Happy 10th Birthday to Belle the Wonder Dog!!

Sweet Belle

14 days and still counting.....

Nessie spotted in Minnetonka backyard....

What creatures lurk in the black lagoon?

Finally got the cover off the pool yesterday.....
The filtering system needs to be rewired.
Might be awhile before we can swim in it. Dang it!
Meanwhile I'll keep an eye out for
Nessie, the Loch Ness monster!

Stitching progress....

Stitchin' Update....

Nice!

And now back to our regularly scheduled program....

I've done very little stitching over the last 10 days.....on June 24th my mom broke her hip! She had surgery that night but the next night was moved to ICU because she had developed a slight case of pneumonia and had a partially collapsed lung. Mom spent 4 days in ICU before she was finally moved to the 3rd floor at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park. She continued to improve and was finally released on July 1st, just one week after her fall. Now she is in the Transitional Care Unit at The Colony in Eden Prairie. My niece, Anna is a Occupational Therapist there. We've brought pictures and other things from home to decorate Mom's room. Yesterday Heather, the nurse's aid noticed the picture of Jake (Anna's son) She said "hey, how come you have a picture of what's her name's kid?" I said "you mean Anna?" Mom said "I'm Anna's grandmother!" It was pretty funny.... Mom is doing just great and is getting stronger every day. What I've found out during this very stressful time is that I have an amazing family! My Dad, my sisters, Kathy & Mary, my brother, John, sister-in-laws Sharon & Janet, brother-in-laws, Marty & Terry, nieces Anna, Aileen & Sarah, nephews Joe, David, Nathan, Danny & Isaac and my sweet great nephew, Jake! We all came together to watch over Mom and take care of each other....I'm so very lucky! Also thanks to so many wonderful friends that kept us in their prayers. We are so grateful that Mom is recovering and will eventually be back home with Dad.

So on to the stitching update.....
Tonight I finally finished The Sheltering Tree.
I really enjoyed stitching this one!

On to the next project....
Keslyn's My Day Complete.
Around the sides the verse says:
"I cannot count my day complete till
needle, thread and fabric meet"

This one is also done with just one variegated silk thread.
The color is "Acorn Woods" from The Thread Gatherer

Still Stitchin'.....

A Sheltering Tree
by All Though the Night Designs

WDW 30 count linen - Putty
Silk 'n Colors hand-dyed thread - Camouflage

I'm loving stitching with "one" color!

For the non-stitchers: Hand-dyed threads are variegated.
This one has several shades of green along with brown.

Last night I stitched the trunk of the tree
and now I'm working on the roots...

I'm dedicating this one to all my wonderful friends....
Stitchers AND Non-Stitchers!

Saturday's Sip and Stitch....

I live just 10 minutes from Stitchville USA in Minnetonka, MN.
The 2nd Saturday of every month Stitchville hosts a
"Sip and Stitch" stitch-in. Our hostess' are Deb Clarke (owner)
and the other Deb, Deb Sieber. There is always wonderful
food to eat, this past Saturday we had a Spinach Egg Bake,
fresh fruit, muffins & danish coffeecake along with
coffee, tea, oj and Sunkist just for me!

Come along with Lil' Belle and me
and I'll give you a tour of the shop!

This is the check-out counter....notice all the
stitched models on the walls. Stitchville has hundreds
and hundreds of models!!

As you enter the store the first thing you'll
see is the seasonal display.....

Lots of racks of charts.......

Display case of scissors and many other stitching treasures.....

The wall of fabric....

This is the fabric cutting counter....
On the wall to the left you can also see just a small
portion of the charms & buttons Stitchville has to offer.

Lil' Belle checks out what new charts & kits have arrived....

This is the empty classroom and
where all the needlepoint canvas' are displayed

Here's just a small portion of the classroom during
Sip and Stitch! We had a packed house, 12 stitchers!

So many fibers....

More fabulous fibers....

Framing counter....this is where we can order custom frames.
I order 3 frames on Saturday.....
(Fraktur Bird II, Cat Lessons & Tulip House Sampler)

Lots of stock frames too....

And that brings us to the end of our tour.....
Hope you enjoyed seeing one of my favorite places!

Mom-athon.....

Mom, Dad & Kathy
(taken 9-18-09 at my niece, Aileen's wedding)

Yesterday I spent the entire day with my Mom! From 9:00 am to 9:00 pm! I did manage to get a few stitches in and even a nap so it wasn't too hard of a day! Dad was out of town picking up a boat. My nephew Joe (he's 20) went with him. They drove to Breezy Point (up north) to get the boat, then took the boat to Ortonville (in western MN) then back home to Excelsior.

Mom is 83 and hasn't been in the best of health lately so my sister, Kathy and I have been helping our dad take care of her. It turns out that being unemployed right now is a blessing
so that I'm available to help. Kathy retired from teaching in 2009. One of us goes over to their house every other day. We keep pretty busy doing laundry, cleaning up the kitchen, making lunch, keeping Mom's water glass full, giving medication & eye drops, going to doctor appts etc. etc. etc! And it gives Dad a much needed break....

Frogging....

When a stitcher makes a mistake,
then she must do some frogging.....
Rip-it, Rip-it, Rip-it!

What's wrong with this picture?

This is actually the 2nd attempt....the 1st attempt I stitched
it over 2 threads until I realized my fabric piece was too small!
When all else fails read the instructions!
Yup, it was suppose to be stitched over 1 thread.
Heavy sigh....so I frogged it!
2nd attempt seemed to be good to go until I started stitching
with the 2nd color and discovered that I had screwed up
yet again... I missed a row & the tail wasn't lined up
correctly with the top of the peacock.
Dang it and frogged it!!
Where was my Quality Control Guy when I needed him?

For the non-stitchers: I almost always stitch over 2 threads with
2 strands of floss. What this means is the each x is stitched over
2 threads of the linen. Stitching over 1 thread makes a very tiny x and
uses only 1 strand of floss. It's tough to remove those tiny little x's.

Yesterday I remove every one of those little tiny x's in
the Peacock's tail. I'm almost done re-stitching it.

Here's what the finished Peacock Sampler will look like.
It's called "Keep a Little Secret" by Just Nan

This is called a Needle Slide tin, the stitched piece
will fit inside of the tin. The Peacock Sampler will be
backed with wool to hold needles. A magnet holds
the needle sampler in place inside the slide tin.

Remember this year's theme for my Needlework Guild's
annual retreat is "Peacocks and other Fine Feathered Friends"

A year ago this week......

I was in Durango, Colorado

Rocky Mountains

Lil' Belle enjoying a mountain stream....

My friend, Mark "Gus" Gustafson

Gus thought the pine trees smelled like butterscotch.....
We smelled a lot of trees!

Gus

Lil' Belle enjoying the mountain view....

Lil' Belle and Gus driving....

Gus the dog!
He lives with Gus' dad and stepmother.

It was a great trip, I can't wait to go back again!

Peonies from my yard.....

Peonies are one of my favorite flowers!

They smell so sweet!

Gorgeous bouquet!!

Stitchin' Update.....Fraktur Bird II

Stitched the third flower last Wednesday....

Branch and leaves stitched on Thursday....

Border completed on Friday!
Last thing to be stitched is 2010 and my initials.
I'm trying to figure out where the best place to stitch
them will be. Remember I'm changing the placement

from the original chart. Hopefully I'll get that

figured out this week and git-r-done!

Monday, Monday.....

Love these colors!!