Saturday, June 10, 2017

WAY TOO LONG!!!

I know it has been MONTHS since I have updated. Life has been beyond crazy still.

Finished Wedding
Bells
Last Sunday, Pastor's sermon was on Ephesians 4:30-32 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. And be kind to one another,tenderhearted,forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

This sermon spoke to me. There are some people in my life that I really wish could have heard this sermon along with me. I am still praying the relationships involved can be healed. I know that with
time they may very well be healed, but meanwhile....

I did finish "Wedding Bells". I finished it about a week after the wedding. I haven't been able to frame it, so a couple weeks ago, I sent it to my cousin, the father of the groom. He will frame it for me, making sure it matches the colors of their home. I will post the framed picture when David sends it to me.

I did get further on Psalm 23. I would consider myself at least 90% done. I do
Psalm 23
want to finish it, and will, but I have another project I'm working on that overrides Psalm 23.

The designer from X's and O's contacted me as I was finishing up "Wedding Bells", asking me if I was still interested in being a stitcher for her. We had discussed it last fall, but, honestly, I'd forgotten about it since I hadn't heard from her. I have been concentrating all my stitching on this
Perforated Paper Frame
project. She would like to have it by late September. I asked her if I could post pictures of my progress to my blog. She told me she'd rather I just told of my progress, since it is for a magazine. It is a purse/wallet/pocket combination. I'd be further on it than I am now, but I discovered a mistake I had made and had to frog several hundred stitches. If I'd been doing for myself I wouldn't of worried about it. I realized I had put one of the items 1 stitch too low. The only way to fix it properly was to frog what I did. I then had to replace all those stitches. Yesterday, I finally was able to stitch beyond what I had to frog. 😀 Even with me having to take the time to frog and then restitch, I believe I have made very good progress on
the project.

Rachel's ring
Castanon Family
My niece, Kayla, who lives in Idaho, became engaged in February. They are getting married in July. I told her I'd stitch her and Wes an announcement. She picked out this pattern. I ordered the kit and have it here now. I am going to do it on perforated paper instead of the material though. The circle is 12 inches in diameter. The perforated frame paper/lapstand arrived in today's mail. Now I just need to find thee right size paper!

Rachel and her boyfriend have worked things out. Her Dad and I are happy for
her and them. He is a nice young man. His name is Jacob. He had told me before they hit their rough patch that he wanted to marry her. She will be 18 on Friday. They are going yo the courthouse Friday afternoon. We will have a wedding cake for them and a birthday cake for her here afterwords. Of course Rachel's wedding and the baby give me two more projects to stitch.

The Castanon family picture is of my niece, Danielle, her husband, Nick and their children. They are
Dahlia May 2017
expecting the fourth child to make his appearance in October. Nick is in the Army and the will all be moving to Germany at the beginning of July. I did a project for the oldest two's birth, but not Elijah or the baby due in October. Wonder what else I could fit on my stitching plate?

This picture of Dahlia was taken Mother's Day weekend. Sarah and Chance took her to a friend's home where she could burn some of the two year old energy off. It is hard to believe she will be three August 7.

Earlier this year my doctor sent me to physical therapy because of all my falls. At the end of my number of sessions insurance would cover, she told me she wanted me to reapply for the wheelchair. She feels that because I am weaker than last year, I'll have a better chance at getting it. I haven't heard anything since the paperwork was filed though. I now also have a lift recliner.

Jack is doing well. He has started doing something that makes him happy. He had been spending 90% of his day on the bed, reading fanfiction on line, since he became disabled several years ago. He has found an activity that makes him heel useful. He wakes every day with a purpose and happy.



Saturday, January 28, 2017

I Am Getting Jazzed!

Hello, Everyone!

How have things been going for you so far this new year? My part of Illinois has not received hardly any snow this winter. As a matter of fact, every “snow storm” hasn't been
Wedding Bells
enough to cover the grass hardly at all. We did have an ice storm in late fall that caused some problems, but we certainly, thus far, have not had typical Illinois winter. Sometimes, we have had temperatures as high as 60 degrees, when we usually have highs in the 30's.

2 TIMOTHY 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. To me this verse is important. I think that the spirit referred to is probably the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit NEVER brings bad things (fear) but ALWAYS brings good things (power, love, sound mind). God does allow bad things to happen to us, but He is in even in control of how far that goes. The bad things come from Satan, but Satan must ask God's permission to cause something bad to happen to us. God does not allow a trial (JOB 1:12) to occur unless He knows that we can handle with His help. Satan was so sure he could cause Job to deny the Lord, and
Pic 1 Pattern Books
people even wondered why he didn't. But in all of the trials that Satan was allowed to put Job through, Job still did not sin or deny God
(JOB 1:22, 2:10)

I have been concentrating my stitching on “Wedding Bells” for the past few weeks. I was able to stitch a lot last week. I ended up going in the hospital Thursday morning and not being released until Sunday morning. I had mentioned to Jack on Monday or some reason my big toe on my right foot was hurting. He looked at it and couldn't see anything. Tuesday he thought he saw something and tried to get it out. Then bandaged it. By Wednesday evening my toe was turning red, the color our skin turns when you have cellulitis. If this isn't taken care of, it can become gangrene. So I went to the walk-in clinic Thursday. He saw my toe and immediately told me to go to
Pic 2 Pattern Books
the hospital for intravenous antibiotics. I was on them until Sunday morning. Then I was put on oral medication for five days.

I do like how “Wedding Bells” is turning out. I am concerned that I'm going to run out of the filament. Hopefully I'm wrong. I am debating myself...do I back stitch the top part of the pattern before moving the pattern in the q-snap so I can get to the bottom of the pattern, or do I back stitch everything at once?

A friend on Facebook sent me an RAK. The box has several different sizes and types of material. It also has several pattern books and a kit that has bunch of beads. As you know, I have done beads, but never more than a few on a pattern. This one probably has at least 100! I'm looking forward to trying to do it. Especially since I bought the proper type of needle to deal with beads (just before the Christmas projects). I was noticing that there are several bookmark patterns in at least one of the books. There are a total of six book. There is so much more! I love it! Thank you, to this Facebook friend!!

RAK Material
I saw a project I want to stitch very badly when I was on one of my Facebook groups. I have been wanting to stitch a Christmas themed project that I can put up in my own home during the Christmas season. Look here at what I found! I think this pattern is sooo pretty! I want to do something that isn't the typical Christmas pattern. I believe this one would fit that bill.

I can't really do any more stitching on "Life's Little Tangles" until I get the first two or three pages of the pattern reprinted. I have the pages, but since I marked on them and I am on my third or fourth time stitching these pages, they are rather, shall we say, messy and hard to figure out again. I had downloaded the pattern on my iPad and was using a program made for the iPad to stitch the pattern. I was going along pretty well and then my iPad decided it wasn't going to charge any more. I can't even get the thing to come up at all! Well back to putting the sheet on my metallic board, which is fine, especially now that I have figured our a system!

Beading Kit
The saddest thing about the iPad refusing to work is that every week my good friend, who lives in Michigan, talk on FaceTime. We can't do that with my iPad refusing to work. We liked seeing each others face. We are going to try and see I Skype will work for both of us.

Rachel is still having a large amount of illness with her pregnancy. She is hoping it starts letting up soon. She is now in her twelfth week. You my want to pray for her. She is under a great amount of stress. Those of us who have been pregnant, know that stress isn't always a good thing in pregnancy.


Well, everyone, that's about it for now. I hope to finish "Wedding Bells" and then "Psalm 23". I want to buy that Christmas pattern and get started on it as soon as I can, but I do want to finish these two projects first. Then I can start with a "clean slate", so to speak! Maybe throwing in a bookmark here and there from my new books! Stitching possibilities never end! Happy Stitching to those of you who stitch. To those of you who don't stitch, have a wonderful time between now and next time!

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

The New Year Started Well

Christmas Bells
Hello Everyone and Happy New Year! I hope and pray your Christmas season went as you hoped and maybe even exceeded your expectations! We had Christmas over at Rachel’s home. Jack gave Rachel tips and helped a smidgen with the making of dinner, but for the most part it was all her. She did a fabulous job! Chance Sarah and Dahlia came over after Sarah got off work. We gave Sarah, Rachel Chance and Jacob $25 gift cards. We bought Dahlia two My Little Pony[U1]  ponies that were nice sized. They were on sale, but one get one free. We paid $30. She loves them! Jack bought me a nice new watch. We need to take it to the jewelers and have them remove three or four of the links because it’s too big for my wrist. I am so happy about the watch! I have been hinting for awhile that I wanted a watch. I hate having to hunt down my phone to find out what time it is. For me, a physical watch is easier! He also bought me a new Bible. The one I had somehow, inside the van got doused in liquid. The pages were 
Beading Threads
sticking or stuck together and the ink of the words ran. I am very happy with this Bible too! He even bought a cover for this one as well. My old Bible had a cover, but it was obviously very warn.

My birthday was quiet. Rachel and Jacob came over New Year’s Eve and we played Clue[U2]  until it was approaching midnight. We ended up staying up until probably close to two in the morning. That is highly unusual for us. I noticed that the Rose Parade wasn’t on (very disappointed about this) so we ended up watching an on demand movie. Jack went and bought me a cake.  Sarah, Chance and Dahlia came over and we had a good time. The Rose Parade and game were on the next day. We watched both. The game was excellent! The highest scoring Rose Bowl ever! I think between the teams they had scored 101 points! Both were up there, so it wasn’t a lopsided game by
Hardanger tweezers
any stretch of the imagination.

I made an order to Nordic Needle that is my birthday present. It came in yesterday’s mail! I ordered a new leather thimble. The one I did have disappeared when I was in the nursing home this past summer. I was frustrated because I had become very use to it. Anyway, I’m glad I have a new one now!! I also ordered a package of tips to put on the end of harp things, like my sharp scissors, several colors of beading thread, and a rosewood laying tool. I think all of this will help my stitching this year. If I’m going to start stitching things that have beads, I thought I better have the proper thread! I’ve been told how useful laying tools are with certain projects, so thought I’d try it! I also got some hardanger tweezers. I haven't done much hardanger, but I do have a UFO that has hardanger in it. I want to
Tips, Thimble and
 Laying Tool
learn more about it and stitch it more. I do know from when I was being taught how to do this project, the tweezers come in very handy! 

I cannot believe how many different aspects of stitching I am wanting to learn. I saw "stumpwork" and was in awe. I ant to learn it!! I put a book about it on my 1-2-3 wishlist. I should find a DVD as well. I bought a DVD on hardanger.

Isaiah 30:18 Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are those who wait for Him.

This verse tells me the Lord is patient with us. He waits for us to realize what He wants us to know. It also tells me how gracious He is. To me this means the answering of a prayer. He answers prayer every day! People who pray realize how He answers prayers every day, then they give Him the credit for the answer, rightly so, which exalts Him.  It also talks about how the Lord is a God of justice. To me this is referring to how he will allow things, both big and small to happen to try and get people to open their eyes to how good and real He is. This can be confusing to someone who doesn’t know Him. If this is you, you can contact me and I will do the best I can to answer your questions. The last sentence of the verse tells me how those of us who wait for God to do what He wants will be blessed.

Stitching wise, I did finish “Christmas Bells” , an ornament that I started last year and 
Psalm 23 Now

never finished the backstitching on. I gave it to the secretary of my counselor. She loved it. She has seen other projects I’ve done.

I also pulled out “Psalm 23”, and worked on it a bit. It was kind of tough to get back to because I realized one of the, if not the reason I put it down was the area I was at on t
he pattern had warn symbols. I got past it by looking at the actual picture of the project. The picture showed each square in the proper color. I was lucky that with my magnifying lamp I was able to tell the colors. I am now well past that part. The other issue I ended up overcoming with this project, thanks to help from a Facebook group, is one of the main colors had done a disappearing act from the project card. The number that was listed wasn’t a DMC number. The gal in the Facebook group suggested I cross reference the numbers listed on the
Wedding Bells
pattern to DMC. I found out that the color was DMC 334, which I had!

I did set down “Psalm 23” and picked up “Wedding Bells” and started working on it again. The wedding is in mid-March, but I want to have it done and framed and out to them (they live in Idaho) before, or at least by, the wedding. The wedding is actually in Southern California, where the bride is from. They know we cannot come, but they also know I’m stitching them something for their wedding.

Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler is having a give away. You can enter here

Thank you for spending time with me. I enjoy writing my blog I 
also enjoy stitching and you help motivate me to finish projects, even when it seems like I can’t finish it, like, “Psalm 23”. Happy stitching to everyone who stitches! God Bless to everyone!






 [U1]Lyn Nalett


 [U2]Lyn Nalet0144t.