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