Finished Come All Ye Faithful

After I scanned this piece yesterday this piece just flew into place. So I did finish 31 projects this year. Although I didn't join Debbie's Crazy Challenge (I think that is what it's called) I did 31 pieces. Wonder if I can do that next year. Anyway I loved this piece.

Tomorrow I will go back to the America piece, I got most of the floss out tonight. I had a little 4 legged helper so decided I would finish getting the floss when Saturn wasn't so helpful.

Anyone have plans for tonight? I'm planning on staying home. If I'm awake at midnight which hopefully I will be I'll watch the New York ball drop. I never make a big deal out of New Years. So I'll just watch the Rose Bowl Parade listen to my CD player and stitch. I might run up to the store but we'll see. I didn't want to go today because I thought the grocery store would be too busy. Hopefully tomorrow it won't be and hopefully they'll be open. If not well then Saturday, I don't need much anyway.

Well....until next time.....Happy Stitching!

Progress on Come All Ye Faithful!

Hello again. This piece is really moving along. In fact I made quite a bit more progress since scanning this 3 hours ago. I have 2 of the 4 windows completely done and the other two half done plus some of the inbetween windows done. I didn't think it would go so fast. I had hoped to finish this piece tomorrow but I'm not sure, I may finish it early New Year's Day if not tomorrow. I don't have any plans for New Years Day.

New Years is never a big deal today. I'll watch the Rose Bowl Parade on HGTV because it's without commercials and then decide from there what to watch, or I just may play CD's the rest of day. Watching HGTV's Dream Home just doesn't appeal to me and neither does football.

Usually I'm happy when the holidays are over, well actually I celebrate! This year I enjoyed them, first time in several years. And this year was so much better then the last two years. Last year, things were in an uproar, this year much quieter.

Have a Happy New Year, stay safe New Year's Eve. I can't believe it's here already! Where does the time go!

Until next time......Happy Stitching!

Come All Ye Faithful

Good afternoon. The designer says this piece is for beginners. I love working on it, but I think it's more for intermediate stitchers because of all the detail and back stitching. Unfortunately I didn't have the Krenik braids for the cross so improvise. That cross may be coming out next year and I may buy the Krenik 4 braid thread it calls for. I'm not happy with the cross but I have to pout for a year first! LOL. The rest of piece is going well though.

How was everyone's Christmas? Mine was fine. I got to see my brother and sister-in-law and their two daughters,and their families on Christmas eve. Christmas Day I went to a friends house we had a nice time. I got spoiled this Christmas.

Unfortunately my crock pot died, yesterday. I was trying to heat up Chicken Noodle Cook as it tastes better cooked in the crockpot. Unfortunately it tasted alright yesterday, but when I had reheated it today the chicken was like rubber! I threw away a whole bunch of chicken noodle soup. I wasn't thinking and dumped it down the garbage disposal and thought "oh no! Noodles back the disposal up and plug the sinks up!" I'm really hoping that will not happen hoping to have bitten the bullet on that one. We'll see. A neighbor down the hall walked down and gave me 3 cans of canned chicken to try next time I make soup. I do not do good chicken. I can boil it but that's about it.

Well...until next time.....Happy Stitching!

Another quick stitch

Good evening! Well now that we have passed Winter Solice our days will get longer. Hurray! Little things excite me but I love seeing it get lighter and lighter although so gradual at first. We notice it more in evening then morning.

Anyway I did this quick stitch. Red is not my favorite color at all, probably my least favorite but the designer called for red and I'm one that follows what designer recommends. Although it was tempting to do it in dark blue, and if I do it again I will. I have started my next piece which also looks to be a quick stitch although a little larger then the ones I have done this month. It's a church and has "Come All Ye Faithful on it. It's by Glendon Place.

The weekend proved to be really busy, my sister decided to come in after all. We didn't do a whole lot but played Push Rummy with our brother, Tim and played Mexican Dominoes. We use to play both games with our mom all the time when Kay came to town. In fact I found a score sheet with Mom on it, Kay had won that game.

The next few days will be busy. It seems everyone is busy at Christmas. Once again as far as our family getting together, it will not happen this year. But we did have Christmas with Kay Sunday. Christmas Eve I'll have Christmas with our brother Kevin and his family. Our brother, Tim's son is coming in to town, so he's spending Christmas with him.

If I'm not here before Christmas, I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas. Until next time....Happy Stitching!

Another small finish

Good afternoon! At one time I saw a blogging group doing smalls I should have joined for Dec. as December seems to be a month of smalls for me. I couldn't resist this cute piece and it was such a fun and easy stitch, very enjoyable. It probably will be made into a flatfold later on.

Now I'm doing Sharing the Christmas Story by Eileen Gurak. She's a new designer to me so was Country Cottage new to me. I really like these silhouettes that Eileen Gurak has come out with.

Yesterday I got my Christmas shopping done, thanks to my sister-in-law taking me. She said she was getting her hair cut so I said "Wonder if she has openings, I should get mine cut." Well she had an opening right after Beth so she cut mine. It really needed to be cut and my family had been after me a long time to get it cut. It does look better now. But it was a fun day yesterday.

I have sad news, little Andrea, (the cat I wrote about in my last post) kept getting weaker and weaker by the day. Yesterday they said she couldn't even walk so they made the hard decision to put her to sleep. They tried hard to save her but just couldn't. We think she had a blood disease. When I saw her last Sat., the first thing I thought of was Nomi, who was my parents cat. She also died of a blood disease, and Andrea just reminded me of her, so I wasn't surprised but was sad. She was such a sweet cat, with us for only a little over a month but we all fell in love we her.

My sister might come to town this weekend if she gets it off. She asked for it off a while back but since she put in her resignation and with everything going on there, I have a feeling she'll be working.

Well....until next time......Happy Stitching!

Four more ornaments

Goof Afternoon. Even though it doesn't look much like Christmas there is all sorts of Christmas activity being done. I did these four tiny pieces from Leisure Arts Holiday Quickies. They'll be made into individual ornaments later on. Actually the Santa and Teddy Bear were much more enjoyable then the Gingerbread man and Bells. They were boring but the Santa and Teddy Bear had enough detail to make them fun. I think each piece took about 4 to 6 hours at most. I'll probably be doing more mini pieces. My next pieces isn't this small but it's small like about 4 x 4. I have to kit that up

Yesterday I went to church with my brother and sister in law to see 3 of their grandchildren in their Christmas program. The 2 girls and Johnny had speaking parts and they did really good. Afterwards we went to Melissa and John's to have Johnny's birthday dinner. The poor child he had some things on his list he didn't get but he was told he wouldn't get them. He wanted a bee bee gun, 22 rifle, bull dog and chuwawa (sp) those real small dogs. He was okay with not getting them, he got a lot of other nice things. And no he isn't getting them for Christmas either.

I just talked to my sister and she told me after 25 years she is quitting her job. Something she never thought she would do. She's a RN at a Nursing Home near their house, and it was bought out this summer and since then things have been getting worse and and worse so many have quit. An opportunity came up for her and she looked into it and got hired. So she has mixed emotions right now, nervous about starting a new job and leaving the residents and staff she worked with. Twenty-five years is a long time to work at a place and then quit.

We were able to find homes for 4 of our cats at the shelter over the weekend and 8 others at Petco. (The cats and kittens that we have in foster care go to Petco, sometimes a shelter cat will go there.) But we were happy. But one of our very favorite cats, Andrea has only been with us a little over a month got really sick and I asked today and they said she's not doing good at all so we are worried about her. We had hoped she'd be adopted for Christmas and probably would be but now if she recovers it'll have to be Jan. at earliest. Speaking of cats my own cat is meowing at me to get off computer well he just jumped up and got in front of screen he means business. So until next time.....Happy Stitching!

Another ornament finish

Good afternoon. Most of my finishes this month (if not all of them) are going to be ornaments for my family to put together hopefully this summer. A lot of them will come from Christmas Quickies by Leisure Arts. I have discovered that while small these ornaments are not the easiest to do they are very detailed, but I like stitching them and most of them are so cute.

Tomorrow our Johnny (my great nephew) will be 9! I can't believe it. Where did the years go. Today would have been my grandfather's birthday and we were hoping he'd be born today but he waited to be born on his aunt Denise's birthday. We have so many birthdays and anniversaries from now to the end of Dec. it's not even funny. Without exageration at least 12.

Well until next time.....Happy Stitching.

Bread Cover Finish

Good Afternoon. I'm watching Family Tribute Ice Skating. I had seen it once before but since it's on again thought I would watch it.
I can't believe it's December already. Where has the year gone. I have my Christmas patterns out and will be doing some of them. They are all small for when we have our family gathering hopefully this summer to make them into ornaments.

This bread cover I made for my sister I thought but today she told me she wanted it for her 2 daughters and daughter in law. But each one will be a different pattern. I struggled through half of the first Christmas tree and then decided to make a working pattern and the tree went much easier. I think the problem was fighting with the book. Anyway the first tree took 4 days and the 2nd 2 days, and it was the very same pattern!
Don't figure.

With Christmas comes the Christmas Programs. Next Sunday I'm going to go see my niece's church and see their older 3 children in their program. Plus Johnny will be 9 later this week so we'll have a family birthday dinner for him. He's 9 already! I can hardly believe it. I blogged the day he was born that we were expecting his arrival any time. So I have been blogging for 9 years as I started shortly before he was born. Today he has a younger sister Katelyn, and baby brother Isaac. And Melissa and John are in process of adopting their 6 year old foster daughter. I can't say her name until she is legally theirs. They are hoping early spring at latest, but her birthday is in Feb so it would be nice to have her adopted by then. The adoption process takes a while.

Well....until next time....Happy Stitching!

Letter U to Autumn Bell Pull Done

Good Afternoon! I finally finished the letter U to the Autumn Bell Pull. I thought it would never get done! Here when I started the Bell Pull I thought for sure it would be completely done by end of November. I was completely wrong. I have 2 letters done. The others will be done next year I think. I am doing Christmas stitching now. Starting with a bread cover for my sister.

I can't believe it's almost Christmas again. I guess it's true, the older you get the faster time goes.

For Thanksgiving my brother, Tim, and I went to our niece's house and had dinner with her family. Another niece and another brother were going to be there but they were sick. All year Christina looked forward to getting her new house built in time for Thanksgiving Dinner and wanted everyone at her house. But her 2 year old son got sick and then her husband got sick so we had to move it to Melissa's house. It was fun though. Baby Isaac is growing. He's 4 months old now and just is the happiest baby.

We had a big day at the cat shelter last Sat. We had 3 families come in for cats. Goldilocks was wanted by 2 of them but the older couple who chose her first but left the room let the family with the little girl have her. The couple carried Goldilocks all over the hallway with them and spent a long time in the room she's in. And in mean time this family with the little girl were going into all the rooms and no cat was really clicking. (Not too many of our cats are child friendly but most of them in room 7 where Goldilocks was are.) Finally the older couple left room 7 and the little girl went in there sat on the floor and Goldilocks jumped on her lap and was all over her. Needless to say the little girl wanted her. We didn't have the heart to tell her she may be taken. Fortunately the older couple was nice about it and they chose another cat. Then we had a 3rd family come in and they took a cat from the declawed room. After a dry spell our cats are starting to get adopted again. They probably will be through Christmas. Goldilocks was one of our favorites, and if I could of had a 2nd cat it would have been her. She was only with us a month we knew she'd go fast. We'll miss her but she got the perfect home for her and that little girl was so happy. Goldilocks even let her carry her in the hallway and when they got to outer hallway the mother took her and took her to the car. That cat didn't meow, didn't scratch or bite or try to get out of either one of their arms. She just is a very good cat. I'm partial to all the cats in room 7 they are my favorites so I try hard to get people to adopt from that room. Room 6 too but those cats aren't quite as people friendly so harder to get adopted out. In fact only 2 or 3 from 6 have been adopted since I started last year, and about 14 from room 7 it's had quite a turnover, only 2 cats are in there from when I started, the others came and went. You do get attached to the cats, but you are happy to have them go to good homes.

Well I've rambled enough. Until next time....Happy Stitching!

Letter A of the Autumn Bell Pull

Good Afternoon! I finished this early this morning and am just getting around to posting it. I started the letter U and it seems to be going quicker. I only worked on it a couple hours this morning. I really haven't had that much time to work on it this week.

Today I finished the letter A then started U and from there went to the cat shelter for a little over an hour. Then my sister, niece, and nieces two children came to see me. We went to lunch and came back here and played games. Nolan and Addie went through my cross stitch books and told me what piece they want me to do for them. Hopefully it'll be done before May or June.

Last Sunday we had our annual Harvest Dinner at church and as always was so good. I loved the ham and have some left in my freezer to eat later. Thursday we hosted the monthly senior dinner. That was fun too. Both were a lot of work and I came home exhausted. But I loved doing the dinner. The Board I'm on is in charge of these dinners.

Tuesday we had another meeting about the resource room. This Tuesday we will start setting it up, get the shelves in there and some items. We're having pizza too! Yum! The Resource room isn't opening until middle or end of Jan. I can't wait.

Well....until next time....Happy Stitching.

Finally a Finish

Good evening. I know this isn't the most exciting finish but it's a finish. I found this as a freebie at Cyber Stitchers and was done for Cross Stitch for Older Children & Adults. I believe it will be sent to Love Quilts-Brazil. This only took a week. Now tomorrow I'll kit up Autumn and start it.

This weekend will be busy as we are having our annual Harvest Dinner at church. I'll make Green Bean Casserole and finish baking a Pumpkin Pie I ordered from Swans for it. I signed up for two things since I refused to make a turkey or ham. I'm on the comittee heading this up. Then Thursday the monthly Senior Dinner is going to be at our church so we are in charge of that too.

My niece and her husband brought in a kennel for when Snowball comes to visit she can be in it from time to time. Saturn has taken over it. I wonder if he'll let Snowball in it even. Right now he's wanting my attention. He meows an awful lot lately and that's not like him, especially since Snowball left. I wonder if he misses her. Sometimes I think about getting a second cat but we can only have one cat here.

Things are going strong towards the Resource Room at church and we're excited about it. We have our Food Pantry through Love Inc. and this is just an extension of it. Only this room is only for those who attend the classes at Love Inc. they earn points and they can cash in their points for something from the room. We'll carry cleaning supplies, household items, towels, wash cloths etc. The room we want to use got approved last night so it's full steam ahead towards opening it mid Jan. We also hope to get the mentor program going to which is also through Love Inc. I've already started asking people to think and pray about that. We're excited.

Well... until next time Happy Stitching!

Page 13 done!

Good Afternoon! I finally have page 13 done! I didn't do a lot of stitching this week. It really hasn't been a good week, but it's getting better.

I ordered the fabric for Autumn Bell Pull but for some reason it's delayed in Grand Rapids, says they found a problem. Hoping it will be corrected and proceed on to me. I'm thinking maybe the package broke open or the material tore in one of the machines, or it was too bulky for machine, who knows. So in the mean time I'm going to do this dump truck from Cyber Stitchers for Quilts for Older Children and Adults.

Well....until next time happy stitching!

I fell off the wagon!

Good morning! It was these two patterns that made me fall off the wagon! I saw the Spring one and loved it. And since they had Autumn I got that one too. I don't think the have Summer and Winter out yet, but when they do I'll be getting them. I wanted to start Autumn but didn't have a long enough piece of material so I ordered it from 123 stitch. It'll be here at end of week I hope.

Well I need to get off and head for church. Until next time Happy Stitching!

Where is October going?

Well...October is just flying by and I've posted very little this month. I've been stitching a lot on this piece. Now that the worse of it is done, I think the rest of this piece will go quicker. Right now I have about 750 hours of stitching in and it's a little over half done. I love working on this piece.

I had really thought I would get some fall pieces in. I might yet. I fell of the wagon. I ordered 2 leaflets by Stoney Creek one was a Spring Bell Pull and the other an Autumn one. In Nov. I might start the Autumn on we'll see. When my sister was here she asked me to do a Christmas Bread Cover so I need to do that. I'd like to have it done before she comes again so she has it for Christmas.

It's hard to believe Tuesday it will be a year that our mom died. It was on Sat. my brother came and got me from the cat shelter and said she took a turn for the worse. She died 2 days later.

This weekend we are having a pot luck at church tomorrow to meet the candidate for Youth and Christian Ed Director and her husband then Sunday we'll vote on her.

Yesterday I went on a color tour and we stopped to eat. There were only 5 of us but we had a nice time. Unfortunately this year the winds have been so strong and it's been cold we didn't get much color this year. Most of the leaves died or were blown off the trees before they had a chance to change color. But we saw some color anyway.

Well...until next time Happy Stitching.

Page 9 is done. Seven pages to go!

Good evening! I finished page 9 a couple of hours ago. I love this page and can't wait to do the following pages. It's showing more personality now and more colors too. I am almost half done with this piece and right now I have no desire to lay it down so hopefully I will finish page 13 before I lay it back down to do Christmas things.

There really isn't much going on so this is a short post. Until next time......Happy Stitching!

Update on America

I know it's a little crooked. Sorry about that. I don't know if you can tell I've made progress on this or not. I have made quite a bit of progress in the last couple of weeks actually. Pages 3 and 4 are almost done. Page 4 only has 14 columns so it's a short page.

I've had my brother's cat here for about 10 days. My friend was going out of town for the weekend so had to bring the cat back here. Another friend loaned me her son's dog kennel so I could keep Snowball in it. She did pretty well in it until today. Today she had had it with being in the kennel. I would let her out once in the morning for about an hour, then after noon 2 or 3 hours, and evening 1 hour then she'd be in kennel for the night. Saturn (my cat would be in bedroom. Only problem he figured out how to open the door when he wanted out. Until today he hadn't opened the door for a couple of days, and Snowball was meowing to get out as soon as I put her in kennel. So I did let the two cats be together, things went well until Snowball decided to make a dash for the bedroom and Saturn would not have that! Fortunately no cat fight, I grabbed Snowball and brought her back out to living room and kept Saturn in bedroom until he got out again. But they got along. Finally Tim was released from the hospital. First he was then he wasn't and then he was again. He came and got Snowball and boy was she happy to see him. He just called a little while ago and said she hasn't let him out of her sight and she is cuddling up to him on his lap. She is loves to cuddle. I thought Saturn was a cuddler but not compared to Snowball. I will miss her but I'll get to see her off and on.

My sister is coming in to town next weekend I already have plans for her. Go to Jo Ann's get floss for one thing. I'm crossing my fingers that I have enough 890 to finish pages 3 and 4.....it's going to be close.

Well....until next time.....Happy Stitching!

Progress on America

What a morning this has been. My brother called me and said he needed to bring his cat over as he was going to be in the hospital for med adjustments for a few days. So I said fine. The last time Snowball was here Saturn (my cat) and her got along fine. So when Tim dropped her off I immediately opened the carrier and let her out. BIG MISTAKE!
Saturn tore right into Snowball even under the bed fighting. I broke it up within a couple of minutes. Left Snowball in the bedroom and brought Saturn to the living room. I was so upset! I called my friend Jody and asked her if Snowball could stay with her and she said yes. So Jody came and got her, we went to Tim's to get the kitty litter box as here I had planned on them sharing it like they did before. And I had to buy Kitty litter from the store. We got to Jody's, of course snowball hid under the bed while I was there. Believe me I was a complete basket case I was so upset and hyper. After I left Snowball warmned up to Jody and snooped around the house. Snowball had seen Jody before so she wasn't a stranger. I'm calming down now. Last time Snowball was here she wouldn't let him on his cat tree. Maybe that's why he wasn't welcoming. But they say cats are territorial and don't exactly welcome new cats right away. So much for my thoughts about adopting Snowflake or Adam from Faithful. Not going to now.

I ran out of floss this past week to finish page 9 so I started page 4. These two pages are both going fairly easy, not so much confetti stitching on these two pages. I needed a break from that!

Today being 9-11 a significant day in history so this piece is appropriate for this time of year. Do you remember what you were doing when you heard the news. I had just woken up and my brother called me. I turned on the tv and basically was glued to the tv for most of the day.

Well...until next time! Happy Stitching.

Back to Stitching on America

Good afternoon! I have gone back to stitching on this America piece for my brother. I plan to finish page 9 and page 3 this time around. Pages 3 and 4 look very simple as they are mostly of the sky. Page 4 only has about 4 columns. It's going quite fast right now not so much confetti stitching on left on this page.

Well....not much has happened these past 2 days so until next time.....Happy Stitching!

Summer Flowers Finished

Good Afternoon. I just finished these a couple of hours ago. Later in the week I'll mail them, the Disney Car, and Ladybug Baby off to my nephew's wife. They will finish them off the way they want. These flowers were so much fun to do. I hope to do the fall flowers in Oct. or early Nov. We will see.

Sunday our church had their annual neighborhood picnic. The church service was held outside. We were so pleased with everything. We had so many people come in and are excited. In fact in a few minutes another friend and I are heading to the church and helping our Pastor and his wife write out the thank you for coming cards. Usually I do it by myself but that's only when we just have a few visitors, that many I need help. It was such a beautiful day for it. We had the police and fire dept. there, plus a minor league basketball team, games for the kids. It was a fun day.

So I guess I better go get ready to leave, get off the computer. Until next time....Happy Stitching!

Barnyard Kitten is finished

Good afternoon. I finished Barnyard Kitten today. I loved doing this piece. I volunteer on Saturdays at Faithful2felines and they asked me to do a cat piece for a big event they are having next month so I chose this piece. This cat looks a little like my cat, Saturn. Now I'm getting the flower piece back out to finish that up.

Sorry this is so short but not much to say today so until next time Happy Stitching!