Long Overdue Update -- Part 1

OK, I promised an update over the weekend. Obviously, that did not happen. I will get to that story shortly. It has been really hard to get back into blogging. Seems like I might have a mental block, so bear with me on this one. Maybe I can break through and keep it up weekly or so. I was able to get blogger to upload my pictures last night with plans to do the narrative today sometime. Because so much has been happening I am going to break down into at least 2 parts. Otherwise you would be reading a novel, and I know that you do not want to read that much.

Late Breaking News!!!

We have a new addition to the family. Not sure whether I ever mentioned the little Boston Terrier that used run lose in our neighborhood over a year ago. She was just a puppy and her owners were living with their parents temporarily and she was always running away with a Doberman puppy. We would catch her and take her home all the time. Late last summer they moved away. Took her with them. I was always worried that she would get hit on the road or attack by coyotes. At one time, I mentioned to the father that lives there that I would take her if they ever did not want her. A week ago, he showed up at my door asking if I was still interested in Dottie. Told him I would talk to Morris and get back to them. Well, on Saturday evening Jenny brought her by. We talked for awhile and I said I would take her. Dottie is a not quite 3-yr old Boston Terrier. Jenny said she had papers, but had not been able to find them. She does not look like my Boston Terrier totally. She has the Boston Terrier black and white markings, but more of a Pug body. I am thinking that kind of cross would be called a "Bug"

DOTTIE

Things have gone rather smoothly. They tended to leave her outside or in an unfinished basement all by herself, so they were not sure how well house broken she was. We have not had any problems with that. She is crated at night. Muffin, my Boston, has her bluff in on her. She still rules the roost. Took her to my vet this morning. Got all her shots updated and a physical. She did not mind that at all. Muffin likes riding to the vet, but when we go in she gets very nervous. Found out tonight she might have a little fear of thunderstorms. She had to lay on my stitching couch right next to me.

Now back to the update of things going on for the last couple of months. There are a couple of Sunflower Seed designs that she released at market that I stitched and have not shown here. The first one was stitched last fall, but she held it for release at market.

Be Wise

30-ct R&R Kansas City Blend

GAST Threads (I think)

The second Sunflower Seed design, I stitched 2 of the smaller pieces, Anita stitched 2, and another person stitched the model containing them all. We both do not like to stitch thing twice, so this was a group project. I stitched the Spring and Summer Bouquets at the bottom.

Seasonal Bouquet

30-ct R&R Apple Brown Bindy

DMC thread

Actually, I have had a finish of my own projects. I started Jenny Bean Halloween Sampler as my January 1st project for one of my Yahoo groups. She is done and waiting on the frame. I did it on 28-ct instead of 40-ct like the model was stitched on. I did use the Limited Edition GAST thread pack, but had to get more of the black(Nightmare/Black Crow). Loved stitching this. It was a really fun stitch.

Jenny Bean Halloween Sampler

by Shakespeare's Peddler

28-ct R&R DK Cappuccino

Limited Edition GAST Threads

Lots of things have been going on during the past few months that helped to take away my time to do stitching and blogging. I think in my last post I was getting ready to work at the shop several straight days while Anita was gone to market. Right after she got back, we got a call from South Dakota that Morris's last remaining uncle had passed. The weather was OK for traveling, but the temperature up there was frigid. The morning of the funeral it was 15 below and the high that day was 15.

After we got back from there, my niece had her little baby girl on March 2nd. A couple posts back you will find the pink afghan that I made for her. This photo was taken just hours after she was born.

Lauren Kathryn Elnora

Her second and third names are for her great-grandmothers. The "Kathryn" was part of my mom's name. We went to see her the weekend after she was born. I got to babysit while Mom, Dad and Nana ran some errands. Mom works in the town where I live, so I have offered to babysit some if needed. However, she able to take her to work with her until she is 6 months old or until there is a problem. Below are the receiving blankets that I made for her. Several years ago, I got into making these from 1 1/4 yards of flannel. My niece loves them because they are bigger than the receiving blankets you buy. My sister requested the pink ones since this one was a girl and the other ones she had were for the boys.

The day after Lauren was born, a gal in Morris's office that I am friends with had a baby boy. So I crocheted this afghan and made 2 receiving blankets for her. She and her husband are Kansas State grads and big fans as I am, I had to incorporate purple into everything. Finding yarn with purple and still look babyish and not girlish was hard.

Baby Afghan

2 Receiving Blankets

Since I spent many miles in a car for the trip to South Dakota and the lighting in South Dakota for stitching is not the best, I managed to finish another prayer shawl for the church. Have another one started.

Prayer Shawl

Also have been making more potholders. Both my sisters and my niece have received one. I had enough made up to give one to each of my Monday Night Stitch Group on our Spring Retreat. More about that on my next installment of the update. At the time this picture was taken I had made 21 potholders. As of today, I have made 5 more. My sister found me some leftover yarn somewhere and

There is a lot more to cover, but blogger has been giving me problems with formatting. Either it puts in too many lines between things or it will not let me center thing. Then after awhile it decides to center all the text and I don't want it that way. I figure I should get this posted before it blows up entirely. It deleted one photo, but I was able to recover it from the autosave copy.

Again, I want to thank all of my followers for bearing with me during my time off. I am not even going to promise to do better, because I would not want to break a promise. your comments and encouraging words are very much appreciated. Another thing that might help my blogging and blog reading is if I could stay away from Facebook. Whoever invented that was not a stitcher. It is addictive. Maybe someone should start a 12-step program for Facebook addicts.

Part 2 should be up in a few days. Will try to cover the 2 stitch retreats I have gone to, my trip to the NCAA West Regionals and the Shop Hop among other things.

Happy Stitching to All !!!!!!

PS--Dottie is laying on a big floor pillow snoring away!!!