I've been stitching for the past couple of weeks

I'm slowly struggling back into it. I picked my stitching back up with no idea of which project or week I was on. So I made an executive decision to work on the New England sampler and I had a productive week with it. by last Sunday I'd just about finished the lower band to the middle of the pattern. I'm very happy with it!

From October 16-18 I was away interstate and started a new 'travel' project that I could work on while I was on the go. This is a small Daydream kit called
Life is a Journey. Since then it's stayed in my handbag and I've worked on it from time to time. I'll keep this one in my bag and continue to work on it on a casual basis.






I'm now about to head into my second week of Latrobe Terrace. I've only worked on it twice this week and next week with two evening meetings isn't looking too good. But at least I hope to get some more done on it.

I've finally put my two Xmas presents in for framing and I pick them up this Wednesday.

It's only about a month until we go to the US for Christmas and there is so much to do with Christmas and travel preparations. My DH has painted our lounge/dining room a lovely off-white and over the next couple of weeks I'm getting a few curtain quotes. These won't be done and hanging before we go but if I at least order them we can get them in in January. This is just such a busy time of year!

I've fallen in a heap

Well craft work has certainly taken a back seat this month. With three weekends away and all the packing and unpacking associated with that plus several work days in between and the usual Mum's taxiing time has been limited. I've also taken on an additional unpaid job of Membership Secretary for a non-profit organisation this month and I also applied and was tested for an online editing job. We'll see what comes of that. I think I'm getting a few things under control now.

I'm starting to think more seriously of Christmas and I need to get my completed cross-stitches to the framers.

The weekend before last I went away to a friend's sheep farm with Jade and because we flew I took a very small new project with me. Surprisingly I got a bit of it done. It is one of those Daydreams quick weekend projects which shows a few suitcases piled up and says 'Life is a Journey'. It's still in my handbag and I've pulled it out a couple of times since. I think I'll leave it in there and do it when I get the chance.

Right now I need to figure out where I'm supposed to be with my rotations. I think I'm on the third rotation in my list--the Chinese themed one--and I don't know that I really feel up to picking up something new right now. Something that I'm more familiar with would be better. So I may make another executive decision and go for the next project in the list which I think is the New England Sampler.

Getting back into it a bit

Another weekend away but I did manage to do some stitching last night on Verandas. Yes I figured out that that is the rotation I'm on.

Brought my stitching to the swimming pool today to get some done while my daughter has school swimming then discovered I forgot to bring a needle! Instead of sticking it through the margin of the fabric I left it sticking in the arm of the couch! It doesn't look like I'm going to get very much work done this week either!



As promised here is the updated photo of Cottages II. Not a bad start to that one.

A bit of a lull in proceedings

October is here and the busy end of year season has started early. We had a lovely break away last weekend to Phillip Island south of Melbourne. This weekend DH and I are off on a work retreat for his work to a winery area. And the following weekend Jade and I are off to a friend's near Canberra. So with all of the washing, organising and packing and unpacking I haven't touched my stitching for a week and may not do much this rotation. I'm not even sure which rotation it is!



I am also reading another Diana Gabaldon tome of nearly 1000 pages. It's the fifth one in her Outlander series called The Fiery Cross. I'm just over half way through the book and under pressure to finish it before October 23 as it's due back in the library then and someone else has a reservation on it so I can't renew it! After getting a bit tired of reading about Claire and Jamie I've hit my second wind and intend to go through to the next book before Christmas. The most recent book in the series isn't on the shelves of the library yet and there are 3 reserves on it so it's unlikely I'll get my chance to read that before Xmas.

I will leave posting a photo of my Cottages progress to a later entry.

Golden Gate Bridge finish!

Another finish for the year! This time it's Debbie Patrick's Golden Gate Bridge. This project has been in the works since about May 2007 so it's one of my older projects and one that I blogged about here in 2007. I started it as my 'travel' project and in the early days mainly worked on it when my son was having his weekly tennis lesson. I found it very fiddly, though with frequent colour changes and lots of small patches of one colour. This made it difficult to work on as a 'pick up' project so when I re-planned my rotations this year I stuck it in as one of the rotations and that's worked out well.

So now (probably in a week or so) it's off to the craft shop to have this and the two Fabric Collectors framed. That will be great to get those all done!



Now I continue on with Cottages at Oak Bluffs II. Here a progress photo of that.

My birthday

Friday was my birthday so I finally got to open my Daylight Ultimate Floor Lamp! I put it together yesterday morning with some help from my son and now it's all in place and ready to use. It looks fabulous! Last night I was too tired to do any stitching after working in the afternoon so today will be my first opportunity to try it out. My family are all marvelling at the lamp especially about its attachments--the magnifying lens, clip to hold a pattern and the utility tray. The only thing it's really missing is a cup holder! I've been waiting to own a lamp like this for over 20 years.

Started Cottages at Oak Bluffs

OK cheating a bit here. I finished some of the backstitching on the bridge then realised I was running out of DMC356 (medium terracotta). Since I don't know how old some of my floss is I was wary about starting a new area with an old skein and then switching to a new skein in case there was a colour difference. So I started on the next project for this rotation until I get a chance to go to the craft shop and get more DMC. Then I ran into the same problem on cottages except this time I'm running out of DMC840 (medium beige brown). I've relied so long on my built up supplies of DMC that it's a bit of a shock to be running out of floss! Guess it's time to go shopping.

The colour descriptions for the floss are taken from this website: http://www.shopdmc.net/List%20of%20DMC%20colours.asp