Sidelined

I’ve been sidelined.   I have an eye issue.    I used the medical degree I obtained from the internet and was smart enough to see a real professional.  Glad I did and as long as I don't do Zumba, run on a treadmill or get on a pogo stick, it should heal fine.  Which the funniest this is I am more likely to get on a pogo stick than either of the other two.  Surgery is not necessary unless it progresses to a retinal detachment which is why need to stay relitively sedentary.  Ugh!   Until it heals I shouldn’t be doing things like pulling vines or lugging cider blocks and logs or digging holes.  I’ve got to tell you I was really jonesing for the first few days....taking laps around the yard and seeing things that needed to be moved or picked up or dug up; unable to focus on anything.  Some may say I don't  know how to relax.....but I love to garden, it is relaxing as well as rewarding to me.     Mr. Wonderful threatened if I didn't do as the doctor said and had an issue he would be picking the clothes I would be wearing.   The thought of that and him doing my make-up leads to the strong possibility of me looking like Mimi from Drew Carey Show, I decided to behave.  I think Mr. W is secretly happy I need to stand down from yard work.  He told the neighbor I was wearing him out.   You’ve got to remember this is the first summer in 20 years that he has spent at home.

He cut the bushes with the new hedge trimmer and I'm not  saying a word.   They will grow just like your bangs grew after your mom cut them to within a 1/2 inch of your scalp on the morning of school picture day.    


But enough of that.

Last week he about pushed me out the door to go to the beach for the weekend.   No yard work caused me to be a sad lost puppy just moping which forced the issue.  A friend was going to her condo for the first time of the season and since we both had been staying away from people we felt it was safe for us to spend the weekend together.   I’ve got to say that contrary to what you see on the news about beach towns, for the most part OCMD people were behaving and doing the right thing......unless of course if they were  under 25.

It was nice to get away and of course I went to Salty Yarns.  My friends and I are doing our best to keep the needlework stores in business.

For stitching, I let my 52 weeks of blackwork slide partly because I temporarily deactivated my Facebook account and partly because I was working outside.   This week I logged back in,  printed the latest pattern and finished 6 weekly installments.   I think I am one square away from being on schedule.

I got a goodie in the mail.   I received my Prim Stitchers Bag from Carolina Stitchers.   Put a project in it right away.




 

I started work on Summer House Stitches Workes Ladies Garden Journal.   If I can’t work in the yard, at least I can stitch a garden.   Ornaments Ala Round is just sometimes bigger than what I feel like working on.  My Thursday group has started to meet again sitting on each others patios when weather permits.  Ladies Garden Journal is a  piece that is easy to take along.




















I also started a Terri Bey Lotus Box.   It is an EGA project for my guild.   We are to stitch it twice; once for the inside and again for the outside.   I don't need it until the fall but I was worried it would be difficult and take a lot of time.    Not so, this is about an hour and a half of work.   A fall meeting will be dedicated to learning how to assembly it.    I will only be able to stitch so much because I need No. 5 perle cotton and with the Corona virus some fibers have been hard to come by.

For Ornaments ala Round, I sort of took a break.   I haven't worked on it in ten days.  It is too large to carry to the beach or even at home on the deck.   My plan is tomorrow morning I am back on it.   We all agreed we hate the branches so I decided to start each stitching session with one length of each of the three greens in the pine boughs.  I refuse to put it aside other than for a brief hiatus.   This piece is not landing in a UFO pile!

It sparkles so much in the sunshine!

So that's all I've got.  I hope to get caught up on all your posts since I am temporarily a lady of leisure.....sitting on my deck with nothing but time.....it's not that bad, we have beautiful weather here at least for the next week, the birds are chirping, the breeze is blowing the wind chimes, I can smell all the flowers and I can just stitch away.  Going to have to set my watch to remind to get up every hour and take a lap!

Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.

What I Hate Most and Logic Out the Window

I hate spending time looking for things.   There is a place for everything and everything in its place.  Things are put, like things together, in a logically order and all is well in the world.    That said, I have spent the last week looking for my pre-stitch for PSS and the free pattern I stitched for PSS so I could send it off to Faye Riggsbee, The Carolina Stitcher, for her to create a project bag.    Dam....I remember seeing the pressed pieces sitting for weeks on the corner of the ironing board in my craft room.   When PSS was canceled for this year, I remember putting them in a place that made sense at the time.   A place that I remember saying in my head I can't go to Prim Stitchers without that so this is the perfect place to keep these three pieces safe until next April.    Even though that was just two weeks ago, I haven't been anywhere, I am at a loss.   ARGH!    So frustrating.  And you know I keep looking in the same place because it seems logically it would be there.  Well, when I least expect it, I guess they will turn up.

I do have a little bit of new stash to share.   I placed on order with Salty Yarns mostly for needed perle cotton for my grand daughter's christmas stocking but a couple of patterns managed to get included.   My semi annual retreat to Salty Yarns has been cancelled (fingers crossed on a reschedule) so I justified my purchases by telling myself I would have spent more had I been to Salty Yarns in person.

Before the wind and rain descended on us for a few days, I took my orchids outside to repot them.   Fingers crossed they survive.

I have barely any progress on Easter Parade......I am using floss and fabric from stash.   I am seeing such prettier versions being posted that I am not in love with my version anymore which translates having lost interest in the piece.    I'd better just remind myself that I am trying to reduce the UFO's in the basket, not add to them.   Time to buckle down and be done with it.















I am working last week's Blackwork SAL installment.     I did a kind of sizing up of how much banding this will take and it looks like I won't be able to get all the 52 weeks on the length of banding I am using.   I guess I will stitch until I run out of room.

For Ornaments ala Round, I can't believe the progress I have made.   The three of us are doing much better than one motif a week.    The girls are both ahead of me but that's AOK with me since I've been dividing my time between the yard and stitching and making masks for my neighbors.

 And yes, that is frogging you see.    Seems I extended that purple for 8 stitches instead of seven.   Could I have compensated.....probably.   I felt I would be happier to frog and get it right.

I am getting the flower beds done, ordered veggies plants for my vegetable garden and in good shape yard wise.   This leads me to my next dilemma.   I have been out of commission for the last three or four days with a bum shoulder.   Of course I used my medical degree to research on the internet.   Don't think it is a rotator cuff injury, I think it is bursitis from the repetitive motion.   Both suggest the same - rest the shoulder.  Between digging and moving top soil, pulling weeds, hand edging flower beds and the reach around of stitching on a 16-inch square set of q-snaps I was a hurting pup.  I couldn't get comfortable.   I couldn't even stitching for days.  I have taken more Advil in the last three days then I have taken in the last three years.   Advil and a bag of frozen cranberries have become my new best friends.  Since I found sleeping so elusive with this shoulder, I spent most of Easter napping and watching HGTV.  Nice diversion but I think I have turned the corner.  Pain is less than yesterday and hopefully tomorrow will be less than today.

And while unable to stitch, I did manage to get some computer work done, cards written and  worked on EGA membership renewals and just generally doing nothing but old movies.   I took a couple of laps around the yard and did take a drive around town on Sunday since the car had not been out of the driveway for a month.  Boy it looked like a ghost town.

Easter started with a 6:45 FaceTime of a happy little boy having his Easter Egg hunt in the back yard.   Don't you just love that excitement in how they unconditionally believe?  For dinner, I had bought a large ham in the beginning of March which I cut in half and froze half of it.   I mean with two people eating it we could have ham every which way but loose and still have some left.   The half that remained was perfect for Easter dinner, some Robin-made egg McMuffins for breakfast yesterday, hot ham and cheese sammies for lunch and may be some soup with what is left.

Hope all are well, staying safe.   Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.

Oh To Do and Then Re-do!

I really have been in a slump stitching-wise and not put in much stitching time since OCMD at the end of April.   Not sure what I have been up to.......yard work mainly.  I am done all but one last flower bed that spans the property line on the right side of the property.   Truth is, I started it but kind of got the willies because I was sitting weeding and disturbed a snake!   Yuck!  This particular bed is very overgrown with ground cover and I think I need professional help.   That's my story anyway.

Been dealing with Achilles Tendonitis for more than several weeks.   Partial remedy - rest the affected leg/ankle.     However, rest = stiffness of the affected area.  Got to strike that balance I guess.  My treadmill is just gathering dust lately.   For now I will continue with the PT stretches and limp along.   Seems I got my medical degree somewhere along the line since this is a self/internet diagnosis.   Promised myself I will make an appointment with Dr. R. this week.

I have been going through closets and drawers as I have switched out the winter and summer clothes.  I am organizing a clothes swap at work (Its called a Naked Lady Party!) so that is incentive to be 'honest' with myself that I will never ever fit into those size 8's that are taking up space in my closet!  And since 8's in my closet have been no incentive on the weight loss side, it is time for them to go.

I have spent time desparately trying to catch hummingbirds at the bird feeder with my camera.   I have more photos of airspace than hummers!

Look at the face.    Can't you just read his  thoughts?   "What is the ding dong lady doing now?"

Stitching wise - the little I have done has been on Rosewood Manor's Cornwall Cottage.   When needle and thread do meet, this moves pretty fast.  The individual motifs make it easy to complete a section and move to the next.     This is page one of 12 completed. 



Off I charged to work on page two -  hha-hum....see my little boo boo?    One little set back - seems I ran amok in stitching the inner leaf border.   I was stitching merrily along without a care only to realize I stitched the leaves too big......along came the frogging so I could restitch the leaves that were stitched without the center stem.

Leaves frogged and replaced and I am on my way again. It helps to keep my needle minder loaded with needles and threads ready.

































Using my blackwork knowledge on this one yellow flower I have been plotting my route in and out.  I think I am still getting enough color change with the yellow flower using the WDW.

Garden is in.  I am still a novice at this so two 4 x 8 plots is probably all I need.   I never let lack of know-how stop me from diving in!

Really too soon to harvest anything yet.    The lettuce is a possibility for a dinner salad this week.  And with all the blossoms on my bush beans, I see fresh green beans in my future.

I repotted my houseplants - ferns and spider plants.   I can't remember when they were done last and the total root bound mess that I had would indicate years.  Maybe even decades!   Divided and I cut them back so if they survive my intervention, this summer they may not look too splendid.  Dividing the plants caused me to run out of pots for my geraniums and petunias.   Rather then do the right thing and wait until I could buy more pots, of course, I improvised with what I had on hand.   I am worried about these plants in the two enamelware bowls.  I am afraid the sun with make the metal too hot and fry their little roots.   I will have to keep watch on these guys.  

Coral Bells in full bloom.

Nifty burlap bag I bought.   Plan to turn it around to the plain side for hanging other seasonal flowers.

Pulled some of my patriotic pieces from the wall to make a tabletop display.   Seeing these I am itching to start stitching up one of the patriotic pieces I have kitted up.  But no new start for me right now.   I have some pre-stitching for a class in October that I expect to see arrive in the mail shortly.

A more playful Buddy who took a rest from helping hand clothes today.

Next up, work on my guild stitch along.   I am pretty much through this month's assignment but do need to do a few more stitches before next meeting to keep up to date.  I am gangbusters after the meeting and then fade as the month goes on.   I rekindle that flame the first of each month to make sure I am on target for our monthly meeting.

Happy June all and stitch on!

I fell off the treadmill

Not literally but in the same way people say they fell off the wagon!    I have never been mistaken for my athletic prowess so it is not that far-fetched for me to have literally fallen.    Just like Rudolph I was never asked to join the Reindeer games but I digress.

I was diligent at my latest attempt at fitness.  In the past I would get frustrated with no progress and quit after three weeks.  I also never wholeheartedly did the two prong approach.  It was either portion control and watching what I ate or it was exercise;  this time it was both.   This time I really stuck to it.  10 to 11 weeks later I had lost 0.02 lbs. and given that we women usually fluctuated 2 to 4 pounds in any given day I think I could have actually gained weight.  None of the BS about about muscle weighing more than fat satisfied me so I fell off my treadmill routine.   Funny thing, the first week AFTER stopping, I lost six punds.  I guess I am just destined to be a Rubenesque in my body type.

No treadmill means less reading......so I guess I will hop back on and be happy with the cardio, blood pressure and cholesterol benefits even if there are no benefits shown on the scale.

But enough already,  here's what little stitching-related I have been up to.  I had the foolish thought that work would lighten up after deadlines came and were met......funny ha ha....so very little needle and thread progress is being put down.

This is my Candy Corn finish finished.   It is a bit lumpy but practice makes perfect on these kinds of things.

I saw this pattern a few years back at a quilt show and it was one of those regrets immediately when I didn't purchase it.   At the time I didn't take notice of the name or designer so I was happy to find this recently in a local quilt shop.  It is called Zelda's Witch Hat and it is life-sized when finished.  It takes 9 fat quarters of various blacks which I picked up this week on a side trip to Lancaster County.  This appeals to my sewing side and my stitching side with the crazy quilt embellishing.

Of course a few new fat quarters after shopping with my sister lead me to showing her some recent purchases in my craft room which lead to me needing to do a sort of all my fabrics.  You know we keep every scrap and bit of ribbon or trim for someday  and she helped me with my hoarding of bits and pieces the error of my ways and I started yet another sort out this morning. 

I have kind of divided by color and need to subdivide more.   It became obvious real quick  that everyone folds fat quarters differently.

I pulled my 'collections' and kept them together.   A fave of mine, Aunt Grace and 1930's Retro fabrics.  Wrapped in the ribbon are strips I have already cut for a strip quilt I am working on.

Then there are these which I know are just perfect for some sort of stitching purse or bag and I think I have just the pattern.

 It is fun to 'shop' in your own stash and find gems you forgot you bought.  What better way to spend a misty damp afternoon.

Feel Your Boobies

There is an actual FEEL YOUR BOOBIES week and this is it.  All you sisters in stitching know it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.   I didn't stitch anything pink but I am signed up for the 5K walk tomorrow.    Hopefully I can get my fat little legs (seriously-long body/short legs) moving fast enough to finish under an hour.  

The first 5K I WALKED and I stress WALKED!!! the 3-wheel police trike was behind me picking up the cones - how embarrassing. I finished under an hour but was the last lonely sole.  The second 5K I did - I was so excited when I saw the Olympic style clock over the finish line clicking the seconds and I was like wow!  I knocked off several minutes from my former time!  Yeah.   NOT!  When I logged in the the Races to Run info, I found I only shaved off a mere 12 seconds from my previous 5K.  At least I was not last at that one.   The parents with strollers and kids in wagons and toddlers walking were behind me.   So tomorrow I have hope.....there have to be grandmothers with walkers that I can walk faster than.   I hope to one day be able to complete a 5K in under 50 minutes.  Not realy big aspirations.   Maybe tomorrow will be the day and maybe not........but more to the point,  I will be out there walking for the cure and the rest of you should FEEL YOUR BOOBIES.....or maybe if you get lucky, have a 'friend' feel you boobies!   lol  I need to buy my *PINK* t-shirt today!

Pleased with my progress

Here's the wedding sampler and the little bag for the flower girl. I need to put the date and initials on the bag still  and the ribbons for the handle....I am also seeing I missed four of the darker green sttiches on one leaf......I am happy with how far I am with the sampler considering I have not had much time devoted to stitching the last 10 days.                

I joined the local Y and have been going to a Yoga class and working out in the gym three days a week. Boy after the treadmill, the elliptical and then the weights, when I finally sit down I find I am falling asleep on the sofa with needle in hand and not a stitch taken! This is the first 10 days and I know I will get my stamina up and be back to stitching more than in just the pre-dawn hours before work.  Pardon the wrinkles....I never think about pressing my pieces before I photograph and post them.....because of course I am in a head over heels hurry to post!   

As for working out at the Y, I have a dear friend as my exercise partner and it is so good to be able to spend time with her and at the same time be working towards a healthier body!

Progress and great things to look forward to!!

Had a bit of trouble trying to change my header photo to one of Iris' from last spring so what you see is a HINT of spring! 

So here's my  progress on my Nan Tyson Euler sampler.   Had to do the teensiest bit of frogging on the upper left border where I made the corner  to start the border across the top.   Mis-counted somewhere along the left side and would not have had enough room to stitch the four quilt-like sampler motifs.  I sure am glad I had not completed the entire top border!    Thank goodness for small miracles.    Whew!    After finishing the row of stepped herringbone I was still not any bigger of a fan.  I thought all that messing about for not much of a show.  

Speaking of messing about!  makes me think of Len Goodman of Dancing With the Stars.  (DWTS)   I confess to being a big fan.  What's up with sending home Shannon Dougherty?   First and foremost my disclaimer that I could not even dancing if electrodes were attached to me to jolt me for the proper steps on a floor with numbered footprints so I give them all credit.   Shannon seemed to be enjoying herself and was no where near as stiff at Kate Plus 8.  Oh well, it is why I am not a judge!

Now for my Sewing Room Treasures, I have been stitching on it but I seem to jump all about.  There I go messing about again.   A lot of movement and not much substance! I need to stick to one section to complete it and be able to see more visable progress worthy of a photo! 

I had thought I might finish my SB April but I was torn between my love of the yard and my love of stitching.   Here's a peek and fingers crossed I can finish today! 

Next, my diet plan is not working so I have joined Weight Watchers.   It is the only diet my family physician supports and I know it works.   I have been telling myself I could do it on my own but alas, I accept I can not.    I can't go wrong with this!  It is at work at lunch time and as part of the wellness plan, the Company pays 1/2 of our 15 week fee!  Weeeeee!  See what I mean?  It would be silly not to sign up.

And last but not least for today, I have signed up for a 6 week quilting class.   I have sewn forever and had all the sewing classes in high school.   I made quilts for the kids when they were young.  But I did it without any training.   I just did what I thought was right.   You know the valuable tricks and tips you learn in a class?  That's what I am hoping to take away.   It will be fun every Tuesday night to look forward to it!  My daughter and I attended the AQS in Lancaster PA last weekend and I guess it got the creative juices flowing!

Happy Easter all and a great week for everyone.   Thanks for stopping by.