September Goals WRAPUP:

1) Finish Ever So Little - Lions [DONE]
2) Start Wisdom dragon on Legends [YES]
3) Work on blackwork dragon [NO]
4) Start a new piece ... hmm... [NO]
5) Start Ever So Little - Chimps [YES]

6) Start and Finish quilting Trip Around the World Quilt (machine quilting) [DEFINATELY NOT FINISHED BUT READY TO QUILT]

7) Finish merging website and start testing (the sooner this gets done the sooner I can get to stitching a little each night). [almost done merging - started testing!]

Finally worked on the website a little last night. No real promising progress, just continuing to merge files. Once i get them all merged I can start debugging and fixing problems that cropped up between the old version and the new. I hope to spend most of the day sunday working on it.

Tonight I hope to get some time to sew. I think we're going out to dinner and then I have some sewing to do for my mom who I will see tomorrow. Then if i have time after that I will start machine quilting the wedding quilt. Tomorrow is my cousins' combined birthday party so after I volunteer at the quilt show in Belmont I will head up there. Should be fun.

Nothing interesting to say. I will stitch more today at lunch, today is the last day I'll work on legends at lunch I think- next week I will focus on the chimps so I can get them finished up soon and then knitting at lunchtime!
Time to do a monthly wrapup!

One quilt finished...

I finished adding the binding and sleeve to my small basket quilt last night. I will get a picture tonight. I just have to add a label now which I never do but I will try to be good this time. Maybe I'll embroider one or just write in permanent marker. It's not a quilt that will get washed much so I can do whatever really.

So last night I did a 2 mile walk and helped make cookies - of which I got a bunch to bring to work today :)

Tonight I should get home by 5 - then I will maybe start quilting and make dinner. My show comes on at 8 so maybe by 7 I will start working on the website. No stitch tonight- my friend has too much work and can't get together but I should be working on the website anyway :) So i will try tonight - we'll see how it goes.

No lunchtime stitching today,we're going out to lunch.

As I was stitching Wisdom yesterday at lunch - I realized, there isn't a whole lot left. I was worried the wings of the dragon would take forever but there really isn't that much stitching. It is completely doable and not so daunting. However - things are coming up in the way of my stitching time! Like:

Ever So Little Chimps - need to focus on them and get them done so I can get the two pieces framed for christmas which means ordering frames still!

Quilting - need to finish the wedding quilt and then get back to hand quilting again.

Knitting - christmas presents, going to probably pick that up at lunch time once the chimps are done.

Website - need to get that done early october which is already here so this weekend will be devoted as much as possible.

Round Robins - I'm in a round robin that has been delayed and whenever I get the next piece I have to focus on it and get it done as soon as possible and mail it on. So whenever that happens - maybe next week you'll see a big change in stitching :)

Finally.
Progress at 90 hours of stitching:


So far this week at lunch I've been squeezing in about a half hour for stitching. Last night at guild I really started the first scarf for christmas. I'm starting with the oldest of the 3 girls and hers are going to be in the purple/white yarn. I have pink for the middle child and I haven't bought yarn yet for the youngest.

Running for the third morning in a row. Tomorrow I won't run because I'll be at my uncle's but hopefully friday and saturday we can keep it up. It was chilly out this morning!

No picture of the chimps - they are still in their bad state waiting to be ripped out - I can't do that tonight as I'll be at my uncles and one of these african animal pieces is for my uncle for christmas, maybe this weekend I"ll get it ripped out. I do hope to finish the binding on my small basket quilt this weekend and then I'll update that picture - my first machine quilted piece!

Still no pictures - ugg - I forgot I wanted to take pictures last night and I left my stitching at work because it was raining and I didn't want to carry it in the rain for no reason (no stitching last night).

The plan was to work on the website and quilt last night - neither happened of course. I worked late and we went out to dinner. We got home at almost 9 - so I picked up my "learning to knit" book and read through the basics. I learned to knit from a friend and this book went over things like the differences in yarn and stuff. It didn't teach knitting in the round which I still haven't attempted but need to for hats this christmas. Then I started a the first of 3 scarves, I have to start it over as I did 30 stitches but I'm using size 10 1/2 needles so I really need only about 18 stitches across - it is a child's scarf.

So a little knitting to get me back in the groove. I hope tonight at guild to knit some more, get some progress on the scarf. Today I'm going to look online for a good place to buy good needles that aren't too expensive. I'd like to go with bamboo circular needles, get them in a few sizes and not too long of a nylon "connector thing" as nothing I stitch is that long. I can't knit with the straight needles, all the weight pulling on my wrist is bad, circular's for straight knitting was recommended because I can hold the weight in my lap between the needles.

Anyhow - definately pictures tomorrow morning, or even tonight and it's the first guild night of the year (our year runs september to june) ;)

Ack! I forgot to take pictures last night. I will get them tonight. The Wisdom dragon is starting to come to life now that I've been backstitching his head. He didnt' get any attention this weekend but he seems to be my lunch time piece now.

This weekend i finally got to start using the sewing machine. I machine quilted a small quilt I made last summer and put the binding on (just need to whip stitch it now). Then I did some practice free motion quilting on another quilt - that came out horrible and I may take it all out if I can manage it.

I bought some backing fabric for the Trip Around the World quilt and pieced that and basted the quilt with the spray adhesive stuff. That took a long time and most of the night last night. So now that quilt is sitting on my diningroom table waiting for me to figure out what thread I'm going to use to quilt it. I may use a different color thread for each diamond to match the fabric. I have a green/blue changing color thread but I think it will be too bold on the lighter fabrics. A color that blends better will look better I think and changing top thread is no big deal if I can keep the bobbin the same color at least.

That was my weekend besides visiting with my little cousins saturday night. I measured their heads and hands to make hats/scarves/mittens for christmas (maybe), and I bought a little bit of yarn to start that process. I think I'll start with the scarves to get used to knitting again, try some new hat patterns (as I've only made one hat that I made up as I went along). Then try mittens if the hats go well. I have 3 sets to do so I will probably start that real soon!

Well it's work time, we have 2 new people starting today but no new offices to move them into yet - maybe tomorrow they will be ready.

Off to work..

Stitch night.

Well I went to stitch night last night, even though I was tired. I of course had a great time, laughing and talking. The problem is - I tried to stitch. The first time I messed up I caught myself pretty quickly. The second time was at 8 when I was getting ready to pack up to go. I realized that the mess up was from when i started stitching earlier! So it all has to be ripped out, everything I stitched last night. So that got quickly packed away! Who knows when i'll get to that - luckily it was just the chimps, just one color, with an extra row making the chimp too wide. I'm just glad it wasn't the dragon!

I really did nothing else last night besides read a little. I'm reading Crime and Punishment and I just finished "part one" which is where he (Roskolnikov) - i think i got that right - kills 2 women, I don't know what happens in the rest of the book and I fell asleep just after starting part two.

I just borrowed a book from a friend "Eyre Affair" - unfortunately I want to read Jane Eyre first which is next on my list but i'm not even half way done with Crime and Punishment. I think i need to start reading more - after I finish my quilt!

Tonight - pick up sewing machine :) Start practice quilting, then maybe work on the website.
Saturday - quilt/website and go up to my uncle's house for dinner and gaming.

Cold.

It's always cold in the office - in any office I've ever worked. Too much air conditioning! Unfortunately the work I do doesn't lend itself well to working outside in the sun which is where I'd rather be. I'm always happier hot than cold. I mostly hate wearing winter clothes during the summer and still being cold, I didn't even buy shorts this year.

Job fair went well yesterday, but man am I sick of talking about our company, what we do and what we're looking for, and a bunch of over eager individuals who may have no interest in all pretending to really want to do embedded software development in a no OS environment even though all they know is hardware work... It's nice to be back to work.

I had a very unproductive evening. I fell asleep before 9 but did wake to watch most of law and order. I'm still tired, not sure why I'm so tired, maybe I should start taking my vitamins again...

Job Fair.

We're going to a job fair at a local college today, a coworker and I. Trying to get our company name out there as we always seem to be hiring. I'm not a fan of talking with strangers, but that's what today will be... a change of pace I suppose.

No stitching last night, I wound floss on bobbins while watching some more Alias Season 4. Then Gilmore Girls and Law and Order SVU. I'm not a huge TV fan, obviously I like Alias but I've never watched that in a "time slot", just on DVD. Gilmore Girls I've watched from the beginning however and I do still enjoy it. I used to enjoy it more when my boyfriend had time to watch it with me, he did however stop working at 10 to watch SVU with me.

I don't know if there will be any stitching today, definately not at lunch and tonight I'll be at my uncles so I just have no clue, I may break it out or I may read... depends what's on tv.

15 minutes till we head out.. I should get my stuff together.

A mood.

Yesterday was a great day as far as "work" goes, I made a breakthrough debugging my code and I can't wait to get back to it today. However that great feeling didn't last long and the rest of my night I was in a mood. Just one comment made by someone can really change your mood, I started brooding over the comment and feeling inadequate. The way I thought things were ... I was wrong ... I think, I can't be too upset it may not even be true, I can never tell. So I'll stop complaining.

Anyhow, I told my boyfriend why I was in "a mood" last night when he called and I was still on my way home. When I got home, he had made dinner and a cup of tea for me! He is so sweet, he was so busy (always is) and studying while he made dinner but I came home and ate and enjoyed a cup of tea, it was a real treat, he's the best!

No stitching last night, I stitched for a half hour at lunch but that was it. Today hopefully I can fit in another half hour, getting closer to finished on the dragon's head so I can get the backstitching done on that before starting the wings/body.

Lots of progress on Wisdom - I'm now at 86 hours on this project, here's a closup of just Wisdom:


And Chimps - 1 is done and I've started my second:


As I'm working on Wisdom, I"m getting the most interesting parts done, I have the scale done now and next I'm going to finish the head. That leaves the body/wings for last which is probably a bad move as it looks to take a LONG time. But the good thing about that is that I will probably look forward to stitching the border more :) Maybe I'll alternate as I get to that part between the dragon and border. I still think this piece will be finished by the end of November for sure.

Chimps I worked on at my party saturday and a little after. Bringing that up to almost 4 hours progress.

I also worked on the website yesterday for a number of hours (5) - and I got the database all merged and updated (almost - i'd say 90% there) and I'm probably almost 2/3 done with the actually website merging. I have it running now so when I make changes I can test them out and that is extremely helpful.

I forcast a busy day and a night working on the website but my apartment is clean and there's pie for lunch so I'm happy :)

My stitch party was a success! Not that I did much stitching but it was a great time!

After a night of cleaning the apartment top to bottom, a morning of baking and "setting up", a great day of chatting and eating... the night kind of flew by. We rented Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and bought chinese food to finish the evening. Unfortunately I was so tired that I fell asleep before 10!

But now it's an early morning (early because we got up and went out to breakfast before 9am) - so now I can work on the website for a few hours and then maybe stitch the rest of the day! And the apartment is nice and clean to enjoy!

I like fridays. A nice relaxing morning getting to have an actual conversation with my boyfriend when he's not reading or studying. But I get to work late and now have to stay late meaning I will definately hit traffic.

It's okay though, I have a ton of work I want to get done so it will be a day in the lab trying desperately to make progress with my code.

I did stitch last night - for about 15 minutes :) Mostly I talked with my friend, that's really what stitching nights are, time to chat and catch up. Plus it was so muggy and hot that it was hard to stitch comfortably. Today at lunch I will work on Wisdom and tomorrow is my stitch party so hopefully some stitching will get done ;)

The cough is back with a vengeance. But at least my throat feels better.

Babysitting last night was easy, the kids were so good, I had them in bed before 8 but fell asleep with them and woke up at 9. Pretty much just slept after that too, still tired from being sick.

Tonight is a stitch night so I hope to get some stitching done on the Ever So Little - Chimps, tomorrow night I probably won't stitch as I have cleaning to do and I might go out to dinner as a treat.

Alright - nothing new - back to work :)

My order has been shipped! That's from Stitching Bits & Bobs.. maybe it will get here by saturday when i am having my stitching group over and they can see the new stuff i got.

Well I'm back to work today. Yesterday was a long day, I dropped off my mom's sewing machine to be repaired and the rest of the day pretty much did nothing. I think it did me good though. Today my throat hurts (really bad) but other than that I'm feeling much better. I watched some movies in the afternoon and started Season 1 of Oz. I got a little stitching done on Legends of the Dragons - man is that a slow going piece! Lots of highlighting needed! But I will have a progress pic next monday again.

Tonight I babysit for my uncle - the 3 little cousins. my boyfriend was planning on meeting me up there to help but he can't now because he has an interview early tomorrow and a lot of work to do tonight. So i'm on my own - under the weather and all. Maybe they'll all go to sleep no problem and it will be a night of reading for me (yea right).

Tomorrow night is stitch, then friday I have to clean and maybe go out to dinner. Saturday more cleaning before my stitch group comes over. That leaves sunday to work on the website again finally - been a while. I need to get that done so i can get paid too - i need the christmas shopping money! Okay - back to work stuff..

I think i'm done messing with the template - let me know if there are any problems.

sick day - i could feel the cold coming on the last few days but today is the worse. I took the day off and slept in (this is me still in bed checking email and blogs). The reason and only reason i am up right now is because at 9am exactly the roadwork outside my window started! Right outside my window, so i had to run around and shut the windows - they are jack-hammering right now. UGG. So i just took some tylenol cold (hoping the tylenol part will help this headache).

So I'm babying myself today - I can't really stitch with this headache, i'll probably make a run to the store for some halls (cough drops) - and if I feel any better this afternoon I'm going to go up to the sewing machine store in stoneham before it closes at 6 to see if they can repair my mom's machine for me. That was my plan last night anyway, before i got worse - I was skipping my "quilt night" to do that, definitely still skipping my quilt night.

Hmm.. stitched at lunch yesterday a bit on Wisdom - started on his head which I'm going to focus on now until that's filled in at least.

things are changing slowly - hopefully no problems, i think it's loading slowly now, i will see what i can do about that - the images are large...

I remembered Pics for monday!

Not a lot of progress on Ever So Little - Chimps but this is what I stitched Thursday at my stitch night, it's also a better pic of the lions. Click for a larger image:


And progress on Legends of the dragons, not much but definately a better picture just a little blurry:


I'm enjoying working on Wisdom but it is much slower going than the other 2 dragons. I finished the stitching of the scroll and the underbelly of the dragon. Until the backstitching is in though he really won't come to life.

I had a very busy weekend but not busy like I expected. Saturday I drove back to NY for a bridal shower and to visit my mom. I borrowed her sewing machine so I could machine quilt the Trip Around the World quilt. I got home late saturday night still tired from staying up all night last thursday night.

Then Sunday I slept in and got ready to spend the day quilting. I set up the diningroom to have a quilting station, cutting on one side, sewing on another and ironing. I wanted to do some practice pieces. Then I set up my folding table to do some painting.

I bought a little pedestal thing at a Mill Store the other day and I wanted to paint it to match the diningroom furniture which is black but worn with red/yellow underneath. So I put on a coat of red then sat down to sew.

Of course the machine doesn't work for me - I desperately do anything I can think of reading the book, clean it etc. Call my mom, she's not mad at all, this same thing happened last time I used her machine and she had to get it repaired but it's under warranty. She's bummed my plans are ruined for the day though (as am i). Even with her help we've narrowed it down to a possible original problem but nothing to do now. She says I should try to find a bernina store out by me and get it repaired so I have it sooner. I found one I just need to find an evening to get there - won't happen until next week for sure which means the quilt DEFINITELY won't be quilted before the quilt show - all well.

So I was bummed, I picked up all my sewing stuff and finished up my painting stuff. Then I pulled out the good old nintendo 64 and zelda to play for a few hours. After that I was in the mood to stitch a little so I got to where I am above on Legends.

This week I hope to continue working on Legends at lunch time Mon-Thur. Thursday night is stitch so I'll work on chimps and i have stitch at my house on saturday so i'll probably continue working on chimps then. Chimps should be finished by the end of next week and I can pick up blackwork dragon again.

Off to work...

Still alive - i mean awake.

3 hours to go for the day - then I have to stop at walmart on my way home and change my oil in my car tonight before I drive back to nY tomorrow morning. I sure hope i'm awake enough to do that tonight!

I just ate lunch - and that's what's really hitting me hard - now i'm exhausted, before i was okay just hungry :) I'm not a caffeine person but i think i may drink a half cup of soda and see if that helps at all, i need to be awake for the drive at 4 that's for sure.

I did start stitching the Ever So Little - Chimps last night at stitch, not much progress as mostly i just chatted but it's a start. That will be what I work on next week at lunch time and Legends will get held off again.

Also starting next week I have to start machine quilting the new quilt, I get the machine this weekend from my mom hopefully and i'll need to do some practice quilting, but then get right to it. I think i've decided it won't go in the quilt show as that's too much pressure (2 weeks) but it will definately be done by November so i should be just fine.

Off to sleep - i mean work...