I'm Back

We are back from our trip to Santa Fe, NM. If you hate trip posts, look at Lucy and move to your next blog...I was able to get some stitching done on this trip. Lucy is my travel project. Last Thursday was our travel day. Usually when we travel, we book flights very early in the morning. This trip did not leave until 1 p.m. so we were up and ready to go way before 1 so we decided we would go to the airport early and have lunch at the Admirals Club so I had some time to stitch. Then our plane had mechanical issues in Dallas so we were delayed there for a few hours. We finally made it to Santa Fe at 11.

When I booked this trip I knew it was Indian Market weekend but I did not know Indian Market was a big deal. It was just a weekend that worked for us. Indian Market had over 1,000 booths of art vendors. All the artist needed to be at least 25% Native American. Now keep in mind I live in a loft so feathers and tepees are not my style and some of the big necklaces hurt my neck to even think about wearing them. I did not buy any art but some of pieces were beautiful. I especially enjoyed seeing the women weave. They had to be so hot playing with all the wool in 90 degree heat.

On Sunday we moved hotels to a beautiful resort in the country. Encantado
is one of the nicest resorts we have ever stayed at and we have stayed at some nice places. We wanted to go to the country for a while on Sunday so we climbed to the cliff dwellings at Bandelier National Park. It was a fairly easy climb. I managed to do it in sandals because I did not have tennis shoes or hiking boots with me. I have a fear of falling and on the way down the stairs turned sharply to the left and I could not see the hand rail. This caused a small anxiety attack and the mussels in my right leg to cramp. My leg is still improving but I am still groaning after I get up from sitting for too long.

This is a picture of the nature trail that came after we climbed off the mountain. There were little signs along the way to watch out for mountain lions, bears, rattle snakes, spiders, and other critters. Fortunately, we missed all the animals. It was fairly civilized where we were so I think the signs were there so the stupid people did not bate the animals with food or small children.

The last picture is from Encantado. The sky is so beautiful and clear most of the time. This just happens to be a cool front that came through and brought some rain. Earlier in the day we sat at the pool and I stitched on Lucy. It was clear and warm. The cool front came in within the hour I was getting my facial.

I do not want to bore you with all my pictures or every detail of the trip. We did buy a new camera before the trip so we were playing with that. The picture of Lucy may not be the greatest but considering I took that picture at 10 p.m. under my Ott Light, I did not think it turned out all that bad.

I am happy to be home. My next trip is ANG in Columbus which makes me so excited!! Followed by a trip to Brazil, two trips to Florida and an undermined trip so I can make Platinum status on American Airlines.

Happy Stitching! Kelly

Little to report

Not much stitching has been going on but I wanted to post something this week. I did manage to get some background stitching done on my Bee Scissor Case. I worked on the green background on the top and some of the cream background on the left hand side.


When you live in Chicago, you have to take advantage of the summer weather. We have had people over 5 of the last 7 nights. Hence why the stitching is not getting done. I am exhausted but I have had a good time.


We leave for Santa Fe later this week. I am looking forward to the trip. I am not sure what we are going to do but there are a ton of things to see and do in this area of the country. I really want to go back to the mineral baths in the mountains. We are staying in some fabulous resorts so hopefully we will have a good combination of sightseeing and relaxing. We did buy a new camera so with any luck I will have some pictures from the trip and my stitching photos might improve.


Happy stitching. Kelly

A Little of This & A Little of That

Yesterday, I spent most of the day stitching but it does not appear that I accomplished all that much. My main project was Safari. I put in the giraffe spots. For the time I spent on these spots you would think I would be done with them, but I am far from done. Maybe I was too focused on my DVR instead of my stitching. Project Runway, Jersey Shore, Big Brother, Hung, an occasional CSI, a soap opera or two, may have distracted me. Keep in mind that I have not been home for three weekends so my DVR was pretty full.

I worked on my Teresa Layman project on Friday night and some Saturday afternoon. Everything I put in on Saturday had to be picked out because I used the wrong color twice. A thread was put away on the wrong card and I kept using the wrong color. Picking out tiny French knots is a time consuming process.

Notice the new hoop. This is a Hardwicke Manor Embroidery Hoop. This is soooo much better than the plastic hoops I have used in the past. I can get this hoop tighter and hold the fabric more taunt. One of the professional embroidery people said this is what she used so I have been eyeing them for a couple of months. Hedgehog Hand Works is having free shipping this month. I believe this saved me $10.00 in shipping by ordering this month. I know Needle in a Haystack has these hoops and I am sure others sell them as well. I bought the 6 inch round in 5/8 and the 5 inch round in 5/16. The 5/8 one is so nice! It is thick and sturdy. The 5 inch only comes in 5/16th and I think it will work great on smaller projects. I found a tutorial on binding embroidery hoops which I think I will try once I get to a fabric store.

Here is Lucy. This is mainly from earlier in the week. I think since my last post I finished the yellow egg and part of the basket. She is fun to work on but I will not work on her until I go to Santa Fe. I will have plenty of plane time to work on her.

My weekend was fairly quiet for a change. We did go to a street fair in Little Italy on Saturday. We walked it a couple of times, then we went to University Village to a bar/restaurant, the nice wine store, and then back home for some burgers. It was a fun day!

There is not much else going on here. I hope everyone has a great week. Hopefully, we can all get at least a few stitches in! Kelly

Stash Enhancement!

I did not get much stitching done over the past week but did I enhance my stash! The picture above is actually a gift for the lady I visited in Newport last weekend. She did not have stretcher bars for her project so I am giving her what she needs for a painted canvas she already owns. She travels several days a week so I thought this would be a nice little travel project for her when she is in her hotel room.

These are my stretcher bars! These are needed mainly for my classes at ANG National and my friends NAN class. Needless to say my bill at the LNS was huge. The owner told her husband that they needed to reorder Evertite's for the upcoming Seminars once I was done. If anyone needs Evertite's and shops at North Shore Needleworks, it is OK. She still has a few bars left.

Above is a Princess and Me canvas that I bought on Ebay. I bought the thread for this project. I won't get to this one for a while but it is always good to have a project all kitted.

Finally, I bought some of the threads for Scott Lee. The shop owner thought I should use silk instead of the Perle cotton #5. The store did not have the Perle #8 or #12 so she is ordering those for me. We tried to substitute the Perle #8 with a silk but the right colors were just not available. The big stretcher bars (13x20) were purchased for this project.

Right now my job is just about as secure as a job can be in this day and age. However, if anything does happen, I will be well prepared to pass my time. I am not allowing myself to start anything big until a couple of my big projects are finished so Scott Lee will just have to be admired from the project bag for a while. Seminar & the NAN pilot class will add three medium projects and a travel project. Orna Willis says her project can be completed at Seminar so that holds some promise.

My nieces and nephew did well at the State Swim Meet. In most events they improved their personal best times. Let me tell you, swim meets are boring. It is exciting to watch kids you know swim but other than that, you sit in this chlorine filled, hot room with a bunch of overbearing parents. I did get a little more done on Lucy and I will show a picture later. I am not sure if anyone but me would notice the progress at this point. I bounced around on Safari, Sweet Harmony and a little cross stitch ornament during the week so not much progress to show on any one project.

That is about all for today. I cannot believe it is already August. Where has summer gone? Soon we will be holding our breath for a good Bears team and wondering if the new hockey players are as good as last years champions. Kelly