Borders and Bindings

Ack!......someone told me yesterday there are 92 days until Christmas....holy moly.... as if I am not already freaking.   Life has been hectic lately....big changes at work with a major re-og.  Same boss but he has additional new demands and responsibilities so that means I do too.  Upcoming travel plans. Something like 4 out of the next 6 weekends I am away or have plans.   Summer decorations down but not away.   Fall decorations out but not up.  Yard work to do.    I kind of have myself wrapped around the axle stressing over when am I going to get this all done!!  And now I need to stress about when will I Christmas shop!!!     Breathe......one thing at a time......activate mission cybershop.

And somewhere in the middle of all this I think I  'hide' behind my stitching.   Does that make sense?   I make a detour from all the things that need to be done by 'needing' to get my stitching time in.    I do so enjoy the stitching time but let's face it.....little fairies are not coming in the night to do my chores....so time to suck it up buttercup and meter out my time better....

OK that's my rant for this Sunday morning.  I am sure I am not alone and others get the same overwhelming feelings at time.  Enough lamenting and now some sharing of accomplishments.
I spent last weekend in Philly with my daughter.   Always a great time.  After I helped her in her office with a giant mailing, she helped me get my quilting done.   On Sunday we went to the Mancuso Quilt Show in Philadelphia.   I am seeing a trend....each year it is shrinking by a few vendors which saddens me.  I saw the same decline with CATS (Creative Arts and Textile Show) until they folded.

On my quilt, I still need to square up the edges and then fold, press and add the binding.  That's a  sneak peak above.    Hopefully I will get it trimmed and folded up nicely until I have an evening free to attach the binding.   I am not putting any pressure on myself to add the border this week since I need to get ready for OCMD.....and I like to make sure the laundry is done and the house is cleaned before I go.   Seems silly but feels so good to come home to everything in it's place.

As always, my stitching pals and myself love love love our retreats at the beach.

I finished up the 'body' portion of Random Thoughts from Drawn Thread and now it is time to pull the threads for the border and hem stitching.  Time to read the directions twice and pull once.  I thought I would wait until retreat next week in OCMD for needed moral support but I charged ahead.  It worked out AOK.  I will pick up the needed charms at Salty Yarns.  One of my upcoming weekends away involves a long flight (Yikes!) and I am thinking it will be a great time to stitch the border.   My seat partners on the plane may not agree as I  continually pull the needle in and out.   Nonetheless I need to pick a project to keep me occupied and to keep me distracted from BEING IN A PLANE for 5 and 1/2 hours!   No fear of flying here.









Another candidate to take along on my flight is the Boo to You witch I am working on.   I frogged and restitched her face in the proper color.  She looks better.  One would think this was an easy stitch because it is on a large (18) count.   Wrong, lots of counting here.

Some of the fabrics I selected at the quilt show as possible backings for the witch when I am done stitching.






And then there is a Will update.   No, he is not standing already.   Mom or dad are holding him up.   My D-in-L is so good about sending pics and videos each week.   I hope to see him in the new few weeks.   He saying yes, Grandma, come see me!

Happy stitching all.   I for one will be taking it one day and one task at a time and before I know it......things will get checked off my long list of things I need/want to do.

Progress and Running Amok

Borders added, seams pressed and ready to quilt.

Ok, so I didn't get the quilt finished.   What!?   No surprise to me......I usually do bite off more than I can chew.    I was disappointed that we stopped working last weekend. In retrospect, it was the best thing to do......moving forward would have just lead to workmanship that was less then would find a place within my range of acceptable.    I have my quilt sandwich ready to stitch but I have learned (as can be verified by the recent $168 machine repair bill) that I need someone to help me pull the quilt top through the machine to keep the quilting straight and even and prevent the heavy drag on the machine.   This will prevent me from bending the entire shaft of the presser foot....again.   And I have found out from Roxanna's son, his grandmother's full name and I think I will stitch a label with her name to add to the back.

Going to pack this up and go to Philly next weekend for a
sew-a-thon with my daughter to finish this up.

Yesterday, at my guild meeting, we had a speaker who instructed us in pinning rather than lacing.  Pretty easy and I think this could quickly become my preference.    She provided instruction, pre-cut mat board, pins and the frames.  We provided a stitch design of 5 x 7.

I am not really in love with this frame but I dilly dallied and the selection was slim but the time I got to browsing through the collection of frames she brought.


Also, not much on my Random Thoughts.....but progress all the same.  I am still confident I will be finished the main body before retreat.  I will get the moral support I need to cut the pull the treads for the border around the design and to be able to finish the stitching by the end of the year.   This is one of my challenge projects for 2016 so that is my incentive.

Not much cross stitching because I needed to turn my attention to the finishing of Pinning to Stitch.   My EGA guild meet for the first time this season and we were all to bring in our completed stitch-a-long to share.   Yikes!    This meant I'd better assemble the needle book and the 'envelope' for all the pieces.





It is always fun to see how other stitcher's pieces turn out.   We all work on the same pattern but the outcomes can be very different.    Buttons or charms added, different finishing techniques, etc.
















And as if didn't rant about how I don't jump from project to project......I starting something new.
#1. I have no willpower
#2. I can justify just about anything.

This is  from Pat Thode at Heartstrings.    I need a take along project.....and the fabric count is 18 (stitched over two) is easy to stitch on and see even in bad light.    And I can blame Diane H. who showed us her finish and got us all smitten!

And I am frogging already.   I use floss bags to store my floss on a ring in my stitching bag.   Seems I put 3774 in the bag for 3773 and vice versa.   Needless to say, my witch looks like she have a tan and had the white zinc oxide on her nose to protect it from burning.   She may not look bad above, mid-frogging, but compared to my stitching friends and their facial color mine  was really off.......frog frog frog and restitching in my future.





Happy Stitching all and thanks for stopping by......

9/11 Remembered

As I sit typing and watching Sunday Morning recap on 9/11 I am taken back to exactly where I was when I heard of the first plane strike.   The disbelief, the shock and the terror that we were all filled with as we watch the horror unfold.  I have not yet been to the 9/11 Memorial in NYC but I do plan to go one day and I am sure I will be reduced to tears from the emotion.  I live close enough to NYC to know someone who knows someone who lost their life that day.  The world is such a different place since 9/11.

Project Progress

Wow!  I can't believe how much I have stitched this week it looks like I have stitched this week.   I don't really think I had tons of stitching time but this piece works up so fast.   Again, I wonder what was I thinking when I pushed this off to the basket of UFO's.

I would say I am 3/4ths of the way through the main stitching and then on to the pulled threads and the border.    I am less fearful since I read the instructions for pulling the threads and they are pretty good.

 No truer words then those above.......let's all take time to stop and smell the roses.....

I will need to pick up some charms when I am at my retreat at the end of the month.   I am sure I HAD them but equally as sure they found themselves attached to other projects that came along.

As for quilting progress......last night we cut all the inner borders, outer borders and bindings.   Why is it so much easier and more fun to do it with someone else?    I stitched all the border sections and binding sections into three longer pieces while DD#1 had the tedious job of tucking and hiding the threads on the back side.  Still hopeful I will have some quilting progress to share before the weekend is over.

And now for our Sunday morning moment of nature.    Today has dawned a beautiful day as was indicated by our sunset last night.   I know we are in a storm watch with Hermine but it is hard to believe after this sunset and with today's blue skies..........

The sky was on fire!

Stay tuned for a Stitch-a-long I am planning to host.....Yikes! What am I thinking??    The project will be Queenstowns Samplers - Corsica River.   (see this post)  So far I have two cyber stitchers interested and one non-blogger and myself.    More details and kick off will follow.   Kick off won't be until 2017.  The Stitch-a-long will not be a competition - just encouragement and sharing of progress.   I am imagining one post a month to share everyone's progress.  More details to work out.   Stay tuned.

 Happy stitching all and stay safe if you are in the storm's path......