Update on Charlotte

Not much news here. Busy with all kind of things, packing, watching tennis...and Charlotte is still the one and only.

 Charlotte Clayton

Northwest Sampler Guild

36ct Lakeside Linen Vintage Sand Dune

recommended NPI silks

 

Please excuse the folds, but I was lazy and just let it hang down . The fabric isn't that blotchy looking. It's a shadow. In all honesty, the shadow spot comes closer to the real color.

I have a thing with birds. Isn't he just gorgeous?

Under Charlottes spell

Since I started this sampler, Charlotte Clayton is the one and only I'm working on. Although there is a bit of  muttering coming from the craft room at the back of the house, where I think Frederick is complaining a bit about the lack of attention to his already finished partner Fredericka.  But yeah, you know how men are, they always have something to mutter. I rather stay in the lounge with Charlotte and we're having some fun together.

Here she is. Glad that the over one stitching is over and done with.

For the rest there is not much new to tell. It's hot on some days, pouring rain on others.  We're busy to get everything ready and done by the end of the month  because on the 23rd of January we'll take the caravan and hit the ferry for a month of vacation in Tasmania. Really looking forward to that. Tasmania is new to me and I think it will be beautiful. A month of hiking.

Taking with me "Christmas Garden" by Blackbird Designs :) - if I don't change my mind...lol.

Anyway, gotta run. Charlotte is calling, and she can be rather impatient at times. So I better go and play a bit with her.

Do you do New Year Resolutions?

 Do you? I normally don't. And if...I normally fail in no time. I hate it to be restricted.

BUT...to give it at least a go,  I had a look in my basket of (partly) kitted up projects, and I think I might own a tad more then I can finish.

 

Blackbird Design:  – Loose Feathers Autumn, Summer, Winter (this one will be soon added!) – Christmas Garden,  Winter Wonderland, Anniversaries of the heart , Summer Basket, Awake the Dawning Day

 The Drawn Thread – The Marriage of Minds

 Scarlet Letter – Emma Miles 1848

 Plum Street Sampler – Turkey Love, Sergei, Boris Olga

 With Thy Needle and Thread  - Feather Thy Nest

 Rosewood Manor – Spring Quakers

 LHN – several 2010/2011 ornaments, The North Wind, Home of a Needleworker, Let Thy Heart be Merry, Neighborhood

 Shakespears Peddler:  Jenny Bean Christmas Sampler, Jenny Beans Friendship Sampler, Jenny Bean Halloween Sampler, Home Springs Eternal

 The Sampler Company:  Birds Sampler, Sweet Humility Sampler,  Floral  Sampler

 Carriage House Samplings: Black Willow Farm, Her Sampler, Molly

 Examplars of the Heart: Fancy Tulip

 Victoria Sampler: Jingle Bell Tree Farm, Where Stitchers Gather

 With My Needle: Pair of Pincushions

 Sheepish Designs: Ewe Alone

 Vermillion: Wisdom Sampler

 Betsy Morgan: Tiny Treasures

 Nora Corbett: Letter M and S

 Goode Huswife: Elizabeth Easton, Bird Keeper,  Ira Ray, Ida May, I the wed

 La d da - lazy alphabet, oh birdy,  and another small one which just fell back into the pile and I’m not gonna after it!!! Probably a bird of some sort

 

Couple of others, I don’t care at this point Somehow the pile got mixed up and I put all of them beauties back in the basket. My husband is wrong and I am NOT a hoarder!!!! I do COLLECT.

Oh, and and this doesn’t cover what’s all hidden in my cabinet. All the charts that happen not to be kitted up (yet).  We won’t talk about these won’t we? We stay friends…right?

Which means my resolution for 2012 should be that  I should stop buying charts, buy less charts and not kitting them up, be just a tad more sensible in my purchases!!!! Yeah, I can live with that - I think. I can be sensible (at times),

Insert a sigh of relief, and I found a New Years Resolution I can live with.  The sun shines again.

Speaking of  sun. It was SO hot here, wasn't funny anymore. Which meant I stayed under the airco and played with Charlotte

 

Raise a Glass of Cheer for 2012

I hope everone had a very blessed Christmas and enjoyed time spent with family and loved ones. We had here a reasonable quite time, and that was rather enjoyful. :)

With the old year rushing to it's end,  I would like to wish everyone now already a Very Happy New Year and hopefully the new year will bring only good things to you.  Let it be a healthy year, and a year without worries.  Let's all raise a glass of cheer on this wish shall we?

 Raise a Glass of Cheer

Designer: Black Bird Designs

Fabric: 32ct Belfast "Country Cream"

 Fibers: Gentle Art as recommended with one exeption

Replaced GA Old Red Paint with Threadworkx Cherry.

This design was laying was laying around in "almost finished" stage way too long. Trying to fool Santa into that I'm a good girl I quickly took the needle up (impressions are worth a lot after all).....

Alla Turca

Designer: Pelin Tezer

Stitched over one on 25ct Lugana White

with Threadworkx Bleeding Heart

It kinda worked. Got lots of stash for Christmas,. Lots of charts, but also.....ohhh sooooo happy.....

A color card of NPI silks. With real thread - finally I can mix and match to my hearts desire. SO happy with that. 

 

And then there also the Kangaroo scissors!!!!

Enough of that, may I introduce you to my newest bestest friend ever - the lovely Miss Charlotte Clayton. We're inseparable at the moment. 

 

 Charlotte Clayton

Northwest Sampler Guild

36ct Lakeside Linen Vintage Sand Dune

recommended NPI silks

Lastly poor little Frederik is trying to get a bit stitching on him done too. But you know how it is when girls get chatty. Not much done here yet.

 Frederick

Designer: Carriage House Samplings

Stitched on 40ct Lakeside Linens "Vintage Pearled Barley"

with NPI silks

Mary Allen 1818 and some other finishes

It's amazing what one can achieve if one's computer is having problems and shuts down all the time. When not being able to sit much at the computer, miraculously stitching seems to speed up. No clue how that comes. Still baffles me...lol.

The good thing about it is though (Insert Happy Dance here): Just in time for Christmas, Mary Allen is finished. Here she is:

Village Square Sampler - Mary Allen 1818

By Samplers Remembered

Stitched on 36ct Edinburgh "Buttercream" from Silkweaver

with NPI silks 

Also finished is:

With Affection

Part one of "A Petit Sampling Etui

Designer Louise Henderson by Cherished Stitches

Fabric: 36ct Silkweaver linen "Heritage" 

Recommended Crescent Color Threads

 

 And I finished 2 ornaments for my aunt and uncle who adore their schnauzer and cat.

 

Designer:  Ladybug Lane Designs

Design: "Plaid Greetings"

Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue2009

Fabric: 32ct opalescent Lugana from Silkweaver in the color "Forest"

Fibers: Gentle Art, Threadworx and Silk n Color

  Designer: Bittercup Designs

Design: Get into the Spirit

Just Cross Stitch Ornament Issue 2009

Fabric: 32ct Belfast from Silkweaver

Fibers: Weeks Dye, Crescent Colors and Gentle Art

On Christmas Eve I traditionally start something new. This year it will be the Charlotte Clayton Sampler from the North West Sampler Guild. I'm looking SO forward to stitch this beautiful sampler. I lost count of the times that I went to Margaret's blog to drool over her Charlotte Clayton.

And there is good news on the puppy front. Ashley sort of recovered. She will now need heart meds twice daily but all by all she is doing fine. Not that she got spoiled. Spoiled might really not be the right word....lol. It's something beyond that. Oh well, I'm just glad that she's better. Here she is with my aunt. 

That's all from sunny warm Australia. I wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and leaving you with an impression of Christmas in sunny Australia :)

Couple of finishes and a sick puppy :(

First of all, an ornament exchange I took part in. 

This is the ornament Marie stitched for me. Isn't it gorgeous? I put a pair of scissors next to it to show how small it is.Such a delicate stitching, and perfect finishing.

 Designer: Birds of a Feather

Peace Angel

stitched over one on 32ct linen

by Marie

The ornament I made for Carla:

Designer: Fancy Work

Design: Jingle all the Way

from 2009 JCS Christmas Ornament Issue

Fabric: 36ct linen from Silkweaver in the color "Purely Primitive"

Dinky Dyes Silk and Silk n Color

Frederika is finished... and waiting for me to start her man so that she won't be lonely.

Designer: Carriage House Samplings

Design: Frederika

Fabric: 40ct Lakeside Linens Vintage Pearled Barley
NPI silks

The vacation project got finished as well....

Dimension kit " Scenic Farm"

Artwork from Mildred Sands Kratz

Cotton floss on 18ct aida

After coming home from Germany,  my husband and I took the dogs and went up the coast  for some fishing and walking. Of course we treated both dogs with anti tick drops. Sadly that didn't work. Ashley got 3 ticks, and barely survived that. Because these ticks were paralysis ticks, and they do have a rather deadly result for dogs. Only an anti tick serum might save an infected dog. We had to rush Ashley to the vet were she got the serum and was hospitalized. Being back home for now, she is still sick, has still trouble breathing and walks as if drunk, but she will recover. Although it all has worsened her heart, because from now on she needs daily medication for her heart. :(
.

 A very sick little cuddle bunny, with chopped hair to make sure there are no nasties left behind

Someone else also shaken by the events and missing her sister

Sadly my online time is still limited. Although I do enjoy reading all blogs on my bloglist, I mainly do that from my phone. But I plan to somehow find some more time to sit at the computer and leave some comments on the gorgeous work I drool daily over. :)

A sad time....

Sadly enough I have to say good bye to blogging for a while. My stepfather passed away, which was rather unexpected, and I am in a hurry to fly out to Germany to attend the funeral and give my mother a helping hand for couple of weeks.
It's unlikely I will be able to be online often, although I take my laptop with me. No clue when  I'll be back and be able to visit yahoo groups, forums and blogs. My mother is 82 years old and has first priority in this sad time. Not sure what to say else, it's all quite upsetting.

On a more cheerful note, I just drew a name for the  chart and Giovanna is the winner. Congrats :)