Time for a little catch up post

I have been absent for the last couple of weeks being distracted by some family issues, a friend being sick(non-Covid) and with a  neighbor passing away (Covid).     Just made me kind of lose my blogging mojo.  I did managed to get some early morning stitches in before heading out to my friend’s to sit with her.  I only have two people outside my home in my bubble and thankfully she is one of my of the two.  

We got snow last week!   I was so excited for The Big One which ended up being about a third of what was forecast.  

Although I had this grand plan to work on smaller projects on the weekends, I haven’t done it.  Therefore I can't share a completed HOD January.  I'll get there.   Hey!  What are plans is not changeable?

I have become so smitten with Land That I Love.    Although there is a lot of color changing, I am really enjoying stitching on it.   I am working my way down the left side of the pattern to hopefully break up all the work on the strawberry band as well as all the stitching on the houses.    

  

I have taken time to rearrange my floss.   I had my DMC in 6 or 7 of the typical plastic trays storing some in my J & P Coats cabinet and the rest upstairs on different shelves in the craft closet.   I had an epiphany that I could swap the floss with my spooled thread.   Seems I needed to be hit-in-the-head to get the idea.  All this time, the spool cabinet sitting right there on top of J & P Coats drawers.

For some reason I thought I tried the wound bobbins and they didn't fit.   🤷  Now that I have swapped them out, each drawer has room to grow and there is another two drawers that remain unused.   Plenty of space for more floss and all my DMC is in one place.   What a concept!  I will keep a small and a medium storage case just in case I need one for  a special project.  Win win! 

I did return to a long ignored project I have been putting off.   This is one of the last three home fix-up projects on the list I created last spring.  (Other two - paint closet doors in two different rooms) By the time the wallpaper job came up in the project rotation last spring I was out working in the yard.....I made a promise myself that February 1st I would tackle it.   Nothing like a little scraping off wallpaper to work off some frustration.  I am dedicating two hours every morning on removing the wallpaper because after all, I have stitching and other things I can do. Truthfully I can't bear to create more mess than two hours worth.   All I can say it that I did a damned good job 25 years ago when I put this wallpaper up.  

I also have a couple of FFO's that I will share next time.   So that's it from me.   Until next time, thanks for stopping by, keep on stitching, stay safe and stay heathy.  

Just Itsy Bitsy Progress to share

I have so little progress to show after a week of little stitching.  I have been spreading two or three hours each day with a close friend who has a lot on her plate right now and when I get home I am just not in the mood to sit and stitch.   Couple that with the stitching fairy (my eldest) dropped off tons of crafts supplies on my front porch.     I just recently proclaimed in a zoom meeting that all the stuff visible in my craft room was not purchased by me!   How prophetic that was.   

Long story short, the aunt of a friend of my daughter's was a crafter and had passed away last summer.   Her family is cleaning out her home and no one else in the family was a crafter (for shame!) and they didn’t know what to do with it.   I told my daughter my guild liqudiates unwanted stash on eBay and uses the proceeds for room rental,  supplies and projects, etc.   I thought that was the end of it.  Nope.   They didn’t want to be bothered.  It’s really easy I said, here’s the number and here’s the website, just drop it off and they sell it for you on eBay and split the profit with you.     Next thing I know the family thought it would be best to donate to an organization that would appreciate it and use the money generated for sales to help other stitchers.  .....so that is how I came upon tubs and tubs and tubs of floss and patterns and towels and transfers and......

No judgement from me.  I need to get a Thank You note to them now and again when we receive our "check" for the sales.  

Initially I thought I’d sort the DMC by number in zip lock bags.   My friend Pat pulled me back from edge on that one.  And I thought maybe I will enhance my stash by pulling the numbers I don't have......nope, not really worth my time to spend hours for $0.59 floss.   Easy estimate, 3,000 skeins of new DMC floss!  If we were meeting right now, I would take this treasure trove to a meeting for everyone to check it out but I doubt we will be meeting until the fall so off to eBay sales.      Although I have not spent my time stitching, my time was spent craft related. 

I finished the flower basket on Land That I Love.

But wait.....one little #712/cream stitch missed there near the handle.   Geez, what was I thinking when I ended the stitching one stitch short?

As for HOD Year of Celebration.......why is that small items seem to take so long.   I did stitch all the snow in icicles from WDW but didn’t like the look so out the stitches came.   At the rate I am stitching this tiny chart it will be next year before I get it done.   I think I need to dedicate some serious stitching time this coming weekend.

I'll get there....one day and one stitch at a time.

Thanks for stopping by.   Stay safe, stay healthy and keep on stitching!

Wordless Wednesday # 23

 

Wordless Wednesday #22

 

Red, White and Blue Binge

As was documented on my last wordless Wednesday I went down the rabbit hole.  I pulled out my stash of patterns and perused and oh’d and ah’d and lost a couple of hours  while contemplating all the potential.   I first pulled out all the patterns I wanted to complete.  Thanks to a friend, Linda W., I used her tip to take that stack and divide it into A, B and C preference piles.  This allowed me to narrow down my project list to a manageable amount.   I chose UFOs, smaller projects, larger projects and came up with what I felt was a manageable final selection.   (I laugh at myself)  Since I finished the year with a flurry of Christmas ornaments, I think when I need a quick finish fix, I will dive into the cross stitch magazines Christmas editions for an ornament or two.  I plan to do a lot of stitching from stash this year but I  know something will come along that I will have-to-have or start. (Again, I laugh at myself as I already have a list for shopping  online at Salty Yarns' Super Bowl Sale.)  As for my selections, each has been kitted, bagged, labeled and is it in my stitching basket that is kept by my stitching chair.   

On New Years Day I started A Flag of Stars by Bent Creek.   It is finished and I have ordered a 6x6 Mill Hill frame to mount it.   It will join my other patriotic pieces in my upstairs bath.

This is how far I was when I picked this up again.

I pulled out Land That I Love by Theresa Kogut.   It is almost  a new start.  I only worked on it only one weekend when my friends and I started it as a SAL in October.   I try to put in an hour each morning and then again each afternoon.   I am using the called for colors except for the fabric.  I chose 36 count Aspen instead of the called for Tin Roof.   Ok, here’s to progress on another patriotic stitch.

Not a ton of progress

New to me are these magnets.   I like them a lot better than the oversized clothes pin type I was using.   Amazon!

My changes so far to the pattern, are using a smyrna cross in the center of the white flower.

I am also using a smyrna cross for the letters in the alphabet.   The pattern calls for the letters USA to be stitched in a different red.   I instead I am stitching my initials in the different shade of red.  

I started HOD Year of Celebration.   I didn’t get far.   My ’plan’....(and again, I laugh at myself)....is to stitch on smaller pieces  during the weekend and save the bigger projects during the week.  

Here too, I am using the smyrna cross in the center of the snowflakes.  Pulling from stash I selected  WDW icicle for the snow.

As for Wordless Wednesday, I hate to say some weeks it is hard to come up with something that I think can be posted without words but still be relatable.  Instead of being carefree, some weeks it is work. I decided I am only going to post a Wordless Wednesday when the spirit moves me.....since we are again in semi lock down due to Covid, there is only so much of my house and projects that I can find to excite me so to speak.  

Thanks for stopping by.  Stay safe, stay healthy, wear your mask and keep on stitching.