Saturday, August 22, 2015

Good Intentions!

I had good intentions of keeping up with this blog, getting some quality stitching time in, baking and gardening. But life seems to have other plans sometimes for us. Summers are just not good stitching time for us. We live on a lake and it seems like we are out there every weekend boating and such. I know a terrible way to spend the summer right?  It is if you don't get any stitching time. Come on Fall. Oh how I love thee!!!

Kidos started back to school this past week. I have a sophomore in high school ( how did that happen) and an 8th grader (don't know how that happened either. 10 grader is driving so that should free up a lot of time as I was having to drive back and forth everyday for swim practices. Sometimes in the mornings before school and everyday after.  Woohoo for me. Still teary eyed that he drives off without me. But I can't stop them from growing up.

On a stitching note....... I have gotten "Eternal Love" by Merry Cox all stitched and even finished. This was one of the easiest finishings I have ever done. You know I tend to procrastinate but that free time when kids are not around is going to change that....hopefully. This was one of the classes that I took in Mesa at the Sampler Symposium this past January hosted by The Attic.


 

 


 








This is such a lovely picece. It was fun to stitch and the little tray and all the accessories fit inside the paper mâché box that has a name plate stitched on it.  

I am starting to stitch "A Young Lady's Workbox". Will show you progress in a few short days. I am really going to try to keep blogging as this might keep me stitching more. 

Thank you for stopping by my dear friends. 


Sunday, January 4, 2015

Been too long.........................

My Dear Friends,
It seems like I can not get to this blog to post even though I have a lot to share. But I intend to do something about this and post more often. 
I have finished 4 projects this year.
I have finished:
"My Brother's Keeper" by Plum Street Sampler which I had posted earlier this year.

Next was "Far, Far Away" by Shepherd's Bush.  This was fun to stitch up.  I always love the silks they use and the soft colors as well.  (Sorry if my pictures are not all that good.  I did not have great light.)

Then I also finished "Maria Dale" Sampler that is in Vol. 1 of the Sampler and Antique Needlework.
This is all one color.  I used 500 DMC on 28ct. Lambswool.  I think this is what it called for.  I still astounds me that a 6 year old girl stitched this.  When I was six...I did start to stitch with my grandma but was more into Barbie's and such.  No way could I have done something like this at her age. 
 
 
Last finish of the year was "My Son" by Indigo Rose.  I added my own spin on this sampler and added my two son's names on this.  I had started this years ago and it was good to get this WIP done. 

Oh....I did have two other finishes as well.  I forgot all about them.
I had done the finishing on Merry Cox's "Americana Sewing Case".  Merry came to Arkansas in 2007 and taught this class.  I had it all stitched up but did not have any of the finishing done.  I was excited to get some finishing done as I am very slow in that department.


 
 
 
The other finish that I had was Merry Cox's "House on the Hill Beckon's to Thee".   I had seen a lady wanting to sell this as she was not going to stitch it.  It had everything including the carrier, which are now unavailable as Orleans Shaker Company is no longer, and the scrimshaw ruler.  I knew I needed to buy this as I was afraid Merry would not be teaching this piece again and this is one of my favorites of hers.  There is a little pincushion to go with but I have not gotten that done yet.  Maybe this year. 











I hope to get more finishing done this year.  I am trying to get the "Americana Sewing Case" by Merry Cox done before Jan. 16, 2015.  I am too far away from being done.  I just love how it is turning out. 




I am so excited.  I leave in less then 2 weeks for Mesa, AZ.  I am going to the Attic's,
January Symposium.  One of the presentations will be "19th Century Mourning Practices" by Sandra Ball.  She had done this lecture with for the Swan Sampler Needlework Guild and I had wished that I had lived in Salt Lake City at the time to hear her speak.  When I learned that she was giving this out in Mesa, I was elated.  She will also be presenting Grave stone art work.  Which will be interesting as well.
Next on the agenda will be Holly Rison teaching us how to do scrimshaw pieces.  So excited about this one also.  But I am most excited that Merry Cox will be teaching projects during the weekend and then a separate project on the Monday after the weekend symposium.  This will be fun as I am meeting up with two other ladies from Arkansas.  Ann from the Shepherds Needle in Little Rock and another lady that I have not met yet, I know it will be fun to meet her as well, as stitching always brings new friendships.  So the count down is on..  If you would like to read more about the symposium click on this newsletter and it should take you to the newest newsletter posted by the Attic. 


Well B has officially started swimming for his high school.  He is not at the high school taking classes there yet, but they let freshmen swim as the other teams that we compete against, their school districts have the 9th grade in with the high schools.  In his first meet he came in 6th place in his 100 breast stroke.  He is only 14 and the ones that beat him were 16, 17 and 18 year olds.  So I think he did fantastic.  I say slow and steady wins the race, with him dropping time.  He will get there eventually.


And R just loved cross country this year.  7th graders were allowed to run for the Jr. High.  Our 7th grade is still middle school and Jr. high is 8th and 9th grade.  So he will also get to do track in the spring same way.  He really enjoyed it and can't wait for next year. 

I hope everyone is enjoying the new year.  
I will be posting soon about projects that I am working on, and letting you know how a rotation plan is working for me. 
Til then Happy Stitching.
Thomasina

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Giveaway at Victorian Motto!!

Please hop on over to Victorian Motto.  They are having a giveaway for some lovely threads.   Good luck to all!




Happy Stitching. 

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Saturday, June 14, 2014

All I can say is "WOW it sure has been a long time since I have posted......."

My Dear Friends,

I can't believe that life has gotten away from me once again.  Can't believe that it has been a year and a half since I have last posted. 
A lot has happened since then.  Some good and some bad.

Let's just start with the bad and get that out of the way.
2013 clicked right along.  Stitched was going good, job was going great.  Both boys ended up with straight "A's" (So Proud!) and started summer off.  It was a good summer.  B made State again with 3 events with his competitive swim team.  So summer was great.  Time to get back in to the routine of school, and work.  Two weeks after school started, and the Thursday before Labor Day weekend B broke his right wrist this time.  It happened during while he was swimming.  Long story but needless to say, his coaches were horrified that this had happened on their watch. 
We went to the emergency room and we knew his pinky was dislocated.  You could definitely tell.
They x-rayed his wrist, but the Dr. said it looked fine.  I had asked and both coaches and our Pres. and Vice Pres. of our club had heard the Dr. say it looked fine also.  It was just a sprain.  Thank goodness.  Three weeks into healing, B had a bump on his inner wrist that was not going away.  Took him in to our Pediatrician and he thought it might be fluid or scar tissue that he might need a little bit of physical therapy.  I said ok, but he was have the hospital fax over the diagnosis of the accident.
He read it to me and said the final result was a broken wrist and actually he broke his pinky as well.
I was MAD. No crazy MAD.  I couldn't believe that no one had called us back to let us know when the final report had been made.  So three weeks of healing and the bump was one of his bones sticking out.  So off to the orthopedic surgeon.  We have one thanks to the year before B braking his left arm.
I had gotten the x-rays from the hospital so they could see what it looked like the day of the accident.
He had to have surgery to try to push the bone back into place and then cast it.  So off we went. Dr. came back in right after surgery and said the bone had healed and he was going to have to rebreak and possibly pin it in place.  YUCK.  We would not know about pinning until after the surgery.   Surgery went great and no pinning.  So after about 4 months September - December with several casts on and off and then physical therapy we were able to start swimming again.  It really took a toll on B from school work as he is right handed and to not being able to swim.  So now he is extremely careful about what he does. 
Anyway Christmas came and went with out a hitch and then winter set in for Arkansas.  The last two years kids did not use one snow day.  This year they had 13 snow days and we made all of them up too and got out on June 4th.  We went two Saturdays, used a couple of teacher in service days and also used the Monday and Tuesday of Spring break for make up days.
Kids both made straight "A's" this year as well.  So glad I have good boys who want to go to college and make something of themselves.  Can't wait to see what the future has in store for them.

That was really all the bad news for the past year. It was enough I thought.
On to the good news.  My Husband and I celebrated out 15 year wedding anniversary in February.
We planned on going to Hawaii in June.  Kids were going to go stay in Wyoming with my Mother.
My husband was out of town in meetings and he had texted me that he was awarded a 7 day 6 night trip to Maui, Hawaii all expenses paid.  WOW.  It was in May that we had to take it with 288 other people that were awarded this trip as well in different departments through out the company.  My SIL ended up coming and staying with the boys and loved it.  They don't get to visit with her a lot as she lives in Little Rock.  She has no kids of her own and is not married, so my kids are just like her own.  It turned out great as I my mother could not come down to stay. 
I guess they have been giving these trips away for a long time and it was just this past year that my husbands division was given the opportunity to be apart of this.  His numbers were the best and he got the trip.  It was so beautiful.  We even got to pick one activity to do each day free of charge.
So we went on a rainforest/waterfall hike, deep sea fishing, catamaran/snorkeling adventure, helicopter tour, and tour to the summit.  It was a trip of a life time.  I have to get my pictures together and post them.  We stayed at the Four Seasons Resort.  Let me tell you....I don't stay in that kind of hotel with the kids.  They spared no expense with this trip for us.  We even had a luau, and a recognition dinner that was spectacular.  LOVED everything about our trip.  We do want to go back and take the kids to Honolulu as we were not able to get to Pearl Harbor and the big island with the active volcano.  Hopefully in about 3 years we are planning that. 

So here we are, summer has finally come around and I have been stitching a little bit.  Work has been hectic as we got a new tracking system for our jobs and it has been nightmare.  I am just taking it one day at a time.

For stitching I did get PlumStreet Samplers  Brother's Keeper finished in March. 
I just loved stitching this. 



I used the sampler threads that it called for but I can't think of what I stitched it on. 
I am stitching on a Sampler Maria Dale age 6 out of the 1st Sampler & Antique Needlework Quarterly magazine.  It is all one color. I will have pictures to show you here next time around and maybe a few of my Hawaii pictures as well while I reminisce about how I wish I was back there lounging on the beach drinking a mai tai.

Til then thank you for visiting and hopefully I won't stay away for that long.
Happy Stitching
P.S. I am so happy that the 2013 banner won't be staring in my face when I come visit my blog to read all the blogs that I follow.  Yeah!!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year 2013.................

Happy New Year 2013 dearest friends......

I am so elated to be sharing some great news. 
I put the last stitches in of "And they Sinned" right after midnight.  My first finish of the year.  That green grass at the bottom seems like it takes forever and I stitched the grass right along with the motifs.  But after 6 1/2 years of having this project on the drawing board.  It is DONE!!  I stitched ATS on 30ct. over 2 on Oaten Scone linen by Legacy with the Sampler threads that it was called for.  I really love this color of linen and the colors of the sampler threads just really popped on this linen.






My last finish of 2012 was "Halloweenies".  I have ordered a frame for it and hopefully will have it framed shortly.  It was a cute piece to stitch up.  This was done on 32ct. Lambswool over 2 with the threads that it called for.  (Sorry about the wrinkles.)



Well lets just jump right into my version of the "Crazy January Challenge".
Usually stitchers gather 15 projects, and for the first 15 days of January they start a new project each day.  My take is that I usually don't get a good enough start on a project with just one day, so I take two days.  Below is my list for the "Crazy January Challenge".  I hope to take a before and after picture and post daily to keep me focused on what I am doing.

Jan. 1-2   PSS Brother's Keeper
Jan. 3-4   MC Victorian Carrier I Accessory
Jan. 5-6   MC Victorian Carrier II Accessory
Jan. 7-8   MC Victorian Carrier III Accessory
Jan. 9-10   MC Victorian Carrier IV Accessory 
Jan. 11-12   MC Victorian Carrier V Accessory
Jan. 13-14   SB Far Away
Jan. 15-16   WB Americana
Jan. 17-18   SB Blackberrie Sampler
Jan. 19-20   TT What Lies Within
Jan. 21-22   SB The Orchard
Jan. 23-24   SB Winter Hearts
Jan. 25-26   SB Advent Sampler
Jan. 27-28   SB Sophies Roses
Jan. 29-30   SB Halloween Treat Bag

The only project that I hope to complete from this list in 2013 is Brother's Keeper.  I doubt the rest of the projects will get finished in 2013 (but you never know, one can be hopeful right).
Here is a list that I complied at the first of December that I wanted to get done for 2013.
1.   And they Sinned Finished 1/1/2013
2. Halloweenies Finished 12/11/2012
3. Billy Goats Gruff (small pic.) Finished 01/27/2013
4. Billy Goats Gruff (large pic.)
5. My Son('s)
6. Sail Away Finished 05/06/2013
7. Souviner Book
8. Sampler in a Year
9. Winter Moon
10. Carried Away
11. Brother's Keeper

Looks like I am off to a great start with a couple of projects already done for the new year. As the year goes by I might add a project or two to the list.  There is two on my list above that I am only going to be doing the stitching part and the final finishing will have to wait til later as I have a list of projects that needs to be finished as well.  You can take a look at my side bar for a list of those.  I plan on doing the finishing on one project a month (hopefully).  I am a slow finisher as I still have kids at home and I don't ever have a moment of piece with out one of them calling "Mom".   So "Slow and Steady wins the race" is my motto these days. 

I am once again going to join the 2013 WIPocalypse "Revenge".  You can click here and it will take you Measi's Musings.  She is hosting this SAL.  She has added a theme a month for this year.  I don't know if I will stick with the theme or go out on my own.  I guess it depends on what I want to work on at that moment. 




I hope everyone has a safe New Year and look forward to all the stitching I will be getting done.
Thank you for visiting.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Merry Christmas........................


Just wanted to wish all my Family and Friends a Merry Christmas!


The weatherman is saying that NW Arkansas should be getting snow for Christmas.
So I guess we will be all snuggled up next to the fire place staying warm. 
I will be back after Christmas with my spin on the Crazy January Challenge, what I want to acheive in 2013, update on ATS and one of the last finishes of the year.

Again thank you for visiting my blog and I hope each and everyone of you has a
Merry Christmas.