A Weekend Get-a-Way

 Last weekend, I attended a stitching retreat at the Illinois Beach Resort and Conference Center in Zion Illinois.  It was a wonderful, relaxing three days of stitching!

 There were 40 attendees, and everyone was busy stitching!  

 It was a bit dreary outside on Friday and Saturday, but Sunday was a glorious day, weatherwise.  I look forward to another retreat in this great space in January!

 

WIP Wednesday10-28-2015

Seeing some good progress on this one!

WIP Wednesday, 10-21-2015

I haven't had much time to stitch, but did manage to get something done on my new WIP.  This is the ill fated piece that I started and ripped out twice before.  This time I am stitching it on 32 count fabric, over two fabric threads with two strands of floss.  I do like it much better now.....

A small finish

I finally finished Justin's ornament!  There was much frogging involved, and what should have only taken one afternoon to stitch turned into a week! 

Ornamentification will happen before Christmas!

September Progress, October Goals

Not much stitching time in September, and October appears to be just as busy.  But I will try and carve out a bit of stitching time whenever I can.

September 2015

WISPS:
10 hours on Rocky Mountain Christmas  
Antique Map and Needlebook
Heirloom Christmas Sampler
Oveture II 

In Progress

Christmas Runner finished
Autumn leaves

Future New starts

afghan pillow bear
afghan pillow moose
Crystal Violets
French Alphabet block sampler
Silent Night (CCN)
Around the World in 80 Days
Peter’s stocking
Mark & Karen’s wedding sampler
Tony & Melissa’s wedding sampler
4 person RR Marguerite’s
Carnival
Landon’s Stocking
Justin’s Ornament worked on it
Justin’s Birth Sampler
 
October 2015
WISPS:
10 hours on Rocky Mountain Christmas  
Antique Map and Needlebook
Heirloom Christmas Sampler
Oveture II 
 
In Progress
Autumn leaves 
Justin’s Ornament

Future New starts

afghan pillow bear
afghan pillow moose
Crystal Violets
French Alphabet block sampler
Silent Night (CCN)
Around the World in 80 Days
Peter’s stocking
Mark & Karen’s wedding sampler
Tony & Melissa’s wedding sampler
4 person RR Marguerite’s
Carnival
Landon’s Stocking
Justin’s Birth Sampler
 

 

WIP Wednesday 9-30-15

  Sorry to have been MIA for awhile, dear blogging buddies, but life has been busy. 

Since finishing the table runner, I haven't had much time to stitch, and the time that I did have was taken up with mostly 'unstiching'.  I have been working on this ornament for a week and a half.  It should have been done by now, but alas, it is not.  I now only have the back of it to finish, so I hope to have it done by the weekend......

Finished Christmas Table Runner

The runner is finished!  There are lots of gold threads in it, and it looks much more sparkly in person, but it is done almost 2 weeks ahead of the deadline!

WIP Wednesday 9-9-2015

Rather than show you how much is left to stitch on my current WIP, I will just show you how much is left to do!

I just need to finish the backstitching on one square and then do the stitching and backstitching on the last square!  I hope to have it finished by the end of the weekend.

WIP Wednesday, 9-2-2015

Silly me, I thought I could stitch one square per day......that didn't happen, but I did get 3 1/2 more squares done.  This stitching over 3 threads seems so unnatural to me.....but I must persevere and get it done! 

August Progress, September Goals

So much to stitch and so little time!!!  Traveling, work, family obligations and getting ready for the start of the new school year has left me with little time for stitching in August, and September promises to be much of the same.  I did manage to finish the Heart of America Sampler, and I stitched all four of the seasonal scissor fobs by Lizzie*Kate, and made good progress and a Christmas Table Runner, but had a disastrous stitching weekend on the Autumn Leaves project.  The Christmas Table Runner will have to be my focus piece as I need to have it done by the latter part of September.  It will be a donation for a raffle. 

August 2015

WISPS:

10 hours on Rocky Mountain Christmas  
Antique Map and Needlebook
Heirloom Christmas Sampler
Oveture II 

In Progress

Heart of America  finished

Future New starts

afghan pillow bear
afghan pillow moose
Crystal Violets
French Alphabet block sampler
Silent Night (CCN)
Around the World in 80 Days
Peter’s stocking
Mark & Karen’s wedding sampler
Tony & Melissa’s wedding sampler
4 person RR Marguerite’s
Carnival
Landon’s Stocking
Justin’s Ornament
Justin’s Birth Sampler
Summer Fob finished
Autumn Fob finished
Winter Fob finished
Spring Fob finished
Christmas Runner worked on it
Autumn leaves worked on it

September 2015

WISPS:
10 hours on Rocky Mountain Christmas  
Antique Map and Needlebook
Heirloom Christmas Sampler
Oveture II 

In Progress

Christmas Runner
Autumn leaves

Future New starts

afghan pillow bear
afghan pillow moose
Crystal Violets
French Alphabet block sampler
Silent Night (CCN)
Around the World in 80 Days
Peter’s stocking
Mark & Karen’s wedding sampler
Tony & Melissa’s wedding sampler
4 person RR Marguerite’s
Carnival
Landon’s Stocking
Justin’s Ornament
Justin’s Birth Sampler

A Finish of a Different Kind

Today is John's birthday.  To commemorate the day, I took the day off of work and we drove to Milwaukee to tour the Pabst Mansion.  I had been there a number of years ago and I was anxious to see the rooms that had been restored since my last visit.  John had never been there.  It is truly a wonderful place, and well worth the visit if you are in the area.







 We stopped for dinner on the way home, but went back to my house for dessert.  I had baked John's favorite cake, a spice cake.  This recipe has been in his family for generation, and I bake it for him each year.  It was yummy, but quite big for just the two of us.  John will be eating cake for quite awhile!

WIP Wednesday

I started on this Christmas table runner on Monday (I had purchased someone's UFO, but instead of continuing on I had to rip out everything that was done because the stitcher had used some unidentified floss colors)  I stitched merrily away on Monday and Tuesday, only to discover I had used the wrong poinsettia motif in the square and had to pull it all out, but I did manage to finished one square by late Wednesday evening.....I hope to stitch one square a day until it is finished.

IHSW Results

Hello blogging buddies.  I bet you expected to see a picture of what I stitched this weekend.....well, I have nothing to show you.  I spent a lot of time stitching, and a lot of time ripping out said stitches, so I've got nothing, nada, zip!

I had decided to do a 4-seasons leaf piece over one on 25 count, and had ordered a lovely piece of hand dyed fabric especially for this piece, but as I was about to start I realized there were lots of blended threads.  No problem, I thought, I will just use two strands.....well, after quite a bit of stitching, I realized I didn't like how it looked so I pulled it all back out again.  On Sunday, I thought to myself, since the two strands looked to bulky, I will just do a tent stitch instead of a full cross, and stitched merrily away for most of the day, but......again I didn't like how it looked, so I pulled it all out again.  At the end of the weekend, I was left with a blank piece of fabric and a massive headache.  I ordered more of the same hand dyed color in 32 count and 28 count, and will start over on one of those when it comes.......hope your weekend was better than mine.

Another IHSW!

The second International Hermit and Stitch Weekend this month!  What a bonus.  I have folk dance rehearsal to run on Friday evening, and have to meet with the electrician at German School on Saturday to work on the placement of the flat screens that are being installed, but then I have plans to stitch!

Another Finish!

I know, it's WIP Wednesday, but I finished the current WIP this morning, when I quickly added the beads before heading off to work.   This is the Spring Fob by Lizzie*Kate and it completes all four seasons! 

They will be 'finished' eventually......

IHSW results - a finish

Not as much stitching time this weekend as I would have liked.  A wake in the city on Friday after work, a funeral all day Saturday took up some valuable stitching time.  The visit from the grandchildren on Sunday was a welcome one, hugs and kisses from them are even better than stitching!

I did manage to finish the Winter Fab Fob by Lizzie*Kate and managed to get a good chunk of the Spring Fob stitched too!

We, Of the Needle

During my travels, I stopped at We, of the Needle, in Brea, CA, last week.  I needed a skein of Weeks that the first shop I stopped at didn't have in stock. 












We, of the Needle was a pleasant little shop, but disappointingly low on charts.  Things were a bit hard to find, not really logically placed.  There was a large table in the center of one of the side rooms.  I couldn't walk around that room to look at things, because an employee was sitting on one side eating her lunch, and the owner of the framing department (I think) was busy surfing the net on the other. 








I purchased the one skein of floss that I needed, and that was it. 

Needlepoint, LTD

On my recent travels, I stopped in at Needlepoint, Ltd. in Garden Grove, CA.  It was a bit hard to find, as it is way in the back of a warehouse complex.  Once I got there, I actually called the store to make sure they were open as it looked rather deserted.  The shop had moved in to its present location in January, but from the looks of the place, you would think they moved in last week. 

The shop is very well stocked with every imaginable fibre!  They carry handpainted canvases, as well as counted canvas charts and counted cross stitch charts.  The charts however, are not really displayed well, and things are hard to find.  In fact, some of the chart packs are bent over in the displays so they are even harder to see. 

There were still boxes with charts that didn't seem to be unpacked yet from the move. 









Overall the shop seemed 'dusty' and disorganized, but I managed to find some things that I couldn't live without!

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend......take one

Since this is the third weekend of the month, it is time of the monthly IHSW.  But.....this weekend isn't the third Friday, so it is not a 'full' IHSW.  I am told we will therefore have 2 this month!  check back Monday to see if I actually had time to stitch!

World Cross Stitch Day!

Today, Friday, August 14, is World Cross Stitch Day......and I am at work.....bummer.......