What a lovely and long weekend for me here in the States and it coincided with our stitching weekend. We celebrated the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Monday which meant no work for me and no school for the girls. And how did I spend it??? Yes, stitching, of course!!
Yes, I finally felt human enough to follow a pattern and work on some cross-stitching. I took a break (again) from the baby sampler to work on a bookmark for a friend's daughter. I just learned that an old high school friend of mine is having fundraisers and is worried about his 10-year-old daughter, Lori, who has Rhabdomyosarcoma Alveolar. This is a cancer of the muscles and it typically is found in children.
Well, my heart just ached for her. I watched my husband and another friend of ours go through cancer treatment, and I see the agony of yet another friend of mine who monitors her son's remission status. What a horrible disease cancer is!!
As soon as I learned of Lori's condition, I purchased this great chart by Imaginating:
And I got to stitching on the bookmark. I know that Lori is going through some serious chemotherapy, so there will be plenty of times she will be too tired and sick for anything at all, but I also know she'll have plenty of time to read. So, I went with the bookmark for Hope. I'm going to change the color of the word and the ribbon to gold for Lori, and once it's done, I'll finish it with a backing and send it to her with a card.
My progress was pretty good - all things considering with my health. I had to take frequent breaks because I would get dizzy, but it was really nice to not waste the "free time" on the couch any longer. (The flu has been brutal this year for my family, but we have been lucky enough to not have serious problems.)
I'm sure I'll have this done by this weekend, and then Lori can use it as often as she needs.
My husband belongs to a conservation group, High Desert Quail Forever. They work very hard to keep water in the desert to preserve the wildlife. And, apparently, my husband has taken notice of my stitching which resulted in his request for me to stitch a piece as a raffle item for this Saturday's banquet. I didn't think I would make it in time, but the piece was completed.
The pattern came from The California State Sampler that I found on eBay. I liked it because it had an awesome depiction of California: our capital building, a surfer, the Santa Barbara Mission as well as our State flag, bird, bear and flag. The Quail is the state bird, and my husband liked the picture and thought it would be cool for the banquet.
Imagine my surprise when I opened the package and saw a hand-drawn pattern!! I couldn't believe it!! I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a pattern done by hand - everything has been computer imaged or drawn.
I looked through all of the pages, and I finally saw that this was created in 1994! Again, what a find for me!!
The project was started Tuesday and I finished it today. The fabric I chose was 28-count Wichelt Jazlyn in Bone, and I used DMC flosses as directed.
I will purchase a frame for it tomorrow and then mount the picture and give it to the HD Quail Forever group on Saturday for their raffle. Now, fingers crossed that others bid on it rather than just my hubby!
Post-Script: There was no actual bidding on each item. People bought their raffle tickets and then an item was lifted and a ticket drawn for it. I am happy to report that lucky number 306 won the quail (we had 305 - wow!), and the man who won it went on and on about how he was really glad he won this picture because it was the one item he wanted most from the raffle table. Yay!!!
Whew!! The set of wine charms is complete and ready for my trip up North to visit with my co-workers - two of which will each receive a set of these. I am really happy with the way these turned out, and I'm actually excited to finish the last Santa for myself as well.
I loved being able to use my wine charm for the evening with my hubby. He actually likes what I made and liked to choose his own charm for the night.
The hubby did figure out that having a wine charm to identify the glasses made it more difficult for him to "steal" my glass when his was all gone. HeeHee
I have finished three sets of two of the wine charms from the Cross-Stitch and Needlework magazine. I am making two sets as gifts for some co-workers and a set for myself. These are quick little stitches, but the gluing and beading takes some extra time that is very well spent.
The second wine charm is the ornament. I chose it next because there was no backstitching - the next two will have small amounts of backstitching, so I wanted to wait to do those.
Once again, the felt was stiffened and the beads attached after assembling everything together.
These are coming together very nicely, and I should have them ready in time for seeing these co-workers on Wednesday.
I needed to get a gift done for my friend - not only is it her turn to host Thanksgiving, but I had done a post to have people get a handmade gift from me this year and she was one. I spent months trying to figure out to make each person, and then I saw the latest Cross Stitch and Needlework Magazine - PERFECT!!
So, I sat down last night and stitched the Christmas Tree. It only took an hour and a half to stitch it (it would have been less if I hadn't added an extra row and had to frog).
This morning, I used Aleene's Stiffen Quik on the white felt in order to stiffen it to hold the backside of the charm. I had received my order from Fusion Beads which included the Sterling Silver Beading Hoop, the jump rings and the 3mm Swarovski Elements Crystal Mix- Christmas blend.
I put everything together based on the picture, and added the crystals. I decided to add the jump rings prior to gluing the felt on the back. I didn't see how I would be able to add the jump rings through the felt and it seemed the better way.
So, in just a few hours, I have a great little gift to give my friend. Even my hubby has decided that he likes the looks of these and has requested a custom order for his own Wine Charm.
