Some Christmas Spirit to Share

Just thought I would post a few pics of the trees that I have already put up and out this year. I have five more to go and will post those when I get them up. That should be sometime tomorrow I hope. I am running out of time for this!lol. Been busy here and have had so much to do and not enough time to do it in. Anyhow, I hope everyone enjoys the pics! This is called a "Brides" tree as the ornaments each hold a special meaning for a new bride.
Angel: symbolizes God

Bird: good luck
House: family shelter
Teapot: hospitality

Pine Cone: eternity

Fruit: plentiful blessings

Rose: Virgin Mary

Animal: peace with nature

Santa: giving and caring

Fish: Christ and fertility

Flower Basket: beauty in the home

This is the tree with the rest of the decorations on this table in the entryway.
In the same entryway since it is very large is my "Disney Character Tree" which is a 50's replica of a nice shiny silver tree. I put all my Disney ornaments and some stuffed Disney characters on this tree. This is my fun tree for the kids!lol

Next we have the main tree which is a work in progress, as I need to make some more of the flower balls and ribbons. But this will give you an idea of what it will look like when finished.

This is a pic of my son's tree in his loft room. Of course he is not finished with the decorating part of it. Says he will do it sometime this week!lol. Kids are so funny.

Next we have the five multi-colored small table top trees which are also in the entryway on top of my blanket chest.
Have you guessed yet that I love Christmas trees!lol Up next we have a purple tree that I was given by my middle daughter as her room colors have changed along with her taste. She is into more earthy tones now.lol This little tree is a novelty and it has fiber optic lights all through the branches. When turned on it is pretty.Next is one of two porcelain trees. The other tree was broken during our move and subsequent storage of all our stuff. Still I have this one at least.
Next are the two trees on the fireplace hearth in the living room. None of the fireplaces in this house are usable, thus I decided to place these two here.

Those are the tree's that I have up. I will post pics of the last five one day this next week. Is there anyone else who loves trees like I do? I would love to know so I could come take a look at yours. The last pic of this post is of my Nativity on the living room mantle. Of course this is something else that I collect and I have about twenty of them so far. None are the same and I do have a few vinatage ones also.

Whew, that is a lot of pics for one post. I do hope you enjoy my little festival of trees! Check back this week to see if the others are posted for your viewing pleasure.

Happy Holidays,

A Wonderful Giveaway and a New Swap

Over at Em's Scrapbag (here) http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com/ you can sign up for her 100th post giveaway. Be sure to go by and look around and leave a comment to enter. She has some really nice things on her blog.

Then over at Foxgloves, you can find her here http://foxglovesfabricandfolly.blogspot.com/, she is heading up a new swap for Valentines Day. The sign ups are until Dec.29th so you have time to go and join in the fun, your swap partner will be given to you on Jan. 2, 2009. I have already signed up and am looking forward to swapping out a Valentines package with someone. Packages will be mailed out by January 21st so that gives you plenty of time to gather, package and send so it will arrive in time for the big day!

Small Update

Whew..........I have been busy putting up Christmas decorations and have put up ten of my trees so far. I will post pics when they are all up and ready. Should be one day this week. This is my favorite time of the year as far as holidays go. I love the way all the decorations look and the smell of all the wonderful bake goods. Hmmmmm........which reminds me, I need to start making my cookies and candies that I plan to give as gifts. Not long before it will be time. I may post a few pics later today although that will depend on my available time.lol! I never seem to have a lot of spare time lately. I Happy Holidays everyone,

Christmas Drawing

Lenna over at the Stitching Cow is having a drawing for one of her Cottages in Common which is her online class for Christmas at a value of $300. Go on over to her site and check it out. http://stitchingcow.blogspot.com/2008/11/block-of-month-quilt-competition.html go here for the details on how to enter. The drawing is on December 24th. While there check out her site and all the goodies she has. I have put a link in the sidebar that will take you directly to the site for all the info.


Happy Stitching,

A little of this and that

Whew, where should I begin as this has been one of those weeks. First let me say we had a wonderful time with our family for Thanksgiving. The down side to that is that I fell on our way to my moms and hurt my left ankle/foot area as well as a big strawberry on my right knee. It looks better now but was really black and blue for a few days there. Cannot walk on it as of yet and the swelling is beginning to go down. The up side is no broken bones, just a really bad muscle and ligament sprain. Will be laid up for a while with foot as it is, but it could have been worse so I am not going to complain. Below are a couple of pics of my foot and it is much better today than it was two days ago.I'm just so thankful to the Lord that it is not broken! Now I will have plenty of time to sit and stitch. I also need to do my decorating but have not been able to do all of it as of yet. Will post pics when I am finished. Happy Stitching everyone,

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Just a hello to say Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is having a good time with their families. We will be going to my moms to eat at six tonight. We are so looking forward to it as everyone will be there. Lots of food. I need to finish cooking what I am bringing, so must go.

Small Update

Well I am finally able to do some updates that I had wanted to do on last week, but never seemed to have the time. And today is going to be fairly busy as well. My daughter has court today regarding the beating that she took a few weeks back (details in a previous post). We are hoping that today will end in her favor with him being put in jail. We will just have to wait and see. Anyhow I do have some pics of my RR block that I have been working on in the CQI group, FF Sampler RR, it is Amy's block. I have done the stitching and all I have left is to add the beads, which I will do tonight and then mail it off tomorrow. Her block has been a good one to work on and very pleasing to look at. Here are the seams that I have worked on These two pics are of the buttonhole stitch and the row of roses that I did. There will be beads in the middle of the roses and in the wheels. I tried to remove the duplicate but for some reason blogger would not let me.
Here is the row of roses :This is the patch with the ribbon , I really like the way the ribbon went with the colors in this block. It has many of the colors that I like as well.
Finally this is Amy's whole block.

Now this has nothing to do with sewing but I just had to post this pic of the pumpkin stew that I made. Since the weather is getting a nip to it I decided that it was time for some good comfort food. This was a new recipe for me, but it was so good. Talk about a good dish for cold weather, well this really hit the spot. You actually cook the stew in the pumpkin!

And here is a pic of a bowl of this goodness!

Not only does this taste really good, but the smells while it cooks is wonderful your whole house smells like pumpkin with a blending of the other flavors. I will definitely be cooking this again. This is all I have for today until next time Happy Stitching!

"Important Notice"

For all those who love Sharon B, she has moved her site and it is now called Pin Tangle. Located here http://www.pintangle.com/journal/. So if you know her be sure and change your info for the updated site. And if you are not familiar with Sharon's work go take a look see and I guarantee you will be spending much time there. She is a wonderful artist and has so many ideas. More updates later, just wanted to do this one quick one. Happy Stitching everyone,

Small Update

Just wanted to do a smallish update since it has been a while since I posted. I have been extremely busy with family type goings on. And on top of that a really bad migraine which is finally much better. I have some things to share as soon as I am able. I did make a really pretty pic of a tree in my neighborhood last week. To me this tree is so beautiful and I just love looking at it. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the pic as much as I do.It has rained for the last two days here and the leaves are falling from the tree now, but it still has enough to be breathtaking. I just love this time of year, and today it has been misty out but still beautiful and the smell of fall is all around. My mom had a fire going in the fireplace when I went to see her today. She had fallen and hurt her right knee pretty bad. The dr. said it was a really bad bruise and sprain of the ligaments around the knee, but no cracked or broken bones. Thank the Lord for that. She is having some pain but is glad it was not serious. I am working on some different projects, but this has not been a very productive week. Although I am able to say that I have mailed off some of the things I had needed to mail out last week but was unable to at the time. And I have finished the last rr that I am in and it will be going on its last mail out to the owner in the morning. I will post pics as soon as possible. I also have a post card to get in the mail. As always, Happy Stitching everyone, and I will post again over the weekend.

Something I'm Working On

I just wanted to post a couple of pics of a project that I am working on. My best friend in Texas is getting married in December. I decided that I wanted to make something personal to her from me. And this is what I came up with. Using just three colors and those being colors that she likes. Purple, Gold and White. This is the foundation I used, I have never used a pattern like this and decided to try and make one this time. I cut out each piece and used it to cut the fabric by. I think it turned out well and I will be using this process again.
This is the heart in the middle before sewing (above) and sewn down below.

And here is the final pic of the whole block pieced and ready for embellishment.

I will post further pics as I progress. As always Happy Stitching,

We Have A Winner!!!!!!

LETS CELEBRATE!!!!!! WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!!! I used a random number generator and the number was 27 and guess who that was! Congratulations goes out to KARRIN HURD, so if you will email me at stitchduchess2@yahoo.com with your snail mail addy I will get your package off in the mail to you. As I said in a previous post if you prefer to have a crazy quilting squishie let me know and I will swap it out.

A big thank you for all those who left such nice comments and joined in on the fun. I had so much fun with this drawing that I may do it again very soon.

Happy Stitching Everyone,

A Nice Link

I was surfing thread sites a few weeks ago and found this which is a nice little pamphlet tutorial on embroidery stitches, I had meant to put it here with a link and forgot about it until today when I was visiting Karen Souths blogspothttp://karensouth.blogspot.com/ and she had it listed on her blog. This caused me to remember to put it here for you. You can find it here http://www.coats.com/ on the needlework page. It has some basic stitches for embroidery. They have been offering this little pamphlet since 1940 to those who might need it. They also offer one on "Huck" weaving on the same page that you will find this one.

As always Happy Stitching,

Death By Chocolate Cake

This cake is one that I make my youngest son once a year, usually on his birthday but this year we were not in our own home and so he wanted me to wait. Well today I baked his cake for him. I started making this cake because he has a really biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig sweeeeeeeeeet tooth! I am not kidding. Although he gets it honest from me, I love anything sweet but mainly chocolate. Anyhow, I came up with this cake to satisfy his sweet tooth for cake. Boy does it ever, as this cake is so rich. It has 5lbs of chocolate along with the cake being chocolate and of course the icing as well. It is so rich that you have to eat it in small slices or be on a high sugar rush.lol The inside is all nice and gooey just like he likes it. The bottom forms a candy bar like layer. If you have a chocoholic, this cake is for them. I came up with the recipe myself and he absolutely loves it. The picture would have been better if it had been made before he started eating on it. But as always he could not wait, he actually barely waited long enough for it to cool so I could ice it.lol He said we needed taste and smell pics! It does smell and taste heavenly to be sure.

Also, I found these two neat napkin holders over the weekend. They are made out of silver and are signed and dated by the artist. They are really cute and for $1.00 I could not pass them up.

I think this is all for today, as I do not have anything else to post about. I did get up one of my design walls today. I have enough wall space to have two in this sewing room unless I have to use the extra wall for storage later on. I put up a few things today and did some stitching, but other than that I have not accomplished much. Until next time,

Happy Stitching,

More Pics

Ok finally I am able to upload the rest of the pics for the drawing plus several more that I have. Don't forget that Friday is the day of the drawing so be sure and check back to see if you won. This has been a lot of fun to put together. This is a complete shot of the goodies.

Another pic of the fabric:

And another:And another this one of the thread, which is regular sewing thread.

These photo's give a better idea of what the squishie is made up of. Below is a list of what is in this particular squishie.
1. Thread pack
2. Needle Book
3.Beaded Embellishments
4.Water Soluble Marking Pencil in White
5.Oriental Fabric
6.Pastel Rose Fabric
7.Pastel Stripe Fabric
8.Pansy Fabric
9.Pink Flower/Butterfly Fabric
10.Pink Paisley/Flower Fabric
11.Butterfly Fabric
12.Fall Leaves Fabric
13.Christmas Fabric Boxes/Bears
14.Christmas Fabric Snowman
15.Set of Note Cards

If you happen to be a crazy quilter and would prefer a squishie with appropriate fabrics for crazy quilting I will substitute those for the sane/traditional fabrics if you prefer. Keep that in mind if your name is picked. Just two more days until the drawing and I hope everyone has signed up and if not you still have a little time left to do so.

Happy Stitching,

A Big Thank You

I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone who has been praying for my daughter and her situation. She is doing much better physically and she is making strides mentally with all that has happened. Court date has been set, protection order is in place and we know that God is going to keep her safe and work in this situation for her. Again, thank each and everyone who has been praying on her behalf as a mother in means a lot to know that heaven is being bombarded with the prayers of the righteous. And as always I know the King I serve is always faithful to answer the prayers of His children.

Quick Update

Whew.......this has been a busy past week and weekend. I feel like I have been in a marathon race at times (mentally).lol Anyhow, I have finished some projects that I have been working on and am finished with another swap and one more swap almost finished. I have been busy trying to unpack my sewing room finally! With everything that has happened over the last couple of weeks it had gotten placed on hold. I am still not finished as I have to acquire more storage for my fabric and crochet thread. There is no closet in this room (old Victorian home) so I will need more shelving and such. I think I will use those hanging sweater racks for the closets and run a curtain rod along one wall. That way I can add more as needed. I am going to try and do all of that this week so I can start sewing in there instead of my dining room. Not only that just having all my sewing, needlework and crafting supplies in one room will be very nice for a change.

Below is a pick of my "Secret Stitching Angel" gifts that I have completed and sent on their way across the pond to my swap angel. I hope she enjoys them as much as I have enjoyed making them. I made a thread bucket, needle case and a pin cushion. I had started to do them in different colorways but decided to go with all blue and white. I am very pleased with the way they turned out. I really enjoyed working and participating in this wonderful swap hosted by Helen over on http://hugsnkisses.typepad.com/ . I have really had a wonderful time looking at all the blogs listed. There are some really talented ladies in this world and it is so nice to make new friends. I cannot wait until the next swap that Helen puts together as this one has been so rewarding.

My gifts should be arriving any day so I will post this small pic of them. Next is some pics of some of the items to be in the squishie that I am giving away on Friday, I will draw the name at 9:00am central time USA.

ok, I have several more pics to upload and for some reason I cannot seem to be able to upload the pics. I will try again later in the day. I have more fabric and such to show you but blogger is being contrary today. Anyhow, this will give you a small sneak peak at what will be arriving for the winner of the drawing. As always, Happy Stitching,

100th Post Celebration!!!!!!!!!!!

It's celebration time! I have finally reached my 100th post!!!!! Thought it would take me forever. In celebration of that I will be having a drawing on Oct. 31 for this great occasion. Stop by and leave a comment on this particular post and I will enter you in the drawing. If you put this on your blog I will add your name a second time. So come on and tell all your friends to come by and put their name in for the drawing. I will put up pics of the giveaway on Monday as I am putting it together now.
Happy Stitching,

Update on Carol's Block

Well I have finished my part on Carol's block and it is now on its way to the next person which is Amy over at http://www.inthefold.com/ you should visit her if you have a chance as she has some wonderful things going on over there. Anyhow, on this block I did a beaded crochet motif, a fly stitch lace seam and a web with spider. I like the way they all turned out and I hope that Carol likes what I have done to her block. I really enjoyed working on this block. I have one more to do and then this rr will be complete. I have Amy's block and will start on it this weekend. Here are the pics of Carols block, please enjoy!

Happy Stitching Everyone!

Please Pray

I wanted this post to be seperate from my block update post. I want to ask all those who read my blog to pray if you pray for my eldest daughter and her family. She was at work on yesterday and she was beaten up. She does home healthcare visits to elderly people. She was with an eighty yr. old patient yesterday when they heard someone yelling and cussing outside the lady's door. My daughter went outside to ask them to please be quiter since it was upsetting her patient. She was then attacked and beaten about the head and chest. She is very bruised and shook up to say the least. They arrested him and put him in jail and they do have a court date. The horrible thing is it was her ex-husband that she has been divorced from for 13yrs. She now has a protective order for her and her family until the court date. Please pray for safety and peace for her. She is very upset and sore today. Thankfully there was no broken bones, but a lot of swelling and bruising. He is a 4th degree blackbelt in karate and now she is very fearful for her life. Also, pray for peace for the elderly lady as she is very upset as she witnessed the whole thing and could do nothing but call 911. I thank each and every one of you in advance for all your prayers.

Mail Call WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOOOOOOOOOW, is all I can say. My mail-lady was really good to me on today. As you know I am in a swap called Stitching Angels over at Helen's place at http://hugsnkisses.typepad.com/ You should go over and visit her, lots of wonderful goodies and some free patterns from different designers on her site. Anyhow, I signed up along with over 200 other ladies to be a secret stitcher. We were to make three homemade gifts and send them by the end of this month to our secret stitching angel. Well mine came today and I am so blown away by my secret angels generosity. Not only did she make me three wonderful and gorgeous items, but she also sent me fat quarters sequin trim, loose sequins, embroidery floss, some lace, a beaded/sequin motif ( which of course will find their way into one of my crazy quilt projects) and a little card. It all is just gorgeous, and the fabric is like she has been in my sewing room and knows what I like. It is all so lovely. The only thing is, she still did not tell me her name! So my secret stitching angel when you read this post please comment and identify yourself. All I know is she is from the Netherlands, a place by the way that I have always wanted to travel to. Thank you so much for all the lovely handmade gifts and the bounty of extras that you sent to me. I am so happy and have a very thankful heart. Wishing you the best and many happy hours of stitching. Thank you.The photo does not really do the items justice, but the lighting is not good at this time of day so I will take a photo out of doors in the morning and post a better pic.

My items will be going in the mail on Friday to my swap partner and it will be making a long journey across the big pond. I hope she likes what I have made and what I am sending her. So be looking for a package in the mail on next week. Wonder who I am sending it to? This has been a very fun swap and I hope that Helen does this again. This is a wonderful way to make new friends around the world.

Happy Stitching,