Stitching and New Addiction

My how time flies when you are having fun. Here it is almost the end of January. Had planned to do a review of projects completed in 2008, but now that the month is almost over, I am not going to waste valuable stitching time to get it organized. As far as number of projects goes, there were less in 2008. That is mostly due to stitching bigger pieces, like A Quaker Christmas, a 6-part Shop Hop Sampler for The Sunflower Seed and a 4-part design model for the Sunflower Seed. I tend to do bigger projects now than I have done in the past.

It has been a rather strange week. Last Wednesday I was hostess for my church ladies group and made soup and homemade bread for them. Early this week we have had crappy weather and I have not hardly been out of the house since Sunday afternoon. Today was the first day above freezing since last Friday. We had little dustings of snow several times, but not the ice,etc. that other parts of the country have had. We feel fortunate to have missed it, but feel bad for those that have had to struggle with it. Missed my Monday night stitch group because they were predicting snow and I don't drive in it. Turns out that it did not do much, but by the time I figured that out, I would have had to gotten dressed in something other than sweats and grubby clothes.

Staying around the house has allowed me to get some stitching done. The second sheep, all the grass and the tree has been added to American Baby. Down to leaves on the second tree, some red berries on the trees and the name, etc. and it will be done.

Been getting some good work done on Valentine Row. Part of the tree trunk is still missing and have done one more heart and part of the "V" since this photo was taken. This seems to be going fast.

This is a little ornament that I started as a shop model for The Sunflower Seed. We have both the Red Letter and Green Letter Ornament patterns in stock. Anita decided we needed a model, so I decided to do the "Sled". She had some little scraps of fabric that she thought would work for it. Well, they almost didn't. We both thought there was more over 1 on them. Only the word "sled" above the sled is over 1. Should have this done by the end of the week.

Green Letter Ornament

by Blue Ribbon Designs

28-ct Lt Mocha Cashel

Called for WDW fibers

Did not get any stitching done on LHN "From Sea to Shining Sea" this week. On Tuesday I did work on the little angel that I am completing for a friend. Down to doing flowers and leaves that call for 1-2 stitches and quarters stitches and then you change to another color. The friend is in Texas for the winter and I want to have it done for her when she comes home the 1st of April. Still have time. Should be done by then. Has lots of back stitch on it too.

As I mentioned before I have been doing some crocheting when we have gone on long car trips. Here is the prayer shawl that I completed a couple of weeks ago. We prayed over it and 4 others at our Church ladies meeting last week. Most of them should have been delivered this week. I have another one started.

Did you notice my post title? Well, I know have another addiction. A while back when I was playing bingo at the Indian casinos 2-3 times a month, some of my friends accused me of being addicted to bingo and that I was going to spend my retirement money on bingo. Well, the bingo hall closed and I very seldom play bingo any more. Now, I have become addicted to Vera Bradley (VB) bags and buying them on Ebay.

It sort of started last summer when I was reading some one's blog about them buying VB's Little Travel Case at ebags.com and how it made a nice stitch bag. I checked them out and got one in the Pink Elephant design. Took it to stitching with me and everyone fell in love with it. So I went out and bough one for Anita and Reina for Christmas. Then about 3 weeks ago Janet went out and bought the Tall Zip Bag at our local VB shop. It is such a nice size for stitching stuff. The bag I had been carrying was falling apart and I had used it for at least 7 years. I started checking on ebags and ebay. In the last 2 weeks, I have bought 5 different bags, 3 from ebay and 2 from ebags.com. My first 2 attempts on ebay, I was outbid. Then I started getting lucky. Here are the photos of what I bought taken from the ebay web site so they are a litle small.

Little Travel Case

from ebags.com last summer

Tall Zipper Tote
from ebay
received last week

Katie Bag
from ebay
received today

Sherry Bag
from ebay

still waiting on

Since I had bought something from ebags.com last summer, I got an e-mail asking me to answer a survey and I ended up with 20% on my next order and they were having a winter clearance sale, so I was able to get 2 more Katie bags for a little over $12 each. Regular retail was $28 and the style has been discontinued. They are just the right size to care my Ipod and portable speakers in. Also will make a nice camera bag. Anita is using one to carry her new flip video camera and accessories. I am sure that I will find all kinds of uses for them. Now I am looking for a couple of other bags to use as stitching bags. The one I am discarding is very large and I will need more than one to replace it.

Some in my stitch group think they might have to do an intervention for me regarding my VB addiction. Now I have found out that one of the new colors is called "Purple Punch" and I love the color purple. LOL!! In the past, they had talked about having to do an intervention with my bingo addiction, but they never did. Now they may try to do it with my VB addiction. Even though they call me "fiber snob" and other names regarding my affinity for silk thread, they have not even mentioned the word intervention. I guess they know that it would be hopeless.

Time to close and head to bed. I work at the LNS tomorrow and we are finishing up getting things ready for Anita to go to the Nashville Market next week. Next week I will work my normal Thursday and then Friday, Saturday and Monday while Anita is gone to market. The best part is getting to see what she brings back from market first hand.

Thanks to all that stop by my blog. Comments are appreciated. I am still behind in reading blogs, but am making some headway. Don't leave as many comments as I should, but once I get caught up that should change. Everyone is doing awesome projects and I enjoy hearing about your stitching and the ups and downs in your daily lives. Hang in there and keep those needles flying.