Back in the saddle

If anyone is still reading, I apologize for not posting anything of substance lately. I have been a bit busy.

I traveled to Nashville to enjoy the company of some wonderful needlework friends, many of whom I’ve only known from “online” for 12+ years. Finally getting to hug them in real life was such a wonderful thing and from all of the conversations we had you would never have known that we had never met face-to-face before then. I had a blast and was worn out when I got home from all the talking, shopping, eating, humidity, and lack of sleep from some very late-night conversations with my roommate. It’s an annual event, next year will be hosted in Arizona, and I’m already counting down the days.

I had been in a stitching slump prior to my trip, and being with those women took care of it. I have been making great progress on And They Sinned. I managed to put in about 12 hours in 3 days, which is more than I stitched in 3 months prior to that. Last night was open stitch night at my LNS and there was a wonderful group there. I started a new reproduction sampler, Elizabeth Sheffield, and will be stitching it in 6 parts with 3-4 other ladies. Stitching slump over! Hoorah!

I also managed to stitch all of my squares from JMLW Caramel Corn that I had glue-basted prior to my trip. I am putting off piecing them together for a bit since it’s not due until October, and I have a couple of other things I need to get finished before then. One of them being my signature blocks for the Small Quilts yahoo group I belong to.

I’ve also been spending a little more time on home “renovations.” Plus I’ve gotten to go to work a couple of times and play with the fabric at the store.

And last but not least, since I’ve been spending so much time in my stitching room, I have been thinking about how to wrangle my crafting life back into a somewhat less-scarey monster — but that’s for a separate post 😉

Mister has been working furiously rebuilding the underside of his Jeep Wrangler. It looks so good! I doubt there’s very little there that hasn’t been pulled apart and either replaced, or refurbbed by him. I can attest that, due to the amount of laundry I’ve been doing, it is a very messy job. Living oceanside for 10 years, plus having his surfboards dripping salt water, did a bit of a number on it. He’s moving on to the interior today. My living room has become the storage spot for huge boxes, one of which is a new back seat that he’s starting to install today. He has yet to start working on switching his office with the guestroom, and the cabinet boxes are in the living room too. He is headed back surfing next week, and classes start back the day after he gets back, so those boxes will stay there for a bit. I’m finding that they aren’t upsetting me, like they would have in the past. I just vacuum around them. LOL