March 30, 2017 the second time around

Since I posted the TUSAL post, we have acquired a new to us kitty named Pebbles and I finished the two bibs that were in the works. Pebbles is currently hiding out behind the bed in our spare room so no photos of her at the moment. For your viewing pleasure and my stitching record, I bring you my most recent finishes:

The bibs are Janlynn bibs that have a fleecy backing. I sewed down the backing to avoid a weird, food catching, baby ripping pocket that had been open at the top to allow stitching. I bought 6 or 8 of them from eBay over a year ago and were inspired to stitch them when I started my decluttering campaign. The campaign continues even though it does not look like we are moving this posting season. Two bibs and several skeins of threads depleted. Bam! That's how I git'er done!

March 30, 2017

TUSAL time! My jar is slowing filling up as I stitch on the handful of bibs in my stash. Hopefully there will be a finished photo of a bib tonight if I don't go to bed early. 

March 26, 2017

Oh my! Cuteness galore!! The full stitch part of this project was finished this evening, inspired partly by the baby shower that I attended this afternoon for a dear friend who was one of my first friends here in Greenwood. I will get the back stitching done in the next few days, in between meetings, housework and dinner with friends! I promised to have it done this week so my fingers are going to have to fly through the backstitching.

To blow my own horn for a moment, I spearheaded a project to donate bicycle helmets to the grade two students at a local elementary school. I meet with the school principal tomorrow to nail down the details of the presentation and then my Rotary club is doing the presentation on Thursday. I am getting quite excited about getting the 80 helmets out of my spare room and into the hands of the kids!

Happy stitching!

March 23, 2017

So, this little bib is taking a little longer to complete than expected. A stomach bug of some sort laid me out the past two days which put a hold on anything besides sleeping and well, you know what happens when a bug runs rampant on your gastrointestinal system. I finally felt like picking up a needle tonight so I stitched for a few hours in front of the television after walking the dog in this frigid weather that has hit us after Spring supposedly has arrived. I hope to have this bib finished this weekend, fitting it in between work, a baby shower and doing our tax returns. The excitement never ends around here!

Happy stitching!

March 20, 2017

Instead of posting a picture of the progress being made on my bib, I am posting a photo of my thread palette which I keep on the arm of the couch while I am stitching. The chart was done in Anchor colours so these are my best approximation in DMC, thanks to an online conversion chart.

When I looked to my right this afternoon, I saw this:

Maggie is such a goofball!

Happy stitching!

March 19, 2017

So, this was one of my views this past week. Not much stitching occurred while we sunbathed on the beach and thoroughly enjoyed being far away from snow and any temperatures below 25C. Actually, no stitching occurred despite my best intentions of at least stitching on the flights to and from the Dominican Republic. We spent a fabulous week at the Gran Bahia Principe resort in Punta Cana, DR, celebrating our friends' wedding and loving the resort life.

A few minutes after we said hello to the dog and dropped our bags on the floor, I started stitching this piece. The pattern comes from pinterest and will be given as a baby shower gift. One of my coworkers has commissioned me to stitch this for her.

Now to return to stitching on this little bib so that I can keep my focus away from the many mosquito bites on my legs that are driving me crazy!

Happy stitching!

March 7, 2017

Here is a sneak peek at the bib I am working on. The pattern comes from pinterest.

I think that the piece is adorable and for once, there is no end goal in sight. A friend of mine is due in May, but they do not know the sex of the baby and this one is rather pink although I am sick of the whole "pink for girls, blue for boys" thing. Who cares?? Is the item clean and good repair? That is all that should count. Gender colour social conditioning be damned! That being said, I have some other patterns that are not pink or blue so I may stitch that up for the little one after I stitch up the one I have promised to a co-worker. There are 6 or 8 bibs in my stash pile so this line of decluttering will keep me busy for a bit.

The decluttering of the craft supplies has been successful enough that some of the shelves now see daylight. No more boxes on the floor in front of the shelving unit and fewer random stuff like a note that I found that only had "wasted" on it. Slow and steady is winning the battle against clutter.

Happy stitching!

March 5, 2017

Two views of my orts for the TUSAL (totally useless stitch a long). There has been a fair bit of stitching of Christmas ornaments in the past month. My attention is now on baby bibs as I have a commission to do two bibs for a friend of mine who is attending several baby showers this spring!

March 2, 2017

After finishing the last mitten the other, I dug around in my craft pile and came across this scarf that was maybe 1/2 finished and left in a bag. I suspect that it is a leftover project from a summer road trip as knitting is the only project I can do without getting carsick when we drive from Nova Scotia to Ontario for summer holidays. The yarn is Briggs and Little wool, a wonderful scratchy wool from my home province of New Brunswick.The pattern is not from pinterest for once. I do not know the proper name for this knit pattern, but I would describe it as a knit 2, purl 2 to form a box type stitch. The scarf is a bit short, but long enough to cross in the front and then fit nicely under my jacket without creating bulk.

Spring had been here briefly but Winter has rolled back in with lots of wind and that sneaky white stuff called snow. Maggie is as done with winter as her humans. Life is beyond rough in this house for this dog.

Happy stitching!