Closing in on a Finish

Well I've been quietly stitching in the background for a while. It's been rather busy here, but I actually have been finding some time to get to my favorite chair between helping my BF who just had hip resurfacing surgery, completing construction on the bedroom in my new house (a wall went down and two new closets went up), working towards my blue belt in karate (only a month to go before my test), preparing for two new puppies, training the one I have, organizing an international speedskating meet and Oh yeah... my job. HAHAHAHAHA

Yeah that's right - I've really needed the stitching time so the fabric can take all the stabbings I want to dole out :-).

I've been primarily working on "Merry and Bright" and hope to have it done in the next couple of weeks. I'm hosting a garage sale this weekend, so it might actually get done while I'm doing that if I get the kind of foot traffic I had today...not too much.

Here's what I have completed at this very moment:

I had to make a visit to A Stitcher's Garden last week because I had run out of the red for the words and one of the other colors. Of course this was an exceedingly dangerous trip and as usual I was unable to walk away without a damage hit to my wallet. And this is why:

This is just about the neatest thing ever for someone who is a math geek in geometry. Now I have the difficult task of attempting to stick to my stitching plan. Currently it is to finish Merry and Bright and move onto completing "Nova":

And work on the Sampler Book project. OK so how am I supposed to wait to work on the Quaker Ball while I'm dealing with those... how!!!