The Reason For The Journey

I thought I would show you the reason for this journey.

This is our son Christopher who is now stationed at Grand Forks Air Base, ND after doing a year in South Korea. Since he litterly had nothing but what he brought in a 2 suit cases he really needed a mother's  help with the Dad's credit card. After finding a great deal on a nice couch (found in the as is section for $275.00) a area rug and pillows were found at the local Kohl's (luckily I brought my 30% off coupon and they were also on sale) with a few nick nacks here and there it started looking like a home. With the coffee table, end table and shelf that we brought from home and the dresser, nightstand and 2 bar stools that all needed putting together I don't want to see another screw driver for a long time. Here is what my family accomplished.

On the 2101 mile trip up I worked on "Needlework School" while we were driving. I came across a small problem with a nasty frog,

I did the four girls first starting with the white hats. When I added Mrs Ross the girls on the right are over one thread too much to the right. So there is  the two threads needed on the left of her from the table and 3 threads to the right of her. I do not want to rip out the entire left 2 girls. I am not doing the whole sampler the way it is suppose to be so I think I am just going to leave and hope no professionals check it out.

This is what we saw a lot of along the way starting in Iowa to North Dakota. You can see how the fence posts are sticking out of the water. Today it poured most of the day, not what they need.

After spending a few days with our son it is time for us to hit the road and head back home. We will say good bye tomorrow morning after we have a celebration breakfast with both our kids on our 30th wedding anniversary.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

My Journey Begins

My journey from sunny Southern California to Grand Forks began early early in the morning but it was ok because my daughter and I knew if we were patient our first stop little over 300 miles away would be to one of our favorite places.

The Cracker Barrel. What a delicious breakfast with some shopping to finish it off. It would turn out that on our way I would also get a dinner at a CB and a bathroom break to do some shopping at their sidewalk sale.

We spent our first night in Colorado. Jennifer could not believe how much snow there was on the mountain in June.

I did mange to do a stitching project in the car but have not taken a picture of it yet. Do you know the frog travels in the car I have a small one stitch off and am not sure if I will fix it or not. After all our Lord is the only one perfect and he loves me and my one stitch off piece just the same.

In South Dakota we took a 35 mile off the road stop at the Laura Ingals Homestead. My daughter was in heaven. She even packed her bonnet and said if you can't wear it here where can I wear it. I also really enjoyed the stop. You had so many things to do, she made a small braided rug (ok 2 inch square), a button toy, learned to make wheat knots for the fire, and we both got to put a dry corn cob into a machine that took off the corn. Then we took the cob put a fabric swatch blanket on it and make a corn cob baby to take home.
When you visited the school house you put on prairie outfits and attended school. There was a little pony there that was 13 days old. What a fun stop.

In Fargo, North Dakota I was able to stop at the Nordic Needle. The only problem was I had 20 minutes until they closed. Don't worry I still did some damage. Afterwards we visited the Hobby Lobby ( I printed off 3 40% coupons before we left home so we would all have one). If you follow me you know I love scissors, well guess what they were 40% off so a few ended up in my basket.

I will tell you later about arriving at my son's new apartment that was so bare, only had a bed. I have been busy spoiling him.


The sad note of this trip is we did see a lot of the flooding in the Dakota's. We saw whole farms covered in water with a partial house standing in the middle. We had to detour one time because the highway was washed out. It is one thing to hear about it but to see it made my heart ache. My prayers are out there to those effected.


Always keep love in your stitches,
Teresa

Some finishes and a journey.......

"Focus on the journey.

Joy is found not in finishing an activity,

but in doing it."

Greg Anderson

   I have both joy in doing and finishing these projects. I showed you these pieces before, now they are all finished and ready for display.

This pillow was my first attempt at making the diagonal corners. I know you quilters have a name for it and I am sure a much easier way to do them.

The "Liberty Lane" pillow is just tacked on with the buttons. The simple little pillow has a red checked backing.

This is the front and back of my little scissor fob that will be traveling to Friday Harbour, WA. She likes to sew and collects Mermaids.

Now for the journey part of my title. I am so excited to be going to visit my son. My husband, daughter and I are taking a quick (maybe not so quick since we are driving) trip up to North Dakota. We are leaving early, early Wednesday morning. I can't wait for our first stop in Utah to have breakfast at a Cracker Barrel, they are my favorite. On the way up we are stopping at the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead in South Dakota.
My son just got an apartment in Grand Forks after serving a year in South Korea. He has nothing so it will be fun to help him stock up. Since we will be driving a truck I told my husband we can't go with it empty.
Here is what I have so far.

The two flat things in the back are a coffee table and end table from IKEA's special of the week. There is also a book shelf that was Target's special. There's a rice cooker, hand mixer, hot water pot, wok, beginner cook book, cookie sheets, tool kit, lots of his favorite candies and treats. You can even see a cactus my daughter thought would remind him of California.  I feel like it is Christmas in June. He has been in the Air Force for 6 years and I sometimes feel like he gets left out at the holidays being stationed so far away. He has also done 2 tours in Iraq. I do send him lots of care packages but not the same as seeing him open them. I am just so excited to be able to go visit even for just a couple of days. On our way home we plan on seeing Mt Rushmore. Something I have always wanted to see. I hope to find a few needlework shops along the way. I see Nordic Needle is in Fargo.

I see I have my 100th follower. I will post a give away real soon, so keep looking. Maybe I will find something special on the trip to add to it.

Alway keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

I still can't tell you!

"While earning your daily bread be sure

to share a slice with those less fortunate."

Jackson Brown, Jr.

    I still can't tell you what I have been mostly working on. I just finished my exchange piece for Lainey's Summertime Exchange. It is my first exchange and I am so excited. I am trying really hard to obey all the rules and not show anything about my piece or who it is going to. We have to have it posted on June 20th so to be sure I will post mine in the mail tomorrow.

   On our vacation we were able to see some old friends. I am still in the process of making something special to go in a thank you card to each couple. The first couple we saw loved wine and had the most wonderful wine collection. I could not appreciate it because I am more of a Arbor Mist girl. To put in their card I have made this Mill Hill beaded magnet.

The other couple lives on one of the San Juan Islands. She does lots of crafting and we talked about our love of scissors. She also has a lot of mermaids. I am still in the process of her gift, but it will be a scissor fob. Here is the start of this project.



    I know it might not seem like an exciting new toy but about 3 months ago my oven went out. Since we had the trip coming up we were not in any big hurry to replace it. It was getting hard coming up with menu's that didn't involve baking. Last week I told my DH lets go out looking I can't stand it any longer. About a week before the oven went out so did out dishwasher. So off we went to look for new "toys" for me. My dishwasher is on back order (surprise, surprise). I don't have a built in so I only had a couple of models to choose from. Well on Tuesday I got my new stove.

    Nothing special just a plain white stove, but it is sooooooo clean. Now I don't want to use it and get it dirty. I am excited that this one has black burner grates. I hope they stay cleaner.

    Looks like I will be having a celebration give away soon. I have 99 followers. I will have to try and think what would be nice to celebrate 100. I thank all of you who follow and leave comments. They are all special to me. I love my quiet mornings when I get up and read all the blogging going on. I have learned so much from all of you and enjoy being a small part of your lives. THANK YOU!

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

Framed Finish

A strong positive attitude will create more

miracles than any wonder drug.

Patricia Neal



It  always gives me great pleasure to have worked on a project and then to see it completely done and finished. When I purchased this frame at a yard sale for a dollar I had an idea what I would put in it. I just wasn't sure it would fit. It originally had a pink inter mat but that didn't seem to work out, the opening was too small. You can not tell by the pictures but there is a space between my stitching and the mat so it is nice that it isn't near the mat or the glass.

This is my first attempt at taking a picture of a glass framed piece, hopefully you will get the idea. I fell in love with the pink ribbon that was attached to the mat. I will hang it on the door into my craft room. My new favorite way to hang stuff is with the Command picture hanging strips. The Velcro type ones. I have used them to hang pictures in our trailer and they work wonderfully without having to put a hole in the wall.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

PS. I was having trouble posting comments on some blogs. I tried to enter a give away from Teacup Stitches. I emailed her to let her know I wanted to enter but kept getting kicked off. She suggested when I log onto Google to un-click the keep signed in part. I now have had no trouble posting comments.

Thank you Lynn for the wonderful advise. Maybe this might help some of you if you have had the same problem I had.

I confess I am a hoarder

"We are not cisterns made for hoarding,

we are channels made for sharing."

Billy Graham

     I have been busy putting away my stash from my vacation and decided to clean out my craft closet at the same time. I have discovered I am a cross stitch hoarder. I have enough stuff to last for, well I don't know how long. But a very very long time.   If we ever get snowed in here in Southern California I will be prepared. 

    In my stitching travel bag is a ORT container. I don't usually save my ort's but I did on the trip. I love unique glass containers or dishes of any kind. Here is my vacation TUSAL in a fun 50 cent dish.

    Along the way I found this white frame ( I fell in love with the pink ribbon) for a dollar. I thought I could mount something in this 50 cent tray. I am always looking for a square frame and who could pass up it for 50 cents.

   I found a small needlework shop that was ran by a much older couple from Poland. It was the most unorganized place you have ever seen. The woman followed you around the small shop asking what are you looking for. I did get a couple of things, one was this sachet kit from her  dollar basket. It came with the fabric so I might make it into a fob or something, most likely will throw away the potpourri that came with it.



   I also got two small patriotic patterns from her. (The Lizzy Kate was in the mail when I got home)

  If you have been following my blog you will know I like scissors and fobs. When I saw this pattern I knew I needed it. Won't they make a cute fob (and yes I got some new scissors too).

At a thrift store I got these 3 charts for 25 cents each. I knew the alphabet one would come in handy some time. The chart on the right is patterns for the 2 glass jars I bought earlier in the trip so of course needed this too. ( Have you noticed I can pretty much justify anything)

    Saw this pillow kit and thought it would be fun to make for my teacher daughter. I might put her name on it instead of September.

    I love fall stuff of any kind. Couldn't resist this little pumpkin pocket.

Well now I have confessed that I am a hoarder. Aren't we all just a little bit of one?

I close with this last vacation photo. When we were out looking for garage sales we saw this hot dog stand. It just made me laugh all day. How do you with out laughing say you work there. How do you tell your friends I am owner of Neirer Nierer Weiner and not laugh while doing it.

Always keep love in your stitches,

Teresa

Vacation Finishes

"There 's nothing half so pleasant

as coming home again"

Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

   After a wonderful trip away it is nice to be back home in your own bed. After seeing so many beautiful sights and enjoying some fun outings it is time to get back to our routine. On our trip we took a train to Vancouver for the day. What a treat the two hour train ride was. Later we boarded our car on a ferry and went to Friday Harbour. There we went whale watching and visited with some friends. On this trip I not only saw so many wild flowers but lots of eagles, 2 whales, several seals, wild sheep, elk and deer. All along my route there was always a cross stitch project with me. Here is what I did on my journeys.

This was my first car project. I finished stitching it together after we had arrived. I had the opportunity to visit a couple of quilt shops and purchase some fat quaters. This was the first time I used material in backing a fob. I thought this would be a fun fabric to try it. I bought several pices of material, I just might be doing this more often now.

                                                    This was also a car trip project.

When I would wake up to a quiet house in the morning this was my stitching project. It also went on the train and ferry. The house was suppose to be the same burgundy colors as the flowers but that was too much for me. Since my house is blue and white I changed it. I am not big on putting the date and initials on a project so I moved the verse on the bottom and left off the date and initials.

When I saw this Shepherds Bush pattern with the keep love I knew I had to have it. I love hearts and since I sign my blog keep love in your stitches this just said my name. I will make it into a pin cushion to fit into one the the white dishes I found on the trip.


          

I didn't quite finished my coming home car project. I still need to finish the tree and put Needlework Shop on the bottom.

I was able to visit a couple of needlework shops on the trip. When I get done unpacking (and doing laundry) I will post my trip finds.  Now I need to go work on a secret project. I joined my first exchange right before I left and found out who I am stitching for on the trip. I better get busy to have it in the mail by the 20th. I did find some fun items to go with my exchange on the trip. Is it you that will be receiving my goodies? You will just have to wait and see.

I hope to get caught on my blog viewing. I did try and make some comments this morning but I had no success. Am I the only one? I also had trouble on the trip.

Always keep love in your stitches,
Teresa