Crazy January 15 Challenge~Day 2 and I got something framed!!

First of all here is my start on Noah's Stocking by CHS. I am stitching it on 36 ct pearled barley using a Vickie Clayton HDF conversion. This is something I have had kitted up in my stash for quite some time. I am not sure about the HDF conversion-some of the silks may be too light for my taste. I may end up substituting some NPI as I continue to work on this. I WAS stitching right along at a good clip and then the family decided to watch Horatio Hornblower(which was a Christmas gift-the whole set of 6 movies!! Yippee!), and I got caught up in the action and kept catching myself not stitching at all! For shame! LOL!

And in other exciting news! I finally got around to finishing the framing on This is the Day!! I had the frame made at Joann with a 60% off coupon so it only cost me about 20 dollars. Then I followed the tutorial on framing by Vonna at The Twisted Stitcher and Ta-Daa!! It turned out great! Thank you Vonna for so generously posting your tutorial!

And this morning I hung it in my living room along with a punch needle piece done by Lori Brechlin of Notforgotten Farm. I am so happy! These peices are hung directly across from where I sit in the morning with my coffee and Bible.

I bought this piece from Lori a couple of years ago on ebay. I just adore the way she did the frame! One of my goals for this year is to learn to make and paint my own primitive frames. It is a punch needle heart with the words "Wahre Liebe" in German, which means "true love". I adore this piece. My grandparents were both immigrants from Germany, and my father spoke fluent german. So whenever I look at this piece I think of my Dad, who I miss so much! Its a really special piece to me. And I just love Lori's work-she is so talented.

Today I will be picking up one of my WIPs for the challenge, not sure which one yet. Come back tomorrow to see which one and what progress I have made. Isn't this challenge fun!

Going on vacation!

And I will be back on July 18. Meanwhile I will leave you with a little photo fest of recent works, including 4 finishes!!! First of all, This is the Day!



This is the Day

Hands to Work

32 ct. Vintage Exemplar

My own mix of Crescent Colors and Gentle Art Sampler Threads

A Place We Call Home

Country Cottage Needleworks

28 ct. Country French Latte

called for list of sampler threads

Flower basket stitched on flour sack,pattern by Aunt Martha's

OK, this technically doesn't count as a finish, because this is part of a quilt with 5 flower baskets on it. I officially finished the first one!

Grandma's Tea Towels

Crab Apple Hill

stitched on kona cotton with DMC thread.

A little progress

OR...a VERY little progress! I have mostly been model stitching, which I can't show, yet!. Here is a little I have gotten done on This is the Day:

Not much to go, just filling in the white and the over 1 words in the box!

And here is a little bit more of Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I wish I had more time to work on this! I am loving it so much now that I have switched to 32 and 2 strands. I took it with me on vacation, but you know how THAT goes!!:)

The Graduates!

This is why I haven't posted in so long!! We have had a busy week with graduation, and getting everybody finished with school, planning the summer and every thing else!! Whew!BRAG ALERT!!!Here are Lucas and Brittany(his girlfriend-can't claim her as mine!) on graduation day! We are so proud of both of them! They both graduated with honors, were awarded with scholorships, and Brittany, she was standing there for like 20 minutes while they read off all of her accomplishments!
Gary and I were quite astonished when Lucas won the Greg True award! This is a great honor at his high school and is given for academic and athletic achievement, sportsmanship, grade point average, and leadership, among other things. The trophy is displayed at school and will have his named engraved on it. So exciting! This is a picture of Lucas with my brother.We are so proud of him! And on a stitchy note, this is as far as I have gotten on This is the Day, before I put it aside to do some model stitching. I am close to a finish on this one but, duty calls!

More This is the Day

I got quite a bit done on this over the weekend, and was able to accomplish quite a bit of yard work as well. So it was a good weekend. I am really loving the way this is turning out. I hope to finish it this week, as I have got some new designs to work on, so I need to get stitchin"! But its been nice to take a little breather and work on this.

Quick update on This is the Day

I worked on this at my guild Tuesday night, and after dinner last night. Its coming along...
OK, I'm off to run errands! Going to my LNS to deliver an order and TRY to resist stashing up!!

Hello!!

Hello my friends! I have been MIA for the last week, packing and shipping orders from the Online Needlework Show. I had a very good show, and now I am ready to start some new charts. Ah! I love the feeling of starting out fresh again. I have some ideas I can't wait to work out, so its back to the drawing board!

Here is my progress on This is the Day! I've been working on this consistently, but because I chose threads from my stash and I'm stitching 2 over 2, I keep running out! So I have to make a trip to my LNS this week and stash up. But I am happy with this little sampler, the colors on this linen are gorgeous!

Some close-ups and This is the Day

Here are some close up pics of my 2 new charts. First off is Our Love. My hubs and I are going to celebrate our 25th anniversary in October this year, so I guess I'm feeling sentimental. Of course 1808 is the year we met! Ha! Ha!(seriously we met when I was just 15 so it does seem a century!!)



Next is my little box, Be Ye Kind and True. I just love covering these craft boxes with fabric, I have quite a few around the house holding all sorts of things.The pattern comes with instructions on how to cover a box yourself. Look for an upcoming tutorial on how to do this, is really isn't that hard, and the way I do it they are really nice and last forever.
And last but not least my start on This is the Day. Wow I am loving this sampler. I haven't worked with overdyes in a while so it is really fun. And its working up quickly which is nice. My colors are really different than those I've seen around the web. I do love my rusty reds, so I am happy with my choice of chili pepper for the buds.

This is the Day!

To jump on the bandwagon~apparently!! I am in love with this sampler after seeing it being worked on all over blogland, so I decided to take the plunge! I am going to stitch it on 32 ct. Vintage Exemplar Light from Lakeside Linens. I have my own conversion, mainly because I didn't want to go buy the threads, just use up some of my stash.I used mostly Crescent Colors. Here is my conversion:

Tracy's colors=My colors
Pumpkin Pie GAST = Cidermill Brown GAST
Roasted Marshmallow GAST = Bamboo CC
Picnic Basket GAST = La Tierra CC
Tomato GAST = Chili Pepper CC
Old Brick GAST = Clay Pot CC
Just Rust CC = Just Rust CC!
Colonial Copper CC = Copper Penny CC
Camouflage CC = Weeping Willow CC
Black Coffee CC = Hickory Stick CC
Conch WDW = Garden Trellis CC

Another start~I must be crazy!!! :)