Weeks Eighteen (May 7, 2015) and Eighteen (May 14, 2105)

Two more weeks with no stitchery to report. I'm finally over the cold although I still seem to be tired all the time. So... 

This past week has been a test of my "cure". First, on May 3, my husband and I took a day trip tp Detroit to visit our dear friends (and former colleagues) who now live in west Virginia but who have a son, daughter-in-law and grandchild who live in the absolute center of Detroit city! Talk about an organized day! Coffee at Astro, brunch down the street, The Hetry Ford Musuem, the Detroit Institute of Art (to see the Diego Rivera murals), pie at She Pie, and a walk around the Ana Scripps Whitman Conservatory on Belle Isle! Needless to say, this was testing my ability to keep going without falling asleep or coughing myself silly. I made it, but just barely! 

Then, On May 6 - 9, it was Novi, Michigan with my Girls' Night Out buddies at the Great Lakes Megameet., where we walked and shopped and ate and walked and shopped some more. Broke my budget for some time to come and my legs were exhausted but the cough seems to be gone and I am now able to make it through the day without a nap for the first time in over a month! Hooray! 

Came home to this beautiful sight--- all in one day of sun and warmth (which immediately left the area the next day and has yet to return):

I have hopes to get in some stitching this weekend. Perhaps International Hermit and Stitch Weekend this weekend will encourage me to get to work. I hope so. It's hard to motivate when one has been totally away form a craft for so long...

I have one quilt journal/bead journal block waiting, originally intended for April, but I think it may be reassigned to another month and I will start again for April this weekend, and also get one assembled for May (adn even June?) as well. I also have fabric and floss pulled and a free embroidery pattern selected for a memorial quilt for a dear friend who died recently. I hope to get the pattern transferred this weekend and maybe even some stitching done on that as well. 

WIPocalypse 2015 - The Full Flower Moon (or the Full Corn Moon or the Milk Moon if you prefer!) May 4, 2015

So far, no topic has been posted for this month so I will proceed to my progress, such as it was(NOT)...

A pretty sad month to report on as I was ill for most of it and I can't focus on stitchery when coughing and with a nasty headache and fever. In fact, I only worked on one piece since the last WIPocalypse.

At quilt guild in April, a friend loaned me a copy of the pattern her EGA group in Naples, FL is using for their charity giving and I told her I' do a couple for her to send along with her own. It is a sampler to be framed and given to recipients of Habitat for Humanity homes. I managed to get in two before the nasty illness felled me. I will give them to her at our next meeting next week.

There was a little stitching done on my goals (outline "Jan" for the roll Your Own Mandala piece, do some fill on the "Save the Stitches" and work on my Quilt Journal Project/Bead Journal Project piece for April. I got part of the outline done, finished up block 13 on "Save the Stitches" and assembled a basic block for the April Quilt Journal/Bead Jounralpiece. 

And that's it... nothing ore. I'm woefully behind on all my goals, I will never get wither one of the BAPs ready for the fair this year and I now have to accept that I will somehow have to catch up on my quilt journal/bead journal piece. Also, I have committed to a quilt block for a memorial quilt a group of stitchers are doing for a dear friend who recently passed away after a five-year struggle against cancer. 

Not a happy situation and I can't predict how successful I will be at any of this as I am still pretty much out of stitching action with whatever that illness is... Besides, there is a stamping convention at the end of this week and a road trip in early June for Husband's National Daylily Conference which will interfere with all of this, to say nothing of the probability that all this traveling will knock me back in the recovery cycle. Keep your fingers crossed for me, please?

International Hermit and Stitch Weekend, April 17 - 19 (andWeeks Sixteen, April 23, 2015 and Seventeen, April 30, 2015)

Perhaps you can tell from the title, but two weeks have passed and I still have that sinus infection and nasty recurring cough. Not something I can stitch with. So I missed IHSW altogether (I was at my sickest then) and didn't get in a single stitch during all of weeks Sixteen and Seventeen of this year. So sad...

So, to pass the time, some photos of my husband's garden! The daffs are past their prime but the tulips are in full bloom:

the Rhodies are blooming by the lake:

and the dogwood and redbud trees are just starting to blossom:

High temps for the first week of May are all supposed to be in the seventies! Spring --- maybe even summer --- is definitely here!

No, to get my stitching mojo back. Hmmm, how long will this cough and general malaise last, do you think?

Week Fifteen, April 16, 2015

I'm late this week because. after two days lost to stitching (VERY early rising for the phone banks at the local public radio on Thursday and Friday plus Quilt Guild meeting on Thursday night), my lifestyle (HA! As if I had a lifestyle) caught up with me, or more likely, my husband's bout with a nasty cold did, because on Saturday, I felt lousy, and as the week progressed, it got worse and worse: nasty cough, sinus headache that morphed into a whole face pain, and slight fever (Sound familiar ? I know I've had this before this year). meant I couldn't focus on anything, let along the complexities of stitchery. And I sure wasn't up to posting on the blog yesterday. But I'm feeling a little better today --- at least the cough is less persistent and the headache is down to a dull roar... Not sure how long this will last, though, so let's get to it.

Spring sprang this week. Daffodils, Crocus, Witch Hazel, Christmas Roses (AKA Helebores) and Tulip Tree all bloomed within a day of each other. Daylilies are growing like weeds, hostas are poking up through their winter mulch cover and even the grass is greening up! 70° days are in the works for this weekend and there is near certainty that we've seen the last of the snow (knock on wood). So a little slide show (just click on the photo) to make up for the lack of stitchery pics.

Although I do have some stitchery to show off. At NPR on Thursday, a friend from quilt guild was stitching on some smalls and I asked her about it. It turns out she belongs to an EGA guild chapter in Naples, FL and their charity thing this year is little sampler for Habitat for Humanity homes. They are in need this year --- over 200 homes are being dedicated, so she had brought back the pattern and plans to send her contribution down this month for their monthly stitch-along. I volunteered to do a couple for her and managed to fit these in before my cold took total hold of my head and confined me to intermittent coughing spells.

I'm handing them over to her next guild meeting...

Now I think I'll go back to bed...

Week Fourteen, April 9, 2015

We had our first thunderstorm of the season this morning, early, which woke me up in time to get to the public radio telephone volunteer on time (I had mis-set my alarm clock after a power outage earlier in the week) . And other signs of spring are crocuses in bloom:

I managed to keep to my plan of 2 days per project in rotation.

The first two days this week were spent in planning out and assembling the basic block for my April Crazy Quilt Journal and Bead Journal Project entries:

The next two were spent in working on the outline for "Jan", the second of the three "Spawn" in the Roll Your Own mandala series:

And on Monday and Wednesday nights (Tuesday nights are reserved for Girls' Night Out in Toledo) , I finished up Block 13 on Save the Stitches:

So, can I keep to this schedule? I doubt it. But... I met a quilt guild member at the radio station this AM and she was stitching on some EGA charity gifts which really intrigued me. The chapter she belongs to does little framed samplers to give to Habitat for Humanity recipients and they are in real need of them this year as the number has risen sharply so... so she's getting me a copy of the pattern and I will stitch a couple up for her in the coming month... That will give me a little variety and me a break from the continual black-and-blue-and- green-itis which might be the cause of my lack of desire to stitch. we shall see...

WIPocalypse 2015, April 4 - The Full Pink Moon

The question for this month is: "Which specialty stitches do you love doing on projects?  Which do you dread?"

Well, isn't hard to answer which I dread --- it's French Knots! It's not that I can't do them but I do have issues with how regular they look and so, when possible, I substitute beads!

As for which I love? Well, that's another thing altogether. I'm not a big fan of most specialty stitches. I willingly do backstitch (after all, I like blackwork), but I grumble if there are more than one color for the backstitching. I don't mind Algerian Eyes and similar stitches but I don't particularly like Lazy Daisies, chain stitching, etc. Again, it's not that I "can't" do these --- I just can't seem to do them consistently so that all are the same size or width or going in the same direction or... So maybe I don't really "love" any stitches, speciality or otherwise!

For me, it's the process of stitching that gives me pleasure, and any stitch that makes that process less than soothing goes in my "Oh, NO! Another &*&%$# stitch!" chart!

Last month, my goals included finishing at least one of the "Spawn" in Save the stitches" (DONE!) and the March block for the Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal Project (DONE!). I also got in a few blocks on the "Save the Stitches" blackwork piece (Blocks 10, 11, 12 and part of 13).

So, as goals go, I didn't do too badly. But... there was a lot of slacking off and I know I could have gotten further if I had only set my mind to it. Trouble is, I don't feel like stitching half the time and I'm not really eager to push myself for fear that will turn me off altogether. Last time EVER I will take on two BAPs at the same time, let alone two or more of the same color ways (where did all that blue, green and black come from anyway?): my motivation hits bottom with all that "sameness"!

In the coming month, I think I will continue with similar goals ---2 nights a week on each of "Spawn" (work on outline for "Jan"), "Save the Stitches" (at least through Block 15...) and Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal Project block.

Week Thirteen, April 2, 2015

This will be a short post as there really isn't much to show.

"Marcia" is complete!

Next up, "Jan"!

And Block 12 of "Save the Stitches is complete (and there is  a start on Block 13:

I will continue to plug away at both, but it is April now, and I have to come up with a block for the month for the Crazy Quilt Journal/Bead Journal Projects...