5th Annual Long Island Lighthouse Challenge

Fire Island Lighthouse, Long Island, NY

This weekend, DH and I are headed back to Long Island for the 5th Annual Long Island Lighthouse Challenge. We missed it last year because we were in the process of buying a house and moving.

The Long Island Challenge is the newest of the Challenges, and they're still working out the kinks here and there, but overall, it's a fun experience and a nice way to spend the weekend. For those of you unfamiliar with the "Challenge" concept, basically it involves visiting selected lighthouses over a 2 day period and collecting a souvenier (provided by the challenge sponsors). When you've collected all your souveniers, you present them at the last lighthouse you visit and you'll be given a completer souvenier. Past souveniers have included postcards, bookmarks, pins and wooden coins. There's no cost to participate in the Challenge itself, although some sites have nominal admission or parking fees. Of course, any donations you'd like to make towards lighthouse preservation are always accepted and greatly appreciated.

If you happen to be in the Long Island, NY, area, and are looking for something to do, check out the challenge. You can download a brochure with directions from the LI Lighthouse Society's webpage, and you're not required to visit all the sites. The nice thing about the challenge is that lighthouses that may not normally be open to the public are open this weekend and staffed by some pretty knowledgable volunteers.

And if you can't make it this weekend, there are challenges in both Maryland (September) and New Jersey (October). DH and I have done both of those as well, and always have a great time.

Fair and Square

Seems like some of the only stitching I'm finishing these days are for my Fair and Square exchanges. I am also stitching on CC's Little Ballerinas for my niece, but I haven't taken any progress pictures. It's a cute piece, and I've made a few changes to it that I'm pretty happy with. Hopefully it will be done soon so I can show you all.

First up, the beautiful Spring Round squares I received from Gillie K. (no blog)

Spring Flowers by Debbie Draper Designs
Stitched over 2 with Glorianna Silks Highland Gardens

Gillie did a wonderful job with these squares - even the backs are beautiful! Thanks so much, Gillie! I think I will probably turn these into a no sew cube to go along with the Squares I received from Susan.

And these are the squares I sent to Gillie

Springtime Violets by Châtelaine Designs
Stitched over 2 with DMC Threads (Converted from Anchor) on 32 ct. Antique White

I did consider putting the Diamond eyelets in, but after I stitched the first one, I didn't think it added much to the piece and frogged it out. And I know it looks like I stitched it on 2 different color fabrics, but it's actually the same fabric (in fact, one long 6" x 12" piece that's easier to put on a scroll frame than 2 separate 6"x 6" pieces). For some reason, the lighting in the signature square photo came out darker, and I couldn't get it to match the first picture. But you get the idea.

5th Anniversary Gift for my Husband

Always and Forever by Little House Needleworks (LHNPC-18)
Stitched 2 over 2 on China Pearl Jobelan with Dinky Dyes Silk in Midnight

DH and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary a few weeks ago. I've had this stitched up for a while, but I never know if he reads my blog or not, so I thought it best to keep it under wraps. I've seen this design on a few blogs and decided it would be just perfect, so I picked it up and selected my fabric and thread colors based on our wedding colors of blue and silver (of course they were blue and silver. We ARE Cowboys fans, after all!)

I picked a pale grey for the fabric and the most delicious Dinky Dyes silk. It's the first time I stitched with the Dinky Dyes, but it won't be the last. I don't generally stitch with silk because it can get expensive, but for an anniversary gift, I wanted to do something special. The Dinky Dyes was just lovely to stitch with, and I was actually a little sad when I finished the piece.

As you can see, I did make some modifications to it. I didn't decide until I got the precut fabric home that I wanted to extend the pattern just a little to include our wedding date, so it was a good thing I opted for a 3 inch border instead of my usual 2 inches! Luckily, what I had in mind fit, and I'm going to frame it in a slightly more ornate carved black frame so this piece won't need a mat. I was able to extend the border by adding in extra loops near the hearts in the center of the sides, and I carried the hearts over to fill in the space between the words and our wedding date. All in all, I am very pleased with how this turned out, and my husband loved it as well. Once I get it framed up, we'll hang it in our front hallway along with our collection of family photos.

As for the anniversary itself, we decided to do a weekend trip to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut. DH and I are into lighthouses and things of a nautical nature, so this was a nice trip for us. We drove up on Friday, which was our anniversary, spent Saturday in Mystic and Stonington, then took a long, scenic drive home on Sunday, checking out lighthouses along the coast on our way back. We had wonderful weather, and it was just a very relaxing, peaceful trip.

And if you happen to be in the Mystic area, I'd recommend checking out the following restaurants:

• Mirch Masala - Groton, CT. It's a converted bar in the Ramada Hotel, but the food is excellent. It's one of the few places I've found meat samosas (which I love), but really, everything we had was just wonderful, and the service was great. It wasn't far from our hotel, which was good because we were both tired of being in the car! (Warning - there is music on the website)
  
  
• Noah's - Stonington, CT. The menu changes based on what's in season and what's fresh, so don't expect everything listed on their website to be available. If scallops are on the menu, I'd recommend ordering them - they're absolutely divine. And the clam chowder? Mostly clam, with a little chowder scoop them up with. Soooo good!
  
  
• Kitchen Little - Mystic, CT. They're not kidding when they say "little". The food is good, but the quarters are QUITE close. We ended up practically sitting with another couple (their table was about 4 inches from ours. But it's right down the road from the Seaport, and the view of the Mystic River is lovely.

Fair and Square Round #12

I received these beautiful squares from Susan P. yesterday. Aren't they lovely?

Freebie from Gazette 94, available here.

I love the squares, and I think they'll be perfect for a no-sew cube, which is good because we are sadly in need of some decorations for the holidays. Living in an apartment, and even a townhouse, wasn't all that conducive to having a whole lot of decorations (severe lack of storage space), but now that we're in a house, it would be nice to have a few things to put out for the holidays. I'm envisioning a very cute cube with a pretty spring bow on my forthcoming living room shelves, just in time for Easter next year.

As for my contribution to the round, I stitched up X-Appeal's Call of the Ocean for Susan. As soon as I saw "lighthouses" on Susan's list of likes, I knew I was going to stitch this piece.

Call of the Ocean by X-Appeal Designs
stitched over 2 on 32 ct. Picture This Plus Fabric in Dwarf
with overdyed and DMC threads

In case you didn't know, the designer behind X-Appeal is also one of the owners of my former LNS, The Strawberry Sampler. If you ever happen to find yourself in the Brandywine Valley / Chadds Ford area of PA, definitely stop in and check out the shop. They have a ton of stitched models, plenty of fabrics and threads, and the staff there is really wonderful.

This was the second time I stitched this piece. (Mine's still sitting in the stitching drawer, waiting to be turned into an ornament for our lighthouse collection on the Christmas tree.) But I had a great time stitching this again. I know the F&S rules call for neutral fabric, but I emailed Susan ahead of time and she didn't mind if I stitched on blue fabric. LOVE THIS FABRIC! It was the first time stitching on PTP fabric, and I'll definitely use it again. It was so soft and just a joy to stitch on.

See? I really HAVE been stitching!

Trying to come up with a pattern

One of my oldest and dearest friends is buying her first place and I want to stitch something for her. I've been wracking my brains for a few days trying to think of something and it's been hard.

She lives in NJ and works in NYC, so she's definitely more of an urban girl than a country girl - ruling out most LHN and CCN type designs, as well as primitives. I looked at a few NY / NJ designs and didn't like them much. I don't want anything cute or cartoony. She was down to visit a few weeks ago, and really like the Moire pattern by Pelin Tezer I was stitching, so I thought maybe I'd look for something along those lines - a little fanicer, a little elegant, but not too foofy.

I finally came up with the idea of stitching her last name in a series of illuminated type letters, similar to the ones used in Isa Vautier's Grand Marquoir, and using some of the other blocks between the letters. I had also considered using M Designs Celtic Alphabet, but thought it would end up being too busy to do a whole name, even if it is just four letters.

I definitely want to do all the stitching in one color (probably a varigated), and do the lettering straight across. I'm not completely sold on the Isa V letters yet, so if anyone has any ideas where I can find something similar, either a freebie or a chart for sale, feel free to share. I looked through some of the alphabets I have, and they're too small to do what I want to do - I'm looking for letters that are a little larger in size, at least 50x50 or so, with a little flair to them.

Ideas???

The Sisterhood is Moving On!

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pattern is moving on!

Head on over to Carol's blog, not only for a chance to enter her drawing to become the next member of the Sisterhood, but to check out her incredible, over one rendition of the pattern. It's really quite lovely!

Fair and Square Winter Round from Renee K

I received my Winter 2009 squares from Renee earlier in the week, and aren't they just adorable?

Winter by Mausimom (Freebie available here)

Renee cleverly played off the letter arragement in the chart for her signature square, and included a cool little sparkly charm (it's not actually crooked on the piece - I didn't notice it wasn't straight when I took the photo). I thought the charm was a great idea - I've used beads and charms before, but never thought to dig into some of my other jewelry making stash for embellishment. Great idea, Renee!

Renee also included a cute little heart button, which I forsee ending up in the middle of a biscornu at some point. Thanks again, Renee, for a lovely exchange!

PIF #1 made it safely to Ireland

I've been a little behind on my blog, and of course, I am going to blame it on Facebook. I have a few stitchy posts coming up, though - I have been stitching. Most of it has been secret stitching, and now that a few pieces have been received, I can share them on my blog.

First up is my first PIF gift for Michelle. Michelle was the first one to sign up for my PIF and I had a wonderful time putting together this package for her. I picked over her blog very carefully and discovered that her favorite color was purple and she loved butterflies, so I had a good idea to work with. These are the front and back pieces of the biscornu before they were stitched together. And no, that's not a stain on the fabric - it's some weird little spot that shows up occasionally on my camera lens.

Butterfly Freebie from Tantes Zolder, stitched over 1 on 25 ct. opalescent fabric with Belle Soie Silk in Elegant Eggplant.
The second block is of my own design, stitched on the same fabric with Belle Soie and DMC

Now, I must confess that I had the pieces of the biscornu stitched up well before Christmas, but got sidetracked when it came to putting it together. Okay, okay, and I might as well ALSO confess that I didn't actually put it together myself - my DH was kind enough to stitch it together for me. What can I say? He's a scientist and loves these fiddly, meticulous projects. (Maybe "loves" is a bit strong, considering the dirty looks and occasional grumblings I got while he was stitching together my over one backstitching...). But he did stitch it together for me, then I did the button on the bottom. I didn't want to put a button on the top through the design in the middle of the butterflies, so I attached the button using the same silk and stitching through the design already in place.

Here it is all stitched up:

And now for the rest of the goodies I sent to Michelle.

I included some fabrics and flosses (2 of my own making), a few floss tag rings, drink mix and gum, a pretty soap, ribbon, a notepad, and probably my favorite goodie - a fold up shopping tote from Target. I love, love, love these reusable shopping bags, and have amassed quite a collection for my groceries, but I love this little one that folds up into the size of a wallet and tucks away in my purse. It's very cute, and quite handy too, especially for little things here and there that don't really warrant a shopping bag.

Michelle was quite pleased with her PIF and I am so glad she liked it. I had such a good time with this PIF and I am really happy with how the biscornu turned out. Now, on to my other two PIFs!

Fair and Square, Round #11

I received these beautifully stitched squares from Jeanie C. (no blog) in Singapore last week.

Aren't they lovely?? Jeanie picked one of my favorite Celtic knot designs from Ink Circles and stitched them up in some gorgeous shades of blue. I am thinking I will finish this as my first pinkeep, perhaps with a silvery trim and dark blue pins to pick up on the dark blue threads she used.

Jeanie also included a hand drawn card of Singapore, designed by her dd. What a great drawing! (I always wished I could draw, but am not very good at it!)

Thank you so much, Jeanie!!!

Winter Round of the Fair & Square Exchange

Renee K. let me know last week that she received the squares I stitched up for her.

Waxing Moon Designs Winter Cardinal
Stitched over 2 on 32 ct. Mushroom evenweave with DMC and Kreinik Threads

She mentioned in her wish list that she liked birds and I thought this one would be perfect for her. I used the recommended DMC colors, but gave it a little bit of sparkle with some blending filament in the snowflakes (it's a little hard to see, but trust me, it's there!) I also use a tiny little hematite colored bead (an iridescent black color) for the eyes, which I thought was really cool - they actually look like tiny little bird's eyes!

The green thread I used is actually a green I dyed myself. I was fooling around with using colors other than white and beige when I was dying threads a while back, and dunked a skein of green in a dark green dye, then twisted it up for an overdyed look. I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out and will definitely experiment more with different colors of threads.