Mill Hill Monday

I have made a little progress so I thought I would show it. This is where you saw it last:

 And here it is now:

It is fun, but there are a ton of beads! And I am ready for something Christmasy!

Dragons

When   Jo  announced that dragons was the theme for the People's Choice SAL in December, I had to laugh. When my oldest was a young child, he loved dragons. He would make up imaginary ones and tell us what they sounded like. He had a toy dragon that he loved. It is in the basement somewhere....
Anyway, one year I decided to make him a Christmas stocking. He wanted a dragon on it. This is around the year 1999. No dragon stockings. So he drew a picture of one and helped me pick the stitches for a counted canvas piece.

Yes, the colors are that bright.(Please ignore the mess in the background!)He helped me choose the colors and  all the stitches. I was close to being done when he told me the dragon was in a cave with lots of gold coins. So AFTER I had done most of the stitches, I had to paint the background black. Luckily my SIL had some coin charms that I could use and I was set.


Here is another dragon that I did stitch for him that is hanging on the wall in his bedroom. I don't know the designer or the year I stitched it, but it is a dragon!

Hope you enjoyed this post. If you follow the link to Jo, there will be other posts of dragons.

Last Day of November

Well, I have not done much blogging this month although I will probably do less next month. I haven't even started thinking about plans for 2019! Yikes!
First of all, it is the last Friday of then month and I have been posting about Reptiles. But I put it away to work on this:

 I had high hopes of having it stitched by this Christmas, but life got in the way. This is what it looked like last November:

 And here I am today.

I could start putting in Joseph, but I think I will backstitch the stable first.

I was cleaning my basement and found all my framed stitching. It was propped against a wall taking up space. I know our basement needs to be totally redone, which won't happen any time soon, so I just started hanging pictures on the wall randomly. This upset my sons-didn't find studs or use the right type of fastener and my daughter as I did not preview where I would hang them.
Here is what it looks like:

It makes me happy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you have a wonderful day with family and friends!

Wabi-sabi Notebooks

 I keep a daily journal. No great thoughts or great art. Just a place to spill what is running around in my small mind. I use composition books or spiral bound notebooks like this one:
 

I try to make them look pretty as it adds to the appeal for me.
Earlier this year I found my Ukrainian Nyzynka piece designed by Phyllis Maurer. I checked and it has been stitched since July 2013! That is too long in a state of unfinishedness....So I made it into a journal cover:

I think it came out fairly nice.
It seems I am in a constant state of trying to clean my art room. Sigh.While attempting to clean, I came across some quilt squares made by my grandmother. One seemed to be the right size for a journal cover so I tried it:

 Not the best, but it will work. Also, it reminds me of my abuelita and all the times I visited her.
This is the fabric I used for the back:

Now to get ready for college students and Thanksgiving! It isn't at my house, thank goodness, but I do need to prepare some things.

What I Stitched This Weekend

This weekend is the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend and I got a fair amount of stitching done. Don't know whose brainchild this was, but you can find the details  here  at Jo's blog.
I am bound and determined to get this piece finished before I start another LARGE piece.
  Here is my starting point:

 I managed to get all the flowers around the center stitched.

With Christmas coming and all the decorations going up, I will have to place this piece downstairs. My goal is to work on it down there. But I do have some ornaments to finish before the holidays, so we shall see.
One thing I keep asking myself, why don't I get this done? It is so lovely stitched. I think I know what my problem is. It is very hard to get the stitches to look really nice. My stitching is less than perfect. I was beating myself up over tension and the problems I was having. Then I remembered the stitching I received from my grandmother and great aunts. Was it perfect? NO! Do I love it? YES! So I have given myself permission to do the best I can and move on. I need this piece done (and the companion piece that is also close to being finished).

Do you have any pieces like this? Ones that have stretched you and made you want to give up?

A Gift to Me!

Last month I taught at the Region Workshop for EGA and I had a few ladies from my guild help me as I taught. One gal asked to borrow some magazines on crazy quilting, which I gladly did. This is what she made me as a thank you gift:

It is a pin cushion with a little scissor pocket on the back. So cute! Thanks Pat E.!
I am counting this as my Gifted Gorgeousness post for this month.  Jo      puts this SAL on and all you have to do is shoe horn the idea of "gift" in the post. Lots of fun!