Saturday, April 30, 2016

Elope! I begged her! Elope!

Weddings are supposed to be fun and exciting and filled with joy! Aren't they? Have you ever noticed that the planning of the wedding, however, causes pain, heartache, and grief? Wh en my cousin announced that she got engaged two years ago I honestly suggested that she elope. Her brother's wedding resulted in tons of family drama, and I knew this one would turn out similarly. Unfortunately, I was not wrong. She announced the engagement in October 2014, people were already fighting in December and the actual wedding wasn't until next month!

This week we had the obligatory seating arrangement drama. Now keep in mind, she did not want to have assigned tables. She wanted to have a casual, fun reception where people from the two families would mingle, move around, sit wherever... I supported this. But others did not. Thus a seating arrangement was charted, feelings were hurt, fights ensued, fingers were pointed... And we still have three weeks before the happy day.

Truth be told, I am looking forward to the wedding. I found two dresses and just have to decide which one to wear. I plan to have my hair done with purple highlights the day before we leave (the color scheme is purple so I know my cousin will love it). I'm going to be doing the bride's, and bride's mother's makeup, so I've gotten all my makeup together to bring with us (my husband is going to explode when he sees all the bags of makeup!). It's just the pre-wedding craziness that I wish we could have avoided.

But enough about insanity, let's talk about stitching which makes my crazy life a little better. This week I worked on the Faces of Joan Elliot SAL. I finished the top row except for beading and backstitching which I'm going to do at the end.


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Sunday, April 24, 2016

Vacation Progress

So, we are back from vacation, and I am ready to get back into my 'rotation' - at least until we leave for my cousin's wedding. Not sure what I am going to work on that weekend since my 'rotation' is supposed to start on Sunday and end on Saturday, and we will be gone from Thursday till Monday. Bring two projects? I have 27 days to decide.

I decided for my vacation to break my 'rotation' and start a new project. I actually kitted it all up the week before we left so I would be all ready for our 6am flight, and since we got back and had a lot to do, I continued working on it this past week. Rather pleased with the progress I was able to make. Maybe I'll take this to my cousin's wedding as well.

This is what the finished project should look like...


This is how it looks today...


You may be wondering why I keep writing rotation in quotes. I don't seem to be able to stick to a rotation that I decide on. But at the same time I wasn't happy when I only had one project and the goal was to work on it till finished and then start the next. I set up a rotation in order to avoid starting project after project and never having anything finished. I think I need to rethink my 'system'. Suggestions welcome!

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Sunday, April 3, 2016

Making Progress

For the last two weeks I've been working on The Twelve Days of Christmas from the Plum Street Samplers. I am really loving this project and I am so happy with my progress.



I'm especially pleased with my progress since this is the first time I've worked on 32 count (a little small) and the first time I've worked on linen. I'm not loving the unevenness in the threads (slobs, slugs?? I know they have a name) but it is not as difficult to work around as I feared. If I found a fabric in the future that only came in linen, I would no longer immediately put it aside as a 'no go.' If I really liked the color of the fabric and had a project in mind that would look good on it, I would get it.

My other excitement for this week is that I registered for a sewing class at Joanne's Fabrics. I'm actually really excited. Hopefully, I will learn quickly, or at least at a reasonable speed, and I will then be able to learn to use my mother's machine. I'm having a little trouble finding the instruction manual for her exact model, but someone once said that I am nothing if not persistent, so...

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