It's Sunny here in California

Hello everyone! Hope you all are doing well. I've been surviving a cold/flu like many of you have had. But I think I am on the mend finally. Boy I've missed you all. I need to get caught up on reading the blogs. I feel out of the loop (a saying that me and Nannie always say -lol). With this bug I could only sleep lots and still am getting my voice back. But before I became ill I did get some stitching done. And I have a new iron - WOOHOO!!! My last iron actually fell apart. Yes the bottom iron piece was popping of the bottom and the dial too popped out. Ha! I sure tried to do my best to keep it alive for as long as I could. But since I bought my new iron I can't believe why I fought for so long to keep the old one. My new iron is from Wallmart and its by T-fal called the Ultraglide easycord 4476 1700w. Let me tell you it's FANTASTIC. Look at my photos and you can tell the linens are ironed and smooth as can be. What a difference. The steam feature is nothing like I have ever had on a iron before. Amazing how they have improved. Also I did not pay a bundle for it either it was under $40. I am in love with my iron now:)
Here are some updates on Ann Dale:

 The middle of the borders on the sides have been extended and the floral band is all done.

 Who knew having a proper iron makes a huge difference. My last iron was 15 yrs old - lol.

 Ann Dale - 40ct Vintage Pear Linen by Lakeside Linens & all silk threads

Fairy Hill  -  Bothy Threads Cut Thru 

(Before) 

(After)

I stitched another fairy, wish list, lots of green background, brown rocks or dirt separating to another room and a tree trunk. This is with Debbie and Linda's Monday SAL. 

Currently I am working on a secret project as a gift for a special friend. It has lots of parts to it and I am in the process of  constructing it together. Also finished a Valentine piece but saving that for next month to share with you. The weather here has warmed up during the days but evenings are still chilly (but I love it).

I sure hope you are well or if you are not feeling well -  I send you well wishes. 

With Love and Appreciation - Annette 

Ann Dale Update

Happy New Year! Well I pulled out Ann Dale and started stitching on her again on the 31st of December. Seems like I'm in the stitching zone with Ann ever since I picked her up. Hard to put her down.

(before)

Ann Dale Update 

Finished center verse & Added: red border between verse and motif on right side, 2 motifs, bottom border all across under verse and motifs, lengthened red wave border on right side. I did iron my sampler before I took the photos. No wonder when a sampler is all stretched and framed it looks so much better. 

One over one on the center verse. I did tent stitches and not the full cross stitches on this part. And it was much easier to frog when I had to.

 Will finish the dash border to red wave border - YES so far the red wave border are aligns perfectly with the motifs and the dash border. I'm thrilled and thankful -LOL. 

 On December 29th 2013 I finished "Victorian Merry Christmas" by Nancy Turner

Finished stitching the border December 31st - "Mary's Sampler" by Paulette Stewart

Overall I had 2 more finishes for 2013. Sorry if the photos seem dark. I actually dragged out my ironing board in the backyard and laid the samplers on top. The sun was out and shinning. Only problem (now that I discovered afterwards) was that I stood and photographed the samplers standing towards the sun. My eyes were dilated so at the time I thought I was doing a good job -LOL. Lesson learned. Next time I will have the sun behind me. I love seeing everyone's new starts for the new years. I do have lots of projects planned for 2014 but Ann Dale is making me happy right now stitching her. 

With Love and Appreciation - Annette 

Gifted Treasures Received

Holiday Greetings to you! Thank you very much for wishing me and my family a Merry Christmas. Our Christmas was wonderful. Today is the 3rd day of Christmas. January the 6th is the 12th day of Christmas. So therefore it's still the Holidays. Makes me happy to know it's not over yet.

I finally decided what to serve for our Holiday meals. Our menu for Christmas Eve was turkey sandwiches, lots of different cheeses, dips and crackers. After an early dinner we went over to Nannies house. There we exchanged gifts with the family and had desserts. For Christmas day there was BBQed filet mignon wrapped in bacon and baked pounded chicken breasts stuffed with spinach and cheese. We picked up my grandmother "Nannie" and brought her over for Christmas dinner. We all had a very lovely time together.
I was so blessed to receive some gifts from stitching friends that I waited to open them on Christmas morning.  And oooooooh how surprised I was. I couldn't wait to share with you. This is a very heavy photo post so grab your favorite beverage and enjoy. You won't believe how blessed I am:

 Look at what sweet Vickie gave me! A beautiful card, a felt heart with gorgeous marking pins that she elegantly beaded herself and then.....a elegant pen that she added black linen stitched over one with pretty PINK thread. Isn't that cool? What a great idea. I love them Vickie Thank you very much my friend.

 Then look at what precious Shirlee sent me. She made for me a beautiful ornament stitched on perforated paper and mounted it on a darling sled. I absolutely love it Shirlee. I've added it to my stitchers tree and I plan to leave my tree up. So I will get to enjoy seeing it. It's not getting put a away for a long time:)
Thank you my friend for your thoughtfulness and for gifting me with one of your stitched treasures.

 On the 24th - Christmas eve day, I went and got the mail and look what was waiting for me! This is a postcard from Chiara from Italy. Can you believe it?  It's actually a cross stitch chart! Oh yes I will be stitching this design  for Valentine's. Thank you sweet Chiara! Love it!!

I had received a parcel from my very special friend Lee in New Zealand. She had instructed me to open the box and open a gift she had wrapped in green bubble wrap - it was something for my tree. This is what I found...A darling New Zealand Fantail bird jingle bell ornament. I added this to my stitchers tree and every day when I walk by I tap it and make it jingle. SO super cute. I LOVE it Lee and have been enjoying it everyday. Thank you.

 And on Christmas morning I got to open the rest of Lee's gifts. Where do I begin. Words cannot express my appreciation and gratitude but I am going to do my best to do so.
Inside the box every item was wrapped individually so I had placed them under my stitchers tree. Lets have a closer look - shell we....

 I have named these remarkable stitcher's necessaries my "Victorian Downton Abbey Set" because they are so elegant looking. I was so overwhelmed and touched that Lee made everyone of these for me. Can you see all the details and finishing in every item Lee added? Yes she even added beads on top of the lovely trim surrounding the tape measure.

 LOVE the stitched silk roses and the beautiful victorian background fabric. Do see the gold butterfly charms?
Now lets have a look at the triangle needleworkers keeper....

Pink Rose budded marking pins

and the mother of pearl hearts. Now lets have a closer look at the gold handles...

 A beautiful pair of gold scissors that Lee attached a black handmade cording with 

a mother of pearl heart fob. At this point I cried - lost it....

 Attached to a floss tag fob Lee gave me packages of beautiful crystal Delica beads by Maria George.
The packaging on the beads has gorgeous silver scrolling and elegant pink script labeling Maria George. Love the pinkeeper with pearls surrounding it.

A wooden hornbook floss keeper from the popular elegant needlestore "Heirlooms" in Napier New Zealand graces a small stitched fob with handmade tassels Lee made. Lee I cherish and treasure you, our friendship and all of the spectacular gifts you created for me. Your amazing talents are breathtakingly gorgeous.
Thank you ever so much Lee and for spoiling me.

The day after Christmas I received a parcel in the mail and inside were these beautiful flosses that I was a winner of Nancy's 12 days of Christmas giveaways on her Victorian Motto Sampler blog. WOOHOO - I won 10 skeins of her wonderful flosses.
Thank you Santa Nancy for your generosity. Your flosses are sooooo pretty and they feel silky.

 From my #1 sister (my only sister) I received all these goodies. I got a magazine that came with some silver metallic thread, Margaret Sherry Christmas designs, buttons, sachet bags, fabric and a Joann's gift card.

 The elegant gold brass needle holder matches a gold brass seam ripper that I have. 

Thank you Nicole for all my gifts and for your thoughtfulness. 

 Santa brought me Gingerbread Tree Etui chart by The Victoria Sampler and the needed 28ct Almond linen to stitch it on. How did Santa know? Just what I wanted. LOL!!!

 Well I didn't finish stitching Victorian Merry Christmas by Nancy Turner, but here is my progress. I am going to keep stitching this project till I finish. This has been my go to project during the holidays.

This apple strudel I brought to Nannies house for our get together Christmas Eve. No I did not bake it. Mike's pastry shop did. When my uncle had some that evening he said it took him back to the pastries he had in Germany. So that's a big compliment. It was very good.

 My aunt brought this cake also for Christmas eve. It was a coconut cake with buttercream filling. It was so beautifully decorated for Christmas and was good too. I'm not a coconut fan but I liked this cake.

Thank you for all your loving comments, for your friendships and for making my Christmas very special.
With my Love and Appreciation - Annette

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Wishing you Peace, Love, and Joy.

Christmas Stitches

Merry Christmas! I have been enjoying seeing all the posts of decorations and Christmas trees and ornaments on the blogs. All the posts have been cheerful and uplifting to get to see. I'm sure you feel the same way too.
Next week is Christmas and this week has been great so far. I am so excited to share with you my Christmas Eve sampler that I had picked up from the framers just last evening. The last time I had a sampler professionally framed was back in 1989, my very first cross-stitched piece (I will have to take a photo of it for you). Since I got back into stitching I have done all the frames myself, but for this one design that I loved so much I wanted to get just the right color frame for it.

 A look at the detailing of the frame. Can you see the cross stitches on the frame itself? 

 Christmas Eve by Prairie Schooler

Fabric hand dyed by me. I think its 28ct linen.

When I went to have it framed I wanted a chocolate brown one. Well I was looking at the woods and the salesman showed this one. Leather, chocolate brown and he pointed out the cross stitches designed on the frame itself. I am not only pleased but I must say I love it. I feel like a grown up now that I got to have this framed. OH YES! I had a 60% plus 15% off additional coupon to have it framed totalling 75% off. I did not have glass and am now thinking that maybe I should of. Oh well! I am still thrilled with how it turned out.

Winter-ize by Lizzie Kate

25ct Flax Dublin Linen

This was a kit that included the chart, linen, buttons and a needle. This darling kit was a gift I had won on a giveaway that Shirlee from The Easily Influenced Stitcher blog had a while back. Thank you very much Shirlee I sure enjoyed stitching this. I saw this kit in my stash and wanted to have it done in time for this Christmas. Also I wanted another ornament to stitch. I can't help it that I've been totally feeling the Christmas spirit. And this design was very fast to stitch, it took me longer to decide on what threads to use. Will get this finished as a ornament in the next few days.

Speaking of which here is a list of what threads I used:

Hunter    -  Petite Glass Float  silk by Dragonflylotus Designs Handspun Thread 

sky         -  Petite Fae silk             by           "                 "              "             "

deep sea - Petite Moonlit Lagoon silk  by     "                "              "             "

crimson   - Wine and Roses silk by The Thread Gatherer

aztec red - Christmas Red  50% wool and 50% silk,  by The Thread Gatherer               

whitewash - 991BB by Needlepoint Inc, Silk 

Victorian Merry Christmas by Nancy Turner - The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

14ct white adia and threads by The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe

If you are not aware Nancy from The Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe blog is having the 12 days of giveaways. And let me tell you that she is Santa Nancy by gifting so many stitchers with her love. Well one of her day giveaways I left a comment telling mentioning that I really wished for her chart "Victorian Merry Christmas". And after I had posted early in the morning I got a response in a few short minutes and Guess What? Santa Nancy gifted me her chart. I was soooooo surprised and it totally made my day. I had bought some Christmas colors of Nancy's threads last year with hopes of one day getting to stitch her gorgeous chart. My WISH came true. Well after printing and kitting it up I started on it immediately. I took this photo late last evening and today I (after being gone all of today and yesterday) finished stitching the "C" letter. I plan to get this all stitched in the next few days (hope to anyways). Then I will pin it to some foam board and make a hanger for it because there's no way I can frame it in time for Christmas but it will be on display for this Christmas:)  The color of Nancy's thread so far for all the lettering is "Paprika" that's what I had in my stash. Yesterday I was a lucky winner of Nancy's giveaways. There is still time for you to leave a comment on the days that she has not posted winners for yet of her giveaways. Thank you Santa Nancy for spreading your love and good cheer.

So are you deciding or have decided on the menu for Christmas Eve and Day yet? I haven't. 

Wishing you much Joy, Love and my Appreciation - Annette

Oh Christmas Tree #2

A short quick post. After reading your lovely comments on my last post, I had been asked a very good question.
Sweet Chris had asked me "So do you have another tree for your stitched ornaments?".
Bless you Chris!!! Now I can answer "Yes I do!!!".  Last evening I put it up and is all done.
 I don't have many stitched ornaments and I have one more that needs to be finished Peppermint Twist by LHN. I did add some floral picks to help fill in and the ribbon I used is a tapestry fabric and design.

Now I have a perfect excuse that I do need to stitch lots of ornaments. How fun and perhaps next year I will get to decorate a larger tree for the stitched ornaments and I already have some different sized trees:) Thank you very much Chris for asking.
If you are wondering about the framed print behind it's by Alan Maley titled Cafe Royale.
Happy Holidays, With Love and my Appreciation - Annette

Oh Christmas Tree

Happy Holiday's to YOU!
If you have not heard - Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe Blog HERE is having many giveaways. If you visit her blog there is plenty of time to go and leave a comment on each giveaway post. If you are not familiar with her hand overdyed flosses, trims, laces, buttons and charts - All her haberdashery items are wonderful, very pretty and a pleasure to stitch with . To see Nancy's store with all the items for sale you can click HERE.

The last 5 days we've been rearranging furniture, cleaning and decorating. Now we have a decorated Christmas tree. Since then I've only managed about 15 stitches during the whole time and I miss stitching like crazy. Thought I would share with you some photos of our decor.
 I moved my Gingerbread Village Street piece and set out the baking Elf's set from Hallmark underneath it.

My gingerbread cupcake is on the last tier. Hard to see in this photo but in person looks darling and not as dark at all.

We call this tree "The Fairy Tree". All things that fly and are pretty. Okay now I can share a bit of history as to the decorating the tree. My mom LOVED fell in love with Macy's decorated trees here in the bay area. And thru the years, every year she would go and study how they were decorated. One year she spoke to the manager and learned that Macy's hired a mother and daughter team from the neatherlands to come and decorate. My mom was told that they were paid $40,000 per year and not only did they decorate Macy's department store in Pleasant Hill but all the bay area stores including San Francisco. One year my mom learned when the ladies were coming to decorate at Macy's and she took her camera & video camera and recorded them. No I cannot find the tape (8mm) but I am not giving up. From watching and speaking to the ladies as they decorated my mom learned to: Place LARGE items first in the tree, then place ribbons and then finish adding ornaments. The Macy's trees used to be decorated extremely elaborately. I recall one tree that had HUGE gold
Because our tree looks like a Charlie brown tree before everything goes on.  I didn't add too many ribbons this time. Really it takes about 1 month to decorate the tree as my mother had but I didn't start early. But the tree is up:)

Hopefully all these fairy's will make up for me not showing Tinkerbell's with my Fairy Hill Bothy Threads Cut Thru SAL progress. Lots and lots of ornaments. This is a tree where no matter where you sit looking at it - there is always something to see. And even when you think you've seen it all you still are able to find something new that you hadn't seen before. Lots of work but very lovely to enjoy.

 Can you see a nest under the fairy?

 When going thru the bins of ornaments I found this RaggyAnn that my mom had made years ago.  It was a very nice surprise and treasure to find. Like a gift from my mom:)

 more fairy's...

 See the 2 sets of large fairy wings? I had bought them at a Renaissance faire.

 Thought I would end with these stockings I had made loooong ago. The designer is Mary Englebright.
I am still waiting for my Christmas Eve by Prairie Schooler to came back from the framers.
Wishing you peace, laughter and lots of fun preparing for Christmas and great stitching too!
With my Love and Appreciation - Annette