Round Robin - finished

I finished Waterlily for my friend's RR.  I will be pulling it off the rods today and then carefully package them up for their next trip.

The one really cool thing is that I have Waterlily in my stash for myself, and I learned a lot about the pattern while doing this portion. Yay! Hopefully, she'll be a quick stitch for me in 2014!

Post-script:  The next one in line for the RR, Nikki, took a picture of the entire piece thus far and sent it to me so I could show it off.

November IHSW

My goodness!!  Where has this year gone?!  I cannot believe that we're already posting for November.  I'm a wreck because I am almost positive that my Christmas stitching will not get done in time. Since I am a horrible procrastinator, I guess it's par for the course.

This weekend, my mission is to complete my portion of a Round Robin so I can send it off to the next person.  I have had it {gasp} for over a month.  Ugh!  Here was where I left off on Waterlily in my section:

I have no idea why my skins always look so untidy, but I have continued to try to make this as pretty of a piece as possible.  

I didn't actually get her done, but I made really good progress on Waterlily.  I cannot wait to stitch her in her entirety for myself!!

Round Robin

I have found a group of women with whom I can create and work on Round Robins!!  I am so excited to give this a try, and I am even happier that I was finally able to finish my own fabric to prepare for mine to be shipped out.

The last two weeks saw me with a horrible cold, so it was too difficult for me to stitch - I would have frogged everything since I was too dizzy to sit up.  I managed to work and get my job done, but then I would crash at the end of the day.  So, finishing this (Finally!) was a very cool accomplishment.

The fabric is by Stephanie and is called Ice Goddess.  It is 28 count Opal Lugana.  I used Valdani M-49, Subtle Elegance for the borders because I wanted a lace-look and feel to the piece.

Each stitcher is given free reign on the piece.  I have told everyone that I want them to pick something that is their favorite or best represents them.  

Happy Squeeee!!!  Now, this piece is off to it's first destination - South Africa!!

TUSAL

It is already time for the TUSAL photo for the month.  I can't believe that we're preparing for Halloween, but it has been nice to have the cooler temperatures.  

You can see that I was working on the Song of the Seasons sampler, a beach Christmas theme and the Waterlily Pixie in my top threads of my ORTs.  It's been very productive lately, but I will need to step things up in order to get ready for all of the Christmas gifts I have planned.  

Song of the Seasons Finished

I finally finished my version of the Little House Needleworks Mystery SAL. Whew! It was a lot of time that I didn't actually have, so I completely hibernated until I was done.  

Once I was into this project, I couldn't seem to work on anything else (and I received a Round Robin which was pushing me forward).  I added beads for the raindrops and snowflakes as well as for the snowman.  I also reworked the Season names so the colors matched the season.

Then, I took the time to alter the alphabet portion.  I really don't care for alphabet samplers, so I changed this to be for our Family name, and I used our native German for it.  I debated about making the date large and to match, but I opted for a smaller date in the bottom right corner. That way, any of the children who decide they want this can have it hang as just a Family Banner, but when it was completed will be remembered.

Because of how important this piece became to me, I have written a small account of it on parchment paper so I can attach it to the back of the piece when I received it back from the framer (Jill Rensel - who else??).  It describes how Nikki Loans convinced me to try this with her and she will have one similar to it at her house in South Africa as well as how our family is to sing together through all of the seasons every year.  

So, now that my sentimental heart is done with this piece, I'm packaging it up to send it off for framing....and kitting up the RR piece that I need to get done.  

Then, it's on to Christmas stitching!!

September 2013 IHSW

Wow! Is it really September already??  And the month is over half-way over!!  I don't know about you, but I cannot believe that 2013 is almost gone.  We are (finally) enjoying some cooler weather here. The hubby was actually cold last night with the window open (yeah, I wasn't cold since I'm constantly on my personal tropical island).  Autumn seems to be here even though we don't see a physical changing of the seasons in the desert other than the temperature.  This also means that I need to step up my Christmas stitching. Oh dear. Time to make the list of who gets what so that I'm ready to go!

I failed to take a picture of my latest work prior to the start of the ISHW weekend, but I have been working on the Little House Needleworks Mystery SAL.  I really need the scroll rods in order to get to the Round Robin that is sitting on my desk waiting. I just don't want to take the SAL off the rods and not finish it!! 

So, here is where I left off last night:

Sorry about the shadow which seems to be a blue line on here.  I will get a better picture once I move the fabric on the bars.

As you can see, the third panel is almost done.  I still have some grass to stitch and flowers to complete it, and then I can start on the Part 3 - which is the Seasons portion and the Sampler.  I'm working to change the sampler part to writing our family name since I'm not keen on alphabets.  

I have really loved working on this SAL. This is my first one, but I have already purchased the Lizzie Kate Christmas SAL and have Part 1 waiting for me.  Maybe by Christmas 2014...

A Californian Ornament

I seriously love making things to give to people.  The best part is that I am making a set of these to give to a group of great ladies who I know will actually like them!  

There were really cute flip-flop holiday buttons, which I attached, and then I used a pre-made ornament as the finish (I just really hope they don't look inside at the cutting that was necessary to get this to fit.