Weekend Stitching

I need to get some new ideas for blog posts as I seem to be retreating to the old tried and true here...

So what did I stitch on over the weekend?  Well... there's Crabby All Year, and the relatives are showing up.

Pardon the wonky picture.  I just held the camera up over the piece and didn't really get anything squared up.  I just might get this puppy done this year!  I'm so close I can see the end.  Since I have been working on it all year, I look at the blocks and think "Oh, I worked on that while at Grandma's house", or "I finished that block before selling my house" and so on and so forth.  I'm sure it's the same for you.

Speaking randomly of cameras... I turned my 'dead' one on tonight and it worked just fine!  Dumb thing.  All I did was ignore it for two weeks.  I guess it was jealous of the time I was spending with Mom's camera and decided to play nice after all. ... *Sighs*  Technology.  Sometimes I suspect that it is smarter than I am...

Moving back to the real topic at hand:

I made some nice progress on the Heirloom Nativity Sampler.  I started in the middle, like I am wont to do and am now working my way up.  The flower band is easy and fun, the set of green interwoven cross-sittches above that was a cinch to learn, but the scotch stitch above that was a pain to get started. 

I started it once, found I was a thread too low, so took it out and started again.  On that start I found I was a thread too high, so I took it out and started again.  On the third try, I disregarded the instructions on how to do the thing, started where I knew I was in the right spot, and filled in from there... and then returned to the instructions on how you're supposed to do the stitch.  I wish I could say that they are getting better as I move across the fabric... but they're not.  The only thing that is changing is that the length of my floss is getting shorter. ... Wouldn't it be freaky is the thread actually got longer as you stitched?

And, not worked on over the weekend, but showing some good progress is my at work project, Bless Our House by Country Cottage Needleworks.  Just the lettering and the vine to go on this side, then I move over to the other side to balance things up.  This is turning out to be darling.

In my blog wanderings I found something fun to join for next year.  It's the WIPocalypse!  Hosted by the lovely Measi of Measi's Musings, the goal is to finish up your WIPs before the end of the world in Dec. of 2012.  And if the world doesn't end? ... Well, just think of all the wonderful pieces you've finished up!  You should wander on over and take a look at the rules and what not.  I'm looking forward to it, even though I don't have many WIP/UFO's to do.  I wrote them all down... there are 5... 1 of which I haven't even started yet.  Heh heh heh.

I'm almost, completely, caught up with my blog reading!  Well... let's amend that... Caught up with my reading of Cross-stitch related blogs.  The cooking and crafting ones are still in need of a serious look at... but that will have to happen when I'm ready to trade in some stitching time for reading time... yeah right!

Happy Labor Day weekend to my US friends!  I'm going to stitch on L*K's Christmas ABC's for as long as I can manage.

Hugs and Stitches,
Kay