Now you see, now you dont

Happy dance time.    Now you see what I had left to stitch as of Friday morning

....and now Sunday morning, you don't!

Little House Needleworks - Heart of America
Stitched on 30 Count Linen with Crescent Colors

Yeah another finish.  I certainly am keeping the framer in business lately.   So happy to be able to cross another off my WIP list.  Started this in January 2011 during that Crazy January 2011 Challenge, completed August 2012.  

Found the buttons!  Right in the bottom of my stitching bag where I put them, of course.  

 Putting this on the stretcher frame really made the last bit of stitching fly by.   Happy stitching all....I am off to see which will be my next WIP victim.

Please benefit from me getting sidetracked!

 

What is this? Pattern is striking.

Not sure about this either?   Pretty greens....

More pretty colors and a bumpy bit near the edge.

Look at this heap of a mess!

I am hosting a give-a-way.  You don't need to do anything but be a follower.   I will select three names from those who are my blog followers as of noon (east coast) on August 31st using the random number generator.    I will divide the goodies between the three names selected.  Winners will be announced on Labor Day (that's September 3rd here in the USA).  

I spy some favorite designers.   Barrick Samplers, Homespun Elegance, Victoria's Sampler, LHN, La-D-Da, maybe even an Ellen Chester pattern.

What possessed me to offer up some goodies?

I was looking for the buttons for Heart of America by LHN and well, ummmm, got sidetracked, and starting looking at my stash.  Looking at my stash turned into sorting my stash.  I decided to sort **with extreme honesty** through my stash, weeding out patterns, that although I love, I know I with never do.   An hour later, my sorting is your gain.  My stash is still S.T.A.B.L.E. (Stash That's Available Beyond Life Expectancy!!) but it is neater and more organized for sure. And I never did find that buttons.

My needle is on fire

Everyone is posting less this time of year....myself included......must be like me....enjoying the outdoors and yard projects.   Here's a quick catch up of the last four weeks -

• started and have finished 9 of 15 of my 15 sided biscournu
• making progress on Heart of America
• painted both sides of the 3 metal entry doors to Mr. W.'s garage - yuck, oil based paint
• Mr. W got home (which disrupted everything! LOL.
• signed up for a retreat in Ocean City MD in October
• booked a cruise for January - me and Diane in Aruba!
• weeded through my paperwork and the older household paperwork
• working on setting up a Mr. W. friendly file system for the current files
• read The Tea Rose
• finished reading Little Women
• read Out of Mormanism
• started reading The Winter Rose
• enjoying my vegetable garden which has morphed into an overgrown mess
• made arrangments with a solar company for an estimate
• dealing with MOLES in my backyard - anyone have a sure fired trick?
• enjoying the pool
• had a fabulous review from my boss (first one in 5 years! a review, that is, because of course it would be fabulous)
• building up time and speed on the treadmill
• trying to fathom what it would be like if Mr. W retires.  His Co. is rumored to be making one of those buy-out offers and he says with 39 1/2 years service he won't be able to pass it up.  (he'd better take up a hobby if he does - preferably gourmet cooking...lol)
• riding my bike
• contemplating some online (or maybe local college) courses

Here's my stitching progress and a little aside.  I set a self-imposed goal to complete this by my EGA meeting in September to add it to the WIP Contest we are having.    I made the visual survey of the pattern thinking I will have to really push that needle to complete it.  

Only a week later when I  looked at the color pattern did I realize the alphabet at the bottom of the pattern was only for charting purposes.   Yeah!  Silly me, I had wrongly assumed it was like a sampler with the alphabet and numbers across the bottom.   I am so glad I made that incorrect assumption because now I have my needle on fire knowing  I can get this puppy moved to the finished column by the September meeting.

Number 9 of 15 biscournu squares.   This is my carry-along stitching project with most stitching done pool-side at work at lunchtime.  (Yes, we have a beautiful Olympic sized pool and gorgeous grounds in the back courtyard area of our campus for employees and their family.  Spoiled on all sides aren't I?)

Signals

We all have those triggers that signal the start or end of something.....my signal that summer is drawing to a close is Mr. W. will be back tomorrow.   For now he has arrived safe and sound to NJ after 700 miles from Indianapolis.  He will make the trip of the last hour home  tomorrow afternoon and then I will get to hear all the war stories.    The group he travels with  ended 20th in the world out of 50 to 60 drum corps and that is after the elimination of their division a couple of years back when they were bumped up to compete with the big boys.   Not a bad year.   The kids are happy and the director is pleased.   Now it is time for them to decompress!

Summer is drawing to a close.  Mr. W. will put the pool cover on before I know it!  And we will all settle in for those crisp fall days, crunching leaves under our footsteps and warm cups of cider.   Ahhh.  But wait, one last hooray!  I am off to a relaxing week in Virginia Beach with girlfriends after Labor Day.   Our hotel is on the boardwalk. I have never been to VA Beach and am so looking forward to it!    Stitching will be taken even if I will be with non-stitchers! as well as my Kindle to catch up on some reading while on the beach and it will be heaven.....

Here's what I have been working on.....I have 8 of the 15 sides to the biscournu completed.   I have to say I am surprised at how much FUN this really really is! 

I managed to get two sections done today while enjoying a beautiful afternoon and girl time in Philadelphia with my daughter.  It  needs to be completed by my October guild meeting and I see no problem with making the deadline.  

 (Thanks Pat...you always told it was enjoyable.)   It is a challenge to plot the path in and out and I am enjoying that challenge!  

Also, been trying to make some progress on Heart of America from LHN.   I have it in my sites to be done by the end of August.....I will really need to make the needle fly from 5:30 to 6:30 each morning!  (If only there was a way to stitch and be on the treadmill....hmmmm.  Methinks that could only end in disaster.)     I am close and if I stitch on it exclusively....I can do it!

Lastly, Heather, my daughter, gave me this gem today.   Funny thing is I gave it to her years ago when a friend was moving and getting rid of things......now full circle and back to me.   

I am going to get my LHN on it tonight to try it which will mean if it works my other frame will be open for my Ellen Chester Class piece.........promises not to start it until LHN Heart of America is done and ready for the framer.

Happy stitching all, enjoy your remaining days of summer and hopefully, in the near future, I will have another finish to share as well as a framed piece to share.

Relief

Low humidity in these parts and a welcomed break from the A/C as well as the electric meter.....been absent for a couple of weeks but I have been checking in on all your blogs and marveling as your progress and fancy finishes.....me, I've been being a slug!   Well not really, but close.   Been coming home most nights to get in the pool for an hour and do some aqua-zumba!   Started another long-term makeover but I am not ready to divulge any of the details yet......want to see how it goes first.  Been stitching up a storm, been sorting 35 years of files.  (Found some checks of my father's from 1966!  Really....what possessed me to keep them??? Can you say shred!)  I mean really, I have every owners manual to every weed-wacker and every can opener we have ever purchased!  Time to clean out the unnecessary papers.

A few years back, Mr. W. took over the bill paying but he doesn't file anything.   I was told hands-off because off course I didn't know the first thing about paying bills.   You know the drill.....wonder how we never ended up in credit and collections during the first 33 years of marriage especially since some of those years were lean ones.....but I digress....point is, there are many ways to do a job and his way and my way are different......problem is when he needs an owners manual or signed contract or receipts for taxes I am flipping through papers.   Since he is away, I decided to tackle the mounds of papers and organize them.....after all there is a reason the alphabet is in that order.....makes it easy....take it from one who stores her spices alphabetically.......again, I digress.....point is, I have been spending an hour or so each evening sorting papers, creating binders with current contracts, etc. and manuals and an hour or so in the pool...leaving me little time to blog.  

So what else......as promised, here are some junk shopping finds!

Here is the new home for the bench ($60) which means the bench that was here replaced the baskets in the bathroom and the baskets from the bathroom went to my sewing room and that is a whole other post.

 The sewing stand....($30)...the veneer is a bit scuffed in one place but it added to the character.

 It found a home in my newly created sewing/reading corner in my bedroom.  (Oops! haven't made the new curtains yet but that is a fall/winter evening project....not for this time of the year when I get be outside every evening!!)

With my etsy botanical prints and my dollar store blue birds and the $1 plate that I laced ribbon through.

 My $4 basket that INCLUDED the flowers

 The coolest locker baskets.....$10 each

 which I took no time at all to fill with fabric....

 My Campbell's tin for $4 which I just had to have for my kitchen.   Gives me the retro vibe I love.

 And last but not least, I got two of these little gems for $2 each....perfect for when I host stitch night!

Stay tuned, my next post may even include stitching!