Thanksgiving

Regardless of why or when Thanksgiving started I love this day of being with family and rejoicing together. Usually we celebrate with my mother-in-law and whoever else drops by her house but this year we have opted to stay home. May each of you enjoy your day and have reason to rejoice in all the bounty the Lord provides.
(The photograph come courtesy of About.com)

Here a stitch, there a stitch - part 4

http://www.parddu.net/stitches.html has a nice page of very basic stitches with drawings and directions.

Here a stitch, there a stitch - part 3

Maya at http://millionlittlestitches.blogspot.com/ has an interesting way of presenting her embroidery stitches - little book pages.

Christmas Stitching

This will probably be the last of my Christmas gift stitching for this year. It's a Dimension needlepoint kit I got on discount. I'm substituting 14 count Aida for the plastic canvas. There's three different kinds of floss/yarn.
The stitches being incorporated are Continental Stitch, Satin Stitch, Cut Tack Loops, Alternating Stitch and French Knots. I'm about 1/3rd the way through the middle snowman on the top row in the picture.

Here a stitch, there a stitch - part 2

Needlecrafter has a nice way of presenting embroidery stitches. The section is called Stitch Dictionary and is literally that. Everything is divided up alphabetically with word definitions and in some instances a potted history. A little eyeglass takes you to a black and white drawing of how to do each stitch e.g. Chevron Stitch - A primary embroidery stitch worked from left to right along parallel lines. Rows of Chevron Stitch can be stacked to make an attractive border or filling.
http://www.needlecrafter.com/Stitches/stitches.html
So if you are on the go a lot and learning embroidery why not print out a stitch or two to take along with you.

Here a stitch, there a stitch

When I am learning a new stitch or revisiting a familiar one I like to watch them being done.
One of the sites I enjoy going to is Mary Corbet's Needle N Thread. She has an excellent video library that takes you through very basic to more complex stitches.
http://www.needlenthread.com/2006/10/video-library-of-hand-embroidery.html
The videos are short and easy to follow.
Currently Mary is doing some picture tutorial's at her blog for lettering which is interesting. How many of us want to do lettering in our Christmas projects but are not always sure what is the best way to go about doing that? http://www.needlenthread.com/2009/11/hand-embroidery-lettering-text-8-split.html
My dog is at the vet today getting her staples taken out. She was none too thrilled at me leaving her there but she really needs to get rid of the belly band. She was rolling in the dirt over the weekend and looks somewhat odd with long hair poking through some of the strips. She's also a bit whiffy and needs a bath :)

Blog of the week - Tatyana

What can I say I love, love, love Tatyana's stitching. This young lady from Moscow is very talented. Her projects are always so elegant and she presents them very well.
Tatyana is currently highlighting some of her Christmas projects. So far I really like the sheep and the snowflake tree.
If you have never been to her site you are in for a treat. http://www.vechernie-posidelki.blogspot.com/

An interesting blog

I know some of you like working with felt and while I was trolling round "internet land" I came across a charming site. http://weefolkart.com/
Our dog had surgery recently and is doing well but I have not got much stitching done this week. Finished a couple more of the little wreaths and that's about it.
Looks like I need to get another background for my blog. When I checked in today my new one had disappeared. One of these days I really need to work out an interesting header. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
We've been getting a number of quotes over the past couple of weeks for windows and foundation work (sun room and porch) which have been quite time consuming. Next week we have a whole house check being done. We live in a 70's style ranch on a slope, which takes a bit of time to measure and provide estimates for.