Week Off

Last week I seem to have taken a week off from stitching. It was not the plan, but each day of the week, I got into the train, or sat in front of the TV, and had no interest in stitching. I decided not to force it. When I was ready to stitch again, I would stitch.

Saturday, started our week off from work, and ended my week off from stitching. As soon as I sat down in front of the TV, I was ready to work on my new small project. It's a little card kit that came as a freebie with my latest edition of The World of Cross Stitch.

For two days of stitching I've made some pretty good progress. I'm pleased. And I am sure I will get a lot more stitching done this week when we are home relaxing. We have a bunch of small chores scheduled to get done. The plan is to spend a few hours a day on something for the house (like shopping, straightening out the kitchen and dining room, winterizing the backyard) and then spending the rest of the day relaxing and doing things we enjoy.

Hopefully, I will be able to post a few pictures next week of finished smalls.

Thanks for visiting!

Getting Too Old to Party Like I Used To!

Didn't have a chance to blog last week as I was at our national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. If you know me you know I hate to fly, especially alone, but the flights were great! Going down there was absolutely no turbulence, so between take-off and landing I was able to relax. Even got some stitching done on the way down! On the way back, I was too exhausted.

I remember my first convention 15 years ago... I was out till midnight every night, and up for the 8am meetings the next morning. This year I knew those days were past. One night my girlfriend and I were at a party that was supposed to run from 5:30-8:30. We agreed we would leave at 7 or 7:30 the latest. But the music was so wonderful, we agreed to stay to the end, leading my girlfriend to say, "Oh let's live dangerously and stay till 8:30!"

The last night, the party was so good, I stayed till 11:30 (party ended at 2:00am). I could not move the next day! My whole body felt like I had been through a war! I don't know how I used to do that every night in years gone by. Thank goodness I took Friday off to recover!

So, as you might imagine, I did not get much stitching done this past week, but I have been making some nice progress on my Friendly Felines! Going to work on some smalls for cards for a week or two and then I'll come back to this one.

Thanks for visiting!

Mom's Birthday

I'm having a pretty hard weekend. Tomorrow my mom would have been 84. This is her first birthday not on earth, and I feel so alone and lost. I still miss her so much. We took the day off tomorrow so we can go to the cemetery. The last few years, on my mom's birthday, we took her to the casino. She really enjoyed it, and I'm so glad we did it so I have those memories. I'm thinking of stopping there after the cemetery, just to play a machine or two in her memory.

Other than that, I've been stitching on my Friendly Felines pretty steadily on the train home from work, and while watching TV at night when there is time. I'm pleased with my progress. 

Thanks for visiting!

International Hermit & Stitch Weekend

This was the perfect weekend for me to join the International Hermit & Stitch Weekend. My DH had to work on Saturday, so he went to sleep a little early Friday night. I stayed up and stitched. Then Saturday I did some shopping, some cleaning, some cooking, and then hermitted myself away and stitched. Sunday, DH wanted to hang for a few hours with one of his friends, which was fine with me, cause I got to do some more IHSW time.



Friday morning this area of the piece was completely empty. This is the progress I made this weekend.

Thanks for looking!

What a Difference the Fabric Makes

When I decided to make the Faces of Joan Elliott SAL, I had only worked on 14 ct Aida. At the time, I had very little faith in my abilities, and never thought I could work over 2, so I bought a piece of  pink and purple 14 ct Aida from Silkweaver Fabrics. At some point I decided to throw caution to the wind and try stitching over 2 on 28 ct fabric, and I totally fell in love.

I think this is part of the reason I am not enjoying the SAL as much as I should be. It's a beautiful design, but I enjoy stitching over 2 much more. Plus, I realize now, the Aida is SO STIFF! I spent almost all September and about half of August working on the Faces of Joan Elliott SAL. When I picked up my Friendly Felines it was like I had died and gone to heaven. The stitching seemed so much smoother and the fabric so soft and pliable.

I did get a little more done on the Faces. I did all the backstitching on the upper left fairy and most of the metallic stitching and backstitching on the dragon.

But mostly I worked on my Felines. Below you can see how far I got by the end of Thursday evening -- before the International Hermit & Stitch Weekend. I've decided I'm going to keep working on this for as long as I continue to enjoy it. And definitely all weekend. After I took this picture, I moved my frame back to the top row of cats.

If I feel like working on the Faces one evening -- great. If not, that is okay too. Right now I feel at piece with my stitching. Please check back after Monday to see how far I got over the IHSW.

Thanks for visiting!

Still in Small Making Mode

I don't have much to report this week, but I am happy to report that I have completed another small piece that I will ultimately turn into some sort of greeting card. I think it will be nice for someone with a birthday in the spring.

I have decided I am going to work on my Friendly Felines while traveling to and from work this coming week. I haven't worked on it since our cruise in April. This is as far as I had gotten, let's see what I can get done by the end of the week.

If I have time to stitch in the evening and on the weekend, I am going back to my Faces of Joan Elliott SAL. I just want to get it done, but I am not having fun working on it anymore. My goal is to get all the backstitching, and all metallic thread stitching done by the end of October. But, honestly, I will be happy with any progress at all!

Thanks for your visit!

TUSAL and Unsuccessful Solo September

I am proud to announce that I actually took this picture of my ORTs on the New Moon! This is for Daffycat's TUSAL. I have been getting a good amount of stitching done this month, so my little boot is full, full, full! I decided to empty it after taking this picture so we will see how far I get filling it up again by the next new moon. My baggie has been added to as well, but it doesn't show as much. Not yet... it will. I have confidence! Ha!

Unfortunately, I do not have much confidence that I will finish my Faces of Joan Elliott SAL before the end of the year. :-( My original goal was to have this done and finished as a pillow for my cousin's November 4th birthday. Well, that is clearly not going to happen. I worked on this project for the first 25 days of the month as my Solo September project. I'm happy that the basic cross-stitch is done. But once I took it out of the Q snaps to move and start the backstitching... well, I just couldn't convince myself to finish off the month with it.




Instead I decided to make a little cupcake letter for a future birthday card. I think these designs are so cute, and making this small project just made me happy. That is what my stitching is supposed to do -- make me happy. Hopefully, the card I make with this will also make someone else happy. Planning to send it to my sister-in-law.







I thought about going back to the Faces...
but...
no...
another small for a card was in order. Got this adorable card kit with my subscription to World of Cross Stitch and decided I would make this into a birthday card for my cousin so I wouldn't feel so bad about not finishing the Faces. Maybe she will get the pillow for Christmas... more likely Valentine's Day. Oh well, I'm not going to beat myself up too badly over this. I use my cross stitch as a sedative, and it doesn't work as well if I'm not fully enjoying the project.


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