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.

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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.