Beautie!!

 Today is a day to celebrate the finish of Beautie Spot.  Excuse the wrinkles and the poor photos.  Beautie has been traveling and has to go to Guild on Saturday so I can show everyone that I finished my challenge piece.  The second picture is so you can see the spangles.  I am supper happy that this three, maybe four year, WIP is done.  I am not sure what I am going to do with this.  People suggested a fire screen and that is a good idea.  I do have a fire place but I am going to think on this for a while.  If you have any suggestions, I would love to hear them. 

I have also been making progress on Windy City Santa. I am working on the homework for the class in February. I finished his mittens, I worked on the background, I did the green down the center of the coat and I worked on the buildings. I was a little intimidated by the building but once you get going they are not that big of deal. Part of the homework was to finish the building to the far right so we can put the Farris wheel in. I think I will continue to work on this for a bit since I am happy with my progress. Maybe I will make this next year’s Guild Challenge piece. This one has been in my WIP pile for several years.

The big news yesterday was DH quit his job. We found out Saturday night that the company he was working for was shopping his job. He was not happy at this company and was looking for another job so this was the final straw. They mutually agreed that it would be best if he just left the company. It will all work out for the best. He worked his contacts yesterday and he has a third interview for a global roll with an investment bank. He has an interview today with another investment bank and he started his consulting company back up. He is going to help a friend market a product he developed. I would say that was pretty good progress for one day out of a job.

Have you seen the latest issue of Bon Appetit? They have veggie tart on the front cover this month. It was a ton of work to make but it is delicious. I am looking forward to left overs for lunch. With my chef unemployed, there will be lots of good eating at our house. He was taking requests from the neighbors last night.

That is all around here. Hope everyone is getting into the swing of the New Year and has tons of time to stitch.

Happy 2012

Happy New Year!  I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.  I decided I really liked not working but life would not be as much fun without the paycheck. 

I finished the Night at the Opera ornament by Princess and Me.  He went to the finisher on Saturday.  I think he turned out cute and he was a fairly quick stitch. 

I did finish stitching Beautie Spot while I was in Naples for Christmas.  When I got home, I ironed the piece and a little bit of color ran under the deer.  I fixed the problem by picking out the black and adding a couple more rows of stitching so all is well.  I am adding the spangles which are not in this picture.  I added all the spangles that I had but I am about 20 spangles short.  They were shipped yesterday so this is getting so close to finished and I will post a final picture soon!!

Our guild had a stitch-in on New Years Eve day.  We had a great turnout of 15 ladies.  I worked on Windy City Santa but I did not take a picture.  That night we had a dinner party for eight friends and two babies.  DH made southern appetizers of shrimp and grits, chicken and waffles, and biscuits and gravy.  For dinner he made a filet, twice baked potatoes and creamed spinach.  It was a wonderful meal and lots of wine.  It is great to live with a man that loves to cook and he cleans up.

I hope 2012 brings much happiness, good health, and lots of stitching time.  

 Hi,  I am back from the Turks and Caicos.  Considering I have been traveling every other week this month, I have a lot of stitching to show.  My first picture is of Beautie Spot.  I am currently working on the bunny and the boarder.  The bunny is a little creepy without his eye and his ears.  They are soon to come.  Hopefully the next time I blog about Beautie, it will be done and ironed. 

 Santa was my pool buddy on vacation.  I spent my mornings under cover and stitched on this Princess and Me Santa.  I have him finished down to the background which I hope to finish up on Friday so I can take another ornament to Naples.  I might have finished him but security did not like my little kid scissors so they took them away.  Some countries don't allow points so these had rounded ends but they were too big.  No big loss.  I only carry on scissors that I don't care if they are taken away.  Hopefully the scissors will be donated to some school kid.  The poverty is pretty bad on the island. 

 Before I left I finished this Princess and Me Snowman.  He is so cute with his fringed scarf.  My finishing bill early next year will be huge. 

Finally, let me leave you with a couple of pictures from the Turks.  The water in the Turks is beautiful.  DH got in 9 dives on this trip so I had a lot of time at the adult pool.  I did spend a couple of  days on the beach but I am really more of a pool person because I don't like the sand in everything and on me.  We stayed at the Veranda which turned out to be condos.  It was nice to have a washer and dryer in the unit.  This was an all-inclusive vacation.  The food was good and the booze was top shelf.  We meet a lovely couple from Chicago and we shared many bottles of Champagne by the pool one afternoon. 

While my mornings were spent with Santa. My afternoons were spent with Kindle.  Let me just say that I love that the library loans books on Kindle.  All three books I read came from the Chicago Public library.  My first book was a little older, The Story of Edgar Sawtell.  It was pretty good.  I had a hard time with this book because I kept waiting on the dog to die.  The death of animals makes me cry and I knew this was going to be part of the book.  I will not read Marley and Me because I heard the dog dies.  The second book was The Night Circus.  I really enjoyed this book.  Finally, I read Girls in White Dresses.  This is a girly book and this is not my usual genre.  I only read this because the author was from Chicago.  This book is good if you are looking for this type of read. 

I leave on Saturday for Naples for a week.  I am done with my Christmas shopping however most of the gifts involve cash, checks, or gift certificates.  DH ordered his own Christmas present before the Turks.  He got a dive computer which he used on vacation.  The only other gifts I bought were for my parents.  Part of those are already in Florida and I will bring down a few gifts.  New Years Eve is a stitching day with the guild ladies and we are hosting a wine tasting party for a small group of friends. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful Holiday Season.  Enjoy your family and friends but I hope you can find a little time to stitch.

 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.

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! 

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.   

Tail Feathers

 Can you believe that it is already August.  Where is summer going?  My letters for Seminar supplies are coming in, I won't see my Guild friends until Naples, I am planning weekends through September, and soon I will have to start booking my tickets for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I did manage to get in a few stitches into Beautie Spot.  I finished up the individual flower on the left hand side.  I finished the tail feathers and I am outlining the back end of the Dodo bird. 

This is a little travel project that I decided to work on.  This was our Guild's project last month.  I wanted to take the class because I have a pulled work class at Seminar and I wanted some practice.  At one point I was not going to finish this project because the directions are a little wonky and the finishing is making this into a pin cushion using an empty tuna fish can.  Seriously, I just could not see myself living with a used tuna fish as a pin cushion.  Just kind of grosses me out.  I know about reusing and re purposing but I would have been happier with a crushed pineapple can instead of tuna.   Anyway a Guild friend said to make it an ornament instead with lame as a lining to bring out the holes in the pulled work.  That seems like a much better idea, plus I only have to  see this one month a year instead of year round. 

Our house has been a revolving door of friends and dinner parties.  Last night I finally had to say enough and no one can come over.  Hopefully, that pattern can hold for tonight as well.   My husband is dealing with some eye issues and he will be off work this afternoon but that will not necessarily slow him down from cooking and inviting people over. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you have a wonderful week. 

It's Beautie

Beautie Spot

 I have been working on Beautie Spot over the weekend.  I showed my progress on the blue star a couple of weeks ago and now it is finished.  I have the black outline done on the flower so it needs to be filled in with color and you can see a tiny black line for the tail of the Dodo Bird.  I have the Dodo, the bunny, the boarder and a few touches like spangles and initials to finish for the Guild Challenge at the end of the year. 

I have also been able to get in a few French and Colonial knots into my pig project.  I worked on the flowers and some of the sky. 

I did read a wonderful book this week.  It is Mudbound by Hillary Jordon.  It was her first novel and it took her seven years to write this book.  Her second book is coming out in October.  This book reminded me of The Help because each chapter was the voice of one of the main characters.  A question has been going around Facebook:  What book has kept you up way past your bedtime reading?  This could be one of those books.  I did not stay up but I did finish this in about a day.  I also read Mockingjay over the weekend.  This is the final book in the Hunger Game trilogy.  This series could also keep me up past my bedtime.  What book kept you up past your bedtime?  I would love to hear about any great books you have read. 

Last night I apparently gave up on walking.  I live in a soft loft (bedrooms have walls and doors) and it has exposed duct work.  When we do laundry in the summer, condensation forms and it drips on the hallway floor.  I was walking down the hall in flip-flops and fell flat on my bottom.  I was not hurt other than a bruise on my knee and a little jar to the body.  So today I decide to wear sensible shoes and I have tripped no less than 4 times today.  Seriously?  Am I determined to land on my ass again only this time in public? 

My husband has a business dinner tonight which does not happen very often.  I am planning my evening.  I am going to do my household chores like water the poor plants that are subjected to this 100 degree weather, make a quick dinner, and curl up in the stitching chair with my projects and DVR.  I am not home alone all that often so it is something to look forward to. 

Hope you have a wonderful day with at least a little stitching time. 



A bit of stiching mojo

I finally have a bit of stitching to show.  We had a wonderful four day weekend and I did spend a little time with Beautie Spot.  I did the star and everything to the left.  I did have a to frog one of the puffs because I apparently could not read the color symbols that day. 

 Since I was off work on Friday, I was out running errands.  The sky was so strange.  The picture does not do it justice but as creepy as it was, no storms blew in.  The picture was taken with my IPhone as I was stopped at a traffic light. 

Between reading and that damned IPad nothing has been getting done at my house, not that I have all that much to do anyway.  Random House sent me a free book in the mail called The Passage.  It was pretty good but it was 800 pages long so it was like reading three books.  I also finished The Little Known which was also pretty good.  I would give both of these book about 4 stars out of 5.  I started Catching Fire which is the second book in the Hunger Game series and it is really good.  The IPad has Sudoku, Game of Thrones, and Nurse Jackie.  I read about Game of Thrones on Whitney's blog and I am hooked.  It is a good show to watch if you have to share your tv with a male but you have to ready for nudity and sex.  When I say nudity, I mean every God given/surgury inhanced part is out there for your viewing, male and female.  Also, hooked on Whale Wars from Animal Planet. 

I have tried to comment on several blogs lately and it is just not working for me everyday.  I have been lurking and trying to keep up on many of the blogs.  There are lots of beautiful projects being done.  Keep up the lovely stitching!!

Beautie Coming Along

Motif Finished



New Motif Started



Three years of progress

Hi,  I got to spend some time last weekend with Beautie Spot.  I finished the flower and bug motif and I started the star motif.  I was supposed to have the flower done in February and finish the star in March.  We will have to wait and see how that goal plays out.  I have four more designs to finish and the Pine stripe around the piece. 

Other than what I accomplished last weekend, nothing else has been done.  Our week was crazy!  We had work dinners, receptions, charity work, and dinners with friends.  Our friends are in town from Brazil another friend is in from San Fran, my brother and his family are coming in this weekend, and we have a going away dinner on Sunday so things are not slowing down until next week.  Plus, this is planning season at work and I have been putting in more hours than usual. 

On a happy note, I get to start a new project tomorrow.  I am taking a class at my Guild.  I will show you a picture once I get the pattern.  To keep the costs down we bought our own threads and we were given the canvas at the last meeting so we could get it on stretcher bars before the meeting. 

On the top of my piece is my tack push in tool.  It also comes with a tack remover.  Why didn't someone tell me this is a must have tool?  I used to push my tack in with my fingers and it worked.  This is so much better and easier.  I have been stitching for years and just bought this thing at Christmas time.  No more pushing tacks in with these fingers!! 

I am going to find time to stitch at some point this week.  Hope you have time to get lots of stitching done so I can live vicariously through your blogs. Have a wonderful weekend. 

No Project Loyalty Around Here

When I had time to stitch this week, I could not settle on any one project. Let me start with Beautie Spot and its wrinkles. This is a solid three years of wrinkles that we are all going to have to live with until the end. Margie wanted to see the whole picture and the one below is the progress I made on my current motif. I finished most of the stitching below the two smaller leaves last night. I am going to try to finish this motif over the weekend and start a March Motif. Several readers have said they have this or the sister piece hanging around in the WIP pile. If you want to set a goal to finish a March Motif with me, we could encourage each other along the way. (Goals for other pieces are welcome too.) I think I have five designs left to finish.

I got the top orange stripe done this week. I am not sure I did the corners correctly but I am not picking this out. It took a long time to put in. The stitch is a six trip herringbone. I think I have five more lines in this project. The same designer as Mayan Lightning will be teaching a new project at our March 12th Guild meeting so it would be nice to have this one done before I start a new project.

Hogwash is coming along. I completed the grass on the right hand side and the tops of two trees. I just love doing these knot projects.

The weekend is almost here. We are hosting two dinner parties this weekend. One is for 10 of our close friends. He is serving a menu of Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Breakfast is asparagus with poached egg and pancetta, lunch is a chicken crepe and dinner is beef bourguignon. On Sunday we will have a smaller party with homemade ravioli in a cream sauce with peas that is so good. I am really going to have to start going to the gym again so I can show my arms and not my belly during charity event season this spring.

Have a very happy, stitchy weekend.

Not much stitching...Again!

Here is my progress on Beautie Spot. Boring! I worked on this three nights this week but don't have a lot to show for it.

Now on to non-stitching related things. They play we went to last weekend was o.k. Three of my friends did not make it to the show before the start so they did not get to go. Everyone knew the show started at 4:00 so they just ended up drinking in the bar. Sunday was the Super Bowl Party which was a lot of fun. DH made Buffalo macaroni and cheese with chicken and blue cheese that was to die for. This is not for anyone concerned about calories, cholesterol, heart disease, or high blood pressure because this stuff literally could kill you. Last night was dinner at Crust which is an organic pizza place and it was very good. They had very unique pizza toppings and last night was trivia night but we did not stay for all of that.

This weekend is going to be dreadful. I have a board retreat for the homeless shelter. These weekends are not so bad once you get there but awful to think about giving up a weekend to sit in a boardroom. At least this one is in town and we do not have to go to a hotel or worse, someones summer home with not enough bedrooms or bathrooms but that is another story. I have spent the last year trying to get off the board so I would not have to go to this thing. I am weak and they have talked me into staying on the board until June but at least an end date is in sight.

One of you lovely ladies in blog land mentioned that you enjoy having your Kindle read to you. I had tried this once before and was not all that impressed. I tried it again last week and loved it. Kindle read to me A Proper Pursuit by Lynn Austin. It was a cute book that I really enjoyed. I also finished Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue. This book is not speech enabled so I had to read this one. The book was disturbing but I liked the book. This is our book club selection so at least that is out of the way.

That is about the extent of the excitement around here. Thanks for the nice comments and it has been great talking with some of my new blog friends! Hope everyone has a nice weekend with lots of stitching time.

Considering that I have not left the house since 3:00 pm on Tuesday, you would think I could have accomplished more on Beautie Spot. Sometimes wine after work beats out cross stitch...

The big news around here has been the weather. I won't talk about it much because most of you are living in the same dreadful situation. We have kept electricity so we are warm, safe and have plenty to eat so we cannot ask for much more.

This weekend will be a little more exciting. Some friends and I are going to a new brew pub that has a drinking and writing theater. They have a great quote on the wall: "Theater without beer is just a museum." Bertolt Brecht. This should be a fun way to spend part of the afternoon. Sunday is the Super Bowl so yet another football party. I think I am going to be happy when this season is over and I can have my stitching Sunday's back.

Super Bowl does mean some good stitching sales. I love sales but I am trying to use up things not add to them for now. Enjoy your weekend and may it include many hours of beautiful stitching.

BTW...Someone left me a note on the last post inquiring where they can get Mayan Lighting. Since I did not have the person email address, I left a comment on my last post with some more details about the project.

The calm before the storm

I had a fun, stitching filled weekend. On Saturday, our Guild had a stitching day at the Oak Park Library. We have this four times a year when there are five Saturday's in a month. I worked on Mayan Lightning. I finished the yellow and maroon rows at the bottom and the aqua row on the top. One lady did finish her piece on Saturday. She is going to use this as a purse insert. It will be stunning!!

Yesterday, was a full day of stitching goodness. I sat in my chaise all day and worked on Beautie Spot. I finished the bug and started on the flower. I also did a little more of the green boarder but thought I would spare you a picture.

Look at this dull, gray world Chicago becomes in the winter. I want some sunshine!!

I am sharing a couple of pictures of how the world looks today outside on our terrace and from the front balcony. We are supposed to get around 20 inches of snow tomorrow and Wednesday. We have not had this much snow at one time since 1999 and I was living in New York that year so I did not experience it. I am getting prepared in my own little way. I am planning on working from home most of this week. I went to Walgreen's before work to pick up a prescription and I bought a candle lighter. At lunch, I will walk to the Organic Pet Food store for more cat food. I think we have enough human food to last until St. Patrick's Day so we are good there. On Saturday, the liquor store had the foresight to offer 15% off wine and spirits so I have a dozen bottles of wine and champagne so that is ready for the storm. Stitching is all set for the next five years or longer. Watch, this will be a non-event. Even if we get lots of snow, it is supposed to be close to 40 on Sunday so a lot of this will go away shortly.

Everyone stay safe and warm. Happy Stitching.

Oooh Ahhh!!

Actually, I am being sarcastic with the title of this post. I have accomplished so little that I should hang my head in shame. To my defense, I had an eye infection and that did not make me want to strain my eyes any more than what I do all day on the computer. On Beautie Spot I worked on the green boarder. I went half way down the right side and turned the corner. Turning the corner did result in some frogging being necessary. I thought the boarder would be boring so I should occasionally throw in a few stitches. Actually, I am enjoying the brainless effort this takes.

I did spend one evening with my pig. I filled in her skirt and finished the colonial knots that make up the hose.

Since my stitching is a bore this week, I thought I would mention my new fetish. I am really liking readers now. I want a pair in every project. Since we hang in Florida so much, readers are everywhere. They even have a store call Grandpa's and all they sell are readers and magnification products. (Tell you something about the age in the community?) The top two pairs are cheep readers from Grandpa's. The bottom two are much cooler Eye Bobs. When I bought the bottom pair, I did not know about Eye Bobs and paid full price. The pink/orange/green pair are really nice and I got them for something like $15.00 at Saks Outlet. I always check Saks and Neiman's Outlets for readers.

I have been busy ordering little gifts for the Guild retreat off Etsy. All the vendors have been so nice. The send little thank you notes with your order. Personally, I should be sending them thank you notes for making such cute things. I will take pictures before the retreat so you can see all the gifts. In case anyone is reading my blog, I want to leave a few surprises.

Tomorrow is stitching day at the library. I am excited and hope to progress on some projects so I have something to talk about next week.

Everyone that is having bad weather, stay safe and warm. Happy Stitching!

Lacking in Attention Span

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Ours was a little longer due to the MLK Holiday. I caught the cold everyone else has so I have been flitting from project to project with very little rhyme or reason. First, I got the bug to finish square 7 of the CyberPointers Presidents mystery project. Who knows when panel 8 will be released so it is hard to be motivated about this project but once a new set of directions is available, I wanted to be caught up. I did run out of Kreinik so square 7 is not 100% complete but it will only take 15 minutes or so to finish up.

Since I find Teresa Layman's French Knot projects comforting, I worked on my pig. I still have to fill in her skirt then I will work on the other parts of this project.

My final project this week is the finish of my mushroom motif on Beautie Spot. I finished the rust colored mushroom yesterday. The random little black line was all I could do on the next motif before I fell over in a cold medicine induced sleep.

The big news around Chicago right now is the Bears. We had about 15 people over for the game on Sunday and we will have at least that many over next Sunday. Quite a few of my friends grew up in Wisconsin so we will have a very mixed crowd of Bears and Packer fans. It really cuts into my stitching time when I lose most of Sunday to a party but I enjoy having everyone around.

That is about as exciting as it gets around here. Hope you have tons of stitching time.