2009 in Review

Well, where to begin? At the beginning is too simple - too many things running in parallel.It has been a year of starts and stops, losses and gains, achievements and disappointments; it's been a long year, and at the same time, amazingly quick.

I guess I just have to break it down into manageable bits - trying to remember way back to January... For family & friends, we saw family this year, when we trekked to Kentucky for Memorial Day and the big Criner Family party, and saw my family the following day. Then the boys & I headed to N. Carolina during the summer, while the Big Kid played on his Super Y league. And just this past week, the boys & I again headed out, due to yet more soccer, to Florida, where the boys got to see their grandma for the first time in several years - they were little kids the last time she saw them!

I lost my constant companion of 20 years this year; Booger entered my life in Clovis, NM, in 1989, and traveled the road with me from there, to Box Elder, SD, to Ohio (3 different places), and then finally here to N. Georgia. Deciding it was time to put him to rest was the hardest thing I have ever done. But in hindsight, I probably should have done it sooner - I just couldn't. Not long after that, we lost Zeke, too. Considering he had cheated death when he was a kitten - and probably numerous times after - we were surprised when he really started to go downhill this year. Beanie became the sole survivor - and damn proud of it. But then we added another ingredient to the mix that is our house - the New Dog. It took us 6 months to figure out his name, but now that we have, he is called DumbChuck :) Because you can never have enough chaos in your house, you know. Or never enough animal smells, apparently....

We played a LOT of soccer, I had a temporary break with sanity and volunteered to manage the Big Kid's team (which was such a huge PITA - you have to remind me of it next year), and I took a helluva lot of pictures this year! You might've seen a couple of them :) Work was work, every single day, and trying to stay afloat was even more work.But we made it through, relatively unscathed, and had a good Christmas AND pulled off the Florida trip without too many bumps along the way....

The needlework community lost a bright, shiny star this year when Marc Davis of Needlemania passed away completely unexpectedly. We had been waiting to hear the news about his partner - and got it concerning Marc instead. Poor George - I hope he is doing well, though I know their poodles, the Girls, had to find new homes, as George is permanently a nursing home resident now.

Much closer to home, and just such an incredible loss, was my friend Lori Mihalko, just last week. It is still unreal to me; I am so deeply saddened, and my heart goes out to those adorable girls, and to her husband. I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to know her as long as I did; she was an amazing person, and if I could be half as strong as she was, and inspire even one person the way Lori inspired so many others, then I would live a fulfilling life. I will miss her.

I had an amazing year in needlework - none of the stellar finishes of last year, like two TWs in one year - that will be hard to top. But some great finishes nonetheless - BoInk, which really is one of the neatest ideas I have ever seen, and a true joy to work on (except maybe that never ending border :) ); not one, but two Long Dog pieces from Foursome Reel, one of them over-1 on 36ct; a small TW, Medieval Miniature; my very first Chatelaine finish, albeit a small one - MMM03, the companion to MTM. And lots of other things here & there. I framed several pieces, and I made my first biscornu and pinkeeps - I didn't get to a mailart this year, but hope to this coming year. I also participated in my first ever Round Robin, which we have all agreed was a resounding success, and plan to be part of one for the new year, as well :) And then there was Boo! Club, which I was compelled to do; there was a minor snafu with the fabric, which I chose to live with, in my impatience to get started, but all in all, it came out wonderfully, and is in the next To Be Framed pile :)

I had several great starts, as well. I started Medieval Town Mandala on January 1st, and have to say that it is my favoritest project to date :) I also started Chat Noir, in tribute to my old cat, and Celtic Banner, which is one of the first designs that really grabbed me when I first saw it on that new Internet thing years ago. I did something I've never done before, and restarted a project - AD's Samplar 4 Saisons; I really hated the fabric I had it on, so I got new, better fabric, and started over, and now it's in the rotation :)

Other things just kept clicking along. TW's English Garden Sampler saw some sporadic progress, and I finally reached the huge milestone of finishing the top row of pages on SQ Lady & Unicorn. I am moving towards the end (i.e. over half-way) on Knotgarden, and am making small but steady progress on a piece I am finishing for Lyne. And other things really wanted my attention, but I just haven't had nearly the time I would like on them - Tanglewood, World Tree, Noah's Sub, Marquoir Ancient Vert et Mauve. I have another Halloween piece that is close to finishing, so I can get next year's two Halloween projects going next summer/fall, with a clear conscience :) You know, if work and all this soccer stuff would just stop intruding on my time, I could get so much more done! I've already mostly cut housework out of the equation, since it's pretty pointless around here....

It's been a crazy-busy year. I can't remember the last time I was this tired. But I do have some things to show for it, so maybe all the work and running around and everything will be of benefit later :) For all the hard times I've had this year, I've had as many, or more, equally great times - I guess you can't ask for more than that. I've had a great time with my kids this year, in between wanting to throttle them, and cherish my friendships even more than I did a few weeks ago. Here's hoping 2010, the beginning of a new decade, is better than 2009, and maybe a bit less chaotic? Less brain-draining maybe? Just a little quieter maybe. Less miles driven would be great :) I wish everyone peace and happiness in the New Year, and I look forward to what this year will bring! I am going to ring the new year in on Beach Time, myself....

December 21st - an Update

How did it get here so fast? It seems like it was just October the other day... Well, I'm as close to done with Christmas shopping as I'm going to get, and only have a handful of things left to wrap (I assume the boys will be snooping for those today - if they get out of bed in time). I have the last team parent meeting tonight, before we leave for the tournament Saturday morning - sure hope some of these folks give me some money today to cover the boys' stay. NOT looking forward to the drive, but AM looking forward to the beach, even if it's cold. I will also be going to Kennedy Space Center - I've never been there - so expect lots of pictures of that when I get back (esp. if DH gets that bigger memory card for me). We have all early games, so plenty of time to do touristy stuff, as the cash allows. Might be a few soccer pictures, too :)

On to the stitching, of which there isn't a whole lot, again, all things considered. I got a start on my new RR piece, Rosewood Manor's Live Each Season - looking at it, it's not a very big piece - it covers a lot of material, but it's not a lot of stitching (IMO), so I'm guessing if Nancy gets this one early on, she'll probably have it done - and then I'll have to come up with something else :) HaED World Tree maybe? Anyway, I'm doing the center motif again, and that will allow those to come to pick where they want to go. I also want to find some beads that can be used in place of French knots, entirely up to the stitcher who gets to that section...


I haven't decided if I'm taking this to FL or not, or what I am taking if not this - I might take either Lyne's RR or her wedding sampler; I think I can handle either one of those, if I ma able to stitch at all while there. I am not taking my floor stand (where would I put it, even broken down flat?), so I don't know how coordinated I'll be....

My main piece for the week was again MTM, and I got 1/3 of Part 7 done! I only worked on it 5 nights, I think - I was in bed by 6:30 one night, and just busy doing stuff other days/nights. Here's the overall:


And then the detail of the area I worked:


This week, I'm supposed to get EGS out again, but since it's a busy, and short, week, I may just work on some of the things that never get any attention - World Tree, Celtic Banner, Noah's Sub? I don't know. Maybe just whatever grabs me each day. Wednesday afternoon & Thursday, I'll be doing some cooking & baking - not having a huge meal for Christmas dinner, since only DH & the dogs will be around to eat leftovers - and DH doesn't eat leftovers more than once - we'll see if he can survive a week on cookies and the smallest big ham I could find.... Whatever day I get back from FL, I have putting the Christmas stuff up to look forward to :( I may be back on the 31st - I won't know until the 29th whether they move on to the final round on the 30th. So who knows when I'll be back online? At least I have a LNS opening up on January 4th - and have that day off of work, too, especially for that!

If I don't talk to you before, everyone have a safe & happy Christmas!! And New Year's, too, if I'm not back then, either!

A Mid-December Update

Well, I don't know about you guys, but I have been SLAMMED! Between Christmas stuff, work stuff, and soccer stuff, I'm going to need a month off to recoup from December. But I am 99.8% done with shopping - haven't wrapped a thing yet - and soccer is just going to have to sort itself out; one more "I'm too busy to answer your e-mail" e-mail, and I'm going to wash my hands of the whole thing...

Anyway, on to the stitching stuff :) Shawn had Lyne send her 2nd RR here while she was finishing up her move from SC to TX, so while it was here, I was compelled to put a little bit of work into it :) I didn't do a lot, but it's pretty darn close to being finished, so Shawn won't have that much to do. What a great design - I don't have any Drawn Thread charts, so it was nice to have an opportunity to see one - and I told Shawn if it needs a good home when she's done, I can probably find one for it :)


I did that upper left corner - the tree, the bird, the B, and the bunny. The red bits (apples? flowers?) on the tree are spider web roses, and just like Lazy Daisies, it took me all of them to get my tension the same on 2 of them. I love that stitch, but I think it just works better for ribbon embroidery, where you can actually see the effect; in this small scale, it just kind of looks like a knot :) At any rate, this really is a beautiful design, and I was glad I got a chance to see it in it's brief layover :)

Other than that, the only thing I worked on was Lady & Unicorn, and that, only 4 nights this week. The left edge of this thing is confetti hell all the way down - if I can just start working right again, I'll get to areas of faster progress. I got several hundred stitches in over the week, but they are so scattered, it is hard to really see them - so I included a shot with the chart, with this week's progress in the orange highlighter:

And then a picture without, just for grins:

Not a huge amount of progress, but considering L&U usually gets skipped every December entirely, while I'm losing my mind doing other things, this is better than usual :)

This week, I will work on MTM, and I also need to get my next RR piece started; I'm sending round RM's Live Each Season - but I can't decide where to start it. Guess I better get the decision made, since I'm losing a week of stitching to the tourney in FL. I imagine I'll take something with me, but nothing big or complicated - other than what I'm taking to show my mom for WIPs, MTM being one of them :)

Well, that's the news - the boys & I are off for teeth cleaning in a few minutes, which was a good reason to leave work early!! Happy Stitching to everyone, and if I don't talk to you before then, have a great Christmas - I should be back online by New Years....

Remember Pearl Harbor

December 7th, 1941

Slow Down - I'm Not Ready!! - An Update

How's it the 7th of December already? Normally I am way done with shopping by now, and this year, haven't even much begun, what with having a tournament this weekend, when we had snow flurries and freezing temps, I might add. I have so much to do, no time, and I don't feel like doing any of it. I don't think I'm going to do cards this year - I have to cut something out, and since I haven't even bought any yet (looked yesterday, didn't like any of them), maybe that's one of the easier to let go. It's not even my usual Bah Humbug-ness - I just don't feel like doing Christmas anything. I have to get to that stupid tournament on the 26th, and get back, in one piece. It's a long drive for what I expect to turn out to be a lot of nothing... :(


On to the stitching, of which there's not a lot. My main focus this week was AD Samplar 4 Saisons. I am pretty close to having Spring done!!! If I have a good week next rotation, I ought to finish it, and either move on to the tree, or Summer. I am ready to see other colors on it, though I did get some of the Wattle N Daub border put back on, so I can see how that works - it's the color the tree will be, too - I just have to decide how to physically work the tree - across, or up & down? I'm kind of thinking up & down will make the color changes look like bark, more than stripes across. Hmmmm.... Anyway, here's where I left it last night:

Other than that, the only other thing I worked on was Anita's RR, which I kept an extra week, so I could keep working on it a bit more :) I got a few more motifs done, and got one of 2 colors done in another large one, and decided I had better stop and get it on its way home - this is the overall:

And then an off-angle shot of the area I worked this past week:
Like I said, it's a bad angle, but I had to lay this on my bed to get a pic of it, because it's so big - and the light's not too good back there, so I was trying to get the best light AND keep my shadow off of it - which only worked from the side, I guess (no, it didn't occur to me to turn it - it was late). Thank you, Anita, for letting me work on this - I love this design, especially in these colors!

This week, I HAVE to do some shopping, I have to bake a cake for Thursday's company Holiday Lunch, and get a gift ready to go. BUT soccer is over until 12/26 - Big Kid is playing indoor, but I can miss those games, they are just for fun & to keep touches on the ball. SO hopefully I will be able to get a little time in on Lady & Unicorn this week; I know it won't be much, but anything helps! Until next week, Happy Stitching everyone, and I hope everyone has a lot more shopping done than I do!

25 Shopping Days Left - an Update

Speaking of shopping, I haven't done any. None. No one will tell me anything realistic. I hate shopping when I know what I want; this is ridiculous. Guess I better get going though, huh? If only everyone was as easy to shop for as I am...

Well, it was a great Thanksgiving weekend. Lots of food, and aside form the work to put the Christmas stuff up, the rest of the time off was used to it's fullest - I was much in need of some time off. Dogs were walked, lots of reading was done (staying up until 2 am a couple of nights with my book), some stitching here & there, and general lounging. I did have to venture out to Wally World on Sunday to restock some groceries, and I wasted 30 minutes driving to a Hancock Fabrics to check out their "needlework" section - that's the last time I'll ever go in there, and no wonder it's been years since the last time I was in there. Very disappointing. I have come to the conclusion that I could use a 4-day weekend about once a month - and since I don't often use my vacation time, I could actually swing one every so often. But, I don't often use my vacation time...

Well, since Multiply is moving, causing us to have issues with pictures, it's anyone's guess whether I'll be able to add pictures to this post or not - it might just be links to the albums, where some of the thumbnails are gone, but the pictures are still there, in some case. Sure hope it's all recovered when they are done....

I have a finish to report - Boo! Club is done!!! I finished it yesterday before dinner! Still not happy with the fabric, but it's still a great piece!


Now that I have that done, hopefully 6 Bats will get done in the next couple of months, so I can then worry about next year's Halloween pieces, Halloween Quaker & Murky Manor - which I really need a DMC sale for :)

I also did some more work on Knotgarden, though not as much as I had planned. I spent one night reading and never picked up a needle - can't remember the last time I did that. And then with all the holiday stuff going on and finishing up Boo, I think I only worked on Knotgarden for maybe 5-6 hours all week? But I got a piece of the next green corner started, before I decided to go work on the potted plants up on top for just a bit.


And that's it for last week - nothing over lunch (reading), and thought I'd get more done on my days off, but was outside while the weather was nice, with those goofy dogs. This week, I get out AD Samplar 4 Saisons, and will spend a little more time on Anita's RR - was supposed to send it home today, but I asked her if I could keep it another week. And I guess I better do some damn shopping in there, too, if the inspiration would just come to me.... Until next week, Happy Stitching, everyone!

An Almost Turkey Update :)

The 16yo has been waiting for Thanksgiving dinner for weeks now - maybe after I fill him up Thursday, he'll stop whining for a bit.Nah, probably not. In soccer news, regular season for both boys is OVER!! And they both closed with WINS! Big Kid has a tournament the weekend after next, then the month of December to prep for the Cocoa Expo on 12/27 - not looking forward to that drive :(



On to the stitching, since it's late in the day - once again, I had camera but no USB cord at work today :( Seem to be doing that more often.... Firstly, I got a skein of 3847 from Nancy, so I was able to finish up that motif on Anita's RR:


After I got that done, I decided to move to another area - so I went up to the top left, and did the large oval motif, and another crown:



After I got those done, I got out my focus piece for the week, EGS. I was kinda slow-moving on it the first couple of nights - just not in the mood for confetti, I guess, especially this with no actual object to look forward to appearing. But over the weekend, I got back in the groove - in time to put it up, of course.... A few hundred stitches - not a banner week, by any means.



The overall pic is here, if you are interested - looks a lot like it did last time...

And, after getting my goodies to kit up Halloween Quaker, I figured I'd better get cracking on finishing the current Halloween projects, so I did two more blocks on Boo!



The overall pic is here - only 2 more to go, and candy along the bottom, and then I can concentrate on getting 6 Bats done, too!!

No update on a travel project this week - it's a secret :) This week, back to Knotgarden, and who knows what else? Hoping to get some quality time in between cooking and Christmas decorating, and I guess I need to get off my butt and get started (and finished?) with the Christmas shopping. I just hate shopping. Too many people on my list that are too hard to buy for. I'm the easiest :) My local stitching group is meeting Saturday, so I'm really looking forward to that - get to take my finished MMM03 for show & tell, and I'm going to take L&U with me, so they learn the true depth of my insanity :) Saturday is also my dad's 80th birthday; I would have liked to have gone up, but with that trip to FL in December for the tourney, I can't afford to do both - and right now, getting my son seen by college recruiters is my priority. Hopefully he'll be around for a phone call, and I might get his card in the mail in time, too...

Until next week, happy stitching everyone, and everyone here in the US, have a great Thanksgiving!

A Small Monday Update

No, really - it's pretty small, because I only took pictures of two of the things I worked on this week :) One thing can be shown until late in December, and my lunch project & Lyne's wedding sampler don't have enough progress to warrant pictures.

But I did finish Part 6 of Medieval Town Mandala!!!!! It took concerted effort, but I got it done, with time to spare - a whole hour and a half!


And here's the overall:


I also did a bit on Anita's Wiehenburg sampler, continuing the motif I started last time - until I ran out of the thread! I went to 3 different stores to get a new skein of 3847 - and no one has it. They don't even have the space for it in the DMC display. I don't get it. Why do they skip this number or that number? BUT, I sent an APB out over text, and have a skein coming from Nancy in MI - it's sad to have to go across the country to find the stuff. But then I remembered that I had to order this particular number from an ONS when I was kitting up World Tree because I couldn't find it then, either... I thought for sure I'd have plenty to finish the motif I had started - but I was wrong. So hopefully the lots will match when the other one gets here, or I'll be doing some frogging - but maybe only the middle sections, depending on how different they are.... Here's where I ran out:


I did work on Lyne's piece one night before getting MTM out, and I worked on my lunch project, but only one day - I was too busy reading this past week at lunch, finishing up Pillars of the Earth, and then starting Pride & Prejudice & Zombies, which I can hardly put down! Don't know if I'll stitch or read at lunch this week, either.

This week, back to English Garden Sampler, and see if I can get to that peacock - though I probably ought to go back to the top and work right. Don't know. I'll see what calls me when I get it out :) I still need to finish the bs in the top border, to, before I forget and think it's done... Other than that, not a lot going on this week - trying to get up the energy to get Christmas shopping - I'd like to get it over with, soon.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes & gifts on Friday! It was a nice, quiet day! I got a few goodies, and have used some gift vouchers to order some more lovely silk & linen from HDF - I'll be sure to post a pic of those when they arrive :) Desert will be kitted, except for the last couple of PTBs, and a final decision on fabric - I threw a piece of Lambswool jobelan in there because I had it, but I still am thinking about Desert Sky from Silkweaver. BUT, I need to pick a fabric for Tuscany before I worry about Desert. And I don't need to worry about Tuscany until after Secret Victorian Garden gets started :) Also in the HDF order, the conversion I'm going to use for Quaker Halloween :) DH also got me a TomTom GPS unit, so if I get lost, I can blame it on the machine :) That will be much used, especially in Florida in December when we are at the tournament.

Well, that's the news. Happy Stitching this week to everyone - and watch out for spammers!

Veterans Day 2009

To those who served, and to those who are serving, thank you.

A Veteran’s Day PrayerDear Lord,
Today we honor our veterans,
worthy men and women
who gave their best
when they were called upon
to serve and protect their country.
We pray that you will bless them, Lord,
for their unselfish service
in the continual struggle
to preserve our freedoms, our safety,
and our country’s heritage, for all of us.
Bless them abundantly
for the hardships they faced,
for the sacrifices they made
for their many different contributions
to America’s victories
over tyranny and oppression.
We respect them, we thank them,
we honor them, we are proud of them,
and we pray that you will watch over
these special people
and bless them with peace and happiness.
In Jesus’ name we pray; Amen.By Joanna Fuchs

Another Monday Update

Well, we seem to be having October, now that it's November :) We've had blue skies and near-80 temps for the last few days - it's been wonderful! The longer we can stretch out fall, the better :) It's cloudy today, so I assume rain is coming again, but this weekend was awesome - if I'd been facing the sun during yesterday's game, I would have come home fried. And I won't go into yesterday's game - suffice it to say it was a travesty of epic proportions. I don't know how some people sleep at night....

Well, it was a very busy week - I had a 50th Birthday thing to throw at work on Thursday, so Tuesday had me driving around looking for decorations - apparently 50 has been popular lately, it was slim pickings. Wednesday had me baking a cake - lemon with black icing, of course :) The birthday girl moved into a cubicle not too long ago (which sucks), so not having a ceiling I could get to limited the decorating options somewhat - so I made up with confetti :) Ahh, she needed a new keyboard, anyway :)


Friday night, me and the 16yo worked a concession stand at the local arena, to raise $$$ for his high school soccer team. It was a hockey game, but it wasn't a large turnout, so it may not have been worth the time, but we'll see. I guess anything towards his player fee is better than nothing - na d let's face it, the kid needs to understand what "work" is. He was our fry cook in the Philly Cheesesteak place, while we actually had an arena cook making the actual sandwiches - I don't really ever want to prepare food like that if I can help it. I was ill enough smelling fried pickles for 4 hours.... But the home team won - 4-1, I think it was (we aren't allowed out there to see the score), so a relatively easy night :)

The nights I wasn't baking or running a cash register, I did get in some stitching. I didn't take any stitching to games over the weekend, as I have Pillars of the Earth due back to the library today, and was trying to finish that up - I have 23 pages to go at lunch today :) hopefully my hold of Pride & Prejudice & Zombies will be ready today, so I can start that tonight. Anyway, I got the black cat done on my lunch project, Purrfect Summer Day, and started on the background - I figured I needed to do it in bits, so I don't lose my mind. Here they are:

I also worked on Lyne's wedding piece for a few hours; I got lots of ribbon filled in, added more to the first dove and did more of that backstitching on the wing. I may work on it more this week, since i have less going on in the evenings this week.

And my main piece this week was SQ Lady & unicorn, which only got about 5-6 hours of attention on it, after all was said & done. But I did finish the lamb, got the tree trunk more filled in, and more red! I would have done more on this or Lyne's, except Australia was on On Demand yesterday; you know, Hugh Jackman. I couldn't seem to tear my eyes away for stitching when he was on screen...? Especially the water scene there near the beginning when that wet rag Nicole Kidman is traveling to her place with him - if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about :) Anyway, back to L&U - here's where I left it last night:

And that's all I was able to jam in this past week :(

Sorry - can't seem to let it go - and amazingly, they didn't release any photos from that scene - what's up with that?

This week, back to MTM - I ought to be able to finish up Part 6, unless life conspires against me. Big Kid has no games this weekend, but Little Kid does. We'll see how that works out. Wednesday is Veteran's Day - we'll have a catered breakfast at work :) I'm hoping the great weather holds out - I've been relatively headache-free for a couple of weeks now! And I'm loving the time change!! Until next week, Happy Stitching, everyone!!

If you are reading this, thank a teacher.
If you are reading this in English, thank a Veteran.

A Standard Time Update

Ahhh, back on real time, and all is right with the world. Okay, the world is currently hosed, but my internal clock is MUCH better! Nothing like getting my hour back! I really wish that Daylight Savings didn't affect me so much - but it does, so what can I do? Even more motivation to get to AZ, where they just didn't buy into it :) In other news, fall is very definitely here, about a month early. And thanks to the rain we've had, we actually have fall colors to look at, instead of trees going all crispy critter and dropping leaves in July & August.


I took over 200 pictures yesterday, while waiting for a late-afternoon game to start. You can see the keepers here.

On to the stitching bits :) First, since I started a Boo block at my stitching group on Saturday, I wanted to finish that up on Monday. Which I did. Then I was compelled to start the next one, which also got finished :)


The two blocks I finished.

Then the overall - 8 of 12 done - now that it's November and Halloween is past...


I also made some sporadic progress on my lunch/travel project, Purrfect Summer Day. I only had a couple of lunches in my office, so didn't get the black kitty done like I thought I would - but he might get done today :)

I received the next piece in my Round Robin, Anita's Wiehenberg sampler, in the turquoise color scheme. WOW is this thing pretty!!! I had to put stitches in it as soon as I got it out! So I did - a small motif done next to the dark crown, and then a start on a large one to the right:


My main piece this week was AD Samplar 4 Saisons. I got all the way across on Spring, so now have to work down and to the tree. The first page is complete, except I think 5 stitches , and a good chunk of 2 & 6 (right & down). And, good for me, I DIDN'T leave the X out - I think I actually got ALL of the letters in the alphabet this time :)

On Halloween, we didn't really have anything going on - we haven't given out candy for a few years, because no one comes to our subdivision, except on a last call on the way home from the subdivisions where all the rich folks live :) Including the smart-ass teenagers that were pounding on the door (after very quietly getting onto the porch) at 10:30. Yeah, funny; there's nothing more hilarious than two dogs losing their f&^%ing mids because soemone has the balls to be knocking on their door at night - and they didn't hear them coming up the steps, either time. Anyway, I decided to get out 6 Bats in honor of the day - and I got past the frog attack! Again, another one with progress, now that it's November...

This picture shows the fabric color pretty good :) Still hating that WDW, but I am about 1/2 done, so I imagine I'll live :)

This week, back to Lady & Unicorn. I need to get Lyne's sampler out and work on it, too - it seems to be a good compliment to L&U, for some reason - lots of color changes, but no blends and way easier :) Who knows what else I'll work on - I lose Friday night to working at the local arena to raise funds for my son's soccer, and I think games Saturday & Sunday both again. I'm not expecting a banner week on L&U - but you just never know... Until next week, happy stitching everyone!

Halloween Funnies

A Halloween RAK - from Trish!!!

Many, many thanks to Trish, who suggested that I could do a second Boo!, since I'm still not entirely happy with the fabric I got :) Today I received a large envelope with not one, but TWO gorgeous pieces of purple fabric, and a bunch of wonderful Carrie's Threads - a Lucky 13 set of Halloween goodies!

Such pretty colors!!! Now I'm wondering what Murky Manor would look like on that solo? Oh, so many ideas, so little time!!! Thank you again, Trish!! I can't believe someone giving up TWO pieces of purple fabric :)

The End of October? An Update

Where did this month go? I can't believe this is the last week already! Days are just flying by, way too fast! The fact that it feels like late November here doesn't help - the leaves are already changing, which is really unusual for here - but since we've also had rain, there are some beautiful colors out there! I might even get a chance to get some pictures of them! I am looking forward to the coming time change - we'll see what an extra hour over the weekend will help me get accomplished :)


On to the stitching! You might've seen my finish last week of the small Halloween travel project, Ghosties & Ghoulies. Well, Friday night, I made it and that other little Halloween project into pinkeeps! It took a trip to JoAnns and to a Wal Mart that still has fabric to find backing fabrics and ribbons, and I couldn't find any Halloween/Fall straight pins, so I dug into the beads and made my own :) These were pretty easy - and I laced them instead of going all crazy with the glue :) The front of the first one:

The back:


I want more of this fabric from Walmart - they have a couple of jelly rolls of it, to make a strip quilt - don't know if I can manage that or not, and knowing my luck, they'll be gone anyway.

Here's the 2nd one:


Now - to get something to display these in! I need something that is glass/covered, so I'll be on the lookout when I'm in Hobby Lobby next, with all that great glass stuff they have :) If I can do some for every season, then it can stay out on the table in the living room (that currently is holding the frame for my finished RR piece that I need to get done, too).

And, I have another finish to report - instead of working on Knotgarden this week, when I was home resting on Monday, I decided to get Chatelaine MMM03 out for a bit - and kept it out all week! I got it DONE last night!!!! My first Chatelaine finish ever!!! I do not want to stitch TG Camouflage on black fabric ever again - holy crap that was hard! But it's done, it's awesome, and the picture isn't great, but as good as I can get of a project on black at 10:00 at night :)


If I had known there was only a week's worth of work left, I should've pulled it out a long time ago! And I would really like to send it to Jill Rensel to at least mat - this might be the only one I can afford to have her do :) I did tell DH that sending this to Utah would be a nice anniversary gift in January...

I went to my local stitching group on Saturday, and took Boo! with me. I got the next block about half-way done, and plan to finish that up tonight before dinner:


I also picked up Purrfect Summer Day again, but nothing photo worthy, as I did the white parts of the next cat :) Should have a black cat by the end of this week. I didn't work on Jodie's RR again, like I figured I wouldn't. I will be sending that on to Anita today - I know she will enjoy working on it as much as I did! And I will be looking forward to the next one I get, which I think is Anita's Wiehenberg sampler! I did receive my Cecilia's order from the Online Needlework Show, too - two Ink Circles and that Quaker Halloween from Cherished Stitches - I have an order coming from Vikki Clayton, too, that includes a LOT of purple sample tags for the Quaker :)

This week is Sampler Week; I will work on AD Samplar 4 Saisons, I know, and one or both of my Halloween projects. Nothing else really planned, so check back next week to see how that goes :) I'd like to crank through Spring on Saisons - looking at the pages of the chart, it looks like a lot to go, but looking at the finished thing, it doesn't look like that much. So maybe I can get it done this week, maybe not - I have no idea, really. Everyone have a great - and safe - Halloween, and Happy Stitching!