Saturday, December 16, 2006

Late Breaking News!

I was about to run off to catch some zzzzz's before we leave at "oh-dark-hundred" for our trip to Texas, but I just had to post this picture of the Delta Crazy Stitchers, our local stitching group.

One of the members just sent it to me and I thought perhaps you might like to see what a jolly group we are. And some of us are smart too. Evidence? Sandy's camera took the picture and she's on the left in the photo.

SHE knows how to work the timer on her digital camera!

Andrea who made the ornament I received is in the back row with the long dark hair. I'm in front just to her left, also dressed in teal.

Bye-Bye till January!

Stitch On!

Merry Christmas & Good Bye for a time!


Exchange Ornament Side 1
Originally uploaded by lasassone.
I am done packing and prepping for our long car trip to TX to spend Christmas with 2 of our 3 daughters in San Antonio. I can't wait to see the 5 of our 7 grands who await our arrival. It's been almost 2 years since we've seen any of them. They've gone way too long without my huggies!

So, I'll be taking some time off here on the blog, but will be back soon after the first of the new year because I'm going to be doing Sharon B's Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge. I'll have to play catch up perhaps if I don't return by January 2nd when she begins.

Today our local stitching group, Delta Crazy Stitchers, had their Holiday Party & Ornament Exhange and I received the ornament you see here from Andrea Campbell who has been a member I think for 3 or 4 of our 5 years. She is an AMAZING stitcher and specializes in very small detailed things. This ornament is only 3-3/4" long! There are some very tiny beads on both sides, but what may look like beads to you might be her awesome teenie tiny french knots instead.

If you click on the picture and go to my flickr photos, there is also a picture of the equally stunning back of the ornament !

So, I wish you Merry & Meaningful December Holidays and loads of good thing in the New Year. I hope you are able to gather your loved ones close and make good memories in the last days of 2006.

For 2007 I only hope that I can somehow continue to stitch through our packing & preparations to move in the Spring. Here at the end of 2006 I am amazed to look back at all I have accomplished this year. In my webshots 2006 album I believe I saw that there are over 50 pictures of things I have finished throughout the year. And SOME of the Children of the World designs I did were never photographed! I'm amazed and hope I can continue on this roll.

P.S. I think my guru, Mary Francis, put a link on this blog for me that will take you to my webshots albums. Please come visit!

Stitch ON!

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Christmas Table Runner


Christmas Table Runner
Originally uploaded by lasassone.
Well, here's the table runner that I made for our Thanksgiving dinner hostess gift. Pam loved it and she was delighted with the partridges in the center squares as she collects partridges and she said it even matched the tablecloth she will use at Christmas. And no one even noticed any non-matching or missing points in my piecing. There wasn't a soul amongst the 13 family members in attendance that has ever cut up fabric and sewn it back together again.

I have to admit though that "sane" quilting just seemed SO plain to me. I wanted to add beads and stitch on those seams. Twas a big stretch on my part and I was so glad she loved it.

I have been SO bad about blogging - I've been posting pictures into my flicker photo account though, so if you click on this picture you can go see what I've been up to.

Oh, and also there's a picture of the back of my disgraceful exchange ornament too - no WAY was I gonna blog that!

I hereby seriously promise that I'm going to do better after the first of the new year with the blogging. I hope to at LEASE blog weekly. I'm going to try to keep up with Sharon B and her Take A Stitch Tuesday Challenge. If I knew how to make that a link to her site I would - so sorry!

Ornament for Delta Crazy Stitcher's exchange

All year long I keep a fairly large piece of muslin on my sewing table onto which I have pencil-drawn some holiday shapes. As I come up with scraps during the year, I sew them onto the shapes. When a shape is done I stitch the seam embellishments and do any beading I want. then I cut it out & make the ornament.

This year I seem to be trying to prove that I can't sew in a circle! This turned out terribly lopsided, so, in order to disguise it a bit, I did a picot beaded edging around the whole finished ornament.

It was not my best effort I'm afraid and the beading isn't fooling anyone. But time is wasting away on me. We're leaving next Sunday to spend the Holidays with our daughters in TX and I'm in no way ready to go.

Saturday is our local group's Holiday party. This year we're having lunch at the local Olive Garden and then returning to one of the member's homes for dessert and our ornament exchange. We always have a grand time and, if I figured correctly, this is either our 4th or 5th Holiday party. Over that time we've fluxuated in membership, but it's a great inspiring group and our monthly meetings are my salvation!