Week Twenty-One, May 26, 2016

Two more nights of stitching after the WIPocalypse check-in and here is where the outline for “Return” is now. 

One page of six (top left corner) complete and parts of pages 2 and 3 (top center and right). A lot of Ripping (I always seem to miscount somewhere along the way) but not too much, so long as I don’t push the stitching to the last two strands from a six-strand-length (that is when my eyes start to rebel and I miss holes, etc.).

I still don’t expect to make the deadline for registering for the fair this summer, but at least it looks like this piece will soon be in the “to be framed” pile! Then the decision will be either to finish up “Save the Stitches” or start something new, smaller and NOT in blue and green! 

WIPocalypse 2016 - May 21

This month’s WIPoclypse discussion topic is “What were you stitching this time last year and have you finished it?”

Well, last year at this time, I had three  projects “in progress”:  the “Roll Your Own” Mandala series (the “Jan” mandala”), the “Save Your Stitches” blackwork sampler (I was at block 13), and a crazy quilt block for my Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal project combination . The one I was actually stitching on the WIPOcalypse report day for 2015 was …none of the above! I was fighting a serious, long-lasting respiratory illness and simply had stitched for  almost a month. 

Did I finish any of these? Well, sort of. 

• I finished “Jan” (in August of that year) and subsequently “Revenge” (December, 2015) and “Rematch” (May 2016) of that same series, but there is still one mandala to go, so the “Roll Your Own” piece is still a WIP. 
• I finished the blocks for the Crazy Quilt/Bead Journal wall hanging but it is not assembled into a wall hanging yet.
• I haven’t put a single stitch in “Save The Stitches” since April 2015!

Not a very good record of finishes, although there were several small pieces (A memory quilt block for a friend, an exchange Christmas ornament,  and three place mats for a quilt guild charity - Meals on Wheels) in the interim. My stitching mojo definitely has gone walkabout…

Last month, my goals were to “do better “ and in a way, I did as I finished “Rematch”   http://210920746822434353.weebly.com/my-stitchery-journal/week-twenty-may-19-2016 and got started on the outline for “Return”, the last of the nine mandalas in “Roll Your Own” (although, since I thought today was the report-in day, I have to admit that the stitching done on this outline is probably better saved for the next WIPocalyose, since I stitched on both Saturday, the 21st, and Sunday, the 22nd)

 The stitching mojo is still in hibernation — I feel as if I am forcing myself to put in a hour a day (or every other day, more like) but I am plugging along.

Next month? Well, “do better” still applies. I need to keep plugging away on “Return” and see how far I can get this summer. I know it won’t be done in time to enter in the fair (That is usually late June, early July) but maybe next year? 

Meanwhile, I planted my veggie garden yesterday (six different tomato plants, two eggplants, six summer squash and a row of bush beans) and it is going to take some of my attention this summer, as will my paper crafting (two challenges were issued today… and more are coming by the end of the month). I am reading again (two more books in the Maggie Hope series by Susan Elia MacNeal and I have several series of television programs on DVR that I MUST catch up on during the summer hiatus. Also, there is a road trip in the books for the end of June (the American Hemerocallis Society annual convention, this time in Louisville, KY), so I am going to be busy between now and the next WIPocalypse check-in!

Week Twenty, May 19, 2016

Strange as it may seem, even with four days totally messed up by colonoscopy prep and procedure (my tummy was not happy with either - I know, too much information), I did manage to finish “Rematch”!

Here is what ”Roll Your Own” looks like now with only one mandala left!

Only one more doctor’s appointment (on the 31st) and some hassle with insurance over my sprained ankle (you don’t want to know what I think of insurance companies right now) so I should be able to make some decent progress in the next week. I’m sorely tempted to start something new and totally different but I will try to resist the impulse and keep plugging’ on (to quote Sir Winston Churchill as often written in the series of historical mysteries I am reading now by Susan Elia MacNeal).

Weeks Eighteen, May 4, 2016 and Nineteen, May 11, 2016

Well, I skyved off all week Eighteen. I have valid excuses for half the week; however, I can’t justify not stitching that Friday or Saturday…As for the latter part of the week, Husband was due back on a midnight flight from Chicago on May 1 so I drove up to Toledo’s airport to pick him up, only to find that, upon my arrival, her was still in Chicago (mechanical difficulties) and so he didn’t get in until 1:05 AM! Then we had to wit for luggage and… his didn’t arrive! So we didn’t get home until nearly 3 AM and that really messed up my sleep cycle. 

It didn’t help that on Tuesday, we had our quarterly meeting with our financial advisor (No big deal except that all things financial really stress me out). Then on Wednesday, Husband had a Mohs procedure scheduled for a basal cell carcinoma on his forward. I drove him to the doctor’s office in the early AM, came home and cleaned for the cleaning lady (yes, I know, I’m strange like that) and then went back to pick him up after he was through (they got it all).

So I tried to make up for this in week Nineteen and managed to complete colors 8, 9, 10, and 11, and am 25% of the way through color 12 (the last color! YAY!). Shouldn’t take more than one good night’s stitching to finished up “Rematch”:

and here is where the whole piece is right now:

Otherwise, it was a lovely week, between rain, hail and wind, and the redbud, crabapple and dogwood trees around our house were in full bloom at the start of week nineteen:

 

And yesterday, the pink-and-white tree peony in my old raised bed was in full flower:

A week of pink and white!

This coming week — well there’s another excuse coming up! I have quilt guild tonight (Friday night - I'm late in posting this), a colonoscopy early morning Monday (that’s a day shot, as well as the day leading up to it for prep) and a haircut on Tuesday… all of which will probably contribute to me losing my mojo AGAIN! I will try to get “Rematch” finished and some time in on the outline for the final mandala, “Return”, which is placed and partially stitched in half-cross right now. No other promises, so it may be two weeks before I post again…

Week Seventeen, April 28, 2016

By gosh, I stitched. Every night this last week! I can hardly believe it! And I managed to complete the fourth through the seventh fill colors “Rematch” and get nearly half of the eighth one done as well!

This meant a lot of binge watching (a season of “Hawaii 5-O”, a season of “Blue Bloods”, a season of “Major Crimes”, a season of “Rizzoli & Isles”, and two movies - “The Hardy Girls” on Turner Classic Movies and “The Monument Men” on Sundance! - to say nothing of catching up with “Elementary”, “The Good Wife”, “Castle” and “NCIS: Los Angeles”).  And in between all this stitching and television, I managed to avoid any injuries, doctor’s visits, etc! 

We have spring here, but sadly, we have April storms and they are playing havoc with the tulips, iris and serviceberry trees. Still, for a few days there, we had a spectacular-looking front garden!

 

 

This next week, I hope to keep up my stitching pace and get “Rematch” done, at least by the end of May! More storms are forecast and I do have to pick up husband at the airport near midnight on Sunday and be available as his driver for post-out-patient surgery on the 5th, but otherwise…

WIPocalypse 2016 - April 22, the Pink Moon

This month’s topic for discussion is “What do you listen to while stitching?” For me, it’s always the television on. I stitch in my bedroom where there is an HD television hooked up to a DVR and the satellite as well as local on-antenna channels so I have a wealth of choices. I might “listen” to something I DVR-ed or it might be “live” — it all depends. Can I concentrate on stitching while “listening” to NCIS or do I need to concentrate on the program? Can I enjoy a classic movie while stitching?  Does a little “Binge listening” need to be done to clear my DVR memory? 

Last night, for example, I stitched during the Turner Classic Movies Judy Garland Tribute and basically listened to “The Harvey Girls” from start to finish (Not sure I ever actually had watched that movie before as there were certainly things I didn’t remember about it, like the fact that Angela Lansbury was in it!).

My goals last month were simple: make progress on “Rematch”.  I expected little else thanks to interruptions in my schedule by visitors or road trips, doctors’ appointments (which usually et me into anxiety overdrive), or by early morning appointments (phone bank at public radio, taking husband to airport for the first flight of the day, service visit by the HVAC guys arriving sometime between 8 AM and Noon, etc.) resulting in exhausted evenings and foggy thinking, definitely not suitable for focusing on counted cross-stitch!  

So I have little WIP progress to report but I can say that, since last month, I have completed two more colors of fill on “Rematch” (Number Three was roughly 30% done last month and Number Four only an idea in my foggy brain) and actually started on color number Five (roughly 25% done as of last night).

Do I have goals for May? Well, let’s hope I can do better with “Rematch”. Looks like, if I concentrate, I can stitch roughly half a color a night. I have seven and three-quarters to go which means it could be done in two weeks, give or take a few hours. SO a finish is possible (if not likely).

Also, I found out two weekends ago that a niece is expecting (It’s a boy, and the name will be Carter William but I don’t know anything else), and I’d like to find a suitable birth sampler for her…

Weeks Fourteen through Sixteen, April 7, 14 and 21, 2016

Well, as you can see from my title, I didn’t blog for the last three weeks! Oops!

But I have reasons! Maybe not GOOD reason, but reasons nonetheless! 

Mainly, I didn’t stitch. At least not until last night. And I didn’t stitch because a) my mojo was missing and b) life got in the way.

The week of April 7, we were preparing for out-of-country visitors, who arrived April 6 and stayed through April 10. Needless to say, it was difficult to do any stitching while entertaining our Saudi friends. Besides, my stitching mojo seems to have gone walk-about.

The week of April 14 included the end of our Saudi visitors’ stay, a massive April snowstorm:

(Underneath this 7+ inches of heavy wet snow are all those daffodils I posted about in Week 13!)

an appointment with a surgeon as a preface to a colonoscopy (I know, too much information), and an early morning rising for manning the phone banks for the local public radio’s spring fundraiser. To say I was exhausted was to understate the issue! 

And this week - an overnight stay in Cleveland for a wedding (including a rehearsal  and rehearsal dinner), at which wedding ceremony I sprained my ankle , which in turn resulted in leaving for home early (skipping the reception) with my ankle wrapped in five pounds of gas station ice. Three days later, this resulted in a three-hour visit to the ER to make sure it was a sprain and NOT a break (you wouldn’t believe how many people told me about their experiences with breaks which masqueraded as sprains!):

(It was, indeed, a sprain and not a break! Whew!)

and my six-month check-up with the dentist. Also included in this week’s schedule were two trips to the local airport to send husband on his way to Nevada. The first, at a decent time of day so in theory I could figure out the route too and from (I had never driven there before and driving to places I’ve never been before is NOT in my comfort zone), resulted in a repeat the next day when all flights were canceled due to a computer glitch, and the second one required getting up at 3 AM to get to the first flight out! AAACK! And the very next day I had to be up early again for the first appointment of the day by the heating and cooling service, who were doing the annual HVAC check-up on hour system. Added to that were the bare-root roses delivered while husband was gone and these roses HAD to be planted (me with a sprained ankle - right? Thanks Dan, for the assistance!).

So the fact that I actually pulled out “Rematch” and put in some stitches last night probably qualifies as a minor miracle! The current fill color  (Number 4 of 12) is about 75% done:

Not sure that the mojo is back but the tulips and grape hyacinths are blooming (and surprisingly, the daffodils survived for the most part and rebloomed!):

 and one can only hope that spring is here (although I heard the weatherman say last night there were a few frost warnings in the next week’s forecast. AACK!).