Monday, November 21, 2011

Pictures!

As promised earlier, here they are!

Frost was busy painting my windows...


I look at the outside thermometer and literally froze


Mind you, the winter didn't start yet... birds didn't mind at all





but I was stitching! Here is my Pirate Santa


and Computer Catastrophes


So long friends,
Evalina

IHSW - Sunday

The temperatures dropped to -35 C, perfect day to stay indoors with a hot cup of coffee and stitch the day away. And again I hoped to accomplish much more that I actually did... I did not make the ornament, I stitch very little on my Pirate Santa but I brought to daylight Computer Catastrophes again. I stitched part with a lot of confetti stitches so I didn't go very far...

There is no pictures in today's post yet but I promise, cross my heart, that they will be here shortly. I stitched last night until my eyes could not see any more and I was to tired to do updates. I will do them this evening!

So long friends,
Evalina

Sunday, November 20, 2011

IHSW - Saturday

I thought I would accomplish a little more this Saturday... well, I stared my day with visiting other blogs, yahoo groups etc. and before I knew it, it was a lunch time!

Regardless my late start I stitched an ornie that I will try to finish today (actually make an ornament from that stitched piece)


and worked a tiny bit on my Pirate Santa...



Now it is only 7 in the morning and we'll see what a new day will bring...

So long my friends,
Evalina

Saturday, November 19, 2011

IHSW - Friday

It was a first day of International Hermit and Stitch Day hosted by Joyce and since it was a cold day in the Yukon I hermit inside my cabin and didn't go outside even for a minute. I changed my working hours, I work 10 hrs a day for 4 days and I'm taking Fridays off. It saves me couple hours of commuting to work and gives me an extra day off!

In the late morning I was distracted by visitors:



awesome looking Pine Grosbeaks. They do not visit often but yesterday they were all over!

And, of course, I was stitching. I decided to pick something from my last crazy January challenge, something that I could finish during this weekend. Pirate Santa looked like a nice project, so Pirate Santa it was!


Today is as cold as was yesterday so thanks to Joyce for IHSW! I will work on my assignment (yeah, I'm taking another course - managerial accounting is on today's burner) and I will stitch and stitch and stitch some more! I have no idea which project will grab my attention, please comeback later to check it out.

So long friends,
Evalina

Thursday, November 17, 2011

weather

It's cold in the Yukon.Click here to see for yourself! I should now better, it's my seventh winter here. No matter what, I am not ready for temperatures "below normal" and that's exactly what is happening now. So much for the global warming. It suppose to affect north the most and I was hoping for some decent weather but guys, believe me, nothing like that is happening here, just wishful thinking. The truth is that we are going into the ice age!

I decided to join International Hermit and Stitch Weekend hosted by Joyce (it's not too late, if you want to join us just pop in to her blog and sign up). So I will stay home by my cozy wood stove and stitch, and stitch and stitch some more. I think I will work on my Pirate Santa, the oldest UFO, some Christmas ornies and Computer Catastrophes.

look what I've got!

A while ago Helen was looking for a beautiful Acorn Sampler. She asked her question on a few cross stitching yahoo groups and got the answer... it was in Donna Kooler's encyclopedia of needlework. Since a fell in love with this sampler also, I ordered the book... It came yesterday!!!


OMG, what a treasure! I found there tons of awesome things: new stitches, new techniques, just to name a few.


Of course I will stitch the sampler


But look on that needlebook, isn't lovely?


and that beautiful pillow...

I want to learn all these techniques and do them all!

hugs,
Evalina

Sunday, November 13, 2011

poppy biscornu

Finally I put together my poppy biscornu and, IMHO, it is the prettiest biscornu I've ever done!

both pieces stitched, cross and back, beads are added

and 
TaRa!
all done!

Now, back to stitching!
Evalina

Friday, November 11, 2011

In Flanders Field

Colonel John McCrae, who was Professor of Medicine at McGill University in Canada before WW1 (joined the McGill faculty in 1900 after graduating from the University of Toronto), first described the red poppy, the Flanders’ poppy, as the flower of remembrance.
Although he had been a doctor for years and had served in the Boer War as a gunner, but went to France in WW1 as a medical officer with the first Canadian contingent.


At the second battle of Ypres in 1915, when in charge of a small first-aid post, he wrote in pencil on a page from his dispatch book a poem that has come to be known as "Flanders’ Field" which described the poppies that marked the graves of soldiers killed fighting for their country. The major was no stranger to writing, having authored several medical texts besides dabbling in poetry. In the nearby cemetery, McCrae could see the wild poppies that sprang up in the ditches in that part of Europe.

McCrae's "In Flanders’ Fields" remains to this day one of the most memorable war poems ever written. It is a lasting legacy of the terrible battle in the Ypres salient in the spring of 1915.

In Flanders’ Fields


In Flanders’ Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders’ Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders’ Fields.



The wearing of the poppy to keep faith began when an American, Miss Moira Michael, read the poem "In Flanders Field" and was so greatly impressed that she decided always to wear a poppy to keep the faith. Miss Michael wrote a reply after reading "In Flanders Field" entitled "We Shall Keep the Faith":



Oh! You who sleep in Flanders’ fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew;
We caught the torch you threw;
And holding high we kept
The faith with those who died.
We cherish, too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valour led.
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders’ Fields.
And now the torch and poppy red
Wear in honour of our dead
Fear not that ye have died for naught
We’ve learned the lesson that ye taught
In Flanders’ Fields.


Monday, November 7, 2011

November - Poppy Month

This coming Fridays is Remembrance Day in Canada and I call a whole month of November a Poppy Month since most of us wear poppies in honor of our soldiers for much longer than just a day.  In my stash I have a lovely poppy biscornu chart from Creative Poppy and what's a better time to make it than now? Last weekend I was able to almost finish the top part:


To tell you the truth the piece is looking much nicer in reality than on the picture (maybe because I was taking this pic late in the evening...) I think it will be the pretties  biscornu I've ever made. I still have to do back stitching and put some beads on this part but I like it already.

This Friday is not only Remembrance Day it is also my 7 anniversary coming to Yukon. It will be my seventh long cold winter... Should I have a giveaway for this occasion? What do you think?

So long friends,
Evalina