She's Up and Going!

YAY!!

My mom finally has her blog up and running. She only has the first post up...and no pictures :((, but I am sure those will come in time. Please check her out! When she does get the pictures up, you'll see just what beautiful work she does. She does have a couple of links on the side that will take you to recent finishes. You'll find her at A Cross Stitch Nut

Two Weeks!?!

It's been over two weeks since my last post. Where has the time gone? I haven't done much stitching, and what I have done is for the Tiny Treasures exchange. So, it looks like I can' t post that one right now.

The holiday went really well. Except for the part where we had to have it at Granny's...but that is a whole 'nother story. Alex got LOTS of stuff. I don't have the pictures yet, but when I do, I'll post them.

Steve got me an electric kettle, Bye Bye Birdie on DVD, and a subscription to The Gift of Stitching online magazine. I'm really looking forward to getting my first issue.

I posted photos of my fabric dyeing experiment earlier. Now, you can see a few skeins of the thread I have done. These were done, just playing around.

Right now, I'm not sure what I am going to do with these. I am thinking about using them as give-aways, but I don't know if anyone is interested in them or not. I have a few others, but I haven't scanned them yet. If I find that people want them, I'll scan the other skeins I did so folks will have a choice.

Bushel Update

While I didn't get to stitch for six hours like I'd planned, I did get in quite a few before I just got too tired to stitch. I probably got somewhere between three and four hours. I was able to get in a couple more flowers and couple of curly-cues. I did end up frogging a little, too. I had to frog some of the main stem. I'd missed a little jog in the pattern and it put me off about eight stitches or so. :( It wasn't a lot of frogging, but that is what I ended my night on.

I'm hoping that two or three more weekends stitching will have it done. It moves along rather quickly.

After I finish this, I get to start a BAP. I haven't decided exactly which one. It will either be:

Passione Ricamo

My Lady of the Snow

My Big Toe Designs

1 Corinthians

I really like both pieces. Some of the ILCS members are going to be doing a Ricamo SAL and I'd like to join that. I would also like to have the MBT done before my next wedding anniversary. Although to be perfectly honest, even if I started today I doubt that would happen. LOL

I have an idea for the fabric for each of them, but I'll have to see how it pans out before I say anything.

Car Wreck

Well, I'd been having fun in Atlanta. Now things have gotten interesting.

I was visiting my mom at her job close to downtown Atlanta today. For some reason she wanted to show me off. LOL I wanted to see where she worked. I left there just after 230. I ran down, grabbed 75S to 20W and was heading back to the house.

I was in the next to last left lane. The cars in the far left lane began to slow down quick. Traffic was there, but it wasn't horrible yet. Everyone was moving at a steady clip, so I knew something was up. The third car had to slam on their brakes to stop. I could see the smoke coming out from the car it was stopping so hard. (A lot of this happens so fast I'm amazed I can break it back down.) I could see they were having a hard time controlling the car. I looked back to see if I could move over to the right. There was a break and I started to change lanes. About that time the other car hit me.

Luckily, traffic wasn't too bad. The wreck ended up being just us two cars. It could have been a LOT worse. We were lucky. Neither of us were hurt. The damage to the car isn't too bad. It is still drivable. Thankfully! Especially since I am supposed to head back to Missouri tomorrow. My hubcap got ripped off. You can still see part of it hanging on to the tire.

Dyed Fabby

Just an FYI. This entry will be a little picture heavy and word light. :D

This is a close up of one of my purple pieces.

One of the purple pieces

Another purple

Another purple LOL

This is probably my favorite piece. It is a dark dark purple. The striping in it reminds me of a tree trunk. It makes me think of a forest.

Dark Purple

Dark Purple

Dark Purple

This is the first piece I did and it is blue. Well, Mom did most of it to show me how to do the rest. The shadow that you see is Mom's cat Domino. He wanted to share my sunlight. Actually he got on to me for "taking" HIS sunlight. :D

That's about it. I just wanted y'all to see the pretties that I made. And that I think I am WAY too proud of.

Having a Great Time

Today was spent at a not quite local LNS. My mom and I took a road trip about 2 1/2 hours away to The Dogwood Patch in Hiawassee, GA. They had a little stitch in there and we met a great bunch of ladies. I was able to get a little bit of work done on Bushel. I'm almost all done with the green. The longest part will be the border. I'm hoping to get all of it but that done while I'm down here. Every Friday my mom takes part in a stitch-a-long from 6 pm to midnight. And I'm going to join her tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers that I get as much done as I want to.

I also promised that I would post photos of my dye job yesterday. I've only got one piece scanned. The other are really too big for the scanner. The lighting has been horrible, so I haven't borrowed Mom's camera to take a picture. Maybe I'll get photos of the other pieces before I leave.

This is the piece that started out blue and I then put purple over it. The purple really isn't as strong as the scanner is showing it. I already have plans for this piece. It is on the smaller side and I think I am going to send this one out to someone who did me a good turn. All I have to do know is get their snail addy.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

OOOH! Pretty!

I don't have any pictures yet, but I hope to soon.

I've spent today dyeing my first fabric. :) And to be honest, I am probably way more proud of the pieces than they deserve. LOL

My mom taught me how to do it and I have ended up with a total of six pieces. One of them I REALLY like.

We started out with blue for two pieces, then I added purple to it and dyed two more. I also used that color over the top of one of the blue pieces. I didn't leave it in the dye very long, so there is only a hint of purple it. For the last two pieces I added black to the purple. Those two are my favorites.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post some pictures either tomorrow or Friday.

I also tried dyeing a couple of skeins of floss. They aren't dry yet, so I am not sure how they are going to look. They are both light in color. I should have left them in the dye for a longer period of time. :( We'll see. :D

Everything else on the vacation front is good except for the weather. Things here are warm, but overcast and rainy. Even had some tornado watches today. And tomorrow is a wind advisory...my favorite. :( Thankfully Mom is going to drive on our road trip. I can't stand driving in the wind. Anything!!! but that.

Bushel Update

I thought I would post a quick update on Bushel before I left to visit my mom. I'm hoping to hit the road in about 3 hours. I've got an appointment before I leave town, so that may slow me up a little. :(



I have a small error in counting in the long stem on the left. It's only off one, but it messed up the flower petal. So, I think my first order of business when I get to Atlanta will be to frog the little bit of flower you see on the left hand side.

The stitching is still moving along at a decent rate. I'm not a fast stitcher by any stretch of the imagination. And when you combine that with watching a movie...I think I move quite slow.

The thumb isn't 100% yet, but I'd give it about 90%. I seem to be doing fine holding my qsnaps. No pain and it is getting better, so I must not be hurting it. I know that I will benefit from not working the next 9 days. Vacations are a wonderfully mentally relaxing time...if I get to do it my way. ;)

Tiny Treasures

I don't know why I haven't mentioned it yet, but I have joined Tiny Treasures Exchange Blog. I've never been a member of an exchange blog before and I am really looking forward to this one. :) This exchange blog focuses on finishing smalls like fobs, biscornus, and pinkeeps. I think that this will be perfect for me. It will give me the boost from finishing that I love, plus I get to stitch for someone else on a deadline. That way I will actually finish what I start. (I have a confession to make. I'm a serial starter. Shhh! Don't tell anyone! LOL )

I got a neat little package from Down Sunshine Lane that I think I'll be able to use for some of the exchanges. It was a package of 10 small cuts of fabby for $10. They are all about 5x5. You get your choice of aida or linen. I really like using DSL for my needs. The customer service there is excellent. Any email I've sent them has been answered in less than 24 hours, usually much sooner! They will also help you kit up any pattern they have available. A great service for me since I don't have a LNS. Okay, I'll stop my commercial now. :D

Bushel and a Peck - La D Da

I didn't think I was going to be able to start on Bushel until I got to Atlanta for my vacation. However, I finished Alex's ornament and just couldn't wait to pick it up. I was able to get some done before my thumb just gave out on me. :(

I had to stitch Alex's ornament in hand, and my thumb is killing me from the way I was holding the plastic canvas. Guess I was doing something wrong there. The thumb is still bothering me and I haven't been able to pick up any stitching since. I'm hoping to try today, but I'll be honest. I'm not very hopeful.

Below, you will see the first pictures of my progress. I've actually gotten just a little bit further, but not very much. I am loving stitching with the Vikki Clayton/HDF silk. It just feels yummy! LOL The linen is also a Vikki Clayton/HDF dye piece. And everything is looking so nice together.

Progress on:
Bushel and a Peck
La D Da Designs
Converted to:
Vikki Clayton/HDF silks

Mom has asked me to help her set up a blog while I am down there. I am hoping that we will be able to do it. She does some of the most amazing stitching. I'd love for everyone to be able to see it. :D

I plan to post pictures of my progress while I'm down there. But, we all know how plans can go awry. ;)