Kingdom Sampler SAL:


I stitched the little people and am almost done filling in the main body of the piece. Next week it will be a quick finish up of the right side and a start on the momentous clouds that may just take me forever :)

I'm really looking forward to the alphabet but I'm going to hold off, I think if I get sick of clouds I will treat myself to a few letters here and there...

So last night I didn't just stitch, when I first got home my pieces to be framed were calling to me, so I laced Going To Market onto the backing board, even framed it but I forgot about spacers between the plexi and the piece so I'm going to have to redo the framing part. No big deal considering the lacing and centering is the hard part and that's done. Tonight I'm hoping to lace Legends of the Dragons.

As for spacers, I need to figure out what to use. In the past I've used small pieces of cardboard. Other times I've just gone without glass but I do prefer glass so the piece is protected, not just when it's hanging but when I'm moving, I can put them all in a box safely. If there are charms or specialty stitches I do refrain however as I like to really let people look closely.

I stitch and I stitch... and finally I finish :)
Blackwork Dragon - stitched on Wandering Ivy 36ct Linen by Silkweaver using WDW Hunter:


I finished that little guy up late Saturday night (well 1am sunday morning).

I think I got a decent amount of things done this weekend. I finished the blackwork dragon so I can guilt free start Celtic Banner on Aug. 3rd and get back to Peaceful Silhouette at lunch time :) I also re-washed Legends of the Dragons and Going To Market so that I can frame them this week. They are now dry and ironed and waiting to be mounted and framed.

Sunday we had a stampin up party so I got to order a bunch of stuff from the new catalog and my order should be in next week before I go to Maine with my friend so we can bring some of our new stuff.
I also finally cleaned my apartment and sucked up all the spiders on the stairs to the basement so I will brave going down there again... uck!

Tonight is Kingdom Sampler SAL night! Tomorrow I will probably try to frame my two pieces and wednesday I want to work on Peace and Quiet and get an updated pic before the weekend since that's probably my piece for this weekend as well :)
AND i got up and ran again this morning - and I ran saturday.. so I got 4 days in last week and I'm starting out strong this week, hopefully I can keep this up!

note to self:
Walked on friday.
Ran on saturday (2 miles total).

Stitched on Blackwork dragon Thur, friday.

Every once and a while food just hits me the wrong way...

So last night was going smoothly, I walked with my aunt and uncle (didn't run but that's just fine with me, a good 45 minute walk). Then we ate, then I felt sick. It just happens sometimes, it's not the food specifically, it's just me.

So there was no stitching last night, we watched a movie which distracted me enough and by 10:30 I was feeling better so I went to bed and read for a while.

Today at lunch is stitch & stamp! It's scrapbooking day so I brought in all my goodies and I'm planning on making at least 1 scrapbook page and just overall planning out my scrapbook a bit.
Tonight is stitch night - probably I'll work on blackwork dragon but I might surprise myself and work on Peace and Quiet since I got the face finished on her yesterday at lunch and she needs some more details :)

hehehehe.... i just ordered some fabric... i'm so bad.

I just ordered 2 solos and a piece of Ametrine from Silkweaver, the Ametrine is for the purple conversion for the Petal Fairy. Now I can't wait to stitch that piece soon...

Then I signed up for HeavenLee Creations' fabric of the month club, i almost signed up for a second silkweavers' but i decided to mix it up a bit. I miss dyeing4u, hopefully HeavenLeeCreations will be good, I loved the Dragon Myst fabric I used on Legends...

Stitching round up:
Currently Stitching --- after it's finished ---
-----------------------------------------------
Blackwork Dragon --- Celtic Banner
Kingdom Sampler --- Petal Fairy
Just a Little Peace --- Shepherd's Purse
Peaceful Silhouette --- probably never finish this ... :)

Of course that's just at this moment, the only definite is that i'm starting Celtic Banner soon... oh yea and there's Elemental Cosmos I want to stitch soon...

Well I guess yesterday at lunch was the only stitching time I got yesterday :) Last night was pretty rough. I have been feeling off the last few days, kind of just in a bad mood, so last night when I got home I just wound floss while watching some more Felicity (which just makes my mood worse usually as those characters are always cheating on each other or hurting each other or something, but I have 2 more disks left of the entire show and i have to find out what happened...)

Finally I made dinner but I didn't even feel like eating so I went and just layed down in the dark for an hour (migraine). I did manage to get up and pit all the cherries so we could have our regular smoothie this morning and then I read for a half hour. A really unproductive night but kind of relaxing.

Tonight I go to my uncles, hopefully we'll go running before dinner and after dinner I can work on Just a little Peace and Quiet or Blackwork Dragon. I also have lunchtime to stitch :)

Day 3 - got up and ran, I'm on a roll. It was harder to get up this morning to run but I did it. Kind of hard having skipped dinner last night, but it can't be helped when I get a migraine. Tomorrow I won't run in the morning as I'll be at my uncle's but friday and saturday will close off my 5 days of running week.

surprise surprise - i just got a good hour of work on Just a Little Peace and Quiet... at lunch today, she has a good amount of face now :) Maybe I'll continue on here tonight.

Well I just about finished the dragon, I didn't stitch his eye or the little bit of yellow, instead I finished the mountain range to the left of him. This scan really shows the fabric color well though and I'm loving this piece:


I'm not really looking forward to the one huge cloud but I am looking forward to doing the people and filling in the area by the people next week. Not too many weeks left to go with this piece. The border will go fast, not sure about the alphabet but I can definitely see this finished before the end of august at least.
Carol made some awesome progress yesterday! These things just work out perfectly sometimes, last week I had some extra time and this week she did!

I got a great treat in the mail yesterday, I bought frames for both Going To Market and Legends of the Dragons. They are perfect. The one I got for Legends is actually metal but it has this neat painted effect I really liked, it's not as blue as I was hoping, a little black looking because it's so dark but I think it will work just fine. The one for Going To Market is a dark brown wood frame with some awesome detailed work which compliments the design perfectly. I'm hoping to frame these this weekend! I think they both have to be washed, which I'm a little nervous about but i can wash them friday night, let them dry over night, iron and frame them saturday and show them off sunday to my friends. We'll see how it goes ...

Tonight they're calling for storms, if that's the case and I miss my friends' concert again because of it I will work on Blackwork Dragon some more I think, I'd love to finish this piece up before starting Celtic Banner on Aug 3rd!

Still waiting for my second Leanne's Quilt block of the month to arrive...

Not a lot of stitching this weekend, definitely not as much as I had planned, it was a VERY hot weekend!

Friday night we went up to my uncle's to just relax and watch tv. Saturday we went to the beach with my little cousins, so my attention was taken the whole time, no reading time or anything. Saturday night I did read and I actually got up pretty early (6:15) and read for an hour to finish up Between Two Worlds before going back to sleep for 2 hours! Loved the book!

Sunday was a relax and really not do much because it was too hot day. We watched a few movies and finally in the afternoon I pulled out Blackwork Dragon and worked on that:


I also did some beading, at least one thing on my todo list :)

Tonight is Kingdom Sampler night, I'm hoping to stitch the dragon at the very least, dinner tonight is tacos, not a lot of prep work involved so hopefully it's an early dinner and then on to stitching. Unfortunately I have to go to bed by 10 now, I got up and ran finally this morning and I'm going to try to keep it up which means an earlier bedtime!

A stitch night with no stitching ...

That's what friends are for :) I made it to stitch night on time last night even with tons of traffic! We ordered dinner and ate, then we decided to play a game instead of stitch so no stitching actually got done, but I had a great time!

By the time I got home and got dishes and garbage taken care of it was after 10 already so I settled in to read a little and go to sleep. Tonight we decided we'll go out to dinner and tomorrow I have an errand to run in Andover and then it's off to the beach for the day. I can't wait to just sleep in though!

A normal night.

Well last night was a nice normal night, i hit traffic coming home again but my boyfriend had dinner ready when I got home so all I had to do was dishes. Then we sorted through some photos I just had printed and decided what to frame and what to scrapbook. Finally I got a nice relaxing 2 hours of stitching time! That's much more normal than monday night where I took a good 4 hours to stitch.

So I worked on Just a Little Peace and Quiet, sorry for the bad scan, you can't even see the fabric but the stitching shows up fine:


It's a fun piece to work on and I think at stitch tonight I'll either continue on that piece, starting the head of the dragon or work on blackwork dragon.
It looks like we *might* go to the beach this weekend, i really hope so, our weekends are pretty booked this summer but i'd like to get out o the beach at least once before our vacation!

nothing like a night of not stitching.

it was very hot last night! I got home (late due to traffic), and my boyfriend had dinner under control, so I started the regular putting away of the "things" from work and such. Then with the pizza in the oven I started on kitchen cleanup and cooking some rice to go with some leftovers for lunch this week. With the oven on and the stove going it was slowly getting even hotter in the kitchen!

Finally the pizza was done so we ate and took a break from the kitchen heat. ... Then I had to return! I needed to bake brownies (more oven!) and pit all those cherries, so I did both, drinking as much water as I could. By 9 I was exhausted from the heat but I was done in the kitchen so I settled in to wind some floss and relax. I decided against stitching as I just couldn't get into it being so hot.

So no progress to show from last night. Hopefully tonight is different, dinner should be easy so hopefully by 7 I can be settled in to stitch on my new dragon or another piece if it draws me :)

A SAL night :)

Yesterday was great, at work I actually got a lunch break so I stitched the left cloud on Kingdom Sampler, I couldn't resist :) And when I got home I placed the center of the design in my q-snap and filled in everything I could. It really went fast because it was all half stitch and solid areas of stitching, I tend to "outline" the border of a solid area and then just fill in so I don't have to follow the pattern as much.

I'm loving this piece and next week I get to work on the dragon! My goal next week is to stitch most of the dragon and maybe start the people. It will be back to full x's so it will take longer again.
This is actually a good picture, the color of the fabric is pretty true.

Last night I went to the grocery store and bought a ton of fruits and stuff for some smoothies we're going to try out. Most of the fruit is simply wash and dry and then freeze but the cherries have to be pitted - ugg! I've never pitted cherries before so I washed them last night and tonight I have to cut them all and freeze them. Also tonight is my friends' band concert so I hope to go to that after dinner, if it's not raining or wet maybe i'll work on "Just a Little Peace and Quiet" while I'm there!

Finished!
The baby quilt for my friend is finished..

I finished adding the binding last night while watching movies.

Let's see - a busy stitching weekend I had :)
Friday we went and saw Pirates II and really had a great time (a friend and I), it was good, a bit gruesome and definitely a lead up to the third but still thoroughly enjoyable.
Saturday I relaxed in the morning and then went over to the same friend's house and spent the day stitching and watching movies! I made some progress on Blackwork Dragon (man does this move slowly sometimes!)

Seriously, for some reason it's taking forever but my hand was cramping up a bit too.

Then yesterday after spending a long morning reading (i'm now more than halfway through Between Two Worlds - i should probably update my sidebar...) My boyfriend got back from his weekend back home in NY and we watched some movies while I worked on the quilt a little, blackwork dragon a little and just plain did nothing - it was great :)
Then .. after dinner I remembered I was going to start a new piece this weekend! So .. Just a Little Peace and Quiet Please by Dragon Dreams .. on Solitude by Dyeing4U fabric:

I know it doesn't look like much yet but I think this will go along quickly! The fabric is sparkly pink and blue!

So now a new piece is started .. but tonight is Kindom Sampler night and I can't wait! Clouds here I come :)

Pirates. Tonight we are going to the opening of Pirates II :) I can't wait!

Last night was a great stitch night with friends, and a little dragon progress to show for it:

It seems to be slow going but I think I'm doing the most difficult part, it's really filled in along the spines, the face and neck however should go faster and therefore maybe I'm almost halfway done??

Let's see - this weekend - what am I doing?? I think I will try to get the binding finished on the baby quilt and get the personalization patch embroidery started since I know the baby's name now. I think I may have to start a new piece! Right now I really only have:
Kindom Sampler - monday nights only
Blackwork Dragon - probably about 1/2 done
Peaceful Silhouette - work piece

Really that's it right now .. besides some small pieces I wanted to do, i think i need another large piece started :) Celtic Banner will get started Aug 3rd on my weekend away as a SAL with my friend. I have fabric ready for 2 pieces, one a Witches Stitches piece on black and the other a Sweetheart Tree piece on white... but there's always a bunch of new ones I just got too.... what a fun weekend this will be!

Finally went kayaking! We rented a two person kayak, which was good and bad, since it was our first time it was good because in a single I would have badly lagged behind. Bad though because it was difficult to both paddle. We were not very good :) Then it started to RAIN .. not just rain .. pour! We headed back when we saw lightning and as it really started coming down and we could see the rental place and people were swarming it, we decided to hide under a bridge from the rain and wait it out. It worked out great, there was this adorable little duckling I got some pictures of and eventually the rain let up and we headed in.

The rest of the evening was spent just relaxing, I finished the embroidery on Leanne's Quilt Block 1 so now that's finished:


I didn't work on the website as I'd hoped but I decided to bring my laptop to work and I'll work on it at lunch time the next few days if I can. I updated my cross stitch database to include the new charts I've bought in the last few months and put them in my alphabetized binder system :)
I like my stash alphabetized, it always surprises me what's next to what and I love looking through it all!

Tonight I brought the baby quilt to work on the binding some more, I need to write out the personalization as well so I can embroider that soon and it will be all ready. Tomorrow at stitch I'll work on blackwork dragon and so far I've kept this weekend pretty open, I'm hoping to work on a few things. Plus I finally measured all my finished pieces so I can buy frames if I can find them affordably and do some framing sometime soon!

Quick picture update...

Since I won't be online tomorrow most likely, I figured i'd pop on and update my Kingdom Sampler SAL pic:


Finally got to start working on those half stitches a bit. And I noticed the clouds are half stitches so I'm looking forward to maybe starting those next week! Now it's away for another week and tomorrow maybe I can pull out Blackwork Dragon :)

July Goals:
1) Finish baby quilt
2) Work on Kindom Sampler :)
3) work on Peaceful Silhouette
4) Start new piece!
5) Finish Leanne's quilt block 1
6) Start Leanne's quilt block 2
7) select a new baby project to do for a friend (Pooh)

8) WORK ON THE WEBSITE!

The horror of it .. a non-stitching weekend!

Seriously, no stitching this weekend - we were just too busy! Friday night we went up to NH and I did get some free time to make some jewelry so I made a bracelet for myself and a pair of earrings for my friend's birthday sunday. Then the guys got back with the fireworks and we were up until 1am setting them up, connecting them all and timing them out and everything.

Saturday we were up early with the little ones, and just spent the day playing with the kids and eatting and visiting with all the family. Saturday night of course was the fireworks show! It was much better this year, we sat back at a safer distance and nothing fell over and shot toward the crowd since we screwed them all to a board this time (last year we used glue and nails and one didn't hold) :)

Then we stayed up playing poker - and got up early sunday with the little ones again. I was exhausted and the day hadn't even started. We got home and I got ready for our next party which was a birthday party for my friend. My boyfriend fell asleep before we left so we were a little late (I just hated waking him up), but we went and stayed for 3 hours - getting home at 6 and I'm not kidding - we went to bed! I slept from 6pm to almost 7am this morning!

It's not the lack of sleep this weekend so much as the constant attention of 3 little kids who were up too late to see fireworks :) The party sunday was much more relaxing and we had a great time, I just felt horrible because I was so exhausted that I couldn't have been much fun :( But it was a great weekend and after I get through work today I get tomorrow off!

And tonight is Kingdom Sampler SAL night - I can't wait! I've hardly stitched on anything since last monday, except for the embroidery on my quilt block, but cross stitch wise I think Kingdom Sampler was the last thing I worked on :)
I'll try to post a picture tonight since I'm off tomorrow to hopefully go kayaking!

This is our first time going kayaking, we're going to rent as it's a hobby we both want to take up but don't want to buy kayak's until we've tried it. We'll just go on the Charle's River since we live practically on it. I'm sure wednesday i'll have more to say unless it rains tuesday!

June Recap:
1) Tie baby quilt [DONE]
2) Start Kingdom Sampler! [YES!]
3) Work on Peaceful Silhouette [YES!]
- finish second boat [YES]
4) Work on Mini Cottages II [FINISHED!]
5) Stitch appleseed needlecase [nope...]
6) Get pieces ready to frame and buy frames! [nope...]

Not too bad :) On top of that I stitched Dry Turkey and made my castle wall hanging ... a pretty productive month!

Circular Blanket Stitch...

So last night was stitch night, I had all my projects with me but when you're trying to talk and stitch at the same time I find that embroidery is easiest as it's already drawn on the fabric! So I worked on my Leanne's Quilt Block last night.

I had been putting off embroidering mini block 2 because it's these flowers made of circular blanket stitch and I've never done blanket stitch, but I braved it and made them and I love them! They came out great, albeit all different sizes and sometimes not round but I love them :) So 9 little flowers with stems completed last night, waiting for their bows and then it's back to mini block 5 to do all those flowers!

And now it's friday ... just a hopefully busy day and then home to pack and head up to NH for most of the weekend! My only goal stitching wise this weekend is to work on the embroidery on the quilt block, i'd like to have that finished up so I have a break before the next block arrives!

And the baby quilt has a quarter of it's binding done. Shouldn't take long to finish up!

Last night we went running - which was great as I haven't done that in a LONG time. Then after dinner settled in to work on the quilt and then read when my elbow started to hurt. I'm currently reading Kite Runner, which is a difficult book to read. It's hard to read a book where you don't like the main character, I don't have much sympathy for him either. Maybe it's the way I was brought up or the things I've lived through but I just can't feel sorry for him and I just don't like him, but the book is very well written and I'm told it just gets better.

It's bad when I'm thinking about what I'm going to read next already - it's like choosing my next stitching project but it goes much faster than that :) Only another 2 weeks maybe and I'll be sitting in front of my bookcase choosing the next world to jump into!

Castles, castles and more castles :)

Well yesterday was just great! As I said in my post I pieced and quilted a little wall hanging from a castle embroidery I did a few years ago. Here it is all finished up now:


After finishing that up I worked on Kingdom Sampler while watching Lord of the Rings (Fellowship of the Ring), and I finished the castle!


So it was castle fun for me last night :) I also managed to make dinner and lots of stuff for the picnic at work today. Tonight I go to my aunt's house and I brought the baby quilt to start whip stitching the binding down on that. Then I have to embroider a patch for the back of the quilt with the baby's name and all.

Looks like it's going to be quite a busy weekend, we'll be going up to visit my uncle friday night to sunday morning for the holiday (all the family is coming out saturday) then we have a birthday party for a friend of mine on sunday! Busy busy! Good thing I got my quilting and stitching in for the week :)

ACK! I love my sewing machine!

I just had the best night/morning with my mom quilting away. Last night I organized my fabric collection by color family and washed my new fabrics to add them. Then this morning I added the binding to the baby quilt (just has to be whip stitched to the back) and I made a wall hanging out of a piece I embroidered a few YEARS ago! That's waiting to be whip stitched as well but I machine quilted that little guy and like I said - I love my machine :)

So this is just short, I'm going to whip stitch the wall hanging quick (it's a castle!) and then work on Kingdom Sampler for a bit. Pictures tomorrow for sure!

**reply to comments - the Dry Turkey piece is by Raise the Roof designs.

I think I say this a lot but really - we had the best weekend ever :) I think this is going to be a great summer!
*(no Kayaking due to weather but ...)

I got lots of things done, Friday night I worked on the embroidery on Leanne's Quilt (which I will show below). Then Saturday we watched Pride & Prejudice the 5 hour version! During which I stitched this little guy:

I had to change one of his wing colors (dark blue to light blue) and then I switched the blue and purple feathers since I liked the purple more. But I love this guy on this dark blue fabric! He took about 6 hours to stitch, after Pride & Prejudice we watched profiler season 2 some more.

Sunday we planned our vacation for the end of the summer, we'll be staying for a week in Atlantic City at the Trump Taj Mahal. I can't wait :) We even got tickets to some shows. We're going Mon-Fri and my sister and her boyfriend will be joinging us Wed-Fri. I'm looking forward to lots of beach time, some casino time and boardwalk shopping. Now I just need to work on the website to save up some shopping money!

After we got that squared away and I cleaned the whole apartment for my mom visiting, I got out my quilting stuff, first I finished tying the baby quilt - that took about 2 1/2 hours but it's done and ready to add the binding! Next I started working on Leanne's Quilt Block 1 again. I finished piecing it completely and was able to work on the embroidery on mini block 5 afterwards:


The best part about this weekend is that tonight my mom is coming to spend the night quilting and I have tomorrow off to continue our visit in the morning and then stitch all afternoon! The apartment is clean and there's nothing more for me to do but enjoy myself. Hopefully work will go fast today :)

I won't be able to SAL to Kingdom Sampler tonight as it's quilting all the way and I'm probably starting a new small quilt even, but tomorrow night I will work on it to make up for today and i'll be back on track next week :)

Finally a picture (sorry it's not my card but I totally spaced yesterday after lunch!)

It is however a great picture of Blackwork Dragon - after working on it last night at stitch and today at lunch for a bit:

He's stitched on Wandering Ivy 36ct linen by Silkweaver with WDW Hunter thread.

I love this fabric (Wandering Ivy), seriously it's probably my favorite fabric that I have so far.

Last night was stitch, it was a great time and i even got some stitching done :) My friend brought her scroll rods and now my fabric for Celtic Banner is all ready, just awaiting the arrival of a much needed border color which should be in 2 weeks at the longest.

And it's almost the weekend!!! Oh I can't wait to get home! I have the apartment to myself tonight to watch some girly stuff while getting some stitching on my quilt block done. Besides cleaning on sunday and possibly Kayaking one day if it doesn't rain both days, my weekend will be just stitching and quilting! Much needed!

I'd like to get Leanne's Quilt - Block 1 completely pieced and a good start on the embroidery and the baby quilt tied completely. Stitching I'd like to start Dry Turkey and continue working on Blackwork Dragon.

Even better - i have next tuesday off to spend the morning with my mom - the rest of the day will be more stitching :)
Monday night however I will not be able to do the Kingdom Sampler SAL with Carol - I think I will switch my night to Tuesday this week since my mom is visiting and we have plans all night which don't include stitching time :( But Tuesday is a great day to work on Kingdom Sampler so it should all work out!

I'll update this post later with a picture (probably just after the lunch group thing).

Last night was great, my brother and his girlfriend came over and we bbq'd up some meat (k'bobs with a mixture of beef, chicken, shrimp and some - very few - veggies). It was fun, then we watched a little tv, it was late, nothing else got done, i even put off the dishes! Which is something I never do, i hate waking up to dirty dishes. But i'll probably do them tonight when I get home late and just want to go to bed - dishes will be calling to me :)

Today is Stitch & Stamp at work - my little group I'm starting, I have all my supplies ready to go to demonstrate the card and then everyone can make it. Then I brought my other stuff to show and people can play with, whatever. The reason I'm waiting on the picture of the card is in case I make something else at lunch I can show both at once.

Stitch night tonight - probably will work on Blackwork Dragon if I don't start Celtic Banner. My friend is bringing scroll rods for me to try out so I'll have to figure out how to use them, not sure how much stitching will actually get done! Ah but it's fun anyway!

After lunch update:
I finished the outline of blackwork dragon and started the blackwork a bit! I'm kind of wishing i had 32ct fabric instead of 36ct so the detail could be seen better but for some reason i bought 36 and i'm not restarting this guy AGAIN!

I will try to post a picture of my cards tomorrow!

A cardmaking night.

So yesterday at lunch I cheated and didn't work on Peaceful Silhouette, Blackwork Dragon was calling to me so I broke down and worked on that a tad more. I want to get the whole outline done so I can take a picture and it will actually look like a dragon :)

But last night there was no stitching. We made dinner and I cleaned for company tonight. Then I got out my stamping stuff and made a card - with an asian theme since my new stamp set is asian themed. I really like the card, it was simple. Tonight depending on how long my brother stays I may make another thing to show tomorrow at work. I set up a lunch time event tomorrow for anyone that's interested, to show stamping - for card making and scrapbooking and i'm bringing my supplies so anyone can make the same card as well and get to try out the stamps and stuff. It's like a little craft club we're trying out. We'll see how it goes :)

But today - probably still work on blackwork dragon at lunch :) Can't help it, I might be able to finish the outline!

Kindom Sampler SAL night!

I didn't get as much time as I would have liked last night to stitch but here's my progress:

Carol is such a fast stitcher, I'll have to sneak in an extra night some time soon just to keep up!
I'm loving this piece, I held off on the roof tops of the castle but next week I'm definitely going to jump into those as I love the red WDW color! I did as I had planned, filling in more trees and working on the castle which is the fun part so far.

Also I've made some good progress on Peaceful Silhouette at work lately and even my boyfriend was impressed (this piece is for him, he bought the kit for me and wants to hang this in his future office next year):

It's fun to work on a little bit at a time, I have a feeling the sky will be the boring part but the filling in of the dark brown/black is actually fun because you really see shapes come to life.

Last night we made up some dinner and retired to the bedroom where the A/C was for the night, watching dvd's on my laptop. Tonight I have to clean and do laundry after dinner since my brother is coming over wednesday. I also should work on the website again!

A GREAT weekend! And i'm not just saying that because I got a new toy...

We went back home this weekend to visit with family, it was a relaxing weekend, I didn't get any stitching or anything done but fun none the less. Sunday we drove home around noon, we decided to stop at target and buy the camping stuff we need - which turned out great, we got a tent, sleeping bags and chairs in the exact colors and brands I wanted! I was very happy!

Then as we were just walking around target we hit there very small sewing machine area... I was just complaining to my mom this weekend about the machine I have (an old hand me down singer), i can't sew even medium speed without skipping stitches, so I was bummed about starting Leanne's Quilt instead of excited. SO i bought a new machine! It's mechanical, not computerized so that saved me a ton of money (some day I will get a really good machine like my mom has) but this is great. It comes with a walking foot and a ton of other feet and a quilting table. It has 80 stitches and some neat features like a needle threader. I'm very happy with it so far. It's obviously not an expensive machine as it's not very quiet when it sews but it's perfect for what I need for a few years!

With that I started block 1 of leanne's quilt, piecing mini blocks 1,2,3!

I want to do the embroidery and applique before doing block 4 and 5 but as it was rising in temperature in the apartment under my sewing lamp we decided to put the A/C in the bedroom and finish the night sitting in the cool room - so I started Blackwork Dragon again on Wandering Ivy Linen (36ct) with WDW thread. I'll show a picture soon, not much progress yet.

So that is why it was such a great weekend - I got a bunch of new toys!

Quick post:

Mini Cottages II finished!:


And the floss toss for the Celtic Banner (butternut road's):


That may not be the final floss toss as I may be substituting some of those colors tonight but the bright greens are definitely staying! I may just add in a bit more purple instead of the pinks.

Wow - i finally joined the blogroll thing - and i love it! Sure makes checking blogs go faster! That was great!

Hehehe!!
So last night was stitch night and I found out that one of my good friends is going to start Celtic Banner really soon - and another good friend and I both have this with the green conversion and want to stitch it as well ... so we bought fabric! So it looks like this will be starting soon, I have to gather the huge amount of floss I will need (in greens not browns!) and figure out if I can borrow scroll rods from my first friend as she said she has plenty and then we'll start!

So that's one new project that will be under way and this morning I went through my charts really quick and pulled all the ones that I really really want to start this weekend, these are my choices:
America, The Beautiful by Rosewood Manor*
Dry Turkey by Raise The Roof
Elemental Cosmos by Witches Stitches
Shamrock Sampler by Sweetheart Tree
Just A Little Peace and Quiet by Dragon Dreams

*This one is one I want to do for my aunt.

So today at lunch I will try to figure out what color family of fabric I want for most of them and then when I get home tonight I can widdle down my list based on the fabric I actually have available. I might just choose to do Dry Turkey because it's so small and will go quickly since Celtic Banner will NOT go quickly :)
Right and Celtic Banner is going to be on yellow fabric - 32ct. Oh I can't wait! I love starting new projects!!!

Finished!!!

I can't post a picture yet since I wasn't home last night and probably won't have time tonight but SOON - Mini Cottages II is finished! This is just awesome, I finished all the backstitching last night! I actually have Mini Cottages III that I could always start now but I'm going to hold off just a little bit.

I really got into working on Peaceful Silhouette yesterday at lunch so I think I'll bring that to stitch tonight to work on and this weekend while I'm "traveling" to NY I will work on my appleseed needlecase from celebrations that has to be ripped out and restarted.

And now - i really can start another new piece! So friday night I will be going through my stash to see what really pulls at me and what i have fabric for, some options off the top of my head are:

Blackwork Dragon (DD)(restarting this on Wandering Ivy fabric)
Just a Little Peace and Quiet (DD)
Shepherd's Purse (Shepherd's Bush Kit)
Piece for my aunt (don't know the name)
Petal Fairy in purple conversion!

That's just a quick list from the top of my head but once I look through all my designs I'll figure out the few that I really really must do next and then figure out what I have fabric for. Just in case I have to wait on fabric I will buy the thread I need for blackwork dragon tonight since I do have that fabric specially ordered already :)

No stitching -
Well yesterday at lunch got really busy so no stitching then and last night I was supposed to work on the website but with internet problems I just couldn't get motivated so I wound floss on bobbins while watching some more Oz. I'm now in the 900's with my floss winding - this is taking forever! :)

Today I will definitely stitch Peaceful Silhouette at lunch and Mini Cottages tonight at my aunt's. Then tomorrow night is stitch night so I will continue the backstitching on Mini Cottages then too.

In other news - I found the two skeins of WDW i bought for Kindom Sampler! Thank you carol for the offer - i knew I had them around someplace and found them this morning, pretty close to where I thought I had put them but hidden with a pattern I had bought at the same time. I would say which pattern but I already forgot the name of it and can't find it with any searches!

Well it's getting close to lunch - maybe I should stop munching on frosted mini wheats - not that good dry anyway.

SAL night :)


Ah yes - so far so good with monday nights. I went to the grocery store, cooked up some burgers and corn on the cob and then settled in for almost 3 hours of stitching! The only problem is I had to frog! I was stitching away on the castle and accidentally stitched that whole spine or whatever in the light grey! So I pulled that all out and stitched the darker grey where it was supposed to be - okay I didn't pull it completely out .. hehe.. The last row I left in the first leg (half stitch) in light grey and stitched the final leg in the dark grey, it mostly works, a little blended look but it's blending from one color to the next anyway.
So now you know my secret - very often I stitch "over" when I mess up if I can get away with it, I did it a few times on Going To Market and on Mini Cottages II I think I messed up twice and did the same, always with only a stitch or two.

I can't wait until next week, I figure I will always start with some of the more boring (fill in some more trees) and then work on the fun stuff (the castle!) for a bit at the end!

I bought the WDW for this - but I can't find it! I cleverly put it someplace safe and I have no idea if it's in my closet or a stitching bag somewhere - hmph - i organize too much it seems :) Luckily I have a week to find it!

I nice weekend - not a lot of stitching time but lots of family time :) I love hanging out with my three little cousins and that's what we did this weekend. Plus friday night we went out to dinner and then saw X3 which was awesome and I so hope not the last Xmen movie they make.

On the stitching front I have a progress pic of Mini Cottages II:


As you can see the stitching part is done and now I'm just backstitching, the first 2 houses I finished last night on our drive home and I couldn't get myself to pic up my stitching after we got home, i was just too tired, I wound some floss on bobbins while watching Oz season 2 instead.

And tonight is Kindom Sampler SAL with Carol. Of course I have to work first :) And at lunch I plan to work on Peaceful Sillhouette, last week got so busy at the end that I missed out on it and I have a lot to do in order to finish the second boat by the end of the month.

Maybe with working on Mini Cottages tues and wed it can get finished up by the end of the week!

Ack - it's almost the weekend!

Today has been slightly busy - the kind of busy where the next thing you know it's 1pm and you haven't even thought of lunch! I did get to eat though - plenty - at 1:30 and now i'm winding down, things have been finished up as of 10 minutes ago, i'm catching up on emails from earlier that i just skipped because I was living directly in the now.

Last night was great, my regular stitch group didn't meet but i got to meet with my closest stitch buddy and work a little on Mini Cottages II again - a little more sky fill in. I'm up to the point where I have to add the moon before filling the rest in or else I'll mess it up for sure :) Then I just have the ground! Hopefully sunday i can work on this a little.

Tonight is X3!!! And tomorrow is working on my car and going to my cousin's recital, definitely no stitching time. Hopefully time enough to get all my car work done so I can spend sunday relaxing and work on the website a bit.

It looks like I'm working late next monday night due to this deadline on tuesday but that means I can leave early hopefully next friday and with no plans as of yet i'm hoping it will be a crafty weekend with maybe a little quilting - but that's pretty far off - first --- this weekend!

Hour left to go till i hit traffic :)

No pictures just yet but I worked on Mini Cottages II some more last night, I finished the stitching on the last house, all I have left (besides backstitching), is half the blue sky, the moon and the ground. I will probably stitch more sky tonight and hopefully the moon and this piece will definitely be finished by the end of this month!

So it's time to plan what to start next! I think the one I want to stitch for my aunt is pretty high up on the list of possibilites, I also have 2 little babies that will need stitching by november and december this year, one i hope to stitch a pooh thing for (it's older sister got a Pooh wallhanging I stitched so I think a framed Pooh piece would go well). The other baby might get a baby quilt instead of stitching as it's mother is the one I made the wedding quilt for and she loved it and she's not a fan of stitching I think. I wonder how that quilt I made them is doing...

Anyway - so I will have to start planning some new starts.. there's always "Winter in My Garden" that i'd like to start too!

Atlantic City anyone?

Has anyone ever stayed in Atlantic City? Do you have any suggestions for places to stay that are reasonably placed? We are thinking about doing an end of the summer vacation there with my sister and her boyfriend on a wed-sun but so far the prices are looking crazy! We'd like to be close to the boardwalk and enjoy both beaches and casinos but maybe we'll take the few extra hours drive to virginia beach which seems much cheaper!

I did it - i worked on the website!

Unfortunately I didn't also fit in going to the gym or getting up and running this morning but one step at a time!

I hit SO much traffic on my way home last night, I was 45 min later than expected so my dinner was late and by 8 I was finally on my computer ready to work on the website. I got 2 hours in but wasn't done by 9 like i'd hoped so i could go to the gym, but by 10:20 i was in bed as usual which was good.

Tonight i go to my uncle's so I'm sure to get some stitching time in, i'm either going to work on Mini Cottages II or pull out my appleseed needlecase that I wanted to start over which means taking out what i already did. Luckily that's done in DMC so if i run out of thread i always have more.

Well time for some breakfast and time to figure out what i am doing today!

A new start!!!

Carol and I have started a new SAL - Kingdom Sampler by Dragon Dreams. She started with the dragon (which I kind of guessed she would since it's like getting the face done :) and I was very tempted) but I decided to go with the castle side first, also so I can do the alphabet in order as I go along since I decided I am going to do the alphabet.

So my monday night SAL progress:

It's not much, I started the outter border, marking each 10th half stitch with a whole to make it easier to count, then I started in on the grass so I can work up to the castle. I'm hoping if I save the dragon until I'm almost done then I will stay motivated.

So last night was a great stitchy night, I came home, cooked dinner, ate dinner and relaxed watching a few profiler episodes (2) while stitching. Then I read - keeping to 20 minutes a night is getting me slowly through Sixpence House.

On the horizon - I think I will start "Just a Little Peace and Quiet Please" or this patriotic quilt theme piece for my aunt next - probably next week if I can get fabric together.
Tonight - I must work on the website - been a LONG time but it's really needed now - both money wise and just because there are things that need to be done!

A great stitchy weekend :)

And to top it off i remembered pictures! Friday I went shopping and then we ordered dinner in and relaxed for the night. Saturday was a stamping party where I ordered some retiring stamp sets I've really wanted and then went out to dinner and bought some new movies to watch while I stitched. (the beginning of the stitching).

Sunday I slept late and then cleaned the whole apartment - including organizing my closet and the livingroom. It feels great to be all clean again. Around 3:30 I settled in for a stitchy afternoon while watching the rest of the srubs season we had. That was about 6 hours of stitching - and here is Mini Cottages II with all my progress from the weekend ... i apologize for the flash, it makes it hard to see the actual stitching but my next picture should be better especially once I start backstitching:


And my week's progress on Peaceful Sillhouette:


TONIGHT Carol and I start Kingdom Sampler as a SAL ... I can't wait, i brought my pattern to work so I could blow it up a bit - it's a little tiny to read - and I'm ready to go! I may only have about an hour to stitch but any start is still a start!

I may be able to finish up Mini Cottages by the end of the month which would be good as I plan on starting another new piece this month already so finishes would be good :)

Stitch stitch stitch!

Traffic was horrible last night on my way to stitch but I made it by 6 (unfortunately I had left work early hoping to be early enough to stop home quick and that didn't happen).

I worked on Mini Cottages II which really goes much faster than I think. I worked on the sky some more and then the white which is in the windows of some houses and the top of another house. I'm looking forward to making some progress on this piece this weekend before monday's start of Kingdom Sampler.

So I have just caved in to something new ...
Leanne's House
I know a few bloggers are doing this as a SAL which is what caught my attention but mostly I just love this quilt! With applique and embroidery it's just perfect for me so I'm going to sign up today. Spreading the payments over 10 months makes it not too bad anyway and hopefully i'll be getting a raise 2 weeks from now.

Now I must go order the car parts I need for working on my car next weekend. Unfortunately that will add up but I should be able to repair the caliper instead of buying a new one which saves a lot of money!

June Goals:
1) Tie baby quilt (hopefully it will happen this month)
2) Start Kingdom Sampler!
3) Work on Peaceful Silhouette
- finish second boat
4) Work on Mini Cottages II
5) Stitch appleseed needlecase
6) Get pieces ready to frame and buy frames!

And how did I do?
May Wrapup:
1) Tie baby quilt [not yet]
2) Cut binding for baby quilt [not yet]
3) Work on Tiffany's Sweet bag needlecase [nope]
4) Work on Peaceful Silhouette [YES]
5) Work on Going To Market - start boy [FINISHED WHOLE PEICE!]
6) Work on Mini Cottages II [YES]
7) Stitch blackwork piece from celebrations [YES -finished]
8) Stitch round robin piece from celebrations [YES - finished basket]
9) Get Kingdom Sampler ready to start?? [YES ready to start!]
Also finished woven butterfly this month! And the Saturday night event piece.

No real stitching news - no stitching yesterday. My dentist appointment went just fine and then after work I went to my cousin's soccer game before dinner and getting back around 10 which left me exhausted and I just read a little bit.

Today though I do plan on stitching on Peaceful Silhouette at lunch and maybe Mini Cottages II at stitch probably. Getting close to the weekend again! :)

Oh right - must do goals for the month!

Thank you for all the comments on Going To Market, it was one of the first pieces that ever caught my eye and I still can't believe that it's finished - it really stitched up quite fast, probably because the background is all half stitches.

Last night was an organizing night, the apartment is a mess right now but I moved SO much stuff down into the basement after vacuuming it thoroughly to de-spider it. Our christmas tree and decorations, car cleaning/fixing supplies, winter boots and wear, folding table/chairs, empty boxes (for when we move again), unused books and just stuff taking up room is now organized nicely in the two closets in the basement.

I didn't get to the second step which is vacuuming the apartment and reorganizing my closet and the kitchen closet now that there's more space but this weekend I can get to that, i'm just happy to have STUFF moved. It will be much easier to keep things clean when there's room to store it all. And the basement is in decent shape, I wouldn't mind buying some furniture for down there if the need ever arose but hopefully with only a year to go in this apartment, we'll be okay.

No stitching last night, we went out to dinner when I got home and then I spent the entire evening moving things - good exercise on the stairs though :) I finally crashed while reading - this is the second time I've tried to start "Sixpence House" but I keep falling asleep. I should really try starting it before 10pm at night.
Dentist appointment today at noon :( That just puts a damper on the entire morning right there!

FINISHED...

I finished her up on the drive home thursday evening, amazingly it was still light out when we left (7:40) so I was able to stitch until she was done and then read for a while too.

It was a long weekend - but lots of fun, my car's engine light is out again - hopefully for a long while after they finally fixed the correct problem, and I even made it to my stitch night for an hour as I'd hoped before going home to pack and leave. Friday was setup for my family reunion and saturday was a nice relaxing just hang out with family day, sunday too actually and then we drove home and crashed as I was exhausted - all that sun too!

Monday after spending the day doing hardly anything, I picked up my stitching and worked on Mini Cottages II:

Unfortunately I started the mountain on the left and after using an entire strand realized I was stitching in the wrong direction! Had to pull it all out and start over but I did manage to finish the mountain and start the sky before being too tired to even stitch!

I finished a great book this weekend - The Red Tent, which I truly had no idea what it was about when I started it. It was great though and now I'm either going to read Sixpence House or something else entirely, I haven't decided yet as I have a ton to choose from.

So the house is a mess (really need to vacuum) and not much is getting checked off my must do list but it was a great weekend and I'm completely ready to start Kindom Sampler next week now since Going To Market is finished. I think Monday night is a good night to stitch Kindom Sampler, and if I end up missing out on monday night I always have wednesday night to make it up, then I will stitch Mini Cottages II and some other projects during the rest of the week. I just might try out this rotation thing!

SO close! Really - Going To Market is just about done, I just have to backstitch the black line up the back of the woman's dress and the back arm. If I go back to the car dealership today I can finish it up there probably! Then what to do!

This weekend is nice and long with friday and monday off but there won't be much stitching until maybe monday. It's our family reunion so friday I will be back home helping clean/cook/shop for saturday and saturday will be all family - sunday morning too. Then we'll probably come back later sunday. I'm really looking forward to a good weekend.

So yesterday I got my car fixed in the morning - the check engine light was on and it makes a wierd hum noise when I drive, so they "fixed" it for 230 dollars - alright - not breaking the bank but that's a LOT for a 20 dollar part I could have replaced in 30 minutes max. However the noise is not gone and yesterday when I started up my car again the light was back on! So whatever it is they didn't fix it at all! So now I have to call them and see what my options are - I need my car to drive back to NY tonight so my only shot is going to the dealer this afternoon around 3:30 after work and probably missing stitch to see my friends! I am a little mad as who knows how much more I will have to pay now but I will definitely be asking for a discount since I have to come back!

A very good monday!
I couldn't have asked for a better day yesterday - work went really well, then I got home and managed to make the meatballs for the potluck on wednesday (no cooking for tonight then!) and dinner. Then I settled in and watched last weeks alias on abc.com which they just happened to offer for free! It was great!
Then I stitched - and stitched some more all through alias (which was very good!). I made a lot of progress on the background on Going To Market - I have only one more background color to do and then all the backstitching! Very possible I can finish this by the end of the month with memorial day off.

Unfortunately the good ended there - I ended up with a migraine last night which made sleeping rough and just had a bad night in general. I guess it's to be expected from staying up late to watch alias but I'm worn out today. Just counting the minutes until lunch when I can work on GTM again for a bit!

Getting There...

I worked on Going To Market a bit on sunday - finished the little boy and started the circles in the woman's dress which are going to take forever! I will do the background starting at lunch today so the backstitching is last as there isn't that much left to do besides all the circles!


That was it for stitching time this weekend, Friday night was a waste - traffic was so bad because part of i-90 was shut down so I didnt' get home until 8 or something (that included a quick stop at joann's) and then I did nothing. Saturday we visiting family and had a great time leaving to come home sunday morning. So sunday I wound floss and then stitched while watching the rest of season 1 of profiler and starting season 2.

Before bed I got out all the floss needed for Kingdom Sampler - except the WDW color which I need to get probably on thursday. I also went through the fabrics I had bought for this piece and I've widdled it down to two options:

The one I'm leaning towards is a Silkweaver Solo - 32ct:

It's a light pink with some sandiness to it and some light light greenish greys spotted throughout. I thought it would give a nice sunset look to the sky and the greens/greys of the mountains would work nicely. I just have to check the WDW on this. Sorry about the pictures I did this at night so I had no sunlight option.

And the second one is Silkweaver Golden Promise - 32ct:

It's mostly a golden sandy color with some lighter patches. I bought it thinking it had some pinks in it but it didn't really. I do like it however and it's a tough choice. If i'm daring i will go with number 1 but number 2 is a safe choice I think.

So Carol and I will be starting Kingdom Sampler soon! I'd really like to finish up Going To Market which I *think* i can finish by the end of this month. Mostly because I'd also like to start another new piece in June as well as Kindom Sampler so I have to get into a rotation of sorts, we'll see how it goes! But I am getting excited :)

And the stitching continues, I worked on Going To Market last night at stitch and got the woman's feet all finished so she is officially finished besides backstitching and french knots, and the boy is started. I'm really looking forward to working on this at lunch today and this weekend when I can. After this is finished up I will measure all my pieces waiting for frames and start ordering them so I can frame them all. This one will get a nice brightly painted wooden frame, even if i have to paint it myself! I also have Legends of the Dragons, It's Winter and Green Old Gardens waiting for frames. Legends will need a special order frame as will Going To Market but i haven't measure Green Old Gardens yet so I might be able to get one at ACMoore.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend, I will get to see my cousins (the 3 girls) and get my oil changed in my car which has been bothering me but with all the rain I just couldn't do it, my uncle has a garage though so even if it's raining I can take care of it! And Sunday I plan on stitching plenty!

Tonight - a trip to Joann's for some fabric for finishing! Now to just get through the work day :)

Going To Market still moving along - slowly :)

This has basically become my focus piece because I realized how close I am to finished! I will work on this at stitch tonight and any time i have tomorrow and this weekend :) I'd like to have it finished before my family reunion next weekend but i'm not 100% sure that will happen as there's a lot of backstitching to do still.

Carol is getting ready to start our next SAL together - we're going to stitch Kingdom Sampler, she needs a few more weeks - probably early June so hopefully I can have Going To Market finished up and rotate between Peaceful Silhouette at work, small projects, Mini Cottages II and Kingdom Sampler as my main piece - with how fast Carol stitches who knows if I'll even keep up this way :)

I bought some fabric for this piece a while back - it's sandy colored with some pink hues - going for a sunset look in the sky I think - I will get all the threads together this weekend and do a floss toss for a final decision on the fabric and post a picture!

Once that piece is started I have another one I want to start - maybe try to finish Mini Cottages II first? It's one I want to do as a gift for my aunt for christmas maybe - we'll see!

Finally i remembered to take a picture!


That is the piece from the saturday night event at celebrations. I only tied up 2 corners so you can get the idea, with all 4 tied up it's a little bown but untied it lies flat so it fits in a stitching bag easily :) I think it's very cute and besides cutting the brown out of the threads I used I didn't alter this piece at all.

I finally picked up going to market again last night while watching profiler. So I started the little boy and hope to work on that piece the next few nights as well as Peaceful Silhouette at work at lunch time :) Back into a regular thing hopefully.

Rain rain go away!

It is still raining - although down here it's not fully raining, just misty and cloudy with some fog mixed in. Our basement is not leaking as badly as last year but it is wet in some places and moist all over. My landlord has a dehumidifier going as always but this makes me worry about moving any of my stuff down there - especially my snowboard.

Anyhow - I forgot to take a picture last night but I finishe the Saturday Night Event piece from Celebrations yesterday. It's very cute and I do think it will come in a little bit handy when I travel to hold stitching things or jewelry and yet you can carry it flat so it doesn't take up space :) Picture to come shortly for sure!

Other stitching news - I started the appleseed needlecase by Jeannette Douglas and it just did not go well - I started with the center stitches and then I moved the the border which is when I realized the very center stitch kind of overlaps the two around it so my piece is off by 2 threads and I'm not sure yet what I will do. Most likely since it's 2 threads I will just fudge it and make it work and my needlecase will be two threads larger. I just have to make sure it won't matter in the long run!

The only problem with the needlecase is that there are no finishing instructions so I will have to figure out myself how I want to finish it which makes it a little less likely to get done :) We'll see how it goes. I think for now i'm going to pull out Going To Market and Peaceful Silhouette and get back to them for a bit this month!

Today is bbq day at work with our new grill - we have a canopy so the rain can't stop us and it will be a feast. I made 2 desserts last night - a boston creme pie (cake) and a chocolate silk pie. YUMMY!

Finally some pictures!

What a rainy weekend! The floods I am watching on the news are just horrible! Luckily it hasn't affected us badly, i have to check the basement again but saturday it hadn't let water in yet so I think we're good.

So this weekend was great, friday night I went shopping and bought some new clothes - for some good deals, unfortunately i need some sunny weather to wear them! Then saturday I got a manicure and pedicure with my friends, then out to dinner and acmoore - a day couldn't be better :)

Sunday I got some cards made (much overdue) but fun and I left it all out as I have a few more cards to make still. Then I picked up my stitching and worked on the Saturday night event piece from celebrations, no picture as i'm almost done so I'll save the picture till it's finished.

Here's the finished C of A's Pyn-Pillow from my class with minor modifications:


And the woven butterfly (sorry about the picture quality, when i make it into a pillow it will look better):


And 2005 Celebrations pieces, the Tiffany's SweetBag scissorcase from my class and Wendy White's Needlecase from the round robin:

Another good night for stitching! I will definitely have to post some pics soon. I finished the woven butterfly last night! It's ready to be made into a little pillow (decoration type) for my aunt for christmas. It was a good project to work on last night at stitch considering the headache I had from missing lunch. I ended up getting a migraine and the night was just not fun. I read for a little while and went to sleep (this was all after stitch).

I'm hoping tonight is better - I'm going to do some shopping with some coupons I have and tomorrow I might be getting a manicure/pedicure which would be great fun (with some friends). Other than that I hope to have some time to do some finishing this weekend as the list is growing:

Frame a piece for my sister (includes cutting mats)
Cut mats for a project for my mom
Make butterfly pillow (if i have the right fabrics)
Make Pyn-Pillow
Finish and make basket pin.
stitch and make scissor fob? to match pyn-pillow

And that's just recent projects - I have a bunch I could work on :)

Pyn-Pillow is finished (stitching wise) - I worked on it last night during Alias, I actually changed it so it doesn't say C of A or the backstitched words, it just has the satin stitch continuing around. I will try to remember to take a picture this weekend and post it.

Work has been pretty busy today and I forgot to eat some lunch so now i'm suffering a headache and have some ice cream cake but no time to go out and get lunch. Hopefully I can make up for it with a good dinner out with my friends tonight at stitch.
Back to work.

And Pride & Prejudice is finished! So I got home by 8 last night just in time to watch the finale of Gilmore Girls - not a huge fan of the finale that's for sure!
However then I picked up Pride & Prejudice again and finished it just in time to get to bed. I have to say this is if not my favorite book, definitely up in the top 5. I started by listening to it on tape but it got too good to only listen in the car and since I own the book I started alternating and finally reading more than I was listening ;)

This morning I started "Emma" on tape, I don't think I own this one so I hope I don't get to the same point or else I will be making a trip to the bookstore :) Speaking of bookstore - I have a bunch of new books on order now with an amazon gift card, I think 7 new books.

Right now I'm reading "the Mermaid Chair" which was a birthday gift from my sister. It's by Sue Monk Kidd, the author of The Secret Life of Bees which I thoroughly enjoyed and this one is keeping my attention just as well. The list of books I HAVE to read is just growing at an enormous rate and I've overgrown my new bookcases again, soon I will be packing up books to go into the basement so I have more room for the books I want to read or reccommend!

As for stitching - I stitched a TINY bit yesterday at work - a little on C of A's Pyn-Pillow and then I worked on the "wrapped" butterfly piece from the last stitcher's hideaway I attended. I started weaving the butterfly and it's going pretty quickly. I may work on that at stitch thursday and maybe tonight too. -- Ah - back to work!

My first yoga class.

We tried out a yoga class at work today - went really well, it was kind of easy, I'm usually more of a challenge person but it was relaxing for sure.

Last night I got nothing i had planned done, I worked until almost 8 and when I got home I was at such a good part of Pride & Prejudice (on tape) that I couldn't stop so I grabbed my book from the shelves and started reading - and it was SO hard to put the book down at 11pm that I'm amazed still that I didn't just stay up all night reading :)

This morning it was back to the tape version and I think tonight might be another reading night but I really need to get my card making supplies out as tonight is my last chance at home until the weekend!

Celebrations!

Oh man where do I even begin - what a great weekend ;) Thursday night at stitch was great too and I worked on Peaceful Silhouette finishing up the bottom left corner so I can work on the boat next. Evidently my boyfriend wants it as a graduation gift next year so he can hang it in his office at whatever job he has - :( Kind of want it hanging at home but we'll see :)

So Friday I took the day off and got things done, my sister came up and we stitched, I worked on projects from Celebrations 2005 and finished up the Wendy White Needlecase and the Tiffany's Sweetbag Scissorcase, I will try to post a picture of those tomorrow as I need to use the camera for those.
Then I stitched up an ornament for the ornament tree (sorry no pic) which was auctioned off.

Saturday was the big day and we headed up early to get some shopping in - which I took full advantage of - getting my first punchneedle project to try as well as a punch needle, an embroider kit and some patterns. Then my sister and a friend and I went to our class - C of A's Pyn-Pillow:

It was a great class and I thought it would be just blackwork but it has pulled work in it as well and queen stitches so it was a real treat. This is the progress I made after also working on it Sunday night.

Then we went to dinner and to the saturday night event. Sunday however we went to the round robin and oh man - it was great - I loved all 4 projects and already finished the stitching on one:

I stitched it over one so I could add my name and then I will add a border too and make it into the pin as directed. It's stitched with Olde Willow Stitchery linen hand dyed threads - which I have to say I am not in love with - the linen thread frays very easily and starts to look puffy. Maybe it's because I stitched it over one but I really don't like the look and I wish I had switched it to DMC instead.

I hope to finish both of these projects as well as all 3 of the other round robins and the wendy white round robin I bought that matches the one I finished from last year. Plus the project from the saturday night event is cute. So hopefully this month I will have a lot of little finishes :)

So sunday I started beading - we went to acmoore and i bought more beading supplies and found a kit to make a necklace so when i got home i made the necklace and then 2 pairs of earrings to give as birthday gifts. I have a few more I need to make but now I have a start on beading. I'd like to get out my card making stuff tonight and get some long overdue cards done as I just haven't had the time to get it all out but I think I do now :) Hopefully more pictures to come tomorrow!

YEAH! Only half a day to go until my celebrations weekend starts :)

Tonight I have stitch night with all my friends - totally psyched about getting to go to that at 6 instead of after my class! Then tomorrow my sister comes for a day of stitching, so tonight and tomorrow morning I will do some cleaning (just some quick vacuuming and maybe organizing and putting some stuff in the basement if I can).

Then friday - it's all about stitching after my sister arrives! And the weekend too! I am super excited (is that showing yet).

And to top it off my morning at work is going very well and I think I can get quite a bit more done before I leave at 5 today and therefore have no worries work related this weekend!

I worked on Peaceful Silhouette a little at lunch yesterday and hope to today as well and probably tonight at stitch, then that will get put away until next week, but I'm happily moving along on the bottom left corner of the piece filling in the weeds so I can get to the boat next.

This weekend I will pull out my old celebrations WIPs and work on those and then my new stuff. If i get bored i have Mini Cottages II to keep me company. Soon though that will have to get put aside for Going To Market to get pulled back out and ?finished maybe!!!
Alright - time to figure out what to do for lunch.

I wish every monday was like yesterday - not only did I get up and run, but I also went for a walk in the afternoon, then I stitched at lunch time on Peaceful Silhouette (I'm really liking this piece again), and when I got home my boyfriend was making dinner.

After I did cleanup from dinner and made the chocolate zucchini muffins to bring to work today I stitched while watching some old alias episodes. So I got to work a little on Mini Cottages II before heading to bed to read a bit. I got a little bit of everything in yesterday.

Today is not going so great - I didn't run this morning (with the promise to myself that I'll run tonight while watching gilmore girls) and it's raining so I won't walk today either. I will however not eat ice cream cake like yesterday either!

Now to make my breakfast!

A very good weekend!

First after working from home friday my friends and I went and got our nails done! It was great. Then Saturday my friend and I went shopping for some new clothes before going to a concert with the whole group, 2 of my friends were in the concert. It was a great day and evening and I'm looking forward to this summer when they will have outdoor concerts every tuesday.

Sunday I finally got a little stitching done and my boyfriend and I went out and sat in the park for a while, enjoying the great weather. It was a perfect weekend I must say!

And I even have an updated picture of Peaceful Silhouette - I hit the bottom of the picture finally and started filling in the "weeds" along the bottom. I'd like to get the bottom done across to the boat and then do the boat next before moving to the right half of the piece:


5 more days till Celebrations!

May Goals:

1) Tie baby quilt
2) Cut binding for baby quilt
3) Work on Tiffany's Sweet bag needlecase
4) Work on Peaceful Silhouette
5) Work on Going To Market - start boy
6) Work on Mini Cottages II
7) Stitch blackwork piece from celebrations
8) Stitch round robin piece from celebrations
9) Get Kingdom Sampler ready to start??

Looks like it's going to be a busy month!

April Goals Wrapup:

1) Finish Mercedes' Teapot RR and mail off [YES]
2) Work on Going To Market, finish the top half of border [YES]
3) Get the buttons for my SB RR [Nope]
4) Frame my Shepherd's Bush Month RR pieces so they can be
swapped out each month. [Nope]
5) Work on Peaceful Silhouette [YES]
6) Piece baby quilt together and tie [Pieced - not tied yet]

Plus I started a Michael Powell piece!
Not too bad!

Well I'm working from home today - for a few hours anyway. It's not a pleasant day, I am happy to say that I am finishing up an 8 day fast that I wasn't sure I could do or not and I did just fine. During the last 8 days I have eaten only vegetables (which I generally don't eat at alL!) and Kitchari - a rice/bean mixture for protein/carbs. There is very little fat in this diet and I could not satisfy my regular sugar cravings so it was hard but it's almost over as today is the LAST day! I'm very proud of myself and hoping to go get a manicure with some friends tonight!

PLUS - my class is over officially! I took the final exam last night which really wasn't bad, only took about 40 minutes and then I was off to stitch with my friends! I worked on Peaceful Silhouette a little but mostly just relaxed. I may pull out my stitching this afternoon after I finish up my work depending on how I feel mostly.

So I am feeling pretty good about this month and what I've accomplished, I was strict on myself and not once did i cheat which is just amazing for someone who's never done a diet before in her life!

A night of studying - no stitching last night. I watched Alias, the last Gilmore Girls episode I've missed (last weeks) and studied. That's it for the night - oh besides reading :)

I just started the Wicca Cookbook, i'm still in the beginning but I find some of the information given as "history" false so I'm a little disappointed with that but otherwise I'm really looking forward to the book so I'm keeping an open mind and really looking forward to some new recipes!

In talking with my sister today we have decided that I will only be at Celebrations Saturday and Sunday (sorry Carol, it does appear we won't be able to meet up this year :( ) but Friday we've decided to do a day together of stitching all the old projects from last year at my place to save on gas and to get into the celebrations spirit. So I'm really looking forward to going through all my class pieces and deciding what will get done, what won't and maybe working on some a bit!

8 MORE DAYS!

Some pictures finally!

First - the baby quilt progress - here it is all pieced and ready to be tied as soon as I get some pearl cotton and a curved needle. (I've never tied before so that in itself is putting me off too!)


And finally - the progress on Mini Cottages II - I apologize, i didn't realize the picture was so blurry :( I will try scanning this one for the next update!


I don't know that I will get any stitching done tonight - i have a final exam for my class tomorrow night so I probably should study a little - by study i mean do a quick outline of the book so I know what's in every chapter that the test covers since I didn't read the chapters :)

I got caught up on last week's Alias episodes last night - now i'm all ready for tonight's episode! I'm almost caught up on the missed episodes of gilmore girls as well after catching last night's and then watching one of the ones i missed.
Nothing interesting going on - just holding on until this weekend when I get to go shopping for some new clothes, maybe get a manicure and stitch a LOT!

Some Michael Powell progress - I hope i remember to take pictures tonight so I can post my progress. Now that I'm seeing progress on this piece I have to remember to switch around and work on Going To Market this weekend as well, plus I have some pieces from Celebrations last year I've been thinking about picking up again and trying to finish up... we shall see.

Yesterday at work was extremely productive, I'm hoping for the same today. I will be working kind of late today so I can work less on friday but I do hope to be home in time for gilmore girls at least. Plus I have last week's Alias episodes to catch up on!

A very productive weekend - but I forgot to take pictures- i can post some on wednesday though.

Sunday I pieced the baby quilt so it's all ready to be tied. It's very fun looking with lots of bright colors. Then I worked on the Michael Powell kit - Mini Cottages II and that's a lot of fun. I decided to start it on a large piece of fabric just in case I want to stitch I, II and III all on one piece and frame them with matting between them. Not sure yet but this leaves the possibility open and since I just ordered number III I'm only one short from doing that :)

I remembered to bring my large q-snap to work today so I can start working on Peaceful Silhouette at work finally and will probably bring it home on weekends to take a picture but it probably won't go very fast.

My final exam is this week in class so that's almost over! And next weekend I have very little planned so I may have another very productive weekend - and THEN - CELEBRATIONS - the countdown as begun - 11 days until my day off next week!

An update!



The picture quality is not very good for some reason so I'm not updating my regular picture (on the sidebar) but I thought I would at least post my progress since I've worked on this so much and am putting it away for a bit. I made my goal of finishing the left side of the background so next I will finish up the woman's feet and then stitch the boy and finish the background.

BUT FIRST - I will be starting a new piece - and I do believe it's Mini Cottages II from Carol! I opened up the kit, I'm not a huge fan of 14ct aida so I am going to substitute for something in my stash, keeping it simple with white though since it's completely covered and will be starting that probably tomorrow after some quilting time!

Off to shop a little online and then to bed - it's been a good day!

A wonderful birthday surprise! I got a little package in the mail yesterday from Carol - a Michael Powell Kit - Mini Cottages II. I love it! She also sent me one from a magazine a while back - now I can't wait to stitch a Michael Powell and I have some to choose from!

Depending on how much stitching I do this weekend - I may just be starting one of these up - probably the kit since the thread is all there for me :) Oh I can't wait.
THANK YOU CAROL!

-- on a bad note - my cold is getting worse - last night was a rough night and i woke up this morning feeling crappy. I think I might leave after lunch some time today and go home to take a nap. So far just trying to get as much done as I can this morning so I can leave guilt free but man I wish I could breathe!

Well we had a great night out with a delicious dinner. No stitching though. Tonight before class I'll probably get some stitching done and then hopefully I'll remember to bring my large q-snaps to work tomorrow so I can start working on Peaceful Silhouette again at lunch time.

I really have the itch to start something new and i have the perfect piece in mind - it's something I wanted to do as a gift for my aunt for christmas - so I've decided to hold myself off I must force myself to finish the woven butterfly first - that is going to be a gift for my other aunt for christmas and then I can start the new piece.

I love stitching gifts, I wish I had more time to devote to it, now I'm remember all sorts of pieces I wanted to stitch for my mom and sister too. More of a reason to stitch more :)

The cold that wouldn't go away :) No seriously - it's really not that bad, but I'm a little congested today. I went to bed early last night and slept almost 11 hours - much needed. Hopefully today will be productive at work and I will have more energy tomorrow!

On the stitching front - well I've met my goal on Going To Market this month - oh man forgot my large q-snaps at home again - I need those for Peaceful Silhouette. I'm ready to start stitching Peaceful Silhouette at work again - if I remember my larger q-snaps ever :) And my class is almost over - Next thursday is the final!

So... that means it's almost time to start a new piece. I'm thinking some time in May - first there's celebrations so that will be a few little pieces I'll want to finish up - but by the end of may I'll be ready for something new. I have a few choices:

1. Kingdom Sampler (if carol is ready for a SAL on that one)
2. Winter in my Garden (i think carol mentioned doing a SAL on this one too so i can hold off)
3. Just a little piece and quiet please (Dragon Dreams) - i really want to stitch this for my bathroom!
4. Michael Powell chart - i think it's a freebie one
5. Blackwork Dragon - restart on Wandering Ivy fabric

Plus i have some WIPs i'd like to pick up again and finish off - they include:
1. Wrapped butterfly - i have to weave the butterfly and make it into a pillow
2. Wisdom Virtue Series Dragon
3. Tiffany's Sweet bag scissor case and accessories - from celebrations last year? I want to at least finish the scissor keeper and needlebook i think, even if i don't do the bag, but i'd like to do them all.

Oh - so much to do and so little time!

Half way -

On the background that is. Minus a few stitches, the top half of the background is finished. I think I will try to finish up the left side of the background before stitching the boy as I am worried with just background left to go I might slow down my progress a bit.

A nice long weekend - we had a really good weekend, Friday I had a girls' day out - just out and about shopping with my 2 closest friends, it was awesome, after cleaning the house so when I got home I didn't even have to do any cleaning for family coming :) Saturday my sister and her boyfriend came over and we spent the day with family. Sunday we went up to NH for the day to see more family and finally got home after 10. Unfortunately I got a cold starting sunday night so my birthday (yesterday) was spent with a headache and sore throat.

The cold isn't that bad, I was able to do everything I wanted to - I potted all the herbs my mom gave me for my birthday into the fancy pots she got me :) And we went out to dinner, and I cross stitched - what more could I ask for (that's where all the progress on Going To Market came from). Last night I took some nitequil and i slept soundly, even made it in to work by 8 instead of 9 which hopefully is a sign for things to come.

All in all it was a great weekend, seeing friends and family, now just 4 days until the next weekend ;) No plans for the next 2 weekends either which is always great ;)

7 more hours - until I head to class and then my long weekend! I SO can't wait!

Last night to celebrate my boyfriend's birthday we went out to dinner for steak and ribs and then bought some movies - and rented Narnia (2 dollars to rent for a night). So we watched Narnia, which was a blast - we both remember bits and pieces from when we were kids and they really did a good job with it. I dont' know that I ever read the books but I used to watched the cartoon version of it and this seemed to follow that pretty well.

To add the cherry on top - my last homework assignment was due last night - so homework for my class is over! Now it's just preparing for the final which honestly I don't have to do much for if the midterm is anything to go by. Only 2 more weeks and I'll be done with it!

I hope this weekend to work more on Going To Market and I will post a picture update next week. I'm saving monday (my birthday) as a day to do nothing specific, maybe go look at some apartments, but nothing major! I can't contain my excitement :)

Finally I got to stitch - after making a nice pork chop dinner, I pulled out Going To Market while watching some more ER. Worked on the background, it was slow going but today at lunch I'm positive I will get to work on this! I'm trying to finish up the top half of the design before I start sharing my time with Peaceful Silhouette.

I don't think i'll get to stitch tonight though - it's my boyfriend's birthday so we're going out to dinner and maybe picking up some movies. Tomorrow night even though I have class, it's only 7:30-8 so I'm looking forward to that short meeting and then it's my day off already ;)

Oh man I love short weeks!

Mmmm .. chili

That's what my boyfriend made for dinner last night and that's what i'm eating for lunch now - we're very picky about our chili and there are no beans in this chili, it's mostly beef but it's the flavor that counts, and it's good with chips.

Last night when I got home we went for a run - that's awesome considering I managed to run yesterday morning too! Then we ate dinner and I did some homework, ending the evening with 2 ER season 4 episodes before reading and going to bed. If i had managed the energy to stitch while watching tv it would have been a perfect evening. But you can't have everything.

I ran again this morning - just a mile but I ran it pretty fast so i can tell i'm getting in better shape and I hope to run again tonight when I get home.

No stitching yesterday like i'd hoped but i think today after i eat my chili i'll break out the stitching for a bit and get back to work on Going To Market. Really looking forward to my 4 day weekend too!

I'll take my happy dances any way I can get them :)


I finished the teapot RR (I stitched the teapot on the right). It's all ready to mail back - probably next saturday being the first time I can get to the post office.

So now i'm back to stitching on my own pieces! Definitely picking up Going To Market at lunch time today - and I think by the end of the week I will be stitching on Peaceful Silhouette at lunch and saving Going To Market as my at home piece.

My last homework assignment for class is due this wednesday, and I put most of the work in yesterday so there shouldn't be too much left to do this week. I worked on the website this weekend - wrapping a few more things up there. I basically got a lot done, but I didn't work on the quilt at all - and next weekend is looking packed - maybe next monday since I took the day off.

Next weekend I gave myself a 4 day weekend, friday to hang out with friends and monday to hang out with my boyfriend as it's my birthday. I already got my present (snowboarding pants) in march so we're not really doing gifts (his birthday is this coming wednesday and I got him a snowboard as his birthday/anniversary gift in march). But my real gift is getting to hang out with him and i will have to plan something fun for monday!

A good night of stitching, I worked on the teapot for the RR and I've almost finished the stitching on the actually pot, leaving the handle besides a splotch of light blue tweeded with green on the pot. The reason I didn't stitch this area is because the green was missing so I have to wait until i'm home to get the missing color.

Today at lunch I will start working on the handle and then I can stitch before class probably like usual and tomorrow night besides a little cleaning I hope to stitch and watch tv shows for the evening since I have the time to myself. I can't believe it's thursday already, only one more day to get up early and hopefully I can make myself run tomorrow...

A little snow dusting - yes it snowed, my whole drive in this morning and it's sticking a bit too. I wonder if it will accumulate or not.

A little stitching last night and I'm about halfway done with the teapot for the RR, I got the base which is beige and then green all done and i'm stitching the blue now. I plan to work on it some more at lunch today and at my aunt's tonight.

Nothing else new going on. work is busy as usual but my list of things to do is shrinking and i'm making good progress for the week :)

A stitching update:



That is the progress I've made on the teapot RR, I am stitching the teapot all the way to the right. It feels like it's slow going but I think it's coming along none the less.

This weekend was awesome, spending time with friends. This week however is looking to be a busy one - with late nights working and homework to do. Our last homework assignment is due apr. 12th and then I will have 2 weeks before the final and be done with my first class! Oh I really can't wait until May - I am definitely starting a new cross stitch piece in May!

Oh and on saturday I finished reading Like Water for Chocolate - I love that book, it was hard to put down near the end and I'm so happy I found such a touching book! Last night I started a field guide to goblins or something that a friend is loaning me, should be a fun short read, which is all i can handle this week :)

April Goals:

1) Finish Mercedes' Teapot RR and mail off
2) Work on Going To Market, finish the top half of border
3) Get the buttons for my SB RR
4) Frame my Shepherd's Bush Month RR pieces so they can be
swapped out each month.
5) Work on Peaceful Silhouette
6) Piece baby quilt together and tie

Looks to be a busy beginning of the month but hopefully by the end of the month things will calm down and I'll have time to complete my goals :)