August Days

I did it!  I finished my i-Stitch Band Sampler, the 2022 Denim Band Sampler.   I used Gloriana’s Bellagio with some coordinating solids for highlighting some motifs.    I enjoyed the SAL but I am glad it is over.   Some weeks it seemed this was all I had time to stitch on.    Thank you Joan B. for the idea on how to display it.    I can now roll it this way or that to showcase different sections.

I think I should have pressed it!

My grandson stayed with me for a week which left little time for stitching but we did all the fun things.  A couple or three days we logged about 6 hours of pool time each day, we did night swimming and watched the bats come out.   I took him to his first movie in a theatre, Minions, Gru.   We went to the County Fair and did the bounce house, petted piglets, sheep and cows, fed cows, watched tractor pulls, had cotton candy and rode a horse.  Second night, more feeding the animals and watching Pig Scramble and Mutton Busting.  Squeals of delight from a little boy and squeals of distress from the piggies and sheep.  One day we tie dyed tee-shirts.  We saw fireworks and last but not least, we went to a local winery and saw Uncle Choo Choo playing at an open mike night.  (Yes, children were permitted - Pop pop had a fit thinking I was taking him to a bar…..🤦🏽‍♀️ )

I've done some work on my hexagon quilt.   It was the only thing I could stitch on when William was here.  I’m pretty happy with the progress.   I am not so optimistic that I will finish by the end of September but I definitely feel like I am in the homestretch.  I have the length I want; just need to finish adding to the width.

I fully finished the folding book from my Guild’s 20th anniversary celebration in May.   

Trying for some quick rewards and wanting to wrap up a small UFO, I stitched and finished the a blackwork flag from an EGA meeting.  I stitched this over one rather than as charted.   I want to go back and restitch it as charted.  I'll have an ornament and a small pillow.

Sometime during the month I had to take an honest look at the basket of projects for 2022.   I mean what was I thinking when I pulled out like 30 projects to work on in 2022?   For sure I do not have a basement sweat shop of stitchers helping me.   Heck, I don't even HAVE a basement.  Six projects going back in the basket after purging.  As for the other,  I took back upstairs and put away and threw them on the bed.

 

I came across this piece when I was cleaning up my UFO basket and I decided to work on finishing it.   The word "stocking" is the halfway point. 

And of all things, I stated a new quilt project with my sister.   100 blocks in 100 days from Gnome Angel.   So far so good.  Each daily block only takes ten to 15 minutes each morning.   Having the blocks cut ahead of time has proven to being the key to keeping on track.  I have been getting together with my sister one day a week and we spend it cutting our upcoming quilt blocks.

My approach to machine sewing turns out to be the same as my cross stitch.....several projects going at once.   This 100 blocks/100 days challenge  has put me in the mood  to spend extra time each morning with the sewing machine.  I picked up the red white and blue quilt that I started last year and I am stitching up a block every other morning.  30 of the 36 6-inch blocks are now done.  Soon I will be cutting out and stitching the 12-inch blocks.

This could be unprecedented!  I might actually complete two quilt tops!  I am considering sending them out to be long-armed.   Otherwise they will just sit in a pile ……..truth be told, for years.

August did bring a good ten days of low humidity days and cool nights.   It was a joy to have the AC off and the windows opened again if even for just a week.  

And then, I’ve done a bad thing……When I was at Hobby House in July, I met Jackie DuPlessis.   Between meeting her and seeing her class projects as well as the beautiful pieces from stitcher's Show and Tell, I was feeling the need to take a "Jackie Class".   It wasn't even a Bucket List item for me.  Just so happens, there were some openings at Salty Yarns in September and I signed up.   I just hope I don’t become addicted to her pieces and if so,  can hold myself to one class a year with Jackie.    I really went back and forth on signing up.   I kept thinking of all the patterns, kits and class pieces that are already tucked away upstairs.   By my calculations, I have to fully finish 1.5 projects each and every month for the next 20 years and NOT buy anything new, to be close to exhausting all my stash.  But I signed up anyway.  Yikes!   Maybe it is time for another sort/purge of charts for sale.  Oy!

I know it seems like I've done a lot but it has been a month since my last post.  I don't want to stop blogging and for now monthly posts rather than weekly ones are working well for me.  

Hope everything in your neck of the woods is going well.   Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.