A finish and a new start

I'm so delighted! My M. Quertier 1799 is all done, DONE, DONE!

I've change initials inside the motifs to honor Nicola's blog participants, JP is for Jo who can't think of a clever nick name. Jo is helping Nicola to manage her blogs. NP is for Nicola, the birthday girl who started the Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year  MVV is for Marsha of The Scarlet Letter and of course my own EZ. I left the original 'MQ to MN 1799' and the 'M. Quertier 1799'.
I stitched this piece on the 35ct linen that came with the kit with 1 strand of black silk. I love the silk so much that now I even can't imagine of going back to DMC. Thank goodness that my next project (Ann Kirby Sampler) is also done with silks.

This is the sampler:

and my WIP (work in progress). It's also stitched on 35ct linen with lovely silk threads.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Surprise!!!

Friday's mail brought a surprise to me. Anne of Doll's Musings had a giveaway for followers and I was the lucky winner. And I do mean it when I say lucky. She sent to me a whole package full of goodies along with a beautiful card

There was a tea and chocolates, and ribbons, and a beautiful piece of fabric with gorgeous floss

but the most precious gift I could ever imagine was a treasure box made by Anne herself

I can almost feel the joy, see the smile on her face when she was stitching this precious piece. Now I'm smiling looking at it. I love the blossoms and the bird and will cherish this box forever. Thank you Ann from the bottom of my heart.

I can't believe it but I do have a 'stitchy' update. I was working on M. Quertier 1799 and here is my progress:

 

I think I'm half way done, there is only twelve more motifs left to stitch and the writing. If I could stitch one motif a day I could be done by the end of the month! 

So long my friends,

Evalina

Happy name day to me!

The weather is awesome, snow all gone, snow tires in the storage, temperatures in 70s.  What a gorgeous day to celebrate. Yep, today I'm celebrating my name day. If you want to know more about name day click here.

And I have a little stitchy progress to show you. Last week I was working on M. Quertier 1799 and I was able to finish another motif:

All together there is 26 motifs and I have done 11. I'm almost half done!

I was also working on Miss Mary Mack and the more I stitch the more I like her :)

And look what snail mail brought to me:

A beautiful pair of earrings made by Rachel from Blue Finch. Thank you so much my dear, the timing is perfect! If you like to see more of her awesome creation follow this link: Blue Finch store. I spotted there 'must have' pearls and some more...

Now I'm back to celebrations!

So long my friends,
Evalina

IHSW

Last night was snowing here. Can you imagine? Its May 20 for god's sake! I was hoping that the white stuff will be gone by the morning, but I was just dreaming...

Doggies did not mind at all but I would like to do some gardening! Believe me or not - The Maritimes look closer and closer to me...

Frosty Girl is growing nicely and I can't hold her anymore the way Freddy does. My little puppy is too big and too heavy already.

I've made some progress on M. Quertier 1799 last weekend. Can you see? I've done two motifs!

Unfortunately the 'M' had to go. It was too big and in the wrong spot. Now I need your advice. Look on the picture below - I think it is a little too crowded where the writing is. I think I would like to move the motif above the writing a little lower, place the writing in the marked area on the bottom right and move the motif above the area a little higher. What do you think?

So long my friends,
Evalina

IHSW nad May two-four

It's a long weekend and I have so many plans. It's also a third weekend of the month, famously knows as IHSW (International Hermit and Stitch Weekend), time when a whole bunch of stitchers go to their corners and do their stitching marathons. Today I was working very little on M. Quertier 1799 and I started Miss Mary Mack

and I'm planning to work on these two pieces this weekend. Will see how much I can have done...

Are you wonder what May two-four stand for? I wrote about last year, here is the link.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Turtle Trot

Did anyone said that spring is near? Well, not here! That is what I woke up to this morning...

 And I've completely forgot to post my Turtle Trot update. I'm a day late but here it is:

The poor 'Halloween House' was neglected for way too long. It started as a SAL with Linda of Stitching with my Furbabies  over a year ago. There is eleven of stitching same project and so far only one was finished so I still have a chance not to be a last one to finish it... It is back on Q-snaps and has a few more stitches in. From now on I will work on HH every Friday.

'Good Morning' got the writing done and from now on I will stitch this project only once a week on Thursdays

M. Quertier 1799 has another motif done and from now on I'm dedicating Sundays to Scarlet Letter projects.

So long my friends,
Evalina

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Stitchy weekend

Joysze of Random Ramblings is holding IHSW on the third weekend of every month. Over 100 of us were hermiting and stitching this weekend. I was able to finish (just the stitching part) my C. 1800 Pincushion 

Fabric: 25ct Doublin Linen (antique white)

Floss: Soie D'Alger silk

All stitched with petite cross stitches (one over one)

I also worked on M. Quertier 1799. More I stitch this quaker, more I like it!

So long friends,

Evalina

Is it Monday already?

I have no idea where the weekend went. Friday morning I woke up with a fever and a nasty flu. I did not go to work, I did not stitch, I did nothing. The 'Grow Your Blog' party was going on but I could not stay too long on the front of the monitor. I slept, slept and slept some more. Rest helped a little...

I have visited every single participating blog, I've met many other stitchers, artists, writers, photographers and other talented people. I fell in love with many forms of art. I decided to learn Italian so I can visit Tuscany. I also want to learn how to quilt. My bucket list has grown tremendously.

I will have more than one surprise giveaway. Last time I looked there were 133 comments on my entry post, means 133 people have entered. How can I have just one gift! I think I will make five, that will be more fair.

I managed to stitch a little and I was working on M. Quertier 1799

I guess my next project is to answer all the emails I'm receiving during the party. A few more days at my nine to five job (this Friday is the last day, really!) and my life can be normal again.

So long my friends,
Evalina

Year end thoughts

December is almost over and the whole 2012 is almost over. Let's see how I did with my December challenges:

• Work on Willpower  checked!
• Finish my lovely pirate Santa   checked! It's all done.
• Keep working on 'Songs of the Season'  checked! And still waay to go!
• Buy floss for my new bell pull    checked!
• Start on Scarlet Letter kits right after they arrive. I'm not sure which one but I think I will start with the pincushion   checked! I've started both of them :)
• Read one book a week. Looks like I'm a slow reader... but I'm reading every day a few pages
• File back taxes. Nope, not yet... It has to go on my January list.  

It looks like the 'little steps' were working for me in December and I think I will keep setting my goals for every month in 2013.


The last few days I totally dedicated to M. Quertier 1799

and I'm very happy with the progress. The more I stitch this piece, the more I like it.

Tomorrow I'm starting another SAL, this time with Tama of Stitching Daze. We will be stitching 'Snowing' together.

The kitty looks like he is enjoying himself in the fluffy snow - it will be a fun stitch. I'm all ready and set to go!

May the 2013 be the best year ever! 

Happy New Year everyone!!!

 So long my friends,
Evalina

A little stitching

I hope all of you are enjoying holidays. Days are still pretty cold here and this week is the darkest week of the year. The sun rises at 10:12 in the morning and sets at 3:50 afternoon. I noticed that today is 1 minute longer than yesterday. That's a good sign! Soon days will get much longer (in a speed of 6 minutes per day)and in no time it will be daylight 24/7. It is so much easier to stitch with a day light! Regardless the darkness and company coming over for Christmas dinner I manage to stitch a little:

 M. Quertier 1799

c. 1800 Gift Pincushion

I wasn't 'in love' with M. Quertier at first but more I stitch of it, more I like it. With the pincushion is a whole different story - a love from the first stitch! Both pieces are stitched with silk floss on linen. M. Quertier sampler is stitched with 1 thread of black silk over 2 threads of fabric and the pincushion 1 over 1.

In my previous post I wrote about my disappointment with the shortage of the floss in the kit. My problem is solved! I've contacted the Scarlet Letter and remaining floss is on the way. Marsha, the owner of The Scarlet Letter is  a very nice person, it was a pleasure to deal with her.

So long my friends,

Evalina

A finish and a few new starts...

It looks like we all have survived another end of the world, just as expected by many. The mercury is still down - I'm not in the mood for shopping or even going outside. But I'm always in the mood for stitching. You will not believe it - I finished my Pirate Santa!

Really, he is all done and hanging. I started to stitch him a long time ago, he was a WIP and, for some unknown to me reason, became an UFO. It was on my December challenge list to have him done and now I can put a check mark beside his name.

And since we have enter a new season I wanted to start something new. I looked and looked through my stash and couldn't decide... then I spotted Paddy's Luck, all kitted up and ready to go.

Yeah, that's the one I want to stitch. Let's bring some rainbows and sunshine and let's forget the cold, dark winter!

I'm stitching Paddy on the 22ct antique tan hardanger with two threads over one. What you see there are about 360 stitches of 54,015 and some. Long way to go!

Yesterday I checked my mail and to my surprise I found there couple kits from Scarlet Letter. (Well, I shouldn't be so surprised, I ordered them a month ago.) Nicola of Stitching By A Cornish Sea Shore is celebrating her 50 birthday by dedicating a whole 2013 to charts from Scarlet Letter (she must really love them, eh?) She has created a blog Nicola's Scarlet Letter Year and many of us joined her to celebrate her birthday by stitching her favorite charts. I not only never stitched them before, I never even heard of them! Anyway, for the start I bought two kits (time is an issue so I couldn't be bother with buying charts and try to kit them up). To make Nicola happy I started both of them:

A lovely c. 1800 Gift Pincushion is stitched over one on 26 ct linen with 1 strand of silk. The silk is lovely to work with and my previous practice with HAED makes this an easy stitch. I am a little disappointed with the kit as not everything what suppose to  be included was included. The most worry I have is about floss. For example the package says that there should be 6 strands of dark navy silk but included was only 5... I've contacted The Scarlett Letter and we'll see what will happen.

And the second was a lovely quaker

stitched also with silk. (Ignore that tiny blue mark on the top. It is from my water erasable marker, it will disappear with a little water). The instructions are saying that I should use only 1 strand of silk over 2 threads of fabric (it's 36ct linen). The coverage isn't the greatest but when I looked at it from 5 feet away, it looks perfect.

So there, one little finish followed by three big starts - not bad eh? Now I have to work on some other WIPs so they don't become UFOs (unfinished objects).

So long my friends,
Evalina