OK I hope this is the last post of the day, although I cannot promise since I might think of something else to post. Anyhow a few weeks ago I had a drawing and I still have not heard from one of the winners. Sooooooo.......if I do not hear from her on this week I will draw out another name. So Margie in CA I really need for you to contact me via email with your snail mail addy. Since I have not heard from her I am going to go ahead and mail the other two out this week. If by Friday I have not heard from her check back in if you were a part of the previous list of ladies who responded to the post, as I will be drawing from those names. I guess it was a good thing that I have hung onto the names. Hopefully, I will hear from her. Anyhow, hope your day goes well for each of you.
Happy Stitching,
Wendy

I won, I won, I won.....what you may ask did I win, wellllllllll let me tell you, Jo has a monthly drawing on her blog and I won this months drawing which was a tag that she made. Can you see me doing the happy dance!!!!!!! Well it finally came and it is soooooo cool and pretty. I also like that it was done in green, one of my fav colors. Anyhow, below is a pic hope you enjoy.

Is this not the coolest little tag you have ever seen. Her work is incredible, I don't know what she used for the backing but I will be emailing her about it. It makes it look so neat and tidy, actually I like her backing better than I do on the one I made and just used another type of fabric. Anyhow, I really like my tag and a big thank you to Jo in NZ.

Now lets get started on the crafty part of this post. I have lots to share so be patient and I hope you enjoy the eye candy. I am currently in a purple color study rr on CQFN and we are just finishing up. This is the last block I am to do in this rr. This is Lindy's block from over the big pond in the great down under. I added a seam treatment of purple roses, and let me tell you it was so hard not to put green for the leaves, but I think the light lilac thread I chose went well with the darker purple flowers. Then I did a seam treatment with purple ric-rac with straight stitches and french knots. I still need to do the patch and I will do it on tonight and then put it in the mail on tomorrow. Here are the pics of Lindy's block :
The next grouping is from a rr I am in on CQI it is called FF Sampler which is a sampling of a variety of stitches for the seam treatments. This month was the Chevron stitch and French Knots. You can also use the previous stitches if you would like. I have had Laura's princess block and have worked on the center motif, and three seam treatments. Ordinarily it would have just been two seams, but we had someone to drop out and therefore we decided to pick up the slack and continue on with just the four of us. Anyhow, I think each part of this block turned out well. I am happy with what I have done and I hope that Laura will like it as well. Take a look and see what you think:
I beaded the bodice of her gown with pink seed beads, the white flowers on the fabric I covered with the fuchia detached chain daisy, and french knots all around the block. You can't see it in this pic, but I put white french knots on the hem of the dress and it looks like a petticoat is peeping out of the bottom. At least that is what it reminds me of. I just followed the white that was already there and made it three dimensional with the knots.
Now you can see the seam treatment with the Chevron Stitch applied. That color just pops on this block. Next we have the cretan stitch that I decided to do in yellow. I think it turned out well, and this is a stitch that I like better as a leaf, but decided to try it this way as well. You can also see the French Knots as the petticoat here. Overall I think it turned out well and I am happy with the results of my work on this block. I hope Laura likes it as well. I was in a fabric post card swap on Stitchin Fingers and here is the pc that I recieved as well as the one I sent. Mine was sent to Ati in Norway, and it has yet to arrive at its new home. I am hoping that it will arrive this week sometime, if not I will be sending her out another one to replace this one.

And this is the one I recieved in the swap. It is from Mary Lou Curry over on Stitchin Fingers is it not beautiful.
Now, (see I told you this would be a long post. lol) I was also in a Dotee doll swap and here is the one I recieved back from Carmen. Isn't she cute. I believe that is all I have as far as the crafty side of my post. I do have a couple more pics I want to share with you. Remember the new puppy my son aquired for himself. Well he has grown some and I wanted to update his pic. So here is Riddick in all his glory!lol. This puppy is so adorable and loveable, and into everything.lol This little puppy has worked his magic on me to say the least. I am so besotted with him!lol. He has a wonderful personality and is my constant shadow. He goes with me every step I take and is sitting with me even now as I type this. I am beginning to wonder who owns who as he is supposed to be my sons dog, yet he is always underfoot.lol. I do hope you all enjoy the post today and maybe it wont take me so long the next post as I am winding down on several projects that have kept me busy, the most being getting my house in order. I am very happy to have that out of the way and am looking forward to having more free time in the future to work on my quilting and such. I am currently making a to do list of projects that need to be finished soon. The list just seems to be growing and increasing daily, then of course I have my trusty want to get around to doing list as well. This list has projects that I want to do in my lifetime, so I have no time to be idle.lol as if I could ever be idle and not doing something. Anyhow until next time Happy Stitching everyone.

Wendy

Hi everyone, I hope your week is starting off in the right direction and will be fruitful in all your endeavers. This has been a busy last few weeks for me and I am so behind in posting on my blog. I have finally begun to see the end of what I have been calling the never ending boxes!lol. Never knew I had so much packed up. This week should see me completely finished and organized. How wonderful that will be.

I want to thank everyone for sending up prayers for my ministry friend who lost her young daughter week before last. I know that she appreciates all the prayers that are going up for her and her family. Please continue to lift them up during this difficult time. My heart is so heavy for Sandra and her family as this is the third child she has lost in the past few yrs. I know that she is a strong woman of God and that He alone can give her the peace to make it through this time of grief and loss.

Wendy

Drum roll please........We do have winners..........Are you ready for the revealing of the names........Here they are, please give a big hand to these three ladies.

1. Gerry

2. Margie CA

3. Kerry

If these three ladies would please email me privately with your snail mail address I will get your prizes mailed out to you this week. I would also like to thank each of you ladies who came by and left a comment on my blog. You made my anniversary a lot of fun. Thank you for all the wonderful comments and as always I hope each of you have many years of happy stitching.

Wendy

Hi everyone hope you are having a good day. Mine is going pretty well, just a bit busy. I am taking a break and thought I would make an update post although it will be small for today. I decided to do the summer creativity group challenge that Hand Embroidery group on yahoo is doing. It is a series of flowers and each person interprets them how she desires. I like this type of challenge as it causes you to stretch yourself with newer or in my case forgotten methods. Last night I decided I would start this little challenge off by doing the rose. I traced the design onto fabric via my wonderful light box that hubby made for me. I will have to show that off some time in another post. He customized it for me and it is bigger than what you can buy at Micheals or Hobby Lobby and cost less. Anyhow, I decided to do the crayon with embroidery method to refamiliarize myself with that technique. I have done this type work in the past but it has been a long time ago. Anyhow, here is the results and I am pleased with the way in which it has turned out. Reminds me of the cabbage roses that was on this one particular hat that my gran used to wear. They were pink as well. Hmmmmm.......such wonderful memories from my childhood about someone that I loved so much. Hope you enjoy the photo.

Good afternoon everyone, I just wanted to quickly remind everyone that I will be having a drawing on Sat. morning and three lucky people will receive a gift from me to help celebrate my first year of blogging. All you have to do is leave a comment below in that particular post about my blog-anniversary. I posted a pic of one of the gifts, the other two are secret but just as nice. Hope everyone is having a good day. Happy Stitching
Wendy

I am going to jump from crazy quilting to sane quilting in this post. I was involved in a pink/black block swap over a year ago with a group of wonderful ladies. The top is finally put together and is ready for quilting. All I have to do is put a back on and get it into the frames, which I hope to do very soon. Since this was a sampler style quilt I decided to sew the blocks together without a spacer block or strips in between each one. I think it is going to look really nice when I am finished with it. Enjoy the pic.Happy Stitching,

Wendy

I actually have enough blocks to do another whole quilt from this swap! I just love all this pink/black together. I can hardly wait to see it all quilted. I now have to decide how I am going to do that part of this project. Will keep you posted. So I can mark this off my to do list and place it in the WIP stack. I feel as if a I have accomplished at least half of this project at this point. I am hoping that my mom will feel like helping me to quilt this by hand. I think it will be fun to quilt with her and have a wonderful keepsake to pass down of a quilt that we both have put our stitches in. Have a great day and will post again soon. I do have lots of things to add here. Just checking a few at a time off my list. Happy Stitching, Wendy

Here is a pic of Sandy's whole block. It is going to be really nice when it is finished and everyone in our little group has worked on it.

Look at this beautiful sunset that happened on today. I was able to click a quick pic of it before it became to dark to see it. The pic does not do it justice. It was so pretty.

Here is another RR block I have been working on. This one is over at CQN it is a color study rr with purple being the color we are using. Everything we use must be purple, from the fabric, lace, beads, thread, trinkets. Anything we add has to be in the purple color family. It has been fun and I am excited to see what everyone has done to my block. This block belongs to Velina. I hope she likes what I have done to her block.

I did the ric rac seem with french knots, the buttonhole flowers, and detatched chain flowers. I also did the purple herringbone stitch on her block. I hope she likes what I have added. She has a very beautiful block.

I have added more seam treatments to Sandy's block for the FF Sampler RR that I am in on CQI group. I added blue and yellow double herringbone on one seam of the patch that I had already done. Then a seam of pink butterflies, as we all know that every flower garden has butterflies in it. Then I did a seam of pink tea roses, and last but not least a seam treatment of beaded feather stitch. I hope Sandy likes what I have added to her block. I enjoyed working on it for her. Also, I hope she is feeling much better very soon. Happy Stitching everyone.

Wendy

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