I didn't have any stitching time over the weekend. Bummer as I was hoping to have this piece done by now and already stitching #3. But I'm close! :-)
Over the past several evenings I have not had a second to stitch. And I've been falling asleep on the train - both ways. :-) So not a lot of progress has been made on Falling Leaves. But the weekend is close at hand so I hope to get a ton done and have a huge progress photo on Monday. 
I totally acknowledge that I have not been stitching a ton over the past several days - the weather was wonderful over the weekend - but it seems like this cream border is taking me forever! :-) By the time it's finished I will take four trips around the square. But it's so worth it - it's going to be so pretty!
Starting on the Falling Leaves borders. :-) The border on this one is really pretty. But I most likely won't have an update tomorrow - I have a big do at work tonight so no stitching later. 
State Fair - American Quilt Collection - design by Laura J. Perin
I love the colors on this one. :-)
Just two more border rows and I'm finished with State Fair! This piece has been such a nice change of pace for me. I really want to start the next one but my mojo is back and I'm actually leaning toward starting a new cross stitch piece instead. :-) But I still have a couple more days to decide. And it will be a fun couple of days - it's so much fun to go through the stash!
I've moved to the border portion of State Fair. That means home stretch! Of course it's a pretty large border so I will be working on it for a while. :-) But border always means almost done to me. And that feels great. 
Here is my progress on Laura J. Perin's design: State Fair. I had plenty of time on Saturday to sit and stitch. But not as much time on Sunday because Clancy earned his Open Standard title!!! 
I'm making excellent progress on State Fair. And as I predicted yesterday it's going to move quickly. I might even have this finished in less than a week! Now that would be sweet - I could move onto the next one and get caught up. :-) And then start on something else. And get back to my hooking. And get back to my quilting. And spend more time with my pugs. LOL!
Here is my start to Christmas gift #1 - also know as State Fair from the American Quilt Collection by Laura J. Perin. I'm stitching all six on 24 count congress cloth using one strand of DMC #8 and Caron Wildflowers. While it's a bit large for the train (12 x 12) I'm going to give it a go any way. I'm way behind but I have a feeling these are going to go quick. The above stitching only took me 20 minutes. And as each piece gets more filled out the more flow I will find and they will end up going quicker as the piece progresses. :-) I like that. 
Frederika - design by Carriage House Samplings
Here is Ms. Fred in all her glory! I'm almost finished with this piece. Just the bottom part to go. :-) Yeah! I'm most likely not going to fill in the border with the two recommended NPIs - I want it to match Mr. Fred and he doesn't have the filling. At least that is the story I'm telling myself. I know I could go the other way and fill him in but that just makes more work. :-)
A ton of stitches! LOL! I didn't put a stitch in all weekend on Ms. Fred. I was way to tired after two very full days of gardening and lawn work. I had way more to do than I had time for and it was sun up to sun down both Saturday and Sunday. And when I dragged my weary butt in late Sunday afternoon I knew I was close to getting caught up with things. A good thing too, I have agility trials for the next two weekends. I'll have to get in the habit of doing little things after work for an hour or so. It worked for me last summer so I know it's just a matter of getting outside and doing it before I sit down for the evening.
I participated the the Hooked on Exchanging Early Christmas Ornament exchange and yesterday I received my ornament. It's from Janet and she stitched me LHN's Red House in Winter on the front and Jeannette Douglas's ornament from the 2009 JCS magazine. I so love it! 
Here is my progress on Ms. Fred. Home stretch here - almost complete with Ms. F herself and then it's just the bottom where she is standing and the rest of the border to complete. Those of you who have stitched Ms. F already will notice that I changed the chart up a bit. The bottom border is charted so the black outline and the diamonds merge together. Despite how much I like folk art, that sort of thing drives me crazy to stitch myself so I changed to what it is now. That means I'll have to fudge the bottom a bit but I'm fine with that. I'll never have to look at it in the future and wish I had done it differently or even worse once I have forgotten how it was charted wonder why I name such a big mistake. :-) I'll do the same for Mr. F also.
Ms. Fred is looking so bird like now. :-) I didn't have much of an update yesterday so I didn't post anything. I haven't been stitching at home at night and I've been napping on the train. :-)
Here is Ms. Fred. Not a stitch put in over the weekend. My interest in stitching is starting to wain. I can just feel it. That happens every so few often years to so. I'll do some sort of craft for a while and then move onto something new. I always come back around but the last time I stopped cross stitching it was almost 20 years before it came around again. I have way to much stash for that to happen (I hope).
Ms. Fred looks a bit Egyptian tomb to me right now. I kinda like it. :-)
I've started on Ms. Fred herself this morning. This piece if flying. I'm doing her on 36 count Antique Gold from Silkweavers using the recommended NPI silks.
I love the little bits of this piece. In fact I think I like stitching them more than the bigger pieces. :-) Just a couple more to go and I'll be ready to start on Ms. Fred. I'm stitching mine using the recommended NPI silk. I love these colors and I'm positive now that I'm going to stitch Mr. Fred on the same piece.
Clancy and I had a great weekend at the agility trial! On Saturday he earned a second place in Excellent A Jumpers and on Sunday he upped himself by one by earning a first place in Excellent A Jumpers! That got him his Excellent Jumpers agility title! (AXJ) He is now at the Excellent B level earning championship points towards his MACH. We still need to get out of Open Standard and are working very hard on that. Maybe this coming weekend at the two day trial we are entered in. We only need one more qualifying score for his Open title and then we start to compete at the Excellent A level. Three more qualifying scores there and he moves into Excellent B (where he is now competing in Jumpers) and we can start to work on Double Q's. To obtain the ultimate AKC agility title which is called a MACH - Master Agility Champion a dog needs to earn 20 Double Q and 750 speed points. A double q is earned when a dog gets a qualifying score in both standard agility and jumpers agility on the same day. It's pretty tough to do because a dog as to be perfect in both - at the Excellent B level a dog can have no faults and no time penalties. So he needs to be perfect and fast. 
Have a great week!
Here is my Ms. Fred - she is on Silkweavers 36 count Antique Gold. It's moving along. :-)
My favorite bead so far is the fat little Venus on the left.
I was too lazy this morning to take Ms. Fred off my hoop. :-) But it shows all the new stitching I got in so I figured it would be ok. :-)
I didn't put needle to linen all weekend. Nor did I quilt. Nor did I clean. :-) I'll be busy after work this week for sure. Other things kept getting my attention - like watching tv, reading, napping, playing with the pugs and shopping. I bought myself the start of a Trollbead bracelet and a frame for my rug hooking. That is the story of my weekend. :-) 
I did hook a bit and now all I have left on this little rug is the filling in with background. I can't wait for the new frame to arrive - it will make repositioning the linen while I work so much easier. That means I'm ready for a big girl rug. :-)
Yesterday about 3/4 of my DMC #8 arrived in the mail. Such pretty colors. See that big pile of blue thread? When I went to pick up my car this morning from the repair shop, one of the dogs took the bag off my coffee table no doubt thinking it was food. They are pugs after all and searching for food is one of their bad habits. Georgie got one of the balls out and made a total mess of it. And to add insult to injury while I was taking the photo of this I must have taken my eyes off them for a second, he grabbed one more and the second photo is the results. 
He was having a grand time. :-)
I have in hand my month four of the Civil War Tribute quilt and that is the plan for the weekend. Work on that and company clean the house. One of my very best friends is coming for a visit next week and I want everything to be sparkly both inside and out. :-)
Have a great weekend!
No much of a change from yesterday on Ms. Fred. Tuesday nights are for agility and I actually went! :-) And I'm so glad I did. Aoife had one of her best nights in what seems like months. And why you ask? I'm getting over my fear of stepping on her and in the words of my teacher I was handling her aggressively. :-) That's a good thing. Clancy was also great - it's so hard when he's perfect in class and a clown at trials. Well that's pugs for you! I sent in my check for agility summer camp in July. I just could not help myself. It's so much fun. So what if I'll be broke for the next three months as I pay for it. :-)
Even though I retrieved my wayward chart from my coffee table, I decided to continue with the border on Ms. Fred. There is something to be said for mindless stitching at 6:00am. :-) I might even put in some more of the black lines that go around the diamonds. Now that is totally mindless. :-) But it has to be done at some point so it might as well be now. 
This morning when I got on the train to come to work I realized that I left my Ms. Fred chart at home. How I did that I'll never know - such a bonehead. :-) But I remembered that there are 22 diamonds across the top of the piece so I was able to at least stitch something. I'll look for a photo online and count the diamonds along the sides so I can continue there on the way home.
Over the weekend I did manage to get some crafting in. I worked on my little rug pillow a bit. This piece is really coming together. :-)
On Sunday after the scheduled lawn work I managed to quilt for several hours (I didn't go back to the quilt show). I finished off the last of the light blocks for my Small Things quilt and got a start on the 36 dark/light courthouse steps blocks. I've been able to take some time off each blocks - now they are coming in around 45 minutes each. I have 32 blocks or 24 hours to go before I can put everything together. :-) 
The fish photos were taken two weekends ago after I cleaned it out. The water lilies are much more grown by now and the other plants around the pond more grown.
Yesterday I was chatting with my friend Kelly and she suggested if I plan on stitching the Freds together on one piece of linen then rather than filling in the border solid on Frederick like it is in Frederika that I don't fill Frederika like it is on Frederick. I'm loving that idea! So I won't start filling in the border until I have a clearer picture in my head on how I want to proceed. But I can already tell you where I'm leaning. ;-)
Tomorrow is the Quilt Show and I'm so excited! But also very sad, this is the last year it will be in Rosemont which is about a 40 minute drive south from my house. It's moving to Cincinnati next year due to the rising costs of convention space in the area. There is an annual quilt show in Madison WI that I guess I can go to in the fall but it's around 2 hours north from me. But a girl has to do what a girl has to do. :-) I should be glad that I at least have a back up plan. If I were smart I would find an agility trial the same weekend as the quilt show and I could do both. If I can get my agility act together that might be an option and then I don't have to drive alone. I'd drag a friend with me. 
One of my commenters yesterday called Frederika and Frederick the Freds. I love that! Usually when I start a new piece I like to start in the dead center and work my way around. With this piece however, because I'm thinking of putting both Freds on one piece I had to start at the top. So I'm going to be jumping around a bit. I don't want to get bored by doing just the border so I'll fill it in as I go around the piece.
