Check out three New Starts and a Happy Dance....

... over on my New Start Sundays SAL blog......

Cats on Parade

Glory to God

Did you start something new this past Sunday?

hugs, 

P.S. Don't forget that if you would like to be part of this fun SAL, just email me at kayedep@gmail.com

P.P.S. You can also check out the progress on my latest Americana project on the Americana SAL blog.... just click on the flag pie below....

An Elephant on the Americana SAL blog....

What's that?  An elephant, you say???  Well, go check him out by clicking on the picture below.....

P.S.Don't forget my giveaway, click on the pic below if you would like to enter. Closes March 31st - only three days left to enter.

Check out the Dancing Donkey....

If you would like to see my latest Happy Dance, for 'Merica Monday, on the Americana SAL, please click the pic below.....

hugs, 

P.S.Don't forget my giveaway, click on the pic below if you would like to enter. Closes March 31st.

Relaunch of 'Merica Monday....

As I have sadly neglected my Americana Stitching plus I was given a gorgeous Americana design to stitch, I am relaunching my 'Merica Mondays - the day that I stitch only Americana designs.

If you want to see what I stitched this past Monday, please click on the pic below.....  It will take you to the Americana SAL blog ....

                                                             hugs, 

P.S. The above design is called "Liberty Lane" and is by Country Cottage Needleworks. I stitched it a few years ago and chose to use my finished piece as the Blog Badge for the Americana SAL blog.  It is not, however, what I stitched on for 'Merica Monday this week.

Check it out.....

My progress on my Down Home ABCs by Jean Farish on the 

Americana SAL blog.

In the meantime, here are a couple of kitty cat pics - Nobu and Furio (I think the latter is trying to suggest a new variegated floss colour).

hugs, 

April TUSAL and a stitchy update....

So, a slightly late ORT report for April, I am afraid to say... (seems to be the story of my life, I am always apologising for late blog posts - lol!)

Anyway, here it is - travel ORTs on the left and home ORTs on the right.

... and here is the year so far....

If you want to check out everyone else's TUSAL reports for this month, just click on this link here.

Now for some updates on my stitching - this is all SAL blog related.

1. Kitten Stitching and the Friday Frolics ...

This Friday for my Frolicking, I went to my Girl's Nest and randomly put my hand on this WIP - Just Nan's "Frosty Hopes".

Here is the before pic:

The After FF pic - look Furio has snuck in somehow!

"Frosty Hopes" is a companion piece to "High Hopes", which I stitched in 2004 - oh, my goodness, that means I have had this piece in my UFO pile for 12 years now - Bad Kaye!

I personalised this piece by stitching my Cameo tortoiseshell cat, Coco, and changing the phrase from "High Hopes grow here" to "My cat Coco lives here".  So, I will personalise this new piece as well, adding the phrase "My cat Furio lives here".

I am going to have to look for a third similar design, so that I can stitch one for Milo.  I just looked at the Just Nan website and couldn't see anything suitable so if anyone has any good suggestions, I would be most grateful.

I am continuing to stitch on it over the weekend, so watch out for an update on Monday morning.

2. Americana SAL ...
One state down ... only 49 more to go! lol!

America, Land that we love

Jean Farish Designs

28 ct linen

Mainly the suggested DMC threads

Hopefully, I will finish Alaska tomorrow night (my next 'Merica Monday stitching night) and get started on the next "A" state - I think maybe it is Arizona but I could be wrong - I will let you know - are there any other "A" states?  Not sure, but I think that I am going to know them all very well by the time I am done!

(Note:  Just googled it and yes, Arizona is next but I forgot about the fourth "A" state - Arkansas!)

3. Tudor Tuesdays SAL ...

... so, while I hopefully stated in my last post that Henry would be done in one more evening of stitching - well, I was wrong - off with my head! lol!

However, I am hopeful of a finish very soon...

Anyway, that's all for me now - heaps to do today.

Happy stitching everyone, 

hugs, 

How are all my new SAL blogs going?

Quite well, on the whole, thank you for asking - lol!

Here is a breakdown of their popularity - the Christmas Ornie SAL (despite the angle of the pie graph) is the most popular.

Christmas Ornie SAL	39*
Prairie Schooler SAL	31
Americana SAL	14
Tudor Tuesdays SAL	5
Friday Frolics SAL	13**

*Number of members
** Not bad numbers considering I only started the blog 9 days ago!

And here is a snippet of my latest posts on each blog, just to whet your appetite (just click on any of the links to see what each blog is all about):

Christmas Ornie SAL blog - I stitched a second Santa for the month of August, with my American Santa.

Prairie Schooler SAL blog - I blogged about my progress on Day 11 of Santa's 12 Days of Christmas

Americana SAL blog - I showed off my Americana Santa finish

Tudor Tuesdays SAL blog - I blogged about The Case of the Disappearing Wives mug

Friday Frolics SAL blog - I welcomed everyone to the new blog

Of course, there are lots of lovely posts from my fellow members but I did not feel that I could share their posts, you need to click on the links to find out all about the exciting stitching going on by everyone.

I am so thrilled by how much everyone seems to be enjoying these new SAL blogs, it has been lots of fun, so far.

Remember, if you want to join any or all of the blogs, just comment on this post but please do give me your email and blog address or else you can email me at kayedep@gmail.com

Have a great weekend everyone, I intend to do so!

hugs,

Ebony and Ivory update...

Last night I picked up what has to be currently one of my favourite WIPs.... Ebony and Ivory by Tempting Tangles Designs.  I am loving the delicateness of the whole piece.

Now, I have also been so very busy setting up my new SAL blogs - such a wonderful response to my ideas, I am so thrilled.  I only have one person (a no-reply commenter) who needs to get back to me with her email address and everyone is added, I hope!  If I have overlooked anyone, please get back to me with both your email and blog addresses.

For those of you who do not know what I am talking about, you can check out the new SAL blogs by following the links below:

Christmas Ornie SAL

Prairie Schooler SAL

Americana SAL

Tudor Tuesdays SAL

Have a great day, everyone,

hugs,

Friday Night with Friends....

.... only a small amount of stitching to show for this FnwF.  I was very tired, as I have not been sleeping well and DD was over for the evening to watch the footy with her Dad, so I found it a bit hard to get into it all, really.

However, I did manage to get a few stitches into my new start for September's Hallowe'en Ornament SAL.

Bump in the Night

Tempting Tangle Designs

from JCS Halloween Ornie Mag 2015 (p. 51)

32 ct overdyed evenweave

Mixture of CC and DMC floss

I have also been busy setting up my new SAL blogs

If you want to know anything more about any of these SAL blogs, the links are below:

Christmas Ornie SAL

Prairie Schooler SAL

Americana SAL

Tudor Tuesdays SAL 

Can I please ask, that if you do wish to join that you send me an email with the email address you wish to use to join the SAL and with your blog address, too, please.

Also, it is taking me a bit of time to get everything organised and to set everyone up on the various SALs, so please be patient if you have already requested to join one or two or all of them! I will get there eventually (however, if in a week's time you have not been joined up, please do not hesitate to email me again!)

Have a good week, everyone, 

lots of love,  

Just settling down to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, while I set up the Tudor Tuesdays SAL blog.  Such fun!

                                       

Such a wonderful response...

... to my new SAL blogs!

I am so thrilled - so far I have over 35 people wanting to join the Christmas Ornie SAL,  24 and counting for the Prairie Schooler SAL, 8 and counting for the Americana SAL and 3 or 4 so far for the Tudor Tuesdays SAL.

Now, as you can imagine this means lots of emails and lots of time setting up the SALs on blogger, etc.  So, I am a bit behind (I do work full time and this week I have to work Saturday as well!!!!!) with responding to people's emails, setting up all of the SAL blogs and adding people.

So, please be patient, I will get there.

If you want to know anything more about any of these SAL blogs, the links are below:

Christmas Ornie SAL

Prairie Schooler SAL

Americana SAL

Tudor Tuesdays SAL

Can I please ask, that if you do wish to join that you send me an email with the email address you wish to use to join the SAL and with your blog address, too, please.

Love to have you come join in all of the fun!

hugs,  Kaye

Oh no! I have had two more ideas .....

.... I am sure you remember that a few weeks ago I had an idea - an idea to start a Christmas Ornie Blog.  Well, I have been very pleased by the response to this, lots of lovely bloggers have decided to join in the fun at the Christmas Ornie SAL 2015 blog.  (By the way, it is not too late to join this SAL blog, if you wish - just leave me a comment letting me know).

Now, I love these sort of blogs, you have all month to stitch a little something on a theme.  I find that it really focuses me and makes me so much more productive each month with my craft.

So ..... I was thinking.... and thinking .... and thinking .... and I came up with the idea for two more SAL blogs.  Oh no!  Or maybe Oh Yes!

Idea Number One:  An Americana SAL.....

I love what I call Americana stitching or what is sometimes called by U.S. stitchers Patriotic stitching.  We just do not seem to have that same sort of genre of designs here in Australia.  I think my love of Americana began when I studied American history in Year 11, I still remember my textbook was called "From sea to shining sea".  Let's see, that would be forty years ago now - lol!  I learnt about the seven colonies, then the thirteen colonies and on it went - fascinating.

So, I found that I am drawn to stitching American designs, like Liberty Lane below:

Idea Number Two:  A Prairie Schooler SAL.....

I am sure that most of you have heard the sad news for us that Prairie Schooler is closing down:




An era is ending, but I know that so many of us love Pamela and Nancy's designs and have lots of them in our stash.  Surely enough to get us through a few more years of stitching  - lol!

So, the idea with both of these SALs is that once a month (whenever we feel like it), we post our progress on our Americana and Prairie Schooler projects on the SAL blogs.

If you are interested in joining either or both of these SAL blogs, please just comment on this post and let me know - I only need one other person for each SAL to get going.  They will be relaxed SALs, I promise but should be lots of fun!

I am hoping that you all think that these ideas are "OH YES" - please come join me!

hugs,