Jul 1st Monday Update

Here it is the first Monday of July. How? 7 months into 2024 already. I just wish the rest would SLOW down. Let's see what I was up to last week.

Monday I started another new piece. I mean I haven't started anything else lately right? Shush haha. The Pirate from Cottage Garden Samplings just had to be mine. I mean pirate! Hello? I worked on it Monday Tuesday and Wednesday. I'm using 36ct Mirage Edinburgh Linen. I loved how it was a dark and I hoped the snowman white would pop better. I love it so far...

1,274 stitches so far. Thursday I got to working on Thanks to the Brave by Erica Michaels. Worked on it Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Sunday I put the last stitches in. 

I found a little frame while shopping at Hobby Lobby Saturday so I tried it...

Love it!!! Oops forgot to give info on the piece...

Finish #19

Thanks to the Brave by Erica Michaels

Fabric 40ct Silk Gauze

Threads GAST Black Crow, Roasted Marshmellow, and Weathered Barn

Started March 1, 2024. Took 10 Days.

7,065 Total Stitches

A friend of mine got me interested in a new hobby...

It's a felt kit from Merry Stockings. From a mantel series so it makes a little shelf display. I've always been intrigued by felt kits. So I figured why not. I received it Saturday morning. Of course I needed some supplies so off to Hobby Lobby I went...

Some batting, sorting containers from the sequins, new scissors, some of the clips everyone is using, and I needed some floss of course. I will hopefully start it soon. My left wrist is hurting really bad probably tendonitis and I want that to heal up before I even try twisting and holding that felt. Luckily it doesn't hurt too bad to hold my Q-Snap. Not that I would let that slow me down haha.

I have 3 new starts planned for July...

I have this one planned for today. I would think it will be pretty fast so hopefully I'll finish it this month. I'm using 28ct New Khaki Lugana and Weeks Dye Works threads Liberty and Americana. I also have one like this that says Freedom. A LNS posted them on their Facebook page in April 2020 and I just knew my little patriotic kiddo would like them. 

Two Mill Hill kits will be started this month. Pisces which is Fred's Zodiac. The other is another Jim Shore gnome this one is called Mushroom Gnome.

Life update. Our little garden is doing fantastic...

Zucchini and Cucumber galore. I see a lot of baby tomatoes growing as well. Any time now. Yummy!! We like having the zucchini on our grill. So delicious.

Bev update. She was released from the hospital. They think the antibiotics treated whatever the infection was and her numbers are slowly building back up. They also did a bone marrow test because they wanted to check her overall cancer. Right now she still shows as cancer free. So last discussed they want to do one last round of chemo just to keep it gone. Then we don't know other than to switch to watching and maintaining. Still more to learn. She seems to be doing okay. She is sick of not being able to see. I sure wish that could come back. She does beautiful embroidery and she misses it badly. I simply can't imagine. Thanks for all the extra prayers and thoughts sent for her. I appreciate them a lot.

I'm off to stitch. I love the beginning of a month. I get all excited about my stitching plans. Let's do it. Have a great week. Happy 4th of July to my US readers. We are going to be a little laid back. Supposed to be HOT and stormy. My BFF is busy doing some things with his new love haha. So he won't be here. So should be hopefully laid back. Maybe I'll even get to stitch! That would be lovely. I have a challenge to stitch 1776 on a Patriotic piece. I would love to get that done.

Love yourself. Find reasons to smile. Stay safe in the weather.

May 20th Monday Update

Howdy all. It's hot out today. So AC running and all chores done as soon as possible. Let's see what I stitched on last week...

Monday was my 45th birthday. So I decided to spin a new start. Jeremiah spun Luck of the Irish by Primrose Cottage Stitches on the Tiny Decision wheel. I added 327 on Monday and 667 on Tuesday so a total of 994 this time...

I'm using 32ct Platinum Lugana and the suggested DMC which is only 3 colors. Another chart I got when I was at Always in Stitches before retreat this year. My needles were flying. Do you think it's the Irish in me? Haha.

Wednesday was time for another new start. This time the wheel picked Lady Liberty by Keslyn's. I added 476 stitches...

I'm using 32ct White Jobelan and Gloriana Silks Crimson and Pacific Dark Blue. I was getting ready to start and thought wow this fabric is HUGE. I realized that I forgot to tell the lady when I ordered the fabric I was planning on stitching it over one. Oops but I'll cut it and use the fabric for something else. No crisis with being too big now being too small would have been a different story all together haha. So here are my little tiny stitches...

If you can't tell I started on the upper left wing. This will help the thread last longer as well since I can use just one thread. 

Wednesday and Thursday I spun Halloween Potions by Les Petites Croix De Lucie. I wanted to add 500 to it this month. Ended with 513...

This one seems to go really slow because a lot of color changes. But it sure looks cute when stitched. Reminder I'm stitching it on 32ct Light Mint Lugana with suggested DMC.

Friday after I finished up my stitches on Halloween Potions I switched to another acrostic spin. Taurus Mill Hill kit came up. The prompt for this one was To the Party and since Taurus is my birthday zodiac I thought it was a good fit...

I had started this one Sept 26th, 2023 for a stitching challenge. So I had one day into it...

I added 159 Friday, 341 Saturday and 144 Sunday. I finished the main dark green symbol finally haha...

It was a great one to work on in between projects this weekend since it was IHSW but we had a lot of outdoor stuff to get done.

Sunday after I finished up the symbol I got back out Thanks to the Brave by Erica Michaels. I wanted to add 200 this month for the acrostic Letter E...

 

Added 243 stitches to the background fill in. That part definitely takes the longest. But helps the letters POP. So it's worth it. 

So I happily got a lot of stitching done all week. I have two new starts left on the two Wednesday's left in May. Irish Blessing Bell Pull and The Mandalorian. Can't wait to see what he spins first. Both I'm excited to work on so not really a bad choice between them.

I have to share the lovely Faith a dear blog friend of mine gifted me a GC to 123stitch for my birthday. So I happily went shopping. I got fabric for a project that I will probably be starting next month...

I think this will look like a stormy night and really help the snowman pop bright. I also got a big piece of 32ct Vintage Country Mocha and some replacement Q-Snap snaps. I had one break on me the other day. It's barely sticking together. Thanks Faith!!!

I also got a beautiful Petunia from Campground family. Then Fred brought me a few Spider plant babies from work...

So evidently 45 let me reach the I want a plant phase of my life haha. We are looking forward to Memorial Day and then Bev and Dad have decided to take Jeremiah to a casino for the night. He hasn't had a night with them since last August so he is very excited to take a trip with them again. Bev sure deserves it. They have 4 friends meeting them and staying too so it will be a lot of laughs. They are going on my Dad's Birthday the 29th. Okay I'm off to read some email and get off this computer so I can stitch. 

Have a lovely week. Stay safe in the weather. Smile. Love yourself.

Apr 15th Monday Update

 Hey peeps. Thanks for stopping by. I've noticed readers are way down but that's okay I'm doing this for myself and anyone who happens to stop by. Welcome to my little journal on my stitching life. Flosstube has taken over but I still love the old fashioned letter to my stitching buddies. So let's see what I've been up to last week.

Monday I worked on Autumn Time by New York Dreamer...

I'm on Day 9 on it now. I'm using 32ct Vintage Country Mocha for these and I just love the way they are turning out. I have this one and Summer left to do.

 

Tuesday I had a 3 project day. First up I finished my 225 total on Autumn Time real quick. Just needed 54 more stitches. Then I worked on Spring Line Up by The Trilogy...

I'm at Day 3 on this one. Using 32ct Lambswool Jobelan for these. I'm planning on hopefully 1 day a week with the goal to have this one finished before June 1st for a challenge. I added 107 for this week and put it down.

 

Last for Tuesday was Thanks to the Brave by Erica Michaels. I keep this one loaded on my small Q-Snap so I can just easily pick it up and add some stitches...

I added 870. Added the words this time in the 2nd section. They go pretty quickly if I can get my eyes to focus on the 40ct silk gauze haha. 

 

Wednesday I worked on Winter 2024 SAL from Stitchonomy. It was a 6 week mystery SAL but has now been released. Just trying to work on it at least one day a week. I bought the complete kit from her for my first time. It's a 14ct Riveria Aida 378 stitches added...

Thursday and Friday were Beer Dragon by Paine Free Crafts. I don't know what was going on with this one. I got it out at retreat and just couldn't focus. It's a confetti high area but normally that's not a problem. Thursday I was still struggling. Only added 179. Then I finally got past the area I was working on. Friday I got 332 so I'm past whatever was bothering me at least...

80 days now on this one. 32ct Lambswool 1 thread over 2 complete X. Must have been that yellow part of his wing that drove me crazy. Red part is a lot better. Who knows haha.

 

Saturday Fred took me up to Fort Wayne. Janet from Janet Jabber Flosstube had a get together to stitch at the LNS up there. Started at 9:30 and I stayed till about 12:30. I took Colorful Eagle by Kitty & Me since he's really easy to work on. Added 180 to him while chatting and having a blast...

I love how mean he looks. Don't blame him with everything going on in the world. He is on 32ct Silver Moon Lugana. More on my fun time in a minute.

 

Sunday I worked on Thanks to the Brave again when I finally sat down. Added a wonderful 974 since I was just working on the white background for the 2nd section...

Now that the stitching part is done let me tell you about my fun weekend. Two of my friends Annette and her sister Janet that I mentioned about above gave me some lovely things when I attended Saturday...

Annette gave me a big piece of 40ct evenweave because I really want to try it. She also gave me the Autumn Quaker which is what caused my Primrose binge lately haha. The threads go to some of the pattern Janet gifted me and I can't wait to kit the patterns up and get started. So thankful for great friends. It was a fun time. Another thing while at a stitching store you must buy something right? So I got several pieces of fabric for my pile of projects waiting nearby screaming to be started and yep another project of course haha...

Here is a close up. Look at those adorable patriotic gnomes! I saw the pattern last time I was there at the store but needed to make sure I didn't have it. So I told myself if it was there still it was a sign. I grabbed it. So cute!! Yep another set of 6 things I need to stitch right away haha.

 

My laptop has been acting up for a long long time now. But I was squeezing as much time as I could out of it. Fred said we could run by the computer store after he picked me up from the stitching store to see if they had anything at the right price. I found the perfect for me laptop just sitting there...

It's used by in fantastic shape. Dell Latitude with Windows 11. My old laptop was not going to be able to upgrade and next year October is the deadline. It's lightning fast compared to my old one. I keep getting surprised by everything I now realize I was really struggling with. So I'm one happy happy girl.  I also got a call while we were up there. Dad and Bev and some others were hanging out at the campground. So we headed back and got carry out food for everyone and had a lovely dinner and had a nice visit. The weather was beautiful finally. 

 

Bev is doing pretty good other than her vision just isn't coming back. That's hard for her. But she is doing great in physical therapy and her bloodwork has been staying good enough to not worry about treatment right now. So we are enjoying our days not in the hospital! Sunday Fred was able to focus on getting a good mow. We've been getting so much rain lately it's been hard to mow it all at once. Now it just looks beautiful. I had fun playing on my new laptop and getting it all setup the way I want it. I LOVE IT!!!

A new week. Make it a great one. We have some more rain coming so hopefully I'll get good stitching time. Smile. Love yourself.

Mar 25th Monday Update -- After Retreat

I had a fantastic Spring Hoosier Retreat but first let me see what I did before leaving Thursday...

 

Monday and Tuesday I got my 500 in on Halloween Potions...

After hitting my goal for the month I started Spring Line Up by The Trilogy in honor of the first day of Spring...

I decided to start on the bottom for this one. 

Wednesday I worked on Thanks to the Brave a bit more in between packing...

Thursday it was finally time to leave. Jeremiah did great holding down the fort until Fred got off work. Fred did take Friday off to be here to let Spike out so that was really nice. I was picked up by 3 of my local friends. 2 I hadn't seen since my mom's funeral. 1 since probably 2019. We all got to talking and our last Hoosier Retreat was 2019!!! Boy we missed each other. On the way down we normally stop at a LNS in Bloomington Indiana but it closed. So I suggested stopping at one around Indianapolis called Always in Stitches that I haven't been to in YEARS. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Look at my haul...

I had been wanting to bite the bullet and get some of the Primrose Cottage ones. I have fallen in love with them. So one of my friends said they had the Autumn one I could have and I figured I might as well buy some of the others to go with it. Plus a few more haha. And a few more. In the 2nd photo the seasonal 4 and the Mandalorian chart came from another friend. The patriotic one in the top right I bought from someone at the retreat. The Pirate Snowman is just adorable....as are all the others haha. Now I just can't decide what I want to work on first haha. Like I needed more projects....now I have 21 more!!! OMG. But I smile so big flipping through these amazing patterns. I also bought some fabric both at the store and at the retreat. Black for some patterns in my stash and some linen from a lady selling at retreat. Also an arm full of beautiful project bags my friend was giving away.

 

We arrived safely at Camp Rivervale in Mitchell, Indiana and settled in for the weekend. It was wonderful...
 

A lady grabbed a picture of my tablemates.

We had 25 and two day visitors.

How to get 4 ladies worth of stuff there and home

My bed for the weekend

My setup. Ready to stitch away. I did get some stitching done...

I put in 1,225 stitches in total. I did more talking and catching up than stitching haha. I missed everyone!!! Plus had one big unload when I talked about everything going on with me in the 5 years. WOW! I tell you what though. I feel so much better. The support I got was exactly what I needed. Several had been through similar things and it helped so much to hear it's not just me and I'm not wrong for my feelings.

 

After retreats like this I always have major motivation and want to STITCH ALL THE THINGS! Boy do I ever now even more. Look at those beautiful new patterns!!! I want to start them all and NOW.  Plus Plus I want to work on what I have so I can happily start the new ones....but I want to stitch them all at the same time hahaha. See. Then I was so tired I slept for 2 hours when I got home. What a waste of time. Now I sit here on the computer typing. I don't have time for anything else but stitching for months. Then we leave again this Thursday for a weekend of Wrestling craziness. Jeremiah is going crazy and keeps saying Is it Time Yet?? LOL I can definitely tell you one thing I am a happy girl. Happy with my life. Happy with my stitching options that's for sure haha. Now to just breath and enjoy each and every little stitch. I sure will. No stress. Just fun and happiness.

Spike is making sure I never attend another retreat though. I have only been away from him one night before this. This was 3 long long nights he said...

Just as I got my stitching out (thankfully) Spike crawled in my bag and laid down. No mommy no more filling this bag you leave me too long. So adorable.

 

Have a wonderful week. I will be back next Monday. Love yourself. Smile. Hugs.