Definitely some craziness over the last week.

Hi to all!
Well, things have been a little crazy over the last week or so. Last Sunday, I was hit with the absolutely worse stomach flu/possibly food poisoning I have ever had. I thought I was going to die. I really hate throwing up, and it had been a really long time since I had. I was soooo glad it only lasted about 24 hours or so. If I could have missed work on Tuesday, I would have, but my boss called on Monday and asked if I was going to be Tuesday. I told her as long as I wasn't throwing up, I would. So I did.

Oh well. Enough gross stuff. Well, here is my finish for the week. This is for Joanne's LHN RR. I was the last to stitch on it. I think it turned out pretty good. The next picture is the completed RR. I just finished it tonight. I will be mailing it out to her later this week.

This picture is Debbie's (pharlap) RR. I'm still working on it though. Hopefully I'll have it done within a couple of days. I'm also working on a piece for Amy on the MAW board. I can't show it though. When I'm done with that, I think I'll be done with all of my obligation stitching for awhile.

This is a picture of my girls. We had a really fun night that picture was taken. We decorated their Valentine boxes for school. They all turned out really well.

This is my son working on his Valentine box. Even he got into working on it. We've had some big accomplishments with the kids lately. All on the same day in fact. My youngest came home with a special certificate called "Caught Being Good". It's a program where the kids can be caught doing something nice for someone. Then my son got a high A on his Social Studies test, and he won a contest at school. Then my almost 9 yr. old daughter, was chosen as one of 6 kids who won an essay contest on Abraham Lincoln at school. She got to go to his special 200th Birthday party in a town near us. What thrilled us even more is that than her picture was on the front page of the newspaper in our area. It was the neatest thing.

Does anyone know of anywhere to buy the Q Snap covers or know of a pattern to make it? I would really like to make or buy some of them?

My thoughts and prayers go out to so many online blogging friends. I've seen a lot of posts about illnesses and deaths lately.

Take care and Happy Stitching!

Unbelievable...the end of January already...

I cannot believe the end of January is already here. Why is it when you're young, it seems like time never passes, and now that I'm older, it just flies by.
We've had an interesting week. We were part of that ice/snowstorm that went from Texas and Oklahoma, into Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, and more points east. We ended up with a little ice and about 8-10 inches of snow from this past Monday until Wednesday morning about 4:30 am. Needless to say the kids were ecstatic. I don't think we had ever had quite that much to where they could go outside and play on their own. This is what I went outside to see. They all decided to make mini-snowmen and preceded to dress them up with their own winter items. I thought it was just adorable. They were off of school for 2 days due to the snow.

Work has gotten somewhat better, but I do have a good lead on a job in St. Louis. According to a friend that works there, she said her boss talked to human resources and told them to pull my application and set up an interview. So keep your fingers crossed.

Here is one of my latest finishes. I actually finished it just this evening. It's LHN's Strawberry House. I didn't put the lines on the windows because when I did, they all looked crooked. I also haven't decided if I wanted to put the buttons and beads on it yet. I really kind of like it the way it is. What do you think?

LHN Strawberry House

This is a picture of the LK exchange that I received from Caroline on the HOE blog. Isn't it just beautiful? She said it was her first tuck pillow. She definitely did a beautiful job. Here is a link to the picture of the LK exchange that I sent out. Hopefully, the link will work.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwxE3yHb1bMCpsv3oe0tZykHCBFla8YInQZgpb78_xk1RVwGYnzAtqNz1qkcR3WjsoIyhVTfcXo0_Vu6vXhZNlvLi9LE8oLOBZBMdP9jkKfnomH_gHXlnoipQFSmmStzpSi_O2qcAOgbY/s1600-h/DSCF0018%5B1%5D

My piece went out to Susan P from Baltimore. This next finish is a makeup piece for the Fair and Square board. Someone didn't receive their piece so I volunteered to make a replacement. This is from a freebie from Papillon Creations. I thought it turned out pretty. I used DMC 117(I think) for it.

Then last, but not least, this is another exchange piece. I don't think the receiver reads my blog, so I wanted to post it here. This is another freebie from Val's Stitching. I saw a stitching friend online yesterday that I hadn't talked to in quite a while. So I emailed her, and she emailed back and vice versa. Needless to say, I'm thrilled. I sure have missed her. Well, I hope everyone is having a great weekend. If you are one of the many affected by the ice/snowstorms, stay safe.

Happy Stitching!

WOW, it's been a long time

I'm sorry that it's been such a long time. Where does the time go. I can't believe that it's the middle of October. My youngest DD's birthday party is today. She'll be 6 on Wednesday. I just don't know where all of the time has gone.

Here is the progress on some of the pieces that I've been working on. I did finish the JCS piece a couple of weeks ago. I can't show a picture of it though. It is supposed to be in the March/April issue of the magazine. It really turned out great though.

Here is a picture of a UFO. I started this I think about 5 years ago. I haven't worked on it in at least 3 years, and then Becky started the Let's Stitch board, and I worked on it for a couple of hours on 2 different days. I worked on the last 3 bands. I'm going to try to work on it at least once a month. This is VS Christmas Heirloom Sampler.

Here's the newest picture of Lo How A Rose. I've definitely made some progress on this one. Again, it was a challenge on Let's Stitch to stitch on a sampler during the week. So I pulled this one out. It went surprisingly fast. One of my major projects in September was a beginning quilting class. I've always wanted to learn to quilt, but was scared to death when it came to rotary cutting, backing, binding, basically everything. So I had used some money that I had gotten for my birthday to pay for the class. It was one night a week for 4 weeks. At the end of the time, this is what I had finished. Excuse the feet at the bottom.

Here is Suzanne's LHN RR that I finished last week. She wanted something of a nature type piece with at least one tree in it. So I chose portions of LHN 's Acorn Hill for the piece. I really had a great time stitching on it, and I hope that Suzanne liked what I chose. Only 2 more pictures. Sorry for the picture intensive post. Here's a picture of LHN's Strawberry House. This is just so cute in the finished picture that I couldn't resist working on it.

Lastly, I joined a Quilt block of the month club that started this month. It's a Moda University piece called Simply Sophisticated. I received the package on Thursday and couldn't wait to get started. Each package includes enough fabric to finish 2 complete blocks. So here's the first installment. I started and finished these last night. It's made with Blackbird Designs fabric. I can't wait to see what next months blocks look like.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week. I will really try had to post again this week. I'm sorry for the picture intensive and very long post. If you've stuck with me through the whole post Thanks! Take care and happy stitching, quilting, or whatever strikes your fancy!

Much better in my world... long post

First of all, I want to thank all of you for the thoughts and prayers during my recent health freak-out. Here is the update...I have received excellent news. The surgical oncologist ran a blood test and the results were that they got all of the cancer in the first surgery. As of right now, no additional surgery, no chemo, no radiation is needed. We have to continue with the blood work every 3-6 months, and as long as that is OK for over a year, then apparently I'm cured. So, everyone's prayers really helped out during this time.


Things have been really busy right. The first day of school was Tuesday. WOOHOO!!! This picture is of my youngest DD on her first day of Kindergarten. She really was excited, but leave it to my kid to have a cold on the first day. All of the kids on their first day of school at the neighbor's sunflowers. They were just so beautiful and huge.
The other big news...my oldest DD taught herself to ride her 2 wheeler all by herself. I am sooo proud of her. She just decided last weekend to get on and give it a try. We had been working on it off and all this summer with no success. She was that way when we potty trained her too. Just told us one day that she had to go and was potty trained ever since.

Cross stitch wise, things have been really good. I have been working on another project for JCS that will be in the magazine in the March/April issue of 2009. It's a mandala, and I just love it. I finally decided to develop somewhat of a rotation when it comes to my JCS stitching vs. the rest of my stitching. I make a goal every weekend starting on Saturday morning. I have to accomplish whatever the goal is before I can stitch on my own stuff. I try not to make it too overwhelming of a goal. Something that I can try to finish in a weekend or by Monday/Tuesday at the least. The rest of the week, I can stitch whatever I want.

Last week, after I had met my goal, I finally finished one of my UFO's. I really loved this piece, but it became a UFO because I stitched it over 1. I think it turned out well, but I didn't like the fabric that I chose for the over 1. It was a very uneven weave. I'm happy it's done though.

LHN Night and DayThis next piece is the RR from the LHN RR that I'm in. This is Julianne's RR. She chose a theme of City Stitcher/Country Stitcher. She wanted houses that had some sort of City/Country theme to it. I chose this from the new LHN Neighborhood chart. I thought it fit pretty well into the theme. The 2nd picture is what has been completed so far on her RR. This last picture is my start on my SBEBB SB exchange. This is Scatter Sunshine. I don't think my partner reads my blog, so I wanted to show my progress so far. This is 1 night worth of progress.

If you have stuck with me this whole post, thank you very much. I hope everyone is doing well, and thanks again for all of the prayers and positive thoughts.

It's been awhile, but lots of progress to show...

Hi to all! It's been awhile since my last post. Lots has happened since then, both stitching wise and personally.
The pictures in this post are from my finishes in the last month or so. The only thing not here is pictures of the project for JCS magazine. This first picture is from the Make A Wish exchange for Cathy B. She said that she wanted something from LHN, so this is what I chose. They are both pieces from Heart of America. I really had a great time making these.
This next piece is from the LHN RR that I'm in for the Worldwide RR board. This is Joan's piece. I took my square from Curly Q Ewe. I finished this today. Unfortunately, it's a couple of days late in mailing, but I think it was worth it.
These are my squares from F&S Round 7 for Annemiek. I hope she likes them. It is from the online magazine The Gift of Stitching.
This last one is from the Hooked on Exchanging Board. It's from the LHN exchange. This is from the LHN freebie of Summer House. I finished it as a floss tag. I hope my partner, Lily, likes it.
Now, the other reasons I have ben busy is work, kids, and lots of dr's appts. lately. I went to a new dr. about a month ago just to establish myself as a new patient. Well, ended up getting a nuclear med scan, ultrasound of my thyroid, this week I am having a fine needle aspiration biopsy of my goiter, and next week, I'm having surgery to remove my goiter and most of my thyroid. I'm really nervous about all of this since I've only ever been in the hospital to have kids.
Well, if you lasted this long, thanks so much. I'll be back soon with another post.

Another week has gone by...

I can't believe another week has passed already. Just your typical week though, Monday - Friday. Yesterday, however, was great! The girls and I went to the STL Zoo together. It was awesome. Ryan and DH didn't really want to go so they stayed home. So it was a "Mama Girl day". That's what my girl's call it anyway. Here's a couple of pictures from the day. I'm making the pictures smaller than normal because this is another picture intensive post.

I've also accomplished a couple of finishes this week. One is from the LHN RR that I'm in, and the other is from the Fair and Square #6 exchange.

from LHN's Once Upon a Prairie Moon

LK Life's A Stitch

This other picture is the Fair and Square exchange that I received from Stephanie. Isn't it cute. I really love all of the goodies. Thanks Stephanie.

LHN's Dear Diary Honesty

I'll post again soon!

OOPS! Forgot one of the most important things! Congrats to my friends, Jen and Mike, on the birth of their new son yesterday. Baby was 9 lbs 4 oz. Yeah, their daughter, Jenna is a big sister!!!