My dear friends.....

Things are a bit difficult around here right now and I have some personal/family issues that need to be attended to. I haven't been able to blog or even visit blogs and comment. It's going to be some time before I will be able to get back to it, and I wanted to let you know so you wouldn't think I was ignoring you. I love all of you so much, and do so enjoy visiting and commenting, but it won't be happening for awhile. I hope you can understand and will be here when I get back. Feel free to email anytime and I will try to respond when I can. I don't want to lose all of my blogging friends.....you mean too much to me. :)

I do have one stitchy thing to share with you. This is the last of the ornaments that I stitched for our Christmas Ornament Exchange. This was a year long exchange and each of us received so many lovely ornaments to grace our trees for years to come. This one was stitched for BeckySC, and I also plan to stitch it for myself. It is by My Big Toe and was in the JCS Premier Christmas Issue. I stitched it over one on 32 count with Gloriana fibers. I totally forgot to take pictures before I sent it to Becky, so I had to snag them off of her blog to show you. Thank you, Becky, for all the time and hard work you put into making this exchange such a success!





Until next time....I wish you enough,

Love and hugs,
Carolyn

Long time, no post.....

I feel like I need to introduce myself to ya'll again. LOL I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted, but it's been busy, busy around here, and I honestly have not had time. I haven't even had the time to visit and comment on your blogs, and for that I feel really bad. I will try to get back into it soon. Summer is a busy time in our household, so my computer time does suffer. With that said, I do have a few things to share with you. (All pictures are clickable to get a closer view).

First up are a few stitchy things that I've finished. I've looked everywhere in my sewing studio and can't for the life of me find the leaflet that this pattern came from to give you the info, but will continue to look in case someone is interested in stitching it. I stitched this for a dear friend in Florida who loves her "posies". :) Sorry about the glare.



This next one was a French freebie that I couldn't wait to stitch as soon as I laid my eyes on it. This was made for a dear friend's birthday and I made it into a free motion quilted bag. This was a very fun stitch. :)



My dear sister-in-law was here for 10 days and we literally sewed till we dropped. She's sooooo talented, and spent alot of her time sharing with me what she knows. She also helped me with my embroidery machine so that I could do different things with it. I won't show everything that we sewed because there was a LOT, but here are a few of the things I learned how to do. These are the sorts of things I'm planning to have in my etsy store if I ever get enough done to get it up and going. I have so so many ideas and patterns of things to work up. It's just finding the time.

I also bought a new machine this last week! A Viking Sapphire. I feel like a traitor. I've always been a Bernina girl, but needed another machine so I could sew while I embroider and my other Bernina cratered on me. I start lessons on this one on Thursday and I'm really excited about it. :)

The first two pictures are the lined tapestry totes that I've learned to make. They are awesome for carrying a project with you, or magazine, books, whatever. I have so enjoyed making them, and there will never be any duplicates. Each and every one will be totally different. The toile one I put a small pocket inside at the top to try it out and the other one is just plain. They are all faced with coordinating fabric and lined with a silky satin material that coordinates, as well. Too fun!





These next two are the mesh project bags that I make. They are the same size as the ones that you buy at an LNS but just a bit fancier. :) The seams inside are bound with the same fabric as is on the outside, so they will last forever. I made the ladybug one for me since I love ladybugs and it didn't turn out like I wanted it to, so I'll keep it. :)





And last but not least....this is a tablerunner that I pieced about 10 years ago. I never finished it because I wanted to free motion quilt it and didn't know how. After practicing every day while Joanne was here, I felt I had it down well enough to finish it up. Now I have a new Christmas tablerunner. Whatcha think??



We made quite a few things for Kayla and Carter and I can't wait to get their box of new clothes in the mail to them. :)

I will have a new stitchy item to share with you in a few days, and that would be Becky's Christmas ornament. I want to wait until she receives it before I share it. It's stitched and I will spend tomorrow doing the finishing work, and then off to Miss Becky. :)

I've also been spending some time working in my Mom's house. This is going to be a HUGE job and is just so overwhelming. She had so much stuff....more than most could imagine. And it's good stuff...not junk, so the three of us have to go through everything and see what to keep, what to sell and what to give away. A big job, to say the least, but one that has to be done. It's hard to go over there. I miss her everyday. It really seems weird "pilfering" through her things. Oh well...that's part of it, and I'll be glad when it's taken care of.

I've missed you all terribly and hope you haven't totally forgotten me. This Texas heat has literally wiped me out....triple digits every day with about 90 percent humidity and NO RAIN in over two months. Horrible, to say the least.

Okay, off to work on some 4th of July stitching. It's just around the corner!

Thank you for reading, commenting and emailing. Like I said, I love you all, and hope to be back visiting you all real soon. (My Google Reader is 1000 plus...I'm doomed!).

Come again soon.....and I wish you enough!

Love and hugs from hot, hot, hot Texas,
Carolyn :)

Giveaway winner and a few pictures :)

Well I FINALLY have returned home and have been able to get our giveaway winner picked. The winner is Julie S! Julie, please send me your address and I will get your gifties off to you right away.
Thank you to everyone that played along. There will be more coming in the future, so keep checking back!

I'm really working on trying to stitch from my stash. I have TONS and I do mean TONS of Shepherd's Bush kits and I want to stitch them all! I also have tons of other small kits that I've been collecting so will be stitching on them this summer, too. I'm just so glad my mojo has returned!! Hopefully I'll have some finishes to show you soon. :) I only have one stitched item I can share right now. It is an ornament for Amy for our Christmas Ornament Swap. It is from Shepherd's Bush and stitched with the linen and fibers that came in the kit. It was actually a scissor fob kit, but I made it into an ornament. I hope you like it, Amy!

Front:


Back:


I've been gone for a week visiting my son, daughter in love and grandbabies and wanted to share just a few pictures with you. I had such fun and it was a huge pick-me-up. I just hope I stocked up on enough "sugars" until the next time I get to see them! (Please ignore my gray hair and wrinkles! LOL)

LaLa and Carter




LaLa and Kaylabug





We took tons more, but I will save those for later. :) I will also be sharing pictures of my garden with you later on, too. We've really been working hard in it, and I'm really proud of the results.

Oh, and I promised I would let you all know how much the four pictures cost me to get framed. (You've only seen two of them so far) Grand total: $156.85!!! Is that unbelievable or what?? Now you see why I've used them for so long and will continue to until they close their doors.

Well, I need to go unpack. I wanted to get this posted ASAP since I had the giveaway winner to post. I hope you are all having a most wonderful week full of stitching, love and whatever makes your heart sing!

I wish you enough, as I always do!

Love,
Carolyn :)

Working on the giveaway....

I'm working on the giveaway (writing up the names) and have to add the ones that became followers, so this may take a little bit. I'm going out of town to see my babies tomorrow, so give me until Monday and I'll post the winner. Thank you ALL for commenting and joining and be on the lookout for more giveaways. I plan to have lots of them this summer. I'm doing a major de-stash and you can reap the benefits!!

Love,
Carolyn :)

A Giveaway and some framed pieces to share!

Hello dear friends,

I hope your holiday weekend is going well and you are getting tons of stitching done! I have a few things that I promised to share when I got them back from the framers. I haven't picked up one, as they haven't finished it yet, and one I can't share yet as it's a gift.

Here is "My Stitching Treasures" by Jeanette Douglass. Thank you to all that convinced me to go ahead and frame it and not worry about getting the box. I think it turned out great. I opted NOT to mat it, as I was afraid it would take away from the stitched piece. I think you can click on the pictures and they will be easier to see. I'm sorry about the glare. We tried MANY times to get pictures without them, but to no avail.



What do you think? Do you like it without a mat, or would you have matted it?

This next one.....I don't have any information on. It was given to me in an unfinished exchange SEVERAL years ago and I never did anything with it. Since I love Quakers and alphabets, I decided it was time to pull it out and display it. I feel bad because I don't even know who stitched it for me. I need to do some research on this. I just chose a plain frame that was the same color as some of the stitching.



I really like this one and can't wait to find the perfect spot to hang it.

I'm nearly finished with Amy's ornament and also a birthday gift, and then I have TONS of new things that are screaming at me to start and that I've kitted up. I'll let you know what I decide on and share the pictures of the birthday gifts and ornies when the recipients receive them. :)

NOW.....Drum roll please.....the moment you've all been waiting for!!! Time for another giveaway. :) I told you the other night that I bought several duplicate La D Da patterns, so I've decided to pass three of them on to you along with some other goodies. Here is the picture of what is in the giveaway. (Click for bigger image.)



You get the three La D Da patterns, a BUNCH of DMC linen floss, a pair of Kelmscott "Love" scissors, a package of smaller pieces of Gentle Art Floss and a brass thread winder. Everything is brand new, never used. You likee???? Well, if you do and would like to enter, please post a comment ON THIS POST ONLY, and please leave your email address. It makes it so much easier to contact the winner. I'm not going to ask you to post this on your blog (unless you just want to! LOL), because I hate having to do that myself, but I will give you an extra chance at the drawing if you are a follower of my blog (found on right side bar). You do NOT have to follow my blog to enter - that's just an extra entry if you'd like it. It's open to anyone anywhere that mail can be delivered. :) You have until Wednesday at 12:00 p.m. CT and I will randomly draw a name Wednesday evening.

Well, time for me to do some stitching and listen to my nephew's baseball game on the computer. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, be safe, and a very special thank you to all of our soldiers for all you do. WE APPRECIATE YOU!!

I wish you enough....

Love and hugs from hot and dry Texas,
Carolyn :)

YAY! My stitching mojo is back!

I'm just so excited that I'm wanting to stitch again! I hate it when I get in a slump like that, which doesn't happen very often AT ALL.

Today I worked a long time in my sewing room. Welllll I found 4 duplicate charts that I had bought. Now that really irks me. I had bought quite a bit of things but had not filed them. Well, when I went to do that today, that's when I discovered that I already had them. Sooooo, I will be having a give-away this week when I get finished with my filing. If you like La D Da patterns, then you will want to comment, for sure. :) I'm not sure what else I will include, but that's just a hint of part of it. ;)

I never write out my stitching goals, but usually have them kinda sorta in my mind. I thought maybe if I wrote them down, I'd get more done. I know May is half way over, but I'm going to do it anyway. So here are my stitching goals for the rest of May:

1. finish and mail Amy's Christmas ornament
2. finish birthday gift
3. work on block 4 of HOHRH
4. do the finishing work on my stitched biscornu
5. organize my WIPS and set up a rotation
6. start something new (YAY!)

That's enough for now since the month is nearly over. I have SO many BAP's that I'd love to at least get one of them finished this year. Well actually I DID finish "My Stitching Treasures" (can't wait to get it back from the framers!), but I have others that need my attention and LOTS AND LOTS of new things that are screaming at me!

Bob's sister is coming the middle of June to spend 10 days with me and teach me alot about my embroidery machine. We intend to do TONS of sewing, so that may be a slow stitching time for me, but I've been wanting to learn more about my machine for a long time. She's a wonderful seamstress and teaches classes at her local quilt shop, and I feel so lucky that she will come and help me, too. Her creativity amazes me. Maybe I'll have some sewn things to show off soon, too.

Okay, enough for now. Back to my stitching for the evening. I hope each of you are having a wonderful weekend full of stitching and whatever else makes you smile.
YOU make me smile, and I thank you so much for all of your wonderful comments. :)
Come again soon!

I wish you enough....

Love,
Carolyn :)

Hello Dear Friends... I need help???

I hope you are all having a wonderful week so far. Mine has been busy, but when I try to figure out what all I've been doing, it really doesn't look like much. Oh well...

Julianne emailed me that she had received my ornament from our ornament swap, so I can share it with you now.



This ornament is by LHN and was from one of the JCS ornament issues. I just love LHN designs! :) Julianne does, too, so I hope she enjoys adding this one to her tree this year.

Okayyyyyy here goes. I told you that I need help, and I really, really do. I have a confession to make. I smoke. There. I said it. I only smoke outside and never EVER smoke anywhere near any of my stitching or sewing and wash my hands constantly, but still....I smoke. What's it going to take for me to quit? I sat here and watched my mother with oxygen 24/7, gasping for breath, and I still smoke? The people that work for Hospice knew about it and told me not to even try to quit while all that was going on with my Mom, but that is over now. I almost hate to even tell you this, because so many people judge you when you are a smoker. (I probably will lose all my followers) Unless you've ever had this horrible addiction, it's probaby very hard to understand how hard it is to kick. It is worse than any drug. So, I suppose I'm reaching out for help to those that have been smokers and are now NON smokers (but will accept help and suggestions from ANYONE). I quit for 12 years (I quit when I was pregnant with Kevin) and never picked them up again until my first DH was killed in an accident. I was immediately hooked again. Then I put them down again about 2 years ago, and picked them back up when Hurricane Ike blew through. No, none of these are good excuses, but I did it anyway. Every day I say "tomorrow is the day", but tomorrow comes and goes.

You can't possibly know how hard this is for me to admit this to you all. I feel like such a failure and the guilt drives me insane. I am a strong Christian person, and I know this is so wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

I have no idea what I think anyone can do to help me from cyberspace, but it's worth a shot, I suppose. I want to kick this habit for good and never pick up another one again. It's expensive, it stinks and it kills you.

I'm embarrassed now, (REALLY embarrassed) but at least maybe by admitting it and reaching out for help, maybe that will help me stop. Every time I've quit before, I usually put on about 20 pounds. I know that's in the back of my mind, but I think I'd rather put on a few LBs than have this nasty habit for the rest of my life.

Are we still friends? I promise I don't have the mange. LOL ANY and ALL help, suggestions and prayers would be appreciated. If you would rather email me, my address is: singlerose4u@hotmail.com but your comments may help others that have the same problem as I do.

Okay, now you know my deep, dark secret. I hope we can still be buds and I won't lose your friendship over this bad habit. *hanging head in shame*

I guess I will go stitch for awhile. I hope to hear from some of you. I truly do care about each and every one of you and cherish your comments and emails. I look forward to hearing from you, and thank you in advance.

I wish you enough....

Love,
Carolyn <-------- still embarrassed