Category Archives: Theme-a-licious

May’s report, June’s goals

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Terri | 2 comments

Before I get started I need to give a huge public “thank you” to Melissa. Right after the first of the month my blog decided to take a nosedive. It was a PITA in the beginning. By mid-month I could no longer post any photos and as the month wore on it turned into a catastrophe. I couldn’t even log in. This past week I threw myself at her feet and begged her to help me. She was kind enough to get it straightened out for me. It was not an easy fix, and I think I owe her my blogging life.

A lot went on in May for me, but because I couldn’t access my blog in the past couple of weeks, I’m sure I’ve forgotten more than I remembered. I settled the lawsuit I brought against the woman who hit me last year; we’ve been having record heat here and M and I have been thoroughly enjoying our pool; I got Hannah Beeby framed and she’s hanging all by her lonesome in the middle of my family room wall (I haven’t unpacked my other large pieces yet); I have finally settled into the perfect routine for me and because of it am getting a ton of guilt-free quilting and stitching accomplished; I started walking consistently. That’s all I can remember right now!

My goals for May were fairly simple and I accomplished more than I thought I would:

Get the rest of my fibers put away (DONE)
Get started sorting my fabric (DONE)
Get back to rotating on:
1. Petite Mexican Sampler (finish it?) (FINISHED IT)
2. Fairy Moon (YES!)
3. Haiku (DIDN’T TOUCH IT*)
Continue with Rose Quaker and Mary Wigham on their respective stitching days (YES*)
Piece 4 more quilt squares (YES)
Finish quilted stitching bag (my Theme-a-licious project for May (NO)

*I forgot when I set my monthly goals that Memorial Day was coming up. Last year Jean published in the Attic Needlework May 2011 newsletter that she stitched on patriotic pieces from Memorial Day until September 11th. I have a lot of designs that contain the American flag, or are otherwise patriotic, and I thought this was a wonderful idea. Last year I chose 2 medium sized designs and it took me until about the 2nd week of October to finish the 2nd one. This year on Memorial Day I started Carriage House Samplings’ “Americana.” I’m very close to finishing it…perhaps just a couple more days of stitching. I have a second design pulled and will probably have no problem getting it finished before September 11, and then I’ll decide what to do next…continue with patriotic stitching or get back to my rotation. For now, though, I have stopped working on my rotation and I skipped yesterday’s stitching on Rose Quaker. I still haven’t decided whether or not I’m going to work on Mary Wigham today/tonight at Thursday stitchin.

While I had my stitching bag down for my Theme-a-licious project for may, I did work on my other quilt class projects. I keep forgetting to bring my stitching bag upstairs to make those few stitches! It sits by my chair holding my project bags and waiting to be loaded with my other odds and ins I take to stitchins. It’s happy where it is! LOL

I do have WIPacolypse progress to share but that will have to wait for another day as I have places to go and things to do today 😀

What do I want to do in June?

Finish sorting my stitching fabrics.
Get started sorting my quilting fabrics.
Continue with my patriotic stitching.
Piece 4 quilt squares
Work on Haiku for June’s Theme-a-licious.
Paint my bedroom.
Buy new bed.

My quilt class ends in June. I have enjoyed it so much and have gained confidence in reading patterns, choosing color, and piecing. I’ve purchased fabric for a small table top size quilt and am looking forward to starting it after I catch up with the rest of my quilting.

M finally heard back from the Veterans’ office at the university and has started his registration process.

The puppies are still providing great entertainment and love and are staying relatively healthy.

I have a long weekend getaway planned with Karen and am really looking forward to it.

2 Comments

Posted in Carriage House Samplings, Framing, Goals, Hannah Beeby, Quilting, Stitch-together, Stitching, Theme-a-licious, WIPocalypse

May goals

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Terri | 1 comment

My needlework expectations for May are:

Get the rest of my fibers put away
Get started sorting my fabric
Get back to rotating on:
1. Petite Mexican Sampler (finish it?)
2. Fairy Moon
3. Haiku
Continue with Rose Quaker and Mary Wigham on their respective stitching days
Piece 4 more quilt squares
Finish quilted stitching bag (my Theme-a-licious project for May)

All of the above is doable as long as I don’t get sidetracked 😉

1 Comment

Posted in Goals, Quilting, Stitching, Theme-a-licious

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

Moving right along

Posted on January 8, 2012 by Terri | 3 comments

Still stiff from Wednesday’s tumble but am thankful that’s all that has shown up. It’s still rather uncomfortable getting up if I’ve been sitting (i.e. stitching) for a long time, or first thing in the morning when it’s time to come downstairs. I’ve ditched the slippers for now and am even more cautious than before. I hate falling. I’ve always been afraid to fall. It’s why I only went snow skiing once in my life. I don’t know why it kept me from it since I used to ice skate, and water ski! Oh well. More cautious on the steps.

I finished up my 10 hour rotation on Peacock Tapestry yesterday. I finished the gridding Thursday evening at my weekly stitchin, then put it away until I was home and better able to concentrate.

I’ve decided to take Hannah Beeby out of my rotation and make her my stitchin piece until I finish her. The chart’s easy to read, there are only 3 colors, and the fabric is 28 count, making her easy to stitch on, and not mess up, while enjoying the company and conversation at the stitchins.

But, back to PT. When I picked her up again yesterday, and started stitching, because of the gridding I found a couple of small stitching mistakes that would have made it very interesting when it came time to backstitch. I made great progress on it, even with the little bit of actual stitching I did. I did something wrong with my camera when I took the before picture, so there’s only an “after” this time around:

Peacock Tapestry by Teresa Wentzler

The Great Spreadsheet spoke again, and now I’m working on Haiku by Dimples Designs. I started this during one of the Guilt Free January’s I participated in. 2004 to be exact! Here’s the before shot of the little stinker:

Haiku by Dimples Designs

The stitching is going rather quickly. This is the third WIP that fits into the Theme-a-licious-ness for January!

I’m getting a lot of stitching done but I know it will slow down when I start my quilting class in a couple of weeks.

I’m making slower progress on one of my other yearly goals (which I didn’t publicize). I want to become more familiar with all the technology I own! I made a tiny step by changing my tabs up top to drop down (I’ve had this blog for how long and didn’t know I could do that?) Part of my problem with it all is that I don’t understand the terminology. I figure if I could master the latin of law, I should be able to better handle technology terminology. Right? We’ll see 😉

3 Comments

Posted in Haiku, Injury, Peacock Tapestry, Stitching, Theme-a-licious, WIPocalypse

Licious-ness

Posted on January 1, 2012 by Terri | 6 comments

I didn’t give much thought to joining in on Heather’s Theme-a-licious-ness since I thought you had to stitch on all the categories during the year. Since I’m rotating, I didn’t know if I would be working in a particular project during the given month. I’ve decided to give it a try though, just to see if it’ll work. I’ve started a new page with her monthly themes and will add in under each month what I’ve accomplished. I’m not expecting to have something for each month, but I may just surprise myself 😉

I’ve already spent about an hour and a half on Petite Mexican Sampler this morning. When I first started stitching the border I had a huge panic moment because the gold border didn’t stand out again the fabric with one strand nearly as much as it did on the spool. I’ve since added the olive and light olive tones and it’s looking better. I’m trying to use as many colors as possible really quickly to see how they’ll look. If it’s a fail it’ll be easier to rippit and start over on something lighter. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that doesn’t have to happen though 🙂 since I think the silks are delicious and already have an emotional attachment to the fabric.

Here’s my December ort jar. There’s a whole lot of Hannah Beeby and Houses of Hawk Run Hollow in there. Looks a heck of a lot more better than a lot of the previous months 🙂

December 2011 Orts

I bought the small Yankee Candle candles this year and burned them while stitching. It was a fun way to discover new scents and I plan on reusing them each year. I’m going to “decorate” them up this year. 2011’s orts will stored together in a paint can container with the paltry 2010 orts.