From Susie in the UK

Today I received a wonderful package in the mail. It was from a dear friend Susie who lives in West Sussex, UK. She sent me 2 adorable Christmas ornaments - a little gingerbread girl and the matching gingerbread boy. The fabric (aida) and threads are from her stash. Thank you ever so much, it is appreciated. Hugs to all. Louise

A piece for Barb

Hello, tis me again, just wanted to show you a piece that I stitched for my friend Barb, she wants to put it up in her office at work! You really have to have a sense of humour for this one! It is done on Whisper Aida with "Acts of Violets" silk thread from Vikki Clayton. It is a free design from Kincavel Krosses in the UK. Enjoy.

Day with Jaxon

Hello, tis me again. Yesterday, I spent a lovely day with my niece and Jaxon. What a cutie pie. He showed me some of his favourite toys... motorcycles are his thing right now. Then he showed me the transformers. I don't know about you but I am not "au courant" with little boy toys. These transformers change from cars/trucks to a person (is that correct?) or should I say "super hero". Well, umm, I think I failed transformers 101. My niece told me which one was one of the easiest to do... sure it was... I think I got it transformed about 75% (and was stuck on the rest of it) when I was interrupted by his nibs (Jaxon) handing me his transformer and saying "Car". This meant change it back to a car, and yes he did say please and thank you. Okay, put mine aside, try and work on his, it was a little more difficult. Ha, you think that an adult could do it... well, I am sorry to tell you that when we were told to clear the table for lunch - I was one happy person!! Jaxon and I cleared the table and the transformers were put away for another day. I think I will have to "borrow" one so I can work on it at home. lol

Afternoon was nap time and while he was sleeping/trying to sleep, I did some cross-stitching. The nap did not last very long so we played some more and then went outside to wait for his big brother to come home from school. Another little snack, some more play time outside, and I left just before supper. It was lovely and exhausting.

For Christmas cards

Tis me again, here are some photos of items that will be made into Christmas cards. I promised myself that I would put as much information about the pieces as I could. I have to apologize, I do not know who any of the designers are for these pieces. All the fabric is 14 Count Charles Craft aida cloth. The two stained glass windows done on the navy aida were done using Weeks Dye Works Fiesta and Calypso (respectively). The next two were done using leftover DMC floss. The two Celtic knots - the pink one was done using leftover DMC floss while the other was stitched using Baneberry overdyed silk by Vicki Clayton. Louise

Would you like to Help?

Do you stitch, knit, crochet, quilt, etc? I have sent out an e-mail to some of my stitching friends asking for their help. And because we care, a lot of them said of course they would help! One friend asked if she could do bread cloths, then make a basket for me to sell - the answer ... yes, of course! Another lady asked if she could make me some "pocket warmers"... for those of us who live in cold climates - what a great idea.

Since this is the first year and I have no idea how things will go, I am grateful for all your support and your help. If you would have any questions, please e-mail me, my e-mail is stitchingweezie "at sign" yahoo.ca.

I will be including this information as well as the address in another tab as soon as I can get it set up, since I am not all that computer savvy, I have another friend helping me.

Thank you

Louise

Bethlehem from Imaginating, Inc

The first piece that I have finished and sold is entitled Bethlehem, designed by Diane Arthurs of Imaginating, Inc. It sold for $200 and $175 will be donated to the CFOPN. In this piece, I used an overdyed fabric (Crystal Dwarf (14 count) from Picture This Plus fabrics) and Midnight threads from Gentle Arts Sampler Threads. The finished size is 3" by 20 1/4".

I feel as if I have to apologize for not donating the total amount to CFOPN, but the materials were expensive.

Oh my goodness, my apologies to Imaginating, Inc - in my original post, I had their company name wrong!! I am so sorry!! Thank you for pointing it out to me.

Stitching for Jaxon - how it started

Hi everyone, my name is Louise and my great-nephew has a rare disease called Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP). Jaxon was diagnosed with FOP five days after his second birthday. He is a cute little guy with a great sense of humour and his belly laugh makes me smile.

I did some research on FOP and found out what a debilating disease it could and can be and I wondered how I could help. I had been mulling over in my mind how I could raise money to help the organizations. And then it hit me - I am a stitcher!! And I know a lot of stitchers and I am sure that they would be willing to help me. Cross-stitching is my passion and I have been stitching for many years.

I started by speaking with some wonderful people in Florida from the IFOPA (http://www.ifopa.org/), from there I spoke with a lovely lady here in Ontario at the Canadian site CFOPN (http://www.cfopn.org/). I explained what I was thinking of and did they have any comments and what would I need from their organizations in order to help them. In the meantime, I had contacted a few designers and asked for their permission to stitch some of their designs for charity. From all the sources that I contacted, people were saying "go for it". Thus "Stitching for Jaxon" was born.

Since this is the first year I am not sure how many items I will have for sale. Eventually I would like to have a table at one of the Christmas fairs here in Ottawa, and it will become a yearly event. I am in this for the long run and I definitely can use all the help I can get. Hopefully together we can raise some money for this rare disease.