Where did yesterday go? I was wondering the same thing, it was a long day working so no fun stuff got done but I still have fun pictures from this weekend to show and some good news:
Progress on block 2:

And here is block 3 pieced and ready to be appliqued:


So good news - My boyfriend got his job that he was hoping for :) We'll be moving to NH in May and he starts working Sept. to Sept. after taking the bar this summer. I'm very excited. It does mean he'll be doing the job search again a year from now - but for now we have some security :)

Well work is busy... i'll try to update the pic again tomorrow.

Short day at work with class tonight so no pictures - but tomorrow definitely as I actually do have something to show.

This weekend was great, we went down to Hartford to see the new baby born into the family, adorable :) Then we came back up and had my sister and her boyfriend over for the evening. Sunday we went to my cousin's birthday party up in NH and spent the day with family. Then in the evening I got to quilt a bit.

I pieced block 3 of Leanne's Quilt - so it's ready for the applique now (the applique pieces aren't cut but the rest of the block is pieced! Then I worked a little more on Block 2 embroidery in the car this weekend and I got mini block 3 finished and just started mini block 4 which has a TON of embroidery! I will continue to work on that this week if I have time and maybe get it done by the end of the month.

Class tonight, tomorrow night I have to work late and then do homework, wednesday homework, thursday homework... etc. I'm hoping to get the homework done some time friday and enjoy the weekend.. plus there's always that website!

What day is it? Is it the weekend yet .. i am so exhausted!

Well I did get to go to stitch last night, it was a small group and I didn't get there until 7:30 but leaving work at 6:30 when you got in at 7 and had no lunch break is just killer. I stitch a tiny bit - filling in that tub on Peace and Quiet. I won't post a pic until I have more progress than that at least. Maybe I'll see if i can work on that at lunch today - lunch - hah!

Tonight might be a late night at work - we'll see, then i have some shopping to do and then the bathtub is calling my name with a good book (Dragonsong) to join me. Tomorrow it looks like we're driving down to Hartford for the morning, then coming back up and having my sister and her boyfriend over for the night, then sunday going up to NH for the day. Looks like a lot of driving, if I can be the passenger maybe I can get some stitching done! Always trying to look on the bright side.

Oh and my boyfriend just had an interview for a job he *really* wants next year (after he graduates law school) so please keep your fingers crossed for him, he's not having the best luck but this one he really really wants and it would be very good for his career (it's only a year long job)... The interview seemed to go very well so I'm really hoping he gets it ...

Allergies are attacking - don't know why but it's going to be a long morning!

So I was the last person at work last night, closing up, and this morning I opened being the first - that's just wrong! I got no sewing/stitching done last night - i was too tired, by the time I got to my uncle's, had dinner and helped clean up it was almost bed time. We watched the dvr'd Gilmore Girls and then I read a bit... still continuing the Ann McCaffrey series, I finished the first trilogy and I'm on the first book of the second trilogy (Dragonsong). Love these books!

Tonight is stitch night - I just can't miss it, I most likely will be late but that's better than nothing and maybe I'll get to work on Peace and Quiet a little...

Ugg... sneeze .. .. wish I was sleeping right now!

A picture a day ... :) I like when I have progress to show... here is the embroidery and applique for Block 2 mini blocks 1 and 2 finished:

Tonight I hope to work on mini block 3 (the rectangle to the left) and then all the tan fabric on the 4th mini block is embroidered .. that will take a while!

But I've decided this Friday, after work, after shopping for birthday gifts (for my cousin), I will then work on piecing the third block and get that ready for applique. Saturday I will split between working on the website and working on these blocks and sunday I have a birthday party to go to but maybe I can get some work on these done as well.

I did work on the website last night - just figuring out an estimate. I haven't talked to the owner, she wasn't home last night but hopefully today or tomorrow we can get in touch so I can get started on saturday.
Well lots of meetings today so I must get to some work before they start.. oh and yoga day!

Doing better - here's my updated Peace and Quiet Please pic:

As you can see, besides the towels (one in the baseket and two hanging), I just have to fill in the rest of the tub and stitch one more bubble.. then backstitch! There's a lot of backstitching but it should be enjoyable.

Last night I worked on Leanne's Quilt Block 2 some, I appliqued the 3 hearts and finished the embroider on mini block 1, and started it on mini block 2. I think mini block 4 will take the longest but I have it all traced out now so I'll just keep plugging away this week. Block 3 doesn't have nearly as much embroidery, just a lot of applique, so it will be a nice change of pace and I hope to get that block pieced maybe this weekend so I can just continue on making progress.

Today I absolutely have to call the owner of the new website and get that rolling along, i'm spanning time saturday for working on the site before my class on monday and homework to do... The next 2 weeks (after this week) look bad .. The 16-23 I have a homework assignment due, maybe I can finish that friday night again like the last assignment since that weekend is a friend's birthday and concert. Then the 23-30 I have to study for my midterm - oh joy! Then I get a week off (which includes my sister's birthday) before the next homework goes out... I can do this, i can do this....
and now i must work :)

A little something done...

Sunday morning I finished piecing block two of leanne's quilt... now to get to all that embroidery! I'm actually very pleased with the fourth mini block, the points all came out okay! I will soon be receiving block 4 so I need to finish this block up and do block 3 still!

Also this weekend, saturday night, I worked on Peace and Quiet some more, I'm almost done with all the cross stitches, mostly waiting on the Wisper thread for the towels and still have 1 bubble to stitch. PLUS all the backstitching - so it will take a while but it feels good to be so far.

We went apple picking this weekend - and sunday i did some baking, I baked 3 apple pies, plus I made 2 and froze them. Then i made a big batch of apple sauce and i still have apples left over .. it's insane. The thought of apples is making me sick right now :)

I didn't manage to squeeze in time on the new website but I have no class tonight so I'm hoping to work on that tonight. With no class I still have no homework, so any fun stuff must be sqeezed in this week before my next class when my life ends all over again :)

Tomorrow I will update the Peace and Quiet photo!

Not much progress but I worked on the sky a bit lately and I'm almost over to the other side now (probably 30 stitches away or so). Here's my Peaceful Silhouette update from my lunch breaks (2 this week):


Last night was stitch night but I didn't really get to enjoy it... traffic was bad and i left work late, finally getting home at 6:30 (stitch is 6-9) i grabbed my stuff and headed over to stitch to show my newly framed pieces (from a few weeks ago). I only stayed about 20 minutes, then I picked up dinner on the way home to spend a little time with my boyfriend and get some work done.
We decided to pop in Serenity - ah i love that movie :) And since my work vpn was actually down I ended up stitching a bit :) I worked on Peace and Quiet - getting the bubbles on the right hand side done and starting the shelf. I now have exactly 1 bubble left to stitch and the shelf and towel hanger. This piece really does go fast.

Tonight my goal is to piece the rest of Block 2 of Leanne's quilt and get it ready to embroider, then work on the website research a bit so I can call the site owner this weekend. Apple picking this weekend, then making apple sauce and a couple of apple pies - yummy!

A real homework free night!
Not that I stitched, but I did get to watch a movie while doing some research for this new website I've decided to take on and I think the website won't be so bad, there's lots of free shopping cart options and since I can modify them I at least don't have to start from scratch :)

Here's my update from monday night stitching on Peaceful Silhouette:


On the left all I'm missing is a towel in the basket stitched in Whisper but I'm waiting for my SB&B order for the whisper which I ordered in blue because i thought that would look nice. Then tonight I'll finish filling in the tub and start on the shelf up to the right of the tub and the towel hanger. I should have this piece finished by the end of november maybe. I'm not starting new projects because of my class but finishing things up would be nice!

Ah - and Tuesday night - I started piecing Leanne's Quilt Block 2 finally, I got mini blocks 1-3 all pieced, I'm hoping friday night to piece mini block 4 so I can start on the embroidery for it. Maybe I should also start piecing Block 3 if I find any free time...
Looks like apple picking this weekend in NH? THen making some apple sauce?? Going to be a possibly busy weekend but fun at least!

2 weeks off...

I had class last night, got a little stitching done before class while waiting for it to start. Working on Peace and Quiet and I'll post an update photo tomorrow maybe. With stitch night this week I should be able to finish the tub so I'm starting the shelf above the dragon now I think.

I have no class next week and no homework for the next 2 weeks so I get a bit of a break, i could do some reading, I may try to catch up on reading the sections that correspond to the lectures but it's not required so we'll see how busy this weekend is.

It looks like I might be starting up a new "part time" job working on another website, I don't know that i have time free for this but I'm looking forward to the challenge and I could really use the money with christmas coming up. So I may have even LESS time for stitching than I had hoped, we will see...
Alright back to work, we just had an ice cream social at work today and i'm feeling very tired after stuffing myself with toppings - all healthy of course :)

October Goals:

1) Piece and embroider BOM 2
2) Work on Peaceful Silhouette
3) Work on Peace and Quiet - finish tub and start shelf/towel hanger
4) Make something for oldest cousin's birthday

Unfortunately i have to leave it at that as I don't anticipate a lot of free time this month :(

September recap:
1) Finish BOM 2 (quilt) [nope - not started!]
2) Work on Peaceful Silhouette (finish posts/bird) [yup!]
3) Work on Peace and Quiet (finish tub) [worked on - tub isn't finished but I made the same amount of progress]
4) Work on Celtic Banner (finish through 'u') [still at 'o']
5) Make princess dress for cousin's birthday [yup!]

So not great but my class really is taking a lot of time and the next 2 weeks i should get a bit of a break before the third hw assignment and then midterm!

now to figure out october goals...

Something was up with blogger yesterday - couldn't read em, couldn't write em.

Anyhow - I got to stitch a little on Peace and Quiet before class monday night, I start the feel like i'm getting close to done and then realize there's a bunch of stuff to the right of the bathtub, but not too much. I am waiting for the Whisper thread from SB&B now, i bought a blue, i think i'm going to do blue towels instead of white so they'll show up better.

Unfortunately the fabric doesn't at all show up in the scan, but it's pink and bluish with sparkles, kind of bubblegum i think.
I have changed out a few colors, the purple towel was supposed to be pink and i've changed the candle's colors, basically i'm not stitching the pinks, changing them for purple and blues. I just like em better that way :)

So I have more homework due next monday, this one is a programming assignment, i read through it last night and it actually seems pretty reasonable, hopefully tonight i can get a start on it, maybe get the first half done and friday night maybe MAYBE finish... or else saturday at the latest. We'll see.
I started burning dvds last night - by this i mean backing up the stuff from my desktop onto dvd so some of my 120 GB hard drive would be free again (yes i actually filled 120 GB drive). I think i'm down to 40 GB free now. It's wierd when my 60GB laptop has more space than my desktop but i'm working on getting it off now and backing everything up now that i have a dvd burner. Burning CDs was just useless with that much data.
And the decision has been made, it looks like even though we only watch 2 shows total prime time, they are both on at the same time! So I will be watching House over Gilmore Girls and hopefully catching Gilmore Girls by taping or something (of course my vcr is broken - go figure). But House won last night and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

I got my homework done :) That doesn't sound like much but oh man!

This weekend was crazy, friday night I went over to a friend's and we feasted to celebrate the solstice. Saturday I went to western MA to go to a baby shower, then I met up with my sister for dinner. That night I was exhausted from all the driving so I did pretty much nothing :)

Sunday however was a busy day ... I got up, got the grocery shopping done and then started on homework - after 5 hours I had gotten it all done except for 1 question I had skipped, then I ran on the treadmill and ate dinner, then got out my work (from work work) and worked on that for 2 hours. Amazingly I got inspired and then figured out the last question for my homework so by 9:30 I had it all done! It felt great and I got to read for a whole hour (by read i mean read something fun not schoolwork) :)

And it feels good to come in to work monday and have all my work done for both work and class, ready to go!

Wow, thank you for all the comments. Unfortunately getting 5 pieces framed is only a small dent in my pile. Plus Legends which has a frame is still waiting to be put in it :) It was laced on and ready to go but the board doesn't fit inside the frame, it's a metal frame and the board and glass I had cut just don't fit. I haven't yet figured out what I'm going to do about it.

I did a little homework last night, mostly getting some readings done so I can work on it tonight. Hopefully tonight I'll have a good start on the assignment and I won't feel bad taking tomorrow night off.

Well work is really picking up, hopefully it stays this way (been bored lately). And today at lunch i get to stitch! It's going to be a good work day i can tell!

I actually stitched last night...

I got home, I made dinner, I relaxed for a while and at 8 when House came on I grabbed my stitching and stitched for about 2 hours! It's been so long! I should have done homework but I rationalized with myself that I would work on my homework Wednesday and Thursday night this week so I got to work on Just a Little Peace and Quiet. It's really a pretty small piece and I'm not almost done but I'm about halfway which is great considering how little I've worked on it :)

Today was yoga at lunch so no stitching but Thur and Fri at lunch I hope to work on Peaceful Silhouette. Then this weekend after the baby shower my goal is to finish my homework and then start on the quilt blocks that I have, maybe getting them pieced so I can start the embroidery this week. So much to do and so very very little time!

Homework .. must focus tonight.. two weeks i will have homework then i will have a week off and then homework again. The homeworks are tough, and that doesn't include keeping up with reading (which i'm not already) :)

What a weekend!

First we went to my uncle's saturday and I gave my cousin her dress, she LOVED it - truly. And she looked like such a princess in it. I have a picture but for her own privacy I cropped it so you can just see the dress but it looks better on someone than on a hanger so here it is:



Sunday was a really great day, we went out to our breakfast place, I cleaned the apartment (it's been a while!) Then we went shopping and I got some frames. After watching a movie (Birth which I don't really recommend, it was really bothersome at some points), I started framing a bunch of pieces... here are the results!

Blackwork Dragon on Wandering Ivy linen - framed with glass.

Kingdom Sampler framed with glass:

Going To Market framed with glass:

It's Winter framed without glass, and with batting to make it puffy:

Green Old Gardens, framed without glass, with batting:

Strange day... so it's late blogging :)

So Thursday night my friends and I all went to the airport to meet our friend and her new baby! It was very exciting and I felt so honored to be there. The baby is beautiful, happy and just perfect! And my friend and her husband are just ecstatic!

Unfortunately the plane was delayed and arrived after midnight, i didn't get home until 2am.. which is very late for me, I still managed to get up and make it in to work by 8 but by noon i was crashing so I left at 1:30 to go home and take a nap. I woke up at 6 and started working again and things are going well. I'm just waiting for dinner to arrive and then i can get a little more work done.

I hope to end the night taking care of adding fray check to the princess dress and wrapping it. We're going up to my uncle's tomorrow for the day and then i'm hoping to get some cleaning and sewing done on sunday...
sewing... BOM 3 arrived already and i haven't started 2! So i must get on that! Oh goody - chinese food is here!

Finally an update to Peaceful Silhouette. I've been working on the darkest color which is full stitches and takes longer than all the shaded colors which are half stitches. I do want to get this done for my boyfriend for graduation next year so i may have to start calling this my focus piece sometimes :)

Thank you thank you thank you for all the wonderful comments on the dress! What an honor. As difficult and time consuming as it was it was also fun and I'm pretty proud of it. I can't wait to get a picture of my cousin wearing it.

The class I'm taking is Fundamentals of Networking. I'm getting my masters in Computer Science concentrated in Networking and to do that I have to take pretty much all networking courses. The funny part is that my job is a network programmer, but I don't have the background knowledge, i just learn quickly so I'm already doing most of what i will learn but this way the class is easier :)

I'll post a WIP update in a second...

hmm, i think lately has been a blogging slump for me, my mornings are just busy busy and my evenings are too busy to do any stitching so I don't have anything to show anyway. Well maybe things will start to settle down with this weekend, but now i have homework :(

My class went well last night, I'm looking forward to it in general, i will have 5 homework assignments and 2 exams and lots of reading that is optional which means I will of course do it.

The baking is continuing, I'm trying to bake 3 batches of cookies for my close friend who comes home thursday and then make a mud pie as well. So far I have 1 batch done, 1 batch mixed. Tonight I hope to finish the cookies and figure out the effort required for the mud pie if not make it.

Is it only tuesday? Wow it feels like friday, tomorrow night i will be relaxing at my uncle's house for the evening, maybe getting some reading for class done. Thursday is a mini stitch and then a trip to the airport to see my friend who comes home quick.
Well, it's almost time to get going - thank goodness, i need a normal night, with pasta for dinner!

And the dress is just about finished.. after 20 hours of sewing this weekend (and yes it did wear me out completely), here it is:


It was a long weekend, Friday night I was up till 2am piecing the hot pink top, then saturday I had gotten the sleeves and collar on and was starting the skirt, my friend came over and chatted while I sewed the lining to the skirt pieces, then I finished the night adding horsehair to the bottom of the skirt.

So up sunday i started by hemming each skirt piece by hand (which took a good 4 hours watching movies). Finally I'm ready to piece it all, no small task but progress can be seen. The zipper task fell about 6pm (after 2 hours putting the skirt and dress together). Finally it's basically done and all I have left is to add trimmings (3 snaps and 2 hook and eyes). I started the hooks but my headache prevailed and I decided with just a few things to sew on by hand I could put it off till later in the week.

So there the dress is pretty much done. I want to get some fray check this week and treat all the seams with it and cut the frays off so it looks neater. Then saturday it will be presented in all it's glory to the little 5 yr old princess, my cousin :)

Tonight I start my class up - so no stitching, especially since I have a lunch time dentist appointment. I will try to get an update to Peaceful S. tomorrow on the scanner. Until then it's work and then class and then more baking...

Wow it has not been a good blogging week for me! Work hasn't even been as crazy as it was last week so I don't know what's going on.

So last weekend we camped, through the rain but managed to stay pretty dry and have a good time. I didn't get any stitching done but last night at stitch I worked on Celtic Banner and got two more letters done (n and o ).

This weekend I will be sewing a Sleeping Beauty Dress all weekend probably and I plan to have pictures monday. Plus monday i will update my Peaceful Silhouette picture as I worked on that a little at lunch time a few times this week.

Okay - got to finish up some things now so i can head home in an hour!

Back from camping - and yes we did camp through the rain ... I'll write more tomorrow, just finishing up a long work day and want to get out of here to meet my boyfriend for dinner :)

I'm alive - but not very - working too hard :) I figured I'd set my september goals at the very least before getting back to work (been working for 11 hours straight so i'm a little worn out).

September goals:
1) Finish BOM 2 (quilt)
2) Work on Peaceful Silhouette (finish posts/bird)
3) Work on Peace and Quiet (finish tub)
4) Work on Celtic Banner (finish through 'u')
5) Make princess dress for cousin's birthday

I think i'll leave it at that, i have my class starting up and I don't want to get too crazy.

August Goals Recap:

1) Finish Kingdom Sampler! [YES!!!]
2) Start Celtic Banner [YES]
3) Work on Just a little Peace and Quiet [YES]
4) Work on Peaceful Silhouette [YES]
5) Finish Leanne's Quilt Block 2 [nope, haven't started but it arrived very late]
6) Start new Pooh piece [haven't even picked one]
7) Get Petal Fairy ready to start [nope, not yet]

8) work on website [nope...]

Well if i had prioritized then I did pretty good :) This weekend is all camping so I doubt there will be much stitching and class starts pretty soon but there are a few things I want to get done this month at least ;)

Thank you everyone for the comments, I really enjoyed stitching this piece with Carol !

Last night I got home late and of course the headache had started (but not a migraine this time), so I popped a pizza in the oven and settled down to watch Strong Medicine (the first 2 episodes). No stitching, I was kind of drained and moved on to just reading a bit before going to sleep. I can't believe it's only Wednesday! This week is dragging.

But tonight I go to my uncle's and hopefully a little stitching will happen :) I have been getting a little stitching time on Peaceful Silhouette at lunch time the last two days, hopefully I can keep that up!

Kingdom Sampler:


Stitched on Silkweaver Solo 32ct. Sorry it's crooked..

So there it is, finished in 2 months which is amazing since I thought this piece would really take a while. Now I can focus on Celtic Banner and Peace and Quiet a bit and I will definitely be starting a new piece soon once I catch up on some other things.

Again no stitching last night, probably none tonight as I have grocery shopping to do and general organizing of things around the house.

Excedrin Migraine saved the night last night, I was fighting one all day but took it before going over to my friends, luckily the caffeine wore off around 9:30 so going to sleep wasn't a problem (besides dealing with migraine side effects like feeling sick to my stomach). I have to say it was the best migraine night i've ever had though and hopefully my body has adjusted to being back at work and I won't get any more :)

more to come...

I haven't scanned in Kingdom Sampler yet but I did finish it last week (yipee) so I will share the pic probably tomorrow. I'm very happy with it and just have to add initials to it and find a frame that's suitable.

Atlantic City was awesome, we had a great time, I didn't stitch at all (I finished Kingdom Sampler the weekend before), but I did a lot of reading. I've finished the first 2 McCaffrey Pern books and I'm about to start White Dragon next. I started listening to Jodi Piccoult's Plain Truth. My boyfriend and I listened to The Shining unabridged (that's 16 hours), finishing it at 10pm last night.

I'd say the best part of vacation was that the annual Atlantic City Air show happened to be going on Wednesday while we were there and this year was the Blue Angels AND the thunderbirds! Tuesday the Blue Angels must have been practicing or something because they were flying all day, it was great!

Tonight I'll be visiting with friends and this week doesn't look to be free for stitching since we're camping next weekend I have a lot to do around the house before we leave for another 3 days. I'm ready for a vacation from vacations :)

Pictures tomorrow...

Still here :) Just busy at work - always happens before vacation!

I worked on Kindom Sampler last night at stitch, I finished the clouds so all I have left is the alphabet, which I'll probably finish this weekend so I can work on Celtic Banner down in Atlantic City (if i get to stitch that is).

Leaving work at 3:30 today to pamper myself a bit. (manicure and pedicure) Then I have an evening of packing and cleaning to do so we can leave by 10am to go to a wedding in NY and then the rest of the weekend to just relax... oh how I love vacation!

I will be bringing a LOT of books with me, hopefully dragonquest will arrive in time for me to bring it since dragonflight is just about finished, might finish tomorrow in the car.
I'll be offline until Monday the 28th!

Thanks for all the great comments :) I picked up Kindom Sampler again last night to get a start on the gigantic cloud :)
I don't know if I will have stitching time tonight or not but if I do I will try to finish the cloud. Tomorrow night is Celtic Banner night!

And the countdown to vacation is getting small! Techinically our vacation is Mon-Fri but we're going to a wedding back in NY saturday and staying at my parent's sat-mon morning, with no work to do I can call my vacation starting friday night with the manicure and pedicure i just set up! (Want my toes in good shape for the beach :) )

No reading last night, I resisted, I knew if I started I might just finish the book completely, we'll see if I can resist tonight or not :)

Not finished like Carol :) But I got the backstitching done and some alphabet. The alphabet really does go fast, with just that and clouds left to go I will definitely finish this soon ;)

Trying out blogger photos again so hopefully this works fine. I am really loving this piece and I can't wait to have it framed along side Legends of the Dragons. Speaking of which -- Legends is still not framed because the board and glass they sent me were too large for the frame so I have to cut them down myself which means re-lacing Legends - UGGGG!

So much to do .. still have to add the patch to the baby quilt with the personalization, and do my Block of the Month 2 for Leanne's quilt... and i'll be on vacation next week so that's not going to happen, maybe the weekend after :)

Sometimes I feel like I never have anything to show :) No stitching again this weekend, it was a camping weekend and we had a great time but definitely no time to stitch.

I did get to read in the car a bit and I'm loving this book (Ann McCaffrey's Dragonflight) and i'm looking forward to reading the whole Pern series.

Tonight is Kingdom Sampler SAL, I am hoping to work on the backstitching, *maybe* finish that up and start on the clouds that I keep putting off ... I think this will be finished up in the next week or two. If I do finish it next week I won't be able to post until the 26th when I'm back from my first week long vacation! One week to go until we leave!!! I don't know how much stitching will happen since this is a beach/casino vacation but hopefully a little stitching at least!

Well work is busy busy and with next week off I have a lot to do this week!

No stitching again... but it was a nice night of playing cards with my aunt, uncle and cousin :)

I worked from home yesterday and got my boyfriends car around 5 (they never called when they were done). Then it was the regular go to my uncle's night and hang out with them.

Tonight is stitch night! I have to stop home to get Celtic Banner as I might work on that :)

No stitching last night... I did upload a pic using blogger to test that out so we'll see how that goes.

Last night was spent figuring out what to do with my boyfriends car, resulting in me working from home and gearing up to run (yes actually run) over to the place to pic his car up this afternoon and go in to work for about an hour. We'll see how the running bit goes, i may end up calling a cab but i've never done that before either. The run would be good for me.

Then I started looking at new laptop stuff in case I decide to build a new one. I can't find a barebones system with enough features I like to get rid of my trackpoint though so I'll be sticking with my ThinkPad for now. Then I checked Ebay for the prices of Razrs as I'd like to get a new phone but I don't want to spend much more than 100 on it so I may wait it out a bit longer since my phone works perfectly fine as is.

The rest of the night I continued reading Dragonflight, i'm not very far and it's kind of hard to understand all that's going on but I'm liking it so far. I think I'm going to really like this series and may buy the second one soon to read when I finish this one.

The audio book I enjoyed over my vacation was Poison Study by Maria Snyder, Magic Study the second in the trilogy comes out in October so I can't wait for that! I definitely recommend this first one!

Just testing :)

Kingdom Sampler SAL ... finished the border...



Not much else but I did get the border completely done and get a tiny start on the alphabet. With 3 mondays left to August I think finishing this will be no big deal. I will start the backstitching next week and either more alphabet or start the clouds. Then I'll have just alphabet and clouds to do. Loving this piece :)

Last night we settled in and watched the new Pride & Prejudice which was definitely not as good as the 5 hour A&E version but I still love P&P. My boyfriend liked the 5 hour one and we both had some comments about how much they condensed some things and some of our favorite parts were left out so I think a 5 hour run with the other version will be coming up soon :) The anniversary edition comes out very soon so I think we'll get that and spend a saturday watching it again (lots of stitching time then!!)

We also watched Prime last night which was good, a little strange at the end, maybe I'm just slow but it took me a while to figure out what had happened but all in all it was a good movie.

Tonight I hope for more movies and stitching, Just a Little Peace and Quiet has been neglected for a while now so maybe I'll pull that out.
Back to work!

FINALLY!!!
Autumn in my Garden is out!!

I'm BACK!!!

but where did I go??? Well I wasn't quite sure where I was going as it was all coordinated by a good friend. This is the view I have had for 4 days:


What an amazing 4 days. I won't bore anyone completely, but we were up in Maine, in Brooklin I believe which is past Blue Hill, down by a bay (on a peninsula). My friend's family owns a cottage on a plot of land that's part of a group of plots, all owned by family. We had the cottage to ourselves and the beach usually as well. We stamped, we stitched, we listened to audio books and we ate lots of yummy food.

Starting Thursday night we started Celtic Banner, by Saturday night this is what I had:

This is a green conversion and I'm loving it, the fabric is a light yellow and the border colors are Waterlilies Jade and Celadon. I'm having a blast stitching this. I didn't take a picture of where I am currently as I had to scroll all that up and I continued the border down. I haven't started the next group of letters yet.

This is my first time using scroll rods and for this project I'm happy with them. In general they are too long for me and I prefer my q-snaps but for this they are perfect and not too heavy.

After a long 6 hour drive home last night (due to traffic) I got a good nights' sleep and now it's back to work. I have 2 weeks of work until our vacation to Atlantic city but we are also going camping this coming weekend with my family back in upstate ny. This is real camping, in a tent, with an outhouse and nothing else. But it's only one night and I grew up doing this so hopefully I will survive :)

Oh goodie -- it's kindom sampler night, hopefully I don't have much to do tonight and can work on this a bit. I have a few movies I want to watch this week so maybe I'll get a start on those!

No stitching.. but i'm ready to go :)

Last night was a busy and HOT night in the kitchen, I got the apple pie made and in the freezer ready to bake when we get up there, i also baked up a few other items and finished packing in general so I'm all ready to go, just have to pack the cooler and leave. I'm very excited, Celtic Banner is in my bag, I double checked the threads I need and I'm all set!

I'm also bringing lots of other things, we're planning on doing some card making so I have some stamping supplies, a few books to read, all that good stuff. 4 days with nothing that i HAVE to do - it will be great!

I won't be online until monday and hopefully I'll have a great Celtic Banner pic to show .. hopefully more than just the top of the border but who knows!

August Goals:

1) Finish Kingdom Sampler!
2) Start Celtic Banner
3) Work on Just a little Peace and Quiet
4) Work on Peaceful Silhouette
5) Finish Leanne's Quilt Block 2
6) Start new Pooh piece
7) Get Petal Fairy ready to start

8) work on website

that's not ambitious at all :) I have to get my stitching in now because my next graduate class starts in september - it will be monday nights 6-9 and sounds like a lot of work!

The busy nights just keep coming!

Last night was a little busy, I got pretty much everything I need packed besides my stitching bag. I think I'm pretty much ready to go besides all the baking I have to do tonight.

I also finished preparing most of the non-baked items last night and I baked the "lasagna" so that's ready to go. Tonight I have to make an apple pie (not bake it though), muffins and corn bread. That should be doable. Probably won't stitch though.

Last night I made myself stop at 7:30 and sit and stitch while watching "In her shoes" which I thought was really pretty funny. So here's my Kingdom Sampler progress:


I finished up the right side and then just worked on the border since it was mindless and I didn't feel like following a pattern for the clouds. Next week I'd like to get a start on that huge cloud though!

I was really worried Carol would be flying ahead on this piece with her birthday off but she very kindly saved stitching on it until the evening :) We have stayed very close on this one and I think August will be the month we finish it!

July Recap:
1) Finish baby quilt [YES]
2) Work on Kindom Sampler [YES]
3) work on Peaceful Silhouette [YES-a little]
4) Start new piece![YES - Peace and Quiet]
5) Finish Leanne's quilt block 1 [YES]
6) Start Leanne's quilt block 2 [hasn't arrived yet]
7) select a new baby project to do for a friend (Pooh)[not yet]

8) WORK ON THE WEBSITE! [nope... :(]

I did finish Blackwork Dragon this month as well!

No stitching ...

I can't believe it, I didn't even touch my stitching this weekend, and that counts friday night as well! Friday night was wierd, I was ansy, wanted to DO something but couldn't figure out what so I puttered around picking things up here and there.

Saturday I got up and ran which felt great, then we went to CT to visit my boyfriend's sister and then my sister for the night. We went out, we ate, we talked, and finally I fell asleep the moment we put a movie on (UltraViolet wasn't very good is what I hear from those that stayed mostly awake) :)

Sunday we did some relaxing and left late, around 1, stopped at walmart on the way home and that place just traps you but we managed to get home by 3. After unpacking, going grocery shopping and watching Underworld Evolution (of course I never watched the first Underworld so I was annoyingly asking questions the whole time but we both liked the movie), finallY I went out and rotated my tires and changed my oil. MUCH NEEDED! Unfortunately rotating the tires didn't get rid of the annoying road noise I have so I will need to make an appointment at the dealership and get things checked out. There's no way I can drive all the way to atlantic city with that noise!

The rest of sunday was spent cooking, making a pseudo lasagna (i don't like ricotta cheese so it's not really lasagna when I make it) and cutting veggies and fruits, preparing for departure to maine on wednesday!!!
This morning I even packed my clothes so that's taken care of. That was really the easy part, the hard part will be packing my stitching and stamping stuff. We are mostly stitching Celtic Banner though so that should be easy :)

Now.. to do my July recap...

A nice long stitch night...

I stayed out MUCH longer than I normally do last night. I got home after 11! Considering I've been going to bed so early it was rough for me this morning and I did not run but I hope to run this evening when I get home. Anyhow, I did stitch ...


I finished the dragon, not much is showing anyway, and I started working on the tub which actually went much fast than I thought it would. There's still a lot left to the design but hopefully this weekend I will get some stitching time and I can show another update monday.

We're going down to CT this weekend to visit my sister, should be fun, other than that not much going on thank goodness. I have to go grocery shopping in preparation of my maine trip wednesday night, need to make a lasagna (never done that before!) and an apple pie! So monday and tuesday night I will be very domestic, cooking and baking so I'm ready to go :)

No progress pic, I have made some progress on Peace and Quiet but not much. I'm almost done with the dragon's tail. I really want to do the bubbles but I don't have my kreiniks with me (they are home someplace) so they won't get done for a little while yet. Tonight I'll probably start working on the shelf up above the dragon and more of the tub which is going to take forever!

Stitch night tonight with some friends. I'm looking forward to it but I'm going to have to leave early, I've been hitting a wall about 9pm and going to sleep by 9:30 so I don't want to be driving at that time!

A little stitching time last night...

I did lace Legends of the Dragons onto the board for framing so now both pieces are ready and i just need to figure out spacers and a backing maybe. It will be nice to have a few finished pieces hanging, currently I have 2 finished pieces on the walls, and 3 standing framed pieces, which is not very much considering how many I have finished...

Anyway, after lacing that up I settled in to work on Just a Little Peace and Quiet Please... and here's an update with the head all finished:


I'm actually not enjoying this fabric very much, I don't know if it's because it's opalescent or what but it's very hard to see the holes, it's only 32 count but the fabric threads are large and barely leave holes, which makes it very difficult to stitch comfortably with. Luckily this is not a huge piece.

Tonight I go to my uncle's house, I plan to work more on Peace and Quiet hopefully...

Kingdom Sampler SAL:


I stitched the little people and am almost done filling in the main body of the piece. Next week it will be a quick finish up of the right side and a start on the momentous clouds that may just take me forever :)

I'm really looking forward to the alphabet but I'm going to hold off, I think if I get sick of clouds I will treat myself to a few letters here and there...

So last night I didn't just stitch, when I first got home my pieces to be framed were calling to me, so I laced Going To Market onto the backing board, even framed it but I forgot about spacers between the plexi and the piece so I'm going to have to redo the framing part. No big deal considering the lacing and centering is the hard part and that's done. Tonight I'm hoping to lace Legends of the Dragons.

As for spacers, I need to figure out what to use. In the past I've used small pieces of cardboard. Other times I've just gone without glass but I do prefer glass so the piece is protected, not just when it's hanging but when I'm moving, I can put them all in a box safely. If there are charms or specialty stitches I do refrain however as I like to really let people look closely.

I stitch and I stitch... and finally I finish :)
Blackwork Dragon - stitched on Wandering Ivy 36ct Linen by Silkweaver using WDW Hunter:


I finished that little guy up late Saturday night (well 1am sunday morning).

I think I got a decent amount of things done this weekend. I finished the blackwork dragon so I can guilt free start Celtic Banner on Aug. 3rd and get back to Peaceful Silhouette at lunch time :) I also re-washed Legends of the Dragons and Going To Market so that I can frame them this week. They are now dry and ironed and waiting to be mounted and framed.

Sunday we had a stampin up party so I got to order a bunch of stuff from the new catalog and my order should be in next week before I go to Maine with my friend so we can bring some of our new stuff.
I also finally cleaned my apartment and sucked up all the spiders on the stairs to the basement so I will brave going down there again... uck!

Tonight is Kingdom Sampler SAL night! Tomorrow I will probably try to frame my two pieces and wednesday I want to work on Peace and Quiet and get an updated pic before the weekend since that's probably my piece for this weekend as well :)
AND i got up and ran again this morning - and I ran saturday.. so I got 4 days in last week and I'm starting out strong this week, hopefully I can keep this up!

note to self:
Walked on friday.
Ran on saturday (2 miles total).

Stitched on Blackwork dragon Thur, friday.

Every once and a while food just hits me the wrong way...

So last night was going smoothly, I walked with my aunt and uncle (didn't run but that's just fine with me, a good 45 minute walk). Then we ate, then I felt sick. It just happens sometimes, it's not the food specifically, it's just me.

So there was no stitching last night, we watched a movie which distracted me enough and by 10:30 I was feeling better so I went to bed and read for a while.

Today at lunch is stitch & stamp! It's scrapbooking day so I brought in all my goodies and I'm planning on making at least 1 scrapbook page and just overall planning out my scrapbook a bit.
Tonight is stitch night - probably I'll work on blackwork dragon but I might surprise myself and work on Peace and Quiet since I got the face finished on her yesterday at lunch and she needs some more details :)

hehehehe.... i just ordered some fabric... i'm so bad.

I just ordered 2 solos and a piece of Ametrine from Silkweaver, the Ametrine is for the purple conversion for the Petal Fairy. Now I can't wait to stitch that piece soon...

Then I signed up for HeavenLee Creations' fabric of the month club, i almost signed up for a second silkweavers' but i decided to mix it up a bit. I miss dyeing4u, hopefully HeavenLeeCreations will be good, I loved the Dragon Myst fabric I used on Legends...

Stitching round up:
Currently Stitching --- after it's finished ---
-----------------------------------------------
Blackwork Dragon --- Celtic Banner
Kingdom Sampler --- Petal Fairy
Just a Little Peace --- Shepherd's Purse
Peaceful Silhouette --- probably never finish this ... :)

Of course that's just at this moment, the only definite is that i'm starting Celtic Banner soon... oh yea and there's Elemental Cosmos I want to stitch soon...

Well I guess yesterday at lunch was the only stitching time I got yesterday :) Last night was pretty rough. I have been feeling off the last few days, kind of just in a bad mood, so last night when I got home I just wound floss while watching some more Felicity (which just makes my mood worse usually as those characters are always cheating on each other or hurting each other or something, but I have 2 more disks left of the entire show and i have to find out what happened...)

Finally I made dinner but I didn't even feel like eating so I went and just layed down in the dark for an hour (migraine). I did manage to get up and pit all the cherries so we could have our regular smoothie this morning and then I read for a half hour. A really unproductive night but kind of relaxing.

Tonight I go to my uncles, hopefully we'll go running before dinner and after dinner I can work on Just a little Peace and Quiet or Blackwork Dragon. I also have lunchtime to stitch :)

Day 3 - got up and ran, I'm on a roll. It was harder to get up this morning to run but I did it. Kind of hard having skipped dinner last night, but it can't be helped when I get a migraine. Tomorrow I won't run in the morning as I'll be at my uncle's but friday and saturday will close off my 5 days of running week.

surprise surprise - i just got a good hour of work on Just a Little Peace and Quiet... at lunch today, she has a good amount of face now :) Maybe I'll continue on here tonight.

Well I just about finished the dragon, I didn't stitch his eye or the little bit of yellow, instead I finished the mountain range to the left of him. This scan really shows the fabric color well though and I'm loving this piece:


I'm not really looking forward to the one huge cloud but I am looking forward to doing the people and filling in the area by the people next week. Not too many weeks left to go with this piece. The border will go fast, not sure about the alphabet but I can definitely see this finished before the end of august at least.
Carol made some awesome progress yesterday! These things just work out perfectly sometimes, last week I had some extra time and this week she did!

I got a great treat in the mail yesterday, I bought frames for both Going To Market and Legends of the Dragons. They are perfect. The one I got for Legends is actually metal but it has this neat painted effect I really liked, it's not as blue as I was hoping, a little black looking because it's so dark but I think it will work just fine. The one for Going To Market is a dark brown wood frame with some awesome detailed work which compliments the design perfectly. I'm hoping to frame these this weekend! I think they both have to be washed, which I'm a little nervous about but i can wash them friday night, let them dry over night, iron and frame them saturday and show them off sunday to my friends. We'll see how it goes ...

Tonight they're calling for storms, if that's the case and I miss my friends' concert again because of it I will work on Blackwork Dragon some more I think, I'd love to finish this piece up before starting Celtic Banner on Aug 3rd!

Still waiting for my second Leanne's Quilt block of the month to arrive...

Not a lot of stitching this weekend, definitely not as much as I had planned, it was a VERY hot weekend!

Friday night we went up to my uncle's to just relax and watch tv. Saturday we went to the beach with my little cousins, so my attention was taken the whole time, no reading time or anything. Saturday night I did read and I actually got up pretty early (6:15) and read for an hour to finish up Between Two Worlds before going back to sleep for 2 hours! Loved the book!

Sunday was a relax and really not do much because it was too hot day. We watched a few movies and finally in the afternoon I pulled out Blackwork Dragon and worked on that:


I also did some beading, at least one thing on my todo list :)

Tonight is Kingdom Sampler night, I'm hoping to stitch the dragon at the very least, dinner tonight is tacos, not a lot of prep work involved so hopefully it's an early dinner and then on to stitching. Unfortunately I have to go to bed by 10 now, I got up and ran finally this morning and I'm going to try to keep it up which means an earlier bedtime!

A stitch night with no stitching ...

That's what friends are for :) I made it to stitch night on time last night even with tons of traffic! We ordered dinner and ate, then we decided to play a game instead of stitch so no stitching actually got done, but I had a great time!

By the time I got home and got dishes and garbage taken care of it was after 10 already so I settled in to read a little and go to sleep. Tonight we decided we'll go out to dinner and tomorrow I have an errand to run in Andover and then it's off to the beach for the day. I can't wait to just sleep in though!

A normal night.

Well last night was a nice normal night, i hit traffic coming home again but my boyfriend had dinner ready when I got home so all I had to do was dishes. Then we sorted through some photos I just had printed and decided what to frame and what to scrapbook. Finally I got a nice relaxing 2 hours of stitching time! That's much more normal than monday night where I took a good 4 hours to stitch.

So I worked on Just a Little Peace and Quiet, sorry for the bad scan, you can't even see the fabric but the stitching shows up fine:


It's a fun piece to work on and I think at stitch tonight I'll either continue on that piece, starting the head of the dragon or work on blackwork dragon.
It looks like we *might* go to the beach this weekend, i really hope so, our weekends are pretty booked this summer but i'd like to get out o the beach at least once before our vacation!

nothing like a night of not stitching.

it was very hot last night! I got home (late due to traffic), and my boyfriend had dinner under control, so I started the regular putting away of the "things" from work and such. Then with the pizza in the oven I started on kitchen cleanup and cooking some rice to go with some leftovers for lunch this week. With the oven on and the stove going it was slowly getting even hotter in the kitchen!

Finally the pizza was done so we ate and took a break from the kitchen heat. ... Then I had to return! I needed to bake brownies (more oven!) and pit all those cherries, so I did both, drinking as much water as I could. By 9 I was exhausted from the heat but I was done in the kitchen so I settled in to wind some floss and relax. I decided against stitching as I just couldn't get into it being so hot.

So no progress to show from last night. Hopefully tonight is different, dinner should be easy so hopefully by 7 I can be settled in to stitch on my new dragon or another piece if it draws me :)

A SAL night :)

Yesterday was great, at work I actually got a lunch break so I stitched the left cloud on Kingdom Sampler, I couldn't resist :) And when I got home I placed the center of the design in my q-snap and filled in everything I could. It really went fast because it was all half stitch and solid areas of stitching, I tend to "outline" the border of a solid area and then just fill in so I don't have to follow the pattern as much.

I'm loving this piece and next week I get to work on the dragon! My goal next week is to stitch most of the dragon and maybe start the people. It will be back to full x's so it will take longer again.
This is actually a good picture, the color of the fabric is pretty true.

Last night I went to the grocery store and bought a ton of fruits and stuff for some smoothies we're going to try out. Most of the fruit is simply wash and dry and then freeze but the cherries have to be pitted - ugg! I've never pitted cherries before so I washed them last night and tonight I have to cut them all and freeze them. Also tonight is my friends' band concert so I hope to go to that after dinner, if it's not raining or wet maybe i'll work on "Just a Little Peace and Quiet" while I'm there!

Finished!
The baby quilt for my friend is finished..

I finished adding the binding last night while watching movies.

Let's see - a busy stitching weekend I had :)
Friday we went and saw Pirates II and really had a great time (a friend and I), it was good, a bit gruesome and definitely a lead up to the third but still thoroughly enjoyable.
Saturday I relaxed in the morning and then went over to the same friend's house and spent the day stitching and watching movies! I made some progress on Blackwork Dragon (man does this move slowly sometimes!)

Seriously, for some reason it's taking forever but my hand was cramping up a bit too.

Then yesterday after spending a long morning reading (i'm now more than halfway through Between Two Worlds - i should probably update my sidebar...) My boyfriend got back from his weekend back home in NY and we watched some movies while I worked on the quilt a little, blackwork dragon a little and just plain did nothing - it was great :)
Then .. after dinner I remembered I was going to start a new piece this weekend! So .. Just a Little Peace and Quiet Please by Dragon Dreams .. on Solitude by Dyeing4U fabric:

I know it doesn't look like much yet but I think this will go along quickly! The fabric is sparkly pink and blue!

So now a new piece is started .. but tonight is Kindom Sampler night and I can't wait! Clouds here I come :)

Pirates. Tonight we are going to the opening of Pirates II :) I can't wait!

Last night was a great stitch night with friends, and a little dragon progress to show for it:

It seems to be slow going but I think I'm doing the most difficult part, it's really filled in along the spines, the face and neck however should go faster and therefore maybe I'm almost halfway done??

Let's see - this weekend - what am I doing?? I think I will try to get the binding finished on the baby quilt and get the personalization patch embroidery started since I know the baby's name now. I think I may have to start a new piece! Right now I really only have:
Kindom Sampler - monday nights only
Blackwork Dragon - probably about 1/2 done
Peaceful Silhouette - work piece

Really that's it right now .. besides some small pieces I wanted to do, i think i need another large piece started :) Celtic Banner will get started Aug 3rd on my weekend away as a SAL with my friend. I have fabric ready for 2 pieces, one a Witches Stitches piece on black and the other a Sweetheart Tree piece on white... but there's always a bunch of new ones I just got too.... what a fun weekend this will be!

Finally went kayaking! We rented a two person kayak, which was good and bad, since it was our first time it was good because in a single I would have badly lagged behind. Bad though because it was difficult to both paddle. We were not very good :) Then it started to RAIN .. not just rain .. pour! We headed back when we saw lightning and as it really started coming down and we could see the rental place and people were swarming it, we decided to hide under a bridge from the rain and wait it out. It worked out great, there was this adorable little duckling I got some pictures of and eventually the rain let up and we headed in.

The rest of the evening was spent just relaxing, I finished the embroidery on Leanne's Quilt Block 1 so now that's finished:


I didn't work on the website as I'd hoped but I decided to bring my laptop to work and I'll work on it at lunch time the next few days if I can. I updated my cross stitch database to include the new charts I've bought in the last few months and put them in my alphabetized binder system :)
I like my stash alphabetized, it always surprises me what's next to what and I love looking through it all!

Tonight I brought the baby quilt to work on the binding some more, I need to write out the personalization as well so I can embroider that soon and it will be all ready. Tomorrow at stitch I'll work on blackwork dragon and so far I've kept this weekend pretty open, I'm hoping to work on a few things. Plus I finally measured all my finished pieces so I can buy frames if I can find them affordably and do some framing sometime soon!

Quick picture update...

Since I won't be online tomorrow most likely, I figured i'd pop on and update my Kingdom Sampler SAL pic:


Finally got to start working on those half stitches a bit. And I noticed the clouds are half stitches so I'm looking forward to maybe starting those next week! Now it's away for another week and tomorrow maybe I can pull out Blackwork Dragon :)

July Goals:
1) Finish baby quilt
2) Work on Kindom Sampler :)
3) work on Peaceful Silhouette
4) Start new piece!
5) Finish Leanne's quilt block 1
6) Start Leanne's quilt block 2
7) select a new baby project to do for a friend (Pooh)

8) WORK ON THE WEBSITE!

The horror of it .. a non-stitching weekend!

Seriously, no stitching this weekend - we were just too busy! Friday night we went up to NH and I did get some free time to make some jewelry so I made a bracelet for myself and a pair of earrings for my friend's birthday sunday. Then the guys got back with the fireworks and we were up until 1am setting them up, connecting them all and timing them out and everything.

Saturday we were up early with the little ones, and just spent the day playing with the kids and eatting and visiting with all the family. Saturday night of course was the fireworks show! It was much better this year, we sat back at a safer distance and nothing fell over and shot toward the crowd since we screwed them all to a board this time (last year we used glue and nails and one didn't hold) :)

Then we stayed up playing poker - and got up early sunday with the little ones again. I was exhausted and the day hadn't even started. We got home and I got ready for our next party which was a birthday party for my friend. My boyfriend fell asleep before we left so we were a little late (I just hated waking him up), but we went and stayed for 3 hours - getting home at 6 and I'm not kidding - we went to bed! I slept from 6pm to almost 7am this morning!

It's not the lack of sleep this weekend so much as the constant attention of 3 little kids who were up too late to see fireworks :) The party sunday was much more relaxing and we had a great time, I just felt horrible because I was so exhausted that I couldn't have been much fun :( But it was a great weekend and after I get through work today I get tomorrow off!

And tonight is Kingdom Sampler SAL night - I can't wait! I've hardly stitched on anything since last monday, except for the embroidery on my quilt block, but cross stitch wise I think Kingdom Sampler was the last thing I worked on :)
I'll try to post a picture tonight since I'm off tomorrow to hopefully go kayaking!

This is our first time going kayaking, we're going to rent as it's a hobby we both want to take up but don't want to buy kayak's until we've tried it. We'll just go on the Charle's River since we live practically on it. I'm sure wednesday i'll have more to say unless it rains tuesday!

June Recap:
1) Tie baby quilt [DONE]
2) Start Kingdom Sampler! [YES!]
3) Work on Peaceful Silhouette [YES!]
- finish second boat [YES]
4) Work on Mini Cottages II [FINISHED!]
5) Stitch appleseed needlecase [nope...]
6) Get pieces ready to frame and buy frames! [nope...]

Not too bad :) On top of that I stitched Dry Turkey and made my castle wall hanging ... a pretty productive month!

Circular Blanket Stitch...

So last night was stitch night, I had all my projects with me but when you're trying to talk and stitch at the same time I find that embroidery is easiest as it's already drawn on the fabric! So I worked on my Leanne's Quilt Block last night.

I had been putting off embroidering mini block 2 because it's these flowers made of circular blanket stitch and I've never done blanket stitch, but I braved it and made them and I love them! They came out great, albeit all different sizes and sometimes not round but I love them :) So 9 little flowers with stems completed last night, waiting for their bows and then it's back to mini block 5 to do all those flowers!

And now it's friday ... just a hopefully busy day and then home to pack and head up to NH for most of the weekend! My only goal stitching wise this weekend is to work on the embroidery on the quilt block, i'd like to have that finished up so I have a break before the next block arrives!

And the baby quilt has a quarter of it's binding done. Shouldn't take long to finish up!

Last night we went running - which was great as I haven't done that in a LONG time. Then after dinner settled in to work on the quilt and then read when my elbow started to hurt. I'm currently reading Kite Runner, which is a difficult book to read. It's hard to read a book where you don't like the main character, I don't have much sympathy for him either. Maybe it's the way I was brought up or the things I've lived through but I just can't feel sorry for him and I just don't like him, but the book is very well written and I'm told it just gets better.

It's bad when I'm thinking about what I'm going to read next already - it's like choosing my next stitching project but it goes much faster than that :) Only another 2 weeks maybe and I'll be sitting in front of my bookcase choosing the next world to jump into!

Castles, castles and more castles :)

Well yesterday was just great! As I said in my post I pieced and quilted a little wall hanging from a castle embroidery I did a few years ago. Here it is all finished up now:


After finishing that up I worked on Kingdom Sampler while watching Lord of the Rings (Fellowship of the Ring), and I finished the castle!


So it was castle fun for me last night :) I also managed to make dinner and lots of stuff for the picnic at work today. Tonight I go to my aunt's house and I brought the baby quilt to start whip stitching the binding down on that. Then I have to embroider a patch for the back of the quilt with the baby's name and all.

Looks like it's going to be quite a busy weekend, we'll be going up to visit my uncle friday night to sunday morning for the holiday (all the family is coming out saturday) then we have a birthday party for a friend of mine on sunday! Busy busy! Good thing I got my quilting and stitching in for the week :)

ACK! I love my sewing machine!

I just had the best night/morning with my mom quilting away. Last night I organized my fabric collection by color family and washed my new fabrics to add them. Then this morning I added the binding to the baby quilt (just has to be whip stitched to the back) and I made a wall hanging out of a piece I embroidered a few YEARS ago! That's waiting to be whip stitched as well but I machine quilted that little guy and like I said - I love my machine :)

So this is just short, I'm going to whip stitch the wall hanging quick (it's a castle!) and then work on Kingdom Sampler for a bit. Pictures tomorrow for sure!

**reply to comments - the Dry Turkey piece is by Raise the Roof designs.

I think I say this a lot but really - we had the best weekend ever :) I think this is going to be a great summer!
*(no Kayaking due to weather but ...)

I got lots of things done, Friday night I worked on the embroidery on Leanne's Quilt (which I will show below). Then Saturday we watched Pride & Prejudice the 5 hour version! During which I stitched this little guy:

I had to change one of his wing colors (dark blue to light blue) and then I switched the blue and purple feathers since I liked the purple more. But I love this guy on this dark blue fabric! He took about 6 hours to stitch, after Pride & Prejudice we watched profiler season 2 some more.

Sunday we planned our vacation for the end of the summer, we'll be staying for a week in Atlantic City at the Trump Taj Mahal. I can't wait :) We even got tickets to some shows. We're going Mon-Fri and my sister and her boyfriend will be joinging us Wed-Fri. I'm looking forward to lots of beach time, some casino time and boardwalk shopping. Now I just need to work on the website to save up some shopping money!

After we got that squared away and I cleaned the whole apartment for my mom visiting, I got out my quilting stuff, first I finished tying the baby quilt - that took about 2 1/2 hours but it's done and ready to add the binding! Next I started working on Leanne's Quilt Block 1 again. I finished piecing it completely and was able to work on the embroidery on mini block 5 afterwards:


The best part about this weekend is that tonight my mom is coming to spend the night quilting and I have tomorrow off to continue our visit in the morning and then stitch all afternoon! The apartment is clean and there's nothing more for me to do but enjoy myself. Hopefully work will go fast today :)

I won't be able to SAL to Kingdom Sampler tonight as it's quilting all the way and I'm probably starting a new small quilt even, but tomorrow night I will work on it to make up for today and i'll be back on track next week :)

Finally a picture (sorry it's not my card but I totally spaced yesterday after lunch!)

It is however a great picture of Blackwork Dragon - after working on it last night at stitch and today at lunch for a bit:

He's stitched on Wandering Ivy 36ct linen by Silkweaver with WDW Hunter thread.

I love this fabric (Wandering Ivy), seriously it's probably my favorite fabric that I have so far.

Last night was stitch, it was a great time and i even got some stitching done :) My friend brought her scroll rods and now my fabric for Celtic Banner is all ready, just awaiting the arrival of a much needed border color which should be in 2 weeks at the longest.

And it's almost the weekend!!! Oh I can't wait to get home! I have the apartment to myself tonight to watch some girly stuff while getting some stitching on my quilt block done. Besides cleaning on sunday and possibly Kayaking one day if it doesn't rain both days, my weekend will be just stitching and quilting! Much needed!

I'd like to get Leanne's Quilt - Block 1 completely pieced and a good start on the embroidery and the baby quilt tied completely. Stitching I'd like to start Dry Turkey and continue working on Blackwork Dragon.

Even better - i have next tuesday off to spend the morning with my mom - the rest of the day will be more stitching :)
Monday night however I will not be able to do the Kingdom Sampler SAL with Carol - I think I will switch my night to Tuesday this week since my mom is visiting and we have plans all night which don't include stitching time :( But Tuesday is a great day to work on Kingdom Sampler so it should all work out!

I'll update this post later with a picture (probably just after the lunch group thing).

Last night was great, my brother and his girlfriend came over and we bbq'd up some meat (k'bobs with a mixture of beef, chicken, shrimp and some - very few - veggies). It was fun, then we watched a little tv, it was late, nothing else got done, i even put off the dishes! Which is something I never do, i hate waking up to dirty dishes. But i'll probably do them tonight when I get home late and just want to go to bed - dishes will be calling to me :)

Today is Stitch & Stamp at work - my little group I'm starting, I have all my supplies ready to go to demonstrate the card and then everyone can make it. Then I brought my other stuff to show and people can play with, whatever. The reason I'm waiting on the picture of the card is in case I make something else at lunch I can show both at once.

Stitch night tonight - probably will work on Blackwork Dragon if I don't start Celtic Banner. My friend is bringing scroll rods for me to try out so I'll have to figure out how to use them, not sure how much stitching will actually get done! Ah but it's fun anyway!

After lunch update:
I finished the outline of blackwork dragon and started the blackwork a bit! I'm kind of wishing i had 32ct fabric instead of 36ct so the detail could be seen better but for some reason i bought 36 and i'm not restarting this guy AGAIN!

I will try to post a picture of my cards tomorrow!

A cardmaking night.

So yesterday at lunch I cheated and didn't work on Peaceful Silhouette, Blackwork Dragon was calling to me so I broke down and worked on that a tad more. I want to get the whole outline done so I can take a picture and it will actually look like a dragon :)

But last night there was no stitching. We made dinner and I cleaned for company tonight. Then I got out my stamping stuff and made a card - with an asian theme since my new stamp set is asian themed. I really like the card, it was simple. Tonight depending on how long my brother stays I may make another thing to show tomorrow at work. I set up a lunch time event tomorrow for anyone that's interested, to show stamping - for card making and scrapbooking and i'm bringing my supplies so anyone can make the same card as well and get to try out the stamps and stuff. It's like a little craft club we're trying out. We'll see how it goes :)

But today - probably still work on blackwork dragon at lunch :) Can't help it, I might be able to finish the outline!

Kindom Sampler SAL night!

I didn't get as much time as I would have liked last night to stitch but here's my progress:

Carol is such a fast stitcher, I'll have to sneak in an extra night some time soon just to keep up!
I'm loving this piece, I held off on the roof tops of the castle but next week I'm definitely going to jump into those as I love the red WDW color! I did as I had planned, filling in more trees and working on the castle which is the fun part so far.

Also I've made some good progress on Peaceful Silhouette at work lately and even my boyfriend was impressed (this piece is for him, he bought the kit for me and wants to hang this in his future office next year):

It's fun to work on a little bit at a time, I have a feeling the sky will be the boring part but the filling in of the dark brown/black is actually fun because you really see shapes come to life.

Last night we made up some dinner and retired to the bedroom where the A/C was for the night, watching dvd's on my laptop. Tonight I have to clean and do laundry after dinner since my brother is coming over wednesday. I also should work on the website again!

A GREAT weekend! And i'm not just saying that because I got a new toy...

We went back home this weekend to visit with family, it was a relaxing weekend, I didn't get any stitching or anything done but fun none the less. Sunday we drove home around noon, we decided to stop at target and buy the camping stuff we need - which turned out great, we got a tent, sleeping bags and chairs in the exact colors and brands I wanted! I was very happy!

Then as we were just walking around target we hit there very small sewing machine area... I was just complaining to my mom this weekend about the machine I have (an old hand me down singer), i can't sew even medium speed without skipping stitches, so I was bummed about starting Leanne's Quilt instead of excited. SO i bought a new machine! It's mechanical, not computerized so that saved me a ton of money (some day I will get a really good machine like my mom has) but this is great. It comes with a walking foot and a ton of other feet and a quilting table. It has 80 stitches and some neat features like a needle threader. I'm very happy with it so far. It's obviously not an expensive machine as it's not very quiet when it sews but it's perfect for what I need for a few years!

With that I started block 1 of leanne's quilt, piecing mini blocks 1,2,3!

I want to do the embroidery and applique before doing block 4 and 5 but as it was rising in temperature in the apartment under my sewing lamp we decided to put the A/C in the bedroom and finish the night sitting in the cool room - so I started Blackwork Dragon again on Wandering Ivy Linen (36ct) with WDW thread. I'll show a picture soon, not much progress yet.

So that is why it was such a great weekend - I got a bunch of new toys!

Quick post:

Mini Cottages II finished!:


And the floss toss for the Celtic Banner (butternut road's):


That may not be the final floss toss as I may be substituting some of those colors tonight but the bright greens are definitely staying! I may just add in a bit more purple instead of the pinks.

Wow - i finally joined the blogroll thing - and i love it! Sure makes checking blogs go faster! That was great!

Hehehe!!
So last night was stitch night and I found out that one of my good friends is going to start Celtic Banner really soon - and another good friend and I both have this with the green conversion and want to stitch it as well ... so we bought fabric! So it looks like this will be starting soon, I have to gather the huge amount of floss I will need (in greens not browns!) and figure out if I can borrow scroll rods from my first friend as she said she has plenty and then we'll start!

So that's one new project that will be under way and this morning I went through my charts really quick and pulled all the ones that I really really want to start this weekend, these are my choices:
America, The Beautiful by Rosewood Manor*
Dry Turkey by Raise The Roof
Elemental Cosmos by Witches Stitches
Shamrock Sampler by Sweetheart Tree
Just A Little Peace and Quiet by Dragon Dreams

*This one is one I want to do for my aunt.

So today at lunch I will try to figure out what color family of fabric I want for most of them and then when I get home tonight I can widdle down my list based on the fabric I actually have available. I might just choose to do Dry Turkey because it's so small and will go quickly since Celtic Banner will NOT go quickly :)
Right and Celtic Banner is going to be on yellow fabric - 32ct. Oh I can't wait! I love starting new projects!!!

Finished!!!

I can't post a picture yet since I wasn't home last night and probably won't have time tonight but SOON - Mini Cottages II is finished! This is just awesome, I finished all the backstitching last night! I actually have Mini Cottages III that I could always start now but I'm going to hold off just a little bit.

I really got into working on Peaceful Silhouette yesterday at lunch so I think I'll bring that to stitch tonight to work on and this weekend while I'm "traveling" to NY I will work on my appleseed needlecase from celebrations that has to be ripped out and restarted.

And now - i really can start another new piece! So friday night I will be going through my stash to see what really pulls at me and what i have fabric for, some options off the top of my head are:

Blackwork Dragon (DD)(restarting this on Wandering Ivy fabric)
Just a Little Peace and Quiet (DD)
Shepherd's Purse (Shepherd's Bush Kit)
Piece for my aunt (don't know the name)
Petal Fairy in purple conversion!

That's just a quick list from the top of my head but once I look through all my designs I'll figure out the few that I really really must do next and then figure out what I have fabric for. Just in case I have to wait on fabric I will buy the thread I need for blackwork dragon tonight since I do have that fabric specially ordered already :)

No stitching -
Well yesterday at lunch got really busy so no stitching then and last night I was supposed to work on the website but with internet problems I just couldn't get motivated so I wound floss on bobbins while watching some more Oz. I'm now in the 900's with my floss winding - this is taking forever! :)

Today I will definitely stitch Peaceful Silhouette at lunch and Mini Cottages tonight at my aunt's. Then tomorrow night is stitch night so I will continue the backstitching on Mini Cottages then too.

In other news - I found the two skeins of WDW i bought for Kindom Sampler! Thank you carol for the offer - i knew I had them around someplace and found them this morning, pretty close to where I thought I had put them but hidden with a pattern I had bought at the same time. I would say which pattern but I already forgot the name of it and can't find it with any searches!

Well it's getting close to lunch - maybe I should stop munching on frosted mini wheats - not that good dry anyway.

SAL night :)


Ah yes - so far so good with monday nights. I went to the grocery store, cooked up some burgers and corn on the cob and then settled in for almost 3 hours of stitching! The only problem is I had to frog! I was stitching away on the castle and accidentally stitched that whole spine or whatever in the light grey! So I pulled that all out and stitched the darker grey where it was supposed to be - okay I didn't pull it completely out .. hehe.. The last row I left in the first leg (half stitch) in light grey and stitched the final leg in the dark grey, it mostly works, a little blended look but it's blending from one color to the next anyway.
So now you know my secret - very often I stitch "over" when I mess up if I can get away with it, I did it a few times on Going To Market and on Mini Cottages II I think I messed up twice and did the same, always with only a stitch or two.

I can't wait until next week, I figure I will always start with some of the more boring (fill in some more trees) and then work on the fun stuff (the castle!) for a bit at the end!

I bought the WDW for this - but I can't find it! I cleverly put it someplace safe and I have no idea if it's in my closet or a stitching bag somewhere - hmph - i organize too much it seems :) Luckily I have a week to find it!

I nice weekend - not a lot of stitching time but lots of family time :) I love hanging out with my three little cousins and that's what we did this weekend. Plus friday night we went out to dinner and then saw X3 which was awesome and I so hope not the last Xmen movie they make.

On the stitching front I have a progress pic of Mini Cottages II:


As you can see the stitching part is done and now I'm just backstitching, the first 2 houses I finished last night on our drive home and I couldn't get myself to pic up my stitching after we got home, i was just too tired, I wound some floss on bobbins while watching Oz season 2 instead.

And tonight is Kindom Sampler SAL with Carol. Of course I have to work first :) And at lunch I plan to work on Peaceful Sillhouette, last week got so busy at the end that I missed out on it and I have a lot to do in order to finish the second boat by the end of the month.

Maybe with working on Mini Cottages tues and wed it can get finished up by the end of the week!

Ack - it's almost the weekend!

Today has been slightly busy - the kind of busy where the next thing you know it's 1pm and you haven't even thought of lunch! I did get to eat though - plenty - at 1:30 and now i'm winding down, things have been finished up as of 10 minutes ago, i'm catching up on emails from earlier that i just skipped because I was living directly in the now.

Last night was great, my regular stitch group didn't meet but i got to meet with my closest stitch buddy and work a little on Mini Cottages II again - a little more sky fill in. I'm up to the point where I have to add the moon before filling the rest in or else I'll mess it up for sure :) Then I just have the ground! Hopefully sunday i can work on this a little.

Tonight is X3!!! And tomorrow is working on my car and going to my cousin's recital, definitely no stitching time. Hopefully time enough to get all my car work done so I can spend sunday relaxing and work on the website a bit.

It looks like I'm working late next monday night due to this deadline on tuesday but that means I can leave early hopefully next friday and with no plans as of yet i'm hoping it will be a crafty weekend with maybe a little quilting - but that's pretty far off - first --- this weekend!

Hour left to go till i hit traffic :)

No pictures just yet but I worked on Mini Cottages II some more last night, I finished the stitching on the last house, all I have left (besides backstitching), is half the blue sky, the moon and the ground. I will probably stitch more sky tonight and hopefully the moon and this piece will definitely be finished by the end of this month!

So it's time to plan what to start next! I think the one I want to stitch for my aunt is pretty high up on the list of possibilites, I also have 2 little babies that will need stitching by november and december this year, one i hope to stitch a pooh thing for (it's older sister got a Pooh wallhanging I stitched so I think a framed Pooh piece would go well). The other baby might get a baby quilt instead of stitching as it's mother is the one I made the wedding quilt for and she loved it and she's not a fan of stitching I think. I wonder how that quilt I made them is doing...

Anyway - so I will have to start planning some new starts.. there's always "Winter in My Garden" that i'd like to start too!

Atlantic City anyone?

Has anyone ever stayed in Atlantic City? Do you have any suggestions for places to stay that are reasonably placed? We are thinking about doing an end of the summer vacation there with my sister and her boyfriend on a wed-sun but so far the prices are looking crazy! We'd like to be close to the boardwalk and enjoy both beaches and casinos but maybe we'll take the few extra hours drive to virginia beach which seems much cheaper!

I did it - i worked on the website!

Unfortunately I didn't also fit in going to the gym or getting up and running this morning but one step at a time!

I hit SO much traffic on my way home last night, I was 45 min later than expected so my dinner was late and by 8 I was finally on my computer ready to work on the website. I got 2 hours in but wasn't done by 9 like i'd hoped so i could go to the gym, but by 10:20 i was in bed as usual which was good.

Tonight i go to my uncle's so I'm sure to get some stitching time in, i'm either going to work on Mini Cottages II or pull out my appleseed needlecase that I wanted to start over which means taking out what i already did. Luckily that's done in DMC so if i run out of thread i always have more.

Well time for some breakfast and time to figure out what i am doing today!