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.

No stitching to show

I don't get any stitching done on Tuesday evenings because I have agility class with the pugs and nothing ever gets done on Wednesday mornings on the way to work because I always sleep on the train. Last night I didn't get home until after 11:00pm and since I get up at 4:30am the nap on the ride in is welcome. :-)

Yesterday I had a request to show the photo of Clancy on his wall of bling. There are two hanging up and here they are. This was from two years ago. It's my favorite. :-)
This one is from last year. I haven't purchased any lately because it seems they all have been jumps or weaves. And I need a few other types of action shots. :-)

more houses

I started back last night with House #8 on HoHRH. I like this block because it's different from the others. :-) I'm fairly confident that I will complete it by the end of the month. I LOVE being on track. Especially now that I'm two HRH behind again. I'm hoping to start Shores in January. I do want to change the memorial blocks totally however. I don't care for it.

Here is my start on the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy. Those Silk N'Colors are very nice to work with and I'm going to enjoy this piece a ton. I wish now I had gone with a shaded black for the crows to give them a bit more interest. I think I'll change up the pumpkins a bit to a variegated floss. But that probably depends on where I'll be when I start working on them. If I'm on the train I might just use what's in my bag but if I'm at home.... who knows how creative I'll be. :-)

Summer Basket Finis

Summer Basket - design by Blackbird Designs

32 count Golden Harvest by Silkweavers

Recommended Overdyed Floss

I finished up Summer Basket on the train ride into work this morning. I'm pretty sure I'll pillowize it but not until next spring as that is the season I think it fits best with. I have a quilt that I like to display on my couch and this will match perfectly. I love the colors and it was super fast. I'll work on the floss holder as time permits.

I'll start on the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy on the way home tonight. I was able to find time to pick up the nine skeins of DMC I was missing after the agility trial on Sunday.

Clancy and I thank you all for the really nice comments about his new title. And it's all his, the dog gets the title not the handler. :-) I think he is most deserving. It was a long time between Jumpers titles - 18 months. He earned his Novice title so quickly I figured everything else was be a slam dunk also. That was so not the case. The difference between the level of difficulty in Novice and Open is very large. And the Open level really exposes every training flaw that you have as a team and I had (and still do) a ton of training flaws. I took a lot of short cuts with Clancy that I didn't think would be an issue later down the road and they all became issues so I had to do a lot of retraining. I'm hoping that I have avoided some of the problems in training Aoife but I'm sure several will rear their ugly heads once I start trialing her next month. But at least now I know how to address many of them and can work toward fixing them. Clancy's issues were/are so large that many times I just didn't know what to do to fix them. But he hung in there with me as I figured everything out. I think that is one of Clancy's greatest attributes as an agility dog. He is very patient with me and is willing to try and try until I get everything just right. Aoife is not as patient so that will be a wild ride! :-)

Here is Clancy's wall of bling. He is starting to fill it out nicely. :-)

Clancy earned a new title!

Since I promised Clancy on last Tuesday if he Q'd over the weekend, I would open another blog entry with his photo and his ribbons - so here he is with his first place and his new title ribbons. He earned a first place finish in Jumpers with Weaves on Sunday and that made three legs and his open title - OAJ. And it was a very nice run - 28 seconds on a 39 second course. I'm so proud of him. I feel like we are getting close to consistency which I feel is a key factor in being a successful agility team.

So what does it mean? We have moved up in Jumpers to from the Open level to the Excellent A level and are now working toward an Excellent Agility Jumpers with Weaves title - AXJ. We still have two legs to earn toward his Standard Agility Open title but that should fall in place soon. :-) Or I hope it starts to fall into place soon - we have a trial next weekend to give it a go.

feeling better

Hummm, this doesn't look like the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy. :-) Last night I was pulling all the DMC threads required for the piece and I was missing around 8 or so colors. I'll run to the store tonight after work and pick them up. Rather than hunt around the piece for areas that I could start on, I decided to wait until my kit is complete. So it was back to Summer Basket this morning. I'm almost half way complete with the piece and the rest of it will fly as it's the alphabet, the Quaker star border and the rest of the zigzag border. I'll toss it into my agility bag and maybe get some stitching done there. And I might put HoHRH aside and push to finish this so I don't have it outstanding once I start GPC.

Clancy squirting is much better and at this point I'm fairly certain we are going to give this weekend's agility trial a go. Thanks for all your warm wishes. :-)

my stash haul :-)

Once I finished The Herb Gatherer from Shepherd's Bush I figured I enjoyed myself so much I needed to obtain a few more SB kit's. Below is the results plus a few other purchases/trades that I've made in the past couple of weeks. I think I have enough to keep me busy for a while. :-) Of course I still want to get The Wool Gatherer and Finch's Song but after I get those two I should be ok for a while. Thanks to everyone who traded something with me!

Here is my progress on Block #7 of HoHRH. As predicted, it seems to be flying with all the smaller elements that make up the block. I'm actually feeling like I could have this complete by late next week if I manage some stitching time over the weekend (I have an agility trial so I never know how much time or will to stitch I'll have).

And here is my progress on BBD Summer Basket. Another piece that is flying. Today is the last day I'm going to work on it. I'm going to start work on The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy from The Cricket Collection tomorrow.

I had three other stitchers agree to split the cost of the Thread Gatherer Silk N'Colors for The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy. Our total cost? Less than $13.00 per person. :-) That sure is better than the retail price of one set at $63.00. Am I ever happy about that. Here is a snap of all the lovely silks just waiting to be mailed to their new homes. The are going out today.

Please keep Clancy in your thoughts. The poor guy is feeling under the weather. Last weekend he started to cough from what I thought was the result of his being a aggressive eater, an irritated throat (it's happened before). On Tuesday he went to the vet because it was getting worse and it was not what I thought but rather Kennel Cough! Poor guy. And to add insult to injury he now has diarrhea from the meds and every time he coughs he squirts. So a call to the vet is warranted because I think he needs something different plus something for his other issue. If he doesn't stop coughing by the weekend no agility for him. Kennel Cough is not usually a dangerous thing but it's very easily spread so he won't be welcome if he is still coughing.

many thanks!

Many many thanks for your kind words and congratulations to Clancy. His head is quite swelled from all the attention. :-) I told him if he really likes it, he can do it again for me at the trial this coming weekend and I'll be sure to let everyone know again and post his photo. :-)

Here is my start to House #7 of HoHRH. This block is going to feel like it's really moving because there are so many smaller components to it. I'm still loving the Christmas HRH. Except that carolers block. It just doesn't seem to fit. All but two blocks have been revealed now. But despite that fact that I like it, I'm not sure if I will ever do it. That's a whole lot of work and not to mention money for a holiday piece. And I REALLY like the idea of a fall piece so I might just hold off on this for now and wait for that.

Here is Summer Basket from BBD. Another piece that feels like it's really moving. I'm still in love with the colors. I think it will make a great pillow.

First Place! Yeah Clancy

Yeah my Clancy-boy! A first place finish in Jumpers with Weaves! It feels so good to be back in the ribbons. This is our first qualifying score in WWJ in 18 months. And our first Q in anything (not including FAST) in a year. I guess September is a good month for him. :-)

House #10 finis

I finished up House #10 last night. :-) I really changed up the house color. It was charted for a dark brown that was almost the same shade as the roof (the same as the chimmy actually). I wanted a bit of contrast so I went through my NPIs but didn't have anything that was just a little lighter. So I just went for it. I love the color on the skein but I'm not sure how it looks on the block. :-) Oh well. I'm certainly not going to do anything about it. Only four houses to go! I'm starting on House #7 tonight.

Clancy and I are leaving shortly for the Fox Valley Dog Club agility trial. What I wouldn't do for a qualify score today or tomorrow. :-)

pretty colors

Aren't these colors so pretty together? I'm using the recommended floss on Summer Basket and I'm loving it. Now if I could just stay awake on the train. :-)


Trial this weekend with Clancy but I'm pretty sure I'm going to drag Houses with me rather than this piece. I need to get going on my next house and I still have a ton to do on last months.

enough to show :-)

Here is my start on Summer Basket. This would make a nice pillow also. :-) I really need to make some pillows that aren't autumn related.

Uneven weekend

Uneven weekend - I usually say that about Clancy but for the past weekend I'm referring to me. :-) I spent most of the weekend sick with a head cold. Such a bummer because it really messed up all my plans as my preference was to take very long naps. Which in itself is not such a bad thing but it was not part of the overall schedule I had for the weekend. As such when I finally got around to do my pile of finishing work it was Monday and I had more than I could do in one day. To further complicate it, nothing worked out right. Did you ever have one of those days?


First I cut out the ruffle for my first pillow - BBD's Loose Feathers Autumn Song, half the size I had envisioned - I wanted a two inch ruffle but only cut out enough for a one inch ruffle. Not a huge tragedy but not a good start to my day either. I went with it because it looked OK. Then the gathering of the ruffle just took forever so I ended up putting it aside to work on it while I watched TV later in the evening.



Early Monday I went shopping and I purchased the trim for my Autumn Bouquet pillow and estimated that I needed two yards of trim. When I started on the pillow I decided that I wanted a much larger fabric border and then I ended being 8 inches short of the trim! Yikes. The end result was I had to put it aside to wait for more trim. By this time it's after dinner and I haven't even started on the other two finishes.


This is what it will look like once it's all together. I went with an upholstery trim to match the linen. I did go online Sunday evening and I ordered more trim from Joann.com but I'm afraid now that the three yards of trim I ordered will come in 3 - one yard pieces rather than one large piece like I want.

I did managed one finish - my strawberry emery from It's Berry Time. It turned out really cute. I'll try to get a better photo later in the week. It was after 9:00pm by the time I was finished and was too tired to work on it.

I'll get back to finishing the others on Wednesday since tonight is agility with the pugs. I also didn't put a stitch in my Houses of Hawk Run Hollow since I was still working on stitching Autumn Bouquet and then I had to finish stitching my strawberry. I wasn't finished with those until Sunday. I did start stitching on the new Loose Feathers, Summer Basket this morning but I don't have much to share because I fell asleep on the train about 15 minutes after it left my station and didn't wake up until I got to Chicago. :-) I plan on doing the sampler and the thread keeper but I might make the thread keeper into a pin holder as I don't own an eyelet maker and don't plan on purchasing one at the present time.

Long weekend!

Today I'm on vacation so I have an extra long weekend! Yeah! Here is my progress on Autumn Bouquet. Almost finished. :-) My plans for the weekend include a bunch of finishing work. I'd like to make two pillows, a pin cushion and finish my strawberry emery. And finish my current house on HoHRH. Have you seen the preview that Kathy posted on Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow? I didn't want to like it - I still have Shores to stitch and Houses to finish and I didn't want to add yet another behemoth to my stash. But so far no luck as I like what I have seen. I can't believe I'm bummed I like something!

Have a great weekend and those of you who have a day off work for Labor Day, enjoy the bonus! Hopefully I will have lots to share on Tuesday. :-)

half way!

I was starting to feel like this piece was taking forever but when I got to work this morning I realized that I'm half way done. Not the slacker after all. :-) This would make a very cool pillow to go along with my fall pillow collection. For the long weekend I was thinking of getting some finishing done and maybe I'll pillowize this. It's an idea anyway.

I've been trying to organize my fibers. Last week when I went through them to pull the colors I needed for the new Loose Feathers, everything was such a mess it was driving me crazy. So I have been stuffing each skein into a floss away bag and labeling it and then sorting by brand and clipping those together using four inch binder rings in alphabetical order. I'm almost done and it's so nice and tidy! And it was such a bummer to see four even five skeins of the same colors. I could have spent that money on things I didn't have. Oh well, I'm sure they will get used at some point.

Here is a link to a cool pet tag giveaway! Good luck. :-) Pat's Design

The Great Pumpkin Conspiracy idea

Last week I mentioned that I wanted to stitch the new chart from Cross-Eyed Cricket called the Great Pumpkin Conspiracy. I further moaned about the price of the nine colors of Silk N'Colors required to stitch it. A couple of folks said they would be willing to split the cost of the silks with me. I did find a retailer on eBay who will sell me the nine skeins for $40.00 which is already a nice savings. I have the chart in hand and I will count stitches for each color to figure out how many of this design can be stitched with one skein of each. I'm hoping at least four of us can stitch from one skein of each.

Jolene and Tracy, can you confirm by email that you are still interested? If anyone else is interested in this possibility please also shoot me an email. I'd be willing to purchase more than one of a couple of colors if it means that more of us can stitch it as charted at what would turn out to be a very nice price. :-)

Here is my progress on Autumn Bouquet.

And on Houses of Hawk Run Hollow - house #9.

Herb Gatherer finis

The Herb Gatherer - design by Shepherd's Bush

32 count cream Irish Linen

Recommended cotton floss

I finished up the oldest item in my stash on Saturday evening. The copyright on the design is 1990 and I know I bought it that year. So it only took me 19 years to get to her. :-) I love it! I'm so happy on how it turned out. And I don't really think it took me all that long. I've been buying and trading a ton more SB stash - I'll post a photo as soon as it all comes in.

I didn't remember to put Autumn Bouquet in my agility bag but on Sunday I found that I had put the supplies for the Strawberry Emory from a couple of Loose Feathers ago in my bag. So I worked on that on Sunday. I was about 2/3rds complete when I realized I was not going to have enough CC Wild Berries to complete it. And sure enough I ran out with only six or so lines to go. I'll order more tomorrow from Drema but it will never match. Oh well, I'm not going to restitch it so I'll just have to live with it.

I did have a little time to work on my current house from HoHRH last night but I won't be done with it by the end of the evening. I have the entire house to complete and I haven't even started it yet. I have Friday off work and with Monday being a holiday I should be able to get caught up nicely.

As for the rest of the weekend, Clancy was very uneven but he ended in a huge high note. I did pull him off the course for both of his Jumpers run do to a lack of weaves. I wanted to pull him off his Standard run on Saturday when he didn't do his weaves but the little bugger ran away from me in the direction of the next jump so we ended up finishing the course. Our highlight of the weekend was his Standard course on Sunday. We almost Q'd! And we received a score for the first time in months and months. I asked him to redo his weaves until he completed them and he did. But we had three tries and that was one try too many and we were scored two refusals and you can only have one refusal at the Open level. We had quite the party at the finished line and left the weekend on a super high note. My agility instructor saw our run and said we did great. :-) That is like getting a gold medal. Our next trial is on September 12th so I'm hoping a few more puzzle pieces fall into place.

I have decided to bring out Aoife at a one day Novice only trial on October 11th. I sent in her AKC registration form in today and her official AKC name is: Aoife Meadhbh MacKenna. Meadhbh is the Gaelic spelling of Maeve. :-)

Getting ready for another busy weekend

Here is my progress on Autumn Bouquet. I'm moving right along. I'll pop it in my agility bag this weekend and hopefully get some more in. Last night I finished all the back stitching on the Herb Gatherer and even started on the beading. I'll be finished by the end of the weekend for sure and will have some nice photos of the finis finis on Monday. :-)

As mentioned above, this weekend is the second agility trial in the current series of six. Because for the most part I totally loose the weekend I have to take care of all the usual weekend stuff during the week. So on Wednesday and Thursday evening I did all the laundry. Tonight after work I will have to go to the grocery store and buy food for me and the pugs. I feed them a raw diet and every other week I have to prepare their breakfasts for two or three weeks and I am almost out. I also have to pack for tomorrow. Believe it or not, the stuff required for an agility trial is amazing. I imagine it's like traveling with kids. :-)

First I need a mat to cover our floor space at the trial facility. We will be at an indoor soccer field and the mat is required. Mine is five feet by eight feet. Then I have a crate for the two pugs - thank goodness they like to be together - so mine is on the large size and I can keep as many as three pugs in there. Cooler - that one is obvious - for my drinks, lunch and the pugs treats and water. Fan to cool the pugs in case it's warm at the trial site. Blankets to cover the crate so pugs sleep the day away. Big chair for me. Most agility folks buy one from Picnic Time. They are very comfy and have an attached table. My agility bag - this is where everything that I can possibly need for the weekend goes. Mine is the largest canvas tote bag that Land's End sells. And it's stuffed to the gills. Just to name a few items, video camera, still camera, tripod, notebooks and clipboard, more treats, more snacks, pens and pencils, extra socks and the list goes on and on. I think you get the drift. If it's an outdoor trial the list is even bigger. Canopy tent, sun shades and more clothes in the case the weather changes. My car is filled to the gills!

I should get in some stitching at this trial, not many of my friends will be there during the weekend so I'll be hanging out with the pugs for the most part, stitching and listening to the latest Dark novel by Christine Feehan on my MP3. Cross your fingers that agility Clancy comes to the trial and not his evil twin, Weave Pole Popping Clancy. :-)

Have a great weekend!

still not sure

I'm still not sure about the colors in this piece but it's too late now to change them! LOL! So I guess I need to get over it and press on. I've been hard pressed to stay awake on the train and I lost a battle a couple of times over the past five or so rides. But I'm in no hurry.

I saw this new chart from Cross-eyed Cricket on the Stitch Bitches blog earlier in the week. It's just calling to me. I love Halloween designs and this one is so whimsical I have to do it.

So I wander over to the Cross-Eyed Cricket website and see if I can't find some details and sure enough they kindly posted all the details. I see that it's charted for DMC/Anchor and get this - Thread Gatherer Silk N' Colors. Now I don't know about you but spending $7.00 a skein for silk floss is a bit rich for me so I figure I can convert it into cotton over-dyed so I go over to another website and look up the SNC colors. Yes, you have already guessed it, most of the nine skeins of SNC required for this piece are those very unique shades that just can't be duplicated in any existing cotton over-dyed. The beauty of SNC is not in question here, just the price. And looking at the piece it doesn't look like much of any of the skeins will be needed. Another strike against buying them. I remembered that I found a retailer on eBay that has amazing prices on many brands of floss so I emailed them and find out if they can sell me just what I need. Well they can and for only $40.00. That is a HUGE savings but still, do I want to spend $40.00 for tiny pieces of silk floss? I'm thinking no. But I'll pre-order the chart and get a good look at the color photo and make my final decision at that time. But I'm fairly certain I'll be doing mine with cotton. :-)

my new start

Here is my start on Autumn Bouquet. I was able to start it on the way home yesterday after all. My friend Kelly from work read my blog yesterday and since she lives within walking distance of work, she went home at lunch and brought me back a needle. How about that for nice? :-) But now I do have a pack of needles in my computer bag and at my desk. :-) Not going to let that happen again. It will most likely be something else next time! LOL!

I'm stitching my AB on Lakeside Linens Vintage Autumn Gold, 32 count - I also decided to go with the four charted colors of GA floss but now that I've started I seem to recall some very lovely pieces that were stitched with only one color of floss. It's not too late for me to change my mind and I'm going to have to think on it really hard today because I wouldn't want to put anymore in if I'm just going to pull it all out.

I have updated my wish list on the left. If any one would like to trade something that I have for something on my wish list, please email me. I'm always happy to pass things along.

Thanks for all your nice comments yesterday about my Herb Gatherer and thanks for commiserating with me over Clancy. One of the comments was from a fellow pug owner stating how stubborn they can be and that is absolutely true. They are considered a non-biddable breed and Clancy is a perfect example of the meaning of non-biddable. :-) With many breeds their attitude is "what can I do for you now"? With pugs it's more often "what have you done for me lately"? LOL! I also had to stand back and make sure I'm not being too hard on him. And after a ton of pondering, I really don't think I am. Clancy knows his job 100% and I guessing the problem is he is not always willing to do what I want when I want it so he just goes with what is easiest for him. Fixing this attitude is all part of dog training and I just need to figure out how to get in his head better. But I sure wish sometimes he was a herding dog and not a pug. :-) I'll chat with our coach tonight and see if she has any insight. It just might be time to accept that this will always be an issue and once in a while we might succeed. And since I've chosen pugs as my breed of choice the sooner I get over it the better. It's that or switch to a different breed of dogs and I don't think I'm quite ready for that. A couple years down the road maybe but not yet.

a title a finish and a new start

I finished up the stitching on the Herb Gatherer over the weekend and started on the back-stitched trees. These trees are going to take forever! I worked on them for at least six hours and swear I didn't even make a dent.

I was going to have a photo of my new start, Autumn Bouquet from Blackbird Designs to show off this morning. It's been in my stash for a couple of years now and I felt like working on something with a fall feel to it. Well I forgot to put needles into my bag. And my backup needles weren't in my computer bag. And to really make it worse, my backup, backup needles at work are not there. I must have used them at some point and forgot to put news ones in there place. So tomorrow I'll bring entire packs of needles for work and for my computer bag. So I have nothing to show. bummer - I hate losing an entire days worth of train rides.

Clancy had a VERY uneven weekend at the agility trial and quite frankly I'm ready to pull him again. On Saturday he earned a first place in Novice FAST earning his Novice Fast title. So his new AKC name is Clancy O'Shay NA NAJ NF. That was the highlight of the weekend and I'm very pleased. Although the rest of what I have to say doesn't sound like I'm happy at all.

Now for the rest of the day on Saturday - he had the most amazing jumpers run but didn't do his weaves. :-( On his standard run he did his weaves beautifully but missed a contact so no Q. We also participated in an exhibition sport that didn't count for anything but bragging rights called Time To Beat - it will be a new AKC event starting in the new year. He did his weaves like a pro and we ended up in 5th place for the 12th inch dogs. :-) Against Excellent Level dogs. That was nice. On Sunday it was more of the same. A beautiful jumpers run no weaves. I decided I had enough so if he missed his weaves during his standard run I planned to pick him up ending the fun. Well he missed his weaves so I picked him up half way through the course showing him there are consequences to not completing his weaves. At this point I don't know what else to do. I did get a look from him - he's never not been able to complete his fun before so maybe something will click for him. No weaves, no play. If he wasn't perfect in class and at home I would not try this. But it's only at trials where he decides not to finish all 12 poles. He makes a perfect entry and just stops at some point before we are finished. I've watched the video and so have my friends and I am doing nothing to pull him out. It really is all on him. We have three weekends of trials in the next four weeks planned so I'll see if this has any impact on him. If I get more of the same, I won't sign him up for any more trials and I'll concentrate on Aoife for the time being.

I have some nice video of his runs and I'll post them to YouTube at some point today.

It's the weekend!

And am I ever glad! :-)

This doesn't look a single thing like HoRHR. :-) Since I am so close to being finished with the stitching on the Herb Gatherer, I decided to work on this until it is done - should be this weekend I'm hoping. Then I'll get back to House #9 at night and do the beading and remaining back stitching on HR when time allows. I'm hoping Monday I'll have a new start. I'm thinking something with a fall feel to it.

I worked from home yesterday and then I went out to have dinner with friends. This is what I saw when I got back after dinner. George had managed to remove at least half of the contents of the toy box looking for the perfect toy. By the time I left for dinner, Aoife and George had removed some but they must have had a blast while I was gone. :-) That's George in the photo - still hunting for just the right thing.

Clancy and I have an agility trial this weekend. I'm hoping it's a good one. :-) Wish us luck for a no dropped bars weekend! LOL!

rounding the top

I had to pull out a bit on the left side this morning. I was putting in some of the tree and saw that I had made a mistake. Thank goodness I spotted it when I did because if I had not, the top would have not met in the correct place. And there wasn't much to pull so it wasn't a tragedy. I will have to stitch the tree when I do the beading at home. I found today on the train that the movement along with some of the odd spacing will make it too hard to do so I'll have to do it at home. I'm getting bored with this piece and I most likely will start something new for the train next Monday - but I'll stick with it until then. Hopefully I'll get all of the cross stitching done by then and only have the trees and beading to complete.

lots of animals

There is quite the little zoo on Block #9. And I still have several to go! I don't have an update for the Herb Gatherer as I fell asleep on the train yesterday and this morning and hardy put a stitch in. :-) I'm going to try to work on it at lunchtime today.