An Official Summer Update

As opposed to the Summer Eve update of last week :) And wow, was this first week of summer SLAMMING - and no slowdown in sight, work-wise and home-wise. We have, though, continued to get some of the much needed rain, with thunderstorms rolling through every day but one; because of our location in the foothills of the mountains, systems going through either miss us entirely, or get stuck over us; we've been fortunate to be on the "tour" this year.

(Storm clouds building up)

So as predicted last Monday, I finished Purrfect Summer Day on Monday night :) Tuesday, I went to the Stitch In at the Stitch Store - yes, 2 weeks in a row! It was a full house! I was going to work on Tanglewood, and did, for about 30 minutes, but then I put it away and worked on last week's impulse start, Hocus Pocus. And that was finished on Wednesday night :)

(I did iron this before I took the pic - the stupid hoop left a shiny ring around it :( )

Thursday, I did some more work on Birds of a Feather - the 2nd part is out, so I really need to get Part 1 done, and am a flower and a half away - but I didn't take a picture of it, so you'll just have to take my word for it :) I will take a pic when I get the part done - which should be this week... Here's this instead:

 
(Monkey & Dummy keeping an eye out for the boxer next door)

Saturday, we had our June PINS get together, and as usual, a good time was had by all! We were short several people, for various reasons, but still a great, albeit short, afternoon. If you look at the window valances in this photo, you'll see why I'm doing the Hen & Rooster piece for our meeting spot :)

 
(Pictured from the left, going around - Jean, Jackie, Jean (you can't really see her), Kris, Donna, Diane, Liz, Judy, Me (if I'd NOT Been taking surprise pictures), Marty (who you also can't see - just like her sister Jean across the table there), and then Kristine) Everyone wants pictures, so here ya go :)

So anyway, while there, I worked on Tanglewood and finished the branch I had been working on. Once I get the other one done that intersects this one, I'll go over to the other side - I think the next branch on the right is the one the peacock sits on :)


And when I finished that branch, I put it up and got Mary Wigham out. I did the bottom motif on the left - that great purple is BeMused. I didn't quite finish it, so worked on it Saturday night, too, and since it was in the floor stand still on Sunday when I finally had time to sit down, gee, I started another motif, a green one, which is Be Leaved, and which needs to get finished tonight :)


As for this week beyond finishing that MW motif - well, I need to get BoaF Part 1 done, and then I think I want to get Knotgarden out - it's been sitting on the table, ready to pick up in an instant, and the chart has been stuck to the magnet board the whole time I've been doing other things, sooo.... I just gotta make myself do it - once I get it out and get going, it'll be fine; it's just getting it ON the stand that's the trick... I do have a 5-day weekend coming up this weekend - since I am not going to my 25th reunion now, I decided I needed a couple of days off that don't involve a funeral, a graduation, or any other "involved" goings on. Thanks to my mother's contribution to the Poor Relative Fund, I now have a trip booked to OH at the end of August to attend my niece Devon's wedding; look out Columbus, the entire clan will be together. I am really looking forward to it, especially since this is the 3rd wedding we've had, and I missed the other 2 because of school and soccer here :(

 
(A cardinal, which is the state bird of Ohio - and about 30 other states in the union - and because a Cardinal is intensely more interesting than a buckeye)

And that's the news, I guess. You know when you have scheduled time off coming, everything around you makes you EARN IT? That's my next 4 days... So, in case I'm swamped and don't "see" you, happy stitching this week to everyone!

 
(The sun setting last night after the thunderstorm blew outta here - more pics of that sky here)

A Monday Update for the Day Before Summer

I can't believe it's just now about to be summer, according to the calendar - it's been so hot for so long! But we have gotten some fantastic thunderstorms this past week, and despite the leaves and branches all over the place, we've gotten some much-needed rain. It's actually been somewhat decent at night, temp-wise. My last lilies of the season are happy :)


Well, I tried my best, but I did NOT quite get Purrfect Summer Day finished - but I should on Monday night; I only lack finishing the outermost green border, and a couple of miles of backstitch just in the border - thankfully I've been doing it as I go along, I would lose my mind if I'd saved it all for the end!


On Tuesday, I was finally able to go to a Stitch In, and worked on the usual, Tanglewood. I got the branch I had started... the last time I worked on it, finished outlining, and started to fill it in. It's good to be on the upper half of the tree - the branches are getting shorter :)


And because I am a serial starter, I dug out a little Lizzie Kate that Shawn gifted me, Hocus Pocus, and went through the stash and kitted it up - it's partly WDW and partly Carrie's, done on 30ct WDW Guacamole that I got Tuesday night. I put in a few stitches on Thursday night, and then worked on it during a conference call on Friday - I think I can get it done over lunch this week, if I get time to actually break longer then to eat.


So, this week, finish Purrfect, hopefully finish Hocus, and then - back to Knotgarden? Mary Wigham? One of those that are close to done - gotta get stuff DONE! I have so many things that want to be started (Hocus included) :) Need more time, less work - but then don't we all? LOL Happy stitching this week to everyone.

And The Rains Came Down - An Update

Yes, it rained, finally! We've had several thunderstorms go through the past week, dumping some much-needed rain, though from what I can tell, we've gotten a lot more at the house than lots of other places, including down by work. But since these fronts either pass us by completely or get stuck over us, I'm going to be greedy and say good, it was our turn to get some of it :) I expect watering restrictions to tighten any day, though; we've stayed on the odd/even ever since they declared (perhaps prematurely) the drought was over, but I suspect the limited hours will go into effect any day now. Not that I care, I don't water - but I don't want the water police busting me when I run the hose to clean out a trash can or whatever... We had a quick one go through last night, just as dinner was ready to go on the grill.


And my favorite Asiatic lilies, the Olivia's, might actually bloom now that they've had a drink!


As for stitching for the week, I worked a little more on Mary Wigham, and only have one more motif to go on the left-most side to reach the bottom (I think - there might be 2 - but I think it's one). BeMoiled finally made an appearance as that bottom left motif, and more of the BeSooted - I love these Be colors from HDF :)


The only other thing I worked on was the Birds of a Feather Mystery SAL - I am still trying to get Part 1 done, since I think the 2nd part just came out (I don't have it yet). I really like the colors in this, can't wait to see what the middle is going to be :)


In other news, the things I sent to Vikki Clayton for her Exhibition have been judged - she had 245 pieces show up for it, and the pro judges she got were, by all reports, quite impressed with the showing, both in the quantity and the quality. That's pretty exciting, IMO :) Of the 7 things I sent, 5 won some ribbon - I got one each of 1st thru 4th, 1st going to one of the Foursome Reel pieces (don't know which one) and an Honorable Mention on Fire Flower x2. The big thing the judges noted over and over, Vikki said, was carried threads - and I know I do that, so I can live with that critique :) I just can't imagine what all of that looks like, all in one place, since I've never been to anything like a Woodlawn. Maybe I'll get to go up for it next year or after :)


So this week, I want to try to get this BoaF Part 1 done. Then I need to work on Purrfect and/or Knotgarden - I need to have another finish, I need to get this pile whittled DOWN! I am really enjoying the samplers that I've been working on - I've been away from them for a while now, I guess really since I finished the last Foursome Reel piece, since 4 Saisions and MW weren't regularly rotated. Poor L&U is NOT digging my current need to get close-to-done stuff out... Can't be helped, I guess - so long as I can stave off starting the 20 things I really want to start, I will :) Until next week, happy stitching :)

An RAK from Chris!

Chris sent me a couple of QSnap Huggies for my 8" Qs- aren't these beautiful???


See Chris's new site to get some for your stitching, too!!!


Thank you, Chris - they will be much-used!

Dummy Says - Damn, It's HOT (an update)

It's true, it's freakin' hot - been 94+ for two solid weeks now, with the heat index over 100 with the never-ending humidity hovering right around 3000%. And in the 3 weeks I've been back from Ohio, it's rained once, for about 15 minutes. I'd gladly welcome a nice, cool 88 right about now :) Don't get me wrong, I love the heat; I just can't stand the humidity, where breathing feels like you are under water, and everything outside smells ozone-y and moldy (or like ass). Yuck. I want to go wherever it is October in GA all the time - 80-something during the day, low humidity, 50s & 60s at night. THAT'S what I'm talking about! We are supposed to have chances of thunderstorms this week - slim-to-none chances, I'm sure. I'd just take a day of overcast, so my house would be cooler...

(duhhhh, damn, it's almost too hot to bark... ALMOST.)

On to the stitching bits...

I couldn't decide what to work on last week, so many things were calling to me. But the older, smaller things are calling the loudest. So on Tuesday, I went out to the ol' travel bag, and pulled out Purrfect Summer Day - and worked on it through Saturday, getting through the AQUA finally and getting it that much closer to done! Lots of white - the white blocks that I did int eh border went quicker than I thought they would, and I wanted to get all the white done before I put the other colors in around it, so the white wouldn't pick up any contamination...


And then, Halloween Quaker kinda started hollering at me Saturday night, so I knew I'd have to switch out on Sunday. But instead of Halloween Quaker, I went back to the ol' travel bag, and got Mary Wigham out. I last touched this at a PINS get together a couple of months back, and started a motif that I just could not get the flow of - I blamed it that Saturday on needing to go to the eye doc - which I have since done, and now have an expensive pair of $12 cheaters :) - but this particular motif (bottom left-most - Moon Called Sea HDF) was completely frog-ridden to the last stitch. I just could NOT get that design to flow for me, and I probably stitched it twice, with the amount of ripping out & redoing I did. Grrrrr. The 3 sets of initials and the orange flower (BeWitched - which looks a LOT like the old discontinued Ochre that I did St. G in) went down on the fabric without a fight!

And that's it for the week. I think I will probably be rotating these close-to-done pieces - Purrfect, Knotgarden, MW, and maybe even bring Tanglewood out of the ol' bag, too. Purrfect, obviously, is the closest to done - would probably have it done this week if I worked on it like I did last week. It feels good to get these moving towards done - the stitching "goals" I listed earlier are actually making progress here near the half-way mark of the year! As much as I have 20 projects yammering to be started - and now that Kokopelli that Sue sent me is adding his voice to the chorus - I am definitely feeling like I need to get some stuff DONE, still - so I'm going with it!


In other news, I sent several items to Pennsylvania, to the First Annual HDF Exhibit at Vikki Clayton's Silk Emporium - 17 June through 4 July :) World Trade Center quilts will also be there, ONE DAY ONLY, June 18th. For more information, see the HDF site - in the menu on the LEFT, see ARTICLES & INFORMATION - there are 2 sections of articles on the Exhibit. Hopefully this will be a HUGE SUCCESS and give a much-needed boost to the needlework industry! IF you are in the area, check it out - she's having classes on all kinds of things, and lots to see while there - as if piles of silk wasn't enough all by itself! Some day, I'll get to PA....

Dummy Says - Damn It's Hot (an update)

A Great Mail Day

Today I got home to a package from Sue Vermeire;she had finished a cool Kokopelli design recently, and when I commented on it, she said she'd be willing to pass the chart on, at which I of course jumped :)

Then, on FB one day, she asked me my favorite color - being sneaky but not, you know? LOL So I was expecting the chart - which I now realize I love because it's from Joan Elliott, and there are actually 8 Southwestern designs in it - but also in the package was a gorgeous scissor fob, with purple & Paua/Mother of Pearl beads and a sand dollar!!! It's really, really pretty - these pictures just don't show you the colors:

Thank you so much for the chart and the gorgeous fob, Sue!!! As soon as my travel bag gets weeded out, Kokopelli is going in there, and then that cactus!!! And I think I need to swing by the ol' Hobby Lobby tomorrow and pick me up a pair of purple-handled scissors :)