Sunday, August 31, 2008

BoInk update

Well, I got the 7th installment done on BoInk (the all blue, three little squares) and started on the 4th installment (no, I'm not counting impaired, just behind and trying to do the current while I catch up on the backlog). I also outlined the block that will be the 8th installment so I'll be ready for that!

Today should be Monopoly stitching (actually did a little on Monopoly at the mall yesterday - forgot my BoInk pattern at home) but I have LOTS going on (Chorus Line and a BBQ) so I'm not sure how much will get done.

I did go hit the Joann's floss sale and bought the floss for two more projects - a Patchwork sampler SAL and then my Victorian dollhouse pattern. Don't know when I'll start them, but when I want to, I'll be READY!
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Saturday, August 30, 2008

A Gathering of Stitchers

Well, last night was another gathering of So Cal Cross Stitchers at Tall Mouse! A great time was had by all! We laughed a lot, ate lots of brownies and M&M's, traded fabrics, patterns, and magazines, coveted one another's stash (and Q-Snaps), sang Happy Birthday to Sandra (loudly!), some of us ate yummy food from Henry's next door....and oh yeah, we even stitched a little bit!

Here's a picture of all of us - left to right - Cristin, Kathy, Sandra (our birthday girl!), Cyndi, Debi, and Rachel.

If you can, join us next time! It was great fun!!!
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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Finished part 6

Well, I finished part 6 (we won't talk about parts 2, 3, & 4, nor will we mention that part 7 has been released and I haven't started on it - we will just celebrate finishing one part!).

Fortunately, part 7 is three small squares, so I should be able to get those done fairly quickly, and then get the outlining done for part 8. Maybe even make some progress on one of the earlier parts! Who knows????

And then someone got me interested in ANOTHER mystery sampler done by Catia. I've printed parts 1 - 5, it's a 12 parter. I don't know if I'll even come close to getting to stitch while it's still a mystery! LOL It's kind of a patchwork looking one. It looks really intriguing....
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Monday, August 25, 2008

Monopoly Update

Here is my latest progress on Monopoly. My plan is to take a picture of the whole board when I finish this side (which will be my second side). I seem to get about a square and a half or so done each Sunday, depending on what else is going on. This coming Sunday will probably not see much stitching time - I have tickets to the matinee of "A Chorus Line" (the last event of our season tickets for this year) and then a friend is having his annual Labor Day weekend barbecue (on Sunday as well). So...not a lot of spare time...oh well!

And I think I have a solution to my issue of getting so tired of stitching the border on Angel of Cross Stitch. Someone suggested that I do a little bit at a time (which was kind of a "d'uh" moment for me - why I didn't think of that sooner, I don't know! LOL). So, I think what I'm going to do is the week that I'm scheduled to stitch on Angel, I'll start on Monday by doing as much of the border as I can in one evening - whether it's an hour or four hours of stitching. Then I'll stitch on the body of the picture the rest of the week. I'm not sure if that will even it out or not, but I figure it will let me make some progress on the border without tearing my hair out!

So that's it for me today - now I'm on to BoInk.

Oh, and by the way - I already miss the Olympics...and with the start of the Democratic convention, I am grateful for my cable and my DVR so I don't have to watch it! :-)
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Sunday, August 24, 2008

Angel of Cross Stitch

Here is my progress on Angel of Cross Stitch for the week. All that's left on page 3 is the border...sigh. The border is a pain in the neck! Each of those flowers you see have 12 stitches - 8 of one color, 2 of another, and 1 each of two more colors. And they come in sets of two.
So...tons of confetti stitches are in my future! But, when I finish page 3 I'll be halfway done with the regular stitches! YEAH!!!!!

Today it's Monopoly, then this week in my rotation is Book of Ink Circles.

And on a different note - how about the Olympics! It's been so much fun watching them, and it brought back memories. The year the Olympics were in Atlanta, one of the rowers was the brother of one of my co-workers. She was pregnant, and wasn't allowed to travel to Atlanta to see it in person. Of course, rowing not being one of the more popular sports, it was televised during the day. She and I were working very closely on a project, and so we would save the "portable" parts of the project and go up to one of the waiting rooms (I worked in a hospital at the time) and watch the Olympics coverage until the rowing came on. I think they took bronze, and her brother sat in the front part of the boat so you saw them a lot behind the gold medal boat. It was the closest I've ever come to knowing an Olympic athlete, so it was especially exciting!

Anyway, thanks for checking out my blog!
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Monday, August 18, 2008

Monopoly Board - 8/17/08

Well, here's my latest progress on Monopoly - I'm almost 1/2 way done with the second side - next weekend I'll be working on the train for Pennsylvania Railroad, so that will be a fun landmark to reach.

When I'm done with the second side, I'll post a picture of the whole 1/2 board! That will be probably mid to late September.

It was a funny transition to go from stitching Maw Maw's Quilt on 40 count linen to this on 14 count aida. This felt so rough and big compared to that! But it's fun to stitch - nice and easy because it's not a lot of color changes and partial stitches.
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Saturday, August 16, 2008

A new start

Well, I started a new project on Monday - this one is called "MawMaw's Quilt". I'm enjoying it, although it is a challenge for me. There are a couple of firsts (for me) involved in it. It's on 40 count linen (over 2) and it's the first time I'm stitching on that fine a fabric. Also, I'm stitching with silk floss, which I have never done before.

This isn't a HUGE piece (it will end up being 8 1/2 inches by 8 1/2 inches) but with the fact that it's so teeny tiny is making it a bigger project than it sounds.....LOL

So...tomorrow it's Monopoly, then Monday I'll be pulling out Angel of Cross Stitch again.
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Monday, August 11, 2008

Monopoly Update - 8/10/08

Here's my Monopoly board as of 8/10/08. I finished Electric Company, and got States Avenue done. Got a little bit of Virginia done.....so next Sunday we'll be back to it!

It is a fun Sunday stitch - gives me a little break since even though it's physically big, it's a pretty straight forward stitch. I'm happy with it so far...
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BoInk Progress - 8/9/08

Here is my progress on BoInk as of 8/9/08. I am through blocks 1 and 5, and part way through block 6. Next up are three small blocks that kind of connect these. I will be back to this project in a few weeks, since it's an every three weeks rotation. I suspect I'll always be a bit behind, but.....so be it! I'm having fun with it. I did decide (took me until the third block I was doing to decide this!) that I will look at the block and possibly rearrange the colors a bit because of my color scheme. This came to be because I was ending up with my two different pale yellows side by side in block 6. So I shifted gears a bit!

Tonight (Monday the 11th) I'm going to start on MawMaw's Quilt. I finally got the last of my threads on Friday. I ordered from ABC because they had all the brands I needed, but they are slow. I ordered originally on July 4th, and got the last of them on the 8th of AUGUST! I would be (kind of) okay with the slow service (they don't charge your credit card until they ship) if they would just communicate about the delay. The only e-mails I ever got from them regarding the delay was when I e-mailed them! LOL

Oh well - more later!!!
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Saturday, August 9, 2008

Block 5 Finished

I finished block 5 on Wednesday night - we won't talk about the fact that Blocks 2, 3, and 4 aren't even touched! LOL

And last night was Girls' Night Out at Tall Mouse - met up with Caroline and Anita at the Tall Mouse in Laguna Niguel where we stitched for a couple of hours and then went out to dinner. It was fun to meet two more stitchers and get to know them! I was a little "out of sorts" .... I had spent 2 1/2 hours in the dental chair before I went - I don't think I got "un-numb" until after 7:00!! But it was a pleasure!

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Monday, August 4, 2008

Monopoly Board

One last blog update for this weekend....here's my Monopoly Board!!! Now I'm done posting updates until (probably) Saturday or Sunday.
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Sunday, August 3, 2008

Angel of Cross Stitch

My latest update on Angel of Cross Stitch. I feel like this has been a very prolific blog week - between finishing Jodi's gift, finishing my flatfold, and now this, I've updated three times in three days!!!

Now today I will (hopefully) get some Monopoly stitching done, and then it's back to BoInk. I also bought the stuff yesterday to make Jodi's thing into a flatfold - I don't need to do that yet (her birthday's not til December) but I will probably do it sooner than later while the instructions are still fresh in my mind!

Friday night it's "Girls Night Out" at the Tall Mouse craft store - hoepfully some of the other So Cal Stitchers will be able to join me!
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Saturday, August 2, 2008

Finished Flatfold

Well, I finished my flatfold. I'm happy with the way it turned out (I bought some ribbon to use as trim, but decided not to apply it because it was too thin - I didn't realize when I bought it what I would be trying to use it for).

I love the idea of having a new technique to finish things other than framing. I think I'm going to use this technique to finish off the "I'd Rather Be 50 Than Pregnant" for Jodi. I figure purple fabric should be easy to come by!

The only thing I'm a little concerned about is that there are still marks from where the binder clips were holding it together. I'm hoping that over time those will disappear.
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Friday, August 1, 2008

Quick Gift

I stitched up a quick little gift for Jodi on my lunch hours at work - she doesn't turn 50 until December, but I figured with ornaments, etc, I as going to want to get a little bit ahead of the game. I'm happy with the way it turned out - you can't really see, but it's on glittery (not really opalescent, it has little bits of silver in it) fabric, which I thought made it extra fun. I think I might make it into a flatfold (as soon as I finish my OTHER one! LOL).
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