Not much progress

Not much stitching of any kind has been going on lately.  I've been working from home more often than not and I've been very lazy at night.  That all adds up to little or no stitching.  Below is my progress on my Shepherd's Bush.  I really don't have much left if I would just get to it.  :-)

I have been working on a bit of decorating.  My sister gave me the below cabinet for Christmas and I've had a blast filling it with my American Redware collection.  I've only been collecting for three years and I have 35 pieces (all reproductions).  Here I have about half of it.  The rest are in the kitchen in various places.  Makes me happy.  :-)

I also love botanical prints and have been purchasing a set of a series of prints called the Twelve Months of Flowers by Robert Furber.  They were first published in 1730.  My prints are reproductions of course but are hand tinted.  They are very true to the originals.  I finally had all 12 framed and are all hanging in my bedroom. 

Now I really need to figure out some window treatments other than the wood shades I have up.  It's hard to believe I've been working on my bedroom for three years now.  I also did some more work on my bathroom and now all the plumbing is finished.  I still have to put up the new trim work and a little more painting before I can start to decorate that.  But I am getting closer to being done with both. 

Here is my pretty Isabelle.  I've had her four years now (can't believe how time flies) and she is such a beauty.  She is always with me just like the pugs.  I never knew Labs could be so clingy.  :-)  But I love it. 

something new

 I've put a little more time into my Shepherd's Bush piece.  Love the colors.  I think I'll buy the matching pins for this one. 

I put in a couple of more rows on my Drawn Thread Sampler.  My plan is to do all the pre-work before I start the new lesson plan which is different from Gay Ann's.  After all the pre-work is done, that means all the pulled work from the top to the bottom.  The pre-work is good tv work as it's pretty no-brainer. 

I purchased another SNS piece - Goldfinch and Chickadee Sewing Essentials.  I want more experience with stumpwork and the two pieces each have a lovely bird on them.  All the cross stich is over one.  Yuck.  But I'm done with the Goldfinch piece and should be done with the Chickadee piece in the next day or so.  Then I can start the stumpwork.  Yeah!  Of course I should be working on one of the other stumpwork pieces I have but you know how that goes.  :-)

New Year, New Starts

I've been making progress on my Shepherd's Bush Goodness and Grace pin cushion.  It's been my main train project - not have I've been on the train much lately.  I've been sick since Christmas and working from home when I can.  And I was on vacation last week and I didn't put a stitch in.  I don't know why I even travel with stitching - I haven't stitched in years while on vacation.  :-)  I'd like to get caught up with these SBs before more come up.  I don't have a chance at that of course.  I'm still sleeping on the way into work when I do get on the train.  I need to fix that.  :-)

I'm also working on the two Drawn Thread pieces from Gay Ann Rogers.  I signed up on the Shinning Needle online.  My progress on these as been dismal.  But not a lot of that has been my fault.  The supplies took forever to come in and I lost whatever enthusiasm I had to the project while waiting.  And I'm finding the "extra" instructions sent by the new instructor not to be a single bit helpful and there have been lots of "I'll be posting a lesson next week" and then nothing gets posted.  I was going to work on the Doodle piece first to learn the stitches but those have been even more slow in coming so I started the big piece and I'm now working on both at the same time.  And pretty much doing what I want to do rather than following the new instructions.  I can only work on these at home as they are in large frames and some nights I just feel like stitching so I do easy stuff saving the harder newer stuff for when I feel like stitching with a book next to me.  The class runs to the fall and I hope I'm done around then.  The one on the top is the sampler and the one below the doodle piece. 

I've also been trying to get caught up on some quilting.  I wanted to do something sorta easy so I started with Blazing Star from Primitive Gatherings.  The instructions are so poor and as far as I can tell incorrect so the entire quilt seems to be screwed up.  Now I'm trying to fix it and it's just not working.  Talk about a waste of $180.  The quilt is a huge Texas Star with very large pieces (the fast part) and it was illustrated so poorly nothing is coming together.  And because the pieces were so large, a mistake can't be fixed.  So I might have a pile of scrap.  Nothing has been done in weeks there.  I guess I should work on it some more and see if by some miracle it actually comes together.  Doubt it though. 

So that has been my last several weeks - trying to something going and having nothing but issues.  :-(  Hopefully that will be a thing of the past soon so I can get back on easy street.