Getting back to normal

    I have spent the majority of the day trying to get my house put back together after the Christmas festivities.  Both of my boys managed to make it home although Son1 didn't get here until noon on Christmas day.  Son2 spent Christmas morning with his girlfriend's family so our gift opening extravaganza didn't happen until late afternoon.  It felt weird at first since this is not our tradition but the Hubs and I spent a leisurely morning, just the 2 of us, and that was kind of  nice after the craziness of the last few weeks.
   The boys are gone now, back to their normal lives. And although the Hubs is off work until after the first of the year, he and his buddies are out fishing today so I have the house to myself again.  Bliss!  Laundry is almost finished and as soon as I post this, I am going to stitch until I can't see anymore!!
   I am still trying to finish up a couple of Christmas samplers that time just ran out on this year.  I took some grief yesterday in my weekly stitch group for 'stitching out of season' but I didn't want to add to my already rediculously large pile of WIP's so I'll just keep working on them until they are done.  I admit I am having a bit of a hard time focusing with all the lovely Scarlet Letter samplers being worked on over at Nicola's but I will do the best I can to finish up by the new year because I have big plans in the works!
  On one final note, my birthday was on the 21st.  When I lived in the Atlanta area there was a group of 8 of us that got together on a weekly basis to stitch and we all stitched for each others birthdays.  Time has passed and many of us have scattered or just moved on but there are still a few of us stitching for each other's birthdays.  My very good friend Tommye  stitched this beautiful sampler for me for my birthday this year.


 
   She knows I have a thing for house samplers and this one is a historic home in Southport, NC just a couple of houses down from where her parents used to live.  How cool is that!! 

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that you have tons of stitching time into the new year!  Laura

Doing the big happy dance!

   I stayed up late Sunday night trying to get Christmas Garden finished but my eyes started to cross and I couldn't focus before I had the last 2 letters done in the verse.  I managed to get it finished during stitch group on Monday even though we were celebrating my birthday (which is Friday). We had the usual laughter and craziness as well as lots of presents, lunch out at my favorite restaurant and even cake and ice cream (Thank you Donna!).
  Here it is in all its glory:



  I used the colors called for with the exception of the red which I changed to GA Raspberry Parfait. It is, of course, stitched on 40 ct. Lakeside Linen in Pecan Butter. I chose not to put the initials on mine.  I have the Mother's Garden in my stash as well and thought I would put the initials on that.  I also chose to leave the verse as it was designed.  I know that a lot of people have changed it to an alphabet so they could leave it up all year but I have quite a few Christmas things I leave up all year already so I was not hindered by that.  Also, the Hubs has an issue with the ABC thing so I thought it was best to leave well enough alone!



   I got lots of presents for my (number witheld to protect the innocent) birthday but the best one had to be this.  My friend Donna said (apologetically) the all her presents this year were from her stash.  She was trying to finish up some UFOs from classes and thought she would gift some of her finishes.  Definitely my gain!  She finished this lovely needlebook for me:

Outside



Inside

  I can not believe how cute this is!!!  And, she thinks she's a terrible finisher!  I told her I would be totally comfortable having her do all my finishing from now on.  Funny, she didn't take me up on that. LOL

  Well, that's about it for now.  My entire weekly stitch group if off to the framer tomorrow.  One of my other friends was working frantically on Christmas Garden too, trying to get it done in time for the framing expedition.  I would bet she got it done!

Until Later,  Laura



Party week!

  It's been a busy week here in the Burg.  Our EGA Christmas Luncheon was on Tuesday and with over 30 ladies in attendance it was a very nice turnout for our group.  The restaurant did a really good job  taking care of us, the room was set up perfectly and the food was wonderful!  We had our officer elections (I will be the treasurer, again) and closed with our ornament exchange.  Not everyone participates in this little evolution but those that did came home with some lovely ornaments.
   This is the ornament I stitched:

 
And this is the ornament I received:

Very Cute, huh??!!  Then, on Thursday my weekly stitch group had our Christmas Extravaganza. We stitched, we opened gifts and our lovely hostess served us lunch.  What more could you ask for??!!  As I mentioned before, we draw names for the exchange so basically we have a big gift from our exchange person and because we just cant' help ourselves, we also get a gift from everyone else too.  It is a lot of crazy gifting but we love it!
  This is the lovely sampler I received from my exchange person:

  I hope to get better with the picture taking, I know this is hard to see, but the snow and the snowflakes are done in a sparkly thread and the whole thing is just delicate and wonderful!  I can't wait to get it framed!  We all use the same framer so she is going to be really busy after Christmas!!
   I am still working diligently on Christmas Garden and am currently working on the verse at the bottom.  I hope to have it finished by the end of the weekend but since these things always take longer than we think they will, I guess I should realistically aim for the middle of next week.  One more thing to go to the framers!
 

Where is my needlework?

  I started this blog in large part to keep track of my needlework.  Most of the samplers I stitch, I give to family and friends as gifts.  Unfortunately, I usually neglect to get a picture of what I stitched before it is whisked away to its new home.  For example,  I have stitched and gifted 12 samplers this year and I only have pictures of 2 of them.  I am to the point that there are samplers I know I have stitched but I can't for the life of me remember who I gave them to!  I started a hand written list a couple of years ago but even that seems ineffective.  So, the blog.

  I belong to a group of 6 ladies who get together weekly to stitch.  At the beginning of the year, we draw names for Christmas and are agreed that the gift should be something stitched.  This is what I stitched for my giftee this year.  Since this blog is so new, I'm pretty sure I don't have to worry about anyone I know spilling the beans on this one!



Sing We Merrily by Heartstring Samplery

  We are having our gift exchange on Thursday.  Hope she likes it!!

Giving it a shot

  I have been lurking in the background of a lot of stitching blogs for a number of years now and thought it might be time I tried it for myself.  I have been stitching off and on for most of my life and really came back to it when my oldest son was born almost 30 years ago.  It was my bit of calm and relaxation during naptime.
  Since then, my stitching has evolved from cute things I could decorate the boys rooms with to mainly samplers preferably on high count linen.  I recently joined  Nicola's Scarlett Letter Year SAL and I guess that was the push I needed to make this leap into blogging. 
  Keeping in mind that I have no idea what I am doing and I have a feeling this will be a huge learning curve for me, I hope you will bear with me as I try to figure it all out!
  It should be an interesting new year!  Laura