Summer Dollhouse

I had to skip displaying my spring dollhouse because of moving preparations, so I was anxious to get my summer dollhouse up as soon as possible, if a tiny bit early. These are all my little Texas finishes (if you remember the Texas basket I did a couple of years ago). If you'd like to see my other seasonal dollhouses, just click on the label at the end of this post.

Remaking a Home

I am aaalmost there, y'all. The house is pretty well put together, so I was able to start on my sewing room yesterday, and hope to finish it today. It's quite a bit smaller than my previous sewing room, so I've encountered some challenges, but I also have some ideas! 

We got our shipment on 18 April and I set a goal for myself to have the house finished by the end of May. I think I'm actually going to make it. There may be a few odds and ends left, but all the major stuff will be done. 

I have a big summer planned, in which I do...

NOTHING.

I have been in moving mode--planning, prepping, moving, unpacking--since December and I am done. Done, done, done. I want to spend the next three months playing in my sewing room, stitching, finishing, framing, and just generally enjoying not having moving hanging over my head.  If nothing comes up and I actually get to do all that, I'll have lots of stuff to share here on the ol' blog, so stick around. 

It's going to be a nice, quiet, slooow summer.

Saturday Sampler: I'M BACK! Edition

Y'all.

This move.

Ugh.

This is a happy place so I'll skip the details, but it was... challenging. Happily, and thankfully, we're fine, Tiger Lily is fine, and the stuff I've unpacked so far is fine, but... wow. Definitely our toughest move yet.

But look at this tree in our front yard! I don't know what it is but it smells lovely.

Tiger Lily is doing well. She did great in her fort in the hotel rooms, and was a little trooper in the car. Our longest day was 11 hours of driving and she never made a peep. She's slowly settling in to the new house, mostly keeping to the bedroom during the day and exploring the rest of the house at night. 

Housewarming flowers from some of the Texas fam.

I checked out my new LNS and was thrilled to find a very nice fabric and thread selection. I picked up the latest in With Thy Needle & Thread's new Holiday Hoopla series.

And a couple of the new Mill Hill autumn kits. I can't remember the last time I bought any of these little bead kits, but I couldn't resist these lanterns. So cute!

And I got this teeny notebook. Nothing like new stash to make a girl feel at home.

So! We're here safely, we're adjusting to some challenges, and we're beginning to explore. I am s-l-o-w-l-y getting the house together (and I would like a few words with the clown who designed this house). My sewing room is last on the priority list, but I hope to get to it by the end of the month. Thanks so much for all the kind comments and well wishes and prayers for our move. I do so appreciate it.

We made it!

Signing Off for a While

Hey, y'all! One last post before I sign off for a while. Our moving truck arrives Friday, and Lord willing, we'll be in our new home on Tuesday of next week. I've been sooo busy since I last posted, but I'm happy to report I actually have a finish to show! This is a little Cricket Collection mitten freebie that I got from a shop when I placed an order a while back.

I'm also happy to report that moving preparations have not interfered with stash acquisition. I found an Etsy shop with some goodies I needed. The shop is called Snuggly Monkey (link is to the website; it appears the Etsy shop is on a break). I've never used Cosmo embroidery thread but I wanted to give it a try and chose this beautiful and unusual color to experiment with. I don't know if you can see it very well, but this skein is shades of brown and purple. I think it will be gorgeous for some fall stitching.

More from Snuggly Monkey, some lovely green perle cottons in my favorite chunky size 8...

and some very pretty little 3.5" embroidery scissors. These look like spring stitching to me.

I picked up this adorable bunny tin to put a few spring stitching things in for the trip. My mini stash is all small Christmas projects, but I couldn't resist kitting up one spring project for the road.

These are the stragglers from Market that I finally got my hands on. Two new Blackberry Lane designs I had to order. A word about Stitching in the Garden: This design used to be exclusive to a shop, but Marie re-issued it at Market this year. Even so, I had a really hard time finding it right after Market. It may be more widely available now--I haven't checked--but I found mine at Stitches 'N Things. 

A couple of other designs...

How cute are these?

So that's the round-up of the latest goodies. Thankfully--SO VERY thankfully--there is an LNS where we're going to be stationed and I can't wait to visit it.

I don't know how long it will be before I can post again, but rest assured, I have not abandoned my blog. We're headed into a challenging situation. If you've seen the flooding devastation in the middle of the country... that's where we're going. Our home is fine, but Mr. Wonderful's work situation will be a challenge for a while, and my priority will be to get us settled and comfortable as quickly as possible to provide peace at home to balance out those difficulties. We're still excited to go, but now what we're looking forward to is the opportunity to help put things back together out there. Y'all are always so sweet and supportive and I probably won't have a chance to respond to your comments, but please know that I appreciate y'all so much and am looking forward to getting settled and getting this old blog back up and running so we can stitch and eat and shop and talk and stuff.

Tiger Lily is ready. See y'all in a while!

Market Stuff

A modest haul from Market this year. Of course Fox Few had to come to my house, and I also picked up the new Brenda Gervais design, which I understand is the first in a series. I love her series. I also wanted a couple of the new Blackberry Lane designs, but I've had to order those.

One of the new PTP colors, Heartland. This is a pretty, golden neutral. It reminds me of the ubiquitous Vintage Country Mocha, but without the regular pattern.

These are my favorite Market goodies this year. I pre-ordered both, the Market cookbook in January and the Rosewood Manor one in early February. They are both very well done. The Market cookbook is in color, and has some small charts in it as well as some family photographs shared by the designers who contributed recipes. The Rosewood Manor cookbook has tons (60+) of small charts, mostly mini samplers. The charts are black/white, but there is a section at the beginning of the book showing the samplers in color. You can tell a lot of work went in to compiling these cookbooks.

So that's my Market stuff. This week I've started taking down curtains and pictures and rolling rugs, etc. I should be pretty well finished with all of that by the end of the week, and next week...

...we're unsupervised! Yes. Mr. Wonderful will be away for training, so Tiger Lily and I will be on our own. I don't know what we'll get up to, but if everything is still running along smoothly and on schedule, I hope I'll have some extra stitching time. I'm current on the Christmas Ornament SAL, and right now I'm working on a CEC mitten freebie.

Have a great week, y'all!

Christmas Ornament SAL March Finish

Here's my March choice for the Christmas Ornament SAL, from the 2007 JCS Christmas Ornament issue. It's stitched on mystery 28 ct. pink even weave with GAST Rose Garden, Gold Leaf, and CC Weeping Willow. The beads are Mill Hill 2012. This is my second time stitching this one. The first time it was Mr. Wonderful's annual ornament choice back in 2007 and I stitched it as recommended (you can see it in this post). But I decided I wanted a pink one for my sewing room tree!

The first day of (meteorological) spring looked like this:

So I settled in with this:

and this:

and had a stitchy day. I'm right where I wanted to be by this time, as far as moving preparations go. We have the moving survey guy coming tomorrow, and once he's seen the house and has done his assessment, I can really get going on actually taking the house apart. That part will go pretty quickly and I'm chomping at the bit to get to it. After ten years on the East Coast, we are definitely ready to go. And we're excited about where we're going, so that helps.

But before I go Viking on the house, I plan to relax for a couple of days, go to Market Day at my LNS, stitch, and just breathe. And maybe lie around with my paw over my eyes. 

Hometown Holiday Tea Room Finish

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm not a coffee drinker, so I converted the Coffee Shop into a Tea Room. I simply replaced the coffee pot with a tea pot and changed the sign on the window. The only color changes I made were Weeks Seaweed for the trees and DMC 3865 for the snow. This is my first finish in the Hometown Holiday series--only a whole bunch more to go!

Have a great week, everyone!

The Comfort of Stitchy Things

We're less than two months away from moving day and things are in pretty good shape around here. We're busy, but not frantic, which is how I like to be. I'm getting a lot of enjoyment out of my mini stash and am finding time to stitch several evenings during the week, and much of the weekend. That's more than I stitch when I'm not moving! And it has been really helpful with keeping the stress in check. It seems that when we most need the comfort and relief of stitching, that's when we put it away because "there's too much going on." I decided to do the opposite, and it's working well for me. I'll have more thoughts on this after I survive this move!

Here's my current WIP, LHN's Hometown Holiday Coffee Shop. Except, not being a coffee drinker myself, I converted it into a tea room. I replaced the coffee pot with a tiny teapot and changed the sign on the window. Just a little more work on this one and I'll be moving on to my March choice for the Christmas Ornie SAL.

Pretty little stitchy goodies always make me happy and they're an important ingredient in my mini stash. This is my new needle minder from this Etsy shop. Isn't she lovely? 

And here's a beautiful little 4" lavender hoop I just got. I'm a Q-Snap fanatic so I rarely use hoops, but since the smallest Q-Snap is 6" sometimes that's just too big for a teeny tiny stitch. It wastes too much fabric to cut it large enough for the snap so I use a small hoop. I got this one from one of my favorite Etsy shops. It's from Japan and also comes in Cherry Red and Tiffany Blue.

This is my new duck. Why? Because adorable. And because $1.99. And because since I can't decorate for spring this year, I needed this one, tiny touch of spring in my sewing room. He's from Hobby Lobby.

And this is my sweet kitty Tiger Lily, the ultimate stress reliever. Look at those little feets. 

I've also been following the Nashville Market updates and sneak peeks very closely, as I do every year. This year is very, very sampler heavy, which will delight lovers of large samplers, but I was beginning to wonder if I was going to find any designs to suit me. I needn't have worried, as some of my go-to designers have come through, and I now have half-a-dozen designs on my wish list. I've also preordered the Market cookbook (which has small charts in it) and the Rosewood Manor cookbook (which has lots of small charts in it) and I'm really looking forward to getting my mitts on those. I love cookbooks, and cookbooks with charts in them are not to be missed! Market is next weekend, so it's not long to wait now.

Hope to have a couple of finishes to show next week. Have a lovely weekend, y'all, and happy stitching!

Christmas Ornament SAL February Finish

I'm 2-0 for the Christmas Ornament SAL so far! Here's my February choice from the 2008 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament issue. It's supposed to be finished as a biscornu, but I'll be finishing it as a flat ornament... when I get time to do some finishing!

This is stitched on 28 ct. olive mystery linen with Caron Wildflowers in Snow White and Mint. It's embellished with 2 mm pearl beads and a Swarovski crystal from Hobby Lobby.

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!

Preparing Framed Needlework for a Move

Hey, y'all! Moving preparations in the Wonderful household are humming along. In my last post I mentioned offering some tips on preparing needlework for a move, and I've finally gotten a post together. Keep in mind, this preparation is for a house-to-house move, and not for long-term storage. (I'm not sure what I'd do differently for long-term storage, and I don't have time to think about it right now!) This is just some basic protection for your needlework because, as much as we'd like, we can't strap it all to our bodies and guard it with our lives! Somebody else will have to handle it, be it movers, or your husband, or his buddy who's helping with the move. I know. Try not to have nightmares.

You need a few simple supplies, available from Amazon.

*large Ziploc bags: The 2 gallon size should hold up to an 8 x 10 framed piece, unless the frame is unusually large. These also come in even larger sizes.

*silica gel packets: These are the little paper packets you find in new purses, storage boxes, etc. They absorb moisture.

*twine, string, yarn... whatever

*acid-free tissue paper

*acid-free foam core: I'm using 1/8" but it doesn't really matter (available at any craft store with a framing department).

Using the framed piece as a template, cut out a piece of foam core that fully covers the front of the frame.

Place a piece of acid-free tissue paper over the stitching.

Place the foam core on top of the tissue. The purpose of the foam core is to shield the stitching from anything pressing against it or into it in case of less-than-careful packing.

Tie it all together. (You don't have to use pink and white baker's twine, but while you're at it, it might as well be cute, right?)

Place the framed piece in a Ziploc bag, pop in a silica gel packet (just in case), and seal the bag. Label it with the name of the piece.

And now your treasured framed needlework is ready to be handled by just about anybody. Even your husband's buddy.

If you're anticipating another move at some point, save everything in each labeled bag (you may have to replace the silica gel packets). Next time you move, you just pull out the bags and all the supplies for each framed piece are ready to go. 

It takes less than 5 minutes to pack up a framed piece, even with cutting foam core, so if you have a lot of framed pieces, don't worry. It doesn't take much time and it's well worth it.