Happy Samhain!

Heading home early (I know 5 isn't early for most but for me it really is!) and we're going to watch scary movies and eat candy while we don't get trick-or-treaters :) I can't wait!

Favorite holiday - hmm.... what to stitch to celebrate!

A reading weekend :) I read the first 4 in the Sookie Stackhouse series and I'm completely addicted. I can't wait to start 5 but I have to be careful, I can't put these books down and I need a good 5 hours to read each. Of course I also don't actually have 5,6,7 in paperback form, I have them all in audiobook form and that goes even slower! I'm considering swinging by the bookstore and getting 5,6 in paperback (7 is only in hardcover) and then doing just 7 in audiobook. It really is a disease!

I did stitch this weekend - Finished all the actual stitching on Shepherds bush purse, just have to do the beading and my date/initials. I'll try to remember to bring it in tomorrow to scan a picture. This was a very relaxing piece and oh i love silks!

Next up in stitching is the neighborhood RR. Time to pull that out and plan what to stitch!

Public Service Announcement...

Due to unforeseen events there may be some delay in posting stitching/sewing/crafting related material to this blog. I am sad/happy/anxiety filled to announce that a new addiction has pulled my full attention away from above mentioned hobbies...

I started reading the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, first book called "Dead until Dark". The main character (Sookie) is telepathic and the series is about her and her life which includes vampires, a particular vampire she meets in her southern town. The book is very very very hard to put down... so hard so that I was up until 4am last night reading the entire book 1 straight through and now I haven't been able to stop thinking about starting number 2.

So that's my warning - there may be posts along the same lines all weekend if this addiction continues as strong as it has been!

Thank you for the wonderful comments on the costume and everything! I'm hoping to give my cousin the costume Thursday night and hopefully she'll be really surprised!

This weekend went really well, I worked more than i had hoped but I got caught up with work so that felt great! My brother, his girlfriend and my older cousin all came over saturday night to sunday night and we had a great time, watching movies, playing cards, eating etc. Very relaxing.

This week is a little nuts, trying not to work 12 hour days for a change.. oh and my dentist said I need to get a mouth guard due to clenching/grinding my teeth - which is due to stress at work.. yikes. So I'm waiting to pick that up now that they took a mold (which was extremely painful for something so simple).

I'm really really looking forward to this coming weekend, I have a stamp camp to go to and no other plans. We're thinking of finding some place to go hiking! Enjoy the outdoors a little!

Well back to work... gotta love my quick lunch breaks :)

In 2 1/2 hours I have completed the costume (guess I'll be working late and tomorrow ...all well).. but here it is - the Singer Costume:


This costume has no pattern, I just bought the fabric (way too much of it by the way as I could probably make 3 more of these! I think I'm going to make a matching shawl since this is a halloween costume and it might add some warmth.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the dress, I won't show the back because it's not as nice (the furriness of the fabric was touch so I used seam binding where the zipper goes (to help so the zipper doesn't catch on the loose threads) and it's not as pretty as the front. :)

And here's block 9 I pieced up this morning. Now it's time to work work work .. I've been trying to keep a migraine away all day so far and each time I try to use the computer it hits again. So time for some meds and then work :)

Wow my weekend just changed dramatically...

I got a call from my aunt and there's a stomach bug in their family so they canceled their weekend away and I am no longer watching 3 little girls all weekend. I still have my 14 yr old cousin and my brother and his girlfriend coming up but they are all coming up saturday night instead of saturday morning...

So now i have saturday free. Wow. So I can put cleaning off until tomorrow, spend the day just working and maybe get some sewing done that I need to get done.

So on my lunch break I finished piecing block 9 of Leanne's House BOM!!! They're all pieced now! Check that off the list.

I cleaned up my sewing room then and laid out the fabric for the singer costume so hopefully tonight I can start on that! This is all dependent on how the rest of my afternoon of work goes but hopefully it will go well and now if i need to i can work this weekend some as well.

A little stitching progress!

This is my weekend progress. It goes so quickly! I worked on it again last night and got 2 more rows done (the next alphabet row included). I'll post a pic tomorrow - I'm hoping to get to work on it again tonight at my aunt's house. We'll see.

I love stitching, I miss getting to stitch 4-5 nights a week :( I still haven't had sewing time yet either - I'm going to run by Joann's Thursday night to get some seam binding and a zipper for the Singer Costume. Then hopefully start on that?

Looks like we're having lots of company this weekend, my little brother and his girlfriend are coming up now too! Going to be a full fun house!

Work work work... that was my weekend - luckily I'm feeling much better (saturday was a horrible coughing day and i needed a nap just from coughing!).

Anyhow, I stitched a bit more on the Shepherd's Bush purse and hopefully i'll remember it tomorrow to scan in a picture!

With all this working long hours I've decided a few things need to get done this week no matter what -
1) the singer costume - needs to get done this week actually
2) Block 9 of Leanne's Quilt - I need to just piece it already, it's halfway there and I need to get it pieced and out of the way before the little girls all come next weekend.

I'm not sure if i mentioned it but my 3 little cousins will be staying with us this weekend, (ages 8, 6 and 3 1/2) - they're parents have a wedding to attend in PA so we agreed to watch them, so my sewing room will become a little girls' room and i need to pick up!!!

Well back to work so I can work late and figure out how to get all that done at the same time :)

Two days sick and I actually get a little evening stitching time so I have something to show!!

It's been quite some time since I started something new and being sick it had to be something kitted up so I pulled out my Shepherd's Bush Purse kit I bought a while back. I love to work with silks when I can and this piece is so sweet and delicate. I've kind of jumped around and since I'm not doing the beading yet I'm also not doing the flower buds that aren't beads so i can do them all at once. The blank spot is for initials and date and I'll save those until I'm closer to finishing.

It felt SO good to stitch, even if I had to take breaks because it tired me out (i've been really sick) but today i'm feeling much better and i'm at work for the long haul. I think i may take a small lunch break and stitch for 20 minutes! It's been almost a year since I did that :) I need to take care of myself more so we'll see.

Anyway, I'll be working all weekend so there won't be much of a stitching update but maybe i'll have a little free time to start the other halloween costume I'm to make for my other cousin (she wants to be a singer). So maybe pics to come, we'll see.

I apologize for being incommunicato lately -- work has been Busy with a capital B... I've been working 12+ hour days for a week and a half and then two days ago i came down with the horrible cold that's been going around (not surprising with my level of stress!).

So i'm way behind on both blogging and blog reading.. not much to blog about though since i'm working so much. I did cross stitch last night after a day of doing nothing but trying to sleep - started a new piece - pictures coming soon! I didn't get much done but it was something :)

September Goal Wrapup:

1) Finish Leanne's block 7 [YUP!]
2) Finish Neighborhood RR block and mail [YUP!]
3) Finish Leanne's block 8 [nope]
4) Finish piecing Leanne's block 9 [nope]
I also sewed both a skirt for myself and the pirate costume for my young cousin (just turning 8).

I'd say not a bad month considering it was such a busy one work wise!
And now for some new goals: (or more of the same :)

1) Stitch Bine's NRR and mail (I want to get this to Leslie early so she has time before the baby comes!)
2) Finish piecing Leanne's block 9
3) Sew the singer costume for other cousin
4) Start embroidery on block 8