Here is a work in progress that I have been working on as time allows. This is what I take out when sitting in a waiting room, or library or go somewhere that I can get a few stitches in. I hope to have this finished by the end of July though, so I will need to work on this particular project a bit more. I decided to do this in redwork instead of the blues and after looking at it I think it will be beautiful when finished. And who knows I might do another in the true peacock colors when finished with this one. I really like working on him as he looks so elegant sitting on his branch. Hope you enjoy the pic.

I also tried my hand at needle tatting on last night. Below are pics of my first attempts. You will notice that I pulled the thread a bit too tight and you can tell that in the photos of it. I did not realize I was pulling too tight until I took it off the needle and was looking at it. So I will need to adjust how tight I pull the stitches. Still though I think it is pretty good for a first start. Much better than with a shuttle, which I have never been able to make anything as I cannot seem to get my hands going like they should. I am hoping that after I become proficient with the needle tattting I will be able to learn the shuttle. My grandmother was very proficient with the shuttle and I wished I had learned from her. I do so much better when I watch someone than when just reading instructions when it comes to this type of project. Anyhow I now know that I will learn needle tatting easily as long as I stay with it. I am doing the happy dance right now.

I just thought I was finished. I am in a Dotee doll swap over at Stitchin Fingers,and here are the ones that I have made already. One will be swapped and I will keep the other one.

I just remembered something, next week on the 4th I will be celebrating my blogs first year anniversary. In celebration of that I will be doing a drawing for all those who come by and leave a comment on this particular post to be in the drawing. I will be pulling three different names of those who will receive a gift from me. I am so excited about this! I already know what one gift will be. Hmmmm......should I post a pic or let it be a surprise of what I am giving away? I tell you what, I will post only one item and let the other two be a surprise, how does that sound? That decided here is a pic of one of the items I will be giving away to a lucky winner.

Is this a tempting sneak peak or what. This book has 169 pages of transfers! This is a stitchers dream book if you ask me. I have looked over all the pages and it is a really great book. It was produced by Daisy Kingdom for those who like to stitch on fabric as well as paint on fabric.

Here is how it will work come by and have a look around and then leave a comment on this particular post and I will put all the names in a hat and draw three lucky winners. One of which will receive this book of transfers. I will have to decide what the other two prizes will be. Let the fun begin.

Happy Stitching, Wendy

Hello everyone I hope your weekend is going good for you and you are resting and having a wonderful time. Mine has been going well. We celebrated my middle daughters 18th birthday with a big family dinner to honor her. We all had a good time and she had a wonderful time with everyone. My how the last 18yrs. have flown by.

Now to finish updating this blog, that is if I can get the pics to upload. I tried three different times to post pics last night and it just would not do it. So I will try this again today.

I had bought a needle tatting book about a year ago and have really not had the time to learn this craft until now. I have decided to break it out and try my hand at it as I have tons of thread that I can use. I hope I can learn this as I have tried to shuttle tat and just cannot grasp it for some reason. Has anyone else tried this book and had any success? The instructions seem to be pretty clear and easy to follow, I just need to put thread to needle and go with it.

I also found these knitting needles on clearance and thought they would make good needles for tatting also once I learn how. Then again they may not work like I am thinking they will, so we shall see.I also decided to show some of the hearts that I have traded for. Hope you enjoy the eye candy, I just love looking at them. I am trying to decide what I am going to do with them. Just pondering the ideas right now, maybe a wall hanging for my sewing room since I do not have many as of yet.
And a few more, enjoy!
ok that is all of the hearts for now. Are they not all just gorgeous!

Whew! Has things been hectic here. This post will be long and I will finish it on tomorrow when I have time. It has been a while since I last posted anything, but we finally moved into a house of our own. I have literally been up to my neck in boxes. Last count on today was 296. I still have two rooms to go and 30 something tubs as well as about 6o or more boxes that need to be unpacked! That is just the stuff we had in storage since last August when we moved to be with my mom and dad for her surgery. She is now well enough for us to move out of their house. The original house that we were wanting to buy did not work out for us so we decided to rent for a while and buy later if we decide to stay in this area. It is a hundred and eight year old Victorian house with fireplace's in each room, fourteen ft. high ceilings and big rooms. An unfinished attic space which my 16yr. old son declared as his room! It covers the whole entire house and is huge, so he will have plenty of room up there. So now you can see why I have not been updating in a while. So I will do that now, while I am taking this much needed break.

First here is a pic of the front of the house.

Hmmmmm..........where to start? I know, by saying a big happy birthday to my middle daughter who just turned eighteen on today! Happy Birthday Bliss!!!!!!!! I love you and am so proud of you. You have blessed my life these past 18yrs, and I am looking forward to watching you grow into the wonderful woman that God has made you to be. May all your days be blessed, and may God continue to smile upon your life. I love you very much!!!! Wishing you many more great birthdays. Isn't she beautiful!!!!!!

Miss Winter Bliss 18yrs

Now on to the crafty things that I have been up to late at night when I can no longer stand to open a box and put the contents away!!!!!lol. Thank goodness for fabric and swaps! Anyhow, I am in a Sampler RR on Crazy Quilting International and we are taking different stitches each month and doing the seam treatments or patches with them. Some I know how to do and others for whatever reason I have not tried before this. So for me this is a learning experience as well as fun. This month the stitch combo is herringbone and spiderweb rose. I have not done either of these before so I decided to do them both. I combined them and used them to create a motif on Sandy's block. I had a really fun time doing both of these, and I like how they turned out. The herringbone was one of those stitches that I shied away from thinking it would be hard to master. Well hello there, how wrong could I be! It was easier than I thought. The spiderweb rose was easy as well, I just have not done a lot of ribbon embroidery. I have a very limited amount of ribbon on hand so I just used what I did have. And it actually picked up the colors in the butterfly fabric in the center of her block. I really enjoyed working on Sandy's block. I hope she likes what I have done for her. Now it is packed up and waiting to go out on the first of the month to the next person who will then work her own magic on Sandy's block. I am looking forward to getting the next block as well. Here is the pic of Sandy's block for you to see, enjoy

On to the next item, which would be the tag swap on CQI which is being hosted by Sharon. I originally signed up for three tags, then had to reduce it to two by giving one as a hostess gift. Now, I will not be sending in any. First I thought I had until the 30th, not!! Which was my own fault, but with moving and unpacking I did not re-read the post which I had printed out or I would have known that. Anyhow, I was ok and had let my hostess know that I would be mailing out late, which was fine. Until.........I realized I had not put the hanger onto my two tags. Ok no problem, I will just put the grommet on and wala, it will be done in two shakes right? Wrong! The first one did fine, although I did have a problem getting the hole punched into the fabric. But I finally did and place ribbon to hang, and oh how pretty the tag looks. Then I start on the next tag. This one is a little bit thicker fabric, so I thought well I need to hit the grommet a little harder this time to make sure it goes through and attaches properly right. NOPE! Wrong! STOP!!!!! I hammered and it did not go through, so I kept on until finally it took hold. Boy did it ever, I now have a beautiful tag with this blue thing on the back that will not come off no matter how hard I try to pry it off. Hubby is not home to help, and I have tried to pry it off to no avail. The tag is ruined!!!!! So now I had to let the hostess know not to wait on my tags because they will not be coming in the mail.(tears of frustration by this time) I don't know how to get that thing off, it is on there tight and shows no signs of turning loose. Below is a pic of my tags, and of the disaster that has happened.

Now on to the next item, which is a pic of an oil painting on canvas that I bought about two months ago at a thrift store of a peacock. The only thing wrong with it is that it needs to be re stretched and re framed. And that is what I am going to do with it. I could not pass this up for the price. Besides everyone knows how I just love these gorgeous birds. Anyhow, here is my find I hope you like it.

I have more but since this post has been so long I will finish off another time. We are having family over for Bliss's birthday dinner on tomorrow so it may be first of next week before I can finish updating. We would be celebrating tonight but her and her older sister are going with her family to the go kart races. My oldest daughter and her husband sponsor several of the guys and Bliss enjoys going with them to the races. So, I must go now and finish getting ready for tomorrow. I have to go shopping for the food as well, she has requested homemade lasagna and cherry crunch for her special dinner. I usually fix their favorites and we have a big dinner for them. This year family will be here as well, so she will have lots of fun with her cousin who is six months older than her. Happy Stitching everyone and hope you have a good weekend.

Wendy