Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th

A day most are superstitious of..

But not me,

No Ladders did I walk under

No Black Cats walked in front of me

No Broken Mirrors did I see

So I guess it was a good day indeed

Valentine Cards

My charity (The World of Charity Stitchers) group decided to make Valentines Day Cards for the residents of Century Care Center. We thought the seniors would love to receive a little love note... So our members will be stitching hearts in all colors and they can make the cards or they can send to one of our finishing ladies who will make the card..  This is a very quick project to stitch, I did three hearts as samples in one night.

                                                         My counted cross stitch hearts


and tonight I made the card samples and posted on our charity site.  We are hoping to get 83 cards which is the number of residents and if we get more that would be great as there are always new residents coming in the home... 

Pink Pearl Heart Card

Red Heart Card

Pink Heart Card

Now there isn't a pattern for these hearts, I just made the design as I went.

If you would like to stitch a Valentine Heart or Make a Card for a Senior you can send me a email or reply to this post and I will send you the address to send the hearts or cards.

Also The World of Charity Stitchers blog is having another giveaway. This time you can win  designs for Precious Patterns, there are bib patterns, stuffed animal patterns, purse and little shoe patterns, well lets say there are lots of patterns to choose from.

See, these little stuffies are just precious..

to enter click World of Charity Stitching

Mail Call

This was the grab bag contents

I just love getting packages in the mail and I love winning contests online... I had answered a monthly question on This N That blog and I won a Gift Certificate for $20.00  So I went  shopping..  This n That online quilt store was having a going out of business sale, but at the last minute something happened and they were saved and will continue operating their online store... BUT they were still selling at the sale prices to make way for new items... So the $ 20.00 I won went so much further... I got a Pearl Louise April Showers banner kit, The pattern for October Pumpkin Patch, August Sunny Days, and Mays Home Sweet Home Banners.. Now I also have the December Santa Claus Kit, so it looks like I will be working on Pearl Louise banners for some time this summer.. I also ordered one of the $ 6.50 grab bags as I like collecting FQs for my charity quilts..  I did look for Black and White and White and Black fabrics as I have a wall hanging I want to make for a friend in memory of her father...but you don't have a choice on the grab bags...  If you are in search of a bargain, you might want to check out This n That web site and see if you can get some deals... oh and yes I went over the $ 20.00 but that is OK as I got a great deal on all the goodies... 

Home Sweet Home pattern

Sunny Days Pattern

Pumpkin Patch Pattern

April Showers Kit.

Strange things

The cold is losing its grip on me, guess the cold medications are working... So this weekend we will be taking down the outdoor decorations... Just didn't have it in me last weekend to tackle that chore...

Now I bet you are wondering why the title strange things... I will explain...
 It was New Years Day and I was in the kitchen making our dinner of pork, sauerkraut and mashed potatoes... As I was making our dinner I couldn't help but remember how many times I stood beside my Nanny or my Mother as they prepared this New Year's Day traditional meal.  I was remembering the love and laughter in their kitchens as we peeled potatoes and remembered the events of that year and what we looked forward to in the new year... I miss those ladies so much, all the ladies I learned from are now gone... As I was remembering those wonderful times and peeling potatoes I stopped and had to do a double take, was this a message from those wonderful ladies, letting me know that while they were no longer with me their love was....

This is what I found....

Thanks Mom, Nanny, Nan, Grammy, Aunt Kit and Aunt Sis... I love you too...

Congratulations are in order for my niece

 who became a mother yesterday to a 7 lb 8 oz baby girl. You saw the frog and dragonfly quilt that I made for her and it was mailed yesterday.   I knew I should have waited to send that box, I just had a feeling she was going to have the baby early. Today I will mail out the Baby Name blanket that I made last night...  I was in such a hurry to get it in the mail that I packed it and got it ready to mail and then realized that I hadn't take any pictures of it.. Sorry, maybe when she gets it she will send me a photo of the little one with her blanket..

I got a cold

I knew it, I really knew I shouldn't have kissed hubby for the New Year... He has a cold and NOW so do I... Of course I know it wasn't from the kiss, it was just from living in the same house and sharing all we have... So today, I am the ache one, with a sore throat, coughing and just feel yucky... So I will take Medicine, Take a Hot Bath, Drink lots of Tea, Go through a bag of Hall's cough drops.. and sit and stitch..  I am working on my New Year's Project the Village Alphabet.. coming along quite nicely... 

Happy New Year 2012

Happy 2012

My project pattern for the New Year

I will be stitching the middle one, Welcome To sign with our last name spelled out with the houses

                           Pork and Saur Kraut to ensure good luck in the coming New Year.

I hope everyone had a safe New Year's Eve. We stayed home and watched movies. Hubby seems to be coming down with a cold, he is ache and sneezing and just not himself, so I will stay away from him as I don't want a cold.

Today I will be making a traditional Pa. Dutch New Year's Eve dinner of Pork and Saur Kraut, other then that not much is planned for today. I will once again start my New Year's Tradition of starting a New Counted Cross Stitch.  This year I have chosen to stitch a family name plaque using the Village Alphabet Chart. You just stitch out the letters in your name, each letter is a different house or tree. If your name has double letters each pattern has a second color choice. I think I will stitch this on a hand dyed sky blue background. Last year my first cross stitch of the year was for my charity group, it was a sailboat pattern that went into a quilt for the nursing home. This year I am stitching for my home.

 Tomorrow (Monday) we will watch the Rose Parade and I sure hope they don't change their coverage like they did for  Macy's Thanksgiving parade. That parade was awful to watch as it was more performances then parade 

January 1, 2012

I wrote the above post yesterday and planned on posting it at midnight, but hubs was on the computer playing the new games I bought for him.. We did get to watch a movie last night, missed the ball drop at Times Square. I was busy stitching on Lavender and Laces Enchanted Alphabet hoping to finish, but I didn't get it done in 2011.  So at 6 minutes after midnight, I interrupted Hubs game, kissed him and wished him a Happy New Year... That was our BIG night.

I did hear from Jen as she posted on yesterday's blog and all is fine at her house, but then it always is. Jen has the most calm personality, the house could be falling down around her and she would say ever things OK. It is a good thing that she is so calm as she has 6 children, three of them in their teens. She has been thru the sibling fights, the injuries, the medical problems and has come through it all being her calm self.

I also talked to Mel yesterday and she was home alone, her husband took the kids out shopping. I guess he did it so Mel could have some peace and quiet which was so nice of him... She is feeling miserable trying to fight a nasty cold. She went to the doctor and has antibiotics to fight the cold, she also got a injection but she ended up having a bad reaction to that and she said she is still red from it.  What a way to start the new year.

Good Bye to 2011

Another year is almost over and I for one will be so happy to see it go.... We had tragedies and losses this year in the family... But I will say there was also some moment of amazement and lots of surprises as well.

Mel lost her house to a fire in February, she was in the process of a divorce, she had many medical problems, her husband almost died, she was so down, but as the year comes to a end she is in a new home, she is back with her husband and things are starting to look better for her. I was also amazed at the number of my online friends who sent donations of money or cross stitch things to her.. Mel still has another surgery to go through but I know she will be just fine.

Don't hear much from Jenny so I guess things are OK in her house... He daughter Lizzy did meet her goal and she raised over 1,000 dollars for Juvenile diabetes foundation.

Don's divorce was granted and he  remarried, to  a former classmate... They are in the process of buying a new home and combining households.  Don now has two step daughters and a step son... There was sadness for him as his father passed away from lung cancer..

As for me and hubby we did OK last year, no major medical problems, other than my foot surgery and then the broken foot... oh and I did stick my hand in a glass to wash it and it broke sending me to the ER for 9 stitches.. and then re injuring it after the stitches came out..  But all in all 2011 was OK for us...
As for my quilting....I bought a quilting machine and I finished a total of 35 quilts this past year, most went to a nursing home and a few to children's charities.  I finished lots of cross stitch projects, both for my charity group and for myself.

Today I hope to get the Christmas decorations taken down and put away, tonight we will stay home and watch movies.  Tomorrow a traditional Pa Dutch New Years Day Dinner of Saur Kraut. Funny how the first dinner of the New Year is so different depending on where you live.. Where I am from it is Saur Kraut, in Indy they ate raw cabbage at midnight, where we are now it is Black Eye Peas, and they cook a dime with it, the person who finds the dime has good luck all year.  I also think it is funny on the weird ball drops that towns have... NY is the Apple, Atlanta is a Peach, Nashville is a Musical note, Hershey is a Hershey Kiss, in Pensacola it is a Pelican and I read somewhere there is a fish drop, I think Maine...
So leave me a comment on what iconic item is dropped at midnight during your towns count down, and what will you be dinning on tomorrow... Which Parade will you watch and will you be watching the big game Monday, yes they are celebrating New Years on the 2nd this year....  Here we watch the Rose Parade and Hubby will watch the Rose Bowl... I will head to the sewing room to start on a new quilt and for the past few years I have started a new counted cross stitch project on the first.

So here's to 2012 and hoping it will be a great year for everyone.   Now I need to get busy and get the house UN decorated and choose my Counted Cross Stitch to start tomorrow    Come back tomorrow and see what I chose....

Have a Safe and Happy New Year..