Giggles done

I should have known that feeling like stitching something that normally would drive me crazy didn't bode well. While the beginning of my beading day last week started with quiet beading time, the next part was for sleeping. I just couldn't keep my eyes open. That's a problem when the kids are wide awake! It was the beginning of a nasty cold - the kind that slowly gets passed around the entire family.

So for the last few days, I've had sleepy little ones curled up on my lap while I finished beading. My Giggles in the Snow Boy from Mirabilia Designs is done. I found some nice blue fabric for a backing and I will finish it into a wall hanging this week. He came out nicely I think - but it will be a while before I start the girl.

I have a bunch of ornaments to get stitched and finished in the next few weeks. I have some Valerie Pfeiffer chicks - specifically Christmas Chick and Golfer Chick. Then I saw a Mirabilia fairies Round Robin on another blog this weekend (I'll add the link when I remember which blog it was). The blogger had stitched Lilly's head on her pillow and she looked great. So, now I'm checking out each of the Mirabilia ladies to determine which heads are suitable for ornaments. I also need to do one more of the Kreinik freebie snowmen.

And I just received my Christmas Eve Couriers charts! Must start them too!

What a day!

For some reason, I woke up this morning feeling far more patient than usual (might be related to last night's baseball game - or it might not). So, to take advantage of this unusual event, I decided to sit down and bead Giggles in the Snow - the parts that I would normally dread - all those little beads spread far apart from all the rest of the stitching. So - I did complete half of the beading. I wonder when I'll wake up in that mood again?

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day. It still hasn't gotten cold here - which is unusual. I'm still pulling veggies - tomatoes, green beans, eggplant and carrots from the garden. My roses are even blooming! Since it hasn't been cold, even at night, it took a whole lot longer for the leaves to change and we didn't get as wide a range of colors as usual. But they did finally change - I think it was overnight somewhere between last Thursday and Friday. Its supposed to rain and be windy tomorrow so I wanted to get out there and see the leaves before they're gone. Here's our backyard and then a more distant picture of the ridge where we live.

I love Fall!!

Christmas Eve Couriers

Christmas Eve Couriers is the new series from Nora Corbett - the designer of Mirabilia Designs. Nora has released two designs for her new series - Dasher and Donner. She has also released two more designs for her Pixie Couture Design series - Rose and Violet. The reindeer designs are really cute and they're small - nice quick stitches. I can't wait to stitch the reindeer. There's a pretty interesting discussion going on about Nora's new designs on the Mirabilia bulletin board if anyone is interested in contributing (plus the board always provides lots of inspiration).

Here are links to the new reindeer designs -

Dasher	Donner

Another ornament stitched

I finished the stitching on my 'Daniel' name tree. I still need to add a star and beads and then I'll finish both of them into ornament/gift tags. I wish I had noticed that the Daniel ornament is significantly larger than the Chris ornament. At least now I'll be careful to check the sizes when stitching other name trees. Unfortunately, this is a pretty pitiful picture. I'll try to get a better one when the sun is out.


On the baby stitchable front - I still have a few bibs and sippy cups left. Please email me if you're interested!

On the store front - new Mirabilia and Nora Corbett designs will be going up tonight. They're so cute - you have to check them out!

Baby stuff

I've been reading a whole bunch of stitching blogs - and there are a whole lot of babies on the way. Which made me think about all the baby stitchables I acquired while waiting for my boys to arrive. Most of it is still waiting to be stitched. For the most part, the ones that were stitched were stitched for other babies (nieces and nephews and friends). I have tons of baby stuff. So, given the number of babies on the way - I have decided to give it away to other stitchers who can make better use of it than I can. I have booties, bibs, caps, bonnets - and tons of charts for baby designs - Alma Lynne, Stoney Creek and a bunch more. So, for anyone who is interested please send me an email - let me know if this is a boy or girl or unknown and the type of item in which you're interested and we'll put something together! I'll feel so much better having these things in the hands of someone who will use them!

Thanks!



Edited to add pics

Happy Dancin'

I'm happy dancing. Not that I actually accomplished much, it was more of an acquisition than an accomplishment. Last year, an acquaintance wrote to me about finding a Bee Skep Tassel Topper from Just Nan. She hadn't been able to find one in some time and I had one. I had been planning to stitch Barnabee's Quest but hadn't gotten around to it (it had already been a couple of years). Anyway, I agreed to sell her mine. A couple of months later, for my birthday, I got the embellishment packs for all three parts and was ready to start stitching. That's when I found out that the Tassel Toppers were no longer available. I searched so many stores. I searched eBay. I just couldn't find one. Anyway - fast forward to this past week. European Cross Stitch sent out a newsletter and mentioned that they had just one of a 'Tassel Topper'. What were the chances that is was the one that I was looking for? IT WAS! So, I ordered as quickly as possible and crossed my fingers. I tried not to get too excited because I've ordered before only to find out that whichever shop it was didn't really have them in stock. But now -- I got an email confirming that it is on its way!!!!! I am so excited!!

On to accomplishments (which pale in comparison to my acquisition) --

I finally have the beads for Mirabilia's Giggles in the Snow. So now it says Snow Angel. I still have to add all the scattered beads.

I also mounted my Scream Girls from Just Nan in its WhimZi frame. I like the pouff of orange hair on the ghost on the frame.

Goals for this week:

Finish stitching Daniel name tree

Beading on Snow Angel

find backing fabric for both name trees

Find Mirabilia Designs and Just Nan cross stitch designs on my website.

Flurry book cover

I finally finished the "Flurry" cross stitch freebie from Kreinik as a little notebook cover. I found these cute notebooks at the supermarket. The pink cover of one of the notebooks reminded me of the colors in the Flurry design so I decided to put it on the cover.

This is one of the few pieces I've stitched on Aida. I'm not really a fabric snob - but I definitely disliked the feeling of the needle going through this Aida. Although - its still not as bad as the feel of the needle going through some canvas. I need to stitch another of these little guys but I think I'll use Damask aida or maybe some hand-dyed aida with a different feel to it.

Unfortunately - no good pics of the finished cover. I'll try to get some more tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

Christmas Biscornu

As part of my Christmas ornament stitching, I started on Just Nan's Christmas Biscornu design. The embellishment pack for this design has a whole lot of beads - certainly more than I expected. This will be quite sparkly. I still have some smyrnas to do and all of the beading on the trees side - then I'll start on the Snowflakes side. It stitches up pretty quickly. We have this design and Just Nan's other new Christmas designs available at Needlearts Gallery.

A quick note about the Mirabilia design, Seaside Kingdom. Silkweaver has, in the past, dyed an opalescent fabric just for this design - sand colored on the bottom and sky colored on the top. I understand from Tracy at Silkweaver that they will have more of this fabric soon - so if you've been waiting for it, keep an eye out on their site. The Seaside Kingdom design has been discontinued but we still have a couple of charts available. We don't have this design on the Mirabilia page of the site since we can't order more, but you can send us your request if you are looking for this chart and we'll be happy to help while we still have some.

Its finally cooling off here and feels more like fall. And its rainy too. Tomorrow will be a good day to make a nice soup and some hearty bread. I love sweater weather!

Gimme a 'D'!

Here's the D and the A and the N. Now I just need the I and the E and the L. This is my 'Daniel' name tree from Mary McLenon of M Designs. Even though its stitched over one, it stitches up very quickly. I'll finish this into an ornament/gift tag.



On the shop front, this has been an absolutely wonderful week for new releases and new additions to the store. Some adorable new designs from The Gathering Place - Michael's Tree House and Night Creatures. More great additions - we will be carrying a selection of Heaven and Earth Designs. We hope to keep expanding the number and variety of designs from HAED that we offer.


We have also decided to become a part of the Hoffman Distributing online merchant mall. This means that you will have the ability to order any chart offered by Hoffman Distributing through our site. While Hoffman offers a vast catalog with great variety and pictures, they do not present the additional information for designs such as recommended fabric and stitch counts. We will continue to update our site with this information for our most popular designers. We are really excited to be able to offer this service! Look for the Hoffman mall sometime this month.

Scream Girls

Here's a cute Halloween ornament that stitched up real quickly. Scream Girls WhimZi design from Just Nan. The WhimZi frame is Scarey Hairy. I just need to get some fusible web to get it mounted according to the directions.


You can get both of these from our online shop.

This stitched up really quickly. I'm planning to start Lady Scarlet's Secret Garden - just because its cute. I doubt I would actually use it - but its cute.

Happy stitching!