August Wrap up:

1) Finish Page 2 of Celtic Banner [YES!]
2) Finish block 7 of Leanne's Quilt [almost]
3) Piece block 8 and 9 of Leanne's Quilt [8 is pieced!]
4) Start next Neighborhood RR house :) [not yet - plan to start when we get back!]

Long Weekend, short week!
First an update on the long weekend... Saturday and Sunday were regular weekend days, I cleaned the apartment, went shopping then we went over to some friends' house for dinner and cards. Sunday more shopping, then over to my uncle's house to play with the cousins.
Monday and Tuesday however were free days! I did some stitching:

That officially marks the halfway point on Celtic Banner! Page 2 is complete! I was very very excited!
Then I did a little quilting:

That's Leanne's quilt block 8 pieced, ready for applique and embroidery!
And:
I started block 9, just a little piecing. It was so much fun! I've just been working the last three days (today from home). Last night I went to stitch and continued to work on block 7 embroidery which is ALMOST done!

This weekend we are going camping with the familiy, annual thing. I need to stop working at a reasonable time, pack all our camping stuff and drive back to NY. Then tomorrow we head up to the campsite and make camp for saturday-monday. I should get some stitching done but more likely lots of reading.

That's all - hopefully more pics next week!

Embroidery progress...
This is my progress on block 7 of Leanne's Quilt. The basket and tulips have satin stitching for the handle/decoration and stems. This is taking forever!!! I think I'm almost done though but this is wicked hard to get straight nice stems. All well, I've pretty much given up ripping it out and redoing it, I'm just trying to finish it at this point because there's more embroidery in this block after that still!

I've been working on Celtic Banner a little, I only need about 2 1/2 more hours before I have page 2 completely finished which will be the halfway mark!!! I'm working on the quatrefoil motif and completely loving it. Once I finish page 2 of that and the embroidery on block 7 I will start on my next Neighborhood RR house which has been patiently waiting for me!

I know I don't talk about wedding stuff much - pretty much because I don't think about it much but this past weekend my sister and I went wedding dress shopping and it was much more successful. I have some good ideas about what I like now and I'm looking forward to going again and hopefully even choosing one next time!

PS. The wedding is a year away, I promise I won't blog about it for the whole year!

Unmotivated...

That's me.. lately. Of course pair that with a constant allergy attack that started yesterday morning and I'm not getting anything done! The sneezing just started up again a minute ago and I was just starting to think i was doing better today. Ho Hum!

Sorry there's no picture yet of my block 7 -- I will try to remember to take it tonight. I have worked on it a tiny bit lately and I'm starting to get closer to the end of the block! It's a lot of embroidery though!

Well I just thought of a task I wanted to get done quickly so I'm going to do that before I write up my to do list for the day!

Okay i'm back to blogging. I enjoy blogging more when i have a picture to show but alas I don't have time enough to make progress on pieces which I can take a picture of. Surely monday will have pictures from this weekends' progress :)

This week has been rough, the stress of work hit me immediately upon return, I'm having a tough time dealing with it which is very odd because in general I love my job, really do. Lately I'm not feeling it, just anxious and stressed out.
I think I need to get back into an exercise routine, I really think that will help and a fresh week next week as this week was just a bust.

I have done a little stitching. I worked on the next band for Celtic Banner one night, i should be able to finish that band pretty quickly and then there's just one more before I hit the half way mark! Amazing!

I also picked up my embroidery last night! That's Leanne's Quilt block number 7 which I haven't touched in ages. I was running out of DMC last time I worked on it so I kept putting it off but now I'm restocked in colors and working on my basket. This block has the absolute most embroidery just because there's so much satin stitching for tulip stems and basket handles and such. I'll show a progress photo monday for sure!

Well this weekend should be fun, we have our summer outing for work on saturday with all you can eat ice cream and lunch. Then we're driving back to NY and going to Saratoga race track on sunday with friends. We missed out last year but really enjoyed it the year before so that should be fun!

I've finally caught up on blog reading, I apologize I did not comment for the most part because I had so much reading to get through but now I'm caught up and back to a more normal number of posts to read a day!

Pictures!
That's right, i'm actually coming through in a timely manner with pictures! I worked exclusively on Celtic Banner while on vacation and as I stitched along on the large square that follows the alphabet, i filled it in color by color. I got to a point where I decided I preferred the look I had to that of the "finished" look where it's completely filled in (my stitching friend had already finished hers so I had it to compare to). So I stopped and called it done:
That sure made it go faster! Then I continued on and did the next set of motif's - I had a little trouble - okay a LOT of trouble and just as I was finishing up the second one I realized I was a stitch off! And the mistake was in the first one so I had to unstitch the whole second one and part of the first and start over! But I pushed on and with a tiny bit of purple to finish last night here are the next 2 motif's finished:
Also in Maine we made some more tile coasters with our stamp sets. I made 3 sets but only finished one set, the others are yet to be colored in. Here is the finished set I made:
These are a lot of fun to do and really practical as coasters!
So that was pretty much my vacation in Maine! I stitched and we listened to some audiobooks!
Before I went to maine we stayed at my parents' house for a few days and helped out, we demolished an old pheasant coop, staple by staple! And we took down a crab apple tree and did some pruning of trees and bushes. It was hot and sticky out but it was a nice change of pace to work outside for a change! I love vacation and surely wish it was longer!

I'm not feeling very rested actually and that's bothering me. I still feel as I did before I went on vacation and that includes the headaches, they were completely gone for my vacation but came back as soon as I got to work yesterday! It doesn't help that I haven't been sleeping well the last two nights either. I will have to do something about this as soon as I can but for now, work beckons!

August Goals:

1) Finish Page 2 of Celtic Banner
2) Finish block 7 of Leanne's Quilt
3) Piece block 8 and 9 of Leanne's Quilt
4) Start next Neighborhood RR house :)

I don't think I can put Celtic Banner away for a while as I had a blast working on it so that will be my main piece when I'm not working on the round robins!

Back from my vacation! I'll have a full post with pictures maybe tomorrow.. for now I figured I'd do my goal wrap up from July and figure out goals for August!

July Goals:
1) Finish Carol's NRR and mail out! [YES!]
2) Finish Leanne's block 7! [Nope not yet]
3) Finish fishy part of fishy pin [YES!]
Also worked on Celtic banner a LOT and made great progress over vacation!