Black Cat and Brown Dogs

 It has been an interesting week in stitching. The weather has been pretty terrible this week so I have been able to spend a lot of time at the kitchen table with my support personel assisting me with my stitching. Mostly it has involved a lot of support via presence:

I am looking forward to having a new staff member at the crafting table. I just got word today that I will be adopting a pup who's owner passed recently. It is sad to get a pup this way, but I am excited to have a female back in the house. I expect to have her move in sometime in May. 

Despite all of this overbearing assistance I was able to finish the "Moonstruck" project today. It was a fun little project. I realy enjoy the beads in these. I have been pretty impressed with the Mill Hill kits (distributed through Wichelt). The colors are fun and they are well designed overall.

I am thinking that I might dust off another long-lost WIP this week. I was able to set up my stitching stand so I can work on a larger project now. So next up is working on "The Bramble and the Rose" in hopes of maybe completing that this year. The last update I posted with this project in it was from August of 2018! I swear I have worked on it since then, but maybe not. It has been a full few years with hiking and pandemicing. Looks like it is time to get to work...

Black and White Gains a P

I guess I am inspired to stitch a lot lately. Maybe it's the weather. Maybe it's because I have a place to sit (2 really). Maybe it's just time. 

This week has been a bit up and down. The weather went from just under 60degF to the teens with a foot of snow. My mood has been all over the place with craziness at work and being frustrated about wanting to get outside more in the snow. And last minute errands have gotten me all dicombobulated. But at least I have had down time and been able to make a few things.

A couple of days ago (the 22nd?) I finished the next letter in my Black and White alphabet. It is not very much black and white, but then I have to do things my own way. Meet the letter P:

It feels good to finish this one because it involved the most stitching of them all. It seems I started it so long ago. I think the letter Y is next on my agenda for that project.

Meanwhile, I am stitching a little pallate cleanser. My cat had damaged one of my beaded projects and I needed to raid another for some matching thread for the repairs. So I decided to start a cute little one called Moonstruck from the Mill Hill bead collection (a subdivision of Wichelt). And of course I just wen to their website and was sucked right in to all the pretty projects. So here is the progress photo of this little project:

I'm happy with how quickly this one is going. I am trying to get to some of my outstanding projects, but it is always nice to have littles to finish in between.

I have had a helper while I have been stitching:

Generally he isn't too much of an imposition, but sometimes he wants to sit in my lap while I stitch. He is such a strange being. 

Time for me to get back to managing my upcoming vacations!

Red Birds Everywhere

 When my dad died my Aunt Kathy said he became a cardinal...the bird, not the religious figure. She says grandma and grandpa are also birds. So whenever I see a cardinal I say hello to dad. I see cardinals all over in our yard. I love it because they are such fun and showy birds.

I found the Red Bird pattern not long after dad died and decided it would be a nice project as a little rememberance. I'm not super sentimental, but hey I only got one dad and he was pretty good. Today I finished the project and added a button embellishment I found:

Hi dad.

I was planning on also fixing a project that Oreo the Destroyer (the tuxedo cat) decided to use for a stretch. I took it apart but realized I would likely need a little more thread for the repairs so decided to start a sister project to I could use the leftovers for the fix. So today I started Moonstruck:

Jon thinks this is the neatest thing because of the beads in it. He was thinking it was going to be slow stitching because of that. No, man, I'm a pro! :-D

Not much else going on here. Just the usual boring winter stuff: trying to get done with indoor projects, getting outside on warmer days, watching the dogs eat the cake I just baked...you know, the usual.

Time to get back to stitching!

Snowy Stitching Time

Last week there was a very cold snap that came through. We had temperatures that dropped to -25 degrees Farenheit. Since then it has warmed to the 40s yesterday. Now it has transitioned from rain to snow. As much as I love to be outside, and I have taken a few opportunities, it is also a great time to stitch.

I have made great progress on a couple of my projects in the last couple of weeks. In mid-January I had picked back up on my "Red Bird" and "Black and White" projects as shown in this post: Fast Forward a Year. And this is where I am at with each:

It feels good to make progress on these and feel more connected to my fabric and fiber loving self. I am looking forward to picking up on some of my longtime projects now that I have the space and some time for stitching.

In addition to the stitching, I also repainted a bathroom. Here are the before and after pictures:

I am so excited about my pink bathroom. It is a bright raspberry color and really brightens up this tiny space. It will look fantastic once we get the decorations and shelving up. We are hoping to expand the shower this summer, but I just couldn't wait to get rid of the tan from the previous owners. 

I also found some time to make a display board for my quilting so I can visualize the quilts as I make them. It looks amazing in the room:

So big happenings here... and looking forward to more!

Two Fun Projects

 Now that we are settling into the new house I am able to find some time to work on my projects. I have been stitching most evenings while we watch a cooking show or two. Last night I decided to take my new felting kit for a little spin. A few months ago a lady posted on the local Fron Proch Forum that she had some felting kits that she was never going to use. Jon mentioned it to me in passing saying "what's a felting kit" and I said, "message her first that I will take it then I will explain." It was a great deal!! So last night I made a little rooster:

He was a super fun little project .I might make another one tonight, or stitch, or who knows!!

I also have been quilting a lot lately. I have a large project I'm working on (no photos of that yet, I keep forgetting). I have another version of my pumpkin quilt prepped to sew. I started on a strip quilt - very beginning of it. And I finished a neat little project as a lap quilt for a friend who is leaving the country to live in South America for a while (I can't wait to visit):

I'm plannin to make another one of these with a black patterned background to keep here because I had enough of the colored fabrics. 

but for now it is time to go rake the roof! 

Fast Forward a Year

A lot has happened and a lot of it precluded time spent with my hobbies. The whole of 2022 was the sum of a series of epic happenings. I left a job I loved with an environment I found intolerable and moved to a job I love with coworkers to match. I moved from NY to VT. I sold a lovely little house and bought a large, impressive 200 year-old home - with the repairs to match. I lost a dog (miss you Leifr) and gained a rodent infestation. I went to the Grand Canyon - it is definitely grand! I feel like I spent half the year on hold with vendors and medical offices. But most importantly, I am happy to be living with Jon, my two dogs, my two cats and have an awesome stitching room:

The cats are happy because they apparently have each co-opted a queen sized bed:

The good news is that I have found a little time with the onset of the new year (mostly the inability to have access to contractors during hunting season) to get in some time for crafting. I did have two finishes in 2022 that I never posted. One was another in the alphabet series I have been working on and off over, I think, more than a decade now (oof). The other is a delightful Haloween quilt which will have a matching pumpkin facing the other direction (any time now):

I have made some progress over 2022 on the Red Bird project. I think I will need to purchase more of the green, but I am working through the rest of it for now:

And I started the letter P in the alphabet series and have rocked it in the last month (having the flu for a week helped because I only had the energy to stitch for the few hours I was awake):

And today I finished most of a quilt top for a lap quilt I am working on. I just need to add a colorful boarder with a white-grey outer border:

I'm pretty proud of this quilt because I learned how to make the rounded flower corners in a quilt block. 

It is lovely having a room where I can relax and focus on making things. I need the quiet and space to re-ground myself. Also, the view out towards Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks is not to be trifled with.

A Little Stitchy Time

 The winter weather has been so rainy and just not conducive to being outside. Perfect for stitching! I started a new project. None of the ones I have in progress were speaking to me. It is a delightful red bird with a deer - just right for a mid-winter project. This is what I have done so far...

It is stitching up quickly and has been very soothing. I am questioning if I have enough of the fibers though because I think I was planning to stitch it on 40 count over 1 and I decided on 32 count over 2 with three strands. Oops. Looks like I will have to get more.