Life With Jules, and other stuff

Edited Date to keep on top! Well, I have completed my list of what I want to stitch from my books and magazines and found that there are four (4) magazines that I have no reason to keep. So, for my very first ever giveaway, I am offering to you, my readers, a chance to win one of these fine magazines: The World of Cross Stitching (Jan 2005 - also includes a pullout Giant Mr. Men chart of the Alphabet), Cross Stitch Crazy (Feb 2005), Sampler & Antique Needlework (Spring 2009), and JCS (Mar/Apr 2009 - a duplicate that I received after purchasing a copy in the store). I have included pics of the covers of each of these magazines. I also have a progress update on Quaker Medallion . I am nearly finished with the stitching, should be done tonight, and will decide how to finish (i.e. frame, ornie, etc) it over the weekend. Here is a pic: I bet you're wondering how to enter this giveaway! Well, here are the simple steps to take for a chance to win: Post a comment here letting me k...

Loretta is having a wonderful LHN giveaway. Go over there and check it out fast. You only have until Feb 13th to sign up for a chance to win!!!

I sit here an type this blog entry giving you updates on some of my projects. Well, an update and a new start! Can you believe it's the end of January already? It will be St. Valentine's Day in two weeks and I haven't even begun anything for that holiday yet. I did begin stitching The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy by Vicki Hastings of the Cricket Collection. Here is a picture of what I did last night: I also did some more stitching on '68 Charger . I have all of the car stitched (with the exception of the backstitching) and some of the tree trunk. Here is a picture: Today, I am going through some of my designs to see if I have anything small and quick so that I may get my four prize winners' packages completed. No, I haven't done the drawing yet. There is still 33 hours left before the giveaway actually closes. Since I won't be drawing until Monday morning, I will let it go until 8am Monday, Feb 1st.

I complete two card inserts for my mom over the past couple of days. Each of them took me approximately 5 hours to complete. I am stitching the first 6 inserts on 14ct Sea Green Aida using assorted DMC floss. The designs are from a booklet that came with one of the Cross Stitch Crazy magazines in 2009 called "126 Xmas Designs". Here are the pictures: I plan to complete 2 each month until November. I am storing them in a Glad storage bag to keep them clean. Now for my question. I recently asked which way is better when making ornaments. I now would like to know if anyone has, or has seen on another blog, any tutorials on how to make ornaments? In all of the magazines and books I have I cannot find anything the shows the steps clearly enough. For a firmer ornament, what type of backing is used? For a filled, what type of filling is used? I was also wondering if there are any tutorials for biscornus, pin cushions, etc that just gives basic instructions. Thanks for your help!

State of the Union The romance was long and sweet The courtship – loving and pure She longed for the day when He would hold her in his arms again But knew it would be too long The state of the union was short Too short for love to grow full Too short for their life to grow strong The wedding was beautiful and white With fragrance of love in the air He longed for the day when She would take his name But knew that for now had to do The state of the union was short Too short for his name to be hers Too short for their life to be one The marriage was short and harsh The ending – such a surprise They never knew the day would come When their hands would no longer touch The state of their union was short The state of their union was sweet The state of their union is done. 27 January 2010 ~ Poetic Asides Wednesday prompt

Well, it is 68' F as I type this, here in central Florida. And after reading another blogger's post, it appears that we will be getting more of the storms from Northern California. For some reason, their storms end up here and not north of us. Oh well, life goes on... I finished the second section of the Christmas Design SAL . My design is Coming Home for the Holidays. I know, I posted an update of it yesterday, but here is my submission for this month's work: And a close up of where I placed the beads on the wreath: I think it's turning out pretty nice if I do say so myself. :D Now I will turn my attention to stitching a few card inserts for my mom and the Charger! Until then...

Well, I pulled '68 Charger back out the other night and sat for what seemed like hours counting all, yes ALL, of the stitches I had done trying to find where I went wrong. Her e is a picture of what it looked like when I last stitched on it before putting it "up on blocks": It turns out that I was just one measly little stitch off and that created havoc on the rest of the stitching I had completed. So I frogged about 3 rows and then went back to work on it. Here is where I am now: A very subtle difference, but I have the entire bottom half of the car and the ground beneath it stitched (except for the backstitches). I should be able to have this one completed, shipped, and framed in time for my Uncle's birthday in April. I'll have my mom take it to get it framed somewhere local to them so I only have to send the design. All in all, I am really happy with the way the Charger is looking and may have to stitch one for myself at a l ater date. I have also been worki...

Hey everyone! Be sure to check out this website for the Counted Wishes Online Show.

As you may have read in my profile, I am a graduate student. Part of my degree requirement is a course called "Applications". It is all about experiential learning. Well, for this semester, I chose to do a project as one of my assignments for the second part of this class. I decided to take several of my poems, translate them into French, and bind them in a book in the Medieval Islamic fashion. Here are some snaps of my project:

In honor of my service in the United States Navy... My niece called me yesterday wanting to come over to learn how to cross stitch. Of course I said yes. She also brought her baby. We all had a good time! Here is a picture of my niece learning the craft: Here is a picture of my start on Anchors Aweigh (a Candamar design): I actually took this after starting the lighter blue stitches this evening. The dark blue is all I completed last night. I was a bit annoyed with this kit when I first started sorting the floss and prepping to stitch. It did not contain all of the correct colors. There was no white whatsoever. It gave 3 or 4 different shades of brown, none of which are even charted! Thank God for my well organized floss as I was able to convert the Anton floss into DMC equivalents and get the needed colors from my stash. The undesirable floss that came with the kit: Here is a picture of where I am now: I leave you with "A Mother's Love" (and baby hugs): It's hard t...

Well, since I have not been exposed to too many different stitches I thought I would give this pattern a try. I found it on about.com . Even though the designer used colors related to Valentine's, I thought I would do it in my favorite color: blue. I love all things blue (in case you haven't figured that out yet by the way my blog is set up)!!! Since I have sooooo much extra floss from previous designs, I thought I would use some of that up. So, without further ado, I give you my version of Satin Heart Hardanger: 22-ct. Charles Craft Off-White Hardanger Satin Stitch in DMC #813 Kloster Block Stitch in DMC #162 Design by: Connie G. Barwick My intention is to turn this one into an ornament. I also plan to stitch it again and again in other color schemes for St. Patty's Day, Easter, Halloween/Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

My niece's 12th birthday is in a couple of weeks and she just loves butterflies. I found this free pattern on Alita Designs . It's called Assisi Pattern 01. I thought that it would make the perfect stitched birthday card for my niece. Here is a picture of the completed design (before being transformed into a card): This is what the design looks like in the "Pop Art 1" mode on my camera. See how the color pops compared to the next picture!!! This is the same design in normal mode. 14-ct. Aida cloth (White) DMC Floss #746 (3 strands) and #902 (2 strands) for the X and #310 (2 strands) for the BS Design by: Alita at Alita Designs And here is the card: It took a little bit of doing, but I managed to get everything lined up just right so the entire design would show through the front. Now, I just have to scribe a short poem to place inside and this part of her birthday will be complete. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have done a little bit of stitching on my Christmas Design for...

Stitching Dream's having a Birthday Giveaway!! Be sure to check it out!

Ok, I am going to start this off with a picture of my January TUSAL update: I recently found out that my neighbor had a triple bypass over Christmas. She has been in Illinois since Thanksgiving and was scheduled to be home around the 5th of this month. The bypass changed those plans, so I stitched her a card: HalloSAL part 3 is "in the books". Here are a couple of pictures of it: Look closely at the bats above the haunted house. I used beads instead of french knots. I recently purchased a couple of patterns from Cindy over at Cindy Mae Designs , Paw Prints and Catnap Time . I also received one of her lovely Grab Bags of blended cording (although I haven't figured out for the life of me how to use cording - I have a little in the Christmas Design SAL that I am stitching so I am gonna learn soon enough!). Here is a pic: Thanks Cindy for the beautiful cording and great designs! Finally, I was really bummed at Christmas when the package my mom sent didn't arrive. I have b...

Well, I was trying to get some research in today, but Google Books kept messing up so I decided to do a little stitching. I am also a bit under the weather as I believe the cold conditions in Florida have finally gotten the best of me. So, here are a couple of small finishes: First up is Pineapple Cone Stitched on 18-ct Charles Craft fabric DMC Floss (came with kit) Designed by: Barbara Bangser 2007 Posy Collection Next is a bookmark. Part of the design is my own and part is from a magazine ( JCS , June 2009). The poem, or rather haiku, is mine as well. Stitched on 14-ct Aida fabric Floss color: Dark Brown (left over from Quaker Medallion ) And I have completed part of HalloSAL part 3. I still have a couple of sections to do, but I need to get the right floss first. I decided I didn't want to try to use something similar. I do intend to stitch a little on the Christmas Design SAL with Yoyo tonight. Don't forget to sign up for my giveaway ! So far there are two who actually post...

Well, I finally finished Quaker Medallion and I have to say that I really like the design. Now I just have to decide how I will "finish" the piece. Will I frame it, turn it into an ornament, something else??? I have seen others' Quaker-style pieces and wasn't sure how I felt about them, albeit their stitch work was/is nice. I may have to find some other Quaker-style designs to add to my stash. Here are a couple of pictures of Quaker : When I was adding my initials and the year, I started to put "09". I had to remove the stitches and replace with the "10". The first couple of days I was doing great in writing the correct year, now...fa-get-aboud-it! LOL I also read on a couple of different blogs where the stitcher is looking for ways of storing their floss. Here are a couple of pictures of my floss storage bins: The first photo shows a couple of drawers open on each, the second one shows them all closed. I found one of them in Michigan, but I can...