P I F

Deb has selected me as one of the recipients for her PIF and so I am offering the same from me to . . . the first three who post a comment on this particular blog post. I will do the draw on August 1, 2008 and post the lucky three here so watch to see if you are it ;-). The three selected will receive a handmade PIF gift from me within 365 days and the only condition is that they in turn do the same thing on their blogs.

Gifts and new stash

Its my birthday this Saturday, and my partner for the birthday exchange sent me this lovely Etui. Isn't it just gorgeous? The first picture is of the front of the etui and the extra gifties Dane sent. Aren't those threads lovely? The second picture is the back of the Etui, with my initials--and please, anyone that can translate what else it says, please tell me. (I flunked out of high school French.) The last picture is the inside of the Etui, and what a superb job she did. There is a little pocket with a ribbon that holds a pretty pair of scissors, a needle and pin page with a gold needle and a special pin with a heart on top. On the other side, a heart shaped pocket with several heart shaped charms inside. The two small sides have heart-shaped mother of pearl rings for threads. The finishing is exquisite, and I love how it folds up to be another heart shape. I was very impressed with the gift and the package. Also included in the package was a chart by Atalie called Mon Petit Jardin. So, does that translate to "my little garden" or "my little heart?" The instructions are all in French, of course, so a visit to my sister is in order. My niece Katie is fluent in French.

A little side bar to the first part of my post. This package arrived last Friday but on Thursday, I had a really bad day. I had an infected tooth, and the infection had spread to my jaw. Now, that's bad for most people, but I'm diabetic, and as such, my immune system isn't as strong as it should be. This was bad enough that my husband, dear sweet Shawn, came home from Chicago, and took me to the dentist--who not only extracted the tooth, but put me on a very high dosage antibiotic. Now, we live 20 minutes away from the dentist office, and were still 7 or 8 miles away when the numbness wore off. Poor Shawn, I kept saying "hurry", and he was already doing above the speed limit--he thought I needed to use the bathroom. Anyway, he got me home, put to bed after taking some pain meds, and went to fill my prescription. He let me get up for a bit of soup for dinner and then back to bed. Friday, still on pain meds but feeling a tiny bit better, and in he comes from the post office with the package from Dane. It made my day.

This week, reality set in. Diabetes has lost me most of my teeth. The tooth the dentist pulled was the last molar I had on the bottom. My doctor has me on a high protein diet--but now what do I eat? I refuse to live on soup the rest of my life. (Receding gums was the first indication that I had a problem. My dentist asked me outright if I was diabetic--NO! but guess where my next stop was? You guessed it and yes, I was!) My gums have receded so far that I don't have a bone ridge for a denture to sit on. So, I was feeling really low today. Hence, the reality setting in. (do you know how hungry one can get without chewing? Even if your stomach is full.) Today's mail brought another package. From my friend Beth, the friend of my heart.

This is what she sent me for my birthday. The Shepherd's Bush kit, Queen Sheep and the gorgeous--I need to find another word--pair of Sajou scissors that look like Mother of Pearl. I was totally in shock! I love these scissors. And won't they look perfect in a sewing box with the Kelmscot thread rings, winders, and ruler? I feel so spoiled. Of course, I had to open my gifts early, just couldn't NOT open it. Isn't she a thoughtful friend? We do all the SB sheepies together. Now it's my turn to put together a lovely package for her as her birthday is just days after mine.
My package also included my latest order of Shepherd's Bush items. The leaflet, She Tends, with the charms--won't they make lovely scissor fobs?--Happy Pumpkin NR, Into the Night Sampler, which is a really cool Halloween sampler, Mermaid Sampler and Sail Away. I'm happy, even with soup for dinner.

Until next time--and there will be a next time, I have ring tags to show off--Stitch on, and have a great summer. Thanks Dane and Beth.

An older finish

A friend reminded me that I hadn't posted a picture of the finish "Morning Berries" by LHN. Sorry about that. I got finished and immediately started working on learning how to do ring tags. And look, my picture is crooked. I take terrible photos, and this one had to be taken while the stitching was hanging over the side of my bed, it's so long. I really enjoyed stitching this one, and the recommended fabric was the greatest to work on but I'm not totally pleased with how it turned out. Second guessing myself on my choices of silk colors. I used Belle Soie, for any new readers.

The ring tags are addictive--I'm doing the finishing today on number 3 and 4, with one more that I want to do. I'm trying to decide if I want to do the stitching for number 5 first, and then finish all of them at the same time. On a recent trip to Wal Mart's, I found more grommets--I used that in the first finish--and found that they come in a host of sizes. Very surprising. Could have used that on my first one--the grommets I had here are very small, and didn't go through my piece all the way. So, you get to only see the front of my piece, LOL.

As soon as I'm finished with the others, I'll scan and post them. I have to say that these are really fun to do--you can choose anything you want to stitch, in any color, with any fabric, or just a lovely motif that you are fond of, and make it into a ring tag. And it's nice to have that little decoration hanging with your threads. Hmmm, perhaps a ring tag exchange is in order. Anyone up for that?

Happy stitching, everyone. Thanks for stopping by.

Little Women "Quilting"

She is finally finished, Little Women Quilting. She took longer than I thought she would, even with being a quick stitch. I had a lot of trouble getting her eyes the same size, but after a few tries, this is what I ended up with. I love her quilt and am planning on stitching it again, just the quilt, for a scissor fob. I will be changing the colors to something with blue in it. She is stitched on Antique white Belfast linen, with Crescent colours overdyed cottons. I finished her yesterday, just before supper and got her all ironed up. I think she turned out very nicely.

Next up will be Morning Berries to finish. That should come tonight. Just have the 7 berries at the bottom to get done. This one should have been done last night, but I got side tracked playing around on the computer, reading blogs, checking updates for online stores. It's very hot outside so I'm staying inside with the air conditioner, getting laundry done and stitching.

Happy stitching everyone, and I hope you all have a great 4th of July.