Halloween Stitching

Stitching Halloween designs is something I really enjoy. I love Halloween and it's one of my favorite holidays.  I ordered a couple of new charts to take with me this weekend.  Several of us are headed to the Turtle Bay B&B in Tionesta for a stitching retreat.  Looking forward to it a lot and will see friends I only get together with a couple of times a year.

Villa Maria

It's been too long since I've stitched anything of note - I haven't even finished anything lately.  For one thing, I've just recovered from a terrible cold.  Then there is Frank - my new kitty.  He takes a lot of time because I have fallen totally in love with that boy!

So tomorrow I leave for the French Knot Stitching Retreat at Villa Maria.  I have lots of projects packed in my bag and ready to go.  I'm keen to start the JBW Scottie Dog since I am giving it to the President of Carnegie Mellon who is stepping down at the end of June.  I admire and respect him very much and want to give him this token of my esteem. The Scottie Dog is the mascot of CMU.

Winter blahs

Oh boy , it's cold out today.  I think it's the coldest day we've seen in a couple of winters.  It would be nice to be at home sipping hot tea and stitching.  Instead, I'm sitting at my desk here at work.  It has been forever since I've written anything on this space.  I've done a little needlwork in the past few months, a few little things and I never started on a couple of holiday themed things.  There's always next year.  But this is my latest time waster - Francis AKA Frank, my new kitty.  Frank is 9 months old and I adopted him from the Kiski Valley cat & Kitten rescue.  He is totally adorable and easy to love.

What I've been reading

I've gotten a little stitching done in the past few weeks but I think I've been doing more reading.  I tried to read, "The Art of Fielding" but just couldn't get through it.  My friend, Lee, gave it a good review so I thought I'd like it but I had a hard time liking the characters and to me the book dragged.

Then I read about a book titled, "The Dressmaker" by Kate Alcott.  So far, I'm having a good time reading this one.  It mixes the Titanic disaster and survivor, designer Lady Lucy Duff Gordon with Tess Collins, a fictional character who is also a survivor of the titanic and dreams of becoming a designer.  

And I just discovered that one of my favorite authors, Kate Morton,has a new book coming out, "The Secret Keeper". I'll be looking for that one.

This is the cross stitch I've been working on.

End of Summer

Classes began here at Carnegie Mellon on Monday.  To me, that signals the end of summer.  And I saw something that said it was only 119 days until Christmas!! Yikes!  Time to get busy on all those little, handmade gifts

Leaping Cat is at the framers and I didn't take a photo so I'll get one posted after it comes back from the framers. I want to start working on a few fall/Halloween projects next. 

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe: New Gift Bags and a Great Fall Give away...hurry a...

 This is a pretty sweet giveaway and she has a nice blog. 

Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe: New Gift Bags and a Great Fall Give away...hurry a...: I was going to post this last week but got behind due to another health problem. I would say I'm up and running but actually I am on crutche...

Back in the Saddle

We've been back from our vacation in Germany for a few weeks now but I've been too busy (lazy?) to write anything.  The Olympics have come and gone (yea, Team USA!), I finished watching the entire season of "The Mentalist" and wonder of wonders, I finished stitching "Leaping Cat"!  I stitched in the car on our way to Wisconsin last week and a little bit at my sister-in-law's house.  Now it needs to be pressed and then framed.  I'll try to take a picture and post it tomorrow.