Another Monday Update

The Super Bowl is over, a new season of NASCAR has begun, and the weather BLOWS! It must be February :) But I'm not going to complain about the weather just yet - we don't have feet & feet of snow, so I'm good - though I really could use about a week of no rain! The old barometer head has been getting quite the workout the last few months - and frankly, it's tired.

Quick notes on last week tryouts - the Big Kid made his Varstiy team (not really much doubt there), but Little Kid did not make the cut for his middle school team - and we are completely stumped as to why, considering a few of the kids that did make it, who DH has been coaching for a few years now. It's actually stumped several of the parents. But, is it a political thing (DH's club team has played this coach's rec club team before, with LK, and it wasn't pretty for that other team), or did LK just not do something to his satisfaction? Oh well, he says he doesn't care - but I still want to know why. I'm guessing this coach has never actually played the game, he's the school's stuck-ee. Oh well, we'll try again next year. Idiots. But, at least LK won't be completely beat to death by the end of the season - those two years of middle school ball where they also play club ball at the same time are rough on them; Big Kid played 7 games in one week, it was awful. And took all summer to stop aching. Yeah, that's worth it... School ball is so crude, anyway - it's going to be hard enough to watch the high school games - playground rules are not entertaining, if you know what you are watching.

Anyway, on to the stitching - of which there isn't a lot. Between the weather doing a number on my head most of the week, and some serious fatigue (also weather-related, I'm guessing), I didn't have a normal stitching week. I stitched a little bit every day, I think, just not very long. So all my grand plans from last week for what I wanted to work on this week kind of went out the window - I only worked on MTM. No, really, it's the only thing I touched all week! I got 99% of that right-side town's middle building done - I still need to do the last 2 Jessicas when I get home today, before I put it up.
The backstitch detail on that green roof went better this time than it did the first time - I went across each row this time, then came back and did the top-to-bottom lines. But I did have a mild panic attack when I was working the black - the last color I put into that building; the first on in the top town had all those dense Rhodes stitches under the roof, but this side wasn't charted for them, and nothing in the notes telling me to do them that way (the top town was under my Q clamp, so I couldn't actually see it to pick up on that sooner). So I looked at the other two to go, and they aren't charted for the Rhodes, either. Now why is it only the top one? Is that one of those infamous mistakes of hers, or is it by design? Oh well, I'm certainly not ripping anything out and redoing it. It's just a bit odd - though it looks just fine. I may do the bottom one the same as the top one - or I may not. Depends on how much it bugs me between now & then. I looked at photos online of other WIPs, and I guess most of us stitched it as charted, from what I can see in gallery pics. Weird...

In other news, I didn't go to Tuesday's stitch-in, deciding rather to head to bed very early instead. But I did go to the Stitch Store for yesterday's Super Bowl sale. I took TTM with me, wanting to finally make a decision on fabric - which I didn't - and in the process, Terrie, the shop owner, said she was thinking about starting MTM, but she's a little scared of the specialty stitches. So I told her I'd bring mine to the stitch-in this week, if the weather and my head cooperate (more crap moving in tonight/tomorrow - again possible snow); really, I don't think there's anything in MTM that're really that difficult - the Queen stitches on Knotgarden were more problematic to me, since the schematic she includes for them doesn't fit the space to put them in - but I figured it out. So maybe I can nudge her over the edge :)

This week, after I get those two Jessicas done, I get out EGS again (it seems like I just worked on that), and see if maybe I can't do some of the things I planned to do last week - Lyne's sampler, and maybe Kaleidoscope. I may take one of those to the stitch-in tomorrow - or something else entirely. And since the weather has just been awful for so long now, I am really not believing that we haven't been out for a walk lately, and I haven't taken any pictures, really, since we got back from Florida. So here's one I took this weekend:

These aren't just dogs - they are the never-ending source of specialty fibers used in all of my work :)

That's the news - am waiting for the Olympic Opening Ceremonies on Friday - let's see if I get any stitches in that night! Happy stitching this week to everyone!

February 1st - An Update

Wow, here goes another year flying by already!! Weather-wise, I am not impressed by this year so far.The "big storm" came through Friday night, and fortunately, didn't do much at all here - some rain/sleet, and the very tops of the tallest tress had a thing coat of ice Saturday afternoon. But I hear north of us got quite a bit more snow & ice. I was actually surprised how much ice I saw southwest of me when I went to the store on Sunday - a few miles from the house, and every tree was coated - and I didn't have my camera with me :(

Middle school tryouts got canceled Friday, as the storm was moving in (not a big deal for us, but a couple of the schools in our county are waaayyyy out in the sticks, and far enough north that I suspect the might've gotten dumped on - though school is in session today, so still not a big deal, I assume). They resume today, and high school tryouts start today. It's going to be a tense couple of days around here (though they are both shoe-ins, so not really sure where the fear comes from, other than Little Kid hasn't done a school tryout before). In indoor soccer news, Big Kid made it to the semi-final round last Wednesday; I didn't see the games, as I was just too tired to go - been fighting off a cold for the last week, and think I have to now officially declare I have been defeated :(In other sporting news, Ms. Trish has been spreading the Olympic Spirit about; she sent out several RAKs with Olympic goodies in them!! I can't wait for the opening ceremony - I hope we don't have games that weekend, so I can stay up to watch them!

On to the stitching! My main project for the week was Lady & Unicorn, which, as usual, didn't get a whole lot of time; I think I only put in about 6 hours total for the week on it, which sadly, is only about 300-400 stitches. I just wasn't up to it a couple of nights, fighting off this cold and being fatigued. I did finally get into the groove last night, of course - right before I had to put it up for the week :( But hey, any progress is good progress, right?
I have moved the previous album down and made a new one for this year's progress, but I'll link the previous picture here, if you want to try to spot the difference :) And here is the current overall - from the scroll down, anyway.I also did another letter on my current RR, Carolyn's. I really like this color combination she picked out - this Weeks linen is such a nice color, lends itself well to so many things. It's basically a non-mottled Days Gone By, and you guys know how I love that fabric - only 1 completed BoInk and MTM & Celtic Banner WIPs on it :) Anyway, I got the letter "C" done - cows & chickens, how awesome are they?

I also did another motif on Mary Wigham - I've been itching to get to that carnation, so I could use my BeRedded :) Wow do I love this red from Vikki!! I steer clear of lipstick reds, so it's got to be deep to grab me - what do you think?


The green here is BeFrogged - the other green motif, there upper left, is BeLeaved. I love these colors - and I haven't even used but just a few so far!!! And I really will have to use more of this linen - I can't get over how nice it is, even the odd slub doesn't bother me like some others have in the past :) Of course, having a SHOP to look at stuff in now really helps...

And speaking of shops, at last week's Tuesday night stitch-in, and during lunch last week, I got great progress on Dream. In fact, it now is completely stitched, just waiting for beads, which I hope to get to today, if my head will quit thumping for a bit :)


I will start Imagine this week, on another Silkweaver solo. I'm liking these little spur-of-the-moment projects that become finishes :)

This week, back to Medieval Town, and hopefully getting the better part of the right-hand town done! I don't know if I'll go to this week's stitch-in or not - depends on how my head feels tomorrow after work. I would like to work on Lyne's sampler, and maybe Kaleidoscope over the weekend :) I am also planning to shop JJ's Super Bowl Sale this weekend, and have them order me the PTP Haunted for Sleepy Hollow :) Then I am done stashing for a while! Until next week, Happy Stitching, everyone!

13 Days - Let the Games Begin!!!

The Kid went out to get the mail today, in the sleet and crap, and came back in with 6 pounds of junque mail, and a little envelope all the way from the Great White North :) That Trish, who I was describing as a master enabler over in TheSamplerLife group just the other day, sent me something! I open it up, and inside is a card, wishing to share a little Olympic Spirit!


Inside, there were a skein of lovely HDF silk, in Old Maid of Liberty, a pack of Juicy Fruit gum, sponsoring the Canadian Team and complete with a little Maple Leaf stamped on each piece - and two Canadian quarters with Olympic events on them!!




Of course, I was trying to beat the 12 yo off the gum long enough to get the picture :)

Around our house, everyone's gearing up for this summer's World Cup in S. Africa; I'm looking forward to the Olympics more, especially as it's in my part of the world this time, so I might actually get to see some of it!!! I saw very little of the Athens or the Beijing Olympics, pretty much just daily recaps, since it all took place while I was asleep :) I'm ready for skating, and the ski jump, and the luge & bobsleds; I love hockey, but it's too hard to watch on tv, unless it's a really good game :) So thank you, Trish - I'm counting the days!! Good luck to all the teams and go for the GOLD in Vancouver!!

Another Monday Update

Hi, people! Here it is, the last Monday of January, already!!! Holy cow, where'd it go? Half frozen, and now under water, due to the rain we've gotten this weekend - wow am I ready for winter to go away (and yes I know I have less room for complaint than most of you - but I did move away from that white stuff on purpose :) )

Well, you've probably already seen my finish of my 2nd RR piece for '09 - that was really fun to finish up :) And just to be clear, the new shop is going to be a very bad influence, with those By the Bay charts coming home with me, after I just bought those others on Opening Day :) But after taking advantage of a 25% off entire purchase coupon for Michaels yesterday (for which I had to go out into the torrential downpour, and coming back on I-85, down to 40 mph with semis trying desperately not to slam into all the people slamming on their breaks in the nearly white-out conditions), I now have Murky Manor, Sleepy Hollow, and those By the Bay charts 99% kitted with floss :)


You'll notice the wrap-around receipt there - I really hate that store have to individually scan the skeins; I understand why they have to, but wow, you could wallpaper a room with one of my annual DMC buys - unless I go to HL, where they don't have scanners, so just need an accurate count. this is 135 skeins, and 1 ball of #12 perle - $30! NOW I ought to be done for a while, until I need fabric for these (need a PTP sale for both of the Glendon Place designs).
On to the actual stitching for the week :) This was Sampler Week, so my main focus, once I finished up that RR at Tuesday's stitch-in, was AD Samplar 4 Saisons. I was hoping to get Spring all done this time - but I didn't quite. I did get it really close, but also did more of the border, and got some of the tree branches going - trying to count to get the Spring leaves on was becoming a nightmare, so I figured I better get some branches in there before I made a horrible boo boo...
I only have a few motifs left in Spring, and then getting that section of tree done so I can get it's leaves done - we'll see how far I get next time :)

This weekend, my local stitching group met - we haven't since October, with the holidays screwing up our 4th Saturdays. I started a little project out of the Joan Elliott book Mel got me for Christmas - Dream. This is a quick little project, and I picked out a small solo I had for it. I have to get beads for it tomorrow at the shop - can you believe I don't have anything I like with it? The solo is 32ct, the design calls for magnificas, but I may go with petites if they fit better, though the magnificas are 12/0, so smaller than 11/0 delicas or regular seeds. We'll just have to see what I find to match :) And the left side of the D is missing because HL didn't have the only color I needed to buy - but it is in that pile from Michaels :)


Saturday, the 23rd, in memory of Lori (who's birthday was 11/23), I broke out Noah's Sub. I haven't worked on this since 2008!! Man, is that bad, or what? But it is my plan to work on this the 23rd of every month, and see if maybe it doesn't see some progress in this new decade :) I got some water in this time; the pink backstitch is kinda weird, but I guess it works okay - just not what I was expecting there.


I do wish that I had gotten a little meatier fabric for this; I love Vikki's linen (that she's not going to carry anymore :( ), but this solidly-stitched piece probably ought to have been on something with a bit more body to it. Oh well - as far as I'm concerned, I am past the point of no return, so onward ho!

This week, back to Lady & unicorn - which I took to my stitch group on Saturday, so they can get an appreciation for the true level of my illness :) I'll go to stitch-in tomorrow, and then we have Indoor soccer finals Wednesday, so those nights are out for L&U - hopefully I can still get some progress in the rest of the week. Outdoor starts in a couple of weeks, so I better enjoy this while I can! Happy stitching this week to everyone!!

I love my new LNS!

I've gone to 2 stitch ins already! How fun is that? And last night, there were 8 of us there, along with Terrie, and the kitties were also there! And, as if getting together with other stitchers wasn't enough, last Wednesday, I sent an e-mail, asking for a couple of the By The Bay charts (one of which was there, but I didn't see it in my effort to see everything, I guess), and when I got there last night, she had them already!!! How freakin' cool is that?


Okay, I am officially out of Christmas money :) Visit Terrie and Joey and Scooter at The Stitch Store!

Oh, and guess what else??? I finished off my 2nd RR for 2009 while I was there!!!! That was really fun to work on - I hope everyone who worked on those two designs enjoyed them as much as I did! Though, I do gotta say, doing the 4-sided stitch in white perle on white fabric - umm, headache :) Why was that any harder than the eyelet/Rhodes border? Dunno. But it came out AWESOME and I can't wait for Frames By Mail to have a sale on their metal frames, so I can get one to match the other RR (that needs to get into it's frame - maybe this weekend, if I can get the glass cut for it).


I now return you to your regularly scheduled whatever....

A Warmer January Update

Ahhh, back where we ought to be - 50's & 60's! That's why I live here, folks - supposed to be mild winters! Of course, now that I've typed that out loud, prepare for the ice storm that will probably hit. It'll get crappy again as soon as outdoor soccer starts in a few weeks....

Well, I had another busy stitch week - I started & finished a piece, and got my last RR back from Shawn. I worked on Lyne's piece at the LNS stitch-in Tuesday, worked on my new RR, Mary Wigham, and Knotgarden. I love January with little or no soccer!! Okay, first things first - Lyne's wedding sampler, updated:
If I go to the stitch-in tomorrow, too, I will take this along again, though it is a bit hard to work on for long without benefit of my floor stand. But I did get quite a few stitches in, even if you can't really tell where :)

I also did a couple more motifs on Mary Wigham - was going to work on this at the stitch-in, too, but we got to messing around on the computer, looking up blogs & whatnot, and then it was 10:00, and I told DH I would probably leave about 9:15 or so! But I did manage 2 more motifs during the week, one using a d-bag teal (kinda looks like Indigo Ocean) and BeLeaved - I love these Be colors!!


On Thursday, I started a freebie from By the Bay Needleart - I have really become quite obsessed with their designs lately, and actually have my LNS ordering in a couple of them for me. So I started the freebie on Thursday night, worked on it Friday night, too - and was compelled to finish it up Saturday :)


On Friday, I got my 2nd RR for last year back from Shawn - it has come out so pretty!!! And I get to do the last few bands!! I actually did 2/3 of one at lunch today :) :) Thank you all who worked on the two pieces I sent out last year - I need to get the first one stretched and in it's frame, and then get a matching frame for this 2nd one, as soon as I get it done :)

I then worked on my new RR, this time Carolyn's ABC Zoo Sampler from Blue Ribbon. This is such a neat design, and she picked such a pretty thread for it. She had the boxes for A & B done, and B was complete, so I did A, and got it done. That Alligator had a frog issue while I was working on the bumpy back, but I figured it out without too much pain - if I'd paid better attention at the beginning, I'd have kept the frogs at bay. Anyway, I got A done, and got a small start on the next box for C:

And lastly, I did actually work on my main piece for the week, Knotgarden. For some reason, this 3rd Giant Green Corner seems a LOT bigger than the other 2 did... I thought for sure I'd get into the garden bit, but maybe I was pushing my luck with all the other stuff I worked on all week :)

The overall to date is here.

And that's all I did last week :) This week is Sampler Week; AD Samplar 4 Saisons will get some time, and I'm hoping to do some more on 6 Bats, too; would like to finish that up so I can start concentrating on this year's Halloween projects :) I may work on my returned RR during lunch this week and see if I can't get that finished up, too. Who knows what all I'll work on? Until next week, Happy Stitching everyone!

When Worlds Collide - an RAK :)

Tracy was talking about pepper jelly on her blog one day, and that got Tina & I off onto our own tangent. I used to know a lady who made it every fall, but as I don't know where she is now, I haven't had any for a while - and it looks a little more labor-intensive to make than I'm willing to invest right now. So Tina told me she has some locally - and I googled the Southeast US stores I have access to, and no one in the greater Atlanta area seems to carry any. How can that be? Anyway, Tina said she'd pick some up, next time she was there.

While she was in Paris over the holidays, she saw one of the Cluny tapestries in Musee du Moyen Age, and there was a book there on them; she thought of me (and my insanity at working one of them from SQ), and sent that book along with the pepper jelly!


Not pictured - a jar of Red pepper jelly - it's already been opened and is in the fridge - only because I ran out of cream cheese already :(

I opened that box up, and pulled out the book - everyone in the house recognizes the picture on the cover, even if only vaguely. It's a very nice history of the tapestries, and the various theories surrounding the pieces - I can only imagine seeing them in person! Then I pulled out each jar of jelly and unwrapped them from their protective coverings - and I was met with questioning looks from a couple of kids (and at least one dog had her nose going). "What's that for?" "Ummm, you eat it, on crackers with cream cheese?" I know they go to public school, but jeez, JELLY is kinda self-explanatory, innit? They both backed away, looking at me like I was totally out of my tree. Though the Big one did come back out later and asked if he could taste it - then promptly spit the cracker I'd given him out into the trashcan!!!! WTF??? "Hey, don't waste that!" All of which means "IT'S ALL MINE!!!!!!" Though I think DH has eaten if before, too, but I think cream cheese creeps him out. Some people don't know what they're missing...

Thank you, Tina! I will enjoy both jelly & book, and try to keep one from the other :)