Up On the Housetop

Can you believe we are down to the final two days of August? Where has our summer gone? I feel like I was hardly outside due to the heat and humidity this year... And to prove it wasn't only in my head, the Pittsburgh area tied with several other cities as 10th highest in the nation for number of days (61) with temperatures above normal since June. Is your city shown on the slideshow? My sons kept telling me it's always this bad and I kept saying, "No, I never remember a summer this hot and humid!" It's nice to know that old mom is right every now and then!! So, you can see why I've been stitching Christmas ornaments in an attempt to cool down...


My first ornament is what I should have stitched during July for my ornament-a-month goal. I'm sure you all recognize it as a Prairie Schooler, don't you? It's from "Up On the Housetop" Book No. 25 and is stitched on some 32 ct. dark grey mystery linen that I bought on Ebay. I changed the color of the house to this pretty yellow (DMC 676), but the other colors were as charted. I've always had a thing for little yellow houses--they look so cozy and inviting. Do I have a yellow house? No...but maybe some day! I didn't plan this, but look how well the house color matches the trim color. Guess it was just meant to be...



For my August ornament this Prairie Schooler addict chose, what else--another PS design! This one is stitched over one on 28ct. Country French Cafe Mocha linen with the suggested DMC colors. It is just about 3 inches square--the perfect size for an ornament. This design can be found in one of the new PS charts: "And To All A Goodnight" Book No. 167.



Since this is quite a "busy" design, I kept the finishing pretty simple--just backed it with the fabric shown and added the plaid bow and red buttons for the hanger. It didn't even strike me that I was stitching the same basic theme as the previous ornament (Santa with his sled and reindeer) until I was just about done with the second!


The mailman delivered this beautiful Hillside Samplings chart this week as a gift from Melissa at Words and Blooms. Melissa had a special giveaway for some of her already-stitched charts for her regular vistors/commenters (see it pays to comment!!) and I was lucky enough to win this beauty. Thank you so much, Melissa--I am truly looking forward to stitching it and will definitely "pay forward" your kindness when I am done...


Most of you know that I love to bake, but without my sons around (except for Sunday dinners), I bake very little anymore. My middle son kind of teased me about it a while back saying, "Remember when you used to bake cookies, Mom?" Well, if I did bake them as much as I used to I would gain 100 pounds. My three guys were little cookie monsters when they were younger--there was no keeping up with them. So, as a special treat for their Sunday dinner today, I tried a new recipe: Oatmeal Raisin Bars from Everyday Food magazine. I love that magazine because it uses ingredients that you actually have readily available in your kitchens rather than having to hunt down exotic ingredients that you might use once in your lifetime! These were just great--moist and flavorful and you could really substitute any dried fruit for the raisins. Yum!!

I really enjoyed reading all of your comments on my last post about how many "unfinished finishes" you have hiding away at your houses. It was nice to know that I'm not alone! Some of you even had more than my 82 which made me feel much better. At least I've been good about finishing my monthly ornaments this year. And to show you how well I've kept up with their finishing...here they are from January through August:

Thought I would leave you with a collage of the winged beauties that have visited my garden this month. I'm just fascinated by dragonfly wings--that iridescent quality is so lovely...


And once again, thank you so much for each and every comment and email--they mean so much to me and I truly appreciate the time you take in writing me. May your week bring you only good things and I hope my American friends have a relaxing and stitch-filled Labor Day weekend. Bye now...

For the Love of Sunflowers

Good morning everyone! First of all, thank you so much for all of your compliments on my sunflower header photo and new blog background--I really appreciate them! This weekend, I was sorting through my drawers and boxes of unfinished finishes in an attempt to count how many I have (and perhaps motivate myself to finish some of them!) when I happened to notice the many sunflower finishes I had stitched through the years. Thought you might like to see them yourself and hopefully, they'll inspire you or just bring you a smile...

First up, is one of my all-time favorites...I actually finished this piece from Prairie Schooler's "Garden Samplers" (Book No. 45) three years ago and still haven't framed it! I really need to get a frame ordered for it soon--it is too pretty to hide away in a dark drawer. I especially love this one because we have a large martin birdhouse in our backyard--not exactly like this one, but similar. If I can recall, I used 32 ct. summer khaki jobelan and DMC threads on this one--but I'm not positive. At my age, I can barely remember what I had for lunch yesterday, let alone what I stitched a three-year-old piece on!


Next up is a finish I showed you last year, but I finally got around to framing it this week. It fit perfectly in a frame that I use for other monthly Prairie Schooler pieces... (see here and here) so I'll just pop it out of the frame and replace it with the September squirrel next month. This is from an old Mill Hill bead kit that I converted to stitching. The original kit came with sunflower buttons so I had to improvise these stitched flowers.


This cheerful Prairie Schooler rooster crowing "Good Morning" to the sunflowers is from an old issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine (January/February 2002). It appears as if this one was stitched on some sort of oatmeal colored evenweave with DMC threads. I always thought this would be fun to finish as a flat-fold and use as a decoration at a brunch. Well, it has probably been almost five years since I stitched this and it still remains unfinished... perhaps I need to schedule a brunch to get me motivated? Want to join me :)


My Prairie Schooler sunflower Santa should look familiar to you (unless you just began reading my blog) because it was my April ornament finish earlier this year. It is from Book No. 48 "A Christmas Visit" and is stitched on 32 ct. natural light linen with DMC floss. This was my first circular finish and I love it!


My final sunflower stitching is called Manuela's Sunflower by Chatelaine Designs and is a freebie available here. There are some really lovely designs on this site. I especially love Kathy's Violets and Debi's Roses. Not sure what I stitched this on--some sort of mystery linen with DMC floss and a few bronze colored beads in the center. I didn't stitch the border that was on the original chart--just liked it better without. So there you have it; all of my sunflower stitchings in one post! Hope you enjoyed seeing them...


I had a wonderful RAK sent to me this week by my friend Cindy at "Cindy's Cross Stitching". Two darling LHN patterns and the overdyed floss to stitch one of them and the cutest Just Nan "Snow Faces" chart. I love everything, Cindy--you have been such a wonderful friend and loyal blog commenter ever since I can remember. I truly appreciate your gifts and even more, your friendship...

I actually gasped when I opened these one-a-kind gifts from Lee at "Notes From Under the Mountain". Just look at the elegant workmanship in the scissor fob and pin cushion--I mean Lee is a true needleworker and I'm just in awe of these beauties. Click on the photo and you'll be able to see all of the beading, bullion-stitched roses, and tiny extra touches that make Lee's gifts so special. And guess why she sent them to me? All because I left so many comments and gave her lots of encouragement and support during her first year of blogging. Please stop over at Lee's blog and check out her stunning work--I especially love the little birds in her side bar under "Lee's Birds"--stunning! Truly, Lee, I hope you know how much I will treasure your gifts. Someday I would love to visit your breath-taking New Zealand and thank you in person :)

So, anyway, back to my first paragraph of this posting--the number of unfinished finishes that reside in my home? Are you ready? 82!! How about you? Are you one of those stitchers who promptly finishes each thing after it is stitched or do you stitch mainly for the love of stitching like I do? How many poor neglected finishes do you have patiently waiting in bags and boxes, drawers and closets just begging to see the light of day?

Well, that's about it for now--I hope your week is a special one filled with all of your favorite things. Thank you so much for visiting me today--your comments are so much fun to read and I really appreciate the time you take in leaving them! Bye now...

Bringing Home the Tree: Block 7

Hi everyone! I can hardly believe it has been almost three weeks since my last post. I seem to be turning into a twice a month blogger. Oh well, I do have a good excuse this time. But, more on that later… I am a bit late with what was supposed to be my July finish for Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow, but here is my completed Christmas tree farm. I changed several things in the chart this month. I just couldn’t bring myself to stitch minty blue trees, so I substituted various shades of green instead. Most noticeably, I personalized this block with my last name (by marriage). (For privacy, you can see I’ve covered my name with paper, but if anyone wants to see the actual block, just ask and I’ll email you a photo.) Luckily, I have a short surname with skinny letters like “l” and “i” so it was a perfect fit!


Block #7 of Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow has special meaning for my family. You see, my husband’s grandfather owned a nursery for many years and took great pride in his ability to propagate trees. He actually hybridized his very own crabapple tree: the White Angel which is pictured here. Even after he retired and moved to Florida, he had a passion for gardening. At the ripe old age of 90, he was still propagating and growing little Royal Palm Trees in his tiny backyard plot and advertising them for sale in local newspapers. I can still picture him shuffling back to his garden to show his tiny trees to a prospective customer—he was so proud of his specimens. So, this block is proudly dedicated to my husband’s paternal grandfather—I wish we all could share even half of the special kindness and warmth that this gentle man possessed.

Now, one of the reasons that I haven’t been blogging much is that my family just returned from a wonderful week in the warm and sunny Outer Banks area of North Carolina. Not much stitching was done, but it was great to relax with my husband’s side of the family—all 22 of us in one giant beach house. The house was amazing, but, unfortunately, it was next to the public beach access so the beach itself was extremely crowded. On top of that, the jellyfish decided to vacation there the very same week as we did! They just packed their slimy little suitcases and had a grand time! Seriously--they were everywhere--it was like jellyfish soup. And so many were washed up on shore that you couldn't even walk on the beach without stepping on pieces of their gooey bodies--ugh! The boogie-boarders in our family were all stung and it certainly led to a less than desirable week water-wise.

On the way home we were almost hit by some woman who was texting as she drove. She had a small child in her back seat and I shudder to think what might have happened if my son hadn’t honked (and screamed and yelled!) to alert her that she was in our lane. We also saw a man driving and holding a burger in one hand and a drink in the other. Was he steering the car with his knees??!! Seriously, we all survived for many, many years with no cell phones in cars—just turn them off and put them out of reach so you won’t be tempted while driving! Stepping off my soapbox, now… (Can you tell this really upsets me?)



When I returned from my week at the beach, I found this amazing giveaway patiently waiting in my mailbox from Maggee at "Stitching Devotee". She sent me 9 beautiful Quaker themed charts including all 12 months of the Quaker calendar! If you haven’t visited Maggee’s blog, now is the time to check it out. She is having another giveaway in honor of her siblings’ birthdays and one of you might just be lucky enough to win. Thank you so much for your generosity, Maggee—I love each and every chart and can’t wait to start stitching them…

Now for a bit of fun! Some of you may have heard of this site, but it was new to me, so I thought I’d pass it on. My oldest son told me about this site that analyzes your blog writing and tells you which author your style resembles. Now, I wouldn’t put too much credence into it, but it is certainly entertaining. I put in a number of passages from my blog and according to the site I Write Like, I have a similar style to authors ranging from Margaret Mitchell to Vladimir Nabokov to Dan Brown. But, you know which author’s name came up for me most consistently? Stephen King!!! Now that is scary—literally. Are you all having nightmares after you read my blog? Anyway, give it a try—I’d love to know which author your blog’s writing style most resembles…




I hope you all didn’t get shocked when you saw my new blog background and header! I feel like I should put on sunglasses when I read it. I suppose it is a bit bright...and, well, yellow! But, I was so inspired by the huge sunflowers that had bloomed while we were away, that I decided to make a change. This is the view from our kitchen window! Those 10 foot sunflowers just make me smile every time I glance outside…

Thank you again for all of your supportive comments and nice emails—they mean so much to me. I really missed you guys when I was at the beach. I feel so far behind on what everyone has been stitching or writing about, but I’m slowly catching up. You’re all a very special group of friends! Have a wonderful week now …