I know I'm a little early but I work tonight and won't be able to post well wishes until Wednesday and I don't want to start the year late - it's bad luck according to my mum. I thought I'd have a finish before the year was over but due to family having time off from work/school I've been spending time with them. I HAVE A FINISH!!!! Last finish of the year is Homespun Elegance Delivering Fleurs!! I'm so happy *happy dance* Here's a picture...

I don't have the buttons and stuff but the stitching is done! Maybe I'll go to my not so LNS on Friday to get the goods!

Well hope everyone has a Fantabulous New Year's! I'll be counting down the new year's with my co-worker and whatever patients are alert enough to join us. I'm off to try to stitch! Hopefully the night at work will be quiet :)

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone is have a great day! So far I'm cranky but I blame it on the lack of sleep I got today, once I get a nap I'll be my cheery self again :)

Instead of singing Christmas songs like everyone else - I found myself singing "This is Halloween" this morning when Kelly told the conceirge in his building happy holidays, he laughed at me when he heard me. I also sang the song that Jack Skellington sang when he told the town about Santi Claws - I love the way he makes his hands. I think Halloween is such a better holiday LOL. Next year I'm going to try and make it the new Christmas and give out my presents then - it may be less stressful too, which could help with my psoriasis. Oh btw the new thing I have is psoriasis - in my scalp of all places! Three weeks ago I thought I just had really bad dandruff. When it started to become so bad that I'd wake up itching I knew I had to go to the doctor and he comfirmed I had psoriasis. Now I'm putting drops in my head every night/morning and washing my hair with smelly grease/tar smelling shampoo *sigh* I just hope this clears up. I told Kelly I wish I had a nice disease. So far what I have makes me feel ugly (I have vitiligo too on my face.)

Anyhoo, enough of that, the last 2 nights at work were HEAVEN!!! I thank God for the wonderful gift :-) I lounged, I played video games, I stitched, I went online LOL Last night was a little busier but not as busy as it usually can get. I had a patient in alcohol withdrawal (such a nice person!) and I stayed in the room while the sedative took effect so the hallucinations would go away. Luckily I had the time to stay or else who knows what could have happened.

I won't post an update pic of DF - I'm close to being done (thanks to my easy work nights) so I'll post a picture when I'm done.

Well that's all for tonight - I'm going to sleep. Hopefully I'll wake up early enough go over to Kelly's in the morning. If I wake up too late I get lazy and never make it out of here on time. I'll try to post more later on. I have gifts to look through and will try to share. Merry Christmas!

An Update

I've been stitching on Delivering Fleurs although I haven't been stitching as much as I would like. I finished reading The Memory's Keeper Daughter and started this other book that's hard to put down called Love and Ghost Letters. I've managed to get totally involved in this book and it's hard to believe that I'm only up to page 70 LOL. Here's a picture of how far I've gotten on DF. I'm almost there just half of the big flower, and other small flower and the cart and I'm done! Then it's back to either Dollhouse or Sampler Farm - I forget which one I worked on last.
I've finally decorated (half-ass though) the house for Christmas, only because I wrapped my gifts and wanted something to put them under. We only have a small tree (Kobe knocked out big one down when he was a puppy and we haven't gotten a big tree since.) Here's my teeny tree - I use to have a teeny nativity set but couldn't find it.
This is my "big" tree with my gifts under it. I'm still missing 2 gifts *sigh* I have to get a GC for my nephew (which I'll do tonight at Duane Reade) and I'm hoping that the Nintendo DS I got for my younger nephew comes in tomorrow (mail came in today and it's still not here.) My gifts are on the small scale this year but I hope they're enjoyed!
Finally, I went to my not so LNS to pick up BC's Yule in it's frame. The turn around time on this one was fast and I'm sort of grateful because I can use it this year as part of my decorations :) I must have not cut all the stray threads so you can see one pretty bad by the Y :( I'm trying not to concentrate on it - other than that everything looks ok.
Now I'm going to sleep since I work tonight and tomorrow night. I've been waking up early again on my days off (430am) and don't think I'll be able to work tonight without taking a nap before work. TTFN! I just realized I got stash in the mail so I'm going to play with that first before taking a nap!

I give up!

I woke up early to start quilting my quilt and I have to tell you, quilting something big is no way as easy as quilting something small! I think I'm going to send it out to get done since I don't have off for the machine quilting class that the store is offering. Piecing a quilt I can do, the quilting on my practice piece was easy peasy but I think I need more practice before I try out something big. *sigh* I had such high expectations too, maybe that's the reason I'm so down. Oh well I'm going to clean up and maybe try again later on. In the meantime I'm going to start cutting the fabric for my cousin's quilt. I'm suppose to go to work tonight but I think I'll call out, I'm just not in the mood to go and it's really nice outside so maybe I'll go out and start my Xmas shopping, I need a mental day anyway. Tomorrow it's going to rain and I don't mind being at work. TTFN!

Look what I picked up!

Pretty no? I had it framed just the way Shepherd's Bush had their's framed in regards to the matting, but I think the frame may be different, apparently the old frame was discontinued. I like it but didn't think it would be so big. The picture isn't the greatest but it looks so nice in person - the mats are wonderful. I took another piece to get framed when I picked this one up and I can't wait to see it. I went after work so I was tired and can't even remember what I picked out for matting or frame, I just hope it all matches LOL.

Today was the last day of my quilting class - I'm so sad! I signed up for another class in March. I was wait-listed for another one. I didn't care too much about being wait-listed since I was going to call out from work to go to the class. If I find enough energy I'm going to machine quilt my quilt tonight and try to do the binding and then start on my cousin's quilt. I had another weird night where I slept all day to wake up 12am to go back to sleep at 5am and then wake up again at 9am this morning though I woke up at 7:30! I need some more sleep.

I haven't stitched since that last update, I did buy more stash though when I went to pick up Spooky Spots. I thought I grew out of my Lizzie Kate phase but I saw the 12 Blessings stitch together and got the fabric for it. It looks really nice! When I told Tawny that I had grown out of L*K she told me lots of people have told her the same thing. I wonder if she's losing any money over this? Anyhoo, I want to start on Blessings like right away - I'm going to do it on 32ct over 2 with 1 thread. It should look nice, maybe I'll get creative and change some things around or maybe not. I'm so afraid of changing things, I envy those that can do it.

I'm reading this book and I think it's effecting (affecting?) my mood. It's the Memory Keeper's Daughter, and the family in the book is filled with repressed anger that it makes me feel so unhappy. This book has me re-evaluting my life and thinking if maybe I've made some bad decisions and this is why my life is the way it is, not that I have a crappy life so far life has been good to me. But the family in the book have everything, yet their sad because of a lie kept by the father. I want to stop reading it but it's a really good book so I can't. Maybe after this I'll read some funny chick-lit to make me happy again LOL. Okies TTFN!

Tis the season to be...

GROUCHY! LOL
Whenever I think that I have to buy gifts for people it makes me grouchy. Not because I don't want to buy them gifts but because I feel forced to and the stores are crowded around this time. I swear one year I'm going to do all of my shopping in August. I do love to buy gifts for people who don't expect it though, for them I don't mind waiting in line.

I made a list of what had to be done on my 2 days off and I swear lists make me counterproductive. Yesterday I spent the entire day sleeping. I've been so tired lately that I'm thinking of going to the doctor to get some labs drawn, maybe I'm anemic. Well anyway before going to sleep I did manage to get some if not most things done. Today I'm going to finish the rest. Of course I found more things to add to my list.

I did stitch last night when I was awake for a few hours. And I realized that while at my stitch meet Saturday I managed to stitch a lot more than I thought. I'm almost halfway done with Delivering Fleurs. And I'm like 5 stitches away from finishing that sheep - I hate stitching with white anything so I always try to do that first because if not chances are I won't finish it.


Well I'm going to take a shower and start my day. If anything spectacular happens today I'll come back to blog about it. Today I want to get my Christmas present to me from me and the backing fabric for my quilt and I'm even considering going out to dinner with Kelly, it all depends on time and how tired he is since he worked last night and isn't going to sleep right away. TTFN!

Another post and a finish!

I don't know why the fabric comes out so bright in pictures, maybe it's the flash. I took pictures with and without flash so you can see, but none of them show the true brightness of the fabrics. The one without is so dull. The last picture is one of Ana, I'm starting to think that she may be the recipient of the quilt once it's done. It's perfect "Ana" size. My mom likes it so maybe I'll give it to her or maybe I'll keep it :) The border is a midnight blue and is a batik so it looks dyed. It's really nice and picks up the light blue in my quilt. The white sort of brings out the light blue in the batik as well. I wish I had a better picture but I don't :( I like it and can't wait to quilt it. Well I'm going to take a nap - I've been up since 2am and am starting to get sleeeeeepy now.

Not a bad ending!

I honestly thought that I wouldn't be around by the time the end of the week rolled around but I made it and survived! Things weren't all that bad Thursday night at work, I knew it was getting better when I went to the vending machines at work to get ice cream and I didn't have enough for my favorite ice cream and had to get a runner up ice cream and guess what? Someone must have programmed/stocked the ice cream machine wrong and out comes my favorite ice cream! Ask Kelly - I swear by ice cream. I feel all the problems of the world can be solved with ice cream LOL.

Friday wasn't so bad either. I took Ana to the vet and instead of having to drag her by her leash into to exam room when I got up she sort of ran the best she could into the exam room. Although I think she must have been confused and thought it was an exit because when she realized where she ran to she turned right around, but it was too late then - the door was closed *insert evil laugh*.

*A Little History*
Ana use to like the doctor's office, she never cried or trembled; Kobe hated it. I use to have to physically carry him over the threshold because he wouldn't go into the office at all, he would start getting all nervous right after I'd get off the highway. It was so bad that after I had him neutered I had to changed vets because he just wouldn't go in, which ended up being ok since I found a vet closer to me that's SUPER nice (I think my old vet was afraid of Kobe.) One day I made the mistake of taking them together. When they called us, Ana (being her happy self) went to walk in and saw Kobe not wanting to go in and since monkey see monkey do Ana now thinks going into "the room" is just plain punishment. Kyle on the other hand doesn't care. He has this 24 hour look on him that just says I don't care. When I talk to him (I'm not crazy I know dogs don't talk) I swear he's telling me over and over "I don't care." He cracks me up LOL.

Anywho - back to Friday. I re-did my quilt blocks (pictures to follow shortly) I loved the color of my old fabrics but something was turning me off so I took out the green and just kept all of the blues and what a difference that made! I love my quilt top now and can't wait to finish it. I did make a boo-boo but I took it to class today/yesterday (Saturday)and my instructor said to leave it - that it looked fine. I'm the Queen of not wanting to fix things so this made me happy. I just need to finishing sewing on the sashing and my border and it will be ready.

OK this is how it was suppose to look - I thought that it made the top half look too dark and switched the blocks to make it look less dark and ended up wanting it to look like the picture below.
When I started sewing the sashing - I made sure to keep it the way I wanted it to be but I guess at 5am no matter how much you pay attention to something you'll always end up screwing things up and it ended up looking like this (see below) Now that I look at it, I kinda like it this way. I can't wait to finish this up so I can actually quilt it. I bought some varigated thread that hopefully will look good - I'm going to sign up for more classes. I just have to play around with my work schedule and see if I can fit it in.

After class I went to my first ever Metrostitchers get together and I'm glad I did. I usually feel weird stitching in front of strangers but how can one feel weird when everyone is stitching??? It was like wow I belong here LOL. Everyone was friendly and even though I hardly said anything I feel comfortable enough to go to more stitching events because stitchers are nice people :-) I had to leave early because I stayed up the night before until 6am and only had 3 hours of sleep so I was sleeeeeeepy. I knocked out on the train (which made the ride shorter) but I need to stop doing that because I'm afraid one day I'll wake up missing something.

Umm I guess that's all - I'm still working on Homespun Elegance's Delivering Fleurs (no progress pic yet) Thanks to work I'm on this odd sleeping schedule again so I'm just waiting for it be be late enough to start up my sewing machine and finish my sashing and put on some borders. I'll probably go back to sleep around 12-ish and then wake up to go back to work *sigh* Today is the last day of one of my co-workers working and I'm going to miss her. I didn't like her in the beginning when I went to the floor but after getting to know her she's a really nice person and always helped me, I wish she didn't want to quit. I wish I could quit and just stay home and do crafts (who doesn't right?) I have to plan my next year's vacation. Kelly wants to go to Georgia right after New Year's but after Kyle eating my glasses and he having to replace them I don't know if we have the money for such a last minute trip. I don't want to stay at his sister's house (I feel like it's imposing on her and I think I'll have my period around that time so I'd like to stay at a hotel - I know TMI hehe) but if we go we may have to, I guess we'll see. Okey dokey - I'm going to find something to do. I've been up since 2am and when everyone else is asleep it's no fun! TTFN

When it rains...it pours! - This is me bitching about my week...

This week has been a bad one. Maybe the worst week of 2006. As you already know I lost my wallet which was the worst thing that happened Tuesday. Monday at work was SUUUUUUPER busy. I had 2 really sick patients along with other needy patients which had me on my feet all night, in the end 1 of my patients had to transferred to CCU at 6:30am which is the second BUSIEST time of the shift. Needless to say I left late Tuesday morning from work. Last night more sick people, more running on my feet all night long. It wasn't as bad as the night before so I had a chance to start my work early, one of my IV pumps goes off and I go into the room to discover my patient unresponsive and pulseless *sigh* there goes my entire morning. I call a code (my first) and after it was over I was 90 minutes behind! Let me tell you initiating a code and helping with a code is TOTALLY different. It's like I forgot everything and I'm usually really good under pressure I don't know what happened :-( I was pretty bummed the entire morning. I left late AGAIN and instead of going to the DMV first thing I went to Kelly's to take a nap (he lives close to the DMV.)

Ready for the icing on my cake?

I lay down and take my glasses off and put them on the bed next to me. Kelly gets me food so I go into the kitchen to eat. Kyle is begging so Kelly puts him in the bedroom so I can eat without a cold nose on my leg. He doesn't bother me but apparently it bothers Kelly that he begs. Fifteen minutes later I hear Kyle at the door so I open it so he can come out and I decide to go in to take a nap. I straighten out the blanket and that's when I see my glasses chewed up beyond repair. Of all the things he could have chewed (I had my cell phone and nintendo ds on the bed also) he chose the glasses!!!! I could have kicked him but instead I laughed because of course I was tired and why shouldn't this happen? I have no access to my money and now I need to buy something I need. *sigh* I did get new glasses and my temporary license. I like my new glasses and now I feel complete again. I'm totally blind without my glasses and can't drive.

I'm going back to work tomorrow and I'm just hoping I don't regret not calling out. My mom told me to just stay home before something worse happens LOL. I'm going to take a proper rest. My feet hurt and all I really want to do is rest. TTFN

I lost my wallet

I say lost because that is the only thing that's missing from my bag. Unless if someone did take it that's all they wanted. I work tonight but am tired because I spent the entire morning calling my credit card company to cancel them. I don't think it could have happened at a worse time. Now my xmas shopping will definitely be late. Well let's just hope that I remembered all the cc's that I had my wallet and didn't forget one. I have to get ready for work. I'm so sad :-(

Longish

Not much has been going on. I've been sleeping a lot less but at the same time a lot more, if that makes sense. At night I get like 3-4 hours then in the late afternoon I take another 2-3 hour nap which makes it feel like all I do is sleep all day long. I go back to work Monday so hopefully I'll get back to some sort of schedule.

Stitching wise, not much has been going on. I'm working on Homespun Elegance's Delivering Fleurs, it's coming along except I had to change a color. The sheep is stitched in Crescent Colours Ginger Snap which is yellowish but in the picture the sheep is white with some brownish tones, so I froged what I stitched *grrr* and changed it to Toasted Marshmellow as per Kelly because I wanted to use either 12-grain or Light Khaki but he said it was too brown.

Today after my quilting class (which I love and am so sad it's over in 2 weeks) I drove over to Jersey to my not so LNS! I dropped off Spring Snapperland and Love to get finished. I love love love the frame chosen for Spring. I was worried that I wouldn't find anything to go with it but Don pulled out a frame that he said may be too big for it and I fell in love with it so I went with it. I can't wait to get it back and hang it up - I LOVE THIS FRAME!!! Love is going to be made into a flat fold and I can't wait to get that back either since the 2 little people are suppose to be Kelly and me. I didn't buy much, just some floss and fabric, Oh! and one chart. I was disappointed, to tell you the truth, when I got home and dumped my bag's contents onto my bed. There were a lot of people their so I really didn't feel comfortable looking around. They had another framed peice waiting for me.

Excuse my dying grass LOL. This is Elizabeth's Design's Old Green Gardens. I think ED may be one of my fav designers. I have her newest one in my "to do" list. I bought the fabric for it today and didn't think it would be so small. I can't wait to start it though.

I decided I'm going to make a quilt for my cousin's baby. She's having a girl so I'm going for an all pink quilt and actually started 2 of the blocks. Of course since going to class today I bought new fabric so these 2 blocks won't be in use but just to show you what the blocks will look like here's a picture...

I chose to change the fabric because the fabric from the store I take my class at has better quality fabric than these pictured. The fabric above is from JoAnn's. I've bought from them before but for some reason these are very thin, unlike the ones I've gotten in the past. I was going to make the quilt white, pink, purple, and green but didn't like it so now I'm going to stick with white, light pink, and a darker pink. My class quilt is coming along. I don't like the colors I chose but at the same time I do. Believe it or not before I chose my fabric for the class I wanted to choose something girly for the baby, but my quilt has become so dark that it isn't fit for her anymore LOL. I like it now though. Today we chose sashing and border fabric. I wish they still had in stock the light blue fabric I chose because I'd love more of it to replace the green or the brighter blue. I'll share a picture of that once it's put together.

While going through my stash I found another quilt that I put together before taking any classes. I know there's still one "missing" but I don't remember the days when I was "serious" about quilting so finding this surprised me, I also found 2 blocks that I put together. I can't imagine what else I'd find if I actually pulled out all of my boxes from the spare closet. They aren't perfect but I was surprised to find them as I said before




And lastly I'll leave your with a picture that should put a smile on your face! I tried to get my cousin to stand next to her in the picture but at the last minute she caught on and didn't LOL.

SBQ

This week's SBQ:

How do you secure your thread when you begin a new one? Specifically,
do you or have you ever used a waste knot?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blondelibrarian.net/stitching/archives/2006/11/to-knot-or-not/


I don't use knots, I think when I first started stitching I used knots but then read that it was a naughty thing to do. As for waste knots, I've never used those either, I can't picture how the first stitch would stay in place after cutting the waste knot off...

Kelly Stitched!

I sort of forced him but I think he did a good job. The stitches lay the opposite of mine but because he did them I'll leave them as is :) Here's a picture - he stitched the leaf the last 2 rows.

And this is him - look at that face of concentration! I asked him if he wanted to keep the project and finish it since his stitches are so pretty and he sort of tossed it back at me and said I'll stitch Kobe if you want me to stitch. I would love for him to start stitching, I think it would be cool LOL, but I also know that picture generated patterns are hard and what if it turns him off from stitching? He tried it once and was doing well but then he left everything on the train one morning and got upset about putting all that time in for nothing. *sigh* Well I'm off to my stitching!

P.S. - Please excuse the mess in the background, I just moved all the furniture in my room and my dad needs to move the TV cable to the other side of the room and I refuse to make it look nice because it will only delay the process, so until then we do the limbo to get out of the room LOL

On to the next project! Here's an update picture of Sampler Farm, I would have done more of the border ie. the bottom part and the middle of the top border but who would have known that border was so tedious! It goes fast once you get the rhythm of it but it's like blahhhhhhhhhhh while doing it, so maybe next time I'll get it done, right now I'm excited to move onto the project.

I woke up from my nap to catch my mom placing a box from the UPS guy on my bed today. It was an order I placed last week from this site, it was the first time ordering from it but it came pretty quick and if I can't restrain myself from ordering more magents and fobs I'll order from them again! Here are my new Zecca magnets and Zecca fobs. Aren't they beeeeeeauuutiful??? I love them, you can't choose your own but I think these are wonderful! Thanks to my new stitchy friend for enabling me hehe :)


Shown are my Julia's and Sophia's with their new fobs attached - aren't they pretty :) Well I'm going to look for a new small project to start. I want to pick something from my list *but* I think what I want to start isn't on my list so I guess I'll just add it if I do start it LOL. TTYL!

A Late Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to wish everyone a late Happy Thanksgiving, I spent mine with my family and surprisingly did not eat a lot, just one serving! I did have to go out afterwards for McD's since my cousin's truly ate ALL of the leftovers (if you can imagine!)

I'm back to work tomorrow and Saturday but then I have a week off again. I've been stitching all day on Sampler Farm. I almost bought more stash but thought it over, although one chart jumped in my head that I feel I need to have so I may go back to the internet sales and get my chart.

Well I want to get some sleep so I can wake up early tomorrow to wash my hair. I can't wait until my vacation again, I want to sew my quilt blocks and stitch of course :-)

Here are some pictures before I leave...

I bought this at Bed, Bath, and Beyond last night. I love it! Just wish it would collapse because now I need to find someplace to store it while it's not in use. The desk part goes down and when I'm on my laptop that's where I put it, I guess it's better for me to use it that way, it's easy on the wrists and back. But right now it's being used to hold my chart and remote control and nintendo ds on the side. I really like it and I can also use it to eat!

Here's Sampler Farm. I'm going to try stitch the top and bottom border this time before I move on to my small project. To tell you the truth I didn't think this would be this small but I think it's because of the fabric count that it is.
TTFN!

My Conversation Piece

When I took my hand piecing quilting class the instructor told us "There are no mistakes, just conversation pieces." I solve most of my problems in the shower for some reason (LOL) so this morning while in the shower I figured out a way to "fix" what I did wrong and so my conversation begins.



I said I wouldn't rip anything out and I didn't. Instead I backstitched where the heart was suppose to be and I think it looks ok enough for me.

I'm now going to take a nap since I work tonight, but first I'm going to check the mailbox for stash, I ordered some fabric for my next project. I've packed Sampler Farm for tonight and guess I will stitch the outline of the room later on. Room 1 of Dollhouse is done!

P.S. I have a crush on Julian McMahon - I think he's cute and luv the way he talks LOL

Grrrr!!!!!!

See anything wrong with this picture???

Well if not I'll tell you. I was staring at that window thinking what is that thing that I stitched in the middle suppose to be? I look at the chart and picture and realize that I stitched something in the wrong color!!! The symbol in the chart resembles another symbol which happens to be the symbol of the window and I never realized that it was 2 different colors! In order to fix it I'd have to rip out the entire window and I'm just not doing it, nope, nuh-uh, no sirree! I'm thinking what can I do to fix it. Should I take one strand of the right color and stitch over the stitches already done? Should I just leave it alone? It's suppose to be a heart, which makes sense. *sigh*

Well I'm not stitching anymore, I have work tomorrow (Monday night) and what I was suppose to do today (Sunday) I didn't do since I was stitching so I need rest, I figure out what I'm going to do with this problem later on but I know that I'm definitely not ripping out any stitches!

Well not much has been going on for me, Kelly had 3 teeth pulled out on Thursday so I've been pretty much watching over him since then. He's ok now, it was funny when he got out on Thursday, he doesn't drink so I've never seen him drunk but on Thursday after taking his pain medication he was sort of silly and it was fun to see LOL.

Had my quilting class today, because of the trains I was 20 minutes late, but I had fun there too. I love the sewing machines they have at the stores, I went to see them at the sewing machine store and like I've said they are expensive, but they are so nice that I may give it a second thought.

I have some pictures of my latest blocks. One is just a block from a bigger block that I didn't get a chance to finish yet. And I FINALLY was able to start Dollhouse *yea* although I started with one of the beds and omg it's sooooo much stitching in one small space that I feel like I'm never going to finish *but* I'm near finish with the bed so soon I'll go back to Sampler Farm and believe it or not I'm looking forward to a change :)

I must go now, Kelly and I are going over to my cousin's house so he can see the UFC fight tonight. I get to sit down and watch him watch the fight since it doesn't really interest me. Wish my quilt piecing was more portable so I can take it but instead I'm going to take maybe Dollhouse or something smaller but I doubt it I just amped myself up to stitch on Dollhouse without even knowing it LOL. TTFN

This is my pinwheel, I need to make another one and then piece it all together to make a bigger block.

I don't know why the fabric looks so neon-ish but it's really not this bright.

This is the bed from Dollhouse that I'm talking about. Just maybe 6 more stitches on the quilt and the bed posts and it's done. After that it should pick up.

SBQ

Today's SBQ is:

Do you stitch Christmas ornaments? If so, how many do you stitch each
year and for whom? If not, why not?

The permalink to this post is:
http://blondelibrarian.net/stitching/archives/2006/11/tis-the-season/

I've tried to stitch ornaments in the past but never got pass the point of actually making them into ornaments, plus I don't have the space for a tree so I can't hang them once they're actually done. Maybe one year I'll actually have a tree and will be able to make some to hang.

There is some force that is preventing me from starting Dollhouse, when I was suppose to make my working pattern I left the original at Kelly's house, yesterday I ended up running around all day so I had no time. Today I have plans for the entire day so maybe tonight I can start it, or I can start for the hour I have between now and getting ready to leave.

My concerts have been great! I regret not taking my camera to the Modest Mouse concert Monday night. They put on an AWESOME show. There are tickets available to their concert on Thursday and I think I want to go again that's how good it was :) Bloc Party wasn't there last night *tear* I hope they come back to the States soon. I really love them.

Here's a better picture of Winter Snapperland framed


Off to stitch!

i <3 concerts!

Just wanted to say that...sad that Bloc Party wasn't there tonight since I really <3 them, get better soon Matt!!! I'm going to watch Roseanne now, more later on!
Nighty night :)

I Failed!

I knew I would LOL, I went to WVAS in NJ (my not so LNS) to buy floss and some fabric for some of my challenge projects. I did well at first, while Tawny was cutting my fabric I was getting my floss. I also wanted to get 2 gifts for 2 stitcher friends of mine so I wandered to the back. I was doing good, I wasn't looking for anything for myself but then I stumbled across this Brightneedle book of small projects (freebies they've put out), I've been dying for small project like these in the book so I can try to make small little things and this was like perfect so I bought it. I also bought the same chart I bought for a friend (it's really nice) and while checking out there was a kit by the register and I bought that too. I love my new purchases and will try not to buy anymore but who knows. The best part of cross stitching is buying stash and I guess I have a lot but I really love my new purchases, maybe my challenge should be that I will stitch what's on my list and think REALLY hard about future purchases before buying them. I actually put something back, Janette Douglas' Winter Stitches, it's so pretty but I've tried to stitch her Take Time to... and they just frustrate me, so maybe thinking over purchases may work.

My framing wasn't done yet, well one was and I'm really happy with it. My dad already hung it on the wall but my mum didn't like the framing, she said it was nothing special and looked old, she didn't understand that I was going for a rustic look. The picture I have is sort of shabby and I'll try to take a better one when the the sun is out tomorrow. My father "gave" me a wall when I brought home my frame and told me to get more things framed so he could hang them. Considering where the wall is at I'm sort of happy. It's a main wall where whoever that comes inside will see it :-) I regret not taking Spring Snapperland to get framed today, I most definitely will next time I go though. My "wall" only has 2 things on it and it looks horrible lol.

I'm going to a concert tonight (Modest Mouse), although its really rainy out so I really want to stay in. I still have to make my working copy of Dollhouse so I'm going to do that now. I hate the last few days of my vacation, it's like things pick up and I end up going tired to work. My days are planned until Thursday I think. Tomorrow night is another concert I'm going to which again I want to stay home because the band I want to see won't be there, the drummer has a collapsed lung and since it happened Friday, I know from my RN experience they won't be there Tuesday, although the not RN part of me still hopes for a miracle LOL. Wednesday I'm going to the Bodies exhibit with my cousin's and then to the dentist with Kelly. She's actually my cousin's husband's mother so I can just go there a relax since it's her home office we are going to and Thursday Kelly wants to go out again. Monday it's back to work for me *sigh* but then the following week I'm on vacation again LOL, but just 1 week this time. I'm off!


This is something I've had framed before it's Elizabeth's Designs In the Garden of My Heart

These are my new things. The top is BNs Small Samplings, the middle is Milady's Needle Needles & Pins (the saying is cute it says Needles and Pins Needles and Pins When a girl marries her trouble begins) and the last one is Blackbird Designs Moonlit Garden, then Q-Snaps, fabric, and tons of floss!


This is something else I've had framed for a while. Since it's red it can't go downstairs on my wall. It's BCs Love and I used the Crescant Colour conversion for it.

And this is my Winter Snapperland! It's plain jane but I like it and I think it goes. For Spring I probably won't opt for plain jane but not too fancy either.

A Small Finish!

I've decided on a rotation. And I'm hoping I stick to it and it keeps this antsy feeling I get about this project list away. I finished one of three patterns from one of my leaflets. It's Gasper Ghost from Just Nan's Crow Jackers.



Next I'm going to stitch a room from Dollhouse and then go back to finish some of Sampler Farm, then another small. I really hope I can stick to this and it keeps me happy.

I had fun in Boston, some thing did upset me but whatever, in the end Kelly and I had fun and I'd go back to stay longer. I won't bore you with pics, most of them are of penguins from the aquarium hehe.

I've had a lazy Sunday *yea* stitching and catching up with the Tivo so I'm now off to watch Lost and then take a shower.

I'm going to Boston and today's SBQ

I'm only going overnight, not a big trip. I'm going to the aquarium with Kelly, my cousin wants to visit her friend so we're just tagging along. I need to pack and wash my hair so I can be ready but before I do I just wanted to share two pictures with you. One is of my finished quilt block and the other is of my WIP.

I'm thinking maybe I should have made this with the darker blue instead of the green. I may get more fabric and try it again, but I may not.

I'm thinking if I should take this or a small project with me to Boston for the night.

As for today's SBQ, the question is

How many different brands of "complete" embroidery floss sets do you
own? How do you keep track of it? (i.e., spread sheet program, index
cards, palm pilot, etc.)

I, sadly, own no "complete" sets of any embroidery floss sets, not even DMC. Whereas, I own most of WDW, DMC, and GAST, I don't own all of them. I wish I did though and with this stupid challenge I doubt I can start collecting them now LOL.

Who would have known, as a first-timer, that over 1 stitching would take so f-ing long?!?! I swear I'm so over the excitement LOL. It does look nice though so I guess I'll keep on stitching. Ever since making this list for my 15 project challenge I've been getting this antsy feeling everytime I stitch. Like I have to hurry up and finish this so I can move on to the next project and get rid of the list. I don't think I'm going to stick to this challenge at all, it's just stressing me out instead of helping me out. I'll keep it though just in case I get over the feeling.

I've decided what may help me out is having a few projects going on at the same time. Like a small, medium, and large one. That way I'll get my instant gratification when I finish a small project and still be happy about making progress on the other 2 projects. Or maybe I can just have 2 projects going at the same time. The way I'm going to split up Sampler Farm has already been decided like days ago. I'll do it in four parts and I'm already almost done with part 1 if I decide to do this so one small "almost" finish for me :-) I'll share a picture when I'm actually done maybe in a few days.

My sewing machine is fixed! Like I've said I'm a newb to everything since I'm self-taught so I didn't realize that the wind a bobbin setting was on, hence the motor going but the needle staying put. Good thing I realized this before taking it to the store. I still went since I wanted to check out a new machine. The machine I want is like 3k, I could buy a decent watch for that amount or put a teeny down payment on a car so I decided to give it some thought, plus as I've mentioned before my cousin is having a baby and I told her I'd buy her a Bugaboo and with 3k I can buy her 3 LOL. It was a nice machine if ever I should really get into quilting. It's a nice machine for anything, IMO, period! The store we went to was small but so friendly and nice. My cousin, Jorge, loved it. Which was a surprise, he's supportive of what I want to do but never happy about it, so when I asked him to go with me he sort of rolled his eyes, smiled and said yes. I think what he liked is that it was like a little community and he's all about the closeness, which is why he'll come with me regardless if he likes what we're going to do.

Never made it to see Borat, it was SOLD OUT everywhere we went. Maybe I can go today or tomorrow when Kelly is off. We saw Marie Antoinette instead. Kelly was not happy but we (my cousin and I) teased him and said maybe he'd like it the best out of the 3. Last time he went to the movies with my cousin and me, we went to see Pride and Prejudice with him huffing and puffing and guess who shushed us because he was so into the movie? LOL. The soundtrack to the movie wasn't bad but the movie itself confused me. It was like all over the place initially I didn't like but today I decided it was a good movie, crazy huh?

I'm going back to stitch, I want to finish this part of Sampler Farm so I can do my quilting homework. TTFN

Quilting Time

My first class went well. I'm a shy person and thought I'd feel uncomfortable being there by myself but I didn't. The person who sat next to was left handed also so we sort of smiled at eachother after learning that. We didn't do any piecing, it's a beginner's class so all we did was learn how to rotary cut. It was pretty easy since I've done it before BUT all that I know about cross-stitch and sewing was pretty much self taught so I tell everyone I don't have any experience and see if they teach me the "right" way instead of the way I already know. And to give myself some credit I usually have been doing it the "right" way.

The instructor gave us homework, our first block is the log cabin and we're suppose to cut the pieces for it and *if* we have time we can try to piece it together. My machine is broken so that ain't happening. I'm taking it tomorrow to see if they can repair it, my mom is coming with me, so it's girl day out tomorrow. :-) The website said most repairs take 72 hours but knowing my luck it'll take longer. Maybe I'll plug it in later and clean it, it could be just that.

I found the "missing" color to my fabric collection. I'm not too sure I like it but I guess we'll see later on. I can always choose another color. You can judge for yourself whether it's good or not. One of the employees helped me find it, I figure they have more experience picking out fabric and would do a better job at it.
This is the fabric with the 4th color added in. I think it takes away from the black print but maybe when it's pieced together it will look nice...

Kelly gets the BF of the month award, I got this in the mail today. Of course I had to leave little notes that a "surprise" cross stitch present would be nice and had to email him the place to get it from but instead of ignoring it he ordered it for me :-) Didn't realize that this project is so big! Brightneedle usually makes small things no? Well anyway, I can't wait to stitch it. It was already on my 15 project challenge list so this doesn't count as new stash and it was a gift! I'm thinking of maybe starting a rotation so I won't get bored since buying new stash is what makes me excited about finishing my current project so I can start a new one. Well I'm off to stitch/sleep. Good night!

Vacation - Day 1

Hahahahahahaha I'm on vacation. I'm delirious with the feeling of not having to go to work! I haven't taken a "real" vacation where I use vacation days since February, because of my schedule I can fit in up to 9 days off but just being about to say I'm on vacation makes me feel less stressed. So far the only thing I've done is sleep since I worked last night and didn't come home until this morning.

On the agenda for my vacation is attend a couple of concerts, start my Saturday quilting class, stitch, look into knitting classes, and umm try to relax. I think I'm going to take my sewing machine to get fixed also, maybe look into buying a new one - I've had this one for years and can always give it to my mum since I think she's the one responsible for the machine not working in the first place.

Picture time!



This is how far I've gotten on Sampler Farm

Couldn't wait to do that over 1 so instead of leaving it for the end I decided to stitch it as I go along - here is a close-up

Finally a picture of the fabric for my quilt - took me forever to pick it out and I went to the store thinking I'd make a pink or purple quilt, I still need another color I was thinking maybe a yellow? I guess we'll see...any suggestions?

I'm going to see Borat tonight - looks hilarious and hopefully won't be a let down. Kelly already went to get the tickets - one of the perks of having a movie theater across the street :-)

I'm off to get ready!

This is Halloween!

I love the song "This is Halloween" from the Nightmare Before Christams. I sang it all day yesterday. The weather here is really warm. Not summer time warm but too warm for October. Kelly always gets sick when there's a drastic weather change and last night I had to poke him a few times so he'd stop snoring. It looks like its going to rain now though, which is weird because it was just bright and sunny a few minutes ago. My vacation ticker was wrong I actually have 2 more days to work until my vacation. *sigh* I'm dreading going back after being off sick, I don't want to see my supervisor...

I put together some pictures from last night's party. It was fun, lots of cute costumes. Kelly was V, I was Sally, and my cousin Jay was my Jack :-) Enjoy! I'm off to stitch a little before getting ready for work.

Get Your Own! View Slideshow

Happy Halloween!!!

I think I may have more than one post today. I love Halloween, last year I had a party but this year I get to go to one, which hands down is totally better because 1. I don't have to clean up afterwards and 2. I don't have to make sure everyone is enjoying themselves, which is such a hard job. Ummm, thanks to those that have stopped by to look at my latest finish. I'm glad it's done, I was so ready to move onto the next project. I chose The Goode Huswife's Sampler Farm. I think the fabric they gave me is 40 ct! I know it's small which I'll probably go blind on when I stitch the over one part. But I did just go from 28ct so it's probably just 32ct. I didn't get far last night I ended up faling asleep, but today I'm going to get the things for my quilting class (I'm taking a 6 week class) so while on the train I'll stitch some. I took some pictures which I'll share but it's really not much. I just like to add pictures to my blog really LOL. Oh, I decided to join this challenge alot of people are doing to reduce their stash. I have a bag of projects I want to stitch next to my bed and just listed all of those projects. Some people are doing 50, some less. I think my list is like 15-16 I'll post it later on in the sidebar or something. Ok ltr!


Before the "damage"

After the "damage"

Happy Dance!

A picture is worth a thousand words and this picture has my feet dancing around :) Now on to the next project!


Without the buttons and snaps

With the buttons and snaps

My own special touch :)