February

Backing up  to the first of the year, here is Pat’s south Jersey Temperature Tree, with Diane’s Tennessee Tree in the center and my  south Jersey Temperature Tree on the right.

I did finish my Blessing Sampler before the end of January, just.  But done is done. Not a sampler but sampler-esque.     Jeannette Douglas Designs Simple Gifts Spool.   Note to self, pick a smaller Blessings Sampler next January.

The beginning of February had me in Tennessee.   We were at Diane’s for 8 days and had a great time.  Four of those days had us at the  Knoxville EGA Winter Retreat in Carson City.   This is my 3rd trip to this retreat.   It is always a good time.   The accommodations are great, the stitchers are friendly and fun, and a lot of stitching gets done.   Each year, they have little Make-it Take-it type classes. I signed up for the embroidered needle minder.   I have a bunch more flowers to add.

Once back at Diane’s, we managed to get in some consignment store shopping.  I could not pass up this $0.99 witch.   She is about a foot tall.  What am I going to do with it?   IDK. But I know I will come up with something. 

Diane and I fully finished the Busy Bee Skep from Noteworthy Needle.   We did all the stitching and prep ahead of time knowing we would work on fully finishing together.   It took longer than we thought and much laughter and head scratching was involved but it came together in the end.   

 

 

I also managed to eke out the last stitches on Tiny Modernist Halloween ornament when in Tennessee which is a carry-over from January WIPGO.   When I put things on the WIPGO board they seem like easy completions BUT then you factor in Blessing  Samplers, SAL’s, pre-stitching, traveling, etc.  I always look forward to the 25th of the month to see what new numbers are drawn.

 

 For February, WIPGO numbers were By The Numbers from Blue Ribbon Designs and A Robin’s Discovery by Misty Pursel.     I already managed a finish for Robin’s Discovery but don’t look for this pattern and expect for find a garden gate.   The pattern was charted with a bunny with a big bow and an Easter Egg Basket that the bird was perched on.    I wanted to change it to a spring time stitch and not an Easter stitch.   I have not yet pulled out By The Numbers as I am busy stitching on a Round Robin piece.

Totally going out of order and off the rails, I started  this in Tennessee.  It is Arcaded Pansy Pin Pillow.  The pin cushion that goes inside a cigar box and will be surrounded by stitching type things.  A friend has been bugging me to get this stitched so we can do the cigar boxes together.  

This must be the season of starts for sure.   I started a Block of the Month, BOM, quilt with a friend.   This is a Civil War Quilt from Stitchin’ Heaven in Texas.   Definitely not a beginner’s quilt.  It took a minute to learn how to read the instructions.   Just like when you get a new teacher and have to learn their methods and lingo it is kind of like with a new pattern.  January are sewn and February blocks are cut.  Hoping to get them sewn before I take off to Florida next week.  

My little Raegan turned 5 in February.   We had a special time at a birthday lunch at a tea room.  I know she enjoyed it because when we left she asked if we could come back again.   She has added ballet and tap dancing to her repertoire.  The only thing better than buying your grandkids a drum set must be putting tap shoes on one of them.  My calendar is marked for her recital in May when she will be the best ever gumdrop.  

 

As for purging, this month was the bathroom closet and medicine cabinet, my dressing table and the drawer full of make-up.  Also did the summer and winter pj’s and sheets.   Before the end of the month I hope to hit up the laundry room shelves and cabinets, the bag of bags (and you all know what I am talking about) and the gloves, hats and scarves.  

I also have been making a concerted effort to not only read but comment on other blogs.   I so appreciate each and every comment I receive.   I just don’t know where to start when I fall behind reading the blogs I follow. It seems overwhelming to have to back months and I always think, oh not now.   It can be hard catching up especially those that are super prolific with posting - like several times a week.  And no offense intended to those of you that do post frequently; it is I that is slow on the uptake.   Since catching up seems to be futile, I set Monday as the day I will look at what happened the week before.  Monday is the day I do my bill paying, card sending, letter writing and calendar updating.   I am squeezing in blog reading and commenting to that Monday morning routine.   I just hope I can stick to it.  There is one downfall.   There has been a few visits to 123Stitch after seeing all the awesome things others are stitching.  

I am off to Vero Beach Florida on Tuesday for a week.   Meeting up with all my table mates from a retreat at Quilter’s Station in Kansas City in 2023.  Stitching will be done for sure.   All I need to do it look at the WIPGO numbers to know what I am taking to work on.  I will also be able to reveal all the versions of the Round Robin we have worked on.   I guess I actually don’t even need to take a project.  I can just work on what is left on my Round Robin sampler.  What, travel with one project, not likely.   Maybe I will take the other February WIPGO that I haven’t touched……

Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.  

The New Year is (well) under way…..

And my needle has had a slow burn.

It’s been a minute but I am trying to get back to my end-of-the-month posting schedule.  

On New Year’s Eve, I sat up my WIPGO projects for the year.  One basket stays by my stitching chair, the other is in my sewing room.   No need to have it glaring at me and making me overwhelmed.   

We weren’t much into the new year  and I changed my Blessings Sampler plans.   I realized on  Day 2, that I would not be able to finish Sally Spencer in a month.   This is exactly how my WIP’s number increases.   I changed to Jeannette Douglas’s Simple Gifts Spool.   While not a sampler, it is full of sampler motifs.   It’s a stretch but it will do.  

I did have some end of the year finishes and that opened up spaces on my WIPGO board.  Just the place to  add Sally Spencer for WIPGO 2025.  

For my finishes, first is Liz Mathew’s Friendship Sampler.   We did this as a Round Robin at a guild meeting. Passing our piece to fellow stitchers during the meeting for them to add a flower or motif.   Then this sat for two years.   I added some ‘background’  stitches to fill in the spaces and finished the border.  It is off the WIP list.    I think I will finish it as a mattress finish and add the initials of those who stitched on to the sides. 

Second finish, also a WIPGO,  was Bundled Up Birdie from Blue Ribbon Designs.   It was an EGA Christmas in July project.   The project came with the finishing supplies so it will be EZ PZ to complete.

Next,  not a WIPGO, was the Busy Bee Skep from Noteworthy Needle.  

Next week I head to Chattanooga for a week to visit a stitching friend.   We will go to Knoxville for a few days for a TVA EGA Retreat.  No shopping, no classes other than some make-it/take it classes, just stitching and friends.     I plan to work to fully finish the Busy Bee Skep that both Diane and I have stitched.   I also hope to be able to do the Home of the Brave peyote scissors fob from Fern Ridge.  And maybe I will even take along  an actual stitching project.   I am learning to carry less in the way of projects, accoutrements and clothes when I travel, especially when flying.  If you are like me, I take things I never touch or never unfold to wear.   All the “what if”s”.   Mr. W. always tells me they have stores where I am going if I need something.  WIPGO numbers have been called so that should end any debates on what I take to work on.

Since I had to wait to record the high temperature of  December 31st, this is literally my last finish for 2024 putting the last stitches on New Year’s Eve.  Temperature Tree from Stitching Mommy.   I have a plan of how to finish it but not until I get home from Tennessee.   I want to put my side by side with Diane’s to see the differences.   This put my total finished pieces for 2024 to 45.   That is a number that will never be repeated in the future.   Just further illustration of all the fiddly little starts I had never completed.

WIPGO numbers for the month were #11 and #20.  First up,  #11 - a Halloween ornament from Tiny Modernist.   I did the other three in the set several years ago and never stitched #4.   I didn’t quite get this finished but hope to stitch and be fully finished for next Halloween.   Second, this WIPGO actually called last January and I didn’t even touch it.  July, August and October from A Year of Celebration from Hands on Design needed to be completed.   I managed to get July and August stitched.  And October WILL BE done before October for sure

I am also trying to be more selective with what I buy.   Now that is good for a chuckle or two.   So scary when I look at my stats in the X-Stitch ap and see how many charts I have and how many are fully kitted.   Really no need to buy ANYTHING.    Yes, need and want are two totally different hobbies.  My plan is to start only new projects that I already have kitted and to buy only what I need to fill in the missing floss in kitted up charts I already have.  So how’s that working for me….. I went astray just an hour ago as I Venmo’d money to Hearts Strings Samplery for a EGA piece she is doing.   Hopes, dreams and then a smack with reality.  LOL.

Mid month I spent a long weekend in OCMD at Camp WannaStitch.   This is an EGA event that I have attended for many years.   Again, no classes, no vendor shopping, just stitching with old and new friends.  I was able to get a lot of stitching done on my Blessings Sampler.    So close and yet so far which is the result of not stitching for the last few days.  The pin marks the end of the pattern.   I sure am glad I did the border as I went along.   Hopefully I can make myself focus on this the next couple of days and mark it completed by the end of the month.

My plan had been to keep my traveling schedule lighter in 2025 and so far, that is not happening.   Somehow the calendar is filling up but it is all good.    So far a bunch of the extended weekend retreats and one bigger trip to Pigeon Forge in November are on the calendar.  Oh,  there is the week in the Outer Banks, a trip to Hobby House, and so on…..believe it or not I do say No! to some of the trips that come my way.   Vero Beach at the beginning of March.  

Last but not least, my word of the year.   Last year my word was monogamous.  My intention with last year’s word was to start a project and stick to it until completion and stop my flitting about.   For the most part, I am happy with how I adhered to it.   Some flitting about was done but I finished up a bunch of older projects just hanging out there in limbo and completed most of what I started.  This year, my word will be purge.   Not let’s not get crazy here and think I am purging craft supplies. I am not at all sure how “purge” would work on a pillow but then again, neither would monogamous.  lol.  But in all honesty, I do need to do a deep dive and pass on some charts and doo-dads I will NEVER use.  Here is my thought process on “purge”.   I thought about “simplify” and pondered on what I needed to simplify my life.  I kept circling back to the need to clean the attic and cupboards to get rid of things I no longer need or use.   I want to rid myself of things that are cluttering my world and they may not all be physical things.  Rid myself of stress and people that give me stress could fit in there somewhere.  So the cleaning starting with beach towels.  I had about 2 dozen beach towels from the days of having a swimming pool.  How many do I really need?   Two, maybe three, for the random beach day?   I did the same with bath towels.   22 all told.  I mean there are two of us!  I kept 12 and passed the rest to my son along with  the beach towels.  Another purge - every time I have a holiday dinner out comes all the ‘extra’ dishes from storage.   Some that never seem to be used.   Take for instance, a flan pan.   When was the last time I used it?   Did I ever use it?   Do I see me ever using in the future?   Off to my D-in-L.  Same with 3 colanders.   How many colanders does one kitchen need?   Off to Goodwill.  Outdated canned, spices and packaged goods, found and removed.   My kitchen shelves look like those in the movie Sleeping with the Enemy.   And how can I forget the pens and markers.   I mug on my desk full of pens and pencils, a mug on Mr. W’s desk,  a mug by my sewing machine, a mug on my cutting table, TWO mugs full in the kitchen!!  All the died up pens gone and all the pencils sharpened!  Hopefully I can report each month what I have been purging.   Better anchor down the house with tent pegs; it may be so light after a year of  purging it will want to float away.

As always, thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.  

My Year in Books for 2024

 

Wahoo!   I passed my challenge of 40 books for the year.   I have to say this past year tipped the scales on to the side of more audio books than read books.   In addition, I think my reading was more varied.    I read several David Baldacci which is always good for keeping me wondering and turning the pages.  His research into his subject matter of any book must be extensive.

I also read a couple of Greg Iles.  Not too dissimilar from Baldacci but with a Southern background versus Baldacci’s more military basis. 

At the other extreme, good summer and carefree reading, I read several books from Elin Hilderbrand.   Great feel good stories with a lot of character background set against the background of Nantucket Island.    

Continuing on the lighter side, I read several of Marie Bostwick’s quilting series.  Middle aged and recently divorced a woman visits Connecticut and decides to stay.  She opens a quilt shop and the stories begin.  Each book centers on the dilemma of one of her patrons or friends and how friendship helps solve the issue.

The best book of the year for me was by far Endurance, Shackleton’s Incredible Journey.  I just can’t in my wildest imagination begin to comprehend what they endured.  

I haven’t set my goal for 2025 yet.   Not sure what I will be reading but I know I will be taken places.