First Needlepoint Finish 2020 - Two Cabins

It's back from the framers and I loved stitching it.   I figure I'd share the finish after framing was done with all the information shared at the same time.

Designed by Nancy's Needle and the stitching started on December 23, 2019 would you believe it was finished on January 12, 2020 (it's a first for me tracking the start and the finish dates of a project - I probably will continue doing this).
Stitched on 20 Count Mono Canvas as instructed with the called for threads using a #22 Tapestry needle with one strand of:

Snow 09 - Silver 
Watercolours  063 - Black Forest

Watercolours  083 - Pine Forest

Watercolours  136 - Cedar

Watercolours  137 - Copper

Watercolours  159 - Silver Blue

Watercolours  196 - Sable

#5 Perle Cotton 4045 - Evergreen Forest

#5 Perle Cotton 4140 - Driftwood

#12 Tapestry Braid 3203 - Cat's Eye

DMC Floss #310 - Black - 2 strands used with #26 needle

Stitched with the called for Stitches:

Slanted Gobelin

Bargello Tuck (securing tail ends of threads)

Mosaic Stitch

Long Stitch

Horizontal Straight Stitch 

Overall I enjoyed this project and it was easy for me to focus on.
I'll be gone for about a month visiting with my Mom.
TTFN,

Jane

December 2018

December was smooth and it was nice to observe some "family time" and the traditions of the holiday, "couple time" and some "me time" as well.

Near the first of the month, my youngest grandson turned 10, (my favorite number btw!).
He and a friend who was too quick for me to catch on film were having fun popping the balloons by sitting on them.

Robbi won in this endeavor.  They are great friends.  They play Fort Nite on the X-box, Hockey, are in the same grade though not the same class this year at school and have been friends for years.







Then we were back in Boston for another heart biopsy, clinic check, echo, and blood work.

While there, we were able to see "How the Grinch Stole Christmas at the Wang Theatre, it was a fantastic show.  The props, music and story line so closely followed  the Suessical book and DH tolerated it well as he'll go to honor my enjoyment of these shows.

The following two pictures are some of the architectural details within the Wang theatre.

We had a nice dinner before going back to our hotel room at the Park Plaza with an enjoyable stroll along the street.

I actually was humming the "Silver Bells," Christmas Carol while strolling and just a hint of snow was falling.

It was Beautiful yet so.o.o.oo Cold.

Our stay at the Park Plaza was very nice and comfortable besides it was conveniently located.
They happened to have an in-scale  gingerbread House of the Plaza as part of their decor in the lobby.  You could walk around the whole gingerbread table for a full view of the establishment and the accessories finishing the scene were perfect and quite nice.
It was massive and Gorgeous!

Shortly after that, my Mother sent a package for her Great Grand son #3, my  PGS#3.
It wasn't for any special occasion like Christmas or Birthday it was just because she loves him and she wanted to make this quilt.  She made a label hinting at him flying to the planets in the future and when I saw it, thought they were flying pucks, so I'm calling it "triple play" not quite a hat trick yet, lol. 

He showed me his favorite block and then started dodging away from the camera.

While spending the night, we played games as is our usual but we spent time reminiscing by looking through my blog books of years gone by.

He loved hearing stories about what happened and the roles he played within those stories.
I let him know that I couldn't produce those stories and pictures if he kept hiding from my camera.
He graciously  thankfully stayed put and I as able to take the shots.  (Not sure how long this will last!)

This pic he reminds me of Mcauley Culkin when he did the Home Alone series,
another holiday tradition we l;ike to watch and make time for. 

Then Christmas came with all the usual flurry of the season.

Christmas concerts, church services, family gatherings all contributed to make it a wonderful Holiday season.

PGD#! plays trombone for the Christmas concert, she's the second one in.

PGS#3, is in the grey sweater for his class song presentation.








I found and made some time to sit by the fire and stitch while listening to Christmas music.  Heaven!  Started a new Cross stitch project after the holiday just befor eNew Years.













As for finished projects, there were a couple of successes in that domain-


The long time WIP of St. Patrick's Day a Patch-a-bilities design took me
F-O-R-E-V-E-R!

The rainbow I embroidered the old fashioned way, then started to play with shiva paint sticks for those coins and then Mod Podge for the white petals on the daisies so the background fabrics wouldn't' show through as I learned from Lara's book, Crafted Applique.

Then to make the daisy centers stand out better I did colonial knots, not a gazillion but probably around 35 or so until it was enough.  The next step I puttered around to make the gold piping which I used a roll of lace sold by Sue Spargo wrapped around the cording to "finish" it. 
Am so happy with the final results.







Another project that I started and actually finished in December was the needlepoint called "Liberty Stars" designed by Nancy's needles.
I  find the rhythm of the needle even in needlepoint is so enjoyable and with this design found it easy enough to do anywhere.  When company stops by I can pull a length of thread/yarn  as the pattern became quite evident to me.  With this one,  I'll wait to frame for a couple of months, perhaps get it framed later in the Spring.
Notice the Christmas themed reading glasses.



It was a very eventful year and I'm glad to see it behind me.
Things can only be up from now on.

Hope your Halloween was Happy

October flew by with more happening in and around my home.  My husband continues to do well health-wise and the monthly Boston trips are becoming even more routine.  Typically I try to have a picnic or quick touristy stop nearby with the clinic visits, but didn't scope any out for October as we had so much already going on.

Our first focus for the month was repainting the outside panels of the above ground pool.  CHECK!
Years ago we used "water-filled" gallon jugs to hang off the winter cover (that's what we were told to do to keep that winter cover on).  It didn't work and those water filled jugs just rode up and down on the outside pool panel walls destroying the finish all winter long.  At that time, we used a recommended Epoxy paint to resurface the exterior pool panels.  Because we used a deeper grey tone then we noticed a 5 degree increase in water temperature.  It made make sense when you think about it as darker colors attract and keep more heat than the lighter reflective colors.  Fast forward 25 years later, that surface was getting sun fade and some smaller area blights. So with every thing else going on I thought it best to get it done this fall rather than trying to complete one more spring-time chore and who knows what we'll be dealing with health-wise at that time besides.  My philosophy of taking care of it now rather than later.   DH wasn't too keen on the idea but he slowly warmed up to it after I moved many stones to let the lower part be exposed.  Walls were washed and primed, taped off then painted with an Oil based paint.  The medium darker grey color wasn't available or offered so I thought, okay....we'll use the lighter grey and mix 2 parts of it with one part of black.  It worked and it's a very dark grey -almost too dark but now it's DONE!  Even the landscaping of returning the rocks back to the bottom edging.  Looks good and feels great.  We only have to trim paint the top rail after opening the pool next year.  We also had to replace the pool liner this year as the other one which started leaking dh destroyed it by poking holes allover it so it could drain through the winter which shredded it to pieces.....  long story, but thankfully it's over now.

On a personal focus I had planned to finish the Autumn Medley this past month, a needlepoint kit I started last year while Hurricane Irma was attacking my Mom's neighborhood in The Villages.  And sweet success, I just  finished the last stitches on it this past week.

Autumn Medley designed by From Nancy's Needle on 18 Zeigart Sandstone Mono Canvas
with the called for threads.  Caron Collection Snow- 14 -Mango, Caron Collection Watercolours #137-Copper and #255 Cornflower blue, DMC#5 #435 Very Light Brown, 437 Light Tan, 935 Dark Avocado Green and 3371 Black Brown, Rainbow Gallery Gold Rush 18 GD109C Bronze and Rainbow Gallery Overture V122-Caravan

Since attending my quilt guild in Glens Falls by myself, (I usually travel there with a friend or two) it was a great time for me to travel to KC Frames and Fabrics in Saratoga Springs to check out the framing that she could do on it even though it wasn't completely stitched at that time, I still had the two smallest leaf design elements to finish. They're both in the center areas of the top and bottom.    KC's offered an idea of one mat/frame available that I don't mind but I'm not sure if I'm in love with it after all my work if you know what I mean.

With using a mat, I noticed that just at the edge you could see the mono canvas slightly behind the last row of stitching just beneath the mat edge.  So I used a black magic marker to color three rows of the  mono canvas borders not yet stitched and then decided to stitch one more row of stitches in the same border thread used (Bronze Rainbow gallery GD109C) around the perimeter to counterbalance any loss of design by the matting and framing.

We'll see and I need to stop by some more framing shops before I "pull the trigger" on what I select.

Step one of Secret Santa sew along

The last week end was an annual quilt retreat I love doing with my friend Trudy.  It's become a pilgrimage and I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it despite the weather happening along the St. Lawrence seaway.  Thankfully was able to get to the many bits I brought along to get done.  What's that you say..., well I was able to cut out the Prima Diva Clutch with all of it's parts of cloth, fusible batting and interfacings, also got part one all cut out for Temecula's Quilt Secret Santa Sewalong  and all those nine patch blocks are sewn now ( the only change made was using a black Grunge for my center square instead of browns), Step two soon.  Then was able to progress on preparing Homestead Hearth's BOM for my "go to bag".   I only have 3 more blocks to prepare and the border pieces - boy I'm  always amazed at how much time this takes!

I also took two different classes besides all the projects I brought for prep work.   One of a folded star taught by Debbie Baldwin and the other a wool project with Phyllis Acres so I felt really accomplished in getting to all I did besides the talking and reconnecting with friends.  The latter is now a current WIP now being focused on.  lol




While I was doing that dh got to enjoy some quality time with the grands.

Signing off but not before I share a pic of the grand dog with his Halloween costume.


TTFN
Jane