La-D-Da Winner and Vintage Finds

Good morning everybody! A cloudy, rainy day here. I drew the name for the La-D-Da pattern this morning and it is Amanda from Samplers,Silks and Linens. I am waiting for Amanda to email me back her postal address. "Praise God" is going on a loooong road trip to Taiwan!!

So the other day Madeleine and I went to Good Will. And I bought this for $3.00.

I know right?!? Ha! Just kidding. I do realize it is a bit, how shall we say it, ugly?, weird? But someone handmade this from wood. It is in perfect condition. I just plan on having it out in the garden somewhere. It makes me smile. =)

She and I also went to Salvation Army. I found this neat recipe box for a dollar.

And I found these, 3 for one dollar.

There were twice as many as these. I took the time to go through them and bought only the ones I would actually stitch from.

I am still stitching my little gift for the young mom and her baby. She stopped into school yesterday to say hi to her homeroom teacher. She looks good and is doing well. She did not have the baby with her! She will return to school at the start of November. Her mom will watch the baby during the day. God bless her mom and dad! Baby will be in a loving home with her mom and grandma and grandpa.♥

Have the best day you ever had my friends! I am so glad to have new followers! Hello to you! Come back now! =)

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Pumpkin and Gift Stitching

Good morning everybody! It is a very cool morning thus far. Just look at this pretty sunrise from minutes ago. I saw it from the front porch as I watched the kids drive off to school.

God is an amazing, awesome artist!

The pumpkin stitching was done last week. It rained for 48 hours straight after that. And I needed to get the picture outside because it resides on the front porch poodle. ;)

I used the pumpkins from the PSS freebie called Give Thanks. I found the wired ribbon the other day at JoAnn. It is like 18 count Aida ribbon. I knew right away it would be used for my front porch pooch.

This is the gift I sent off to Catherine. She told me she loves it. =)

She had told me months ago that she likes blues, greens, pinks and browns. Well my family thinks it looks like a chocolate cupcake! This was another fun bottle cap pincushion to make. =)  I love that textured brown felt, however it is not as noticeable on the finished pincushion, except the bottom. ;)

If you like La-D-Da and you want a pattern click here.

I am currently stitching a gift for a young woman I do not know. She is an eighteen year old student at our children's Catholic high school. She is an unwed mother. She had her baby, a girl, a week and a half ago. She has not returned to school yet. Our kids know of her, but do not know her. I just thought a little something for her baby might be nice. I don't know, I was just moved to do it. She is obviously having a tough time. Many of her "friends" abandoned her. Tough choices in life. Big consequences too. Well, praise God mom and baby are well.♥

Have a fabulous day my friends. I am happy to have new friends here.♥ I thank you all for your kind words. They warm my heart. I will share with you next time my thrift store finds from yesterday. I spent a whole three dollars and change! ;)

"Thanks ladies for your prayers! I am much improved!"

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

La-D-Da Giveaway

Good morning everybody! It is a bright, beautiful, sunshiney day here! =) I want to thank all of you who said prayers for little Mabel. She is improving much. The medicine is working well. The prayers are working great. Praise God!

And that is the name of the chart I would like to give to one of you! Praise God by La-D-Da

 

I did stitch this earlier this year if you recall. I am still keeping a watch for a frame I can use for it. If you look in the right places, you are sometimes able to get one right off the shelf instead of custom ordering it. I may have to, but I will keep trying to find one out there.

So dear friends, if you would like this chart (with a small gift made by me) please leave a comment for me on this post. You must be a follower. I will draw a name on Friday, October 19th.

I have two packages in the mail, so there will be things to show soon! I am stitching pumpkins right now. Cute little project.♥

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

A Giveaway Win

Hi everybody! It is sunny, but there is a very cold wind today. I still  went out and took pictures of what I just made this morning. =) I will show you in just a moment. I thought I would show you what I just received in the mail yesterday afternoon first.

Isn't this lovely? Mary Kathryn made this great acorn. I have nothing like it. There are fabulous beads attached to the top, you will see if you look closely.  Sorry you can't see them better. I took this photo this morning. The sun was shining so brightly on the kitchen floor, I just grabbed the beautiful rose my husband gave me earlier this week and Mary Kathryn's acorn and put them right in the sun. Thank you again Mary Kathryn. It went from your dough bowl to mine. =)

So, I finished another giftie yesterday. You cannot see yet, so sorry. ;) I then decided to make myself a small project pouch for my counting pin supplies. I had a small mess. It is now all in one place. =)

I found this tutorial to help me. I had this pansy fabric for over one year. I love pansies. They are my favorite flower. I finally figured out what to use it for. I stopped in at JoAnn last night and found the fabric for the lining. The pink matches the pink pansies perfectly. It is called Moonstone Glitter in a rose color. It has a golden glitter to it. The pansies are outlined in gold. Perfect!!

I adapted the pattern a bit. I have no closure as of now. Don't know that I will need one, as I make my counting pins at the kitchen table. I do not travel around with them. I added batting between the two fabrics. I made a larger felt area for my counting pins.♥ All my beads, pins and glue are tucked away in one spot now. Hooray!

Would you mind terribly if I asked you to maybe say a prayer for Mabel? Her back has "flared up" on her again, starting last night. She could barely walk or urinate. I got her onto her medications right away. This morning there is a little improvement. We are still hand feeding her, as it hurts her to bend her neck. The pain pills are definitely helping her. Unfortunately, she seems to be having these "flare ups" with her slipped discs once a month. She is able to go on a 5 minute walk most days of the week. This helped her lose one pound of the three! she gained in the last few months. Now she is back on the steroid that causes the weight gain, and of course she will not be able to go for any walks for a few weeks. Argh! So frustrating. It is what the vet said it would be. Helping her back, but weight gain in the process. :(

You can see from this picture taken a few hours ago, that she is not very happy.

On to the next project. Well I have two small ones calling me. Not sure yet  which I will choose. I'll let you know next time. Til then, take care sweet friends. Thank you for stopping by.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Stitchy Stuff

Good morning everybody! I hope today is a great one for you.♥ I got word from Maggee that she received my gift to her. She has been so good to me this year with patterns and linen. I am hoping she does not mind that I lifted these pictures off of her blog! What a dunce I am. I forgot to take a picture before I mailed it to her.

My gift to Maggee

Bottle cap Pincushion with Counting Pins

I used two books to help me in making this: Pretty Little Pincushions by Lark Books(from the library) and House & Garden Samplers by Mary Jenkins(my own book). Most of the flowers are ones that are in my own garden.

This is the closest Needlework Shop to me. It is about 20 minutes away. It is in Elm Grove, where Brian grew up and his parents still live.

This is what I bought with my gift certificate from last Christmas still! I know! I can't help it. It is just in me to be a saver. Brian was happy I used the gift certificate up finally. Only problem is, I DIDN'T!! I still have $25 left! This stash only cost me $12! Yes, you guessed it. I shopped the clearance bins. Did I not mention I am thrifty? This was my second trip trying to spend it all.  I think the Rabbit Stitcher is adorable.♥

I purchased the John James size 28 petite needles. I like using them, BUT they bend easy. Do any of you have this problem? Are there stronger short needles out there ladies?

Hot Cocoa Rose

Still stitching on my gift. It uses mainly the Ghiordes Knot. That will get you thinking! ;)

Take care my friends. Have a peaceful, restful Sunday.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

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

Gosh! Golly! Gee! I'm A Going Crazy!!

Hi everybody! Can you believe that I still do NOT have the Erica Michaels piece stitched for my husband. AND OUR ANNIVERSARY IS IN TWO DAYS!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! So what the heck am I doing on the computer then? Huh? Well, taking a break. I am not a slacker. Just a busy wife and mom to three teens.

Hooray for Catherine !! She guessed what I aim to do with that red yarn. I gave clues to anyone who left questions in the comments section. She kept responding, so I kept supplying clues. I spotted this months ago. I knew I would use it for our upcoming 20th anniversary. ;) Pictures will be coming soon! I plan to make a little something for Catherine. Thank goodness she is willing to wait just a bit.

I wanted to show you this.

Excuse the glare. I stitched this and had it framed 20 years ago. I gave it to Brian as a wedding present. Our colors have changed over the years. When he painted our bedroom 4 years ago, he lovingly painted it the palest pink. Well, he absolutely, positively insisted this still hang in our bedroom! Oh my does it ever clash, but oh well, he does cherish it. ♥ I do not own the pattern any longer. I do not remember the designer even.

Must go stitch now friends! Have a great night.

Stitching and praying,
Vickie