January recap

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

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.