I Finished It!

Finished at 10:57pm New Year's Eve!

This is a Bucilla 'Christmas Promises' kit that I bought - along with several others - a few years ago. I think I started it this year. The only thing I'm unsure about is the fact that neither the chart nor the picture had any backstitching around the pink ruby? on the middle Magi's vase. I may go back and put some; it looks sort of unfinished to me.

But it's done! Now to start a HAED - I was going to start 'Lost In You' but I joined the SK SAL and I think I'll go ahead and start the one I chose - 'Mermaid of the Deep' because it looked easiest :D

Here's the pic - I'll be starting her sometime New Year's Day :D

She is not my usual 'thing' but my sister will love her.

Happy New Year, everyone!!!

Last Project of the Year!

I want to follow family tradition in finishing something on New Year's Eve.

We also try to start something new on New Year's Day, but I don't have any trouble with that tradition!!!

I decided to try and finish my Wise Men.

This is how they did look:

Two invisible Wise Men!

And here's how they look now:

Three! Three invisible Wise Men - bwah ha ha ha ha!

(I love the Count)

I've actually got a bit more than this done; I took that pic yesterday (with the new camera!)

I'm not sure why that crease showed up when I was being so careful, but hopefully it will iron out with no real problems... :D

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So I have four days to finish if no family difficulties crop up. Here's hoping I get more than a half hour a day to stitch!

Reasons for My Silence - Here's Lots of Pics!!!

We had no power at all for over five days!

We had a blizzard (for us)! 17 inches here and over 30 on the mountain tops! Sometimes I miss living up there but not now!

Here's some pics...

My car buried in snow:

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My broken-down snowball bush and see all the snow on the lines? It was heavy, wet snow; it fell straight down and there was no wind at all so it didn't drift. The lines were so heavy that they just snapped. Not these, but a lot! Poles fell down, and trees - tiny and huge, both! - broke and pulled down more lines. It looked like a hurricane had hit.

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My back porch on the day after it snowed. The day after this, we got a few more inches, but my camera batteries had given up the ghost by then.

The roads are still really rough - one lane for traffic because of the huge walls of ice and snow the snowplows inadvertenly made.

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I couldn't work on a big project, but I could crochet and I also made this ornamenet (by the light of an oil lamp! I thought I would go blind! I have much more respect for those stitchers who did their work by oil lamp and candle.)

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This ornament came from a little kit that I bought years and years ago. I don't remember where. I started a snowman, but I didn't finish it. Mostly, I crocheted. These are what I made:

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Three of them; two pale-brown for my SIL and my Mum, and one black for my lil' goth-chick sister.

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She opened it today and immediately stuck it on her husband:

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And declared that he was Franklin, the 'frilly' Ninja.

She's a nutcase...

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I also crocheted one more hat, for my Da:

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Here's some framing - my brother and my mother's gift. My SIL took them for me - see her reflection? lol! She didn't realize she was showing up!

I finished 'Mother's Bliss' a couple years ago, but never had it framed because one of my coworkers, when I was showing it off, grabbed it with greasy fingers and stained it. I could have died. I got most of the stains out, but one yellow spot on the right side defeated me. I probably never would have framed it, but my Mum knew I had stitched it, declared she didn't care, and demanded it. So she got it. Don't argue with the Mums!

I framed my 'Stress Reduction Kit' for my Da, but we forgot to take a pic of it. I'll try to get one later.

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My Gran really loved her 'Mothers Tree'. You can see some of her beautiful thread crochet work in the cabinet behind her. She's 84 and still does crochet or embroidery every day.

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and my nephew liked his afghan, too. He pretended he was a villian caught in Spiderman's web, lol! He's six and a definite handful!

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and... I got a new camera! I didn't really expect one - what with the economy and all - so was I ever surprised!!!

I have no real idea how to work it yet (the first pic is blurry, as you can see) but I can already tell a huge difference! Here's some pics I took of the drop spindle kit I also got (insert huge grin here) and the bag that came with it. You can see the detail of the bag even though I took the pic only a few inches away - the old camera I was using would have showed a washed out blue-brown blur. I'm so happy!

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Now I just need to learn to work the pretty thing correctly! (and the drop spindle, too)

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Hope you all had a Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, or... a Happy Festivus?

In serious need of ironing!

But it's done!


'Mother's Tree' by Lavender & Lace
I wrote down my time but haven't added it up yet. It's 16x20 inches. (or thereabouts)
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I backstitched the 'mother of ' in order to make it fit in the frame - my gran bought some frames a few years ago and redid all her large pictures to match. She had a few left over and a relative helped me snitch one :D So it will match all her other pics, I just had to play around with the spacing. It looks slightly off-center but that's just my camera angle.
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This has been a main focus piece since October... I have no idea what to work on now... O__o Maybe Fred will get some love this year after all?
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I also made hats!

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Here's one on a (slightly too small 'cause she's bald) mannequin head.
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I made one of these for my BIL last year and this year it was requested I make several more, lol! I may have one more to go; I have to ask my Mum if my Da will wear any of these!
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Only three gifties to go! Two lil' neck scarf-things and one (gulp) knitted hat.

Progress is Progress

Here is my first scan of stitching names & dates - I split the area into thirds so it would fit my largest Q-snaps... I really need to get some expander bars someday when I remember, lol!
I am already halfway done with the second 'third'. I just need to come back and put quotation marks around 'Polly' on this, since it was a nickname and not her actual middle name.
I think it's pretty neat that Mary had Rhoda when she was in her 40's - that was rare for back then. Mary was also a full Cherokee; she had a Native American name but it's lost to history :C

This 'Mother's Tree' is for my father's mother. I'd like to do one for my own mother, but her 'mother' tree currently ends abruptly at my great-grandmother, also a full Cherokee, whose parentage is not recorded in any place we've found yet. We still have a few more places to look, though.

I'm a bit enamoured of 'Ammie', as well - a lot of places have her listed as 'Annie', but my grandmother has always said that her name was not Annie - even though some geneologists (sp?) have tried to convince us that 'Ammie' is a mistake. But my grandmother lived with her for most of her childhood, and she knows her name was 'Ammie', pronounced 'Amy'. I think it's neat to find a quirky spelling in the 1800's!

I also finished the afghan for my nephew :D

Spiderman!

First Snow!

The ground was bare when I went to sleep last night - now we have 3 inches and it's still snowing on and off!

This is what I saw when I got up this morning:

My snowball bush with real snowballs on it :D

The trees looking like lace...

The mountains gorgeous and me glad that I live halfway up instead of still at the very top (it's soo pretty up there right now but I happen to know that they already can't use the roads)

And a back porch that I most definitely will not be sitting and stitching on today! I think I'll make some hot chocolate and curl up under an afghan while I work on stitching names and dates for 'Mother's Tree'.

I always love the first snowfall :D

Hope you all have the weather you want!

Christmas Comes But Once A Year - Thank God

I forgot to post any December Goals!
these are all Christmas related.

1. Finish four 'Armor' hats (this is what my brother-in-law calls the crocheted hats with the ears and neck flaps; he thinks they look like the chain-metal that went under knights' helmets)
2. Get my sister to come and pick two for my BIL, then decide which one my Da gets & which my brother gets (this is actually a very important goal, lol!)
3. Finish a shawl for Mum or a hood if that's what she decides she wants
4. Knit a hat for my sister
5. Finish 'Mother's Tree' for my Gran
6. Finish afghan for my nephew (so very close!)
7. Make a scarf/hat set for my SIL

Not really that bad - I've already made 2 Armor hats, they just need the ends woven in. And my sister's hat is started. The shawl and 'Mother's Tree' are the only ones that may stress me out.

The Tree is Done

I finished the tree part of 'Mother's Tree' on the 29th, but I had no time for posting. This is the pic I took that day - I really hope I get a better camera for Christmas :D

I've started the names & dates now - we'll see how long that takes to finish!