FINALLY I Got My Stitching Bug Back!!!

Well, I haven't done hardly any stitching since I finished the piece for my Grama. It was as if I lost my stitching bug for a while. But I think I just had a lot going on in my mind. Plus I hadn't been sleeping well the past few months & I think the lack of sleep was finally catching up with me.

BUT NOW, although still feeling sleepy now & again, I seemed to have found my stitching bug again. My father in law's birthday party is one week from today ... 7 days away. And my husband & I have been trying to decide what to get for him. Then last nite it hit me! My husband's family has a sort of symbol that they all share, a mushroom. There is no specific reason. It's just something they decided. My father in law and all of his sons have a mushroom tattoo on their legs. And I too have a mushroom tattooed on my left ankle. Anywho, last nite it hit me for a great gift for my father in law. I have the cutest little mushroom house pattern!!! I thought I would stitch this for him & then add the family name on it or something. Then my husband came up with the idea of having it say "Shroom Sweet Shroom" to the right of the mushroom house. I thought that's a great idea. So now I have exactly 7 days (I know I've heard that in some movie) to start & finish this pattern, in order to present this gift to my father in law at his 60th birthday party next Saturday nite. Here is a picture of the pattern that I am doing, other than the wording. And each day I will post my progress as I stitch it up until next Saturday when I should have it completely finished & framed.

Finished & Framed!!!

I finally found the mat & frame that I wanted for this piece! So it's all finished & framed!!! I will be packing it up & mailing it to my Grama tomorrow! I can't wait to hear how she likes it!!! This was such a fun piece to stitch.

Why Do I Love Cross Stitching?

I love cross stitching for lots of different reasons. I love creating art with a needle & floss. It's so exciting to watch my art come alive right in front of my eyes as I stitch one X after another! I love the feeling I get when I finish a cross stitch piece and frame it to see a fully completed piece of artwork. I have very few pieces for myself, only 2 as a matter of fact. One is a little piece & it hangs on my desk. I just love it. The other, I have only due to extenuating circumstances & is a larger piece. And it is one of my favorite pieces that I have ever stitched. I love the excitement of getting new patterns! I find it very hard at times to refrain from starting these new patterns before finishing my WIP's that I have going at the time. Hence why sometimes I have so many WIP's at one time, currently there are 8, but only 6 are shown here on my blog right now. Another reason I love cross stitching, and one of my favorite reasons, is the happiness & excitement I feel when I give a gift that is made with much love & soul put into it, and the look on the person's face when they see it for the first time. It makes me feel so good when the people receiving my stitched works of art just love it! They are all personal & stitched just for them. Nothing is random. They are all selected based on a specific reason. My Mom loves to collect teapots & teacups. So I love to stitch patterns with those items on them for her. Also I stitch a lot of "mom" patterns for her. For my Grama, I stitched a pattern of an old hymn called "The Old Rugged Cross", bcuz it was her mom's favorite hymn & I knew that my Grama would love it. And of course, I always stitch "Grama" patterns for her, as some of you have seen my most recent Grama piece, Gramas Touch a Heart, in my recent blog entries. So they are always very special for a reason. Another one of my favorite reasons that I love cross stitching, is when I get to enter a finished piece into the county & state fairs. I have entered two of my pieces into the county fair & the same two pieces into the state fair. It was so exciting from the moment that I dropped my pieces off at the fairgrounds to be judged, until the first day of the fair being open when I can go & see how my pieces did. And really the excitement continues all thru out the fair until I get to pick up my pieces & the ribbons they have received. Yes, that's right ... I have won ribbons!!! Each of the two pieces won a ribbon at each fair!!! This event has such an amazing feeling of accomplishment. I would highly recommend anyone that does cross stitching to enter their works into their local fairs. It is such a great experience. The photos you see here are photos of the pieces that I entered into the fair with the ribbons they won.

The first piece is "64", which is a pattern that looks like a huge postcard and has some of the lyrics from the song "64" by the Beatles. I stitched this piece for my husband for Christmas one year. He loves the Beatles, and so I thought this was a great pattern to stitch for him. At the county fair this piece won a 3rd place ribbon. At the state fair, it won a 5th place ribbon. Both really good accomplishments.








The second piece is called "Ankh of Life". This piece I had originally stitched for someone else, but again, extenuating circumstances made it mine. This is one of my favorite pieces that I have ever stitched. At the county fair, this piece one a 1st place ribbon. And at the state fair, it won a 2nd place ribbon! Excellent accomplishments!!!

These two pieces are hung proudly in my home, with their ribbons on either side. Next time ... I am shooting for Best of Class & Best of Show!!! LOL!

So these are the reasons that I absolutely LOVE cross stitching. With nothing but positive, how can you go wrong?!

WOW!!! How Exciting!!! :-D

I am so thrilled & excited! I never thought I'd have a blog that so many others like to look at & read!!! And today I am the recipient of not just one award, but THREE!!!

I was awarded today with two awards from Dawn!!! Thank you so much. So very sweet of you to nominate my blog!

The awards that I have received from Dawn are, The I ♥ Your Blog Award and The Brillante Weblog Award!!! These are wonderful!!!







Here are the rules when you select your people for the award:
1) Put the logo on your blog;
2) Add a link to the person who awarded you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on yours
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs



And the Awards I Chose go to ...

1. Juls ~ Your blog is so nice! I love seeing all your stitched pieces!
2. Lana ~ I just love all the fun & humor you put in all of your blog posts!!!
3. Sharon ~ Your blog is so pretty & organized! I love reading your posts!
4. CC ~ I love seeing all of your progress on your blog!
5. Mercy ~ I enjoy looking at your stitching photos! And Serendipity! How fun!
6. Dawn B ~ I love seeing your stitching progress & your blog is so much fun & "blinkie"!!!
7. Rachel S ~ I enjoy reading your blog & seeing your stitching!

I Received My 1st Award!!!

How exciting!!! I came to the computer for the first time today & discovered that I have received my very first award on my blog from Ashley!!! I thank you so much!!!

It is called "Arte y pico". In Spanish it literally means ART and TIP but according to Andie's blog, by way of Noreen's blog, by way of Nina... it translates as "The Best Art."

And the rules say:

1) Choose 5 blogs deserving to receive the award (conception, creativity, interesting equipment and contributing to the community of bloggers whatever the language)

2) Every award must contain the link towards the blog of his author so that it can be visited.

3) Every winner must show the award-logo and put back the name and the link towards the
blog that attributed it for her.

4) The winner must show the blog link the Arte y Pico.

5) To Post the rules.

And the Winners are:

1. Meari
2. Andie
3. Dawn
4. Jinger
5. Sharon

Working on an RR Piece

First I have to say I am so happy with the new look of my blog! I never knew there were so many templates out there! I also have added thumbnail photos & progress bars for all of my WIP's on the right frame! I think this is such a great feature!!! And I want to thank Ashley for pointing me in the right direction to get the instructions for how to do this, as well as Meari for posting the how to instructions on her blog!!!

Ok, so yes I am involved in my very first Round Robin, as you have seen on a previous blog entry. I received in the mail my first piece to stitch on for another person. Her theme is Angels. The angel she has stitched is so beautiful! And I selected an angel from the Lavender & Lace/Told in a Garden Christmas Angels set. I chose to stitch the 1999 Christmas Angel. It will fit perfectly in the stitching area size that she chose. I am posting a photo of what it will somewhat look like when it is finished. Of course I have just started working on it, so this is not my work that I am posting a photo of. But I will be sure to post a finished photo once I am finished!

Gramas Touch a Heart COMPLETED!!!

I am very happy to report that I have finished Gramas Touch a Heart!!! All that is left now is to wash, iron & frame it! Then I will get it mailed off to my Grama!!! :~) I think it turned out very well. I can't wait to hear how my Grama likes it once she receives it in the mail. :~)

Gramas Touch a Heart Progress ...

Well here we are with nothing left but backstitching to do!!! There are 2 colors for the back stitch ~ the blue will be done with 3 strands & the charcoal will have backstitching with 3 strands & with 1 strand when it's all finished. Then it's just time for washing, ironing & framing!!! :~) I was thinking I would frame this in a white or wood colored frame.

Who Are You?

So who reads my blog?


1. As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! And if we've never met in real life, leave me a comment of your favorite post I wrote and why it was your favorite.



2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually really funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Hope you're having an excellent day!

Margie

Gramas Touch a Heart Progress ...

This is the progress I made on "Gramas Touch a Heart" last nite! It's starting to really come along! Can't wait to get this finished so I can mail it to my Grama! :~)

Gramas Touch a Heart Progress ...

Here is my progress so far on "Gramas Touch a Heart"

Using Cross Stitch with Other Hobbies & Crafts

As much as I LOVE to cross stitch, I also have other hobbies/obsessions that I do which includes sewing, scrapbooking, occasionally crocheting, and painting plastercrafts. With my sewing I have started a small business where I design & make custom holiday stockings, blankets & patchwork placemat sets. My business is called Forever Treasured Keepsakes. When I make the holiday stockings, if people want them personalized, I cross stitch the names on the stockings, which I think looks really good! I thought I would share some of the stockings with the cross stitched names on them for you all to see. Let me know what you think!

Round Robin

Recently I have had the opportunity to participate in a cross stitch Round Robin. For those of you that don't know what a round robin is, I'll explain how this particular Round Robin works. Some may work differently. With this Round Robin, there are four stitchers participating. We each have selected a theme that we want our piece to entail. One lady chose Faeries, another chose Angels, another chose Frogs, and I chose Bunnies. Then we each prepared a piece of aida by gridding the sections that each person will stitch on. We stitched a design in one of the sections for our chosen theme. Then we mail our piece off to the next person. They stitch a design that matches the new piece that we just received in the mail. For example, my theme is Bunnies, so the person I mailed my piece to will stitch a Bunnie themed design in one of the gridded areas on my aida fabric. Then she will mail my piece to the next person and they will do the same & so on until the piece is mailed back to me all finished! With the theme I chose, I am planning on framing & hanging the finished piece in my daughter's room. One of her favorite animals is Bunnies. And her favorite color is pink. The design that I stitched on my piece is one that I found in a book I have. However, the original design was much too small & I wanted to make it much more personal for my daughter. I changed the pattern quite a bit, making it larger and changing some of the colors & tweaking the design to work the way I wanted it to. Here are pictures of my gridded aida fabric & the design that I stitched. This was my very first Round Robin that I have participated in and so far I have found it to be quite fun!!! I definitely plan on participating in others in the future! Another great thing about this Round Robin, is that the finished piece will have four different stitched designs that have all been stitched in different countries of the world!!! How cool is that!!!

Gramas Touch a Heart Progress ...

This is a 5x7 sized kit that I am making for my Grama ~ I am changing the pattern to read "Gramas" instead of Grandparents ~ this is a birthday gift for her ~ I just started working on this so there isn't much progress as of yet ~ but it should be a pretty quick to stitch pattern ~ I just think that handprints are so cute! I just had to get this one & make it for my Grama ~ I'm sure she's going to love it!

A Few Quick Stitch Pieces That I Stitched ...

I have been working on a few quick stitch projects lately. Here are pictures of them. I had to stitch Marvin the Martian for my little brother. Marvin is his favorite character. And the Cross Stitch Diva coasters I made for a few friends of mine that also do a lot of stitching. The picture taken of the Cross Stitch Diva on black aida came out a little dark. But the actual coaster looks really nice. The other two coasters were stitched on white aida & cream aida. They were all fun to make. I sent them in the mail as surprises to everyone & haven't heard yet if they like them or not. We shall see!!! :~)