Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I am dedicating this year to finished projects.  I am off to a good start with my two stitch-a-longs.   Serenity Harbor Sampler Part 1 is finished and has been put to the waiting pile until next month.  It was an easy beginning to this year long project.   I'm sure some of the later sections will take much more time.

I also started on His Eye is on the Sparrow by Heartstring Samplings.   What a beautiful and large sampler!   I ended up buying a 40 ct cream linen for this one and will be using the designers DMC conversion.

On a non-stitching note, we had a wonderful visit back down south for Christmas.   There were only a couple of drawbacks, mainly the extremely long drive and the fact that Husband could not go with us this year.    Since he missed out on all the traditional Southern dishes, I decided to fix up a large Christmas dinner on New Year's Day instead.   I made sure to fix all the traditional (in my family at least) Christmas dishes and also Black-eyed peas, collard greens and cornbread for luck in the new year.

Memories of Maine

This past August, my husband and I went on a short vacation to Maine.   We had a wonderful time exploring the area around Cape Elizabeth and Old Orchard Beach.

 

We visited Portland Head Light one morning and spent several hours there taking in the beautiful views.  

 

 

The museum was very interesting and I saw several pictures of paintings that I think would make great conversions to cross stitch.

After we left there we headed out to The Lobster Shack for an early dinner.   There is nothing quite like eating fresh lobster while sitting outside looking over the ocean. 

The reason I mention our Maine trip, is because I have joined in a stitch-a-long for the Serenity Harbor Sampler by By the Bay Needleart.   Once I saw the sampler it made me think of the trip and I knew that I had to stitch it up.   I am still trying to decide on the fabric to use for it.   The fabric called for is a cream or light tan, but I am thinking of going in a totally different direction.   I happen to have a piece of Silkweaver linen that is dyed in blues.  Someone mentioned that they thought it would make it look like a stormy day.   In all actuality this makes me lean toward this fabric choice even more.  I'm sure you can tell from my pictures that our vacation was mostly overcast. The first part of the sampler does not get released for another couple of weeks, so I still have some time.

My first post!

I have been thinking about starting a blog for quite a while now.  My ramblings may not be of interest to anyone, however it will be nice to have a place to write about all of my interests.    

Leading up to Christmas I have completed two ornaments from Just Cross Stitch's 2006 Christmas issue. 

Winter by The Prairie Schooler

Rejoice by Hands to Work

I am also currently working on The Celtic Band Sampler by Homespun Samplar.  I decided to start this project to use a large piece of uneven weave linen that I happened to have.  The weave runs 40 lengthwise and 35 widthwise.   I figured the nature of this sampler would work well with it and am so far very pleased.