Queen of Macaroons plus Exercise Charts

My cousin makes the world's greatest chocolate chip macaroons. She always serves them at Passover since they have no flour as an ingredient. I've made the recipe a couple of times, but mine never turn out as perfect as hers. Luckily, the ingredients are all so yummy that everyone gobbles them up anyway. In honor of my cousin's upcoming birthday, I made this oh so appropriate card from a design by the fabulous Bé Courtadet. This is the "Queen of Macaroons", one of several of her sweet ladies decked out in dessert-shaped dresses. Worked out nicely on this peach butter linen from Vikki Clayton.



Last Saturday, my Jazzercise class held a fund raiser for the 'Back in the Swing' organization, a group that works with breast cancer surviors. I decided to give the two little exercise magnets I made to the two cancer survivors in our class. What I didn't realize is that we had a couple more survivors that I didn't know about. So back to the drawing board. Since I knew these were for breast cancer survivors, I added the pink ribbon. And the runner was specifically for the marathon runner.




And for your stitching pleasure if you are interested, here are the charts:

Exercise Motivation Charts

I've been doing regular exercise forever. I did many years of dance and when I stopped that, I continued with regular Jazzercise classes. But I find that even though I attend those classes regularly, I'm not really motivated to work hard once I get there. It's still better than sitting in front of the TV eating potato chips, but all life's little aches and pains seem to get magnified when I start exercising and I hold back. I decided I needed someone like Jillian to inspire me. I don't have a weight problem, just an exercise motivation problem.

So here are my two new personal trainers that have taken a place on the door to my fridge:




And you stitchers can have your own trainers too:

Alphabet Heart Sampler

I just mailed my latest Love Quilts square. Unlike the usual squares that will be used on quilts for kids, this one is for a special adult-themed quilt. Love Quilts is making a few that will be given to the American Cancer Society to sell as a fund-raiser. The theme of the one for which my square is destined is 'Pink'. The sign-ups seem to be for a lot of hearts, flowers and ribbons. This design from BHG Australia seemed versatile enough for this quilt and lots of others, actually. I just used brighter pinks than are shown on the model. I've seen it done in variegated thread and hand-dyes of almost every color. I expect that I will stitch this one again sometime on more interesting fabric with a higher count. This is a plain old 14 count Aida in white. White Aida is required for LQ.

Primitive Wizard of Oz

I finished up this piece over the weekend. This is the Primitive Wizard of Oz by Midsummer Night Musings and it was a really fun stitch. So relaxing with no back-stitching or fractionals. It's such a clever design too. If you've never looked at this pattern closely, see if you can identify all of the motifs. Note how each is positioned near the letter of its initial. Took me a while to figure out 'hurricane' since I always thought of the storm as a cyclone, tornado or twister, but I looked it up and it all depends on the version you read or see. And since the 'T' already had the Tin Man and Toto too, there was more room near the 'H'. Look how the flying monkey is neatly positioned between the 'F' and the 'M'. Same for the Wizard himself with the 'O' and 'W'. And what a perfect winding yellow brick road.

This is stitched in my own DMC substitutions on Vikki Clayton 32 count linen in Bunny Brown. I had a small amount of the trim and backing fabric in my stash, but not enough for this pillow. I loved the look so much that I went out and bought more for just for the purpose.



On another note, I stumbled on the coolest little household tip for storing those plastic grocery bags we keep around to use for wastebasket liners and other things. Maybe you have switched to the re-usables and don't accumulate so many now, but I still seem to stack up my share of them and never had a decent way to store them. I love the method described here at Polka Dot Pineapple and I'm storing my little folded up bags neatly in an empty coffee can now!

Ladybug Card

It's so springy and beautiful outside. This ladybug themed card (or ladybird depending on your preference) seems really appropriate. It will accompany a Mother's Day gift for a friend. I've had that little freebie around for a long time. When there is no finished model to look at, I'm never sure if I will really like it stitched up or not. But I think it worked out pretty cute. It's a Borduurblad pattern you can find here, #11 at the bottom. Inside I wished my friend a 'shower of flowers' for Mother's Day.