Branson Report and Stitch Progress

Getting caught up after being gone for a week has been a major problem. Things really piled up while we were gone to Branson. The newspapers, the mail, the e-mail and the blogs on Google Reader. I had 150 e-mail and 115 unread blogs. Yesterday alone, I read 32 blogs and still have over 80 to read. More keep being added almost faster than I can read them.

The first thing I had to do when we got back was to go on Monday morning to pick up the dog (Muffin) from boarding from the vet. She was sooooo glad to see me. She was licking me all over and got so excited she nipped me on the nose. No damage, but I think it surprised us both. She has not let me out of her sight since. Poor baby.

Along with trying to get things caught up on Monday, had a church meeting and dentist appointment. Just for cleaning, but now have to go back for a repair on a filling in a couple of weeks. YUCK!!! Also so had Monday evening stitch therapy session. It was good to be back with everyone. Lots of things happening since I missed one week. One wedding done without a hitch and one of our group was at the hospital waiting for new grand baby. What fun we had. During our time together we manage to have a few laughs. You have heard the saying "died laughing". Well, I feel like I almost did. I was taking a drink of water during one of our laugh sessions and got chocked on it and spit water all over. Ended up coughing all night.

We had a great time in Branson with Martin and Mary, as usual. Went to 2 shows and road the Branson Scenic Railway while they were with us. We saw Moe Bandy in an afternoon show and The Haygoods in their evening show. The Haygoods are a family of 7 guys and 1 girl ranging in age from 30 to 14 and they sing, dance and play multiple instruments. One of the guys sang one of the best versions of "Mary, Did you Know" I have ever heard. It was so moving that you really got caught up in his singing. They also did a wonderful "Stomp" dance with one of the guys being on the top of a scaffolding. It was awesome. Never really expected that type of show. Later in the week, Morris and I saw "Magnificent 7". It was a variety show of 7 decades of music. It was OK, but we both said we had seen better.

Thanksgiving was spent with my sister and her family and her in-laws at her house in Nixa. We ate entirely too much food, but I think that is just part of celebrating Thanksgiving. There were not many of the homemade noodles that I took leftover. They are a tradition in my family and now we are passing it on to Ruth Ann's step-sons and in-laws.

While we were in Branson, we did get some Christmas shopping done. Still have a lot to do. Yesterday, I did some orders online. Have a few more places to hit yet. Also watched some football games. My team lost again and ended the season with 4 losses. Not sure what the problems are, but hope they can get them fixed by next year. However, it does save me money because they will not be going to a bowl game this year. The best part of my time in Branson was that I got to do a lot of stitching.

Block 2 of Villages of Hawk Run Hallow was finished on Saturday, November 24th. That block was a pain for me. At least, the trees were. I had already started the branches before we went to Branson, but I was looking at the pattern and realized I had made a mistake. The branches were one color and the leaves were another and I had started making them all one color. So ended up doing some frogging. Ugh!! Several people have told me that would have just left it. I decided that I wanted it to be right, since I was putting so much work into the entire piece. Here it is.

Now here is a photo of both block together. I am not starting the 3rd one until at least Friday night. That will be just before the 1st of December. In the meantime, I am stitching on various other things.
On Monday night, I finished the 4th of 4 Christmas presents. So it is off to the frame shop with it either today or tomorrow. I was afraid I had over extended myself in trying to get those presents done. While in Branson, I took time out from VOHRH to stitch on a few other things. None of which I have pictures of. Back working on a design model for the Sunflower Seed, and a couple of other UFOs. Pictures of progress and Christmas items will come later.

Remember in my last post I mentioned I was starting to do some crocheting again. Well, the next two photos are of crocheting that was completed while in Branson. This first is the beginning of a baby afghan for a friend's grand baby to be. It is really soft and fluffy. Then in talking to my niece, Megan on Friday, I found out that I am going to be a Great Aunt again in July, so I guess I am practicing for an afghan for her. That will also mean a baby sampler too.

Here is a dishcloth crocheted with Sugar & Cream cotton yarn. I just found this pattern for a crocheted dishcloth on Joann's.com web site. Always saw the knitted ones, but no crocheted,so I was excited to find the pattern. Now everyone at my stitching therapy group thinks they need one. I had thought about doing that, but they are going to have to be patient. I don't do them very fast. I used the wrong size hook on this one, so maybe the next one using the correct size will be better and faster. Still have to weave in some ends.
Here is a little ornament that I completed the stitching on. It is from PS "Button Up". That pattern is for a big sampler, but I just took one motif out to make an ornament. I guess my camera does not take good pictures when I get too close. Sorry for the blurry picture. It is on 28-ct Lambswool linen and I converted most of the colors to overdyes. The face color has also been changed. I stitched with what the pattern called for and it made the face so dark that he looked like he fell asleep under a sun lamp. Have a couple more motifs in this pattern that I would like to do also.

Today I will be missing Wednesday afternoon stitch therapy. My ladies group at the church changed their meeting today from last week. It was too close to Thanksgiving. Going to see if I can read a couple of blogs before I hit the shower and off to the group meeting. My dog has been fussing to sit in my lap and got tired and went over to the couch and laid down and now is snoring. LOL.

This weekend, my college friends are trying to have a little get together in a nearby town. We are trying to do this on a regular basis. In the summer, some of us got together and now we are going to try again and go see a Christmas parade. The weather forecast is not very good for Saturday, but we will see how it turns out.

Thanks to all that take the time to stop by and read my blog. I know it does take time, since I am so wordy. Also, thanks to all for comments regarding progress on VOHRH.

Enjoy the season we are celebrating and don't get to rushed. Find time to stitch.

Happy Thanksgiving (No Pictures)

Just a quick update of happenings. We leave in the morning for a week at our timeshare in Branson, Missouri. As I mentioned before, this has become our annual tradition. We see a few shows, do some Christmas shopping and basically chill out. For me, that includes lots of time to stitch. Seems like I have been slow to get things together for this year. I have done some food preparation. Taking beef stew, stuff for spaghetti, and an apple crisp. Michelle I could have used your apple peeler when I was doing this. For Thanksgiving dinner with my sister and her in-laws, I have made noodles and have stuff to make a cranberry salad.

On the drive down, we are stopping in Webb City, Missouri (near Joplin) to visit a cousin. This has become part of our routine on this trip too. They have two of the cutest little dogs.

As for stitching progress, I finished, on Thursday night, the design model for The Sunflower Seed that I had been struggling with. It is not in her hands to be framed and prepped for release. More about this in a later post. The last Christmas present is maybe a couple of hours away from being complete. I think I am going to leave it at home. It has so many colors with it, which takes up a lot of room. It will be no trouble to finish it as soon as I get back home. VOHRH Block 2 almost has the entire white part of the church with stained glass window. Just mainly roof and the willow trees left. They are really hard trying to follow all the back stitched leaves. My stitch bag is packed along with my lights and an old magnifier. Also have done some more crocheting. Working on crocheted dish cloths. Always saw knitted ones, but found a crochet pattern, so I am hard at it. That will be easy to do in the car.

Hopefully all of you bloggers will be so busy with Thanksgiving preparations, eating and visiting with family and friends that you will not be doing much posting to your blogs. That way I will not be overwhelmed when I get home. I hate to get behind. It seems like it takes forever to get caught up.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Don't "gobble til you wobble".

Weekly (sort of) Stitching Update

It has always been my goal to do a post at least weekly, however it did not happen within the week this time. I tend to not want to do one when I do not have any pictures. I know that it is not necessary to include pictures, but it seems to make things more interesting with pictures.

This has been a particularly busy week, but I managed to get in some stitching. Helped with a soup and dessert fundraiser lunch at church last Sunday, including providing a soup and a dessert, helping set up, serve, and clean up. It was very successful, so it was worth it. Monday helped Anita, owner of The Sunflower Seed do a trunk show of her Christmas designs at the local Needlework Guild. Attended the funeral of the mother of a good friend on Tuesday and went to two stitching group therapy sessions at the LNS. Worked at the Sunflower Seed on Thursday, had lunch with another friend on Friday and had my annual mammo and bone density test on Friday, too.

In between all that stuff I managed to fit in some stitching. Most of which I cannot show yet. One of the design models that I am working on for The Sunflower Seed has been a bugger to do. Several different problems. Color issue that we had to work out and as I got further into it, I found that I had made a mistake in the first part of it. We tried to compensate and change the design a little to accommodate my inability to count and read the pattern. Well, that did not work, so I spent a lot of time with the frog. Last night, I finished all I can do, until Anita makes some changes in part of the design and then I will complete it. Tonight, I finished the 3rd of 4 Christmas presents that I am stitching this year. Now it is ready for the framer. One of the others, I picked up from the framer last week, the other one has the frame ready to go on it. I was getting worried that I would not get them all done and framed in time. The fourth piece is about 2/3 done, so will get it done, at least by December 1st. With all this stitching, did not leave much time for my Village piece, but I did do some work. Actually, I got more done than I realized after I went back and looked at the last progress photo. Here is the latest update. The church has a few more stained glass windows and the other tree trunk is started. Hopefully this week there will be more done it. I am not looking forward to the backstitching that is the leaves of the trees. Maybe it will not be as bad as I think. My friends locally started this on October 1st and she is on block 5. She is a really fast stitcher.

My Adult Attention Deficient got the best of me on Thursday when I was working at The Sunflower Seed. I have been looking at Notforgotten Farms - The Giving Sisters, ever since it came out. Decided that if no one had bought it by the time Halloween was past, I would. Well, on Thursday I bought it and came home to my stash and found some 26-ct White Birch Heatherfield that I decided was perfect for it. You know I just had to start it. Here is my progress so far. I am using 3 strands of black in order to get good coverage. Seem to always think that black does not cover well so tend to always use more strands than it calls for. Otherwise using the DMC that it calls for. Hard to see any colors, but there are a couple in the top border. I love this design.

.

When I was at the framers last week, I also picked up another framed piece. I have had pictures of this one before, but before it was framed. I was not sure what kind of frame to put on it, so had Anita take it over and pick out the frame. She has such a wonderful sense as to what things need. It is just gorgeous. Here it is. This piece has always been difficult to photograph, so hopefully you can see the stitching.

The Workbasket

Quaker Odds and Evens

January, June, October and November

28-ct Mulberry Cashel

Needle Necessities Mauna Loa

Still disappointed to know that Needle Necessities is out of business. I loved that thread. I have managed to stock up on some of my favorite colors, so you will probably see some more things stitched with it in the future.

The week ahead does not appear to be as busy as last week. However, I will need the time to great things together for our annual trek to Branson, Missouri for the week of Thanksgiving. We have a timeshare down there and we have started our own tradition of going down and using it the week of Thanksgiving. It gives us a chance to see the Christmas shows, finish or get close to finishing our Christmas shopping and generally just kick back for a week. The most important thing is to get my stitching packed. Usually do a little extra cooking and freeze some things so we don't have to eat out all the time. One of our ideas for doing this was to get my family to come there for Thanksgiving dinner,etc. So far that has not happened. My dad thinks there would be too much traffic, etc. for him. One of my sisters lives in the area, so for the last 3-4 years we have been having dinner with her family and her in-laws. I also made the mistake of taking home made noodles one year and now they tell me I cannot come unless I bring them for our dinner. Silly me for starting such a thing. There is also a nice needlework shop in Branson. Have to make at least one stop during the week.

Tomorrow I think I am off to Joann's to buy some yarn. A couple of weeks ago I took a crochet refresher class and now I have the bug to do some crocheting. One of stitcher friend's is going to be a grandmother in March and I thought I would crochet an afghan for the baby. While I was looking for my patterns, I ran across one for a crocheted baby bib using cotton yarn like Sugar 'n Cream. Think I will try that too. Never enough time to do the things I want to do. I really am going to have to live forever to accomplish all the things I want to do.

Some day I am going to get the hang of this blogging thing, but now I cannot figure out how to make it put spaces between my paragraphs. When I am composing, I make spaces between paragraphs, but when it publishes sometimes it does it and other times it all runs together with no spacing. Sorry!! I think this is one of those times that it is all run together. Will try to do one more post before we leave for Branson, but no guarantees. Not looking forward to how many blogs I will have in my Google Reader after spending a week away from the computer.

Have a good stitching week everyone. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.