeting."
Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Unstitchin'

Hi friends! Argh! Unstitching on the 'Bethlehem Scene'. Can't believe it got so messed up. sigh. I think it is because I have stitched this 6 times now. I don't think I was careful enough. Darn it! Now I have to try and fudge some too. I need to figure out if I can, otherwise I will just keep putting wasted hours into it. So disappointing.

Well, I did get Mary's Sampler done and up to date now.

Here's a picture of pretty Miss Mabel. She doesn't care about the Green Bay Packer loss or my Bethlehem Mess.

Unstitching and restitching and definitely praying,
Vickie

Stitching and Reading

Good Morning friends! It is frosty here. What is your weather like?

Here is the update on Mary's Sampler.

I have still not been inspired to do the finishing on my mother's angel ornament. I'll get there. I am currently stitching 'Bethlehem Scene' as my night time project. This will be the SIXTH time I am stitching this ornament. I just love it. This one will be for Emerson's homeroom teacher. He is also the director of faith formation for the high school. A truly wonderful man. If you do not recall what 'Bethlehem Scene' looks like take a look back here.

During the days, while the kids are in school, I am stitching on their Christmas ornaments. I got out the graph paper and created a Henry I am pretty happy with. =) All three will be stitched on a beautiful, pale green 30 ct linen. I am making them all one over one. I found a very cool border to surround Henry with while I was looking through old JCS Ornament issues. I am waiting for beads to arrive in the mail. I need many beads for the finishing of these ornaments.

I made Steak Gorgonzola last night for dinner. Have you ever had that at The Olive Garden restaurant? I never had, but Jacob has absolutely loved it for years now, so I thought I would give it a try. I used this copycat recipe. It was really, really good!

I finished reading The Intrigue at Highbury by Carrie Bebris. Another very good book by her. Mr. and Mrs. Darcy meet Mr. and Mrs. Knightly in this one. =)

I read Outlaw, the newest book by Ted Dekker, in two days. ;) tee hee! I love his books! Man, he is a talented author. This one was based in the jungles of New Guinea. Ted was born in a jungle in New Guinea. His parents were missionaries there. They lived with cannibals!! So this story had very much detail and authenticity. A GREAT READ!!

Off to stitch now. I hope and pray that your day is blessed. I thank God for you my friends! Thank you for stopping by.♥

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Autumn Delights

Hi friends! How about we do the happy stuff first, okay? I finished the Barbara Ana 'Autumn Delights' into a framed flatfold. I used a chocolate colored linen I had in my stash. I tried making a twig frame from fallen branches from our big Silver Bark Maple tree. I may still make up a twig frame to mount around the stitched piece, on the flatfold. It is not that easy to get twigs to lay straight!

I stitched this all one over one using DMC on a creamy mystery colored 27 count evenweave.

This is where it sits out on display now. On Great Aunt Ethel's treadle sewing machine with my fall pieces and Cathey's Pumpkin.♥

Here it is in the chocolate garden, amongst the chocolate colored foliage. Did any of you notice the two personalizations I made? Instead of stitching the kitty peeking out from behind the tree, I stitched Henry!! ♥ And I "carved" my initials into the tree bark. =)

Here is my updated picture on the PSS SAL, Mary's Sampler.

Now for the unhappy. I had the second test injection today. The pain relief so far from this test injection is slightly better than two weeks ago. I insisted on stronger sedation this time, so this injection went a lot better. I will have a consult with the doctor in two weeks. If he finds the relief I got this time not very impressive, he will not be doing the radiofrequency alblation in my SI joint. To be honest, our talk this morning was depressing for me. To see my pain specialist discouraged, well it made me feel low. I have tried so very many procedures and therapies over these 9 1/2 years. If he does not do the ablation, we will just manage my pain with medication and occasional cortisone shots. =(

I finished listening to  The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan on CD. It was very good. This book was written in 1678, so it was very different and interesting. I had been wanting to read this for years. I know that it is a popular book with quite a few Amish people actually. It is a Christian allegory. I am glad I found it on CD through the library system so I could finally get this book done!

Let's end with more happiness shall we? I gave Henry a haircut on Sunday.

Boy is he hard to get a decent picture of. He doesn't hold still. Here he is chewing a bone.

Here he is waiting for me to open Winky's cage door. ;)

I couldn't resist adding this one in too. He is so intent on Winky here. He is giving a little leap. Doesn't he look like he is flying or something? hahaha!

Have a stitchtastic day my friends! I am so glad you stopped by!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie