Finally, an update

I finally have an update. It seems like I lost my stitching mojo for a while. Summer is here, but it isn't like I've really been doing anything fun like lounging by a pool. At any rate, my DSIL came over and we had a sit n stitch. She made good headway on her Six Bats and I on my Red Thread piece. I think we both got the stitching bug back again, so hopefully there will be more frequent updates. We also made a quick run to Stitching Bits & Bobs. This shop is only about an hour from the house, but I'd never made it over there. It didn't take much to entice Sue to go with me. Of course, shopping with a fellow stitcher is quite enabling. I ended up picking up the Lizzie Kate Hugs & Kisses boxer kit, the flosses to go with it, and the Lizzie Kate Tiny Tidings X with the embellishment pack. Now I cannot wait to start Hugs & Kisses, but I told myself that I really need to finish off Red Thread.



On the summer vacation front, I'm getting ready to go to Ireland and the UK. I'm doing Ireland with a tour group and then taking the ferry over to England. We intend to rent a car in England and wander as we wish. This way we can get off the beaten path if we want to. I'm sure the time will fly. I should have some great pictures to post once we're back.

Cheers,

Time for a Happy Dance

Letters, Leprechauns, and Luck is finally done. I actually finished it a week or so ago, but couldn't get into blogger to make a post. It seems that when I locked my computer down after getting a trojan, I was a bit too aggressive and took away some functions that blogger needs in order to log in. I'm afraid that this is all I have to show as I've not been doing much stitching lately.

I hope you cyberfriends had a good Memorial Day weekend. I spent my weekend at a soccer tournament in Canton, MI. My oldest son's team played well, but didn't win. The youngest, however, made it all the way to the finals. They didn't come home with the cup, but they all got a big boost to their egos. I'm really proud of them! My baby boy did end up with a pretty severe bruising to his instep, but seems to be walking fine as I sent him out the door to school today. Whew! I'm sure glad, as we're still getting bills for his brother's broken wrists earlier this year.

Hopefully, I'll have my stitching groove back soon and can post some more pictures. I really want to finish the Red Thread piece before December. (the sooner, the better)

Cheers,

Keeping busy

I've been keeping busy lately, although not a lot of stitching has been going on. I finally finished the curtains that I was making for my sewing room. I also finished the painting of the room. I was taking the room from a navy blue to a sunny yellow. So I had to first prime the room and then paint it my desired color. I sure do hate it when I'm doing something that doesn't give me instant gratification. Fortunately, my DH helped edge as that is a chore that I hate and am extremely slow at.

Here's a before picture of the old color. I forgot to get a picture of the room before we started on the makeover.


Here's the picture of it afterward. I've done some rearranging of the room and gotten most of my stuff organized, but I haven't yet started putting my pieces back on the wall. I sure hope they look good against the yellow. The navy was a rather easy backdrop for most anything that I wanted to hang. It did turn out a bit brighter than I was really thinking, but I'm not up to redoing the room again so I'll live with it. It is much lighter in there on gray rainy days like today. I may actually be able to sew in there now after dark.



Enjoy your evening. I'm so far behind on everything it isn't funny. When I start painting or some project like that that has everything torn up, I'm kinda rabid to get it done, so everything else just sits. So, I now need to tend to the laundry and some housework.

Cheers,

Where did time go?

Since I was lazy and didn't take a picture from my stashing run after camp, I went ahead and took one this week. The positive note to waiting on the picture is that some of the things that I'd ordered but weren't in my hot little hand are now here and able to be included in the picture. It seems like I've been overrun by Shepherd's Bush! I had been collecting their monthly series (from back in 2003, I think) at Rocking Horse because they had these nice little hand painted frames to go with them. After my last stashing run, I found a shop online that was going out of business and had the charts and buttons for sale at a price less than what the chart would cost - so I picked up March, April, August, September, and December. I won't have a hand painted frame, but since the frames are so simple I can pick one up rather cheaply at Framing For Yourself and hand paint it myself. Now, I only need the months of January, October, and November. My Wandering Shepherd kit that I'd ordered while at camp arrived. I think that is what I will be doing as my next SAL. I also picked up Quietness and Confidence along with the silks to do it. The silks are so much more vibrant than they show in the picture. Of course, it always seems like I wait until the sun is going down to try to get a picture of anything. The stash is laid out on the quilt that I did in my quilt class that finished up right before camp. Missing from the picture is the Lizzie Kate Wanted Jolly Old Man bearing gifts.

Have you ever asked yourself where the day went? I seem to be doing that a lot lately. I cannot say that I haven't been getting anything done, but I sure haven't been getting much done in the cross stitch realm. I've gotten sucked into a few different kind of projects lately. I went ahead and quilted the 911 quilt top that I finished last year. Boy, what a difference a walking foot makes! I guess it pays to have the right tools for the job. I also got enamoured with fabric bowls. I put a hold on the book which tells how to make them at the library. Of course, it came in so I just had to make one of those before the book is due. Somehow, I lost my picture of it, so I'll have to post a pic next time. They really are kind of neat and super easy to do! Ever since we moved into this house, the sewing/craft room is a dark navy blue. I wanted to paint the room yellow and get some baby blue/yellow curtains for the room. This was supposed to be my winter project. I'm not a shopaholic, but I did look for these blue/yellow curtains and have been unable to find them. Finally, Friday I went on the hunt again figuring that I could at least get some fabric and make some if I cannot find exactly what I want. I hesitated at this because I'm not a domestic goddess and sewing doesn't seem to like me, however, when I found the bolts of yellow and blue fabric at less than 50% of what they normally are, I figured it was a sign. Since I had the fabbie in hand, I also stopped at the paint store to find that perfect yellow to go with them. So, for the better part of today, I've been making a curtain (just a valance). I'm not really using a pattern so I kind of drew out what I wanted it to look like. It's super easy so I shouldn't have issues, right? Well, my first problem was that my yellow wasn't cut wide enough. Oh well, I figure that I can just use some of the blue on the sides and not have the yellow go all of the way to the edges. I've place this silly thing on top of the blue and placed my cording. Everyhing looks fantastic. I go and sew on the cording and then place the yellow piece back on top of the blue only to find out that one side (it comes down to a V in the middle) is a bit longer than the other. So, I will need to rip out the cording. . . ugh! It is going away for the night!! Maybe tomorrow afternoon I can finish it off. I'll definitely get a picture once I get it done.

I have done a bit on my SAL piece, so without further ado here it is.


Have a Happy Easter,

Back from camp update

I haven't done much stitching as of late as I've had a 2 and 5 yr old to chase around. A friend of mine who usually watches them had a masectomy so I said that I'd watch them for her while she recuperated. What was I thinking? I think I'm getting a bit too old to be chasing a two yr. old. At that age they just don't have the attention span to do much of anything. Or remember anything for that matter - get that out of your mouth! Thankfully, I had camp Stitchalot between the weeks of watching them to get a little R & R. I didn't get as much stitching done as I'd expected, but I did turn in a bit earlier and sleep in a bit later than I normally do. My DSIL and I did get a chance to make several stashing runs. We always hit Rocking Horse on the way into camp. They have got so many models on the walls, it is like dying and going to cross stitch heaven. I picked up a Shepherd's Bush piece kitted with one of their hand painted frames. The Year in Stitches series is older but I love the hand painted frames they do for all of them. Each year I've been trying to pick up one. We then make a run to Stitches N Things for another stash enhancing experience as well. I ended up with a few projects from Debs - Quietness & Confidence and this little witchy. Since Deb also brings part of her store up to the hotel, there is always a room full of stitchy goodies that you can go peruse anytime you need to stretch your legs. It is always so fun to see what pieces everybody else is working on. There is nothing that can sell a pattern faster than seeing it done up or in the process of being done. They always look so much better in person.

On Saturday, I spent a bit of time with the Red Thread series. I've almost completed the Ocean Voyage square. Mr. Black is graciously holding the edge of the fabric down so it didn't roll up when I was taking the picture.

Most of the weekend, though, I worked on Letters, Leprechauns, and Luck. I ended up pulling out the celtic cross because I felt it was too light. I then did it in 415, but that appeared too light as well, so it is now in there with a strand of 413 and a strand of 647. I was hoping for a hint of gray to make it stand out a bit, but I still wanted the greenish tint. This isn't exactly what I was looking for, but I'm done ripping it out for now. Saturday night was the big raffle. Deb had 61 different items donated by the designers that we could put in raffle tickets for. I so wanted the complete set of dinky dyes, but I didn't get them. I did, however, win a tote from the Gentle Art with some limited edition sampler threads. The tote also had the Blue Ribbon designs, Small Tokens of Affection pattern. I'm thrilled that I won something as usually I don't have much luck with those sorts of things.

Life should be back to normal Monday, so I should be able to get in a good rhythm with the amount of stitching time I'm getting in. I really want to rotate my palm piece back in so it gets some time and will hopefully get finished this year. My psyche though needs a smaller finish so I can get another happy dance.

Hopefully you aren't getting hit by this gigantic Spring storm. Weird, that a spring storm would bring snow, but at least it isn't sticking.

Cheers,

More finishing and a lingering bother coming to light

Since I've been taking this quilting class, I've caught the sewing bug. I found a simple pattern for a tissue cover and I decided that it didn't look too hard. I was actually amazed at how easy it was. So after a practice piece, I went out and got some Laurel Birch fabric to make one for my DMIL. She loves Laurel Birch and had a birthday on the 4th. I know it is late. We've been trying to get together, but somebody in my family has been sick for the past month. Since she is getting her present late anyway, she'll never know that I made this goodie to go with it late too. 8)

Another plus to getting bitten by the sewing bug is that I've been making progress on finishing off some of my stitching pieces that just need to be finished. I did this little tuck pillow to hold a preface piece that I did in a Betsy Stinner class ages ago. I love the pastels and for some reason it took me forever to find a fabric that I liked for it. Of course, I don't haunt the fabric stores the way I do stitching shops!


Because I've been doing more sewing this week, I haven't gotten in as much stitching as I would have liked. I did finish off the picnic square in Red Thread and made a bit more progress on my BRD piece. I've been doing a bit of frogging on the BRD and I'm afraid that I have a bit more to do. I've always loved the flag because the red in it just seemed to pop. However, the flag has always bothered me. I was worried that the colors just weren't right. Well, I kept surpressing this thought because that red really did make the piece pop. I finally looked up the flag of Ireland and it is green, white, and ORANGE. Ugh, now that I knew this I just couldn't leave the red in. Fortunately, it was a small spot that was easily frogged. I miss the pop of the red, but I feel so much better that it is correct. The orange does pop a bit too. My next little insecurity is that the celtic cross doesn't show up enough. I'm thinking of frogging it and coming back with a strand of the current color plus a strand of grey (413, 414, 415 range). I may try a stitch or two on some other fabric to see if I like it before I totally tear out the cross.

Well, it is off to do Monday chores and to check the job boards to see if there is anything worth applying to. Take care and enjoy the sun.

Cheers,

On a finishing roll

The other day I was looking at my pile of finished projects that only need finishing and decided that I needed to make a dent there. So, I took my Wee Three Birdhouses piece and decided to make a bell pull from it. It has lain in the pile for a while because I was looking for that special bellpull hardware. I finally picked up a piece I liked sometime last year. Ditto with the fabric for the back. The piece finished up quickly and easily. I'm thrilled with everything but the cording that is holding it up. I had some of this cording left over from something else I had finished some time ago. I'll let it sit for a while and if I still don't like it I can always change out the cording. Now, I just need to find a place for it to hang. My laundry room has a bird border going around the top, so I was thinking of making it's home there. Next on my finishing pile is a to make a little tuck pillow to put a preface piece that I created from a Betsy Stinner class ages ago. I do have the fabric, so no excuses. I'm going to probably change how I do the corners so the fabric cannot slide open larger on sides if the pillow is filled quite full. We'll see how it goes.

My BRD piece is really moving along. I'm a bit over half way at this point. I don't think it will make it in time for St. Patty's day, but it won't be too far behind. Even though we aren't physically sewing together, my DSIL and I have been keeping pretty close. it will be fun to see each other's pieces live when we get together for Camp Stitchalot later this month. As you can see Gabby cannot imagine a camera present without trying to get a picture of her beautiful face. I guess I'm lucky she didn't come sit down in front of the piece, LOL!

Cheers,