A stitching update!

The little projects saw some good time put in this week.  There was lots of here, there, and in between time that I filled.  A fellow I know calls me industrious because I stitch when ever there is some down time.  I see it more of a "there's never enough time to do what I love, so I've gotta do it when I can" sort of thing.  Anyway, the run down for this week.

I have a finish!  I finished the last bits on Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus this morning at church.  So sparkly! So lovely!  Needs ironing! Now I just need to decide how to finish off the whole set of figurines... (It is stitched straight, I just can't get the camera lined up square.)

I knew that I stood a good chance of finishing this off before the end of the meeting, and I didn't have time to get my next church piece all put together, so I took along Cross Stitcher in Residence.  It was all gathered up and easy to put in my church bag.  I got a good chunk done on it too.  I expect a finish sooner than later.  I already know how I want this to be finish-finished up.

When I got home, I put away the flosses and what not from the Nativity set, and got out the next church project and put it away.  I'd put some time into it before hand when I was just visiting my Grandma S. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  It is the Heirloom Nativity Sampler by The Victoria Sampler.  I even ordered all of the silk flosses way-back-when to stitch it with.  I must not be a very discerning stitcher because I can't really tell the difference between silks and cotton.  I'm sure that's akin to blaspheme to some, but it's true.  On the other hand, I don't have much trouble with DMC, GAST, WDW, or CC flosses tangling like some ladies seem to have.  Anyway... enough rambling on that front.  Here is the 'start' picture for the HNS.

Bless Our House went along quite well, as well.  I feel like I got tons done on it.  I guess it's the big block of blue where I don't have to do a lot of serious counting or looking at the pattern all time time.  I've almost got the body of the house on.  Yay!  I'm no where near done with this one, and I'm already planning on what is going to be my next 'at work' project.

And last on the list of updates is Crabby All Year.  Some how I managed to sneak in some time on it.  I got the garbage bag all done, and that big branch too.  Now it's on to lots and lots of brown for a pile of leaves.  I wish I liked stitching with brown more.  But I don't.  This might be a 'put up with it' fest for the next little while.  Looking at this, I can't believe I'm almost done with it.  Three more months to go, then put the buttons and finishing details on it, and Done!

I stand a good chance of getting it done for Mom for Christmas.  I've already got next years Mom project picked out.  Inspiration by Rosewood Manor.  I think I'm going to take a bit of a break on the big projects for Mom after that. ... Or maybe not.  We'll see if anything strikes her fancy.  She's a quilter, and I'm the stitcher so we trade.  She makes quilts for me, I make cross stitch things for her.  It works out well.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

TUSAL - July 31 2011

July has just flown by for me?  How about you?  I rounded up all the snips and bits from my traveling jars and put them into the large jar.  Here's what I mostly worked on:

From left to right, the little piles are: Bless Our House, Nativity Family, Crabby All Year, and a random assortment of stuff that came out of a mini jar that was with my Heirloom Nativity Sampler which is the new Sunday project.  With moving and what not, I really haven't done much stitching at all.  Here they are in the jar (and a badly cropped photo...):

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Some stitching progress

How is summer treating everyone?  I understand that it's hot and miserable in most parts of the US.  We've just been having typical summer weather here in Utah.  I love the pop up thunderstorms we get in the evenings.  Today we had a real gully washer come through.  It dropped about an inch of rain in 30 - 45 minutes.  I like to stop what I'm doing for a while and watch it rain.

I made some pretty good progress on Bless Our House this week.  It helped that it was Crafty-Stitchy night with the Girls, so I got some extra time in on it.  (Although what we really did was go out to the Cheesecake factory for dinner and stuff ourselves silly.  It was sooooooo good, though.)  Here's my progress.  The blue is just going in very very fast.  I like it.

I also got some good time in on Mary this week.  She is turning out quite well, and little baby Jesus is all done.  I'm still trying to decide how I want to finish these all off.  The leaflet shows them as little standup figures, but I don't know... maybe a flat-fold finish?  I've never done one of those before and am a little apprehensive about trying something new on one of these.  I think if I had a bit more money I'd send it off to one of the ladies who do beautiful finishing work.  Anyway... enough rambling on that...

And lastly, I managed a half hour on Cross Stitcher in Residence for the Monday night L*K stitch-a-long.  It was a good half hour too.  I'm hoping to sneak in another few minutes tonight after I finish this up.  I'm pleased with my choice of colors.  I normally end up choosing a color that just doesn't mesh with the rest of them, but so far, so good.

I didn't get to stitch on either of the big projects this weekend.  Instead I walked about 14,500 steps.  We sorted through all my possessions in the garage, reorganized everything, and put some of it back in the garage, some of it downstairs in the rock room (there's something that will need an explanation some time...), and some of it in the room I used to occupy.  We made a big pile of stuff to donate to charity, and there is some stuff that I need to sell.  All in all, we made some good progress.

I do beleive that's all for tonight.  Hugs and Stitches everyone!
Kay

L*K Monday Stitch-a-long

I did it!  I managed to pull out some floss and fabric and did some stitching today for the Lizzie*Kate Lover's Monday Stitch-a-long.  And since it was not a normal day, I actually got to work on it for a good chunk of time.

It's stitched straight... I just can't take a picture straight.  I am working on a 32 count fabric called Summer Breezes.  I'm not really sure who produced it as I purchased it from a fellow stitcher.  I'm also using flosses pulled out of my stash, using one here and there.... Whatever I think looks good.  I think it is turning out super cute!  The pattern is Cross Stitcher in Residence, by Lizzie*Kate, of course!

Tonight the family went out to eat for my birthday (which was last week).  I decided to go to The Outback Steakhouse.  It was one of the nicest evenings we've had eating out in a long time!  I think a lot of that had to do with it being a Monday and not everyone else in the world eating out.  Low stress!  The place wasn't crowded, the radio wasn't turned up full blast and I could hear all the conversations around the table, the food was grood, and I ate all of my steak and sweet potato fries... I don't normally eat the whole thing.  But it was sooooo tasty tonight.

When the waiter asked if we were out celebrating tonight, I started to shake my head slightly no, but my SIL nodded her head very vigorously.  She told him it was for my birthday.  "Oh dear." I thought "Now comes the horrible singing and clapping and going on."  I think our waiter noticed that I didn't really want a big deal made of it, but he had fun teasing me a bit.  He leaned over and fake yelled "Happy Birthday" into my ear.  Heh heh heh.  Some time later he came back with the free desert, set it down in front of me, and said "Okay, everyone ready?"  I braced myself for the singing.  Then he said "Happy Birthday!" and that was it.  Whew!  What a relief!  I wasn't going to be the big center of a noisy song.  And the fudge sundae was yummy.  I shared with everyone.

I've been working on going through all of my stuff and getting rid of what I don't need.  We are doing the classic "Trash, Donate, Keep" method.  I think we sent a truckful of old clothing and what-not to DI already. And there's still more to go!  I've discovered my collection of Barbies, My Little Pony, and Legos.  That's good stuff.  There's also been a box full of pictures from my freshman year in college.  That's about 17 years ago!  I didn't recognize half of the people in them!  Oh well.  It looked like we were having a good time.

Remember this picture from the other day?

I wanted to say something more about the little glass cup there.  It was put together with the flower frog by the Craft Center ladies for a scissor frog.  It's so cute!  And it matches this larger one I bought from them a month or so ago.  Here they are together.

I love the cherry design and the soft pink color of the glass.  I wish I knew what the pattern was called.  Although, I know me and my tendency to go crazy and collect things, so maybe it's better that I have no idea about the pattern.  I wish I could take a better picture of them.  But as I've learned with the TUSAL posts, glass is hard to get a good picture of.  If you know anything about this pattern, please drop me a line and let me know what it is.  I'd appreciate it!

I also signed all the closing papers on the house today.  I went and visited the house one last time and took some pictures.  It made me really sad.  The miracle is that the house went from listing to closing in about 60 days, and I broke even.  Didn't loose a dime, even when including all the fees, commissions, and insurances one has to pay.  Time to start saving up for the next house... Or a cruise... Aunt LJ has a great cruise she and friends are going on next summer.  Maybe I'll tag along.

Hugs and Stitches!
Kay :)

Stash Aquisition and my new stitching corner

Not too long ago I got a call from the ladies over at the Craft Center to say that they had received the last portion of the Jardin Prive Bouquets Sampler that I needed.  I had previously picked up sections I and III, and now they had II for me.  Yay!  Of course,, one cannot simply go into a stitchy shop and only walk out with what you went in for.  Here is everything that came home with me:

You'd never guess that I really like Lizzie*Kate designs now would you?  I'm thinking of doing up the stitcher in residence pattern and having mom help me finish it off into a small banner/quilt and then hang it on the door to my bedroom.  Maybe I'll got gather up the flosses and what not for it as soon as I'm done here.  And then maybe I'll stitch on it on Mondays as part of the Lizzie*Kate Lovers Block stitch along. ... I read the blog, but I haven't joined it yet to do some posting.  But that's okay.

Here is my new stitching/computering corner in my room.  Not nearly as big as having a whole room to oneself do to these things.  But really, what can you do when you get to start all over again?  I really am very grateful to have parents who are happy to take me in again. ... Anyway, my stitching corner:

Needs work, eh.

Oh yes! Here is an update on Halloween Rules!  I worked on this over the fourth of July weekend.  I'll get back to it next weekend.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay

Stitching Update!

Here we go!  Back to posting on a regular basis... We hope.

I've been working away on my Nativity Family at church.  This is where I left off last Sunday:

I'm starting to fill in on Mary and Baby Jesus.  Today I got more of Mary done, and pretty much all of Baby Jesus.  Those white beads are an every other sort of thing and take some extra time to get on.

I know I showed off Red White and Bloom last week when I finished it up.  I've now started working on Bless This House bye Country Cottage Needleworks.  Since this is the at work, during lunch project, it only receives and hour or so of work on it during the week.  Slow stitching indeed.  Eventually I'll have something to show for it!

This weekend is Crabby All Year weekend.  I'm thinking not much more will be done on it today, and not much was done on it yesterday.  Friday evening has been the only time that I've stitched on it.  But any progress is good progress!

Maybe I'll get that garbage bag done... maybe!  Today I have neighbors to go and visit, and an old good friend is in town and I think I'll be over to visit her this evening.  I don't think I've seen her in 10 years or so.  Long time.

Hugs and Stitches! (bwahahahahaha!)
Kay

A Birthday Finish

Hi everyone!  Hopefully I'm back on an even keel and will be able to post more regularly.  I spent a good portion of last weekend moving out of my house.  I'm sad about that.  It was a good house and I loved it very much.  Stupid economy.

Anyway, I finished up Red White and Bloom while at work today, on my birthday!

I was crooked when I took the picture, the stitching is straight.  I like how it turned out.  And now it will be tucked away in the drawer that I'm using for my 'finishes'.

Tonight, I'm going to Target to get a few picture hanging hooks and what not so I can start putting things on my walls of my new/old bedroom.  I'm back in the room I lived in when I was going to High School.  One funny thing about that move... we got a lot of help and as a result I don't know where any of my things are, and what box they are packed up in.  I'm missing the bolts and feet for my bed frame.  So it's mattress on the floor camping for me for now.  It really could be a lot worse.

As soon as I find the rest of my stitchy stash, I'll get caught up with photos of what I've been working on... Which to be honest isn't much since I've been moving.

TUSAL - July 1, 2011

Now normally at this time I'd be at work, diligently verifying the data in the new database, but today there was a major outage and the intranet went down.  Everything that I do at work involves the intranet.  So I pulled out my desk project and stitched away for 2 and a half hours and then decided I may as well go home.  So here I am.  And here is the TUSAL jar for the month of July.

In front of the jar are my little bundles from my various projects.  From left to right they are: Halloween Rules, Red White & Bloom, Crabby All Year, and Freestanding Nativity.  Kind of fun.

And here they are thrown into the big jar.  I can't really pick one little bundle out from another.

Happy Canada Day to my friends to the north (and across the street), and Happy Fourth of July Weekend to most of the rest of us.  I'm going to be spending my fourth packing boxes.  One week to the load out and I have waaaaaaaaay too much to do.