Destiny's Victorian/Christmas Stocking

I believe this is the last of the details I have for you on this stocking at the moment. It is nearing the end of the embellishment stage, soon I will assemble the stocking.

Please click for a close up view. Some of these things you have seen before so I won't explain them again. The vine however, is made with Sassa Lynne Perle cotton threads (I know..what else? LOL), using the chain stitch and french knots.















I have been completely lazy this last couple of weeks, not stitching much at all, just a little here and there. Instead I have been reading a book by Lois Hallock called Creating Your Perfect Quilting Space. Since we are now at the electrical stage on the new studio, it is time to decide on some of the permanent things like lighting, switches and plugs. I did get out and drill some holes to run the wire through yesterday. If you'd like to see some of the progress on that project visit my Wyoming blog where I have kept a running account of the building process.

Destiny's Christmas Stocking

Some more details of my DGD's stocking

This first seam is done in Sassa Lynne threads with flower sequins that Susan shared with me, topped with burgundy beads.















More Sassa Lynne on the half circles and DMC floss for the detached chains. I was trying to echo the design in the fabric.















The circle motif is done in pink rayon, with a flower bead in the center.















That is it for today. I am getting down to the last bits of this stocking, it won't be long until it can be assembled.

Pinkeeper 2

Pinkeeper #2 is done and both are in the mail on their way to be swapped.


The fabrics used came from Candi @ Candi's Eye Candy
Some of the prettiest greens I have seen and I just had to use them for this
pinkeeper. The heart motif is really a place to put a pair of small embroidery
scissors. If you click for a close up you will see the tiniest sequins on the
2 seams at the top, Susan gave those to me along with a bunch of other fun
additions to my bead, thread and ribbon stash......she is very generous.















The back is done in Sassa Lynn threads, except the heart which came from
ESD in one of the Treasury Club packages. I hope who ever gets this will enjoy
it, I almost kept it for myself.

She Sleeps in a Thong.

I just had to share this with you all. We got a new kitten, not sure of her name yet, probably
Miss Meu. She is 8 weeks old and has pretty markings and blue eyes.

I was standing talking with my friend Susan Nixon of CQ4fun, who came for a 4 day visit with hubby Paul, and took my foot out of my flip flop, ya know how ya do and put my foot on my leg. Well when I wanted to put my foot back in my sandal guess who was asleep in it. I do not know what possessed her to do this but she did. She slept there for about 30 minutes.















We laughed and laughed over this. She does like shoes and we find her playing in them often. She is full of vim and vinegar. She loves to climb out pant legs (which can be a problem when we are in shorts), I now have a cat swatter instead of a fly swatter, LOL, thankfully it doesn't take much to detour her, she is persistent though. She has already taken over the house, the big cat is not to pleased with her and avoids her, I hope they will become fast friends. We have not let her be around the dogs to much, just because they are labs and she could get hurt, though I have a feeling she will make it known, that she is a tough cookie.















Susan and Paul just pulled out, we had such a good time together, it is already to quite/lonely.

More on our visit later.

Vacation

Our vacation was so nice. We took a trip to North Dakota with Kirk's parents.

Our first stop was Mount Rushmore. This was my first time there and it is quite impressive. All the state in the union are represented. We spent about 2 hours learning about this amazing sculpture. Kirk even talked to one of the surviving men who worked on it.















Later that day we got to the exact middle of North America, which is in Rugby, ND. We took Flat Stanley with us on many of our adventures.
















Our final destination is Cando, ND. Kirk's grandparents on both sides settled here long ago. It is a farming community and his cousins still have the Odegaard family farm. Of 13 children, 7 are still living and able to attend the family gathering. We did alot of visiting. I felt like I belonged right away, which is so nice. There was a birthday party for all the siblings, some turning 80 this year. After the party we were able to spend the evening in the former home of Kirk's grandparents, lots of good family memories were shared. There were about 60 family members present.

The next day we got to go out and see the family farm and we had a great time. We were treated to rides on some of the farm equipment like the sprayer below. These are all GPS guided and quite comfortable, I should have been a farmers wife because I was out on the farm and in the fields, not in the house with all the other women. LOL.















The crops that they are growing are wheat, corn and sunflowers. It is so amazing to see miles and miles of sunflowers, some will with their petals.....so beautiful. Flat Stanley had to have his picture taken with the big tractor and in the sunflowers.


Just look at all of the
sunflowers. I got to
bring a couple home for
fall decoration.









We also went on a tour of Devils Lake. This town is in danger of flooding. Back in the olden days people settled around this huge inland lake, as the water receded during dry years people followed the water line, building and farming on the now dry land. The problem with that is, the lake is rising and now alot of these farms and fields are under 15 feet of water, the town of Devils Lake has now installed dikes to hold back the water which is today 10 feet higher then the homes in the lower parts of town, which is over half of town. The lake has not reached it peak of an addition 10 feet at which point any excess can then drain away. It is amazing to me how people can ignore this fact, but they do. There is enough water in the lake to flood many miles of land. I guess Fargo is experiencing similar problems with the river that runs through it.

All in all a very enjoyable trip and a good time with family.

PinKeeper

We are doing a pinkeeper swap over on CQI. This is my first one.

Side 1















Side 2















These are made using old CD's. You can find a tutorial on Lyn's blog @
http://quiltinglion.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-make-cd-pin-keeper.html

More details

A couple more of the treatments from Desi's stocking.