Mystery Sampler Update

At this point all three Lizzie Kate Mystery Sampler parts have been released.  I have seen the finished piece, and I look forward to getting there eventually.

I am still working on Part One.  Life is so, so busy.

When I can't stitch, I enjoy watching Flosstube videos and looking at great stitching photos on Instagram.  Recently I have discovered Fibertalk and that podcast is enjoyable as well. These activities help me get my stitching fix, but just a bit.

Here is a bit of progress:

In other news, I was extremely touched to receive a gift from a former student.  He is now just seven years old, and I taught him last year when he was just in first grade.  While he was visiting Mexico last summer he and his mom bought a lovely breadcloth for me.  This sweet little boy knew I liked stitching, and birds. I will treasure this gift always. I love the bright colors and motif.  I can only imagine how hard some young or lady worked to stitch this piece.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

A Bit of Stitching

So life has been well, let's just say-  oh so busy.  That's just the way it is. Work gets in the way of stitching and relaxation. And so it goes...

Here is a small snippet of progress on my latest Lizzie Kate.  I love how it is coming along!

Thanks for stopping by today.

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow Update

I did manage to stitch a bit during August.  Here is the latest photo I have of
Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.

I sure love the rich colors in this design!

I also have been working the Lizzie Kate Christmas Mystery Sampler.  I am enjoying that one a lot, too.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Breadcloth from long ago & Peanut Butter Butterscotch Oatmeal Cookies

Recently I had a delicious meal at my brother and sister in law's home, and I was so excited to see them use a breadcloth I stitched for them years and years ago.  I had to share it here, of course. 

I recently baked up some delicious cookies.  Here is that recipe:

Chewy Oatmeal Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cookies

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 Tbsp. honey

2 tsps. baking soda

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups peanut butter

4 1/2 cups rolled oats

11.4 ozs. bag butterscotch morsels

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat together butter, peanut butter until well combined. Add brown sugar , sugar, and beat until smooth. Add honey, baking soda and mix in well.  Stir in oats and butterscotch chips.  (see below for variation) Use a cookie dough scoop to put on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 12 minutes, do not overbake. Cookies are flat and chewy.  Cool on the pan for a few minutes, then remove and enjoy! 

I split the batter into two parts and added 1 cup butterscotch morsels to one part, and the other part was doused with 1 cup of chocolate chips instead of butterscotch. (semi-sweet chocolate morsels)  My family preferred the chocolate chip ones over the butterscotch ones.  To each his own, I say! 

Pasta Salad

This post is simply a recipe post.  If you are looking for a stitching post, please skip this post.

First I recently made a pasta salad for a large group.  It turned out quite well, so I am sharing it here.

Pasta Salad

1/2 cup fresh basil
1 1/4 lbs. small cherry tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
kosher salt
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
3/4 lb. seashell pasta
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Mix and chill.

Stitching Here and There- And a Finish!

I haven't shared anything in a long time.

My job keeps me very, very busy.  I love what I do, but it is a demanding profession.

During the summer when I had a break from teaching I did manage to complete two tea towels, and an ornament. I shared two of those items in a previous post, but wanted to share the third item today.

It's a tea towel I bought already stamped while shopping in Solvang, CA a year ago.  I love how it turned out. I used DMC color variations for much of the pattern.

In other news, I am working on the Lizzie Kate Christmas Mystery Sampler.  It's slowly coming along. 

Also I did work a bit on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow during August.  

I hope to get in some stitching time today. We will have to see.

Thanks for coming by today!

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow Update

I finally finished the third block in Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.  I started this block back in January, if you can believe it.

Each block takes me about sixty hours of stitching. That seems very slow to me, but then again I know I am a slow stitcher.  I started the piece in April of 2016.  From then until now,  I have also stitched one small ornament and one tea towel.  You can see that I am slow, and that I don't stitch near as often as I would like to do.

I am excited to move on now to the next square.

Here it is at this point:

A close up of the third block:

In a previous post I showed a picture of the leaflet of a Plum Street design (Maxim & Zoya)  I wish to stitch. I bought the pattern at our lovely LNS We, of the Needle.  The other day I had to return to the shop to buy stronger glasses, and while there I took a photo of this lovely piece.  This was stitched by sweet Yvonne. Yvonne works at the shop, and is very helpful.  If you are ever in southern California and wish to go to a fine needlework store, do go visit We, of the Needle. It is the friendliest needlework store I have ever visited.  Kerry, the owner, is friendly and so personable.  She does fabulous framing as well as stitching.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Stitching and Memories

First of all, I hope those of you in the USA had a great time celebrating yesterday.  We watched a great display of fireworks near our daughter's home.  What a great time we had!

I often think of the things I have stitched over the years, and I remember the time in my life when I was working on that certain piece.  Do any of you do this, too?

Due to the 4th of July holiday yesterday I thought of a patriotic piece I stitched for my son long ago. It was from the now long gone "Cross Quick" magazine.  I started this piece when my son was six and finished it when he was eight! So much for quick.   I remember dragging it along with me to many of our children's activities at that time. It was also a pattern my son chose for me to do, so that made it special as he was just a little guy then. He is now 31 years old, so that gives a time perspective, doesn't it?

Once I brought the little patriotic sampler with me to a local hairstyling place so that I could work on it while my son got his haircut.  My daughter was about 10 years old at the time, and she was probably sitting there reading a book happily by my side.  I sat working on the sampler, waiting for my son's turn.  After a while a young adult  male walked into the salon with a group of about five teens. It turned out they were from a group home of sorts.

One of the boys from the group home was entranced by my cross stitching work, and he exclaimed to me, "I can't believe you are making this for your son. How kind of you!"  It just really struck me that he was so taken with this small token of love for my son.  One could not help but wonder about the roads he had traveled in his very young life.

In time, my son outgrew having this piece on his wall. That sort of thing has never bothered me.   He allowed me to take it to my work where I hung it on the classroom wall, near the flag.  Somehow in the course of moving either classrooms or homes during the last several years it has become packed away somewhere.  I can't seem to locate this cute sampler.  Just the same, its memory stays with me. I  know it is somewhere here in our house. It didn't just walk away, right?

Patriotic Sampler- Cross Quick Magazine

Thanks for stopping by today. I do wonder, what sort of memories do you associate with your stitched pieces?

Purchases, Finishes, and Progress!

I am so happy to have some time off. In fact, I have already been off one month. Time is passing quickly.

The last several months have been busy and full of happy events, with some stitching thrown in from time to time.

Some time in spring I was fortunate to be able to attend a Lizzie Kate Trunk Show at our local LNS. My dear friend and I had lots of fun oohing and drooling over all the fabulous patterns and models.

I had to purchase something, right?

Here is what I selected:

While in the shop, I saw this one stitched up as a model and just had to purchase this Plum Street Sampler pattern. It is gorgeous in person! 

Back to Lizzie Kate, I started stitching up one of the ornaments right away.  Despite having collected scores of ornament patterns, I do believe this is the first one I have ever stitched!   

I usually stick to large projects that take me forever, but I finally decided to do some smaller projects so that I get a sense of completion. 

Here is Jingle, which was a nice, fun quick stitch: 

I am not sure how I will finish this one.  I have been watching Flosstube videos for quite some time now, and love one gal's (Yvonne- Dough Bowl - Night Owl Stitcher Yvonne) dough bowl idea of displaying various seasonal smalls in a beautiful antique dough bowl. This is something I might pursue down the line.  I found one dough bowl while on vacation recently, but it was too rustic for my taste.  The hunt continues...and I must stitch items for this bowl. The finishing is the tough part for me, and I may have to call upon my finishing friends for help in this project.  I move slowly, so who knows when an actual dough bowl will be ready for display.


In June I purchased some plain tea towels at a discount chain store.  They were just crying out to be stamped and embroidered.  I thus went ahead and stamped one to stitch.  Much to my dismay, I found that the weave was way too loose to be of much quality for stitching.  Just the same, I had already stamped the towel so I decided to go ahead and stitch on it.  The weave was SO LOOSE that I couldn't do french knots but instead had to improvise a funky sort of stitch for the center.

I have collected way too many iron-on patterns for years, and I decided upon Aunt Martha's Colonial Girls and Puppies.  My stitches are very poor, but I did finish it. The towel is of such poor quality that this one will simply be a decorative towel. The good thing was it was done in just a very short time.

Besides working on Jingle and the tea towel, I have been working on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.  Progress IS being made, ever so slowly.  Here are a few photos:

           Photo from April 

June and July Photos: 

I am enjoying this piece, but it is slow going. There are twelve total blocks, and I am on just the third one after over a year of stitching.  Perhaps I will just stitch four squares? We will see. 

We recently returned from a road trip that took us to beautiful places around the USA.  In our travels were able to visit a fantastic needlework store.  Oh, to live close to that mecca!  I will share more information on that journey in an upcoming post.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow Update

I was able to take a photo of my project yesterday while I had it off the Q-snaps.

It is enjoyable, but slow going.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Progress on Houses HRH & This and That

It has been fiercely busy lately, and it has been far too long since I have posted an update on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.

I took this photo a few weeks ago.  I have time to stitch about 8-10 hours a month, so progress is slow. I do see though that I have progressed much since this photo was taken, so another update is soon due.  This is my third square thus far.

Here you are:

I do get a lot of enjoyment from stitching from seeing your updates on Instagram and on Flosstube, so please keep them coming! 

My job keeps me very busy, but there have been a lot of great fun things going on lately, too, even if stitching hasn't been one of them.  

We enjoyed a trip back to the midwest earlier this year.  The beauty was truly awe inspiring. 

We were thrilled in January to be able to attend the west coast return premiere of the Main Street Electrical Parade at Disneyland.  What a wonderful time we had! 

The weather this year included a lot more rain than usual, and that meant more snow on the local mountains.  Some photos of some lovely sights we enjoyed in the past few months: 

Thanks for stopping by today, and happy stitching to all!

Progress At Last

Time flies by so quickly.  Where does it go? So much has happened in the last few weeks that it is hard to even try to recap a bit of it. With that being said, it is time for a long overdue stitching update. 

A small update on The Houses of Hawk Run Hollow: 

I took the photos shown above at the end of November. That is when I last stitched until this week, and I only made a tiny bit of progress during that short session.

Thanks for stopping by today!