Letter "I" and a Vacation

This past weekend I headed to Canada for a vacation with some of my cycling friends. On the way up to Georgian Bay I was able to finish up the Letter I that has been dragging along for some time! I'm quite excited to have four letters done now. I think this alphabet project is going to be going on for some time. If I can finish one more this summer I'll be on pace to get them all done in five years.

The next letter is.... "Q".

I didn't get to finish off the Log Cabin yet. I got in about a 1/2 hour on it this morning. I'm down to the outer border of smyrna crosses and the beading. I shouldn't have a problem whomping that out tonight as soon as I get home!

I've had a lot of questions about that project. It's by Catherine Coleman. I found the pattern in Stitcher's World. Unfortunately, I don't have the issue number for that one. It was sometime after 1998 and before 2003. I think it might have been in 1999 or 2000. The pattern is available at Stitchers' Paradise. There is a photo of the completed project.

The Shadowdyed Velor that is used in the project is no longer made by the manufacturer, so another fiber will have to be substituted if you are planning to do the project.

So one more day of WIP cleanup and then I get back to St Petersburg alternating with the Autumnal Abstract! Too exciting :-)

A Gift for Me :-)

I received a wonderful ornament project from Katrina H for the Round #7 Fair and Square exchange. I love it and can't wait to finish it off for our tree.
Katrina also sent along some goodies with it - some jingle bells, ribbon, beads, sparkly pens and a few other items. I love them all and plan to use some to 1) finish the ornament, 2) annoy the dogs by making jingly collars for them.

Last night I _almost_ finished the log cabin project. Grrrr. I have everything done except for about 2/3 of the green part in the lower right corner. And today I'm in a big hurry because I'm leaving work early to head to Canada. I'm hoping I can bust out just a little more on it before I leave. Maybe. GAH! I'm sure I'll be able to finish the Letter "I" in the car today though. I'm dying to get back to St Petersburg but won't let myself until these last two are done and done!

Happy stitching to everyone out there. :-)

Building the Log Cabin

I made huge progress on the Log Cabin project over the weekend! I even did a little more that's not pictured here this morning. Only 6 more squares to go.
My summer exchange partner on the Fair and Square exchange posted that she received my package, so here's what they looked like:

I've been happy with the amount of stitching I've been doing, but I'm missing cycling. I might need to scale back on the stitching for a month so I can fit some saddle time in. I just hope I can get the Letter "I" and Log Cabin done this week since it's supposed to be rainy for the next few days.

Flappy Flappy

Last night I hosted my stitching group at the local town hall. It's still sparsely attended, but I know that people will start showing up if I keep sitting there. It's a small town filled with craftspeople after all.

When I got there I set up camp and started working on my letter "I" project. After a couple of minutes I heard some odd scratching sounds and got up to investigate. All of a sudden a flappy thing rounded the corner. There was a bat in the belfry - it actually is a building with a belfry which is now a clock tower.

I opened all of the doors and tried to shoo it out, but the poor little booger was so exhausted that it kept running into the wall and dropping to the floor. I finally fell down behind the piano so I wandered next door to the town clerk's home (I'm not kidding - it's a small town). She was in watching her neighbor's kids, but she left them there with her husband and came over to give me a hind. We found a butter tub. The poor bat was still on the floor behind the piano hyperventilating. I was able to scoop it up and get it outside.

We went back in to chat for a couple of minutes and put the room back together. After about 5 -10 minutes I stuck my head out of the building. The little guy was still on the ground :-(. I gave him a little more time and then went out to shoo him away. He was so cute - I hope he made it.

And in stitching news: I'm almost done with the "I" but I stayed up too late last night reading Ender's Game and feel the need to hit the sack early.

June Quaker Square Finish and Other Progress

This past weekend I finished up the June Quaker Square. Halfway to the end of the year! I also put on all of the buttons for the first 6 months. In July I'll start working on a new piece of fabric. That will be a nice change. Now I have to start thinking about how I'm going to finish all of these. I hope I left enough fabric between them!

I also made more progress on the Log Cabin canvas work project. This one moves fast when I get to work on it, but I've only been doing so when I don't feel like working on the other projects I have going. I need to get it wrapped up to free up the dining room table.

I finally got motivated to work a bit more on the Art Deco Alphabet series I started. So far I've finished B, K and L (I think). I'm working on "I" now. I ended up having to pull out a chunk of work yesterday after I shifted everything over one stitch *sigh*. I'm back on track at this point and have it with me at work for lunch break stitching. This series is going to take a couple of years!

I'm starting to hoe out some of my project backlog. After I finish these two (before the end of June??!!) I'll be down to the Autumnal Abstract, the Angel and St. Petersburg. I'm thinking about ditching the Angel - just not my cup of tea. It was a project I had started for a friend and just couldn't get interested in it. So that leaves me with just 2! I'm crossing my fingers I can get back to the St. Petersburg project by July.

*claps*

Yay my stitching exchange recipient in the UK got my package in the mail and liked it! It was a fun project to do and a new finishing technique to boot. Here's the front and back. I tied a ribbon where the hanger is tied on to complete the look ;-).
I'm about to wrap up the June Quaker Square. Six down! I'll be putting all of the little buttons on each of these six. I think I'm going to finish them as pin keeps; I haven't quite made up my mind though. If I do I'll really need to get a display cabinet in my house - I'm running out of places to store all of this stuff. What a horrid problem to have :-D.

The Heat Broke!

It's been brutally hot in the northeast for the last week. We were having temperatures 20degF over normal. The dogs were unhappy, the people were unhappy, but stitching was a good excuse to sit as still as possible! Last night the rain finally came. I felt badly because it did so much damage out west, but it was welcome here! I worked on the Log Cabin project while it was pouring because the room it's in has the best storm-viewing in the house.

I ended up getting the upper right corner finished except for the beading around the edging of the green square. I'm very happy with how this project is coming out. The borders are all Smyrna crosses so they take a little longer to work up, but they are looking incredible. I guess I should start thinking about how I'd like to finish this project. I have to stop getting things framed - there's no room left on the walls and I'm running out of $$.


I finished close to another 1/4 of the June Quaker Square, but I totally forgot to grab a picture of it. It will be done soon enough though. I'm taking the day off today to visit my parents for my mom's retirement dinner so I might be able to get a lot done while I'm chillin' with my dad before the big event. Then again, I might not ;-).

Jump Start

Yesterday I was able to get in a couple of hours on the June Quaker Square. Considering I just finished the May square I feel like I'm way ahead on this one ;-). I'm happy with how it's turning out so far. I think this is my favorite one to date. I'm just about 25% done already :-).

A Billion Tiny Beads...

Friday night I finished up a bead kit that I won at the spring retreat this year. I'm not sure I would normally have selected it, but there were some interesting little techniques I wanted to try out and I figured it would make a good gift for someone at some point.

The stinkin' thing took a lot longer to finish than I had expected. It felt good to get that last bead on. The thing that I always find galling about beading is that half of the damn bead end up fitting over the eye of the needle the first time through with the floss, but on the second pass they're too damn small. Now I just pull on the needle with my teeth and hope that the needle either goes through or that the bead breaks. And there you have full-contact stitching fer cryin' out loud!

I also finished another exchange project on Saturday in the bloody sweltering heat. I'm hoping I didn't sweat on it too much! OK enough on that one - pics will be posted when I mail it.

Today I wandered into the city to volunteer at my dog club's event. I dropped off my Willie Whippet project to the owner of said dog. She went ape over the picture! It was cool. Apparently I am now the owner of a new business custom stitching dog portraits. I'm going to have to think about pricing sometime around - now! I already have three people seriously interested in having their dog done. *shrug* it's fun - and I like their dogs :-).

Exchange Project

My recipient for the Fair and Square exchange posted that she received my package yesterday! She was so nice to me :-). This is the photo I took of the project before I shipped it:

In the mean time I've developed a nasty sinus infection. I did some stitching last night on the Forget Me Not beading project, but was so tired I didn't get too much finished. I'm planning to try a little more tonight. Although, a nice comfy bed is sounding pretty good right now too.

Last of Vacation

I was able to get a bit more stitching done yesterday before I had to make my return to work. I spend some time working on my beading kit while I chatted with my neighbors during out "garage sale" in which I sold a whopping $1.50.

I spent a long time working on the Log Cabin project and was really happy with my progress. The fibers are so exciting to use!

I'm hoping I can wrap both of these projects up this weekend so I can work on the abstract, the June Quaker Square and possibly (gasp) get the St Petersburg project back out!