Smokin' Needles

I think that the fall weather agrees with me. The cool, crisp air. The fall breezes through the open windows. The start of FOOTBALL season!! It's pretty apparent that I love baseball, although I have to say that my beloved Yankees have been giving me fits for the last few days, but I digress. Back to the start of football season. Sunday was my day to sit on the couch, watch football, and stitch! It reminded me of the Sunday afternoons before MJ and I had kids! LOL!!



I have been busy and I can say that this feeling of accomplishment that I have right now is so very satisfying! My needles have been smoking, be it my embroidery needle, or the needle on my sewing machine. So, if you ready to join me on this latest leg of my stitching journey, follow me through this picture heavy post!



In the last week my sewing machine and I have become very close, although it has had its moments where I'm not really sure that it likes me very much. I managed to make two fall pillows, just in time for the season:



Alphabet Pumpkin,





and Oak Leaf and Pumpkin

Those little dots on the Oak Leaf and Pumpkin pillow are little oak leaf buttons that I had from another project. The pictures are clickable if you want to see it up close.

All you need is LOVE, right? Say hello to my newest wall hanging to grace the walls of the master bedroom!

It's not my best finish, by any means. I actually tried to take it apart at one point because I was not happy with how it was turning out, but the linen was starting to unravel, so I finished putting it together and just decided that I would learn to live with it and do better next time.

It's over the armoir which has my wedding pandas (my mom made those for me), my bride and groom Mickey and Minnie, and our little family wall plaque.

It's September!! Anyone know what that means?? It's time to start stitching Christmas ornaments!! Last year I made 19, and gave ALOT of them away. I don't think I will make that many this year, but I have a good start:

They stitched on plain ol' white evenweave with with Razzelberry floss by GAST. Easy to stitch with and so nice to look at.

HAED progress is still rolling along:

Look at that little guy!! He actually almost has a whole face! Does anyone else get excited when they see the picture that you are stitching come alive on the fabric? I LOVE that!! I think that is why I spent so much time this weekend stitching on it (when I was not watching football!). With every stitch I saw more and more of my favorite little creature and it made me want to keep go on and on! I say that now, while I'm working on the bear. When I get to the part of the design where it's large blocks of 19 different shades of blue and nothing but sky, maybe I'll feel differently!

It's that time of day here. The kids are starting ask, "When are you going to start making dinner?" Guess I have to go and feed the hungry masses! Goodness, you would think that these kids haven't eaten in days. I guess they are growing boys, always willing to eat me out of house and home! Off to the kitchen! Leave a comment for me! I love to read them!

See You In September!

The weather here on Long Island is beautiful today!! Much better than yesterday, when all of the weathermen were doing their best to frighten us about the approaching Hurricane Earl. MJ and I spent part of Thursday night going around the yard picking up things that could become projectiles if the wind took them and putting them away, and making sure that things that could not be moved were close to the house so that we would not have to worry about them. You know what happened? NOTHING!! We got some rain, but that was about it! The eastern end of the island got a little bit more of the storm that we did, but no one got anything like what they were predicting. So, now that Earl is behind us, or rather, to the northwest of us, it's time to focus on the other things in life that are important like...

BASEBALL!! MJ and I went to Yankee Stadium a few weeks ago with some friends, and it was a great day!! The Yankees won, which always makes it a good day. The new stadium has a Yankees museum with all kinds of great memorabilia. When they won the World Series last October I was in heaven and I got to have my picture taken with the World Series trophy:

Pretty cool, huh? They also had the trophies from when they won in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000. I never noticed before that all of the trophies are a little different. I always thought they were the same every year. My mom always used to say that you learn something new every day, and that was what I learned that day.

Now that the Labor Day weekend is upon us those of us here in New York have our minds on something else: the beginning of school!! M and Z both start this coming Tuesday. They may not be too happy about it, but I can tell you that I am thrilled that the new school year is finally upon us. It seems like this has been a long, hot summer. Z has been assigned one of the better teacher in his grade and M seems to be very excited about the beginning of middle school, along with a little bit nervous. He also seems to be getting that "middle school attitude." The other day I was trying to help him organize his school supplies and I was told, "You don't know anything." I know my mom is looking down from heaven and laughing at me. And what do I plan on doing with my quiet mornings and early afternoons? Well, I plan on creating my next wall hanging masterpiece! I found fabric that I liked to go with the LOVE piece, so stay tuned. I see myself spending some quality time with my rotary cutter and sewing machine next week.

Now for stitching updates! I needed something small the work on last week when I was taking the kids to the library. M goes down to the teen room and after I read to Z for a while he usually wants to play on the computers, so I needed something small and portable. Enter this JDW design called Alphabet Pumpkin:

Stitched on a 28 count evenweave that I picked up at the LNS with a floss by Weeks called Fiesta. At first the colors seems a little loud to me, but they also seem to scream "FALL!!!" to me, so I thought I would try it. So far, I think I'm liking it. What do you think?


The HAED is moving right along as well.

Those large blocks of a single color make it an easy stitch at the moment, but I have to say that the little confetti stitches of 19 different shades of blue can really grate on a person's nerves! Even so, I am really enjoying this stitch. When I started it I remember feeling so overwhelmed, but now it's just like any other project - one stitch at a time!

As I sit here and write my update I'm wondering if anyone out there is reading me. I don't seem to get alot of comments here. Is anyone out there? Anyone?