I wish I could say that things are back to normal but I confess I have no idea what that looks like anymore.  Things seems to change at a pretty fast clip here lately and I feel like I am spinning in circles most of the time.  Thank goodness for stitching or I think I might be in the loony bin!
  I spent the first 2 weeks in NOVA babysitting for my granddaughter as planned.  It was a wonderful time and I am so glad I was able to spend those precious days with her.  But the day I was to leave for home for a brief respite, they found a sitter near their home that they all seemed comfortable with and my return wasn't necessary.
  I had mixed feelings about that.  I was not looking forward to the drive back and forth each week for the next few months.  DC traffic is horrific no matter when you try to tackle it!  Leaving town anytime after 3pm is always a nightmare and there's no guarantee the weekend will be any better.  But I was really looking forward to spending that time with the baby.  My attachment certainly grew although I'm not sure she recognizes me when I see her now.  I really miss her and wish we lived closer so I could see her more often.
  But have no fear, things did not go back to normal when I returned. The Hubs and I have been talking about moving for some time now.  We love it here in Williamsburg and I really love my house but we have been discussing the future need to move into something with the master on the main floor.  Both of us suffer from knee issues and climbing up and down the stairs has become a real pain! We both agreed that this would be our last move (stop me if you've heard that before!) so my list of requirements for a new house looked like an episode of Love It or List It!  It was going to have to be just about perfect for me to move and that started with the location.  I didn't have to be in my same neighborhood but I wanted to be on my current side of town.
  I have been monitoring my Zillow feed for several years now and nothing fit the bill.  So, we decided we needed to look at new construction.  Luckily, there is a lot of that around here.  So,  now we are building a new home and trying to get our current house ready to put on the market.  Reserve my room in the loony bin now please!!
  So I have been going through my house by day and watching baseball and stitching at night.  Trying to stay sane although I must confess The Hubs took me away to the beach for a few days to keep the meltdowns to a minimum.  We are ex-military and they always packed and moved us.  I didn't realize until now what a gift that was!!  Having to handle every single thing you own and make a decision about its future is exhausting!!  I will be so happy when this part is over!!
  I have been stitching.  Would have probably killed someone by now if I wasn't!  I was working on Merry Hart last time I posted I believe.  I did manage to finish that and gave it to my good friend Tommye for her birthday this year.  Here is that lovely finish:

I was so unhappy with the difference in the picture and the real thing that I spent a lot of time trying to 'fix' it.  In the end, I just used all the called for threads and fabric and in the end I really liked it.  And so did she!
   I have also finished a Facebook SAL of Heartstring Samplery's Coffee Quaker.  I always love a good Quaker and I enjoyed stitching this so much.

I only changed out 1 color ( shocking, I know) to accommodate the color of the fabric.  I did, however, take a few liberties with color placement.  That red flower looking thing isn't supposed to be red!
  I am currently working on a loose rotation of several things that include a birth sampler for the princess, 3 Things by Moira Blackburn, and a Scarlett House piece that will be a birthday gift later in the year.  Pictures to follow in  my next post.
  I hope to be able to get on a more regular schedule with my poor neglected blog but who can say what will happen next?!  I will do my best, that's all I can promise.

Hope you are all enjoying your stitching as much as I am,  Laura

How Quickly Things Change

    My life has been turned entirely up side down since my last post.  I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz just about daily now.  Hope this old brain can adjust to all the changes!
   Lets start with the weather.  We had a foot of snow in early January  and our winter has been pretty much gone since then.  It is supposed to be 83 degrees today and I have the air conditioning going!  Daffodils are up and all of the magnolias are in full bloom. The Bradford pear trees that line the entrance to my subdivision are also in full bloom.   All of this is WAY ahead of schedule!
   Then, while we were visiting the little princess last week, I sprained my ankle.  This part is embarrassing but this is what happened.  We had taken her out for a walk in the stroller in her neighborhood.  You get that right?  WALKING!  Just walking along, didn't twist it or step funny or anything like that, just walking.  Suddenly, I heard a loud pop, so loud that the Hubs heard it too, and I was instantly in excruciating pain.  I tried to ignore it and just continue the visit but we wound up having to come home early and I actually went to the doctor!
  Those that know me well know that I have to practically be on Death's door to go to the doctor.  I usually wait and see how things are going to turn out first and usually that is a good tactic for me. But I was pretty concerned about that popping sound so I went.  They x-rayed it and nothing was broken but they really didn't have any explanation for what happened.  Kind of implied it was just something that could happen as you get old...er.  I would have been offended if the guy wasn't older than I am!!  So I have been gimping around my house for the last few days.  Trying to get things done but not irritate it too much either.  We have stairs.  Enough said.
   Before the ankle fiasco, there was the daycare incident.  Both my DIL and I have had some concerns about the little princess going from being home with Mom and having constant one on one attention to being in daycare all day with strangers and maybe lying in a crib all day.  I had mentioned on an earlier visit that I would be willing to come up and help out in that area so it wouldn't be a 5 day a week situation.  Well,  they called me on it.
   After some discussion,  I was going to be babysitting 3 days a week.   I don't have a big life but I do have a life and I figured I could handle 3 days a week for a while.  Probably until she got big enough to sit up and interact with the other kids.  About 3 months I thought and then re-evaluate.  And that left her at the daycare center for just 2 days a week.
   Then my DIL made a dry run to the daycare.  And all hell broke loose. She was obviously not pleased.   She posted something about it on Facebook and the Hubs saw it and remarked that it looked like she was pretty upset.  So I called and thought I had calmed her fears somewhat on the issue.  When we got off the phone, we were still talking about the original plan.  About an hour later, my son called. Since I see how long this is getting,  I will cut to the chase.
  DIL has interviewed for a new job that should allow her the flexibility to work from home some.  In the mean time, I am babysitting 5 days a week for at least the first 2 weeks so the little princess doesn't have to go to daycare at all.  The drive to their house is three hrs. if there are no traffic issues and since they live in the DC area traffic issues are to be expected. The Hubs says if I am babysitting for 5 days a week I might as well stay straight thru since the trip up and back on the weekend is ridiculous. Sure hope she gets that job! Don't know what will happen if she doesn't.
  As far as stitching goes,  my time is going to be woefully curtailed for a while.  I had a very ambitious stitching schedule for this year and as you might have guessed,  that has gone out the window.  I am prepping to go to NOVA for 2 weeks so my time now is minimal as well.  Hoping to work it into my time up there but who knows.
   I have managed to make a little more progress on Merry Hart since last time. Enjoying it so much!

  So that is my sad tale of woe for this time.  I don't know when I will be able to post again but I will try to check in with all of your posts when I can. Until then,  hope you are enjoying your stitching as much as I am,  Laura

Behind Already!

  So, I missed posting last week.  Thought I would  be able to maintain a schedule for longer than that but I guess that's just the way it goes.  Life certainly does seem to get in the way.  And today isn't supposed to be my posting day either but I won't be home tomorrow to do it and I'm not brave enough to try to post from my phone.
  Not posting but always stitching!  I started 2 new pieces after I finished Merry Christmas Ella Vaughn.  The first is a Plum Street that I have been chomping at the bit to get my hands on since I first saw it.  Tons of people posted pics of it from whichever retreat it was first offered at and it was love at first sight.  Too bad the rest of us have to wait so long to be able to get the chart!  So this is my meager start on Merry Hart.

36 ct PTP Ale
 with listed colors

This piece would have been much further along but I was so unsure about the linen and the colors.  Another case of the actual supplies look nothing like the picture on the chart. My pet peeve!!  I polled my stitch group ladies about the linen.  Then went insane with the red since it really looks red in the picture but is more pinkie/blue in real life.  Finally decided to ignore the picture and just see if I liked it for itself and it appears that so far, I do.
   While all the craziness was going on with the above piece, I had to have something to work on that brought me actual peace.  Stitching is my de-stressing device so when the stitching is causing stress that is a real problem!  Anyway, I have several SAL pieces that were supposed to be started in January that I haven't touched yet so I decided to get on one of those.  This is where I got with it before going back to Merry Hart.

40 ct. Lakeside pecan butter
with listed DMC

This is 3 Things by Moira Blackburn.  I have had this in my stash forever and it is nice to finally see it come to life.  It will go into the rotation now and be introduced to a few other SAL friends later.  I anticipate having quite the rotation going very soon!
   I don't think I will be doing any stitching for the next few days.  We are going to see the little princess and since I didn't even get the stitching out of the bag the last few times we visited, I don't think I will even bother to take it.  Who has time to stitch when you're kissing this sweet little face?

See you again soon,  Laura

A Finish For WIP Wednesday

  I have been working diligently on getting this one finished.  I have a bunch of SALs I am supposed to be working on that I haven't even kitted yet because I was trying to get this lovely finished.  I didn't think I was EVER  going to finish stitching the white but I got it done just in time to post today!  It looked like this on Jan. 29th.

40 ct PTP wren and my color choices

And this is what it looks like today.  Yay!!  Happy dancing all over the place here!

 I left off the Christmas greeting so it could be left up into the winter months if so desired.  I decided to make it the exchange gift for my stitch group friend for this year so I am ahead of the game now!

  Off to kit up those next pieces!  See you again soon,  Laura



(Someone asked me last time about selling this chart and I apologize but I can't do that.  It was loaned to me, I don't own it, and it must be returned to its rightful owner.  Good luck in your search!)

Jump Starting This Thing!

  My poor neglected blog!  It seems that I have forsaken it for things that are faster and require less thought.  Like Facebook and Instagram.  So much quicker to put something out there and easier for others to respond to as well.  Goes back to the old instant gratification I guess.
  So here we are on the first of February!  Casting an eye over this long neglected territory and trying to get back into the groove of posting here.  I have been stitching madly even though there has been no evidence of it here.  I will not try to 'catch up' with all that has passed since I last visited but I can show you some of what I have been up to recently.
  Part of the reason I haven't posted in so long is that the fall stitching was long and tedious and showing you the same thing week after week just didn't seem very exciting!  All that I worked on was designated for gifts so none of the pieces were framed either so they seemed incomplete.  But incomplete or not, I will show them to you here.
   This is Agnes Horsbaugh, stitched for my friend Karen for her birthday. Not a great picture but the best one I could get for some reason.  Not ironed yet, of course, and the colors of the linen and threads are washed out but it was a fun stitch and she really liked it.

  Then came Jane Tindall.   I had the entire lettering section finished earlier in the year and since it went so quickly, I foolishly thought the rest would too.  Wrong!!  Stitched on this exclusively in a total panic until it was finished and barely had it done by my friend's birthday.  Literally finished it the night before I had to give it to her!  That grass was the bane of my existence for longer than I care to say.

40 ct Lakeside meadow rue
w/ DMC threads

  Then I moved on to the piece I had to have ready for our weekly stitch group's  Christmas exchange.
I didn't have it finished in time, which really irked me, but there was just nothing I could do.  I had it all stitched except for the initials and I got that finished pretty quickly after the exchange.  But I did have to give it to her and then take it back!

kit although I did change the linen
to a lovely Glenshee I had in my stash

It is Amy Mitten's Around the World Series: Scotland.  A fun, fun stitch and the recipient is quite pleased with it.
  That wrapped up my gift stitching for the year so I decided to work on a few of my own things.  I started an Advent sampler, which I don't have a picture of yet, just to have a new start.  I worked on it for a few days and then moved on to this one.

called for linen and threads

So close to being finished and I really thought I could wrap it up by the end of the year.  But that was not to be.  In the middle of all that frantic stitching and trying to meet deadlines, we had this.

Our first grandchild and the sweetest little girl you ever did see!  All schedules and deadlines flew out the window (the main reason that Scottish sampler wasn't finished on time!).  And All Creatures Great and Small became my first finish of the new year.

  Now I am now working on a Christmas piece that will probably be my Christmas exchange gift in December. Blackbird's Merry Christmas Ella Vaughn.

I am a bit further along with this than this picture shows now.  I took this one a couple of days ago.  I should have it finished by the end of the weekend if all goes well.  (I have something pinched in my neck right now that if causing pain in my shoulder.)  Then, I plan to kit up about 6 new SALs that I have obligated  myself to for this year.  Yes, I can truly say I am losing my mind but what a way to go!!
  So that catches me up, even though I said I wasn't going to do that.  Hope you didn't find it too long and boring.  I am going to try to keep this little patch of cyberspace more up to date in the future.  Maybe a weekly WIP post on Wednesdays could get it going!

Hope to see you again soon,   Laura

I Actually Hermitted!!

  I signed up for IH&S weekend for the first time in a while hoping it would get be back into blogging a bit more.  Not only did I manage to do the hermitting part but I am managing to post about it in a timely fashion as well.  I may be able to get this thing back on track after all!
  As you know from my last post, I am scurrying around trying to get my deadline stitching in a more comfortable place.  I have several pieces to finish before the end of the year and we all know you can't count December.  Anyway,  I managed to get my other October birthday present finished over the weekend!!!!
   This is what it looked like when I picked it up Friday afternoon...

And this is what it looks like now!  Please excuse her wrinkles and folds. So glad to have this one done and dusted.

So, checking Agness off the list and moving on to something else.  Right now I am working on the next section of All Creatures but will have to move on again pretty quickly.  Until next time...

Hope you are enjoying your stitching as much as I am,  Laura

Catching Up Part 2

   I have been staying in, hiding from the heat, and stitching for the most part.  We did manage to have a 'cool down' the last couple of days.  If you can call the high 80s and low 90s cool.  Temps back up into the upper 90s by the weekend so I guess I will continue to stay inside and stitch!    I really need to do that too since I am starting to get a little anxious about the big pieces I am working on the deadlines they have for them.
   I have taken the summer off from the majority of my stitching groups to make more time to stitch and to recharge.  It always takes more time than I think to get a piece done and although I have been working like a madman on this rotation, I am still not sure I will have it all finished in time!
   I really needed to make some progress on Jane Tindall.  It is for a November birthday and I'm not sure how much time that bottom is going to take.  So out she came and I worked on her until I had the top section with the verse all in.

It went pretty quickly so that made me feel better about the time factor.  So then, I moved on to the next piece in the rotation.
   I started a new piece for one of my other fall birthdays.  It is a Scottish sampler and although the colors seemed very bright at first, it is growing on me!

Agness Horsburgh 1844 by Samplers Not Forgotten
40 ct Lakeside linen w/ overdyed threads

The eyelet band is the half way point and I am back to working on this again so I hope for a finish by the end of the month.
  At this point, I put this one aside and I really wanted to work on All Creatures again so I put another section on it.  I am down to the verse section so it went pretty quickly.

I would love to have this finished this year but I'm not sure I can manage it with the others that HAVE to be finished.
    Then the Quaker Mystery did another turn through the rotation and I added on another page here.

This is only through page 2 and has a long way to go but I really like the way the colors are coming together.
  I am also working on a Catherine Theron piece that is a pilot class.  I pulled it out to work on it in the middle of all this and realized I had an error, near the beginning of the vine, which all had to come out.  Then, since I had referenced the outside border and the inner border off of the vine, the whole right side of those borders  had to come out as well.  I was having a lot of difficulty with long armed cross on the diagonal, both ascending and descending, and keeping up with the count (obviously) and so I had a lot of ripping and rework to do on that.  Not a lot of fun but I got it all back in and started on the alphabet too.  I am feeling the most pressure about this one since it has to be finished by the end of February.  It is a tremendous amount of work and I can't really concentrate on it until after I have the other 3 done.  Keeping my fingers crossed for a shift in the space-time continuum!!!
  So that's me, caught up again.  As I said before, I am back to work on Agness and want to finish her before I move on to something else.  I hope to have her finished by the end of the month because the
schedule has me starting a new piece the first of September (a Christmas present) and too many things in the rotation gets a little crazy!!

Hope you are enjoying your stitching as much as I am,  Laura