Time is flying!

Hello! This week has been total chaos! I'm not sure where to start. The past week has just flown by and I'm not sure really what I've accomplished. I want to apologize to the groups I belong to for not posting but life is a little chaotic at the moment. My Father was admitted to the hospital in the early morning hours on Monday. I wanted to rush to NY right then (I had originally planned on visiting next week anyway) but after talking to my Mother she assured me that it wasn't necessary. Sometimes it's hard to know if she wants her solitude or if she really needs a helping hand. I've been calling often and even spoke with Dad on the phone yesterday, who is now home from the hospital. I don't get to talk to him often as he can't hear well but I was able to get a laugh out of him which sounded like heaven to me! I'll be leaving for NY in a day or two. My family is so busy, it's hard to divide my time, sometimes I think I need a clone!

So let me back up to the retreat. I had the best time! The ladies who go on this retreat are soooooo much fun! I swear my sides are still hurting from all the laughing we did. These ladies are hillarious! I think they liked the bookmarks I made, I didn't hear any complaints anyway...haha. It is a peaceful, lovely setting on the water and in the morning the water was like glass. So calm and peaceful. We watched a swan taking off one morning, and a heron the next (I never realized they were so big!). We stay up late, get up early and unless we are eating, we do nothing but stitch! I took the ASAW SAL with me and they LOVED the patterns and gave me some good ideas about how to proceed. I'll post pictures another day. It rained quite a bit, but it didn't matter, we were too busy stitching! One lady brought some Smith Island cake. You can find a little bit about it here http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88412262 This cake was "created" on Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay and has become a local legend, not to mention the state cake. It is to die for! They have different kinds, but Pat brought two kinds with her, a chocolate and a strawberry. They have at least 7 layers, most are thinner than 1/4 inch, with frosting in between. We look forward to them every year because there are very few places outside Smith Island that you can get them, and Pat lives in the same town as one of their bakeries. We also play "Yankee Trader" and I "won" a candle, a tin and a pair of stitching girl socks!!! Debbie's husband makes baskets and this year he made each of us one! I'll put up pictures next time, I promise. The ladies are camera shy so I didn't take any pictures of them, but I'll put some pictures up of the cabin next time.

This week I have done nothing but run errands, make appointments, sort out family issues and run myself ragged. I realized last night that I'm uptight because I haven't been able to stitch. It's amazing how much it relaxes me! So I'm catching you up on the news then I have a few more errands to run today, then I'm going to park myself and get some stitching in before tonight's activities take over! My son will be going on a teen lock-in tonight. The church is sponsoring this, they bus them to the local mall where they will have a scavenger hunt, have a quick bite to eat, then back to the church where they will stay up all night playing games and having fun. Ben looks forward to their lock-ins, he always has a great time. One time they had the kids take a huge box and cut and decorate it to look like a car, then they parked them in the gym and watched a "drive-in" movie! There are some creative people in our church that make life fun for the kids! But, while the cat's away, the mice will play! DH and I have plans of our own. We don't get out on our own much so we'll have a "date night" of our own. I'm looking forward to it as much as DS is to his night!

Ok, time to get this day rolling. I don't know when I'll post again, probably not until I get back from NY. Will catch you up on the news then. Take care!

A few finishes

Hello again!

I didn't think I would get a chance to post again before I left, but I decided I had better take pictures of these things before I gave them away. I hope the ladies who are going to the retreat don't see this post before the retreat! LOL

We usually bring something for each lady at the retreat, so I made them all bookmarks. I hope I have enough! I think a few more have been invited at the last minute and even though I know I made more than I thought I would need, I'm hoping there are still enough! I finished the back of them today, which was a challenge in itself! I hemmed and hawed until I just bit the bullet and used stitch witchery and ribbon on the back. I have never used this before so I hope they hold up! Wish me luck! LOL

The little bear holding the egg was a SAL I also finished today. I had shown the stitching to the lady who is in charge of the retreat and she told me I should finish it off and bring it with me. I've never finished anything like this before and so again I was faced with a challenge (seems to be a lot of that going around). Anyway...it's not perfect, but I think it's kinda cute. The finisher for the local LNS will be along on this retreat too, I'm a little embarrassed to show this to her as she always does a lovely job and this is nowhere near her standards, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could finish something if I wanted to.

It's well past midnight and I am supposed to meet a friend tomorrow to run errands. I'm not packed, I haven't made a list of stuff I want to take on the retreat, and I still have some cleaning up to do before I head to bed. YIKES...so why am I still here typing? I usually don't put things off until the last minute, but it seems lately that I'm always two steps behind where I should be. Ok, enough rambling, I'll see you after the retreat!

A Stitch A Week

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to throw a few pictures up of the newest stitch-a-long I've been preoccupied with. First let me tell you that it's intimidating for me...LOL I don't like choosing my own colors, or fibers to use. This is REALLY stretching my comfort zone, but I think it's good for me! I'm actually having fun! I'm learning so much about fabric counts and different fibers, and new and different stitches! I've had to experiment with number of strands and even how I want to stitch things. It's a challenge but I do love it! So...where should I start? This is called A Stitch A Week SAL and I found it on another person's blog. She found it through a Yahoo group called Friendly Stitchers. They are a fun loving bunch of ladies and I'm enjoying getting to know them. The artist of this design is called Abi, and she is phenominal! I hate to put this one down just because the experimentation has been so much fun. I'm stitching this on 32 ct Taupe over 2 threads (don't faint those of you who know I love to stitch over one!!!). I think, because of the size of each of the little graphs and the different stitches I HAVE to do it over two...but I'm enjoying the change of pace. The owl is done in DMC and white rayon, I tried to make it look like a snowy owl. The Lily of the valley flowers are done with white rayon and DMC, and the robin is done all in DMC. The grid work is done with Waterlilies by Caron and the color is Celadon....kind of a varigated light green. I really wanted to start this and take it along on my retreat, but I would have to drag all my DMC and specialty fibers along and that would take up a lot of room. I'm the worst for packing too much so I'll have to think about this, but it would be fun to have the input of some fabulous creative stitchers...decisions, decisions! I'm able to finish several of these little patterns a day and so hopefully I'll catch up quickly as they are already on week 17!!!!

I'm not sure if I will be able to post again before I leave for the retreat. I can hardly wait! I had such a blast last year, I'm really looking forward to getting away from the guys and stitching to my hearts content! I'm nowhere near being ready and have a few busy days ahead. I hope I can finish up what I need to before I leave...wish me luck! I'll see you when I get back!

A new beginning!

Good evening everyone! I've been a stitching machine lately! I have to admit, it was a loooong day so I amused myself by stitching the day away!

I made some progress on my Victorine 1897 and have finished the second page. Once I got my act together, I was able to stitch a little without having to frog. Thank heavens! Frogging on 32 ct over one is NOT my favorite past time! I think it's beginning to look pretty good, if I do say so myself! I think you can see the colors of the fabric a little bit better in this photo. But by the time I took these pictures the sun had already set. *sigh* As I said, today was a busy day. Our van needed it's 30,000 mile service. Of course they HAD to find something else to do while they were under the hood....it's like going to the Doctor for a hangnail and finding out you have a broken finger too! LOL Thank heavens it wasn't too serious, just time consuming...I sat there for 3 hours!!! Thankfully I brought along some stitching and the time literally flew by! As I was driving home it was like driving a new car, they did a fabulous job! All the idiot lights had been turned off and everything tightened up....it was great!

Since I was caught up on the Victorine, I had time to start another SAL I've been sitting on for a while. These pieces are available once a week and there will be 56 pieces when the pattern is complete. 25 of them are available right now! I found this on this blog http://squarenews.blogs.com/linsanslautre/stitch-a-long-with-me/ and just LOVE the colors. It's a bit modern...but I like to do all kinds of things, not all of them have to be "antique" looking. I'm using DMC, the colors they suggest, 165, 166, 580, 581, 3685, 3687, 3688, 3689, 3819. I'm stitching it on a 32 ct evenweave over one called Taupe. I love the way these colors look on this fabric (again the picture doesn't do it justice). Either I need a new camera or I need to adjust my computer...something's not quite right! LOL (EEEK It can't POSSIBLY be ME!?!?!?!?! LOL!!)

I met DS walking home from the bus stop as I was coming home. He walked up to me and tears started forming in his eyes as he started to tell me he had "bad news". I was afraid he had been hurt or something, and as he began his story he started to hyperventilate...I was getting worried. When he finally told me what was wrong (he had broken his retianer and it costs $215.00 to replace!!!) he had melted into a sobbing, frightened mess. I guess he thought I would yell at him. He had broken them in first period at school and fretted about it all day long, so it was almost a relief to "confess" but he was also afraid I would be angry. Kids sure are funny. After I lost my job, money was tight and we had told him we were going to cut down on "frivilous" spending and he was being really good. He had been very cautious about asking for money for school events and things he reallly wanted but didn't need and was being very mature about it. So when he realized what these would cost it threw him into a panic. Fortunately our tax returns had just arrived in our checking account so we could breathe a little easier. I felt awful that he panicked and spent the whole day worrying about how he would tell us. Just when you think the terrible teenage years will never end... he worries about something like this...LOL I acted pretty non-chalant about it, called the orthodontist and scheduled an appointment and told him not to worry, we'd get it all sorted out soon. You would have thought I was his new best friend. And just the other day I was the Meanest Mom in the world! LOL *shaking head* Must be the hormones!?!?! Hm...well I hope he remembers this day for a long time...when I was the "bestest" Mom in the whole wide world! LOL

I Did It!

Hi Everyone! I'm doing the happy dance today! This project is giving me gray hair! I love the design, truly I do, but I've had so many problems with it and I've done so much frogging that I'm getting old before my time (it's more frustrating than my teenager if that puts it in perspective! LOL) The good news is, I won't have to deal with this as long as I will my teenager! Life is good! I'm thrilled to have gotten this far today!

This is only the first page, I have already downloaded the second page so I'll still be working on this today. The color I was having difficulty with is the lighter green surrounding the "blossoms". The first color I tried was invisible. The second color was too close to the darker green, but this one is just right! (I feel like I'm baby bear in the story of the three bears! LOL) I'm a little disappointed in the color of the photograph, I tried to fix it but couldn't get it just right. It's odd how the colors of the floss are dead on, but the fabric I'm using is more of a warm medium brown hand dyed fabric. You can't even see the subtle mottling of the colors in the fabric in this picture. It's a dull dreary day here in Maryland, so I can't get good sunlight. I'll try again after I finish page two.

Ok, ready for the details of this little beauty? I found this on this blog http://clarelis.canalblog.com and it's called Abecedaire "Victorine 1879". It is a French website and from what I could tell the owner of the website found this rolled up in a drawer and assumes it was something her mother made in her youth. She decided to chart it for anyone who wants it! I just love the colors! I chose to do this on 32 ct Meadow Rue linen sitching over one thread (it is hand dyed but I can't remember which company, it might be Lakeside Linens or Picture This Plus). I'm using DMC colors 310, 355, 830, 832, and 926. Having used the 310 for all the lettering, I think I might have reconsidered and tried a silk for the black, the letters aren't coming out smooth like I would like them to and so I'm a little disappointed there, but after all the frogging I've done, I'm going to turn a blind eye to that and just keep stitching.

After all the chaos on Monday, Tuesday did turn into Tame Tuesday and I was able to even show up at a local "stitch night" at the local library. It was a pretty day yesterday right up until I left for the stitch night, while we were stitching it poured and thundered and stormed, but it was done by the time I left. We're getting more rain today. I refuse to complain about the weather though, it's causing all kinds of things to bloom near my house...here..take a look! My tulips are beginning to blossom (I take pictures after the first bloom because last year the deer ate them after the first day. Hopefully they'll behave themselves this year. My mother suggested I spray pepper spray on them but the deer have to eat too I suppose! LOL I think this is an azalea that is in my back yard. I have one in the front yard too, but that one always blossoms later. It's loaded with buds, but I'll take the picture when it finally blooms. Till then...take care!

*Sigh*

Are you wondering why there's no picture? Hm...so am I...LOL I've had a perfect Monday...full of chaos and mania! The local TV station in Baltimore always has people gathering in a public place on Monday morning singing "It's Just Another Manic Monday". I should have been out there singing a solo because that suited me to a T today!

A few days ago I started a new sampler. I love this sampler, it looks so pretty on the blog that I found it on! I know I should have the website listed here, but at the moment, I can't recall the web address. I'll post it when I post a picture in a few days. Anyway...as I said, it looks so pretty on the blog. The pattern isn't that hard to follow. I decided to stitch this on a hand dyed fabric called Meadow Rue to give it an older appearance. The colors they called for didn't really suit the fabric, so I substituted. They looked great lying there on the fabric! Really they did! And then I started stitching....and one of the colors disappeared! Yikes! I stitched a few of the other colors to make sure I liked them stitched into the fabric and they seemed fine...so back to the LNS I go this morning, driving 30 minutes one way in pouring, torrential rain. (I'm desperate to start this one, can you tell????)

I guess I should pause for effect here and tell you that I haven't had much sleep in the past few days. I'm not sure why I'm not sleeping well, but I have been waking up from dreams that I can't recall later and then taking a long time to fall back to sleep. And we all know what sleep deprivation and rainy days does to a person...I feel like a walking zombie, so hopefully I'm making some sense here...LOL.

I get the opinion of two of my friends that work at my LNS and we agree on a skein of floss two shades darker, hoping that it's lighter than the other darker green I have already stitched. I race home (again in the driving rain) to frog all the lighter green I had stitched, which isn't easy when you are stitching on evenweave fabric over one!! It takes a lot longer to frog than to stitch this piece I must say! I begin to stitch a few stitches with the new color and you can barely distinguish it from the other color. I wanted it to be subtle, not invisible or overbearing...and I had got it wrong again! Back to frogging...but fortunately I realized my error only after a few stitches (that was the one good thing that happened today! LOL). Now it was too late to go back to the store before DS came home from school....so I wait, and wait, and wait.

Finally he squishes through the door (still raining cats and dogs out there) and I ask him if he wants to run to Michaels with me (it's closer than the LNS) and he says, "Are you kidding me Mom? Have you seen it raining out there? And besides I have homework, and going to Michaels with you is worse that torture, that's just plain inhumane! It's the equivalent of spending time at Guatanimo Bay!" I promise him I will not look at anything along the way to the floss, I know which colors I'm going to get, I'll use cash and we'll be out of there in 10 seconds flat! His response "Yeah right Mom, I've heard that one before...forget it, I'd rather stay home and do homework!" He knows me too well!

So off I go alone in the pouring rain once again (praying I won't nod off)...and I realize on my way that it's that time of day when EVERYONE is on the road. People rushing out to pick kids up from school, or drop them off at this or that activity and Maryland drivers are not known for their patience in inclement weather. I should have listened to DS! Anyway, I'm out there now, and of course, I can't resist looking at each nook and corner of Michaels, I mean after all there might be something on sale that I can use at a later date! And indeed I did find some bargains, but I limited myself to $20.00 because that's all the cash I had on me. LOL I got some ribbon, a glass canister, some metallic thread, some fabric, and...oh yeah, the floss I needed! I'm such a shopaholic!

Finally I make it home after the battle of the beltway but by now I'm a wimpering mess. I'm drenched, I'm exhausted, I'm chilled to the bone, and I have three hungry animals looking at me wondering what I'm going to put in their food dishes for dinner. I'm talking about DH, DS, and Thomas the cat! LOL With a huge sigh of exhaustion I scream "Fall out for dinner!" then throw open the refridgerator door and sandwich meat and hotdogs fall out. I know....not at all healthy, but the best I can do in my current state of mind.

With dinner and dishes out of the way, the homework wars finally ended and the dust settled, I'm finally able to sit down and put a few stitches in my new piece. The color is as close to perfect as I think I'm going to get so I'm happy with it now....but as I'm stitching.......I discover a MISTAKE! *Heavy sigh* More Frogging! EGAD! My head is spinning with all the frogging, restitching, frogging and restitching again. I've finally placed it gently (after barely restraining myself from pitching it across the room) near my stitching chair, all the mistakes PAINSTAKINGLY removed and ready to begin anew tomorrow. I have nowhere to go and nothing to do, so tomorrow I'm going to put my feet up, watch a movie I recorded the other night, and be one with my new project. After all, Manic Monday is over and tomorrow is going to be Tame Tuesday.....Right? Please tell me I'm right...or they'll have to have me comitted!

Playing Catch Up!

Finally...A few minutes to myself to update my current WIP's! It's been a wild and whacky week and I only have a few minutes at the moment, but let's let you see what I've been up to this past week.

The beginning of the month is always a little rushed, as all the pages for my SAL's come along. I love the way the band sampler is coming along from Sticktreff.

Next is the Carnation Sampler from Wiehenburg. I think there are only two more months to go on this one. I love having a finish, but I'll miss stitching this one as it has a joy to work on!

Last but not least is the newest start of all my SAL's. This one began about a month ago, but I didn't get my act together until the 12th. That's when I started this beauty! I tried to match colors in my living room. The color doesn't lend itself to the "daintiness" that I wanted but I think it's coming out nicely none-the-less. This is Le Marquoir de Sophie. I'm stitching it on Platinum Belfast Linen 32 ct over one using DMC 3808 floss. I'm going to have to find my own lettering for the next part as I want to change the letters to mine whereas the designer is going to publish her own letters. The designer's blog is http://historiesdelin.canalblog.com Wish me luck! LOL

Will try to write more soon, I need to run and pick up DS from school then run to the commissary for the rest of the materials for dinner. We're having Pork Chops and stuffing tonight! (Quite a switch from having "fall-out" all week!) You DO know what "fall-out" is right? You open the refridgerator door and whatever falls out is what you have for dinner! LOL Bonne Appitite!