TUSAL and more exchange piece photos!!

I am late with my TUSAL because I had left my ort jar in Louisville last weekend, so I couldn't take a picture of it. But now it is here, and I do have to admit that there are a couple of orts not of my creation. LOL Maggie, from Virginia was sitting next to me at MB, and I shared my ort jar with her. So, when you see the sparkly fancy pieces in my ort jar - they are really Maggie's. I hope that doesn't exclude me from the contest!! The rest of the orts are either from my exchange pieces or Peaceable Kingdom. I pictured it with a Halloween cube because that was when it was supposed to have been done - LOL

Now I have a real treat for you, because I can show you my wonderful Halloween exchange pieces that I received. Boy, did I hit the Jackpot! First is an ornament stitched by Diane from Indiana. and it is on tiny fabric and stitched beautifully!! It looks fantastic under my All Year Long Tree! The chart is called BOO by Homespun Elegance. I would never have been able to stitch this on the tiny fabric!!

And, this is the Halloween decoration that I won from Donna from South Carolina!! Is it not amazing?? This is a gorgeous piece of a Haunted House which she framed inside a darling distressed box (which by the way was full of chocolates!), and it is just fantastic!! Lily, my

DGD, couldn't believe her eyes when she saw this - LOL!! Donna is one of Amy's oldest friends and has been at all of the PALS retreats. She is from right there in Myrtle Beach, so she knows where everything is and is a great help besides being an amazing stitcher!!

Quickly, these are the Christmas Ornaments that I took to MB. The first is a Prairie Schooler piece taken from this years ornament leaflet. I stitched it on 16ct ivory aida with the suggested floss. It is backed by the fabric it is laying on, and I used a little red baby rickrack for the hanging piece. The second ornament is a JBW Christmas Tree V chart that Amy sent me last year in my Secret Santa along with the opalescent white aida and the WDW floss to stitch it with. It also came with the petite gold beads to stitch on as ornaments and the Star charm for the top of the tree. I really hated giving this one up, but I am going to stitch it for myself sometime. I used fishing line and gold beads to make the hanging device for this one.

Finally, here are some terrible pictures of my Stitched Piece exchange piece. I don't know what was going on with my camera that day, but I could not get it to take a picture that didn't take several many seconds to do the shutter. I do not stay still for that long, as you can plainly see - LOL. Anyhow this is Lizzie*Kates Live, Laugh, Love Now and Later charts - with this being the Now version. I stitched it on 16ct white aida with the called for floss - except for the Begonnia that was called for - I exchanged it to a DMC color. The Begonia had bled all over this piece the first time I stitched it, so I wasn't taking any chances with the redo. I finished it as a flat fold, and you can sort of see the fabric I used to cover the piece. I was pretty happy with the results of this piece.

On my last Retreat post, I will show you the lovely ornaments that I received as well as my really cool stitched piece. I might even take a picture of the progress in my Peaceable Kingdom piece. I am certain, now, that I won't be able to finish it this year due to all of the other things like baking a gazillion cookies etc I also need to do before Christmas, but I am still committed to getting it finished as soon as possible. Here's hoping that I won't be committed first - LOL!!

Thank you for stopping by my blog, and leaving such lovely messages. Until next time, have a happy, healthy, stitchy time!!