To Market I Go

Hello friends.

For those into Cross Stitch,

in  March designers all go to Nashville, TN

for the release of their new patterns.

All of the online shops share pictures

of what the designers 

will be releasing at market.

I decided to show you my top picks that

I have on my first, and second bucket list.

Then those maybe's I am mulling on.

These I will get right away.

 

Coco's Garden by Teresa Kogut.

Love how this was made into a basket.

Simply love the muted reds of this sampler.

This is called

A French Rose by

Running With Needles and Stitches.

Be Still My Heart by

Samplers Not Forgotten

Would love to do it in these colors

 of the motif of flowers

on the left in the above pic.

Changing the fabric to a white or cream

would change also change up the colors.

Just a thought right now.

Audie's Pink House by

Fox and Rabbit

I would change the house to Colonial Rose 

which I would prefer more to pink.

Next my second list...will order these

throughout the year once released.

Georgian Floral Basket

by JBW Design

A nice Valentine one.

Again will change the colors up a bit.

Cocoa and Kisses by Annie Beez Folkart

A Winter stitch for later on in the year.

A cool Halloween one.

This is Dance Party by

Autumn Lane Stitchery.

Then these I am still mulling over.

Eyelet Sampler Roll

by Lucy Beam 

Not a real fan of the eyelet stitch...

but do like this small sampler.

I could just do it in cross stitches though.

Peace Sampler by The Mindful Needle

Another smaller sampler.

Could be a candidate for a blessing one

 for next January. 

A French Summer Sampler by

Shakespeare's Peddler

I may get this one as a tribute to my 

great- great paternal grandparents

who were born in France,

while adding in their info for my heritage pieces.

Stench Stack by

Plum Street Samplers

I think this pattern is so stinkin cute!

Well my friends...this is my list of market releases

that caught my eye.

Do you have any favorites?

In other news,

Lauren asked me how many patterns 

I start in a week.

Well actually I start on average

two per month...then I rotate.

As Saundra calls it...need a spare to work on

when I get bored.

Many spares in my case. LOL

My co-worker resigned on Monday.

He and I have worked together for 25 years.

He had been there for 28 years,

with me being there 29.

I started in a different area before

teaming up with him.

He called me late Friday to tell me.

I was shocked and he had me crying.

He was my partner in crime. LOL

My work husband and we always had 

a great rapport. 

I know his wife and watched his kids grow up.

He knows Bob and came to our store lots of times.

It was a sad day on Monday...but he

saw the writing on the wall too,

and decided to get another job.

He is only in his early 50's, so 

I completely understand his reasoning,

but still sad that I wont be seeing him

or talking to him daily now.

I thought I would be leaving before him...

since I am retiring next year.

He beat me to it.

Its been only 3 days since his departure.

Now I am faced with the task of

continuing without him and letting 

our customers know who will be replacing him.

Am I confident they will be in good hands...

we will see...then again I will be leaving soon...

so will I be confident then too that 

they once again will be in good hands...

only time will tell.

Off to work my friends.

It is almost the weekend.

Thank goodness.

Market Blessings To All!

Janice

Sunday Starts

 

Hope all is well with you my friends.

Am glad March is here.

However it came in like a lion here.

Very windy and cold.

Am hoping it goes out like a lamb now.

Today I have two new starts to share.

The first is this St Patty's Day theme.

Speaking of lambs, 

this pattern is called Lucky Ewe

by the Proper Stitcher.

Stitching this on 30ct Aspen.

Decided to use floss on hand

instead of purchasing more...

but not happy with the color I chose

for the shamrock in the vase.

Cannot see it. UGH

I have to re-think this one out.

I did purchase this project bag.

Perfect for St. Patty's Day.

Next is the 12 Days of Christmas Stockings.

This patten is by Annie Beez.

The called for linen is a black 14 ct aida.

No way was I going to stitch on black linen.

Am doing this on 28 ct Earth.

It will be the same size, 

just a smaller count linen.

Well I thought this was finished,

but I realize I did not finish 

the lower right branch.

Will need to do this.

It also calls for beads.

I am only going to add the beads

 in the numbers which I have not done yet.

Hopefully I can get these done for Christmas.

In other news,

Yesterday I made wet beef burritos for dinner.

Bob made us some strawberry margaritas.

Both were good.

Tonight will make a roast chicken

with mashed potatoes and cream style corn.

Finish up my laundry and clean today.

Hopefully have time to stitch.

The wind moved the ice a bit.

It was nice to see blue water again,

and the ducks came back.

Just love watching the little diving ones.

Well off to make some chocolate chip pancakes

with some bacon for breakfast.

Let me know how March came in for you.

Sunday Blessings To All!

Janice

Whippy Wednesday

Hello friends.

Today I have lots of WIP's

to show you.

Hope you do not get bored. 

When I last showed this sampler

as a homage to my grandmothers,

I had the morning glory and dog finished.

Now the third and final motif is complete.

I wanted the third motif to reflect 

something that remined me of 

my grandmothers...not this bird.

They both had chickens on their farms...

so I purchased another pattern

called Spring Chickens Pinkeep

by Stacy Nash.

In the antique world this is called a marriage.

When you take a part of one piece

of furniture and add it to another.

So I did it to this stitched piece I am doing.

It was a perfect marriage indeed.

I also added in my paternal grandmother.

Ilda Husson 1903-1986

Working now on the final row,

then will add in my maternal grandmother,

then finally after that the bottom border.

Getting close to the finish line.

Next up is the Prairie Schooler Mini February.

Just finished up the second pane.

This is suppose to be a groundhog.

Not sure if this will be done this year though.

Taking longer than expected.

This is where I left off doing Two Hearts.

I now have one snowman holding a heart completed.

This one will also go back into hiding

until next year now.

I am tired of Winter.

Getting the urge for Spring now.

This is where I finished up 

on this pattern last year.

It is called Spring Gathering. 

Started working on it once again.

Almost finished now with the bunny.

Added in the key and a few motifs.

Working on this one during my lunch at work.

Just not sure if I should outline his tail.

What do you think?

It seems like forever that I picked up a hook.

This was Potted Plant 

before I put my hook down.

I finally picked it up and hooked a bit more.

It took me longer to try and find

 my wool than it did to hook this.

UGH

I forgot where I put the wool I had

planned out for this piece.

Still have not found it...so I re-planned

this part out again.

Finally Viola Martini.

This red sampler will include

all of my great grandmother's 

names and information for my 

heritage wall.

I finished the first set of alphabets.

In place of the crown at the far right,

I added in my initials and the two

digit year on the right.

There are no letter "J's" in this pattern,

so I had to make up my letter "J".

I took the number 25 from the numbers

in the pattern.

Am using the floss color

Cranberry by Classic Colorworks.

Although you really cannot see it,

there is a variegation to this floss.

It goes from dark to a medium color.

In other news,

these past few days we had 50 degree weather.

It was so nice...but the cold will return.

Not sure if we will get rain or freezing rain.

Our backyard is getting mushy from 

the snowmelt that even Tundra does not

want to walk on the grass.

The coast guard is back.

I believe they are monitoring the ice bridge 

in lower Lake Huron.

Once that breaks, the ice will come down

into our river.

It is already jammed down here,

so they have been cutting the ice trying

to get it moving...but with 

Lake St Clair 100% covered in ice,

not sure where it will be going.

Our St Clair river is between 

Lake Huron and Lake St Clair.

Changes are coming at work.

The job I do is being more

centralized with my peers being 

afraid our jobs will be cut.

They keep saying this Summer things

will be different....I see the writing on the wall.

I told my boss if she needs to let someone go,

she can let me go.

I would get a years severance....

and since I plan on retiring next February

anyway, I don't care if they let me go. 

If it means I can save another person's job

who needs it more than I do, then so be it.

Well off to work I go for now.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the week.

Wednesday Blessings To All!

Janice

 

 

It's The Love Month

I keep my Valentine's decor out 

the entire month of February. 

The month of love is almost 

over as I call it.

Not many folks I know decorate

for Valentine's, but I do.

Let's start off where I placed Eliza's French Birds.

The pears and hearts I also made over the years.

Bob brought home this red enameled milk pail.

I told him it would be perfect in one of my displays.

I also have a blue one...so now I just need 

a white one...can you guess why???

I happened to find these dark pink lights

in my laundry room back in December.

Why they were in there is beyond me....

but thought they would look pretty on my tree

for the month of February.

When they are on at night, they look more 

of a dark pink...not as light as these pics.

My snowman likes them anyway. LOL

If you noticed...I added some of my

crocheted hearts to my tree too.

Hall display.

Bedroom display.

As you can see I mostly love red.

I just purchased this heart.

It was made from an antique coverlet piece.

LOVE IT!

A few red textiles out.

My prim doll holding a Hershey's kiss.

I made yo yo's from fabric and created 

this heart pillow.

My teddys came out to enjoy the month.

I also made this wool penny mat.

Tea stained it to make it look a bit old.

In other news,

the second polar vortex is over...

lets hope it wont come back.

Thursday morning as I headed out of my

driveway early in the morning for work,

I had to stop a few houses from mine.

There was a deer in the middle

of my street.

I stopped and it finally took off.

Then another one crossed which

I did not see at first.

 Just glad I was not going fast. 

Not only was I surprised to see the deer,

I was more surprised they were out there

as it was snowing pretty hard that morning.

Then when I got to work,

as I was pulling into the parking lot,

I hit a patch of ice and almost ran into

the shrubs. 

The road in to the lot is not lit and I did not see the ice.

God was with me that morning for sure.

So I read this week that

the ice on Lake Erie is near 98% coverage

which is skewing the totals for all of

our Great Lakes total being at 33% now.

This really means that the other lakes are 

really not that much covered in ice, because

Lake Erie is making the combined numbers higher.

Our state is surrounded by 4 of the 5 lakes.

We have Lake Superior to the way North.

Lake Michigan is to the West of where I live.

Lake Huron starts an hour North of me.

Lake Erie is about 1 1/2 hours South of me.

Lake Ontario is the only lake that does not

border Michigan.

Just thinking of all that ice

is making me cold. LOL

Decided to make some chicken noodle soup

today for dinner.

Keep warm out there my friends.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Love Blessings To All!

Janice