A Happy Dance! Heirloom Stitching Sampler

Okay, I know I haven't been around for awhile on the blog.  But I do have a good excuse!  I found out in early August that I'm pregnant! Probably many of you know that already from following me other places, but I think I have a few readers that just follow the blog so figured I better explain my abscense.  I just haven't been stitching as much or felt much like writing since I found out- fatigue, nausea, and just general business and laziness have gotten in the way.  I did finally manage to get in a little stitching though and actually finished my Heirloom Stithching Sampler.  I probably could have finished it months ago, but see above reasons - also I was procrastinating at learning the drawn thread hemstitching portion.  I had never done it before and I wasn't crazy about the look of it from the picture that came with the chart.

So I dug out some reference books on needlework I aquired ages ago and found the directions for hemstitching and changed the larger band to what you see in the photo above.  Still Hemstitching, just  a little different than designed.  I also changed the smaller band further down, but I made that one four-sided stitch which I thought looked nice also. :)

So I'm happy to have one more Happy Dance for 2011 - I had hoped for more, I only finished Alhambra Garden and this one this year.  I'm due on April 15 - so I think it is unlikely I'll finish too much in 2012 either, but one can dream. ;)  I think I'll focus on Mother's Tree next as there are just about 5 names to go, so I should be able to finish at least that one.  We'll see.

As for the Disney Diary - not sure whether I'll pick that back up or not yet.  I'd like to chronicle our last trip, but I'm afraid I let too much time pass and I won't remember all the fun details I usually like to include.  The good news is that with another baby on the way, there eventually will be another trip.  We had thought with Alex going off to college in a year and a half that maybe it'd be out last trip.  But now we cannot never take the youngest - which by the way is a girl.  I think Katie is going to love being a big sister and showing her Disney in about 5 yrs or so. :)

Heirloom Stitching Sampler Progress

This one is just flying by - I think I should finish it by summerish time with no trouble at all. :) Unfortunately I'm probably gonna have to skip the fair this year though. :( We are planning on going to Disney one last time before Alex moves up and outta here, and the only week that works out for the special booking dates for our deal and around the kids extra-curriculars, and my boss's vacation schedule is the same week that the fair judging is. *sigh* Ah well, maybe next year. I can hardly complain about going on a nice vacation.

My new focus piece

Victoria Sampler's Heirloom Stitching Sampler is my new focus piece, simply because it is the closest to being done. This time I worked the bands from the second scene of stitchers down.

I'm hoping I can have it done in time to enter with Alhambra for the fair, but we'll see. :)

Goal Orientated Rotation

I have been working in a rotation for several years now, but always seemed to go by how much time I spent on a piece - not necessarily how many hours actually stitching, but one night, two nights, one week, etc. I think I've come to realize that it actually works better for me to do a goal-orientated rotation. When I pick up a piece I decide to stitch until I reach a certain point. I try to pick something that will take a week or less, but sometimes I don't get as much stitching time as I'd like, or it takes longer than I think, or the frogs visit or whatever. I still keep stitching until that goal is met. Very satisfying to stay on one thing until I meet the goal I think. You sort of get that satisfaction of being a "one-at-a-timer" but you still have the variety of the rotation.

This time my goal was to finish the second scene in Heritage Stitching Sampler by Victoria Sampler. I started with the white and metalic bargello and cross stitch band above it. The over one vine slowed my down a little bit, but not as much as I feared and I finished this one day earlier than I expected to - which almost never happens.

Anyway, I'm going to work on Katie's dance shoe bag tomorrow before going back to Alhambra Garden, which is my current focus piece.

Heirloom Stitching Sampler progress

I took advantage of finally having some down time this weekend and pulled out this from the WIP pile. :) Just couldn't work on the afghan when I was feeling so blissfully lazy I guess. :)

I did the three small bands under the scene and then the over-one letters and the band beneath them this time. Fun to work on but I think I'll put it away now and get back to the afghan - Wendy is due January 10. I think I'm likely shooting for the Baptism at this rate but I still have to keep plugging if I want to make that.

In other news I think DH and I have finally settled on a carpet for the basement. We ended up going with Home Depot even though we thought we wouldn't use them again because they are a big PITA. But their price is almost 2k less than the others so I guess we'll put up with it. I plan to post pics of the basement once the carpet is in - which I'm hoping will be before Christmas.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and a good Black Friday. I skipped going out for the sales this year, but did manage to score a PS3 bundle from Walmart online at 3am when they went on sale. Setting the alarm, turning the computer on 15 min. before the sale, and going back to bed 20 min. later was so much better than actually having to leave the house and fight the crowds. I might never actually leave again to try to shop the Black Friday deals. :)

Stitcher's Heirloom Sampler Progress

I'm working on new window seat cushion for the big bay window in Katie's room and that and the endless gardening has been eating a lot of my stitching time. I did manage to stitch a little though and completed the first scene in the Stitcher's Heirloom Sampler by Victoria Sampler.

I'm hoping to share pictures of the window seat cushion in the next few days. :) I'm going to make coordinating pillows and am trying to decide whether to take a crack at doing piping around them, or to just glue on some cording when I'm done like a lazy dope. We'll see what wins out. I also received Sophia's Mirabilia RR today - which is a pixie-themed design. So I'll be working on that shortly too. :)

Celebration aftermath stitching

So since getting back from Celebration I've ignored all my WIPs and stitched only on stuff I got there. I really have not had that much time to stitch , but I did manage a little progress on Heirloom Stitching Sampler and to finish my Drawn Thread Fob.

I still need to do some over-one leaves and flowers around those squiggly lines on the top and sides of the sampler, but I'm happy with how it is coming out so far. I made the fob a little smaller than the design called for just because I wanted too.