Powerless

I was planning to get a ton stitched on Tues when I had the day off for a medical test (I'm mostly fine, so no real worries). I got a bunch done on that new Sunny Day Cat project before I left. I was thinking I might be able to stitch while I was getting pictures taken of my innards, but no such luck. They wanted me to hold still - pooh on them ;-).

When I got home I started doing a bit more on the Cat, but then we lost power. I called in the loss to our power company and thus started the SAGA of getting power back on. We were slated to have it off until Sunday night. So instead of stitching these last few days I've been on the phone with our local officials and various people to try to get the service people out to the house.

It all paid off with our power coming back on Thursday at noon. Unfortunately we lost a bit of food, but really it wasn't all that bad. We like roughing it, so we had all of the bases covered. We were really worried about a fellow who lives down the street who needs power for his medical equipment and to feed his chickens. We live out in the country, so no one is on municipal water, so we can't get water when the power is out. Our other neighbors were having a tough time getting their cows and horses a drink. It was a good team building exercise.

Either hoo, I was able to get the next section of the Mystery Stitch Along done. Photos of that to come after the weekend. I know - I'm a bum lately with the pics. I can post the photo from a recent exchange - the Thanksgiving Exchange from Fair Squares.

This is the piece I sent:


And this is the piece I received:
I love this sheep in turkey's clothing. Now I need to think of a suitable way to finish it!!

Finally - photos!

This morning I remembered to get photos of most of the project that have seen progress lately.

I discovered that one of my exchange partners posted that she had received my project. This is the one I sent out for the Fair and Squares autumn exchange at the end of September.
I'm expecting another project to be posted soon as received. A third is getting dropped in the mail tomorrow. Only one more exchange to go before the end of the year. I have everything staged for that and am hoping to get it done by the middle of November.

Last night I discovered that I have gotten a little out of control with the projects I'm working on:
Mystery Stitch Along with the LJ cross_stitch community: I just received issue #4 - no photo yet
Nova: a brutal canvas work - no progress since my last photo
Free-bee from La-D-Da: again no progress since the last update
Christmas Angel: I do believe this has dropped into a UFO
St Petersburg: another UFO. It's haunting me!
Autumnal Abstract: I'm trying to get in at least a few hours every week on this one
Winter Friends: a couple of patterns I'm planning to make for x-mas gift - so no photos :-)
Sunny Day Cat: this one I started last night just to make my life a little crazier!
X-mas Exchange: previously mentioned ;-).

Tonight I have some updating to do around my various web places, then I'm hoping to either get the MSAL #4 issue done or get a bunch more done on the cat. I'd like to get that one done so I can hang it in the guest bedroom soon. Tomorrow I have to take the day off for a dr appointment, so I'll be able to spend a lot of the day stitching - YAY!

More Stash :-)

Today was a big shopping day for the household. We haven't been out a lot lately, but now that everyone's job situations have settled down we took care of things that were waiting on money. One of the stops I made was at my LNS. I ended up getting lots of yummy colors threads for the Christmas projects I'll be working on this year. I also picked up some pearl cottons for next year's installment project - Erica Michaels Sampler Book. I need to prep all the pages for that soon.

This morning I had to coach, but I got a couple of hours in on the Autumnal Abstract before I left. I'm hoping to get some photos up of all of the projects soon since I've been making stready progress. But, just a little more work on the super secret exchange projects to go...

Swapperoooo

Last night, despite exhaustion trying to overtake me, I ended up finishing my next stitching exchange project. The photo for that will show up soon after my partner receives it. I've got a couple more of those to wrap up, hopefully before the end of the month, or soon after.

I'm very excited because my dog (a large German Shepherd) and I passed a certification test for the sport of tracking last weekend. The goal is to let the dog sniff something left by a person and then follow a 490'-500' track they left in a field to another item they left in the field. The dog is then supposed to indicate that the item is on the ground. At that point we all jump around for joy. Now that he's been certified by a judge we can enter a test and see if we can earn a title through the American Kennel Club. Training for this is how I've been spending a lot of my weekend time.

As of today I'm even more excited about this because I just found out that he's been accepted into a test next weekend. I'm crossing my fingers that he'll get that title! I think I'll go channel the nervousness into some stitching :-).

And Here I Thought I'm Obsessive About Stitching...

Really there's nothing to say about this...
Pink Knitted Rabbit

LIttle Steps

Last night I worked a bit more on the abstract. I didn't get too much done, but I enjoyed just sitting in the chair thinking a bit. I needed so quite time in a big way!

I received the Fair Squares Autumn Exchange from Jessica M in the mail :-). They are lovely:I did a little work on the TG squares I'm prepping earlier today. I'm trying to decide if I want to work on those tonight, work on the abstract, or just laze about. We shall see.....

Free Day :-)

I have the day off work today. I'm expecting a friend of mine to be stopping in soon to do some tracking with the dogs. Then I have plans to work a bit more on the abstract. I ended up getting a lot done over the last couple of days despite messing around the house on other projects, having visitors, playing outside with the fuzzy monsters and generally being a bum.The last two sections took a while because of all the color changes, but now I'm getting back into the fast stuff. Wheee.

I got the next installment of the mystery stitch along. I'm hoping to pull an hour together today to get that done also. It's good to keep on top of these things :-).

Fall Weather Promotes Stitching

The weather has been cold and rainy for about a week now. Word on the street is that it's going to be warm and summer like today, so I'll probably be outside playing. But with it being so cold, I've been in stitching the last few days. I ended up finishing the October Quaker Square. Only two left to go. I really like how this one came out with the brown on tan.

I've also been working on the abstract a bit. I'm in a section with a lot of color changes, so it's been slow. I'm hoping to wrap that section up tonight and do some turbo stitching over the weekend. I have Monday off of work, so I plan to put in some extra time.

I have a few more exchange projects to work on. I'm thinking I might take a break from the exchanges after I wrap these few up so I can focus on some of the projects I have going here. Next year I'll be working on another installment project which will end up being my traveling project. I still have four of the 12 Days of Christmas ornaments to finish. I should be able to keep myself busy for a while :-).

Assemblies

I didn't quite get the Quaker square done today. All I have left is the alphabet on this little guy, but I needed to take a break from sitting on the couch. I ended up spending the day assembling a couple of projects.

First I completed the project I received for the Halloween exchange on Fair Squares. I did it as a little ornament so I could hang it up at work. A couple of my new coworkers are really into Halloween, so I figured they'd get a kick out of it.








Then I finished the squares I got for the Round 9 exchange. I'm going to be so set for X-mas this year! I love this one.

In both cases I assembled the signature square on the back of the ornament so I won't forget who made them for me.






A few days ago I also assembled one of my projects from earlier in the year. I ended up making my sampler into a floss pouch. It's currently stuffed with all of the floss for Fractal 170. (I might have a few too many projects in the offing.)

Current WIPs

I was going to post where I am on a few projects yesterday, but I ended up having to run out the door to go work with my dog on his tracking. Later in the day we were off to eat lunch with my dad and my husband's mom. The other two parental units were off doing things. We enjoyed some Thai bone soup and yummy sandwiches. It was a good day.

So onto the WIPs...
I haven't made too much progress on the Abstract. I added a bit under the leaf, next to the dark teal section. I'm hoping to work on that one a bit more today. I finally have some free time at the house to relax and stitch a bit.
I've also been working on a Mystery Stitch ALong (MSAL) that is going on over at the Live Journal Cross Stitch community. I've gotten parts 1 & 2 completed of 6. I'm stitching this on Silkweavers Tutti Fruiti. I'm really enjoying this proejct.
I have the La-D-Da Free-bee project going also. I work on this when I'm travelling or sitting in front of the TV (not very often). It might take me a while to work through. I wonder what I'll do with it when I'm finished. But there are still more WIPs (this might be getting a bit out of control)!
I'm also working on a canvaswork project called Nova. This is what it will look like when it's done: clicky. It's a quilt replica with each 12x12 square having different types of stitches. There are 396 different squares in the project. Only 387 left to go - YIPE! Today I got the October Quaker Square almost finished. That's another one I'm planning to work on today. I'll hopefully get to some of the projects that are waiting to be finished too.

Catching Up

It's been a wild ride the last couple of weeks. My new job, updating tax maps for my county, is awesome, but it's been a bit of a transition for me. My whole schedule is in a shake up. I've also started teaching a spinning class (indoor cycling) at the local YMCA. I don't go to my new job until 9am, but the spinning class, and the classes I take, all start at 5:45am and go until about 7:30am. I have about an hour to kill between working out and work. STITCHING TIME!!!!

Since both DH and I have gotten new jobs and the finances have stabilized a bit, we've been working through the list of things we've been meaning to get all summer. Of course that means stach building for me. I picked up the Sunny Day Cat needlepoint kit so I can whip it up for my guest bedroom. The room is bright yellow with blue shades and bedding. The room's theme is cats. It just worked out that way.

I also got Fractal 170 and picked up all of the fibers for it and some Aida to stitch it on. Not that I don't have a bazillion kits and patterns in line before it. :-)

I haven't had any new finishes in the last few days, but I am working on a couple of smalls. Sadly, no time to post them since I need to book out the door to go play with dogs :-). More to come soon!