Category Archives: Life

Thanksgiving

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Terri | Comments Off

“For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Comments Off on Thanksgiving

Posted in Life

Discoveries

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Terri | 2 comments

Had a hair cut this morning. For the first time in my adult life I have tons of layers. My stylist blew it out straight and choppy. It’s kind of funky and I haven’t decided if I totally like it or not. I am, however, in love with the color. I’ll play with it some tomorrow with the straight iron. Mister says it’s very 60s looking. At least he did not say it made me look 60.

Worked on entering my half-sized charts today. I seem to really like Little House Needleworks and I have a teenie The Sweetheart Tree obsession! Of the 161 charts that I entered today, 26 were LHN, and this doesn’t count the ones I’ve already stitched. 23 were The Sweetheart Tree. Who knew! Well obviously I would have if I had done this a long time ago. The great thing about this is it’s showing me just how many possible ‘smalls’ I have to work on in 2013. By the way, am I the last person to know that The Sweetheart Tree is in Arizona?

Harley is getting better. The swelling has reduced, her eye is completely open again, and she has even been sassy with Jasper and running circles in the backyard. She still has a huge knot on the side of her head that’s very painful and Friday can’t get here fast enough.

Mister just left for his class tonight and I’ve finished inputting for the day so I’m dragging Haiku back downstairs and catching up on my DVR.

Tomorrow is Bag Ladies at Attic Needlework. I can’t wait to see all the beautiful items that have been donated for this year’s breast cancer fund-raiser auction. If you get a chance check out the newsletter at the link above. You will be amazed at the generosity.

2 Comments

Posted in Puppies, Stash, Stitch-together

Reflections

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Terri | 12 comments

WARNING! PHOTO INTENSIVE POST.

I cannot believe it’s been a year since I moved to Arizona. I have no regrets in doing so. While it hasn’t been perfect, I know that very few things are, and I cannot think of anything that has happened so far that has made me wish we had not made this decision. I am thankful that I wasted no time in jumping in and taking a quilting class as soon as I did, and that I showed up as soon as possible at Attic Needlework to participate in their Thursday night open stitching. I have made some wonderful friends this past year.

This time last year I was just sitting down for the 2nd time in our new home. Our furniture and 200+ boxes had been delivered, the delivery guys had surprised me by putting our bed together since they didn’t want me to have to sleep on the floor another night (I actually slept on a blow up mattress the night before), the cable guy had unpacked one of our TVs and hooked it up and made sure my internet was working, and I was searching the internet for the closest place to buy a refrigerator, washer, and dryer. I can’t remember exactly when Mister finally showed up to see our house for the first time, but I still remember how nervous I was that he wouldn’t like it! 😀

We haven’t done as much as we would have liked this past year, but we knew the first year was going to be a wait-and-see year for us while we got our bearings and learned to live the non-military life.

This past month has been a busy one for both of us. Mister finished one of his classes which is a good thing since his studio art class has increased his homework load. He’s still loving it though! He’s already registered for next term’s classes.

We finally were able to replace my beautiful 370Z that was totaled last year. When I chose that car it was a toss up between a “toy” or some “muscle.” While searching for my new car this year I drove almost every car I could imagine myself wanting, but ultimately I chose the “muscle” I didn’t choose the last time. My new car arrived a couple of weeks ago. I am so in love with her!

Dressed for Halloween

I finally put Haiku away and went back to Rose Quaker. While I’m still not stitching as much as I was it’s been nice to stitch on something I’m enjoying. This week will find me back to Haiku though, as I rearranged my living room last week because of new furniture purchases for the family room, and I now have the perfect spot for Haiku to reside. I really am very, very close to finishing it.

As mentioned, we purchased a new sofa, ottoman, and two chairs for our family room, from IKEA. I heart that place. I could completely furnish my house there! I chose a linen colored sofa and ottoman cover and the chairs are grey and linen checked. I’ll finish out the room with some red accessories for now. It’s a little weird sitting in the chairs as I’ve gone from snugglers (as my stitching chair) to a regular sized chair. My new stitching spot is probably going to be at the end of the sofa since I can’t stitch without my feet propped up 😉 and there needs to be room for a puppy or two when I’m stitching or reading.

Yesterday, I went with Annette to the Holiday Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival put on by Rusty Barn. It was much smaller than the quilt festival we attended there this past January but there was still enough there to catch my eye. While I put back about as much as I bought, I still managed to bring home some really nice things. I was looking specifically for 3 things: (1) fabrics to make a red and white; and black and white table topper quilt; (2) fabric to make a traveling holder for my cutting mat and rulers; and, (3) a small wool penny kit. This is what I ended up bringing home with me:

MITI scissor fob. Yes, the white and pink beeds really “moon” glow in the light.

ASU colorway pin chicken

A couple of painted wooden signs for my stitching room.

Since I ~~don’t need another new hobby~~ have so much spare time on my hands, I also brought home:

A beaded needlecase kit in purple, gold, and black.

Beaded necklace kit in purples

Bees wax, beading thread, and 2 nippers (1 for my quilting table)

Beed organizing box

Chain Maille bracelet pattern

I did manage to find fabrics for my red and white quilt, including a backing fabric and a cute red and white Christmas tree wall hanging kit.

Fabrics for red and while quilt

Red and white Christmas tree wall quilt

I could only find backing fabric for a black and white quilt and I may end up tea dying this and creating a black and cream quilt instead, depending on what other fabrics I find in the future.

Backing for black and white quilt

I didn’t find the penny rug kit I wanted, but I didn’t leave there without purchasing a couple of “wool” related items.

Wool pin cushion with old spring to mount it on

I am sooo in love with these wool ornaments!

Wool Christmas ornaments

Because I promised myself before I went that I wasn’t going to buy any more patterns, I bought this one

Halloween wall hanging

and this one

Small wall hanging

I’m deluding myself into thinking I can get all this done before January when the next Quilt Festival arrives.

Oh, and one other purchase. I found a sterling greyhound charm. They are so very hard to find and I snatched it up to wear around my neck.

After all that was done I hung out with Annette at her house for about an hour before I went and had dinner with Cathy and her husband. She was in town for a class at Attic Needlework and because she has such excellent taste in new cars, the two of us wanted to do a face-t0-face. It’s always nice to finally get to meet online friends in person. We talked for so long after we finished eating that we were both embarrassed to see how many people were standing in the lobby waiting for a table! Oops.

Before I go finish creating my wonderful pot of chicken noodle soup, I’d like to ask that anyone still reading my blog say a small prayer for my HarleyQuinn. She has a cracked tooth that has gotten infected and created some horrendous (I am not exaggerating) swelling in her face. Yesterday she could barely open her left eye 🙁 and the major concern is that she will swell so badly that it can cause her skin to split. She has already been to the doctor and they warned us of this swelling but it’s still not easy to deal with. She is taking antibiotics and pain meds, and seems to be acting like she’s not in any pain, but it is oh so ever painful to look at her. The earliest we could get her in to have it pulled is this coming Friday and for those of you who remember our Bandit, you know how stressed out all of this is making me — so maybe you can include me in your prayers as well.

I promise to not take so long to update again. I had some drama-mama stuff happen on facebook with my family this past week over election issues and I find myself not wanting to play there very much for now. Facebook posting has caused me to neglect my blog and I feel really bad about that.

12 Comments

Posted in Decorating, Quilting, Stitching

Surprise!

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Terri | 2 comments

Happy fall, y’all! I cannot begin to say how many times I have sat down to write, then got distracted by something else. That something else has usually been stash that needed to be sorted, catalogued, or put away; and, sometimes, stitched on 😀

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of my last day as an employed person. This past year has seen so many changes in my life and they must have all been pretty good because as I sit here writing this I cannot think of any horrible thing that has occured.

I have traveled more this past year than in many years combined, both near and far. I am looking forward to where the 2nd year of my “retirement” takes me. I have also stitched and quilted more than I ever have and am having a blast (when I’m not feeling guilty about it).

The next phase of my crafting is about to begin with my framing some of my own smaller finished needlework. I have been gathering the equipment needed, and even have some frame moulding. It’s now just a matter of getting over my “what if I mess it up” jitters and make that first cut.

What have I been doing since my last post? This!

Carriage House Samplings’ “Americana.”

CHS Americana 5/25 - 6/9/12

Little House Needleworks “America”

LHN "America" 6/9 - 6/17/12

Sheepish Designs “Betsy”

Sheepish Designs "Betsy" 6/17 - 6/25/12

Blackbird Designs “America”

Blackbird Designs "America" 6/25 - 7/8/12

I had intended on stitching patriotic designs all the way through until September 11, but changed my mind and decided to go back to my other WIPs. Soooooo, I also finished Mary Wigham

Mary Wigham finished September 1, 2012

Mary is at Attic Needlework being framed. I don’t remember off the top of my head when I started her and I didn’t stitch on her exclusively, but I did track when I worked on her. It took me 51 days to stitch her. I converted the recommended DMC to Gentle Arts Sampler Threads. There are a lot of memories attached to her 😀 The Olympics, test driving new cars, attending a stitching weekend with Attic Needlework (wait until you see what I’m working on from that!), Mister starting college, a trip back to California to see Son and visit Melissa and see Darla.

I took a reading break after Mary Wigham them picked Dimples Designs’ “Haiku” back up on September 17th. I originally started it January 2004 during a Guilt Free stitching sprint, put him away for a long time, picked him back up the beginning of this year, and put him away again. I am very near to finishing it but have to make myself stitch on it since there are other things I want to be working on.

As you can tell I sort of gave up on WIPacolypse (and Theme-a-licious). Not the stitching, just the checking in. I am one of those people who can’t keep up with moon phases — hard to believe I’m a moon child — and believe tracking should be done from the 1st day of the month to the last day of the month. I am continuing to stitch on my WIPacoplypse pieces though since they’re pieces I love and want hanging on my walls. I know 2012 is not quite over but I’m keeping in mind already what I want to accomplish in 2013, and I’ll probably maintain some sort of WIPacolypse type list and intersperse it with smalls since I have so many and I want to work on my finishing skills.

The only other thing I really want to have finished is the stitching on Fairy Moon. If all I have left to do is bead by the end of the year I’ll be a happy stitcher. She will be going to a framer and I’d just as soon not have her sitting around after I finish her because how I want her framed will probably cost me a fair bit and I don’t want to spend that money until after January since right now I’m spending my money on furnishing the house a bit more. I’m installing a new chande over the dining table and at the top of the stairs, buying new furniture for the family room, and rearranging some of the other furniture. I’m also getting ready to paint the downstairs powder room and I want to get my piano refurbished if possible.

So. There you have it! I’ve made a couple of changes on my stitching page but all in all I’m a happy person!

2 Comments

Posted in Carriage House Samplings, Finishes, Haiku, Mary Wigham, Retirement, Samplers - Repro, WIPocalypse

April Report

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Terri | 8 comments

It’s been a rather fun month for us. We’re continuing to settle in. The weather has been excellent and we’ve been spending a lot of time in the pool. We purchased a new BBQ and patio furniture and are spending our mornings and evenings on the patio. I figured out this morning that our WiFi is strong enough out there, with all the doors and windows closed, that we’ll be streaming our iTunes and satellite radio out there so I’m going to start stitching out there in the mornings. This makes the puppies happy since they love running around chasing birds, lizards, and each other.

I’ve spent a bunch of time playing in my room. Still a long way to go but at least now I can sit at my workstation and sew.

The most fun has been working on my WIPocalypse pile while watching baseball and hockey. Before I show my WIPocalypse progress, I’ll share a picture of Harley from last night’s hockey game. When the Coyotes score, there is a howl played over the loudspeakers. We, M and I, have started howling with it and the puppies have taken to joining in. At the end of last night’s game we were howling and I got a snap of Harley doing her Coyote impression. I know I’m biased, but she’s so darn cute when she does it. Her little howl is so high pitched and “soft” you have to really listen to hear her, but you can tell she puts her whole heart behind it.

Now, on to the stitching:

Finished Hannah Beeby!

Got a whole lot done, then undone, then done on Petite Mexican Sampler:

I had completely finished the tree on the right when I discovered it was one stitch over on the right 🙁 It had to be frogged and put away since I was so upset. I have picked it back up and will definitely finish it in May.

I don’t normally participate in stitchalongs since they feel like obligation stitching to me but two Facebook groups I’m on are having stitchalongs on designs that I already had planned on starting, so on Wednesday last I started Rose Quaker. It feels like a quick stitch and I’m loving the colors:

It was very tempting to keep going but I wanted to start Mary Wigham for Thursdays. I had messed up on Petite Mexican Sampler on Tuesday, and I let her sit screaming next to my stitching chair while I stitched on Mary Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I am loving the subtleness of the colors and I think GAST Salmon, the top motif, is my new favorite color.

Hannah, Rose Quaker, and Mary all definitely qualify for April’s Theme-a-liciousness, too!

All that stitching has left me with a full TUSAL jar for April.

You can see the different layers 😀 I’ll be adding a bit more to it this afternoon, to finish out the month with Petite Mexican Sampler stitching.

8 Comments

Posted in Domestic, Mary Wigham, Petite Mexican Sampler, Puppies, Rose Quaker, Stitching, Theme-a-licious, TUSAL, WIPocalypse

February Recap

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Terri | 1 comment

coming soon, I promise. I’ve been having photo posting problems and just got that figured out. It was an {ahem} user problem 😉

1 Comment

Posted in Life

January recap

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Terri | 7 comments

2012 started out busy for me.

I unpacked a couple more boxes and culled some of my ‘trinkets.’ I still have things sitting on my dining room table and 1 more box full of “china cabinet” stuff to unpack and deal with. I have stopped unpacking my stitching room boxes. M is going to finish gutting my closet and paint it so I don’t want to have to move more than I’ve already unpacked. Of course, this has led me to rummaging to find things so my stitching room is a disaster right now. I’m currently spending about a half hour each day either packing some stuff back up or finding a permanent home for it.

I am thoroughly enjoying the quilting class. The instructor is great! There are 6 of us and we’re all so different in our tastes (including the twins!). It’s been fun seeing how different our squares are with the different fabrics. I had some major sewing machine issues during the first class and had a whole lot of catching up to do. M’s being gone was helpful since I could concentrate on getting caught up without having to worry about putting things away. There are only 2 more classes in this session. I’m looking forward to the more advanced sessions.

Back to the sewing maching though. I’m going to be selling my current one since it’s more of a light sewing type machine and purchasing a machine geared more toward quilting. I’m hoping to test drive them next week. It’s my “retirement” present 😀

The quilting class is the main reason for the fabric explosion in my stitching room. I thought I was going to use some of my current stash but once I received the “instuctions” for the class knew it wouldn’t work, and I’d already been rummaging. Now I’m making myself organize it all and put it where it belongs. It’ll make a huge dent in my stress in there 😉

As to stitching, if the rest of the year goes as well as January went I will be one happy stitcher at the end of the year.

Up to the progress I’d made on Haiku, I had put in 30 hours of stitching in addition to the time I’m spending on Hannah Beeby at my stitchins. Since then I’ve added 50+ hours!!!!

I went to Vegas with Annette and her mom and Melissa met us there. More on that later. While I was there though I finished the horizontal gridding on Harmony. I’m only gridding the lower half since that’s where the solid stitching will be. Once I finish the vertical gridding, I’ll sew on the muslin and start the stitching.

Harmony - partially gridded

I had a TON of fun in Vegas. Even after our flight was delayed, and moved to another gate. Not much was done other than get checked in and sleep the first night but we were off and running the next day. Thursday we went to Stitcher’s Paradise and Jo-Anns. Friday, the 13th, I sent Annette a wake-up text that said something like “Happy Friday the 13th. Let’s go gamble!” 😆 I ended up making all kinds of “little” money on the slots and won $550 playing Bingo 😉 In fact, we all won money while we were there.

I pulled out Fairy Moon by Mirabilia while I was there and put a few stitches in her but the real stitching started once I got back.

M left for California on the 20th. I rushed through my “chores” every morning so I could work on her while he was gone. I couldn’t put her down! I put in 40+ hours on her. I forgot to take a “real” before picture but here she is when I remembered (1/16/12) and when I finally put her down (1/31/12):

Fairy Moon by Mirabilia 1/16/12

Fairy Moon by Mirabilia - 1/31/12

Here’s my recap for Theme-a-licious

January 1 – January 2 Petite Mexican Sampler (new start)
January 3 – January 7 Peacock Tapestry
January 7 – January 9 Haiku
January 9 – January 12 Harmony

I’m taking license with February’s theme “Fangirl February.” I don’t know that I have a favorite designer! So, I’m going to list everything I work on. The way I see it, I wouldn’t be stitching a design by someone unless I really like them 😉

My January ORT jar is still downstairs so I’ll have to share that another post.

I have really enjoyed being back on my rotation. To keep myself going, though, I’m going to pare down how many projects there are. So for now my rotation will consist of Petite Mexican Sampler, Peacock Tapestry, Haiku, and Fairy Moon, with Hannah Beebe being my take-along project. I’m also going to work on my Fair and Square piece before starting back through my rotation. I’ll share photos of that when the recipient posts she has received it. Once that’s finished I have 2 ornaments that I need to finish out and get in the mail. I had to start over since the finishing I wanted to do wouldn’t work, and I got frustrated and put then aside, but now I want to finish them so the recipients will still love me. 😉

I’ve saved the best for last 😀 M is retired!!!! He called me Tuesday evening and said he missed us and wasn’t staying an extra day to surf. He got home yesterday around 2:00. The puppies were so happy to see him! We went out to dinner last night to celebrate and wish ourselves all kinds of good fortune for our next 30 years. Our new “life” starts today, so to speak. We’ve started talking about what we need to do to keep ourselves busy (and out of each other’s hair) and it will be interesting to see what unfolds over the next few months. He will probably be starting school in June and that will help him stay busy. Me? I see lots of needles and thread in my future.

I’m off to Thursday night stitchin in a few minutes. I’m taking Hannah Beebe with me.

7 Comments

Posted in Life

Just a quickie

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Terri | 1 comment

I’m still here.

I’m unbelievably busy in a good way.

I have posts planned regarding that ticker over there on the right 🙂 , the quilting class I’m taking, a trip to Vegas (to cross stitch 😉 ), the quilting “expo” I attended yesterday, my Ort jar, and the amount of stitching I’ve been doing and the progress I’m making in rotating.

Life is good. It will be better next Wednesday when my Marine gets back home.

1 Comment

Posted in Quilting, Retirement, Stitching, Travel

January is full of excitement

Posted on January 2, 2012 by Terri | 2 comments

I sat on my bee-hind and stitched for 5+ hours yesterday. Today my whole body is stiff from it! 😆 It took me no time to get back into the rhythm of timing myself while stitching. I plan on adding to that 5 hours today while watching a ton of college football. I should be watching the Rose Parade right now but for some reason I’m just not interested.

Last month when I switched from working on HOHRH to Hannah, the change from 40ct to 28ct was like working on burlap. Here’s my progress pic (don’t judge the wrinkles ’cause it was too much hassle dragging the ironing board back out).

"Before" picture of my working chart"After" picture of actual project

"After" progress pic

M is at less than a month to retirement! 29 days and counting 😀

I am also counting down to my first 2012 trip. Headed to Vegas in less than 2 weeks, without M 😉

I’ll share my Christmas present from M tomorrow.

2 Comments

Posted in Hannah Beeby, Travel

Another week gone

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Terri | Comments Off

It’s amazing to me how little I’ve gotten done since my last post! 😆 I still have 20 boxes to unpack, although I only have 2 that have not been opened.

I made it to Attic Needlework for their Thursday evening stitch-in. Didn’t spend a dime either!

Son and Girlfriend arrived early Saturday morning. We spent a whole lot of time doing nothing while they were here. Son has been working 60+ hour weeks and he napped quite a bit while he was here. No problem to me, it was nice just to have them here. I feel like Girlfriend is more of a DIL each time we’re around her. She’s so good about texting and emailing me and I’ve given up on trying to not like her! 😆 They’ve been a couple for 5+ years and I still get an “eek” moment when I think about that, since that made her still 16 when Son met her. He had just turned 22! There was one thing I noticed while they were here. They are always laughing! I think she has had to be the adult in her family for a long time and I think Son is as good for her as she is for him, since she straightened him out 😉

Their visit was way too short, and they left late Monday night since Son had to be to work on Tuesday.

M and I headed out shopping on Tuesday and came home with our Christmas presents. (We always wait until after to get good deals). He bought me a chandelier for the laundry room. I absolutely love it!

We got him a WiFi BD/DVD player for our living room and we’ve been streaming Netflix and Amazon since he got it hooked up. The puppies are enjoying it as well since they love sitting on top of us while we’re watching movies in the dark. Right now we’re watching Firefly.

Annette came to visit this past Wednesday and we opened my stitching fabric boxes to find a perfect piece for my January 1 start, Petite Mexican Sampler by The Samplar Works. It’s stitched with Au Ver a Soie “Soie d’Paris” silk, on 48 count “Napery Light Examplar” Lakeside linen but I (we) decided on 40ct Lakeside linen Palomino.

Since she’s left, that box has been screaming at me to come back and play! 😉 I purposefully left the fabric boxes to last because I knew I’d want to dive into them. So far I’ve been strong and left them alone, but I feel myself weakening.

I’m still tweaking my WIPocalypse list for 2012. Not so much the WIPs, although I did add in Hannah Beeby, but the new starts. (In addition to the Petite sampler above, I’m thinking of adding in Queen of Hearts by Twisted Threads.) I went through my two “retirement” boxes and pulled out the WIPs so I could list them (again, thanks to Annette). I ended up with 34. That seems like such a low number to me. I just knew when it was all said and done I’d have 50!

I’ve also started listing my kitted items. They are taking a bit more sorting since some of them are lacking fabric. I know I have the perfect piece in my stash (again, the box is calling). There are a couple that are missing embellishments (I know they’re in my “bits and pieces” drawer. While I’m listing all of them, I’m sorting them into separate piles based upon what they’re missing. Once I get them all sorted, I guess I need to start back through the pile and decide if I’m still interested in stitching them. I have always been pretty picky about what I kit before I stitch, so I’m suspecting there will be very little weeding out. I do, however, refuse to cut any fabric until I’m actually going to stitch.

All of the above was my taking a break from putting things in their proper home in my stitching room. I got to the point where I felt like chucking it all since I was so tired of organizing. I’m over that now, and am back to spending time organizing after I get the rest of my “chores” done and before I sit down to stitch. Keeps me from feeling guilty about not doing it while I sit there doing “nothing.”

I’m still working on Hannah Beeby. I’ve completed all of the top “letter” rows and am more than half-way through the 3rd motif on the top row.

I’ve also decided to participate in some exchanges this year. I’m hoping to get into the Fair and Square group since I think those will be perfect for working on my sewing machine making pillows, ornaments, and other smalls.