Finished the Xmas in July SAL piece

Hello Everyone! Not a whole lot to report today. I am still working on HAED Hold on to Hope. But I would like to finish the page I'm working on before I post an update. However I have finished the Xmas in July SAL piece that I have been participating in. We did one square per day for the 25 squares and today is July 25th, so we're finished. Karen at Sunshine Stitches made such a pretty pattern and I really enjoyed doing this SAL. It has been a lot of fun. It was exciting waiting each day for the new square to be added to the pattern. And each square was such a quick stitch that it didn't take anytime at all to get it done. I do highly recommend checking out Karen's blog here, Sunshine Stitches. She has some great patterns that she has designed and are for sale also. 


And without further ado, here is my finished Xmas in July piece!




So what do you think? I still have to get a frame for it and everything. But I really like how Karen let us choose whatever colors that we liked. It was nice to have that creative freedom to help make her design our own. I don't know if I am completely happy with the colors I chose. But I do have the pattern saved so that I can stitch it again and again if I want.

Well, that is all I have for now.

Happy Stitching, Crafting and Blogging!

Until Next Time,
♥ Margie ♥

Some Great Changes to My Blog!

Hello My Friends and Blog Followers! 

Thank you to some wonderful Facebook friends and my husband who is great at finding resources online, I have been able to make some changes on my blog that I am really happy with! 

As you can see, I have changed the whole look of my blog to a new template. I have added tabs! Super excited about those. :) And I have learned how to change the font of the body of my blog posts to something that is NOT listed in the very limited 7 fonts that Blogger has available. Even more excited about that than I am about the tabs! :) 

So please have a look around, click on the different tabs, and let me know what you think! :)

Happy Stitching, Crafting & Blogging!!! 

Until Next Time,

♥ Margie ♥

Current Projects ...

Hi there Friends and Blog Followers! :) 

So I've been working on a couple of things. One is a "Christmas in July" pattern that looks like quilt blocks. Those participating stitching one block each day from July 1st thru July 25th. One of my stitching friends on Facebook, Sunshine Stitches, designed the pattern and she posts the pattern for each block, one per day, on her blog. We are on Day/Block 18. It has been really fun since it's a small quick stitch each day. We get to select our own colors for the pattern. I have selected a few colors both solids and variegated. 

Here is where mine is after stitching Day/Block 18 ... 

Only seven more days/blocks to go!


The other project that I have been working on is, well, I've finally started HAED's Hold on to Hope! :) I've started in the bottom left corner of the pattern. I am having fun with the piece. Although it seems I always forget about how much confetti stitching there is in all of the HAED patterns. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this piece once I am finished. I don't know if I'll keep it for myself, or give it away to someone as a gift. But I do have plenty of time to think about that as I stitch it. I am stitching this one as an SAL with one of my online stitching friends. She is awesome & such a great friend. I wish that we could meet in person, as she is one of my best friends. 


Anyway, this is what Hold on to Hope will look like when finished ... 





And this is where I'm at after finishing my first page ... 





Still, obviously, have a lot to go, but at least it's progress. :) I'm already working on and making progress on the next page. I am moving to the right and then will move up. 


Well, that is all I have for now. 


Happy Stitching and Crafting Everyone!!! 


Until Next Time,
♥ Margie ♥
 

A Finish & One Stitching Goal DONE!

Hi Friends and Blog Followers!!! 

YAY!!! I have my first stitching finish of the year! It only took me half of the year to finally get it finished lol. 

But here it is ... my very unique Football Helmets Birth Announcement for my very dear friends! :) I am so excited about this piece and cannot wait to hear how my friends like it. I'm going to include a note attached to the wrapping paper that they have to call me before they open it so that I can hear their reaction. Or they can use a webcam or a video chat app on their phones lol.

I still have to wash, iron & frame it. I have a really pretty white frame that I think it going to look really nice with this piece. Once I have it washed, ironed & framed, I will post another photo. So what do you think? :) 

Now I can get busy with HAED's Hold on to Hope. I started it this past Saturday afternoon while we were at a party for my son's baseball team. But I was only able to really get in a few stitches. 

Well, that's all I have for now! 

Until Next Time,

♥ Margie ♥

Another Update on My Football Helmets Piece!

Hi there Everyone!!!

I just wanted to post a quick update on the Football Helmets Birth Announcement piece. I have finished all of the back stitching on the Packers helmet! All that's left is the rest of the names and the baby's info!!! I am so excited to be so close to finishing this piece! My goal is to finish all of the stitching before I go to bed tonight, which may be very late tonight. But I really want to get this piece finally finished. 

So I have an update close up photo of the Packers helmet with all of the back stitching done. And here it is ... 

It's a little bit hard to see all of the back stitching in the darker areas of the helmet mask, but if you look closely, you can see it pretty well, I think. Once I got this part finished, my adrenaline really started pumping as the excitement of being so close to finishing took over! And now I'm nearly done! I'll post another photo as soon as I'm finished and before I go to bed! :) 


See you all in a few hours!


Until Next Time,
♥ Margie ♥

Football Helmets Birth Announement Update

Hi there Friends and Blog Followers! :) 

Wow it's been a while since I've posted and I have even passed my 4 yr Blogoversary, I believe, since my last post. It's so hard to believe that I've been blogging for that long. But I have certainly loved every minute of it! :) I look forward to many more years to come! :) Thank you to everyone who follows and comments on my blog. I really appreciate each and every one of you! :)

So, I have been working on my very special football helmets birth announcement piece for my friends. It's looking great. I realized last night that I hadn't posted any update pics here on my blog and was upset with myself for not doing so. But I did take photos. So here I am today, posting pics! :)

So without further a due, here they are! 

And there they are! So what do you think? I have finished with all of the X stitches and am now working on what's left of the back stitching. As of this post, I am nearly finished with the back stitching on the helmet on the left and then will just have all of the baby's info in the middle and the daddy's name under the helmet on the left. I am so happy with how this is turning out. I am just so upset with myself for allowing my stitching bug to hide away from me, causing me to take so long to get this piece finished. I can't wait to hear how my friends like this piece. I just hope that the daddy doesn't get upset about me adding the 'C' at the bottom. :) I don't think that he will, but there is always that chance, I guess. 

Once this piece is finished, then I will be jumping into the Heaven and Earth Designs piece called Hold on to Hope, which I showed a photo of in my last post. My friend that I'll be SAL with on that piece is making a lot of progress on it. But I am glad that she's not a super sonic speedy stitcher lol. :) 

Well, that's all I have for now. 

Happy Stitching!!!

Until Next Time,

♥ Margie ♥

My First Attempt at Hand Dying Stitching Fabrics

Hi there Stitching & Crafting Friends & Blog Followers! 

I have been seeing people hand dying their own stitching fabrics over the years and plus seeing it online to buy and at needlecraft stores. I've always loved it and have been thinking about trying it myself for quite some time, but never had the guts to actually try it. Well, today I took the plunge. :) I wanted to try to create a marbled look with a light yellow and a light green for an HAED pattern that I am going to be stitching called Hold on to Hope. I used the bucket dye bath method and RIT Lemon Yellow and RIT Kelly Green. And although it didn't come out anything like I had wanted it to, I do still like it. However, I will most likely not be using it for the pattern that I had planned it for. I think it came out too dark for that pattern.  

Here is what the pattern looks like ... 

Here is the first hand dyed fabric that I made. I first put the fabric in the bucket dye bath with yellow and then put it in with the green. If you look closely, you can see a little bit of marbling in the colors. 

Here is the second hand dyed fabric that I made. With this one I put the fabric in the bucket dye bath with the yellow. And then I used a spray bottle with the green to give it more marbling than the last one.  

I don't think the first fabric will work out with the HAED Hold on to Hope pattern bcuz I think it may be too vibrant in color. I think MAYBE the second one might work. But I'm not 100% sure. I would really like some feedback on this one if you could please. I appreciate it lots! :) 

Looking forward to hearing what you all think. 

Happy Stitching & Crafting! 

Until Next Time,

♥ Margie ♥

Another Finish & a Couple of Updates!

Hello Friends and Fellow Stitchers and Crafters! 

It's been a while since I've posted and I realized I forgot to post a photo of my second finish of 2012! I crocheted a scarf for my son and have put it away for the holidays. :) I think it turned out pretty good. I think he's really going to like it ... well at least I hope he will. 

Here is a photo of it ... 

So what do you think? I hope this photo posts correctly. I used PhotoBucket and used their program to adjust the size of the photo. But they changed they way their website is set up and I kept getting an error message. And even though the site showed the additional copy of the photo, saved to the new size, I'm not so sure it actually did save to the new size. 

Anyway, so I did attempt to get Elemental Cosmos finished in time to enter into the county fair for this year, but with all of the kids activities both in and outside of school, and the time it takes to stitch on black evenweave (SO NOT easy), I was not able to finish it in time. So I put it back on the back burner, temporarily, while I work on the birth announcement piece that I designed for one of my best friends and her husband. I was making some good progress on it, and then I discovered a mistake. That mistake caused me to have to take out a bunch of stitches. I am just about finished re-stitching all that I had to take out, without the mistake of course. 

Here is where I'm at with that piece at the moment ... 

It's coming along and I hope to be finished before the end of the week. Again, I'm not sure if the size of this photo will show up correctly. I hope it does. :) 

As I said, I also worked on Elemental Cosmos a little bit. So I thought I would post a photo of my progress on that as well ... 

It's coming along slowly. You can see where the stars are that I added the beads. Do you think it looks alright? As for the size on this photo, I started playing around with sizing photos on PhotoShop and then uploading them to PhotoBucket and maybe this will help. 

Well that is all I have for now. Looking forward to hearing your feedback. 

Happy Stitching & Crafting!!! :) 

Until Next Time,

♥ Margie ♥

PS ~ I messed with the photos a little bit on PhotoShop and then on here and I think I got the photos looking just right now! :) 

First Finish of the Year & One Goal Completed!!!

Hi there fellow stitchers, crafters and blog followers :) 

Well, here we are about 6 weeks into the new year. I have just been able to get into working on some crafty things this past few days with moving and everything. Sadly, it's just my husband and I that are having to move an entire house of things that we've accumulated over the last four years. And of course during that time my husband also has to work. So needless to say, moving is taking way longer than it should. C'est la vie, I suppose. 

So on to happier subjects ... CRAFTING!!! :) Those of you that read my previous post know of my crafty goals for this year. One of those goals was to finish crocheting the scarf that I started for my daughter. Well, I am happy to say ... IT'S FINISHED!!! So even if it is not cross stitch, I do have my first finish of the year and completed one of my goals! :) 

Here is a photo of the scarf ... 

I used a bright "hot pink" and a darker gray for colors. I did all the rows in double crochet and then stitched around the whole thing using single crochet. Then I just cut a bunch of long pieces of yarn to create the fringe and looped them onto the ends of the scarf. I'm trying to get a good jump on gifts for the holidays this year, so after I took this photo, I folded it up and put it into a ziploc bag to keep it nice until the holidays when I will give it to my daughter. 

Well, that is all I have for now. I'm going to start on the scarf for my son. He has mentioned that he wants a red/black scarf. He's only 5 (almost 6), so it should be a quick project. 

Happy Stitching and Crafting Everyone!!! 

Until Next Time,

♥ Margie ♥

It's 2012! Time for My 2012 Crafty Goals!!!

Happy 2012 Everybody!!!

It's a new year, so it's time for 2012 Stitching/Sewing/Crocheting GOALS!!!

 Let's start with the shortest list to the longest ... 

2012 Crocheting Goals

1 ~ Finish crocheting my daughter's afghan

2 ~ Finish the scarf that I started for my daughter

3 ~ Make a scarf for my son (if he wants one)

2012 Sewing Goals 

1 ~ Finish blanket for my father in law

2 ~ Make apron for father in law

3 ~ Finish aprons for stitching friend's kids

4 ~ Make stockings for sister & niece

5 ~ Finish blankets for two cousins

6 ~ Work on inventory of aprons and stockings

And now for the LONG list ... 

2012 Stitching Goals 

1 ~ Finish Henry for stitching friend

2 ~ Finish birth announcement piece

3 ~ Get back to & finish Red Rose that is artwork by my brother

4 ~ Finish Elemental Cosmos

5 ~ Stitch 3 versions of "Rules for Life" pattern

6 ~ Make some good progress on HAED Wicca

7 ~ Make some good progress on HAED Pale Rose

8 ~ Make some good progress on America the Beautiful

9 ~ Make some good progress on Elemental Masks (& maybe finish?)

10 ~ Finish the kids trick or treat bags

So there are my Crafty Goals for 2012. I would like to get at least one or two pieces stitched in time for the county fair in April, so we shall see! :) 

Happy New Year!!!

Until Next Time,

♥ Margie ♥

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Happy New Year to All of My Stitching Friends and Blog Followers!!! 

Well, 2012 is just a few hours away. I hope you all have a very fun happy and healthy and safe New Year!!! And that 2012 brings you nothing but the very best of everything!!!  

Any special plans tonight? None for me. My husband has been in the hospital since Monday night and they haven't said when they'll discharge him yet. My sister is working (she has to close) which sux, and brother in law has to work very early in the morning so he'll be going to bed soon. So the kids and I will just be hanging out at home, maybe do a few sparklers or something. And my son has to go to school on Monday, so I'm trying to get him back into going to bed at his normal time. My daughter doesn't go back to school until Tuesday and she always goes to bed early anyway. 

Again, I wish you all a very Happy 2012!!! 

Until Next Time,

♥ Margie ♥

Another Year Nearly Gone ALREADY!

Hello to all of my friends and stitching buddies!!!

Here we are nearing the end of yet another year! It's so hard to believe that there are only 27 days left of 2011. How has your year been going? I am still in that unproductive slump that I have been in for pretty much most of the year. No stitching or sewing going on. It's actually making me rather sad. It's not because I don't want to stitch or sew or do anything crafty and creative. I really do. But I just can't being myself to do it. There are just so many other things that are needing to be done first and are more important, I suppose. I honestly think that since I moved to Arizona in 1999, this has been the least productive year that I've had. And it is SOOOOOO time to change that! :)

So I wanted to let you know that yes, I am still here and will be posting more. In fact, before the end of 2011, I am going to post a "Creative Goals for 2012" post where I'll include goals for my cross stitching, my sewing, plus my other crafting and creative things that I would like to work on and make progress, and hopefully finish, in the coming year. 

If I don't get back on here before Xmas, I want to wish you all a very Happy Holidays! I hope your every wish comes true!!! :) 

Until Next Time,

♥ Margie ♥

Mi Vida Loca ...

Hello Everyone!

How does time always seem to go by faster and faster and before we know it days turn into weeks and we've barely blinked an eye?! Growing up we wish for time to go faster so that a weekend will come faster, or a holiday, or special occasion, or something to that extent. And in so wishing so, we set our lives on fast forward and once that begins it never goes back, it only goes faster. It would be nice that my kids didn't grow up too fast. I treasure every single day with them bcuz I know that before I know it they will be grown.

Anywho, so it seems I haven't posted to my blog since August 10th. I have stitched a little bit, but not really, in my opinion, enough to post about. I have, however, updated the pattern for the birth announcement since my friends have had their baby girl on September 8th!!! :~) She is SO adorable!!! I will show you the updated pattern. Within the next couple days I am going to post a picture of one little tiny piece that I stitched for them of two pink little footprints. I just have to iron, trim & put it together into the little white oval frame and I plan on adding some pink ribbon in a bow. 

So for now, all I have to show you is the updated pattern. I think now it looks more balanced. Also remember, that the baby's name and the names of the parents will be backstitched with two strands of floss and the rest of the backstitching is using one strand. 

So what do you think? I wish there was a way to show the difference of how the names will look with the different backstitching. But with the last progress update photo in the previous post, you should be able to see how that looks. 

Well that's all for now. Happy Stitching everyone! 

Until Next Time,

♥ Margie ♥

Getting a Little Further Along ...

Hi there friends, family & stitching peeps ~ 

So I think I have finally gotten all of the school supplies needed for the kids. We ended up having to order the folders from Amazon that my son needs. They will be here Friday, but at least he has the one in the mean time. I took my son to Payless to get his shoes. I swear he's pickier than a teenager! But we did manage to agree on a couple pairs of shoes. Today we're just hanging out at home. After such a busy couple of weeks getting things ready and going here and there for all the different supplies, I thought it would be best to have a relaxing day at home before my son starts school tomorrow and my daughter starts on Monday. My son has been getting things together for his lunch and such already. It's way too cute. He is really excited about school and I'm very happy about that. 

Ok, so I made a little bit of progress on the surprise gift last night after the kids went to bed. I think it's looking pretty good!!! :)

Take a L@@K ... 

 

So what do you think? How does the backstitching between the name and the Born in look? The name stands out a little more doesn't it? Next I'll either stitch the baby's name, since that's the only baby info I can really add at this point. Or I'll start on the Packers helmet on the left side of the pattern. Haven't decided which yet. So I'll post another update really soon! :~) 

Happy Stitching! 

Until Next Time,

♥ Margie ♥

Slow Down Time ... Is there an app for that?!

Hello Family, Friends and Stitching Buddies! :~) 

I need an app to slow down time. Anyone know where I can find that? Haven't been able to locate it on the iTunes app store yet. And boy oh boy, I can really use that one ... like right now! 

Here it is August 9th already. In just two days, my son (my baby boy) is starting kindergarten. I'm excited for him, but he's my baby!!! These last four years of being a stay at home mom have been awesome. And I have loved being home with the kids. I just never expected those years to go by so quickly. My beautiful teenage daughter is starting 10th grade this year. She is very excited now that it's getting closer. I sometimes wonder if time seems to go by as fast for my kids as it does for me. 

So with all the preparations for the kids starting school, I haven't gotten in much stitching time. But I have made some progress on the surprise gift piece that I've been working on. All of the backstitching on the Cowboys helmet is finished. :~) 

Take a L@@K ... 
 

With the backstitching, I stitched the name with 2 strands and the backstitching in the helmet with 1 strand. I don't know if they look any different here in the photo. I was hoping that by using 2 strands for the names, that it would make them stand out a bit. What do you think? Can you tell the difference in the number of strands in the helmet backstitching versus the name? 


Well, more errands to run and school supplies and clothes to buy. Ugh, I think next to Xmas and birthday months, back to school shopping costs next to a fortune! My son has to wear uniform type clothes and no open toe shoes. So his boy sandals, or chanklas as we call them, are out. So that means a couple of new pairs of shoes for him. Thank goodness for Payless BOGO! My daughter gets to wear pretty much what she wants to school, within our rules of dress code of course lol. And let me just say, the cost of backpacks alone are a small fortune at $20 each! And the supplies list for kindergarten is HUGE! And who would have thought it would be so hard to find Mead Trapper Keeper portfolios. I have been to 4 different stores in town looking for these folders. And the stores that did carry them only had one in stock. And of course I need to buy two. 


Anywho, that's enough rambling for this post. I'm off to (hopefully) finish getting what's needed for school! 

Until Next Time,
♥ Margie ♥