And the Award goes to...

Dear readers, I have nothing much to show you on the stitching front and now that the pumpkins have been harvested, no new pumpkinny pictures to share either. So what am I doing here? Well, the reason for appearing thusly, in the middle of the week, less than a week after my last post, is threefold, nay, fourfold. Firstly: I think the number of comments left on my blog when I post in the weekend is just unacceptably low [:o)]. Secondly, I do have one picture to share of the needlebook I've made using another Blue Pistol Lady motif. It's unfinished, but showable. The fabrics on which my needlebook-to-be rests are the ones I will be using for the lining and pocket.

Thirdly, I've joined another Neighbourhood Round Robin. Now before you (yes, you, Harmien) start shaking your head and directing your eyes heaven-wards, let me explain that this is not any old Neighbourhood Round Robin. It's Vonna's idea of a Neighbourhood Round Robin. And it's not really a Round Robin, it's more sort of a Stitch Along. You see, no other person will stitch on this Neighbourhood except myself. We don't start until December 31st, which leaves me an entire four months to finish The Village of Hawk Run Hollow, The Blue Lady, The Fremme Birds, the Cinders Sampler, Rites of Spring, Where My Heart Blooms and The Harvesters, which is, I think you'll agree, totally do-able. Vonna set up a blog for us, and I spent the better part of yesterday evening feverishly planning and plotting and calculating and drawing and sighing and smiling and cackling and browsing and counting and searching and researching. I always find that, in order to start a neighbourhood, I need a name for it. After that, it's a piece of cake. So, the name of my new Neighbourhood, ladies and gentlemen, is Woodsy Wanderings. You will have to wait for the rest of my plans until I find a piece of fabric large enough to carry my neighbourhood.

Fourthly (I was making a list of reasons for posting today, remember?), there has been a lot of Blogger Award awarding going on in the last couple of weeks. I have been nominated several times, by some lovely fellow bloggers whom I have rudely neglected so far (Su, Rachel, Loreta, so sorry). Now I do believe everybody in Stitching Blogland has been nominated at least once for the Brilliante Blogger Award, the I Love Your Blog Award and the Kreativ Blogger Award, so I hope you don't mind if I don't pass these awards on to other people. That is not to say I'm not flattered or pleased, because I am, more than I can say.
Does anyone actually know where these Blog Awards come from? Who makes them up? Is it a Blogger powered thing, or does someone sit down at a desk in front of a computer on a rainy, boring afternoon, to think of a new award? Because if that is the case, I would hereby like to introduce another Blogger Award, thought of by moi, entitled: The Blogger Who Makes You Green With Envy Because They Can Stitch, Design, Work, Keep House And Raise A Family Without Seemingly Losing Any Of Their Amiable Qualities Award (the BWMYGWEBTCSDWKHARAFWSLAOTAQ Award for short). This is the Blinkie to go with it,

and the lucky people who get to copy and paste this blinkie on their blog are:

Barbara, who is not only the warmest person, the bestest Mommy to four beastiest of children, the beautifullest stitcher and a great writer, but also a seriously original designer, a wonderful craftswoman - you have only to browse through her Etsy Shop to know I am right - and an inspirational fellow Blogger.

Tanya, of whom the same can be said, basically. I mean, come on. Look at the pictures of darling Ben and Zack. And she's The Sampler Girl. 'Nuff said. Oh, and she likes Seinfeld, too, which proves she has a great sense of humor :o)

Vonna, who must be the busiest bee among us Stitching Bloggers. Apart from hosting a number of exchanges and now this Neighbourhood SAL blog, this lady has two jobs, one husband, four children, a finishing service for stitchers who are stuck, and a house so immaculate it actually brings tears to my eyes every time I see a picture of said house.

Monique, homeschooler, designer, thread-holder-designer, quilter, coffee-slurper, Scandinavian fabric and design lover...the list goes on.

The rules of this award:
1. Be proud and rejoice.

That's it.

I promise stitchy pics in my next post!

Is it Autumn yet?

Well, I hadn't planned on posting for a good while because I'm not at all close to finishing anything, really, but then this morning, when I woke up, the weather was decidedly autumnal (some people - including my mother who is getting a bit sick with her entire basement flooding every few weeks may call it freak weather) and then I read Heidi's blog and I knew today was the day I was going to harvest some pumpkins. I have to say I have no idea how to tell when pumpkins are 'done', but I see pumpkins of all shapes and sizes popping up everywhere, so I thought 'why not'. Actually, I know sod-all about pumpkins, except that I like the way they look. I don't know what they taste like, I don't know how long they keep, I don't know how to make pumpkin soup or pumpkin pie or pumpkin mash or pumpkin ice cream or pumpkin tea, but I do know they look kind of cozy stacked up, with Pelle's little head popping up behind them:

Pelle is frightfully proud of our pumpkin stash

You understand I won't be happy until I've photographed these babies from all possible angles, using them as props for stitcheries and threads and floss rings and key rings.... Speaking of which: I forgot to share a pic of the wonderfully sweet RAK I received from Carol about two weeks ago. The reason why I forgot is that I put it to use as soon as I saw it. Carol had written on the envelope that it contained a key ring, thinking that the good people at the customs office might not understand the term 'floss ring tag'. But, you know, I've been looking for a key ring that is totally me, and what better form of key ring than e floss ring tag? And what could be more me than a gift from Carol in the form of a Bent Creek bunny? Exactly.

Isn't it the cutest? Thank you so much, Carol. It looks a bit wrinkly, but that's because I put it to good use every day :o)

And now for some more autumnal stuff. After finishing LHN's Herb Garden - which you haven't seen yet, because that's the piece I brought to the framer's as soon as I had disposed of the last ort - I knew I needed to do another Little House Needleworks design. Now I own nearly all of the charts, but before Herb Garden, I had never, ever, ever stitched a LHN design. Not ever. I know, it's incredible, but there it is. Anyway, I now understand the attraction and I knew I had to mend my ways. Here's my new LHN start:


It's The Harvestersand I think it's pretty obvious why I chose this one. The religious text is another first and, unlike the BC Bunny, not really 'me', but you never know what good may come of stitching this ;o)

I'm slowly but surely making decent progress on Blackbird Designs' Rites of Spring

The design is just lovely, but I have Autumn on my mind and find it difficult to concentrate on anything so brightly coloured as a spring design by BBD...

I have some more things to show you, but since this post is already on the picture-heavy side, I will wait and show you my other Projects in Progress the next time.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

A new start. And another one.

Wow. I'm still reeling from the last couple of weeks. It has been mad. Not the rushing-hither-and-thither kind of mad, but dealing-with-a-lot-of-difficult-stuff kind of mad. Honey buns. My son going to school full-time for the first time in his life and not liking it one bit, throwing bitter accusations my way in the most heartbreaking (and unintelligible) manner on a daily basis. I've been to our old house for the first time in over four months and I've repeatedly talked to the one I left behind, even meeting once to celebrate Pelle's fourth birthday. All of this while my therapist and meditation guru is away on vacation, so you can imagine there was very little I could do to preserve a semblance of sanity except to wallow in self-pity and to succumb to a serious case of startitis. I mean. Serious. Startitis. I think you may say my startitis has morphed into startospasm. I know I have my Fremme birds, I know I have my Pistols, I have my garden and my pumpkins and when he comes home after a day of hard graft at school I have my son, but still it isn't enough. I want more, more, more, and I want it NOW. And so, without further ado, here's what I've been wanting and doing.

As promised in my previous post, a fob featuring a motif from the Blue Lady chart:

Stitched on low count white linen with Danish Flower Thread. I love the look of this fob so much, I started a needlecase with another motif to go with it. As you see, I'm trying to get my money's worth from this design :o)

I've started a sampler I told you about a couple of posts ago. The one using GAST Cinders:

(Notice the prop for my thread ring) This design is from the June 2008 issue of Cross Country Stitching magazine. Can anyone tell me why the lovely Michelle Ozark Stitcher and I are the only living souls in Blogland who seem to like this magazine and Jeremiah Junction designs in general? I don't get it. I LOVE this mag. Absolutely love it. In every issue there is at least one (but oftentimes more) must-stitch design and I'm very thankful that the local bookshop here has been able to order it for me, so I don't have to travel halfway across the country every two months to get my copy. Can't wait for the next issue!

Next start... came as a shocking surprise to me as well. It's Blackbird Designs' Rites of Spring, the second Loose Feathers design of this year. First time I clapped eyes on it I thought 'neh'. Nothing compared with Where My Heart Blooms. And before I knew it, two nights ago, I was plugging merrily away. It is an amazingly quick and addictive stitch and I'm afraid I might finish this one before I'm halfway through Where My Heart Blooms.

You may think that my starts as shown here are not as impressive as you might have hoped at the beginning of this post, but if I tell you I started and finished two other projects that I took to the (cheap!) framer's before I even got the chance to take a picture of the finished product, I think your awe of my determination to start and finish will increase. Add to that the fact that I agreed to do a Halloween floss ring tag exchange with Harmien (who has shamelessly asked for a scissors' fob to go with it) which I've already started and nearly finished, and your admiration of my diligence must be complete.

And what think you, my dear readers, of these babies?

Aren't they sweet?

Until next time!