Woohoo and a little more Woohoo!

Big news for me yesterday.

Last night I had the presence of mind to check my bulk mail folder in my Hotmail account. Good thing I did, there was a very important email sitting in there. I got an email confirming that I won 2nd place for the Medium category in Silkweaver Fabric's Annual "Stitcher's Showcase".

It was for the free pattern "Fairy Celebration" by Passione Ricamo that I stitched late last year. I finished stitching the design on New Years Eve at around 10:30 and promptly took a picture and submitted it to Silkweaver for the contest. The contest ended at midnight on that same night. Am I ever glad I didn't flake on finishing that one. I had thought about not stitching that night and then submitting it the next year since it wouldn't have been finished in time. But if I had, I might never have won a prize!

I'll be getting 10 pieces of 13"x18" hand dyed fabric from www.silkweaver.com to add to my currently dismal fabric stash. (But it won't be dismal for long now!)


This is more than $100 in value since each piece (depending on the type of fabric) could range from $10 to $15 US, plus shipping costs! So the prize value is somewhere between $100 and $150 US! WooHoo!! I'm so excited right now. I got another email today confirming that they'll be shipping my fabric out on Monday!

Here's a picture of my winning entry. Now I just need to find a stunning way to finish it. I'm thinking of doing a wall hanging, but I need to find the right fabric to use for this.

And here's a link to the Medium Finalists on the Silkweaver site. If you want to check out all the entries and finalists in each category you can go directly to the main page for the contest here.

Well, that's my news for today. Hope your day is as great as mine was.

2006 / 2007

Well, the year is at an end. It's about half an hour until we ring in 2007 with a bang and I'm sitting here blogging about it on my computer. lol. What an exciting life I have. The kids are asleep and Jason's watching the 'tube' And me, Well I'm here bragging about having one last final finish in 2006. Yes, you heard right. I finally finished Fairy Celebration!! Woohoo. The only finish this year that didn't involve an ornament. (and only 2 of those!) Needless to say I'm not one of those "power stitchers" out there that stitch an L&L or Mirabilia pattern from start to finish in 2 short months or anything like that. But damn it, when I do get one finished I brag about it to everyone I know. lol

Here's a picture of my newest masterpiece. I plan on finishing it as a wall hanging. I just need to find the perfect material for it. I don't want to get something too busy or it might take away from the amazing fabric it's stitched on. I'd like to get a simple fabric, maybe a single blue or purple with some sparkles in it. When I get that part done I'll post another picture of it then. I should have a little time to look for fabric when I go to town on the 18th.

I've got a doctor's appointment in Fredericton that morning and since my mom is laid off for the winter, I asked her if she'd watch the kids for the day (Thanks Mom!!) to give Jason and I a chance to get out without them. I know, we just got out in December for the day without them, but that was a busy day Christmas Shopping, not much time to just browse around and take our time. We barely stopped the whole time we were away. Still nice to get away from the kids for a few hours, but it's not the same.

Now, on to the part of the post that everyone seems to be posting about the past few days. New Years Resolutions... You know, I hate that term. I REALLY hate it. Everyone breaks their resolution. When people are talking about New Years Resolutions you automatically think Weight Loss, Quit Smoking, Learn Something New, yadda yadda yadda. Nothing new here folks. I gave up making new years resolutions several years ago. Instead, this year I'm making a 2007 To Do list. It's got more on it then a typical resolution, but it's more specific, attainable goals. Not the generalizations that a lot of people usually go with.

So, that being said, here is my 2007 To Do list. Much of which involves stitching. (heh, imagine that.)

1. Play with and read to my kids more
2. Try to keep up with my housework (or at least a little more than usual)
3. Post on my blog at least once a week
4. Post more to the email lists I belong to (no more lurking!)
5. Comment more on other's blogs. - I always complain that no one (or rather very few people) comment on my blog, but I'm guilty of reading and running as well. But not anymore!
6. Try and stitch at least two nights per week (EVERY week)
7. Finish "Waiting"
8. Start "Summer Blooms" (It's the second picture in this post)
9. Finish "Summer Blooms"
10. Start "Fairy Moon"
11. Finish "Fairy Moon" (though not likely!)
12. Stitch "Quilt" (a DMC freebie I picked up online. See the pic here) and make it into a needlebook
13. Stitch and "finish" 3 new Christmas Ornaments for 2007
14. "finish" 3rd Ornament from 2006 (Blackwork Noel)
15. Get started on a scrapbook for Rachel.
16. Make a monthly "to do" list each month to help keep me on track.

So, there it is... I'm done my list and most of them seem pretty attainable. And lookie here there's still 4 minutes to go until midnight. Well, I should go spend the next few minutes with Jason.

(Edit: Well, now that I look back I see one or two generalizations there... play with and read to my kids more? Yeah, it's a good one, but not a very "time specific" - "completable" goal. It's more of a generalization... yeah, you know that thing I was just complaining about... oh well.)

I hope that 2006 treated you well and that you have a wonderful 2007!

Getting There (Fairy Celebration)

I decided not to take a picture of my progress at 15 hours because I was so close to finishing the fairy portion. So instead I'm posting a pic I took at 17 hours after I finished Ariana and her wand completely. This was taken a few days ago, but I guess an update is better late than never.

I'm nearly done the border now and once it's done, I'll begin working on the script around the border. The border is going fairly quickly since it's only one stitch wide (with the exception of the embelishments at the corners) The script however will take a bit longer because I changed it somewhat.

The original pattern calls for the words "Fairy Live Here" but I changed it to say "Faeries Live Here". It needed to be plural to make sense, so I plotted it out by taking the letters from elsewhere in the script and copying them to make sure it looks close enough to her original. There was only one letter that wasn't in the original pattern, the "s". I had to try and plot one out that fits. IMHO it looks pretty good, but then again it's only on paper so far. Hopefully it'll look ok with the rest of the letters.

It's also taking a bit longer to finish since I've been working on a few smaller cross stitches for the past few days. I put this one away while I did that because I wanted to make sure I had them done for Christmas, so they take a bit higher priority.

I've got a post with pics of a towel I stitched for Christmas coming up in a few minutes. I would have put them all in one post, but I had the other almost finished when I realized that I never published this post, just saved it as a draft. I came back to finish and post this one first.

Fairy Celebration Update... finally!

Ok, I'll admit it, in addition to ignoring my blogging obligations I've also been ignoring my stitching lately.

I put it off for a few days because I had other projects on the go, and once I finished them I just never seemed to pick it back up. It's been nearly a month since I last posted a progress pic and I've only completed a measley 5 hours on my Fairy Celebration X-stitch... but at least I now have another picture to show... and hopefully will have another in just a few more day.

Fairy Celebration or "Ariana" as I call her at 10 hours work

I call her Ariana after the fairy collection that Partylite carries in their "home party" catalogues. I used to be a Partylite consultant back in the 1999/2000 timeframe and absolutely fell in love with the original Ariana piece (see pic below) but just never got around to picking it up. The Cross Stitch fairy reminds me of her for some reason... Here's a few pics I found on Ebay of the Ariana piece I always wanted. Maybe I should tell Jason. There's always someone looking for ideas for Christmas presents... maybe this would be a good one.

Fairy Celebration first update

I've got 5 hours completed on Fairy Celebration and I thought I might start updating at 5 hour increments instead of 10. I stitch fairly slow most days, so, for me posting 5 hours of work would be about the same number of days as posting 10 hours for most other people.

Anyway, here's my 5 hour picture.

Fairy Celebration

I've got a new project I'll be starting in the next few days. It's a free pattern from Passione Ricamo. You can go directly to the free pattern area here.

The pattern is called Fairy Celebration and it was designed for Fairy Day (June 24) this year. Isn't it gorgeous! I absolutely LOVE it!! It was stitched on 28 ct "Castle View" Lugana fabric from Silkweaver.

I'm currently just waiting for my fabric to arrive so I can start it. I ordered my very first piece of Silkweaver fabric for this project. It's also a 28 ct Lugana, but it's called Starquest. It's not exactly the same as the fabric used in the sample, but has a bit of purple in with the blue. Just my style. (click on the fabric swatch to go to the Silkweaver site. It will open a new window.)