Thursday, January 31, 2013

ornament SAL



I've joined the Ornament SAL this year...hoping to keep up with Christmas ornies at least, and maybe a few others through out the year. I'm a day late posting this, but couldn't get the sewing machine out yesterday! The design is from JBW Designs...A Very Merry Christmas. The fringe looks a little bit wonky, but it does look better in real life!


Thanks for taking the time to visit!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

a fun giveaway!

If you are a fan of Little House Needleworks and Country Cottage Needleworks, you should stop by Heather's blog right away. She is having a very generous giveaway of some wonderful charts!
Good luck!

Thanks for visiting!

daybook for january 30

for today...

outside my window...things look gloomy
i am thinking ...about all the things I want to stitch
i am thankful...for a family that is always here for me
in the kitchen...there are leftovers for dinner
i am wearing...ski socks (and my feet are still cold!)
i am wondering...if I will meet all my deadlines this week
i am reading...An Irish Country Girl by Patrick Taylor
i am hoping...that my daughter gets her health issues figured out soon
i am looking forward to...a lazy weekend
i am learning...that I have to slow down some
one of my favorite things...perlier honey body cream with virgin bees-wax

Please visit here to read other daybook posts and learn how to join in with your own.

Thanks for visiting today!

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

helping friends

Some of you may already know about our friend Gaynor's goal to raise funds so that she can participate in a walking event sponsored by the Irish Cancer Society. If you don't  know, you can read all about it here...she does a much better job of explaining everything than I ever could!

What you may not also know is that Nancy from the Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe has found a way to help Gaynor reach her goal of raising 3200 euros. She is having a fundraiser on her site for the next three months. You can read about it here.

This is an amazingly generous and wonderful thing for Nancy to do.

Gaynor continues to be an inspiration to me and others, and I hope that you will all read her story and consider donating directly or participating by buying one of  Nancy's  kits.

Thanks for visiting, and for being a friend.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

January WIPocalypse


Last year, even though I posted each month, I never really worked on any of my older works in progress.Almost everything I posted were new starts and sometimes, finishes. This year, I've decided to really try and get to some of those UFOs and WIPs that have been lying neglected for awhile.

The first project I am tackling is Waiting for the Harvest from Blackbird Designs. This was one of my Crazy 15 starts from 2012 (or was it 2011???) and I have no idea why I just let it sit. It was going to be my take to work project, and I actually did do that at least once or twice, but then I hardly ever have stitching time at work, so it kind of fell into the basket, never to be seen again.

This is where I left it off last January:


And here is my progress after working on it for a few evenings this month. Wednesdays are WIP days at Friendly Stitchers, so I am trying to at least work on WIPs then. I'm about 2/3 done.


Everything else I have worked on this month has been for exchanges, and I have shown pictures of the ones that have been recieved.

On to February...Thanks for visiting!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Sharing time!






A few of my secret pieces have arived at their new homes, so I can finally share them with you all!

We had a Christmas/Winter exchange at Friendly Stitchers, and Libbie and I were partners. She said that she likes reindeer, so I stitched this design from Lizzie Kate for her. It is one of the Christmas Rules Flip-Its.


And this is what I received from Libbie...all the way from Australia! It's from the Gazette94 blog. I love it. Thanks again, Libbie!


I showed you the beautiful ornament that I received from Tami in our Valentine exchange, and this is the ornament I sent to Diane. It is a freebie from a blog that I have had in my stash...if anyone recognizes the designer, please let me know. I can't seem to find it. It is stitched with one of the DMC color variations threads.


And, finally, this is a little pillow I made for Mouse to thank her for loaning me a pattern a while back. It is a design from Homespun Elegance which was in the latest issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine.


I hope everyone is staying warm and comfy wherever you may be!

Thanks for taking the time to visit!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

what a wonderful mail day!



It is always such a treat when a little parcel shows up, but today I found three in my mailbox! And it's not even my birthday!

First, I received the last robin that I will be stitching on with the Friendly Stitchers group this round. It is a Just Nan design for Sally, called Miss Kitty's Dragons. I'm hoping to get to it this weekend.

I have belonged to the Stitching Buddies group for many years, but haven't participated in an exchange in a long long time. So when a Valentine exchange was mentioned, I signed up, And yesterday I got the most wonderful pillow ornament (along with a sparkly pair of socks, a box of candy and two beautiful vintage-y valentines). My partner was Tami, and this is the beautiful Jane Austen inspired design she stitched for me...I really love it! Thanks so much, Tami!


Lastly, there was a package from Gaynor. She has been stitching up all sorts of wonderful creations and giving them away in exchange for contributions to the Irish Cancer Society. You can read all about it here. The heart is a cute little pocket for stashing scissors, threads or whatever, and the owl is just precious. I thought it was going to be a small little pillow, but this guy is large! I'm hoping that Asher will help me give it a name when he visits this weekend. Until then he (or she) will remain nameless as he/she sits perched on my stitching lamp.


I've been mostly stitching on exchanges, so have nothing to show...but today I have picked up a Blackbird Designs piece that has been a UFO for awhile. I'll show pics on Saturday's WIPocalypse post.

Thanks so much for visiting...I'm still working my way through all the blogs from Saturday's party!

Daybook for January 23

for today...

outside my window...it is raining again, but not as cold as predicted, so no ice
i am thinking...about what to stitch next
i am thankful...for the blanket I brought today to keep me warm
in the kitchen...eggplant parmesan
i am wearing...not enough layers
i am creating...an exchange for a friend
i am going...stir crazy
i am wondering...if i will ever get this office cubby of mine uncluttered
i am reading...The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton
i am hoping...for a smooth drive home
i am looking forward to...a new project runway season
one of my favorite things...cuddling with my doggies

and here is equal time for our other furbaby....

Please visit here to read other daybook posts and learn how to join in with your own!

Thanks for visiting!

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

January IHSW & Growing Your Blog




This was a fun and productive weekend...it was really cold here, but sunny, which made the cold more bearable! I was even able to get some stitching done too!

We are doing a round robin with the Every Stitch Counts group and I stitched my square on Sue's piece this weekend. She has asked us all to stitch a square from A Sampler Story by Brenda Keyes. I will stitch with orange every chance I get, so I chose to do this square, I love this design and have it in my stash, and have stitched some of the squares for gifts and exchanges in the past, but never the whole sampler. Maybe I will put it in my "to be stitched" pile finally!


I also stitched my Christmas ornament for January. I am going to try and keep up with stitching one a month again for this year. The colors in the photo are not at all true. The fabric is more of a bright dark green and the thread is a dusty green...I think it is a sampler thread but not sure...the label was gone. Maybe the colors will look more realistic after I finish it! The design is A Very Merry Christmas from JBW Designs.


I joined another SAL blog this year...we are stitching small designs every two months from different designers. The first design is from Patty C. and it is called Let's Stitch. I have changed the fabric and thread colors and am about 1/3 done. I love stitching this one. Patty's designs are really fab! Not sure how I want to finish this one yet.


I also started stitching on an exchange piece for Stitched with Love exchanges, but can't show that one yet or give any hints. You'll just have to be surprised when the time comes!

I would have got more stitching done, but Saturday was Grow Your Blog Day and I ended up spending way too much time on the computer scrolling through lots  and lots of wonderful blogs! There were a few stitching blogs that I was already familiar with, but oh so many more! I have not even begun to scratch the surface and I'm looking forward to finding lots more blogging friends. I even see that I have gained some new followers from this. It is a really fun experience. Thanks again Vicki for all your hard work and for hosting this wonderful party!

And now I should probably get back to work. Welcome to any new followers and thank you all for taking the time to visit!

Friday, January 18, 2013

Grow Your Blog Day!

Grow Your Blog Day is Vicki's brainchild and it is a way for bloggers to discover new blogs, get to know one another, and maybe get some new followers or find new blogs to follow themselves. I know that I am always looking for new blogs to read. There are so many wonderful and talented bloggers out there...of course, there is never enough time to read them all every day, but I love to pop in and visit when I can, and I hope that some people might also like to do that here.

One of the things that was suggested is that we give an introduction of sorts. I can't remember if I ever did that when I started this blog!Apparently, I have been on blogger since August of 2006, but I am far from a prolific blogger. I think that I have been posting more lately, but I know that when I first started, my posts were few and far between. I think that at that time I felt that I didn't have much to say or share. I don't know that I have that much more to say or share now either, but I don't care about that as much. I just enjoy what I am doing more!

So...if you look in my sidebar, you will see that my name is Lynda. you will also see that there is not a photograph there. I hate having my picture taken. My husband is always threatening to take my picture and put it on Facebook! Not nice, hubby! Maybe at some point I will give in, but not quite yet! You will see Flat Lynda there however. If you have children, you may be familiar with Flat Stanley. Anyway, several years ago, one of the online groups I belong to had a retreat. It was too far away for some of us to go, but we could go "virtually"...so I sent along Flat Lynda...she actually does resemble me a bit. I've used her ever since.

We live in Oregon, having moved here from New York nearly 19 years ago. I love it here, and even though I had lived on the East Coast all my life, when I got to the Pacific Northwest, I felt like I had come home. I have never had any desire to move back. We live with our two dogs, a Golden Retriever and a Brittney Spaniel/Lab mix, and out two cats. We have two grown daughters...one lives in Quincy, Massachusetts (just outside Boston), and the other lives here in Portland, with our adorable grandson. We are so fortunate to have him living so close because we get to spend lots and lots of time with him. He is almost 4 1/2.

I have been a librarian for nearly 39 years (yikes!). I used to work as a school librarian back East, but since we have lived here, I have worked in public libraries. I am currently the manager at an old Carnegie Library. We are looking for a new site for a bigger library because, although this building is beautiful (and will be 100 years old this summer), it is really too small for our needs.

I love reading, especially cozy mysteries and biographies; love watching baseball, especially the Seattle Mariners, even though they lose a lot!; love spending time with my family, especially my grandson; love exploring new places; love cuddling with our furbabies; and love cross-stitching.

Cross-stitching is the reason I started blogging. This blog is mainly a place for me to share my love of stitching and to post pictures of some of the designs I have stitched. Sometimes I'll talk about other things too. I started blogging myself after reading and enjoying other stitcher's blogs, and I hope that there are some people out there who enjoy reading mine as well.

One of the fun things about stitching, other than the actual stitching itself, is just enhancing your stash...buying stuff you know you will probably never live long enough to stitch. I know this is true with other crafts as well. But it is part of the fun! I am one of those people who is not as organized as I would like to be when it comes to my stash, which often results in my buying the same patterns more than once. This actually happens way more than I feel comfortable admitting to! One of my favorite designers is Sandra Sullivan of Homespun Elegance. And while looking for a design for an exchange the other night, I realized that I like her designs so much that I repeatedly buy them more than once! So I would like to offer a giveaway of a selection of these beautiful designs. You can see her designs here . Anyone can enter this giveaway...all you have to do is leave a comment saying that you would like to enter and please include an email address where I can reach you. The winner will be posted here on February 1.

Lately, I have been discovering lots of other fun blogs, not just ones that talk about stitching. There are so many wonderful blogs out there and I am living vicariously through some of them. I love to look at the beautiful handmade things that others make, and the wonderful ways people find to decorate their homes. There is so much creativity out there...it boggle the mind. There is so much to learn, and one of the things I love most about blogging is that so many people are so willing to share their talents and knowledge with the rest of us.

I am hoping to discover lots of new blogs through this Grow Your Blog Day, and meet lots of new friends. Thanks in advance to all of you who continue to expand my horizons, thanks to those who have come to visit here, and thanks for your comments...they are always appreciated!


TGIF - yay!!!!


This feels like it has been a very long week. Short-staffed, too many meetings, and it's been icy cold besides! I am so looking forward to this three day weekend. Asher is going to his dad's, so I'm envisioning a weekend spent sitting in front of the fire with something warm to drink and lots of stitching to play with.

Most of my stitching over the past couple of weeks has been for exchanges, so I can't show those yet. But I did do a few things that I can share.

I joined Lainey's Halloween SAL because Asher is totally into Halloween, and I thought it would be great fun to have a little Halloween tree for him this year. Each month will have a theme...January was pumpkins...that we can follow if we want (or not!). I chose to stitch this little design from Lizzie Kate called Eek!!!. It is stitched on a dark spooky looking linen (darker than it appears in the photo) with the recommended GAST threads. Even though I really do not like spiders, I found a little spider button to add...he's not too creepy!


The Stitchers' Timeout yahoo group has been doing block exchanges for years, and these are always fun to do. There is a theme for the month (these used to be monthly, but now we do them every other month) and we stitch a small design and then they are exchanged with someone else in the group. We don't know who gets our square until they have been sent out, but we always post pictures on the group as soon as they are stitched.

January's theme was "beverages"...and since tea is probably my favorite beverage, i chose to stitch Official Tea Lover, again from Lizzie Kate. I stitched it on a piece of light blue aida with DMS threads.


March's theme is "birds" and I stitched this little design from (I think) Heart in Hand...it's an older one and I know it is one of the Trilogy designers...I'll check when I get home! Anyway, it is stitched on a scrap of evenweave with DMC threads. (Actually, this is from Bent Creek - Red Winged Blackbird)


This is the first International Hermit & Stitch Weekend  of the new year, and I hope you will all be joining me for a weekend of stitching. Tomorrow is also Grow Your Blog day. You can check here for details about that.

Thanks so much for visiting, and for all your lovely comments! Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Daybook for January 16

for today....

outside my window...it is icy cold
i am thinking...that I would rather be sitting in front of a nice warm fire right now
i am thankful...that we have a roof over our heads, and warm heat on days like this
in the kitchen...roast beef sandwiches for dinner
i am wearing...not enough layers
i am creating...small stitched pieces for exchanges
i am going...to too many meetings today
i am wondering...how my grandson will make out at the dentist today
i am reading...budget reports
i am looking forward to...a weekend of stitching
one of my favorite things...hot apple cider

a peek into my day...our golden, Boonie



Please visit here to read other daybook posts and learn how to join in with your own!

Thanks for visiting!

Friday, January 11, 2013

TUSAL January 2013



It is the first TUSAL of 2013...we have been doing this for a few years now and it is always fun. If you don't know about TUSAL - Totally Useless Stitch-a-Long - you can read all about it here on Sharon's blog.

Since I haven't found my "perfect" vessel for a year's worth of orts yet, I've decided to post each month's gatherings on their own before adding them together...so here is my little collection for January. Lots of pretty colors in there!


Thanks for taking the time to visit!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Daybook for January 9



for today...
outside my window...it is gray and rainingi am thankful...for a husband who keeps me from going over the deep end
in the kitchen...homemade clam chowder for dinner
i am wearing...really warm socks
i am creating...a gift for a friend
i am reading...an irish country wedding by Patrick Taylor
i am hoping...that my co-worker's doctor's appointment yields good results
i am looking forward to...seeing my grandson this weekend
one of my favorite things...a hot cup of original malt ovaltine
a peek into my day...sharing a photo of my grandson on his first day of preschool


Please visit here to read other daybook posts and learn how to join in with your own.

Thanks for visiting!


Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Daybook for January 2

I haven't done one of  these in such a long time, but I would really love to get back to it for this new year, so...

for today....

outside my window...it is cold and windy
i am thinking...of all the projects waiting to be started
i am thankful...that the heat is working here today
in the kitchen...there is some yummy chicken soup that hubby made last night for tonight's dinner
i am reading...meet me at emotional baggage claim by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella
i am hoping...for good health, peace and happiness for all my family and friends in the coming year
around the house...de-cluttering and organizing has begun
a peek into my day...this is a photo of the library where I work...a Carnegie library that will be 100 years old this summer


Short and sweet for this week! Please visit here to read other daybook posts and learn how to join in with your own.

Thanks for visiting!