Holy Cow! It's Been Nearly A Month

   Every time I post I promised myself I am going to get better about the frequency of my posts.  I don't know exactly when or why I turned into such a slacker but there it is, I'm a slacker.  Seems that I don't want to do anything that interferes with my stitching time.  I have to cook and clean and do all those other necessary household chores but I don't like giving up precious stitching time to anything I don't absolutely HAVE to do.  Stitching is so much more fun!
   That being said,  I haven't had as much time to stitch lately as I would like. Before I left for Atlanta we discovered that one of our cats was suffering from kidney disease.  This was quite distressing since our other cat had also been diagnosed with kidney disease the year before.  The vet had no explanation for how they would both have it since they are not related but that was the situation.  One of the things my husband was dealing with while I was gone were his daily fluid treatments.  Kind of explains why he didn't have time for housework!
    After my return from Atlanta,  we evaluated his condition again and found no improvement.  As heartbreaking as it was, it was decided that the only thing to do was put him to sleep.  He was such a sweet little man with a fantastic personality and he is missed so much every day.
  The stress and sadness of this decision put the stitching into overdrive.  I started several projects but didn't make a lot of progress on them.  First is Jane Tindall by Needlework Press.

40 ct. Lakeside Pearled barley
w/ DMC

She's a big girl but the top part of it should go pretty quickly.  It will be a 70th birthday gift for one of my stitch group friends when I get her done.  Hope I can blast it out in time with all the other things I have obligated to this year!
    I also made a feeble start on Louisa B. Snow, a reproduction by Little House.  I have had it kitted for quite some time and thought it was about time to get to work on her.  She will also be a birthday gift for a friend this year.  It will be a tough hand-off since I really love those roses!

40 ct. Lakeside Light Exemplar
w/hand dyed cotton

      I thought I would have that last week of the month to regroup.  Turned out we had to move the EGA board meeting up a week due to the unavailability of some key players which meant the newsletter also had to go out a week early. (If I haven't mentioned it before, I am our chapter's newsletter editor.)  That was just about the whole week gone.  I did manage a bit of stitching during that time and I worked most of  the section with the big steer in amongst all the madness.

All Creatures Great and Small by Barbara Ana
called for linen and threads

   Then, I had the next week to prep for out spring beach trip. The Hubs was working on a project again (of course) so most of the grunt work fell to me.  I was pretty much okay with that since I usually just sit and stitch the whole time we are at the beach.   We invited his cousin and his wife to go with us this time and I didn't get as much time to stitch as usual.  They had never been to the Outer Banks before so we did a lot of touristy things with them.  It turned out to be a lot of fun since we hadn't done a lot of those things in quite a while.
  Of course, we had to tour the lighthouse.  The Hubs and his cousin went all the way to the top.  The wife and I watched from below and got some good pics!

We were sitting on a bench and got this one through the trees.

   

The Hubs taught me how to edit my pics
on my phone to get this great picture.
I was not this close when I took it!

It looked like they had painted it recently so my pic came out really well.  There were a lot of people there for this early in the season too.
   We also made the trip to Ocracoke which is now a long and sometimes arduous journey.  We lived on Hatteras Island in the late 70s/early 80s.  At that time, the trip across on the ferry took about 35 minutes.  With the changes to the topography from storms and shifting sands (that all the dredging they can do doesn't seem to be able to overcome) the trip is now roughly double that time.  You also run the risk of having the ferry run aground and being stuck in the middle of the sound.  This has happened several times recently.  The Coast Guard has come to the rescue and taken passengers to shore but that still leaves your car on the ferry until the tide rises enough to release it.  This didn't happen to us but I guess it would have made a good adventure story if it had!!
    We did get to see the wild ponies while we were there though.  It was on the bucket list of  The Cousin's Wife. She was a little disappointed that they were in a pen but we explained to her that if they were not, she probably wouldn't have been able to see them!

It rained the whole week before we got there.
The pasture isn't usually that wet.

  As for stitching,  I finished up the rest of what is done on All Creatures and then I pulled something out of the bag that hadn't seen the light of day since last summer.  Plum Street's Liberty Inn got some love and I wasn't able to put it down until it was finished.  Love it so much but it is destined to become a shop model as soon as I can get it framed.

36 ct. Lakeside Vintage Maple Sugar
w/most of the colors changed

I made a lot of color changes so I guess this one is truly mine!!  I finished it up last night and I confess that my dickering with the colors made it take longer than it should.  I ripped and changed several of the colors, several times before I got them the way I wanted them.
  Last, but certainly not least, I received this cutie in the mail from a very dear friend for my birthday.

Plum Street's Red Cottage

I know, I know, its not my birthday.  But we stitch for each other's birthdays every year and her life has been so full of crazy of late that we are continuing the celebration now.  Just love it!  A trip to the framer is definitely in order.
   So, that's where things lie for now. Too many projects and too little time.  Of course,  I plan to start 2 new SALs this weekend and have lots of new projects waiting in the wings.  Stay tuned!

Hope you're enjoying your stitching as much as I am,  Laura

A Stitching Update

   I can't believe it is the middle of September and that it has been nearly a month since my last stitching post.  I am failing miserably at getting back on a schedule but I am having that problem with a lot of things in my life lately.  I seem to have been possessed by the ghost of Scarlet O'Hara and my theme has become 'Tomorrow is another day.'  Just hope that really is true!!
   Although I have been pushing quite a few things off to another day, stitching has not been one of those things.  I have been stitching like a mad fool and here is the proof.
   I added another row to the Calico Alphabet.

I'm still behind the schedule but not so much so that I am worried about getting it finished on time. We are going to the beach soon and this may be one I take along.  But it is on a large lap frame so I will have to see how much room I have available for such non-essential things.
   I have also been working on Liberty Inn.   Not as far along as I had hoped but I am playing with the second red color and having difficulty finding one I like.  It calls for GA Woodrose and I'm not overly fond of it to start with and all the dye lots I can find are orange.  I chose Weeks Red Rocks and I am going to live with it for a while before I make a final decision on the 'other' red.

36ct. Lakeside V. Maple Sugar w/ lots of color changes

   I have made Old Glory my stitch group piece and since I had two groups meet this week, it saw more love than usual.  Once I get the large flag in, I will be at the bottom of the piece so I am working on it as diligently as I can even though it is boring me to tears.(Good for group though because it doesn't require you pay it a lot of attention and there is no ripping out at the end of the meeting!)   There are a lot more fun and interesting things to stitch on this sampler once we move over to the right.

40 ct. Flax w/ mostly called for colors

    Facebook has once again been a huge enabler to me and after seeing all the fall stitching that has been going on, I couldn't resist just a small piece. (But we will not talk about the Fall SAL that I signed up for but haven't started yet!)  This is Autumn on Marigold Lane by Pineberry Lane.

36 ct. Lakeside linen w/ mostly called for threads

I have had it kitted for so long I don't remember what the linen is now!  But it was a fun, quick stitch and gave me that little taste of fall stitching I was yearning for.
  I still have several small pieces I am trying to get done for my dough bowl and a couple of Christmas ornaments I need for guild exchanges as well.  The Finishing Faerie  is going to the beach with us  and I am using her arrival as a deadline to get some of these stitched.  If I can get them to her while she is here, I should have them back by the time I need them for exchanges.  So, I started In Full  Glory by Blackbird Designs a couple of night ago.

40 ct. Flax w/ mostly called for colors

I hope to have this one wrapped up in another day or two.  With the house just about in, the rest of it should work up pretty quickly.

   So as you can see, Stitcher's ADD still reigns supreme here in the burg.  I have so many things I want to stitch that keeping to just a few is really hard.  Don't be surprised if I have a totally new set of stitches to show you in the next go round!!

Until next time, keep your needles flying!  

Laura

I've Been Trying and Trying to Make a Post

   I've been trying to make a post for about 2 weeks now and every time I sit down at the computer to write it, something happens and I have to leave it.  So I am now, at this late hour, sitting down, again, to make a post.  Hopefully I will be able to get through it before some other issue arises.
   After my last post,  it was IH&SWeekend round one.  I did stitch that weekend and even managed a finish!!  Let the happy dancing commence! The Inn at Fox River Mill now awaits a trip to the framer.
Love this one and it is so cute if I do say so myself.

  I have really had an itch to finish Ann Bowers so I got her out and managed to finish 2 of the bands I has started before putting her away last time.

There are now just 2 bands left to complete and she will be finished.  One is over one verse, on 45 ct, an issue I have complained about before and will not repeat here.  The other is that darned strawberry band that I have had so much trouble figuring out what stitch to use.  I think I have it worked out now and should be able to get it done soon.

(As you can see, the issue of the fat and thin threads persists even on the 45 ct. linen!  And you can see where I have tried different stitches in that strawberry band and the effect it has had on the linen.)
  So feeling proud for all the progress I had made, I, of course, had to start something new!  I had recently received the linen for Plum Street's Liberty Inn and since that made the kit complete, I jumped right in.

Not a lot of progress yet but it is fun and not very big so I have hope of this one moving along quickly.
  As before, most of my stitching time has been taken up with Serenity Harbor.  I'm not sure why but this part seemed to take forever!  It is completed through part 6 now, so another Happy Dance is in order!

I was going to wait until the end and then go back and do all the back-stitching but the sheep looked like funny rocks in that field without their legs so I had to put it in!!  I am hoping the long stitches of the fence railing will hold up to rolling on the scroll frame but if not I guess I can fix them in the end.
   This makes half way for me but part 9 is about to come out so I will be 3 sections behind again.  I have decided to go back to my rotation and not try to catch up or even stay close.  Working every single stitch just takes too much time on a piece this size and I am making myself crazy!  I have other things on deadlines that are now also behind so I need to get my rotation back on track before all is lost and I flip out from the stress.  Stitching is supposed to relieve stress not create it!
   The Inn had been my 'stitch group' piece and since it is now finished, I was able to move something else into that spot.  Old Glory will now make at least a weekly appearance so it started getting some love this week.

Once this large flag is done, it will get a lot more interesting and I am really looking forward to that!
  So that about wraps it up for this time.  My summer is about to end. I don't think I'm ready for that yet.  EGA starts back up next week with a board meeting bright and early on the lst which means the newsletter will need to be out by the end of the week. The old lazy summer schedule giving way to the busier days of fall.  Reminiscent of childhood....

Til next time,  Laura