Tuesday, November 22, 2011

 I finished Hog Wash by Teresa Laymen in the past week.  The pink fabric will be used for the finishing.  I just love dupioni silk for finishing.  I usually buy my own so the finisher has the color I want and it may be more expensive than what a finisher wants to charge. 
 I made progress with Beautie Spot.  I spent the week working on the final bunny motif.  I also did some of the boarder that you can see in the picture.  For me, this was a big week. 

I did pick up some finishing over the weekend.  I gave these projects plus some others to the finisher last March.  She did a nice job but since it took so long she did not even charge me for the finishing.  She did have four more pieces to finish but she did not even get to those. I asked for my other pieces back because eight months is ridiculous.  I got to worrying about never getting my projects back.  I will let my friend finish my pieces and she will have them back to me in a month or so. 

I am all packed and project ready to go to Florida tomorrow.  I have some very high expectations for the projects.  I spent more time gathering projects than I spent on packing.  Plus, I have three library books for the trip.  The evenings are quiet and there is not much to do after we eat on Thanksgiving so I might manage to get some things done.    We are going to the Club for dinner so no one has to cook or clean but the food is not the same as homemade.  My husband usually does all the cooking but he has to stay home due to work.  I am grateful he has a job but I like it better when he consults because he does not work as much and can play with me. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday with lots of good food, family, and friends.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Let me show you the bird and the bride!

 First, I want to thank everyone for their kind comments and notes on my last post.  I have never had that many comments on one post in my year of blogging!!  It was so exciting.  I got tons of comments on my Long Dog Sampler, Beautie Spot.  The Dodo was much more painful than he should have been but he was completed last night.  Now I am on to the final large motif and some finishing touches including the boarder, initials, dates and spangles. 


I did not get much stitching done over the weekend because of my oldest nieces wedding.  The bride was beautiful and the other picture has six of my older nieces and nephews.  It was an adult only reception.  I have seven more nieces and nephews not in the picture.  The three on the left were in the wedding party.  I loved the brown bridesmaid dresses.  We also had a baptism on Sunday for my neighbor's baby.   Anna was a real cutie in her white dress but I failed to get a picture of her.  Her gown was from the train of her mother's wedding dress. 

That is about as exciting as it gets around here.  I am almost done with my French knot Pig but I want to save that for another riveting post in the future.  Have a fabulous week! 

Monday, November 7, 2011

Libby Sturdy Class

 Hi!  This was a big stitching week for me.  I did not have much going on most of the week and worked on my stitching in the evenings.  Saturday was a class on Windy City Santa with Libby Sturdy.  I had a lot of what she was teaching done but it was a good class.  It help build my confidence and I will get this piece done.  It may take a while but I am not as intimidated by this piece as I once was.
 Early in the week I worked on Frog Stew.  I finished couching the moon and the cauldron.  I added the logs and flames below the cauldron.  (One of my logs looks like a boy's private parts.  I really need to change that!!)   Finally, I worked on some of the blue sky.  That stitch covers a large area of this piece so I thought I could start working on some of the completed areas and not leave this all for the end.


Finally, I did spend a bit of time with Beautie Spot.  I am working on the Dodo bird.  I made a mistake somewhere and I am having to stitch my way through this mistake.  It has turned me off this piece and right now it is a chore to work on. Once this bird is done, I only have one more big motif.  This is my Guild Challenge piece so this needs to be done by January.  

I am not sure how much progress I will continue to get done between now and the New Year.  I have two trips to Florida planned and one to the Turks.  I am busy buying books and I have to pull together a travel project.  Speaking of books, I read Skeletons at the Feast last week and really enjoyed the book.  It is about WWII so not a real uplifting book but very well written.  It was my first upload for the Kindle from the public library.  It worked well and I uploaded a new book to read this week.  I am debating if I want to join Amazon Prime for there new offer of a free book a month.  I am not sure I need their other services available with Prime so I am just not sure if it is worth it for me.  

Well that is about all going on around here.  Tonight is the Bears game.  I know we are having a friend over so I may not get to stitch.  Boo.  Then again, he is a good friend and I may just let the boys drink, watch football and I will stitch.  Have a great week.