This is who I am

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

A quilty post

Posted on January 7, 2012 by Terri | 2 comments

While catching up on my bloggy friends this morning I saw a post on Amy’s blog about a contest being held on the Quokka Quilts blog. I immediately knew that I would want to win the Blueberry Crumb Cake collection by Blackbird Designs. You’re supposed to choose 12 prints and 3 solids and this collection contains all of those. I would love to have this collection so I could use them in a quilt and with my cross stitch. See!

Of course the bad part of looking at Fat Quarters Shop is that I found other things I could easily buy 🙂

Cobblestone Cottage Quilt Kit Featuring Panier de Fleurs by French General

I’m so looking forward to my quilting class! Less than 2 weeks away 😀

2 Comments

Posted in Quilting

2012 Stitching Thoughts

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Terri | 3 comments

I was going to post this yesterday, but yesterday didn’t go as I thought it would. It started out as any other day — get up at 3 a.m. to watch the Quadrantids meteor shower, go back to bed at 4 a.m., get up at 7 a.m., fall down steps from kitchen to family room, nearly faint from the pain of falling down, while trying to not freak M out too much when I yelled for him….yeah, not so much what I had planned. Spent as much time as possible getting up and down all day so I wouldn’t get too stiff. Was shaky all day and very thankful that the worst injury seemed to be to my pride. Don’t know exactly what damage I did but when I finally came to a rest I was sitting on my butt with my left leg bent out to the side of me. I heard a loud pop when I fell and was scared to death to move afterward, thus my yelling for M, who was still upstairs sleeping. In the end, I hurt my right palm, left wrist, left knee, left ankle, and my neck and shoulders were stiff. This morning I’m stiff, but not feeling anything like I was worried I would be feeling. I’m moving sort of slow and walking around like an old lady, but I’m up and about, and not going to miss going to my Thursday evening stitchin or to Vegas next week.

Now, for the original reason behind this post:

As shown by my ort jars for 2011, I had several months where I barely touched any of my stitching. Even then, I stitched more in 2011 than I did in 2010. I’m hoping, now that I’m no longer working, that I can at least double the amount of stitching in 2012!

For the past couple of weeks while unpacking my stash, I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to accomplish in 2012. It’s been fun reading what other stitchers are hoping to accomplish and nice to know I’ll be in good company whether or not I succeed. I think I do better with goals, or rather putting down what I’d like to see happen, on “paper.” Sometimes I get caught up in the crowd mentality and forget what I wanted to do if I don’t have some sort of written plan to bring me back to earth!

So, for 2012 I plan on:

Get back to blogging more frequently. I stitch more when I blog. I am a horrible photographer, but I enjoy sharing my stitching just like everyone else!
Get back to rotating my stitching and tracking my time. I know a lot of people think this is too much work but when I was doing it before I felt such a sense of accomplishment and I seemed to stitch more, just like when I blog more.
Stick to my WIPocalypes goals and keep my page updated.
Post to the Theme-a-licious challenge as often as my rotation works into it.
Post my monthly TUSAL.
Participate in at least 6 Fair and Square exchanges.
Finish out all 6 received Fair and Square exchanges. I plan on taking advantage of the great finishing tutorials in bloggy land.
Stitch 3 Santa ornaments for my Santa display.
Take at least 1 stitching related class.
Finish logging my charts into my spreadsheet.
Start organizing my freebies.
Organize my magazine designs.

When I read back over my list I feel like I’ve set an extremely overloaded year for myself and am so tempted to “downsize” that list.

What I don’t plan on doing….depriving myself. I don’t handle deprivation well. Just see how I respond when you try to take chocolate away from me — and it never fails that just as soon as I say “I’m not going to buy anymore stash until I stitch ____ number of pieces” someone publishes something I can’t live without. I’m just going to take it month by month. Or maybe, newsletter by newsletter 😉

I have non-stitching goals this year too! But those, I’m keeping to myself.

I picked up Peacock Tapestry Tuesday and immediately remembered why it became a UFO instead of a WIP.

Back in 1999, when I first started it, gridding was something new to the stitching world. I didn’t grid before I started it and while I love stitching on it, the backstitching is what got me. I have requested a copy of the backstitching chart. I tried to backstitch it Tuesday, but gave up. Yesterday I started stitching on it, but decided the smart thing for me to do is to grid it. So, that’s where I’m at. I’m 5+ hours into it this rotation. I’ll finishe the gridding during this time, and get some more stitching done, too. Next time I pick it up I should have the backstitching chart and I’ll go back to that before adding more stitches.

I’m trying to decide whether or not to take it with me tonight if I don’t finish up the 10 hours by then, or to take Hannah Beeby again, since she’s so “easy.”

3 Comments

Posted in Goals, Hannah Beeby, Injury, Peacock Tapestry

2012’s first stitching report

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Terri | 12 comments

Petite Mexican Sampler

Petite Mexican Sampler - 1/2/12 - 10 hours

The colors in the 2nd photo are a little washed out. The gold borders shows up better in real life 🙂 It’s fun to stitch now that I’ve figured out the secret to using the silks (dampen them and make sure to use my stitcher’s lotion). I did have to frog a couple of times because the chart has an “x” next to a “+” so now I know to pay better attention 😉

Next up is Peacock Tapestry. I’m using a random generator code on my spreadsheet and it has spoken.

I still need to put my Santa collection away and take down my stitching tree, then M and I are headed out to a movie and the home improvement store, so the stitching will have to wait until this afternoon. He needs some stuff to get his bikes stored, and I’m hoping it’ll take him most of the afternoon to get that sorted so I can stitch guilt free.

I’m almost finished with my 2012 stitching “goals” list so I’ll probably be posting that tonight.

Before I forget, here’s my Christmas present from M. I love the ideas I’ve been getting from Pinterest!

And here’s where it went

I’m in the process of moving my linens from upstairs to the closet next to the dryer, so don’t judge me 🙂

12 Comments

Posted in Domestic, Peacock Tapestry, Petite Mexican Sampler, Teresa Wentzler, WIPocalypse

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

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.

2012 Orts

January-February-March-April

May-June-July-August

September-October-November-December

6 Comments

Posted in Petite Mexican Sampler, Stitching, Theme-a-licious, TUSAL

Happy New Year

Posted on December 31, 2011 by Terri | 5 comments

Have you ever noticed when you thank someone, and use their name, it makes them smile? I have been experimenting with this off and on the past couple of months. I am going to start reading name tags more often.

I am very happy today is the last day of 2011. While I know it could have been a whole lot worse, and many, many people did have it worse than I did, 2011 was not kind to me. I am not going to dwell on it a second past midnight tonight. What I am going to dwell on are the good things I want to happen in 2012.

Here’s a before picture of my January 1 start 😉

Petite Mexican Sampler
40ct Lakeside Palomino
Au Ver a Soie “Soie d’Paris” silk

I’ve been sneaking looks at the Eagle cam the last few days. The nest is being constructed but I’ve yet to see either of the Eagles. This evening, though, I was blessed with the view of a tiny field mouse flitting here and there! All I could think was she/he better get a move on before someone shows up and makes dinner out of her/him 🙂

Tonight M and I are staying in and gorging ourselves on Pollo, Pork tamales, salsa, guacamole, tortillas and rice. There will probably be beer and margaritas involved, too. Most definitely there will be some Whipped Cream Vodka and hot chocolate 😉 Don’t know if we’ll make it to midnight or not, but here’s hoping! We’re watching football right now, but I think I’m going to ramp up the other TV and get him to watch a movie for the rest of the evening.

I also found 1 more WIP so I’m up to 35. My kits stand at 26 but that’s only because I haven’t finished adding them to my spreadsheet.

I’ve been enjoying catching up on my blog reading and seeing everyone’s stitching year in reviews. It’s been making my clicky finger itchy though 😀

The fireworks have started around here. The dogs aren’t exactly sure how they feel about them. It is a little strange living in the desert and having fireworks going off all around. They were illegal for personal use in Oceanside.

Tomorrow I’ll post my ort jar for December and my whole year collection. I’ll also post a progress picture of Hannah Beeby since the light is so dreadful in my house this late.

5 Comments

Posted in Hannah Beeby, Petite Mexican Sampler, Samplers - Original, Stash, Stitching, TUSAL

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.

Comments Off on Another week gone

Posted in Hannah Beeby, Movies, Stash, Stitch-together

Same old, same old

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Terri | Comments Off

Slowly but surely it’s getting there. I am very tired of unpacking (have I said that already?) but we’re down to the nitty gritty. Yesterday we got the extra linens unpacked and sorted, the 2 final wardrobe boxes unpacked (I need to sort through for the giveaway box), my quilts put up and some more shelves arranged.

Vietnam Vets picked up several boxes this morning so our garage is less cluttered, I feel good about not throwing perfectly good “stuff” away that I no longer wanted or needed, and now I have room to declutter more! I think they come through the neighborhood once a month. I do know they mail out notices with collection bags about 2 weeks before they pick up.

I hung the first things on my office walls yesterday. My new 2012 Anne Taintor calendar (which is already marked for 2 needlework related getaways), 1 stitched piece, and 2 prints I was given as a going away present from the paralegal job I had in South Carolina 20+ years ago. I also finally got my desk cleaned off (I was starting to pile everything on it that didn’t have a place to go), filed for unemployment, and just continued the organization march all around.

I have not finished Christmas decorations! 😕 I feel like I’ve been going in 3 different directions at the same time during my day. I need M’s help but I hate bothering him when he’s working on a different part of the house. Tomorrow is the deadline for me though since Son and Girlfriend are coming early Saturday morning. Besides, who wants to be decorating on Christmas Eve? Next year 🙄 I’ll have more time, and know where my decorations are.

Today I start my goodie baking. I’m making Pecan Pie Muffins to take to the stitch-together at the Attic tonight. Besides the fact that I think they’re delicious, this will be my first time at the stitch-together and I’m hoping if I bring them they’ll like me 😉 In addition to the muffins I’ll also be baking chocolate chip cookies, peppermint sugar cookies, peanut butter cookies, and oatmeal raisin cookies. I doubt I’ll get them all done today, but that’s probably a good thing so I won’t be tempted to eat them all today. I’ve decided to just stick with cookies this year so I can tin them up and send a bunch home with Son and Girlfriend.

I’m still plugging away on HoHRH in the evenings, but I’m ready to put it down for awhile. I’ve been trying to tell myself that each block is a different design but that’s no longer working for me. I am just NOT a one-at-a-time stitcher. Yesterday I found the watch I use to time my 10 hour rotations and just got plain old giddy! Of course, I haven’t used it in so long the battery is dead, but that will be taken care of tomorrow 😀

Tonight, and probably for the rest of the year, I’m switching stitching projects. I’m going to take my much neglected Hannah Beeby. I started her March 2008. I noticed this morning that she was never added to my WIPs list 😕 Might explain why she’s been neglected, and also is just one more proof that I have way too many WIPs. Good thing I’m participating in the WIPocalypse (which, BTW, is up to 245 members!).

I’ve updated my Retirement countdown ticker. M has more definite information on his orders so what you see over there —–> is when his retirement is official. He’ll be headed to California on January 20th and returning home on January 31st or February 1st. I’m so happy he’s taking some of his leave time to surf with his friends. He probably won’t be going back to California until some time in June. That’s a very long time for a surfer to be without his surf. I know he’ll be filling in that time with more running tho. He’s not planning on doing any triathlons in 2012 (he’s volunteering for the Phoenix Ironman) but is planning on a marathon or 2. He hasn’t put on his running shoes the whole time he’s been here and I can’t ever remember a time during our 30 years of marriage that he’s gone this long without running. At least when he starts back his knees and ankles will be healthy!

Comments Off on Same old, same old

Posted in Domestic, Hannah Beeby, HOHRH, Retirement, Stitch-together, WIPocalypse

2012 Needlework Plans

Posted on December 17, 2011 by Terri | 3 comments

Now that I’m not working I’m really hoping that I can get back into my needlework rotation. I will be adding needlepoint, quilting, and perhaps beeding, into my rotation in 2012.

When I saw Annette’s post about the WIPocalypse SAL being organized at Measie’s Musings I knew it was just what I needed. Mel has a sign-up for a reminder to be sent to you a few days before your WIPocalypse progress post is due 😀

That last bit is especially important because I totally failed in the TUSAL department in 2011. I kept up with my orts, I just didn’t keep up with posting them on my blog! Not to be discouraged tho, I’m attempting the Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long again in 2012. I’ll have to figure out a reminder for myself so I’m a better poster.

I’ve already started on my list of WIPs that I want to include. I would like to finish 12 projects in 2012. On the items that will be framed, it includes the stitching only. On items that will be turned into ornaments, needlework accessory, or any other type of small, it will include them being completely finished out.

So for now, in order of oldest to newest, I’ve chosen the following WIPs to work on:

Peacock Tapestry – Teresa Wentzler – started September 1999
Harmony – Serendipity Designs – has about 10 stitches in it – may be older than PT!
Haiku – Dimples Designs – started January 2004
Fairy Moon – Mirabilia – started October 27, 2004
QS Letting Go – HAED – November 19, 2005
Red Desert Scissor Pocket – The Cat’s Whiskers – started October 11, 2006 – needs finishing out
Quaker Needlework Treasures – With My Needle – originally started October 2006; picked back up January 11, 2010
Le Marquoir de Justine – started January 4, 2007
Houses of Hawk Run Hollow – Carriage House Samplings – started Janury 18, 2010; picked back up __________
Ornament
Needlepoint piece
Quilt

I am going to attempt to finish 2 WIPs before making a new start, unless it’s something I need for any classes I might take in 2012. I already know that I will be taking a quilt class for 5 weeks in 2012 (hopefully starting in January). I’m also going to look into take a beeding class, and I really want to get to know my sewing machine better 😆

Now I guess I just need to decide how long I’m going to spend on a piece before I rotate over to a new one. I’ll probably start with the standard 10 hours. For now I think I’m going to leave the cross stitch items in the above order and slide the needlepoint piece in somewhere in the middle. It’s very close to being finished 🙂

I haven’t decided yet what my new starts will be in 2012 other than I know I want to do some more ornaments. During my unpacking I came across a ziplock that contained several ornaments that I received during an ornament round robin I participated in while I was living in Okinawa (I left there September 2010). I thought they were left behind, but I found them inside a JCS magazine. I want to ornamentify them this year. I’m also thinking that I want to start Dimples’ Designs “Fuji” to go along with Haiku and get them framed together. The nice thing about this hobby….nothing is set in stone and I can change whatever I want to change when I want to change it.

So, I guess my next step is to start a page with my list and get the stuff unpacked and get some pictures made.

Then I need to get myself to the Library and see what type of audiobooks they have so I can “read” while I stitch 😉