Jo's Big Birthday Blog Hop

Welcome to Jo's Big Birthday Hop Blog Party!  We are celebrating Jo's life and hearing about the events of her life at each age.

1973 - Jo was 7.  She gets a new baby brother.  Jo and her little sister are very excited about this and compete to see who is the Best Big Sister.  Jo enjoys school and completes her first piece of cross stitch - a placemat stitched on Binca with a house at the centre and a geometric border.  It is entirely possible that Jo's Mum still posesses this piece. 

When I was 7 ... I have fond memories of myself, my older sister and a couple of the other neighborhood girls collecting deposit bottles and pulling them in a wagon to the local grocery to redeem them for 10 cents apiece.  Then we would go next door to the candy shop and each buy a bag of candies.  Then it was off to the library behind the candy shop to load up on books!  We would pull our haul back in the wagon and spend our Summer days sitting outside under a tree on a blanket reading library books and eating candy!  Good times!

Here is a small stitching piece that I created especially for Jo:

Jo, I have mailed a copy of the pattern along with this piece.  It should be arriving any day now.  I hope you have a lovely birthday with many happy memories (old and new) shared with all of your friends around the world!

September Gifted Gorgeousness and WIPocalypse Update

It's time for a Gifted Gorgeousness Update and since the full moon is nigh, it's also time for another WIPocalypse update.  Gifted Gorgeousness projects are projects that were made to be given as a gift -or- in some way or part received as a gift.  WIPocalypse projects are all of the projects that I have in progress and hope to have completed before the end of the world.

My first GG project (shown above) is a card I stitched for my Mom.  I selected a freebie frog and added "Hoppy Birthday" and "Mom" to the design to make the card.

Falling under both categories GG and WIP, I stitched on my Winter Sampler by Sandy Orton.

I finally, finally, finally finished the back stitching on the skate boot and flowers! I think it turned out lovely, but it sure took a long time.  I also put in stitches here and there as I branched out from the top right corner.

I also worked on my Autumn Sampler by Sandy Orton.  I finished the little school house photo and the green guide lines on the note paper.  This one is really coming along.

 I received all 4 of the seasons sampler kits as a Christmas gift a few years ago.

Yet another Sandy Orton sampler I am stitching is "Simple Blessings".  I received the chart in a wonderful book of patterns as a birthday gift.

I also worked on my Rambling Rose miniature sampler.  This was gifted to me in a prize drawing by Jo.  It is stitched on 40 ct gauze , which is transparent and delicate.  You can see the shadow cast behind it from the stitches in the photo.

I hope I can find a suitable tiny frame for it when it is finished.  It may just inspire me to make a tiny room in a tiny house to display it.

The final GG project I stitched on was "Quaker 2011", a freebie by Gazette94

I hope to have this piece completed soon!

The final WIPocalypse project I stitched on was "Ride to Dreamland".  This is an oldie ... I probably started it back around 1993!  It sat in storage for a long time ... and my progress seems to move at a snail's pace.  There is a lot of blending filament that adds lovely sparkle, but it's a "booger-bear" to stitch with.

Whew!  That was quite an update.
Happy Stitching!

Olympics SAL and August WIPocalypse Update

It's time for another WIPocalypse update and the wrap-up of my Olympics SAL projects.  For the Olympics SAL I worked on a different project each day to make progress on my many WIPs.   I showed the first 10 days in my previous post.

Above is my "Linen Sampler" by Nancy Rossi.  I stitched on this during Day 11 of the Olympics.  I only managed a little bit of stitching on this project, but was happy to make any progress after having it packed away for so long.

Day 12 of the Olympics I worked on Teresa Wentzler's "Summer Carousel Horse".  I added more to the border and the flowers and leaves at the top.

Day 13 of the Olympics I pulled out my "Carousel Tiger" designed by Angela Pullen.  This kit was short on 2 or 3 colors of floss and the blending filament - so I  had set it aside.  Now I have enough floss to cover it, so I started stitching on it, again.  (I have completed the Carousel Lion and Carousel Zebra.)

Day 14 of the Olympics: I happily stitched on my "Spring Sampler".  I completed all of the color stitching on the Hollyhock seed packet and have started the outlining (of which there is plenty).  This sampler is just so light and pretty.

On Day 15 of the Olympics I worked on my little blue and gold colored "Quaker 2011" a freebie by Gazette94.  It won't be long until I have this one finished.   I chose the colors as an experiment ... but they have grown on me.  I think they look kinda' cool together.

 
Day 16 of the Olympics I gave some love to the little schoolhouse photo on my "Autumn Sampler".   I didn't quite get it done, but it is moving along.

And on the final day of the Olympics, I stitched a frog.  I am adapting this cute little freebie frog into a birthday card for my mom.  I plan to have him sitting on the word "MOM" with a "Hoppy Birthday" above.  We'll see how it goes.

Whew!  I sure did stitch on a lot of projects during the Olympics!  One thing I realized is that while I do have tons of WIPs, I really enjoy working on each of them - for different reasons.  I will continue to whittle down my WIP list and make as much progress as I can before the end of the year.

I give myself one GOLD MEDAL for stitching every day during the Olympics, and one GOLD MEDAL for a mini marathon project on Day 3 - stitching the "Oh-so-cute hot air balloon" shown in a previous post from start to finish!

I can't wait to see what everyone accomplished during the stitch along.
Happy Stitching!

Olympics SAL and August Gifted Gorgeousness Update

Time for another Gifted Gorgeousness Update, and since I have been stitching on several of my GG projects during the Olympics SAL (stitch along) ... I will just combine both into one big post.

During the Opening Ceremonies, I started a new project.  "The Rambling Rose Sampler" (shown above) which was gifted to me by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching as a prize for a drawing.  This sampler is a miniature and is stitched on 40 ct gauze, which is the smallest and most delicate fabric I have worked on.  So far, so good.  I wanted to keep going with it, but I have limited stitching time and I had to move on to Day 2 of the Olympics, in which I worked on my "Colourful Alphabet Sampler".

Day 3 of the Olympics I worked start to finish on the adorable "Oh-so-cute hot air balloon" shown in my previous post, which I gifted to my sister.

Day 4 of the Olympics I stitched on my Butterfly Pillowcases, which were gifted to me by a non-stitchy friend.  These are a printed set of cross-stitch/embroidery pillowcases.

Day 5 of the Olympics I stitched on my "Too Much Honey Sampler", which was gifted to me by a non-stitchy friend.  I finished the area around Pooh and Piglet.

Day 6 of the Olympics I stitched on my "Simple Blessings" Sampler by Sandy Orton.  This chart is in the book "The Best of Kooler Design Studio", which I received as a gift (and love it - so many great patterns!)

Day 7 of the Olympics I stitched on "Chirpy Place", gifted to me by the same friend who gave me the other Pooh kit.

Day 8 of the Olympics I started adding another turkey to my "Give Thanks Sampler", which is a freebie project.

Day 9 of the Olympics I stitched on "Napping Kitten".  I did some fill-in work here and there.

Day 10 of the Olympics I was really sick with food poisoning (or something).  I became ill Saturday night and spent all day Sunday trying to sleep and recover.  Not a stitch was made.  So I will have to play catch up this week.

Overall I am happy with the progress I made and I can't wait to return to some of these projects!

I hope all of you have made some good progress this month, too.
Happy Stitching!