God Bless America

I love the 4th of July for two primary reasons: 1) My birthday is on the 2nd of July and I always look forward to that and then there's a major holiday right after it and everyone is in a good mood in spite of the heat. 2) It's a major holiday celebrating our freedom and basically being a great country to live in and let's face it, it's a beautiful country where you can travel all over and see beautiful sites and scenery and for the most part, people are friendly and intriguing where ever you roam.

Every year I stitch something patriotic, usually after the 4th (heehee). I always hang my stitched piece of America by Jean Farish that I completed on July 4th, 2007. I am proud of this design because it represents something unique to each state. Here's a picture below:

And here are a few close up pictures:

Here's the middle section:

and here's the bottom, what's funny about the bottom is I made a booboo. I didn't consult the chart when stitching the box for the bottom and made it the same height as all 50 boxes, then when I started stitching "Land that We Love" I discovered my mistake. So I changed the words to say "Land That I Love" and inserted a flag mounted in the "land" (with flowers) surrounded by "sea to shining sea". I couldn't believe how well it turned out and am so proud of the whole thing in general. Such a fun piece to stitch on, if you have this pattern do it!

Here's a couple of other smaller designs that I display:

This one is titled "Boston Tea Party", I get a kick out of the titles of some designs, they just make you want to stitch them and this one makes me laugh:

Those were all a Secret Needle Night design from The Silver Needle, so cute.

This last one to me, represents the whole summer:

Hope you enjoyed these lovely pieces. If you like Landy Antebellum's music listen to "Perfect Day", that's how I feel about the 4th, carefree!

Happy 4th of July Y'all!

Here Goes Another Year - both going and coming

What a whirlwind of a year 2010 has been. First off, it was an adjustment of going through each month without my sweet dad and his humor and wise words. He is missed beyond words and tears still sting my eyes often just thinking of him but none more than his birthday, Dec 16th. That was hard. Then there was the very unexpected death of my brother in law and helping my sister and the kids get through these past 2 months. It really seems like it's been 6 months. Wow! hard to believe it is only 2 months. The days seem longer.
Then, there was a major life adjustment as my husband and I started nursing school and going full blast into that before my husband got sick and landed in the hospital with complications of a kidney stone. Forced us to drop out of school after 6 months while we dealt with his complication and treatment. Then we started another school in the fall and are doing well in it.
I spent the majority of the summer stitching while we were waiting for classes to begin in the fall. Got a beautiful piece finished for my aunt ( The Art Nouveau lady) and then started another beauty (Classy Lady) for my cousin. Was nearly finished when my BIL passed away and then I didn't get to stitch for a whole month after that. But, lo and behold, it is completed and framed. I have to make time to meet with her and give it to her.
For Christmas, I had two Shepherd's Bush pieces framed for my mom and gave them to her for Christmas and she is really pleased with them. They turned out beautiful in matching frames and complimentary mats. They are Sophie's Roses and Peter's Patch. I bought more stash this year and seemed to stitch less but I am a happy stitcher with my stash!
My stitching goal for 2011 is to stitch more meaningful pieces, especially from my stash, and to clear out alot of older patterns that are piling up and I've lost interest in them. I still intend to continue my collection of Gingher Designer Scissors and GAST threads as I have the complete line of threads and many of the Limited Edition skeins which I realized that there are more LE skeins than the regular line now. That's ok, I stitch from both and my collection of Weeks Dye Works is growing. I am not trying to get the complete set of WDW as there are many colors that I'm not interested in.
I don't know what's going on with my computer and blogspot, I am not able to insert any pictures lately. That makes for some boring blogs. What's going on? I really hope my computer isn't about to crash.
So, Happy New Year to all and many blessings to everyone. I wish for everyone to stay safe, healthy and to find ways to help other people! God Bless!!