My Friend K and Her Stitching-- With A WIP of Mine

My friend K and I met when our children were just toddlers. Our oldest children are now married with preschool age children of their own.  Our friendship has endured for over thirty years, and we've gone through a lot of life's rewarding and at times challenging journeys together. I deeply love and care for my friend K, and I am so excited that we now live closer to each other than ever before. We always wish we had more time together, but despite not seeing each other as often as we would like to we have a bond of the heart.   On top of our 'girlfriend time' friendship, we are friends as couples so that adds even more to a wonderful friendship. Lots of great times are had! I recall too how caring K and her husband have been to us during the sad parts of our lives and how much that has meant to us.

Besides sharing both happy and sad times together as young moms and now as grandmothers, we have shared a love of stitching through the years. K recently finished a gorgeous piece called Forest by Satsuma Street.
She has allowed me to share it here with you, and I am so happy to do so now.  I love this designer's work, and you will too! The colors are beautiful and inviting. This piece looks even more striking and lovely in person than it does here. K plans on turning this piece into a lovely pillow.

My dear friend K and I are stitching the piece below together. I don't recall though if we've ever actually sat and stitched at the same time!  It's Karen Kluba's Quaker Diamonds.  We purchased our patterns together at our wonderful local needlework store, and we even received our special threads together. I finally had a bit of time to work on it a few weeks ago.

Here are a few of my progress pics of this one:

I am thoroughly enjoying this one, and hope to get to it soon.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Finally Done-The Afghan

I am amazed to say I have FINALLY finished the Lady Elizabeth afghan I started in 1990.  I have written about the afghan again and again, and here I tried to convey why I felt I must finish it. At this point it really doesn't much match our decorating plan, but I will display it in our guest room. Our guest room includes a very antique bed, so it will fit well into that scheme.

Here is the afghan's final square:

After I completed stitching this piece, I had to unravel the outer threads, and begin the process of knotting all the outside threads. I was thrilled to be at this point and just about finished knotting:

One more view of the afghan:

 Link to the afghan photo set on Flickr: Afghan Photos

So glad to finally be done with this project. Do you have any projects you long to finish? It sure is great to be done with it on this lovely spring evening.

Thanks for stopping by today! 

Afghan WIP-- 19 down, 1 left

I started stitching on my Lady Elizabeth afghan in 1990. That's a long time ago. My children are now 30 and 27 years old. When I started it, they were 7 and 4.  That sure brings it home.

I hadn't stitched since early January, but a head cold forced me to stay home and miss out on some fun outings and instead work on paperwork for my job. When that was pretty much done, I felt motivated to drag out my afghan and get to it.

I pulled out the afghan, and on the square I started in January I found this

Hydrangea

Hydrangea, a photo by Loves2Stitch2 on Flickr.

I can't believe I didn't post at all during the month of February. Where did the month go?

It was busy with work activities, family illnesses and recoveries, family fun, and fun with friends.  I wish I had time to stitch, but I didn't. 

Hope to get some stitching in soon, but for now I am happy to share an old photo I took of our hydrangea bush at our previous home.

Happy Sunday to all of you! What are you working on right now? Please stitch some for me. 

Mirabilia's Titania~ Stitched by Our Daughter

Mirabilia's Titania~ Stitched by Our Daughter, a photo by Loves2Stitch2 on Flickr.

Our daughter stitched this several years ago. It's Mirabilia's Titania. Doesn't she look lovely? 

It was her first project ever stitched, stitched while she was in her early twenties. She gave her to our niece for a wedding gift. I love this piece!

I haven't had the chance to stitch since returning to work a few weeks ago. Soon I will have to once again get a needle and thread in my hand.

Thanks for stopping by today! 

A Bit More Progress on the Afghan

I finally stitched a tiny bit, and I finished the 18th square on the afghan.  This is the afghan I started in 1990. It seems impossible to believe it has been sitting around that long, unfinished--waiting for attention.

Here is the 18th square:

I should take a picture of the entire afghan at this point. That will happen soon, I suppose. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Minestrone Soup

One thing that's really appreciated in our home is good cooking.  We all love soup, so tonight I tried out a new minestrone recipe.  I really liked it, and wanted to share it here.  We ate this with french bread, and found it to be filling and delicious.

The photo above shows it with parmesan cheese sprinkled generously on top, before cooking, cooked on the stove and ready to be eaten, and in a bowl before the garnish of cheese.


Skinny Minestrone

1 lb. ground beef
18 ozs. tomato juice
2 cups of beef broth
1 - 16 oz package of frozen italian vegetables
1 large onion, chopped
1 1/2 cups chopped celery
1 zucchini, chopped (or another vegetable you like)
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tsps. italian seasoning
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

Saute ground beef and drain off fat.  Heat tomato juice and broth in a large pot; add vegetables, garlic, and spices.  Cook until tender.  (about 20 minutes or so) Add meat and simmer 30 minutes more.  Top with grated parmesan cheese.  This yields six servings.

This recipe can be halved, doubled, or tripled.  This old recipe indicates that if you'd like, you can use any leftover meat.  If you use chicken, substitute chicken broth.

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you!

We'll be doing some more celebrating, but for now we're happy to have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with family.

Enjoy your day, and hope you get to stitch a bit.

Holiday Season Fun

I stitched these two stockings over the course of several years, and I was delighted to take them out for another holiday season.  They're still not properly hung, but nonetheless I love to see them on top of our armoire.

The Holiday Workshop stocking is my son's stocking. The other stocking is mine--it's a long story as to why, but we'll just leave it at that! I loved stitching them, and originally I  had wanted to do one for all in our family. (These stockings were featured in the wonderful magazine called Cross Stitch and Country Crafts.) I counted the hours spent on one of them, and it added up to 180 hours of stitching time for one stocking.   For that reason, I kept it to just a few stockings.  I'm a slow stitcher, I think!

Last weekend I even stitched a bit on the afghan I started back in 1990. It sounds almost laughable, doesn't it--started in 1990--or was it 1989? I just can't give up on finishing it. Progress pictures are coming soon.

Yesterday we did our annual holiday baking day at my brother's house. We had loads of fun, and lots of treats will greet our holiday visitors...and we'll enjoy many special sweet cookies and confections, too!

Here's a photo from a previous year's baking session-

I hope that you too are enjoying the holiday season, and getting in some much needed stitching time. Thanks for stopping by today.

Thankful

image, a photo by Loves2Stitch2 on Flickr.

I am off this week. Maybe I will stitch! Let's see...

Sunday Afternoon

image, a photo by Loves2Stitch2 on Flickr.

Getting ready to cook some beef barley soup, and doing some paperwork for my job.

I hope to stitch soon. For now, I will work and enjoy these lights I just added to this antique armoire. My late mother-in-law bought me the beautiful hardanger piece. It is something I treasure completely. Someone she knew made it for her, just for me--no idea who it was but what beautiful work!

Happy Stitching!

Afgan WIP update

image, a photo by Loves2Stitch2 on Flickr.

I still haven't stitched, but I finally am sharing some stitching progress from last summer.

I started this afghan in 1990. That seems incredible! My son and daughter were just children then, and now they're grown up people! More on the afghan here, if you are so inclined to know.

I worked on the afghan off and on this past summer, and above shows the start of the 18th square. That means I only have 2 and a half squares left. Hurrah! The square above will be a flower basket when completed.

Here is a photo that shows it next to another recently completed square. I changed up the original design for that completed square and added the words "Think and Smile". I like this expression and use it with my students, so it seemed fitting to place it here.

A closer view of "Think and Smile":

My dear friend Kathe lent me a pattern book she had by Pat Rogers that contained some beautiful letter motifs. I adapted some of the designs for the afghan to represent my husband and my initials for a monogram design.

Hope to get back to this old gem soon. I am still amazed that I started it 23 years ago. Never give up, right?

Thanks for stopping by today.