Wrapping up June

I did little to no work on the back 40.   I have an unbelievable amount of Spiderwort - which I never planted.   Intentionally at least.  

When we moved in 40+ years ago, the former owner had it at the foundation across the back of the house.    I dug it up and threw it in the woods behind me.  Where all the plants I had too many of them went for years.   Although  the purple blue flowers next to the yellow coreopsis make a lovely showing, once the spiderwort declines the heavy stalks - like fat asparagus stakes - just flop over into big 3 foot round circles, looking messy and smothering anything nearby.   I try to eradicate it every year.   It has roots that look like spaghetti and even a one-inch piece left in the ground will sprout the next season.   I have sprayed every kind of weed killer again and once died down, I remove what I can, cut off at ground level and spray it again.   So I guess progress has been made but not so much headway made.   I still need more stone to complete the path.   Bringing it home from my son’s in a half dozen flower pots at time is  not making a big difference.    And since this is technically not my property - it is a landlocked piece of property owned by the township but it is mine by right of eminent domain - I think and I have been cutting and maintaining it for years…..since it is not my property, my rule is not to spend money on it.   I am close to breaking that rule so I can get the blasted walkway down.   I figure I need about a dozen 50 pound bags which really means 18.  I guess if I spend money on weed killer I can make the small jump to paying for stones.    I may just price them out, even price out having bulk delivered. I know Mr. Wonderful will think I am trying to give him a heart attack moving a 1/2 of stones.  

For WIPGO this month, one of the numbers called was 7 hours on Rosewood Manors Cornwall Cottage.  I love this piece.   Every time I pick it up to work on it I wonder why I put it down.   Anyway, I decided to double up this month and dedicate both monthly assignments to this piece which meant spending 14 hours on it which I did manage to do.    I figured it was the best way to make the most progress and I am happy with what I got done.   One of these years I get it done.  And the inner border met!  I count this as a win!   I think WIPGO for July might be put aside.  I promised myself that in July I would work on Christmas gifts and exchange pieces.   

Temperature Tree is half done!   So far so good.  Having fun with it.  Time to stitch that July branch.

French Alphabet Sampler is moving along, slowly.  I only put in one Sunday afternoon of work.   Between traveling and entertaining grand children, stitching got neglected.  Any forward progress is good.   I would really like to get page 2 finished and be well into page 3 by the end of the month.  Although not as far as I would like to be, I am still on tract for a Leap Year finish!  This is the only piece I plan to stitch on in July other than exchange stitching so I feel sure I can be well into Page 3.  

If not traveling, or dealing with minor body ailments,  I was spending my time with these two.    I had William for the week between school being out and camp starting.  We visited a natural history museum with dinosaurs because all little boys like dinosaurs and we saw In and Out 2 at the movies.  Then I had Little Miss Raegan for a long weekend and we had lunch at a tea room.   She was the perfect little lady.

 

And I still have one more Ohio trip to post.  I tried to incorporate here with my monthly update but there is too too much to share!   

Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching!

May 2024

Where does the time go?  My favorite little man turned 8 at the end of April.   How can that be!?!

I had a lovely time at the Hodge Podge one-day Retreat in April.   Three of us rented an Air B&B for three nights and had a nice time together.   We shopped, we ate, we laughed, and we stitched, quite literally, until the cows came home.

Each night we were treated to the most beautiful sunsets.

If you are ever driving on Route 30 and find yourself in Kinzers, PA, you must stop at A & J’s Twisted Kitchen.   Best-brisket-ever.    Just tell the waitress, named Johnnie, that Customer - “Not your  turn”, recommended the place.  Sorry, but the explanation would loose something in the translation so I will just let you wonder why I was  told it was not my turn.   She was such a hoot that we had to go back a second night.  

I am spending more time in the yard in recent weeks so while I may be completing my monthly WIPGO assignment, it is getting harder to get projects fully completed.   I have finished 14 pieces so far this year and 11 were  WIP’s.   Win-Win! I did re-evaluated what qualifies as a WIP.  I removed a couple of projects that had only a dozen or so stitches and had been  tossed aside because I wasn’t happy with the  fabric or floss colors I was using.    I also had to re-enter all my charts into the X-Stitch Ap - due 100% to something I did.    Part of the re-entry had me ‘find’ some other WIPs.  On the up side, I was able to bag up a bunch of charts to send off for eBay sales.   

I finished Betsy’s Tart from Plum Street.    I would have not looked at this chart twice until I saw how my friend, Diane from Tennessee, ‘colorized’ it.     The original design called for numerous shades of grey with only the flag stitched with color.

WIPGO #1 assignment done and I started in on the second of the monthly assignment.    I was to stitch 7 hours but I think I did close to 3 times that.    It is Harvest Time from Lila’s Studio.  I just fell in love with that plaid skirt when I first saw the pattern.  There was more stitching to this than I realized.  I used the called for colors but no way did I like the hair color.   Frogged it and used Molasses instead. 

…..I wanted to keep working to a finish but I put it aside around the 21st so I could work on my French Alphabet.   

Even though this is the BAP Leap Year SAL from FB and I have four years for completion, I don’t dare to fall behind.   It would be so hard to catch up if I did.  I am trying to keep making more than the “required” progress each month to keep ahead of schedule.  My goal was to complete the second page of the pattern by month’s end.  I only made it half through the page but that is still more than the ‘scheduled’ amount. Below, on the left, where I was when I started this month, on the right, how far I got as of yesterday.  I’ve got some ‘trinket’s” I need to put together for a June Soiree’ I am going to so, reluctantly, I had to put this aside until I get my trinkets and then my June WIPGO Challenges completed.   It’s OK, it is proving to be a nice balance flipping between the projects.  

Something that has become a culprit in adding to my WIP list are EGA projects.  I don’t know why I seem to think I need to participate in all of the projects my Chapter offers.  I usually get so far and then put them aside to come back to them at some untold future time, or perhaps even never.   Anyway, our March meeting we started blackwork bookmarks.   

Kind of proud that it is totally reversible!   Albeit some lumpy areas where the thread ends were worked in on the back side.  We are supposed to bring them to our June meeting for finishing but I kept at this piece to just “git er done!”  No adding this one to the WIP list.    

I am keeping up to date on my Temperature Tree. Another month almost completed and it is filling out nicely!

While I was on a roll, I finally got to hemming the bathroom curtains that I made a few years back.   Why I put things aside to never return to them I don’t know.   I used the pierced ladder stitch to finish them off in two evenings! 

One number for June WIPGO fell on a big sampler I have let lag.  I am going to re-write the second number’s assignment so I can dedicate the whole month to working on the sampler from Rosewood Manor.   I will be sure to share before and after pix next month.

With each of the projects on my house-hold to do list,  I just never felt like I could spare the time.    In reality, not one of them took that much time when I just dedicated my attention to solely to them.   I guess that means I am a process person  not a product person.   Bless Mr.  Wonderful for he never says a word about my hare-brained ideas, most of which are started before any number of previous job are 100% complete.  

June is just around the corner and I will be off to Cincinnati……retirement is rough.

Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching. 

April 2024

Lately, I have been posting around the 25th of the month.   This month I am early.  I have an extra babysitting assignment tomorrow and Wednesday I head out of town for four days, so I post today and take another thing off my to-do list.

Fortunately, the rain seems to have slowed down before we needed to launch the kayaks!   I can’t believe how as I drive through the county there are soooooo many yards still with standing water.   In the first week of April we got more rain than we average for the entire month.   This made it hard to get my hands in the dirt since everything was so soggy. On the brighter side, it wasn’t snow!   

Another successful month of stitching.   Yeah WIPGO!    First up, my assignment was to finish 3 of the remaining 6 months for Year of Celebration from Hands on Design.   All three stitched and fully finished by the 15th of the month!   I counted them as one assignment done since they are part of a bigger project.  These help in the justification for having stash because it has been fun to ‘shop’ my stash for fabric, trims and buttons to do the finishing.

I managed to squeeze in this name tag.   Our EGA President’s Challenge for 2024 is to create a chapter name tag.    Going with the theme for the needlebook I made in February, I stitched this up in time to wear at our 50th Anniversary Dinner.  

 The other WIPGO assignment was to finish a wool candle mat I stitched last summer.   Again, a tiny amount of time required to move this from the WIP side of the list to the completed side of the list. I had finished all the way up to attaching the backing.    Well it seems, like as I often do, I charged ahead with the appliqué all higgly-piggly…….only to find that it didn’t fit the pre-cut backing.   So I put in down and walked away from it.    When I was making my 2024 WIPGO board I wanted to focus on things that had gone stagnant  and this one was an immediate contender.   All I needed to do was look through my supply of wool (which of course I have) and find a piece big enough and an afternoon I was done.   That makes 9 WIP’s done so far this year!   Hip hip hooray!   I am on a mission.  

And I hope you are all sitting down, I will have completed the wallpaper removal by the end of the day today.   I only have about a 2 foot by 3 foot section to finish up.  It only took about eighteen hours spread out over a couple of weeks.    Most of the walls are scrubbed of any glue.  Just need to get the paint!   It was a messy job.  Who knew 30 years ago I was so good at putting up wallpaper.    I missed the boat on finding an ex-military man that likes yard work and DIY projects.  But such is life….and life is good.  Better yet, another job that has been plaguing me crossed off the to-do list makes me grateful.   

I have kept on track with my Temperature Tree.   We have such a mild winter that some weeks the colors are not varying as much as I thought they would.  This tree is still meeting expectations.  Adding the leaves is so easy to do that I only work on this every other Sunday. 

I have made, pat myself on the back, progress on my French Alphabet Sampler.   This is my 2024 Leap Year BAP (Big Awesome Project) SAL.   I calculated I need to stitch 52 x 70 stitches or 1/4 of a pattern page, each month to stay on track to be done by February 29, 2028.    I know I could jinx myself by being all impressed with my current pace is putting me ahead of schedule.   I am almost done page one of the chart and mayhaps by April 29th I will have it completed!   Trust me, I know come November and December there will be little stitching time so to be a bit ahead right now is good.    I am looking forward to when I can get to the personalizations.

 

 

I did manage to get garden beds and my vegetable garden ready to plant. The veggie garden is raised beds so it wasn’t soggy to work on.   I hope to not get bored with it like I did last year when the  heat of the summer gets too much.   I still need to power wash the deck and to get all the deck furniture out and cleans. For the rest of the yard, I plan to add some plantings to existing beds where things are looking sparse.    I want to add a forsythia to anchor a property line bed and then maybe put in a couple of peonies for some spring color, or maybe Burning Bush.  I think I will round it out with some moonbeam coreopsis in purple to naturalize and fill the area from June to September with lavender colored blooms,   Maybe some Dianthas.   Due to mulching and remulching by landscapers, I have lost my grape hyacinths and some tulips.  And then there is the Back 40 Project. It is another project that come hell or high water, I mean to get done this spring.   I have managed some time and I am getting the final stage closer to completion so I will only have maintenance going forward.    Can you hear that?    I am laughing out loud at myself!    A gardener, like a stitcher, is never done with their projects.  And just to reinforce that concept, I’ve already sent my order into Breck’s for a fall bulb delivery!   

I am heading to for Lancaster County mid-week.  I am making a one-day stitch-in in Strasburg into a 4-day get away with fellow stitchers.    I have such an affinity for Lancaster County, PA.   Lots of shopping, strolling, antiquing, good food, good friends and stitching will be done.   

May is pretty much an open calendar, again I laugh at myself.  I have plans to spruce up and pick up the yard.   I’ve got a summer outside crafting idea but I refuse to start it until I wrap up some House and Garden WIPs!     I hope to be able to start my ‘special’ project in June and spend afternoons on the deck working on it.  More to come on this one as long as I am successful in completing sone projects in May.

Thanks for stopping by and …..keep on stitching.

March 2024

In my rear view mirror, March was another packed month for me.      I was babysitting for a week while my D-in-L was in New Orleans for work.   I knew thought after the morning rush - think Mr. Mom and Michael Keaton!! - I would have from 10 to 2:30 each day to devote to dishes, walking the dog, laundry and crafting before the mayhem started again. But somehow the days flew by with errands and such and not much stitching going in.     And guess what I came home with?   Not the germ balls from the kiddos, but from my son.   Nasty head cold that kicked my butt for about 3 or 4 days.  All better now but it was the 14th of the month in the blink of an eye and nothing was getting scratched off my to do list. 

I can’t believe how I let a week at my son’s and 3 days down with a cold put me so behind the 8-ball.   Don’t get me wrong, I love being with the kiddos.   But take for instance, medications….half the time I didn’t remember to take my thyroid pill and forgot the vitamins completely.   They were all packed in the little 7-day pill container but…..a lunchbox crisis, a dog that needed to go out, a bus to catch…..you get the picture.   I just totally need to stop the stressing about the chores at home.   There is no prize for being the one who gets it all done.  Oh contraire’ my friends,  I’ve learned that as you cross things of that to-do list, other things fill in those empty spaces.    

I made it an “A” priority to FINALLY finish my 100 Days/100 Blocks quilt.   It wasn’t that hard to do.   I just needed to commit to doing it.    Of course I had great plans to do this at my son’s but alas somehow for this last block I didn’t have all the fabric pieces with me at my son’s.  

  

But now, all blocks completed, sashing done and ready to be long armed!

Both February WIPGO’s were completed in February!  I have been shuffling the WIPGO assignments as necessary to fit what I know my schedule will be for the month ahead.   WIPGO is sure helping me cross off items on the list!  Two more WIP’s done and off the list.   That’s 6 down and 18 to go.  Even thought I actually need to add four more ‘found’ WIP’s to the list I am still counting myself successful.  I have picked the easiest to complete first to help that list of WIP’s go down. 

Merry Little Christmas from Willow Tree Samplings.   My WIPGO ‘assignment’ was to stitch seven hours on it.  Being monogamous I saw how much progress was made with just seven hours dedicated stitching so I kept going until completion!

Barnwood Buttons from Rosewood Manor.   The fabric is a much prettier blue than it appears here.  Again, by concentrating only on this, it was easy to take from half done to completion!

I have already ordered the frames for both.  

March WIPGO’s  were smaller WIP’s.    First, a Ukrainian motif bookmark.   This was an EGA project.

Second was this pumpkin pattern from Fat Quarter Shop which will make a perfect fall pillow.  

I have crossed off enough that I gave myself permission to have a new start.  I joined the Leap Year SAL on FB.   My pick is the French Alphabet Sampler.   I had this designed for me as a retirement present to myself in 2020 and held off starting it because it is a biggie.  Family names and initials are embedded in the alphabets.   It is 411 x 411 and I am stitching it on 37 count PTP Fog.   I can’t promise it will be done but it will be closer to finish than it is now.   My monthly assignment is 50 x 70 stitches and I am  there for March.      

I also made catching up on my Temperature Tree an “A” list item.     I was so focused on getting Barnwood Buttons done for my February WIPGO that for most of the month I only recorded temperatures.   I caught up a week’s worth at a time over several sittings.   I was going to stitch the entire following month branch first but I am trying a new tact, stitching what I need each week.   I had to frog the March branch as I placed it one stitch closer to the February branch than it should have been.   I was having to compensate all the leaves on the top of the February branch and then I knew I would have to compensate all the lower leaves on the March branch.   Ugh, if only I could count better.     IDK.    Again the game playing with my assignments.  

Weather is warming and I know I will be spending more time outside so stitching may not be so plentiful.   I still am counting myself as a winner with 6 projects already done and out of the formidable WIP basket.

As always, thank you for stopping by my little corner of the world.  And, keep on stitching.

I am suffering

from a bad case of Stash Accumulitis to the Maximus!   This I have found is highly contagious by spending too much time with other crafting minds.  

I am putting the brakes on my stash enhancement.   No worries here that I am spending the grocery money on crafting supplies and we have been reduced to eating canned cat food. With Amazon, UPS and Fed Ex each stopping at my house at least once a week or me carrying in a purchase from every time I venture out, I just woke up and thought....enough is enough.    I'd like to vow that I will buy NO MORE unless it is needed to complete an active project.   The operative words being LIKE TO.

Look at my Jenga pile of shame….

and this does not include the class pieces from my recent Guild Anniversary.  Oy!

All the purging I did of fabrics, kits and supplies a few months back was not done to create empty spaces. Every box shipped off for eBay sales is not permission to buy to refill the space that was created ….nor does every box I take to be donated give me Carte Blanche to buy more things.  I had thought I was moving to a more realistic phase of my crafting life. 

Realization hit me right between the eyes after the second trip in 10 days to a fabric store spending $$$ and $$ respectively on those visits.  When I took the fabric upstairs to put it away I saw the other fabrics I had bought to yet put away. 

Shortly before my brick and mortar shopping trips, these lovelies arrived from a pre-order last summer.   It is a selection of fat 8ths from the Blackbird Collection that I ordered from The Kitten Stitcher.  These will be great for finishing.

Of course when Kitten Stitcher sent out the announcement the fabrics were in and shipping would follow, she was great at marketing by including the link to her site with the selection of ALL the fabrics that came in and I HAD to order these.  I'm thinking project bags?

And then there was the sale at Joann's on buttons.    75% off    The packages were assorted size and hombres of each color.   Yes, four different colors jumped into my card.   I mean, it was like buy one, get three free, right? 

However there is no project mind for these.

More fabric for project bags because apparently I have the need for more bags to hold all my projects.

Some pillowcase material for my grand daughter and other fabrics....just because.

In mid-May, my sister and I each ordered the same jelly rolls of Moda fabric from the Ladybird Collection and we created a challenge between us.   Using the same jelly roll pattern we are each making a quilt and then going to compare our finished projects to see our interpretations.  I absolutely needed the coordinating fabric for the binding and accents so back to the fabric store in Vineland for a third visit!   And how's this as a major side-bar.......My sister said she has fabric for 4 quilts already started and I just laughed and said I had 4 quilt tops started and at least four others kitted up.  

Let's factor in Jamboree in October 2022 that I have signed up for,  the Shaker Retreat in November 2022,  and two classes with my guild.  Now these are not necessarily stash enhancements BUT as we all know they create the buying opportunity. 

In about 6 weeks, I am well into four figures of purchases and expenses.   An honest assessment of projects and time tells me I can never ever ever ever EVER complete all the things I already had in my stash and I need to stop ACCUMMULATING!  Sew, I plan to not buy ANYTHING until I use up some of what I have!!!     

But wait,  I forgot to mention I HAD to have these smaller button forms to cover with tiny cross stitch motifs to create the Sampler in a Jar……and immediately ordered the larger size as well…..and yes, they still sit unopened.   The intention is there, it is just the execution I am lacking.  Woe is me.......I think I need a refresher in time management.

Not to be left out, there are the 24 skeins of WDW Chesapeake I bought.  I have the pattern for the French Alphabet Sampler which is monochromatic.   It is difficult to say but truth is, this is not even on my radar to start.  Heck the plane carrying this project to my WIP basket is still on the assembly line at the Boeing factory in Washington State.    And yet somehow I felt it necessary to get the floss.  What was a thinking?   Am I going off to Tibet on a year long voyage of solitude and self discovery and thought I needed supplies to keep take with me?   I pray I have not blown up the supply chain of available WDW Chesapeake with this need to have all the things.

I need to stop trying to be a one woman economic stimulus plan.   I don’t care how much my credit card company loves me and lets me keep charging each month I need to STOP not for monetary reasons (well maybe when I think about it...LOL)  but to save my house from exploding craft supplies all over the neighborhood.  Somehow my neighbors housing draped in ribbons, bolts of fabric and floss hither and yon does not conjure up a comical site in the least.

I need to work from my stash.  

    I need to work from my stash.

            I need to work from my stash.

I am sure I am not alone with this illness.    Knowing that I have no will power and I never stick to any fantastical plan I create has not yet deterred me from pledging to myself, and now to the world,  that no additional stash will be added to my accumulation of supplies for mass crafting  unless it is needed to complete a project in progress! Maybe there's a support group for us.   

Hello, my name is Robin and it has been one day since I last purchased 

crafting supplies not for immediate use.

Thanks for stopping by, thanks for letting me vent, stay safe, be kind and keep on stitching.

PS. Within an hour of posting, I was alerted of a support center in Tennessee.   Thanks Diane!