My Poor Neglected Blog

I feel guilty and sad for having neglected this blog for so long.  I hope to give her a fresh look soon and, of course, to begin posting on a regular basis again.

I just wanted to briefly tell you about the fun day we had yesterday...Carol and I traveled up to Perrysburg Ohio to spend the day with some stitching friends.  We stitched, gabbed, laughed, and laughed some more.  We took a break to walk across the street for lunch.  Following that half of us walked into town a couple of blocks (Perrysburg was having their Winter Festival).  Lots of ice carvings either finished or in progress.  We stopped into Thrush's Bakery/Baking Store and then went on to Yarn Cravin', a wonderful yarn shop.  Both will merit return visits in the future.

I have been knitting scarves since my trip to Woodstock, VT in October.  Thus, I felt it necessary to replenish my stock yesterday.  Here are the beautiful pastel yarns I picked up at Yarn Cravin' (I already had the spring pastel wools).

I couldn't resist.

A bunch of us have been knitting the ruffled scarves from a Liberty Wool publication.  The four skeins on the right are more Liberty Wools.

Here is a photo of the LW scarf I knitted for my daughter for Christmas.  (obviously all rolled up)

She and I both agree that wearing a little soft wool around your neck on some of these blustery winter days feels quite comfy and luxurious.

Stitching - I am working on the 2013 SAL from Attic Needlework entitled The Ann Bowers Sampler from The Examplarery.  I am right on the stitching schedule, so feel good about my start.  I am enjoying Ann very much, as well as stitching for the first time using my wooden frame from England.  More on both of those in the near future.

I hope to hear from some of you...I know I have neglected everything online for months (except Pinterest!!).

Take care, keep cozy and warm, and I will be back soon.

Bobbi

Little Green Acorns Band Sampler Class

Saturday twenty-six of us from Western Reserve Sampler Guild took a class with Eileen Bennett, The Sampler House, from Michigan.  Her sampler this time was Little Green Acorns Band Sampler.  Perfect timing for getting in an acorn mood.  We had a delightful day with the class, a wonderful pot luck lunch, and dinner after at Macaroni Grille for those interested.  A perfect way to spend yet another 95 degree day!

A photo of the cover sheet for the design pack.
I really should have taken a photo of the actual sampler!

Ms. Bennett getting us started on the project.

Counting and proper placement is serious stuff!

I told you counting was serious stuff!

We had so much fun with Kim and Karlyn at our table.
Lots of laughs and fun conversation.
So glad they trekked in for the class.

I had a couple other photos from the restaurant, but a couple were too close for comfort, and blogger won't let me put the other where I want it.

Super fun day.  Thanks to the Program Committee and all who made this such a memorable time.

Bountiful August Blessings

This is our batch of food for Week Nine of our summer harvest from Fresh Fork Market.

Everything is so fresh and photogenic.

What a blessing this is,
and especially after reading the sad news this morning 

that half of America's counties are now considered disaster areas, 

as a result of the extreme heat and drought conditions this summer.

So sad.

Our Patriotic Small Challenge

Saturday was the reveal date of our patriotic smalls, a challenge that was given a little over a year ago after seeing endless photos of really cute patriotic designs made into small pillows, pin cushions, etc. on ever so many stitchers' blogs.


I didn't take nearly as many photos as I should have, but here is what I have to share:

Here we are just getting started Saturday morning.

Rose bought these at a recent button show.
She repaired and repainted the frame
and has this display looking good again.

Here is Sandy's basket full of goodies.  Nice work, Sandy.

Linda's basket.  The picture doesn't do it justice.
Don't you love the little black bird and the strawberries?
I'd like to stitch those.

Carol's basket.
I think she should give us a class
on how to make those cube frames.

Toni's basket.
Toni and I are a lot alike...big ideas, smaller output!
But we have fun...

My basket.
I like how the pillow with the lace came out.
Rose helped me get that going.  Thanks!

Rose's basket.

Another view of Rose's basket.
She procrastinated until the end...
and then was completing a finish a day.
She and Linda are our group OAs.
(Over Achievers, as we affectionately call them.)

Both Linda and Rose were awarded a bag of small prizes for the challenge.


Terri couldn't come, but did stop by with mug rugs for all.  I'll post a picture of those another day.
Linda made snapper bags for all out of patriotic fabrics.  I'll post a photo of mine another day, too.
Should have taken a photo of all eight of them.  Linda has been having fun with her new serger.
Terri has been having fun with her new sewing machine!  We benefited!


Our friend Jodi came for lunch and gave us some instruction in zentangle, her new passion.  She is going to Rhode Island next month to become a certified teacher.  I should have taken some photos of her work...it is amazing.  The only photo I took was of our class creations.  I'll try to do better next time!  I haven't gotten to the point where it is fun and relaxing, as opposed to slightly stressful.  That's me!

We had a fun pot luck lunch.  Toni was nice enough to cook hot dogs on the grill...and finished about 30 seconds before a HUGE downpour began.  Boy did we need that rain.  We had some delicious fresh Ohio sweet corn and a wonderful selection of other summer goodies.  A couple hours later we made some hand churned vanilla ice cream (thanks Linda) with a variety of toppings.  Carol made a peach and brown sugar topping that was excellent.  And, of course, there's nothing like a jar of Smucker's Hot Fudge Sauce when vanilla ice cream is involved.


It was such a fun day.  Time with valued stitching friends really rocks!  

Beautiful Butterflies...And A Winner!

Here are two photos that Rose (no blog) took in her backyard.  Beautiful butterflies against a beautiful background.  Unfortunately the yellow swallowtail appears to have met up with some bad luck along the way, but is still magnificent.

Absolutely gorgeous.  Thanks for sharing these.

And now on to our Winner of the Day....

as you can see below,

the winner of my first blog giveaway is.....

Charlene in SC.

Congratulations, Charlene.

If you will email me your address,

and be sure to let me know if you already have any 

Widgets & Wool designs so I don't send you any duplicates, 

I will put a package together in a couple of days 

and get it in the mail to you.

Thanks to all who signed as followers and who entered the drawing.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend

and found some time to stitch!

Three More Days to Enter

Hi, Stitchers -

Three more days to enter my first blog drawing.  I will have some of my local stitching friends here Sunday afternoon, so one of them will be pulling the name of the winner.

Good luck to all who enter, and thanks for visiting and following.

Pictures soon...of different things.

My First Blog Giveaway

Hi, Stitching Friends!

I am finally announcing my first giveaway.  I am celebrating several things:  this little blog now has over 60 followers; I am another year older; temperatures in the upper 90's are leaving tomorrow; and life is good!

A month or so ago I wanted to have a giveaway with strawberries as the theme.  Don't you love strawberries...stitched and otherwise?

Then a more important theme attracted my attention.  This giveaway will include four patterns from Widgets and Wool.  I know many of you are familiar with this company because I have seen some of your stitched projects on your blogs.  The company is comprised of a grandmother, a mother, and a granddaughter.  What a wonderful, family oriented way to share a common interest.  I want to give this family some extra recognition and some extra TLC during a difficult time.

The four patterns that I chose will reflect the seasons of the year...and of life.  The designs are fairly quick stitches, most of which can be made into little pillows if you chose.  I think we all like to pick up some quick projects as a break from the larger designs that we tackle.  I will throw in some fun extra surprises, too.

To enter the giveaway, you must be a follower of this blog and of my BlackBird Designs blog, which you can find here:  http://obbdg.blogspot.com .  Also, you must post a comment on this post on this blog only.  Deadline for commenting is noon EDT USA on Sunday, July 15, 2012.


I will choose the winner of this giveaway on Sunday, July 15th.  Some friends will be coming over for stitching that day...an early get together for IHSW (see button at top of blog), since most of us are busy the weekend of the 20th - 22nd.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.  Stay cool and keep stitching!  And thank you for visiting my modest, sometimes neglected blogs!

Bobbi