A long time coming

Hi to anyone who is still following my blog.  I have not blogged in four months.  Yikes!  Life went a little crazy this summer and I did not get around to the blog.  My husband spent about five months working in Charlotte, NC and commuting home on the weekends.  This time period really messed with my life for some reason and when, for all practical purposes, I should have accomplished tons of things, very little besides day to day maintenance of my job, my condo, feeding myself, and IPad took place.  Well, life is kind of back to normal.  DH got a new job in Chicago so he is living at home and back to cooking for me. 

While I have been away, some stitching has taken place.  Mainly I have been working on my travel piece because I am rarely home on the weekends any more.  Over the summer I finished a pilot piece for Dianne Herrmann on for her Color Theory class.  I am not really sure what I am going to do with this piece.  If anyone has some good finishing ideas, please leave a comment.  I thought about having it finished as a stand-up for the holiday season. 

My ornament by Princess and Me of Santa and the Pea was done on my last post but here is a picture now that he is finished into an ornament. 

I happened to be home this weekend and my Guild had the fifth Saturday stitch-in so I spent some time with Windy City Santa by Libby Sturdy.  I worked on his jacket and the yellow lines that are in the background.  This guy should not be that hard to finish before the holiday's. 

Finally, this is the piece I have spent the most time with since August.  The belt canvas will be finished into Eliza B flip flops.  With the stress of life it has been great to have a project that consists of only basket weave.  I have 12 of the 20 shoes done so I am over half way done.  In this picture, you can see the five repeating motif's.  The shoes are all done in Kreinik and the back ground is being done in Burmilana. 

I have been traveling some.  In August, I got to spend a week in Florida at my family's home in Bonita Springs.  We did take a few day's and went over to Key Largo so my husband could dive.  I visited Needlepoint in Paradise twice that week.  I finished kitting up the Shoe canvas and on my second trip, I kitted up a couple of Princess and Me ornaments.  Later in September, we went to our friends wedding at The America's Club in Kohler, Wisconsin.  I never had a desire to go to The America's Club because it is "only Wisconsin" and who would pay that a night to stay in Wisconsin.  Let me tell you, it is a beautiful resort with a wonderful spa.  It was most likely cheaper to spend a week in Florida than a weekend in Wisconsin, but I would be happy to go back for another lovely weekend. 

In September, I spent several weekends downstate at my parents house.  My dad has Alzheimer's and we are trying to get him into a nursing home.  So far, he has been kicked out of two.  The first one did not work because it was not a lock down facility and he kept trying to escape.  The second one, he got combative and aggressive towards the guests and staff.  For about the past three weeks he has been in the hospital.  They are trying to get his medicine right so he is not as mean and can be moved into another nursing home with a dedicated Alzheimer's wing. 

One of the weekends I was downstate, Mom and I decided she should get away and we went to St. Louis for a couple day's away.  I did get to visit the Sign of the Arrow needlepoint shop.  That shop mainly sells belt canvases and threads.  The people of St Louis must make a ton of belts because the shop was packed.  The store did have some beautiful canvases.  If you ever get to the Sign of the Arrow, make a day of shopping the boutiques around the shop.  I found some clothes and some house ware things that were very unique. 

In October I will continue to go downstate every few weekends but the big event is at the end of the month when I go to EGA National Seminar in Santa Fe.  I am already gathering my supplies.  Actually, the teachers are not asking for much beyond basic stitching supplies but my main concern was having the right size of Evertites available for the projects. Now mind you, I probably have 40 sets of Evertites, but you only get to this amount by never having the right size for the different projects.  Well, I must finally have enough, because I have the right sizes for the classes. 

I should be able to get back to some more regular stitching and I can spend more time on my blog and catching up with all of your blogs.   I read a few this morning and there is some good stuff to look at beyond Pinterest:)  I hope everyone is enjoying the fall.  Happy stitching and Go Bears. 

Take care everyone.