Here Kitty: Cheryl Schaeffer , designer

Just before Christmas, I was reading Pat's blog where I saw this charming cat who seems to be playing peek-a-boo and I immediately thought of my best friend Terry who has always had at least one cat since childhood. I wondered if that was something that she might enjoy receiving it for a birthday gift.
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Once I made that decision I then had to start hunting for the painted canvas. I don't recall who it was who mentioned something about where to find it. as it has been a long time, at least seems so to me. Anyway, I ended up on Cheryl's website and decided to write to her. She then suggested that I could possibly contact a shop where I could purchase it, that is if I had not a local needlepoint shop that I was doing business with, so I ended up at Old Town Needlework in Scottsdale, Arizona where Alice Borge helped me. Alice and I exchanged a few emails and when she was ready to mail me the painted canvas, you know what she said? She said that she had written me a nice little stitch guide (stitches and threads) and all that without me asking her for one.
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I was almost jumping up and down as for me choosing threads and stitches is NOT fun. I know that some of you out there just love that part, but I do not, so what a relief that was and I will always be grateful to her for doing me that favor.
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I could not post anything while I was stitching it as Terry would have seen it and I wanted it to be a surprise. Terry's birthday and mine follow each other closely so we had decided to wait until both of us had received each other's gift and then opening them simulatenously while being online, which we have just done.
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I will soon write another post after I take a picture of what Terry made for me for my own birthday :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=

Scrunchy, slouchy slipper socks: Lion Brand Yarn Co.

Knitting is something that I have not done since I was about 9 or 10 years old, at school, with my mother's help, as she was very good at it and obviously I was not. I have been thinking about doing a bit of that and also crochet for the longest time, but never stopped and took the time to do any.

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These are the supplies for this lovely free pattern on the Lion Brand yarn website called "Scrunchy, slouchy slipper socks", something useful and fun as I love those things. I thought that it would be a nice way to slowly restart knitting.

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I was chatting with my best friend Terry about it, who has done just about everything a person can imagine (legal that is) and she offered her assistance in guiding me with this project, long distance all the way from England. I jumped on her offer with both feet :-) Just learning the language used in knitting is a lot of work just by itself (grinning) and it has been so long since I have knitted anything, so that should be an interesting experience.

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So, between stitching, finishing and knitting and who knows what else, I should be able to stay relatively out of trouble, at least that is my biggest ambition. They say variety is the spice of life so things are quite "spicy" at my place :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Projects waiting for finishing

Well, things could have been worst (grinning), I have 9 projects to finish in this grouping and of course I still have the 12 ornaments of the Dodecagon series for which I still need to decide on something, but first thing first as they say. The only one I don't have to do anything is Angelina who is at the framer right now.

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What kind of finishes do I have to do? One little pillow, two ornaments, one name tag, one patriotic heart, one xmas mini stocking, one heart in a covered box, not yet decided with She stoops to conquer and Santa Claus. I still have to finish stitching Mrs. Santa and then will decide on those two together as they are a pair.

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Still need to have a good discussion with my framer about the Dodecagon series and fully explore all my options on that one. If I end up finishing all 12 of them instead of framing, that will be a lot of additional work for me. The only time that I have no work is when they are framed as I won't do that myself.

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Now I need to go see if I have any fabric that might be appropriate for any of them. If not, that will go on my list of supplies to purchase, hopefully this weekend.

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During this weekend I also need to finish working on the second pot and flowers of Hollyhock House before I get my next assignment on March 1st.

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See you all later :-)

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Pierrette =^..^=

Florentine bargello: Brenda Day, designer

I finished stitching the last remaining few stitches this morning of this lovely florentine bargello design by Brenda Day. Just in case that some of you "might" be interested in stitching it (grinning) you can find it in her book called "Bargello: A Fresh Approach to Florentine Embroidery", which can be found at Amazon, eBay and needlepoint shops. This is not a difficult book to find at all and there are lovely projects inside. I will be doing more of Brenda's projets in the near future.
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I have always enjoyed myself tremendously each time that I have been working on bargello projects. You can see all of them here under my "bargello" listing.
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This weekend, I will take time to get out all my stitched projects that are ready for finishing and will take inventory of all the supplies I need to finish them all and go to JoAnn and see if I can find the fabric, etc. that I need and will get cracking. I am normally never that behind with my finishing and I hate it. If I stitch something, I want to be able to enjoy it and sitting in a drawer is not my idea of enjoying a finished project.
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I will post group photos of all the projects that I need to finish a bit later. Hope I won't get a fainting spell when I see them all in the open :-(
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Better get cracking as I have lots of work to do to get all this ready and much much more stitching to do. No dull moment for this girl :-)
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Pierrette =^..^=