What a great weekend!!

I have had a wonderful weekend. I cross stitched on Vision of Light all day Saturday while watching my favorite channel - Turner Classic Movies. I also received some more HAEDs in the mail. These I had to search the net forever to find... Sheila Wolk's Revelation, Metamorphosis, The Garland and Field of Dreams. I was able to purchase them from Dark Lilac (www.darklilac.com). I had to pay a little more since they are OOP, but it was well worth it, IMHO. I'm still looking for the Gatekeeper. If anyone out there has one that they know they'll never stitch, I'd love to have it!! I don't know if Dark Lilac has any more Wolks or not... I may have gotten the last ones.
To top off a great weekend, DH and I drove to Nashville to see our first pro football game- Titans vs. Giants. Wow, what a game!! The Titans were down 21-0 in the fourth quarter, and we started to leave (it's a 4 1/2 hr drive!). Luckily, we decided to stay to see one more series of downs and that's when Pac Man Jones got an interception... then it was off to the races!! Titans pulled it off 24-21 in the biggest come back in franchise history (since they've been in Nashville, anyway).
The only thing that could have made the weekend better would be to have one more day off....

Vision of Light- first progress pic

So, I'm surfing the web around Memorial Day. I had been up most of the night before finishing a Christmas cross stitch and had to work that day. I was too exhausted to stitch. I stumbled across the HAED website. I thought, oh another one of those computer generated sites of beautiful paintings that look horrible when stitched (I have been burned before, can you tell??). I saw the link to the BB... and WOW all those WIPs and finished pieces were FABULOUS!!!!!!!! My favorite was Vision of Light by B. K. Lusk, a WIP by ropane, so I had to have it immediately by email. I also ordered Loves Me Not, Fire in the Soul, Midnight Secrets, Merlin and Arthur, and Waiting for Neptune. I think I could spend days looking at HAED's site and always find something new. I have since made another list of charts I want for Christmas.
I have no idea how Michele and Bob do it. The charts are NOT computer generated so it makes every stitch count. CG charts will have strange confetti stitches like a green stitch in the middle of a field of black. So far Vision of Light looks exactly the way it should... I don't think I have ever been so excited and happy stitching anything!! I still have an ornament and small piece to XS before Christmas, so I may have to get DH to hide VoL so I have to work on them.....
So, without further ado, here's my one week progress pic. Oh, and I am tent stitching which I have never done to an entire piece. I didn't like it at first but made myself keep stitching, and once everything started to take shape (twice as fast!!) I loved it!
I wish you could see it in person!!

Stitching Again

Well, I have been on a 6 month hiatus
from stitching, but I am finally back.
I thought I should update my blog.
I finished Little Witch just before Halloween.
Isn't she lovely?


I have also been stitching on Polly Phillip from the Scarlet Letter. It is very colorful and fun to stitch. This is 70 hours of work. The outside border is cross stitch and the inside pastoral scenes (there's 3 of them) are tent stitch over one. I'm using VC silks.

My true stitching passion right now is HAED's Vision of Light. I have stitched nonstop on it. I hope to have a picture uploaded later today of my one week progress.

Skeleton Crew- slow going

I really love this pattern, but for some reason I can't get into it like I thought I would. Maybe it's all the white sails... anyway, I am stitching the skeletons in DMC's glow in the dark white floss. They look cool when the lights are off.
I got an unexpected day off today, so I am catching up on Polly Phillip 1772 and She Gathers. I hope to get WIP pics of them soon as well. Then it's back to Skeleton Crew....

Finally enjoying a sunny day,
Rebecca in TN

And They Sinned

This is my latest UFO that I finally pulled out of the closet. I stitched on it 30 hours (for a total of 130 hrs), and now it's back to the closet. Hopefully it won't be long before I'll get it out again. It's such a beautiful piece! I really need to get this one finished before And God Created comes out. Of course, no one knows how long that will be. Hopefully this pic won't look as fuzzy as Rebecca Cullin 1801. Unsure what happened there!
My wonderful DH is working on a wooden lap stand for me to set my lap frame that is similar to one at Hoffman called the "Lap-Stitch Frame Pal"
http://www.hoffmandis.com/ I have all three of the Images lap frames (Original, Mini, and Mini-mini). They can all be seen at the Hoffman site with the "Pal."The Mini is by far my fav for medium to large projects and the Mini-mini for small projects (I should mention I also have a Gazelle and a floor stand and countless Q-snaps,lol ) I highly recommend Images frames as long as one rips off that horrible black fabric that is stapled to the bars and replaces it with American Dream E-Z Stitch No Basting tape. I use this on almost everything I stitch. http://www.adp-usa.com/
Since I usually work on wide projects, DH is going to customize the frame for me with wings on the sides. The one at Hoffman is just too narrow.

Hope everyone has a great day!
Rebecca in TN

Rebecca Cullin 1801

Well, it's been awhile... I have had a few finishes. Happy Hearts Sampler by BOAF is at the framers. Today I finished Patchwork Cats by Carriage House Samplings. I changed all the colors to Crescent Colors- picked at random. Really enjoyed it!It can be seen in the Recent Finishes sidebar.
I wanted to share a pic of one of my favorite WIPs. It's called Rebecca Cullin 1801 by The Scarlet Letter. I am using 40 ct. double pearled barley and Vikki Clayton silks. The freehand embroidery in this one seems difficult- especially since this is my first attempt at embroidery. I took a lot of liberty with the carnation to make it look more like the original sampler. I hope to finish this year.

Two more finishes...

It's been a while since my last post! I have two more finishes to report- Starlight, Starbright and Garden Cottage. GC is totally finished except for the charms. I have to order them online and haven't gotten around to it yet. I hope to have several pics soon of framed pieces.

Three Finishes in one week!!

WOW!! I've never finished that many in one week before... however, one was almost complete and the other two were small....lol
Peter's Cotton-Knits was very fun. I started him last year and finished Tuesday. (8 hrs this week, 28 total hrs to stitch)





Truly Thine from Blackbird Designs was very easy. I did it over 1 on 28 ct cranberry bog linen- 11 hrs total. Finished Friday.

Spring Medley was also easy. I changed this one to Crescent Colors making it bright and "springy."- 12.5 hrs total. Finished Sunday during the first half of the superbowl.

Thanks for looking at all my finishes!

Rebecca in TN

Another finish...

This little birdie stitched up fast and easy. He only took 5 hours to stitch. I hope to put a pretty green frame around him soon.

Rebecca in TN

This is another challenge piece started on the 1st. I am using 50 ct kingston linen (hence the challenge, lol), that I coffee-dyed. It turned a nice brown shade and smells yummy. I have coffee-dyed before, but this time I heated it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, and it seems twice as dark as other things I have done. This linen is very hard to see the holes in, but it's also fun because the stitches are so tiny. I put my scissors in the pic to give you an idea of how tiny the stitches are...isn't that a nice shade of brown? Anyway, that's 97 stitches across the bottom. I am using Victoria Clayton silks. I hope I don't go blind before I finish this one!

First Finish of 2006

I have my first finish- it's called Valentine Medley by Heart in Hand. I changed the GAST and WDW to Crescent Colors, so it is much brighter than originally charted. It only took 11 hours to finish and is very cute. Now to get it and Valentine Row framed before V-Day.

Rebecca in TN

Started Sanctuary

I've spent the past few mornings updating my Picture Trail album and getting pics of all my 2005 finishes up. This year I have decided to concentrate on Samplers and Seasonals. I will also be stitching on La Belle Dame Sans Merci, a large BAP that I have been working on for a few years.
One of my cross stitch groups holds a challenge every year. You have to start stitching something new on the first day of the new year, no matter how many stitches you can put in. I was sick on the first, so I only put 2 stitches in each of my two challenges... "Sanctuary" by the Drawn Thread and "Westwinds" by Carriage House Samplings. I am using Victoria Clayton silks on both pieces.

First post

Well, after a week in the hospital and now a week at home recovering from surgery, I have decided to start a blog. My first post is just to see how things work.... oh, it wasn't a major surgery. Just had to have my stinky gall bladder removed after I turned a nice shade of banana.