Marisa's Stitchworks

Poinsettia #2

2008-04-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

Here is my second poinsettia, this one is by Brittercup Designs and appeared in the 2007 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Special Issue. I drastically changed the colorway on this one, while trying to stay true to the design. I used Ozark Sampler fibers, which I love because they are so much softer than GAST or Weeks. Of the two that I've stitched so far, this one is my favorite. There are still 4 or 5 more to go, but I think in the long run, this one will retain it favored status.

marisa

Poinsettias!

2008-04-25T16:28:00.001-07:00

You can never have too many poinsettia's at Christmas time, don't you think? I just love them all, red ones, green ones, pink ones, white ones . . .I'm not picky! But since I have pets, I don't keep the real thing in the house. So, the next best thing I guess is to stitch a bunch of ornaments, and hang them on a wooden stick Christmas tree, right? That's the theory I'm laboring under! I've scoured all my JCS Ornament Special Issues for charts and have stitched up the first one. Once I've done those, I'll go back through my regular issues of the stitching magazines I "collect" (DH has a different word . . . horde) and look for more. I'm sure I have a leaflet or two laying around that just might have a poinsettia charted in it as well. And I haven't even touched on future stash purchsases! I DO have a trip to KY coming up really soon and my favorite LNS is there! Here is Poinsettia Pocket Ornament by Samplers and Such, which appeared in the 2005 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Special Issue.

marisa

Time To Catch Up!

2008-04-22T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a time of transition. I bought a new computer, and in the mix of getting things from the old computer onto the new one, and just life in general, I've been without scanning ability for a little while. Which, it seems, has offered a chance to 1) stitch more and 2) do some much needed finishing. This is one piece that I have recently finished, just tonight in fact. It's called ABC Small Sampler. I found it as a freebie on the internet and cannot recall the designer. Hubby wants it finished into a pillow, but I don't think it's big enough to make a nice looking pillow.

Here is another internet freebie, this one came un-named, or perhaps it was simply in a different language, I can't really remember. Anyway, I thought they were a cute couple, so I stitched them right up. They will be made into a round ornament, I think. Just need to find a nice ribbon to use as a hanger!

And finally, Spring Bluebird by Waxing Moon Designs. I changed the colors, I'm not a big fan of pink in my decorating so the flowers in the corners are yellow and red. I like this design quite a bit, although I may end up giving it to my mom. She loves to sit on her front porch and watch the birdies congregate around the feeder in her yard.

I've stitched a few more pieces and done a TON of finishing, which I will photograph with the digi camera and then post instead of scanning individually. I'm now the proud displayer of two small baskets of small ornament sized finishes and I'm quite pleased with myself!

A Few Leaves, A Few Beads

2008-02-26T06:26:00.000-08:00

Some backstitching and it's done. I think I may even have the beads I intend to use for the centers of the white flowers. Another hobby of mine is making beaded jewelry so I do have a small stash of supplies available. Also, I have a cut of complimentary fabric on the way for the companion piece to go with this one, so far I'm right on track to give these two pieces to mom for Mother's Day, then she can see her birdies no matter what the weather is. I'm such a good daughter, LOL.

marisa

Update

2008-02-21T05:55:00.000-08:00

Here's an update on the piece I'm working on for my mom. I did fill in the emply spots in the one completed bird and the blue flowers, the yellow blob will be another bird and the starfish looking piece is actually the inside of a morning glory. LOL I'm really liking how this piece is turning out, however I REFUSE to hijack it for myself like I did with Pedigree of Honey years ago. It hangs safely in my bedroom now, LOL. This is Oriole and Chickadee by Barbara Sestok.

marisa

Spring Stitchin'

2008-02-20T12:24:00.001-08:00

Instead of going back to the piece I'm working on for my mom after I completed the UFO listed below, I dug around in my stash bin and found this little gem: Spring Forget Me Nots by Patricia Ann Designs. I found the leaflet in a clearance bin for $.34! The fabric I no doubt received from a grab bag of different cuts from a supplier in Arkansas, she knows I like colorful fabrics and will find a design that fits a fabric instead of the other way around. This design only took a few days to finish up, slightly interupted by a trip to Tucson where I acquired the fibers I was missing for the bird piece for my mother, so it's back to that WIP now.

marisa

Flu Finish

2008-02-15T11:49:00.000-08:00

What do you do when you have the flu and you are ticked because the project you are working on for your sainted mother is missing fibers, and you can't go out and pick them up because: 1) the aforementioned flu has you housebound, and 2) you have zero local access to even DMC fibers? You go digging through your UFO pile and pull out something that just needs a few stitches to complete. So that's what I did while I had the flu. Well, to be completely honest, the first couple of days I just slept. But after a while you realize there is only so much sleeping you can do, even though you feel like crud. All this piece lacked was 3 of the corner butterfly motifs and the outside border. And voila! A finish AND a reduction in my UFO pile! Yea me!! This is Spring Finesse by Anne Stanton, and appeared in the March, 1999 issue of For the Love of Cross Stitch. That's about how long it had been in that sad state of oh-so-close to finished, too. Is FTLOCS even being PRINTED anymore??!
marisa

Not Stitching! GASP

2008-01-15T06:29:00.000-08:00

Well I haven't been stitching for the past few days, but now there IS a perfectly logical and quite good explanation. Meet Tuxedo Cat (Tuxi), the newest addition to our family. He is 4 months old and quite a handful when trying to stitch. At the moment, he's following the mouse around as a type, so forgive any typos as I CAN'T SEE THE MONITOR! He likes to try and catch the pointer, silly boy. But come stitching time, LOOKOUT! He's all about trying to nab the needle with the floss on it and he seldom misses. I spend more time fighting him off than making any actual progress, so I try to limit my stitching time to those times when I have PLENTY of time to deal with him, or when he's sleeping. Which isn't very often, LOL.

marisa

New Beginnings

2008-01-09T19:52:00.000-08:00

I've got quite a bit of catching up to do here, so here's my second post in 2 days. This is a piece I have started for my mom, it's called Oriole and Chickadee. It's by Barbara Sestok and appeared in the August 2001 issue of The Cross Stitcher. I'm stitching it on 20 count pewter Lugana; there will be a companion piece to go with this one called Warbler and Bunting (same designer and issue) that I will stitch on the same count fabric but a different color. My mom loves to watch the birds on her farm, and she loves realistic looking pieces. Since the count on this fabric is so large, I'm stitching over one. This has given the added benefit of looking more like needlepoint than cross stitch; needlepoint being one of my mom's hobbies before her health turned bad. Anyway, I hope she likes it.
Tuxedo Cat (Tuxie) came home with me last night. He strolled out the carrier just like he owned the place and has had no complications at all fitting right in. He loves his feathered and belled teaser toy, and plays contentedly for extremely long periods of time, so far we tire long before he does. He's had previous experience with dogs, and our dog has had previous experience with cats, so they are not having any issues. Unless, of course, you count watching a 75 pound Doberman try to figure out how to play with a 4 month old kitten without 1) breaking it, or 2) getting accidentally clawed. They've given us many giggles in just the 48 hours that Tuxie has been with us!

Made It Past the Holidays

2008-01-08T06:39:00.000-08:00

Whew! What a holiday season! As usual, it snuck up on me, what with a house remodel that just will not end, school projects and field trips and now, my own job, it seems this holiday season was even sneakier than usual. But, I made it through, had a nice Christmas, David's first at home in 2 years and we were even able to get Christmas down and Birthday (for Emily) up in record time, AND throw her an impromptu party over the school break. She's decided to postpone her big party until spring so we can have a pool party at the city's big pool, complete with water slide, hot tub and wave machine. Even I am excited about that!

Here is a neat little magazine freebie I stitched for my kitchen, his name is Le Chef and he was designed by Bennie Harman and appeared in the June 2007 issue of The Cross Stitcher. Over the holidays, I hang my nicer ornaments from the chairs in the dining room, and I'd like to stitch some kitchen themed small ornie-sized pieces to hang year round. I'm trying to redo my kitchen Tuscan style, but still keep it mobile since we move about every 3 years (such is the military way) so accessories are the way to go for me.

The big news for today is that we are supposed to be getting a kitten tonight. You see, I work part time at a vet clinic and yesterday one of the lab technicians brought in a black and white 4 month old male kitty he had rescued. Kitty has been getting his health checked, and today gets tested for feline leukemia. Last night my co-worker kept bringing him out of his cage and playing with him, and he's just the sweetest little guy in the world, I couldn't resist. So I am going to bring him home tonight. David isn't too pleased since he's professes to hate cats (secretly, he's a cat lover) and Emily is not pleased at all. She saw me get clawed up pretty badly from a cat I was trying to rescue and hasn't liked them since. But, I am a huge cat lover and haven't had one since Dandi died 9 years ago; it's time for a new one. I told Emily she could name kitty but she hasn't picked anything yet. I figure Lexi, our 10 year old Doberman, will most likely name him "AAAACCCCHHH GET OFF MY NOSE!" She's familiar with cats but it's been a while for her, too!
marisa

A New Holiday to Stitch For

2007-09-04T16:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much Halloween stitching; I have done a bit of fall stitching but this is my first "official" Halloween piece, in other words, this won't pass as Fall too. LOL If you look closely, you can see some subtle shading in the hand-dyed fabric I used. Sure wish I could remember where I got it, it had a nice "stiffness" to it that made stitching on it easy. I like the colors in this piece too, they are Halloween-y but not too traditionally so. Oh, the piece is called Witch Way to the Candy (bet you never would have guessed that had I not told you!) and is by Susan Aldrich, and can be downloaded for free at www.cyberstitchers.com. Now, does it want to be a pillow, or a wall hanging?

It's beginning to cool off a bit here in the desert, which is nice. We are expecting some rain possibly later in the week with the coming hurricane that is expected to shoot up north through Mexico. That will be nice, as my grass is not looking so hot anymore. Actually, it's looking extremely hot and therein lies the problem!

Well, I have another Halloween piece to get started on, so I best run.

marisa

Merry Christmas . . . in July!

2007-07-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

Or what's left of it, that is! I've been on a finishing frenzy since I got back from vacation and have made quite a dent in my 'finishes to be finished' pile, which means that now I have quite a lot of slip stitching to do!! I do all the machine work and stuffing, then save the closing up until something good is on TV and slip stitch the night away! Boy, am I an exciting gal or what?!?

Here's my latest for the ornament finishing pile, it's White Christmas by Drawn Thread.

As usual, I changed the floss colors. I love this nontraditional green! It plays really well with the nontraditional reds, I think. I hope you agree. There is supposed to be a star charm atop the tree and some type of charm on the deer's neck, but I'm not sure that I will add them. I'm also missing the snow falling in the background, which I may attach with beads, I haven't decided yet.

I think I'm through stitching smaller projects for a while, unless I end up needing something to carry along with me. I won't be needing something to work on while picking Emily up from school this year, since her new school is only four blocks from home, I plan to get some exercise by biking her to school and back. One of the nice things about this climate is that I can be out all year, it never really gets uncomfortably cold outside. We've already scoped out the school grounds and found two "totally awesome" playgrounds, and we are planning to go play on them again today.

Well, it's time for more coffee, and since I wasn't positive DH would be home after PT today, I didn't make enough for two. GASP! So it's off to make more!!

Take care until later!

Happy Summer!

2007-07-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

Summer is here, and we are alternately baking in the heat and reveling in the cool breezes that accompany the late afternoon monsoons. As for this family, we just got back from our summer vacation trip halfway across the country where it was cooler, but also quite humid. It was nice to visit family, but it's better to be home! LOL

Here is a picture of my latest completed project, Summer in Tuscany, by The Samplar Girl. Colors were changed to reflect my taste (and what I had available!) and this piece will be added into the needs-to-be-sewn/stuffed/beribboned pile. Not sure where, but the final resting place for this piece will be either the kitchen or the dining room.

I was able to hit an LNS while on vacation. Apparently, driving an hour is not an option for me, I must fly halfway across the country before I will got into a shop. Silly, isn't it? However, I was able to acquire something that my daughter has been wanting for some time, since she was flipping through one of my cross stitch magazines and saw an add for them. I got Miss Know-it-All, a Chicklets design by Janlynn. They had several others available, but not the other one my daughter wanted. The colors used in the designs represent the colors in her room, bright!

I also managed to pick up, for my self, Ice Cream Shoppe, but Country Cottage Needleworks, and Cherries, Blueberries and Strawberries thread packs and Gourmet Garden by Little House Needleworks. I could have picked out a bunch more but didn't want to fill up the suitcases too much, it was pretty tight just getting there! I did pick up a few fabric remnants, a piece of camel heatherfield for a bee project and a piece of coffee colored linen for Spot of Coffee (LHN) already in my stash. All in all it was a successful trip and I'm anxious to dig out a piece of linen for the Chicklets design, since I don't care for stitching on the included Aida.

More later!

Whew!

2007-06-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a few days since last I wrote anything. {{Snort}} Where does all the free time you are supposed to have during summer vacation go, anyway??? Between sleepovers, chores and trips to the pool and various other destinations I think I'm more busy than during the school year! One good thing about the upcoming school year is that I should save some on gas. Hubby and I were somewhat disillusioned with the school on post and have transferred Emily over to the neighborhood school just four short blocks from home. So, I get to save gas and get some exercise next year walking to and from the school for drop offs and pickups.

Okay, down to some stitching business. Pictured is a piece I started . . . well . . . I don't remember when I started in any longer! I know it's been several years ago, as you can tell from how dirty the fabric is, but it's actually for a SAL on one of my Yahoo! groups. This is a Dimensions Chart and Charms kit, and I can't remember any longer what the name of the piece is. I know why I picked it, it has bees and a beeskep (two of my very favorite things to stitch) but I can't for the life of me tell you why I keep putting it down. The fabric is wonderful to stitch on, and aside from one giant frogging episode, the design itself is a dream to stitch up too. Guess it's just a mild case of life getting in the way of desire, LOL. The piece is about half done, and you're never going to believe this, but I've put it down AGAIN! In favor of another SAL, this one a Little House Needleworks design called Nature's Beauty. It's part of a Cottage SAL on yet another Yahoo! group. Perhaps I'll finish one of these two pieces, but who knows when? I have many many many other WIP's (I refuse to use the term UFO . . . too depressing!) waiting on some time to get finished.

My BIL will be arriving in a few short weeks from California. He's in the Air Force and is getting sent to the Azores. What a rough life he has, LOL. He's driving his 'Vette down here to store in our garage while he's gone, and if I'd known we were going to have to car-sit I would have looked for a house with a 3 car garage. LOL He'll be staying with us for 2 weeks and then we are all flying to KY to spend another week with hubby and BIL's mom and dad and the rest of the family. I should be properly blind from camera flashes when we get back, since it will be the first time the whole family has been together since our wedding 10 years ago. Next year hubby's cousin gets married, and my daughter is likely to be in the wedding so that will be another fun trip to KY. Hope I can see again by that time! LOL

toodles for now.

Schools Out!

2007-05-31T07:17:00.000-07:00

Whew! What a last week of school, busy busy busy. We've got our plane reservations all scheduled now, and DH's mother gets to see both her boys and her grandchild the same week this summer. I know she must be excited, I would be.

For my stitching report, I did manage to finish an ornament, see it here? It's Celestial Santa by Pat Thode, of HeartStrings/The Artists Collection and appeared in the 2004 Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue. I received materials for it from a club I was in several years ago, so some of the details are different. For starters, I ran out of the Buckeye Red fiber and had to do his hat in the Midnight blue. I rather think that gives him a more patriotic and less celestial look. When I was digging for fibers for the next ornament last night, guess what I found? Two more cards of Buckeye Red! Sheesh! Oh well, I placated myself, the dye lots would be different, right? And indeed, the other two cards are a bit darker than this one was.

I did manage to start a new larger project, The Old West by Little House Needleworks. I promise I'll post a picture of my progress soon. I am missing about half a dozen colors for it, and went to Walmart to gather them last weekend. Only to find that WM doesn't carry the newer 100 numbers (two of which I need for this project) and was out of the rest! I haven't decided what to do about that yet, my options are to 1) order online, which I hate to do when floss is all I need, 2) drive 100 miles to Tuscon and back to visit an LNS, which would cost more in gas than shipping, or 3) pull out my handy dandy DMC floss sample chart and get creative with some color changes.

I have a few more WIPs that I would like to work on so that I can clean the drawers out on my coffee table. That's where I keep the projects "in progress" so I don't have to keep digging through the guest room closet, LOL. I also would like to post some pictures of the projects I have going on here, perhaps that would motivate me to finish them! Some have just gotten too big to comfortably handle without a stand of some sort, and being a military family and moving around frequently, I (or rather, the movers) destroy stands. So I've decided not to purchase one again until we buy a retirement house. DH has 8 years left before retiring at 20, and several options containing many potential moves, so there's no telling where we'll end up or how long it will take us to get there, LOL.

marisa

Saturday

2007-05-19T06:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no pictures today. I've set the ornaments aside momentarily, in favor of starting a larger project I've been taking a little heat for not starting yet on one of my yahoo! groups. It's The Old West, by Little House Needleworks. I haven't gotten much stitched on it yet, perhaps I'll make some identifiable progress on it today and post a progress piccie later on. I'm stitching it on a terracotta colored piece of evenweave found deep in the dark confines of my fabric stash bin. The fabric is exactly the color of the clay and sand in my front flower beds, which I spent much of this week disturbing in order to plant new pretties.

That's been my main focus this week, planting new pretties. This will be my first experience with desert gardening, but so far it's been successful. Okay, so it's not even broken 100 for temperatures yet, but it is dry as a bone down here and I frequently find myself watering twice a day. I've found that most plants that liked full sun in my Arkansas garden appreciate quite a bit of shade here in the desert. Surprise surprise! My herbs, as usual, are thriving, and Emily's strawberries are having a bumper season, so much so that I told her next year we'll buy a flat or more of young plants. They just keep blooming!

My back yard is almost "done", which is a good thing since we'll be having parties back there this year. The good thing about living here is that you can be comfortably outdoors pretty much all season long. We are big outdoor people, so we find that a huge plus. I like the back yard to be like an extra room in the house, so hubby spends a large portion of his "free" time trimming grass, fertilizing, and helping me with larger garden projects. Today, we are tackling the rose bushes. They are well established, but the beds need cleaning out and the bushes themselves need to be fertilized and trimmed up a bit. They seem to continually flower, the more I deadhead the more they bloom!

More to come later.

2007-05-08T16:54:00.000-07:00

Good Tuesday to ya! Here is my most recent finish, started yesterday and finished just moments ago. It is Woodland Snowfall, by Little House Needleworks and appeared in the 2004 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Special Issue. It was, needless to say, a quick stitch. I did take some liberties with the piece, the chart calls for all DMC fibers, but I substituted a WDW variegated green for the leaves and a GAST fiber for the squirrels' tales. I also used a larger count fabric than the design called for, so my piece is a bit bigger. I'm not sure how I will finish it yet, but I'm leaning toward a cube-it. I was originally thinking pillow, and may still do that, but we'll just have to wait and see.

I went stash fondling yesterday while I was searching for my cache of small ornament cuts. I found several larger pieces of linen and evenweave I didn't know I had, in addition to a few errant pieces of aida. I long ago quit working on aida, and thought I had gotten rid of all my leftover aida pieces by sending them to stitching friends as RAK's but alas, a few pieces remain. The larger pieces of linen and evenweave may find themselves being stitched upon soon, as I have set them aside and will do floss tosses with several LHN designs I recently picked up. I'm under alot of pressure from a friend to catch up to her on The Old West, a design which I didn't think I had fabric for, but I found several pieces that just may be perfect for this design.

For now, I'm off to decide which ornament to stitch next. Dancing with the Stars results show is on tonight, and I can't watch it without a stitching piece in my lap!

2007-05-07T07:19:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday! Here is an ornament that I started a year or so ago, I had all but one petal of one of the red flowers stitched in when I either ran out of the red or put it away or something, but I could not match it when I went to finish the ornament. So, I had to frog all the red flower that had already been stitched and change colors. Actually, although I hate frogging with a purple passion, I'm glad I did because I like this shade of red better. It has more varigation than the other color did.

Particulars, the design is called Quaker Motif Ornament, is by The Samplar Workes, and can be found in the 2004 Just Cross Stitch Ornament Special Issue. I have a nice collection of these special issues and have actually stitched quite a few of them. If you'd like to see more than is posted here, you can acces my gallery at Cyberstitchers. www.cyberstitchers.com, and my gallery name is Marisa's Stitchworks.

I suppose, at some point, I need to stop stitching and start finishing. LOL I have a colleciton of holiday fabrics I've snagged from remnant bins hither and yon, but they are in the sewing/guest room, on the bottom of the closet, and holding up . . . goodness knows what. Currently, my daughter is occupying that room because hers is getting a facelift. Her bed has been disassembled and is in the process of being repainted and put back together. So when I'm not stitching ornaments, you will find me in the garage sanding or sniffing paint fumes. LOL

Speaking of which, I guess I better get busy with . . . something!

2007-04-30T06:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, here is my first ornament for 2007. Now, don't get confused into thinking this is the only ornament I've done, it's just the first for 2007. I have a brass shaped tree that has 3 finished and hanging on it already, and a whole stack in my "needs to be finished" finishes just waiting to be stuffed and be-ribboned. This one came from The Sampler Girl and is a freebie. I stitched it on the leftover fabric from the tail end of Irish Coffee, hehehe. Sorry to say, the fabbie didn't come with an identifier but I can tell you it's an evenweave, cream colored.

It's been a busy weekend here for me. My daughter's room is getting a makeover, and since we can't paint the walls (rented house) we are completely re-doing her furniture. When she went from crib to big-girl-bed, having completely skipped the whole toddler bed thing, we bought her a plain white dresser and a princess style twin bed. The bed was older, and the orignally white paint and polyurethane coating have yellowed. Well, the last time we moved she traded in her little kid bedspread for a big kid bedspread. It has bright colors, groovy circles and five-petal flowers on it. So, I dragged her matching pillow sham into Home Depot and used their machine to match some paint colors and away we've gone. The formerly plain white dresser is now lime green with knobs in yellow, purple, bright blue and orange. The bed, which will get done this weekend, will be a darker shade of pink to offset the lighter pink background on the bedspread. New curtains were hung, in bright blue with sequins on top. We've acquired a disco ball and lava lamp to help with the 'groovy' look, and also a mobile style lamp with pink mother-of-pearl type circles hanging from it over her reading chair, which is dark pink. It's really coming together and she's quite pleased with the look so far.

Today begins another week of back-and-forth to school, broken up by intermittent boughts of laundary and housecleaning. Hubby has one more free weekend before his next cycle starts and he's working 12 hour days again for two weeks. We're going to try and squeeze in more sightseeting and attempt to track down some blooming desert wildflowers. On our last trip to Tucson we saw saguaro cactus blooms on a few of these majestic cactus!

Welcome

2007-04-27T06:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my blog. I have no idea what I'm doing here, so this will be a learning process for me. I hope I have the patience to stick with it! Pictured to the left is my latest stitching finish. It's a little freebie I found on another blog, that had a been finished into a pinkeep. Since I can't start any day without coffee, I thought it an appropriate stitch for me. It's from The Sampler Girl, and I did change the colorway to match my kitchen.

I stitch alot for my daughter, who likes bright colors and groovy, girly designs. She loves purses, handbags, and perfume bottles. I have stitched them all for her! She seems to always want them to be made into pillows, and has so many there is almost no room for her in the bed.

I'm finished stitching bigger pieces for the time being, and am concentrating on Christmas ornaments. You see, we threw out our old tree last year as it had become quite old and feeble. My husband in active duty military, which means we move around alot, which apparently is hard on a fake tree. LOL So, we are getting a new one this year and since we have 10' vaulted ceilings, we can get a big one, and I'm going to need more ornaments. Originally, I wanted two trees, but since we are in a smaller house one is all we need for now. So, I hope to be showing more smaller finishes very soon.