Checking In and Catching Up

   It's been quite a while since my last blog post.  Time has just flown through this summer and fall and it is so hard to believe it is nearly December already.  I am so unprepared for even the idea of  the holidays and Thanksgiving is just around the corner with Christmas close on its heels.  Posting to the blog has become one of those things that never seems to make it to the top of the 'to do' list.   But although I haven't been posting, I have been stitching.
   We made our fall beach trip the second week of October.  The week before and the week after are always sheer craziness with prep and then clean-up but the week there is pure bliss.  I sit in my stitching chair and stitch as much as I want to without any guilt.  I leave all the cooking and shopping to my housemates and just enjoy the view of the sun, sand and surf.  Really, pure bliss.
  Within first day or two I finished Strawberry Fields.  Amazing what a bit of dedicated stitching time will allow you to accomplish!

40 ct Weeks Confederate grey
w/ mostly listed threads

After that finish, I spent my time working on Merry One by Plum Street.  It is a kit but I wasn't crazy about some of the colors so I changed a couple and moved a few others around to come up with this.

Santa's coat in Weeks Baked Apple
berries stitched in original coat color

This finish lead to a start on The Queen's Garden by Scarlett House.  Love this one and although I didn't finish it at the beach, I did manage to wrap it up in that following week.

I changed out the darker gray in the fence and I also left off a few bees.  They are done over one and I was having an issue with the tension in the frame I was using. And I thought it had enough bees already!!
  Feeling the pressure of the need to complete the Christmas exchange gift, I put some work into it after I finished the Queen.  I am closing in on a finish for this one and good thing too since our exchange date is the 14th of December!  Trying to wrap this one up by the end of the month.

Calico Alphabet by Summer House Stitchworkes 

  I ordered this piece totally kitted up from Needlecraft Corner as soon as I saw it  and even though I have a ton of things unfinished, I couldn't resist a start on this one.  Love the big house!

One of the new ones by WTN&T, Grateful, Thankful & Blessed.  Stitched with the called for materials but  I did have an issue with the house color at one point and thought I would have to change it.  I managed to find another dye lot that suited me better and away we ran!!  I almost have the house done and after that, the rest should really fly.
   I was also on the list to borrow one of the OOP Blackbird designs, Their Song.  I started it this past weekend and am making good progress on it so far.

36 ct Lakeside V. Buttercream
w/ listed threads

It's about 1/3 done and I hope to get some serious time in on it this weekend.  So very happy to have the opportunity to stitch this one.  I had searched for the chart for a long time with no luck and it is so nice of Pat G. to make her OOP charts available to others.
   So, that's about it for me.  I have been sick since the beginning of the month with a cold my husband gave me and that he got over in about 3 days.  I am still dealing with the lingering cough and wonder at this point if it will ever go away.  I have been staying in as much as possible to try to avoid giving it to anyone else and although it makes me seem like a hermit, it has given me lots of time to stitch.  Not condoning illness as a way to make more stitching time!!  Just saying.

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!   Laura