Stitching Hands Studio

A parade for my birthday!

I love parades, no doubt about it.  This year the Sisters Christmas parade was on my birthday, so off we went to this adorable little town for it's short and sweet parade. I wouldn't have it any other way.

This girl seems to be always plugged in these days!

There are lots and lots of animals in this one and nary a marching band.  I do love to see all the variety of beasts though.  Llamas, dogs,

Ryan and Scrabble,

miniature donkeys, 

beautiful horses,

greyhounds,

the occasional beautiful vintage truck.

newfies,

and the big man himself!  Santa came into town in style.

After the parade, this is my favorite place to step in for a coffee.  They really do it up for Christmas!

I had a marvelous time doing my part for Small Business Saturday.  I found some interesting rustic fabric at the Stitchin' Post that I can't wait to try and some beautiful vintage buttons at the antique shops.  Later, we had a delicious dinner, presents and gingerbread cake at my parents' house.  My mom also really knows how to decorate for the holidays, so those photos will show up here soon.  The owl portrait is a gift from my sister!

It was a very good day.   Thanks for all the nice birthday wishes.  Happy Sunday to you!

PS: Don't forget to comment on the previous post to enter the contest for one of my handmade ornaments.

PPS:  All the photos here were made with my iPhone!  I had no idea this little gem would be so much fun to take photos with.  I got a phone, computer and pocket camera all in one.  Thanks Mark!

Walking in late October

It's been glorious this week despite some really cold nights.  I've been walking around the neighborhood and can't seem to leave the house without a camera.  Today, Ryan and I went with some friends on a Bend Haunts walking tour of downtown.  Come along with me!  Above, our house decked out for Halloween (pun intended).  Actually, it's pretty light on Halloween, but I thought it would be nice to show where we started.

Around the corner is this lovely house, just dripping with fall leaves.

Shortly you come to the Newport Bridge, our gateway to downtown.

The tour started at the old Reid School, the first school in Bend.  This historical building is now home to the Deschutes County Historical Society and museum.

Our tour guide told us many stories about local sites that have had murders, suicides and ghost tales.  It would have been spookier at the later (night-time) tours, but then I wouldn't have these great photos, so just pretend it's dark and spooky.

McMenamin's Old St. Francis School has been remodeled and now sports a pub, hotel, theater and fabulous soaking pool.  On a side note, I was watching old episodes of Oregon Art Beat online yesterday and found this great story about the artwork at the McMenamin's locations.

There are stories about ghosts and hauntings here.  A couple staying at The Nunnery house (above) found the morning after they arrived, a photo of themselves sleeping, on their cell phone- creepy!   They didn't stay another night.  I wouldn't have either!

I just love the style here!

The old Bend Firehall has held restaurants for many years, but there are ghost tales here too.

Across the street is Hospital Hill (now hotel hill).  

Yesterday's walk took me past some leaf piles

and the footbridge

to Baked, an afternoon bakery that had a lovely pumpkin display to keep Scrabble company while I was picking out my delicious fresh baked bread.

Hope you have a wonderful Halloween weekend!  I'll be back with more spooky stuff soon.

Tea continues and a bit of early Autumn

Tea is No Minor Beverage continues, with lots of added stitching.  

I didn't notice until I took these photos, that my stitching has echoes of the pattern in the saucer.  It's funny how the mind works.

Meanwhile, early autumn in Bend has been glorious this week! It's been just lovely during the day and I can hardly wait to get out for a walk. Yesterday Ryan and I took Scrabble for a walk to the library and stopped for a few photos along the way.

Picking time

We took our annual trip to the Hood River Fruit Loop this weekend to pick apples.  We came away with a few more goodies besides.  Lots of apples for sauce and pies, strawberries for jam, and pumpkins for the porch.  Saturday was cloudy early, but brightened up in the afternoon.  

If I were to pick another area of Oregon that I really love, this would be it.  So many farm fresh goodies abound in the Hood River valley.  It's always a lovely trip!

This week will be another busy one for me.  I have a week long workshop with Rosalie Dace.  I have heard many good things about her classes, so I hope I have lots of good things to report.  See you back here before too long.

Happy Easter!

Tulips have been bought (though can't compare to Jane's!).

Hot Cross Buns have been baked.

Scrabble's been spiffed up.  We're ready, now if the weather would only cooperate.  Sadly, it looks like tomorrow will be rainy and cold.  Just as well as the kids have finally gotten too old for egg hunts.  I hope you are having a lovely day, wherever you are!

Christmas Knits

There were several Christmas knits this year.  Above are Ryan's Maine Morning Mitts.  This is a favorite pattern that makes a gender neutral mitt.  I used leftover balls of Kureyon and so they go together, but do not match.  And, I just realized one of them is upside down!  I'll have to show Ryan how that thumb gusset works!

Chloe's Forbes Forest Scarf is finally done after two years in the making.  She loves it and had forgotten about it, so it was a surprise.

This amazing, soft as a bunny, alpaca and merino poncho was made by my sister.  Cheryl has started a new blog where she is showcasing her glass art.  Please go take a look!  I don't know how she found time to knit this gorgeous piece, but I'm so thankful to have a multi-talented sister!

I also made two dog sweaters using the Soho Cables pattern.  My parents' new pup, Bo, is still young enough that chewing is a major problem.  We didn't even try the sweater on him and I forgot to get a photo of it before gifting.  Scrabble, being an old pro with the sweater routine, was happy to oblige with this picture.  Speaking of being an old pro, Scrabble turned 6 in December!  

Happy New Year!

 Best wishes for a Happy, Healthy and Handmade New Year!

Love, Kristin

Chloe's Stitching

This is Chloe's real artistry.  She can do amazing things with a bit of felt and embroidery floss!  These were made in secret and slipped into our Christmas stockings, so even I was surprised.  The little Scrabble ornament is for me, the shark for Ryan and Pi for Mark.  I'll have to show some photos of her other felt pieces.  She can take a 3 dimensional object and create it in felt.  I'm amazed every time I see one of these creations.

Christmas Quilts

Two quilts were given as gifts this year.  First was Scrabble's Quilt, made by Chloe!  She had a brilliant idea to take the neck-kerchiefs that the groomer gives Scrabble each time and make them into a quilt.  He usually wears them for a day or two and then he's done with them.  We saved them for no particular purpose until she decided to do this.  I love how this quilt came out and she did it with very minimal help from me.  I guess I really did raise a quilter (even though it's not her favorite craft to do!).  There is only one fabric above besides that backing and binding that is regular quilt fabric.  The downside is the fabric is cheap and probably won't stand up to a lot of abuse.  Scrabble is very gentle though, so I expect it to be fine for quite a while.

The big reveal of Ryan's quilt wasn't so much of a surprise, but he can be pretty oblivious to the things I do, so I wanted to make it a real wrapped present.  

I think he likes it!

Happy Solstice!

This photo was actually taken a few nights ago, but last night was crystal clear here and we got a fantastic view of the lunar eclipse.  Today we'll be making Ryan's solstice cake, a tradition that he came up with after we moved here 6 years ago.  He wanted to make a Christmas cake, but we have so many cookies for Christmas I convinced him that the solstice was a perfect cake making day.  Do you have any special solstice traditions?  I'd love to hear about your summer solstice traditions too if you happen to be enjoying summer right now.