Too hot - stayed inside to stitch :-)

As I had guessed that it would, Harvest Moon has taken my interst of late. I plugged away at it for a bit more today. It is simply too hot to be outside for long (although I did manage to finally plant my gladiola bulbs while it was still morning and a bit cooler out... I got a pretty cultivar named Priscilla this year, I just hope I didn't plant them too late!!). Anyhow, I stayed downstairs in the cool finished basement and stitched while watching NASCAR - I got this much more done. This has been tricky. It is probably because I haven't stitched a SB band sampler in a while. I kept forgetting to read the last line of each band's directions - the part where they tell you how many threads to go in to start the band. I did quite a bit of frogging (yesterday too) - arrgh, totally my own fault! But I am half way done with this old UFO now! I will pick up MTM later tonight when the Red Sox game comes on :-)
And, here is tonight's update on MTM.... I am nearing the end of the row of buildings, but.... I do then still have to go back and backstitch here and there, as well as add most of the specialty stitches still...

I have some more garden pictures to share. They are from within the past week, and I discovered them sitting on my desktop here.... Bumblebee Delite intermediate bearded iris, Gull's Wing siberian Iris, Pink Haze siberian iris, and a pretty purple and white tall bearded iris... I need to look up its name.

Stitched on today: Harvest Moon and Medieval Town Mandala

Rescuing another old UFO

I had an urge to dig out this old UFO, Harvest Moon by Shepherd's Bush, earlier today while I was watching baseball. I can't remember when I started this sampler, but I do think it was after we moved into this house in 2001. I had forgotten how fun a band sampler can be when you want a little break here and there from other things. So, I will keep this downstairs now by my stitching chair and pick it up when I need "a change." The way I have been feeling lately, that means it will get done pretty quickly now! I love this sampler, and have no idea why I didn't finish it when I first started it. I had only stitched down to the pink satin stitching prior to today...
And then, of course, back to MTM tonight. Sorry this photo is horribly overexposed. Still moving along on my mission to finish Part 9 before the month ends :-) Oh, I can't wait to be done with stitching these buildings!!

Oh, Summer is here now - it is so nice and hot! I love it when it is hot! No new bear news today. I enjoyed stitching in our finished basement tonight - it is very cool down here, and I enjoyed two very funny DVDs - The Producers and The Pink Panther - I just loved them both :-)

Stitched on today: Harvest Moon and Medieval Town Mandala

Bear Sighting

After awakening from a little nap this afternoon, I went into the back bathroom to watch chipmunks in the lawn through the window with Ava (my littlest kitty). Suddenly, I saw a big furry black leg start to amble around from behind my cherry tree.... our bear came to visit us... in the daylight! I hollered to Mike who brought the camera. Here is one of the shots of her/him taken from the side kitchen window. The plant you see hanging is now on the metal post that used to hold the birdfeeders. The bear was stymied and got no food. He/she did not seem to mind hearing us talking through the window. My cats were not bothered to see it either (they probably see it often!!). Then the bear ambled up the front slope of our yard, across the street and up the path that trucks dug out over a year ago to haul out some trees from the land across the street from us. All speculation is now officially over - we have a bear! I am glad we were not outside! We will figure out what to do now. (Maybe I will just stitch Long Dog Samplers' Do Bears? in its honor! LOL)

The first step I have taken is to do a whole lot of research on black bears. What I have learned is positive and simple. They are not known to be aggressive. If they are fed, they become habituated and lose their bear-like behaviors (which isn't good, meaning it could become aggressive!). So, all temptations must be removed (and have been). He or she will wander over 100-200 miles, depending on its gender (males apparently wander further). If we encounter the bear outdoors, we are to stand our ground. Make noise so he or she knows we are there and it will likely depart. I don't wish to encounter the bear, but now I know what to do.... There is no information to be found on my state's wildlife sites that indicate that a bear minding its own business should be reported. That would only lead to harmful, likely lethal, consequences for the poor beast. We sure don't want that! So, for now, education and taking a wait and see stance is what we plan to do.

Several of you have emailed me asking me why we have not called the authorities. Well, what good would that do for the bear? After all, it is just a bear doing its thing as a bear and has not harmed anyone. If the authorities are called, it will be harmed. And the websites I read suggested that bears simply need to be left alone, not to upset them and they will not harm you... as an animal lover who does not even like to kill insects, this works out well for me... This, after all, is life in the woods... except until now life in the woods has meant deer, for the most part :-)
In stitching news... well, there isn't much. I got a really late start tonight on stitching. Not sure why, just wasn't feeling ready until late... but I worked a lot on the big center house. Once that is done, it will feel like I have turned the corner on Part 9 :-)

I was really happy today to learn that Sugar Maple Fabrics has reopened her Treat of the Month (Mindy's version of Fabric of the Month)! I signed right up for the fat quarters of linen each month - and gave her my preference list. I signed up for this over a year ago, received my first shipment... with a note in it saying this was her last month doing TOTM...what a let down... well, it is back and I am thrilled!

In other good news, I faxed my registration for the Liz Turner Diehl class at CATS in Hershey, Pennsylvania on Tuesday, first thing at 8:45 AM...first day of registration. I had an email in to them about something else, and yesterday I got a reply about my question... and an extra note that my registration was received, all looked "great" and confirmation letters were going out next week... I hope that means I will be in the class :-) I also hope that Leslie gets in the class too (I am sure she will - she was right on it with getting her registration faxed out too - how cool!)

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

I am all over the place today

Somehow, I worked on four different projects today, which was unusual... I started off early today by finishing off my little surprise project... then moved on during the day to get some really decent progress made on Quaker Garden.... Do any of you feel I don't work when I am at the office?? LOL! OK, my job is a little cushy... Tonight, I was not feeling in the mood for MTM, so I picked up Women of the Mayflower for a bit. I managed to stitch the square with the 1620 in it (still needs to be filled in with light gold).... but my conscience got the best of me...

... I know I really want to get Part 9 of MTM done as quickly as reasonably possible this month, and it is the 15th already... so I put Women of the Mayflower away and worked on MTM again tonight...

Q. How many cross stitch books do you own and how often do you use them?

A. I don't think I really understand this question, so by looking at it I am ruling out that it means how many cross stitch charts do I have... the second half of the question makes no sense if it means charts.... so, it must be technique books. I don't own any.

Today is my twins' 4th birthday - my twins, that is, are Lily and Anouk... granted, these are pretty lousy photos... but I wanted to show you just how thrilled my little girls are to be celebrating their birthday today - LOL! Lily is the one in the photo on the left and Anouk (with sleep in her eyes) is the pic below - Blogger refused to upload this one, had to go with Photobucket! Happy Birthday Girlies!


Thank you to all of you for your concern about my office. I am not on a lease there. Somehow, I ended up being a month to month cash renter... so, I don't know really what my rights are, what his rights are, does it work in my favor or his?? What I can assure you is that I won't be paying my rent until there is some resolution. He is offering to move me back across the hall to my old smaller office once the alarm company currently occupying that space leaves at the end of the month. Oh, whooppee! The small office again! He will be refacing the front of the building in July - assuming now in his magical way that that is the problem causing the leak... I dunno. So, while I wait for news of a new office elsewhere, I plan to move my sofa and loveseat, coffee table, etc over to the small office and leave my computer, phone and such in the leaky office. The leak is nowhere near that equipment, but moving the phone yet again is soooo expensive with the phone company... so that is the plan right now... oh, the stink in that room, it is coming back to me as I type this. I worked in Lawrence today - nice, dry, not smelly office :-)

Stitched on today: finished up little surprise project, Quaker Garden, Women of the Mayflower and Medieval Town Mandala

The (Toxic) Swamp

This isn't the swamp :-) I put some more time in on MTM. I decided to photograph it in full, as it makes me feel like I accomplished more. Anyhow, here it is as of tonight...

The Swamp is my Haverhill office. I was shocked by the horrible state it was in when I arrived there this morning. Clearly, the lovely landlord has not been there in days. It stank soooo badly! I had four big plastic buckets of standing water in them on my floor - water that came in from the old, scummy ceiling. Oh gosh, I want to get out of there so badly! He hasn't put in new ceiling tiles either. What a site! I took photos on my cell phone, but they are simply too depressing to even look at... I wish the new office's rental agent would get in gear and call Mike back with some info!!

Stitched on today: Surprise project at work (almost there now) and Medieval Town Mandala

It's a garden theme today!

First, of course, since it is Tuesday, here is my weekly update for the Garden Spot Sampler SAL...
It is finally dry enough around here, post NH Monsoon that we had over the last few days, to take some pictures of some of my irises! I haven't shared any in a while. I have many, but am abritrarily limiting myself to three photos today. Here is a pink tall bearded iris, whose name totally escapes me...(Of course, I went and looked it up - it is Grateful Citizen)

This little pretty is currently greeting our mailman at the mailbox... and if I remember correctly, it is called Patina... but who knows, I could be way off about that! I really love the color combination in this one :-) I think Mike took an especially good photo of this iris... kudos to him! (Yep, looked it up - it's Patina!)


And, I haven't seen this pic in a few days - just came across it in my recent garden photo file that Mike makes for me... hmmm, is it a good photo? This is my tried and true Echo de France tall bearded iris... survived the stomping by the bear when he pulled the birdfeeder out of the bathroom window just above it... this lady blooms every year! Most of my irises seem to skip a year or two between blooms (except for the heirloom irises, they bloom consistently too)... OK, that is today's flower show! LOL

OK... I lied! I decided to also share this fourth photo. This is a siberian iris called Summer Skies. I got it on ebay two years ago. It wasn't ready to bloom last year. I love this one! I have never seen it anywhere before, so I only just added it to the database over at Dave's Garden (cool gardening site! link is in my sidebar...)... it is like little periwinkle blue and white butterflies, more delicate that most siberian irises :-)

New DVD Release Tuesday! We got The Pink Panther. I've been dying to see this one... hope to find a day without baseball soon so that I can watch it - I have tons of DVDs backed up because baseball is on almost every night :-)

Stitched on today: Garden Spot Sampler

Kingdom Sampler Update

Tonight is the second night of the Kingdom Sampler SAL... here is where I got up to tonight. It may look like an awful lot, but it is important to note that all of that blue is done in half stitch :-) This sampler will actually be a fairly quick stitch since there is a whole lot of half stitching in it... but I think it is so cute :-)

Some people are idiots. Cannot say that more simply enough. I was driving home tonight up Interstate 93 in New Hampshire, which is a twisty two lane highway. I was in the left lane driving a large Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I was driving alongside a WalMart semi-trailer. And suddenly I heard a roar, only to see that some idiot on a motorcycle decided to take the teeny tiny space between myself and the huge truck and make it into a third lane! I was just amazed at how stupid he was! Geesh! And, then to learn today that the Ben Roethlesberger (I cannot spell his name), the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers also happened to be in a serious motorcycle accident today - no helmet, serious head injuries!! - geesh, come on. I hope he will be well, though. I am a NE Patriots fan, but wish no harm on anyone!

Blessings to those in Florida tonight, as they face the first tropical storm and/or hurricane of the season in the early morning (already!!).

Oh, rummaging through the DVD Dump Bin at WalMart yielded Dave today - that's a fun one :-)

Stitched on today: Quaker Garden and Kingdom Sampler

Where did the weekend go?

I really didn't have a whole lot of stitching motivation today. I was very distracted by other things. But late this evening I was able to finish up another house. Next time I pick this up, I will be able to start the large center house (for the last time - whew!)... So, where did the weekend go anyhow??

I still have the Silkweaver Jubilation belfast available... I will accept a trade if you prefer. I will eventually put this up on a BB or on ebay, but for now, I am only offering it here in my blog. So, if you do want it, let me know. Thanks!

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

OK, back to MTM... and some Silkweaver fabric for sale or trade

There wasn't much time for stitching today. My brother, Scott, has a birthday tomorrow. Mike and I decided to drive down to Massachusetts to visit with him and drop off his gifts. Scott is a big Red Sox fan too, so we spent most of the day together waiting out the very, very long rain delay before the game :-) When I got home this evening, I finally sat down to work on MTM again... I got a little more done now :-)

I am hoping I can talk myself into working on MTM again tomorrow... maybe I can even it get this part done in time to salvage a decent amount of time for other projects this month? is that a pipe dream, or what? LOL!


My FOTM came in from Silkweaver this morning (so nice to have them back again!!). It is a fabric that I already have in my stash... so, I am going to offer it here before I try it on ebay... I have available for sale or trade a beautiful fat quarter (18" x 26") of Jubilation belfast linen. This is from Silkweaver's Expressions line. It retails for $26.00 plus shipping. I paid $22.00 total for it at FOTM price. Would anybody like this pretty fabric for $22 or for a reasonable trade? This is the linen that is called for to use with Passione Ricamo's gorgeous Dawn, Fairy Spirit of Grace (which is why I have this in my stash already - LOL!!). If you are interested in this linen, please just let me know!! Thanks so much! (The scan represents the actual fabric color extremely well).

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

Breaking for Mermaids

I had told myself that I would work on MTM all weekend, but tonight I just didn't feel like it. Mermaids of the Deep Blue sounded like much more fun - so I worked on them instead! I will get back to MTM tomorrow, I promise this to myself. Anyhow, I am happy with how my mermaids are growing now.

Q. The first request comes from Vash
(http://seasidestitcher.blogspot.com/) who is requesting pictures of the back of your stitching… are you brave enough to give this one a shot?

A. I didn't know which of my several WIPS to show, so I went with the one that best fit in my scanner... This is Women of the Mayflower. The face of the woman shows some action there, but that is just finishing off the thread and weaving it under lighter colored threads... you know what I mean :-) I will be honest with you, I am not real keen on people turning fabric over to look at the back. Well, no, I guess that doesn't bother me, as Sue and I were talking about today (she turned my GSS over to peek today, which didn't bother me). What bothers me is when folks offer or put the back of their stitching in your face unsolicited.

Q, The second request comes from Singular Stitches (http://singularstitches.blogspot.com/), and she is asking for "a pictorial tour of [the] special place that you go to create your wonderful stitched creations."

A. Here is my modest little area. Not much to be said about it - it is my little section of our finished off family room in the basement. My Ott-lamp is there and a nice end table with a front drawer that pulls out and I can put my ring of baggies of silk or floss on that for quick access... and you can see my Tacky Bobs (yes Sue, only two of them!) under my needlecase there... my scissors and ort jar... and Maalox and air freshener (Mike will smoke an occasional cigarette down here - oh, gross!!)... and stuff like that... laptop under the table... basic, wouldn't you say?

Stitched on today: Mermaids of the Deep Blue

The water is back

I stayed with MTM again tonight. I really should have been stitching on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow (it is SAL night), but as you know, I really want to try to get this last side of the town stitched up within some reasonable time this month. Then there should be time left over for some fun stuff...

The water is back in my Haverhill office. We have had a few days of heavy rain and some wind, so Mike went down to my Haverhill office today to check to see if my ceiling is leaking again (I have been working in Lawrence and was at the OCD seminar yesterday, which should have been a Haverhill day). Yep, the leak is back. The ceiling tiles had not fallen yet and the sofa was still dry. But the tiles were very wet and my stereo got wet yet again... So I had to call the landlord, and he actually answered his phone. My loud neighbors across the hall are moving out at the end of the month, so he is going to let me use my old smaller office across the hall, once they leave, as he gets the front face of the building fixed in July. Of course, Mike checked in on the new office again today. We are still on hold there... so the wait simply continues...

I plan to answer the SBQ, but both require photos to be taken, so that will have to wait until the weekend.... :-)

Stitched on today: Surprise project at work, and Medieval Town Mandala

Back to MTM

It's back again! I put some time in on it again this evening and am hoping that it won't take me too terribly long to finish this part this month. I am busily thinking of my upcoming days and how to fit this in to get it done as quickly as possible... I am guessing this is not the last time we will have a whole lot of stitching for one month - for sure, Martina will have us do those full flowery corners all at once in one month - gulp! I hope it won't be July, but it probably will be!

It was "therapy school" day for me again today. My last one for the year, unless something too intriguing comes up. I have more than half of the credits I now need for license period 1/1/06 through 12/31/07. Today I took Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. It was pretty good and made me think a whole lot about my own issues. That was the main reason I took this course anyhow LOL! I kept thinking my cross stitching was a huge part of my OCD, yet I am really not so sure. My stitching is not ego dystonic for me (as in, the behavior does not cause me pain, emotional distress). Now, for sure, that is a criteria for it to be a compulsion... I guess it is just an addiction after all... it is truly ego syntonic (emotionally pleasurable) for me, as it is for all of us, right? However, it's not all great news - I have tons of other issues that fall into that dreaded ego dystonic category... oh my!

Stitched on today: Surprise project I can't post and Medieval Town Mandala

The Final Countdown

Jo and I are finally down to the final legs of the Garden Spot Sampler SAL now. I think it is really starting to come together beautifully. Initially, I did not care for the VC silk conversion, but now as it is coming together it is looking much better... We should be done with this this month at this rate, don't you think Jo? Then we can start our Paradigm Lost SAL! Yes!
Time to share a family photo :-) This one was taken outside of Longhorn Steak House after our large meal that followed the dance recital on Sunday, June 4th... From left to right: Andre, my SIL's brother; Erin, my niece - still in costume from her cheerleading themed tap dance routine; Nicole, my middle niece who quit dance a couple of years ago; Ruth, my mother; Renee, my SIL; Scott, my brother; and in the back... me (I was kind of hiding!). Mike took the photo, and Caitlin had already been driven back up to the high school as she was also to dance in the evening performance... she wasn't much in the mood to talk or be with adults that day anyhow, she was just dying to get back to her friends (age 17, who is surprised?? LOL).

And, here is a photo Mike took of Nicole and I outside of the dance recital that I am rather fond of... Nicole and I are most alike in personality in the family, even though she is the one niece that physically takes after her mother's side of the family. I can even get her to pick up a needle once in a while! The black hair, however, is an adolescent experiment from a dye bottle... we figure it is better than a tattoo!

It's New DVD Release Tuesday, of course - our new ones are Underworld: Evolution (for Mike) and Firewall (mostly for me)...

Stitched on today: Quaker Sampler and Garden Spot Sampler

Kingdom Sampler, a new SAL start

Tonight, Nikki and I started a new SAL, Kingdom Sampler by Dragon Dreams. Nikki has been waiting a long time for me to find time to start this, and I want to thank her for her patience :-) Some of you may recall that Nikki and I stitched Legends of the Dragons together last year. It was so much fun, and I am looking forward to the joys this SAL will bring. I wonder where Nikki started on her sampler? Last year, we started in very different places. I wonder if we did that again this time. I got most of the dragon done tonight... though right now he just looks like a blob - LOL!! Anyhow... this SAL will be on Mondays now, and I am using 28 ct Cafe Mocha Country French Linen for mine.

I was really sad tonight to read in Jenn's Dragon Dreams June Newsletter that she has begun to have feelings lately of wanting to quit designing. She has decided to continue, but I am worried. I would so hate to see her retire!

Stitched on today: Quaker Garden and Kingdom Sampler

Taking the plunge again...

After spending most of the day attending a dance recital for my nieces Caitlin and Erin, and then off with my family to a steakhouse for a bit of fun, I was able to then spend a little bit of time this evening working on Part 9 of MTM. Taking the plunge again - it feels like I was only just working on Part 8 of this project :-) Oh well, nearing the end now and going to hold my head up and get through it. This is put away now until Wednesday due to SAL commitments. I figure that Judi is probably about half done with this part already, and by the time I pick it up again on Wednesday she will be completely done. I think she stitches this one in her sleep... But I will get mine done this month too, but at my own pace with tons of other projects also getting their fair share of attention.

There have been some questions about my Women of the Mayflower. So, I will answer them here. Anne asked what fabric I am using - it is a Silweaver 36 ct Edinburgh Solo... Leslie asked about the threads - yes, I am using the Olde Willow Stitchery floss that is called for in the chart, but mine appear to be lighter than those in the model, except for the boat... that color is much darker. Such is how it goes with hand dyed threads, right?

Well, maybe there will be photos from today's family event. Mike took some, and I just have to go through them and see if they are useable LOL!!

Oh - thanks to those who wished Ryan Newman luck today - I have not watched the recording of the race, but according to the website he came in 14th :-( Not a good season for Ryan this year...

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

Mystery IX Part 6 Done

I finished up Part 6 of Mystery IX tonight. I still don't like those nuclear warhead looking plants/flowers/whatever they are supposed to be... those big burgundy things in the triangles from 6 to 9 if you look at this like a clock. Oh well.. it's done. I figure that once we finish these triangle gardens, Martina will probably start giving us bigger sections to do. But, at least then the huge parts of MTM will be finished...
I didn't really feel like starting MTM tonight. I wanted a little break between Chatelaine projects, so I picked up Women of the Mayflower again. This one is hard to put down! Now, color me dense, but I finally realized tonight that many parts of this sampler will be stitched in specialty stitches. My glances at the cover photo had made me think it was mostly done in cross stitch. It even appears that way on the chart. But, tonight I actually read the directions. Wow, there are really quite a lot of specialty stitches. For instance, I had no clue that the body of the ship is to be stitched in diagonal satin stitch. It looked like cross stitch to me :-) So, I tried that out for a little bit tonight before it got too late to continue. If you are one of the ladies stitching this along with me now, or anyone who is stitching this, you may want to read the small area of instructions under the floss key on the front page. You probably already have - LOL! It is likely just me who was so dense as to think most of this sampler was in cross stitch. Anyhow... I love the specialty stitches and am even more excited about this sampler now! I also got to do the personalization area of the sampler tonight, and I was really pleased with myself that I actually figured out how to chart the 6 in the year, and somehow even managed to do the math correctly so as to have this be centered properly in the box. Now, that never happens!

Annemarie gave me a peek today of how my Neighborhood RR is coming along - nice!! Thanks so much Annemarie!!

Well, off to bed a little earlier than usual for a Saturday night... we get to do the "Auntie and Uncle Thing" tomorrow - we have a dance recital to attend for our nieces, Caitlin and Erin, tomorrow...

Stitched on today: Mystery IX and Women of the Mayflower

almost...but, not quite

I didn't end up finishing this part of Mystery IX tonight. I simply was too tired and too distracted... then, after I thought I could actually find it within myself to finish this part, I stitched those clumpy flowers that look just like nuclear warheads. Man, was I ever disappointed in those! So, I sighed and put it away. I will finish the last little bits up tomorrow...

Yay, it is the weekend!
Finally! Ryan Newman, who is nicknamed "Rocket Man" because he wins an awful lot of poles (first starting position for races), ended his drought! About 1/3 of the way into the season, and he still had no poles! He got one today for Sunday's race! Not to bore you, sorry! He is just one of my favorite people in the world, has done things I admire immensely. So, congratulations to Ryan! Good luck on Sunday - he hasn't won yet this year either... (photo is from www.nascar.com)... and while giving kudos to one favorite athlete, will also give them to Kevin Youkilis of the Boston Red Sox! Thank you, Kevin, for your ninth inning, two out, two run home run that blasted the Red Sox past the Detroit Tigers tonight! That was cool!

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler (a tiny bit), Quaker Garden (a tiny bit), and Mystery IX

It's Chatelaine time again!

All the Chatelaine passwords are out again... and once again, I am going to start with Mystery IX since it's a small part again. I will probably finish this up tomorrow night and can then figure out when to work on MTM again..

Also out today is the latest issue of The Gift of Stitching Magazine... is anyone else disappointed with the central part of the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler? The birth sampler option is definitely out for me - no babies here. The peacock is kind of big with a blah looking alphabet sort of straddling around it... sigh. I guess I could do it as an anniversary sampler, and probably will... it is our 13th this year, not exactly a year for making a sampler LOL! Oh well...

Time to review last month's goals, and set new ones for this month:
May Goals:
1. Finish Part 8 of Medieval Town Mandala - yes
2. Finish Part 5 of Mystery IX - yes - actually finished that on 4/29/06
3. Finish Part 4 of Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler - yes
4. Continue Mermaids of the Deep Blue SAL - yes
5. Finish Emerald Jeweled Garden in LTD SAL - yes, finished it
6. Finish Su's Neighborhood RR and post it off to Annemarie - yes, and it is safe in Holland now
7. Continue Houses of Hawk Run Hollow SAL - yes
8. Continue Quaker Garden at work - yes
9. Put some time in on Mermaid Heaven - yes
10. Enjoy Celebration of Needlework!! - yes, I loved seeing my friends there and taking classes with Betsy Stinner and Jeannette Douglas
11. Continue Garden Spot Sampler SAL - yes
**I also dug out and finished an old UFO, Winter Into Spring. I started Women of the Mayflower SAL too

June Goals:
1. Finish Part 9 of Medieval Town Mandala
2. Finish Part 6 of Mystery IX
3. Finish Part 5 of Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler
4. Continue Mermaids of the Deep Blue SAL
5. Start Kingdom Sampler SAL with Nicole
6. Begin to plan out what to stitch on Veronica's Neighborhood RR (if lucky, start it)
7. Continue Houses of Hawk Run Hollow SAL
8. Continue Women of the Mayflower SAL
9. Continue Garden Spot Sampler SAL
10. Continue Quaker Garden at work
11. If Anne is caught up, work on Bordeaux Mystery Sampler at work
12. Start Violet and Lace Sampler SAL with Katrina


Q. Do you collect charts by one particular designer, yet have never stitched anything by that designer? If so, which designer and why do you collect the charts but have not yet stitched any of them?

A. While sorting out some charts recently, I found myself realizing that I have a ton of charts by The Workbasket, Moira Blackburn and Little House Needleworks - these are wonderful designers, yet I have not yet stitched any by any of these designers. I figure it is simply a lack of time, so I must stitch faster!!


***I apologize to those of you who are waiting for emails from me. I got a whole bunch today, but I cannot reply to them tonight. Mike had a virus on his laptop that resulted in tons of junk/spam email being generated.... so, our ISP cut off our outgoing email capabilities today. Mike got that resolved, but it could be 24 hours before our email is fully back online. I will make sure to get back to everyone this weekend when the email is fixed...

We have a lot of rain coming now - some right now, and then a bit tomorrow, and then a lot on Saturday. Hopefully my office already won't be wet when I arrive tomorrow. But you can be sure I will be moving my furniture before I leave tomorrow afternoon, just in case that heavy rain finds it's way back in yet again!

Stitched on today: Quaker Garden and Mystery IX

Mermaid Heaven

Time for some other mermaids tonight! I took a look at my May goals to see how I was doing, and noticed I had not yet picked Mermaid Heaven up this month. It was very easy to decide to work on these mermaids tonight. I did an awful lot of brown rock and brown hair tonight. But the good news is that this project is such a quick moving piece every time I pick it up. Once I get through the last huge chunk of MTM, this one will probably get finished quickly :-)

The nice, hot weather continues here (I adore hot weather - I was born on one of the hottest days of the year in 1963, so that may have led to my love of the heat). My office in Haverhill looks a tiny bit better - the landlord has put up some new ceiling tiles, but not the two that need to be cut (they are in the curved part of the ceiling where the window bays out). Many are very water stained. Ugh. No news yet on my new office, though. That is a bit of a slow process... in the meantime, I must forge on...

Stitched on today: Surprise project that cannot be posted here ;-), and
Mermaid Heaven

It's Garden Spot Sampler Time

It's Tuesday again... not too many more Tuesdays to go. I wonder how my SAL mate is doing. No word from her on this sampler for about two weeks now? Is she stitching? Did she skip ahead and finish? Is she OK? I need to email her and check... Anyhow... here is mine. (Ah, she is OK :-) I just saw in her blog that she planned to work on this tonight - very cool!!).

Really not a whole lot going on here, but it is New DVD Release Tuesday again, and this week we got a fun comedy, Date Movie :-)

Oh, I cannot forget this! I was RAK'd today by my pal, Karen today - she is so amazing. She just sent me a stunning fat quarter of Silkweaver's Summer Breeze belfast - she knew how much I want to stitch Bliss Fairy on this fabric - thank you, Karen, from the bottom of my heart!

And, another friend of mine is blogging now too! Here is another fun one to read, Home Sweet Stitching - Sue is doing such a gorgeous job on CHS' My Home Town - you must see it! Nice!!! **And, a late discovery! My friend Joyce is blogging now too! She is a super prolific stitcher - you may want to visit her at M&M's and Ice Water :-) New Hampshire is active now in the blogging world - LOL!

I was so thrilled this weekend to get my FOTM invoice from Silkweaver - they are back! Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!!! That time went quickly, but it's just so nice to have them back again :-) And, Sugar Maple Fabrics is back to taking retail orders! Yes, the world is a better place!!!!!!!!!

Stitched on today: Garden Spot Sampler

One more night with the mermaids...

It's almost time again for passwords for the two Chatelaine projects, as well as the last part of the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler... so, I could not resist one last evening of working on the mermaids... it could be a while again before I can pick them up. Tomorrow is a dedicated SAL night, so that is out... The mermaids continued to get bigger tonight!

OK, off to bed... the four day weekend is over now... I did enjoy some time out in the garden today. I moved some daylilies that are being crowded out and overshadowed by rose bushes... each has a new open area home in other parts of the garden now :-)

Stitched on today: Mermaids of the Deep Blue

A Mermaids of the Deep Blue Update

At long last, I have an update on Mermaids of the Deep Blue. I am so happy to have found a chance to work on this one again. The ladies are really starting to grow now! I think I might stick with it again tomorrow!!

I've recently been hearing from various different stitchers who like to stitch "in hand" that, well... they are trying to convert me, and ultimately presenting their case as if my preference for using a Q-Snap is inferior or bad, or something like that... tongue clicking, head shaking... Heck, truth be told, I do sometimes stitch in hand (ie, Emerald Jeweled Garden and Winter Into Spring were both stitched in hand). But, my stitches are so incredibly neat and tidy when I use a Q-Snap. So, please don't try to convert me. This reminds me of my low carb diet - why do non-dieters want to sabotage the success of dieters? Anyhow, I don't take any of it personally and am happy to laugh about it all... but, give it up, I like my various methods - be it Q-Snap, scroll bar or in hand... thanks :-)

Stitched on today: Mermaids of the Deep Blue

Emerald Jeweled Garden is finished

I found out earlier today that my SAL mate for the LTD Jeweled Gardens finished hers sometime last week... so I figured, why wait now until Monday to finish mine? I loved working on this garden, and was thrilled to see there was a green light to go sit down and finish it while watching Curt Schilling get his 200th win (Red Sox). So, here it is.... pretty, isn't it? Now this chart will go off to KarenV, and she is sending me her Sapphire Jeweled Garden chart in exchange :-) I will send her plenty of the Colorwash Silk and Glissen Gloss filament for her to stitch this... she will only need to order the beads and crystals from Liz... I am looking forward to doing another one or two of these too... Ruby Jeweled Garden was recently released, so that is a "must stitch," as ruby is my birthstone. I was thinking that maybe I can get the supplies for this, and maybe the embellishments for Sapphire Jeweled Garden, when I go to CATS in September. Liz will be teaching there and, I believe, will also have a vendor booth at the show... I hope so!

After I finished EJG, I had planned to pick up one of my big projects, but I was so enjoying stitching up in the library by the open windows with the kitties that I did not feel like going downstairs to fetch a big project. Instead, I picked up Women of the Mayflower again. It was still out and seemed to be calling to me to pick it back up! I took a picture in the morning (Sunday) in the daylight to try to get the best possible picture of the linen and floss colors. This is the best I got - please excuse the shadow from my pot of morning glory seedlings in the upper right corner of the shot, though. This sampler is a blast to work on! I will have a hard time putting it down when I have to! I am so excited that Sue and her sister have just started this now, and with luck, maybe Barbara will join us soon too!

What a great night for stitching in this amazing weather. Mike went down to Massachusetts to hang out with a pal, with whom he likes to shoot pool, for the evening - it was wonderful having the house to myself and to get all of this done. My camera batteries were dead, though - so this will be a late posting LOL!

Stitched on today: Emerald Jeweled Garden and Women of the Mayflower

MTM Part 8 is finished.... and a new start too

I am breathing a sigh of relief tonight, as Part 8 of MTM is finally finished! This part seemed to have quite a lot of backstitching to it, as compared to the village sections of parts 6 and 7.... I made it through, though, with enough days left in the month to maybe get a chance to stitch on some neglected projects that I do miss a lot! Here is MTM in its full view now...

I had some time to fill earlier today while my Jeep was being serviced. I didn't feel like pulling MTM out yet (just setting that project up for stitching each day has been tiresome), so I started Women of the Mayflower. I am now doing this is a SAL with Sue. I decided that I did really want to use a 36 ct fabric for this sampler, so I put the Relic belfast aside. I dug around in my fabric drawers and found this 36 ct Silkweaver Solo, which is not scanned very accurately here. It is a nice antiquey looking sand color with a fair amount of mottling. I really loved starting this project. The floss colors are lighter and more muted than they appear on the cover of Fine Lines, but we all know that such variations are to be expected with hand dyed floss. I had to chuckle though - I happened to glance down at the chart and recognized what looked like the name "Standish" on it... that name was in my family for a while until a divorce took it out... so I thought, that looks like my cousin's former name... only to realize from the cover model that it is "Standish," while the chart reads "Standis" - there is simply a space where the "h" should go - easy enough to fix though. And, after posting the link for the chart yesterday, I was thrilled to hear that Barbara ordered up a copy too - maybe we can talk her into joining us :-)

Several of you have asked about the new office search. The office building that appeals to me is still a possibility, but no real news on that front yet. We are awaiting a call back from them as they are working on getting such things as a plumbing permit, or the like. Mike is dealing with this. So, no, it didn't fall through, there just isn't anything to say about it...

Stitched on today: Women of the Mayflower and Medieval Town Mandala (Part 8 finished!)

Perseverance

I did spend a lot of time today trying to decide between working on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow (Thursday SAL) or Medieval Town Mandala. HOHRH had great appeal, yet finishing MTM Part 8 soon had more appeal in the end. I am glad I did decide to persevere. I am down to the backstitching and more than half done with that now... maybe tomorrow, barring any emergencies, will bring a finish.

catandturtle, you asked who the designer is for Women of the Mayflower... it is Sarah Ullman, who is now, sadly, deceased. The chart is available in the Spring 2004 issue of Fine Lines magazine...which is still available here :-) I am still tossing around which fabric I am going to use for this sampler... I really, really want to use 36 ct, but my 36 ct Relic by PTP is not in yet.... sigh...

Finally... I am on break for the next four days! What a rough couple of weeks with the flood, the ruined office... time for a break!

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala
***My thoughts and prayers go out tonight to "M" and her family. "M's" adult son passed away earlier this week in a diving accident on the day he returned from deployment in Iraq. This is a very sad day.