Too busy too long

Oh my! It has been two months to the day since I have posted. The months have flow by what with the continuing work on enrolling DS for college, vacation, planning and working on the upcoming Camporee in September and changes at work and home. June flew by in a rush and July is vanishing as we speak. And it won’t get any better until after September. Let me see if I can rewind just a bit to catch up on what little stitching has happened.

Attempts have been made to keep up with the two ornaments a month and with the exception of waiting on an order to finish one in July I haven’t done too bad. This first one is Deck the Window by Julia Lucas Designs from the 2008 Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornaments issue. Fabric is 14-count Fiddlers Cloth pulled out of my stash with the called for threads. There is a tiny red bow missing, however I was not able to get one just like it so will keep looking for something that hopefully will work. Finished June 12.

Then we went on vacation. This year DD decided to stay home and “adult”. While a little nerve-wracking, this was a good thing. She drove herself to and from work in DH’s car every day and found that it wasn’t so bad. Now she’s thinking about buying a car. Thankfully she has a nest egg to help with part of it.

Vacation was spent away from everything for five days. We headed up to the mountains to spend time in a rustic cabin. It was lots of fun to see rabbits, chipmunks, and squirrels running all over. They were nice and fat and loved running in the afternoon sun eating grass and small grains. This rabbit I saw coming back from the bathroom one morning and almost ran into it. And these little guys, or not always so little ran from under the cabin, through the grass, under the car, and all over.  When we arrived back home, we celebrated DS’s 17th birthday with family. It seems like time has passed so fast since he was little and now he is starting college next month.

His new hat was to hide the fact that he needed a haircut but didn’t want to get one. Finally when he could stand it no longer, he went and got it cut.

This ornament was started and finished while we were on vacation but the lighting inside was not very good so I only recently took the finished picture. This was the beginning of Starry Night by Shepherd’s Bush Printworks from the same magazine issue. Fabric is 16-count blue Aida with called for threads. Finished June 27, 2017.

July began with lots of busy times. I was fortunate enough to swatch a sweater and learned that I needed to order different size needles. I also needed to order Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid in PB03 for the ornament that I started on July 1. An order was placed to 123stitch.com and yarn and needles were ordered from Knit Picks. Of course, other items were ordered from both places to make the shipping either free or worth it. While waiting, pie cherries were picked and made into cherry preserves. We’ve never made these before, but hopefully they will taste good this winter. The new ornament for the month of July was started and everything completed except for the PB03 that was slow to come in. The design is A Christmas Song by Full Circle Designs from the same magazine listed above. Fabric is a scrap of 14-count Aida with called for threads except for using PB03 instead of Kreinik it called for. The PB03 metallic thread didn’t come in until July 15, which was the day I was supposed to start the next ornament. All stitches were finally completed o July 17, 2017.  On the 19th of July, I finally started my Lacy Knit Top. There are not any pictures of it yet as I barely have a bit of ribbing done. That same day I started my latest ornament which was finished last night. It is Peace by My Big Toe Designs from the same magazine. Fabric was 14-count ecru Aida in called for colors. My one complaint is that it is a lot larger than the others and if I did it again, I would do it on a higher count fabric. I may decide just to frame this and hang it for Christmas instead of make an ornament out of it. The 14-count fiddlers cloth is stretched on the q-snap for the next ornament that I will start on the 1st of August.

So you may be wondering why more crafting didn’t take place. The week of June 30 and three weeks after that date, I was working very heavily on the Camporee for September. Our Early Bird deadline was June 30 and then we had to perform a random lottery on the classes we were going to teach because more Pathfinders signed up for honors and activities than we had spots. This unfortunately meant that some Pathfinders did not get everything they wanted. DD and I also worked on the designs for the honor cards and weekend program. We hope to finish those this week.

And last weekend DH met  his family in Texas to bury his aunt’s ashes. She had passed earlier in the spring but they were not able to get together until now. It was a time of remembrance and getting to know some of his family better. Unfortunately I was not able to go with him, but pulled the early morning drive to take him to the airport and then picked him up when he arrived back.

It has been hot and looks like it will continue to be hot for a while yet. We are truly blessed though as this year we actually have cucumbers in the raised bed that DH made for the garden. I picked these two last week and there is another one that should be ready soon. There is also a squash and the tomatoes and peppers are looking good. We even have two strawberry plants that are growing well. Hopefully they will produce next year.

So plans/wishful thinking for August is as follows:

• Start and finish Merry 2008 by Glory Bee ornament with a change to 2017.
• Start and finish Oriental Splendor by Cindy Valentine Designs ornament.
• Start DS’s stocking–fabric is on floor stand, threads are pulled, but haven’t stopped to start it.
• Knit more on Lacy Knit Top.
• Knit more on Earl Grey socks in Knit Picks Chroma Fog Bank colorway for DS.
• Knit more on Earl Grey socks in Knit Picks Palette Roobios colorway for DH (yes, I started these too when the yarn came in with my Knit Picks order).
• Start DH’s hummingbirds–the fabric was added to my PB03 order.

Something tells me that I won’t get it all done as we are just over a month to Camporee and between that and getting kids going with college again, I WILL BE VERY BUSY!!! Thank you for your patience with my lack of posting. I am hoping when it gets cooler that I will post more.

Update 05-29-17 with Pictures

 

It has been almost three weeks since I posted anything so “Thank you” to everyone for their patience. The last few weeks of high school and finishing up application to college for DS have been super busy. Additionally, we are hosting a celebration for him this weekend and planning has been very busy on that front. Wish me well as I prepare lots of finger foods and finalize shopping. I am blessed with my BFF who has offered to come over ahead the day of the celebration and help with last minute prepping and decorating.

In between everything else, I have managed to finish a few projects and put in work on a few others. So in order of work and/or completion, here we go:

This is the lovely bouquet of roses and flowers that DH gave me for Mother’s Day. I must say I was very surprised and so pleased as it is just beautiful. He also helped DD order a box of chocolate-dipped strawberries from Edible Arrangements. DS made a beautiful card with a wonderful personal message in it that shows just how much he also loves his mother. I am so blessed and loved by my family.

This project was begun on May 15 and finished in about a week. It is the Christmas ornament designed by Simple Stitches from the Just Cross Stitch ornament issue of 2008. I may still outline the lamb on the left and Baby Jesus in the manger. The metallic threads were the most annoying to work with. I had purchased the listed Kreinik with the exception of the orange metallic for Joseph’s head covering. That was the easiest metallic because it was a Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid. Next time I am going to make all effort to purchase Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braids unless the pattern calls for a blending filament. This will be FFOd later this year when I finish all of the ornaments.

Thirty-one years ago my mom made a quilt for me when I first moved away from home. This was her gift to me that has been used many times on my bed and then DH’s and my bed over the years. The blocks are hearts separated by nine-patch blocks and sashed together. The quilt top is made from scraps of double-knit fabrics and the backing is a cotton. Inside is a polyester batting which was her signature way of making sure that the quilt would be plenty warm. As you can see from the blocks above, it was tied together with white acrylic worsted-weight yarn. When I pulled this off of our bed recently, I noticed that the binding needed to be resewn and there were 3-4 heart blocks that needed to have the hearts sewn back down. Originally all of the hearts were machine appliqued with a zigzag stitch, however since I was just sewing them back down, I chose to learn how to make the buttonhole stitch and get the job done before putting the quilt away for the summer. There were a total of four blocks that needed to be sewn: two like the first one and then the middle and right ones. For now it is repaired and stored away with the rest of the quilts until we need it in the fall.

Please forgive the slightly blurry picture. I took several and this was the best of the lot. It also doesn’t really show the vibrance of the colors despite good lighting. This is a scrap acrylic afghan that was made to cover a sofa that is 12-15 years old. I needed to use up the yarn and also needed to try out a pattern. I have purchased 6-7 colors of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in worsted-weight yarn to make a similar one for DS to take with him when he goes away to university in two years. He plans to spend his first two years here at a local community college completing his general studies before going away to complete a chosen bachelors in Chemistry. This was a plan we encouraged as he just finished high school and won’t be 17 until close to the end of June. My plan is to work on his wool afghan this winter as a carry around project when I am running errands or even at home when everyone is gone. Most likely I won’t start on it until the end of September or early October.

This is an old WIP from several years ago that I had started, made mistakes, and set aside. When I picked it back up this time, only the face, torso, cloth across the lap and legs were complete, however I had to take all of the legs out and part of the cloth. I am not sure if it is correct even now, but will most likely know for sure by the time I complete the outlining. It comes from Sweeter than the Rose by Leisure Arts and is shown in the book under the section titled “Nostalgic Notions”. The fabric is a light pink scrap of Aida and I am using most of the called for threads with the exception of the metallic on the wings. For that I used Rainbow Gallery Petite Treasure Braid in orange instead of the called for Kreinik. I like it so much better. I have added the wings, the rose at the left and half stitches for the floor as well as the ribbon and roses on the top right. I also had to restitch the left arm and hand as it was not right either. All that is left is the outlining which as you can see is coming along slowly. My plan is to see how far I get in the next two days before the next Christmas ornament is started on June 1.

And finally:

One technique that I wanted to try and overcome this summer was to knit two socks on two circular needles. Additionally, I wanted to see if I could knit Hermoine’s Everyday Sock pattern. Yes, I’m late to the show, but that’s just how it is. Each sock was started separately using the Magic Loop method for the first 10 rows of ribbing. Then I carefully combined the two socks and two circulars and after lots of careful planning and a rip back on half of a round of ribbing on one sock, I was finally able to figure out how this was to be accomplished. The remaining 10 rows of ribbing have been completed and two rows of knitting as I needed to go down 4 stitches on each sock before I started following the pattern correctly with a total of 64 stitches around for each sock. This project has sat for almost a week as I dropped everything to finish the scrap acrylic afghan before we have people over for DS’s celebration this weekend. Yarn is Knit Picks Stroll fingering weight in the African Violet colorway. Circular needles are Knit Picks fixed circulars with nickel tips, size 0, one 32-inch and one 40-inch. Hopefully I can pick these back up tomorrow after taking DD and DS to work at 10 a.m. and start the leg pattern. Wish me luck as I rethink how I was working with two circulars and two socks. I so want to make this happen as it would cure the Second Sock Syndrome issue that I sometimes have.

With an early morning ahead, I will stop for now. If you have stayed with me this far, thank you very much. Hopefully I will only have 2 WIPs to show progress on and 2 new starts next time I post. The two WIPs would be the last cross stitch project and the socks and the two starts should be the June 1 ornament and (crossing my fingers) DS’s Christmas stocking. That list, of course, doesn’t include sewing that I hope to get done as well.

 

Missing picture

This is the picture of the ornament that I worked on early in this month. It is Charland’s Designs “Santa Topper” from the Just Cross Stitch Christmas issue. As you can see it is very simple and only awaiting final finishing.