Last night was the monthly stitch night at Jayne's house. It is such a haven of friendship, support and stitching!!!! Following are some sights seen during the evening. As mentioned previously, Barb is doing all of her stitching this year from designs by The Drawn Thread. Here is her start on Winter Welcome. This is such a great design! Linda M. was working on Lucky by Shepard's Bush. I should have taken a picture of her project later in the evening because she was almost finished! Nancy was working on this La D Da design.
Here is Winter by Erica Michaels. Jayne finished this really great design this month. Here is Karin with her almost finished Mary Peacock. This is a masterpiece! Sorry for the blurry pics. I really need to learn how to operate my camera. Teresa was working on the Margaret Havelick sampler. She was also doing some finishing on this gorgeous Shepard's Bush ornament. Patti was working on Coasting Day by The Sampler Girl. Completely cute and it is on my to do list! The two Linda's are doing a Friday stitch a long with BBD Birds of a Feather. Can't wait to see these finished. I have loved this design for a long time!!!! Here is Jenny with Bluebird Quaker Sampler. I LOVE this!!! Pat brought some quilts that we were lucky enough to see. She does such beautiful color combos and her quilts are a joy to behold. Nancy really brought some thrills by showing us a stack of finished projects!!! Aren't her satin stitches just so pretty?? Here is Jayne's Home Sweet Home framed and hung on her wall. Her husband did the framing and it is so pretty! Karin was working on this BBD sewing tray project which was a class piece at the SB Retreat last fall. I am hoping this is one that is going to be included in their upcoming book!!!!
Lucky: Lucky to have these gals as friends, lucky to be able to spend time with them stitching and stashing and dreaming of projects, never want it to end!!!!
Here I am!!!! I am all ready for my weekend! Tonight Mike and I will be watching the NHL draft (well, he will be watching, and I will be stitching!). Tomorrow night is a big night of stitching at my friend Jayne's house with lots of other stitching friends. I plan on taking my camera and getting pictures of projects in progress. I am working on Isabella Johnstone 1854 sampler which was in last summer's Sampler and Antique Needlework magazine. I will post pics of it soon. Hope you all have a great weekend full of inspiration and love!
Somewhere on the internet I ran across the idea of getting a group of stitchers together with each person bringing 3 projects and then the rest of us would vote for which project that stitcher would do this year. Yesterday was the big day!!!!! I have pictures of each stitcher and the winning project.
Above is Jayne with the gorgeous Italian Peacock Purse by Giulia Punti Antichi. I cannot wait to see this finished. Jayne has a beautiful entryway in her home where she has some vintage little purses hung. This will be the perfect addition. The other charts in the running for Jayne were Quaker Diamonds by Rosewood Manor and A New Beginning by Abbey Lane Designs. How exciting!! Teresa's project is one that none of us had ever seen in person and few of us even knew existed. It is Historic Mystery Sampler by Yvonne Horn of Papillon Creations from the on line magazine The Gift of Stitching. The series ran from September 2007 to 2008. The other two projects Teresa brought with her were both Needleprint samplers: Beatrix Potter and Mary Wigham. Linda M. is going to do A Mind Independent and Free by Carriage House Samplings. I can't wait to see this done!! (Actually I can say that about all of them!) Debbie project is Hornbook by A Mon Ami Pierre. I want to put this one on my wish list! Cathy's project is going to be The Immigrant Sampler by Lucy Lyons Willis of La Chatelaine Designs. She is the only one who had a unanimous vote. When this is done it should be in a museum! Cathy's other picks were Victoria Sampler's Element Samplers (Green Earth, Fresh Air, Crimson Fire with the fourth of this series, Crystal Waters, already stitched), Judith Hayle School Sampler by Eileen Bennett and Crown of Pearls Sampler by Eileen Bennett. Cathy snuck in four picks!!!! Since she is the shop owner we figured we would let her get away with it! Patti is going to do this wonderfully darling project Garden Angels by Midsummer Night Designs! Thanks to Patti for all of the pictures on this post. Patti's other picks were Snow Garden by Blackbird Designs and Annie Hyslops Harvest Moon by Primitive Needle. Chris just started working on linen. Her chart will be Simple Joys by LHN. Her other picks were Pumpkin Farm and Acorn Hill by the same designer.
Linda C. is going to do these three charts from Plum Street Samplers. She is considering this one project as it is a series. I know she will definitely finish by year end. She stays on task. Linda's other pics were Field Aray by Carriage House Samplers and Christmas Tree 2008 by Nora Corbett. Karin brought in three gorgeous samplers. I wanted her to do Ann Grimshaw, but Ann Raynor won. It is really great too! Here I am. They voted for me to do Queen of Birds by Romy of Austria. This is one that I just stuck in my project bag at the last minute. My other two charts up for voting were It's Berry Time by Blackbird Designs and Asenath Whitcomb, 1819 by Carriage House Samplings. I want to do them soon too. I am definitely getting the fabric for berry time tomorrow! Pat brought in Quaker Diamonds, Mary Peacock and Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow. Quaker Diamonds won; but Pat says that she wants to finish all three this year. Here is Barb. Her project is going to be Sampler of Stitches by The Drawn Thread. Barb is stitching this designer exclusively this year. Isn't that a cool idea??? The other charts in the running for Barb were Toccata Number One and Sanctuary by The Drawn Thread. We had a participant from Colorado!!!!! Katrina sent Karin pictures of three choices and this is going to be her project. Can you say breathtaking!!!
We are going to have a follow-up in July to see how everyone is progressing. Also, I want to do another Bring 3, Pick One in July with small projects!!! I shall start picking my three this evening!!! It will be fun to have six months of sifting and changing!!! Between this and everyone's Crazy 15 challenge pieces, I am certifiably obsessed with stitching!!!!
Yesterday I went over to my friend Lorie's house to hang out. She has a really cool sewing room (rats! I should have taken pics of her sewing themed decor. I will next time because she has some really cool stuff!). I spent the afternoon stitching as she worked on finishing some ornaments I stitched. Talk about a good friend!!!! Above is a Prairie Schooler ornament from the on line magazine The Gift of Stitching. I think it was in the November 2009 issue. Above is an ornament from The Sampler Girl. Below is the Moda fabric I used for the backing. Isn't it just so vintage and dear? This little angel was a free chart from Ant of Sweden. The buttons are vintage from Lorie's stash and the fabric backing is also from her stash. Isn't it just adorable fabric???? Lastly, this little fireplace is a Prairie Schooler pattern. We did not stuff this one and it is very little and darling!!! Thanks Lorie! These would have been floating around unfinished for the next five years if it wasn't for you!!!!!!
These are my picks for the best books I read this year. Please click on the book cover to be taken to a description of each book.
Who would have thought a non-fiction book about North Korea would be #1? I did not really know much about North Korea and when I read this book I was shocked. What hardships the people of that country have endured. This books reads as fast as a novel. The author focuses on a few specific people and their lives. I think it is a must read.
I also think the book Where Men Win Glory is a definite must read for every American. Pat Tilman was a hero.
A book that I made fun of my friend for reading, True Colors by Kristin Hannah, ended up on the list! It was really a fun and interesting read.
Sherman Alexie is a really great author and I loved his book of short stories; which is saying something because I am not a big fan of short stories.
Sadly, I look back at my reading year in 2010 with some sadness. I really did not read that many books that knocked my socks off. However, yesterday I went to Barnes & Noble armed with gift cards and bought about 7 new books! They all look really good and I want to dive into them all right this minute!!!!
I would love to know what the best books you read last year were!!!!
Last night was the monthly stitch night at Jayne's house. It is such a haven of friendship, support and stitching!!!! Following are some sights seen during the evening. 
As mentioned previously, Barb is doing all of her stitching this year from designs by The Drawn Thread. Here is her start on Winter Welcome. This is such a great design!
Linda M. was working on Lucky by Shepard's Bush. I should have taken a picture of her project later in the evening because she was almost finished!
Nancy was working on this La D Da design.
Here is Winter by Erica Michaels. Jayne finished this really great design this month.
Here is Karin with her almost finished Mary Peacock. This is a masterpiece! Sorry for the blurry pics. I really need to learn how to operate my camera.
Teresa was working on the Margaret Havelick sampler. 
She was also doing some finishing on this gorgeous Shepard's Bush ornament.
Patti was working on Coasting Day by The Sampler Girl. Completely cute and it is on my to do list!
The two Linda's are doing a Friday stitch a long with BBD Birds of a Feather. Can't wait to see these finished. I have loved this design for a long time!!!!
Here is Jenny with Bluebird Quaker Sampler. I LOVE this!!!
Pat brought some quilts that we were lucky enough to see. She does such beautiful color combos and her quilts are a joy to behold.
Nancy really brought some thrills by showing us a stack of finished projects!!!
Aren't her satin stitches just so pretty??
Here is Jayne's Home Sweet Home framed and hung on her wall. Her husband did the framing and it is so pretty!
Karin was working on this BBD sewing tray project which was a class piece at the SB Retreat last fall. I am hoping this is one that is going to be included in their upcoming book!!!!
