May ReCap:

1) Finish quilting center block of amish quilt (corners and scallops) [DONE]
2) Start quilting inner green border [DONE]
3) Piece blocks 9 + 10 of ohio star quilt (i will try again to get 2 blocks) [9 Done, 10 Started]
4) Stitch 10 hours on Peaceful Silhouette [3 hours]
5) Legends of the Dragons - finish Majesty including word and continue on border [DONE]
6) Finish Wendy White Needlebook (add monogram and put together) [Nope]
7) Start/Finish Ever So Little Tiger [DONE]
8) Piece 4 blocks for raffle quilt [DONE]
9) Embroider 1 block for raffle quilt with japanese fan motif [DONE]

Yea! I did good this last month and I only stitched 20 odd hours, and quilted 20 hours!

Pig Roast Weekend!

First I'll post my updated pictures, I never posted my finished Tiger so here he is:

He took 7.5 hours to complete.

And my updated Legends of the Dragons, I worked more on the border and finished the word Majesty under the dragon.

That's at 37 hours.

I had a great weekend - the weather was better than I ever thought it would be! Thursday I took a day off to just relax with my boyfriend, we got stuff done, including clothes shopping for him for his internship this summer which started today. Then we watched The Last Samurai which I really enjoyed. I read the book Shogun and there were a lot of similarities between the two experiences.

Friday we picked up my brother's girlfriend and drove back home. We spent the day helping out about the house, baking, cleaning etc. Then we had a night with the family playing poker as my uncle's all came early.

Saturday was the pig roast. It was great, it was slow starting compared to normal, most people showed up more like 3 instead of 1 but that just meant more pig for us early folk. I took tons of pictures, filling my camera and getting some great shots. If they come out alright I will print them to scrapbook them. I did them on low quality though so i'm not sure how they will come out printed unless I print them myself smaller than 4x6.

Sunday was more family time, my little cousins were tired and kept trying to go to sleep but we tried to put that off for their car ride to help their parents a bit so we kept them running around. Plus I could get more pictures of them that way :)

We came home pretty early sunday and relaxed yesterday as well. I managed to get some stuff done, and I baked a cake for my boss' birthday today. I actually baked 2 cakes and made them into the shape of a hot dog with a bun. Unfortunately as I was baking the second cake (the chocolate part), the oven broke. So I finished it on the grill, not sure how it came out but it seems to be cooked through and the pieces I cut off tasted fine. We'll see this afternoon when we cut it open.

I didn't get a lot of stitching in. I haven't been stitching much lately. I have to start working on the website tonight too so that will cut down more on stitching. Which brings me to my goals, I didnt' do too badly and I'll do them in a seperate entry but I think I will be easy on myself next month. I am going to put away Peaceful Silhouette for a while and focus on Legends of the Dragons at work now. The Ever So Little - Gazelle which I need to start and finish in June I will work on sporadically including at my stitch nights that I can make. And most evenings I will continue working on my quilt.

Speaking of my quilt - I finished quilting the center 15" square of the quilt and i think it looks good. I started the first green border a bit too. Hopefully in June I can finish the green border and start the cross hatch triangles. Maybe I can get a picture of my quilting so far.
Well off to a meeting!

Note to self:

Thurday - quilted 2 hours on Amish quilt
Friday - stitched 2 hours on Legends of the Dragons
Saturday - no stitching

A messed up sweater.

Well guild was okay, I did all the business I needed to do of getting raffle tickets for the quilt in october, getting more blocks to piece for next year's raffle quilt, handed in my finished pieces etc. Then for the meeting I took out my sweater to continue knitting the back.

Well the woman next to me was also a knitter so I asked her advice on my end stitches because they are really loose, she looked at it and did a few stitches. The problem is that she stitches differently than I, I hold the yarn in my left hand and "grab" it with the needle, she uses her right hand and wraps it around the needle. No real biggie but when I took it back and started knitting the yarn was on the wrong side and wrapped around the stitches she did. I didn't notice right away of course.

So I tried unknitting what I had done to fix it. Unfortunately I don't actually know how to unknit and somewhere I ended up with an extra stitch. I checked, i was supposed to have 64 and I had 65. Instead of smartly just knitting 2 together where it looked reasonable to do so I dropped one where I thought it had happened and tried to recreate what it was supposed to be. Well that backfired, but I didn't realize it right away either.

4 rows of knit/purl later I looked back and I had a huge hole that was growing bigger! Oh crap. I thought i'd have to unknit all the way back so I just put it down until I got home. When I was home I studied the hole and grabbed the escaping thread and "knitted" it up through where it should have been, a makeshift fix for sure as it doesn't look good but there's no hole at least. Then I added it to my current stitch so I still have only 64. Why didn't I just knit 2 together back then???? Now I have this huge mistake that I'm always going to hate and from the inside it's REALLY noticeable, luckily on the outside it's not that bad.

So this will deter me from finishing this sweater (I haven't gotten that far to begin with though since I'm still on the back). Plus I haven't liked the color that much, I don't think it's a color I'd wear very often. Plus (another plus), I didnt' buy enough yarn so i'll have to get more and most likely the dye lots won't match.

I was thinking of looking for yarn online and getting some new yarn that I like where it will all match and start over. Now i'm a little better at it and maybe can keep my tension more even. Anyhow - for now I'll just put it away and concentrate on other things.

I took tomorrow and friday off of work so chances are I won't blog again till tuesday (monday is a holiday) unless i'm really bored some day. My brother emailed me asking me if we could pick up his girlfriend and drive her home with us friday morning - girlfriend who we've only met once and it's not like my brother will be with us. Of course I will give her a ride (preferably she can take the train out to our place instead of us driving in to boston during rush hour morning). But it's wierd. Just great. Hopefully he won't ask us to drive her back too since we are already driving my uncle back. I just don't understand why she can't get a ride back herself, or borrow a parent's car or something. I guess I'm comparing her to me in college and I was more "on my own" and had a car by that time and didn't rely on other people at all.

Well I already broke my "don't buy new stuff for a while", I had forgotten that I bid on something on ebay and I just won it today. It was the Mirabilia Spring in my Garden that I liked. Last thing for a while though!

Today is going to be a busy work day since I have tomorrow off, i best get to it. And tonight might be an evening of quilting????

Lots of Stampin' fun!

When I got home last night I quickly ate dinner and headed over to my friend's house, our stamp order had arrived earlier. It was a great evening of oogling over my new stuff and hers and then putting the stamps together (they come in such a way that you cut the stamps out of the rubber and stick the rubber and the picture on a wood block). Nothing harder than using a pair of scissors so we had a great time. I can't wait to use some of my new stuff. I need a craft table :(

I worked out my finances yesterday. I have to be good for a while, I really need to work on the website and then i'll be okay. I have Stitcher's Hideaway coming up in July so that will be a big hit financially, so I'm going to be good until then and not buy stuff. We'll see how that goes :)

So no stitching yesterday. I did finish making a curtain for my mom to bring home this weekend. And when I got home from my friend's my boyfriend and I went to the gym for a bit so that was really good. I was exhausted after that so I went right to bed and slept late this morning as well.

Well I must get some work done - I have to write up a self evaluation today for my annual review - yuck! I hate writing about myself! Now I must be the hard worker me....

Picture Update:

I didn't have much time to work on it but here's Legends of the Dragons at 33 hours.


And Peaceful Silhouette I worked on for a tiny bit last week:


I forgot to scan my Ever So Little - Tiger that I finished this weekend, hopefully I will get that later this week.

Not much stitching going on lately. Most evenings last week I worked on my Amish quilt, trying really hard to finish quilting the center square by the end of the month. I finished the 4 cross hatched corners so all i have left is to do the scallops around the block.

Taking friday off was great. Thursday night was a strange night, I stitched at stitch night - working on my Ever So Little. Then home and I think I mostly went to bed but I can't remember. Friday was a long day, first I slept in most of the day, finally catching up on the sleep I've needed since my trip to california.

No gardening got done - I am now saving that until this thursday. I did clean, the whole apartment which was good. Then we went to lunch and bought some movies. The rest of the evening we watched movies and made ice cream sundaes. :)

Saturday we picked my brother up at college and brought him home. Then I spent the day helping my parents get ready for the pig roast next weekend. Sunday we went shopping with my mom for bed linens and towels then out to dinner with my boyfriend's parents. We actually got home quite early - before 7.

I then pieced my quilt blocks for the raffle quilt for guild Tuesday night. Then we watched the movie "Closer" with Julia Roberts. I was not a fan of the movie at all, I can't stand movies where I dislike the characters so much. Those people had problems.

I did manage however to pick up Legends of the Dragons a bit yesterday (car ride), and started the word Majesty along the bottom. I hope to finish that by the end of the month too which I could do if I had 2 hours more probably.

And now it's back to work. Unfortunately it's a bad allergy day as I've had to blow my nose a lot already and I've only been here 2 hours. The great news is that I'm only working 3 days this week then I have Thursday off to garden and stitch. Then friday it's back home to bake and clean for the pig roast. Saturday is the pig roast. Sunday is the recoup day and then we'll come home sunday night to have a relaxing monday (more stitching for me)!!!

I do need to start working on the website, desperately so actually. My funds are running low and I need to cut spending too. I will have to talk to my boyfriend about this, no eating out for a while. Not really a big deal since i will only see him on weekends for the next 11 weeks (after this week).

So my goal is no cross stitch spending or quilting spending or stampin spending or craft spending at all until I've worked on the website for at least 10 hours. That will get me into the flow of working. Really my craft spending isn't a problem because it's not that much, what hurts me is food - eating out etc. and walmart shopping. So I am also going to avoid walmart. I have a gift i need to buy at target thursday when my boyfriend goes clothes shopping for work and that's it until I make some more money.

I sure am crossing my fingers that I get a raise next month (annual review). I'm not counting on it but it would help a lot for sure!

Carol Tagged me for a book meme so I will see what I can answer :)

1. Total number of books I've owned. Not as many as some but working on it. Books are one of the things I like to collect (besides dragons and cross stitch). I don't buy books just to have them, generally I only buy books I will read and I'm doing a decent job keeping up with the ones I buy. I'd say maybe I have 150 (upper bound approximation). When I have a house I will definately have a library.
2. Last book I bought. The Craft. by Dorothy Morrison
3. The last book I read. Poe's Cat by Brenda Walker
4. 5 books that mean a lot to me. That's a tough one. I guess I would say Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, by Thomas Harris. I'm completely blanking. Those two were favorites of mine but I can't think of others, if I was home in front of my bookcase I could name a ton.

Stitch Night Tonight!

I can't wait. And I finally decided to take tomorrow off. With my boyfriend having these 2 weeks off it would be nice to be home with him a bit before he starts working up in NH. Plus with the family reunion I don't have weekends at home to get things done. So I will use 3 of my vacation days up in these two weeks, in total I think I will have used 4 vacation days and I get 3 weeks a year so on my 1 year date I will have 2 weeks and 1 day exactly if I counted right.

I didn't work on my ohio star quilt last night. Instead I worked on knitting my sweater, it's knitted in pieces and I am starting with the back, I have a few inches now, i think it's supposed to be 15", i'm not sure how much I have. This is all new to me so we'll see how it goes.

No running yesterday, the day just didn't work out right for it. At my aunt's I helped make dinner then watched dinner while she went and picked up my cousin. Tonight when I get home I will go for a run with my boyfriend before Stitch. And with tomorrow off I might stay up late stitching tonight.

After seeing Carol's progress on Legends it makes me want to work on that, but I think since it's tough to work with something large at stitch I will work on my Tiger at stitch and then maybe Legends when I get home. I'd like to finish the tiger by the end of the month and I have the body and tail left to finish still.

A quick check on my goals tells me:::
1) I need to keep up quilting amish quilt (obviously)
3) I need to piece block 10 of ohio stars
4) I need to stitch 8 more hours on Peaceful Sillhouette
5) Stitch the word Majesty on Legends and work on border
6) Finish my tiger
7) Piece 4 blocks for raffle quilt
8) I don't think I'll get to the needlebook from Celebrations but maybe I should design the monogram.

I had some high goals, unfortunately with the Pig Roast coming up I lose most of my weekend time to stitch so that's hurting me big time. And next month I'll have the website to work on so I will have to keep my goals down then. Although I'm making good progress with the Ever So Littles and Legends of the Dragons so I want to keep those up. I may take a break next month from Peaceful Sillhouette and work on the Ever So Little at work. Leaving quilting for the evenings and knitting too.

Did I mention I was thinking about a new hobby. Not a completely new hobby, but I was thinking about making paper. I shred a lot of my credit card offers and bills and things. I was thinking of recycling that into homemade paper which I could use for scrapbooking. I could color it and add flowers and plants etc and it would be great for crafts. Just one more thing to do with my free time ;)

If you don't hear from me tomorrow it's because I'm outside planting some flowers in my "garden" :)

Another great night.

As Carol put it, i do believe my boyfriend missed me, not just last week while I was in California but the last few weeks while he was busy studying and such for finals.

When I got home we went running again, a little further this time which was really good. Then he made a pizza for dinner and we watched tv (mostly Seinfeld episodes but also some Sex and the City Reruns). I quilted while he played computer games. I bought a new wrist brace at walmart, along with a ton of other things while I was there (i went in to buy just lotion and came out spending a whole lot more!)

But it was good, I went through the flower section and picked out some bulbs that will grown in full shade since that's all i have and I may take friday off of work to plant them and plant my indoor seeds. Since I won't be home this weekend that's my only chance.

Besides that yesterday my boyfriend cleaned my car (really cleaned - it came out great), then met me for lunch and we ate out. Then we swapped cars and he went home to relax until I got there. It was really nice. I'm going to miss him today since I go to my aunt's tonight, but i'm going to try to keep up the running by running after work today hopefully, i brought my clothes :)

On my Amish Quilt, I now have 3 cross hatch/flower corners finished of the center block and the 4th started a bit. I need another evening to finish that probably (2-3 hours) then I can start on the border design which needs to be outlined in white again because it keeps rubbing out. My month goal is to get the green border at least started - so maybe one side finished completely would be good. Next month I can finish that and start on the purple triangle cross hatch which is huge!

I've never had a Mirabilia pattern that I've wanted to stitch, but I've now found some that I really want, particularly I like the style of
Spring in My Garden
Summer in My Garden
Winter in My Garden
I don't see a Fall in My Garden - wonder if there will be one.
I also like
Sleeping Beauty
and
Cinderella
There are a few others that I like, and most of them I think are beautiful I just don't think I'd actually stitch them as I have to feel a connection or pull to a large piece before stitching it.
I do own Midsummer's Night's Fairy and I like that one a lot, not sure if i'll stitch it but I couldn't turn it down on sale since I do like it a lot. The best part about having some patterns I like is that when I have some free money to spend I know exactly what to get, lately it's been tough finding new patterns I like and I had kind of slowed down buying any. But then this month i've had no problems :)

Another note - this week since I've been running regularly (yesterday marked day 3!!!), I decided to cut candy/junk out of my diet for a while. I'm doing pretty good at this, i'm not watching what i eat (i still ate chinese food for lunch monday), but no candy or sugar snacks for a few days, and a lot more fruit has been going well. I'm not trying to lose weight so much as get in a little better shape and be healthier in general so we'll just see how this goes!

If every day could be like yesterday...

of course with slight variations ;) Yesterday was a good day, i worked 9-5 since I came in late, but then when i got home my boyfriend and i went running, which was really good. Then we went out to dinner down the road (Mexican), it was very nice. After that I quick vacuumed the kitchen because the tracked in dirt for the last 2 weeks was driving me nuts.

The rest of the evening was just relaxing, 2 hours watching Seinfeld episodes (we have seasons 1&2 on dvd), and i quilted until my wrist couldn't take it any longer. Then my boyfriend gave me a head/neck/back massage which i really needed. That pretty much put me to sleep. So it was a great night ;) With a little quilting too.

Today I took his car to work, he cleaned his car yesterday and he's going to clean my car today, then he's going to drive out here and we're going to go out to lunch and swap back cars. It means a later day for me since i'm taking a lunch break but i managed to come in before 8 today at least. Maybe tomorrow i can get back to 7:30.

I'm not sure when I'll get to stitching. Tonight I will quilt more, tomorrow is quilting at my aunt's. Thursday is stitch night so i'll stitch something, probably my Ever So Little Tiger. Friday more quilting maybe. We're going home this weekend so i'll probably bring my quilting (can you tell i'm trying to focus on that).

I really need to work on the website, my goal is to start a bit, fixing a few problems that have crept up. But really i'm going to wait until June when my boyfriend will be in NH 3/4 nights a week and i'll work on the site those nights. I haven't told the owner of the site yet but with my family reunion and being so busy that's the best way. I could really use the money but i'll be fine if i start in June, that means i'll earn a decent amount by the end of the summer, maybe pay off some of my car loan if i can.

Hmmm... work is slow right now, yesterday i finished up all that i had to do, now i'm waiting for a meeting at 11, then hopefully i'll get more tasks to work on. I do have my stitching at work too.. Peaceful Sillhouette which has been untouched this month so far, maybe starting tomorrow i can pick that up at lunch time again and get working on it. To meet my monthly goal i need to work an evening or something on it (a decent number of hours). But i'm not sure I will get that with the Pig Roast (family reunion). I am taking Thursday the 26th off of work to stay home and clean and relax, then friday we're heading back to NY to help set up for the Pig Roast which is Saturday. Then I have Memorial Day off too... maybe i can get a lot done :)

If I could be a scientist . . .

If I could be a farmer I would have lots of children and animals. I would get up at dawn and spend the morning tending to animals and then cleaning/cooking. The children would have chores if they weren't in school and in the evenings I would stitch. I would not have a tv at all and my family would play board games and cards to occupy ourselves.

If I could be a musician . . .

If I could be a doctor I would work in a small town where I would know each of my patients personally. Where I would give a child their first exam and still know them when they go off to college and need final vaccinations. I would strive to know each patient, and listen, even when they aren't talking, sometimes people just need more time to talk and it's very easy to miss the important things that are said if you are expecting answers, I would expect nothing.

If I could be a painter I would travel around the world, painting everything I see. I would paint things that no one notices anymore as life moves too fast. I would sit for hours in a field watching crickets or the sunrise and paint whatever catches my eye. My art would show people what they are missing.

If I could be a gardener . . .
If I could be a missionary . . .
If I could be a chef . . .
If I could be an architect . . .
If I could be a linguist . . .
If I could be a psychologist . . .

If I could be a librarian I would read all day long. I would have story times for children to encourage interest in reading at a young age. I would organize book clubs for children and adults and participate in as many as I could. I love books and I would be very happy.

If I could be an athlete . . .
If I could be a lawyer . . .
If I could be an inn-keeper . . .
If I could be a professor . . .
If I could be a writer . . .
If I could be a llama-rider . . .
If I could be a bonnie pirate . . .

If I could be an astronaut in the idealized sense, I would go to the moon and to Mars and any other planet I could. I would sit in the space station and admire the stars and earth all at once. I believe the future is in space and I would try to set up more programs to get more young people interested in space exploration, it's expensive and not popular enough to have the funding it really needs.

If I could be a world famous blogger . . .
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world . . .
If I could be married to any current famous political figure . . .

Officially Back!

And it's good to be home. With no further delay I will post a few progress pics before writing what i'm sure will be a lot :)

First my progress of Legends - it's only a few more hours but now Majesty is finished and I can work on the word Majesty and the border next:


I think that's 31 hours.

Then I started the Ever So Little Tiger - so here's that little guy:

This is 3.5 hours progress.

I'm not posting pics here but I did finish Ohio Star number 9 and started number 10. Pics of 8 and 9 have been added to my online album.

Another picture is my finished embroidered block for my quilt guild raffle quilt. It's a japanese style quilt so i thought the fan would work well:

That only took about 4 hours.

Let's see... while I was gone, last week was busy of course, i know i mentioned that. I managed to get a bit of stitching done but nothing like I had hoped. Friday I flew back and was exhausted, my boyfriend and I ordered in for dinner and watched LOTR Return of the King extended edition. I only stayed awake because I was still on Pacific time :)
Saturday I made myself get up around 10 and we went running, then we walked for another half hour around a preserve near us, it was very nice.
I went to a Stampin party at my friend's after that - and I spent a lot :) I got a lot more than I had hoped though so I can't wait for it to come in. Plus we got to make a couple cards and learned some techniques which was really great.

Sunday was my sister's graduation - so I got up really early and it was a lot of driving. Then a long day then a lot more driving to get home. I was exhausted! And today I just couldn't get up. I made it in to work around 9 which is really late for me but no one could blame me.

In my absence I've realized I need to start working on the website which will hurt my stitching and quilting a great deal. I'm not sure how much time I can focus on the site though until June with our family reunion in two weeks and I'm going home next weekend to help get the houses ready.

I think I will work every day this week, I have a night at my uncle's wednesday, stitch night thursday and next week tuesday is guild. Then I think I might take thursday and friday of next week off so we can help with the setup some more. I will mostly take it as it comes.

While I was gone I was also tagged :) I will answer those shortly in a seperate entry :) Unfortunately I don't have 3 others to tag as most of the blogs that i read (and all that i comment on) have already answered them.

All in all my trip was a great experience, but i'm tired now :) I think i'm still on Pacific time and hopefully after another good nights sleep tonight I will be able to get up at 6 tomorrow and have a normal day. Happy stitching everyone!

Well yesterday was much better but also some bad news.

Work wise our presentation went much faster than we thought it would besides a slow going morning yesterday.
I found out on Tuesday that a coworker out here is also a quilter, so we spent a lot of time tuesday and wednesday chatting about quilting and getting out early yesterday meant we had time to kill so she took me to a quilt shop nearby which was really great, i got some fabric that is just brighter than i normally see on the east coast.
Then we went to the beach to walk a bit and just take in the ocean (a real treat for me), it's been cool out, not cold but windy enough to be comfortable in pants. After that we went to the outlets to shop and have dinner so of course i bought a few small things that would fit in my suitcase.

Dinner was long, we talked a lot, we have a lot in common and she's a very interesting person, it was 8:30 before i got back to the hotel. The rest of the night I spent watching tv after i finished reading my book "Poe's Cat" which is just strange, kinda hard to follow but interesting in places also.
So I stitched, i finished the dragon Majesty on Legends of the Dragons, all the backstitching is done, so next I will work more on the border and start the word Majesty below it.

Tonight we will go out to dinner as a large group from work, then we drive to LA so who knows when i'll get to the hotel, maybe 10, then that only leaves an hour to stitch, but i may stay up later, i'm not sure as i'm just getting up to fly home.
Tomorrow on the plane there's so much i still want to get done. I want to piece my 9th ohio star and maybe start number 10, then i want to finish my embroidered block which is taking a while because my needle is a pain to use (i dont usually use pearl cotton and i'm not liking having to use a larger needle). I also may stitch more on the Ever So Little, i think i'm done with Legends for the week and no work on Peaceful Silhouette this week but i can pick that up next week at work again. We shall see, i have a good 5 hours on the plane friday if i don't read much.

Note to self for when i get back:
Saturday (at sarah's) stitched Ever So Little 1 hour
Monday - plane - stitched Ever So Little 2 hours, embroidered 2 hours
Tuesday - stitched Legends 1 hour
Wednesday - stitched Legends 2 hours

I'm in California now. Just sorting through emails, and i have about 3 minutes. Yesterday we flew out and then worked for a few hours (until 7), i was starving with no lunch or dinner but then we went out to dinner (that's 10pm east coast time). After that i pretty much went to bed. It was nice to "sleep in" this morning though and today it's right into the swing of things. I probably won't have much time on here... next week will be catch up week for sure.

Sorry no picture updates, really there were no updates, i hardly stitched last week at all! I brought my stitching though and started my second Ever So Little (Tiger) on the plane, and that's coming along. Plus i started embroidering the quilt block for the raffle quilt. I hope tonight to get some stitching done too.

I'm sure i'll have pictures next monday or next weekend if i have time (probably not with my sister's graduation). I hope everyone is doing well, i'm safe in CA with the sun shining!

I'm off!

Stitch night - Excitement!

Well i managed to get out of work a little after 5, which meant heavy traffic, home for 5 minutes to unload laundry and pick up stitching, then off. More heavy traffic and i ended up being late by 15 minutes. No biggie, still a seat free.

Turns out i missed some major excitement back at 3 - there was a shooting at the pharmacy next door! No one was hurt at all, just scared and the robber ran off getting nothing (the owner had a gun and shot a warning shot at the ceiling when he saw the guy come in wearing a ski mask). Then the robber took a shot at the owner and the owner shot back (both missed), and the robber ran off. The cross stitch shop shares a wall with the pharmacy so it was quite an event. Tons of police cars and news vans showed up i guess. Only a single police car was left when i showed up.

So it was an interesting night, lots of talking, really no stitching got done, i was too exhausted. I did manage to start the second Ever So Little - the Tiger, mostly i figured out the counting to place him right and started his tail a bit so now i can pick him up easily and work on him.
For the most part i shopped, i spent about 50 dollars... on some great stuff too! I am going to search and see if i can find everything i got to show off.

So I got Girl's Night Out - it's a red hat society chart by Just Nan but i can change the color or ignore it, it's just bright and fun!
I got Thanksgiving Gingham by Twisted Threads.
I got another Witch piece, dont' remember the name - it was three witches flying brooms, in a solid dark color (silhouette piece).


Well there were a bunch more (i spent 50 dollars) - 2 snowmen pieces, another thanksgiving themed piece.
But work calls - i must call into a meeting that i wasn't going to call into until 2.

So quickly - I will be in California next week ! Usually i post pictures and such monday - so maybe sunday night i can get on and blog. I will probably be scarce next week in the blogging scene, especially reading blogs - the monday after will be a lot of catching up :) So I'm not gone yet but I will be going shortly ;)

More than half way finished with block 9 of ohio star.

That's pretty much my night. I worked till 5:30 (not bad only 9 hours), then went to my uncle's and we just relaxed for a bit before dinner. Dinner was great, it was pork boiled and then grilled with potatoes. Gotta love a free meal :)

The rest of the evening the red sox game was on so i worked on my ohio star and i really am close to done, maybe an hour, hour and a half tops left to finish it so maybe i really will finish 2 this month :)

Of course i fell asleep during law and order but now that they have all these new characters i'm not that interested, first lenny is gone - of course the actor passed away but he left the show first, and the guy they brought in i'm not a fan of, he's too loud and pompous. Now green has left i guess, he was shot and i missed the episode after, now they have this younger guy that is REALLY animated and overexcited about everything. Bores me big time. I'll stick to SVU and CI and reruns for now i guess.

Hmmm... time for hot chocolate and a long day - i should be out by 5 though because it's STITCH NIGHT! Time to work on Legends maybe??

Just wanted to plug my favorite store (they take online orders too... hint hint) :)

Cross Stitch Unlimited - located in Arlington, MA

Crochet vs Knit.

I learned to crochet a few years ago, my grandmother crochets a lot and i grew up in her afghans. Well I didn't want to make afghans so i drifted away from it after a scarf and some afgan squares and such. Then I found knitting - just recently, made some scarves and a hat, and i'd like to make a sweater and stuff.

So i was in Joann's on saturday (before Celebrations), looking at yarn and books with patterns. First i thought - maybe i would like to crochet a blanket, so i found a book with some patterns i liked - i have plenty of crochet hooks, so i looked at yarn. Reading the pattern i realized i'd need about 20 skeins of yarn! First that's too much money for me right now and second i can't actually get that much of one dye lot at joann's. So skip that idea.

Then i decided i'd challenge myself and get a sweater pattern i like. I found one, then i decided to keep it as simple as possible i'd get the exact yarn type called for (but in a color i like), so i did and i only needed 4 skeins. Plus i had to get new needles as it needs both 10 1/2 and 9 and i only have 10 1/2, currently attached to half a scarf i'm making to match my hat but i might give that a break.

When will i start the sweater - who knows.. but now i can whenever i want :)

On another note - I'm going to California next week, Monday to Friday, it's for work so it's not that exciting. I will be getting to work around 2 monday and working late, then tuesday will be an easy day and then wednesday and thursday will be LONG days and then we head back to LA thursday night to stay at a hotel close to the airport. So i'm desperately trying to not check my bag, if i was traveling by myself i would just check it but i'm not and the woman i am traveling with never checks a bag. So i have to fit dress clothes, casual clothes and my stitching for a week in one carryon. We'll just see how this goes, i plan on making a practice pack on friday and then clothes shopping saturday.

Again another note - I was at work until 9pm last night. That's a long day. We were working on the presentation material and i finished up my material this morning, just waiting for it to be reviewed now and then see what else i can help on. Tomorrow we do a "dry run" of the presentation, hopefully my part will only be 10 minutes. Then monday out in CA we will do a full practice. Boy am in nervous, this is all so new to me, but i'm up for the challenge and if everyone else has confidence in me i should have confidence right??

So not much got done last night - not gym for sure, i got home, ate some dinner, and quilted for about an hour. Then i went to bed. That's it, an hour at home before bed - i'm sure glad that's not a regular thing. And now i'm really hungry so i'm going to get some breakfast and see if i have any feedback on my work ;)

My wrist hurts. It's been building up since some time last week but my wrist is getting worse, no real surprise considering the amount of stitching and typing I do each day. The problem is I can't find my wrist brace that I have some place - and i think i must have thrown it out last time i cleaned out my closet. I have no idea why i would, but i searched for an hour last night and my apartment is not that large. I checked everyplace and no brace, i really should buy one if i can, i got that one from a doctor 2 years ago when i was "diagnosed" with possible tendonitis. It's strange because as with most problems i have it comes and goes with stress not with over use and of course this is a very stressful time with a deadline at work next week and flying to california for work for the first time.

Anyway - enough of that, last night I worked more on my Amish quilt, only 40 minutes since i spent so much time searching for my brace though. Then I was really good and I went to the gym and ran/walked/biked for 40 minutes and i hope to do the same tonight. When i first got home from work i booted my desktop computer into linux to start working on the website, the mysql database is giving me problems though so i gave up after an hour. I'm not sure what i will do yet but i'll take another crack at it tonight.

Schedule wise for this week it looks like i will be working late tonight and tomorrow night. Then tonight i will quilt more on my amish quilt. Tomorrow night I will start piecing block 9 of my ohio star quilt at my aunt's. Thursday is stitch night so i'll work on Legends. Friday more amish quilt. Then this weekend i want to piece the 4 blocks for the raffle quilt and start embroidering the 5th. I'd also like to maybe start my ever so little - tiger for the month. A nice long weekend at home is what i'm looking forward to.

Oh more good news, i got out my one suitcase last night (as i was searching for my wrist brace) and i measured it, it looks like it's the perfect carryon size, so there's a minimal chance i can fit everything i need in this one bag and just bring the carryon. Then instead of a "purse" i'll bring my cross stitch bag which is purse size. One major dilemma is that i can't bring scissors at all then for the whole week. I'm not sure how that will work. I do have a clover cutter and a needle threader/cutter that i can bring, i'll just have to test them out make sure they will cover me for everything. Plus that means i can't really pack my amish quilt as it's too large so no quilting progress - i'll bring just stitching and piecing/embroidery, maybe my new knitting pattern too, not sure.

So there will be a test packing of my suitcase soon as i like to do stuff like that, then i can find any problems early. Oh yea and that reminds me that i need to go clothes shopping for some more business like clothes (just some button up shirts) so i'm not wearing the same 2 for 4 days. Sorry this is a long entry - and i should be keeping my typing down to a minimum, i guess i should go get my hot chocolate and head into the closed area :(

Celebrations and Pictures!

Well I have to say I had a great weekend :) I will start with some updated pictures. Thursday night and friday morning I worked on Legends of the Dragons and started the backstitching so the updated picture with progress at 28 hours now is:


A few hours progress from working on my lunch break this week leaves Peaceful Silhouette at 23 hours:


And Celebrations. My sister showed up Friday and we made dinner before heading up for round robin. We decided we'd pick one of the 4 projects we got and start it that night so when we got back we started Wendy White's Needlebook but we each changed the color of the words and flower leaves using some Six Strand Sweets, my sister chose a green scheme and I chose a more blue/purple scheme. I finished the main part, what's not finished is the back which needs a monogram that i have to design still. This I finished Saturday night at the hotel:


Saturday was a great day, we stopped at Joann's to shop for a while then shopped at Celebrations for a while upon arrival. I found some great new things including a design of "Miss Mary Mack" and a kit which included the frame and fabric for a tiny design of a house on 36 or 40 count fabric over 1.

After shopping I got to meet Carol whose many projects are even more amazing in person. I can not believe how many projects she has going and going well I might add as they each progress quite a bit each week!

We decided to get some dinner and some stitching in before the saturday night event which was good as I was able to get the queen stitches done on that needlebook by wendy white. Then at the event we got a new project by Susan Greening Davis for another style needlebook, we made the inside cover at the event and I started the front cover sunday morning before our class. This piece has a carnation on the front with some borders, I finished the carnation last night, but realized as i was finishing it that it was supposed to be stitched over 2 and i stitched it over 1... here's the picture:

Not sure what i'm going to do now, maybe i'll restitch it over 2 on the other piece and use this one as the back cover. Doesn't matter right now as this will be put away for a short while.

So then we had our class with Catherine Strickler of Indigo Rose, I took her Stitcher's Toy Box class last year and I like her teaching style as you get to start on the real piece right away so i thought it would be a good class for my sister to try out. It was Tiffany's Sweet Bag with accesories. The kit includes everything to make a 4 sided bag, a needle case, a scissor holder/fob and a case to hold a tiny tape measure which is the same case as the one from last years round robin which i finished last year and so i already have that done :)

So in the class I was able to finish half of the scissor holder we started, this same tree is stitched again on the needle holder and then 4 times on the bag but it only took me 3.5 hours so i think i can handle it. I did mess up towards the top but it's not really noticeable so i'll just ignore it, i figure i have 5 more to stitch and i won't mess any of those up hopefully. Here's the tree finished:


So after that we went to ACMoore and got a frame for my sister's finished piece which is for a wedding in May. When we got home we painted the frame and i laced the piece onto some foam core for her so she can finish the framing when the frame is really dry today. I think it came out great. So after that I finished the carnation but i couldn't stitch much more after that. My wrist was really tired so we went out to dinner and then relaxed the rest of the night.

I hit a high last month and stitched a total of 50 hours plus I quilted 16 hours... this is much more than usual and we'll see if i can keep that up when i have to start working on the website again now :( I need to keep the quilting up around 15 hours in order to hit my deadline and i may need to up that more so we'll see how much of a hit my stitching takes.

Plus I got some new yarn and a pattern for a sweater to knit that i'd like to try out so i may be starting that relatively soon. I'll wait a while as i'd like to finish some of these new projects now :)

May Goals:

I did a lot of stitching last month (50 hours), 66 if you count quilting hours. Not sure i can do that again but here are my new goals:

1) Finish quilting center block of amish quilt (corners and scallops)
2) Start quilting inner green border
3) Piece blocks 9 + 10 of ohio star quilt (i will try again to get 2 blocks)
4) Stitch 10 hours on Peaceful Silhouette
5) Legends of the Dragons - finish Majesty including word and continue on border
6) Finish Wendy White Needlebook (add monogram and put together)
7) Start/Finish Ever So Little Tiger
8) Piece 4 blocks for raffle quilt
9) Embroider 1 block for raffle quilt with japanese fan motif

That hits my goal of finishing at least one piece a month and still focuses on the quilt. Unfortunately with the website who knows what kind of routine i will hit this month, but i do have a week in California where my evenings will be all stitching!