and now for something completely different

The Houses of Hawk Run Hollow has returned! I started on House #11 yesterday and have made good progress. I still have House #8 and the last block to go but at least I'm back at it. I still need to finish my sister's Christmas gift and two ornaments but I should get there by Friday.

I decided that I really needed to finish up Houses before I start working on my Thistle Threads projects. I have further decided that 2010 needs to be the year of working on projects that I currently own. There will be a few exceptions like my BBD Loose Feathers and I'll let myself purchase things to complete something but for the most part I plan on working from my stash. We shall see how that goes. :-) I believe I have said this before. :-)

stockings and a gift

I finished up one BBD Stocking from last year's Just Cross Stitch mag and I'm almost finished with a second - these will be gifts. I need to make one for myself also as they are really cute!

Remember Maria from Florida, the kind lady that sent me a ton of Shepherd's Bush kits and charts back in the fall? I made her a little thank you for being so kind and she received it last week. I quilted her a little pin cushion and made her a scissor keep. She was very happy to get them. :-)

I'm way behind on everything right now. My Christmas cards still need to be mailed and I'm not done shopping. I have to figure out what I'm bringing for the Christmas potluck dinner my family always has every year and shop for that. And all I want to really do is quilt. :-) What I wouldn't give for a couple of days off work this week.

Sewing Machine finis

I started this little piece yesterday and just finished it up. It's from a really old issue of Cross Stitch and Country Crafts magazine. It was part of one of their stocking designs. My sister had a book from the publisher that had just the stockings in it and each page had some additional ideas from motifs taken from each stocking. This is from the Stitcher's Studio Stocking. She said if I was planning on stitching her something for Christmas she would love this. What a pain in the ass it was! I totally remember now why I stopped doing this sort of cross stitch - the kind with quarter stitches and three quarter stitches and top stitching on top of top stitching. :-)

It is suggested that it be a pin but my sister said no way she would rather have an ornament. But I'm not sure I want to do that either. I was thinking of maybe adding a quilted border from holiday fabrics and making a box lid and finishing off the box so she can use it to store stuff in. She is a crafter also and we always need more storage space. However I seem to think that I made her a box last year for Christmas with some sort of stitching on it so I hate to do the same thing two years in a row.

Any one have any other ideas? Maybe a pin keep? Or maybe a pin cushion with small quilted borders?

Twitter Bird finis

I finished up Twitter Bird last night. I did mine on 32 count Purely Primitive from Silkweavers using a Vikki Clayton premium silk called Tuscan Rose. Now onto the next one! :-) And this one is a gift so I need to get moving.

And now for my quilting friends. Santa has visiting the Fat Quarter Shop and he is giving something away to a deserving girl or boy. So hop on over the the Fat Quarter Shop's blog and check it out.

Dear Santa, this is what I want: Cinnamon 19th Century Reds fat quarters for all my reproduction quilts. Since I'm new to reproduction fabrics I hardly have any and I like colors that match your jolly red suit. :-)

another bird - almost

I have almost finished with my second bird from the Courtney Collection. I should finish by the time I get home tonight. :-) Both birds are on the large side for ornaments as most of mine from past years are are smaller - I should have done these over one. But they will still look nice on my tree. I need to get it out this year.

I like these so much I wish Courtney had been submitting birds for a long time. Not sure which ornament I'm going to start on next but I know I need to get the two done that are gifts. The problem is whenever I make an ornament as a gift, I like it so much I want to keep it. :-)

one down - ??? to go?

I finished up my first ornament of the season yesterday - it's a design called Turtle Dove from the Courtney Collection and was in the 2008 ornament issue from Just Cross Stitch. I did mine on an unknown laguna type linen using an unknown Vikki Clayton silk. I started work today on the 2009 ornament from the Courtney Collection - Twitter Blue. I'll post a photo tomorrow as I didn't get enough done this morning on the way into work to really show anything.

Over the weekend I did a bit of quilting. But again nothing to show. I went through my stash and pulled out three quilts that are in various stages of completion (all cut out and some blocks done). And managed to get some work done on two of them. I wish I had some time off from work in the next couple of weeks but I burned through all of my vacation time with my mom in Florida. Such a bummer - I know I could get a ton done if I had large stretches of time. The goal is to finish a couple of quilts before I go out and start spending $$$ on new fabrics. Which is really hard because I have some ideas for quilts and of course I don't have the correct fabric for. I drove up to a nice quilting store in Racine, WI on Saturday and spent at least an hour looking over all the new stuff. I fell in love with a line of fabric designed by the French General lady - it's in muted reds, greys and taupe. There is a quilt kit using those fabrics that I just have to have. Maybe in January I'll take the plunge. But as I said, I have at least a half a dozen other quilts ready to go or partially completed. And let's not even talk about the bin of completed tops that need to be sent out to be quilted. :-)

added the buttons!

I finished stitching the Big Zipper several months ago but I never added the ten buttons. Since I changed everything included linen, I could not use the big ones that came with all the kits. I ordered the replacements buttons right away but just got lazy and never put them on. Yesterday while going through my stash I came across the package and decided I needed to finish this bad boy off. So now it really is finished. :-)

Have a great weekend!

Evergreen finis

Evergreen Loose Feathers #17 - Design by Blackbird Designs

Recommended floss

32 count Silkweavers French Vanilla Swirl

I finished up Evergreen yesterday. I really pushed to finish it so I can move onto something else that excites me. I got a lot of really great advice yesterday on how to break my slump. I'm planning on going through my stash tonight and see what hits me the best. I do have a couple of gifts I need to work on and that might be why I'm not wanting to stitch as much. I'm not a fan of "have to stitch" but much prefer to stitch for my own pleasure. That might be the block.

It's official

I'm in a slump! I haven't put in one stitch in the evening in a week. I just don't feel like it. :-) But what I don't like is I'm not doing anything else except watching TV. I HATE just watching TV but it's seems like it's all I have the enthusiasm to do. I'm sure this will pass but I'm thinking if my desire to do my stitching is slowing down (as it does every couple of years or so) this would not be a good time to invest a ton of money into this hobby. So I'm rethinking my plans to join all three of the Thistle Threads university projects - especially since they cost $$$$ over the course of the three projects.

Of course this could change and I'll keep you posted. :-)

back to work

It was back to work for me today and I have to work the full week! That's a bummer when the last two have been only three days each. :-) The pugs are dragging from their long weekend at the trial and when I left for work this morning they had taken themselves back to bed already. Good thing I don't depend on them to earn our kibble. :-)

Here is my progress on Evergreen. About a third of the way done I think. I hope to have this finished by the weekend and then I need to get going on a couple of gifts and some ornaments for me.

Yeah for Aoife!

Aoife earned her very first AKC title on Saturday with a first place finish in Jumpers with Weaves! She was smoking. Today she competed at the open level and did great - it was a NQ but she was so fast! Clancy ended the trial also with a couple of NQ but he was very strong and fast and every trial I can see we are close to becoming consistent.

Back to work tomorrow for me - a good thing because four days of agility have worn me out.

a great day!

The pugs and I had a great day in Milwaukee! Clancy earned his first Excellent level Q - a first place no less! And he got a second place in Open Standard - only one more qualifying score and he will earn his Open Standard title. Then Aoife capped off the day with a first place in Novice Jumpers.

This is the first time in my three years of agility that any of my dogs got two Qs in one day. :-)

Yesterday Clancy was brilliant but one mistake in each of his runs kept him from the ribbons. And Aoife, well let's just say she had a good time. :-)

Two more days to go - I would LOVE to get a little more bling. :-)

good progress

I'm making really good progress I think considering I'm only working on this a couple of hours a day. And not much is going to happen for the next four days.

I'm going to be at one of my favorite agility trials of the year - Hounds for the Holidays in Milwaukee. Both Clancy and Aoife have a full schedule for all four days. My goals are a little more ambitious side this weekend. I'd love to get Clancy's Open Standard title - he still needs two legs. And I'd LOVE to get Aoife's Novice Jumpers title. She needs two also. But as always it's important to remember that matter what happens, I have the two best dogs in the world. :-) I should have lots of videos because I have a ton of friends there and we all pitch in to make sure that everyone gets all the videos they want.

Wish us luck! Hopefully I will be posting some blue ribbon photos over the next four days - I promised both pugs that they will be front and center if they earn some bling. :-)

Now it looks like something

Evergreen is progressing fast even though I didn't put a stitch in last night. I spent my evening looking at quilting books. :-)

Wintertide Sampler finis

Wintertide Sampler - design by Shepherd's Bush

32 Count Autumn Sunset linen from Silkweavers

Silks as charted

I finished up Wintertide Sampler over the weekend. I think it really turned out cute. It's amazing how the photos on these charts never do them justice. And I love working on band samplers. I have several more in my stash and I can't wait to get to them.

Over the past couple of weeks I've felt like getting out some quilting. After spending hours and hours looking at all the new stuff online and in stores, I went into my stash and pulled out some stuff that I have in progress. First up is a baby quilt that needed to be done 18 months ago as baby Ernie is now 18 months old. :-) And his little sister is due to arrive in January. :-) I don't even remember the inspiration for this top - I took bits and pieces from other patterns. It actually started out as a dog bed but when I was done it just looked so much like a baby quilt that I put it aside and picked out other fabrics for my dog bed. And I knew I would use it at some point as a baby quilt and many of my nephews and nieces are in that age group where they are having babies. I'm going to send this one out I think to be quilted as I'm not very good yet and very, very rusty in any case.

I have a couple of others that I think I'm going to work on the weekend's in the coming months. I must have a dozen or so that are kitted, cut out or partially sown together. And of course about a half dozen that are tops that need to be quilted. Some I put together just to practice my machine quilting skills. I think I'll take a stab at some of those also.

Here is my new start - Evergreen Loose Feathers #17 by Blackbird Designs. I love getting to these older Loose Feathers! This will be a Christmas pillow when I finished with it. I also have Peace on Earth ready to go. And I'm looking for Winter Delivery #5 and And To All A Good Night #11.

not much stitching going on

There hasn't been a lot of stitching going on. I've been sleeping on the train and at night, well, I just haven't felt the mojo. :-) I do hope to finish Wintertide Sampler before the day is out however. I have no plans to cook today and I'm still debating on whether or not I should take one of the seven offers for dinner today that have come my way. I would rather watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy (a Thanksgiving Day tradition for me) and eat a frozen cheese pizza. I have not had a cheese pizza for over a year now and I'm dying for one. :-) In my book, cheese pizza beats out turkey any day of the week!

Here is a series of photos from Aoife's last agility trial. I love to watch progression photos. :-) And I also loaded a ton more agility videos - the link to my YouTube account is to the left if you care to check them out. There is a really nice one of Clancy from our last outdoor trial of the season. He was booking. :-)

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

quiet weekend

I had a pretty quiet weekend and that's the way I wanted it. :-) I didn't much stitching done but I did get a lot of nice laying around done. I'm over half way finished with Wintertide Sampler and I hope to be finished by the weekend. No major plans for Thanksgiving. Just friends and family and I'm not cooking. And all the shopping I want to do on Friday is just for me. :-) I like that too!

Have a great week!

chilly

Here is Wintertide Sampler. I found an issue with this chart and while charted incorrectly (in my option), I really should have noticed it before I started stitching. The band right beneath the words, advent's nigh was charted one row shorter than it should have been so when I got the the g in nigh, the pulled work was right on it. And because it was a pulled row, I knew I could not take it out without the pulls showing. So I left it in. I'll be sure to watch for that sort of thing as I work through my stash of SB charts as I now have a ton of them. :-) Things like this drive me crazy.

The weather is firmly on the chilly side now and I have a feeling that winter proper is not far behind. And I still don't have a winter coat! Because of my weight loss, I have had to replace all my clothes and the coats have been left to last. But I need at least two - one for the days that get to a low of around 30 or so and a long down coat for the really cold days - the ones that are below zero. I'll start with the shorter one first and hopefully find a nice down one on sale. I'm thinking that the Thanksgiving sales might work out well for shopping. :-)

Quaker Heart finis

Quaker Heart - design by Shepherd's Bush

Recommended fibers

32 count Silkweavers Purely Primitive linen

Here is the finish photo for my Quaker Heart. I love how it turned out. I think I would like to make this into something rather than frame it but I don't know what yet. A heart shaped box would be pretty with this as the lid. :-)

Time to move my hoop on Wintertide Sampler. No time for stitching tonight as it's agility night and I need to go to work on some issues with both the pugs. :-)

That's my girl!

TWO first first place finishes for my Aoife! She was rocking over the weekend. I'm such a proud mom. She got a first place on Saturday in FAST (and by my figuring had the best FAST finish among all 78 dogs) and a first place on Sunday in Jumpers with Weaves. On her other four runs she was super fast but had a lot of consistency issues. It's mostly baby dog things and there is benefit to these things happening because now I know what to train and where our gaps are. Our next trial is December 3rd through the 6th. Both Aoife and Clancy have runs all four days. I have two and a half weeks to work on some stuff. It's kinda funny, right now it's the same sort of issues for both of them - weave pole entries and table issues. I sure hope she didn't learn these from him! :-)

I didn't have a ton of time for stitching but here is my new start - Wintertide Sampler from Shepherd's Bush. I LOVE to work on band samplers but I had forgotten how much. Kinda like I forgot how much I love to stitch Shepherd's Bush pieces. This is going to go quick I think. Last night I took some time to go through my stash and look for holiday/winter pieces. I want to make a couple of pillows for my couch like I have for fall/Halloween and make a ton of ornaments. I'll start on everything I pulled out when this is finished. I'm in the mood for winter stuff. :-) Because of all the money I'll be spending on my Thistle Threads University pieces next year I'll be pulling from my stash a lot in the coming months. But that's a good thing - I love everything in my stash that is ready to go. :-) And I'm excited to get to some of them.

I did finish Quaker Heart last Friday but never had time to take a final photo. I'll post it tomorrow for sure. :-)

Almost

I'm almost finished with Quaker Heart - there is a really funny looking jog on the outline of the heart that I wish I would have seen before I got to it. I would have "fixed" it before I got that far. To my eye it looks like I made a mistake but I stitched it the way it was charted. It's driving me crazy but here is no way I'm going to pull out as much stitching that I would need to fix it. I'll just have to figure out a way to live with it. I would have finished it last night but we had to take my mom back to the hospital. :-( I'll finish up on the way home from work but I didn't bring a backup project so I'll be napping for sure.

As I mentioned Mom went back to the hospital for a couple of hours last night. She started to throw up in the afternoon and when I got home from work my dad was in a tizzy. I called my sister and we very quickly decided not to mess around at all. My sister called a family friend who is a doctor with one of the local hospitals and he agreed to take over her care. So we spent a couple of hours while they pumped her full of fluids. Her blood work was ok but more tests are coming. They sent her home but we should know more today about what is going on.

This weekend Aoife and I have her second agility trial. This one is Saturday and Sunday so we have six chances for a ribbon. Wish us luck! We are going to need it, between vacations and my mom we have done almost no training and are very rusty. My goals are very simple for the weekend. Just have fun with my dog and be proud of her no matter what.

Have a great weekend! I hope to get caught up with blog reading this weekend. But with the hundreds of posts I have to read I think there is little chance of that.

Here is my progress on Quaker Heart - it's moving along nicely. I need to start back on my Houses of Hawk Run Hollow soon. If I push hard I know I can have it done by the end of the year as planned. I also want to start on some ornaments both for gifts and for me. I didn't make myself a single one last year and I'd like to make up for it this year. I only liked a couple from this year's Just Cross Stitch issue but I have many from past years that I still want to do.

Did you see this? It's the Thistle Threads Online University for Historic Embroidery Techniques. I have been wanted to learn how to do this sort embroidery for some time now. I have to admit I went a little crazy and signed up for all three. That is my stitching budget for an entire year! But I can't wait to get started. :-)

Thanks for all the commiseration over the wedding video. My friend Peggy does have a geek friend who is going to take a look at it. When I did further research I kept reading that if you manage to pull a deleted file from the hard drive, it doesn't play correctly. My video recorder records with a 16:9 ratio and if the files can be finagled off the drive they always show up in 4:3 ratio which squishes the video. But I figure at least we will have something to work with and maybe find some sort of file conversion program that will move it back to 16:9. At least I have a glimmer of hope at this point.

a lousy couple of days

I started on Quaker Heart by Shepherd's Bush before I left Jamacia but didn't get much done. This is going to go quick I think.

I got back into town late Monday evening. And nothing has gone right - starting from my first flight home. At the airport in Montego Bay, airport security didn't like the size of my Dovos so they confiscated my favorite and most expensive pair of scissors. I'm heartbroke over it. But I figure just because they were fine for US security they would be ok for everyone else. Far from it. And they didn't have a system in place to send them to me like TSA has here. They are just gone.

Then I worked from home on Tuesday and the bucket full of work waiting me was huge. As of now, I really haven't even made that much of a dent in it.

But here is the real killer - before I started work on Tuesday I needed to download the video I took of the wedding last Saturday. I wanted to get it to my friend Peggy before my work day started. I had a ton of old agility videos on it and I wanted to clean it up before I uploaded to YouTube. I already have a feeling that many of you know where this is going. Somehow when I was scrolling through the videos, I went from the oldest to the newest and I accidentally deleted the wedding. My video camera is a pretty new JVC and it has a hard drive. According to all the information I have been able to find both from the manuals and online, once you delete something from the hard drive on this model it's gone forever. But I did try to load several recovery programs and none of them could recover the video. I'm just sick over it. It was the only video the bride and groom had. Then a couple of hours later I was cleaning up my hard drive on my laptop and guess what? I deleted all my photos! Not only from my photo file but also from the recycle bin. I'm still trying to figure out how that happened. All my stitching not to mention pug photos are gone. Some days it just doesn't pay to get out of bed.

As The Crow Flies finis

As the Crow Flies - design by Stone & Thread

Recommended fibers

32 count Silkweavers Days Gone By

I finished up As the Crow Flies today while sitting at the pool. Such a pretty day. The wedding is tonight and I'll be getting ready shortly. It's on the beach and we watched a different wedding yesterday and it was so pretty so I'm sure Katie's will be just as beautiful. :-) I love the dress I brought and I'll make sure to post a photo of me and the Mother of the Bride (my friend Peggy).

Where I'm spending my Days

I made it! This is where I'll be spending the next few days. :-) I should have a stitching update soon. I'm almost finished with my crow project.

a new start

I really didn't feel like stitching on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow so I went through my stash and pulled out this guy! It's As the Crow Flies from Stone & Thread. I've had a couple of charts from this designer for over a year now and this is the first I've done. I really like it and it's a nice change of pace from what I've been stitching lately. I plan on taking this and a couple of Shepherd's Bush kits along with me on vacation. Speaking of vacation, I have a ton to do at work - way more to do than I have hours and I need to cook more before I leave so Mom has lots of good, healthy food to eat while I'm gone. My Dad considers canned soup a meal but right now Mom needs much more than that. I spent most of the weekend making meals and freezing them and I'll try to cook a bit more tonight or tomorrow. And I have to find time to pack. Right now I don't know how I'll get it all done. Oh and I have agility class with the pugs tomorrow also.

Thanks for all the lovely birthday wishes! I had a great one even if I felt a bit like Cinderella with all the cooking and cleaning I had to do. :-)

Happy Halloween!

Halloween - design by La-D-Da

28 count natural linen - one over one

Weeks Dye Works Floss

I finished up Halloween last night. Talk about quick! I wish I still had some time to get these on my spooky tree but my mind is already turning toward my Christmas ornaments. I didn't get many done for myself last year (did I even get any done?) and I've already made a list of what I what to finish. I also want to do a couple of pillows for the couch and that means I need to get going. For the rest of the weekend I'll start on my next block on HoHRH and work out what I want to do for my train rides and what I want to take on vacation.

Today is my birthday but because of my mom I don't have any plans. Usually I have dinner arrangements with family and friends but never had time to get anything together this year. So I'll just stay home a stitch with the pugs. :-) That will be as much fun. My poor babies didn't even get a party this year because I was in Orlando when I needed to be sewing. They were going to be pirates also. Next year for sure.

another small finis

Boo Pumpkin - design by Homespun Samplers

32 count Silkweavers Dark Tan linen

Recommended fibers (mostly)

I finished up Boo Pumpkin last night. Another cute, quick design from last year's Just Cross Stitch magazine. I started on Halloween from La-D-Da from this year's issue on the ride into work this morning. I hope to finish it by tomorrow but I'm doing mine over one and that does take a little longer especially when I stitch on the train. I need to get going on my October house for Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I never thought I would be an entire month behind this close to finishing it!

back to normal

Things feel like they are getting back to normal. I'm in the office and was able to do some stitching on the train this morning. Here is my progress with Boo Pumpkin from last year's Halloween Just Cross Stitch. I have the little charm that goes with it and it's going to be so cute. I'm not sure if I will have time to turn it into an ornament before Saturday but just think how far ahead I am for next year! :-)

Yesterday Julie M asked what linen I used for yesterday's finis, Spooky Tree. It was a 28 count Gingham Linen called Light/Grey Straw that was a special dye job from Weeks Dye Works. It was the linen used for BBD Loose Feathers called Peacock Pinkeep. I had a small hunk left over and I used it up.

Be it ever so humble

I'm home! And so is Mom and Dad of course. Mom is doing great but it will take several weeks before she is back to 100%. The pugs were the happiest I have ever seen them. They were all over me and I loved it. :-) I was great to be missed by them.

I have had time over the past few days to stitch and started and finished an ornament from the 2008 Just Cross Stitch Halloween issue. And I got a good start on a second one.

Spooky Tree - design by Elizabeth's Designs

Tomorrow it's back to work for me. And things are looking good for my vacation in Jamaica. Yeah!

Mom is out!

And I made it to the pool. OK only for 30 minutes but I was at the pool!

Mom was released yesterday around 12:00pm. We had her back to the hotel at Disney by 12:30pm. She is really tired and napped much of the day. Today we are hoping to take her to the pool for a little bit so she can get some fresh air.



I expect to fly home tomorrow. I sure hope so. I really need to get things back to my normal.

Little Witch finis

Little Witch - design by Shepherd's Bush

Recommended linen and fibers

I finished up Little Witch at the hospital yesterday. I actually thought I would have a lot more done by this time but we seem to spend a lot of time traveling back and forth and I just never seem to have time. I started on a Halloween ornament from last year's Just Cross Stitch. The plan is now to work on Halloween stuff until the weekend.

My mom is doing much, much better. Her surgery on Friday was successful and her doctors are very pleased with her progress and said yesterday that she is doing much better than they expected she would given her condition when she was admitted last Monday. Three of her five docs have released her and we expect the other two will release her tomorrow or Wednesday which means we should be able to fly home on Thursday or Friday. I sure hope so! I'm still trying to get in some pool time and maybe today. My sister and I have been visiting Mom for an hour in the morning. Then we leave my Dad for a couple of hours by himself (he hates not having alone time with her and pouts when he doesn't get it) and go do something. Today I'm hoping just to drive back to the hotel so I can put on a suit and hit the pool. Then we will drive back to the hospital and stay for a couple more hours. Last night we went to the Hollywood Studios for a couple of hours and tonight we plan on going to Epcot and visiting the World Showcase to watch the fireworks. It is nice to get away from it all for a couple of hours.

Thanks so much for all your kind thoughts and good wishes! I know it helped Mom tons. :-)

we made it :-)

We made it to the Not So Scary Halloween party last night at the Magic Kingdom. It was really a great time and I'm so glad we made the effort to go even though we arrived a couple hours late. This is me with the entire dwarf gang. How cool is this? Because we have two extra tickets, my sister and I might go again one evening next week to see what we missed - which was a lot.

Here I am as Elizabeth Swann from Pirates of the Caribbean. The highlight if my evening was being picked out of the crowd by Capital Jack Sparrow himself during the villain parade. :-) OK, it was a just a point from him but it was still cool. :-)

My mom has finally been diagnosed. She has a hernia in her abdomen and a section of her bowels have been moving into it so over time it has been obstructing things and generally messing everything up. But it was a gradual thing that my mom assumed was everything else expect what it really was, i.e., food poisoning, flu, etc. And she never told anyone that she was having trouble especially her doctor who might have started to look into things. She has been losing weight over the past few months but as she is always trying to lose weight no one really gave it much mind. So she is in surgery now and we are waiting for the phone call to go back to the hospital and see her. It is going to be a couple of tough weeks. In addition to the hernia, she has bronchitis, anemia and has a mild case of malnutrition because of the cycle of illness she has been experiencing for many months now. She hide most of it from us because she was afraid she had a recurrence of cancer (she had lung cancer about 15 years ago). Because of the bronchitis she is going to be on a ventilator for a couple to several days. The earliest my sister and I can go home is next Friday but we are not holding out much hope for that at all. Most likely it will be around the 1st or 2nd of November putting my vacation to Jamaica in jeopardy.

I sound so selfish when I say that but I was so looking forward to that vacation as I haven't had a proper vacation in a couple of years. I don't have travel insurance so if I can't make it it's money lost. And even if I get home in time I'm not sure my boss will be cool with me leaving again right after been out of the office for two weeks.

thanks for the warm wishes

Thanks so much for you kind thoughts and good wishes for my mom. My family and I really appreciate it.

Mom is feeling a bit better today as they are pumping her full of whole blood and I have to be honest here, it's nice that she doesn't look so scary sick because her color is better. We got a couple of answers today. She does have a severe bacterial infection in her digestive system. But there is some internal bleeding that they have not narrowed down yet. She is scheduled for an endoscopy tomorrow morning and we are hoping that shows something.

We were able to move our tickets for the Not So Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom from Tuesday to Thursday and we think we will be able to go. We might as well go as visiting hours in the ICU end at 6:00pm and we will be back to the hotel by the time it starts. And to tell the truth, my sister and I can use the break. It's been a tough couple of days. Mom really wants us to go also. She is really upset that we are spending as much time as we are with her. But we told her the reality is, she would have gotten sick no matter where she was and at least we are all together. If my parents and I didn't join my sister and her family in Orlando, I would have had to call her and make her fly home.

not such a magical day

We had to take my mom to emergency last night. She's been sick since Saturday night and late last evening it became clear that things were not going to improve without intervention of some kind. She is currently in the ICU and so far the staff there is clueless as to the problem and there is no ETA on her being released or even being moved into the regular wards.

I've had a bit more time for stitching as we have been spending large chunks of time at the hospital. Not really how I wanted to spend my vacation (and I'm sure my mom can say the same) and I hope she starts to improve soon.

Monday at the Kingdom

We spent most of the day at the Animal Kingdom and after dinner we are going back to the Magic Kingdom - it's open until 1:00am tonight and we are going to stay as long as we can. :-) Tomorrow is the costume party. I can't wait.

Nothing but nothing says Disney to me like a Mickey Ice Cream bar.

all decked out for fall

It's been a little on the cool side here at WDW but the weather should pick up on Tuesday and then it's pool time!

I sure miss my puppies. :-)

finally!

Before I put my sewing machine away to tidy things up before I went on vacation tomorrow, I thought I had better finish off the two pillows I started several weeks back. And here they are!
Autumn Bouquet by Blackbird Designs

And Autumn Song also by Blackbird Designs.

And here is the complete collection. I don't think I need any other fall/Halloween pillows for the couch. :-) I'll have to start on other seasons.

I put in the last 14 stitches on my floss holder when I got home from work last night. :-) Took minutes just like I thought. I started Little Witch from Shepherd's Bush yesterday. It's already coming along nicely.

I'm all packed and ready to go to Disney World. I am bringing a ton of stitching because I don't know what I'll feel like doing but most of it is Halloween/fall related. I hope I actually stitch when I get there. While I love Disney and all that it offers, what I really need is a vacation where I can sit around and do nothing by the pool. I hope I get it.

Floss Keeper Finis - well almost

Floss Keeper - design by Blackbird Designs

32 count Silkweavers French Vanilla Linen

Recommended floss

I almost finished up the floss keeper this morning. :-) It was only when I went into my bag to get out the last piece of floss that I needed to finish the border did I realize that last night I didn't put the floss back into the bag. :-) Duh. I'm 14 crosses short. But I'll finish it tonight when I get home from work and put it in my ever growing finishing pile.

This is my latest jewelry finish from the Bead of the Month Club. I'm going to give this to my sister for her birthday tomorrow. I'm so not a pink person but she loves pink and I knew it would be perfect for her. This is the fourth kit that I have received (still have one waiting to be finished) and I think I'm ready to cancel. Of the five kits I have received, I have liked one, hated one and was very indifferent to three. Not very good odds at all and I think my money would be better spent on things I know I will like. Things are so busy right now with me getting ready for vacation on Friday. I'm still working on my costume and I have to finish it tonight! Work is driving me crazy and I haven't even put a stitch in Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. I was so caught up and now I'm behind. Bummer.

a mixed bag

Aoife had her first AKC agility trial yesterday and the results are mixed. The bad news is no qualifying scores. The good news is, this little girl rocks the course.

On each of her three runs, we had one critical error resulting in all NQs.

On her first run of the day was FAST (the event where the judge sets up the course and assigns each obstacle a point value plus a mandatory bonus and the handle runs the course however she wants to) she missed the bonus. I was pretty disappointed because the bonus was a jump to the teeter and she loves the teeter so I thought it was a shoe in. But she came back to me rather than take the teeter so a NQ. She was a little uneven on that run, barking at me a lot and pretty distracted - she ran by the A-frame and bobbled the weaves once. I think she had a case of ring nerves and that had a lot to do with why she didn't take the bonus and had those few other issues.

On her second run, Standard (with all the obstacles) she was running great, had a bobble at the table, the little shit dear left the table before the five second count was over so we had to do it over. That is a five point penalty plus the time you waste. Then we got to the weaves and it took her three tries to do them. In novice the weaves are un-scored but you must complete them. So it was just a huge time sucker. Then the dog walk. The poor baby fell off! That has never happened before to any of my dogs. She was about three feet or so off the ground on the up portion of the walk and she just could not keep her feet under her. Her approach to the dog walk was pretty horrible - my fault as I most likely could have lined her up better and she just could not keep her feet under her and fell off. And fell hard. I really shook me up. But she got right up and barked at me some more and we completed the course as there was only one jump left.

The last event of the day was Jumpers with Weaves and it was a super easy course and I had high hopes of qualifying. We were the first 12 inch dog on the line. I set Aoife up at the start line and put her is a stay (which she did beautifully). I released her, her back leg kicked the bar and down it went - get this - after a couple of seconds! It actually bobbled on the jump cups. Our run was over before it even started. But in agility you keep going and that is what we did. And she was amazing. I would even call it a perfect run after that first jump. She read both my rear crosses perfectly and was fast! And she had a perfect set of 6 weaves. She finished up with a time of 22.98 seconds on a 39 second course. And was the fastest 12 inch finisher! It would have been first place! She was even faster than a lightning fast 12 inch Sheltie that we go to class with. I was bursting with pride and at the same time so sad with the end result.

Overall I'm really disappointed on the outcome of the weekend but Aoife enjoyed herself and I will be able to take away some good lessons for our next trials. And I was glad to finally find out if she is as fast as I think she is. For a long time it was in my head that she was only fast in my mind. But she proved she can hang with the fast dogs. I had many people comment on her and that was very nice. And she will only improve over time. I actually feel that we could have gone faster on that jumpers run and by her dropping the bar on the first jump did take a little wind out of my sails. Her next trial is on November 14th and 15th so I'll have time to work on her table skills and her weave poles - her two problem areas.

Here is my progress on the BBD floss keeper from the last Loose Feather. I actually had time to work on it during the agility trial. I spent the bulk of the crafting weekend sewing my pirate Halloween costume. It's turning out great! On Friday I went shopping for the fabric and patterns. On Saturday morning I cut out all three pieces (pants, vest and shirt). Then I started sewing the actual costume. It took over five hours just to make the pants! About two thirds of the way done with the pants, I actually said to myself what was I doing? I could have just made a simple pair with a gathered waist with a simple hemmed leg. But no, I had to go and buy an authentic 18th century pattern with a buttoned waist and buttons along the leg. But it does look really cool. And then I started the vest and said the same thing. :-) Mine is from the same authentic pattern and I've lined it in silk and it has 15 buttons (and button holes) up the front. But I've always had the attitude that when I do something I might as well do it right. On Sunday after the trial I got most of the shirt complete and all I have left is the hem. Yeah! I'll take lot's of photos. Now I need to find a nice pirate hat and make a baldric for the sword. I purchased a nice faux leather for that because I could not find one online that I could get before I left for Florida on Friday. But that should only take an evening or so.

I've got a ton to do at work this week and even more at home to get ready for vacation. My niece has agreed to stay at the house for the entire time and pug sit. :-) That makes me very happy to have someone at home that I trust to watch over them.

The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy finis

The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy - design by The Cricket Collection

32 count Silkweavers Golden Harvest

Silk N'Colors and various cotton overdyed floss

I finished up the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy last night. Yeah! I love how it turned out and I'm really glad I swapped out most of the DMC for overdyeds. It's such a whimsical piece and it makes me want to stitch more from this designer.

I didn't have a ton of time to get something pulled together for my train rides for today but I did have the floss holder ready to go from BBD that was in the last Loose Feather. Alas, I didn't put a stitch in because I took a nap. :-) Maybe on the way home.

Remember a couple of days ago I said things just keep popping up? Well a biggy has popped up for sure. On Tuesday my sister asked if I wanted to go to Disneyworld for a week leaving on the 16th of October. How could I say no to an all expenses paid vacation? So I didn't. ;-) But now I'm scrambling to get ready to go and figure out what stitching projects I want to bring with me. And I need to make a costume! They paid for us to go to a costume party at the Magic Kingdom on the 20th and we are all going to dress up like a Disney character. I'm going to be Elizabeth Swann from Pirates of the Caribbean. But I didn't want to buy one of the cheesy costumes so I'm making mine. And I don't have a ton of time. I'll get started tonight. I had to wait for Joann Fabrics to have the patterns on sale and that starts today. That means for the annual Hawloween party I take the pugs to they will also be pirates as I like to have a theme for us.

Wish me and Aoife luck for Sunday! I shouldn't be so nervous about an agility trial but I am. I'm convinced that she is either going to be a rock star or a train wreck but in truth she will most likely be somewhere in the middle.

Have a great weekend!

close

I got a ton done last night on The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy. It almost makes up for the fact that I can't stitch at all tonight. I just have to finish one crow and the pumpkin patch with a smallish motif on the bottom and I'm done! It would be cool to have it finished but the weekend but I won't hold my breath. Things are always popping up.

busy weekend

I'm closing in on a finish with The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy. I'm getting a bit bored with it as I very rarely work on only one piece at a time. I'm ready to start something new! I want to work on a couple of the BBD stockings and I did purchase one of the Shepherd's Bush Halloween designs that I'd love to play with before the 31st. And I'm actually wanting to start on the next house from Houses of Hawk Run Hollow! I'm getting so close to the end I can taste it.

I was super busy over the weekend and in my head I was hoping to finish my two fall pillows plus a couple of other small things but found that I barely had time to stitch let alone anything else. Aoife and I went to an agility fun run on Saturday and she did much better than I expected. She really didn't run around much but there was plenty of barking at me. :-) It's funny to see her do that. In her heart she is 100% border collie. :-) She did have a couple of missteps, she left the table before the full count was over on both her runs and she ran under the tire obstacle rather than jumping through it. Not sure what that is about because she doesn't do it at home or in class. Yesterday I set up a nice Novice level course for her in the backyard and we did a bit of homework. We will be doing more of the same every evening until the trial on Sunday.

that was a stunning defeat

The crowd gasped and then was totally silent. I've never experienced anything like it before.

I'm in here somewhere with my orange t-shirt on.

Chicago 2016

Here is my progress on The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy. I love it!


This is my first free weekend in what seems like forever. :-) But not even really free. I have a wedding shower on Saturday, a pug meetup and an agility fun run. :-) But I have hopes for Sunday. :-)

Today is the big Chicago 2016 decision and I work for the offical professional services firm of Chicago 2016 so work is making a pretty big deal out of it. We are all walking down as a group to watch the announcement live from Daley Plaza. I'll post photos! Wish Chicago luck. This would be the coolest thing ever and I want to be a part of it. :-)

progress!

I'm still hard at work on the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy and am heading close to half way complete. I'm enjoying it so much it's making me want to drag out another Cross Eyed Cricket design - Sleepy Hollow. I've been wanting to work on this since I bought it - what last year? Two years ago? Time flies for sure. I'm low on cash until I go on vacation in early November to Jamaica so I'd have to dye my own linen but that's no big deal and there are only a few overdyeds required and DMC so it's almost affordable. :-)

I found an agility fun run for Aoife on Saturday that I'm thinking of going to. It will be at the same location as her first trial so it's a great opportunity to get her feet wet at that venue (which we have never been to) and give me a chance to fine tune things during the last week leading up to the 11th. I'm really nervous about starting her. She is so different from my other two pugs and I have no idea what I'm going to get. :-) But I have a feeling I just need to hang on for the ride. She is one wild girl!

more crows

I only have four crows to go! :-) They are all on the left side and I'll get to those next week or so. This is a cute piece to work on and I'm enjoying it.

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow - House 7 finis

Only three blocks to go!! I finished up House #7 last night. This was a fun block to work on even if the final colors are a bit weird. I'm all ready to start on House #11 - I'm going down to work on the bottom row but I have had to order three skeins of NPI I'm running low on. So the plan is to work on the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy both on the train and at home in the evening until it's done and then start with the #11 next week.

You will notice I didn't open up this post with a photo of Clancy from the weekend's trial. Well.... While it went great, no ribbons to show off. :-) But lots to shout about. His first two Jumpers runs as an excellent dog were spectacular. The only reason we didn't qualify was because I pulled him off his weaves on Saturday and told him to take the wrong jump on Sunday both resulting in an off course and in the Excellent A level you can make no mistakes. You can finish five seconds over the course time but that is not usually a problem for Clancy. I never did find out my course time on Saturday because the timer didn't write down our finishing time (pissed me off) but on Sunday he finished in 37 seconds for a 48 second course. To put that in perspective the first through fourth place dogs (all shelties by the way) finished from 27 to 31 seconds. So we are in the middle of the pack. That is about where I think we should fall at this point. As we get more experience I expect that time will come up a bit but most likely not enough to finish with a placement (first through fourth) but rather just a qualifying score - the green ribbon. Both his standard agility runs were total loses - but both had some high points like he did his weaves and his table performance was excellent both days. But I have noticed a trend that he does not do as well outside as he does inside. This was the last outdoor trial of the season so I won't even try to address this until next spring. And it's only on the standard runs with all the equipment that he has trouble with. His outdoors jumpers runs are find. Not sure what's that's all about.

But in any case, it's time to focus on Aoife for the next month. Her first trial is October 11th and I can't wait. She is going to be so much fun and she is sheltie fast. I can't wait to beat a couple of those. :-) Most other 12 inch dog owners hate losing to a pug. :-)

The first pumpkin

The first hunk of the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy is almost complete - I have a couple more crows to stitch in and then I'm moving to the left and start on the next grouping of pumpkins. This piece is fun to work on and I wish I could stay awake on the train to get more stitched in. :-)


Clancy and I have an agility trial this weekend - our first as an excellent level dog. It's an outdoor trial up in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin and the weather forecast was for rain both days at the beginning of the week but now it's looking much better. I might not even need the new raincoat I purchased. :-) This is Clancy's last trial until Thanksgiving weekend - not from choice really but because there is always a lull in my area from early fall to the holidays then we'll have a three day trial, a four day trial and another three day trial all within the space of six weeks and then nothing again until March. I'll use this time until Thanksgiving to further refine his weave poles and do get more work in on his contacts. As always the goal for the weekend is fun, fun, fun, but I would also like an Open Standard Q so we can make progress on getting to the Excellent level in that event also.

Have a great weekend!

the kindness of strangers

Last week I posted a photo of all my new and mostly Shepherd's Bush stash. I acquired most of it through trades and kind donations with a few eBay deals tossed in. I mentioned that I'm still looking for the Wool Gatherer as I would love to have both the boy and girl hanging together. A very, very kind lady named Maria who leaves in Florida (she reads blogs but does not have one) sent me an email saying she had one and she will never stitch it as her tastes have changed and would I like to have it. Of course I jumped on it and offered something for it. She turned me down and offered up yet another kit! On Saturday I received an email saying a package was on the way to me and I should have it by Wednesday. Sure enough there was a HUGE package waiting for me when I got home from work last night. And this was the contents! Not including the Wool Gatherer, Maria included another full SB kit and rest of the wonderful charts above. She just said in her note that she enjoyed them and hoped I would also. And of course I will! :-)

Now I will probably never meet Maria and I will always remain, despite emails and such, a complete stranger to her but she took time and effort to send me these things. I am always blown away by the kindness of my stitching friends and the people I have "met" through my blogging. These people who are for all intents and purposes, strangers. And I find at the end of the day, it makes me want to be a better stitching friend also. So thanks Maria for taking the time to think of me and to send me these wonderful things. Not only have you made my day, week, month! you have made me a better person and I hope I can only reach out to someone else by paying forward your kindness to me. :-)

Here is my progress on the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy. I did pull some variegated floss out of my stash and swapped out a few DMCs. So I'm hoping a few more things will pop.