More Progress on Gentle Stitches and Kittens!

Here is my progress on Gentle Stitches. My next update should be a finish! 

 

I'm on vacation in Canandaigua, NY this week and soon after we arrived a small cat came and greeted us at our rental cottage, loudly begging for food. She was painfully thin but super friendly, so she probably used to be a pet and was abandoned. When I asked the owner of the cottage about her he said that she was just a stray who had been hanging around since February and to "ignore her and she'll go away." Well, that is just not something I could do. I started feeding her wet cat food three times a day, and after two days, we discovered her kittens under a bush! I think she learned to trust us and relocated her litter to our cottage. I couldn't believe that the mama cat had not only stayed alive herself but raised and nursed five chubby, healthy kittens. She really is a survivor and a good mama! I seriously contemplated taking the whole litter back home to Maryland to foster them and adopt them out, but thankfully my aunt found a volunteer organization that was able to place mama and all five kittens in a private foster home here in New York. The volunteer told me that ALL five kittens were female. Can you imagine how many strays that would have been in a few generations?

It was hard to part with them but I have pictures and nice memories of my few days with this beautiful mama and kittens. I'm sure the adorable kittens will have no trouble finding homes, but I told the foster mom to contact me if she has any trouble finding a home for mama. She truly is a special kitty and I would love to give her a home if she is unwanted, although I'm sure my two cats would have a tantrum.

Here are some pictures of mama and babies:

Have a good weekend everyone!

Another past finish

I have made quite a bit of progress on Gentle Stitches, but I didn't get pictures taken before I lost the sunlight. I'll make sure to take some tomorrow.

 In the meantime, here is another favorite past finish. This is Milady's Acorn Box by Milady's Needle

 

This project was released as a kit at the Nashville Needlework market in 2009, and I purchased it from Salty Yarns in Ocean City, Maryland. I don't know if it is still available. It is stitched on 40 count Pearled Barley by Lakeside Linens. The threads are Belle Soie silks by Crescent Colours. The darker color is Rustique and the lighter is Red Fox. The finished size is very small, only about 3 inches x 3 inches. I want to finish this as a box top as recommended in the kit. 

These two small pieces will become a two-sided scissor fob when I get around to finishing it:

Hope you enjoyed!

Progress on Gentle Stitches and Haul from The Stitching Post

As promised, here is my progress on Gentle Stitches by Shakespeare's Peddler. I haven't done a lot of stitching this week because I was quite busy with house buying related errands, but here it is.

I'm really glad I switched to the whiter linen, and I can't wait to get to the prettier pinks and greens in this piece.

I'm using the Thread Heaven for this and I like it. I think it really cuts down on those annoying looped knots you get on the back of your piece when pulling your thread through. The thread does feel like it is dragging less, but that could also be due to the plain Zweigart linen rather than the Lakeside Linens I started on, which was a bit "fuzzier".
 

I don't know about other stitchers, but I have as much fun going to the stitching shop and planning new projects as I do actually stitching. I got a few things this week at The Stitching Post.

First is this cute "2009 Santa" pattern from The Prairie Schooler:

 

I'm going to stitch this for my hockey-playing boyfriend and personalize with Washington Capitals colors. I don't know when I'll get to this one, but hopefully in time for Christmas. 

I love Autumn and Autumn colors, so this monochromatic piece by Little House Needleworks caught my eye:

The pattern came with this Belle Soie silk floss:

But I couldn't resist the fall colors of these three silk skeins by The Thread Gatherer Silk N' Colors:

Top to bottom they are Rusty Amber, Apples & Oak Leaves, and Autumn Foliage.

When I got home I did some playing with linens from my stash:

I think I'm going to use the Rusty Amber silk (middle above) and the Summer Khaki linen (top left above) but I don't know, they're all so beautiful and each would give the piece a slightly different feel.


I'm also thinking about stitching this piece, which has been in my stash for MANY years, and would look good in my new kitchen:

I'm going to use the floss below, Highland Garden Dark by Gloriana, and either Summer Khaki (top) or Stone Grey (bottom) Newcastle linen. Again, two different feels based on which linen I choose.

I have a lot of stitching to do! Maybe I should do more actual stitching and less playing with stitching goodies ;)

A Big Thank You!

This post is a BIG thank you to Belinda for the 2006-2010 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments issues I won in a blog giveaway from Blue Ribbon Designs! I've entered several blog giveaways before and this time I won! An added bonus is that many new people found my blog when Belinda announced that I won the contest and linked my blog to her post.

Belinda packaged the magazines so nicely and shipped them right away. She even wrapped them in a Christmas ribbon and included a sweet note!

She sent me a total of five magazines, totaling over 375 ornament patterns! I am so lucky and I can't wait to stitch some of them.

Thank you Belinda!!!