October 2025

At the end of September, I managed 3 days dedicated to the yard.  I dead headed, fertilized, trimmed.   Carrying over into the first week of October, I cleaned up the vegetable garden, stowed the yard furniture and actually put some time in my neglected Back 40 project.    I need to get more stone to finish the pathways and be done.  It’s on the list.  

I did continue my year long purge of all things unnecessary.   I washed, sorted and packed up clothes and stuff for the local shelter.   Some were a ‘fit’ issue and some were things I haven’t worn since I retired others were things I don’t use or have triplicates of….so OUTTA HERE!   I also attacked my laundry room.   Why did I have an overflowing crate of rags and towels for washing and waxing the cars?   I mean really, any washing and waxing is done at the car wash or detailer.     Same for the bag of orchid soil and orchid fertilizer.  I don’t have orchids anymore - gone.  I have two catch-all spots in my house - my craft room and the laundry room.  Maybe three, to be honest, my walk-in closet - it’s out of sight and is a dumping ground for sure.     Things got moved back to their proper place and the trash can was full.  I have a completely empty shelf now in the laundry room.    Twelve boxes and counting ready to drop off.

I finished Cabin in the Woods from Flossibilities but it is currently at the framers.      I did make changes.   To save my eyes from working on black,  I choose Muddy Puddle from Hometown Fibers.   For some reason, I didn’t care for the compass points in the middle of each side of the border so I eliminated them.   I moved the moon a few stitches to the left of the chart’s placement.  Lastly, I filled the sky with beads placed randomly instead of stitched stars. 

Some other little bits to share.   I did a wrapped back stitch to create a label for a quilt my sister made.

This is work on my first ever Hardanger piece.    At first I was thinking I was liking it.   I like the balance of it; the structure of it; I guess since I like numbers, I like it.   Then I got to the corners which I fretted.  Although this is a new challenge to me, I might be interested in trying it again.   This is what I enjoy about my EGA.  They are always introducing new to me techniques in small, doable sized projects.

Here is a new start.  The Jeannette Douglas Designs Christmas Box.  A reward to myself for crossing things off my to-do list.  Considering Jeannette Douglas is my Guild’s Designer of the Year, I guess I should be stitching her designs.   Rationalization at its best.  

I also managed to finish my part of the Round Robin of Harvest Friends.   Three of us are doing this piece and we are each to stitch ‘our’ pumpkin head on each other’s.  Sorry for the glare.   

I hope to sneak in some stitching on Liberty by Chessie & Me for my current patriotic piece.   Another cave on my part because I wanted something patriotic to put in the mix.   While small, it is stitch heavy.    

I just can’t seem to be a one project stitcher no matter how much I try.   No surprise here that I started the 250 day flag project from Primrose Cottage.    You stitch one star a day from October 27 to July 4th.  I cheated and started already so I could see  how long a star takes.   EZ PZ. Even if I miss a few days, it will be easy to get back on schedule. 

The beginning of November, a friend and I are flying to Chattanooga to visit a mutual friend.   While there, we will all head to Stitching in the Smokies Retreat in Pigeon Forge.    We bought one-way tickets because we will drive back to South Jersey together so Diane can spend the holidays with her son and his family and she doesn’t have to make the 11 hour trip alone.    We arrive in NJ on Tuesday and turn around and all head to Salty Yarns for our semi annual Guild Retreat on Thursday.  Bless my Mr. Wonderful that he never has a problem with my galavanting.  I am pretty sure I will take Cornwall Cottage to dedicate all my stitching time to it for both trips.  It is the current biggest WIP.   I feel sure I can make considerable progress on it.  I do know I am taking a peyote project for Diane to help me with.  And it is a WIP too!    Best case scenario, one WIP done and one closer to being done.  And who am you I kidding, Jeannette Doughlas Christmas Box will be going too.

I am trying to formulate some sort of path forward for 2026 stitching.   Hmmm, why?  I mean, I don’t routinely  seem to stick to ‘plans’ long.   But I was a trooper for three years with  WIPGO.  Possibilities.  At minimum, I need to sort my WIP’s basket which just stares at me from across the room.  

I am toying with  working on one WIP and one class piece at a time.      I will have to go through my WIPs, decide on the one that was closest to being finished and  prep everything so I can stitch and finish.  

I think I will choose my oldest class piece to focus on.   I have more than a few fully kitted samplers just waiting for me but I am determined to finish more of the projects that are started or are class pieces.   Two years ago I had 27 WIP’s and 21 Class pieces.   I am down to 7 WIP’s and 20 class pieces.  IYKYK the number of WIP’s changes like the bouncing ball we used to follow on TV sing-a-longs.   If that is not dating myself, nothing will.   

I finally got up the nerve to attempt my Temperature Finish.   I got this piece of wood from Hobby Lobby.   I sanded it.   You know sanding with the grain is not easy when it is a cross cut like this.   Anyway, I sanded, stained and varnished the wood.   I went back and forth on mounting it as an oval or as a square.  There were a few mis-steps.   This actually came out kind of  as I envisioned which is often not the case!  

To the right is the finishing Gods telling me they didn’t like the oval finish.

Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.  

PS. I did do 4 quilt blocks on my Civil War Quilt.  Alas when I was squaring up two of them, I squared them to 8 inch’s not 8 and 1/2 inches.   Everything is laying is time out right now!