Stash and Village Progress

Wow, I am exhausted and I have not even gotten my post written. Just ran into a snap uploading pictures from my camera. Usually I do it through my HP printer, etc. with its software. Tonight it kept telling me there was no memory card even when it was stuck in the printer. Ended up using an Adobe down loader that did work, but then I had to figure out where it saved my edited photos. I get so frustrated with technology that I was almost ready to throw it all away. Since that process took so long this will probably be Thursday post instead of Wednesday one.

Last Friday I attended a Sewing and Quilting Expo in Kansas City with my stitching friend Sandi. She has gotten into quilting sort of through the backdoor. I like to quilt and sew, but would rather cross stitch. Sandi is working on finishing some things her mother had either in process or planned when she passed away rather suddenly. Now Sandi has the quilting bug pretty good, plus she also does sewing for her granddaughter. She make her Halloween costume this year. She wanted to be a cow, she had a cow costume and so did her Cabbage Patch doll Josie. i digressed a little here. The expo was held on 4 days with a merchandise mall open for 3 days. Various classes are held each day with a very diverse set of topics. The one class I took was Crochet 101. Even thought I crochet, I thought there might be some tips I could pick up. My mother, grandmother and an aunt did some beautiful work with thread instead of yarn and I have always wanted to be able to do that. Never been very successful. The teacher was very good and the class time went way too fast. The yarn we used in class was smaller than regular worsted weight yarn that I have used for afghans, so it was a different experience working with that. When I asked her my question about working with thread, suggested that I start with sock yarn. It is a very small yarn and then try again with the cotton thread. So I bought some sock yarn and have done a little work with it. I like the way the stripes appear in it. Did not take any pictures of that. It did not even enter my mind to do that. Maybe in a later post.

Could not go through a merchandise mall without buying something. Here is some fabric that I bought. The two pieces of red were bought at separate booths, but are companion pieces. One has snowmen in it and the other is just the background of the snowmen. Did not even realize it until I got home. Funny how things like that happen. No particular project in mind for any of these. I just like them. Also shown is a marking ruler that is marked off in 1/2 inch increments that you can use a chalk marker in to mark various widths for cutting. Still struggle getting my rotary cutter to work for me.

Here is a purse that I bought at one of the quilt shop booths. It looks just like a Vera Bradley bag, but did not have the Vera Bradley price tag. It was only $20 and has six pockets on the inside and one with Velcro closing on the outside. I love it. The handles are a good length too.

On the stitching front I have been working on the last 2 of 4 Christmas presents. Both are about 2/3 done. Sometimes it is hard to find time to stitch on them other than at home, since the people that they are for are involved in both of my weekly stitch therapy sessions. Also working on another design model for The Sunflower Seed. She has decided that one part of it needs to be changed so I will continue with the rest of it until the changes are done. This one needs to be done by before December 1st. The other design model is being put on the back burner til this one is done. Been trying to stitch as fast as I can, but when I do that I end up frogging more mistakes. Her Nashville market is coming up in February and she is already stressing over it.

My VOHRH has had to go on hiatus for a few days. Trying to get the other things done first. Also was waiting on some more silk. Got that on Monday, so was able to fill in one blank spot on the church steps today and tonight. Also has run out of the green for the grass and now am trying to finish that part too. Below is the progress so far.

Sunday the ladies of the church are having a Mission Fundraising Soup and Dessert Lunch after church. I am making at least a double batch of Taco Soup. Never really paid any attention to how many it serves, so after making the double batch, if I don't think that is enough I will make another. Also making a cream puff dessert. Good thing there is no home football game this weekend. I would not have time to take a whole day to go. Have bought the paper products for the lunch, still need to do some shopping for my soup ingredients and crackers and carrots and celery. Will do that Friday morning. Tomorrow (Thursday) I am working at the LNS-The Sunflower Seed. Things continue to be busy there. I know I have two orders to check in and price plus she told me today there are some patterns of hers that I can put together. It is better to be busy, but then I don't do any stitching. I guess she does not really pay me to stitch. LOL.

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween and not too many tricks or too much candy.!!!!

Kitty Rescue

WOW!! Can you believe it a post 4 days in a row. Don't get accustomed to it, because it probably will not happen again for some time.

Finally, I can tell you the story of our kitty rescue. When I came home from my Monday night stitch therapy session about 9 on Monday, I heard this MEOW! MEOW! MEOW! as I was getting my stuff out of the car. Then the sound came into the garage. I went into the house and said something to my significant other (SO) Morris and he said it was all over him when he got home from work. It was a black kitten. Bigger than just a baby, but not as big as an adult cat. Morris said he had tried to feed it milk and it did not want it. The kitten seemed very tame. We could pick it up and it purred constantly. Also the front paws were pulsating all the time. I became concerned about leaving it outside all night. We live kinda out in the country with all kinds of wild critters around, mostly coyotes and deer. Coyotes prey on little kitties. So we found a box to put it in and leave in the garage overnight. We would take it to the shelter the next morning. We did not secure the box well enough and in short order I heard it scratching at the door into the garage, so we again put it in the box and there it stayed all night. I actually woke up in the middle of the night worrying if it was too cold in the garage for it.

Here are some pictures of the kitty the next morning in our kitchen.


Here she is exploring the kitchen and about to find the dog food.

Here she found the dog food.

We tried feeding her milk in the morning. She was not much into that so I decided to try some of Muffin's dog food. She really went for that. In the process, she sunk a claw into one finger and a tooth into another. Have always heard cat bites are nothing to mess with so I hit it with peroxide and neosporin and now you would not even know it had happened. While I was doctoring myself and calling our vet that lives 2 door down, Morris was finishing getting ready for work and took the kitty into the bathroom with him. While there she pooped on a rug. We decided she had been eating somewhere to be able to do that. He sure was disgusted with the smell. You know how men are, but I know cat poo smells pretty bad. One reason I had called the vet office is that he lives 2 doors down from us and I know he has cats, so I thought it might be one of his. His vet tech said he was not missing any cats, but that if we wanted to bring it by they would find a home for it. Yeah!!. So Morris took it with him and dropped it off on his way to work. End of story. I have not called to see if they found a home.

Since we live on a very busy road, etc., I decided it would not be a very good thing to have a cat. I grew up on a farm and we always had cats and I believe cats should be able to go outside some. I was not ready to deal with losing a cat. Besides my Boston Terrier was not very keen on the kitty at all. She is getting older and did not think it was fair to stress her out with another animal in the family. She is a spoiled only child.

As I have mentioned many times I stitch design models for The Sunflower Seed and cannot show pictures of my work until she releases the designs. The following design has been released 2-3 weeks, but I had to wait for a picture on her web site. Actually the picture on the web site is better than the one that we used on the pattern.

Here Mousie, Mousie

30ct. R&R 18th Century Blackbird

One of our customers has also stitched it on 28ct Mystic by Picture This Plus. The cat is collecting mice with the cheese bait in his mouth and hanging his bounty on the fence. This was a fun stitch. Now I am working on something that needs to be done around the 1st of December and have another about half done, but it will not be available until market in February. The web site also shows 5 other designs that have become available in the last 3-4 weeks.

My progress report on VOHRH will have to wait until another time. Tomorrow I am going to Kansas City with another of my stitching friends, Sandi, to attend a Sewing and Quilting Expo. Last year we stayed over night and attended 2 days. She will be going back on Saturday, but I have a football game. I have enrolled in one class, Crochet 101. Although I know how to crochet, I thought this might be a chance to learn more. I was taught by my mother and grandmother and I only can do it with yarn. Would like to figure out how I can get myself to do it with thread to make doilies, bedspreads and tablecloths. Some of them can be very beautiful.

I keep forgetting to thank everyone for stopping by and for the comments that I receive. I love to read those comments. It is real motivating to read the comments. Through some of the comments, I have made several friends that I would not have had otherwise. Thanks to all of you in our blogging family.

Happy Stitching!!!!!!!

Cross Stitch Camp/Retreat Report

WARNING!!! WARNING!!

This is going to be a long post, sorry. I thought of breaking the Cross Stitch Camp report into 2 posts, but I just uploaded 10 pictures so I am going for it. Julie sent me an e-mail this morning saying she almost was ready to come by the LNS to get a report, that she was tired of waiting for me to do my report. Sorry Julie, I had been tagged twice and need to take care of them first.

Very early last Thursday morning, two of my stitch group friends (Jan and Linda) headed out for a Cross Stitch Retreat sponsored by Heartland Needleworks in Oklahoma City. I am not much of a morning person so leaving my house at 6:00AM was rather difficult, but I went on to pick up Jan and on to meet Linda in a town 30 miles to the south. We loaded up stitch bags, stitch lights, folding camp chairs and suitcases and off we went. Things were rather uneventful all the way to Wichita, where we made a stop at Heart's Desire. They were having a trunk show from Midnight Stitching. This shop does all the framing for Lizzie-Kate. Below is what I added to my stash. I had been looking at Quaker Row and I am still collecting Needle Necessities fiber whenever I find it.

You noticed that earlier I stated that things had been uneventful all the way to Wichita. Well that all changed after we left Heart's Desire. We needed to get back on the Highway and back to the Kansas Turnpike. We missed our turn onto the Highway twice because we were always in the wrong lane. It was not a full interchange, so the getting on was different than we expected. We just had a few laughs over that.

Once on the Turnpike we continued down the road. Stopped for lunch at Braums. For those of you that don't know about Braums, it is an ice cream store that also does fast food. We ate lunch and then left room for ice cream. Cannot go to Braums without getting ice cream.

In Oklahoma they have many toll roads, but they operate way different than they do in Kansas. And you know we are just little country girls from Kansas. Well, now you can probably say that we are wanted in the State of Oklahoma. Their toll roads have a pull off place ever so often that you are supposed to pull over and throw some money into a chute. In Kansas, you pay the toll when you are getting off the toll road. So the first one we came to we just drove on through like we had their pike pass. We worried as we went along that we would see red lights and siren, but we never did. The next one that we came to we decided to pull over and put money in. And on the way home we stopped at both of them along our way. My sister came from Missouri on Friday and she had to pay $3.50 two different places and then also on the road that we had been on. At one point she got off to get gas and had to pay $.30 to get back on. We asked the girls at the retreat and they said they have cameras that take pictures and then they send you a ticket, if you don't pay the toll. Well, as of Monday night Linda had not received the ticket. On top of everything else, she has a personalized tag, so it should not be hard to figure out who it was. We have had several laughs over this one.

We made it to camp around 4. Got to pick out our own room. It had 2 twin beds and a queen bed and we had our own bathroom. That is a change from other camps. This was more like a motel room. Next we picked out our table and figured out how to get all of our lights plugged in so that we were not tripping on the cords all weekend. The camp facility was a church camp operated by the Methodist Church. Very nice facilities. It was down in a canyon and we were told to downshift our cars because of the sharp descent into the camp area. Cell phones did not work there. Nice break from contact with the real world. The dining hall was quite a hike from the lodge where we were staying and stitching. I figured it must have been at least a 4 block walk. Food was decent. Just the normal camp food. Not great, but edible.

I just realized I loaded a couple of pictures out of order, but will continue on any way. The next picture is of my cohorts in crime. Jan and Linda. We have stitched together at least once a week for maybe 12 years. They both work for the State Law Library and have know each other for 38 years and were in each other's wedding. Both will become grandmothers in the next 6 months. Linda in late November and Jan in early March. These two gals are 2 of my best buddies and we always have a fun time together. Never a dull moment for sure. Jan is the one in the foreground. They are going to yell at me for putting their picture into my blog. It is easier to talk about someone once you know what they look like.

The following picture is of my sister Ruth Ann. She joined us on Friday afternoon. She calls herself the unserious stitcher. She loves to do stamped embroidery, but does counted too. This is the second year she has joined Jan, Linda and I at a camp. She needs it since she is a school counselor and the mother to a 16-year old son and step-mother to 3 sons, 17, 19 and 20. Sometimes I think that house just has too much testosterone in it. Her and my other sister always tease me about my cross stitch and fabric stash along with all my other craft supplies. They call it my store. Usually I can come up with what they want from the store.

As I said this camp was in a canyon and we were surrounded by cliffs and bluffs of red dirt and rocks and lots of trees. The gals in charge of the camp mentioned that there were mountain goats in the area. I found it hard to believe there were mountain goats in the middle of Oklahoma, but here is proof. It is hard to see, but the white blob in this picture is a mountain goat sunning on the cliff. At one time we saw 6 goats. I tried to zoom in, but this is the best I could get. I think Jan got a better picture, but I forgot to tell her send it to me so I could use it in my post.

Here is our stitch room. Look at all the lamps!!!! Lighting was not the best so the lights were really necessary. I also took a goose-neck magnifier. Not my Day Light, but it works OK. The Day Light is too hard to transport. The vehicle already looked like we were moving to camp when we got everything loaded up.

You never go to camp without snacks, etc. Here was the variety of stuff on the snack table. We did not even get to put out all of our stuff on the table since it was already full.

Heartland Needleworks shuts down their shop during the retreat and brings a great deal of the shop to the camp. This is very handy to those attending the camp that do not have a LNS. This shop has been open since June, 2006. At the time they opened 3 needlework shops in the Oklahoma City area closed. In talking to the other campers, many had to travel several hours to a shop or did their shopping on the Internet. For me, I like to see the stuff in person. Here is a picture of the table of fabric that was there. This was taken on Saturday after a lot of fabric had already been sold. They zig-zagged everyones's purchases and had to have one of the husbands bring out more thread. I think I heard them say they had been through 5 bobbins full of thread.

Something that I had never seen at at camp before was a board to hang any projects completed during the weekend. This was fun to watch. We really had to tease Jan because she put up 2 Christmas Trees early on in the weekend. We accused her of having only 3-4 stitches left to complete them. However, none of us knew that they did this. It is a great idea.

Bear with me, I know this is getting long, but there are only 2 more pictures. We really were not aware that we would have projects at this camp, but we did. We thought we would be just stitching on whatever we wanted and enjoy the peace and semi-quiet. Below is a picture of the projects that we were given at the camp. One of the shop owners had made everyone a scrap bag to hang on your chair arm. These are a little different than I had seen before. Actually, it worked pretty good on the dashboard of the car on the way home. In it was a pattern for a Needle Nanny from Twisted Oaks. Also Twisted Oaks had done a small freebie just for camp and they provided the fabric and thread to do it. These were stuck inside the scrap bag. The Friday project was Be Blessed by Plum Pudding Needleart. They provided 18-ct linen and thread to do it along with everything we needed to finish into an easel-backed flat. Then the Saturday project was from Full Circle Designs, named Pumpkin Petals. This design was just released for the online Needlework Show being held at the same time as camp. They provided us all the thread and the 32-ct Silkweaver linen to do the project. The pattern included the overdyed wool and buttons used in the design. These are all shown below. They are kinda hard to see. You would think that I would eventually be able to take decent pictures for my posts.

And at long last the final picture is of the stash I acquired at camp. Included is 28-ct Blue Moon Java from R&R. I just fell in love with this fabric. I almost waited too long to pick it up. I guess others liked it too. From Little House Needleworks, I got Frappuccino and Cappuccino. Still need the last one of these so I can do them together. Also got "Believe" from LHN. Blackbird Designs, Be True and Kind. The kit from Homespun Elegance for "A Chill is in the Air". In the bargain bin, I found Homespun Elegance "Blooming Summer Bellpull" and A Quaker Clock from Samplers and Such.

As far as stitching goes, I got quite a bit done, but will save that to another post. I tried to do a little bit of a rotation for my stitching. I started out working on a new Sunflower Seed design model that is needed around the first of December. Ran into a color issue, so moved on to VOHRH. Also stitched on were one Christmas present, started another Christmas present and Waxing Moon "Christmas Stack". I had not worked on Christmas Stack for a while. I am getting much closer to having it done. I have gotten more done on VOHRH and should post a progress picture, but will do that on the next post, since this one is so long. Also I have a story about a kitten rescue that my significant other and I did Monday night, but that will be saved for the next post too.

All in all, we had a great weekend and are making plans to attend another one. We felt this one was a very good camp/retreat to attend since there was no pressure to do the projects and you could do what you wanted when you wanted. The only real structure was when the meals were served. Now that you all are either asleep or worn out from such a long post, I will close and get to bed. I am worn out just writing and posting this thing.

Happy stitching!!!!

Let's Play Tag

I have been tagged by Michelle- I'm A Little Teapot. Through blogging I have found out that Michelle is originally from Kansas, where I live. When she come back to Kansas, she shops at my LNS. Now I can hardly wait until the next time she is back to meet her in person.

Now I am supposed to come up with 7 facts about myself. There is one fact that Michelle used that I am going to have to repeat.

1. I love chocolate. Don't necessarily have to have it every day, but must have frequently. Otherwise I would be the size of a large barn. Caramel and peanut butter run a close second and third.

2. I hate to drive. Have always disliked driving. Near the end of my working career, I was driving about 50 percent of my work time. That was another good reason to retire. However, don't mind driving across town to the LNS to help out there.

3. I am afraid of all kinds of birds or animals with feathers. Cannot go to zoos or exhibits that have birds running around not contained or in cages. It totally freaks me out.

4. My college degree is in Home Ec-Retailing. Never really used that degree. Worked for the government for 32 years. Now use some of that training when helping at the LNS.

5. Big sports fan. Never played much of anything, but love to watch on TV and in person. Favorites are College Football, College Basketball, Major League Baseball and NASCAR.

6. My dad stepped on my thumb when I was less than 2 years old and broke it. I was riding a horse with him and he got off to open a gate and the horse spooked and my dad tried to grab me off the horse and dropped me and stepped on my thumb and broke it. Had to switch which thumb I sucked.

7. Had two eye surgeries before I was 5 to correct some muscle issues. Has never bothered me in my stitching.

This was really hard to do. I am tagging the following 7 people. Hopefully, these have not been tagged recently. It will be great fun if you can play along and tell us 7 things about you.

1. Meg - Committed Stitcher

2. Michelle - X Marks My Spot

3. Dawn - Tea Time

4. Sarah - Stitching at Home

5. Kajsa - Kajsa's Stitching & More

6. Mary Ann - Just Stitching

7. Hazel - Quietly Stitching

Another day has gone by and I have not done a report on my weekend stitch retreat. Maybe I can get pictures taken of my purchase and the projects and get them downloaded tomorrow and then write a post tomorrow. It might end up being a rather long one. A few stories to tell and several pictures. Maybe I will make it 2 installments. Also am still not caught up on the blog reading and everyone just keeps posting more. I may never get caught up. Now I understand the comments from many of you about getting behind on reading. Last night my significant other and I did a kitten rescue and have that story to tell with pictures.

Tomorrow is the afternoon stitch therapy at the LNS. Just found out that the birthday lady from last night got sick in the night and has been sick all day, so she will not be able to have therapy tomorrow. We will miss her and I know she is upset to think she is going to have to miss it. Get well Joann.

Off to try to get some stitching done. Too many phone calls, etc. today and have not gotten much done.

Smile Awards

I have been honored by Vonna with the You Make Me Smile Award. My hope when I started blogging was to give others a look into the many things that I stitch. And now to find out that I have made someone smile is a bonus. Since I have only been doing this a short time, I will try to pass this award on to those bloggers that I have found and very much enjoy reading and seeing a glimpse into their lives and stitching world. Again thank you Vonna for making this award to me.

Julie - Weathered Barn
Mindi - What's Up With Wyora?
Jane - Jane's Jots
Katrina - The Needle's Promise
Wanda - WB Stitches
Kajsa - Kajsa's Stitching and More
Margie - From Cotton to Silk Dreams
Carol - Garden of Stitches
Michelle - I'm A Little Teapot
Donna - DaisyGirl Stitching

The rule is that you must pass this award on to 10 people that make you smile. I am sure some of those I have tagged have been tagged before. However, I am sure that you can find another 10 people that make you smile. Some of those that I have tagged are in the VOHRH SAL with me, others are blogs that I read every time they post. Carol is so good about posting that I find it hard to end the day without reading a post from her. And Margie has those darn cute puppy pictures. I left off another one that has really cute puppy pictures. Hannah has this darling terror puppy. (That is her name for the puppy).

I just returned from a cross stitch retreat in Oklahoma on Sunday and am trying to catch up on the 97 e-mails and 38 blogs that were waiting on me. Still have 27 blogs to read that are in my Google reader. That does not include those that I hit once or twice a week that are not in my reader. I read 14 last night after I got home and have read 7 so far today. The list of e-mails is done to about 20 unread. It sure does not pay to get behind. Cannot imagine what it will be like when I am gone to Branson for a week in November. Ugh!!!!

Tonight our Monday Night Stitch Therapy group at the LNS had a birthday party for one of the ladies in the group. She does not have much family so our group is her family and she is such a special lady, we try to help make her birthday special. I baked a cake and everyone brought cards for her. She so enjoyed it and we wanted to honor her on her birthday. Happy Birthday Joann.

Later this week, I will post some photos and tell you about our adventure at the cross stitch retreat, and there were many adventures. Not sure that I can share them all. The gals I went with may draw the line on some of the things. After all, the first day I wore a t-shirt that said "What Happens with the Girlfriends Stays with the Girlfriends". They keep reminding me of that.

Off to get a little more stitching done. Will be doing a couple more posts later in the week.

Happy stitching!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Block Update and Misc.

There has been some progress on Block 2 - VOHRH. One stained glass window is in and the base of one of the trees is in. The bottom of the tree looks like some kind of evil hand that should be a part of some Halloween decoration. It sure seems like this should go faster, but I keep plugging away at it. Have already run into a couple of snags. When ordering the silk for this block, I missed one color. You will notice the blank spaces on the front steps of the church, that is the missing color. Also I have run out of the dark green that is the grass behind the fence. The LNS will get them ordered for me along with other colors for the next few blocks. It won't be long before I have them all. However I seem to use a lot of thread to I might have to have more than one skein of more of the colors than I originally thought.

In discussions with others in the Village SAL, we might extend the month of October to include the month of November. I think we are all feeling the push to get some Christmas stitching done along with those that are participating in exchanges that are due soon. We also have a new member to add to our SAL - Kajsa. is joining us. She and Wanda are just joining us and do not have block one done, so our delay on block 2 will allow them to catch up with the rest of us. I should not say the rest of us because I am a long way from being done with block 2.

Has anyone figured out how to squeeze more stitching into a day? It seems like I cannot get enough done. Still have been working on a Christmas present and design model for The Sunflower Seed. This afternoon I pulled the thread for the last of the Christmas stitching. As usual I am missing one color. It never fails that you think you have every color and then you pull them and come up one short.

Yesterday (Saturday) was the day we traveled to where my dad lives (about a 2 1/2 hour drive to attend a Cousin's Reunion. This is the fourth year we have had it. My dad was the next to the youngest of nine in his family. He is 87 and the only remaining one. A few years ago several of my cousins decided that we needed to hold a reunion every year in order to keep in touch now that all the brothers and sisters were gone. There were 30 grandchildren (1st cousins) in the family. Yesterday, there were 13 of the 22 surviving cousins in attendance. We had a wonderful time visiting and eating. What else to families do? My dad really enjoys having everyone around him. Both of my sisters, my niece and my great nephew were there also. Plans were made to meet again next year. I was able to do some stitching on the drive down and back. However, it is difficult to get much done when the dog is laying in your lap too. She loves to go for rides, but has to be in my lap most of the time. Got home in time to watch my college team play on TV. It was at home and I sold my ticket so I could go to the reunion. I had missed the last two because of games and one cousin told me I was about to be excommunicated from the family. I have already looked at the schedule for next year and we don't have a home game, so I will be safe for another year.

This week promises to be a very busy one, but also one I am looking forward to. Monday I meet some people that I used to work with for lunch. My job required me to travel and work with people in various parts of the state. Some are coming to town tomorrow for a meeting, so I will meet them for lunch and catch up on things. Monday evening is one of my weekly stitch therapy sessions at the LNS. Tuesday has me working at the LNS and needing to prepare a dessert for my monthly church ladies meeting on Wednesday. Wednesday I will miss the afternoon stitch therapy session to attend the church meeting. Thursday, I and 2 of stitching buddies go to Oklahoma City for a stitching retreat sponsored by Heartland Needleworks. It is held at a church camp west of Oklahoma City. We have not attended this one before. I have attended lots of Stitch Camps so will be interested to see how this one is. We will be meeting my youngest sister that lives in Missouri at the retreat. She met us at Silver Needle's Camp Wannasew last year. We always have a great time. I can hardly wait. Need to finish working on my stitch projects to take along. That is more important than the clothes I need to pack. This retreat continues through approximately Sunday noon. I am not driving, so hopefully I can get some stitching done on the ride to and from. However, I do help navigate so will be keeping a watchful eye in areas that are new to us all.

As usual, I have been wordier than I had planned. Hope my long posts do not bore you. Thanks to all that stop by. The comments are great. Everyone have a great week and I will try to take some pictures at the retreat for my next post.

Keep those needles blazing.

Finish Line

Hot off the needle is my latest finish. Actually put in the last stitch about 30 minutes ago. The picture is not very good. It was difficult to get a good photo. This is sort of my own design using several designs. I took 4 designs from The Workbasket-Quaker Odds and Evens. They are actually 2 different patterns, one being the even months and one being the odd months.

One day the owner of LNS and I were discussing how we could put more than one of the designs together into one big piece. There were only 4 designs that were the same size. Each of the ones I used were 65x65 stitches. The designs in order left to right, top to bottom are January, June, October and November.

Quaker Squares

The Workbasket

28ct Mulberry Cashel

Needle Necessities -170 - Mauna Loa

Each design had a place for the year and initials worked into the design. I didn't want my initials on it four times, so I incorporated the initials of my 2 sisters and my only niece. The stitching of this piece was not without incident. When I was about half done with the fourth square, I begun to realize that one 20-yard skein of NN was not going to be enough. So had the LNS order me another skein. When it came, it looked almost like a different color. I even tried using it and it was way too dark. I decided I was going to have to contact another shop, etc. to see if I could get some more thread. About that same time was when I started hearing the reports about Needle Necessities going out of business. Ended up calling an order into Nordic Needle for 2 skeins plus others too. (Now trying to horde NN floss). When I received them they were a perfect match to what I had been stitching with. That was a relief!!!!!!! Who would have thought it would take more than 20 yards to stitch that piece. Neither I or the LNS thought it would. We have learned a big lesson.

Over the weekend, I had another finish in my Christmas stitching. No picture until after gifts are given. This makes 2 of 4 done. The frame has been ordered. I also have done some rethinking of what I am doing for one of the presents. Changed my mind on one of the gifts. Went to my stash of WIPs and found a piece I had started for one of the persons a couple of years ago. Didn't get it done in time for that particular gift, so now I will get it done as a Christmas gift. Taking care of two issues at once, a gift done and a WIP out of the mix.

The VOHRH SAL has grown by one in the last few days. Welcome Wanda!! Marie P. has a list of those in our SAL on her blog side bar. ( I have not figured out how to do links within my post yet. I will leave that for another time.) Am making some progress on my Block 2, but put it aside the last day and a half to finish the Quaker thing. Maybe a picture later in the week.

Last weekend was a fairly productive stitching weekend considering that I had a football game that took up a lot of Saturday. Fairly good game, just not the end result I wanted. Boo!! Hoo!! Not sure how much stitching this weekend because I am going to a cousins reunion at my dad's place about 2 1/2 hours away. There will be some in car stitch time, but don't get a lot done when there is a dog on my lap too. More about the reunion in the next post.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) is afternoon stitch therapy session at the LNS and then I work there on Thursday. So many temptation when you spend all day around all this stuff. LOL!!

Looks like I still have a little time to stitch before going to bed. Hope everyone is having a good week and thanks to all the stop by and for the very nice comments.

Keep on stitching!!!!!

VOHRH Block 2 Progress

The month started on Monday and therefore I was able to start Block 2 of VOHRH. It is hard to see my progress at the bottom. I thought this was the best picture of the ones I took. The fence is almost complete. The church name is in with part of the background. I found that on things like this if I put the lettering, etc. in first and then stitch around them it works better. This is especially true when using white. Seems like I have spent a lot of time, but it does not look like a whole lot of progress. If this design were stitched solid, it would contain over 105,000 stitches. Those of you that have finished it have achieved a great accomplishment.

Tomorrow looks like it might be a good stitching day. Not much on the agenda. Have to make a pan of brownies for the football tailgate on Saturday. It is a match between the arch-rivals in the state. It should be a real dog fight. The game takes up a lot of the day so there won't be much stitching on Saturday. Before the new month began, I spent time stitching on the Christmas presents and the design model for The Sunflower Seed. Need to do some ripping on the design model. Decided to make some color changes because the first ones chosen did not show up as expected. The second of 4 Christmas presents is a little over half done. Today I took the completed one to the framer.

With the news that Needle Necessities is going out of business, I have been try to find skeins of my favorite colors to add to my stash. Rumors had been flying for a couple of months that they were having problems. My local LNS had just started carrying some of the colors. I have been lucky enough to find quite a few of the colors I was wanting. However, I think the supply out there is dwindling.

Thanks to all for the comments regarding the completion of Block 1. I was pleased with the way it looks. In the last few days, I have found several new blogs. There are many wonderful stitchers out there. Both in what and how they stitch and the person they are. It is a wonderful world of stitching friends out there.

Keep on stitching.