Category Archives: Blogging

Rethinking my focus after January

For some reason I am unable to upload photos to today’s blog post.

When I posted on December 30, I listed what I wanted to focus on for 2018. Now that we are one month in to 2018, I have noticed that my focus needs to change a bit in order to meet my goals, and work on some of my WIPs from years past.

For stitching, I stated I wanted to work on 12 projects that included 7 current WIPs and 5 new starts (2 large and 3 small).

I started Oscar’s Corsage on January 1 and stitched exclusively on it for 4 days. I ran out of fiber! A trip to Vegas was coming (where I purchased the design and fiber January 2017) so I put it aside to see what I could find during 2018’s trip. Success! While the fiber has a different dye lot number, I doubt I will be able to tell where the new fiber is stitched, once I get back to the project.

Since I knew I was starting a new design on January 12, I switched over to a WIP, Death by Cross Stitch, and stitched on it for 6 days. I am still loving the fiber/fabric combination. I had intended to stitch it strictly from my tablet, but for some reason started out on paper. I am now trying to decide if I want to switch over to my tablet for the chart.

I drove to Vegas on January 11 and was too tired after dinner that evening to stitch. This would be the ONLY day during January that I did not stitch!

Friday, January 12, I went to Stitcher’s Paradise and purchased the fiber I needed for Oscar’s Corsage (and grabbed another – of the same dye lot – for Forest Flower), the overdyeds and DMC I did not have in my stash for Let Freedom Ring, Glendon Place’s Tiramisu (that I cannot find, but have the fiber kit for), Kathy Barrick’s Repeat the Sounding Joy, and a NPI to replace the one I swiped from another project to finish Book of Spells. That evening I started Let Freedom Ring and 20 days later I had to make myself put it away to start my planned February 1 start! I love this design so much!

Yesterday I started Chatelaine’s Desert Mandala after spending 2+ hours futzing around with my table because I could not get the highlight function to work on my ezPDF Reader Pro app. I have had this design in my stash for 3+ years and almost struck it from my 2018 list because I was so aggravated with the app. LOL

This puts me at 10 current WIPs, 1 planned small new start (Adam & Eve), and 1 empty slot on my list of 12. I am thinking of starting Adam & Eve on March 1.

My sewing machine time has had the most mental focus.  I am happy to say that I have sat at it several times and actually sewn!  I started a new tablerunner that I am working on at sew-togethers (right now we are meeting every Tuesday), I sewed the binding on to the 4-Patch Charm quilt (still needs to be turned and stitched down on the other side); and completed a community service quilt flimsy for my guild chapter.

As to my other goals – Even though I am not starting it yet, I have decided to switch Swoon for Bonnie Hunter’s latest mystery On Ringo Lake. The color scheme I was looking at for Swoon will be perfect for ORL.

I have also decided to replace Celtic Solstice with En Provence. This will fit better with my long-term plans of making quilts for all of my mother’s grandchildren. If I remember correctly I have all the pieces done to make the blocks and sashing, I just need to piece them, and I’ll need to piece the neutral border.  Celtic Sostice will be for another grandchild, but I am trying to give them in the order the kids were born 😉 and it is more suitable to a boy.

I decided to not participate in the Scrap Attack. I also am not worrying about making any monthly quilt-related posts. If they happen, they happen.  I am working in my room every day for about 20 minutes before I sew.  I want to sew every day but there are other fun things that are getting in the way, like going to the movies with Mister.  If I do not sew in the morning, I do not sew that day and being “desert dwellers” we tend to do things outside the house in the mornings.

I also visited Quiltique while in Vegas and brought home a few more black/white, white/black FQs, and some brights to go into a future quilt that I have been gathering fabric for a couple of years; 3 quarter-yard pieces of fabric to make qsnap grime guards; a deeply discounted charm pack of Laundry Basket Southern Exposure and a cupcake recipe FPP pack (which I have already started into a tablerunner); and, a cute pattern to make FPP zip bags with scissors, spools, and buttons on them.

Except for the aforementioned zip bag pattern, everything I bought in Vegas was on a list, and it all stayed within my budget. I’m super pleased by that. I went to JoAnn’s the other day and walked out with 2  DMC skeins needed for Let Freedom Ring. I told the cashier that was the cheapest trip I had ever made. I am having no problems so far keeping to my needle-related spending goals, and am confident February will be a success.

Tomorrow I will may be doing my first flosstube. I am joining up with my BFF, who does them frequently.

It’s that most wonderful time of the year…

where I make a post saying I am going to be a better blogger.  Haha!

I decided this morning to just sit down and do a brain dump here, so if anyone is reading be prepared for a jumble of thoughts.

The sewing blahs I posted about in my last post (March!!) never went away.  I do not think I even touched Mister’s quilt after that post.  The sewing blahs also took over my stitching and I had a 4+ month hiatus from that too.  I picked it back up in November and have had a couple of finishes.  I had a bit of a freak-out moment a couple of days ago when I realized that December is here, 2017 was a bust on so many levels, and I need to get some things done!

I have been going through my stitching and pulling things out that were just tossed willynilly in a bucket (or two) over the past year or so.  I was actually looking for a chart and a couple of kitted items that I want to work on in 2018 so I could start making my plans.  I did start a tab at the top and have added things as I sorted.

I have 2 oval galvanized beverage-type buckets in my room.  One for quilty things and one for stitchy things.  I should add something somewhere to keep reminding me that I need to put things away instead of tossing them on my cutting table or in a bucket.

While I will not officially be participating in the 2018 Year of WIPs Challenge, I am going to continue the way I set up for 2017.  I am super happy with the progress I made while I was actively stitching, so I am going with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude for 2018.  I had 5 finishes in 2017 from that list (which I need to update). The big stitchy news is that I finished And They Sinned and it is framed and hanging on my bedroom wall.

Right now my guest room bed is almost covered with various stacks. I recently told a friend I would not have anywhere to put her when she asked if she could stay a couple of nights (we are traveling out of state together next month).  I know that if I pack it away it will just languish again for whoever knows how long and I am tired of shuffling so much of it around.  I am taking a serious look at my stitching stash, so I will be posting things on here and eBay in 2018.

There is still my quilting to sort out. In the back of my mind I have been thinking of just starting at the top of my RÅSKOG cart and randomly picking one thing to complete, then a WIP, then another item on the 2nd shelf, then a WIP, and so on in a bit of a quilting rotation of sort.  I have so many little kitted things I have picked up at shows, shop clubs, etc., that I want done, I just need to make a plan and get it done.  Some are mini quilts, some are little zipper bags, and other smalls.  Right now the only quilt items I have listed in the 2018 tab are large items and WIPs.  I probably will not add any of the small items to the current list.

I also have several stitching things that need attention at a sewing machine, so there’s a little crossover there.

New email subscription option

Last year, during my hiatus, the email subscription option I was using on my blog disappeared. I meant to mention in my earlier post that I have added a new one. I do not even know if anyone is still receiving update by email. So, if you are still receiving them, yay, but I do not know who you are. No matter, there is now a new subscription option in the left hand column. Hopefully this one will not disappear, or if it does I will know sooner since I intend to not disappear.

Well hello there!

Ever walk into a room and get sidetracked by something other than what you walked in there to do?  That is pretty much why it has been since March 2015 that I have blogged.  I have always meant to just something would come up and then it would be a couple of days, weeks, months, a year then I would think, “oh yeah, I was going to blog about that,” and off I would go again not doing it.

There is no way I can catch you up on what I have been doing since my last post.  Some of it I would rather not re-live.  2016 itself has not been 100% happy for me/us and while I’ve been meaning to blog some of it, now that I am sitting here I would actually rather not.

A few things I can post without tearing up, though.

Mister: Graduated from ASU Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Art History (so very proud of him), has not gone surfing, had to have chemo treatment on his face for pre-cancerous cells that caused him to rival Deadpool in the beauty department (that was a horrible experience for me, not to mention what it did to him), applied for a second degree (starts in 2 weeks), and continues to drive me nuts in both the good and bad ways.  After 35 years of marriage, that is a wonderful thing to write.

Me (in no particular order): Gone to quilt retreat a couple of times, worked two large Phoenix Comicon events, went long periods of time without stitching or quilting (still not quilting, but recently started stitching again), read I do not know how many books, two seasons worth of season tickets to Diamondbacks baseball (which oh my heavens cuts into your spare time!), started hiking, had a good friend from North Carolina spend the weekend with me, had 8 friends from several states spend the weekend with me, spent the weekend with said friends (plus a few more) in TN, went to Vegas with some friends, went to Yuma twice to visit a Canadian friend who winters there, dyed my hair blue/purple/teal :D, lost a lot of weight and gained it all back, drove Mister nuts in the both the good and bad ways, oh, and not blogged!

Right now I am enjoying the Olympics, and not enjoying the crazy politics.  The temperatures are high and we are in monsoon which means high winds, lots of sand, and sometimes hail filled rain that comes in seconds before you are prepared for it.  I am sorting my sewing room because I let things pile up on the cutting and sewing tables, and have pulled a whole lot of cross-stitch patterns to sell.

Does this mean I am back.  Who knows?!? I know when I was blogging I seemed to do more sewing and stitching since I like to share it here, plus it helped me stay organized. We will see.

Networked Blogs

I have decided to deactivate my Networked Blog account. If you wish to stay connected please consider subscribing by email as a replacement, or you could go the Bloglovin’ route.

Personally, I still don’t find Bloglovin’ user friendly so I have been subscribing by emails to as many of my favorites as I can, then removing them from the reader.

Either way, I hope you stick around.

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