A couple of cute snaps to share.

I just had to share these pictures my dd just put on facebook of my sweet little Kaitee (dgd).

Her first Halloween and I think she was a little excited. At only 6 1/2 months old she is already getting the hang of so much. Not sure where my daughter found this lamb costume but it was just right for her.

Here is a more normal shot of her. I can't believe she is already crawling.

Ok I am done bragging for today.

I did get a new Laura J Perin design in the mail today, it was a trade I did with Ranae. She even included the canvas. It's called Snail's Trail.

Guess I better get going on the Lily of the Valley one so I can start this. Happy Stitching to All, CJ ok;-)

Weekend with Friends

What a great weekend. Good friends, good weather, shopping, eating, and lots of stitching, PRICELESS. This weekend a friend from Tulsa came to town, so her and I plus another friend headed to the the LNS to start the weekend off right. I picked up Frederika to go with Frederick (got him up a couple of weeks ago), a new booklet from Stoney Creek called Contemporary Exprssions, it has eight designs, and finally Stitching Friends by The Sunflower Seed.


Then we headed to stitch, I worked on "To all a Good Night" but just couldn't stay focused with all the catching up talk. So after a while I pulled out the small Turkey design (a freebie from somewhere I can't remember), this will be the second little ort cup finish, a gift to the friend hosting this weekend. Here is where I am now, and I plan to stitch the word thankful over one in the other corner.


Saturday morning we met to do some shopping, a little of this and that, for me shoes and a book. Then it was back to the house for more stitching. In the afternoon more friends joined us to stitch which was terrific even though some of them I had just seen last weekend. I concentrated on my Lily of the Valley Collage from Laura J Perin. I had started this some time ago and only had all the box borders done. So I managed to complete the stitching on one of the boxes. It doesn't seem like much, but it involved a lot of counting with caution to complete these specialty stitches.









All of us went to dinner together, Italian yum, it was planned to avoid the whole trick or treat thing and it turned out to be amazing. The restaurant was pratically empty due to the holiday, both OU and OSU games on the TV, and the world series to boot. So we took our time and even splurged on dessert. Returning to stitch until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer.


Two weekends in a row of nothing but stitching and next Saturday is another monthly stitch-in. I feel so blessed to have true friends who share my love of this craft. Blessed to have my stitching friends here on the blogs too. Thanks for all the wonderful comments.
Happy Stitching, CJ ok;-)

Chili vs Chilly

Wednesday I submitted my entry to a Chili Cookoff up at my office. It was not a very serious competition, just a way to gather and share some good food. But I was amazed at the variety of recipes for such a simple dish. I chose to do a vegetarian version, I know, I know, chili in this part of the country is usually all meat, but I liked the sound of the recipe I found and wanted to give it a try. Although a few brave souls tried it and thought it was good, the majority preferred a more traditional version. So live and learn. For those that have asked here is the recipe and there is even a video to show you how.

In preparation for the chilly days to come I have been knitting. I have already shared the beaded scarf I started and I am afraid I haven't made much progress. I returned home after class and promptly messed up the pattern, so I will need to get some help before going any further. And I skipped the baby bootie class planned for Saturday morning because I was having so much fun stitching with my friends. In fact I have another friend, from Tulsa, that will be here tomorrow, and we will be stitching most of this weekend at another friends house. I get off work at noon so it is off we go to Cross Stitch Haven for some "needed" items and then we will sit stitch and catch up. Luckily the yarn shop has the classes in November designed to help with problem projects or sock finishing (no matter when or where you started them). These sound perfect for me. So, no plans to give up on the market bag, beaded scarf or even the booties, as that one will be offer again in the future.

Since most of my knitting ventures are on hold, I moved on to another small design, this time a free turkey pattern that will end up as another ort cup. It will have the same lining fabric as the one I finished last weekend, but I don't have enough done to show you right now. I should have lots to show you next time as I plan to take along the bigger projects I started last week. I wasn't really getting much accomplished this evening out with my friends, although the little turkey design for the next ort cup is about half done. Tomorrow I have decided to pull out an old UFO that is counted canvas, hope that goes better. I'll let you know.

Now to end, but without a picture, it doesn't seem right.

So here is an Earth Threads design called Indian Summer that I finished earlier this year. It will be a great tribute to my friend that is visiting this weekend. Maybe she will be able to help me decide what to do with this. So far a pillow finish is the consensus.

Talk to you all soon.

Happy Stitching,

CJ ok;-)

Edited the post on 10/30/09

Stitching Hangover

I spent the weekend stitching with friends. Several came in from out of town and I ended up staying over at the hotel with them. We had a meeting room that the hotel threw in for free where we could all meet and stitch all day and way to far into the night. Wow, was it fun, talking, laughing, eating out (a little too much), shopping and even a little stitching was had by all.


I didn't take many pictures although there is one group shot but I will keep that private for now ;-).


Here is all I managed to stitch. The ort cup with the pumpkins from Daffycat's freebie was stitched while there and finished here at home.















I also got a small start on the Blackbirds Design called "To all a Good Night". Wish I had found time to get the moon and stars done that go around the words, but maybe later this week.

Even my Happy Halloween got a little start this week but I have to admit it was after I got home from the stitching weekend. It's not much but it was fun so I will be going back to this soon.

In fact I have another weekend of stitching with other friends that starts this Friday afternoon. More eating out and shopping too. Plus more of us will gather together on Saturday for some serious stitching before the trick or treaters descend.

So my plan is to continue alternating between my Happy Halloween and To All a Good Night, plus the Sled-ters will be coming along for the ride. But of course there is one more project I have yet to start, it's the The Victoria Sampler freebie biscornu that didn't get started at the last EGA meeting, but that needs to be stitched and ready to be put together at the next meeting. So that will be the little project I take along and hopefully finish while I am there.

This is the post I had planned to make on Monday but that's when the hangover from a weekend of to much stitching and things had me to tired to move or post. I'll have to play a little catch up this week to get all the posts in I need to stay on schedule for the 150 post by my 4th Blogaversary.

So maybe a short post tomorrow to tell you how the cook off went. (oops, did I forget to mention I am in a chili cookoff at work today) more later.

Till then Happy Stitching, CJ ok;-)

New starts , new stash and a little WIP

Wow, what a week. I just had to stop for a little, show and tell. I dyed the fabric and it came out just perfect for my Happy Halloween banner. I hope to get this one started tomorrow evening when I meet up with some friends from out of town, who just got started this evening on their own stitching retreat here in the city.



I also dyed more of the same linen, just lightly in the orange dye, and then left it to steep all day in some coffee. Here it is with some Thanksgiving decorator fabric that I plan to use to make a cute little fabric cup, see the "how to" here. I thought Daffycat's free pumpkin pattern would be great stitched on the outside of one of the cups. After all she is the one that inspired all this fabric dying.


As my B'Day present to myself I dropped in to Cross Stitch Haven and picked up my order along with a few bargains. The Rosewood Manor Quaker Diamonds on the right is a real beauty, although this picture is very blurry, sorry.
I did stay to stitch with friends for a bit and actually made a little progress on the "Sled-ters". Or should I say Sled-ter as only one chubby guy is sliding down this piece.

Oh yes, and then this evening in celebration, I took a beaded scarf class at The Gourmet Yarn Co. Here is my start, it was actually easier than I imagined and I really love the Prism yarn I picked to use.

Tomorrow will be a long day at work but the reward in the end is stitching with friends, PRICELESS. I even have another knitting class scheduled for Saturday morning.

To mark the passing of another year (ugh!) I spent time last night going over my past blog posts and realized that in less than two month I will be celebrating my 4th Blogaversary. As I was comtemplating this milestone ;-) I noticed I had only acheived 126 posts in this almost 4 years, so I set a goal, I want to hit 150 POSTS by DECEMBER 20th. That's 24 posts in the next two months, I even scheduled it out for myself so I could keep up. Whether you like it or not you will be hearing more from me and a lot more often. Feel free to make requests and if you haven't heard from me in a week or so please feel free to heckle me.

In order to make this interesting I will have to keep up the stitching and knitting and dyeing, I'll do my best not to bore you, although something a little shorter than this post may be called for.

Talk to you soon, CJ ok;-)

Some more knitting and a Wee start on stitching

My knitting jaunt has continued for another week, but I got a little stitching in too and have plans for lots more soon.

I would love to say that my French Market Bag was almost done but I am afraid it had to be set aside until I can get some expert help, since my knitting abilities are very limited. While waiting for that assist, I started a simple hat for my son. This was a free pattern for a baggie styled hat my son actually asked me to make if I could. It has been easy and relaxing although a little boring for my taste.










Yesterday I spent all morning working on my homework for a beaded wave scarf that I will be learning how to do in a class on Thursday evening. 1254 beads for this project all threaded onto the yarn before casting on. The colors of the beads didn't show up well in the picture, but they are much more varied as the yarn is.
















But I did stitch some this week, although both times were while meeting with friends and I did more talking than stitching. This is a very old project from Hillside Samplings that I have had ready to go for years. I just couldn't part with it, so this is the perfect time to get it done. It's stitched on a 28ct Jobelan so it should go pretty fast now that I have it going. In fact I plan to sit and stitch some more after this post.


I met with friends to stitch this afternoon that I hadn't seen it a while and it was great. But as you can tell the talking won out over the stitching.

I have one other project in the works as well. This is thanks to It's Daffycat and her newly dyed fabrics, plus one of the magazines I brought home last week. This Sunshine Orange is the same one she used to get that lovely orange fabric which I think will be just right for this project from Zweigart's At Home with Needlework.




Tomorrow evening is my local EGA meeting so that will be the beginning of a new project, I think this month is a free biscornu from The Victoria Sampler.

Thursday is the scarf class I mentioned above and Friday I have several friends, from out of town, all meeting here in the city for a weekend full of stitching, shopping, eating and lots of laughs. If this is not enough, I am squeezing in the baby bootie class I mentioned last post on Saturday morning.

I have another group that will gather the last week of October but I will wait to tell you about that one. I should also have several progress reports to share by then.

Did I mention I am feeling like my old self again.

Happy Stitching, CJ ok ;-)

New stitching stash and Knitting Too!

I just needed some stitching inspiration this week, so I headed for my LNS called Cross Stitch Haven for a little retail therapy. With just a quick run in, I managed to come out with all of this.

The Cricket Collection chart is a new release and so is "The Library" from Little House Needleworks. I just loved that halloween design on the cover of "At Home with Needlework" so that had to go home with me along with the JCS Ornament magazine for this year, that was waiting for me to pick up. There is one other magazine in there and two skeins of Caron Waterlillies, the last threads I needed for the Quaker Stocking from The Workbasket that I have always wanted to stitch for myself. This may be the year I start that project.

I spent the early hours yesterday organizing and adjusting my wishlists and progress lists which is what prompted the stash shopping. I had four other charts I wanted but they are going to order those for me. It was probably for the best that it wasn't all there at the same time, this way I can spread it out. Because this isn't the only place I stopped yesterday.

From 4-8PM I was in this amazing yarn shop called The Gourmet Yarn Co (yes, these are shameless plugs) where they were having their monthly Stitch-In. Yes, it's true I went to knit. I haven't done much knitting in the last couple of years but the cold weather snap made me think about knitting. While I was there I just had to pick up a couple of new projects. First I signed up for the baby bootie class (left pic) that is suppose to be really easy and when I got home I realized they had this great wavy, bead adorned scarf class that I want to try too.

Here is what I was working on while there, the French Market Bag from knitty, I will felt it after knitting. The green yarn is for another little free pattern that I couldn't resist, see here. The fun part was the cool little yarn tote I had to get, it keeps the yarn protected and untangled. A friend had given me the plastic canister container that I had all the yarn in for my market bag.

This was great fun and everyone was very friendly and welcoming. But not to worry I will not be giving up my cross stitch, it is still my first love, but this yarn shop was just to great to ignore.

I have several stitching dates planned this month so I am sure I will be posting updates regularly. In fact I am off to sit and stitch with a friend that flew in this week from Iowa. She was a regular stitching buddy many years ago but now we just meet up a couple of times a year.

Hope all of you are feeling inspired this weekend and get a chance to do some stitching whichever type it is.

Happy Stitching, CJ ok;-)