2010 finishes and 2011 new beginnings

I finished 2 of the Sticklounge projects over the weekend.  Yippee!!  The first is See the Star and the second is Baumchen  (I added the bunnies to represent my beagles).

Here's what I plan to stitch in the Crazy January 2011 challenge. Missing from the photo is a  piece from Rosewood Manor called Tulip Quilt Sampler.  I bought the pattern but I can't put my fingers on it right now.  I did find the fabric for it so the pattern can't be too far away.  Most of the patterns are smaller ones that I just never get around to starting, so I am taking this opportunity to do them.   Only 13 patterns are shown because I'm not sure what the 15th will be just yet.

I may be overly optismitic but I think this is do-able.  Wish me luck ....

For the long, hot, holiday weekend

I had planned on doing lots of stitching -- mostly on See the Stars.  Unfortunately, I had a nasty sinus headache by Friday after work.  Soooo, I wanted something simple to stitch (heaven forbid I should just lay down until my headache went away).  I chose this La D Da WIP that had a little bit of the shoe done.  Thinks I -- this is perfect, I can stitch the shoe easily -- only one thread and not much bouncing around.  Good choice .....

NOT!

After finishing up the partial thread hanging on from the last time I stitched this one, I went searching in the bag that held all the other threads I picked for this piece.  No shoe thread!  I looked all over the house that evening and the following morning ... still no shoe thread.  Of course, it was a Needle Necessities thread that was in my stash (luckily I had written down the number - for the record, it's 1421).

Sigh!  Oh well.  So I stitched the stocking and the words instead.  And put everything back into the project bag.  Hopefully, the shoe thread will show up some day, if not .... well, I'll have to decide later.

Still having a headache, I decided to work on the Solo Brode piece and am happy with the finished result.  I plan on making it into a cover for my magnifying glass.  Well, that is, I plan on having someone else finish it as a cover.   I don't sew. 

1. Because sewing machines hate me and

2. Because I hate them back

Finally, on Monday, my headache was mostly gone so I decided to tackle the frogged area on See the Star.

It would be done except I kept making mistakes that had to be frogged.  And of course the dogs (especially the puppy) were being particularly helpful. 

It seemed that at least one of them needed to go outside into the sweltering heat every hour.  So this is how the day went.  Stitch, rip, potty-time!, Now were did I leave off?,  oh yes, stitch, stitch, rip, potty-time!, Hmmm, where was I again?, stitch, damn!rip ..... well, you get the idea. 

The only good thing was that my headache finally went away during the afternoon.

Keep cool!

Happy days are here again ......

WooHoo!  My wisteria has a baby!

It doesn't look like much but it'll grow.  The two rocks are where my old wisteria used to be before it fell over.  I've been checking this area once a week or so and the last time I saw this lovely little shoot growing.  So far it's the only one but that's all it takes.

I did cut small branches off the parent when I chopped it up and put them in water.  A couple actually bloomed on my windowsill.  They were sad little things but blooms none-the-less.  And they smelled heavenly!

One of the cuttings has a root and new growth -- it's going in a pot soon.  Others have growth and no roots -- they'll stay in the water for now -- you never know. 

I'm thrilled that one cutting actually is growing.  And doubly thrilled that the parental roots are still viable.  VBG ... it's the little things in life that make me smile.

Unfortunately, my boys aren't smiling right now.  They both got their summer cuts recently.  It's the first time for River but Stormy gets shaved down frequently.  And seeing how cute and cool River looks, this won't be his last hair cut.  As you can tell from their expressions, neither are very happy about getting their pictures taken.  LOL.

Between hair cuts, I have been stitching.  The first picture is the Marquoir Group Quakerchen.  It's almost finished.  I have one more part to stitch and it will be complete.

See the Star is coming along.  Unfortunately, I decided to do some major ripping Saturday evening.  By 3 am Sunday morning I had removed the offending area -- what a chore that was!

I finally decided that I didn't like the yellow overdyed thread .  There just was not enough contrast between the yellows and the tea stained fabric.  After finishing the similar area on the right in a nice brown thread, I made the painful decision to rip out the yellows.  Now I just need to replace that area with the same brown floss and the entire unpleasantness will be over.  Whew!

I stitched on the lovely Solo Brode SAL over the weekend also -- what can I say, Saturday was a dreary, rainy day, only good for stitching and doing laundry.  This is such a lovely piece.

And last but not least, I realized there were no recent puppy pics ..... shame on me!  Well here you go:

Isn't she getting big?  She's 4.5 months old now, teething and still cute as a button!  At this stage she looks to easily be a 13 incher.

Later ......