Safety Pins are my Friends

Yes it's true. Safety pins are indeed my friends.  This is mostly because I'm not so good with the sewing machine and making alteration to my clothing just sort of boggles the mind.  Maybe one day I'll get brave and start to cut things up and sew them back together. ... But naaaaaaah.  Who am I kidding?

This is one of my favorite skirts.

I bought it a few years ago and then proceeded to loose some weight so it didn't fit any more.  What's up with that?  My favorite clothes should shrink right along with me!  I ran the skirt through the wash and dryer a few times, because, you know, sometimes that actually does shrink stuff.  But not my skirt.  So here is where the safety pins come into play...

I measured, and folded and pinned, and now I can wear my favorite skirt again.  Granted, it might look a bit funny from behind.  But I can't see my behind so what do I care?

This week my tour books arrived!  Wa-hoo!  I have been sitting up very late in bed reading them, trying to decide what I want to see, and when.  Can you guess where I'm going from this picture?

I'm excited.  My sister and aunt are coming along too.  I'm booking flights on Monday, and hotels shortly there after.  Now I just need to learn some Italian so I don't get lost on the train from Florence to Venice.  We have to trade trains in Bologna.  Right now it's the only part of the trip that is worrying me.

And somewhere in between reading and safety pins, I've managed to get a little bit of stitching in.  I've missed my old friend Flower Power, so I sat with it for most of the week.

I have to tell you about my oopsie with the white.  I finished up a skein of DMC Blanc while stitching those flowers, so I got into my stash and pulled out another skin from the bag of white, black, and ecru that I have.  Away I started to stitch, mixing in some strands of the new skein with a few of the old skein.  But something odd was happening, some of the white looked kind of yellow-ish.  I couldn't figure it out.  Sometimes more white, and sometimes a little yellower... in fact the bits of flower I stitched with the old skein were now looking kind of yellowy when they hadn't before.  Strange...

And then I finally figured it out.  The new skein was not a skein of Blanc, but a skein of B5200!!!  Ack!!!  I stared at those white flowers for a while.  Trying to decide what to do.  In the end I decided to forget about it.  I did put the B5200 away and this time checked to make sure the label said Blanc before starting up again.  Now I have a little funny story to tell about the piece whenever I get it done.  I'm nearly done with the daisy petals and I think I'll get back into the greens for a change of pace before finishing up the yellow centers.  There's so much green I'm trying to break it up here and there so I don't get overloaded with the color and decide I can't face any more green stitching.

Here is the progress for Christmas ABC's.  It's coming along nicely.  I nearly fill the hoop each week at work.

And I finished up the stitching part of the Jersey for the Cowboys fan.  Now I just need to track down some Dallas Cowboys fabric, acid free matboard, matching grosgrain ribbon, small d-rings, small lobster clasp, a properly scaled chain, a bit of batting, and some glue.  ... Yes, that should about cover it. When finishing up for a guy, I don't think extra beads and frilly bits will cut it.  (Name has been blacked out to protect the fan-boy.)

I can't believer the next WIPocalypse is almost upon us!  I'm pretty sure it was only the 10th of February a week ago.  I'm certain of it!

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay