Aug 9/17

You know when you are constantly busy and on the go, but can not pinpoint just what is keeping you so busy? That has been my life recently. Between it being so hot here recently, trying to exercise more thanks to my Garmin step counter gizmo, socializing with friends, being busy at work because of vacations and enjoying summer, I have not felt much urge to stitch. Add in not liking how the back stitching is designed on the seahorse pattern and that finish is taking forever. I don't like having more than one WIP on the go so I force myself to finish all of the stitching before going on to another project. I do not always do the final finish as is obvious by all of the not-quite-finished projects in my craft room, but I finish the cross stitching.

Anyhoo, here is the current state of the seahorse bag:

The back stitching is about half way completed and it will not be completed tonight as I am about to go to bed.

I am looking forward to stitching this pattern although instead of doing it on white as pictured here:

I am considering a piece of variegated blue and green 28 count even weave (I lost the tag as to the exact fabric although I think that it may be Monaco) that I have in my stash. The road block is that the stitched pattern is 16 inches by 20 inches and my fabric is 20 inches by 23 inches so there is not much left on the sides for framing or finishing. It is unfortunate because I think that it will look really cool with the varying shades of blue and green so I am measuring several times and contemplating several times plus one while I finish the seahorses. I do have a blue and white variegated piece and a white piece with gold flecks that are both large enough, but they do not capture my attention when the skeins are laid out on them while I contemplate the pattern. Maybe my next post will be a photo array of my fabric choices.

Happy stitching!

July 13/17

The orange seahorse developed a tail and snout last night! My stitching time tonight was spent putting away skeins from other projects while trying to find the skeins for back stitching this piece. I have 2 of the 5 or 6 skeins so there may be a trip in the near future to the local fabric store to get the rest.

Not stitching related, but definitely relative to my life:

Happy stitching!

July 12/17

I suspect that I am not alone amongst stitchers when I stay up to stitch far too late at night when I have to be up early for work. Last night was another one of those nights. Just as my eyes were starting to droop, I realized that the orange seahorse was missing his fin so hopefully that will get stitched tonight before some thought goes into whether to back stitch or not. I probably will do the back stitching so that the pattern is complete although the pattern looks pretty good without it, I think. First, I need to do a quick bike ride around the neighbourhood to shake some life into these tired legs and feet. The joys of being on one's feet all day at work.

Happy stitching!

July 9/17

Where has the time gone? I just looked at the time stamp from my last entry and six whole days have passed since I have done any stitching. The heat and humidity are partly to blame as is my new resolve to read more books while decreasing my mindless internet time. Work is a bit nutty at the moment as other staff members are off on vacation. Plus, there was a promotion party for one of the fella's colleagues, our Maggie requires daily walks and attention, one cat is coughing up hairballs, etc. We spent the afternoon today at a friend's son's birthday party, enjoying the beautiful summer day while hanging out with friends in the pool. All of the sunshine and shenanigans left us rather tired so my evening was spent relaxing on the couch with needle and thread in hand. 

The seahorses are coming along nicely. Only the fin of the orange seahorse and the parts of the leaves that require DMC 319 remain for the full crosses before I start the back stitching. I have no definite plans for what I will stitch after this bag is completed, but I have been looking at cat themed patterns on pinterest and I have been thinking about making myself a pin cushion. My idle needles are all shoved onto a scrap piece of Aida which has been holding my needles nicely for years. Seeing all of the beautiful smalls projects on the various cross stitch groups that I belong to on Facebook has given me pin cushion and biscornu envy. Time will tell where the next project will take me although these are my preliminary thoughts.

Happy stitching.

July 3/17

The heat and the humidity got the best of this afternoon so we headed to the shores of the Bay of Fundy. The thermometer in the car was showing 28C when we pulled out of our driveway and 19C when we left the shore. Craziness! The shore is only 15 minutes drive from our house. Here is a picture to show the highest tides in the world. We were there during low tide this afternoon and these boats were high and dry at the wharf. Right about now at midnight, the tide is probably about halfway out again.

Our house was so warm this evening that I sat outside to read for a while to enjoy the shade and the breeze before coming inside to stitch. The heat got the best of me today, resulting in two naps! We have had such a busy week that the fella' and I flaked out this evening. We have spent all weekend visiting family and friends so it was a relief this evening to not be out visiting and to not have any one here. The fella' has to go back to work in the morning after being off all week for his son's graduation so he fell into bed around 9pm and I am on my way now at midnight after my two naps. I stitched until my eyes and brain gave out on me tonight. This pattern is stitching up nicely and I am loving working with these colours. Making a wee dent in my stash is also a joy to me.

Happy stitching!

July 2/17

No stitching was done here on Friday as I came home from work, attended to the needs of the critters and went out to the pub and mall with friends who live on our street. I fell into bed shortly after finally get home for the night. A few stitches were put in yesterday morning as I sorted out the timing of the fella's arrival back in Halifax as his flights were delayed on the homeward bound leg. As a stitching bonus, his delays meant that I had an extra hour at home before I had to go pick him up and then head over to my brother's place for a BBQ. We ran into a thunder and lightning storm on the way home last night. It had mostly passed over by the time we pulled into the driveway, but I enjoyed an hour or so of stitching while listening to the rain before going to bed.

Canada Day was a rainy and foggy day here in Nova Scotia. We did see a few fireworks as we drove home along the 101, the highway that goes through the Annapolis Valley, despite the thunder showers that were rolling down the valley. I was disappointed to not be able to see Halifax from the Dartmouth side of the harbour because I wanted to see all of the ships that were in port this weekend, but Mother Nature and the fog had other plans. Maggie went to Halifax with us today because all of our friends were either busy or away. She was a loud and boisterous greeter for the other travellers while we waited for the fella' in the passenger pick up area.

Well, off to see what we can see and do on this soggy long holiday weekend Sunday. Happy stitching!

June 29/17

So, the fact that any stitching at all is happening in this house is a miracle! I had a minor accident on Tuesday night while out biking with our dog. She stopped to attend to a call of nature and I did not which resulted in me skidding along the street on my belly. There are a few large bandages attached to a hand, a knee and an elbow and work is interesting as so many people have questions about the scrapes on my nose and forehead. My glasses and bike helmet saved my face from a huge disaster while sustaining a little damage. The woman at the the optometry clinic who re-adjusted the nose pieces on my glasses tonight remembered that these glasses are fairly new (bought in January) and apparently, still under warranty so a new pair will be here next week. I could have made do with my current pair despite the scratches on the lenses, but I would not say no to new ones. The muscle stiffness and tiredness from not sleeping well have been more of a hindrance to stitching than the bandages.

I did manage to put in a few stitches last night and ended up here:

After supper for both human and critter and a walk with the dog, I managed to put in a few more stitches this evening. There may not be much time for stitching this weekend as tomorrow is dinner and drinks at the pub to welcome home a friend who has been working overseas for the past 6 months and Saturday is Canada Day. The fella' flies home on Canada Day so I will pick him up at the airport before heading to my brother's place for a BBQ with my mom and sister who are visiting my brother for a few days.

Happy stitching and Happy Canada Day!

June 27/17

I was too tired to take and post a photo of my progress last night so here is a photo of where I finished off last night along with the skeins that I purchased today. One of my favourite fabric shops is the Avonport Discount Fabrics which, if you have driven in the Annapolis Valley, is right where you catch the first glorious glimpse of Blomidon as Highway 101 drops down towards Wolfville. Usually when I am in that part of the Valley, the fella' is with me and all of my dear readers surely know how painful it is to drag the fella' to places like fabric stores. I took full advantage of the fact that I had just dropped him off at the Halifax airport to pull into Avonport to see what wonderful fabrics were in store. I did only come away with the skeins because I could not decide on which fabrics might suit my current stitched but unfinished ornaments and I am trying to curb that "bright shiny" shopping habit of mine. There was a tour bus full of quilters in the store as well. The store is full of beautiful, affordable fabrics so it is no wonder that bus loads of quilters from other provinces stop in to visit.

The fella's flight was delayed by over an hour and a half out of Halifax which means he will miss his connection in Toronto for Sudbury. According to the airline website, he is somewhere in the air between Montreal and Toronto, arriving almost two hours late in Toronto. I guess I will find out in an hour or so if he has managed to get himself on the last flight of the day to Sudbury. My hands are sore after a particularly painful massage today so no stitching has been done yet today. Maybe later after the dog has been walked and I hear that the fella' is on his way to his final destination. He is on his way to see his oldest son graduate from high school on Thursday. He was so excited to see his kids today that he probably could have flown there under his own power if that were possible.

Happy stitching!

June 25/17

After a lazy Sunday morning and a trip to Wolfville to check out the Botanical Gardens, I settled in to stitch this evening. The heat and sun beating down on me while we were walking around Wolfville this afternoon has given me a bit of a headache, but I managed to make some progress on the sea horses. I am missing 3 or 4 of the colours so I will have to make a trip to our local craft store to pick up those skeins because it is becoming a bit of a pain to stitch around those areas. 

There was a moment of panic earlier when I realized that the pattern called for a 13x13 piece of 18 count and I have a 14x14 piece of 14 count. Fortunately, it looks like the design should just barely fit on this panel. Good gravy, one would think that after almost 30 years of cross stitching, I would have remembered to double check the count of both the design and the fabric.

Even though Monday is my day off, my to-do list is growing as I need to make sure that my fella' is ready to go away for the week to see his son graduate from high school and that I am ready to handle our household while he is gone. So with that, I am off to bed.

Happy stitching!

June 24/17

Well, it is that time of the month again. Noooo, not THAT time of the month. It is TUSAL time and here is my contribution to the TUSAL blog that I follow. My ort jar is lovely and colourful this month from the threads used in the project pictured just below my ort jar. The threads on the left are being used for my next project that I started this evening while watching "Rogue One".

I had to work this morning at 9am so you can imagine how bleary eyed I was when the alarm went off this morning after putting the last stitch into this pattern at 1:15am. Now to wash it and fill it with some Nova Scotia wines.

Here is my new start. This lovely seahorse pattern is also found in the June 2017 issue of "Just Cross Stitch". I had two canvas Charlescraft bags in my stash so I decided to stitch this one up as a Christmas gift for my mom. While I do not have a specific goal for reducing my cross stitch stash, I am thrilled to be using up as much as possible as quickly as possible right now. One of these days I will take a picture of my thread stash to share with you all as it astounds me at its size. Then, there is the pattern stash and the fabric stash. Besides, any of you who are into crafts can most likely relate to the reality of having enough materials for a few life times of crafting. Guilty as charged.

Well, back to the movie for me and then bed for this tired little stitcher.

Happy stitching!

June 20/17

Here is my end point for yesterday evening. It was too hot and yucky to put enough thoughts together to do even the briefest of blog updates.

Here is the end point for this evening:

The hot, sticky weather seems to have blow over for the moment so I have turned off the heat pump and have begun opening up windows so that we have a hope of a decent night's sleep. The new fan we bought yesterday helped to cool down our room, but the heat and the humidity had me headachey and sticky all day at work despite the air conditioning. I understand that the weather should be better tomorrow, i.e. no rain in the forecast, so hopefully I can get lots of laundry out on the line in between working on my Rosetta Stone course to re-learn the French language. The end is in sight for this pattern and I hope to finish it tomorrow in between the laundry, French lessons and biking over to the farmer's market to stock up on veggies.

Happy stitching!

June 13/17

Here is a photo of where I left off last night after stitching my way through three episodes of the latest season of "Orange is the New Black". We had some friends over last night to play washer toss and to sit around our firepit until a fierce rain and thunderstorm rolled in. We went from feeling a few drops of rain to grabbing the kitchen chair we had taken outside and running as fast as we could to the house! The storm passed within an hour or so and cooled us down from the 31C (37C humidex) that we had been sweating through all day.

Does any one else find that stitching allows them to filter through the madness of the day and life to find some calm in the eye of the storm? Sometimes I wonder where the negativity that I start out with when I sit down to stitch ends up being stitched into the piece or whether it is the time and focusing on something beautiful that allows my brain to make the negative have less of a hold on me. Turning the negative energy into something beautiful helps to keep me sane. My life is no more or less stressful than any one else's and stitching is one of my coping mechanisms.

Today's plan is to finish this post, stitch while watching a couple of episodes of OITNB and mow the lawn once it dries out enough. Then, there is a much needed haircut appointment this afternoon and grocery shopping. Oh! I also need to remember to buy three graduation cards for people in our lives who are graduating from various levels of education. The joys and exciting happenings on a day off.

Happy stitching!

June 11/17

This photo shows the result of a couple evenings of stitching since the last photo. This photo does not do proper justice to the cheery and bright colours which are making this piece so much fun to stitch.. The curtains are all drawn in the house, in an attempt to keep the house cooler during this hot and sticky day so it was difficult to properly photograph the colours. We are off to the shore in a few minutes to enjoy the cool air ocean air of the Bay of Fundy and to let dear Maggie run free to her heart's content. Some stitching may get done this evening if I am not too grumpy and tired from the heat.

Happy stitching!

June 7/17

So, I decided to switch gears yesterday from stitching CADPAT bibs to stitching this gorgeous design. The design is from the June 2017 issue of "Just CrossStitch" and it is being stitched on a Charlescraft tote bag. The colours are so very warm and tropical which is perking me up on these rather cool and damp Spring days that we are having here recently. Friends of mine are getting married next month so I thought that this would be a great little gift, especially with a couple bottles of local wine tucked in. There are some lovely wineries here in the Annapolis Valley that of course, do not compare to the vineyards of France and Italy although they do produce some very nice wine here. The bag alone is going to be stunning with all of the bright colours. The wine will be a bonus! *clink clink*

Happy stitching!