Friends Are Like Angels

Good Morning my friends! I am so glad you stopped by. Thank you for your kind words on my tiny Henry design. Even such a small attempt at designing gave me a real appreciation of the hard work our cross stitch designers do.

I have forgotten to mention that I gave the small poodle tin to the mail carrier last week. She was actually amazed. She was very happy with it, and told me she has just the place for it with her mail work. Well, that made me happy. She is really such a very, very nice person. =)

I would like to show you the two different ways I made up Friends Are Like Angels. This first one I am giving to my friend Heather. I made it to be a door knob hanger.

The trim I chose may appear to be red and white here to you, not sure, but it is dark pink and cream. It matches very well. The back is a dark  pink. I agonized over the perfect pink fabric. And I have small quantities of many pink fabrics in the hundreds I have to admit! tee hee!

Here is the flatfold. I had a pale pink organdy ribbon in the perfect shade to match the pink cross stitch border. So I made a bow for the top.

I used the same dark pink fabric as the "knob knocker".

Take a look at what I just received in the mail from the UK.

This came from our wonderful friend Mii. =) I was chosen as the next stitcher of Love Notes. I am a true chocoholic, so the Cadbury really hit the spot!! I even shared a tiny bit. ;) Now I am not a tea drinker, but never fear if you have ever sent me tea! My husband and Miss Madeleine are. Ha! You should have seen! BOTH of their eyes lit up for this tea packet. They both wanted it. So, they made two cups from it. ;) And they both liked it very much. Thank you Mii. That was very kind.

I really took my time choosing the linen for this one. I have decided to stitch the long french pattern you see at the bottom. I will not be making a pin pillow however. I have something special in mind. Not sure of the exact outcome quite yet, but I have ideas rolling around the old noggin. We shall see. I began stitching just before bed last night. Looks to be quick, but I am busy, busy with the garden too. So hang in there. You will be seeing this pattern posted for the Traveling Pattern Giveaway soon. =)

Last night, at church, our pastor opened his sermon with a story that is really sticking with me. I did a search just now, and found the story. It really is not long at all. I have no connection with this site, but it has the exact same story our pastor used last night, so this is the link I am giving you. If you care to read this short story, click here. We sang the exact song mentioned, after pastor's sermon. I am still singing it right now. =)

Have a wonderful day in the Lord my friends! Thanks for stopping by. See ya soon!

Stitching and Gardening and Praying,
Vickie

♫On The Road Again, Traveling Pattern On The Road Again! ♫

Good Morning my friends! If you are one of my American friends, I hope your Fourth was a great one. Me, well....... I forgot while watching the parade, to NOT shift a tiny bit in my chair to watch as the parade approached. Just turning that tiny bit, but for an hour, did me in. I am still in bad pain. Percocet got me through the fireworks and is still getting me through. BIG SIGH!!

So, I finished stitching up the second version of Friends Are Like Angels by Lizzie Kate. I took this picture of the two together. Look how the 28ct version looks so huge next to the 50 ct version.

50 ct one over two, with one over one also  28ct two over two, with one over one also

I will tell you I loved working on the 50 ct Lakeside Linen. I used a magnifier. I plan to make a "knob knocker"(door knob hanger) out of the small one for my friend Heather. I plan to make a flatfold out of the larger one.Soon. I gotta push myself. I wanted to begin finishing, I did. Just not that much. I started a new tiny pattern last night. It is a freebie I played around with a bit.

I got a bit organized yesterday. I decided to use the wonderful floss fob, that sweet Annette made me, to hold my threads for stitching up the two poodles.

I had saved this sweet, little notecard I received a while back. I cut out the adorable picture and wrote out my master chart of which colors to use on what parts of Henry and Mabel's bodies onto the back of it. Now when I want to stitch up one of my furry pals, I have my flosses and chart all ready. =)

I made this Red, White and Blueberry Bread yesterday in the bread machine. I just used my favorite Honey White Bread recipe and added about one half cup of dried blueberries, cherries and cranberries combined. Very yummy and very patriotic too! ;)

I have told you Henry is the King Cuddler around here. I spotted this yesterday and quickly took a picture. There was no need for me to hurry as it turned out. They stayed like this for 15 minutes.

So would you like to stitch up Lizzie Kate's Friends Are Like Angels? This is a Traveling Pattern I received from Sally.  All you need to do is be one of my followers, and leave me a comment right here on this post. You need to TELL me that you want to stitch it though. I don't wanna guess at who wants to be included in the draw. I will pull the name of the next stitcher on next Friday, July 12th.

I will be stitching today. Will you? Hope so. Have a fantastic day in the Lord my friends.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Two Winners!!

Good morning my friends! How are you all today? Evalina decided to stitch up Life's A Stitch after she saw my finish. =) She also decided to pass along her chart as another Travelling Pattern. She asked me to draw an additional name to win! So, Emma and Cucki are the two winners!! Keep an eye on their blogs for news on the Travelling Patterns. ;)

Unfortunately my pain is spiked up again. It happened from having to rise up and down out of my seat to allow people to come and go down the aisle two nights ago. That is when we went to see Itzhak Perlman and the Milwaukee Symphony. It was fabulous. I have got to say, seeing him perform is humbling. I do live in pain every day, but I am quite sure it is not at his level. Mr. Perlman lives in  daily pain, as he suffered polio as a child. Beethoven's Violin Concerto was absolute astounding. He has such amazing talent.

I actually felt guilt for clapping so long. The crowd cheered and cheered. He emerged just a little ways from the wings, on his crutches, for his curtain calls. Before his third curtain call, he played a joke. He threw in the towel. He threw a towel on stage, to say enough already! I had teary eyes, watching this man struggle so. What an experience!

Well, our Jacob received his letter from Marquette University. :( He is on the waiting list for the Nursing College. They have received almost 200 applications, only 56 will be admitted. We contacted our "impressive" people for letters of recommendations. He will have 4 in total. Quite honestly we still feel pretty good about it. He has a 3.9 GPA and is on the National Honor Society. He has an impressive list of accomplishments and community service too. Time will tell. Can you believe it might take until May for us to find out if he is one of the 56 students?!?

I have no pictures of stitching today friends. I have just a few final touches for the bottlecap pincushion yet. The stitching of my own design is coming along nicely. No, I am not sharing pictures of that until it is done. Believe it or not, it is not pink! And it does not involve a poodle! The shock, I know! ;)

I hope you all have a wonderful day today. There are a few of you, Shirlee, June, Cathey, who need a real big {{HUG}} today. I am thinking of you ladies and praying for you too. Take care.♥

Stitching and praying and reading a really good book too,
Vickie

(Thinking of you June)

Life's A Stitch

Good morning friends! It is icy and cold here. Currently 10º! Yuck! I finished off the Lizzie Kate Life's A Stitch into a small pillow for my big, wood bread bowl.

The little, purple poodle was a gift from Brian. She is a very cool handmade pottery piece made in France.♥ I backed this pillow with the fabric you see. It was a perfect match. I have many, many pink fabrics. Many! Quilt plans don'tcha know! Someday!

For now I am working on the mystery stitch I designed. Also I began the next bottlecap pincushion last night. I am not happy with how it is going. I am going to restart today. I suppose that was bound to happen one of these days, after having made so many. I just kinda develop an idea in my head and go with it.

Got all the Christmas stuff put away. We are waiting to hear from Marquette University for Jacob. We are praying and hoping. Any day now.

So, that's it for today friends. Have a most wonderful day. I am so glad you took time to visit with me. I appreciate my old friends and the new ones too! Welcome! If you would like to be the next one to stitch Life's A Stitch, leave me a comment telling me so. Check out my last post. ;)

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

A Travelling Pattern Up For Grabs!

Good morning my friends! Hello to new followers, so good to have you here. =) We are having very, very mild weather. I woke up to 51º this morning!! Crazy for January. Almost all the snow is gone.

I was the one chosen by March Ann to receive the Lizzie Kate Travelling Pattern.

I used Crescent Colours Aunt Marle's Violet 28ct linen. My current favorite linen. ;) I just went through my DMC and found flosses that went well with the linen. The only color I used from the chart was the green for the leaves.

The first picture is true to the colors.

Do you see this wonderful, fat thread of linen? That is right in my satin stitched sawtooth border? Argh!! Grrr! Let me tell you, yesterday had a few lessons for me. The first lesson I learned the very hard way. We went to DSW Warehouse shoe shopping for me. Never got a pair of shoes. But I did take percocet before leaving the store. :(  Brian caught up with me after a bit, and told me I really should sit down to try those shoes on. Boy, am I dumb! Duh! Such a simple thing to do. I could have avoided spiking my pain up. And why on earth do I try one shoe on?!? I need to remember to always try both on and sit down to do it. The next lesson learned is no matter how much I want those totally awesome blue leather dutch clogs, this girl should not wear 2 1/4" heels as comfort shoes. It somehow doesn't work well with the whole hip disability thing. :(

So, where was I ? Oh yes, I blabbered on about that because I wanted to tell you the next lesson I learned yesterday. Stitching a satin stitched sawtooth border for the first time yesterday was challenging enough. Girls, don't try it while on percocet! It becomes interesting. I learned to go back very, very often and recount. Lots of double checking made it possible.

And that gross linen slub in the upper right side? Well, I took my scissors and carefully cut away some of the thickness. Just at that hole. I have no idea what you are supposed to do. But while struggling to stay focused while medicated and stitching, that is what I came up with.

So, would you like to be the next person to stitch this little cutie up? This pattern originally started with Angela. Click on her name to see the list of all 20 stitchers before me! I am number 21. Who will be number 22? You must leave a comment on this post telling me you would like to stitch it. You must be a follower. And you must have a blog. I will draw a name on Friday, January 18th.

Now on to the next project. I want to make another bottlecap pincushion. I am designing a secret cross stitch pattern right now. ooOoo! Mysterious! Yes, challenging is more like it!!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

The Traveling Pattern Is Moving On To California!

Hey everybody! How the heck are ya? I drew the winning name this morning. The traveling pattern is moving on. Annette! The bunny is coming your way. Please email me your address.

I used my cool, little sequined and beaded poodle coin purse to hold the names of the ladies wishing to stitch the bunny. It is the only thing I ever used it for! HA! Brian bought it for me a few years ago.

This chocolate daylily is called Chocolate Splash.♥

These two pictures above of the different violas, are what I call little survivors. They both grew from seed spread by the wind and birds from last year. They popped up this spring in the cracks of the driveway. I give them a little water almost daily, but they are tough little ladies. :) There are probably a dozen and a half of them scattered around.

I am stitching a Christmas piece right now.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

The 45 count Poodle Magnet

Hey everybody! I finished stitching this little poodle up two days ago. I finished her off into a magnet this morning. :)

one over one, 45 ct white Italian linen

This one is by far my favorite of my poodle freebie magnets. She is so pretty.♥ Not sure what the reddish color is on the inside rim of bottle cap, it is not really there. I will say, I stitched the black first, and that was NOT a problem. I actually got quite a bit stitched without magnification. ONE OVER ONE ON 45CT LINEN!! It was the pink stitching that didn't go smoothly at all. Thanks again to Mouse for suggesting the tent, or half cross stitch. That helped me even get pink stitching into this little piece. Is she perfect? No way. Would I do this again? No. I would do just the black again, but not fill her in on 45ct. Well, she is done and I do not have to worry about it any longer now do I?

She was a freebie I found here.

All of these hollyhocks and sweet peas I grew from seeds. The last one is in the chocolate heart garden. It is actually called black hollyhock, but as you can see it is a dark reddish brown. So I prefer the name I gave it, Dark Chocolate hollyhock. ;) See Shirlee, you can go right ahead and name your plants!!

No stitching for me today. But I am crafting with fabric. More to come!

If you want a chance to win the Traveling Pattern "Bunny", take a look at my last post and leave a comment there. :)

Have a super weekend. I have new followers, hello ladies!! So glad when everyone stops by and leaves me a comment. It sure brightens my day.

Crafting and praying,
Vickie

Chart Giveaway

Hey everybody! I am doing a little better every day. Thank you so much for your concern. Thank you most especially for your prayers. :) I would think it would take a full week for the pain to settle back down. Good thing I was able to obtain the percocet yesterday afternoon.

Well, I finished stitching up this little cutie last night.

Bent Creek Littles Bunny

If you recall, I just stitched him and made him into a scissors fob for June a couple of weeks ago. He is sooo adorable that I just had to have him for my very own also.♥

32 ct lambswool, two over two

Mr. Adorable here is now available for the stitching! He is a traveling bunny. ;)

Traveling Bent Creek Bunny Chart
Tricia at The Stamper's Stitches
Sally at Stitchyangel's Treasures

Traveling Pattern Giveaway

Aren't my old majolica knife rests cool? My husband bought those for me about a year and a half ago. They came from France.♥ No, you can't have them!

So if you would like to be next to stitch up this little Bunny, you need to do two things. Number one is be or become a follower here. :) Number two is leave a comment on this post only, stating that you would like to be next to stitch him.  That is it! I will draw a name next week Tuesday, June 26th.

Last night, after I finished the bunny, I took out that poodle for the magnet. After much thought, and consideration of all your comments, I decided to go with Mouse's idea. I do not know why I didn't think of that myself. Actually, I think I do. My thinking isn't the clearest while on percocet! She had advised me to make half crosses/ tent stitch it. I have begun and it looks great. I will continue on with that today. THANK YOU MOUSE FOR YOUR FABULOUS IDEA! The poodle is receiving her pink!! :)

I had recently had a giveaway for a Just Cross Stitch Magazine. Jo was the winner. She received it and likes it very much. She in turn sent me a magazine she also had a double of. :)

gift from Jo

I am pleased to tell you it has wonderful projects inside. My favorite being the pansies, imagine that! Thank you again Jo.

That is it for me today follks. I hope you have a fantastic day.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie