As Time Goes By

It seems that I just keep singing the same tune, different verse about time flying by. It seems just yesterday that we turned the calendar over to October and now we are ready to turn it over to November. My blogging time as been limited. When I have had time, I would rather use it for stitching. The last time you heard from me I had left my Dad in the hospital with his upper respiratory issue possibly pneumonia. He ended up spending 12 days in the hospital and 12 days with my sister after he was dismissed. He even missed the cousins reunion held in the town that he lives and he is the only living member of his generation. It was hard for him to miss, but he knew that he was better off staying away from a lot of people. Earlier this week, I spent 2 days with him to take him for a follow-up visit to the doctor. Both my sisters had other commitments at the last minute, so I was free to go and take care of things. He is very much improved, but still has his cough. They changed some of his meds and when I left him on Tuesday, he cough was better.

Wish I could say the same for myself. I have had some kind of crud for about 2 weeks. Mostly chest congestion and cough. I have gone through a lot of cough drops, prescription cough syrup and some over-the-counter cough syrup. Still coughing!!!!!!!! I have an appointment for my annual check-up next week. Maybe I can get something then. I even did not go to the KSU football game last Saturday due to my cough. I was afraid that those around me would think I had H1N!, so I stayed home. Anita at the LNS has had a cold, etc.. She missed a couple of days in the shop because of it. Otherwise we both have just drug ourselves around to do the things that we needed to do.

There has been some stitching going on around here. I finished a Christmas design model for The Sunflower Seed. It is at the framer. I finished my 2009 PS Hockey Santa and was slow in getting a blog done, that he is back from the framer already. This photo is not very good. I thought I had 2 on the camera, but this is the only one that was downloaded.

2009 PS Hockey Santa

20-ct Natural Brown Linen over 1

DMC threads

This is the first time that I have done a PS Santa in the same year that it came out. Amazing!!!

One of my friends was looking at the JCS 2009 Ornament Magazine and saw this ornament by Sue Hillis that she really liked. I stitched it up and gave it to her for her birthday last week. She loved it. She is a quilter and sewer, so I left it for her to finish. It is missing the buttons that were on the magazine model. I gave her a couple of pearl-like buttons from my collection and she was going to add the rest from her collection. It was stitched with the called for threads and fabric. The only changes I made were that I stitched most of the things that it called to be done with one thread with 2 threads. One thread did not show up very well. This photo is a little wonky because I used my scanner to take the photo. It looks like it is overdyed fabric, but it is not. Again this is a first for me, I did an ornament out of the magazine in the same year that the magazine came out.

I am still stitching some of the BBD Stockings. This is Wild Sunflower House out of the August booklet. Actually, I am a lot closer to being done right now. This is an old scan. This one came out better than the above ornament.
I have started work on one of the Christmas presents that I have planned. No photos until after presents are given. I have plans to do 2 other gifts, but they are not started, just kitted up. With the calendar changing to November, I am getting a little concerned as to whether they will all get done. Since my last post, my niece has announced that she is pregnant and I don't have the sampler done for her son that is 16-months old. It has been a hard stitch, but I have pulled it out again and worked on it while I was at my Dad's. Found out last week that it is a girl, so I have the design picked out for the sampler. Forgot to get a copy of the design for this blog, so it will have to wait for next time.

After Anita got back from market at the end of September, I had to do a little stashing. My requests for her to bring back for me was Shakespeare's Peddler's "Jenny Bean- Halloween Sampler". She got that for me plus the thread packet, Pin Tuffet pattern and these Dinky Dye scissors.
Other stashing in this photo includes:

Blackbird Designs - Midnight Watch
Midnight Stitching - Quaker Welcome
The Primitive Needle - The Witching Hour

Also I got, but is not in the photo Michele Ink's Quaker Gone Spooky and Cherished Stitches - A Quaker Halloween Sampler. It seems that I have been on Halloween overload on patterns. I don't know what the deal is with that. Anita and I were talking about that today and we have decided it is the colors of the designs that really interest us.

Dinky Dye Scissors

Back the middle of September when my friend Sandi and I went to the Kansas State Fair, we did some shopping on the way home. I bought this Jelly Roll, a pattern and lining fabric to make bags. This jelly roll and 1 yard of lining fabric is supposed to make 2 bags. The bag body uses 8 strips sewn together and more strips for pockets inside and the handles. I had thought by now I would have had some work done on this, but not yet. I think once I start, it won't take long and I won't want to put it down until it is done.

I have continued to do some crocheting when I have had to travel somewhere. Obviously, when I was not doing the driving. Below is another finished prayer shawl for the church. It was given to a friend of mine in the church that had a hysterectomy last week. At the beginning of October, I donated 2 crocheted dish cloths to go in a couple of baskets for an auction to benefit the Church Camp run by my church denomination. I have a small start on the next prayer shawl and a baby afghan for a person in Morris's office that we have done things with. Pictures of those later. A couple of days when I felt the worst from my cough and chest congestion, all I felt like doing was crocheting. My patterns are simple and rather mindless. It was easier on the brain than cross stitch.

This weekend is going to be a busy one. Sunday the church is doing a soup and dessert lunch after church. This morning I made a double batch of my Taco Soup and baked a cake. Still need to make another batch of Taco Soup and add the pudding, pineapple and Cool Whip topping to the cake. Tomorrow some members of one of my Yahoo Groups are getting together to stitch, a lady in my church is having an auction of her doll collection and I promised her I would show up as support, we have been invited to friends to celebrate Halloween in the evening. These friends get lots of "Trick or Treaters" and I guess it is fun to see. Made an apple crisp tonight to take over there. All this cooking has left no time for stitching.

Oh, I almost forgot. Anita at The Sunflower Seed has decided to do a blog. So I spent some time with her today showing her what little I know about loading pictures, etc. A while back I set her blog up and now she has decorated it up some and made one post. Today she was working on another post. Working with her on her blog has led me to try to dress up my blog. Have been looking for a free template that I like. Most are too busy and not the right color. I would like something that has purple in it to go along with my name. Guess I will leave it the way it is for the time being. It's hard to think about making template changes when I cannot even find the time to do posts.

Thank you to everyone who has stayed with me through the lean times of my posting. You are all very special to me. Your comments keep me going. Thanks so much. Hang in there. Who knows, I might get back into doing this more often. The best friends are stitching friends.

Happy Stitching!!!!!!!!!!!

Way Behind

OMG, where does the time go? I had hoped I would have done a report on our retreat weekend and stitching progress by now. It just has not happened. The photos have not even been downloaded from the camera. Things have just gotten in the way. After the retreat, I worked at the shop for 3 days while Anita was gone to market. Oh, and she brought back some wonderful things. Went to two Royals baseball games in one weekend and helped my church celebrate their 100th Anniversary. Then this week I spent 2 days with my dad. He had gotten a cold and upper respiratory infection. Ended up putting him in the hospital and as of tonight he is still there. Yesterday they told me it was not pneumonia, but tonight my sister said they did another chest x-ray and saw something. He is very prone to pneumonia and he is in the best place for them to take care of it.

Still trying to get some stitching done. Here is a stocking from Blackbird Designs "Tis Halloween" pattern book. -- Deadly Nightshade. Stitched on the called for fabric with the called for threads. I finished this at the retreat.

I love stitching these stocking. I have one out of the August booklet started, but no photo. Next time.

Here is my progress on the PS 2009 Santa. He is done over one on 20-ct Natural Brown linen with the called for DMC threads. Since this scan was taken, he has a head and more of the hockey stick is done. Seems like there is more done also, but I cannot remember what it is and I am too lazy to get up and go see what it is. Tried working on this at the retreat, but ended up ripping out as much as I put in. One of the others at the retreat was having problems with some over one stuff. We decided it was either the lighting or we were just in a over one funk. LOL!!

Although Anita had everything at the shop on Monday that she brought back from market, I did not have a chance to look at it in depth. Today, I took time to go look at things and I wanted it all. I had sent a request with her for Shakespeare's Peddler's Jenny Been Sampler and some Dinky Dye scissors. She brought both back for me. Was going to have pictures, but it did not happen. Helped her move the Mill Hill bead display while I was there. Tomorrow a group from my Kansas Stitchers Yahoo Group is coming to Topeka for a stitch-in. This time I am actually going to get to join them. They have been getting together almost monthly for some time and I not been able to join in. Looking forward to it.

Thank you to all my loyal readers for sticking with me even when it is a long time between blogs. Your comments are very much appreciated. For those blogs that I read, I am way behind again. Between working and playing, I have not had much time for them lately. When I have had time, I have wanted to spend it stitching. So the blogs in my Google Reader is back over 200. I had gotten it down below 100 a few weeks ago.

Off to get my stitch bag prepared for tomorrow. Knock on wood, but this post has gone rather smooth. I better hit "publish" quickly before it decides to be onery.

Happy Stitching!!!