Today will be very busy again!

Yesterday was great - I worked, I went to my uncle's, I helped prepare dinner (stir-fry), after which I relaxed the rest of the night. Which also means I fell asleep at 9:30 - but I slept good and I think I needed that.

I worked on my quilt block a lot last night. The second row is all put together and the last row is 2/3 put together. So after 1 more seam on that row, I just have to sew the rows together which is tricky because I think I will have to "re-measure" the blocks first to make the lines for sewing straighter so the block doesn't get messed up. I want the corners of the triangles to be perfect so they have to line up exactly at the 1/4" mark. So either I will cut new template and draw or just measure and draw not sure yet. Sunday I will do that I think.

Then I finally started the last RR piece I have to do for my 3rd RR. Once this piece is done I'm done with RR's besides my international one which we're going to keep on doing, but we haven't started our second round yet so I'm still in the clear there. So I started the weasel. Did not make much progress at all before feeling too tired. The bad news is I'm not enjoying it much, maybe because I see all the blending I will have to do (UCK). So I was hoping to start a new piece at Stitch Night tonight - but I think I need to work on my RR piece more. What I've compromised is this: Buy new threads for the bunny piece, start it. After an hour spend the last hour and a half on the RR piece.

So today is another busy day - I work, I go home, I go to the gym? (if i have time), i Take out the garbage, I go to stitch night (where's dinner in there??), I come home, -- maybe stitch more before bed but probably start a new book because my eyes will be a bit stressed (that's what happened last night.).

This weekend is packed already, but I'm trying to keep sunday open so if I get maybe 3 hours of work done on sunday then the rest of the day can be mine - finish block 2 of quilt and work on RR piece. Those are my goals! So maybe tomorrow I will have some new updated pics since that's the best part of these blogs. Just another thing to do tonight....

Boo - it's the middle of the week...

I must say that I am a busy person. To really understand this you must see my schedule :
Yesterday:
5:45 - get up shower get ready for work, make boyfriend and my lunches
6:30 - leave (drive to work)
7:15 - 3:30 - work
4:20 - arrive home (drive home takes longer due to taffic)
4:30-5:30 - gym -- it's a nice gym, i did 30 minutes on the treadmill then stretched real good.
5:30 - 6 - cook dinner and shower then eat dinner (dinner took 15 min to cook)
6 - 10 - work on website, from 8-9 I also watched Gilmore Girls but continued working
10-11 - worked on quilt block while watching Law&Order SVU
11 - went to bed after packing up my bag for tonight
Then i starts over getting up at 6am this morning ( a tad late)

Today will be easier, after work I'm going to my aunt's so I don't work on the website or go to the gym, I help cook dinner, eat then relax, maybe quilt oh and do laundry of course.
So that's a day in the life of ME. As I mentioned I got to quilt a bit, my block is almost 2/3 done - the middle row has two more seams to stitch together and then that's done and I have just the bottom row left. Maybe i'll put up a pic on Friday!

We Joined a new Gym

I know I know I know, I already have a gym - across the street from work, BUT it's not very good at all! My boyfriend and I went to check out this gym near the apartment and it's huge, very nice, clean, new equipment, plasma tvs on every piece of cardio equipment (awesome), large weight room, small weight room in the female locker room which could work good for me, tanning booths, classes (yoga/aerobics etc), all included in a membership for 30/month. So we joined, there's an initiation fee too which we got the guy to cut down for us (i'm sure they cut it for everyone, who would pay 300 just to join and then pay the monthly fee!) So hopefully today after work i'll go to the gym. I probably won't be there with my boyfriend because he's going to go after classes on the way home and i get home at random times and will just head over after.

So I'm psyched about that, now if only i could kick my butt into running in the mornings again - today i was way too tired, hardly got up at 10 after 6 which is real late for me. I want to get up earlier, get to work earlier, leave earlier so i can go to the gym and still come home and work. I did work on the website last night - 1 hour anyway, will do again tonight, there's lots to do.

I also finally picked up a needle! I worked on my quilt block for an hour last night. I have the top row (1/3) done completely and the second row started. This is a difficult one with the points and triangles but the best part about this quilt is that I only have to do each block once!
Well I have some work to do so I'm off :)

Designer Dreams

Would you or have you designed your own cross stitch design? If you have can we see it?

I have designed one piece - it was made into an ornament for my aunt who's a quilter, it was a christmas present last year. You can see the picture in my album under 2003 cross stitch, it's the small piece with houses and trees.

I enjoy stitching others' designs because I'm neither creative nor artistic, if I was I'd love to design but that's another story (i'd love to paint too, or write... ) but alas I'm a computer programmer, and my mind works like an engineer not an artist.

A long weekend... do I say that a lot?

Seriously though it was a long weekend. Friday night - hmm, don't remember friday night much, oh yea the boyfriend went out with friends (cancelling mall plans with me which messed me up big time driving wise because I was already stuck in traffic and passed the mall, so I got through the traffic, to turn around and be in more traffic (friday) - and got to the mall, walked the entire mall - couldn't find a single dress that fit me. Went home in a bad mood and starving (no dinner).

Got up saturday, relaxed a bit got ready, a bit rushed - but we got out of there around noon and with traffic back to ny around 3, where we eventually made it to the mall and I did find a dress, and got my hair cut. Then I dropped bf off with his friends and went to my parent's house to start laundry and fix their router problem. Then I joined bf at party and basically stood around for 6 hours, we got back to my parent's at 2 and slept in.

Sunday we got ready for the wedding, met up with friends, drove up to wedding, sat through wedding and left the reception before dinner started (bf was a little mad but i won't get into details - and it wasn't at me) so we had a LONG drive home through traffic and got home at 10! Yuck! And today it was up and to work. Tonight it will be go home, go grocery shopping, work on website. Not exactly something to look forward to but hey i'm going to the gym today and leaving at 4, that's pretty good! But alas I should start work now - and maybe some time this week i'll have stitching news, there's none for now!

Ah it's Friday! And the office is quiet...

That's right - back to the office but everyone else is out. In total I think 4 of us will be here today but right now it's only 2 people. I like a quiet office - but since I've been gone all week I'm kinda out of the loop with what's going on and I'll have to wait till Monday to find out.

So last night was better than I thought. I found out after blogging that a dear online friend who I do many RR's with is getting tests done and possibly surgery soon - please send good thoughts and prayers out for her if you can. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and she says she's feeling fine so that's a huge plus.
After that I decided to take some tylenol and do the dishes, then I started reading and slowly my headache went away! So then at 10 I proof read a paper for my boyfriend before we went to bed. And no headache this morning so far! We didn't go running either -but that's because my boyfriend had to work on his paper more and I dont' feel safe going running in our neighborhood by myself. So I ran 3 mornings this week - maybe we'll go out tomorrow morning before heading back to NY for the rest of the weekend.

No gym this week at all - but that's due to training and having to leave semi early today to get to the post office before it closes and mail out some stuff. Next week though - on top of the continued running I will go to the gym every day and things will be back to normal (if you call my life normal).

Books
I'm just about finished with the book by William Kennedy that I'm reading : Very Old Bones. Quite strange but a good read and I look forward to reading more books by him. Next I'm going to read another Josephine Humphreys book "Dreams of Sleep". Should be another quick one.

I also finished a book on tape "The Birth of Venus" -- it was quite detailed and graphic but also very good. Definately held my attention and had a lot of historical information in it as well. The prologue itself just captures your attention and I definately recommend this book to anyone - as long as you can read sometimes graphic scenes and definately a few love scenes.

I normally rent books from booksontape.com - just found out that they are no longer renting them out... so now i need to find a library where I can borrow them. They generally aren't something i want to "own" because they take up a lot of room and i probably won't listen to them twice so renting was great but a library would be cheaper so i gotta look into that.

So that's it - I gotta get some work done and hope this day passes quickly - 7 hours to go!

Shop Dreams

If you could design your dream needlework/cross stitch shop, what would it be like?

-- Well my dream needlework shop is one that I own - so that I can stitch all day and share my stitching hobby with others that love it. I would have the charts organized by theme and if the designer has a lot of charts, I would have a section for that designer. The threads would always be stocked fully, and the beads/charms/buttons which I always have a hard time finding. If I have a chart that needs a buttom/charm I will have that button charm too! (And easy to find).
I would have a large stitching room which would showcase finished pieces so while everyone's stitching they can look around and admire other works and get new ideas. Every finished piece on the wall would have a pattern that was easy to locate. I would have a computer section with a program where you could pick the pattern you have bought - and then change the colors and see what it looks like ahead of time and print out the new color lists. The same for the fabric too.
I would have a seperate room for fabric and framing, bolts of fabric and yards and yards of hand dyed ones, not only bought but also done myself so they're always unique.
Most important is that I would have stitch nights, retreats, classes and lots of social activities (exchanges, RRs) to keep my customers coming and visiting to keep the spirit of needlework alive.
Hmmm... maybe when I retire I will open up a shop --- ah gotta enjoy the dreams :)

Darn darn darn!

I missed Gilmore Girls on Tuesday - I totally forgot it was starting up again this week, and I wanted to tape it (since I was at my quilting class). I'm bummed. I have emailed my sister to see if she taped it but she has yet to get back to me.

Anyway - training is over - and i have a pounding headache again! Yesterday I got home, made dinner, cleaned the bathroom and I had a headache so I went to bed (this was at 8). Tonight I got home, cleaned the apartment, (dust/vacuum), did laundry, cut up a chicken, took out the garbage, ate dinner and now my headache is so bad i think i'm going to bed at 8 tonight again. This is really annoying. I will take some tylenol and try just reading - gotta get off the computer though, the light bothers my eyes when my headache gets this bad.

My headaches are wierd - I have lived on a computer now for 4 years, no problems and these past 2 months have been horrible since I started working. I'm used to working all summer long (4 months straight) on a computer for 9 hours a day and never had a problem but something about this summer is different. Plus I've spend endless hours on my laptop during school and never had a problem. Now I find if I use my laptop at work I don't necessarily get a headache but if i use the regular computer (or the laptop today at training - different laptop) i get this pounding headache by the end of the day. My solution has been to bring my laptop to work and use that but there are some things I have to do on the other computer.... UGG, i need to 1) get my eyes checked at an eye doc - never been before so it's about time 2) if nothing is wrong, maybe see a doctor about my headaches and 3) start tracking what i eat/do/drink the days i get them (which right now is every weekday so i'll start keeping track tomorrow).

Enough complaining --- actually i have more complaining but it's something different. I headed out this morning at 7:30 like usual for training and got onto I-95/128 and there I stopped - the normal 40 minute drive took me 2 1/2 hours to get there. It was really bad, i guess they had closed down most of the lanes of 128 for an accident but i had no idea and i was just sitting in gridlock for an hour, then inching for another hour, then finally i got on rt 3 to 495 to I-93 and that part took only half an hour. Lucky for me that is the last time I'm driving up 128 in the morning *i hope*.

Stitching - no cross stitching lately - been a very busy week, getting home late and such. Tuesdya night I had my quilt class - I will post a picture after I actually work on block two. Right now I have the templates cut and some of them traced onto the fabric but no fabric cut. I should get working on it because this one has more sewing than the last but these headaches are hurting my night free time.

I'm sure I'll be on again tomorrow so i will do the QOTW then - right now i have another load of laundry to fold before the bf gets home from the library and then i'm going to bed!

I thought I'd pop on real quick and list out the new stash I have aquired :)

Today was a great day - Two coworkers and I are taking training classes in Andover, which is a tad more of a drive but the day passes quickly and we're actually getting to do some coding which, even thought it's menial stuff I still love it, i haven't coded in SO long!

Anyhow so I took out my stash to fondle and I thought I'd quick pop on here before getting some work done and helping my boyfriend with his resume. Keep in mind I spent only 46 dollars - 40 was my budget so I did really well!

First I found two more of the Shepherd's Bush months for my next RR, Nov and Dec. So now I have 8 I think.
Then I got a sale piece - Shamrock Sampler by The Sweetheart Tree. Now I just need the charm, oh but wait,
the next piece I got comes with the same charm (but that means I need a second still :) Tangled Shamrocks "Teenie Tweenie" by The Sweetheart Tree. It's a Claddagh charm - silver. My boyfriend is Irish and I love the Claddagh charm (matches my ring) :)
Then I saw some cute pieces that I thought I might be able to do something creative with, not sure what yet but they are Mini Ginghams by Twisted Threads - January Snow, October Boo and Dec Joy. I don't want to stitch them on the Gingham because I don't think the patterns stand out enough but I will think of something.
THen I just oogled over the threads and picked out a few WDW that really caught my attention and some GAST - possibly for the SAL in january where the piece is all in one color, I bought 3 skeins, hopefully that will be enough.
Oh and I picked up some beading needles so I can't delay my beads on the True Blue Friends piece :)
That's it - of course I mentioned going to ACMoore too - I bought an album so that I can cover it whenever I finish True Blue friends into an album cover :) Better to be prepared :)

Alright - off to help with the resume and then maybe get some work done. Went running this morning and my legs are tired so I may be heading to bed early tonight so I can run again tomorrow :)

A stitch weekend!!!

Let's start from the beginning:
Friday Night:
Since my boyfriend and my sister's boyfriend both went home to NY to first visit friends and then go to NYC for a bachelor party we decided to start our stitch weekend early. She drove out friday night and while waiting for her I did a little work on the piece for my boyfriend. I realized upon picking it up that I had used only 2 strands for the brown of the mountains and I was supposed to use 4 - so I stitched over the existing 2 with 2 more, looked real nice, then started stitching with 4 and it looked sloppy so I think I'm going to stitch twice for each stitch with just 2... but alas after she showed up I put it away and we just chatted.

Saturday: Boy did it rain! We drove first to Cross Stitch Unlimited in Arlington because there was a wedding piece that I wanted her to see in case she liked it she could do it for her boyfriend's brother's wedding in May - It's by Trilogy, it's real cute. She bought it :) and a few other things. Then in the pouring rain we drove down to RI - a little slipping on the road but we made it fine and we spent 2 hours walking around With Heart and Soul in Cumberland. She bought the things she needed to start the wedding piece and a few other small pieces, and I just browsed and ended up spending about 46 dollars -- hmmm, what did I get ... I will fill in later.

So then we continued to the B&B, stopping first for some candy and water of course.
The B&B was very cute - oh and the rain stopped by now ;) and we stayed up in the 3 floor room, it was 2 single beds and a private bath, very quaint. So we stitched and stitched and stitched.

Sunday - slept in, had breakfast and headed home where we then went to ACMoore and JoAnn's just to finish up the weekend :) Lunch then my sister went home and I proceeded to stitch while listening to my book on tape (Todays the monthly DD SAL), so I started another DD Virtue dragon - Wisdom, a progress pic is in my album, it's not much so I won't post it here yet.

So now it's 6:30, my boyfriend just got home and I should start working on the website but first:
What I stitched:
First I finished my quilt block, here's a pic:


Then I worked on True Blue Friends, and it's finished besides the beads and charms:

And if I have time later I'll add in what I bought at With Heart and Soul :) Thanks for reading!

As promised, my work in progress:

There's block number 1 almost complete. Hopefully I can finish it this weekend.

Last night was a bore, I went home, did nothing really, I did read through the CrossStitcher June 2003 mag that arrived, I can't wait to stitch crafty cat - but it will have to be a 2005 project and I will definately be changing the color of the face, it's too dark for sure.
Then I read through the Just Cross Stitch Ornament issue (2004) a bit, not everything but got the gist and read about my favorite designers. I will have to go through and copy out the recipes I will actually use and I picked out about 5 ornaments that I do really like and will have to do at some point :)

Then I worked on the website for about an hour, and then read - my book is getting a bit odd, I'm reading "Very Old Bones" by William Kennedy. I do plan on reading a few more of his books, he wrote a lot about Albany, NY which is close to where I grew up - the closest "city" to where I grew up anyway. My boyfriend read "O Albany" by him for school two years ago and some of his other books are very popular so I'll have to look into those sometime.

So far in Very Old Bones, I would say it was going along nicely and then part 3 ended with a bit of a strange scene in a strip club with the main character and his wife, very difficult to figure out what type of relationship they have, it seems they really love each other and are attracted to each other but then there's this element that they aren't faithful or truthful with each other, hard to figure out.

newsflash:
Next week I may not be blogging much, if at all - mon-thur, I will be at training in Andover instead of regular work, i may have my computer but no guarentee I can use it and no guarentee I will have time at night to blog since I will be getting home later :( But next friday I will have lots to fill in :)

This weekend should be cool. My boyfriend leaves today to go back to NY for a bachelor party tomorrow night and to see friends tonight. So tonight I have the night to myself, I plan to work on the sight and then cross stitch or quilt and gather supplies for tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm meeting my sister in Rhode Island to go to With Heart and Soul - LNS, we'll shop, eat dinner then go to a nearby B&B for a night of stitching and chatting... note to self: bring ott light. Sunday we can sleep in, eat free breakfast and head out, then I have all sunday to continue stitching/quilting and maybe some work before monday... I should be fully rejuvenated :)

So next friday i may have a bunch of new pictures for you all ! And now I must get some work done -- and read more blogs :)

Thursday - and I'm leaving early (2 hours)...

That's right I got to work before 7 and no break so I'm leaving at 3 and it's 1 now! I actually have to go to Walmart on the way home to get a few things so I won't get home much earlier than normal.

Last night was a good night. My aunt and I didn't work on our small quilt, but I did work on my quilt block for class on tuesday. Maybe I can post a pic tomorrow. I have the 9 patch done and the top row and middle row together so I have only 2 small seams and 2 large seams left to go and the block is done! I can't wait to show a pic, I love the colors together.

An update on life: Not really much to say but yesterday and today we had meetings in the morning and then yesterday for lunch we went out to a business lunch which was a nice 2 hours out. Then my aunt, uncle, cousin and I also went out for dinner so I've had enough restaurant food to hold me over for a while! Today it's leftovers for lunch and I'm grilling steak and corn on the cob for dinner.

Speaking of lunch - i'm hungry so I'm off to heat up my food :)

Pictures Pictures and I stitched!

First - a picture of the progress on True Blue Friends from last thursday's stitch night: (I know not much)

Last night was pretty darn good. I got home, I worked on the website for 2 hours then I put it away and stitched for an hour! 17 hours and the RR is finished! Here's a pic of the finished part I did. If you want to see more of the RR you can visit my album (link on the side bar) and it's in the International RR folder.

I think it came out pretty neat and I'm excited to mail it back to Spain.

Tonight will be a purely quilting night with my aunt. I bought the fabric we need for the border of our quilt and it's all ready for appliquet so we'll do that hopefully. I'll leave it at that - keep the blog on stitching/quilting for today :)

Headaches, headaches, every day!

This is just horrible, I have to live on tylenol just to survive! Last night - headache and this morning still pounding!

So last night I broke in the new grill we got! It took a while to get the propane to work, but then I grilled up some chicken (I bought a whole chicken and cut it up saving the breast meat for stir fry tonight and grilling the rest, saving the carcus for soup some time). I also grilled sliced potatoes, yummy and I even have some left for lunch today!

Then I worked on the website for 2 hours but finally my head hurt so bad I had to sleep so I went to bed at 9:45. Up at 5:30 but it felt like 10pm and my head hurt, took tylenol and slept till 6, no running due to headache. But I got here early and get to leave at 4:15 to head to the RMV to see about getting my license switched.

Again, no stitching -work work work is my life :) If my head didn't hurt maybe i'd stitch after working late but we'll see how tonight goes, i'm armed with tylenol and ready to work on the requirements doc i need to do this week. I"m looking forward to training next week, get up a little later at least :)

Large or Small?
Do you stitch small projects one at a time that you can finish quickly, have numerous large projects going at once that you rotate,or both? How does your current system work for you and have you thought about changing it?

Well I have a complete range of projects going. I have some small, some medium and usually a large project going as well (or 2 or 3). Just in my WIPS album I have 4 I would consider WIPS and 2 UFO's and those are just the ones I have pictures of. On top of that I have my quilting, which is a few WIPS going at one time, one medium, one small and one I would consider kind of large (class project). So my philosophy is to get the ones with deadlines done and then do whatever I want, if I'm bored I switch.

Oh and I'm starting a new project sunday for the DD SAL once a month :) Who cares, it's my HOBBY!

Weekends are too short ...

No stitching this weekend at all. I did work on my quilt a bit friday and saturday. I now have the top row and 2 rows of the 9 patch done and all pieces cut and ready to sew.

I also did work on the website this weekend, saturday and sunday to be exact. I got in 3 hours saturday and made tons of progress. Also on Saturday my uncle stopped by to drop off my new grill! It was my graduation gift, so we put it all together and I'll be grilling dinner tonight now that we have a full propane tank too.

After dinner saturday we drove up to my uncle's for the night, we played video games of course until 2 am then sunday I played with the girls. The youngest is now fully crawling - what a cutie, and I got to hold her sleeping for a while saturday night too. The other 2 just started school last week and we're in very good moods most of the time.

After a late late lunch sunday we headed back and my boyfriend worked on his assignment for today while I napped. I had horrible allergies all day sunday, and they compounded into a sinus headache and sore throat. I slept for 2 hours when we got home, then got up and worked on the site. We didn't go to sleep till about midnight but I slept in till 6 so I'm feeling better, still have a headache but allergies aren't bad. My uncle has cats so they really did me in.

Ahhh this week - what's on the schedule:
Nothing :) Hahah - well Wednesday I have my dinner at my aunt and uncle's and every other night I play on working on the website and stitching the RR to send along before next week. I have another RR to start as well so I want to start that next week I think. So now it's time to start the work day :)

Forgot to take a pic.... but stitch night was great.

I feel completely rejuvinated. Yesterday was rough, for the 4th day in a row I got a headache (that's the 6th work day in a row), by the middle of the day... I think i'm getting eye strain from the computer, I'll have to look into precautionary measures and see an eye doctor real soon, i don't need to be messing with my eyes, how could i stitch then???

Anyway, so I went home, went grocery shopping, folded laundry, took out the garbage, busy busy busy, I felt exhausted, and I just wanted to go to bed but I knew I would regret not going to stitch night (i know you wonder how could i even consider missing it but I was THAT tired and my head hurt - and it's a drive!). Anyway so I went and of course had a blast, and i felt refreshed and in good spirits afterwards!

What I stitched: I worked on True Blue Friends like planned - I will post a pic as soon as I can. I haven't decided whether I should plug along and finish this one or get some other things done but for this weekend I have quilting to do anyway.
What I bought: I hit the winfall :) I got the Just Nan buttons for Barnabee's Quest Pt I and III, I don't like the rooster for part II so I'll have to pic something different. I also put in a request for the Shepherd's Bush buttons for the month series that I'm doing in my next RR. I bought Bunny Gingham and the fabric - now this I've wanted forever because it reminds me of my little bunny and I think I'll stitch it at the next stitch night.
I also bought the Ornament mag. I subscribe to JCS but at the wrong time of year so I don't get the free one, next year I'm going to try to not resubscribe until later in the season and see if I get an offer, maybe miss an issue but no biggie i have newstands.
I bought a project bag because I love to organize and I just needed another :) I also bought some real small Just Nan's, one with frogs, peepers something, and one with ladybugs and two others. They'll be cute to kit up some time and do quickly? nothings ever quick right.

So that was my night, I left promptly at 9 this time and got home in 15 minutes (bonus) and then read before bed. I was kinda cross stitched out due to my eye strain so I need to get on top of this problem pronto! I'm off to read more on the internet about it.

Quilt night at my aunt's...

This really is the best week ever, and tonight is stitch night - i can't wait :)

Last night my aunt and I worked on the quilt we're doing together, it's a log cabin basket. We put the small border pieces on the background fabric and then cut all the pieces for appliquet and starched and pressed the edges under on everything so we're all set next week to start the appliquet. When that's done we just have to put on the last border which I'm going to pick up at JoAnn's tomorrow hopefully.

I also got my fabric washed for my new quilt so today at lunch I might pull it out and play a bit :) And tomorrow/saturday really work on it.
Stitch night tonight - I plan on working on True Blue Friends, so maybe they'll be an updated pic tomorrow and i'm bringing 20 dollars i'm allowed to spend :) Then tomorrow after work I am going to JoAnn's then working on the website and then quilting :) Saturday it's more website and more quilting and then up to my Uncle's to see the cousins. Oh some where in there I have to buy my youngest cousin a birthday present.

I've figured the way I'm going to do the birthday thing is this... near each birthday get them each something special, then on their combined birthday party get the three all something even though the youngest's isn't until February but she will start getting to the age where she will want presents too :) I dont' want to buy all 3 something for each birthday and I think think the two oldest are at the age to understand that it's a special day for their sister etc.

Well it's bagel day so i'm going to go find me a bagle to eat :)

My first quilting class...

The class is taught at the Arlington "Fabric Corner" store. We're doing 6 blocks from:

First we're starting with Blocks in Box which is basically a ninepatch with a border and the border has corner blocks. This block isn't in the book - it's basically "the honeybee" from the book but without the appliquet. hmmm... i like the honeybee... but we're saving our appliquet till the end so i'll have to save that for another quilt.
The class is quilt as you go, so we're going to do 3 blocks then learn the quilting. So far I've got 4 fabrics, which should be enough for the top of all 6 blocks. Then I'll pick out a sashing, border and backing fabrics. The back can actually be something different for each block because it's quilt as you go and then it'll be reversible. I'm so excited. I cut out my templates yesterday when I got home and tonight I'm hoping to get my fabrics washed and pressed. The sewing is all by hand - which is so cool, and totally new to me.
Only problem is I'm not sure how much we're supposed to get finished before the next class. She said 15 minutes a day, I don't have that but I do have chunks of time like an hour every few days. Once I get the 9 patch put together I'll post a pic. I think that's all we have to do, but I couldn't say for sure. I'll probably just do as much as I can.
Tonight I'll be at my aunt and uncle's, we're working on a quilt already, a small one and if my aunt picked up background fabric we can start the appliquet of the log cabin basket we made. More appliquet :) Now I need a trip to JoAnn's to get the rest of my supplies I didn't want to buy at the store since it was kinda overpriced. I did however buy the book there (could have saved 8 dollars elsewhere but i figured it was a good thing to do), and I bought a lot of supplies but some basic stuff like pins (which I have a few of already), seam ripper (have one someplace) and large scissors I could get elsewhere. For now with the square ones I'll probably use my rotary cutter, i want to get a mini mat for it to bring to class too, even though no one else is using one but that's because it's more of an investment and I already have one. I also need a small ruler (only have large ones).
So I have 25 dollars more on my budget still - since I decided 75 for the class supplies - and i have a 10 dollar gift cert to JoAnn's so if i keep that under 20 I can get the rest of my fabric later in budget (we get 20% off fabric for our quilt).
That's my night - it was great and now I have these really long straw needles to get used to, but I already see great possibilities using longer ones for quilting (i just switched to petites for cross stitch recently). And I'm off - to read a bit in my book maybe.

Er… what do you do again??
How do you explain cross stitch to non-cross stitching people? Do they get it or do they say “Oh, right.. you do knitting then (or sewing, or needlepoint)"?

I haven't had to explain too often, usually just saying it's similar to embroidery is enough. I do however often get the, isn't that for old ladies? question -- I just ignore it, my boyfriend's learned that this is a hobby that I do not enjoy criticism about and he's been great. He'd be more great about it if I went along and finished his piece already.

A picture promised...

That's right - I am posting my WIP, True Blue Friends, with 5 hours stitching time put into it.

The borders are in Caron Waterlilies and the rest is DMC, there's Rhodes Hearts -those were a first for me and satin stitches. Fun fun!

Tonight marks my first quilting class - i can't wait! I'll have to start posting pics of my quilting progress too. Comments welcome!

My day off :)

That's right - today is my day off, and so far so good :)

This weekend has been good but busy. Saturday we drove to my boyfriend's parent's house, they had a dinner party which was a good time, then we went to the fair up the road quick to run into old friends from high school in the beer tent. After an hour we were both bored and went back to bed. Sunday we packed up more of my boyfriend's stuff - including a ton of laundry, packed up his car, had dinner at my parent's and headed back home.

Today was a quick clean the apartment, go to walmart and now i'm running loads of laundry through and just settling down to work on the website for a few hours. After which I will just cross stitch and relax the last 2 hours of my night before my hectic week starts. Maybe i'll have some pictures to post later tonight :)

This week is busy:
Tuesday - quilt class day 1 6-8pm in Arlington
Wednesday - uncle's house for dinner and more quilting
Thursday - stitch night in Arlington 6:30-9pm
Friday - MUST work more on the website!
Then the weekend - I love short weeks :)

A new project started!

First a quick pic of the Tiny Tool Pouch I finished the night before:



So last night the cable guy comes - little drama there I will just share quickly. Basically there is no signal coming to the modem, so he goes the basement, finds the problem, fixes it and then the signal is there, but the modem won't work - strange - his modem works though - of course - so we end up renting their modem for 5 dollars a month. Now the real odd thing is that this IDENTICAL thing happened to my sister - i'm just wondering what the odds are that the modem goes bad and the signal from the basement goes - all during an interval in which they tell me they are doing "maintenence", i think they are purposely blocking my modem some how and I wish I could prove it!

On another note - so internet was up but I got some stitching in. First I finished the star on this:

That's my part of the RR i'm stitching -- any opinions on whether I should add more - maybe another star stitched over 2 by the moon, more flowers floating randomly (like near the moon's crown)... any ideas welcome.
Then I started a new project, the True Blue Friends from my friend Carol in Canada. It's the first time stitching with Waterlilies and I Love it - I am more than halfway done with the border design. This project will get worked on sporadically since I have other projects with deadlines but at least it's started :)

Oh - and to start today off I got a nice run in, with DBF and got to work early so I will get some work done, go to the gym today and I can leave around 4! I'm off!

My weekly night away...

And I didn't sleep right after dinner this time :) My aunt and I started our quilt last night. We had picked the fabrics out a while ago and last night we cut the strips before dinner, after dinner we made the single log cabin, mine is finished, my aunt's is almost finished but she found a spot where she put the wrong side on first so she stopped (mistakes just compound when you're tired). We cut my log cabin in half to see what it will look like as a basket, the next step is to appliquet the said basket onto backing fabric. Next week... :)

I also got a bit of time to stitch, i finally finally finished the Tiny Tool Pouch from a class back at Celebrations of NW NH. I will post a pic once the internet at home is up and running which *may* be tonight.
I'm off to read blogs...

September Stitching (and other) Goals:

I am going to start doing this formally now - before it was just random.

1. Finish the band sampler RR and mail back to owner!
2. Start and finish the next RR piece for RR3 (don't know what it is yet)
3. Start and finish friendship kit from Carol for office

I'll go easy on myself this month since my other goals are:
1. Finish the darn website!!!

And activities this month are:
1. 2 stitch nights (thursdays)
2. Quilting class starts every other tuesday
3. Class in rhode island on other 2 thursdays
4. Stitch night in RI with my sister at a B&B

With the quilt class I will start to need time to work on the quilt too - which cuts into my stitching time. That's okay though my only hard deadlines are my RR's for now!

Mid week, but it feel like friday... (as always)

O bother - I hate dealing with Comcast! Still no internet last night, so I called them and set up an appointment for Thursday night between 5 and 7. Even if i find out it's my modem and have to pay them 50 dollars it's worth it so i can work again and earn that money back in an hour!

On the good side of all this, I got to stitch last night! I got home, went grocery shopping and then snuggled up to stitch, with a few breaks to do things for my boyfriend. In total I only got about an hour and a half of stitching in, bring my total for the month of August up to 16 hours. I know that sounds lame but I work two jobs!

On the stitching front - the moon on the RR is finished! It looks adorable even though it's over one and the rest is over 2. What I think I will do is stitch some over 2 stuff around the moon (a small star and more flowers) and then some over one stuff on the other side (more stars and flowers). Then it will be complete. The confetti stitches though are horrible - drive me crazy changing colors so much especially stitching with one strand!

So, soon, maybe next week I will be finished and post a picture in my album and a link from here. Yippee - I love accomplishing something!