I Love This!!!!!

I just received an email from Connie and she has finished my little "Love" freebie.  As I had posted before, she's the first to send me a picture so she will receive a surprise in the mail from me.  Thank you Connie for sharing this with us and you really did my little design beautifully!

Have a Blessed day,

Barbara

Updates

I've added the February prize to the SAL package.  It's "Bear Tree Forest" by Little House Needleworks.  I saw this yesterday at my LNS and I thought it would be very appropriate design for the month of February....still some snow on the ground.  I am trying not to incorporate holidays into the prize package because they make it so limited about when you stitch them.  

I'm still working on the bags and trays for my LNS and haven't had much time to stitch.  I was hoping to start something new the other night but unfortunately I fell asleep.  LOL  Old age is a B____!

I'm going to try and start something today if time is on my side and hopefully will be able to get a few stitches in before the Sandman visits.

I cannot wait for Jenn and her family to come visit the first 2 weeks in April.  Her and I are going to clean out my sewing room to the point of it being painful.  I have so much stuff in there that I know I will never use in this lifetime.  I want to get rid of it and I'm thinking of making up surprise boxes and selling them on Never Enough Stash.  All I know is, is that something must be done because it's beginning to take over my sewing room and I can hardly see the floor anymore.

I hope all of you have a wonderful day and I also want to thank all of my followers.  You bring cheer to my little world with every comment you make and I love you all.

Have a Blessed day,

Barbara

Valentine pillow finish

Well it's finished and I love it!  For a free design, this turned out beautiful.  I made it into one of my pillows and added a machine embroidered "Love" heart to it.  

I've been working on some tote bags for my LNS and haven't touched a tapestry needle in about 3 days.  I'm having withdrawal pains so I think tonight I'll start something new.  I'm patiently waiting for my Brenda Gervais pattern but so far no show.  I was able to purchase the two candy boxes that I'll need thanks to Annette.  I was able to get both of them at CVS  Pharmacy in case you are looking for them.  I will treat myself to the chocolate tonite while stitching on a new design.  

That's all for now.....nothing much happening in this part of the world....thank goodness.

Have a Blessed day,

Barbara

A Valentine freebie

It dawned on me today that it's been quite awhile since I came up with a freebie design for you ladies.  Have fun and if you finish it first and send me a picture, I'm sure Cupid will show up with a surprise for you.  The PDF can be found here.

Have a Blessed day,

Barbara

An almost finish

I've been working on several different projects and I haven't finished any of them except one.  I finished a new shawl yesterday.....it's cream colored wool/silk blend called Heritage Cascade Silk and it's yummy.  I've been asked what am I going to do with all these shawls!  Right now I have no idea.  LOL  I'm just making them to use up all this yarn I have and will worry about the other thing later.

I started a Wichelt freebie (found here) and I hopefully will have this finished sometime this week.  It's been slow going!  I'm stitching this with an HDF silk on Picture This Plus linen called Fog.  It's a great non color and is quite easy to see.  I have plans for this design which will use the following:

I'm hoping to have it all finished by this weekend and in my store.

Have you seen the new Brenda Gervais design called Valentine Sampler?  Well if you haven't, you must click your way over to her store and take a look....it's stunning.  I've given you a short cut so just click here

I've ordered mine already and cannot wait to receive it.  I have yet to see one of her designs I didn't like.

I must correct myself on a post I did a few weeks ago.  The pink and cream bag I made for myself....I posted that I purchased the fabric at Sewing Studio.  Well the brain is getting weaker everyday and I had mistakenly mixed up my fabrics.  That particular one can be purchased at Joann Fabrics and I highly recommend doing it.  I went back and purchased more yardage of both of them.

So that's about all that's going on in my world.  We are getting in photos of January's finished pages for the SAL.  Just a reminder to those participating....if you don't have your January finished page to me or Jenn by the 31st, you are then taken off the list to qualify for the gift at the end of the year.....so please send them in as soon as you finish them.

Until we talk again, have a Blessed day,

Barbara.

HELP!!!

I'm not sure how many of you remember this design by De La Tour Designs but it's called "Heavenly Kiss".  It's done on black 28ct. Jobelan using 7 different colors of DMC ranging from white to black and 5 shades of grey in between.   I would like to stitch this on natural 32ct. Belfast linen and I'm hoping for some suggestions as to what colors this would look good in.  I really love the brownish greens - 830's - but I'm not sure how they would look with this design.  Please help with suggestions!!!!

Have a Blessed day,

Barbara

Dawn's Bag

Dawn requested a blue bag and this is the design I used.  Would you believe that embroidery has over 38,400 stitches in it.  Yikes!

Have a Blessed day,

Barbara

Girls just wanna have fun....

Isn't it funny how our toys have changed over the years.   My DH has his little sports car and I have my sewing machine.  Granted his did cost a little bit more but I bet I have more fun with mine.  :o)

I love my LNS and I try to help her in anyway I can and one of the ways is to save my shopping bag and reuse it over and over again.  Well it was starting to look a little under the weather so yesterday I decided to make one.  First off I went to Sewing Studio for fabric.  Now I know what you're saying....."Doesn't she have any in her stash that will work?".....well of course I did but that's beside the point.  Any excuse you can give DH for an outing at Sewing Studio is allowed.

I found this beautiful mauve, peach, tan and cream flowered print that I knew was exactly what I was looking for.  Then came the mauve which matched and the bag is fully lined with a brown print.

Home I came and straight to my sewing room to plan this out.  First I found the perfect embroidery design and it's been stitched with a pale peach.  Across the top I used the daintiest heirloom lace in a pretty cream.  The handles are hidden and if you look closely where the top mauve piece is sewn on, I have left part of it open in the front and back to form the handles.  I loved making this and I'm going to see if my LNS will let me make some to sell in her store.

I am enjoying this machine so much I can't believe it.  I use to think that I would much rather do all this by hand, and don't get me wrong, I love handwork, but this is so satisfying to see your finished work so quickly.  I guess I'm getting anxious in my old age.  LOL

Next up is something I purchased on Ebay just out of curiousity.  I saw that this overseas seller had a ball of 1,000 yards of linen thread.  I first thought of how this would work up in crochet but yesterday when I received it in the mail, something else popped into my puny brain.....Hardanger!  You can see that the original ball is quite large (those are 4 inch scissors) so I took one of those large empty spools you can get at a craft store and wound some onto it.  This makes it much easier to work with.  I started a Emie Bishop heart design which shouldn't take too long.  I'm stitching it on a small piece of green linen that I had handy which is 30ct.  I love how this looks and the primitive uses are endless.  Plus being that this is linen (about the color of natural Belfast linen) it will dye beautifully so that's another plan.  I will keep you updated on how this is working.

Well that's all I have for today.  I'm still working on a beautiful cream silk shawl and I hope to have that finished soon.  The next time Peyton comes over, I will have her model all my new shawls so you can see them.

Thanks for dropping in and until we talk again, have a Blessed day,

Barbara

The Official Start of the SAL

Jenn and I are so excited to finally be able to start the SAL we are hosting.   If you want to see how this will be done and those who have decided to join us, you can visit the SAL blog here.  I want to tell all the ladies that have signed up that it is now time to start thinking about what you want to stitch for your cover, if you haven't done it yet, and what you want your January page to hold.  Jenn and I are trying to keep ahead of the game to give you inspiration and we both have our January and February pages finished and you can see them on the blog.  Let your mind go wild and lets come up with some really inspired stitching.

As far as my large project for 2013, I've started the Patches of Life Sampler by L'Atelier Perdu.  She hosted it as a SAL on her blog last year but I'm just starting now.  I put the first few stitches in it yesterday and will work on it in between other things this year.  After I get some of it stitched, I'll post a picture but right now it looks like nothing.

My wish for the New Year is that everyone gets plenty of stitchie time.

Until we talk again, have a Blessed day,

Barbara