SMO finishes

The top two are the Smore's I made into a name tag. I love name tags cause they are just the cutest, smallest pictures you can wear.

The "Snow", snowman I made for a friend of mine and I put it in a 4" frame of white filigree. It turned out so cute if I do say so myself. She loved it!

The three goofy flakes I finished and I have a teal frame a little lighter than the flakes I plan to put them in. I loved these guys cause they look so goofy and you don't see snowmen very often with bucked teeth. In fact, I have not ever seen any. I love the designers sense of humor it's right up my ally. I will take another picture when I have it framed in the 5x7 teal frame with no mat.

Lastly I have "Swirl", another snowman. Go figure! I don't know what I am going to do with him maybe put him in that 4" frame I used for my friend.

So . . . here are my SMO finishes I hope someone looks at them.

Take care all and God Bless ~

Lenna

Rabbits and Birds. . .

being conducted by the snowman complete with baton and musical notes! I finished adding all the white to the snowman body and added white to scarf and birds hats. Backstitched one bird and did the musical notes and backstitched them.

I just have the rest of the snowman, scarf, rabbits, the other two birds and all of the snowflakes, in the sky, to be backstitched. Then I have to tie all the tassels on the scarf and I will be done at last. The biggest part I had left to do was the snowman's body and that is history!

YEA!!! Got the house cleaned and only have 3 rooms left to vacuum and one hallway.

I am off Sunday and Monday and with the house clean maybe I can get some stitching done. Need to stitch on the Seaside Sweethearts and Grand Canyon so I can get them done. Sorry still no picture.

I have about 6 or 8 finishes done and I need to post them.

Good Night and God Bless ~

Lenna

Rabbits and Birds

I don't have a picture but I found a piece I started years ago. I have just a little bit to do on it and it will be done. It is a darling snowman who is leading a choir of birds, sitting on a branch, in a tree. He is holding a baton to lead them with and they are all so cute. I used an over dyed thread to do his scarf. Hope I can find the rest of it so I can make the tassel ends.

I have to finish his body, put in the snowflakes, and do the back stitching. I got the first half of his body done in white tonight.

Next time I take some pictures I will include them. Who knows maybe I will be finished with it by then.

Take care and God Bless ~

It's off to bed I go ~~~

Lenna

The Eyes have it . . . . .

or do they? This is what not to do to a tiger! He gets really mad as my Grandson Gavin would say.

I worked on this piece at work and when I went to get my mat board someone had used it again. That is why I hid it. Got to find a better place next time!

So we found two pieces of mat I could use for the blue. I managed to screw both of them up. Then I thought this blue would look OK! When I took the picture I realized how WRONG I was. It overshadows the eyes, the focal point, and all you see is the blue. One of the girls in the shop said it look nice. I knew right then and there ~ IT DID NOT!!! So ~ change I will!!!

I ordered three more sheets, one of each color, and I will re cut the mats next Thursday. I will post the finished one when I get it done. His eyes are so striking that I don't want anything to take away from that effect.

Tell then keep stitching and God Bless ~

Lenna

Children, Grandchildren it just keeps going . . .

1) This is my favorite picture of Heather's Kids in the bath tub! Soon they will be in bed and the noise will stop for a little while. Olivia is 5, Elisha is 3 1/2 and Samuel is 7. 2) Here is Elisha after he found the peanut butter, it comes in a big tub in Cape Town, S. A. I don't think he ate much but boy was there a mess to clean up. 3)Samuel and Olivia in a tree, behind their house on our nature walk. Unfortunately, when we got home we found some ticks. We took care of them post haste! 4)Darren and Samuel waiting for the lamb chops and sausage to finish cooking on the grill. 5)Gary, my oldest modeling the shirt Heather brought me from S. A. that was too small. So . . . Gary would come into the room wearing it and just stand there listening to our conversation. Finally, one of us would notice him and we would all laugh. Then he would go take it off and then suddenly a little later he would be back. This is the last shot of him and he finally took it off for the night. I still can't wear it but it hangs in my closet. 6)That is Sweet Reagan sucking on her Binky she was cutting teeth and that helped with the pain. 7)That is a photo of the four generations. Heather, Lenna, Johnnie, my mom, and Reagan when she was small. When Heather comes in July we will take another picture of the four generations. 8)Gavin, the pistol, in the group. He is always talking and he doesn't care if you aren't listening he just keeps talking. He often say Daddy, I hear a dinosaur and it is always Rexy! 9)Reagan in her green dress with my shoes on. She even got up and walked in them. No small feat for her feet. 10)Gavin again acting silly. 11)Olivia in the swing at the park in Cape Town. We had fun that day playing in the park and climbing on the wooden platform we pretended was a pirate ship. We did a lot of Ahoy Matey!!! on the ship that day.

12)Gary again in the "shirt" see he just shows up! 13) Reagan when she was crawling now she is walking all over the place. 14)Tris, my youngest son. He is the one who is going to Cal. this summer to become an actor. He graduates from a college in D. C. this week with a Masters in Shakespearean Theatre. He is also going to be in 4 plays two of them he is the lead and does some fencing. 15)Maggie, Gary's wife and mother of Gavin and Reagan.

16)Heather, my only daughter, with Reagan, who is married to Darren, the sausage man in the next picture. She is mother to Samuel, Olivia and Elisha, peanut butter boy! 17)And finally, Gary and Heather at Samuel's birthday party before they went to Cape Town.

I love you all very much. I can't wait to see Heather, Darren, Samuel, Olivia, and Elisha when they get here July 8th. I do get to see Gary, Maggie and the kids pretty often. Tris, that is another story. I guess I will see him before he goes to Cal. I was hoping I was going to get to see him in the plays but that wasn't meant to be.

Well, I am going to bed!

God Bless ~

Lenna

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen ~~~

Here is a Celtic design I stitched for my kids for Christmas. I put this on top of a little bit bigger piece of wool felt.

At Christmas my youngest son, Tris, decided it was a coaster instead of an ornament. I told him it was not a coaster. Later on that day he said Mom tonight when Gary and I get home we are going to sit down and have a beer together. You know what we are going to put our beers on? (See where this is going?) Those nice little coasters you gave us for Christmas! They kept it up the rest of the day. This one is for my daughter and I have to finish it by the 8th of July! She is living in Cape Town, South Africa now and I did not get it done for last years tree. She is coming home with my three grandchildren and her husband for 6 weeks.

I try and make them a Christmas ornament every year. Sometimes they use them for coasters! Funny guys. I love them all. Now I guess it is time you met them.

Fellow bloggers ~

Please, please if you have left any comments when last you visited could you please add them again? I lost all of them when I had to move this beast over here. Also, if you were a follower please click again. I only have one and I did have ten.

Thanks for looking I appreciate it so much. Any tips would also be appreciated, you just don't know.

Take care, happy stitching and

As Always God Bless ~

Lenna

Such a tiny start . . .

but it will be grand when it is done! I have been working on the Mary Wigham Sampler, except tonight, Tuesday, when I feel asleep while watching NCIS! Here is my progress. YEAH! I am so excited I successfully uploaded this picture here and on the MW blog!!! Small steps.

I have learned a lot in a short time after starting these blogs. I have transfered the whole posts, all of them, to this blog site cause the other one didn't work. It was the address or something. Talk about starting OVER!

Hope this one works I don't want to do this again.

TTFN ~ ta ta for now.

God Bless ~

Lenna

Oh, Goody A Finish. . . .

Unfortunately done long ago! This is what Dr, Z's will look like when I get it done. The glass is setting up a glare so it is not as stunning as it is in person.

Beans ~ I have a lot to do to get it finished. I was hoping I was farther along. When you put the clouds into it the canyon just pops out. You will see.

Got to go I have not stitched but a little on MW. Oh, shucks I have that one to put back in this blog, too.

Bye ~

God Bless ~

Lenna

Grand Canyon

Here are the two photos of the Grand Canyon ~ the top one is the first day of stitching. The bottom one is where I am now. After I had my second heart ablation done I decided I would stitch my doctor a cross stitch of the Grand Canyon. I have stitched one for my brother and it is stunning!

I stitched and framed my doctor a picture of a flying eagle after my first heart ablation and he loved it. I have never seen a man get so excited about a stitchery before. I think they should, but they seldom do.

Well, as you can see it quickly became a UFO and WIP. I do vow to get back to it soon though so I can give it to him.

It is one of the hardest one I have ever stitched because some of the colors are blended and you have no reference for what they will look like. I had to cross off what I had stitched the first time to keep track. It also has so many of the same colors. Not an easy piece but it does look so gorgeous when it is finished!

I have the mats and frame picked out for it and everything. I especially love the one picture where you can see the shadow of my spiky hair at the bottom.

I hope he will be as thrilled with this one as he was with the last.

Hope he is still breathing!

Please don't let me down Dr. Z!!!

God Bless ~

Lenna

The Greatest Cat Ever. . .

was Fleabag! He was sweet, gentle, gave certain people love bites, and he was crossed eyed. It didn't seem to slow him down one bit. He was very sparing with his love bites, Debbie, my sister, Tris, Gary, my sons and I were the recipients. ***It seems my daughter, Heather, was also one who got love bites and head butts ~ who knew? Sorry Heather it seems Mother is getting old! He was a well loved cat in this family and has been missed by us all very deeply!***

One day when Debbie came to visit, Fleabag ran into the house, made a beeline for her, jumped on her lap and gave her a head butt and a love bite. He then jumped down and was on his way again.

This is the first big piece I did in 1982. I did it in honor of Fleabag ~ the greatest Siamese cat who ever lived. I had to put him to sleep in 98 and i will always miss him. This took me two weeks to stitch. It is done on 14 count Aida and I built the frame and my friend at the time cut the mats and framed it. She ran a frame shop and I was her frame builder.

A Biscornu by any other name . . .

is still a biscorn-U! This is the pattern for the biscornu we are doing in the EGA guild. It is a freebie at Teresa Wenztler's website but it is called English Garden something. It has beads in the buds and wherever there is a green shoot. It will have a stitched border around it about two to four threads from stitching. I took mine out to use a different thread. The back piece will have the outline stitched and some of the flowers on the front.

I did help on the first one , different material, but I read the direction wrong and just put some satin stitches on the back and sewed on the beads. Duh!

I put it together and stuffed it and sewed on the two darling buttons. It is easy to stitch and I will have mine all done for the next meeting. I think it turned out to be very delicate and pretty!

I have many more to do from Barbara Ana, some from Helga and some I got off of Auntie's Attic. I will have a basket full by next year.

Biscornu's, Tuffets or Little Pillows

Barbara Ana design and the little one is next to a quarter, so it is small.

Enjoy!

Little Miss Muffet sat on her . . .

tuffet! Or biscornu, if you prefer. In America they are called biscornu's but in England and places across the water they are called tuffets or little pillows.

I got the smallest pattern from Auntie's Attic and next to it also.

I stitched the big one with Dinky Dyes silk called Arlie and Whitsunday. The littlest one was stitched with WDW Confetti. Now to the biggest one, it is a Barbara Ana pattern and it has been put together once but I accidentally dropped my glass of passion tea in the tote bag I was carrying and it got soaked with pink tea. So I rinsed it out with cold water and washed it with liquid hand soap. When it dried it was all wrinkled so I took it apart and washed and ironed it again. I have not put it back together yet. Fact is, I misplaced it after I took the picture. Not to worry it is still here!!! Among all my stash!

The little one looks like it would be hard to put together but is was a snap. They are easy, quick and very easy to put together and stuff. Sew on a cute button ~ finished!

Thanks for looking ~

Name Tags My First Love ~

My very first love was the simple, expressive, cute name tag. I have been called "The Name Tag Queen" and this is the only Queen I will ever be. I have a shoe box full of my tags and have made scores for other people over the years.

I even made one for Ginny Morrow and she designed a square for me from a piece of fabric I wanted to use in her Seminar class she taught.

I love name tags cause you see a cute little picture, like this cute s'more, you won't want to frame, but lo and behold it will make a great name tag. I do the original image, add my name and then go crazy and just start stitching, soon I have the border done.

Voila ~ I have a finished picture and it is also a functional name tag. I love to use variegated thread for the borders!

The one below I stitched when I was still dying my hair red. I made the hair red to match mine but I have since let it grow out and it is now salt and pepper. Mine is short and it's mostly pepper!

My kids call me the Rooster! My youngest son, Tris, says he will not accept the fact that my hair is now natural. To him I will always be the Rooster. So I send hugs and pecks ~

Good Night and God Bless!

Lenna

Awesome Nativity

Now, I want to show you some awesome stitching! My little sister stitched this and was going to give it away. She stitched it on a purple/blue fabric from somewhere else and the threads from a kit. It was really hard to see the holes cause they were so tightly packed. She is also one of those people whose back looks as good as her front.

My twin brother and I talked her into keeping it in the family. She didn't need much encouragement, thank God! She then decided to let my brother take it home for 3 months. Then she will take it home for three months. Come November she is bringing it back and my mom and I get it over Christmas and all of January. Pretty cool ~huh?

MY brother could not stop looking at it when he was home that weekend. He was and is just amazed by the blending of the colors and the sparkles of the wings, halo's and Mary's veil.

I am a picture framer, and I stretched it, matted it, and framed it for her for her birthday. She went to Hobby Lobby, where I work, and picked out the mat and frame. We put museum glass on it and it looks like nothing is on it and it protects it forever from the UV rays.

I am very pleased how it turned out and how gorgeous it looks!!! This is a true heirloom and will be around a long time.

If she had known about it she would have done a Happy Dance all over her house. Way to go Debbie ~ Kudos!!!

God Bless ~

Lenna

Little Angel with Crooked Halo

I leave you with this sweet little Angel to watch over you and keep you safe from harm.

One of my good friends made a graph from the card with the three little Hallmark Angels on it. Two had their Halo's on straight and this one had hers crooked. I identified with her so I stitched her. I stitched the whole piece then went back and put in the white 032 Pearl blending filament. So the wings and all of the dress sparkles. Her eyes are a lighter shade of the green. I matted it in a dark green blue mat and put it all in a gold frame.

She is one of my favorite works and I have her hanging on my snowman wall so I can look at her from my bed every day and every night.

God Bless ~ I am off to bed and boy am I tired it's 4:30 a. m.

Tiger eyes are looking at you. . .

or so it seems. I have a twin brother who has been divorced for 21 years. He has not gotten involved with anyone much in all those years. He moved to Tulsa about 3 years ago and has fallen in love. Peggy, has never been married and she is finally committed to my brother. Long story short, they are getting married in Nov.

So . . . I stitched this white tiger eyes for her. I got ready to stretch it and discovered I had not stitched around one of the eyes. I did that today. I am going to mat it in a grey, blue, and black mat and frame it in a black frame about an 1' wide with O's around it. I am going to come down to the outline of the face top and bottom and in on the sides. When you look at it you will see the eyes looking back at you!!! His eyes are stitched with blending filament so they sparkle that light blue, very striking!

She loves wild animals so I know she will love him. I will take a picture of him when I am finished.

Take care and God Bless ~

Lenna

Two seriously crazy cats ~

Here are my two cats. First is Jade, the Siamese, 18 years old. At first we called her Skitty Kitty cause she was just that, afraid of everything. She looks pretty ragged now and has a slight tremor to her head. She has taken up meowing at night and wakes you up, as if I was sleeping. You tell her to be quiet, or to shut up, if you get desperate enough and she does one more soft meow and then is quiet for a little while. Then she will get a wild hair and run through the house like a crazy cat. Yes, she is just that ~ CRAZY!!!

Now comes Knee-Hi she got her name because she has white fur up to her knees, as if a cat had a knee, thus Knee-Hi. She is about 9 years old and she loves to get on the table, especially if my mom is writing checks. We have to constantly yell at her to get down! One day last week my mom called me at work and Knee-Hi had gotten up on the second shelf of the hutch and she could not get down. She was STUCK!!! My mom could not get her down either. I left work, I only live 1 and 1/2 miles away, and got her down. It is always a joy to be around these two nuts! I love my cats and can't begin to know what it would feel like to not have them around.

I just wish Fleabag, my first Siamese, was still here.

I had better close now it is late.

God Bless ~

Lenna

Father Christmas

This is one of my favorite cross stitches. It took me a while to finish him cause I put him away to do something else. I get bored rather easily thus many, many, many WIP!!!

He is done on a light Aqua linen with DMC threads, when they were still good, didn't run or fray and a dark suede mat. I framed it in silver that matched the fillet, one of the first I ever made. I didn't take the photo far enough away so you can appreciate the frame just the fillet. I have done many by now but this must have been my second. The first was done on a cat ~ go figure! I love cats and have many cross stitches to prove it.

A fillet is a small frame like piece you put around the inside of the mat or inside the lip of the frame to enhance the picture. It was great fun stitching and framing him and I hope you like looking at him as much as I did stitching him. He came from a Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine probably in the early 90's. Seems like 93 comes to mind. I'll do some checking.

God Bless ~

Lenna

Finally . . .

. . . a working blog site. I have been at this for about 71/2 hours now and I am very tired. Your kind words Missy helped me finally get it right. I, of course, didn't know about the @ sign thank you so very much.

This is a picture I took in Cape Town, South Africa this last summer, which is winter there, when I went to visit my daughter. Isn't it beautiful? Just to the side of that big, huge rock formation is the SEA! It was gorgeous to say the least. I will post more beauties today!

Tomorrow, or rather today, I am going to bring all my loved ones on my blog, and my posts from the other blog, too, hopefully. It is time you met them all. But now I am going to bed.

Take care and God Bless ~

Lenna