August 11. It was the last time I blogged. Its 4 am my time and I sit here unable to sleep trying to figure out how to compose the blog post. How to capture the last year in a few paragraphs. Its too difficult. As everyone else out there, it has been a difficult year. The economy hit small business very hard. But, we muddled through. No, time for cross stitching. No energy for any crafts, or any posts. Up and downs. Disappointments. But, we are no different then anyone else today. My story is no different.

My son is off to college, my daughter is married. I went back to work out of necessity. Life goes on.

My two little joys, my little Maxie boy. And my little Emmy girl, whos picture you can see a few posts back. As any dog lover, or animal lover can tell you...they are the little faces I look forward to seeing when I come home from work every afternoon. Their little faces make my day and makes the last years struggles worthwhile.

And this is where the desperation comes in. I just need to write this down. My little Maxie boy, my little shadow is so very sick. Its such a long story of in and out of the vets office, and emergency room.

He has what appears to be pancreatitis. Its a really bad case. We thought it would be simple. He would stay off of food for a while, then a bland diet, then slowly transition back to  possibly a lowfat diet for a while. It seemed to be working, then a horrible relapse. Two days total on IV fluids in the Emergency Room Vet, where it appeared he was eating, back home, yesterday another relapse. Back to the Emergency Room Vet. Tests are being asked to be taken to rule out other things.But, what is really needed is a full week at the ER.

How do you decide when enough is enough. That is the question I asked of the vet? We have been going to this vet for 10 years and trust her implicitly. She says not yet. I say, "I know, not yet". But, 5 days in the ER.is like a lifetime, and we are near the end of what we can financially handle.

And that's where the desperation comes in. The return to my blog. To tell the story of what my little baby boy is going through and put myself out there, and exhaust every means to try and get him one more day in the ER to recover.  This is not like me at all, but if you are a dog lover, a animal lover  or just a nice person who has enjoyed my blog and would like to contribute a dollar or two to his care, I would really, really appreciate it.

My paypay address is: sewgaby@aol.com. I think that is all you need. I'm not sure, I've never done this before.

I will be updating throughout the week.

Thank you all so, so much, just for reading through this.

Dear Blog, Long Time No See

I've missed blogging.

Missed sharing the crafting and stitching I've done. Ok...lets be truthful. Not a lot of crafting NOR stitching has been going on. And, with all that is going on in my life it will be sparse.

But, crafting and stitching will always be in my blood and I want to continue sharing what little crafting IS going on. I might not post often, but I will try to post more often than every 2 years. ;)

So, I'll just start with a cute photo of my new puppy. Eighteen weeks old my little Max is and quite the little stinker already. :)

Sampler Wall

Up until a few weeks ago this was pretty much just photos. After seeing all the amazing sampler walls in blog land I got a little jealous and decided to create my own sampler wall with what I had on hand. I was ready for a change on this wall anyway and I decided that I would use photos and other knick knacks to fill in the blanks until I completed/framed more samplers.





Theres 5 stitching pieces up there and as when I get more up there I'll just skoot things closer and move things around a bit.

That is all I have for today. I think I hit a little burn out with all the stitching I did in November. Right now I just want to sit by the fire and watch TV at night and not focus on anything else. We have been having a bit of rain and cold weather which is nice. We really need the rain. I hope to finally start on something else as we are going away to the mountains into more cold weather on a small vacation. We are off to Mammoth California for some skiing/snowboarding and I always get some serious stitching while there.

Happy stitching!

Summer Basket Finish

My little doggie is recovering nicely. (Thanks so much for the well wishes for her :) ) And I have been stitching away.

This is my finish this month. I know its not real wintery...but I have been itching to start this since I got it. I started it very early in November and as I went stitching along I made a goal of finishing it by the end of the month. I made my goal by one day! Yippi!

It was a fun stitch...but I have to admit to not LOVING it till I was almost finished. So even though its a bit more pastel than what I have been doing lately...I do love it now.









I haven't done 1/1 in years. And I'm sure I didn't do it right the last time. So, I just winged it and and it seems to have come out ok. Sometimes the thread slipped under, but then I just used another hole instead and it worked ok. Not sure this is the way to do it...but I was too lazy to look up another way.

I did find my colors were more pastel then the cover leaflet colors. And I really couldn't figure out how one of the specialty stitches on the band was supposed to work. On paper it SEEMED pretty, but then the stitches just kept slipping under...and I just made my own stitch instead.

I also added 3 initials instead of the two. The letter "i" of my first name is alwasy too narrow and it looked empty so I added the third of my maiden name. Much better! And also...I had two Clover skeins and one was way too light. So I made sure I used darker pink sections as I thought the light would just disappear on that fabric.

Off to pick my next project. Can I do it....can I finish it before December is over????? I'm gonna try!!

Happy stitching!!

Edited to add: Woops! Corinnas comment made me realize that it sounds like I did the WHOLE thing 1/1. Sorry! Not that talented :) I only wish. It was done 2/2 but there were a few letters, (2 of my initials and X,Y, and Z) that called for 1/1.

The Patient

This is one of the reasons why I haven't been blogging.



Shes one of my babies. She also has 4 more days where she has to take it easy. No running, jumping, playing, chasing squirrels etc. I'm supposed to just let her walk for potty.

I have resorted to using the sedatives and waiting on m'lady hand and foot. Plus, I have a bad cold. ok....whining over :) Happy, happy, joy joy!!!

I'm stitching something new and making good progress....just need to ask m'ladys permission to remove myself from her side to take a picture of it to post my progress. :P

Till later! And HaPpy STitching!!

Shes been framed

Nataliejo is someone whos work I admire so much. Such gorgeous finishes! I absolutely adored her finish of E&E Millenium Sampler (loved it so much I have the chart coming to me). Her framing of it was fanastic. See it here.

When it came to framing my lady. I immediately thought of her framing of her sampler and decided to give it a go.





I used a 12x12 deep frame off the shelf from my local frame shop...Aaron Brothers Art Mart. I used some 12x12 scrapbook paper for the background. The manufacturer of the paper is 7Gypsies.

A couple things I would have done differently. I would have been a little way neater in cutting my foam core board. I left the edges a little ragged. I didn't realize how much this would show when I wrapped my fabric around it. I might have to redo this eventually.

And I found that I really needed some stability on all four edges of my "lifted" foam board other wise it kind of "rocked". I had a 3" square of foam board in the middle to lift the sampler but then when placing it found it rocked too much. So I had to tuck pieces under which was kind of a pain, but still worked out.

Thank you sooo much for all the nice comments. They are always appreciated. I haven't been as good posting to all your blogs though. One of my little doggies is recovering from leg surgery. Poor baby. This is her 3rd and shes only 6 years old. She has luxating patellas and has had the left done about 4 years ago then she tore her ligament in the same leg. Now the left patella really had to be done as she was starting to limp bad. Sigh..... 6 weeks recovery...oy.

Happy stitching!

Little Jumpers

I pulled these out of the "vault" the other day...aka. the rubbermaid container in the garage. I had a good laugh parading these for my 20 year old son and his girlfriend. He just laughed it off. Not embarrassed in the slightest. :)(hes cute that way).

He was 2 or 3 when he wore them. Got tons of compliments.

I was able to make them so cheaply (not much of a budget back then). A little bit of broadcloth, a little bit of aida, some cheap buttons from the fabric store...tada!!! Cute Sunday outfit. After these I learned how to smock and stuck to smocking for quite a while.





You know what I love best about these?? Is they look brand new. They were washed multiple times and the stitching held up beautifully! Love that.

The CS patterns are ones for baby bibs. I can't recall where I got them from and the books are long gone. They worked wonderfully. I basically just adapted a simple boys jumper pattern for the CS insert and for the blue jumper did add some piping to the insert before adding it into the jumper.

I've got a girl version too which I'll post soon too.

Thank you for stopping by! Happy stitching!

P.S. I framed my Lady...shes super cute! I'll try and add pixs of her later this week.