Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Christmas in July but Thanksgiving???

Hello Everyone! Warning another long post - so please grab something to drink and enjoy.
Amazing what all that can happen in 1 week since my last post. All good stuff! First of all I bet your all familiar with Christmas in July - but have any of you celebrated Thanksgiving in July? We did. That was a first for us this year. More on that later down in my post.

Congratulations to Linda of Stitching With My Furbabies Blog
Winner of Birthday Bunny Chart/kit. 
Please send me your address Linda so I can mail your kit.

On to stitching progress for the last week. I finished my project from last year - Gingerbread Street. And I framed it myself, so we are talking of a complete finish.

 This was the last gingerbread house completed in a row of 4 houses.

Since this a BIG finish for me, I am sharing lots of photos with you.

 On the very bottom I stitched my name, date and city & state. This will not be seen framed. 
But its there. I have learned from other stitcher's it's nice to include this.

 I did add a layer of batting between the sampler and foam board.

 This frame I had bought at a Thrift store for $8.00, I had brought a list of measurements with me to the store and was lucky to find this frame with a mat already cut.

 At the time I purchased the frame, I had no idea if the mat would fit over the houses but I think it looks good. Close call though. Of course the fabric shifted on me even though I had tons of little straight pins all around the foam board and yes I did lace the backside too. I was in a hurry to get this framed so I just grabbed a table cloth for the background and didn't iron it (sorry for the wrinkles).

 All done and framed. This time I left the glass on the frame to protect the sampler.

"Gingerbread Street" - Sue Hillis Designs
28ct Pink/Silver Sparkle Evenweave Fabric   by Fabric Flair

I am pleased with the end result. In person you can see all the sparkle of the stitching 
but not so in the photos. So this was my Christmas in July finish:)

I was the lucky recipient of Anne's (Dolls Musings blog) of her giveaway -
"Life's a Stitch" chart and added goodies. Thank you Anne! I will be stitching this very soon:) 



Thanksgiving in July? Yes! Our son has a friend Christine and her boyfriend is visiting from Scotland. We had had them over for dinner. It was the first time Graeme (Christine's boyfriend) had ever had corn bread. He loved it. So I got to thinking the day after that I would put on a Thanksgiving dinner. Last Saturday I prepared: Roasted Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing with chopped celery & apples, cranberry sauce, salad, sweet corn cake (it's really good) and for dessert (since it's still summer) Angel Food cake with Watermelon Sorbet! What a great meal we had. I pulled out the china and our son Nicholas had found the decorated pumpkin at Micheal's. Yes Micheal's already has Fall decor for sale - crazy but its true! And each plate had wrapped presents awaiting for each guest. I had set the table the night before. Too much to be done cooking on the day of our dinner. Graeme was so happy and touched. Christine had been in France the year before during the holidays for school (that's when she met Graeme). She said that this dinner meant alot to her because she felt she had missed out last year. We even each took a turn saying what we were grateful for, just like we do on Thanksgiving day. I have to tell you that I could listen to Graeme speak all day long - love his accent:) Oh - I told everyone to come dressed casually - it was 97 degrees that day.
Dinner was a success.
My husband wasn't present (had to work) so I had Nicholas invite another friend. From left to right is: Nicole (my sister), Nicholas (our son), Red (Nicholas's friend), Al (Christine's dad), Christine (Nicholas's friend) and really our guest of Honor from Scotland - Graeme (Christine's boy friend). I'm taking the photo:) The gifts were already opened, but Al was holding some of his up. Graeme had gotten lots of school supplies including a really nice zippered binder. We loved getting to meet him and hope he'll get to come back to USA to visit again. See all the food? What a Great time we all had.

 And my progress for this weeks Monday SAL Bothy Threads, Fairy Hill complete with a Tinkerbell:)
I forgot last week to include one of her. Thank you Debbie for the reminder - lol.

I am now on page 3 of 12. Added the bee hive and some more grass, the shower head, 
and some pink background.
Whew...What a long post. Thank you so very much for your visit. Hope you are enjoying the summer.
With my Love and Appreciation - Annette

23 comments:

Kaisievic said...

Wow! Annette - if I am ever in the U.S. around Thanksgiving, I know where to come!
Looks like lots of fun and your Fairy Hill is coming along very nicely.

Patty C. said...

Wonderful finish :)
Glad everyone enjoyed your Thanksgiving meal!

Mii Stitch said...

Lovely finish on the gingerbread collection! You found the perfect frame for it, it looks lovely :)

Chris said...

Wonderful update Annette! I love your gingerbread houses. Will you hang this up all year round? Great progress on the SAL. Such a fun design. Lovely little package from Anne,
Fabulous dinner. So nice to have everyone together and to share a amazing meal and to remember what we are thankful for!!

Annie said...

Love the Gingerbread Houses! How lucky to get a frame and mat to fit since that doesn't exactly look like a standard size. You did a great framing job. Fabric always seems to have a way to defy the pins, no matter how many, but I can't see any flaws in the photo.

What a fun idea to have that Thanksgiving feast!

Margaret said...

Wonderful gingerbread finish! It came out beautifully and great framing too! Your Bothy piece is really coming out nice too! What fun to have Thanksgiving in July! A great idea! I love Scottish accents too. lol!

Vickie said...

Gingerbread Street is awesome! Great job finishing and finding that frame.
What a wonderfully sweet thing you did having Thanksgiving for your guest.

Julie said...

You done a good job with your framing and looks like everyone enjoyed themselves.

Simply Victoria said...

Your Gingerbread Street is great! What a great find with the frame. Thanks for sharing your Thanksgiving celebration. Last year our son brought some friends home for Thanksgiving. One of them grew up in Africa as a mk and went to a British boarding school. It was such fun to have them around and learn about a different culture. Don't you wonder who is more blessed - us or our guests? :)

Melissa said...

You did a great job with framing the gingerbread houses! It was meant to be with that frame you picked up.

How lovely that you did a Thanksgiving dinner for the Scottish lad. He must've been thrilled.

Linda said...

Congrats on the beautiful finish Annette. You did a fantastic job of the framing. More great progress on Fairy Hill. Dinner looks yummy.

Linda

Anne said...

The frame is perfect for your cottages! Well done on your own framing!! Glad you enjoyed the little gifties in the package. Can't wait to see your version of Life's a Stitch. Thanksgiving and Christmas in July! Looks like you all had a great time!!

Hugs

Penny said...

Those gingerbread houses are so cute! You did a beautiful framing job, too! Wish I could have been at your Thanksgiving dinner - it sounds delicious! Sure hope your weather cools down a little. :)

Karoline said...

Congratulations on finishing your Gingerbread houses, they're lovely

Sounds like you all had a great time at your 'thanksgiving'

Brigitte said...

Ohhhhh, what an adorable finish this is. I love your Gingerbread Houses, thes look great in the frame.
I'm looking forward to seeing your version of Life's a Stitch.

A great idea to cook all the things you usually cook for Thanksgiving for the young man from Scotland. He will remember this evening for a long time.

Grit said...

Your stitching is so lovely. Love it so much.

Carol said...

What a fun idea to treat Graeme to an authentic American Thanksgiving, Annette! The dinner sounds perfect and it looks like all of you had a grand time :)

What a great find in that frame--it looks wonderful and just think of all the money you saved!

SoCal Debbie said...

Gingerbread Street looks absolutely perfect in that frame! I love to find frames at thrift stores that I can use for my finishes. Fairy Hill is really flying along.

Lucky you for having a yummy Thanksgiving in July!

Jackie said...

Hi there Annette!
Love! Love the Gingerbread Street. I have since purchased that chart since I saw it on your blog. It turned out really pretty and I think the green in the frame add a bit of accent to the green in the stitched piece. It looks absolutely grand. LOVE IT!
It looks you had a wonderful time with Thanksgiving in July and so sorry your DH had to work. I like when you can shake things up like that. We sometimes have a BBQ Christmas…after having Turkey and Ham for Thanksgiving, sometimes I don't want the same a month later…so Thanksgiving in July works for me. LOL.
Congrats on your winning from Anne… that design is a nice stitch.
Nice progress on your stitching too. Very pretty colors.
Take care and thanks for stopping in as well. I appreciate you very much.
Love and hugs.
Jackie:)

Angela said...

I love your Gingerbread houses finish, the frame is perfect for it! I'm so excited to see the travelling pattern I started still "travelling", I hope you will enjoy stitching it too :) Thanksgiving in July dinner looks yummy, now I'm hungry. LOL! Love your progress on Fairy Hill.

Giovanna said...

Pretty finish, and Fairy Hill is coming along very nicely :-)

Chris said...

That is amazing and the bargain frame is just right.
Chris x

Lynn B said...

Loving the gingerbread houses, they are so cute! Looks like you had a lovely meal and lots of fun.