Just a Little Something....

Giveaway Closed!  Comments have been disabled.  Congratulations to the winner Ruth!

I have a good excuse for being away this time - we've been on vacation!  It was tough coming back from our week at my parents little cabin in the mountains.  We had a glorious time!  While I get caught up on emails and prepare for Thanksgiving - everyone is coming here - I thought I'd do a little give away of this Christmas Ornament publication from Just Cross Stitch.  Leave a comment and I'll pull a name no later than Friday.  Make sure your profile is attached to an email or you leave one so I can contact you.  

Wishing you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

No Obligation October

The past couple of weeks have flown by.  We all got to spend some time with my two nieces.  My two grown boys went with us to see them at my parents house and they had a blast too.  Even though they are so much older than their cousins they really made an effort to spend some good time with them.  We're hoping the girls will come see us next summer (without their parents).  As a mom and an aunt it's good to see the love and affection they have for each other.  It just warms my heart.

Now time for a Theme-a-Licious update.

October was Obligation October.  I have enough obligations so I decided to just stitch what I felt like stitching and forget about obligations.  I started the second block of Shores two weeks ago.  I expected the seaweed to give me tons of fits but surprisingly it didn't.  I put the last stitch into this block on the 31st.  This block went much faster than I thought it would.

Earlier in the month, I finished up another block on Anniversaries of the Heart.  This is block 9.  Since one bonus block was in the first row, I'm officially 2/3 of the way through this one.  As with the other blocks, I'm holding off on the personalizations until the end.  Maybe we'll see this finished in 2013?

 

I haven't stitched a stitch since these two were finished up on the 31st.  I'll probably pick out something to work on tonight or tomorrow.   Tomorrow will be a quiet day as my sweetie is going to a football game and my youngest son is at his fathers for the weekend.  I'm hoping to spend the day in the sewing room with some time stitching too.   I'll have a nice zen day before the craziness starts at work next week where I have some serious deadlines to meet.  At least I'll be starting the week off with some happy stitches and I hope you do too!

Uh Oh!

I've slowly been working on assembling the rows on my Cotton Club quilt.  It's been really slow going.  A couple of weeks ago, I spent quite a bit of time in the sewing room and got my first row together.  Pretty, huh?  I decided to go ahead and get started on the second row which has different fabrics.  Greg was sitting in the chair in my sewing room and we were chatting. 

All of a sudden it dawned on me that I had assembled this entire row with one wrong fabric .  I've circled the fabric that was placed incorrectly in the picture below.  All of the light outside tan triangles should be chocolate brown.  Generally, I roll with the punches when this kind of thing happens but this time, it really hurt.  I couldn't breathe for a second which is a first for me.  Poor Greg, he didn't know what had happened!

Turns out, I'd labeled this fabric as E but erased it and changed it to F.  Unfortunately, I didn't erase thoroughly and from the angle I was working from that morning, my eye saw the E.   Ugh!  Thankfully, I felt like going back and ripping it all out about 30 minutes later.  

Happy Monday and Happy Stitches!

Stitching!

Heather's Theme-a-Licous theme for September was all about smalls.  I decided to go rogue and work on big projects instead.  Since I was on vacation at the beginning of September, I actually got a lot done compared to my typical progress.  I finished another block on Anniversaries of the Heart.  No personalization is being done on this until the end.  I have things sketched out in my head but need to do some planning before I start adding it.  As you can see, I also just started the border on the next block.  I've enjoyed this project so far and hope to finish it up next year.

In my last post, I gave you a sneak peek of a new project I was starting.  Actually, the sneak peek was just a picture of the linen and threads.  I started Shores of Hawk Run Hollow on our last day of vacation and was able to complete my first block.  I haven't touched it since but do hope to start the next block in November.  Block one was fun!

I'm often asked how I have the patience for stitching.  For me, stitching (as does knitting and quilting) gives me patience.  It soothes my mind and chases the stress away and obviously brings me much enjoyment.   I do wish it was just as easy to turn to exercise but ... ummm, that hasn't happened yet!  

Is This Thing On?

I hadn't intended to be gone so long.  Blogging seems to be one of those activities that once you stop, it's hard to get the ball rolling again.  So where have I been?  Well, I traveled for work for two weeks with a week of vacation in between.  Vacation was spent in the mountains.  The two days it didn't rain, we spent a lot of time in a couple of parks.  Having picnics, chatting, and enjoying each others company.  For me, a bit of stitching.  For Greg, a bit of jogging.  Perfect.

Our Picnic Spot

The other couple of weeks I missed was just life and getting caught up after being out of my site at work for three weeks.  Things are returning to normal.  I'm tired though and hope that my work travel is over for the year.  At this point, it looks like it is!

I missed the August Theme-a-Licious update.  Better late than never.  The theme for August was :

Embrace the Olympic motto--Citius, Altius, Fortius (Faster, Higher, Stronger)--by elevating your mind. It's the perfect time to learn something new! Or maybe achieve some goals.. 

My goal was to get a knitting project on the needles and to make some progress on it.  The pattern called for a cashmere blend yarn but I wanted something "curl up on the couch cozy and warm" so I went with a bulky yarn.  Here is where I am at just less than 1 ball knit up.  This was really moving along until after vacation.  Not much has happened since then.    Septembers theme is about smalls - I'm going rogue and working on BAPs....more to come at the end of the month!

 On our last day in the mountains, I started a new stitching project.  Here's a peek.  I hope to show you more at the end of the month. 

Wishing you all a good week and happy stitches!