Dirty Santa

Last night the sorority I belong to had our Christmas dinner. The get-to-gether was postponed in December due to bad weather. Anyway, our activity was to bring a ornament for exchange. I took my last Tipsy Tree. It got traded three times before it went home with a dear lady. Here's the one I took home. I had to trade to get it. My friend Lynn made it, so I was extra happy to get it.

I stitched a little on the Elizabeth's Designs Winter yesterday morning. This was after I frogged some of the stitching. Seems I used the wrong color green on a set of the leaves. I considered taking Shay Pendray's advice of just working around it. However, the contrast between the two greens was too much for me to leave it.

Monday, one of the Humane Society volunteers accompanied our Sheriff and one of his investigators to a puppy mill in the county. She said it was the worst she has ever seen. Unfortunately Oklahoma does not have legislation that can shut them down for horrible living conditions. As long as the dogs have food, water, and shelter the law protects the millers against inhumane treatment and abuse. Go figure.

Hope everyone has a great stitching day today.

Catching Up

TIPSY TREE

I've commented several times that one of my favorite designs this year is the Charland "Tipsy Tree." My last finish of 2007 was exactly that design. I tried something new for me, beading around the edge. I think it turned out very pretty. My photo isn't that great, but in person it is so cute. But, alas, it was stitched as a gift, so it's not mine! WINTER
I also started an Elizabeth's Designs piece, "Winter Stitching Club." I enjoy stitching her designs. I have the whole series, finishing Autumn sometime ago.

HAPPY STASH

My friend, Lynn, and I have a NYE tradition of getting up early, driving to Tulsa, then shopping the big sale at The Silver Needle. We arrived about 6:05 a.m. and shopped, shopped, shopped. What fun it is to fill those baskets and get those discounts. After close to two hours, we checked out and headed to get some breakfast. (Who doesn't need sustenance after all that?!) Then to Hobby Lobby for more stash. Like I needed more. Then we headed back to the Silver Needle for shopping for another round. I believe we had a really good morning. Both of us had two large bags stuffed full of stitching goodies. Here's a portion of my stash.I still have openings for five PIF stitchers. To fulfill my part of the PIF, I will randomly choose five stitchers to send stitched pieces to if I have no participants.

Have a great week. I head to the Humane Society tomorrow morning.

Pay if Forward

Happy New Year one and all. I'm just a little bit behind on posting. Seem to be in some kind of funk. Any way...

I've signed up for my first ever Pay It Forward (PIF) with Jen. If you are interested in a stitched piece from me, then let me know by e-mailing me at bkirk1029@sbcglobal.net and I'll be happy to sign you up! Here's the way it works. The first 5 people that e-mail me about my PIF challenge, will get a piece made by me in the next 365 days. This PIF will have a deadline for myself of Dec. 31, 2008. In turn you must post to your blog the same challenge and accept 5 people to send a PIF. They do it on their blog and so on. Hope to hear from you!

Last projects for 2007

Here's wishing one and all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. You may think I'm late in my Christmas wish, however the Christmas season goes until January 6th!

I haven't been stitching much this week. Giving my eyes a much needed break due to a little suffering from eye strain. They feel rested now, so will pick up the stitching again. My first project will most likely be a scissor fob for the Hooked on Exchanging board. I also have three Winter seasonal charts I'd like to get done and of course there's the ever present WIP's.

Here's a photo of the latest biscornus I stitched for gifts. I've finally gotten the hang of finishing them. They are so much fun to put together.
I stitched them on 28ct opalescent cashel linen. This has become one of my favorite fabrics of late.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend. There's some college bowl games on that will capture my attention for the next few days. I should get some quality stitching in!

Another Finish

The needleroll is finished and let me say, it was a challenge. I sewed the seam three times, so don't look at the back. I came to the conclusion that it wasn't the stitcher, but the fabric! Hehe. Never could get it straight. I've heard of irregular fabric, but never have encountered it. Anyway, I know my friend will be pleased as she loves whatever I stitch. She's a true friend indeed.

I believe the girls at the Humane Society enjoyed their ornaments. I know I enjoyed stitching them. The lunch was so good, smoked ribs, fried chicken and all the trimmings plus some home-made candy and cookies and one of my favorites, peach cobbler.

The weather was wonderful here. The temps got up to the mid 50's which was quite tolerable. It's supposed to stay that way most of the week. Yipee. No ice or snow in OK's forecast for now.

Have a great stitching evening. I'm heading off to start another biscornu.

Small Finish

Today is the Humane Society volunteer get-to-gether so I'll be rounding up my ornaments to give to the girls. I have been stitching this weekend with one small finish to share. It's one of the freebie biscornus. I stitched it on 28ct opalescent cashel and used a DMC red. It looks really festive with all the sparkles in it. I've not hit on the right amount of stuffing to use. With more stitching of the little wonders I'm sure I will figure it out.

I had my SB needleroll all ready to stuff. But when I turned it my stitching as not straight. Sooo, I had to rip that all out. Now how that happened is beyond me, because I hand stitch all my seams together. Anyway, that piece is waiting to be re-seamed. I hope to get that done today after my Humane Society stint.

Humane Society Ornaments

It's not that I haven't been stitching, I just didn't have any photos to show. But today is a different story. I chose not to do any elaborate finishing on the Brittercup ornaments, just a piece of ribbon. Aren't they cute all lined up in a row. I may have a hard time taking them to the Humane Society Monday. Somehow I miscounted by one doggie ornie. I should have stitched two. It will be ok because one of the dog people likes cats also. I'd accept either if I had a choice, so hopefully she won't be too upset. If she really wants a doggie one, I'll glady keep one of the kitties and do another doggie.

Anxiously (not) waiting to see what the weather holds for this weekend. Our area of OK is supposed to get some snow, any where from one to six inches. Okmulgee was much luckier than Tulsa. Our ice melted over night. Not too much damage was done to our trees. Tulsa on the other hand, really lost alot of trees and power has not been restored to over 100,000 homes. Snow on top of this weather will really strain their resolve. This area of OK gets snow from time to time usually less than two to three inches. Any accumulation over that really throws us into a frenzy. Most cities do not have a fleet of snow removal equipment so it takes a while to get the heavy snow removed. It's just safer to stay at home, but many don't have that option. Enough of my soap boxing.

I've about finished the SB needleroll. Just one more area to stitch, and then pulling the threads and doing that stitching. I should be able to get it finished this weekend if I work really hard at it.

This week at the Humane Society was good. We adopted four dogs and two cats, one dog went to German Shepherd rescue and one went into foster care.

Have a great stitching weekend.