Stitching through the boredom...

If you have not caught on already, I am so terribly bored with MTM :-( But, I keep stitching onward. I am half done with Part 10 now, and made a start on a third corner tonight... I will just keep at it until I can breathe my sigh of relief and put it away until August... then I have to pick up Mystery IX and put a couple of nights in on that anyhow... but Mermaids of the Deep Blue, Mermaid Heaven, HOHRH, Angel of Love, Little Wings, Women of the Mayflower, Harvest Moon, A Christmas Spirit.. they are all calling to me so loudly right now... sigh... I must say that I truly appreciate the kind words and encouragement to keep at it with MTM... without all this support, maybe this would not be as far along as it is - thank you, my dear friends, for that - I hope you keep it up :-)

I do have one keen observation about MTM... one thing is for sure - if I had to do this over again, I would not have opted to stitch on white belfast. It is very stressful to handle this huge piece of fabric and to stitch so much on it... while worrying about keeping this fabric so clean. If you plan to stitch this and have not yet, you might want to consider that aspect(?).

Tomorrow morning I am packing up my water damaged office in Haverhill! Yay!!! The move is on for Tuesday... I will try to get some photos soon. But, I have totally broken my landlord's heart. He is trying hard to get me interested in another office in the same building. But, you all know I just can't do that!!

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Mystery Sampler (just one little cluster of grapes, but it counts!) and Medieval Town Mandala

About half way....

I am limping along still with MTM.... I only have about four hours a night (on work nights) to stitch... worked on the bottom right corner. But I found out today that I am seriously bringing up the rear (already!!) with Part 10... well, I can't exactly quit my job or give up on household responsibilities, now can I?? Anyhow... here is what I managed to get done... (I know I am behind because I stitch other projects at the same time, though... I do realize that...)


Q. What is the biggest mishap you have had with your stitching material
(i.e. spillages)?

A. I have had the same problem happen to me twice... it is so disheartening that even answering this question makes me sad and a little queasy... I started too far down on my linen on both The Mighty Oak and Alpine Garden, both by The Drawn Thread, and I ran out of fabric near the bottom and could not finish either of them. I have to restart both of them. This happened years ago, and I have yet to restart either of them... silly me, in both cases I stitched a lot before I came to the full realization that I was not going to be able to finish them....sigh...Rumor has it from my friends that I am certainly not the only person to have had this happen, but it is my biggest mishap...

Oh, and New DVD Release Tuesday pushed off til today due to the holiday: The Libertine (gotta add that Johnny Depp to the collection!) and I had forgotten I got a DVD in the dump bin last week: Mazes and Monsters (worth a try with Tom Hanks in it...)

Karen is waiting for me on MSN Messenger, so I am going to zip over there now...

Stitched on today: Bordeaux Mystery Sampler (Anne and I decided to put pics up of our progress at the end of each week now... I work on it at work, she does it at home when she can.... I will try to remember to bring it home on Fridays to photograph) and Medieval Town Mandala

Happy Independence Day

I am wiped out. I have been busy staying up late during my four days off from work, and today I am just exhausted. With that comes virtually no interest in stitching... but I did finish the first corner of MTM tonight... I absolutely refuse to rush myself to finish Part 10 when I am so tired... now I just want to see if I can find the fireworks on TV :-)

Hope my American and ex-pat friends had a happy and safe holiday!!!!

For those who asked, we have not seen the bear again. It appears it has been around once or twice more... but no sightings :-) I did pick up this chart at a bargain basement price on ebay today... clearly in honor of our recent visitor :-)

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

Enjoying the holiday break...

Here is my weekly update of Kingdom Sampler, which is a Monday night SAL... that big tree all the way to the left took forever to stitch tonight :-) I think it took an entire movie - LOL!! Anyhow, moving along OK... want to stitch the An Emblem of Love SAL in its rotation once this is finished...

I enjoyed having the day off from work today, part of the long Fourth of July weekend... Mike was dying to find a watch, so we did a bit of shopping. He didn't get a watch, but I got a new purse and a pretty rosy pink hardy hydrangea for the garden :-) Oh, I think he did do some shopping for himself in Macy's, so he didn't exactly lose out. And, when I awoke this morning and looked out the slider door onto our deck, I was surprised to see we had a new kitty visitor. He/she was sound asleep in one of our chairs on the deck. So sweet. My cats were barely even aware of the cat. Mike thinks the cat has been around before. He/she didn't cause any upset for any of my cats - mild curiosity from some, nonchalance from others... and Anouk slept through the whole visit.... Sorry the picture is terrible - it was taken through both the glass and screen of my slider door. It was the only angle I could get to capture the entire cat in the photo - I didn't want to scare it or even wake it up... it stayed for quite some time :-)

Stitched on today: Kingdom Sampler

Quaker Garden Finished

It didn't take long at all today to put in the final little stitches into Quaker Garden, while I watched the Red Sox win over the Florida Marlins...

Quaker Garden
Blackbird Designs, Loose Feathers Club
R&R Reproductions 30 ct Garden State Java Linen
Weeks Dye Works and Gentle Art Sampler Threads
Fabric and fibers are as charted, no substitutions
Started 4/18/06 - Finished 7/2/06
Primarily stitched while on breaks at work
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I hope that Barb doesn't mind that I lifted her photo of my Neighborhood RR from the group's blog - I know most of my personal friends are more likely to see it here and aren't familiar with going to the RR's blog... isn't it looking wonderful now?? Barb stitched her block at warp speed! I came across the charm pack for Gardener's Cottage in my stash... I now recall buying it from SB&B during a sale... so, maybe I will end up putting the charms on my block when the RR comes home :-) We'll see...

And, MTM is back again!! I started to cruise on into Part 10 tonight. For a little while tonight, I began to wonder if yesterday's statement that this part is smaller was correct or a wise thing to say. Mike was playing Black on his XBox 360 while I was doing the initial counting for this corner. I messed up and somehow added ten extra stitches to the width of the corner. I figure it was all of the gunshots and screaming and military commands coming out of the television that distracted me. My dololly totally saved the day for me, though, once I caught my error and was able to remove only the culprit stitches and tuck them in so securely in the back that all is safe and sound - and correct now :-) Then... I discovered a different way of starting the corners (we have to do all four this month), and the counting is much less burdensome now. So, all in all, I feel much happier about Part 10 and I don't even dread working on it this month - LOL!! There are five colors of fibers in each corner - what a huge decrease from the many, many, many color changes of the past four months. So, I am happy again! I have decided, though, to hold off adding any beads and crystals until this whole project is stitched. I really prefer stitching this on my Q-Snap for evenness of stitches. My Q-Snap would crush the beads and crystals, of course. Tomorrow is an established SAL day (which I am totally looking forward to), but I also plan to try to find time to add the other two blues to this corner and have one corner then finished :-) (I know the corner looks crooked - the project was on the Q-Snap when I took the photo).

Stitched on today: Quaker Garden (finished) and Medieval Town Mandala

***Thank you to everyone who has left such nice comments and feedback on my finishes on Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler and Quaker Garden - I really appreciate your kindness!!

Mystery Sampler Finished

Mystery Sampler
Papillon Creations
Silkweaver Sandcastle 32 ct Belfast Linen
Hand-Dyed Fibers silks
Started 2/22/06 - Finished 7/1/06
Stitched primarily on breaks at work
Thanks to Jo for great idea for modifying the center section ;-)
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Goal Review Time:
June Goals:
1. Finish Part 9 of Medieval Town Mandala - yes
2. Finish Part 6 of Mystery IX - yes
3. Finish Part 5 of Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler - no, but almost... finished it on 7/1/06
4. Continue Mermaids of the Deep Blue SAL - yes
5. Start Kingdom Sampler SAL with Nicole - yes, having fun with Nikki again!
6. Begin to plan out what to stitch on Veronica's Neighborhood RR (if lucky, start it) - yes, picked out my chart, got the chart, ready to stitch
7. Continue Houses of Hawk Run Hollow SAL - yes, finished House 4
8. Continue Women of the Mayflower SAL - yes
9. Continue Garden Spot Sampler SAL - yes, Jo and I both finished!! I loved doing this SAL with her!!
10. Continue Quaker Garden at work - yes
11. If Anne is caught up, work on Bordeaux Mystery Sampler at work - no
12. Start Violet and Lace Sampler SAL with Katrina - no, still waiting for Katrina's silks for the project
***I rescued an old UFO, Harvest Moon, and made good progress... also worked on Mermaid Heaven for one evening this month

July Goals:
1. Finish Part 10 of Medieval Town Mandala
2. Finish Part 7 of Mystery IX
3. Finish Quaker Garden
4. Finish Harvest Moon
5. Continue Mermaids of the Deep Blue
6. Continue Women of the Mayflower with Sue
7. Continue Kingdom Sampler SAL with Nikki
8. Start Paradigm Lost SAL with Jo
9. Work on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow
10. Work on Veronica's Neighborhood RR
11. If there is time, rescue another old UFO (maybe Random Thoughts)
12. Start An Emblem of Love SAL with Carissa (and maybe Karen V.)
13. Start Blessings Be Thine as next at-work project
14. Work on Bordeaux Mystery Sampler again - now an SAL with Anne
15. Finish Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler
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I felt like sharing a daylily picture today - one of my favorites, Cherry Candy, started blooming today. I may need to move it forward in the garden a bit. It seems to want to lean up against the house and against one of my climbing roses...

OK, the passwords are out for Medieval Town Mandala and Mystery IX - neither is huge this month - woo hoo! But, I am not in the mood for Chatelaine stitching tonight, so both will have to wait for at least a day - LOL! The latest The Gift of Stitching Magazine also came out today - I simply adore the Cindy Valentine Acorn Etui in this issue! Maybe I will have to learn some finishing techniques, because this one would be worth it!
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I decided that I am so close to finishing Quaker Garden now, that I would work on it tonight. I just have a bit of the bird motif on the left to finish up. Maybe I can finish that while watching the baseball game tomorrow in an air conditioned room (we are expecting very hot temps tomorrow).... I haven't shown you a WIP of this in ages since it has been living in my brief case for weeks now. Once this is done, I will be freed up to get back to the Bordeaux Mystery Sampler and to start Blessings Be Thine as my new "at work" projects :-) (**I am sorry this photo is so terrible. It seems lately that Blogger won't let me upload pictures if I am editing an existing entry... so I had to use Photobucket and the details of the sampler look blurry and distorted. I will make sure to get a better photo tomorrow when I finish the sampler).

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler (finished it) and Quaker Garden

Half way through the year

Well, since for some reason I decided to be responsible at work lately and write progress notes and treatment plans, call in treatment authorizations and things like that, and I haven't been stitching much at work in the past couple of weeks. So.... I brought the Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler home with me tonight and I plan to fit it in during the weekend to get it done. I stitched the better part of the center section tonight. Now all I have left to do is to stitch a few more flowers and then toss my initials into the center... I still really love the colors of the Vikki Clayton silks in this sampler!

The year is half over now! Hard to believe!!!! I thought about checking in now on my stitching goals for 2006, but I cannot find them posted anywhere - LOL!!

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler

Just had to visit Mermaid Heaven this month too

It seems that Mermaid Heaven only gets my attention one day a month lately. That is pretty sad, especially considering how much I love this design and it is a fun stitch. MTM has really eaten up my time, and I will be glad to eventually be able to devote much more time to Mermaid Heaven and several other pieces :-)

I wanted to thank Michelle - after reading recently in my blog that I like many things related to Noah's Ark, she surprised me with this little giftie - isn't it cute?? :-) I thanked her personally, but want to thank her again here :-) It's called The Real Noah's Ark by Bestitched.

Changing from Mermaids of the Deep Blue to Mermaid Heaven did not harm the Red Sox's luck at all tonight. They did manage their 12th straight win.... that is four sweeps in a row against the National League! Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals, Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets. We all know they have to lose a game sometime, but the winning streak has been pretty fun :-)

Q. What do you do with your charts once you’ve stitched them? Do you keep them or dispose of them? If you keep them, do you organize them in a way that is different from the way you keep your unstitched charts?

A. I generally just adopt my used charts out. I will either come across someone as I am doing a project who expresses enough interest in the design to want the chart, or I post here in my blog that the chart is available for adoption - they don't even last five minutes after I post that! I don't bother to trade for anything. I just prefer to see them go to good homes. There are a few I keep. But I don't file them any differently than my others. I am sorely lacking a good filing system anyhow.... I don't think four large boxes of charts really counts as a filing system, now does it? LOL

Stitched on today: Mermaid Heaven.... no stitching at work for a few days now, just cannot find the time - amazing considering it is summertime and a few folks have cancelled to enjoy free time/school vacation, etc... so I wonder where my time is going if not into stitching? Hmmm.....

Lucky Mermaids

It was really nice to spend another evening with the mermaids tonight :-) They seem to be bringing some very good luck to the Red Sox right now (they won their 11th straight game in a row tonight), so I am wondering if I should give them another night tomorrow?? LOL!! I am inclined to put time in on Mermaid Heaven, though. We'll just have to see...
This is for Carissa ~ this is my floss toss for Ellen Chester's An Emblem of Love, which we will start as a SAL together in mid-July on Mondays. Anyone want to join us?? My fabric is Lakeside Linens 40 ct Vintage Bittersweet. Hard to describe this color - it is a cream linen with a rose tone to it, but you really wouldn't call it a "pink linen."

I got another new chart today - I am getting smarter now about buying Blackbird Designs charts before they discontinue them.... they sure go out of print quickly!! I love this Christmas sampler, Blessings Be Thine. I am not a big fan of Christmas stitching, but I just couldn't resist! I dug through my stash of fabrics and found a perfect piece for this. I will use my Acorns & Chestnuts belfast linen by Sugar Maple Fabrics. I almost put needle and thread to the linen tonight, but I reminded (and scolded) myself that I just cannot do that right now! My sidebar here in my blog will surely show you why - way, way too many WIPS going right now!!

Stitched on today: Mermaids of the Deep Blue

Mermaids of the Deep Blue :-)

I am really happy that I had a chance to work on the mermaids again tonight :-) Granted, I pretty much spent the whole evening stitching with DMC 905.... lots and lots of green! Had to be done though - LOL!! Maybe I will stick with them tomorrow too.

I wanted to share this nice new Blackbird Designs chart I got yesterday... how unique! This is stitched on three different small cuts of 30 ct fabric, sewn together and given some fun top stitching at each seam to make it look like, well, what it is called, "Flea Market Souvenir". Now, this will push my boundaries a bit... I have zero finishing talents and do not own a sewing machine... wish me luck when I get around to this one!!

And, of course, it is New DVD Release Tuesday - one for each of us today - Failure to Launch for me, and Ultraviolet for Mike, our resident sci-fi lover.

Stitched on today: Mermaids of the Deep Blue

Kingdom Sampler Update

Here is this week's Kingdom Sampler SAL update :-) I know Nikki can't work on it tonight due to a commitment, but she will be at it tomorrow - I look forward to checking her blog on Wednesday morning to enjoy her progress too. This is such a fun (and quick) stitch.

Q. Have you ever used a magnifying glass while stitching? If so, did you find it helpful?

A. No, I haven't hit that milestone yet...

I found this little surprise beauty blooming by my front door a couple of days ago. I have no idea what the name of this rose is... this is one of those $3-$4 roses you buy at WalMart, and you pretty much don't expect it to survive the New Hampshire winter... so, you figure, bye bye rose! But, that didn't happen this year... they all came back... so, this is a nice surprise! I wish I had saved its name now! (***Added 6/27 - I looked it up, it's my Korde's Perfecta - excellent!!)

And, these are Mike's pots of nasturtiums that are hanging on the post where the birdfeeders once were (before the infamous bear found them). I had bought the packet of seeds in early spring and put them in the kitchen drawer. My plan was to plant them in pots on the deck after threat of frost so that I could have them climbing on the rungs of the deck. But Mike came across them first and put them in some old hanging pots from last year that originally had impatiens in them. He didn't even change the dirt. But, he sure got some nice pots of nasturtiums! Meanwhile, I bought new seeds, as well as morning glory seeds, and have my deck vines started now (although you may recall that the bear ate the first group of morning glory seedlings that night when he tore the yard apart - before we met him in the daylight) - no sign of him since. Anyhow... I think Mike is kind of proud of his colorful little nasturtiums.

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler and Kingdom Sampler

HOHRH House 4 Finished :-)

This is a bit of a mini finish for me - some of you know this, but it has taken me just about forever to stitch this one house block - but today I got it done! And yes, I do like the color scheme better now than I did when I first started it. All that mish-mash down by the lawn still looks strange, but the house makes up for it - LOL!

To those who asked yesterday, yes, this is a Vicki Clayton conversion - one of her earlier conversions. I've received a lot of requests for this color conversion, so I created a blog for it and it is linked in my sidebar for you. That way you can grab it when you want it, and I don't have to keep retyping that long list for everyone :-) Vicki will package it up for you if you send her the list.

Instead of starting House 3, I decided to put a little time in on Women of the Mayflower for a couple of hours tonight :-) I just love this sampler. I wish some of the colors were as intense as they appear on the model, but that is the way it goes with hand dyed fibers. I had to special order the fibers as they are not sold locally, so they came in sight unseen. I don't really feel inclined to make changes. I can live with it. I ran out of time though - will have to finish filling in the "1620" box next time!

Stitched on today: Houses of Hawk Run Hollow and Women of the Mayflower

MTM Part 9 is (finally) finished - all buildings are done!

What a relief! This has been a long haul - for the past four months those of us stitching MTM have had to stitch a long, detailed row of buildings each month... now, I am finally done with those! For the next three months, we will be working on the border... hmmmmm...

Annette had expressed an interest in seeing the Jessica stitches... this picture looked blurry on the scanner, I think I cropped it down too close. But, let's see if Blogger makes it look any better??

I got great news in the mailbox today :-) My registration for LTD's 18th Century Historical German Garden class went through for CATS in September! Woo Hoo!! And, I talked with Mike - we will probably now stay through Friday night instead of through Thursday :-) (What I cannot figure out, though, is why the class is an 18th C. garden, but if you buy the chart or kit elsewhere it is a 17th C. garden - LOL!!)

Now, off to stitch on one of my projects on which I have fallen woefully behind... now, that leaves me a lot of choices!
I chose to work on the much neglected Houses of Hawk Run Hollow tonight. I am really glad that I did - have to get it done so I can stitch Village of Hawk Run Hollow, right?? Anyhow... almost done now with House 4! Just have to add the little bit of tree, its leaves and the other apple....and then the border around the block.... it has taken me forever to stitch this house block, so I will also be relieved when it is done!

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala and Houses of Hawk Run Hollow

Almost there... not quite yet... but really soon!

It's my own fault, really. If I hadn't taken forever to get myself started tonight, I would have finished Part 9 of MTM.... but I did get very close. I could have finished, really. But instead, I have opted not to stitch the four jessica stitches in the big center building (they form what are supposed to be the stained glass windows) tonight - it is late and I want to stitch those with a fresher mind. They aren't difficult, but they look stupid if you do them wrong - LOL! So, I will do them tomorrow evening. We have plans during the day to visit Mike's mother. It will, of course, be a tremendous relief to be done with these buildings. It's already a relief!

I got up earlier than Mike this morning, and I put a little bit of time in on Harvest Moon while the house was so quiet. I really love this sampler :-)

Some things I have been noticing about stitching bloggers.... 1) they are generous people, always looking to share with others; 2) almost all have an affinity for Carriage House Samplings; 3) many of us have a stack of Little House Needleworks charts, with Coffee Menu on the "must stitch" list - LOL! Just my frequent observations.... :-)

Stitched on today: Harvest Moon and Medieval Town Mandala

All the x's are finally done

Now down to the rest of the backstitching and specialty stitches... that shouldn't take long, but I did leave all of those silly eyelet stitch windows to do on the big central building. I like that part the least... will continue to forge on, almost done now!

Thank you to those who sent birthday wishes to Mike :-) He turned 46 today - and opted for a quiet birthday. He got plenty of nice gifts, and he got to choose all the plans for the day.... errands he wanted to run, out to lunch together, things like that.... The weekend isn't over, of course, so who knows if he has any other plans. He had a fleeting thought of going down to Boston today to catch a Red Sox game, until he was reminded that they had the night off tonight - oh well.

Stitched on today: Medieval Town Mandala

Four days off now... aaaahhhhh

First things first, it is this old project again... one more terra cotta colored house with big black windows and green doors to stitch... then plenty of backstitching, rhodes stitches, satin stitching and jessicas to stitch.. then I will be done with buildings - yes! Soon, I think, soon!

I have the next four days off from work - and am so looking forward to it. Tomorrow is Mike's birthday, and we agreed I would take time off in case he wants to do anything... I have no clue what tomorrow will bring... will we be here? travel somewhere? Who knows, he is quiet about it so far. Then Friday is my late father's birthday, which is a solemn day for me... and then the weekend. As you can imagine, I am looking forward to this break now.

I have some office news, at last. Mike found a new office for me. He took photos and I will see if I can locate them and share them. The building is literally diagonally across the street from my current swampy office (boy, the mold stink almost overwhelmed me there again today). We are looking at a July 8th (or so) move... there is one small issue to get resolved in the next day or two - a document the insurance company I am contracted with will need... other than that, all seems fine. It is apparently a very large office.... well, it sounds like it will be good and I will get those photos soon :-) I wrote up my termination letter for the current landlord today, but am holding that until that small issue gets resolved... a tiny bit of limbo here...

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler and Medieval Town Mandala

Garden Spot Sampler is finished

***I was able to get this finished at work today :-)***

Garden Spot Sampler
Samplers and Such
R&R Reproductions 40 ct Creme Brulee Linen
Hand-Dyed Fibers Silk Conversion
Started 9/20/05 - Finished 6/20/06
Tuesday SAL with Jo

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Wow, Barbara got busy today on my Neighborhood RR - that lady doesn't waste any time :-) I love her start! She is also telling me she is nervous - hope she relaxes, I know I will love whatever she adds, and I already love this Elizabeth's Designs start! Thanks B! I was also thrilled today to receive Veronica's RR. Now I can begin to start thinking of a fun addition to her RR too - hers is very, very delicate. I spent 90 minutes tonight looking at charts and beginning to formulate some ideas for her.

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So... with the SAL project completed during the daytime today, I had no excuse not to go right back to work on MTM again tonight... And am getting closer to the corner now :-) Wow, my WIPS folder for this project on my computer is getting huge now - almost as big as last year's garden file already LOL!

And, it was New DVD Release Tuesday - got a creepy one, The Hills Have Eyes - LOL, wanna come over this weekend and watch with me??

OK, so now that I am 40+, my metabolism and I are at constant battle... today I received my order from Amazon which contains Ultrametabolism - I have been on a low and/or controlled carb diet for over four years now. The write ups I have read on this book have pointed me this way - a possible good adjunct to my existing controlled diet... and I loved this author's previous book, Ultraprevention. I am pretty excited about this - I just have to find time to read it now. In the order, was a cool cross stitch book too - one with the gorgeous Double Band Sampler in it: Olwyn's Treasured Samplers - Karen saw the Double Band Sampler (partially pictured on the cover) done up at a needlework show in Australia a few months back and simply raved about it - she put a pic of that work somewhere in her blog... I was very excited to get the book!! There are not many double band samplers in existence, so it's uniqueness is very appealing.

Stitched on today: Garden Spot Sampler (yay, finished!) and Medieval Town Mandala

Annemarie totally made my day! My week! My month! Thank you so much, my friend!

Here is why Annemarie has me filled with glee today! I got to see a picture of how my Neighborhood RR looked when it arrived at Barb's house yesterday! (Thank you Barb, for the great photo!). I love, love, love everything Annemarie put in her block! She did an amazing job - and can you believe, she was stressed out and worrying the whole time? Nobody is going to believe Annemarie anymore when she says she is worried about these RR blocks - LOL! And, I am sure you have noticed that she added a little black bear - I am sure that is in honour of the backyard guest we had here on Friday afternoon! I love how the cat sits atop the roof of the house, well out of harm's way - she stitched me a smart kitty! Annemarie, you are THE BEST! Thank you so much!
Tonight was Kingdom Sampler SAL night with Nikki, and once again this one was fun to stitch. It is giving me a nice distraction from MTM, that's for sure! I love how quickly this one is moving along.

I decided to treat myself to a little early birthday present today - before these got sold out. I ordered the Just Nan Exclusive, Noah's Sampler Reborn, from The Silver Needle today. I just couldn't resist this one! I generally cannot resist much that has the Noah's Ark theme, so you can see how this just had to end up here in my hands.... LOL

Stitched on today: Papillon Creations Mystery Sampler and Kingdom Sampler

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