Sunday, August 30, 2020

Oh Oh! Look Out Bob!

I'm making good progress on The Sampler Roll by Samplers Remembered.  I have made some mistakes.  I used the wrong sed Garrison Green and I used Palomino.  I decided to leave the alphabet but, ripped out and corrected the color in the bottom border.  I know I will be happier with that. Nobody won't know the alphabet is wrong.  
There is something so sweet about this piece.  I just love it.  I will finish it most likely as a pin drum.  I just don't feel the way it was finished into a needle roll.  

I have been on an organization roll today. I read an article on organization this morning with links to Amazon.  Went a little crazy with that:  some drawer organizers for the junk draw in the kitchen, organizer for tea bags, a shelf for under the kitchen sink and a thing to hand mops and brooms.  

I decided I need more organization in my sewing room.  I don't really use my sewing machine a lot but, ws want it accessible. The sewing desk takes up a lot of room and doesn't offer much storage.   I could use a lot more storage because I have stuff.  I have some of my paper crafts hanging out because some days its just fun!.  I wasn't able to take the cruise and my money was refunded.    I don't think I will try booking that again.  I think it may be a long time I get on an airplane and who really knows about a cruise ship.  So maybe I will get a  IDream box and that will really aid to organization.  I'm going to think about it for a little while.  The sewing room is big enough for one.  I have a sleeper sofa in there that is double bed but, would like to able to get a little chair to stitch in.  The couch just isn't big enough for me and the two dogs.  

It was a fairly nice weekend.  Today was really nice.  I got a lot done.  Hope your weekend was good.  
Thanks for stopping.  Stay healthy and safe.  
 Keep on Stitching
Monica

Sunday, August 23, 2020

Sorry I Missed Last Week

It has been busy.  I've been working extra hours the last two weeks.  The body just doesn't want to cooperate.  The miles I put on walking the units in the hospital played havoc with my right leg hamstrings.  It happens periodically.  This week will be better and have been home treating it all weekend:  Tylenol, Ice and TENS.  Walking better today but, still hard to go from stand to sit.  

I have been working on the satin stitching on Sarah Braizear for a week but, ready to move onto some brand new.  I have other WIPS but, not in the mood.  I have seen my latest start finished my a few people on Instagram.  I love the design but, just not crazy about the finish.  


The colors are gorgeous.  I'm doing it on 40 count Weeks Confederate Grey but, I can tell it is not a Zweigart base, kind of loose.  


I'm thinking I'm going to finish it as a needle dr um and I think it will be a good finish.  I may check to see if it could fit on a round box too.  
Last weekend Katy was home.  She came to see a close friend of ours who was here for the weekend.  We, mostly she worked on the post-it books like we made on College girls weekend.  I did cut the paper for the base of the book adn showed her the general idea of doing it.  
She came up with some really cute books.  She really preferred the Washi tape.  
I can't decide which one I like better, the hippos or the llamas.  Both are really cute!

Buster after waking from a perpetual nap.  He really doesn't like having his picture took.  He won't look at you when you try to coax him.  
I did finish Carriage House Samplings Wisdom and Truth.  Going to order a frame for it when I get to it.  I want one that looks the one on the pattern picture.  This was a fun quick stitch.  Love it!
Hope your week and weekend were good.  Hope the hurricane's weaken as they get closer to landfall.  

Stay safe and wear your masks.
Keep Stitching. 
Monica

Sunday, August 9, 2020

Just Can't Show Everything

Crazy Henry Ford found a nest of doves in the tree a few weeks ago and has been driving us crazy ever since.  He runs to the back door, scratches and when you go to let him in, he runs to the tree, saying, "Come and see my birds."  This goes on all day.  The chicks finally left the nest today so Bob cut the branch off the nest was on to show Henry.  He left the branch for him.  Finally, he is done with the bird shenanighans.  
Come on, come and look everyone.  
I finished my August Christmas ornament challenge from Prairie Schooler Snowy Nights.  I only have two left, I think from the booklet.  Then will finish out the rest of the year from some other PS smalls.  
I took some more pictures of flowers in the garden.  I have an Iphone and the photos it takes are pretty amazing.  I took a picture with Bob's Samsung and they just aren't that good.  
Balloon Flowers.  I wish all of them were the darker purple.  
Heliopsis, type of a sun flower  
The Black eyed Susan.  
Ground rose, starting it's second blooming.  
Overall a pretty calm and peaceful weekend.  I got some stitching done.  Hope yours was too.  

Stay healthy and safe!
Keep on Stitching
Monica     
   (Still don't know why the top part is underlined and the rest of this post is not.  Oh well.)

Monday, August 3, 2020

Birthday Weekend

Katy and Steve came home this weekend for my birthday.  Ed also took a day off so he could have dinner with us.  One of the things we did was go to Alpha, MI population 136.  We went for the beer at the Alpha Brewery.  We brough snacks since its just beer.  The beer is pretty good.  We had two brews:  Naughty School Girl and Brule River Red.  I'm not big into these small breweries.  I like Miller Lite.  After a couple of sips, heavier beer to me just gets ucky.   I did like the Naughty School Girl, not too heavy.  Ed was telling us that when he was in college and went to Beer Fest in Marquette, there was a booth that sold food on a string.  You wore it around your neck and they you had food to nibble on while drinking beer.  Being the smart aleck I am, I made some for us.  
Katy with her pretzel necklace.  Seating was outdoors.  Once we got to our table we took off our masks.  


Katy brought the most glorious gourmet cupcakes from GiGi's.  We had  Chocolate Sea Salt Caramel (my favorite), Lime, Dreamsicle, Cookie Dough and Chocolate 

Bob got me  a new yard art piece.  Its a dragonfly that is made out of pipe wrench and other scrap metal.  I love this stuff.  I have a couple of pieces I have blogged about in the past.  It is just so cool 
Its nice and rusty too!

Ed got me flowers, the colors were so pretty.  It was a wonderful birthday!
I got my latest piece of VMSS linen:  Heritage Sampler.  I think this one may be my favorite yet.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  It is a little darker.  I really do like darker linen. 
Started working on Carriage House Samplings Truth & Wisdom.  Its just a small piece.  I saw it again when I was on her website looking for A Free and Independent Mind.  It sparked me up.  
The Stitching Bee had a frame sale.  I called and had her put two aside for me and Katy was able to pick it up.  I paid for it ahead of time but, needed to spend at least $10 to put it on a credit card.  So I ordered a few more things.  Oh boy!
I'm going to Briwax this red one to tone it down.  The brown one is a nice size and I'm sure I will put it to good use. 
Black Bird Designs We Live in Hope.  This is a really lovely sampler.  Not sure if I will do the whole think or parts.  There are two samplers:  the large one on the front cover and just the sailing ship.  I may just do that.  Stay tuned.
I took the day off because I knew the kids wouldn't leave till this morning.  I had to go to a meeting at my new employers.  It was a just get to know everyone, a brief informational, some team building etc.  I'm so tired of the team building which generally is a load of crap if you ask me.  I have  yet another questionaire to fill out.  I've done three in the last couple of months  UGH!

Rest of the week is going to be busy since I was off today. Did get a little stitching done this afternoon after a power nap. 

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!  Have a great week!  Stay safe, healthy and wear your mask
Monica

Sunday, July 26, 2020

General Stuff

Work has been a roller coaster ride this last week.  Lots of turmoil as to be expected with everyone.  It's going to be bumpy to start with but, if the management of  company is good, ultimately I think it will be fine.  Will just have to wait and see.  Like I said, retirement is on the horizon.  I have mixed emotions about that too.  

I got my second set of 100/3 Ver au Soie.  The colors are so beautiful.  I need to find something I can try it out on.  I do have HATS Sarah Spencer and got these silks for.  Maybe that should be my next project.  Currently, I'm using a photobox to store them in.  I will have to figure out how to ultimately store them.  Next time I'm at Joann Fabrics, I will have to check out storage boxes.  
Some pictures of the latest blooms in the garden.  The first is an closed Balloon Flower (Platycodons).  They look like balloons before they open. 
The flower after it opens.  I had a plant that was a lovely shade of blue, until Henry trampled over it one too many times.  These are a light lavender.  Side note, I love blue flowers!  Delphinums are my favorite and I had beautiful ones.  They died out.  
I have four different types of Coral Bells or Heurechera.  These are flowers from the latest ones I planted.  The leaves are large and a burgundy and green.  I planted them in an area that I've had a hard time growing things.  I think gardening is often a lot of trial and error.  The flowers are small but, fairylike. 
I was watching The Saltbox Stitcher last weekend and she showed a project she may be starting on.  It really spoke to me so I tracked it down on Carriage House Samplings.  That is one stern looking woman!
The verse:  No glory I covet
                  No Riches I want
                  Ambition and
                  Beauty are
                  Nothing to me.
                 The one thing I
                 beg of good
                 heaven to grant
                 Is a mind
                 independent and
                 free

I really like how some of the alphabet goes around the edge of the piece. 
I finished the top edge of the satin stitch border of Sarah Braizear.  I believe I have come to the conclusion, I hate satin stitches.  I thought about not doing them and just filling in with a regular cross stitch but, I will power through. 
Taking a break from it and working on some BBD from the Sewing Club book.  It will be the stitching group's Christmas present this year. 

It has been a very hot and humid this weekend.  The populartion of the county is about 25,000.  We
have been having 2-3 new cases daily.  Fortunately, there is better compliance with masks.  Thank you Governor Whitmer. 

Stay safe and healthy and keep stitching. 
Monica

Sunday, July 19, 2020

Never Enough Vacation

Back to work tomorrow.  I really could use another week off.  Katy was home and that was great!  We got a lot done.  There weren't enough hours a day to get everything I was hoping to get done.   Bob laughed at my list with Stitch, stitch, stitch, stitch and stitch.  I think I only got stitch done.  

I finished Adam & Eve Revisited by Kathy Barrick.  I love how quirky this is.  I didn't use black for the background and used Weeks Pea Coat instead.  I wasn't sure I would have enough.  Katy proclaimed it playing Thread Chicken.  I won with quite a bit of floss to spare.  Not sure if I'm going to frame it or finish it as a pinkeep or something.   
I was lying in bed one morning just thinking about a BBD design I had stitched several years ago.  It may have been the first one I stitched, Rites of Spring.  I never really wanted to frame it.  I thought, "I wonder if I could make a drum out of it?  Found it while we were cleaning the basement and getting rid of a lot of junk.  I figured it would work so I went for it.  I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  Maybe a little too much in the dome but, I think it still looks great.  Generally used Vonna Pfeiffer's tutorial.  The fabric on the ends and the pompom needed some tuning up.  The background on the fabric was too white and didn't really go.  I coffee dyed it and Katy was amazed how much better it looked with the piece.  I lightly dyed the pompom with brown Rit dye.  If you don't concentrate the dye too much, it turns a lovely shade of pink like Weeks Sanguine or if a little longer, Red Pear.  I think that was the pink in the flowers. 


Its a keeper. 

Starting August 1, I'm going to have a new employer.  The hospital I work for decided it would be better to enter a contract with a Rehab company and move us off the campus to better fit into the hospital's strategic plan.  We had a meeting on Thursday.  Typical corporate procedure:  we got fired by the hospital and then received an offer and packet from the Rehab company.  Fortunately, I really only plan on working a few more years.  What a way to end a career.  Made me just want to cry.  Hopefully all will go well. 

Hope you are all well and staying healthy. 
Keep on Stitching
Monica

Sunday, July 12, 2020

Vacation, Just Not the Cruise

I'm so excited, I'm on vacation this week!!  Not going anywhere.  Was suppose to be the first week of my cruise with Jean Farrish.  It was such a long process, starting February 2019 with the initial booking.  Then all the land excursions planned.  We got all but the non refundable deposit.  Today, I would have boarded the plane at O'Hare.  It's a little sad but, okay.  

I finished the 2020 Prairie Schooler Santa this week. Tomorrow, I will fully finish it.  This really is a super cute Santa with the rabbits.  I did enjoy working with the Sulky thread.  I had no problems with it and the coverage was great on the 32 count.  I would use it again.  I think Prairie schooler works well because there isn't the depth of thread colors for extensive shading.  There are some Hands on Designs patterns that call for the Sulky:  Cranberry Christmas for one.  On 123 Stitch the thread pack is $10.  
I needed some thread to finish Sarah Braizear and Scarlet House Bringing Home the Tree that I  wasn't able to get it from the Stitching Bee.  Since I was already paying for shipping, I added a few other threads and some Lugana.  I have a few projects in the queue that call for Lugana.  I'm sure there will be more.  Its a great choice for stitching over one  I really liked the color of the Wheat.

Some of the additional threads I ordered are ones I seem to use a lot

Katy is home for most of the week.  We haven't seen her since the end of January.  Its great to have her home.  

Because of the uptick in Covid 19 in the area, there were a lot more people wearing masks as compared to last weekend.  Maybe because the tourists were there the day before or gone.  I was happy to see that.  I hope it keeps up.  

That about wraps it up.  The weather has been pretty good, temperature is more seasonal.  We've been in the 90's.  I do have to go into work for a mandatory meeting on Thursday.  I'm afraid we are headed for some big changes.  I'll keep you posted.  

Hope you have a good week.  Stay healthy
Keep Stitching 
Monica