THE BEST GIFTS RECEIVED



This is my daughter Jeannette holding her precious Christmas gift that she received, his name is DJ and he is a Pekingese, she was so happy since this is what she wanted and my son-in-law was going crazy going to every animal shelter in Greenville looking for a Pekingese dog and he finally found DJ(this was the name he had when he was adopted so she decided to keep the name he responded to) poor DJ was so nerveous after being in a cage and finally having a loving home with my daughter, he is 3 years old.

He loves being around her boys and the boys are crazy about him, he is such a good dog. About nine years ago my daughter had found another Pekingese that was black and a little older at another animal shelter, she fell in love with him and his name was Finnigan, but he died before my grandson Grant was born and she got so upset and emotional because she loved him so much and had him for eight years. So all she wanted for Christmas was another Pekingese since they are so lovable and what better places to go than animal shelters and look around and see who needs a loving home. So now Jeannette is happy and DJ is also happy to have a loving mama and a loving family that love him. DJ follows her everywhere, I guess because he is adjusting to his new family and home.



This is one of my other best Christmas gift that I received this year and it is a 12x14 picture of my other two grandchildren that live in Texas, Haven is 12 and Trinity is 8 WOW how times goes by. Since they were not able to come for the Holidays, my son Harold sends us a picture of the grandchildren every year so that I can frame and hang in the family picture wall going up the stairs. It is so amazing how fast children grow. My other best Christmas gift was spending Christmas with my daughter and son-in-law and my other two grandchildren Alex and Grant. We feel so blessed by God to for these beautiful gift he has given us.

WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING

What has been happening and what I have been up to. With Christmas so close and being so busy doing so many things to have everything ready for the holidays, I have not had time for anything else but getting ready for the holidays. But thank goodness I can now relax since I have finished with outside and inside decorations, packing all the gifts to put under the tree, sending out Christmas cards, grocery shopping since it is my turn to do the cooking and baking, so now I am ready for Christmas.

I had to do alot myself since my husband went out of the country for 10 days (not very nice of him) and
left me to do alot on my own. So I have not had any time to relax or even do some stitching and that is sad :( but I do have my new releases for Feb. 2011 framed, and that is good.

It has been really cold and windy down here and kind of kept me inside for a couple of days, but lucky me I came down with a bad cold which left me with no energy but to stay in bed. Until today I had a little time to post something and let you all now what I have been up to and what is going on in my life.  Thank goodness my husband came home last night because I was ready to cry, yes cry out of desperation since with all the days of strong winds my phone went dead, the alarm system went crazy in the house scarring me to death and having to deal with everything else, I was ready to run out of the house. Thank goodness my son-in-law took care of the problems, thank goodness for son-in-laws when husbands are
not available.

Hope everybody is ready for Christmas, especially those with small children how are so anxious for that special day when they can open all those presents and see their big and happy smiles on their faces.

I posted these pictures of two of my grandchildren that I took pictures of when they came over for holloween and loaded up on lots of candy and seeing them have a great time and their big smiles on their happy faces.

Many blessings to all of you, Vilma





WHAT I HAVE BEEN UP TO LATELY.

I received an early Xmas gift from my wonderful husband that was on my Xmas list, well the thruth is I had to force him to give it to me since I did not want to wait until Xmas, so he gave in and I am so happy, happy since I have wanted a iPad since they first came out. In the box was a generous gift certificate from Amzon and Barnes and Nobles so I can download the BIG LIST of books I wanted. The
other gift on my wishlist is a Tablet computer from HP, where the screen rotates and can also lay flat. I know  he has gotten it for me but the problem is I have not been able to convince him to hand it over, yes that is the way I phrase it to him but I am having trouble in getting it, so I guess I will have to look at all the hidding places in the house, because I do not have the patience to wait until Christmas :( :( I know patiance is a virtue I do not have.

I have also been so busy with Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays coming and trying to get my list of Christmas finished since I like to do my shopping early and not get caught in the rush, when everybody is going crazy and you cannot even walk in the mall or find a parking space. That is the only thing that drives me bananas during the holidays. But thank goodness I am almost finish.

So with all this going on, I have not been able to do anything involving needlework :(  :( but then I also
needed a break and do other things that were a priority right now.

I wish everyone of you a blessed Thanksgiving, may God bless you all and your family in such a wonderful holiday and give thanks to God for all his blessings, even though for me everyday I get up is  a blessing which I thank God for.

This has also been another project I have been doing at home. I bought this comforter with the ruffle and pillow shams because I fell in love with the color. The color is like when you slice a sweet and ripe dark watermelon inside, but it is not red, well I went to Home Depot and see if they could do a paint match of the comforter and they did a wonderful color match, so I have just gone bananas redecorating this guest bedroom and love the way it turned out. I also used three diferent kind of materials with the same color scheme, they blended wonderful so I had the sofa redone in a antique gold, the cushions in diferent patterns, but most of all I love the two oil paintings above the bed and the two angel figurines that I fell in love with as soon as I saw them.

So now I am busy redoing the other guest room, but more in a Victorian style, I fell in love with a beautiful paint color that kind of resembles DMC 930 and I want to do the compliments in the color white. When I finish I will take some pictures and share them and see what you all think.

SHARING HARRIET'S "FRIENDS"

I want to thank Harriet for sharing some pictures of her finished piece of "FRIENDS" that she stitched for her friend Lorrie, who chose a beautiful way to display it, in a tray. Harriet said that when she first saw the design of "FRIENDS" she knew she wanted to stitch it for her dear friend Lorrie. that the inclusion of the cup just seemed like such a universal symbol of friendship and relaxation, yet you seldom see it in a sampler. Lorrie and Harriet often stitch together and have a cup of chai tea.  They are also part of a wonderful group that gathers twice a month so she included the words "Friends Count" which is the name of the group, and the first initials of the stitchers. She used fabric and floss colors that she knew her friend Lorrie liked. Also she stitched the letter "K" in the small heart in the bottom right corner as Lorrie's son is an unofficial member of their stitch group. Harriet said it was fun to stitch this sampler and personalize it for her wonderful friend Lorrie.  

How lucky and blessed are Harriet and Lorrie to be such good friends. I love the way Lorrie now displays it in her house in a beautiful tray to always remind her of Harriet's friendship.

Thank you again Harriet for sharing these pictures with me for my blog and the wonderful story behind it, it really touched my heart to see what a beautiful symbol of true friendship means.  

Blessings, Vilma 

HAD TO GIVE INTO TEMPTATION!!!!!!!!

Sorry I have not had time to blog much, first of all I have been under the weather and there has been some pleasant and unpleasant issues going on in my life. But I just had to post these pictures of the beautiful scissors, needles and scissor fobs that were a great temptation at Anita's little stitches, I just had to have them and finally had to order them.  Frankly the pictures does not do justice to how beautiful they are. My favorites are the ones on the lower picture, wow when I received them I could not believe how beautiful and well made they are and also very sharp, they measure six inches and just love them, Anita said that they will be available soon in the color black and asked her to let me know when she received them so I can order it also. Her service is first class and she ships right away, I like that. The black and silver ones and the copper one are also very beautiful and I love the fact of how sharp they are. Also I could not past from ordering some packs of the Bohin needles, just love them and they are a joy to stitch with. I was also very impressed with the two scissor fobs, they were a nice size and had a good weight to them. I also had to order the beautiful gold Santa Claus one, it was a beauty and happy to see how sharp it was, since that is something I always look forward to in a nice pair of scissors. 

I had two new designs to release for St. Charles but due to circumstances I was not able to. One is a band sampler called "BEHOLD MY WORK" and the other ones is a A&E called "REMEMBER US" if I cannot release them this year, I will release them in February of next year, will see how certain things turn out, as I said umpleasant issues are hard to deal with but then we have to move on, that is what life is about. Wishing everyone a happy and blessed weekend.  Vilma

CAROL SIMS "SHY PHILOMENA"

My many thanks To Carol Sims from "Sampler Farm" for her kindness in sharing a picture of her finished sampler of "Shy Philomena" as always she did a beautiful job and loved her choice of frame.

I always enjoy looking at all the samplers Carol has stitched through the years http://community.webshots.com/user/samplerfarmer and the way she has them displayed throughtout her beautiful home. The time, dedication and love that she has put into her samplers is a great inspiration to me and to alot of people that know her in the needlework industry.

I would also like to congratulate Carol on the upcoming wedding of her beautiful daughter, she has been very busy and working hard to make everything perfect and beautiful for that special day.

GRANT'S LITTLE BIRTHDAY

We did a small celebration on Grant's birthday at his house, since we could not do his birthday party since he and my daughter were sick, so I decided to have a cake made for him (yes monkeys, he loves monkeys and his best buddy is is stuffed monkey who sleeps with him every night, he gets very upset when he cannot find his monkey) he was so happy when my husband and I showed up unexpectedly with his cake and his birthday gifts. We ordered two delicious Italian pizzas, sang him happy birthday twice and then he cut his cake and shared it with all of us.

After that he opened his birthday presents all excited and we played with him, that got a big smile out of him even though he was not feeling well, then his big brother Alex entertained us with his guitar, playing a couple of songs for us. There is a gap of 8 years between Alex and Grant. Grant tends to look up to his big brother, he loves his big brother.

So that was our Saturday evening  gathering with the family and my husband and I were very blessed and happy to celebrate another birthday with a another grandchild, Thank you God.

TED AND BRENDA SHARING "RESURRECTION"

I would like to thank Ted and Brenda for their kindness in sharing these pictures with me of the finished band sampler of "Resurrection"  and I wanted to share them here for you. Ted and Brenda are stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and he is a Air Force Chaplain there, they are the proud parents of two beautiful children. When "Resurrection" was released Ted fell in love with the design and of course Brenda his beautiful wife wanted to surprise him and stitched it for him. Ted and Brenda are originally from Knoxville, TN and were college sweathearts. 

Brenda being a homemaker and having two small children keeps her very busy, but she has always loves to cross stitch and her family is a huge supporter of her needlework. I really loved what she said when she was stitching this design, since it took her a year to finish it. She felt close to God and her husband Ted while working on it, so this piece has so many prayers invested into it while she was working on it. It  kept her company and occupied so much while her husband Ted was deployed to the AF. Now if pictures could talk, these do since you can see the big happy smile on Ted while holding his sampler with his beautiful wife Brenda beside him, also very happy and proud of her finished piece and making her husband very happy. 

Brenda stitched her piece on 32 count Lambswool with silk fibers. So thank you so much again for sharing these pictures with me so I can share them here. God bless you both and your beautiful children and hoping to see you back in the States next year. Brenda's best friend has suggested to her to stitch "And The Sinned" so she can hang it next to "Resurrection" so Brenda is thinking about it as a future proyect. Brenda has promised to share a picture of Resurrection when she has it framed.

On my side I wanted to say that my model hangs in my bedroon on a side wall by my bed and there is not a day that goes by that I do not take some time to read the verse and thank God everyday for all his blessings and our health. After reading it every morning I feel good and ready to start and face another day in my life. 

God bless you all, Vilma 

CANNOT BELIEVE I WON SOMETHING

I was in shock when Wawanna P. from http://www.silverthreadsgoldenneedle.blogspot.com/ sent me an e-mail, saying that I had won, YES I WON something at last, wow I could not believe it!!!!! I sent her my address and this is the beautiful chatelaine I received, it is just so beautiful and believe me when I say that,the picture does not do justice to it. I had to sit down and open the box she sent me and just look at it from every angle and the beautiful work she did with the colors of beads she picked for it. Wawanna please know that I will always treasure this heirloom piece and all the other extra gifts you sent me, I know you did them from your heart and I will always think of you when I use them. God bless you, you are a wonderful and unique lady. hugs, hugs and more hugs and many blessings.

Wawanna also included extra gifts with the chatelaine, this beautiful scissor fob and a bead counter with a needle threader, she did them with the same beads she used in the chatelaine and they both can be clasped to it. Every time I opened a gift box, there was another treasure, I felt like a little girl opening gifts after gift. I really know Wawanna put a lot of love in all these heirloom treasures.

This is a "Laying tool" wow what a beauty it is. It is used primarily in needlepoint where one "lays" the threads so that they look evenly placed. In cross stitch, if there are any fancy stitches one could use it the same way. In using the the laying tool the stitcher can separate several strands of threads, silk, cotton, rayon, etc, just how many depends on the size of the canvas she is working on and the type of stitch you are executing, then you put them back together and in the tapestry needle, secures the thread on the back of the canvas and begin stitching. You lay the threads that is using the tip of the "laying tool" to smooth out the threads so that they ae all lined up and then carefully execute the stitch. That way you get a perfect alignment of the threads which gives a smooth appearance and therefore the most shine from the threads. Also in cross stitch if a stitcher is so careful she wants her threads perfectly linen up for each cross stitch, you can use this instead of the needle for railroading.

Wawanna explained to me that it takes 32 steps to create a "laying tool" and several weeks to make one. She includes 2-3 layers of a primer, 2-4 layers of a paticular color of professional artist paint, 2-3 coats of a special effects like"angel dust"glitters and then 12 layers of a hardening gloss (with sanding in between each layer) so that the laying tool is slick and smooth as possible.There should be nothing there to snag your precious threads.A couple of beads are added to the one end with epoxy glue and it's all ready! your "laying tool"has a special effect and it is pearlized. As with all her products each and every one is individual and unique. Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to explain to you all as she explained it to me since this is something new to me and I will use it and try it out. To me this is a most precious gift and I know Wawanna went out of her way to do everything in the same color to match the chatelaine.  She also sent me 24 square diamond shape thread holders, beautifully decorated by her, plus a beautiful card. So not only did I received the chatelaine, but all these other precious heirloom pieces that I will allways treasure from the bottom of my heart from a most wonderful and blessed friend.

ALEX'S LITTLE BIRTHDAY PARTY

Summer has been super busy in our lives, vacations and more vacations. This week I was able to put together a little birthday party at my house for my grandson Alex, who turned 10 years old (unbelievable how fast our grandchildren are growing) since his mother will do his big birthday party with all his cousin's and friends. His real birthday is August 18, but we wanted to do a little something for him at our house. Also he goes back to school on August the 16 (he really is not ready to go back yet) since he has been enjoying his summer so much.

So here are some pictures I took to share with you all his little birthday party with just us. We had a lot of fun and I fixed him his favorite foods and snacks, but then that is what grandparents do. I had to do everything the night before  because he was being very nosey in what we were doing and he loves the Star War theme and I did not want him to see anything until they came over the next day in the evening. So yes I did surprise him and he was surprised.

Many blessings, Vilma

NEW DESIGNS READY TO RELEASE

Hurray hurray I finally finished packing the two new designs.  This one is THEY FOLLOW ME and it was stitched on 38 count Examplar Blend #5 using 16 colors of Weeks Dye Work threads. The stitch count on this design is 165w x 174h.

The grassy area is stitched using half cross stitch to add texture and not volume. I would like to thank Tawny from "Where Victoria Angel's Stitch" for her help in recommending her friend Susan K from NJ to stitch the model.  Thank you, Susan for such a wonderful job :) :) Your stitching is beautiful and you got it done very quickly. Also my thanks to Ingrid for picking this frame, I just love it and it goes well with the design, it is 3 1/2 inches wide. Hope you all like this design and your comments mean alot to me since this is what keeps me going :) :)

And then we have GUARDING EDEN, which was stitched on 38 count Examplar Blend #38, using 16 colors of Gentle Art Sampler Threads. The stitch count on this design is 175w x 195h.

I would also like to thank Larene D from NJ, another friend of Tawny's from "Where Victoria Angels Stitch". So thank you, Larene for your beautiful and quick stitching of this model.   I would also like my friend Kathy for frogging out A&E since I was not satisfied with the flesh tone color.

You may choose not to fill in the verse or just fill in where it say's THE LORD GOD.  That is up to the choice of each stitcher. I love my model the way it looks and it is already hanging on my A&E wall, this frame is also 3 inches wide and to me it does complement the design. I greatly appreciate your comments, since they mean alot to me and to my designing :) :)

Enjoy the rest of the summer and hope all the mother's that have their children on vacation are having a wonderful time with them.

Many blessings to all of you, Vilma