Very 'Revealing' Stockings!

Recently I participated in a stocking swap hosted by Andrea over at Indigo Blue. The only requirements were to make a Christmas stocking and put a card with it to send to our swap partners. Now that the swap is over, I can FINALLY reveal what I sent and what I received.





First- this is what I received from Molly over at 'Crocheting My Best With My Worsted': It's a felt stocking embellished with different stitches from her sewing machine. It's sooooooooooo pretty! She also included a little Christmas tree cut out done in the same fashion. Also included with the lovely stocking is a crochet pattern book of baby ripple afghans. It's all so great. I will definitely use the pattern book. I love to do ripples when I crochet. Many, many thank yous to Molly for such lovely gifts.

What makes these gifts so special is that Molly has MS and is also dealing with multiple eye surgeries. She has her good days and some not so good days. But she most definitely manages to stay busy with her crafting and crocheting and does such beautiful work. No amount of thank yous will ever be enough to let Molly know how much I appreciate her efforts and her gifts.





Next- This is what I made for Molly: I did red work embroidery on bleached muslin and trimmed it with red and white striped fabric for heel, toe, and cuff. This was great fun to make. I love to embroider when I can and this just seemed like the thing to do with this stocking for Molly.



Doing this swap helped me get into the holiday spirit and has me wanting to do other projects for Christmas. It has gotten fairly cold here in New England, even though we still have some warmer days here and there. But this seasonal weather has helped boost the want for doing holiday projects as well.

Again, very many thanks to Molly for the lovely gifts and also to Andrea for hosting the swap. I hope to participate in more swaps of various kinds in the future. This was soooooooooo much fun.

Have a knit pickin' good day y'all!

Some Reflectin', Some Quiltin', and Some Knittin'

I've been on a sabbatical for some time now while I've tried to figure things out where my life is concerned. I took time off from writing and pretty much everything else. I've functioned in a most repetitive, robotical, mechanical kind of way for a few weeks now. But seems the time has come to snap out of the funk and get on with things. That's a good thing, BELIEVE ME.

My heartfelt thanks to all those who wrote to me expressing concern and sending me well wishes. They were (and YOU ARE) appreciated more than you know!



While things are still not back to 100% in some areas of my life, I have been doing what I know best...in the creativity department at least. I've been sewing, and quilting, and knitting. It's been excellent therapy except for the fact that I'm soooooooooo slow and don't turn out the projects as fast as I'd like. And I've had Christmas as inspiration to create the determination to get some things done. So, as the Christmas deadline is ALREADY looming (gees, where did the time go this year?!), I've cranked it up a few notches and have two quilts, two knitted afghans, and various other small projects in the works.



I would have preferred to be singing with the band and staying busy on that front, but it just hasn't made itself available to me for a while now as I've had no gumption in that aspect of my creativity. My music has ALWAYS been the best medicine for whatever ails my soul, but even this, my real love of all things that I love, hasn't been the fix I've needed. But what I have done is listen to an awful lot of it whilst working on other said projects...with a few bottles of wine to keep it all company.



So the wine days are behind me now...at least in bottle form. Maybe a glass of it here and there. It's nice to have it in front of the fire in the evenings...now that's it's cool enough to have a fire in the evenings. (I can't believe we're already facing winter and sub freezing temps and snow...LOTS of snow - UUGGHH).



But anyway, the quilting has been great. And the knitting has been great. Along the way, I've discovered some great places to shop for fabric and yarn in Providence, RI and Fairhaven, MA. I've come up with some fab deals in those areas to keep me going on this front. The inspiration has been tremendous and it constantly fuels the want to finish all these projects.

Some peeks here at what's OTN and in the quilt frame. Can't divulge too much cuz it spoils surprises ya know!



Here again...I'm STILL without a decent camera to take pics good enough to do them justice here. My phone is all I have and seems the more I use it, the worse the picture quality gets. But it's all I have for now and will have to do...still! Renovating a house and just trying to make ends meet these days leaves money for little else...and the camera thing is definitely considered a "luxury" at this point.

This past week I joined a 'Christmas Stocking Swap' that Andrea over at Indigo Blue is hosting. This should be lots of fun. I've not participated in a swap before and I loooooooooooove to make Christmas Stockings. My swap partner is Molly from sewquiltwhatever and crochetingmyworsted. (Sorry, but even after all these months of blogging, I STILL don't know how to create a link within my own blog. I CANNOT figure it out!!!) You can catch their blogs <------- over to the side here in my blog list. But this stocking swap thing should be lots of fun and am going to get started on that this week.

It's good to be back and am hoping to get back here to post more often. There's lots going on in the way of beautiful fall scenery here in New England and the critters in the house are always entertaining and I'm busy, busy, busy with the projects.

Have a knit pickin' good day ya'll!