Friday, September 30, 2005

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!

Thursday, September 29, 2005

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 :)

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

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!

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

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) ;)

Monday, September 26, 2005

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..

Friday, September 23, 2005

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.

Thursday, September 22, 2005

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...

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

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.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

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.

Monday, September 19, 2005

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 :)

Sunday, September 18, 2005

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!

Friday, September 16, 2005

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 ;)

Thursday, September 15, 2005

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 :)

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

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..

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

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.

Monday, September 12, 2005

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...

Friday, September 09, 2005

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...

5:00AM Friday

And I'm still up - not that I've just woken up - no still up as in Thursday night still up. It's been a long night and hopefully by 6 I can get a few hours sleep, i'm going in to work late - so I can sleep until maybe 9.

I'm very tired and my brain isn't working well but I am trying to help my boyfriend stay up and grade papers so I'm staying up with him and proof reading his evaluations for him. He owes me and the first thing I'm asking for is a neck rub as my neck is killing me!

I'll be back tomorrow, i mean today - just later...

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Dentists:
I'm not a huge fan of my dentist - well I have two dentists, one I like and the other I really don't like very much. I've never had much done to my teeth, a cleaning every 6 months and that's about it, no braces, fillings etc.
Last year when I moved here I had to find a new dentist, and I did, a woman. Well her practice also has a male doctor, for the sake of this I'll call the woman Dr. Y and the man Dr. X.
First appointment - after my cleaning Dr. X comes in, I was a little surprised but whatever it's a dentist, he takes a look at my teeth - notices I have all my wisdom teeth in (they are all in and they came in when I was around 17 - they made room for themselves, came in straight and have caused no problems). He says "You should really have your wisdom teeth pulled" and proceeded to give me a LECTURE about how bad it is to keep wisdom teeth. a LECTURE - not on flossing/brushing - but on just HAVING my teeth!
I was a bit annoyed and I'm a freak when it comes to pain/needles that kind of thing, so I said there was no way I would consider it without any problems.

Second appointment, Dr. Y comes in - no problems - nothing.

Third appointment (today), Dr. X again - ugg - I got x-rays, before he even looks at me he looks at those - "Hmm.... you have your wisdom teeth, we should really get those out of there" me:"umm.. nope, you said that last time and it's not happening" dr x: "i'm going to say something every time until they're gone" - I gave him kind of a look and the matter was dropped, then he proceeded to more pertinent things like how I don't floss enough and eat too much sugar - that's nice - I'll floss more (*smirk*) - i think i may have rolled my eyes a bit too. So I do vow to floss more, actually I already have vowed to do that and recently invested in a large supply of floss because everytime I try to floss every night for a period of time I run out of floss and give up.

Result: I will be requesting Dr. Y at my next appointment if at all possible. What is the problem - I have wisdom teeth - I brush them, I *will* floss more - there is nothing wrong with them - why cause pain and possible infection to get them pulled for no reason - IF and WHEN they need to be pulled that's fine - what if it never happens - or if I die before it needs to happen (note I have no plans on dieing until I'm well over 80 but who knows, life is life)... I don't want to put myself through that for NO REASON! My mom still has 2 of hers and only got the other 2 pulled in her 30's.
On top of that I HATE pushy doctors - as you can tell, he leaves me kind of stressed out and I am a bit peeved now. I need to go relax, maybe a short walk and then it's back to work. Luckily it's a stitch night tonight so that will be very relaxing!

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

I hope today to continue working on Wisdom as I did at lunch yesterday. This little introduction to stitching TW's is an eye opener for sure. It is very different than the other two dragons and there are a lot of tweeded colors. I'm actually not a huge TW style fan, though I do love dragons and still collect them of course (that's the crazy me talking). The TW designs however seem kind of washed out because the colors blend together so much, now this is not from seeing one stitched in person however, I am hoping that seeing this little Wisdom dragon finished will give me a better idea about how they really look finished, maybe they aren't so washed out.

One major exception however is Celestial Dragon - that's a real beauty, very bold and I definately hope to someday stitch that (it will take more than one day - probably a few years but I use "some day" as an expression) :)

So as I stitch Wisdom I am hoping that it will come out more to my taste in "real life" and this will persuade me to enjoy the style a bit more of TW. I'd have to say though of these three dragons, my very favorite is Majesty by Black Swan, I am a huge Dragon Dreams fan and I like Magic, it's just a little simple and Majesty seems like a good mixture of boldness, simpleness and my favorite colors :)

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Yeah finally some pictures ;)

Well I did get to pick up Legends of the Dragons a tiny bit this weekend - mostly last night while catching up on last season's Gilmore Girls before the new season starts next week. So here is my tiny progress on Legends - finally starting Wisdom (which has a LOT of tweeding and color changes - this is going to take significantly longer than the other two dragons):
At 75 hours:

I apologize for the quality, it was late at night and I saved it at a lower quality by accident. The next update I hope will be better.

And my finished Ever So Little - Lions which took 9 hours (which is more than all the others so far):
Another bad picture but when I start on Chimps and get a picture it will be better.

What's on the plate this week -

Well Legends is going to be my lunch time piece this week - at least until Thursday night when I start Ever So Little Chimps at stitch. My last Ever So Little for Christmas! Also Thursday I have no lunch break as I have a dentist appointment so that's 2 days stitching Legends. This weekend I'm headed back home to go to a bridal shower and pick up my mom's sewing machine. That means next week if I have free time in the evenings I will be quilting (practicing at least) so the weekend after I can start quilting my Trip Around the World quilt. I bought some spray baster this weekend, I'm going to try that out even though I'm using Polyester batting (which was my boyfriend's choice as he wants it more "poofy"). This is a gift for his sister but I've never used the spray with poly before. Anyhow I'm not "basting" it until just before I start quilting as I hate when I have to fold it after it's basted and it kind of bunches and crinkles in the folded areas.

Well 4 day week to look forward to ... hopefully I get a lot done ;)

Monday, September 05, 2005

Well I kinda sorta started Wisdom - I put 10 stitches in while watching The Pacifier today, it was a cute movie but it wasn't one I could really stitch through. Now I'm going to work on the website with the hope that tonight I will get to stitch while watching some shows or movies. Last night was more Alias - I'm almost finished with season 3 now.

Note to self - Ran Sunday and Monday morning.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Well I haven't bought cross stitch items online in quite a long time (at least a month or so I think). So I just spent a good 60 dollars over at Stitching Bits and Bobs at their sale, getting a few more Dragon Dreams charts I don't yet have (of dragons of course) and Mirabilia's like Sleeping Beauty, Winter in my garden and summer in my garden (i have spring already)

Now I'm off to Newegg or someplace comparable to buy a new printer/scanner copier that can print photos too. I have a lexmark that doesn't print photos but it's been acting up and right now it has an error we can't fix so we figure it's time for a new one anyway (it's been 4 years). I still have to try to get this one working this weekend though if possible.

No stitching yet on this wonderful 3 day weekend - but i did finish the Ever So Little - lions last night real quick before watching a marathon of 4 Alias episodes again :) Today I cleaned the apartment finally, all except the livingroom which has been taken over by law school books/papers again. I will leave that for a bit. We also went out to do some browsing at Best Buy for an hour. So it's been a somewhat productive day. Now it's time to start working on the website for a few hours tonight, then I will treat myself to some more Alias :) Still on Season 3 - but I am definately pre-ordering season 4 which comes out in october!

Friday, September 02, 2005

Very close on Ever So Little - lions - I stitched every day at lunch this week and I have less than 20 stitches left to finish the lions up (but I'd have to rethread and stop and start to finish so I will wait till I get home (already took a 10 minute too long lunch) :)

Pictures will definately be up next week with that piece and my little progress on Legends.

I had a great morning at work - getting half of my code working - now I hope to spend the afternoon getting the rest all working - it's a bit ambitious but it would be great!

Last night was my night out, usually a stitch night but I did cards instead. I am giving a set of 6 thank you cards in a little boxy thing as a gift at a bridal shower next weekend so I went to my friend's house and borrowed a great thank you stamp from her and she helped me think of a cute card idea. I need a trip to Joann's before I can completely finish it but I have the pieces all cut for all 6 cards and one card almost finished. I hope to finish those up this weekend and make the box too, that requires a little decorating to match the cards but should be cute when it's finished.

Well i'm back to the lab - and in a good mood too..

Thursday, September 01, 2005

What a short night! We went out and got dinner, ate, then we went out and got ice cream (yummy!) then I fell asleep - really that's pretty much all I did. I have no idea why I was so tired either - too much food maybe.

I did however stitch at lunch again - another hour on the Lions, so now both of the Lions' heads are finished, all that I have left is the massive mane. I do hope to finish that this weekend and pick up Legends finally to start the Wisdom dragon. Carol took this week off to make some awesome progress on her Celtic Band Sampler - a really lovely and huge piece, so I don't feel so bad not having stitched on Legends in a while.

So it is September - my main goal is to get the Trip Around the World quilt quilted, if this doesn't happen it's no big deal but if I do get it finished I can put it in the quilt show the first weekend of October. The wedding however is not until November so technically I have 2 months to go. Once this quilt is finished I can get back to hand quilting my amish quilt and my sampler quilt. Once one of those is completed I can start a new quilt :)

That's just quilting, stitching wise, I want to finish Legends of the Dragons by the end of the year, I have the Ever So Little's pieces that I have to have finished and framed by Christmas, plus a few ornaments to make as gifts. I'd also like to start a few more pieces, I have one in mind as a gift for my aunt who I visit each week, I'd like to get that done in a decent amount of time to give as a thank you gift for having me over each week.

Tonight is normally stitch night - but instead tonight I am going over to my friend's house to make thank you cards, these cards will be part of my gift for the bridal shower I'm going to this weekend. I'm going to make 6 cards and a little box thing to put them in. That way she can use them however she likes.

And the gas prices - oh man - well there will be no trip back home this weekend to pick up my mom's sewing machine - major bummer because I can't start quilting until next sunday that means. Next weekend I am going back home for the bridal shower and I'll get the machine then. But with a 3 day weekend wasted as far as quilting goes - I will have to get some stitching in :) Plus a lot of work on the website, and some shopping - I think I might hit up EMS, i heard they are having sales and there are a lot of things we want to price out including bikes.

No running this morning - that marks Mon, Tues, Wed morning running and Tues night running. I slept in till 6:30 this morning but hopefully tomorrow I will get up and run since I'll be back home again.

September Goals:

1) Finish Ever So Little - Lions
2) Start Wisdom dragon on Legends
3) Work on blackwork dragon
4) Start a new piece ... hmm...
5) Start Ever So Little - Chimps

6) Start and Finish quilting Trip Around the World Quilt (machine quilting)

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