Now you see, now you dont

Happy dance time.    Now you see what I had left to stitch as of Friday morning

....and now Sunday morning, you don't!

Little House Needleworks - Heart of America
Stitched on 30 Count Linen with Crescent Colors

Yeah another finish.  I certainly am keeping the framer in business lately.   So happy to be able to cross another off my WIP list.  Started this in January 2011 during that Crazy January 2011 Challenge, completed August 2012.  

Found the buttons!  Right in the bottom of my stitching bag where I put them, of course.  

 Putting this on the stretcher frame really made the last bit of stitching fly by.   Happy stitching all....I am off to see which will be my next WIP victim.

Please benefit from me getting sidetracked!

 

What is this? Pattern is striking.

Not sure about this either?   Pretty greens....

More pretty colors and a bumpy bit near the edge.

Look at this heap of a mess!

I am hosting a give-a-way.  You don't need to do anything but be a follower.   I will select three names from those who are my blog followers as of noon (east coast) on August 31st using the random number generator.    I will divide the goodies between the three names selected.  Winners will be announced on Labor Day (that's September 3rd here in the USA).  

I spy some favorite designers.   Barrick Samplers, Homespun Elegance, Victoria's Sampler, LHN, La-D-Da, maybe even an Ellen Chester pattern.

What possessed me to offer up some goodies?

I was looking for the buttons for Heart of America by LHN and well, ummmm, got sidetracked, and starting looking at my stash.  Looking at my stash turned into sorting my stash.  I decided to sort **with extreme honesty** through my stash, weeding out patterns, that although I love, I know I with never do.   An hour later, my sorting is your gain.  My stash is still S.T.A.B.L.E. (Stash That's Available Beyond Life Expectancy!!) but it is neater and more organized for sure. And I never did find that buttons.

My needle is on fire

Everyone is posting less this time of year....myself included......must be like me....enjoying the outdoors and yard projects.   Here's a quick catch up of the last four weeks -

• started and have finished 9 of 15 of my 15 sided biscournu
• making progress on Heart of America
• painted both sides of the 3 metal entry doors to Mr. W.'s garage - yuck, oil based paint
• Mr. W got home (which disrupted everything! LOL.
• signed up for a retreat in Ocean City MD in October
• booked a cruise for January - me and Diane in Aruba!
• weeded through my paperwork and the older household paperwork
• working on setting up a Mr. W. friendly file system for the current files
• read The Tea Rose
• finished reading Little Women
• read Out of Mormanism
• started reading The Winter Rose
• enjoying my vegetable garden which has morphed into an overgrown mess
• made arrangments with a solar company for an estimate
• dealing with MOLES in my backyard - anyone have a sure fired trick?
• enjoying the pool
• had a fabulous review from my boss (first one in 5 years! a review, that is, because of course it would be fabulous)
• building up time and speed on the treadmill
• trying to fathom what it would be like if Mr. W retires.  His Co. is rumored to be making one of those buy-out offers and he says with 39 1/2 years service he won't be able to pass it up.  (he'd better take up a hobby if he does - preferably gourmet cooking...lol)
• riding my bike
• contemplating some online (or maybe local college) courses

Here's my stitching progress and a little aside.  I set a self-imposed goal to complete this by my EGA meeting in September to add it to the WIP Contest we are having.    I made the visual survey of the pattern thinking I will have to really push that needle to complete it.  

Only a week later when I  looked at the color pattern did I realize the alphabet at the bottom of the pattern was only for charting purposes.   Yeah!  Silly me, I had wrongly assumed it was like a sampler with the alphabet and numbers across the bottom.   I am so glad I made that incorrect assumption because now I have my needle on fire knowing  I can get this puppy moved to the finished column by the September meeting.

Number 9 of 15 biscournu squares.   This is my carry-along stitching project with most stitching done pool-side at work at lunchtime.  (Yes, we have a beautiful Olympic sized pool and gorgeous grounds in the back courtyard area of our campus for employees and their family.  Spoiled on all sides aren't I?)

Signals

We all have those triggers that signal the start or end of something.....my signal that summer is drawing to a close is Mr. W. will be back tomorrow.   For now he has arrived safe and sound to NJ after 700 miles from Indianapolis.  He will make the trip of the last hour home  tomorrow afternoon and then I will get to hear all the war stories.    The group he travels with  ended 20th in the world out of 50 to 60 drum corps and that is after the elimination of their division a couple of years back when they were bumped up to compete with the big boys.   Not a bad year.   The kids are happy and the director is pleased.   Now it is time for them to decompress!

Summer is drawing to a close.  Mr. W. will put the pool cover on before I know it!  And we will all settle in for those crisp fall days, crunching leaves under our footsteps and warm cups of cider.   Ahhh.  But wait, one last hooray!  I am off to a relaxing week in Virginia Beach with girlfriends after Labor Day.   Our hotel is on the boardwalk. I have never been to VA Beach and am so looking forward to it!    Stitching will be taken even if I will be with non-stitchers! as well as my Kindle to catch up on some reading while on the beach and it will be heaven.....

Here's what I have been working on.....I have 8 of the 15 sides to the biscournu completed.   I have to say I am surprised at how much FUN this really really is! 

I managed to get two sections done today while enjoying a beautiful afternoon and girl time in Philadelphia with my daughter.  It  needs to be completed by my October guild meeting and I see no problem with making the deadline.  

 (Thanks Pat...you always told it was enjoyable.)   It is a challenge to plot the path in and out and I am enjoying that challenge!  

Also, been trying to make some progress on Heart of America from LHN.   I have it in my sites to be done by the end of August.....I will really need to make the needle fly from 5:30 to 6:30 each morning!  (If only there was a way to stitch and be on the treadmill....hmmmm.  Methinks that could only end in disaster.)     I am close and if I stitch on it exclusively....I can do it!

Lastly, Heather, my daughter, gave me this gem today.   Funny thing is I gave it to her years ago when a friend was moving and getting rid of things......now full circle and back to me.   

I am going to get my LHN on it tonight to try it which will mean if it works my other frame will be open for my Ellen Chester Class piece.........promises not to start it until LHN Heart of America is done and ready for the framer.

Happy stitching all, enjoy your remaining days of summer and hopefully, in the near future, I will have another finish to share as well as a framed piece to share.

Relief

Low humidity in these parts and a welcomed break from the A/C as well as the electric meter.....been absent for a couple of weeks but I have been checking in on all your blogs and marveling as your progress and fancy finishes.....me, I've been being a slug!   Well not really, but close.   Been coming home most nights to get in the pool for an hour and do some aqua-zumba!   Started another long-term makeover but I am not ready to divulge any of the details yet......want to see how it goes first.  Been stitching up a storm, been sorting 35 years of files.  (Found some checks of my father's from 1966!  Really....what possessed me to keep them??? Can you say shred!)  I mean really, I have every owners manual to every weed-wacker and every can opener we have ever purchased!  Time to clean out the unnecessary papers.

A few years back, Mr. W. took over the bill paying but he doesn't file anything.   I was told hands-off because off course I didn't know the first thing about paying bills.   You know the drill.....wonder how we never ended up in credit and collections during the first 33 years of marriage especially since some of those years were lean ones.....but I digress....point is, there are many ways to do a job and his way and my way are different......problem is when he needs an owners manual or signed contract or receipts for taxes I am flipping through papers.   Since he is away, I decided to tackle the mounds of papers and organize them.....after all there is a reason the alphabet is in that order.....makes it easy....take it from one who stores her spices alphabetically.......again, I digress.....point is, I have been spending an hour or so each evening sorting papers, creating binders with current contracts, etc. and manuals and an hour or so in the pool...leaving me little time to blog.  

So what else......as promised, here are some junk shopping finds!

Here is the new home for the bench ($60) which means the bench that was here replaced the baskets in the bathroom and the baskets from the bathroom went to my sewing room and that is a whole other post.

 The sewing stand....($30)...the veneer is a bit scuffed in one place but it added to the character.

 It found a home in my newly created sewing/reading corner in my bedroom.  (Oops! haven't made the new curtains yet but that is a fall/winter evening project....not for this time of the year when I get be outside every evening!!)

With my etsy botanical prints and my dollar store blue birds and the $1 plate that I laced ribbon through.

 My $4 basket that INCLUDED the flowers

 The coolest locker baskets.....$10 each

 which I took no time at all to fill with fabric....

 My Campbell's tin for $4 which I just had to have for my kitchen.   Gives me the retro vibe I love.

 And last but not least, I got two of these little gems for $2 each....perfect for when I host stitch night!

Stay tuned, my next post may even include stitching!

Be still my heart.....

Oh, I am in love. I know it is wrong to stray. So wrong to turn my affections elsewhere. So sinful to allow temptations to turn my head. I have admired from afar for so long all the while I have felt I wasn't worthy of such fineness. But I have only so much willpower. I know I am not the first to have such feelings of disloyalty and I won't be that last. And then it happens.  A friend guides you into the unknown, luring you, using a gentle thoughtful teaching hand, I am after all only human.....

Oh my, Blackwork! A new love. If you haven't tried it, please do.

This month at guild Pat gave us a lesson. Most of the gals have done this before but I never attempted. I never thought I had the talent to do it. I thought the structure of it would not be to my liking since I live to do compensation stitches it seems. Pat was insightful and thorough in her explanation of making a trail and plotting it out and leaving a way back. It really appeals to my sense of order. I am having fun plotting the 'trails'. Although I may be a fan of compensating, this appeals to my mathematics side and my sense of organization.

This is my start of the 15 sided biscornu (free Internet pattern). Almost 3 done and 12 to go. I can do one in just over an hour so I should have no problem meeting the October deadline.  I am sure my speed with pick up as I get more confident with my stitch path.  Lucky for me, Pat is one of my Thursday stitching pals so if I get in trouble and run amuck, Pat can reign me in!

Then and now

Short and sweet.

Here is where I was in the beginning of the month.

And here I am now! Finished

And again, then and now. A second finish and two more off my WIP list.

Now what will I get my hands into?

Lots accomplished

Lots accomplished and so glad I used my timer......see I know that when there are jobs I don't want to tackle or know where to start, I just don't do them........using the timer allowed me to make progress and not feel like I was chained to a nasty job all day!   Yeah me!    I entertain easily.

So what did I do

• Pulled everything out of my hope chest, sorted and folded
• Inventoried and boxed up two boxes for Goodwill
• Read
• Stitched
• Blogged
• the three previous, in moderation
• Rearranged little vignettes with my new purchases
• Really cleaned the bathroom, not just the swiffer job
• Sorted and bundled old magazines for recycling

• Finished 3 finished stitching projects
• Pulled all the linens out of the blanket chest and sorted and folded.   (Learned this trick on Pinterest - Store each set of sheets inside one of the pillow cases to that set.   Makes it super easy to grab a complete set when guests come.   Duh!  Why didn't I think of this one years ago.
• A double Two double sessions on the computer doing financials (argh! the job I have put off for a week)

Here's my finishes:

Last year, Theresa from my Delaware guild, demonstrated how to make a strawberry with the spider-web cap.   Cool, quick and easy.   Earlier this year, she provided more of the same fabric to make a needlebook.    She provided instructions and two pieces of upholstery style fabric.   One for the inside and one for the outside.  Of course I had to go the non-conventional route.  I took one of the fabrics and cut it into four equal strips.   I added a strip to each side of the other fabric.

 And I made this little needlebook.   I used her fabrics to make a larger book because I had a brainstorm.   These brainstorms of mine often end with my damage done as I spin out of control!  Sort of like tornado winds. I touch down here and there on this and that and leave a mess in my wake.

 My idea was this.....how many needle books, and strawberries and other ditties does one need that don't match?  All these, one of this, one of that.  I decided to incorporate a pocket for my stitch starter, add a button closure for scissors and nun stitch a bit of linen for needles.

 And now I have a set!

 Next up, Blackbird designs.  This is one of those little stitchy patterns that had me stray from the straight and narrow of working on WIP's but I know I am not alone in my transgressions.....

 Stitched it up last month and assembled yesterday.   Used crushed walnut shells as stuffing.  (Note to self - need to buy more walnut shells.)   Love the feel and weight they give it.

 Oh come on!    All I did was remove the pins and snap another photo and #BAM# it comes out sideways.   Below is a glimpse of the civil war fabric I pulled for the back.    I have already put this to use.

 Lastly, Mr. Bones is finished finished.   I apologize for the crappy photos.   I couldn't get any without terrible glare.  Now I know why we pay extra for museum glass when we frame things.

 It is very difficult to see but he is mounted in the back of a 2 inch deep shadow box.   He has bones and scary things at his feet - glued in place because I know someone will pick him up and turn him about without thinking.  

 He came with all the extras.   It is a Prairie Moon design and the shadow box is from A. C. Moore and was under $5.

Speaking of framers.....I am so very close to finishing Lizzie Kate's ABC's of Aging that I can see a trip to the framer's next Saturday.   I know Karen will be able to finish it up in time for my September EGA meeting so I can add it to our WIP's contest.    I have the perfect place for it in my newly arranged bedroom.....but more on that and my junking finds in my next post.....for now my timer is going off and I must get back to my non-profit financial mountain of paperwork.   (Another note to self - 30 years of volunteering for this group and that group needs to come to an end!  I think I've done my share as well as the share of some others!! I just don't know how to leave my little ladies high and dry. I am thinking Archimedes Principle - if I were to remove myself from the organization, someone would fall in to replace me.  hmmm, highly improbable but a nice thought.)